The Sea Caller

The aquarium was the place closest to heaven for San. It was a tiny bit suffocating - she'd love to be out on the actual ocean watching free sea creatures swim about, but she had to make due.

She looked through the glass, holding back a great amount of water behind it, and watched intensely at the bobbing jellyfish. From an outsider's perspective, it was sure to look strange: an Asian girl with her nose squished against the glass, her eyes a tiny bit scary as she stared intensely.

But the jellyfish were a sight to behold.

Their top was about the size of her fist and a half, and from it were long stringy lines, flowing about. Its soft pink color cast a slight glow around itself in the darker water, and it felt almost otherworldly looking so closely at the being.

"Miss, please step away from the glass," a staff member suddenly stated, tapping her shoulder. San nearly jumped out of her skin, yelping a bit at the sudden contact. The man held his hands up, as if in surrender. Again, he stated, this time with some explanation, "Sorry, miss! But you can't touch the glass like that here." He pointed at a sign that did indeed say: please do not touch the glass.

San rubbed the back of her neck abashedly. "Aha, sorry about that," she said, her face slightly heating up. She pointed at the jellyfish. "I just...uh, won't do that again." The staff member nodded, eyes looking relieved, as he moved on after an utter of "enjoy your stay."

San sighed as she watched his retreating form. Time to leave, she thought.

And as she walked away from the jellyfish display, she strangely caught a glimpse of the same jellyfish - except, it was outside of the tank, just bobbing carelessly in midair.

San blinked and it was gone. Perhaps she was hallucinating.

She gave no mind to that particular peculiarity...at least, not until a couple days after.

She had been driving down the highway, finger tapping on her steering wheel as she looked ahead of her. In front of her was certainly a drab sight - a gray road with only a couple cars today. Well, granted, it was three in the morning, so there was bound to be less traffic.

On her right on the other hand, was a beautiful sight. The night sky was dark navy, a blanket of mysterious black speckled with stars. The sky was certainly clear. And just there was a full moon, and today, it was a very big moon, absolutely captivating San's attention.

Of course, not enough to get her in an accident. She would, from time to time, glance at the moon. It was a very comforting sight. The moon reminded her of her parents, in a way: soft light, yet illuminating a safe way in the darkness.

It was ten minutes further into the highway when things started going a tiny bit...wack, so to say.

It was the maybe fourth time that she glanced to her right, and it was at that moment that she yelled profanely, "WHAT THE H*CK-" Her foot suddenly slipped, and in reaction, her panicked hands jerked at the wheel, her car thus turning sharply into the road's shoulder.

The car that had been behind her honked multiple times before it continued to speed away while San pressed the brakes just on time before she crashed into oblivion.

Her heart was beating wildly, and yes, it may have been because she nearly crashed her dad's car, or because of the fact that she had been seconds near a fatal accident.

But honestly, the sight outside was probably the biggest factor to her rapidly speeding breathing.

San, at that point, didn't even care about the car. She swung the door open immediately, practically ripping her seatbelt off before running to the very edge-right of road, leaning herself over the metal railing.

She was almost sure her breath stopped completely.

There, the moon was large and bright, but flying - no, swimming - across it was a blue whale, a rim of silver light dancing and glimmering along its fins and tail. There was a great sound that echoed through the night air, almost as if the creature in the sky were laughing.

There was a whale in the sky.

And San could only think and produce the logical conclusion, that she had indeed died in a car crash, and that she was now in heaven.

As the whale made a graceful turn in midair, its fins followed a circular pattern as its great lungs cried out in joy. San felt her lungs expand as she gasped at the beauty before her. She began to breathe again, and she felt she finally knew what the twinkling of stars looked like.

San took a glance at the railing that she leaned on. Then she took a look at the car to her side. Next, she watched the whale for another couple seconds before making a decision.

The highway she had been on was elevated, and below her was definite death of falling if she were to jump.

And...she jumped. As the wind whizzed by her ear - so quickly that the howling was all she heard - she only had one thought: I done messed up.

