1 Chapter One - I Wonder

The trees grew taller as I stared blankly at them, but they faded to stone as I lost my taste in the colour of nature. I wonder why I've been feeling this way, this odd way that made me see the ocean as grey and not the beautiful blue it tends to be.

I wonder why.

I usually lose quite a bit, especially my vocabulary skills. One day I know the word I'm looking for, then the next day I don't have the energy to even put that word on the tip of my tongue; carrying such a word is exhausting. I think what makes it exhausting is finding the right word but having the listener not find as much passion in it as there should be, right? Or would that be clarified as craziness.

I wonder.

"You should stop trying to read your own thoughts over and over again," said Athana teasingly. "Try to read mine for once." The small land of water was appearing more blue as I saw her sink her body and her chin slowly. She wasn't like anybody else I knew, she's not even like anybody else she knows. Athana seemed to always want me by her side, even though we were total opposites. Sometimes I even wonder if it's natural, or it's my instincts telling me to savage her, to embarrass her nerd for relationships; I know her though, as much as I baffle myself with overthinking she's always on the side of the blurriness. With her smile. With her cold webbed hands.

"I think you should take a break and actually relax with me," I said in a whine. "If you were listening to what I was saying maybe I wouldn't keep myself company." She made a pouting face as she splashed her chin out of the water.

"Hmph, maybe you should learn to like the water more." Athana dipped her head one last time in the dull water and lifted half of her body up on the flat rock beside me.

"We're nothing like them and we need to figure out what their plan is for us. I don't want to be part of their life if their goal was to tame us this whole time."

"Eight, as I said, you're thinking too much of it. These are just accusations going around, there's nothing serious about it. Loosen your feathers." Athana rolled on her side and brought herself up into a sitting position. "Let's let those crazies bring themselves to their own end, and we'll just laugh at it all. You'll see."

It was descending to the dusk, as we both lay our heads down on the flat stone beneath us. We would always look up at the stars even as kins. And this night was particularly different. The stars were glistening through the sunset, the moon was purging ever so slightly at the sun and it was scared, it was falling into hiding. I looked at her as she was puffing her lips out as she wanted to say something, but her eyes were so calm like the ocean waves. I looked back at my favourite collection of stars and let out a sigh. The stars might be different but I always admired the first group of stars that were the least brightest. I always tell myself that the next night they will come back brighter and bigger and I'll be proud of them in some way. And it may be what tells me to rest my crimson eyes because when I look back at Athana she is sleeping softly next to me, curled up on her left cheek, with her fin neatly rested on the rock. As I look back at the stars I close my eyes slowly with a bit of light passing through the cracks, and I tell myself off to sleep with what I remember.

The word on the tip of of tongue.

Diversity.

The chance at diversity.