The bulbub trees were the best in the forest because their bark glowed green at night, their sweet-tasting roots bated animals, and their vines hung in sheets that could be pulled back and hidden behind.
Two creatures stood between two such trees, digging deeper into the muddy soil in search of the tasty roots, unaware they were being watched. The image of these creatures took form on the page of a journal, not far away. From their shiny scaled hides and wide-set, golden eyes, to the mossy tufts like fur that grew wildly on their stumpy legs: these creatures had no names, so Meleena, who hid behind the bulbub tree curtain, called them muul'dre as she hurriedly sketched the details of these creatures inside her precious journal. She was the first person ever to do so, to her knowledge.
Her notes about the muul'dre's behaviors crowded the margins: one couldn't bother with neatness in these rapidly changing settings. The pages were bound with thread to a clamshell cover, broader than the span of her fingertips, and squashed in the pages were flattened seedpods, leaves, feathers, and tufts of moss.
Meleena kept aware of the croaking, the blooping of birds and the patter of raindrops which echoed through the forest canopy like a pulse, telling her there was peace in this moment as she held her journal aloft.
She flicked away the odd pesky strand of seaweed-blue hair from her face. They floated in the air as if underwater, which was always a bother on land. Then again, she welcomed the warmth as the tendrils soaked up the sun's rays, energizing her and staving off hunger. It was forbidden, of course, during school hours to be out here, alone, but who would ever know?
The sounds of the forest stopped, causing Meleena's writing hand to tense. A crash shook the leafy canopy as what looked like two bushes crashed through, bulbous yet pointed at the end: a green beak. The beak separated, then snapped together like a clamp over the muul'dre's torso. The muul'dre let out a long cry as blue blood oozed out of its side and it lifted, up, up, up...
The beak connected to a long, rope-like neck, covered in moss, and a plump body atop two gangly legs, which Meleena had previously mistaken for sapling tree trunks.
Meleena's eyes widened. The giant bird blinked a tiny eye in the center of its leaf-beaked head and drew up, gulping its prey down whole. It happened so fast, the muul'dre's beetle-hide hadn't even shimmered as it normally did when alarmed.
A second later, its companion's did, but the muul'dre's rainbow jostling of scales came too late.
"Ruuu!" The alarm cry rang from the second muul'dre as it attempted to flee towards the undergrowth. Meleena tried her best to sketch the face of the bird, but her hair kept getting in the way and her glasses kept sliding down the bridge of her nose.
The gangly legs of the great bird were swift, its plump green body covered in moss rather than feathers, shining in dappled sunlight.
Meleena's fingers tingled. Being so close to danger caused adrenaline to flow through her veins. Her sense of safety shattered as a rustling from behind sent her stumbling off balance, tipping her headlong into the wet leaves and landing in a startled heap.
"Meleena!"
Fear jolted inside Meleena, which soon gave way to anger as the familiarity of the voice hit her. How could her mother have found her, here?
The woman who staggered from the bushes and pulled back the bulbub tree curtain had similar features to hers, though streaked with worry lines. While Meleena's hair hung in strands and had become riddled with twigs, her mother's similar blue hair sat high in a neat bun.
"Impossible! You've really been ditching your last year of school to hide in the forest!"
"Mama, what are you doing here? It's not safe for you!"
"Safe for me? No Meruyan belongs out here, where the unknown animals of the land can hunt us! We are a foreign entity here and easy targets!" Her mother looked around and shuddered at the trees. So dense, anything could be hiding behind them. "And I can't believe you ditched class again!"
"I know, I'm sorry..." Meleena was looking around too. Her ears perked up, something really was amiss. The forest had gone silent: the bird and frog songs had ceased. Meleena's heart began to race. With the pulse of urgency she whispered, "But now isn't the time—"
"I'm confiscating this!" Her mother snatched her journal and slammed it shut.
A low and hollow trill filled the forest. If something happened to her mother out here, she'd never forgive herself. She was already shaming her parents enough by being out here.
Without a spare moment, Meleena gripped her mother by the arm and pulled her into a run, "Hey—", just as the giant bird barreled towards them on its gangly, sapling-like legs.
Her mother's eyes widened, and she slipped from anger to horror.
"The bog, it's the best way to lose a large predator!" Meleena shouted as she pulled her mother along.
"Careful!"
"Mama, please!"
The beast was quick and swiftly dodged the trees as Meleena hopdashed between wetter, more decrepit logs—they couldn't outrun this bird for long. Its neck feathers splayed and its beak snapped aside vines to clear its path.
"Yeoch! My leg!"
