Dolphin Girl and Sea Cloud of the Ship Destiny's Dreams

The rogue wave grasped Marin’s legs, whirled her around, then retreated out to sea, dragging her with it.

She fought with her arms and legs, helpless, against the strength of the whole ocean.

Then the power of the offshore riptide current caught her and rushed, carrying her farther from shore.

She heard distant screams from the people at the beach over the roar of the surf.

Water flowed over her head, pressing her downward, and she gasped for air in the darker depths of the sea. Her racing heart pounded.

She bobbed to the surface, and saw a glimpse of the sky. Fear sliced through her. She looked up at a ten foot wave like a wall coming down on her.

Marin held her breath, and the wave whipped her in somersaults beneath the water.

Her lungs were bursting. She was dizzy. The chaos was overcoming her. She could not hold her breath any more. She began to go limp.

Then something smooth glided and nudged against Marin beneath the ocean.

These were the words in the antique journal from the 1800s that was found in the attic of the Mystical Coast Lighthouse.

The yellowed pages with pale brown ink said “”Ana, Storyteller for the 1800s clipper ship called the Destiny’s Dreams.

Ana’s flowing handwriting continued.

Earlier that day, twelve year old Marin joined the other village children leaping and playing near the ocean. 

But there was always an invisible wall isolating her from them.

Only they knew the experiences they had shared together, and the secret meanings of their lives through the years.

Those bonds started long ago and grew stronger over time.

Their eyes shifted to each other and to the side instead of returning her gaze. When she greeted them or spoke, they often mumbled or pretended not to hear her.

Marin felt invisible.

Marin felt her chest and throat tighten and ache. She was always alone, even when the other children were only steps away.

She pictured her own family the last time she saw them. They were trekking through the mountains and forests, and their village was moving to a new location.

A storm from the South Pacific brought high winds that broke branches and toppled trees. There were mudslides and flooding from streams and rivers.

Her family raced to find shelter but did not dare stay under the falling branches. In the noise of the howling winds and pounding rains Marin lost sight of her family. 

She crouched under a cliff ledge. Later she wandered the forest, searching. Sounds of people echoed through the leafy canopy and Marin saw a village of people unknown to her. 

Tired and hungry, wet, cold, and muddy, she stepped slowly ahead.

A kindly woman saw the child and tried to talk to her. But their languages were partly different so communication was not easy.

The villagers did not know what to think of this stranger. The kindly woman gave Marin a place to sleep and gave her some food.

Days went by, and the village children peered at the stranger and kept their distance.

One quiet morning the children played on the beach, running and chasing each other. Their mothers warned them not to go too near the water. Marin wondered why.

The children did not ask Marin to join them. But she drifted over toward them, trying to look busy, hoping.

Feeling hurt, Marin remembered the times she swam in the ocean. She would show these villagers that she was a good swimmer.

She did not know this was the season when the ocean sent her long arms surging onto the beach without warning in the shape of rogue waves.

Marin smiled, laughed to herself, and with a whoop that drew attention she dashed into the bubbling surf. The waves suddenly churned like water boiling.

Out in the sea, the force of the whole ocean gathered and sent a rogue wave surging toward the shore.

It pulled Marin’s legs out from under her. She fell and her face went under the water.

She held her breath. The wave pulled and dragged her. She was helpless.

Then she surfaced far from shore, saw the sky again, and filled her lungs with air.

Again the powerful arms of the sea grabbed her legs and body.

Her arms and legs pumped but she was no match for the ocean’s power.

She swallowed water and coughed, choking. Then she drew in a huge breath of air.

But fifteen feet away she saw a wall of water in a tall wave curling. It was coming down on her. She dove under the water.

The wave spun her in somersaults. She swirled and her lungs ached.

She surfaced and gasped for air.

Then another curl of water towered over her. Her heart pounded and her tired body began to go limp.

Then something smooth and slippery nudged her. It was lifting her.

When her lungs were almost giving out she came to the surface, spluttering and gasping. Something held her up.

She saw a slippery grey head with dark eyes. The long snout of the fish was carrying her.

Around her Marin saw more leaping forms, with fins and flippers.

Then the sea creature moved Marin to the creature’s side, where the slipstream current next to the fins effortlessly carried Marin.

She moved her arms and legs gently, floating in the creature’s slipstream.

Marin looked at the misty grey dolphin. She and her rescuer were part of a whole group. She heard clicks, chirps, squeaks, and whistles.

