Wave Riders: Safety

Micha peered over his shoulder to assess the condition of his fellow travelers; to a being, they were tired, struggling to keep their wings flapping to maintain the precious foot of space between them and the water below. A colossal blue head broke the surface, followed by an even bigger shell. The bronze Vorum started circling to land, leading the rest of them to a landing on the shell. Upon landing, he began issuing orders.

“Ashir? Guard the herd while I’m gone. Galen, you’re with me. We’re going to patrol to see what else, if anything, lives here. Everyone else, stay here; we should be back soon.” Micha cantered away with Galen not far behind. Ashir huffed a sigh.

“Okay everyone, you have permission to forage for food and rest, but make sure that in your wanderings you stay within sight of each other. If someone should see something they’re not sure of, either come tell me, or call me over. Okay?” Mumbles and nodded assents met her statement, and she looked around for higher ground from which to watch the herd.

****

“What exactly do you expect to find here Micha?”

The bronze being swiveled his head to look at his companion. “Nothing really. Never hurts to check though, does it?”

“True. What exactly did our Commander say to you before we came here?”

“His exact words were: ‘I want you to set up a safe haven for sometime in the future.’ He also told me we were to hide our true nature until an appointed time.”

Galen stared at the silver sea. His sharp eyes caught sight of clumps of stuff floating in the water. “Hmm, I wonder what that is.” He swung his head toward Micha.

“Hmm.” The bronze pawed at the clump that was closest. His shoulders shuddered in a shrug. "I'm sure we'll find out sooner or later." He took a look around again, neck twisting back and forth to take in the scenery. "Alright, I'm satisfied for now. Let's get back to the herd." Micha turned back towards where the herd was, using his floating trot to cover ground while conserving energy.

****

"Find anything?" Ashir descended from her cliff-like lookout carefully, asking the question on the way down to where Micha and Galen were.

"Nothing, thankfully." Micha briefly rested his neck on Ashir's before dropping his head to graze.

"What is this stuff?" he said around a mouthful.

"It appears to be the only vegetation around. You get used to it after a few bites." Micha eyed the vegetation closely, noting how it grew in scraggly tufts; it reminded him of cat hair, actually. As did the fuzzy feeling in his mouth when he grabbed bites of it. He heaved a sigh and continued cropping the fuzzy moss as it was the only food available.

****

Ashir saw to it that the rest of the herd was bedded down for the night before joining Micha on a hill overlooking the area.

"So, what did you see out there?"

"The usual, for the most part. Except for a clump of stuff—actually quite similar to the vegetation on this land—floating in the water."

"That's...interesting."

"Agreed. I'm very curious as to what this stuff is. We'll have to keep an eye out."

"Indeed. Thank you for the head's up."

****

The hot white sun woke the herd the next morning. Micha reluctantly opened his eyes, not really wanting to get up; the next second, however, his eyes popped wide open to the sight that met them. Stands of trees covered some of the fuzzy plains from last night.

Micha?

Are you seeing what I'm seeing? He shook his head, suddenly realizing that he wasn't verbalizing.

"Trees?"

"So you *are* seeing what I'm seeing."

"Yes."

"And you just..."

I did.

The two equinids ambled over to join the rest of their herd, sniffing a tree in its entirety as high as their noses would go. The trunk was smooth; no chance of relieving bodily itches from there. The grey colour of the bark was a little bit shiny, like some metal or mineral substance, but the smoothness of the trunk felt almost fuzzy.

****

Ashir stood on the shore, gazing out on the silver water. Sorely tempted to go for a swim, she extended her right foreleg to paw at the liquid. Bending her black head, she watched silver droplets run down the hoof, reach the end, and stretch towards the body of water until they fell in. The black head twisted at the side at the sound of hooves approaching; Micha came to a straight-legged halt beside her.

"Galen is keeping watch." He pointed his muzzle at the water while eyeing her. "Shall we?"

She stretched her muzzle to touch his in answer. Together they bounded forward, plunging through the silver liquid.

****

Micha took the lead, swimming deeper down into the water with Ashir following; the water shone like silver glass. Upon looking up, the equinids could see the giant flippers of their turtle island; oddly enough, neither of them were short of breath, as they expected to be after so long swimming in the oceanic depths. Looking down, they spotted a spherical whirlpool, which they assumed was the very center of the liquid planet. Glassy seas displayed turtle fins of various sizes according to how far out they were from each island; there were an awful lot of them, Ashir thought.

