Changeable as the Sea

Keren lay awake in her bedroll among the trees, listening to the distant roll of the ocean's waves, which seemed unnaturally loud to her ears. Even if she hadn't been too excited to sleep, the sound would have kept her awake, catching her attention every time she might have drifted off. It felt like it had been so long since she had heard it, even though it had only been a week-- not even that, only four days. Too long. For even a human girl raised by the sea, it was too long; for a selkie whose true existence was only possible in the sea, it was like an itch that begged to be scratched, like a heartache that could be eased only at the expense of everything she had worked so hard to achieve.

Is this why thae ancient Celts had tae steal are skins tae make us stay? she thought. I've lived most o'my life on land, I had nae idea I'd feel laik this....

But as she thought about it, staring unseeing into the shadows of the trees towards the clear sky and watery horizon, Keren realized she had never actually been far enough from the ocean-- or any other body of water large enough to make its presence known-- to feel its lack. Her own home was on the shoreline, her primary training facility in old England was only a mile inland, and the the ocean had been a peaceful rumble while she dreamed back in Rome, distant enough to let her sleep, but close enough to comfort her. She'd once spent a night on Mars, but she'd been so uptight and worried at the time that the sound of the ocean was the farthest thing on her mind.

This, though... this was like being back in the cottage on the shores of Ireland, sharing a bed with Aileen and a room with her brothers, with the smell of the sea pervading the air and the wind whistling around the walls like a spirit trying to call them out to dance and swim and don their skins again. The ocean was singing beyond the shores, tempting her; even an ocean on a completely different planet still sang the same song. After the complete silence of the sea from the fort here on Avengaea, it was like suddenly regaining another sense after being blinded or deafened.

I'm gooin' tae be in trouble if I end up assigned soomewhere dry, once I maeke Private, she thought with mixed amusement and anxiety. Mebbe I'd better start prayin that a water dragon laikes me, if we aever get sent tae Sanctuary....

If they ever got sent to Sanctuary.... Keren's worst fear, right now, was that they, she in particular, would be left behind at the fort, never to go through with their own part of the project, kept waiting forever-- or worse, to be sent home as unfit or failed. She gratefully let the sound of a larger wave rolling in to the shore and breaking over the sand distract her, drifting back into her peaceful waiting.

If I were Aileen, I'd be doown in thae water already, duty be damned. That was more amusement, though the thought of her sister here with her made her heart contract almost painfully. As much as she envied Aileen her beauty and serenity, she missed her, and wished she could see Avengaea and its oceans. This unstained, wild place was everything Aileen would have ever wanted. She probably would have dived straight into the ocean and never come out again, it was so clean and beautiful.

Finally, the sounds of the other cadets' breathing had fallen into the peaceful, even rhythms of sleep. Even Abernathy, the only one of them to merit a tent, was snoring convincingly from within the protective circle of the cadets' bedrolls. Briggs was snoring, too, and Franco was on current watch duty towards the ocean, with the massive dragon-formed Viatoro Nuntiumi sprawled through the trees land-side. Keren had marked where he walked, listening, while she waited for everyone else to fall asleep, so she knew where he would be, and when in his patrol would be best for her to slip away. This was the reason she had come-- well, that and boredom-- and she had prepared as best as she could for it. Her patrol of the beach during the day had found her several likely places where she could go and not be readily seen, with places for her to hide her clothes.

Franco passed the camp, Keren could hear his footfalls crunching softly on grass and leaves and the occasional twig. It was now or wait until his next pass, and she couldn't wait that long anymore. Carefully, she sat up, listening for the sound of disturbed breathing or movement that would betray to her that someone else in the camp had woken and heard her. There was nothing, just the peaceful in and out of air in sleeping lungs, and continued snoring. The soft silver of her sealskin clasped to her chest, she slid nearly silently from her sleeping bag and crept, bent over and half-crouching, out of the small clearing they'd set up camp in, out into the low trees that surrounded them and went for a few yards before their rather abrupt end at the grassy shore dunes. She was barefoot, so her own feet made much less sound than Franco's as she sneaked among the gnarled trunks and twisted branches, stopping in the moonshadow of the leaves and staring out across the empty land between her and temporary freedom.

This was the most dangerous part: getting from the trees to the beach, and from there around the point of the shoreline to the small cove there out of Franco's line of sight, without being seen be either him or the dragon. Keren wasn't exactly sure on Viatoro's night vision, or how well he could see, period, but she didn't want to take the chance of him seeing her, either; unfortunately, she had no way of telling whether or not he was looking her direction. Her own measly talent with psionics wasn't enough to pierce the shroud that surrounded his mind and tell what he was doing. So, all she could do was hope for the best and be careful of Franco.

Currently, Franco's back would be to her, so now was her only chance. Tucking her sealskin under one arm, she crouched slightly, then darted off, sprinting as quietly as she could for the privacy of the hidden cove. No shouts followed her, no footsteps came pounding after her, but a pair of dimly glowing eyes did follow her progress, and Viatoro smiled slightly as he saw her reach her goal and disappear from view, then settled sleepily back to his guard duty.