A ripple slides smoothly across the water, then another, then another, as if something large has just passed underneath the surface, unseen. The waves today are unusually rough for the Viridian Meadows; the wind is low, pleasant, and carries an unfamiliar sweet note - some foreign spice, blown across the long, long miles of open water from a far and distant isle; but with a foreboding tinge, like copper, blood, or the seed of a thunderhead soon to be born.
The water along the shore humps as something that cannot quite be seen is disgorged upon the pale sand. Droplets spatter downward from on high, slithering down the indefinable contour of something that can, at best, be said to resemble a building - but fluid, and moving, and somehow fiercely alive.
It is muttering softly to itself - the only sign, besides the remaining droplets of water and the shadow like heat-ripples in the air, that there is anything there at all.
The transparent mass shifts, then rapidly shrinks, gaining color and discernible form. It flashes hallucinogenically as it gradually sorts itself into a recognizable, human form. Its eyes blink, still showing the sky behind - a glitch, perhaps - and its colors shift through the rainbow until it has selected a range of greens and teals. Part of the original mass had peeled off, and it now attempts to assume a foggy, catlike form, but is rebuked. After a little twisting and writhing, it becomes a sinuous, finned dog-like creature.
It surveys Its work, and is pleased.
Off in the distance, it can see rooftops - a town? Unsteady on unfamilier legs, it begins to walk that way, creature companion trailing along beside. They become more real with every passing stride.
All is as it was before. Any strange footprints are washed away by the morning tides. |
