Rawr Wolf DNO Older bling in fam's blog: "Wolf's Tails"

  I sat contemplating the sedimentary rock, thinking about how things overlap. It's strange how they do. Take land and sea for instance.

 The surface of this world is about 70% water and 30% land. Yet originally the water wasn't here. It's just a byproduct of the effects which created our atmosphere. Then again, now water is everywhere. Sure, in some places it's rarer than in others, but it is still there. And more food for thought, just about every place on earth is, was, or will be under water.

 By now you're wondering where this is going and I will tell you, but all in good time.

 On a warm summer night, I was bored and a little lonely. So I decided to wander down to my local saloon. Just to see what was up you know. Not much as it turns out. My friends had all packed it in for the night and no one there seemed to attract my attention.

 Since I lived in a oceanside town, I roamed along the beach on my way home. A little out of the way, but the ocean life at night is well worth the time. As it turned out, more than worth it.

 I walked along the sand, watching the night birds fly and the crustateans explore the ever changing beach.

 Now it is the strangest thing, I swear for many years, I have felt like there was someone calling me. It has been the most frustrating experience, being drawn somewhere, yet having no idea where or why.

 For some reason, why I was soon to find out, this call was stronger than it had been in many years. Fact is, the feeling had gone on so long with no answers; that I had given up. Told myself I was silly for believing such things. Yet, when the feeling was strong, out I would roam.

 I walked my walk and thought my thoughts while watching the silver fire of the moon dance in the waves. When rounding a bend in the seashore, I spied a woman sitting on a rock about 10 feet out from the sands.

 This in itself was a little strange; but add to the fact that there were several varieties of seals surrounding her, until I showed, made it very unusual.
 Let me tell you; this made me pause and take notice. As the wakes of the sea mammals still rippled, proving that I had not imagined this, I took a closer look.

 She had skin like foam on the waves. Her hair was black, like the color of the deepest depths of the ocean, with glimmers like the sands. And her eyes, the very thought of them still make me sigh, they were the palest blue, like the ocean shallows. To top it off, she was small and petite, as if a delicate water blossom.

 Even though it was a warm night, it was still too cold to be sitting how she was, lightly clad and her legs trailing into the water. The ocean is cold here; the currents having come from the Arctic circle. Much to cold for anyone normal. Silly enough, at first I thought I was seeing a mermaid.

 Still to this day I wonder why she didn't flee like her marine companions. Perhaps my bumbling way of wandering up seemed unthreatening. Or maybe she sensed a kindred soul in me. Then again, per chance she might have heard the call herself. I don't know, all I know is her face lit up as I came close.

 She greeted me like I was the only one in the world and she had waited a lifetime for me.

 "Heyyas, how's it going?" I replied, wondering what I had found this eve.

 "Good," she smiled, "what brings a lonely wanderer out my way?"

 "Just roaming around looking for company." I answered, "Perhaps I have found it."

 She laughed and said, "Perhaps you have."

 We talked for the longest time; the hours slipped by like minutes. All the while she sat with her legs immersed in the sea. When I asked her why she told me that she was an enchantress and the sea was her power as well as her bane. She told me of a magical life that I could hardly believe and I told her of my common, lonely life.

 Despite her bantering replies, I sensed deep sadness and pain. It made me wonder what she had been through. As I looked closer into her eyes, I saw angry storms and fear. My instincts told me right away what it was. So I confronted her while she was teasing me about casting a spell on me and asked her directly of her husband.

 "Oh," she said, "I am just a trophy to him. He cares nothing for me, just the status a pretty wife like me brings."

 I shook my head for that wasn't the first time I had heard that and asked, "Can't you leave?"

 "And go where?" she sighed, "My parents sacrificed me long ago. My jailer is a Sea Warlock and has power well beyond mine. The last time I tried to leave, he sealed me in a cave for many months."

