I laughed, reached down, swung her up in my arms, and hugged her tight. “I love you, Mother. Remember that I am no longer a myr-babe, and have not been for two hundred years.”
“Tane, you will always be my myr-babe no matter your age. Now go before I lock you away and keep you there for a century.”
I grab the bag that will carry my weapons from the bedside and head to the water’s edge. One of the best things about being a water god is not worrying about packing clothes. Most of us have enough power to conjure up what we need from thin air. Mortals that travel all over the world must tote around large bags to carry their earthly possessions. It must be tiring, and also quite a nuisance. I am not sure how they do that, and it is something I would not want to experience. One perk of being a god is not having to deal with half of the problems that mortals do. I look back one last time and smile to my mother before I walk out the door, hoping I can keep the promise to return and not fall to the same fate as my father.
Being a Taniwha, I have never ventured far from my home before. We were born to protect the waterways. Some of the rivers and waterways are dangerous and it seems as time goes by that mortals become more and more fearless. They take small crafts that fit one person down them with a single paddle for fun. Some of the breakaways have dangerous currents that will sweep you under. Mortals like to push the boundaries of their mortality and see if they can survive. I haven’t ever understood why they do such crazy and unsafe things when their lives are so short and fragile. Some of them even act as if they are invisible, as if they are immortal. Even immortals can die, only by other immortal weapons, but we can still die and don’t take the risks that mortals do.
I venture through different canals and head south through the southern ocean’s main stream heading toward the depths of the South Atlantic sea. It is the deepest and darkest part of the ocean, and at the bottom of it is Poseidon’s kingdom, where mortals cannot go. I transform into a sea dragon, allowing myself to swim faster than I could in my myr-form. Over the centuries some mortals have seen us in our forms. That is where the myths of seeing a dragon or monster in the water come from, which could really be a Taniwha or a Selkie. The old sailors even saw myr-people from time to time when the myr folk weren’t being cautious.
In my dragon form, I am about seven and half feet long and look like a small dragon. My scales are red and black, with hints of blue to help me blend in with the depths of the ocean and its water creatures. Throughout the centuries we didn’t have to be so cautious, but now mortals have all types of machines that can be in the depths of the water, and they swim with machines on their backs to see the ocean life. We must be more careful to not be caught or seen than ever before. Mortals amaze us with the creations they can come up with, yet it also makes our lives harder to live without being seen.
As I am drawing closer to Poseidon’s realm, I see another god fast approaching from the north. I can tell he is a god, all immortals can tell, because gods have a glow about them that only other immortals can see. A strong enough god also projects a sense of power that you can pick up before you even see them. If mortals saw this one though, even without the glow, they would think that the movie they created called Jaws was real. He is a massive shark body swimming at a fast clip straight toward me. As he gets closer he shifts to a massive seal. I change into my myr-form and unsheathe my father’s sword, just in case he is one of the gods planning a battle against Poseidon, and make my stance ready for anything. As the god approaches me, he slows and transforms into his myr-form. He stops only a couple feet in front of me. He looks the part of an old sea god, long graying hair with a long beard. Another benefit of being a god is that we can speak to each other telepathically if we are close enough to each other under water, and I realize now this is why he came to me.
Are you here to start a war, son? the old sea god asked me. I’m over three hundred years old, but next to him I am sure I’m young.
I am here to protect the rightful ruler of these seas, Poseidon. If you are here to challenge who rules, you will have to go through me first, I tell him as I raise my sword.
He laughs, Relax, young one, I am headed to Poseidon’s kingdom to help fight with him against those who want to take his throne. The name is Proteus. What is yours?
I drop my sword to my side, still being cautious just in case this is a trap. My name is Tane. I am a Taniwha and have come from the Islands Southeast to help in the war against Poseidon.
I’m afraid Poseidon will need all the help he can get. He reaches out a hand for me to shake. I slowly raise my free hand and shake his. I feel a jolt at the touch and hurry to remove my hand just in case he is not who he says he is.
He tilts his head at me and smiles. Well, this will be a twist once we get to Poseidon’s kingdom. I can’t wait to see what happens.
I am sure the confusion on my face at his statement is easy to read. He laughs, Young one, I am an old Prophetic Sea God, with just a touch of hands I can see a glimpse of your future. It will be an interesting one, that’s for sure. Now let us hurry before we actually run into someone that isn’t on the same side as us.
I don’t want to know what he saw in that glimpse of my future, but I am curious at the same time. He changes back into the form of a very large shark and I follow his lead, transforming back into a water dragon. We set off, wanting to get to Poseidon’s realm before trouble finds us.
Soon, we pass through a thick illusion of what looks like the sandy bottom of the ocean and we enter Poseidon’s kingdom. It is a great way to keep mortals in underwater machines from seeing Poseidon’s kingdom, making them think they are at the bottom of the ocean floor.
Immediately, we see sentinels all over the edges of Poseidon’s territory. All around you can see different underwater buildings that look like they came from centuries in the past. Now I know where the ideas that mortals got when building some of the beautiful buildings in the first century must have come from. Gods must have whispered in their ears telling them how they should look. That is what Poseidon’s kingdom looks like. It is a city under water with large domes that look out to the ocean around them. Some are empty, while others have people inside them in their myr-forms with their tails in the water. I see one that has two young myr-boys jumping in and swimming out the bottom to the ocean as we pass by. The kingdom that Poseidon has built is an extraordinary sight. Myr families’ homes are huts in varying sizes, all made out of large coral that has been hollowed out to make a home.
I follow Proteus as we get closer to the middle of the kingdom, seeing others watch us as we swim by. Some looking frightened and others just curious. I look to Proteus and see that he has noticed the looks as well. He nods to me and I hear him speak into my mind, We’d best change forms so we do not scare them!
I nod my head and change into my myr-form as he does the same. Our pass through the realm slows, because in myr-form we don’t have the same power in our fins as we do in our other forms. I see Proteus wave at a few people as we get closer and I really start to relax knowing that people recognize him, and that he isn’t an actual threat to Poseidon. I can see Poseidon’s home sitting in the middle of the city. It is massive in size. It looks like an old castle with much larger openings and passageways than traditional castles mortals create. It’s stunning, and everywhere you look there is a dome coming off each corner of this monstrous home.
Proteus swims down, so I follow, to the middle of the structure from underneath and approaches what looks like a pool. It’s in one of the dome rooms that we have passed so many times throughout the city. He swims up, I follow suit, and we break the water’s edge.
Poseidon creating such a wonder under the sea is amazing; you can breathe air in here just like you could on land. As we get to the edge, we grab two floating steps and transform our fins into human legs, pulling ourselves out of the water and conjuring clothing to fit us as we break the surface.
I look above and see that the dome is at least twenty feet above us and you can see out to all the other myr-people swimming about. Proteus, standing next to me, looks up as well.
“It’s quite a sight, is it not?”
I