Marla Vendret

The stars, like thousands of candles hung from a chandelier, cast their hazy light upon the ground, along with the faint blue, silver and rouge hues of Viakuntha’s three moons.

Damp night air caressed her sensitive flesh as her feet flew along the sea-strewn beachfront, waves washing away her footprints as soon as she passed. The flapping wings of ever-present seagulls and white pelicans, added their thrumming beat to the music of the night. Nature sang and danced in symbiotic harmony with this vision of beauty, gracefulness, and bounty.

Positively charged ions flowed in and through her, rejuvenating and enlivening everything her flesh touched. In place of her footprints, life sprouted anew. Nutrients infused depleted soils. Dead and inert organisms sprang back to life. Seeds, spawn and roe, long abandoned, revived.

The woman sucked in a deep satisfying breath, letting the full experience wash over her. Salty air coating her lungs. Grains of sand squishing between her toes. Cool seawater rushing across her ankles. She might remember little else about who she was, but she knew this.

Restoring and sustaining nature—making it thrive—was the essence of who she was. It was her purpose. Her role. Her reason for existing.

She flipped around, jogging backwards, a slight smile flittering across her lips. Though water might erase the pressure of her footprints, the darkened, nutrient-enriched soil was its permanent reminder.

And she could feel new life stirring in this place. Life she restored. Within days, thick patches of seaweed would begin spreading out to the sea, naturally filtering the contaminated waters without further need of her assistance. The eggs of sea turtles, crabs, crayfish and innumerable insects would start wiggling their way back to the surface and into the ocean waves to feed larger predators.

She might not be able to create life, but she could revitalize it. Salvage what remained and build upon it so that life could continue. Such moments as these eased the awful sense of futility that often held her in its grip.

Vast stretches of sea, islands of every size, ocean caverns, all cried out for her help. Begged for relief.

Nature was floundering, its resources nearly depleted. Despite all her efforts—regenerating life, revitalizing oceans and soil, restoring balance to alcoves and coral reefs—Viakuntha was dying. She was no match for the trawlers that raped ocean habitats as soon as she healed them, or the relentless hordes of human scavengers that swarmed the beaches for any and all edible life.

Yet what choice did she have? Give up? She would just as soon stop breathing. Doing this—being this—was her obsession. Her sole reason for existing, and the only aspect of her identity she still retained. The only thing she remembered of before. Everything else had been lost—a void, a yawning crevasse in her mind.

How far had she jogged? A dozen miles? A hundred? Time and distance were meaningless. At brightening she would resume her ocean form, shedding energy into the water with every flip of her tail or exhale of her snout. At night, when mortals slept, she jogged in two-legged form. Once, twice, thrice, around she ran, as many times as she could manage before the first hazy red ions of light burst in the night sky, awakening the mortal world.

My daughters—sisters.

She started. Stumbled. Attempted to resume her pace as chills raced along her neck and down her arms. The Voice. Though no more than a ghostly whisper, it dredged sludge up from before—ugly, black sensations of betrayal. Excruciating agony. Loss. So much loss. It threatened to drown her in it.

Remember.

A command? A compulsion?

Instinctively wrapping her arms around waist, she tried to shield herself from the horrors unexpectedly threatening from the void. Nothing had prepared her for this.

She didn’t want the memories—any of them—if this was a sample of what she’d left behind.

Shaking, her eyes wild, the woman whirled around, seeking the source of the Voice. A Voice threatening to release the terrifying memories caged in her mind. If she could find her, she could flee. Escape.

Here, there, her gaze flittered helplessly around shore, searching the darkest corners and shadows. She stepped back, her foot tangling in a piece of driftwood. With a grunt, she tripped, bracing her hands to absorb the fall. All the while, her eyes never stopped moving, frantically searching the hedges and shrubs for any sign of life.

Nothing stirred, except the familiar thrum of the winged creatures hovering overhead. Despite the sting of her ankle, she leaped back onto her feet and took a few skipping steps before the pain eased enough to resume her steady jog…but her sense of peace was gone.

Unnamed fears rippled within her mind. Fears without a face, a place or a time…of what had happened before. Of what lay beyond the voice in her mind. Of the horrors that chased her here and left her.  Alone. Bereft.

