Unseen

"Abu, I saw it, it was right over there, I swear" the young boy said as he pointed in my direction. 

The old man stared in the direction the boy was pointing, only to behold the calm emerald green waters meandering between the karst towers. He frowned as the boy continued in his attempt to convince him of what he had seen. 

"I swear Abu, it was over there, I saw a water demon, I am not lying", he looked up at the old man in disappointment as Abu's expression was blank.

 "These towers cast many shadows young one, it is easy for the eyes to be fooled" he said resting his hand on the boy's shoulder, "If it was indeed a water demon you saw, then it would be wise for us not the be here at the waters edge" he said more sterny. 

He turned the boy around forcing him to walk away from the water's edge. "You were not supposed to be out here, children are not allowed to be by the water-side without supervision". 

In defeat the boy bowed his head, but continued to glance back as they walked towards the forest. I blew a breath of relief as they disappeared into the forest. I was beginning to feel exhausted from hiding behind the the tower with the sun beating down on my skin. I couldn't move for fear of causing ripples in the water which would have made the old man suspicious. Thank the heavens the old man did not believe in their tales of water demons. Like many of the tribesmen of this present generation, they believed that the tales were told to scare children from being near the waters edge, where they could fall in and drown.

I welcomed the tingling feeling on my skin as it changed  back to its' natural tone from my camouflage. Taking a deep breath, I dove into the water, suddenly a rough strong hand gripped my left arm, dragging me back to the surface.

"What are you doing?" I protested as soon as I laid eyes on my captor.

"What am I doing?" Asion scowled, his dark brown eyes gleaming with rage, "what were you doing? he demanded.

I twisted trying to free myself from his arm, which was extremely muscular and had an unnatural strength to match.

"Nothing" I replied still squirming in his grip. He finally let go of my arm and moved back. He frowned and shook his head.

"Nothing?"

"Nothing" I said trying to sound confident. 

"Are you sure?" he pressed, this time with a smile on his face.

"I'm sure" I lied.

"With you Eli, I would never believe that you were not up to something"

At this moment I realized that he probably saw what almost happened. I was almost seen by the humans. However, I decided to carry on my charade to determine how much he had actually witnessed. 

"Oh Asion, you're right" I sighed " I was just swimming too near to the surface and I didn't notice the little boy crouched down at the river bank, it was a good thing that he was so preoccupied with the tadpoles, otherwise he would have gotten a good look at me" I pointed towards the tower on his left " I camouflaged as soon as I saw him and swam right over there to hide behind that tower". Asion kept looking at me with a worrisome expression on his face. He took hold of my shoulders and began shaking me. 

"Eli, do you hear yourself?" his eyes were wide with fear.

"What's the matter with you Sion?, I did nothing wrong"  I protested as he was squeezing my shoulders a bit too much.

"I saw you El, your hands outstretched to that poor boy, how could you?"  he asked.

 

I looked at him directly, "You were watching me?" I asked calmly. Finally he released me, his eyes looked weary and sad for some reason, yet I couldn't understand why.

 

"I was following you trying to catch up to you, but you were swimming so fast and ducking in and out of the normal paths of the maze, making it extrememly difficult to meet you. I thought it was weird that you were moving so...so... sneaky" he paused to study my face, then he sighed, "I had good news to tell you, but" he said. This perked my curiosity and I took the opportunity to change the topic.

 

"Good news? what? what is it?" I asked with a bit too much enthusiasm that annnoyed him even more.

 

"El, don't try to change the topic, I was going to call out to you when you stopped near the shore, that is, until I saw you reach your hand above the surface of the water" he trembled as he continued to speak "then I saw that human child, Eli, how could you, he was just a poor helpless baby", I heard the fear in his voice, and it was then that it it me. I now understood why he was so upset. I shuddered at the thought. I could feel a suge of anger as I truly understood what he was trying to say. <>

 

"I couldn't believe my eyes. You of all people Eli, to do such a thing, and that poor child just stood there dumbstruck as your arm came out of the water reaching for him"

 

"Wait!" I stopped him before he could continue "I don't believe this, how could you think that I'd do such a horrible thing 'Sion?" I held my hand to my throat in disgust for I was both appalled and shocked.

 

"I saw you Eli" he said sternly.

 

"How could you think that I was going to pull that innocent little boy into the water?, and worst of all drown him?" I gagged on the last words. Asion blinked in confusion.

 

"I don't understand" he admitted.

 

"I was only holding up my hand as a sign of peace, sort of like the way they wave to one another, I didn't want to suddenly jump out of the water at him, I would have scared him away", this time he looked at me as if I had lost my mind.

 

"What?, have you gone mad?" he exclaimed "Why'd you want to do that for?"

 

"I only wanted to say hello, besides, we both know that those old tribesmen tales about us 'dragging people to their watery death', is just something they made up to keep the little ones from coming too close to the water's edge", I gave him a sharp tap behind his head, "you have to admit 'Sion, they can't swim very well, lacking the necessary equipment and all, they drown from the time a little current pulls on them" I stated as a matter of fact.

 

     Asion was still staring at me as if I had gone mad. "This is the craziest thing you've ever done yet El, we are frobidden from making contact with the land-bound people. What goes on in your head is a mystery to me. What if that old man had seen you? What would you be saying then?, And I don't think that those drowning folk tales of water demons are all made up, no one knows for sure what our ancestors did in the past. I don't believe that the humans could have made up such stories and have so many detailed descriptions about us. It's not just a coincidence, there is a great deal more to it." he said solemnly.

 

I nodded my head in agreement, but remained silent, because I too believed that there was some truth behind those tales, as terrifying as they might seem. However, I intend on finding out the real truth, and I think that the only way to do that is to make contact with one of the land-bound people.

 

"So, what it was you wanted to tell me Asion, you said that you had good news for me" I said to change the topic. He smiled and began swimming in a circle around me.

 

"What?" I asked

 

"It's Aurelia" he answered.

 

"What about Aurelia?"

 

"She gave birth to twins" he bursted in pride.  He grabbed my arms and began twirling me around in the water. 

 

"Really, a boy and girl?" I asked

 

"Both boys, you missed their birth, she had no problems at all" he beamed, whilst I was dreading the details he would share next. In our colony, the public birthing ceremony was always something that I avoided, because the whole process of it made me sick to the stomach. I couldn't understand why anyone would enjoy something like that. It hardly qualified as a ceremony in my opinion.

 

Author's Note

If you see anything that I could work on, let me know please.
Thanks.
Krys

Reviews

[Mary Evans]

Not bad for a prologue. I would suggest separating into paragraphs, and of course every dialogue on a new line. Otherwise don't see problem with the style or anything else so good job writing it.

And "At this point he nor the elderly man standing next to him could see me" yeah i think you can see the mistake.

Anyhow it sounds like a good start of a promising story. Keep up the good work.