Chapter Eighteen

Nuptial

The moon was climbing high, when Keeki finally gave into Sage's pleas. For hours, the young adventurer had wished to leave her side, though he'd only returned, to seek the missing friend, Elli. Though her heart wished for her to command him to stay alongside her longer, the blood of her progeny burned brighter and fiercer than hers.

For many an age, watching as calves and observing the time apart, Keeki had begun to suspect to the truth of the nature that the matter withheld. And her observations were correct.

Her son was against the code, loving with an undying heart and bond that would not be broken. Perhaps had Sage and Elli not been torn apart, her Sage would have grown to follow the code, spreading his own legacy of calves the world over. But, the absence had made his heart grow fonder, and blossomed within, a true love for the childhood playmate.

"Go," she cooed gently, closing her eyes in defeat, as Tiamat fed upon her milk. "Go seek your love. I see that your heart is not swayed and the code of spreading your seeds holds no supremacy over you." Keeki opened her eyes to observe her child, who defied all. "From the start, I sensed that you were to be special my Sage. Different. And different you are. Never in the seas I have swum during migration have I ever meant an orca that is as passionate about his beliefs as are you my Sage.

"You have learnt from your travels you tell, that Elli is not of this pod. Indeed this is true, for she is not of our blood, but an adopted truce between the pod of Marble Gate and the pod of White River. Her existence is a reminder of that truce, and if the Marble Gate sees you fit as her mate, as do White River, her mate you may take yourself as. Though against the codes you lay, both you and Elli lay against them; an adopted young whom should have died with her mother, and a youngster torn away from home at such an age by something that he did not commit…" Heaving a mighty sigh, Keeki nuzzled her calf, as Tiamat rose from beneath her mother and to observe her brother and mother with wide questioning eyes.. "I love you my Sage, and I know that though you choose not to follow the codes, your actions bring great admiration to the pod."

Nodding his head, Sage spoke, "My heart lies with Elli, for the factor she is my best of friends and we have been apart for many a moon. I do not wish my legacy to be scattered, but rather to know the past, and embrace it, than never know. Thank you for understanding mother…"

Turning, Sage knew where to find his friend. In all his times as a calf, Elli would flee to a certain scene to weep, think or just to experience solitude. The cliffs which had nearly claimed her life were the place where Elli lingered in these times of emotional crisis. The place that nearly ended it all for her was her place to console and tempt the fates with her questioning, conflicting and wonderings.

Moving at a hastened, yet controlled pace, Sage passed members of the pod, caring for their own, dreaming or socializing with one another. Several called out to he, but no heed did Sage pay. His heart was determined to find his friend.

Whence arriving at the cliffs, the moon was high upon the sky, caressing the waters with her gentle light as the clouds slowly began to stroke the waters with their gentle tears once more. Upon arrival, Sage was not met with a sad, confused or thinking Elli as he had hoped for. Nor was it a happy, pleased or overjoyed friend that greeting his indomitable face.

Before he entered the sacred waters of his calf-mate, she had confronted him, her eyes ablaze in upset, yet the flames of fury near extinguished with the tears of anguish. "Why?" she growled, her song near tears again. "Why do you return Sage? Why do you return when my feelings for you are near but completed having gotten over the forbidden love I harbour? Is it to mock me, or do you pretend not to see the trial that possesses me?"

Back-finning in shock, Sage stared back with hurt eyes, "I return to return where I began… My pod, my family and my friends. I returned to be with those that loved and cared for me in my younger age. Never in my life have I ever tried to hurt you Elli…"

"But you do…" Elli sobbed, her song growing hostile with emotion. "Every time I think of you. Every moment alongside of you. Everything about you hurts me deep in the heart Sage, for I know that I want you. I want your song to be my own, your progeny bore from within me, and your love treasured just for me… But it cannot ever be. It cannot be for we are of the same pod, we are of blood." Turning her head away, her tear-brimming eyes, she blew. "I… I hoped in a way you'd never return, so these feelings would eventually pass and I could move along in life, bearing calves for the pod as the females do. But, just when I think I'm almost over you, you return. You return and again I am thrown into turmoil. My mind screams no, and to forget you, but my heart calls for your love…" Sobbing again, Elli groaned. "I guess that bestial Uton was correct in his statement that time long ago… Incest breeds within me…"

Near tears himself, Sage could never understand the pain that Elli sung of, but he began to feel her confused thoughts about the manner. Venturing towards her, stroking her skin with his pectoral and feeling her slight shiver at his touch, Sage cooed, "Elli? If you were to learn that most of your life was hidden from you, that you were not all that you were told to be, that you were not of this pod, would that aid in the passing of much of this uncertainty?"