The ocean swells carried them up and down, over mountains and valleys of water.

Away from the coastal ocean bottom that created flows of shore currents, the water was smooth.

Marin’s heart slowed its beating. She began to breathe lightly instead of gasping. She put an arm over the fin next to her.

The other creatures swam up with curious eyes. She heard the sounds of their chatter and songs.

They lightly bumped her with their noses. She reached out to stroke them and they dodged playfully.

Later that day, the pod of dolphins swam to a quiet beach. Marin waded into shore and picked fruit and plants to eat.

She saw the shimmering grey forms in the waves and she returned to their welcoming squeaks and whistles.

Marin owed her life to them. She felt their acceptance of her, even though she was different from them.

Her new friend was waiting, and Marin took her place in the slipstream current next to the dolphin’s fin.

It was the place a mama dolphin places her baby so the mama’s current pulls the newborn along effortlessly.

There were mist like patterns on the dolphin’s back.

Marin whispered to herself, “I’m going to name you Sea Cloud.”

Days went by with times of leaping in the waves, playing, riding the slipstream next to Sea Cloud, visiting beaches although watching for rogue waves, and listening to the dolphins’ songs.

The dolphins smiled, lauphed, affectionately nudged each other, and played every day.

Each one of the creatures had a unique name firmed with whistles and squeaking sounds. Marin learned to recognize their names when they called each other.

Then one afternoon she heard a different name called, over and over. No one answered but Sea Cloud nudged her. It was the name the dolphins gave to Marin.

She was one of their family now.

Marin felt a new joy growing inside of her that had been lost until she met Sea Cloud. She gave her new friends secret names in her own language.

She felt that Sun Wave, Star Beam, Wind Shadow, and the other dolphins formed her family.

Marin learned how to make squeaks and whistles like the dolphins, and even to sing with them.

She loved to hear them use the familiar squeak when they called her name.

Often she grasped Sea Cloud’s dorsal fin and pulled herself onto the dolphin’s back to ride across the ocean.

Sometimes she swam on her own too. In the middle of the morning one day, swimming alone, she saw a large, dark form below her, circling closer.

The nose was pointed. Marin’s heart clenched and pounded.

The dolphins erupted into whistles and squeaks. Shark. Shark.

They shot through the water to form a circle around Marin. Sea Cloud bumped her. Marin was draw into the slipstream next to Sea Cloud’s flipper.

The predator surged forward several times, but could not get through the wall of protection.

The shark saw it was no use and swam away. Once again, the dolphins had saved Marin's life.

She tried to make her own squeaks and clicks to thank them and she stroked their glistening grey heads when they nudged her. Marin could tell they sensed what she meant.

The dolphins whistled their joyful songs and Marin felt a sense of belonging she had never experienced before.

Someone knew where she was and cared if she was alright.

Days became weeks. The dolphins swam to the quiet, sheltered cove every day and Marin picked fruits and plants to eat from the forest.

On a calm morning, when the sea was like a mirror for the sunny sky, Marin saw the square white sails of a ship on the horizon.

It was the full rigged, clipper ship called the Destiny’s Dreams. 

High above the waves, First Mate Adelberto was climbing up the mast to adjust the sails. His sharp eyes scanned the horizon. A flash of movement caught his attention.

He squinted across the sunbeams on the waves.

Adelberto saw a half human, half fish, creature of the sea. It rose and fell with the ocean swells.

“Mermaid. Mermaid.” He shouted.

On the deck below, his wife Isabella and the sailors chuckled and spoke.

“Always making jokes. That Adelberto.”

“I’m so glad we have Adelberto. It would be dull here without his tricks.”

“Yes,” said Isabella. “I’m so glad I married him. He makes every day fun.” 

The Destiny’s Dreams sleek hull flew over the waves like a bird.

Adelberto watched for the creature to pop up on a swell again.

Then he saw it again. It was not a mermaid.

Marin was riding astride Sea Cloud, her hair streaming in the wind.

The swells carried them closer to the ship. The dolphins knew there was a current in front of the ship that was like a slipstream, where they could flow effortlessly.

 Marin met Adelberto’s gaze. Then the valley of another swell hid Sea Cloud from view, plunging the dolphin down low.

Captain Alfonse Belanger, of the Destiny’s Dreams, listened to Adelberto’s story of the long haired dolphin rider.

