The waves rolled in and out over the pale sands, dampening and darkening as they stretched over the shoreline, almost, but never quite, making it far enough up to brush against the toes of the one, lone figure standing at the water's edge. Iraha stood tirelessly at the shore, his water-flicked face lifted to the sun, drying beads of ocean salt and sweat to his brow. His eyes were shut, his hands curling and uncurling at his sides, and his mouth slowly wavering with long memorized words.
"The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day, runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures."
He stepped forward, and the ocean rose to greet him, lapping at his ankles.
"It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth, in numberless blades of grass, and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers."
He raised his arms above his head, stretching. His spine let out a series of low cracks at the movement, and he moved his arms in front of himself, readying them for the dive.
"It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth and of death, in ebb and in flow."
He sucked in a deep breath, feeling the air fill his lungs and expand his chest. He held his breath, held is form, held his stance.
"I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life. And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment."
He raced toward the ocean, chasing the waves as they retreated from the shore. The muscles in his legs contracted, quivering with expectation, and he leapt. His arms flew out form his sides and he lit off into the air, ascending, ascending, and then falling. His fingertips pierced the water's skin and his body was immersed in the freezing wetness of the ocean. The cold closed around his heart and lungs, and a series of striking pains blazed across his body.
The pain lasted only for moments. It took seconds for his skin to expand and grow, bubbling out and turning from black to pure, pearlescent white. His stomach turned from ebony to ivory, his silver hair shrinking away into nothingness, appearing only as a saddle of pale grey beneath a great, black dorsal fin. He grew, and with his size came warmth.
The shift completed, Ira waved his powerful tail through the blackness of the ocean and shot forward, leaping from the ocean with a frothy spray that glittered like diamonds against the background of muted, sunset colors. His heavy form dropped back into the sea with a deafening splash and he drove himself downward into the abyss.
The initial exhilaration of the transformation left him, and he shivered, becoming once again accustomed to his larger form. He let himself float toward the ocean's surface; resting lazily just below it and letting the last dying streaks of sunlight warm his blackness beneath the frigid ice water. He shut his eyes, green-gold even as an orca, and reveled in it. There was not a better feeling, a more euphoric experience, than being able to fully enjoy the wonders of the sea.
Ira broke his head through the surface and peered across the darkening shore toward the empty beaches.
Or, at least, what should have been an empty beach.
A figure lay across the smooth, white sand, glowing eerily in the fading light. Ira narrowed his eyes and slipped back under the cover of the water and swam languidly forward to investigate. The image of the intruder was wavy and broken from his view beneath the waves, but he could make it out well enough. A siren, or mercreature, of some sort. Not terribly matured, either. The creature looked like a child...a very young child. He turned quickly, ready to disappear into the ocean's safety and away from any messiness this child might create, but it was too late. The mercreature had spotted him.
The boy let out a gleeful crow and dove into the water, streaking after Ira. Not one to give into cowardly behavior, Ira simply swerved and glowered at the boy, open his mouth enough to reveal his teeth. The boy seemed unperturbed.
"We've come to take you to Lantessama!" he said, swimming a little closer to the formidable form of Ira.
"We?" Ira narrowed his eyes.
~Yes, we~ Came another voice from behind him.
Ira whipped around to see the...unusual creature that greeted him. Fairly large (although not quite so bulky as himself), and of a pleasant, shimmering blue color. Ira had never seen the likes of such a thing before. He turned his gaze back to the merman, hoping for some answers.
"We're taking you to Lantessma,"the boy repeated. He somehow managed to creep close enough to place a pale hand on Ira's blunt face,� To bond a nekrat. We think you'd be perfect."
"Nekrat?" Ira watched the blue thing make its way to the boy's side. It grinned at him as it passed.
~Like me~ said the creature ~I'm a Nekrat~
"It'll give you some company. You won't be so lonely anymore."
"I'm not lonely,"Ira lied.
The boy and his nekrat exchanged a curious grin. Ira didn't like it. It was if they were plotting against him. Ira slapped his tail against the ocean's surface, rising up a little to blow out a puff of long-held air. His inhaled, and sunk back down.
"But I'll go with you anyway,� he agreed. His form shivered, and he shrank back into that of a human. He breached the surface, hands rubbing his arms and chest to get his blood flowing again.
**The poem Ira recites in this chapter is "Stream of Life" by Rabindranath Tagore