Turning back to Sage, her tear-filled eyes pleading as did her song, "Do not lie to me Sage. I wish not to be led to false hopes and beliefs that you create to attempt in the passing of my sorrow…"

"Elli… Have I ever lied to you?" The female orca did not answer, just to gaze as if asking. And hoping. "I met with a pod, the Marble Gate, whom share a pact of union with ours. You are that pact Elli. When you were birthed in these waters, your mother Rana passed from you, as your nurture-mother Lokoni gave birth to a stillborn calf soon after. Starved, you sensed the milk Lokoni gave, the sign of mother, and you sought her out. Moved by your plight, Lokoni took you in and raised you as her own. You are of Marble Gate origin, not White River, as I am full-blooded."

Tilting her head, Elli dared to hope. The story seemed fanatical, but yet in her heart, it seemed true. "I… I don't know what to believe," Elli turned away again, swimming back into her waters, allowing Sage the access he'd always been privileged with once more. "My logic calls that you lie, yet my heart begs that the truth is in your song. I am unsure…"

"Listen to the heart," answered an older, wiser call before Sage could reply. Slowly approaching was the elderly Gol, his appearance seemingly determined by fate. "The heart never lies Elli, though the mind will to hide truths it refuses to believe. But the heart never lies for it knows not how to lie."

Turning from Gol to Sage, Elli's eyes were full of mystification. "My heart calls that Sage speaks truth… But, the story still seems so fixated, that I cannot fully believe…"

With a gentle smile in his elderly eyes, Gol whispered, "If you believe not the song of a best friend, would the song of an elder be more suffice? Happen it did Elli, for I was there that fateful night, where Marble Gate and White River became one with the adoption of a calf that was of one pod, of two pods. The calves' name was the ancient word for 'unity' which is the word elli… You are that union…"

As Gol's song finished, tears flooded Elli's eyes again, tears of happiness and sorrow. She was upset that her true past had not been told, but balanced with this was the happiness that her love was not fully forbidden by the bonding of blood. She wept as Sage risked the chance to side along her, providing him for her comfort. "Had I ever known…" she wailed into her friend. "I never would have doubted of and hoped for ill news of you… I'm so sorry Sage…"

Cooing gently, Sage hummed a song taught to him by the humpback whales. It was a carol of great feelings and emotion, but it brought on great happiness as it echoed through the waters. His journey had allowed him to aid in the anguish of many with gentle songs of soothing and peacefulness as taught by the elder and gentler clairvoyants of the baleened whales.

Whence the hymn concluded, still choking slightly on her song, Elli whispered, "Your song… I love your songs of many origins." She paused to blow, exhaling as her true feelings were released. "I love you Sage, with all my heart… I want to be the one beside you. Beside you for forever and a day…"

"And together you can be," Gol smiled gently with his eyes again at the two lovers. For an age, the elder had seen this day approaching, and had dared to hope, and pray he'd live to be one to sing the hymn. Two calves he remembered from the moment they first witnessed one another, a bond between them forged from the magic of creation. "Our ancestors did not use to spread their young as far as we do today, and even to this day, some very few of our kind indulge within the ancient ceremony of nuptials to forever bond members of two separate pods together for life… The code is not set rules to live by. They are mere guidelines to help light the way of life, similar to the moon…"

There was a long pause as Sage waited Elli's reply. But reply there was none, other than the shiver of expectancy, awaiting the word from Sage. Daring a glance at her eyes, he saw her glance to him, hope and loving exploding from them, her sadness melted with the warmth of his love.

"Then let us be wed," Sage crooned simply to Gol under the pale light of the moon, his eyes closed at the touch of Elli's body against his.

"Indeed, let us unify once and forever," Elli droned herself, her mind switching from loathing, to loving, to loathing again and to finally loving one last time. "I want to be yours forever Sage, as I want you to be mine eternally."

Dipping his head and closing his ancient eyes, Gol began a chant as the two orca lovers, whom were instantly moved by the song, danced together under the light of the pallid moon, the stars of Delphinius smiling down upon them as the soft tears of heaven parted to reveal the spirits of the skies. Neither orca had heard the song, nor had they danced as they did that night before, but the song of matrimony commanded over them a power that seized their very bodies, as if affable demons the song contained controlled their bodies in a delicate ballet only they knew.

As Sage and Elli danced, swimming in circles around each other, breaching from the waves at their moments of song and swimming alongside belly-to-belly, the song commanding their complete and utter attention to their movements, other pod-members, such as Okura, Keeki, Bria, Ngau, Kiera and soon the entire pod, came to watch this ancient ceremony that few indulged within.

And all the while, Gol sang the song over and over, serene with all that happened around him;

"Toomu farri ri chichichi washani,

Laguni eh bus kako poapoi wuiss.

Delphinius runn ban loloi seenai,

Sage nooi voka sasasu herere.

Elli nooi voka sasasu herere.

Folorn justao kil kil kill,

Were yoyou pyrosan yayan.

Hesa. Hesa. Hesa nui."

And all the while as the pod watched and Gol hymned, Sage and Elli whispered their private vows to one another, their hearts intertwining as one.

"I'll never leave you behind again Elli…"

"As I will never your side, my Sage… Forever and a day… Forever and a day…"