Meleena caught a glimpse of blood, her mother had scraped it badly on the underbrush.
"It's not much further!"
What at first seemed to be a patch of straw grasses, Meleena knew to be a subtle sign of water.
Meleena snatched the journal from her mother's quivering hand and slammed its two shell halves shut, sealing its pages inside its watertight lips, before she jumped into the patch of straw grasses. They were actually startled lily pad creatures the size of dinner plates, retracting grass-like hairs from their backs and gliding away so rapidly that Meleena plunged into the freshly revealed water's surface.
But it was the giant water striders who lived here that Meleena was counting on for help...
"Jump!" employed Meleena from the murky green bog water.
Her mother's turquoise skin had gone pale and blood oozed from her scratched leg as she stood at the edge, stuck between the decision of staying dry or becoming a wild creature's lunch. Hollow clicking rumbled loudly behind them. The bird's head appeared, its long beak snapped off her mother's hair bob. Her mother screamed and fell into the green bubbling water. The bird's beak skimmed over the water, snapping and searching as Meleena pulled her mother deeper into the bog.
Then the giant water striders came. Sleek and black-bodied, they glided on needle feet over her head to crowd the shore of the bog. "Wewah-we-we-we-wah!" They spat acid at the bird's beady eyes, hissing with distress as they defended their hidden eggs, laid under the edges of the muddy water.
The bird retaliated with terrifying clanking, the sound so close that it reverberated in Meleena's bones, until it finally turned and its gangly treelike legs disappeared, though it was hard to tell it apart from other trees, especially from under the surface. But Meleena knew: she'd had previous experience.
Her mother climbed first out of the bog, covered with muck. Once on her feet, she sloshed algae and water from her hands. On her forearms, her sea fins had sprouted because of her contact with water. Her face contorted in what could have been any number of bitter emotions, all of which spelled trouble for Meleena.
Dordin plants grew along the lake's edge. Meleena picked one of their round, fruit-like bulbs, which she alone among the Meruyan knew contained medicinal qualities. It took some strength to squeeze the bulb until its juices flowed over her hands. Meleena lowered onto her knees to make certain each drop fell into the wound on her mother's leg. The bloody cuts sealed as her mother's leg returned to normal, though it didn't do much to ease her mood.
Meleena handed over the journal, safe from the muck in the shell binding, and resigned to her capture.
***
Dinner was tenser than usual that evening. Sure, Meleena hadn't been doing well in school lately, ditching more than usual in her last year. But what was the point? In the village of Pontai'Desa, nothing was ever going on. The Meruyan villagers were all about fishing and farming, both on the shore and in the underwater parts of town.
Meleena entered the kitchen, the only common room of her family cottage, where her father stood over a pot of simmering pon-urchin and bean stew, looking himself like a giant string bean with his lanky green features. The smell of pon-urchin meat, salty and savory, hung thick in the air. The giant sea urchins were land-farmed proudly by many villagers in the town. She'd soon have to pick a job like this to apprentice for, to become trained in. The very thought of apprenticeships made her arms droop down by her sides.
Peering over his glasses, her father pleaded silently with her, disappointment showing behind his kind eyes. He was the guilt-sort of parent, whereas anger had always been her mother's game.
Her father rubbed the steam from his glasses. Most Meruyan needed glasses if they wanted to see clearly above water. She'd always cursed it, like they didn't really belong here, in the shore world. Underwater, she couldn't keep a journal. She hated the thought that if she'd grown up underwater, she'd have never aspired to do something more than fishing or farming.
A moment later, her mother came into the room.
"I like the haircut," her father said and kissed her cheek. "Dinner, Vivia?"
She'd bathed and put on a fresh dress after their dunk in the bog. Though all Meruyan clothing was made from kelp-weave and therefore could be worn in the sea, it was not meant for swamps.
Her mother took a seat in a chair opposite her, saying nothing.
"Er... when can I get my journal back?" It was the wrong question, but was better than letting the silence fester.
"How can you go into the jungle? Alone? I suspected you were skipping school but I had no idea the danger you put yourself in! This is about your safety! Loroh, back me up on this..."
"Your mother is right, the jungle is no place for a Meruyan."
"I can handle myself in the forest! I have cataloged and named everything in there!"
Her mother cupped her hand to her mouth.
Oops, too much. Meleena spent more time than they knew in the forest, often ditching class for days at a time.
Her mother's expression softened, melting into a pleading concern. "You're so smart, Meleena. I just want you to be successful. You can't make a living on your little drawings, you know that. You need to focus on getting a good apprenticeship next year. Tell me how I can help you."