She gazed longingly at the cool water lapping the shoreline, anticipating the sweet oblivion of shifting and diving within its depths. But yet…

Another wary glance around.

No strange eyes peered at her from behind a sand hill or beach shrub. Nothing unusual stirred. There was no physical reason for her to flee…but knowing that, didn’t ease the urge—and nature needed her. She couldn’t abandon her responsibilities.

Forcibly repressing her fear, she forced her legs into some semblance of a jog despite her uneasiness. Even so—her eyes took in shimmering waters—how easy it would be to dive into its depths and disappear. Shifting into her dolphin form would protect her from whatever unknown entities were threatening her sanity. No ghostly siren could touch her mind or lure her to an uncertain fate.

A frown marred her brow as she settled into a steadier, ground-eating pace. She could do this—especially if she ignored the hairs pricking her skin and tension stiffening her muscles and shoulders. The presence, the voice, wasn’t gone, but it was silent.

An unusually large black pelican—nearly invisible in the night—floated on the waves offshore, its beady eyes boring through her as she jogged by. A sleeping flock of seagulls strewn across the shore like rocks, their beaks tucked beneath their wings, jerked awake at the sound of her feet’s steady beat upon the sand. Their dark eyes gleamed in the moons’ lights.

As though choreographed, pelican and seagulls flapped their wings and rose into the sky, their eyes zeroed like a target upon her. The flock that had been trailing her, continued diving at the beach, snatching crabs foolishly tunneling onto the surface—but the newcomers weren’t as distractible.

Something other than food had captured their unswerving attention…and it was swirling around her. Arcing and dancing across her skin and leaping into the air, it existed within her and yet apart from her. It wasn’t the ions she shed like water, but something else. Something familiar…like a recurrent dream forgotten upon waking.

The air sparked and zapped. Lightning flashed, slashed, and arced. Night creatures crawled out of their holes and sleeping critters roused. A sea snake hissed from amongst the sea oats waving along the shoreline. An owl hooted low and mournfully. A falcon screeched as though in pain.

Remember who you are. No longer a mere whisper, this voice demanded to be heard.

The woman stumbled, her feet tripping over themselves. Pressure built inside her temples. She could feel the void giving way to the Voice’s compulsion. A Voice acting like a battering ram against her mind.

Gasping, the pain crippling, she crouched, clutching helplessly at her forehead, keening softly.

Then she returned. Amplified a thousand times. My daughters, Saraswati, Lakshmi, Kalika! Hear me! Awaken from your slumber! It is time. Awake and remember.

The woman collapsed, her mind splintering under the onslaught.

Those names…known and yet, not.

Lakshmi. The sound reverberated in her soul…and found its resting place within her.

The terrible weakness spread.

Lakshmi—more than a name—it reflected her identity and role.

Lakshmi. One of a whole. One of another…

But what did that mean? A part of whom?

The throbbing swelled until she felt she would die from the pain. She cried out for relief.

Then it was gone.

Slivers of thoughts and memories floated randomly about her mind, too elusive to grasp but sharp enough to prick and gouge. The cuts, mental and physical, bled her like a thousand coral shards slicing her into pieces.

Her inward gaze turning outward, she forced open her eyes; eyes hazy from tearing. Staring blindly into the night sky, at first she saw nothing. Then it moved—the Rouge Moon, hanging between the Blue and Silver. She shook her head, and regretted it instantly. But—she gingerly rubbed her eyes—was it pulsating?

Surely pain was clouding her vision? Not trusting herself, she clenched her lids, willing the vision to go away. This can’t be real, she muttered to herself. A couple steady, calming breaths; she peeked through half-mast lids. There it hung in the midnight sky…convulsing like a heartbeat. Shuttering like a breath.

Birds abruptly swooped down, a flurry of flapping wings, obscuring the sight. The black pelican dropped to the ground a few yards before her, its eerie black eyes narrowed upon her. Intent.

Before, beside and behind, birds stood like a white canvas, their eyes unswervingly focused on her.

They all seemed to be waiting.

But for what?

Tension stretched thick and heavy. She forgot to breathe.

Stars danced across her vision. Her chest ached. She sucked in a ragged breath, desperately trying to mute the sound; afraid any noise might break the spell weaving around her.

