Chapter Nineteen

Crimson

To Elli, this was the end. The end of Sage's adventures, the end of her suffering, the end of her calf-hood and the end of her many beliefs of the world.

To Sage, it was the beginning. The beginning of something grand, the beginning of a new life, the beginning of a chance of redemption and the beginning of being eternally Elli's.

But, for both Sage and Elli, also it was the beginning of the end.

Sage was too young to give the life to a calf, as Elli was thought to be too young to sire, though there had been instances of younger females than she before bearing calves. But to neither lover, calves were not of importance yet, for both were too innocent of mind and heart to sire.

Nonetheless, the unbreakable bond never separating them, from waters of the pod to Sage and Elli hunting the colony of nearby seals, with Sage the now expert, killing and bringing the prize back to his spouse. The sharing of simple gifts such as this had consumed the last eight days since both had been wed.

Sage only ever left Elli's side to converse with his mother and his sibling Tiamat. Sometimes Sage would take Tiamat alone and sing, play and get to know her. To Sage, Tiamat was special as she darted around, playing games and chittering away in innocence.

From a small distance, Elli would watch with a niggling within her skull that brought titters of laughter to her song as she considered what she saw…

Sage sung to none what he'd spoke of with the Asterite. Nor of his 'brother' Ecco. Caught up in the thrill of marriage to Elli, Sage cast his entire journey aside to experience the joys of union. Never did he pay the nagging at his song a moment, for he refused to focus on anything but his love.

But whispers have ways of spreading.

And the past catches up on those who try to run away.

Upon the day of the horrific discovery of destiny, both Sage and Elli passed through the pod and the floating floes of white waters, singing praises and greetings to pod members as they drifted together, under the mist coated skies of the early morn, when another figure intercepted them in their purposeless search.

"Greetings song-master Gol," Sage dipped his head, splaying his pectorals in respect. "What honour do I have of your audience today?"

The eyes of the old one were fierce and stone. "You will come with me Sage. There is much we must sing of together…"

"I shall accompany Sage," Elli declared sharply before Sage could answer, her voice firm. "Your disciple I was once too, so what Sage must learn, I may learn moreover…"

Disappointment in his frail old eyes, Gol nodded, "Indeed, come you may if you must. But I wish to sing to Sage of his responsibility as song-master of the pod… Follow me if you will, to the edge of the wastelands where we may sing alone…"

Travelling alongside Gol, both orcas soon reached the frozen wastelands, the location Sage had emerged those few days before. The song of the pod was far and faint, and the waters rushed with a mystic feeling of new life and honours to be sung.

Turning to Sage and Elli, Gol spoke of great importance. "The role of song-master Sage, is to preserve the song of past intact and to gather new songs to add to the melody. Events of great and grave importance must be added upon the melody, such as the birthing of a calf. The song-master must record down the history of the pod as it passes and pass it onto another, before they passes to the end… the beginning, so as the song may always be sung…" Gol paused, his song weaker and older than Sage remembered.

In his absence, it seemed as if Gol had aged a considerable number of years over the one that Sage had spent in self-discovery. Sage the earlier day had been conversing with Okura as Elli with Kiera, and Sage had asked Okura how old Gol was out of his simple curiosity for the elder song-master. "I know not," Okura had answered flatly. "But I do know he was near adulthood and song-master whence I was born, which is a terrible age for a male to live…"

It was a known fact to Sage, that females ruled the pod more than males, for the males lived fewer years than a female did. Indeed, Sage had learned of a male sibling to his mother's mother, whom had passed to the end… the beginning long before his birth. Okura was considered the main pod-master by many, but he always fell whim to his sister, Kiera's callings.

"The song is our way of life, and as long as the pod of White River still lives, the song can never die or our pod will be lost among the waters. The past is looked upon for guidance and wisdom for shaping the future, to avoid repeating the same mistakes over," Gol continued, his voice weak. "And now, as the song-master before me, and the master before him and his precursors, I sing the mantra of White River to you Sage, the new song-master of White River…"

From this note, Gol blew one massive blow and began his ancient croon. Mystified, both Sage and Elli were lost to the song, unable to hear anything but the majestic notes of the song of White River. It began with the forming of the pod, a conflict between a greater pod that saw several ancestors break and settle within the frozen waters, beginning the legacy.

