Deviation Actions
Literature Text
I lay in the water, floating, unable to move, only able to look at everything around me. After being freed from that convoy, that attack by the red Peophin had left me quite badly hurt; the fur on my arms was a shade of red now instead of blue, my tail so battered I could not move it without gasping in pain. If I could not move soon, some aquatic animal would probably find me and come to eat me, most certainly something I did not want to happen. Through the pain-induced haze of my eyesight, I saw movement, something purple threading through the water. Too late I thought, too late now as the purple shape swum in what seemed to be circles, coming closer with each pass. Eventually it swam close enough so that even I could tell what it was, a purple Peophin, although as I observed it closer, I found that it wasn’t just any purple Peophin, with was the purple Peophin, the one I had released from Sloth’s captivity, which I had been transformed into this Ixi/Peophin/Human hybrid to save.
I looked to her as she swam up beside me; her nose buried itself in my blue fur as she tried to determine who and what I was. As she swam around me, her inquisitive nose seemed to stop when she noticed my necklace, the one thing that I had kept from my past human life. Instantly, she seemed to recognise me, swimming in circles around me as she always had done when I came into the water with her. I tried to reach out to her as she slowed her swim, my arm just about able to move to touch her mane, and she stopped upon my contact. Seeming to finally realise that I was calling to her, asking her to help me, she swam beneath me and lightly nuzzled me onto her back. With my hooves wrapped in her thick mane, she swam, her powerful tail beating a graceful rhythm in the water that I would never be able to achieve. It was one of the things, apart from their behaviour, that had always fascinated me about Peophin, why I had chosen to study them as I did.
It was some time before she surfaced, in shallow water near a beach in the Lost Desert. It was a warm night, the sun just beginning to show its face over the horizon as she came closer to the sand. I released my hold on her mane and rolled off her flank onto the beach, my tail still beneath the water as it needed to be. Bidding her farewell in the method that I had taught her to understand, she flipped herself out of the water in parting and disappeared below the water, swimming off to her home, wherever in the oceans she had settled. I looked up at the sunrise, never had I seen one since I was only a young child and a single thought rang in my head, a phrase that seemed to alien to me as did the place where I lay: I am…free…
I had fallen asleep on the beach with my tail in the water, still being hurt as I was I had not moved from the spot where I rolled off the purple Peophin’s back. Looking upward to the warmth of the sun I blinked my violet eyes slowly, almost jumping back in surprise when something blotted out the sun.
“You're right Debs, its still alive” I heard it saying, although I did not understand it. I managed to raise myself onto my elbows to look around me. Standing not far from me were two human females, staring at me and looking rather confused. I tried to move forward, but as soon as I tried to move my tail a pain so great shot along its length, making me gasp a little and lay back down against the warm sand.
“Looks like it is hurt to me,” spoke the other, “better go get a doctor or something for it.”
“Alright,” again the first, “you go find a doctor, preferably one that can deal with water creatures like Peophin or whatnot, I’ll make sure the thing doesn’t die on us or something like that.” As the other one left, I realised that one word that had been said I had understood.
“Peophin,” I spoke, the human looked down at me, seemingly a little surprised,
“Peophin?” she spoke, a little confused, “hang on, you can talk?”
“Peophin,” I repeated, “Peophin ex off E yctizxdoct…” Now the human was very confused, realising I didn’t understand a word that she was saying. She stroked some of the fur on my cheek, trying to reassure me of something,
“Ah, just lay there, don’t get worked up or anything, its going to be fine.” She spoke gently, her stroking of my fur I must say was rather soothing.
The other human female returned with a male human and a large crowd of curious humans behind them. The one beside me stepped aside as the two frontmost humans approached
“The only doctor I could find that knows anything about water creatures. Unfortunately”, the female human with the male human spoke, “there were quite a few other people interested after I told him what was going on.”
“Ah well, could not be helped I guess,” the other female replied. To the male she spoke, “The creature is over there, half in the water. Didn’t want to move it in case it died or something.” The male nodded and came over to me while the crowd of humans and their pets behind them came forward to try and get a better glimpse of me.
The male human, who I guessed was a doctor, was quite kind, gently checking me over and tried to reassure me if he touched somewhere that hurt. My focus though had shifted from the doctor to the crowd, who were watching me as curiously as I was of them. My violet eyes observed each one of them in turn, observed their composure, the way they were looking at me. For some, curiosity is what I saw. For others though, what I saw was repulsion, the mixture of creatures that I was probably made me look like a monster in their eyes, or so I guessed. Through the crowd I could hear shouts, as someone barged past them, trying to get forward, echoes of the word “Ixi” could be heard in this person’s wake.
As the front row of humans parted for this other, I looked over, completely freezing up as he stepped out of the crowd. He wore an off-white shirt and brown trousers, both covered with an ankle-length coat, although that is not what had surprised me. Dark sandy coloured hair topped his head, which was streaked with black and held in place by a gold headband. White coloured markings dotted through his light sandy fur, his arms and legs ended in shimmering golden hooves and nestled in the fur on his forehead sat two bronze coloured horns. He faced me squarely, light reflecting off his necklace and a chain that sat around his neck, two narrow, almond-shaped red eyes looked directly into my violet pair. This person was half-human and half-ixi, but not just any ixi-human hybrid, this was one I knew.
“Nassam.” I breathed lightly, almost surprised speechless, as I had never expected I’d ever see him again.
I wanted to move, to come over to him, although I knew that I could not, especially with my tail this badly hurt. My fin moved impatiently, splashing water around as I tried to propel myself forward anyway. The doctor behind me gently placed a hand upon my tail, trying to convince me to calm myself, to stop splashing. But I would not. I called out to Nassam best as I could, hoping that somehow he’d remember me, still understood what I say.
“Nassam, ta uay ziqiqwiz qi? Jfioxi ocxbiz qi.” I watched him, observing his reaction to what I had just said, saw his eyes open wide in recognition.
“Eimosu.” I saw him mouthing, before smiling, “E ta ziqiqwiz uay Eimosu.” At this point, everyone in the crowd was staring at him, including the doctor behind me as he came over and knelt down beside me, “bvoc vofficin da uay?” I gave him a warm smile before answering, but the doctor soon cut me off.
“You understand what he says? Do you know what he is?” Nassam nodded, speaking in their language rather than mine.
“I do, yes,” he looked down at me, “He is a…well the easiest way to describe him is an Ixiphin.”
The doctor thought about this for a moment, looking back and fourth between Nassam and me.
“So you know how to care for him then? I admit I know nothing about caring for Ixiish creatures.”
“I do know how to yes.” I listened to the conversation between them rather detachedly, concentrating more on how the wind blew through the fur on my arm. After they stopped talking to each other, Nassam turned to me.
“Eimosu, bayft uay fegi da naqi wong bedv qi? Od fioxd ycdef uay kid widdiz?” I looked up at Nassam, surprised at such a proposal, but nonetheless agreed to it.
“Nizdoecfu Nassam, E bayfd wi vacayzit.” At a nod from Nassam, the doctor started lightly bandaging up my wounds, Nassam picking me out of the water after he had done so.
“I do not believe Ei would mind, even if he only stays for a little while, better than leaving him out here in the open.” The doctor nodded at what Nassam had said before Nassam turned and walked away with me, the crowd of humans parted at out approach, each determined to catch a glimpse of me.
“Ta cad bazzu Eimosu, uay xvoff wi xoli, uay ozi lzii od foxd.” I looked up at him, taking in his words, and smiled. I was at last free…
