50th of Spring, 495 AV
Mid Day
The high noon light caused rippled rays through the tall waving expanse of kelp. Lazy blue filled the scene, and soft moans of distant and close creatures were easily carried through the calm waters. Abase floated near the bottom of this forest, arms and legs relaxed as he gazed upward at the wavering lights. The green of his skin became more of an aqua shade, and the pale blue of his eyes matched the water around him as his silver hair waved gracefully in the softly pulling tide.
In this calm, muffled environment Abase found peace. He closed his eyes, though the flickering light still made its way through. One hand gently grasped a line of kelp, running his fingers over the soft leaves as he smiled. He was still uncertain of his purpose in life, of why he was born, yet right now none of that mattered. He was relaxed, and the world was so very, very far away.
Shadows flickered through the light before his eyelids, and opening his eyes Abase noticed a school of fish swimming as one through the kelp. Kicking his feet abase righted himself in the water, waving his arms to follow the shimmering mass of bodies as they circled around him, darting into the kelp. Laughing Abase kicked off the ground, pushing his hands through the water in a strange imitation of a breast stroke as he kicked his feet to propel him forward. He moved, however, it could neither be called speedy or graceful. After a few ticks of attempting, Abase soon gave up his chase and let him settle once more in once place. Looking down at his hands Abase began to wonder, if he held in his veins the blood of his mother, why could he not swim as she did?
Abase's brow furrowed in thought, I can breath under the water, yet I cannot cut through the waves as my mother's people do. Is it because I was raised as one of my father's people?
Irist's voice filled Abase's mind, his tone a bit condescending, The fish women swim, and the Warrior men fight. It is the proper way of the world. We are warrior men, so we were never meant to swim as fish women.
Abase shook his head, pushing off with his feet to float backwards, head leaning back to look up at the wavering light. What his dark brother said, in a way, made sense. His mother's people were born to live upon the land and water, yet his father's people did not. The Akalak were bread to be warriors upon the land, and perhaps it was his father's blood that kept him from swimming as his mother could. Yet if that was so, what could Abase do to alter this? How could he gain that same quality that he revered in his mother and her people?
A flash of silver crossed Abase's vision, and he squinted his eyes as he saw another fish. This one was larger, its scales shining silver in the light, and it darted about the water as easily as a bird in the sky. Eyes widening, Abase felt the beginnings of an idea forming. If he could not swim as his mother as he was now, he could ALTER his current self to make up for his handicap.
Kicking his feet Abase righted himself in the water, pushing off the ground to float up to eye level with the fish, who darted lazily around the akontak, not the least bit frightend it seemed, as Abase stroked with his arms to keep himself in place. Tilting his head, Abase scanned the fishes body. It was long, and thin. It had two almost clear fins near its head, two smaller ones near its tail, and along its back was a fin that rose and fell like a small hill from the base of its head to the tip of its tail. One big, round eye stared back at Abase, perhaps as curious about the Akontak as he was about him. Smiling, Abase nodded to the fish, who quickly darted back a few feet. At this Abase noticed how it twisted its body, flicking its tail in quick motions that sent it darting through the water far faster than Abase could himself. Was this the secret? The tail is what makes fish swim as they do?
Abase scratched his head, eyeing the fish as it swam about him in quick, darting motions. Looking down at his legs Abase wiggled his toes. There was no webbing there, no fins, and compared to this fish Abase must seem so utterly clumsy and ungraceful. Closing his eyes, Abase pulled his knees closer to his chest as he rested his hands on his shins, slowly spinning in the current. In his mind he let all thoughts cease, to calm to match the stillness of the waters around him, until he began to fill the pull of his djed, of his body, as something separate from the thoughts and directions of his mind. Pulling his mind further back, Abase inspected his current form, analyzing the djed that made up who he was. He followed the Djed that formed his legs and feet, running his fingers down his legs as he did so to give himself a physical map to follow, as well as a mental one. WIth his eyes closed Abase tried to picture the tail of the fish. It had been one entity, not two separate limbs fused together. So, extending forward with his mind Abase tugged on the djed of his legs, calling them to move closer and closer together. He imagined a hand mentally, plucking at the djed to form strings which he then tied together. As he imagined he moved his physical hands, copying these mental gestures and giving them life. He did this until the djed from his thighs down were tied firmly together, tight enough that there could be no seams. Abase could feel the seems struggling to hold together as his bodies natural form wished to reestablish itself, yet every time it tried Abase would pull tighter on the djed strings, keeping them firmly in place.