Her thinking process and logic had been that she had undeniably died in a car crash, therefore if she wanted to get closer to the whale, might as well just jump, as spirits should be able to fly.

But she realized that maybe she hadn't died. She saw no crashed car, and certainly no dead body. And she could have just used her car to drive around to where the whale was rather than jumping. It would have been a much safer chance.

However, as the trees below her became bigger and bigger, her heart leaping to her throat, she didn't wonder what will happen when she dies. Instead, she wondered, as the whale continued to sing and hum, what had she done her whole life.

She was surely not a chicken. Her jumping off the side of a road is a testament to that fact. However, in her whole life, she never ventured out to sea. She never went on a boat, never fished, never swam out at sea. Why? Had she been scared? Scared of the darkness and the unknown?

San closed her eyes, accepting her death from her very dumb decision.

But it never came. She had stopped falling, and instead of the wind blowing up against her, it was blowing at her from the side. And she was still moving, but this time she was aware that she was sitting on something, and there was something grasping her shoulder.

Opening her eyes, she only stared, wide eyed at her savior. It was a girl of average height, her dark hair streaked with blonde and her eyes a deep forest green, shown through slits behind a blue ornamented mask. Her red jacket flapped in the wind behind her.

And the girl was gripping San's shoulder as they both sat atop a moving manta ray. Wow, today's just not making any sense, she thought incredulously yet in awe. I'm on a flying fish with a masked girl who smells like fish.

Said girl tapped on San's shoulder to get her attention before smiling at San, the slant of her lips somewhat mischievous.

"I'm glad you came," she said, her voice so clear despite all the wind howling around them. San opened her mouth, the shock of the situation still getting to her. She glanced again at the great ray below her, and tried to move to get a better look at its face, but her hand slipped. She would have fallen again if not for the mysterious girl quickly grabbing her shirt sleeve.

"You shouldn't try to fall again - it isn't very safe," the girl chuckled before she pushed up her sleeve, and with a graceful movement, brought her hand down to trace a strange pattern on the ray's back.

Immediately, the wind died down, and the manta ray lessened its speed to a steady pace. The girl nodded, satisfied. "That should be better." An echoing of the whale was suddenly heard, and both San and the girl looked behind them, the whale's voice resounding loudly. "Ah," the girl said. "I suppose it's time."

Time for what? San wondered, voice still gone. At this point, was it because of shock, or was there something else keeping her voice from working?

The girl stood and turned to face San. She reached a hand out for San to hold as she also stood up, wobbling slightly before standing steadily.

The masked girl grinned a bit. "Watch," was all she uttered as she took a step back, arms out, and fell.

San couldn't yell out a yell or cry, so instead she only watched wide eyed.

But the girl was alright. There was a sudden chorus of clicks and high pitched whistling, and swimming right below San and the ray was a school of spinner dolphins, long and delicate snouts gleaming in the starlight. They almost seemed to be glowing.

Ahead of the school, leading them in their voyage across the sky, was the masked girl, standing on another ray with a primitive pattern painted across its back. A fan attached with bells was held in the girl's hand, closed.

Slowly, she raised her arms, a movement so graceful that San did nothing but watch in awe at the scene before her. The girl opened her mouth, and out of her mouth came a soft, yet resounding, chant, sounding almost like the whispers of waves and winds.

San held her breath as the girl stayed in that position, and the dolphins went silent as if awaiting their cue to start again.

In the next moment, San knew that she had cried from the sheer beauty. The girl's chanting still echoed through the air, but the girl was smiling and she gave a joyful laugh as she snapped the fan open, the jingling of bells loud and crisp, the manta ray's tattoos suddenly illuminating the darkness with bright blue.

It was as if it was the opening to a grand concert. From all sides, up and down, came schools of fish from whale sharks to sailfish, from squid to jellyfish. The whale had moved and was now swimming beside them all, its slow yet beautiful movements blowing a stream of glowing wind in San's direction.

And the girl on the manta ray simply danced to the symphony.

Go to the ocean, San heard inside her head, the voice of the dancing girl. The unknown is nothing but a beckoning call to be discovered.

Go. As I call the sea to you, the sea is calling you. And I know that your heart yearns it.

