mondayecho

Sacred followed Nerida back down into the sunken ruins. Despite her nomadic ways Sacred would always spend as much time as needed with her created esk. She’d move on eventually but she was not in a rush. Most of her days were spent silently wandering through the world and that held no urgency. So her form turned inky and fluid again as she dove after Nerida. Her koi followed behind her. Nerida didn’t question Sacred’s elemental form, she just accepted it as another oddity of the world. Soon the two esk were surrounded by the remnants of the forgotten city. Large, carved stones were buried in the sand, and miscellaneous human items were scattered between kelp and rocks. It felt empty, and Nerida wondered what the city had looked like while it lived. Most of it was so overgrown that it looked organic. But both esk could sense the man-made quality that couldn’t be mistaken for the natural world. Despite its emptiness it didn’t feel lonely. Schools of fish darted between vibrant

Sacred was captivated, but not surprised, by the talisman growing rapidly. An object smaller than her koi fish was becoming a gigantic esk and the grandeur wasn’t lost on her. They were far underwater but still on the continental shelf. Sacred wondered if the esk would become so large that their head poked above the surface. This was not the case, the new esk finished transforming well below the surface. Sacred was reminded of the human myth about goldfish growing to the size of their tanks. She floated up towards the esk’s head so that they would notice her. Her skewed vision would never allow her to know the esk’s true coloration, but saw a light bluish-gray shade indicating that the esk was not in distress. A wave of relief washed through her. “Where am I?” were the new esk’s first words, and they were mostly to herself. “A kelp reef. This place has many names and I don’t know them all,” Sacred’s words hung in the water. The new esk said nothing and Sacred continued, “Some call

Nerida's Third Origin Prompt: Meeting the Esk Sacred’s fragmented, inky body flowed underwater as if she were a part of the ocean. The ink fell apart and reformed to create her swanlike frame. It would be hard to see her even if someone knew where to look. She let the currents carry her, she had no destination in mind. Only hours ago she had been walking on the surface of a lovely creek near the southern coast of Australia. The summer heat was beating down on her in an irrelevant way. She walked across the water surface lightly avoiding grasses and rocks poking out at her. Her longing to see Seventh kept her near bodies of freshwater. She never knew where to look for Seventh, she just knew she’d run into it again someday. She once went a decade without seeing it. But on this late morning a chill ran through her despite the sun’s aggressive rays. Then a high pitched ringing sound told her it was close. Sacred turned on the creek and saw it's bent silhouette. Her vision only

Around twenty thousand years ago sturdy hands carved ivory into a talisman meant to calm the sea. The carver loved the ocean and kept the talisman close as a pendant while exploring rough waters. Unfortunately a deadly storm brought them both to the bottom of the ocean. Thousands of years later the ivory carving was rediscovered by a seafaring community, only to be lost again. Finally, nineteen thousand years after being separated from the carver, Sacred and her inky fish discovered the talisman for the last time and transformed it into Nerida. This poem takes place from the perspective of the talisman. ~ ~ ~ Crashing waves fight the rocky shores. An endless cacophony, a reminder: Danger lies here. But that didn’t stop you. Wood and twine and hope helped you embark into the fray. You wondered, is it ambivalent or careless or neutral? Did the brine hate or love you back? You wanted to tame it, claim it, devout your soul to it. And I could help. I danced along the

Nemmi mimed sniffing around the water's edge while Aleriya stood back a few paces. They had just emerged from Nemmi’s snow den after coming to an understanding. Aleriya felt guilty for her immediate mistrust of an esk she’d purposefully created. She promised herself she’d do better in the future. “What are you doing?” Aleriya asked the newer esk. “Sniffing,” Nemmi answered without looking up. “Does that… work? Do you even have nostrils? I didn’t see any,” Aleriya had never tried to smell anything and didn’t really know what this esk was doing. “No, it doesn’t work, but it feels cool. I feel like an animal. I was supposed to be one,” Nemmi said, now digging at the ground as if she were a dog. “True, but you were a polar bear. And a newborn one at that, I don’t think that’s what polar bear cubs do,” Aleriya said tentatively, she didn’t want to offend Nemmi. “So? It’s what I feel like doing. Digging, burrowing, sniffing. You get it.” Aleriya didn’t get it. Instead she sat back