by Tui Allen
~~~
One stormy night, Ripple swam with her mother and Echo, near to a windward shore.
What cataclysm is happening here? So many sounds - I must see what makes each one, in case it has the clue. Now, that’s just the waves as they topple and crash on the rocks and the sand, and that’s just the wind whipping the crests into foam and hissing them out across the surface. But what’s that great rumble coming up from the bottom? Whistling whitecaps! The currents are pushing boulders about down there, the way I push little bubbles.
But none of these sounds are the ones I’m looking for.
‘Mother! Echo! Are you hiding sounds from me?’
‘Are you crazy Ripple? How could we hide sounds from you?’
Still Ripple sought for something that stayed hidden and beyond the roaring of the world around her, she heard a silence that seemed to be waiting . . .
Silence is emptiness, she thought.
I’m searching for something to fill that emptiness, before it sneaks up on me and pounces. Is silence my enemy? Is it my friend? Is it both?
It’s both, but it is deepening. It’s laughing at me. I can smell it waiting in dead bones and empty lobster shells and black holes in rocks. When we swim over the deep I hear it roaring from the abyss. Who’s it waiting for?
She screamed. Not a thought-scream, a loud audible scream.
‘The silence is waiting for me. Mother! Mother! Save me!’
‘What’s the matter now, Ripple? What silence for Azure’s sake?’
‘The waiting silence.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘I’m frightened of it mother. It’s waiting in the deep. Make it go away!’
‘Ripple, there’s no silence, there are a thousand sounds to listen to. If the deep bothers you, just think of the wonderful food it produces for dolphins to enjoy, or look up into the sky instead.’
Ripple looked up at the stars and sensed a silence beyond the galaxies that was deeper and darker than the sea itself.
No-one can help me. Not even Mother. I must find what the silence is hiding and show it to everyone. Why does it frighten me so?
The silence threatened Ripple until Echo swam by in the morning with a strip of seaweed draped across her dorsal fin.
‘Ripple, catch!’ she cried and dropped the seaweed. Ripple forgot her fears, claimed the seaweed and raced away with it. Echo did not rest until she’d won it back. The game lasted an hour and gave way to hunting games that took up the rest of the morning.
Rev joined in occasionally, but grumbled at having yet another sister to put up with. Aroha was not around as much as the other two but Ripple saw her from time to time, admired her from afar and thought her almost as great and beautiful as Pearl.
‘Aroha has a mate called Matangi. Imagine having a mate!’ said Echo.
~~~
Conversations between mother and baby continued as before:
‘What should I do, now that I’m born mother?’
‘You should study the grown-up dolphins to see what they do with their lives. Every dolphin should contribute something worthwhile to the school.’
‘I see them eating fish and leaping about and having fun.’
‘Yes,’ laughed Pearl, ‘They do plenty of that! But their days are long and they need more than food and fun to fill them. Some dolphins decide on their vocation within just a few weeks of being born. Your sister Echo is two years old and still has no idea what she wishes to become.’
‘Tell me about your vocation mother.’
‘I’m a natural historian. I carry knowledge of life on Azure from down through the ages. Your father, Rigel, is one of the greatest of all astronomers. He’s discovered many worlds and penetrated deeper into the universe than any astronomer before him.’
‘When will I meet him?’
‘One day, my darling. He is very busy and none of us see as much of him as we’d like.’
Ripple swam in silence for a while, wondering about her father. From time to time, Pearl delivered her delicious milk into Ripple’s mouth, and she felt it sliding down, warming her and strengthening her growing bones and muscles. Mother and daughter dived under the surface and watched the rays of sunlight shafting down, brightening the blueness of the deep. Above them the surface stretched as far as she could see - a heaving sheet of light and movement. Ripple chased the silver bubbles escaping from her mother’s blowhole, hunting them as though they were tasty anchovies, sometimes snapping them up when she caught them, sometimes following them all the way up so she could hear the tiny pop as they reached the surface.
