history of the Orcarians

                                  Intro
    “Out in the great oceans there are many great and unexplained things. There are lands beneath the salty waters that no human mortal has ever laid eyes upon. In these lands the majestic Orcarians make there home, known the surface folk simply as mere-people. Legends and stories had been written on speculation, as the Orcarians have strict rules about interactions with any of the surface world. So diligently have they followed their laws, that for centuries the people of the surface have believed their race to be nothing more then a legend. A fantasy told to children to keep them from the dark cold waters of the ocean, for in all the stories the fish folk were cruel and with out soul. Whose reasons for life were simply to drown sailors, and steal little children for their dark mysterious purposes.
    The Orcarians loved to hear the stories of their own cruelty for in reality a gentler race had never been. They’d learned of these stories by use of the magic orbs that grow only at the very floor of ocean, in the deepest part of the dark waters. The legends were almost close to the truth in some regards, they did from century to century take on other shapes, and in those shapes they would indeed take children, the difference was these were the children that suffered, lived in homes unfit for the care of the young; these were the hopeless children that went willingly and happily. These children were taken to a cave beneath the waves were they were transformed into the children of the Orcarians. But it was not always so. 
    The Orcarians, being creatures of magic could not have children in the same ways as other creatures of the world. They had the power of transformation but not that of creation. For centuries the first ones wondered how their species would continue after the first had found death at the end of a stray hunting spear. Her blood weaved from her in dark green patterns and transformed all that it touched. Plants, animals even the water itself in that region had changed, and from that time on that became the sacred place of birth and death for the Orcarions.
The plants below began to grow strange and luminous, and when the first of them flourished they found within the magic orb, the first of its kind. It swirled and misted and suddenly began to show images in flickers and flashes. When one of the Orcarians touched the orb it suddenly went very bright and began to show them full moving pictures of, as it turned out, anything they could imagine. In time they learned that with two or more orbs they could communicate over great distances; however the problem was that the orb would wilt and die if detached from its plant.  This problem was however overcome when they discovered that the plant need not be in the wet soil to remain alive only to be born. They discovered that they need only bury a part of the plant structure to replenish the orbs strength from time to time to keep it healthy. From that day every Orcarian carries a staff or a wand with a small orb, crafted from the very plant the orb was born to.
Each Orcarian at the age of transformation was gifted with a small plot in which to grow their own orb, each required on drop of the newly transformed blood.
    Other things were also affected by the first Blood spill. There were several species of aquatic life that acquired sizes and levels of intelligence. One such creature was the sea stallion. Originally a small family of seahorses living in the coral structure in the vicinity of the spill was instantly transformed. They grew both in size and intelligence; with years of training and practice were even able to converse in the common tongue of the Orcarians. Other creatures never before seen beneath the waves came to life in the instant the blood had touched them, creatures made of living stone know only as the Braxx. Creatures that happened to be swimming close to other creatures were combined to create new species as well.  It was truly the time of chaos and rebirth.
    Upon observing the mating habits of the other creatures that inhabited their world the Orcarians became concerned that they did not have ways of reproducing , they learned all to well that they can die but not how to keep their numbers from dwindling.
    And so they sent out 5 of their best and brightest to solve the problem.
For Years the 5 searched and searched but to no avail. Upon seeing this one of the Orcarians by the name of Luna decided to take matters into her own hands.


