Salt Storm: The Salted Series: Episodes #31-35 Galvin, Aaron (classic fiction txt) 📖

my son say anything of knowing why I left? He swallowed another mouthful of Salt water, exhaling a steady stream through the gills on either side of his neck. Why I abandoned he and his mother?

Chidi hesitated. She told him that you went away because you were worried someone might come to hurt them in order to get to you.

And so my enemies have done anyway . . . Atsidi hugged Allambee closer to him. The Orcs found you all the same, my son. He said nothing for a moment, and so Chidi did not speak either. When the silence between them lingered on, Chidi had the thought to swim away.

Allambee’s withered voice called her back. He spoke in the Morokkoan tongue of his father’s people, a language Chidi knew well from her dealings with Henry and the Nomads in New Pearlaya. She did not know that her friend held any knowledge of the language.

Father . . . Allambee whispered, his voice thin and weak. Father?

I am here, my son, Atisidi answered, pulling away that they might see each other plainly. Your father swims at your side, as I should have done all these lost years between us.

Allambee smiled at that. There are voices, Father . . . he said. They call to me . . . they call me to swim . . . Allambee winced as he tried to sit up in his father’s arms. I-I can see them now . . . Though his pain forced him to ease back down again, Allambee craned his head around in Chidi’s direction as if he followed the direction of those no one else but he could see swimming in the water around them. His gaze was clouded, and Chidi thought that her friend seemed to both look through and over her at the same time. Allambee’s eyes widened in delight, his smile dawning as he gazed upon things that only he could see. They call me to swim the green waters, Father . . .

Not yet, Atsidi’s voice broke. Stay and swim with me awhile longer, my son. Beg them to wait for you and let you linger with me now.

They will not, said Allambee. Blinking, the fog over him seemed to lift for a moment, his face paining once more. And yet when the wave of hurt passed over him, his eyes found Chidi’s a final time. Chidi . . . he said, raising his arm and reaching out for her.

She darted toward him without thought, sweeping beneath his hand and rising that he might feel the dome of her seal head. I’m here, she said. I’m here, Allambee. I won’t—

I see you, Chidi, said Allambee, the fog in his eyes returned. I see you fear that man, Henry, like I would also . . . aye, if my mother had not told me to be brave for her . . .

Chidi blinked, recognizing the signs of her friend nearing his end, the same as she had witnessed in so many before him also. The last gasps of memories, all firing at random. She nuzzled closer to Allambee, then, praying the slippery feel of her sealskin might wake him back to the reality of the moment. That he might spend his final minutes in accomplishment of his goal to reach and meet his father, rather than be lost in his past before death took him. When she pulled away to meet his gaze again, she found Allambee smiling; just as he had done when uttering the same message to her on the lonely beach outside of Chicago, the same sunset evening they had first met.

Allambee coughed, then, his mouth opening and closing as if he were choking on the Salt breath that his Nomad body accepted as air.

Atsidi hugged his son close, raising his left arm under Allambee as a father might do for a choking, toddling child, all with the hope of clearing their airway.

Chidi could not say as to whether the attempt worked, or else Allambee regained control of himself, but, when the moment passed, Allambee found his father’s gaze a final time. I will be brave for you also, Father . . . his eyes fluttered as he spoke. Would that help you? To know that you do not need to swim from fear any longer . . .

Seeing your face has helped me already, said Atsidi Darksnout. Stay with me awhile longer, my son . . . stay, that you might teach and help me even more in the days and years to come.

Allambee’s smile broadened, his teeth glinting in the scattered rays of moonlight as he raised his hand toward the face of the Hammer chieftain. They are singing, Father . . . He looked off to the left of Chidi, again as if he saw others at her side that were not there. They sing me to swim . . . to come and join Them . . . aye, They are singing, Father . . .

Chidi’s heart burst at the sight of the stoic, Nomad chieftain bending his neck and lifting his son, their foreheads touching.

Swim away then, my son, Atsidi Darksnout forced the words. Swim to the green waters and the eternal hunts awaiting you there . . . his fingers clenched upon Allambee’s shoulders, holding him as close as he could. Aye, swim away in peace, brave one . . . and know your father will soon follow you there to teach you all the things in that next life that I could not show you in this one.

Chidi could not say when Allambee’s spirit left him, only that she knew her friend had left the watery world and his body behind long before Atsidi Darksnout pulled away from his son. Her chest tightened when recognizing the stillness that overtook his remains.

Allambee’s arm lazed in the underwater current, even as his father cradled his body close.

Chidi wished for her human eyes in that moment, if only that she might