Ch. 2 – No. 2: Lake Dweller
A member of the aewa people emerges from the lake.
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The waters of Crooning Lake lay still save for the ripples and foam produced by the ferry as it passed by Yonderwood’s small pier. The day’s intermittent rain had saturated the ground, the smooth pebbles of the shore, the gleaming leaves of the Circadian Forest up beyond the shore’s gradual bank, and had broken the summer heat to now usher in a crisp coolness. The overcast firmament was dissipating, sunlight teasing the edges of cloud masses.
Some distance to the left of the pier on the stony shore sat a large, round spiral shell, similar in appearance to a snail’s, though much larger, perhaps the size of a human head. The shell’s opening faced the looming clouds overhead, and it was balanced on its outer ridge. Light lines of varying sizes formed a pattern along the outside top of the shell.
Something began to emerge from the opening, causing the shell to slowly roll forward as the mass rocked the round shell’s center of gravity. It quickly became clear that it was an appendage, a foot, long and webbed, flexible as though lacking the bones that characterized a human foot’s structure and rigidity. Emerging gradually, it was revealed that the foot was indeed attached to a slender calf which bore the same gelatinous qualities as the boneless foot, and began to curve downward to set the the heel on the damp stones. Another, matching foot now began emerging from the shell’s opening. A knee for the first leg exited, followed by a thigh, differentiated from the shin as being slightly thicker, and clearly hinging on some form of boneless joint. All of this had the appearance of squeezing out of the shell, as though the organism was compressed compactly within the spirals.
Two legs now lay outside of the shell, knees curved such that the feet sat flat on the ground. The legs began to stand, lifting the shell with them, until the form was vertical. Rising as though being pushed upward, the shell now produced a buttocks where the legs joined in the rear, with foreign reproductive anatomy characterizing the front of the juncture. Thus far, the entity was vaguely similar in overall construction to a human body, though lacking rigidity. Hands began to appear from the shell’s opening, long webbed fingers wiggling free into the diffused light of the waning day. Upward the shell went, producing now a torso with no sign of a previous umbilical attachment, now arms with a bend to form an elbow, now four breast-like structures on the chest. Finally, shoulders squeezed out of the shell, tapering up to terminate in a neck that disappeared into the opening.
The figure took a step forward, webbed toes grasping at the rocky texture of the shore.
An airy, hypnotic voice echoed out of the shell. “Oh, I cannot forget…”
Reaching inside of the shell’s opening with her slender fingers, she produced a long silky piece of cloth which she looped around the back of her neck, then crossed in front, covering her breasts. The fabric displayed incredible stretch, as though it were infinitely elastic. Crossing it in the center of her back, she brought each side down to lace between her legs, covering her nethers, then wrapped it straight around her hips and tied it securely at her side. She began walking up the shore toward the inn with a gait that had a liquidous, hypnotic quality.
“What do humans call it? Prudishness? Yes. They are so very prudish.”
This statement was followed by a croon which pitched up and down with intricate inflections, the cadence being that of one making a snide remark in a different tongue.
As she continued toward the inn, she sang intermittent wisps of quieter and more melodious croons, gesticulating vaguely with her arms to the strange rhythm.
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