Opening his eyes, Abase flinched at the sight he was met with. One long, green mass where two legs hand once been, with two separate feet looking quite absurd. The shock of the sight cause Abase to loose his hold on the imagined ties holding the transformation, and seems began to pear up his fused legs. Quickly Abase closed his eyes, grabbing at the strings and pulling them tight once more until the seams disappeared. Shaking his head, Abase cleared his mind once more, removing the picture of the weird mass as he tried to focus on what he wished to accomplish. Opening one eye, Abase glanced back toward the darting fish who circled nearby, seemingly curious of what Abase was up to. Abase narrowed his eyes, looking at the fin at the end of the fishes tail, taking it its bifurcated shape, its sharp angles, as well as the many scales that covered every inch of its body. The fin itself seemed thin, almost clear like a membrane.
Closing his eyes Abase focused once more on the fused djed of his legs. Next came scales. Scales needed to cover the entire tail, ending just before the fin. Once more Abase imagined the mental hands, moving his physical hands along the length of his creation as he continued. He ran his fingers down tail/leg structure, imagining tiny pin pricks of djed pulling at the places his fingers trailed. Those spots along his legs began to tingle, and then to itch as Abase called forth an image of his own scales to his mind. He mentally pictured one of his scales, and used his mental hands to place them to overlay the pinpricks of djed he had summoned forth. He folded the djed around these images, telling the djed to take the shape he imagined as the itching sensation increased. Each pinprick took on the shape of a scale, identical to the ones that could be found elsewhere on his body. The itching sensation finally ceased, and as Abase now rubbed his hand up and down his fused legs he could feel the rough edges of scales as he rubbed his hand up, and the smooth texture as he rubbed down.
Next came the final piece, the tail fin. Abase paused a moment to ensure the seams of his transformation did not undo themselves, and now the added stress of keeping the scales in place caused a small headache to form in the back of Abase' mind. With a determined shake of his head, he pushed forward with his task. Now his mental picture moved down to his feet. With his fingers he rubbed the souls of each foot, ending at the toes where he felt each individual toe. His mental hands did the same thing to the djed of his feet, and then at each heal they began to pull threads from the djed, tying them together and pulling them close until the fused without a seam. Without opening his eyes Abase knew that the fusing from his thigh ran all the way down to each heal, fusing each foot together so that his toes splat out to the left and right of his body, foretold by the pinching sensation as his heels became one. Once Abase felt assured his djed strings would not come undone right away, he moved his mental and physical hands to the feet splayed out in either direction. He corresed each foot, grimacing as he felt his skin and tissue mold like clay beneath his fingers. He pinched with his fingers and thump, flattening out each foot thinner and thinner as he imagined the fishes fin, how it was almost translucent. Placing the imagined fin over his working djed, Abase molded it in a somewhat likeness of the fishes, though already he could tell it would not be as perfect as what nature had created.
His hands compressed his djed, pushing and spreading it out to a point on either side, thinner and thinner, adding little ridges along the length like teh fish had until, finally, what remained of his feet was little more than small remnants of toes at the end of a long flattened fin. Opening his eyes, tentatively at first, Abase inspected his work. He saw a single long structure that was once his two feet, covered in scales like those that were found around his collar bone. The fin at the very end was flattened, not quite translucent, but still thin. The entire tail though was still the exact same color of his skin. Nothing had changed in the hue, and it gave the new tail a rather dull and ugly appearance. It was a rough sketch of what he wanted, but it was a start and Abase was pleased with the results. With a sigh he released his hold on the strings which held the transformation together, and like a rubber band his natural shape took over. A long slit formed down the length of the tail, dividing the fin in half as scales shrunk and smoothed into skin. The tail divided in equal halves, muscles beginning to redefine themselves as the crude stitching undid itself, and the fins shrunk back in, his toes once more occupying their proper place. Then, much quicker than it took to transform in the first place, Abase found himself staring down at his wiggling toes once more.
Chucking, Abase looked back up at the curious fish, waving as he promised to come back soon to try again.
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by Abase on June 7th, 2013, 5:35 am 