 This struck me as an odd way of putting it, but I left it to later to find out what she meant. Little did I realize how strange the truth was.
 Before either of us had realized it, the sun was up and life was stirring in the normal world. With a look of worry she bid me adieu, after asking if I would be back. I reassured her I would and she slipped off into the fog, leaving me wondering if she truly had just disappeared under the waves like a seal.

 I walked home as if in a dream, never really noticing the things around me, for my head was filled with thoughts of the Lady of the Sea.
 All my life things haven't made sense. No matter how hard I tried to find some order in the events of my life. It just didn't fit right.

 Now suddenly something felt right deep down. Oh, I had myself fooled for awhile thinking I wasn't in love, as we met time after time. I told myself we were just close friends and she needed someone to lean on. But as time wore on I found that inside my heart I would do anything to help my Sea Lady.

 And she had changes of her own, when I first met her it was like she had no hope and was just waiting to die. Gradually as we grew close that changed, it was like I gave her the strength to go on. That wasn't all either. When we met she drank some strange brew from a shell, which she laughingly called sea nectar, but it had the effects of alcohol. As time wore on though, she didn't seem to partake of the nectar nearly as much.

 My Sea Lady opened up even further and I learned to my shock and dismay, that the word sacrifice was literal. When she was but a child, the Sea Warlock took notice of her and she was chosen to be one of his brides. When she reached adulthood in her culture's eyes, she was literally given to the sea. Cast into the waves and left for dead by her very parents.

 Ordinarily a person would have died, but her husband granted her the ability to live under the waves. She had everything a person could ask for, except freedom or love. For it was true; she was only an object for his pleasure, a pretty fish in a gilded bowl.

 Another price she paid was the lose of her chance to have a child. For that's how the magics worked, in striving off death, it also destroyed the possibility of creating life. A cruel and terrible fate he had forced her into, it seemed to me.

 And even worse fate considering that he was ages old, kept alive by his magic, but so old he was feeling time slip away from him. In her thoughts the Sea Warlock did not have long to live and his power over her was growing weaker.

 In my eyes though, this was not always the best of things. The warlock was very angry about his mortality and often took it out on my Lady of the Sea.

 I can not describe what it did to my heart to hear her words of horror as she told me of the tortures he put her through. To see bruises appear and slowly heal over the days and nights we spent together. To hold her and wipe away the tears of pain as she hugged herself after he had beaten her.

 I found my rage and anger at such injustice grow until I swore if she would come with me, I would forever protect her from such pain. I knew to see this Lady safe I would die in her place. For I also knew the Warlock meant to torture her to death before he died, just so he could take his possession with him to the grave. This I vowed would never happen.

 As time passed, his attention slipped further and I gave into my heart and she gave into hers. I later found out using her powers, she used to watch me even when we were apart for she felt as if I was something she just had to be near. That she had never felt these feelings she had for me before. And somehow my Lady of the Sea was drawn to me. It was amazing to see how possessive of every little minute together she was. My Sea Lady made me feel like I was the only other person in the world besides herself.

 We spent many a night touching and whispering sweet words to each other. Even this was new to her; something my Sea Lady thought was for other people and not her. I awoke feelings and a longing deep inside her. And she soon came to crave the love I offered, unknowing what the actual act fully meant. For to her it was about fear, humiliation, and pain. Not love in my opinion.

  One very magical night, the Sea Warlock attention was fixed on something else. He was angry, for the seas were raging with storms. But whatever it was, it wasn't my Lady of the Sea.

 She smiled very shyly as she drew me farther up into the sands than she had ever been. I was startled as I followed her, wondering what was on her mind.

 Tracing her hands along my chest, she whispered, "Show me love, show me what I wake at night longing for."

 Not daring to speak, I tried to show her with my body and soul what my heart and head had been describing for so long.

 How can I put into words something so beautiful as one act was? Her lips were salty sweet, begging me for my touch. Her flesh was hot and willing, as she quivered, feeling things she had never felt before. Her touch was like an equator current suddenly flowing in the Arctic, tracing lines of liquid fire on my skin. And the finale hit us like the crash of a tidal wave, carrying us on its peak for what seemed forever.