‘Could a dolphin become a sound adept?’
‘Not really. All dolphins are adept in sound. It’s a bit like asking if you could be a breathing adept. But if you’re particularly interested in sound, perhaps you could have a vocation as a health adept using your ultra-sound to study the anatomy of dolphins, or an animal adept echo-exploring other sea creatures.’
Thinking of the insides of bodies only reminded Ripple of the trapped feeling she had before her birth.
‘Ugh I’d hate that! Why would anyone want to look inside bodies when they could look up and out into the blue?’
She shot up through the surface into the sky as though she would leap right over the sun. Her wake glittered on the breeze like a trail of uncut diamonds.
‘Well I just hope you won’t be like your silly sister Echo, unable to make up your mind about anything.’
~~~
From Ripple’s first existence on Azure she attracted seraphim. She was not the only dolphin they followed but she was their favourite. Sometimes groups of them haunted her as she rode her mother’s slipstream or played with her sister. We deities knew they were there but of course the dolphins did not. But why were they so interested in this dolphin? I asked Sterne for her opinion on the reason for their presence.
‘Perhaps their prescience allows them to guess at the possibilities I’ve read in her spirit light,’ she replied.
‘But why might immortal beings like seraphim be interested in the capabilities of a mortal dolphin?’
‘You should ask them, Father Clement.’
I did ask the seraphim but their response was as I expected; a jumble of nonsense delivered as though it meant something sensible, while staring adoringly at me and flickering impudently in and out of my aura. Their telepathic mess trailed off into a hotchpotch of chanted poetry in praise of my sublime perfection. It continued long after I would have liked it to stop. Such tiresome creatures, although harmless enough.
~~~
Read on, or if desired . . .
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Chapter 4: Rough Start
My interest in the spirit within Pearl’s baby had now intensified to match Sterne’s.
The savagery of Azure lay at the heart of her concerns about consigning the spirit there. Those concerns escalated on the day of Ripple’s birth when, later in the afternoon, I observed a different group of dolphins dealing with the daily dangers of the blue planet.
If a dolphin swam south and slightly west down the island chain from Pearl’s Northern Islands School for five or six days they would come across the Southern Islands School of dolphins. This was another of the zones on Azure that mysteriously attracted seraphim at that time. In fact it was seraphic presence which first drew my attention to the area. I looked to see what had attracted them and found myself gripped by events unfolding there.
~~~
Kismet and Mimosa of the Southern School had a two-day-old baby called Cosmo. Cosmo’s parents were young, perhaps too young, but they shared a love that seemed capable of transcending any problems their inexperience might cause during the trials of parenthood.
Unlike many dolphin couples, these two refused to be physically separated. Where Kismet led, Mimosa followed.
On this particular day, Kismet led Mimosa and Cosmo far from the main school. The family were unaware of the cloud of seraphim floating above them.
Kismet wished Mimosa to feed splendidly today, to help her recover and to ensure she had all the nutrients she needed to provide rich milk for Cosmo. Hoping to bestow every treat she could desire upon her, he led her to a favourite hunting spot, where a rich supply of flavoursome sea life welled up from the deep ocean and could be effortlessly harvested.
The food proved all he could wish for, and as Mimosa fed, Kismet swam a little way apart to get a better view of her and Cosmo together. Cosmo shadowed his mother, drawn along by her slipstream, following her every move. Sometimes, when her moves were too complex, his imitative antics were hilarious to Kismet. Watching his family and feeling the bond that linked them, Kismet knew he had arrived at the sweetest time of his life.
He was in the act of laughing at some comical manoeuvre by Cosmo when a shadow passed over his spirit. His laughter faded. What danger was here? He darted back to swim close beside Mimosa. She picked up his alarm. They scanned the ocean and quickly located the danger. Shark! A big one; too big for Kismet and Mimosa to manage between them. It was not far off to the south-west and heading in their direction.
