The Cave

I decided, after that dark entry last week, to return to something slightly more light-hearted. I took a prompt from a list of prompts given during a writing competition. I didn’t participate, but the prompts were posted online. Participants were given a genre, location, and object to use in their short story. I used this a couple of weeks ago, actually, for the convenience store thriller. I browsed through the prompts assigned to different people and chose this one.

I’m not as satisfied with this entry as I am with others. I think with more time, I could probably develop this into something more. The prompt is Fantasy – Underwater Cave – Statue. Admittedly I had a hard time incorporating the statue, so it’s only vaguely mentioned. Enjoy!

The Cave

Ripples in the water distorted the faint shine of bioluminescent algae coating the walls, causing dancing patterns on the rough ceiling of the cave.  Sunlight never reached the grotto, under the surface of the sea.  A safe little bubble with breathable air.  A scientist could point out that plant life, abundant in the cave, provided oxygen from the process of photosynthesis, but that would have made no sense to the girl sitting on the shore.

Shore in the sense that land met water.  A little sandy.  A little stony.  Filled with the detritus of washed up items that somehow found their way through the underwater passage into the bubble created by earth forces eons ago.  Bones, shells, even some bits of wood.  The girl tried to keep it clean and neat, but the shore changed nightly.

The detritus was collected daily.  She had little else to do.  Her life wasn’t exciting.  Not usually.  She spent her days in quiet, building things with her hands from materials they brought her.  These little statues dotted the island in the cave.  Monuments to things seen in waterlogged books pulled from wrecks and brought to her for her amusement.  She had no idea what these things were and part of her yearned to see them in person.

She was of an undetermined age.  Pale and tiny, though not a child.  All she knew was this cave.  A bubble that remained the same temperature.  The light never changed.  The algae glowed consistently, so that day and night for normal humans had no meaning for her.  She slept when tired or bored or lonely.  She woke naturally.  She ate food they brought her when she got hungry.  The cave had no schedule she needed to follow.

They had told her how she came here.  She didn’t know if she should believe.  She was just an ignorant human who only knew what they told her.  A baby found in a sinking ship, crying frightened tears in confusion as the ship pitched and rolled on choppy waters.  Corpses floated around – they’d checked for live ones.  None.  The animals and the humans on the ship were dead. 

Just her.  Only she lived. 

Why they took her?  They were vague on that.  The girl thought it made more sense to deliver her to some land nearby.  Deposit her on the shore and hope another human would find her.  But they thought she would die.  And why let such a pretty thing die when they could take care of her.  It wouldn’t be the first time they had kept a human child, after all. 

What happened to those other human children?  And where were they now?  She didn’t know.  Again, they were vague.

They took care of her, though.  She was well fed.  Educated in their way.  Taught to speak, to think, to know things.  She wasn’t completely ignorant.  She learned to take care of herself as best she could.  She didn’t like eating the fish they brought her raw, so they reluctantly showed her methods of cooking and how to make fire.  Things they knew from before, when they mixed more with humans.  Anything to keep her happy.

They dressed her too.  Fancy clothes they stole from wrecks.  Stolen from chests and closets before the water began to rot them.  She cleaned them as best she could, then wore the clothes to please them.  For in spite of them imprisoning her here, she did love them.

They were beautiful, especially in the water.  She swam with them sometimes.  The water in the cave felt pleasant on her skin and it was nice to remove all of those clothes and let herself go.  She was a good swimmer, after all.  They had taught her.

Their skin was pale, but the scales of their tails came in multiple colors.  She especially liked the ones whose scales came in many colors.  They were the prettiest. 

There were three that visited her the most – a family she came to understand.  Mates and their child.  They were the ones to bring her food and clothes.  They took care of her.  Taught her.  Along with their child.  Others came, of course, mostly to look at the human girl with curiosity.  She enjoyed meeting them, again in spite of her seeming imprisonment.  It eased her loneliness at least.

Over the years, the child grew as well, alongside her.  She spent most of her time with him.  Playing in the shallows, working on their lessons, eating their meals together.  He was all she knew.  Him and his parents.

She dug her toes into the sand at the edge of the water.  It had been a long time since she’d had a visitor.  At least she thought so.  Time had no meaning for her; she merely had a feeling that she hadn’t seen anyone in a long time.  She had slept thrice, which was unusual.  Usually she’d see someone after one sleep.  Three was odd.

She was hungry.  She finished the last of the fish left for her the last visit.  She had even gone into the water to pull plants out as a last resort to quiet the rumbling in her gut.  That didn’t taste very good, but it was food at least.  She was thinking about swimming again – crawling through the water to find the edible plants – when the ripples began.

It wasn’t long before a head popped above the water further out into the cave.  She smiled.  Her friend.  He shook the water from his hair and grinned at her, pointy teeth gleaming in the faint light.  He lazily swam closer to the shore, but she made no move to get closer to him.

“I thought you’d never come back,” she accused.

He was nearer to her, but had to stop, settling his lower half on the sand of the shallow water, bringing most of his torso out of the water so that she could see his shoulder shrug.  “There were.  Problems.  With humans.”  As he said this, he tossed a hand-woven net full of fish onto the shore next to her.

She gasped.  They rarely talked about humans with her.  “What happened?”

“We couldn’t get to you.  They were all around the cave above.”

“Oh.”

“We fought among ourselves, too.  Many thought we should give you back to them.”

“Oh.”

“No one thought to ask you.”

“Oh.”

“Is that all you can say?”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“I thought I’d ask you.  They are still there, so I can take you.  If you want.”

“Back to humans?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t know anything about them.”

“You can learn, I suppose.”

She was quiet for another moment, staring at her feet and the toes hidden in the sand.  “If I go, I’ll never see you again.”  The thought made her heart constrict tightly in her chest. 

“No, you won’t.”

“Do you want me to go?”

He didn’t answer for a while.  The sound of the waves lapping on shore pounded at her ears and she focused on his tail, undulating under the surface of the water.  He was a pretty color, all blues and purples – the colors seeming to shift as he moved.  “I want what I’ve always wanted.  Whatever will make you happy.”

She thought about that.  Was she happy?  She wasn’t unhappy. 

It would mean leaving all she had ever known and the idea of that bothered her.  They were kind to her.  They took care of her.  As if she were their own.  It wasn’t their fault she couldn’t live with them in their underwater homes. 

“But what do you want?”

He looked down, his fingers stroking through one of his fins, a filmy and gauzy looking appendage.  “Honest?”

“Honest.”

“My sire said I could move into this cave, should I want to,” he mentioned, speaking toward his hand.  “Should you allow me.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.  Oh.”

She knew what that meant.  They moved into caves or grottoes with their mates.  This was her cave and should she take a mate among them, they would have to live here with her.  “I would not object to your moving in here.”

He looked up then, a shy and hesitant expression as he looked at her with hope.  His eyes dimmed, however.  “You mean after I take you back to the humans?”

“No.  I do not want to go to the humans if it means I can never see you again.”  After another pause where she watched his expression lighten, she said.  “I can’t give you guppies.  You know that.”

“I don’t care about that,” he replied.  “I only want to live here and make you happy.”

“I want that too.”

“Ok.  I shall tell my sire tonight.  Thank you.”

“Thank you.”

It was as simple as that.  They were mates, without ceremony or pomp.  A simple acceptance of her fate.  A denial of her true species, and a wish to remain with her childhood friend.  Someone she loved with all her heart.