Listen to the Water | FULL SERIES | Wattys 2022 Shortlist | ✔

(6) Writing on the Wall

I've intruded on something I have no place in. I flatten myself in the sand among the corals, praying to Rashi that nobody will see me. Was this a storm? Or a battle? The village seems abandoned, but I can't be caught here. Luasa are more territorial than feral roosters with hens to guard. They war amongst themselves, kill each other, and kill us if they catch us in the water. They have weapons and teeth and claws and spines. Some have poison. Or at least, in the stories they do.

My tail's silver is suddenly too bright, too conspicuous in the sun from above. I do not want to die before I even find Telu again. I do not want my organs scattered across the reef as fish bait, or my arms bound with my own intestines as I'm tortured to death. I do not want to be ripped apart by sharks in a feeding frenzy, while Luasa take bets on how long I'll scream. When I get back to Telu, I will never test the limits of the First Rule again.

My hair catches on the broken arm of a coral, and I realize just how visible my head must be. I roll under a fluted, table-like growth and start braiding my hair down against my scalp. It's surprisingly cooperative. It's also full of sand. I can't wait to be out in the open water again, where the floaties at least can't be felt.

Actually, why am I here?

I brought my reckless compulsion to explore with me into the water, and this is what I've gotten for it. I tie off my hair with a loose strand and check every direction, trying to keep my hands inconspicuous as they curse the silty water. It's the current, I think, hitting the mountainside and kicking up grit. I could have just stayed low and gone around to find where it continued on the other side.

There is still no sign of Luasa, nor of anything else alive besides coral, immobile reef species, and a bed of seaweed that looks suspiciously agricultural. I sneak back down the way I came. When the sun hits my scales, I might as well be a piece of jewelry, but at least I'm fast. The sneak becomes a dash, then a dive over the drop-off with the lung-releasing choke of relief. I'm immediately pummeled by the currents. They're not as strong as I am at full speed, though, and I cut down though them like there's a shark on my tail.

The light around me has dimmed by half when I spot something in the depths ahead. I'm still alone and I'm not taking chances, so I veer sideways to the sea-mountain wall and stop swimming, clinging to the rocks like a waylaid barnacle. Down here, the wall-reef above has been reduced to a scattering of sponges. Some still have coral debris trapped in them. It must have rained smashed corals when the lagoon above was attacked.

I return my gaze to the deeper water. The smudges in it are definitely moving. My heart works its way up into my throat as they slowly resolve into circles. What are they? Each is a translucent disk of burnt orange, with a thin, dark rim. Each expands smoothly and shrinks in a pulse, steady like a heartbeat. They're all out of synchrony. And they're all rising toward me. The first ones are close enough now that I can see more emerging from the gloom beneath them. Different sizes layer and drift around one another, some as small as a bowl, others as big as the shattered coral.

And then I realize why that pulsing motion is so familiar. I saw it in a rock pool once, before the sea breathed in and swept it away.

They're jellyfish.

My hands chafe against the rock, I'm gripping it so tightly. A man in my village once died of a jellyfish sting. He tripped on it after it washed up on the beach, and spent his last day in agony. These are not the same colour, but there are dozens of them.

Survival instinct kicks in, and suddenly I'm sprinting upwards. The jellyfish have risen faster farther out from the drop-off, where the currents are less turbulent. I burst over the edge of the rock and dive for shelter among the corals, signing little reassurances to myself to stay sane. I want so desperately to swim over the reef and hide in the lagoon beyond, but if I'm trapped between jellyfish and potential Luasa, I'll take the jellyfish for now.