“I’ve heard of this before. It is possible.” Alfonse smiled and Adelberto felt glad he had a friend who believed him.

“Now let’s set a course for the sheltered cove. Then we can drop the anchor and go onshore to gather fresh water from the streams, and fruits and plants so we will have fresh food.”

The crew of the ship felt happy at the thought of roaming the forest and beach, feeling their land legs again.

After seeing the sails of the fast clipper ship, and the sailor climbing in the rigging high on the mast, Marin thought about the children of the village. They must be thinking that she drowned.

With gestures, squeaks, whistles, and clicks she asked Sea Cloud to take her toward the direction of the beach where they met after the rogue wave hit her.

When they approached, Marin rode on Sea Cloud’s shimmering silver back, gliding over the sea. She saw the children playing again on the beach.

Sea Cloud swam closer. The children paused, pointing at the ocean. Then they recognized Marin riding on the 10 foot long gleaming dolphin. Sea Cloud swam into the shallows and the children gathered around.

Now they reached out, hugging Marin.

“You’re alive.”

“We thought you drowned.”

“How do you do this? Riding a dolphin?”

“You’re amazing. A dolphin girl.”

Marin smiled and hugged them back, forgiving them.

When she spoke to them, part of the time she used the whistles and squeaks of the dolphin language.

After a while the visit was over, and Marin knew her home was with Sea Cloud's dolphin pod.

“I will see you again. We will swim by here from time to time.”

They all waved good by. Sea Cloud slid effortlessly over the waves and Marin glided in the slipstream next to her.

Then Sea Cloud and the pod swam down the coast to the secret, quiet cove. They went up to the shore and Marin waded into the beach to gather fruit and plants in the forest to eat.

When she came back, the white sails filled with wind that she saw earlier were entering the cove. The graceful, smooth design of the clipper ship Destiny’s Dreams soared over the water.

The sailor that Marin saw in the rigging was now at the bow of the boat. She saw him push some levers. A thick chain and an anchor came down on the hull’s side into the water.

Nearby she saw another, smaller boat with two triangular sails. It was the fast racing schooner, the Otter, that had joined the journeys of the Destiny’s Dreams.

Adelberto recognized the dolphin rider he saw when he was adjusting the rigging.

“Isabella. Captain. There. The mermaid. The dolphin rider.”

Adelberto waved to his wife and to Captain Alfonse.

They rode the reed boat from the floating reed islands in toward the beach, smiling and waving.

After her successful meeting with the village children Marin felt another surge of friendship. She smiled and waved back.

“What an interesting boat,” she thought.

Sea Cloud looked with curiosity at the reed boat. The bow rose high into the air and had the shape of a cougar. The stern rose high also and had the shape of a bear. The boat was made of bunches of reeds lashed together.

Curiosity and playfulness led Sea Cloud to swim up to the boat and its passengers. She carried Marin on her back near the dorsal fin.

“Hello. I’m Isabella.” Adelberto’s wife spoke to Marin from the boat. But Marin did not recognize the language and accents.

“Hello. I saw you before from the ship? Do you remember?”

Adelberto spoke and Marin cocked her head.

In her own language and accents Marin spoke to them.

Then, she used her new language of squeaks and whistles, the language of the dolphins and their songs.

Isabella, Adelberto, and Captain Alfonse smiled and opened their arms.

“I know you don’t speak our language. But we are want to be friends.”

Isabella spoke again to Marin. Her intention was clear and Marin’s intuition understood what she meant.

Sea Cloud contributed her whistles and squeaks. Marin felt a sense of pure living, of pure joy. So many friends now. Dolphins, village children, sailing people.

Then, with her long hair flying in the wind, Marin rode Sea Cloud over the water and out of the bay, with her family, the pod of dolphins, leaping the waves.

After that, every time the Destiny’s Dreams and the Otter were sailing by that coast, they anchored at the secret quiet cove to visit Marin and the shimmering silver dolphin Sea Cloud. 

Ten years later, Sea Cloud would still whistle with delight when she saw the white sails of Destiny's Dreams.

Isabella, Adelberto, and Captain Alfonse began waving when they saw Marin's shining, long, flowing hair blowing in the wind, as she and Sea Cloud flew over the sparkling waves.

Marin, riding on the silvery dolphin's back near the dorsal fin, would wave from the shimmering sea.

Then Marin and Sea Cloud would greet their friends by singing dolphin songs of joy to them, full of squeaks, whistles, and chirps.