Shall we visit other islands? She thought at the bronze beside her. They altered course as one, aiming for the next closest turtle island; silver water splashed upward as two equine bodies broke the surface. Leathery bat wings snapped open as the two equinids launched them skyward, aimed for the back of the turtle. Micha landed a step behind Ashir, and together they went to investigate.

****

As the water world lost its warmth to a setting sun, the rasp of leathery wings was heard coming closer and closer to the blue turtle island where the rest of the herd resided. Ashir and Micha dove into a running landing a few yards from the rest of the equinids, pulling up just short of running into the closest herd member. The rest of the herd closed in around them, asking many questions.

“Where did you go?” asked a yearling stallion with a silver coat.

“We went for a swim,” Micha answered. “It’s so clear all the way to the center of this world, like it’s made of silver glass.”

“And the other islands?” Galen asked. “Did you investigate them?” Ashir nodded, and he asked, “How do they compare to ours?”

“The turquoisw moss—or I think it’s moss—is everywhere. The trees we see here? Same thing with the other islands—or at least the few we were able to investigate before the sun started going down.”

“Here is as good a place as any to bed down tonight. I will take first watch. Ashir?”

Second watch? The black equine took her job as lead mare seriously and started helping the mares and foals bed down by finding the perfect spots for each and every one of them while Micha set the stallions and colts one year and older as sentries scattered around the herd’s fringes. Then he took off to find a higher vantage point where he could oversee the herd from above, leaving them in Ashir and Galen’s capable hooves.

****

Ashir took over the vigil from Micha in the darkness before dawn. All seemed quiet, the black mare thought; she must be extra vigilant though. A dusty blue moon peeked out behind charcoal clouds; her eyes were drawn to an onyx and silver movement cast in blue as Farin, a three-year-old stallion, bent his head close to a sapphire Appaloosa mare spotted with emerald by the name of Sahara. Ashir gently shook her head, smiling at the sight. Young love. The stallion moved away, heading back to his vigil at the herd outskirts.

****

Micha was the first one up the next morning, moving out to check the perimeter of the herd and confer with his younger counterparts. In his wanders, he ambled over to the trees that had shown up yesterday. They looked... different somehow. Or some of them, anyway. There! A branch at eye level... his muzzle mouthed the branch, finding fuzzy leaves... and something a little harder. What IS that? It felt like a fuzzy little ball—not very big as of yet, but definitely there.

Ashir? The black mare headed his direction; she investigated the branch too, once he showed her. She curled her lip in a hmm expression, tossing her head in a shrug. It would require further watching.

****

Micha and Galen continued investigating the islands, leaving Ashir to her lead mare duties. Each island they visited, they found more of the same—fuzzy vegetation, trees seemingly made up of the same vegetation, and nodules on tree branches like he'd found on the island the herd resided on. This would require further watching indeed.

****

Galen accompanied Micha on his morning stroll to the trees. The bronze once again explored the nodule... it felt like it doubled in size overnight! He requested his golden buckskin companion go get Ashir, which was duly accomplished, and she agreed that there was a sizeable increase. All three of them also noticed a slight change in colour—this particular one was a bit silver in hue. Interesting. Micha continued to fly out to other islands, with either Galen or Ashir accompanying, and discovered more of the same features of their own island—trees, mossy vegetation ground cover, some trees with nodules on them, either silver or gold-hued, and some trees with none.

****

Each day, more islands were visited, revealing more moss ground cover, more trees, more knobs that were growing exponentially in size with gold and silver hues taking over the initial turquoise colour. He managed to pry one off its branch when it was fully silver; the outside was fuzzy, like the tree it grew off of, but inside it was a rich, juicy berry mix flavour, like a compilation of all the berries that grew on planet Earth mixed into one, only more flavourful. He was later able to also sample a gold one, as well, and discovered it had a milk chocolate taste, as rich and full of chocolate taste as the silver one had been with berry taste.

****

Ashir was the first one to taste the fruit after Micha sampled it, and told him flat out that they were both excellent in taste, though she slightly preferred the chocolate one over the berry one, just because it was chocolate. They talked it over and decided it was time to visit the planet’s centre; Galen stayed behind to watch the herd, and the lead stallion and his mare duly set out, diving into the silvery glass water towards the swirling mass they’d seen the first day. The hardest part was getting past the whirlpool part; once inside, the centre was divided into bubbles with thin walls. Rainbowy colours refracted off the walls in truly magnificent display; Micha found himself reluctant to leave, as did Ashir when he asked her. They finally pulled themselves from the mesmerizing colours, heading out once more into the perilous whirlpool beyond; the herd was spellbound when the two equinids returned with the story and made them promise to make a trip down together.

****