Writer Unblocked

Skavrana

By Rachel H Grant

Skavrana sighed, her eyes drinking in a sunset bright with hues of an unreachable heaven. Its light glittered in her eyes, deep green jewels in her thin and beautiful face. Her fiery auburn hair glowed in the light. Pinks and oranges accosted her with the poetry of colour.

She could have come here just for this, the stunning sunset over the sea, the sound of waves dancing on the shore, the blue ocean embraced by the sunlight above.

However there was so much more to her mission today.

Slowly she walked in to the sea, clicking her fingers as her metallic silver trousers turned in to a mermaid tale. She swam in to the ocean as if it were her home.

And perhaps it was. Skavrana came from the planet Oceanus, a world dominated by the sea with sparse islands interrupting the expanse of water. Her race could breathe underwater and on land alike.

Today she would use sea energy to strengthen her spirit and rouse her resolve. Earlier that day, her crystal bracelet had turned sea green. A message awaited.

Skavrana was a Superhero Saviour, a warrior spirit sent all over the universe to assist emerging superpower souls, usually sired by forbidden romantic relationships between Oceanus space explorers and other species.

Today the message in her bracelet informed her that, “you have a new and perhaps the most momentous mission yet. Superpower energies have been detected on Planet Perturbed, many galaxies away. There have been no scheduled missions to Perturbed, it is deemed too dangerous. The superhuman being there is an anomaly, but undoubtedly needs urgent help with their emerging power.”

This would be Skavrana’s most dangerous mission yet. However, a superpower existed on a code red planet. Now that was either a blessing or a curse for the poor individual concerned.

Skavrana sighed as the sea caressed her body like a warm blanket. Time to prepare her spacepod. She had never travelled to the galaxy of Planet Perturbed let alone the planet itself, however knew it to be one of the most beautiful stars in the cosmos, a paradise that its insane inhabitants polluted and abused. The planet had its own sun and moon, and how she looked forward to channelling them.

For this was Skavrana’s superpower. The ability to channel sun and moon energy, and to use it to heal. The cosmic rays strengthened her body and boosted her brain. Moon energy acted as an anti-aging elixir. Her skin did not age, although her eyes grew ever deeper green as wisdom whispered within.

In her saviour role, Skavrana carried sun and moon energy and its secrets across the universe, gifting a connection to this energy to the most deserving emerging superheroes.

Sometimes her head felt like it must shatter in a thousand pieces, a mirror struck by light so bright it transmuted time itself.

The next day, with many moons in her wake, the enticing seas of Planet Perturbed shone in moonlight below. The ship’s superpower scanner beeped shrilly, like a bird keen to fly free. But how could this be? The scanner had located the superhero right here, in the middle of an ocean. With no ships to be seen on the still seas, how could a land dwelling human be here? Planet Perturbed was indeed a perplexing world.

Or Earth, as they called it locally.

And then it leapt in the air and Skavrana’s heart sighed like a wave hitting a rocky shore. The ship scanned the mighty beast, and proclaimed: Dolphin.

So Planet Earth had given birth to a dolphin superhero. This was an anomaly in action, an impossibility come true.

The dolphin circled her ship as it hovered above the smooth waters below. Skavrana climbed on to the deck, and began to sing, a poem of moonlight, a sonnet of sea music. The dolphin swam towards her, and then was there, beneath the ship, mirth in its eyes and a smile in its heart. Skavrana hummed softly, as déjà vu massaged her mind. Had she dreamt of this moment? It felt like time had stopped, and perhaps it had.

“I am Moonlight.” The voice was a whisper in her head, a soft sea breeze in her heart. The dolphin knew how to communicate telepathically, a skill which she also possessed. It came in very useful in her various missions.

“I am here to help, you have very strong superpowers.”

The dolphin whistled in her head. “I communicate with the spirit of the ocean, I am attuned to sea consciousness and I wish to use my knowledge to help the world.”

Skavrana smiled. A dolphin with superpowers not that far removed from her own.

“I can help you, I can return with a larger ship and transport you back to my planet, a true paradise where you will be safe.”

