IN THE WATER | Chapter 1

The First Day (PART 1)

The weightlessness took my breath away, the fall seeming endless. Even as I risked glancing side to side, and witnessed my entire birth group, whooping and screaming as we fell, I still had time to question. Were they fearful of The Jump, the coming of age celebration throughout Korai Uji; the beautiful planet I called home? Or just the eighty-foot drop from the sloping rock of our land? Did they howl at the thrill of leaping from The Cliff Edge, or only the fast-approaching future it initiated?

With air hissing in my ears, and my hair whipping above me, I found the piercing whoosh of the plummet was almost enough to inspire distraction. So I shut my eyes, and all the while I hoped the rush of wind would clear my mind. I wished for it to end my questioning. Yet it went on. The questioning. The falling.

Then, I hit the water. Just as the hundreds of others in my birth group, I instantly felt it. Life would be different now. The carefree existence I had abandoned on The Cliff Edge could never be mine again, as from this moment onwards...

I could find my Soulmate.

The collision struck my thighs, hard, but my days in diving club meant my body was used to the impact. What really shocked me was the salt in the water, stinging my eyes. I squeezed my lids shut as my downward plunge eased to a halt, and in the midst of the seas my body began to float. Suspended, for the moment.

I allowed myself the feeling; the weightlessness of my body, the gentle ripple of waves pushing me towards the surface. It was, blissful. Far more than I could have ever imagined. The discovery made me want to stay. Linger. Only, it wasn't long before my need for air emboldened me to swim to the water's surface; and the second I emerged from the sea, my childhood ended.

I gasped deeply into lungs that tradition had declared fully matured. Now, after fifteen cycles of life I could at last taste, feel, and swim in the water that encapsulated the island of Uji. After fifteen cycles, along with the other four hundred or so in my birth group, I was officially an adult among Korainians. I was officially a new woman.

Blinking through the droplets of water clinging to my lashes, I spun myself in the tides to look about my age mates; the souls I had emerged into this world with, fifteen cycles ago to this very day. More so than ever before, I felt a connection to the hundreds I shared my birth-day with. All classification of Korainian, all mention of scale, Redscale, Whitescale, or Blackscale, were entirely put aside; because today, we all faced the tides together.

Being a Redscale had never stopped my oldest friend Della, a Blackscale, from eagerly expelling her every thought to me; and in that sense the day was no different than any other. I watched amused as she leapt through the water like a cetacean and dove for me, encasing me in the tightest one-armed-hug possible whilst treading water. "It's started Nykia," she panted, genuinely out of breath; "it's started!"

Della loosened her embrace to allow her limbs to paddle, and as she did tears began to form in her eyes. At first, I was unsure of how to respond to her emotion. It wasn't until a wide and bright smile stretched across my friend's soft and pale features that it gradually became clear. Her expression was a happy one, she was grinning with glee; and although it took me a moment, I eventually understood. Why wouldn't there be tears?

We, our entire birth group, were all at once experiencing a 'momentous occasion'. I had never known what the adults of my world meant by such a phrase, but looking at Della, I felt she must have. I peeked over Della's shoulders to see those in the water surrounding us, also patting away teary-eyed joy. The sea of reactions hit me; and it dawned on me that few, if any, appeared to share in the hesitance I had only just realised I was feeling.

The connection I felt to my age mates floated away with the tides. I looked about, searching for an expression that matched my own. Like me, they surely understood that The Jump had officially ended our childhoods; which meant the next seventy-three cycles of our lives, and the hunt for a Soulmate, had officially begun. Yet, when I moved my peer to find Della's large black eyes awaiting my remark on the occasion, I couldn't make myself react as expected.