Chapter One

    In the dead of the dark hours Luna gathered her few belongings and fled from the coral home. She swam for hours, her magic orb lighting the way of her travels. Several days went by and Luna had not encountered any of her brothers or sisters. The local wild life became less remarkable as she made her way out of the Orcarian lands and into the wilderness of the great wide ocean. The further she went the colder it seemed to be all around her. The creatures grew smaller and less intelligent until she found herself very much alone and in the dark. Weeks passed and Luna’s loneliness began to gnaw at her resolve. She desperately wanted to find an answer to the problems of her people but it seemed that the answer was not out here in the dark.   
One morning as she was gathering a meal, Luna found a cave that seemed to only lead up. Following a strange scent that wafted in the water Luna made her way to the surface, a place her kind had never before seen.
    Though Sunlight filtered through water and gave life to many things, Luna’s first encounter with the naked sun was blinding. She was unprepared for the brightness of the upper world. For the first several days Luna stayed beneath the surface of the waves just deep enough to keep the sun from her sensitive skin recovering from her injuries. She was painfully aware of her limitations in this bright new reality; still Luna was determined to find the answers.
    The cave she had discovered housed a great deal of tunnels,  some that let to deep underwater caverns , some empty , some containing strange round yellow stones that shimmered in Orb light and felt cold to the touch. Other tunnels that lead to canals that lead into a body of water surrounded by strange structures she had never seen. Among those structures, small soft skinned creatures lived and worked. These strange creatures where the first that she had encountered that looked even remotely like her own people. What Luna found to be extremely strange is how they managed to change the color of their body’s everyday, sometimes even twice a day.
As she explored the canals and the pool of water she discovered that the soft skinned ones were fond of crafting strange objects, most of which were discarded in the water. She found countless objects which she would bring back to her cave for study. Among those objects that were not yet broken, she found a small glass bottle filled with multi-colored sands, a silver looking glass, and a tiny figurine of a Softskin holding a small furry creature with a long tail.
    One morning as Luna was about to depart to the deep pools to find sustenance something gave her pause. It was just a feeling really but it was enough. Her Orb began to glow brightly as if trying to tell her something.
    “Show me what you will” she whispered to the Orb and placed the gentlest kiss upon its smooth surface. The orb flickered and showed Luna on the surface clinging to a rock formation close to the strange cluster of structures the soft skinned ones had built.
She was watching from a distance but the image was dark, the only light emanating from the clusters and the orb half concealed behind the rock. As the scene progressed Luna watched a group of smaller Softskins accompanied by a larger Softskin wandering out into the water, they dragged with them a strange object which was long and narrow, the larger one helped the smaller ones to get onto the object before climbing up as well. They pulled out long thin pieces of some dark hard material and half submerged them into the water. They began motioning with the smaller object and somehow the large object containing them all moved forward, they moved in such a way that there speed began to increase.  They were headed in Luna’s direction and she watched as her own image began to grow agitated, as if expecting to perform some action that required great concentration. Just as they came near enough to spot her, Luna dove under the water and a great flash of light
spread out beneath the surface, when she reemerged Luna’s skin had changed and her tail had been split into two awkward appendages that the soft skins relied upon. The soft skins recovering from the flash of light suddenly spotted Luna still clinging to the stones; they called to her and began maneuvering in her direction. They extended the smaller dark pieces towards her indicating that she should take it. She reached out and they pulled her into craft that carried them. Suddenly the orb went dim. The images ceased and the orb was silent.
    Luna was horrified. What could possible be the meaning of these images her beloved Orb had revealed. She understood that at times of great need the orbs were known to sometimes show the future, or at least provide clues as to what may transpire. But the thought of leaving her form for a new one seemed unjustifiable, what would ever lead her to such drastic action, she wondered.
    Luna decided that time would tell, at least she was now aware that the ability to transform ones own shape was possible. That in itself was something that she would need to think about, at length.
    And so she thought, as she gathered food, she thought, as she went about her daily duties, she thought, and as she prepared to rest she thought as well. Finally an idea came to her. If she had the ability to change herself would she then be able to transform others?
And if so then how, she remembered the flash of light but other then her Orb she know of nothing that would bring about so much light. While she knew of certain creatures and plants that cast light she knew of none that could be so bright or that had the power of transformation. But that thought was what gave her the answer…Her orb was the key!
    She gazed into the orb and once again whispered the magic words that focused her thoughts and lead the Orb to reveal its secrets.
    But the Orb was silent. Luna realized that the last conversation had drained it of much of its power. She sighed with resignation, what ever the answers were she would not have them this day. Luna buried the bottom half of her Orb staff into the wet soil of the cave floor where it would replenish its strength from the earth spirit.
    She made a place for herself among the local seaweeds and nestled down for the day to sleep. As she slept she dreamed of the first …
The beautiful Orcarian floated gently in the cave beside Luna, she stroked Luna’s long, long hair and sang a strange haunting song as Luna slept peacefully.
    “So long ago before we learned,
    Our lives were long and with out cause
    So few of us had been created
    So much of us was lost,
    Until through death we were
    Transformed,
    A new awakening took hold
    A chance to grow
    And learn anew, with just one lost
    The rest renewed,
    They key is now for you to change
    Your blood and light will
Thus be spilled
And sadness will your heart discover
Upon the shore of this
Adventure,
But fear not love, you shall be
Brave, our people
Shall by you be saved.
It is your destiny to see
And bring new joy to our
Sea, for you shall find
The answers
To our great misery.

