It was late in the afternoon when I first saw it, far in the distance, beneath a thin streak of clouds. It was a faint blue line, a line that sent a thrill down my spine. I didn’t know what it meant, I didn’t know what it was, but it made me feel excited. I snapped my focus out to it, and suddenly understood. It was water, a great body of water. Huge waves swept over it. I couldn’t see the shore, it was behind the mountains that still stood in my way, but I could see the waves in the midst of the water.
The sound came to my mind, although it was far away from coming to my ears; the sounds of waves crashing and of gulls calling, gulls calling and whirling over the waves. My mind imagined the smell...
But how could I know any of that? I must be imagining from something my parents had told me, or some poem that I had heard. But I knew I was right, I knew that was what it was like.
I put down for the night, it was getting very late. I didn’t see anything to hunt, but I did find some water, which was good, as I was very thirsty. I was very tired when I put my head under my wing, and went to sleep.
I was standing on a spar, far up the main mast. My Fisherbuddies had helped me up, as I was still in Farmer form. Papa had said I could change if I wanted, and I was trying. I spoke Fisherman all the time, wore their clothes, and slept with them. Papa said it was important to sleep with them and Mama had said I could, although she didn’t look too happy.
“Do you like it?” Eistan asked me.
“It is wonderful. I love the gulls,” I said.
“Oh, they always follow us,” he said, “they know we feed them guts from the fish.”
“Well, I love them,” I said, “and the wind, and the waves.”
“Your fisherman is getting better,” Eistan said, “maybe you will change tonight.”
“I hope so. They have never let me change before, and I am looking forward to being a Fisherboy for a while. Have you ever changed?”
“Oh, no. I’ve been on Schipboard pretty much my whole life. We are still moving people back and forth, you know.”
I heard a cry from below, and Eistan looked at me, “Lunch,” he said, and we moved down below…
I was exhausted when I awoke the next morning. Exhausted, but excited. And hungry. And I had an idea what to do about that…
I flew out, over, and then down. Down over the waves, my eye searching. Somehow I knew I could do this. There! I snapped my wings in and plunged, down, down toward the flashing silver form. Down and down and then I snapped my wings open and my claws out. They hit the water and clutched as my wings flapped furiously.
I only held onto the fish for a few flaps, but I laughed. I knew I could do this.
A half an hour later I sat on the shore, watching the waves, listening to their roar, and eating my first fish. Delicious. And the wind was delicious too, blowing cooly in a constant stream along the beach. This was glorious.
But tiring. Going all the way down to the level of the sea meant I had to beat back into the thermals, and then rise for hours if I wanted to get back to any real height. I spent two days down at the water side… sleeping in a large tree, drinking from a stream, before going back up to the mountain height.
I would have spent longer there, eating goat and looking out over the water but, on the morning of the fifth day, I awoke to the site of some spot on the ocean. When I tried to focus on it, my eyes refused and my heard started pounding. It was time, anyway, to be getting back. I wanted company, and wanted to know what my group was doing.
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Von