Guest Post: Swan Tears: Part 1

Lucy's latest story:

Swan Tears

The rip current tugged at me, and I fought at it. Struggled to get to the surface, to air. I grappled with the waves, fighting for my life, literally. The current was strong, stronger than I thought. Deeper and deeper I sank, and as I slowly lost consciousness, I wondered where my board went. The last thing I saw were my broken board and a dark shape with a mane of silver hair and a sparkly tail swimming towards me…neighing? A tugging on my shirt, the water stirring around me…everything black.

“There was a horse!” I sat up and yelled suddenly. Mike spinned towards me. He frowned. “Are you okay, Delilah?” My brother asked. I laid back down, exhausted. My head felt like someone had pounded it thoroughly with a hammer.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I heard the ocean crashing around outside, and I felt a pull from the water. I needed to get out, and swim…somewhere.  

“Uh-huh. You look great! You only almost drowned,” Mike said, smiling. He handed me a cup filled with tea. I inhaled the lemony scent of my mom’s homemade lemon and citrus tea. It may not sound good, but wait until you taste it. I put my lips to the china and the tea was gone in a short matter of time. I closed my eyes and sighed, and lay very still. I felt Mike pull the blanket up to my chin and take the empty cup from my relaxed hand. A moment later, I heard the door close. My eyes snapped open and silently I jumped out of bed and locked my door. I ran into the bathroom and ran a brush through my washed-out red hair and wrapped an elastic hair tie  around the gathered bunch. I put on my swimsuit that was hanging on a hook near the shower and a swim shirt. I slipped my flip-flops on and climbed down the ladder from a window in my room. The garage was open, and my dad was working on our old Chevy. Who knows what was wrong with it now. I stopped suddenly and flattened my back against the wall next to the garage door.

“Hello?” My dad called, looking up from his work. I heard gravel crunching and footsteps. Before my brain registered what was happening, I had scaled the wall and was on my stomach on the roof. The pull was even stronger from up here. I waited until my dad was inside the house and I slid off the roof. The garage was now closed, but I punched in the code and it opened. Multiple surfboards leaned against the walls. We had so many, with five of us in the family. The kid-sized ones belonged to the twins Maddie and Kevin, who were seven, while the more professional ones to me and Mike. The others, which were a mixture of pink and green, belonged to the third oldest and fourth oldest, David and Chelsea. I grabbed a random one that belonged to me, and snuck out to the water. Soon I was up and surfing, moonlight filtering through the mist and making the water turn silver. I dove off from another beautiful run and again I heard the neighing. This time it seemed to be urging me to come to it. My hands found the velcro connecting my ankle to my board and I ripped it off. I didn’t even think about breathing before I had zoomed off into the darkness.

By the time I saw light, my hands and toes were wrinkled like raisins. I knew I had been in the water for a while, because I was exhausted, and the water didn’t tire me out easily. Not once did I think about air. Now when I think about it, I remember breathing normally, like I was above water.

The light approached, and I saw it was a guy about my age, fifteen or sixteen. He held a lantern glowing with a silver light that made the darkness around me eerie. He smiled, and turned around and shot off. I took this as a sign to follow and swam after him. A heartbeat later, we were at a pair of gates made out of silver. Two guards dressed in the same color of the gate were sitting on an animal, half horse, half fish. Their horse part was white, with silver manes, and their tails were pinks and blues and greens, made only brighter by the lack of color. One of them neighed at me, and I swam towards it. The horse-fish thing nuzzled my hand, and the guard smiled.

“Coral likes you,” he said.

“Is that your horse?” I asked. He looked stunned, as if I was not supposed to speak to him.

“Yes,” the man with the lantern replied. He had talked to the other guard and the gate was open. “And they are not horses. They’re hippocampi.”

“I thought they were mythical.” I said. Now he looked stupefied. I sighed and swam through the gates, and heard a yell. Coral the hippocampus had dumped her guard and was swimming after me. The guard was swearing at the lantern-bearing guy, who was laughing.

“Be, quiet, Gartu!” He yelled. Gartu? Really?

“Sorry,” Gartu replied, chortling. “Come on, Delilah,” he said, and I knotted my hand in Coral’s mane. I was creeped out, because I didn’t remember telling him my name. Coral pulled me along after Gartu. We passed by silver houses, market stands, mine entrances, factories, even daycares. What little people I saw were men. Not a single woman. Every time I passed someone, he would gape at me like I was a beautiful piece of artwork done by a master. I blushed, my face hot. Soon we reached a beautiful palace. Even if it was silver, like everything else, the construction was amazing. Delicate spiral towers bloomed from shell-shaped roofs. Windows lit with silver light threw little patterns on the ground from indents in the windows. I saw seahorses, mermaids and hippocampi all over the path to the doors.

Come back next Monday for part 2