Births and deaths of members were told. Births of calves that had names of ancestors Sage never heard of before were sung with high notes of glee and wonder, as with calves that did not survive the passage through the birth canal were sung with great sorrow. Deaths were sung of mixes of anger and confusion and sorrow, as deaths of old age, sneaking upon a dreaming bull or cow or in the form of other, as the hungry ones or falling earth or poisoning of food.

Migrations and travel sung with the wonders discovered upon the journey. Lost members returning were sung of great celebration. Those forever lost were sung with wonder of their fate. Tides and tides, moons and years of eons of existence all rolled into a majestic melody that Sage gulped down thirstily, recording the song to his memory…

Then, the song mentioned the pact of union between Marble Gate. Then the birth of a special calf bore of the female Keeki and then…

It stopped.

The song was not completed, but ended abruptly. Gol tilted his head in fear as Sage shook his visions clear and glanced in disbelief. It was nearing twilight, the entire day having been spent recording a song of ages down in his mind. Flicking his eye to Elli, he saw the same shock in her eyes that the entire light of day was ending from hearing a song that consumed complete attention.

The skies danced a red that sent chills down Sage's dorsal. Elli sensed his fear, nuzzling against he to calm her own fears, as Gol glanced and whispered, "The skies glow red and the water reflects. The song of the pod is silent, yet call of the hunt there was not… I fear something has happened in our absence." His aging eyes flashed to Sage and Elli, "We must return at once. Quickly, we must return to the pod…"

Racing on flying flukes, a horrendous sight welcomed them to the bay. The surface was thick with crimson, as bodies floated around, some clinging to life, others claimed by the darkness of death. The sight caused Sage to seize his muscles, coming to a complete stop as he stared, aghast with the scene that unfolded before his eyes. He did not hear the incredulous comment, "By all that is holy… A Crimson Tide…" from Gol, or the macabre scream that escaped from Elli, his mind upon the scene of slaughter before he claiming his song in silent observation of cold, cold murder.

The largest of the pod were floating, bleeding and bled. Wounds of great viscosity coated their skins, deep, brutal and many in descriptions, revealing bone and internal organs. A few of the pod, Sanh and Seniti two that Sage identified underneath their disguise of wounds, lay within a school of their own entrails, their eyes cold and lifeless.

But the small, the calves and adolescences, were no-where among the corpses. No sign of the innocent young were in the blood stained waters. Bria, Tiamat, Ngau and the others…

The song was silent, there was little sound than the occasional weak inhale and exhale from a dying pod-mate, as the waves of red slowly floated unmoving, tranquilly…

Dead…

"Mother!" Sage called out frantically, as he realised he'd regained his song, as he fought his revulsion as he charged into the blood-stained waters. "Mother! Tiamat! Mother! Sister!"

"Mother! Mother!" Elli called, her song as terrified and afraid, as she broke from Sage to search for her own survivors in the tide of crimson.

"Pod-masters! Okura! Kiera!" Gol summoned as he plunged into the red.

Nudging the bodies that carried lesser wounds, Sage discovered only dead relatives as he searched in vain for his lost mother and baby sister, daring to hope that they may just be… An echo of mournful howl resounded through the silent bay as Elli happened upon Lokoni, her nurture-mother for her entire life, passed to the end… the beginning.

"Sage!" barked a voice, the song of the master Gol. Rounding towards the sound of the voice, Sage gave a cry of joy as he found his mother as Gol moved past her, hidden within the cloud of scarlet that she floated within. Her eyes still glistened a weak, yet determined spark of life as they lay wet with tears.

"Mother! Mother!" Sage gasped as he approached. He dared to hope, his mind pleading that she would live somehow and he'd care for her until her wounds recovered. But his heart whispered that this would be the final time he would experience her love alive.

Keeki's body was heavily wounded, with deep marks of red scrawled upon her body. Her right side of her face was near slashed off by teeth marks, mostly red flesh than black and white skin, as her dorsal was impaled along with the lower half of her left body. So much fury and anger inflicted upon her body, tearing the body into a barely recognisable condition.