"They aren't just little drawings! This is valuable information that could provide discoveries to help our community! I could be, like, a naturalist."
Her father focused on stirring his soup, her mother put her hands to her face and rubbed her eyes. This was a daily argument, going in circles. Meleena had heard it enough many times, "That's not a trade-skill I've ever heard of..." and her rebuttal, "I know what job I want. I can visualize it. Why can't anyone else?"
Meleena sipped the pon-urchin stew and glanced out the window, though it was now too dark to see anything. She couldn't help the sinking feeling, as if the forest wasn't there to back her up. It left her each night— forced her away, to spend time with the people that didn't understand her.
Her father said, "Your brother Tomiyan has a great trade skill. And a family! Maybe follow his example."
Tomiyan was all right, they had always been close, but since he married and moved out, she was the only child left to bear the brunt of her parents' worry. Still, what example? Marrying young and becoming a fish trader was definitely not her path.
He continued cheerily, "If you want something bigger, maybe join the Meruyan Council, like me and Kelrick."
Kelrick, her other brother, was not all right. He was a mud-sack. Once, on a tour of the local council center, he'd run off while chaperoning her class visit in order to put in a good word for the coveted annual Council Apprenticeship. Meleena's classmates teased her for the rest of the school year about it.
This had been her only experience with the local council and the kind of people who joined it. Though she didn't truly know what they did, she assumed it had to do with managing fish-related trade issues. Kelrick now lived in the Meruyan Capital, a city she'd never been to, but she assumed he now dealt with a wider scope of those same fishy issues.
Her father was the village Historian, so he kept an office library full of strange artifacts and recorded noteworthy local incidents. There was no room for a similar vocation involving plants or animals.
"There's the underwater district. Why not study sea creatures? You could work for a seaweed farm." Her father's glasses slid down the bridge of his nose as he smiled, pleased with his own idea.
"Yes, lots of wildlife there, you could revolutionize the lobster industry," said her mother, with a face dreamy with the pride it would bring.
Meleena, trying to be respectful, laughed it off. "That's not what I had in mind. And I don't want to live there, under the sea in caves! They live like octopuses scared of reef sharks!"
Her mother picked up Meleena's journal from the table and drew it into her arms. "I'm sorry, Meleena, but if you want a good one, you'll have to decide on something soon. If we can't help you choose, then think on it this week without the distraction of your journal. You'll earn it back next week if you go to all your classes! You have until the end of the week to select an actual apprenticeship you wish to pursue."
"What! The week is halfway over! How could I even pick..." Meleena narrowed her eyes.
Her mother knitted her eyebrows, pain and anger under the surface. "It hurts me to do this, but we want to help you. To guide you towards a bright future."
"Alright, fine..." Meleena's face was hot with anger.
Her parents exchanged exacerbated looks as Meleena drew herself back from the table and excused herself from the evening.
***
General Malotus felt the wind ripple over his body as he soared in the sky at the center of a tornado, the wind bending under his control. His assistant, Yulah, flew at his side driving her own tornado forward, while a dozen of the General's lower-ranking men followed behind.
Soon they would reach the ridge just over the horizon. From there they would see the speck that was Pontai'Desa. Full of silly Meruyans. Gill breathers living out of their element, living simple lives.
Malotus and his team were not coming to the Meruyans on official business tonight. They weren't even here at all, officially. He would count on Yulah to stop his penchant for destruction from uprooting the entire town. What they needed would be inside one of those wooden onion cottages, anyway. Information from their hostage had yielded this lead—their only lead.
Wind Goddess be praised! Pontai'Desa, a silly little fishing town. Of all places! Malotus's heart beat with fierce excitement as he squinted into the wind.
***
In the morning, Meleena slunk into the kitchen for breakfast. She wouldn't dare ditch school today. Her mother's threat was serious. She'd destroy her journal if Meleena didn't pick an apprenticeship to aim for by week's end. Meleena was surprised then, to see her older brother Tomiyan sitting at the family's old oak table.
Her parents had obviously not believed she could not be trusted to arrive at school herself. They had called for backup.
"So, I heard you've been acting up again." He smirked and sipped blue root tea, his glasses opaque from the steam. The morning light streamed in through the open windows, bathing the kitchen in a soft glow.
She tucked her kelp-weave dress under her legs as she sat on the bench. "You know I do it so I can see more of you." She was half smiling but feeling lousy. "How's the wife and baby?"
"They're well. But, no distractions! We're running late," he said, checking a copper-geared object on his wrist.
"Whoa, shiny contraption you got there." Meleena came over and took his arm for a closer look.
