Starsea Festival - Part 1

Aliyah inhaled the sweet, salty air of Corwyn. She always enjoyed being back in the town where she was raised, especially during the Starsea Festival. Although the festival traditions have spread all across Andras, Corwyn still does it best, in Aliyah’s not at all biased opinion. The streets become strung with strings of lights and lamp posts hung with lanterns in the shapes of selpies, seawyrms and the mysterious seatouched woolyne. Stalls pop up during the yearly carnival that takes place from dusk till dawn. Lumiars swoop and dive through the night sky above it all. The festive atmosphere of the seaside town is unmistakable and irreplaceable.

But the most exciting part of the festival to Aliyah is not the plentiful food and festivities, but the promise of treasure in the ocean. The tides at this time of year pull in curiosities and valuables from deep in the ocean. Many woolyne venture out to see what they are lucky enough to find.

Aside from the usual method of renting a selpie, Aliyah had heard of a new potion that claims to temporarily give you the abilities of a seatouched woolyne, allowing you to venture underneath the waves into places a selpie cannot go. She had managed to obtain one from a burly orange seatouched woolyne in the harbour, who had also rented her a small boat. He had helpfully untied the rope tethering her to the dock so she could sail out to sea. At night  is the best time to go treasure-hunting, as the fragments of fallen stars under the waves glow with the light of the stars above.

The boat rocked gently over the small waves in the sheltered harbour. The sail flapped gently in the breeze that propelled the boat forwards. Aster and Naya, her solstine and kiritsune companions, stood at the stern of the boat, pointing their noses into the salty breeze. Aliyah carefully steered the boat out of the harbour and a short way along the coast. She didn’t dare to go too far out to sea, because the waves were getting bigger and her boat was only small. Besides, the potion should help her traverse under the sea away from the waves. She dropped the heavy anchor into the sea.

“Keep watch of the boat for me,” she told Aster and Naya. “and don’t get into any trouble.”

Aster scarpered to the bow, and the two of them sat up straight like sentries at either end of the boat, keeping guard. Aliyah didn’t intend to be long, but she trusted them to keep anything untoward away.

Aliyah pulled the mysterious potion from her pocket. It swirled with all shades of ocean blue inside the bottle. She gave it a gentle shake before pulling out the stopper and lifting it to her nose. It smelt like seawater.

With a deep breath, she swallowed it all in one go. It felt disgustingly slimy on the way down, kind of like seaweed, and she had to try really hard not to gag. Within moments, a tingling sensation began to spread from her stomach. Her legs felt floppy, and they began to fuse together. Before she could fall over, Aliyah dove overboard and into the ocean. It was cold at first, shocking her. She tried to take a gasping breath, but only got a mouthful of water. She sputtered and spat it out, using her new tail to keep her head above the water. Her fingers slowly grew webbed and a line of fins emerged down her spine. She felt her large round ears shrink until they were small like an otter’s. The potion had really worked, she thought with wonder as she examined her webbed fingers. But now she needed to breathe underwater. The potion had given her no gills, so she only assumed that she would have to breathe water into her lungs. She sure hoped so, or this would all be for nothing. 

She decided to try it on the count of three, to help her get over the fear she felt. She took another deep, calm breath to steel herself.

Three,

Two,

One,

She took one last gasp of crisp night air before plunging her head underwater. She opened her mouth to suck in her first breath of water. The resistance of the water meant it was much more difficult, and it felt like she was drowning. She had to fight the panic rising in her chest and force herself to exhale, then inhale, then repeat. After a few breaths, it began to feel more natural, and the feeling of suffocation eased. She just bobbed underwater for a moment, relieved that she hadn’t drowned.

Underneath her, the depths of the ocean loomed, speckled with the faintest glows of sunken fallen stars.

It was time to go treasure hunting.