In the silent waters, Sage could hear the slow drumming of a dying heart, deep within the bosom of the one who had breathed life to him, all those long, long years before…

"Mother!" Sage pleaded, his voice worried and fearful as tears welled within his eyes, asking questions he already knew the answer to. "Mother, will you be alright, please say you'll be alright…"

The dying body of Keeki gave a shudder, as a weak and forced song whispered, "T-T-Tiamat…" The song was not from exhaustion of fighting the claiming death, nor of the emotion, but rather of the song itself paralysed within her.

"T-Tiamat?" Sage asked stupidly, his eyes now wet with tears. "W-Where is she mother? I-I-I'll bring her to you…"

Keeki seemed to struggle on her song again, this time emotion aiding in the distortion of the song, "G-g-gone… S-swallowed by… M-m-m-monster…" the large female blew in collapse. Her time was ending swiftly and she had little left to hold. "G-glad… Y-y-you are… s-safe my… S-Sage…" Blowing again, sending flecks of red into the red sky, Keeki's eyes rolled around in her sockets. "Protect… Protect…" Keeki's breathing grew rash, fast and hoarse. "Des… Destiny… You are… Dest… Dreams of…"

But Keeki never finished her song. Her eyes collapsed, movements ceased and peacefulness set in as the slow beat of the heart ended, giving way to another long piercing howl of utmost anguish. Tiamat was gone, and so was his mother, Keeki.

Sage was alone again, this time with no hopes of a pod to return upon.

Or a mother's love.

As the orca wept, nuzzling against the deceased body for the comfort, for the whispers, for the vain hopes that she still lived, and but slept, feeling his touch to bring her back to the realm of the living once more, the song of another was heard over the silence.

"M-m-medusa… Like… medusa…" gasped a weakened song of Kiera, the matriarch.

Knowing that the past had to be left behind, Sage slowly, and reluctantly, shrinked away from his mother's carcass, his shrine of loving and home and everything that was important to Sage forever departing from his soul, to be left in the crimson tide.

Sobbing his tears, he found a weeping Elli, unable to control her own tears as she glanced around the scene of paramount carnage that their peaceful bay had melted into. Next to her, caressing her with his pectorals was Gol, who looked near tears himself, but refusing to cry yet as the song was still to be sung.

In a cloud of deep cerise before Gol and Elli, floated the body of Okura belly-up, the mighty pod-master defeated as his eyes gazed an eternal stare of serenity. With slashes of teeth and impalements throughout his body, his left eye bore a long scar and a blinded left eye, mirroring the markings of Wind that Okura long ago gave his friend. The mighty Okura, whom Sage had spent many a day singing of hunts and learning of battle with in his younger youth lay conquered.

Next to him, clutching her life strong, was Kiera. Wounds of horror tattered her body, spilling her red into the waters, ever so slowly. She too struggled with her song, but her sturdy fighting made it possible for her to speak more than Sage's mother did.

"S-snuck up on… us. It… It struck with… tendrils that… numbed and paralysed… It-It then devoured… the young ones… the calves… and adole… adolescents… as its… m-m-master," Kiera's song grew harsher and her breathe shorter. "Master… a-attacked us in our… our state of… weakness… None could… move… or scream in… pain… And then… then… Uton… Uton… he… he attacked… attacked…" Kiera's eyes began to roll madly as her song began to babble nonsense rhymes of youth.

"Look away," Gol ordered Sage and Elli fiercely as Kiera howled in agony, the madness of death beginning to claim her soul. Elli turned, but Sage did not, his eyes fixed upon the psychosis of pain that wrought Kiera. "Look away!" barked Gol, his old eyes fierce and demanding. "Never before have had I ordered you Sage, but now I do. Now turn!"

Turning, the mind tormented Sage for a moment, before he sensed the swift movement from Gol's elder body moving aside and the shrill scream of Kiera that fell dead within a moment of its appearance. Tears welling in his eyes again, Sage knew what had just transpired though he did not see.

He turned his head enough to see Gol release his death grip upon the melon of Kiera, her body limp and eyes calm in the peace of death. His song mournful and low, Gol whispered, "Never in all my tides in the sea, did I ever think a Crimson Tide would befall the pod of White River. Upon my final days it is great sorrow for this to occur…" Howling a long note of low key sorrow, despair and defeat, Gol howled at the disappearing light and the appearing moon that replicated red, as Sage and Elli joined him in his carol…

A carol to pass the entirely pod of White River to the end… the beginning…

The victims of the Crimson Tide…