The dolphin whistled softly in her head. “But this is my home, and more than that, I wish to pass my ocean wisdom to a human being who can do so much more with it than I can.”

The ocean sighed around them. Skavrana nodded sagely. “I can help you.”

So it came to pass that Moonlight drifted like an unseen dream from beaches to harbours to little islands, Skavrana not far behind with an invisibility cloak around her ship.

They both spied the boy at the same time. Ginger hair and green eyes sparkling in the sun, he held his hand in the water as a smile wrote friendly and fun on his face. A red faced guide on the tour boat pointed delightedly at Moonlight, and the boy looked towards them.

Moonlight leapt in the air, to the excitement of the boat crew. Then he gently swam towards them, like a lost dog finding its owner after many years. The boy laughed in delight as Moonlight let him touch him. Then it happened. A soft energy passed between them, like a wave rushing over your feet. The boy looked at Moonlight as somewhere inside he heard the sea sing.

Moonlight swam around the boat once more, and then was gone. Skavrana smiled, the moon in her heart beating strong. She would return to this planet with a larger ship, and then take Moonlight back to Oceanus with her. His superpowers were wasted on this dismal planet, on her home world he would prosper and above all be safe.

Meanwhile, the boy – Colin – could not stop smiling, liquid sunlight in his veins. That night, he dreamt he was in a middle of a large ocean, a small boat beneath him and indigo waves all around. A supermoon looked down, blessing him with silver light. And then the ocean began to speak.

“Tell my story, write the book of ocean lore, a tale of time, a manuscript of mighty wisdom. Tell the story that will heal this world.”

Colin turned over, as deeper dreams pulled him to the heart of the sea. And as he slept, the music of a thousand waves lit his mind.

Meanwhile, Moonlight arrived on Planet Oceanus. Under its three powerful blue moons, the sea shone brightly in the night, whispering in the still air like a baby trying to say hello to its mother for the first time.

Moonlight was gently released from the spaceship, and the ocean wrapped its strong hands around him like a new mother. He was safe now, that is what Skavrana had assured him. Safe … and forever free.

The moons above painted the ocean with blurred brushstrokes, bright shadows playing with the light and teasing the waves, the pattern of a living paradise. Indigo ink stitched swirls in the night sky, a tapestry of indelible dark and light.

Far far away in a winter soul world, a young boy Colin walked along a beach. The sea was in his head. He had written all night, a tale of love and loss, tears in his eyes as the souls of a hundred oceans whispered in his ears. Little did he know that his story would one day be published, and applauded by the environmental movement. But all that was in the future. For now, words continued to scratch Colin’s brain with an insistent cry of write, write, write!

Back on summer soul world Oceanus, Skavrana’s crystal bracelet turned green. “There is a merman superhero on Planet Perturbed.” Skavrana sighed. Perhaps she should buy a beachfront cottage on this planet, it looked like she would be spending much time there.

Meanwhile, as Colin walked along the beach his legs began to twitch. He look down, alarm shining like moons in his eyes. His legs were…turning in to a scaly tale! With a cry of grim abandon, he crawled to the sea and let it take him. The waters of tomorrow held him in their arms like a proud father. Somehow he knew that he could change back at any time. However just for now … he did not wish to. Strangely, he could suddenly breathe underwater. Were there more young people like him? How to find them? The strength of the sea powered his body as he swam further and further in to the ocean.

Skavrana sailed through the stars once more. A smile blossomed on her face like a spring flower. A merman, a soulmate for Moonlight. Deep inside, somehow she already knew it would be the ginger haired kid. And he would be the first of many. For it was time for the sea to heal Planet Perturbed. It was time for her own superpowers to team with Moonlight’s, a new world, a new galaxy, a new universe. Let the superpower march begin.

She was back on Planet Perturbed. The merman swam towards her ship, a smile floating in the young face like a leaf in a pond, not sure why it is there, and so easily blown away.

But just for today, they would smile together. Under a bright Earth moon, she laughed with a new friend. The ocean whispered beneath them as moonlight stroked its waters like a protective mother.

Just for today, the world slept under a moonlit blanket of peace.

And just for today, the song of the sea silenced the night.