‘That shark’s hunting us!’ cried Mimosa.
‘I won’t let it hurt you.’
At first Kismet believed there was still time to get back to the main school for protection. If they left now and swam at top speed they should outpace the shark. They set off and Kismet quickly realised his dire miscalculation. In his newness to fatherhood, he had forgotten to allow for how much slower a baby would swim, especially over such distance, even with the slipstream of his parents to help him.
Kismet thought-streamed the main school with an urgent cry for help. He received a reply saying fighter dolphins were on their way, but the school was far off and the shark too close. Kismet knew the fighters could not arrive in time. The family was alone with its peril.
‘It’s my fault we’re in this danger,’ he said, ‘I should never have brought you so far from the school. Swim away from me. Take him home! I’ll do what I can to delay the shark.’
~~~
I could see how difficult it was for Mimosa, but she did obey Kismet. I saw him watching his family fade from his view to the north-east, knowing he would never see them again.
~~~
The shark was closing in, stealthily but speedily. Even with his eye-vision now, Kismet could see its massive shape approaching through the hazy water. It was four times his size and weight – a heavy missile of efficient muscle propelling a jaw that gaped to reveal row on row of murderous teeth. Kismet intended to do everything in his power to stop this monster from reaching his family. He knew what it would take and did not hesitate. He swam towards the shark, aiming to attract it. All too soon, the lidless eye of the predator focused on him and the jaw gaped wider. The shark sensed that its prey had split into two groups. It hesitated over which to choose. Kismet twisted in front of it and then rammed the shark from below. It turned to follow the other two dolphins, perceiving them as the easier option.
Kismet sprinted after it and crossed in front of the open jaws, swimming irregularly as though he were injured. The shark made its choice. It lunged at Kismet. Its eyes rolled back leaving blank white walls. The great jaws crunched down. Kismet was quicker and more manoeuvrable than the shark. He darted aside at the last moment but allowed its outermost teeth to rip him near the tail. Red clouds bloomed. Kismet tasted his own blood in the water. The taste excited the monster enough to make it forget the other two and stay where the blood was flowing.
‘Because of my error,’ thought Kismet, ‘all three of us might die today. I deserve death. They do not. But it’s hard to die, not knowing if it will be enough to save them.’
The shark bit again and again. Kismet used his fading strength and all his skill and cunning, to evade as he could and delay the process to buy time for Mimosa and Cosmo. A quicker death would have been less painful, but that would not help them escape.
~~~
Mimosa strained to judge the greatest speed she could maintain without allowing a tiring Cosmo to drop out of her slipstream. Even at this distance, she knew everything that was passing through Kismet’s mind, so tuned was she to his thought-streams. She felt his ordeal blow by blow, as though the monster was ripping at her own flesh. As she led her son away from the place where his father was dying, she sent thoughts of her own back to Kismet to help him through his last moments on Azure.
She promised him she would save their son, and because she knew he blamed himself for their peril, she told him that she did not blame him. She thanked him for their time together and sent messages of love.
Her final farewell to him was the last thing he received before his mind closed down.
She recognised that moment. Shortly afterwards, she felt his passing from Azure. It was as though the ocean had evaporated and left her swimming in emptiness. There was nothing left, except the tiny body struggling in her slipstream. He was all she had of her lost love.
‘I won’t let Cosmo die,’ she vowed. ‘I won’t let my Kismet die in vain’.
They swam on but baby Cosmo was exhausted and slowing. He whimpered for food. She knew he would fade faster without it, so she slowed again and let him suckle. She forced herself to contract her lactation muscles and eject the milk into his mouth, while every other instinct urged her to leap for the moon to escape the approaching danger. Cosmo took the milk and then surfaced to breathe. By this time she could feel the deadly rhythm of the shark’s approach. The nightmare was beginning again.
She thoughtstreamed to the rescue team.
‘Where are you? Come quickly!’
‘We’re coming, we’re many, but the distance is great.’