 Afterwards as I held her, she begged me never to leave her. This I easily was able to agree with; for I had long felt I never wanted to be apart from her. I told her that first chance we had; I was taking her away to spend forever and always together and meant it. She held me back, weeping softly, praying that it truly could happen that way.

 Time passed as it will, the seas ebbed and flowed as we met, talked, and loved. Every day bringing us closer as the longing grew. We talked about the things we would do and see. Oddly the things she long for the most, was the things we take for granted. Like having a normal life, to be happy, and to understand love.

 I swore to her that I would protect her, help her heal the deep scars she has been carrying, teach her what true happinesses was and never harm her in the way the creature that possessed her had.

 My Lady of the Sea swore to be mine until the end of eternity, to aid me with all her powers and to protect me as a part of her. For we had both become to feel that way, as if the other was an essential part of ourselves. Time apart had no meaning; time together made everything else fade away.

 Together under the eyes of the old gods we pledged our love and vows. It seems to me that those gods smiled on us that day. Much had happened to try to tear us apart. Frustration at our situation, temptation reared its ugly head as always. Jealousy from not being truly in each other's worlds hurt. Fear drove its razor sharp claws into us both. Her situation worsened as the days went on. Sometimes my Sea Lady would be in a rage from the abuse she had taken and I would hold her whispering how much I care while she raged, striking out in random.

 But stressful as it was we endured, were made stronger by the strife. Our love though taking some blows never faltered and one magical day it happened.

 The Sea Warlock had raged hard for nearly a week; I will not tell of the damage done to my Lady of the Sea, but it was the worst. He had exhausted himself and was resting to recoup his dwindling power. His control over my Sea Lady slipped and his attention wandered. We being no fools took the opportunity and fled for my love's life.

 Weak he may have been, helpless he wasn't, before we had gone ten feet the waves had swelled and the ocean was roaring. In a matter of moments what was a placid seaside had turned into a deadly hurricane.

 With the winds threatening to knock us off our feet, the ocean foam clutching at our legs, and flying sand ripping at our eyes we ran up the dunes. Have no doubts, had we been caught by the waves we would have both died a slow agonizing death, far worse than drowning.

 It seems I chose our path well, or maybe the old ones guided our way. It was close, once I almost lost her as a deep patch of seagrass wrapped around her feet and tripped her. I ripped her free and pulled her up running, with the tides lapping at our heels what was 20 feet above the sea level.

 Escape we did; both of us leaving behind the lives we knew. She had traded freedom for comfort and I love for security. The journey was hard, more hard than anything else in my life that I had faced before.

 In many ways the flight was worse than the agonizing longing to be together. During the course of events our safe places slowly turned out not to be as safe as we had hoped. We were forced to move time and time again to protect ourselves.

 My Sea Lady and I, much to our sorrow, lost almost everything we held dear, except each other. Somehow and I swear the gods intervened a few times to save us; we managed to hold onto each other against all odds.

 Now if this was a fairy tale, it would end here with a happily forever and always; but this is real life.

  I sat contemplating these thoughts and smiling at my love from afar; when another parallel of land and sea entered my mind. I remembered that both land and sea have mirages.

 As the thought passed through, suddenly everything wavered and my Sea Lady laughed as she disappeared. I fell to the ground weakened beyond belief. As I raised my hand to get leverage on the rock, I was agonized to see that it was wrinkled and aged.

 Somehow, I don't know when; she had woven an illusion around me. It might have been when we made love, or maybe it was when we had very first met. Using the power of this glamour she had sapped my energies or soul if you will, aging me decades in months.

 My head was spinning as I propped myself against the rock and realized I was too weak to make it back to civilization. In fact I was quickly fading as it was.

 With the world growing dark and my body failing; my last dying thoughts were that my Sea Lady wasn't a lady at all, but a Sea Witch and she has been the death of me.