The creature was malleable – her mind smooth like wet clay beneath a sculptor’s hands.

James found that, if he pressed, he could imprint his memories there. He could make her see the things that he needed her to see, to understand the things he needed her to know. He could use her.

The creature’s own thoughts ebbed, fragments of the oldest memories surfacing in dreams that her waking mind washed clean. She listened to the sounds of the ocean and let the lapping and crashing become everything and nothing, the music that wild things such as herself breathed to. She ate, slept and drifted from one lonely place to another, all the while existing in a vacant haze – the tender meat of her true mind hidden deep inside an inner shell that had been thickened by the layered silt of time. The creature thoughts were filled with the sea and sky, with sunlight and starlight. Sometimes when the full moon swelled, she thought of seven and then she might cry.

But that was rarely, and for the most part the creature stilled herself for him. James etched himself and his purpose into her thoughts. He showed her his memories, over and over, until she began to dream them. Until she saw the face he needed her to remember more clearly than her own. Until she began to whisper her words to him in a language her lips and tongue stumbled over.

When the creature’s cycle neared its end, James felt an alien hunger begin to rise within her. He pressed against the white flesh over her heart and listened as the cells within her body urged her to move towards land, towards human habitation. Towards rebirth.

It was then that James sensed his opportunity. Coaxing the creature away from warmer waters, he urged her northward – and like a golem he’d fashioned from will and desperation, she obeyed.

His intention had not been violent, James simply had no other choice. In fact, he’d believed her beyond pain, believed her hardened by the passing of years even he could not quantify. But, it was soon after they arrived that the nightmares began.

.  .  .  .  .  .

It ran down the slope of the white, pebbled beach in tiny red rivulets, as if though no longer confined within a body it was still compelled to move in the familiar pattern of veins and capillaries.  It was everywhere.  Smeared across the creature’s s.  Dripping from her fingertips.  In her rage, even her sight was clouded by it.

Their blood.

But her own loss was all the creature could think of.  She howled in agony.  At the sound of her voice, the ones still alive cried out with her. Weapons forgotten, they struggled to drag broken and filthy bodies closer to the source of their torment and ecstasy. Weeping from the pain of need, they reached out to grasp at her.

When their fingertips scratched at her flesh, the creature pulled them close. She looked into their eyes and recognized the shattered minds behind those glassy surfaces. Somewhere beneath the rage, the creature suspected that she ought to pity these men, but instead, she tore them apart – tore through their fragile human flesh to the tissue and bone beneath, and the tiny red rivers ran anew.

In the end, no man was left alive. But when the creature’s tears finally ceased flowing, when exhaustion closed her eyes and she began to dream, they returned, worming into her mind to have their vengeance.

“No!”

“Calm yourself, ancient one.  It’s only a dream.”

“I do not want to dream of these things. I forsook that life long ago. To remember … it hurts too much. I want to sleep the dreamless sleep.”

“You cannot sleep forever.  Your need is growing.  Even I can sense it.”

“Fate will decide.  I am her pitiful daughter now.  Let me drift.”

“The time for that is gone.  The journey awaits you.”

 “The journey?  But  … I’m afraid.”

“Afraid of what?”

“Afraid ... of hurting.  Of hurting them.”

 “You must be strong. I’ve done all I can to prepare you, but the waking journey you must travel on your own. You must be strong.  I need you to be strong.”

“I feel something.  There’s a change in the undercurrent.”

“Yes.  There’s a storm brewing.  It’s time. Wake up.”