‘Then swim as you’ve never swum before and save my baby at least.’
The shark had arrived, hunting them down. It loomed into view. When the first strike was imminent, she urged Cosmo to continue without her and swam towards the monster as Kismet had done before, determined to prevent it attacking her baby.
She thrust her fin into the gaping maw, just far enough for it to be slightly ripped on the first row of teeth. The teeth were still flecked with Kismet’s blood and now the blood of Kismet and Mimosa mingled there. She skipped aside quickly. Like Kismet she intended to delay her own death to make time for the rescuers to arrive. Once again, the taste of blood persuaded the shark to choose her as its prey. Soon, billowing red clouds were staining the sea as before.
But Cosmo had not swum away. She saw him still swimming dangerously close to the shark and she heard him crying, ‘Mother! Mother!’
‘Swim away Cosmo.’ she called. ‘Some dolphins are coming for you! I cannot come with you. Leave me now! Swim away!’
But he did not obey and she knew he was too tired to swim on alone. She heard him call to the shark.
‘Stop! Stop!’ cried Cosmo, but the shark would not have listened even if it could.
~~~
I noticed that Cosmo ceased to breathe when he saw the shark hurting his mother. The non-breathing Cosmo charged, as though he was no longer exhausted. He darted like a wriggling sprat straight towards the side of the great grey body that rose like a wall before him and drove his tiny rostrum into it with every ounce of force in his body and soul. The impact almost knocked him senseless but fortunately for him the shark didn’t notice and continued feeding.
Dazed, half blinded, short of oxygen, and with his rostrum bleeding from contact with the shark’s gritty skin, Cosmo continued attacking the unheeding monster. In one almost accidental glancing contact with its mouth, three of the shark’s outermost teeth ripped through the skin of Cosmo’s left side leaving a deep triple gash bleeding freely.
~~~
Mimosa was fading fast. She had lost too much flesh and was finding it difficult to move quickly enough to slow the process. But the shark was not as hungry as it had been before, so Mimosa managed to stay alive for several minutes more. She felt the hits of the shark as a series of dull thuds; she was dragged
through the water, then released. The clouds bloomed around her, exactly the shape of clouds in the sky but faster expanding and dreadful in colour. As with sky-clouds there were gaps between them, where she saw the deep Azuran blue of the sea. All colours were fading for Mimosa now and darkness crept in from the edges of her vision as though all of Azure was receding. But something moved there; she caught a last glimpse, in a gap between the red clouds. It was her baby. He was still whole and what were those large shapes surrounding him?
The fighters had come! One of them spoke to her.
‘Mimosa, your baby is safe now. Go in peace.’
They’d take him away. He would live!
‘Goodbye my baby. I’m sorry I cannot see you grow. Keep my love within you always.’
I saw him receive that love she sent him. It was a powerful gift; the last gift of a dying mother to her baby, and it settled deep inside him.
Mimosa relaxed at last and began to come back to us; Azure became a speck of light in the distance and then it vanished as the darkness closed in around her.
~~~
We allowed the spirits of Kismet and Mimosa to enter the Hereafter together as this was all they asked.
~~~
Back on Azure the team of skilled fighters easily drove off the now-replete shark with a few good hits to its belly, but had to quickly turn their attention to Cosmo who was losing consciousness from lack of oxygen. They held him at the surface and stimulated his breathing reflexes by intense thoughtstream and echo-vibration until they heard him take his first half-choking breath. Once breathing was re-established, they waited until full consciousness returned; then tried to take him into their slipstream to begin the journey back to the main school. But Cosmo would not leave the blood-stained waters where his mother had died. In the end, they took turns to work in pairs and almost carry the baby home, supporting his tiny weight from below.
Fortunately the school elders were aware of their need and moved the school towards them to minimise the distance. Cosmo was soon in safekeeping. Lactating females lined up to provide milk for this newly orphaned one, but it was many hours before he was in any state to receive it and even then took much persuading.
