Children of the ocean

Alone. She wanders gracefully into the ocean. It wraps its arms around her in a rapid whirlwind as she dives deeper, filling her with a rush of excitement. Alone. She doesn’t panic, doesn’t fight her way to the surface because… she can breathe. Miraculously, inexplicably, she can breathe. She can see, she can feel, she can be.

Alone, yet she isn’t alone. Here she can see creatures of every kind, corals of every magnificent colour. The sun rays dazzle through, scattering like crystal lights and warming her soul. It paints the sea scarlet blue, and brings blazing joy to the darkest of corners. But the girl isn’t afraid of when dark finally comes, because she knows that the moon and the stars above and the fascinating creatures will guide her, always there to comfort and protect her.

Away from the poisoned land she treasures the scent of a thousand see anemones.

Away from the harsh stares and cold lights, the animals are gentle and welcoming, the sea lights are soft and kind.

Her long black hair spreads like a fan behind her as she stays still for a second, halted in awe. Her tanned skin, once eternally burdening her so heavily and trapping her, feels weightless. The chains of her tumultuous life doesn’t hold her back anymore. Her eyes are alight and she laughs silently in utter elation.

She is finally free.

She swims further, wanting to take everything in. See everything.

She swims past towards the entrance of a purple-blue coral cave where sea horses are sleeping and dives in.

It’s a huge round and homely place. There are clownfish and turtles and sea stars and even diamonds that reflect against the wall and glitter like stars as the streams of sunlight shimmer through. She floats down and lands on her back on the sandy floor. Just as she’s deciding that this is a perfect place to live and contemplating on the wonder of it all, she spots a familiar shape at the edge of the cave entrance on the opposite side. It watches her curiously as she slowly turns around and faces upward, and then it vanishes. She ponders. A familiar shape. a girl? A boy? A creature like her?

She glides her way up, back to the symphony of colours and sounds. She marvels at dolphins creating whirlwinds, schools of fish passing by, and a magnificent whale ahead who all the animals respectfully make space for, and the girl follows, insatiably curious of it all. Yet there are no signs of that creature she saw. She desperately wishes she could speak to the animals and find answers.

And so for the first time a wave of anxiety washes over her.

How will she be okay, how will she survive if she can’t speak to them? Back on land, no one listened to her silent cries.

Will it be the same here?

Or could she somehow… her jaw drops.

In her panic, she outstretched her arms and her hands brushed past a leafy sea dragon. As if that isn’t magical enough, she can hear something. She knows the sea dragon’s name and how curious, and slightly irritated it is of her. It tells her to watch where’s she going and she can hear every single word. Her eyes widen… Could she?

She swims through the reef, silently asking the animals around whether they saw the creature that she did. She doesn’t even have to touch them, she just asked, and they listened. To anyone else, the animals response would have just been strange noises, but she could hear differently. She listens with her heart and not her head. And what wonderful things she hears!

She has the most beautiful and lively conversations with so many of the residents of the reef, as they tell her about their lives. A rambunctious young dolphin Flicker, told her all about the games she plays with her friends and how she is going to embark on her first hunt tomorrow. A shy octopus, Opal, barely detectable amongst the deep pinks of the coral, shyly spoke about his incredible adventures in the depths of the ocean and promised to take her one day. A gentle beluga whale Luna, relayed epic tales of battles and peace, friendships and conflicts. She hears many wonderful things, yet the girl cannot find the answer she’s looking for. She becomes lost in the creatures’ fascinating stories which floods her now with euphoria. She has finally had the chance to make friends, and they were friends she knows she will cherish forever.

When she finally comes around to ask them her question, they all seem to have not seen what she saw, but they were eager to help. She wonders whether she could have a better view of the sea from the surface on the rock that she noticed before she dived down here. She doesn’t know why she needs to find this creature, but she can’t help herself. It is like an itch deep within her bones, a calling she needs to pay heed to. Before she could even ask for anything, Flicker picked her up and told her to hold on tight as she catapulted herself toward the surface.