"Birthday gift from our dear brother in the capital. New Warix technology, they call it a wristcom," he answered, slowly standing up. "It has a compass, can tell the time, and can dial in to communicate with someone else. Though Kelrick is the only other person I know with one."
"Never heard of it. Maybe it's the next big thing." Meleena stuffed a potato roll in her mouth, slung her pack over her shoulder, and nodded. Tomiyan poured her a cup of tea, which helped her choke down her large mouthful of food.
"Well, now I'm ready." She smiled, then stuffed the rest of the pastry into her mouth. He stood up from the table, looking stately in his brown kelpweave tunic and trousers, with a smock tied in front—for the day's fish guts, soon to come.
As they walked to school, Meleena recounted to her brother the lively dinner discussion of last night. They passed the wood- and onion-shaped cottages of the town, enclosed by sapling trees forming fence posts, entangled with strings of kitten's ear ivy. She made a mental note to draw that later, when she'd gotten her journal back.
"Well, it sounds like you really should go visit Kelrick in Dlawn'Edo. I know he can be... difficult, but there's more to the Council than just him."
She made a face. "Why didn't you follow Dad and Kelrick's footsteps and join the Meruyan government?"
"I've seen their world, but I'm happy right here. Plus, I have a wife and daughter of my own whose future I must protect, but if adventure interests you, I wouldn't write off the Council so quickly." He adjusted his glasses.
They passed the main square, where the day's bustle had already begun, with Meruyan holding baskets to collect fresh foods from the marketplace; sea-beast drawn wooden carts traversed the streets, led by farmers bringing fruit from farm to shops.
They rounded a corner leading down the lane to the old schoolhouse, built like a conjoined ring of wooden onions—an onion-cake, frosted with moss from years of exposure to the moist coastal air. Other teens were visible from all directions down the stony lanes.
They approached the doors and Tomiyan opened them to let her in. "Just ask Dad for a tour of his study tonight," he said and left it at that.
School went as expected. Talla, the only overachiever of the class, shot her hand up and answered every question with ease, while Meleena and the rest of the students sighed, groaned, threw paper birds, sometimes at Talla's head, and did everything else bored students do. Everyone except Joru, Talla's twin brother. He sat beside Meleena, always looking at her.
A gill breather. What a hokey place this was. Meleena tried to ignore him, leaning on her elbow and facing away from his batting eyes.
He was shy, but his intentions were clear. She had already told him it would never happen. For this, Talla especially despised Meleena. "You broke his heart, you flirt!" she would howl at any occasion.
But Meleena couldn't make herself love the guy, or blame herself for existing. And that was that. Whatever. Just one more year putting up with this and she'd be free, but free to do what? Her family was right, there were no options anyway.
After school, she slunk home, hands in pockets with nothing to draw and no ideas for an apprenticeship. In her room, she dropped her backpack on the floor, flopped onto the bed, heart sinking. No journal to scribble her thoughts, or her way through problems.
A knock startled her and she uttered a noise muffled by a face-full of bedsheets.
Her father spoke through the door, "Meleena, I wanted to show you something. I spoke to Tomiyan, he said you seemed down."
She sat up. "I'm fine."
"Well, he suggested I show you my study."
"I've seen it."
"I just thought..." His voice trailed off. "I could help you pick an apprenticeship."
The wooden floor creaked as he stood outside the door. Her heart sank further at the thought of his judgment.
"—Maybe I can convince your mother to give your journal back sooner..."
Meleena opened the door. Shadows danced on his face from the luminous worm-shell candles that lit the hallway at night.
"Sounds like a deal."
She followed her father to the room she scarcely visited. Books lined the walls from floor to ceiling, and glass cases pillared the middle. He lit the worm-shell candles and led her to one particularly large case to the left of his desk.
"This is where I keep the most precious artifacts."
Meleena lifted her glasses and inspected rolls of parchment, metalplated shells, dusty leather-bound books, broken copper gadgetry, and inscribed parcels.
Her father opened a dusty book titled Gifts of the Warix: The End of the Wet Ages. "This book contains everything the Meruyan have learned from the Warix about how to live on land. Everything wooden, from homes to paper, land-farming, fire for heating and cooking. Wouldn't you like to meet a Warix someday?"
Meleena ignored him. He was trying to get her to apprentice for the Council, but it wasn't going to work. But she was running out of time and ideas.
"There's more to the council than you think..." Her father handed her a scroll to read:
Legend of Peoples.
