I looked out at the western ocean as night fell, twilight of dusk lending a golden hue to it as Korven lay next to me.
[...why are we out here?]
[Because it's worth seeing.] I simply replied.
He looked again, along with a few other curious awakened.
[It's a sunset.]
[And it's beautiful. Don't take that for granted. One day you may find that you can never again see a sunset.]
Being stuck in a concrete-steel room, with your body dying and weak.
[Appreciate the simple parts of being alive Korven.]
Korven slowly nodded his head and then shook it, still confused.
He didn't question me again however.
He just looked alongside me.
The ocean was black, with the gold of the setting sun reflected on it with shades of purple flying across the water away from it.
The world seemed to be nothing but the gentle caress of the waves.
I don't know why, but some instinct in me rose.
I opened my mouth, and a high note began to resound.
~ ~ ~
"We found nothing. Other than a few strange coral that burned an awakened fish trying to eat it, nothing seemed out of the ordinary."
Another elf gave him an odd look. "Why would you even mention that Lexif?"
Lexif struggled not to smile or laugh as his lips twitched.
"W-well... it just kept happening again and again to the same, hahaha, fish-hahahahahaHAHAHAHAHA!" He broke out in laughter as he looked up, attempting to continue speaking.
"It had these-gasp-long flexible fins and wings, hahahaha, and it kept trying to bite this, this coral right? But the coral always turned red whenever it came near, pfffft, and then it was burned! Hahahahahaha!"
He wiped a few tears from his eyes, coming down a little. "It would swim away to another coral, right? But it would just happen again and again! It was hilarious!"
The corners of the lips of many elves around him began to twitch.
"Well, what did the local Lord Beast say Vel?"
An elf woman glanced to the side. "He was... rude."
Silence.
"To you? An elf?!"
"He said he wouldn't give me any respect!" She burst out, angry tears beginning to fall.
A more mature elf with hair to his waist raised an eyebrow, as did the raven-haired elf.
They weren't idiots. It was pretty obvious a Lord Beast wouldn't be so stupid as to offend an elf without reason, even an idiotic one.
And Vel hadn't been out of the elven lands before, so she didn't have experience in the world...
The raven-haired elf nodded to the male leader. "I'll try talking to the Lord Beast myself then."
"Lady Noire?!"
Vel looked up with shock and a mild bit of panic she tried to hide. "Lady Vel, you shouldn't have to go that far for some beast!"
Lady Noire cut a glance at her. "It is not your place to question me."
They sat in silence on the ship...
And then a huh note sang out.
'???'
Many an ear twitched as a few eyes widened in confusion, a few turning around to look for a source of the sound.
Slowly the elves made their way to the deck by some instinct.
The note played out, fading slowly as if into death.
Then suddenly it richened, deepened, a low note that sent a tremor into your bones to hear, so faint, but growing and swelling in power and majesty, rising and falling again and again in swells as if the waves were singing, but each time it ended up even higher than before!
And finally as it hit its peak... a piercing high note, loud and pure as crystal played, louder and higher than all the others.
The elves stood, and listened.
And on the beach, as the dragon's note faded... a bird began to tweet behind him.
Then more, and more as the many awakened birds began to create their own noise, many a tweet and a note playing and interweaving into the repeating pattern the dragon sang.
Finally the other beasts joined in, low growls and snarls used to accent the peaks and drops of the music.
Then, finally, they all sang out that last piercing high note... and held it as long as they could.
Until it faded into the twilight, as the sun finally sank behind the horizon, where none could see.
"..." Not a single elf spoke.
It was strange. They had music, much prettier and more interesting, yes.
But this was strange in the way that birdsong shall always be noticed, or the whistling of the mountains.
It was natural, it came with the sunset, and it felt ethereal and unreal sounding as it came and went, with all its listeners looking at the beautiful ocean and the sun slowly hiding beneath it.
~ ~ ~
[Wow... I chose a good time to come back.]
I turned to Avaya.
[It wasn't intentional... it just sorta happened.]
The giant humming bird nodded its beaks few times, lifting a wing to fold across her front, basically her equivalent of the human shrug.
[Lycan's still howl at the moon and all that after all... certain things just shouldn't need to be forgotten.]
[Speaking of Lycan's how did that go?]
[...] Avaya gave the mental message of merely a feeling of exasperation.
[Well. That sucks.] I lay my head into the sand again.
[Yes it sucks! Goddess of the primordial waters, I DON'T want to DEAL with this perverted wolf!]
'...how perverted? He apparently chases down anything with a nice ass to forcibly add to his harem of concubines...'
'Wait.'
[To be clear. He's trying to make you his SEX SLAVE, yeah?]
Avaya sent acknowledgment.
Wow. That's kinda fucked up when it's not a BDSM thing. Maybe that's fucked up too, never exactly got the chance to try out kinks too much.
A wolf of fire and... air right? Wonder how that'll go.
~ ~ ~
Meanwhile in the reef, many a multicolored coral would slowly change to become a pure, bright red as a fish approached, heat radiating off of them.
A slow will emerged, nothing about thinking or any of that yet, simply the desire to survive...
And it linked together.
Coral next to one another bonded the desire to survive together, wills melding in many small groups or, when more where near one another to allow a chain reaction, many larger groups.
The coral-deer came around, and found so many of his children in the area exhibiting signs of awakening.
[Holy Primordial?!]
A bright yellow fish flitted by, with a more turquoise top half, faded into the bright yellow underbelly.
The Kirvalith stared in shock as a bit of a yellow came from the bright yellow underbelly of the fish.
[What the hell HAPPENED HERE?!]