See you later, Sano Red. And may the spirits of the sea stay by you even in the skies and above the land.

Oh, and drive a bit more carefully next time. San blinked and glanced at the girl whose mask had flown into the wind. The mysterious girl, the Sea Caller, winked up at San.

And as if a switch had been flicked, San's vision blurred into darkness.

........................................................................................................

There was a steady beeping in the hospital room when San had opened her eyes. The room was a stark white, and the air smelled strongly of disinfectant. Strange, though, that San caught a slight whiff of a salty ocean scent before it went away.

She sat up in confusion. "What the h*ck? Why am I in the hospital?"

A voice from the door to the room answered her question. "Well that's because you were in a car crash." San's eyes widened as she recalled the events before passing out. Something had caused her to suddenly veer off the side of the road, and from there it was loud crashing sounds and a lot of pain.

"Oh, makes sense," San said.

"San!" San looked up and at the entrance when the doctor moved away from the doorway, was San's father. He looked about ready to cry from relief when he stumbled to her bedside. "You stupid girl - why would you go out on a drive at three in the morning?"

San shrugged. "Eh, why not?" In reality, though, San had needed time to cool her head. She had been offered a ride to go whale watching the day before, and for a very good price at that.

But she had declined. It boggled her own mind because she had wanted to see a real whale all her life. What was stopping her from going beyond just visiting aquariums and reading books about the ocean? What was stopping her from going beyond just watching videos?

She was...scared. Scared a shark would eat her even if she knew they mostly don't. Scared she'd drown and die despite the fact that she swam well. Scared that maybe, maybe the world below the sea wasn't as fantastic as it was marketed to her.

So she had gone on a drive to get some thinking done, though, in the end, she ended up in a hospital bed.

San's dad sighed as he plopped down on the seat beside her bed. "You're lucky - you don't have any fatal injuries that'll last forever. You just have a broken arm and leg, and a slight concussion."

San gaped at the information. "Just a broken arm, leg, and concussion?" Before she could say anything else on the matter, her dad's arms were suddenly wrapped around her, careful not to jostle said broken arm. She immediately relaxed her tense shoulders, and she wondered how long it had been since she'd been embraced by her bear of a dad.

She hugged him back with one arm, and the two of them stayed like that for a good minute.

San didn't know why, but she felt a sudden urge, and slight bubbling of excitement in her chest as she said softly by her father's ear, "Is that whale watching ticket still up for the taking?"

.............................................................................................................

It was many years later when San was feeling the wind whip through her hair upon a motorboat that she finally remembered something of the time of the car crash. She slowed the boat down, her scuba gear ready to be worn right beside her when she paused.

She looked up at the sky, wondering what this strange feeling was. For a moment, she wondered if the small jellyfish bobbing in midair was real or not before it disappeared.

San smiled. It was strange indeed, she thought, that her fear of the ocean was suddenly overcome the night of the crash. She started to slip her wet suit on, smiling ever so fondly at the waves.

The crash, or rather, the near death experience, had served almost as an orca to San. Violent, painful, and seemingly unfair.

But in the end, it was still a once in a lifetime experience, a wonderous one, that changed San forever.

She chuckled at herself for even considering her car crash as a wonderous experience, but the word seemed to fit for a reason she didn't know. And as she leapt into the ocean, she thought she may have caught a glimpse of a person - a girl with a mask and a red jacket - upon her boat, smiling mischievously down at her.

As the blue world of the ocean and life swallowed San in, she smiled and waved.

........................................................................................................

Strange was she, who rode the winds

Upon fish and whales, and manta rays

Upon glowing breaths, and symphonies

She came to Earth, to teach and find

Like an orca, she kills, and violently plays

With the life of a human

But bringing them to be a spirit like she

She shows them wonderous things

Views that cannot be described

Worlds and visions that the human might have needed

And she breathed it back, that breath of life

For her clients on Earth to wake from strife

And as she dances with the fish, whales, and rays

Life for her clients, grow a bit brighter, in the most fascinating ways

She is Orca, the Sea Caller.