A blast of energy struck, blinding her in a wall of white. Her body instinctively reacted, initiating the shift. A blowhole opened on the back of her neck. Her skin thickened and darkened, becoming a mottled pearly gray that glistened in the moonlight as though wet. Her eyes slid apart, her vision blurring as a light protective film formed over her pupils. Her nose lengthened, mouth widened and teeth sharpened, forming into a short snout.

Softer, insidious—Remember. Remember who you are.

Had the Voice done this to her? Forced her shift?

In the background she was vaguely aware of a cacophony of raucous birds, but she paid them no mind.

Stiff-legged movement caught her eye. The black pelican. Its wings poised as though to launch into flight, it squawked, hopped and jerked around like a puppet. Brilliant sparks of electricity zapped beak, legs, wings indiscriminately like a nest of angry wasps. The creature shuffled and dodged, skipped and flit, desperate to escape the stinging volts. To no avail. In a last ditch effort to flee, the pelican threw back its wings in preparation for flight.

Zap.

A blinding jolt struck it directly between the eyes, tossing the majestic creature back several feet. At first, it was still as death…then it moved. Or rather, it began molting feathers for skin.

Fascinated, Lakshmi watched as its claws and spindly legs widened and lengthened, stretching skin and muscle, tendon and cartilage.

Its screech pierced the air, writhing as though in the throes of the death-defying torture. Yet it lived. And yet the shift continued to move up its body.

Male. Beautifully male.

Lakshmi grimaced, distracted by the discomfort of her legs joining into a tail fin and her back arching. Her shift was complete…leaving her beached on the shoreline.

So she watched. She’d never witnessed the phenomena before. Never expected to. She’d thought she was the only one of her kind.

The black pelican continued to stretch and grow, its color lightening to bronze, its wings shifting into arms. Seconds had passed. Its neck and head formed…

He looked…familiar.

Puzzled and intrigued, she stared, but the dolphin form was already beginning to suppress her thinking. Instinct overtaking intellect. Immediacy replacing past and future. There was only here and now. And the dolphin’s attention was on the sea, whose cool waters would soothe her drying, chafed skin. With a wiggle of her tail, she shifted and propelled herself down to the lapping waves.

And yet…a residual piece of Lakshmi remained, refusing to submit to the dolphin’s sway.

Her head swiveled back.

What was this? The seagulls…were shifting?

They cawed and shrieked, leaped and danced in excitement, their thumping legs slipping in and out of some other bizarre and unrecognizable shape.

The human part of her wanted to stay and watch. The dolphin wanted to go. The dolphin won.

Sea life instantly swarmed around her, the salt waters washing across around her silky skin. Each droplet rejuvenated. Each molecule cleansed. Through mere contact with her flesh, centuries of accumulated wastes and toxins, dissipated. Yard by yard, her energizing presence restored life, from the ocean fauna to the sea critters that had managed to escape the trawlers’ devastation.

A flap of her fins, and a small ocean oasis emerged. An open mouth of kelp, and a habitat for spawn was born. Plankton and spawn would start the process of luring in remaining sea life…until the bigger—and starving—predators discovered her. She wasn’t about to stay long enough to encounter them. Repeated attacks by starving sharks, killer whales, swordfish and sea lions, among others made life difficult…. A dusky dolphin could only chase off so many predators before becoming a victim. Again and again.

Her thoughts fading yet further into the background, she sent one last look into the night sky. After endless days and nights cocooned in these ocean depths, she had to wonder what voice could be reaching into her mind, controlling her shifts, and even compelling the moon to breathe.

The dolphin circled happily, playing in the turf, before diving into the deeper waters, and with a powerful thrust of her tail, leaping out of the water. With a playful flip of her tail, she twisted around in the air.

Lakshmi looked back.

A large bronzed man lay sprawled along the shore flanked by hideous sharp-toothed creatures, whose evil intent was evident by their slinking steps his way. His gaze wasn’t upon them. He seemed unaware of them. His aqua eyes focused unblinkingly upon her.

A sliver of a memory pricked her consciousness…and for the briefest of moments, she remembered.

Without thinking, Lakshmi compelled the dolphin to call out--to announce her presence--and the dolphin did, nickering loudly, before diving beneath the waves and its mindless oblivion.