Into the Ocean
As you push your body through the shallows, further and faster with this new body you’ve been… gifted? Cursed with? You aren’t entirely sure - a few poor choice words made to a genie has inevitably led you to adopting this new visage in place of the human body you once possessed, so you consider that maybe it is meant to be a curse. But, you shall see if that remains the case.
Regardless, you barrel onward until you have finally pushed past the shallows and now, you’ve reached the continually deepening maw of the ocean, for you can now swim to the bottom, or what currently happens to be the bottom - the vast and splendorous blue welcomes you with open arms, and you feel a strange tingling warm ripple through your body as you swim about, testing the new body you have gained.
Having become a selkie, you note that your swimming abilities are far more enhanced then they once used to be - you were no Olympic swimmer prior, of course, but you knew the basics of moving your legs and arms to propel around. Now, however, your body, though wider and heavier in how it feels (the shape of a seal is not exactly slim, after all, although they make it work) is able to move at a much quicker pace. You can tell as you swim around aimlessly, mostly to understand how this new body works properly.
These flippers have granted you a boost, either way, and you feel as though you are a slender jet shooting through the thick weight of water - not so much a knife cutting through nearly-melted butter, no, but more akin to a balloon riding on a calm air current. It is as if you have become one with the ocean, and as you pause with your meandering, you soak (pun not intended… yet) in the sensations presenting themselves to you, including that watery weight.
The weight is everywhere - a mass of pressure pressing against every inch of your body. And yet, it is not heavy, nor uncomfortable - you can move side to side and up and down with little issue. You also note that despite the fact you are underwater, your lungs are not bothered by this - you are holding your breath, as it were, but there feels to you like a vast supply of air inside of you, as if your lungs are the size of great cities meshed together. There’s no discomfort, and you honestly find it rather amazing.
Not only that, but your senses are rather sharp. Your vision can see far ahead of you, spotting a school of fish scouring the upper waves for tiny things to munch on - fish you could barrel toward and catch if you were so inclined. Your hearing is notably not that poor, either, despite being underwater. You can hear the distance music of a whale or two far, far off - their baritone voice seems to vibrate through the waves, almost like an earthquake of low sound.
You are fascinated by this, by the fact you can see and hear so well, and even your sense of taste seems heightened. Your tongue can dart out and taste the salty water, but there is more than just the salt that your tongue feels: you can taste the grains of sand (a little coarse, with a rather odd flavor), you can taste the water itself (it has no flavor beyond all its components), and more.
You drop down and hover about when you reach the ocean’s floor, a sandy, bumpy land teeming with tiny fishes, small clusters of coral jutting out from the ground, and crabs skittering about, kicking up little particles that meld together to form the underwater equivalent of a dusty cloud. It passes by you without really fazing you, since you don’t feel an urge to blink the granules away.
Written by Hollowpages on 16 June 2020
