Alan Foster - Kingdoms of Light

A week out from land marching steadily along beneath an unforgiving sun saw their water supplies significantly reduced, but not yet dangerously so. Everyone was still in good spirits, no one had stepped on anything deadly, and supplemental food remained plentiful and easy to catch. When he lay down for the night, the cat-folk took turns sleeping on Samm's back, that being the only dry land within view. The giant could accommodate two of them at a time. This did not always guarantee either sleeper a dry or restful nap, however, since from time to time something in his pythonic dreams would bestir the serpent-man, causing him to turn over in his slumber and dump his dozing companions unceremoniously into the drink.

It was not dog heaven, Oskar reflected. Dogs were not fish, and like his feline friends he preferred dry land to damp. But there was no question that he was more at ease in the wet blue surroundings than all of his companions save Samm. About time, too, he mused with gentle indignation. Come the Kingdom of Purple, their situation might be reversed. With the Kingdom of Blue imparting only dank distance as an obstacle, he found himself wondering what the Kingdom of Purple might be like, and how they would go about locating and securing a bundle of white light to take back with them to the Gowdlands. Voicing the thought aloud, he was not surprised to receive a response. The source, however, when he finally identified it, was something more than a surprise: it was an unadulterated shock.

It was the ocean, shallow and warm and blue of hue, that had answered him, and not one of his companions.

Shooting from his resting place to a standing position, he stared wide-eyed at the water rippling quietly around him. Surely he had imagined it. Surely the heat had affected his concentration. One way, he knew, to find out.

Gazing down at the undulating water, he reiterated the thought. Sure enough, for a second time, a sympathetic response was unhesitatingly forthcoming. "Nothing know we about white light, sand treader, and no help can we give thee."

It was truly the ocean that was replying, Oskar observed. One might dispute the exact direction of the sound, but not the fact that it arose from somewhere beneath the surface. He had felt the slight vibrations in the water from the speech. Cocoa had come over to stand next to him, her shade leaf parasol hovering above her normally calico-colored but presently blue-tinted hair.

"There's something in the water, Oskar, and it's talking to you!"

"How can there be something in the water, Cocoa?" He had not taken his eyes from the gently rippling surface that had emitted the sounds. "I don't see anything moving, it's too shallow for something to disappear against the bottom, and there's nowhere to hide." He bent lower. "Maybe something's living under the sand?"

"Near the top the sand layer is transparent." She was bent over at the hips so that her pert nose was less than an inch from the water. For once, her enchanting personal perfume was overwhelmed by the odor of salt. "I think we'd be able to see anything hiding within it."

"We are not living beneath the granules, but just under the surface," explained the speaker. "Come over this way. We know that we are difficult to see. That is intentional."

Side by side, Oskar and Cocoa searched for the source of the tiny but emphatic voice. Mamakitty was gazing curiously in their direction, while the other members of the group were finishing their lunch.

"There!" Her feline vision better attuned to the movement of quick, small objects, it was Cocoa who spotted the speaker first. With her help, Cezer soon found himself staring at the same spot in the water. One by one, the others joined them, and one by one, they found themselves alternately transfixed and delighted by what they had discovered.

Drifting just beneath the limpid surface were dozens of tiny finned shapes, human in outline and form save for their exceptionally broad nostrils and mouths and slightly bulging eyes. Naked and perfectly formed, they either darted to and fro at astonishing speeds or remained perfectly still. There was no in-between motion; no languorous swimming or casual treading of water, no measured acceleration. Movement was accomplished at maximum velocity or not at all. The largest of the creatures was no bigger than Oskar's little finger. Easy enough to espy, one might think, especially when clustered together by the dozen. Except for one thing.

They were all of them, male and female alike, almost perfectly transparent.

The pale azure light of the Kingdom of Blue shone straight through them. Only a faint hint of cobalt blue signifying the presence of tiny internal organs had allowed Cocoa to pick them out from the surrounding liquid. That, and the flash of light off their diaphanous skins when they moved. The minuscule flaps of flesh that transformed hands into flippers and feet into fins were virtually invisible.

"Why do thee seek white light?" The diminutive speaker was floating on its back directly beneath Oskar's face. "Blue be best! There be no need for another."

"Just so!" added a female of the species. Appearing as if from nowhere, she came to a sudden stop alongside the speaker. "Blue be calm, blue be soothing, blue be a color beyond reproving!"

"We need the white light to return color to our own homeland," Cocoa explained obligingly, "where only a somber and depressing gray now rules."

"Oh, that's terrible, terrible!" The two tiny figures squealed simultaneously, whirling about a common center until by their frenetic swimming they had generated a miniature whirlpool between them. It faded quickly when they slowed to an abrupt stop. "What be 'gray'?" the male inquired curiously.

"It doesn't matter. It's our problem, not yours," Oskar told him. To Cocoa he added, visibly relieved, "Even in the depths of a rainbow, I'm glad to see that water doesn't possess the power of speech. For me, at least, such an ability would make it hard to swallow."

Cocoa nodded knowingly. "It would surely give new meaning to the idea of soaking up a conversation." Of the diminutive creatures bobbing below them she inquired, "What are you called?"

The pair glanced at one another before replying. "Why, we are thweens, of course. We live just beneath the surface. That is why it is hard for such as thyselves to see us. The surface refracts the light around our bodies. When we lie still, which is most of the time, or move rapidly about, which is the rest of the time, we are very well concealed."

"You certainly are." His back beginning to protest at his crooked posture, Oskar straightened slightly. Being cat, Cocoa could hold the pose for hours. "If you hadn't spoken, I don't think we ever would have noticed you."

"That's right," a curious Cocoa agreed. "Why did you speak?"

"Because not many creatures can, besides the thweens. Despite thy size, thy speech intrigued us. Thee are almost interesting."

Nearby, the heretofore silent Taj spoke up. "And thee are almost thanked. What do you eat?"

With a perfectly formed little arm, the female made a sweeping gesture. "Our world is full of food. You have eaten some yourself, for which we are grateful. Unfortunately, the negwen you find so tasty are equally fond of us."

Oskar envisioned the flat, boneless bottom dwellers he and his companions had been feasting upon since they had started wading through the shallow sea ingesting and masticating the delicate little thweens. The disturbing image left him feeling thrice thankful for his own hearty appetite.

"Much of the life that surrounds us," the male added, "is, like ourselves, quite transparent. We can also live for quite some time outside the water. We simply have difficulty breaking through to the place of air. Surface tension, you know."

Mamakitty and Oskar exchanged a glance. "Surface what?" she inquired.