1–Meruyan: Aquatic people of the Water Spirit. Government: Meruyan Nation, Run by the Council. Capital: Dlawn'Edo
2–Warix: Forest people of the Earth Spirit. Government: Two Enemy Nations.
Sen'Drorn Warix: Name meaning "loyal to the state." Centuries old, run by Emperor Ryogrim and advisors. Capital: Sen'Drorn City.
Sen'Prin Warix: Name meaning "loyal to the people." Small, split-off nation, run by Governess Arenay. Capital: Sen'Prin City.
3–Hyish: Reptilian people of the Fire Spirit. Government: many clans, trading-based hierarchy, Mayfee clan most prominent. Capital: none, nomadic.
"What is this?" Meleena ran her fingers over the waxy scroll. It appeared there was more going on outside her village than she realized. "A Hyish?" She'd never even heard of that.
"Yes—reptilian people who live in tribes all over the world—be it forest, grasslands, or desert. They invented glass, you know, like those in your glasses."
The thought of sketching and documenting their culture piqued Meleena's interest. She'd love to meet a reptilian person one day. Outwardly, she merely shrugged and returned the scroll.
Maybe the council idea wasn't so bad, after all. Not like she had any better ideas.
"What else is here?"
Her father handed her a horn. Turning it over, she ran her finger over the etched markings running along its surface. "I've never seen a horn like this... it's like the farmers brand on pon-urchin spines, but this seems... daintier?"
"A Warix horn. Far away in the Arctic City, where both Warix and Meruyans live, it has become trendy to brandish Meruyan symbols. You could visit if you joined the council's apprenticeship. There is a reason your mother and I raised you here, it's safe. But there is more to the Meruyan nation than fishing villages. I promise it."
As Meleena took the horn into her hands, a tangible part of a creature from a distant land, the world outside the village felt real for the first time. She wasn't excited about the idea of working for the council, but it was starting to look like the best option at least as an apprenticeship. A chance to leave the town, at least she could sketch wildlife, and quit later, maybe run away to live in the forest... yes, great ideas were forming.
"Fine, I'll sign up the council apprenticeship."
She helped herself to an object. A small box with a golden frame caught her eye. She held it flat in her palm, opening it to find... a wooden bauble, shaped like a droplet.
"Well, you can't simply join. The council is the hardest apprenticeship. You will need recommendations and diligence in your final year of school."
He almost had her there.
"Maybe it's not worth it then; I'll just clean out pon-urchin carcasses. Why was this junk in here?" Meleena turned over the trinket. It was crudely whittled into the shape of a ram's head, with gleaming white eye holes. The light seemed to be emanating, curiously, from within.
Before her father could answer, a deep rumbling began. Rolling thunder. They looked up, startled. A baby cried somewhere in the distance.
Hurried footsteps pounded, getting louder—Vivia and Tomiyan appeared in the doorway. Vivia gripped the doorposts, panting. "A flash storm has broken out!"
"There's an evacuation to the underwater community already underway," said Tomiyan through bated breath from the hall. "My family is waiting in the kitchen. We have to go, now!" The rumbling continued.
Loroh furrowed his brow. "That's strange, it seemed so clear earlier this evening."
"Does that matter?" Tomiyan said. "A tornado has sprung up and has already smashed some cottages at the edge of town!"
Meleena's heart pounded as she ran behind her parents and Tomiyan down the hall. She had forgotten to return the carving and had absentmindedly shoved it into her pocket. I guess I'll return this when the storm
passes. Can't exactly go back now.
Tomiyan's wife held a restless infant and stood as they entered the kitchen. Something crashed on the roof.
Meleena and her family ran through the village towards the beach, their straw shoes slapping the stone pavement. The wind pushed them, though there weren't any storm clouds above. Stars winked at her against the boundless darkness.
As they reached the beach, they saw other Meruyans wading into the ocean. As the waves lapped at their bodies, fins sprouted on forearms and calves. Some plunged in headfirst, arms extended. Meleena had experience with this: a steep drop not far offshore.
Still, there hadn't been a night evacuation in years. She barely remembered the last time. Storms this bad didn't come along every season. Meleena spotted their village elders who ran the community. She spotted Talla and Joru. Joru blushed, then faced away from her, and Talla scowled in her direction.
Meleena shivered in the cold night air. More Meruyans dove straight into the crashing waves and out of sight. Meleena, like most, stashed her glasses in a pocket: she wouldn't need them again until life on land resumed.
Trembling under the weight of her world falling apart, Meleena stole a blurry glance toward her village being torn asunder. At least this bought her some time to decide on apprenticeships. Then she, alongside her family, dove into the dark waves.