The animals and the girl don’t just have a special way to communicate, it appears they are bound together by something untouchable, connecting their minds and hearts as one. She laughs in surprise and delight through the ride until Flicker surfaces above.

The sun sets softly and glows over the reef below as the dolphin takes her to the rock she thought about earlier and she goes to sit on it. She feels a little unsure of coming out of the water, but she is far away enough now to only have a glimpse of the horizon. Maybe one day she will have to go back, and face the monsters she hides from. But for now, she is here, and she is at peace.

So she looks below, and to her astonishment, she can see every minuscule detail of the ocean far and wide, clearer than sea glass. It took her awhile to take everything in, all the oceanly ecstasies that deserved every bit of her attention. The sun rays scatter across the ocean when she finally she sees it, barely there but undeniably so, like a lake in a desert, mirage-like but utterly real.

A town.

Her heart leaps. Somehow she knows she will find the creature she is looking for there. She is too excited to wait, and jumps over Flicker, diving into the water. A confused but curious Flicker follows suit, beckoning her other friends to join them. Soon there is a magnificent flood of sea animals of every kind following this miraculous human girl following her heart’s intuition. They swim through reef beds and seaweed forests and rock arches.

When they finally arrive, a little turtle Pebble expresses her disbelief, claiming there is no possibility that there is a human town. They have come to a stop to what appears to be just above another seaweed forest.

The girl is sure this is the place, though other animals begin to agree with Pebble. And now as the animals continue to be in disbelief, doubt clouds her heart. She begins to turn away, disappointed and perplexed. “I really did see it so why can’t I find it?”

The almighty powers however, have other plans for the girl. Mother earth always gives back to those who give to her after all.

A hand, gentle as summer rain on the oceans surface, rests on her shoulder. She swiftly turns back to see the familiar shape in front of her. A boy. A human in the ocean. Just like her.

The seaweed forest below magically lifts to reveal itself to be a small town, the one that she saw. There are houses of all shapes and sizes and colours designed like the reef, with many other people residing here too. Children running about, mothers and fathers and friends laughing together. It is unlike she, or any of the other animals has ever seen. They are all rendered speechless, wondering how they have never seen this place before. Some of them have explored almost every inch of the ocean, yet had never come across this town, which bewildered them enormously.

The girl though, somehow instantly knows, and her and the boy turn around to answer, the animals queries satisfied simply by them putting a hand on their hearts and smiling.

And the creatures understand, that it was the fear.

The fear that had taken over their hearts.

For so long they have been afraid of humans, the chaos they bring, the destruction they cause. It blinded them, so they could not see these humans and protect themselves and rightly so. Everyone in this town came here from being hurt by those above like them. Because humans don’t just destroy other creatures, they ruin their own too.

Yet here, beaming lovingly like the sun, is a different kind of human, many of them, as the others from the town turn to look at them, with only kindness in their eyes.

The truth is the creatures have always been watching the girl, from afar. From when she first ran, teary-eyed and heavy-hearted to the ocean, the weight of the miseries she faced tugging her as she struggled to keep her head above water. She had always been a gentle soul.

They warily kept track of her journey, all the way until she decided to jump into the ocean from that rock above, and found that she could see and breathe like the other creatures. They knew, before they even met her, that she was not like any other human they had seen. The creatures had welcomed her with the immense kindness and gentleness that they saw in her, and in turn, they gave her the strength to find her people. They had always been here after all.

And if she and all these wonderful humans exist, they know that many more must be on land, spreading light and love all around. They were there, if only people would see them. Their state of ecstasy made them feel weightless, as they celebrated the many discoveries and new beginnings and friends today brought, and the many yet to come. The girl feels a warmth spread through her like never before as these beautiful souls come closer to her.

As the boy outstretches his hand, he catches the spark of the last sun ray, light that would last forever in all their souls. The light has a name, and it shines through them all.

It illuminates the girl in gold and makes her feel whole. They all see it, they all know it, they all feel it. The animals cheer and the boy gasps, his eyes widening in delight as she takes his hand.

He now knows her name, they all do, she does.

And he declares it, loud and clear and full of pride.

“Welcome home, Naia.”