The song finished and the Orcarian faded into the darkness of the cave,   

Luna awoke with a start. The memory of the song and ghostly image of the Beautiful first one was still fresh in her mind; she began to sing the song to herself over and over until she was sure that it would remain with her forever. She wondered what sadness was and how light was spilled? She thought about how the very first death in her tribe had happened. “Her blood weaved and transformed all that it touched” Lune reached down and found a broken shell lying half buried in the wet soil. It was sharp enough to break through the skin of her fingers. They were one of the few parts of Luna’s body that were not covered with tiny diamond hard scales, flexible enough to allow movement but strong enough to withstand the sharpest of teeth. She cut into the flesh of the larges finger and gave a startled cry of pain. After a moment deep green blood began to weave from her into the cave; it was not long before everything in the cave began to change and
transform.  The seaweeds at the bottom of the cave suddenly began bearing fruit; small tiny orbs appeared growing swiftly on tiny tentacles. Luna closed her eyes and whispered “give them sight”, she kissed her Orb and a sudden flash of light covered the plants. The tiny Orbs suddenly began to form pupils and a thin membrane that protected them like leaves covering an immature Orb. Luna swam down to them, upon seeing her; the orbs blinked and began to weave excitedly. She brought her hand down to caress them lovingly as they reached out on their quickly growing tentacles. The plants themselves detached from the soil and began swimming around the cave as if they were no longer plants but now fully sentient beings. Luna smiled at her creations as they found a more comfortable position hanging from the cave ceiling. A tiny school of brown fish caught in the blood flow also began to change, growing bigger, and faster, they swam around Luna in a dance of
joy as their bodies continued to stretch and grow. She gazed at them and lifted her Orb, “Give them new colors” she whispered, she kissed the Orb gently and imagined green and vibrant red, and suddenly there was a great flash of light.
The school of fish was suddenly exactly the colors that she had imagined for them. They were a whole new species. The wound in her finger was now closing rapidly; the remaining blood gave the water in the cave a luminous quality and the rock walls took on a reddish glow. The three objects that she had found in the waters of the canal also began to change before her very eyes. The bottle with the sands changed shape and with a sudden pop the lid came undone and the sand poured fourth with a life of their own. They twined and twirled and finally settled onto the bottom of the cave. There they melded with the wet soil to create a deep rich ground from which new tiny plants began to grow.
The Looking glass began to glow a faint green color and melded into the rock wall opposite of the cave entrance. The tiny statue grew in size and became an anchor for the new plant life growing from the rich new earth. Luna looked around her cave of wonders and felt a special kinship with all the new creatures that inhabited her home. She loved them all.
    Having finally understood how the blood and the orb worked together to transform, Luna was ready for her mission. She thought about the vision that her Orb had shown her and decided that it was time. She gathered the now empty bottle and her orb and made her way to the surface.
                Chapter Two

    It was dark when Luna finally made it to the surface. The night sky was speckled with tiny balls of light and one large pale crescent that reflected in the calm dark waters.
She took a moment to adjust to the air that she would now need to breath and began her long swim in search of the rock cluster her orb had shown her.
    When she found it she took up a position where she would be hidden from the shore. She took out her glass bottle and cut into another finger. She gathered a bottle’s worth of blood and prayed that it would be enough. She capped the bottle with a small stone, which changed to fit as a cork once it touched the blood. She found a crevice in one of the large stones and hid the bottle with in. Just then she saw the group of soft skin making their way down the shore towards the water, Luna took out her Orb and concentrated on the task at hand. She pictured every soft skin she had ever seen and focused on the features that made both creatures so different. The skin, the legs, the color of the blood…She closed her eyes and smeared a thin layer of blood onto her orb, and then she dove into the water. Just beneath the waves Luna whispered, “Destiny be kind change me as you have divined,” there was a great flash of light and suddenly Luna was gasping for
air, she tried to bring herself up to the surface but the water kept sliding through her two legs with no effect, she kicked as hard as she could and thrashed her arms and then…. Air, glorious beautiful air filled her lungs and she took her first breath as a human. She reached out her arms and caught the stones that jutted from the water. In her attempt to stay afloat her Orb staff disappeared beneath the waves and buried itself into the wet soil. The Orb went dim and covered itself with leaves so that in now appeared as just another green plant growing in the bottom of the sea. The soft skins reached out the long pieces of wood at Luna and shouted to her in a strange tongue she had not yet learned. She grasped onto the piece and they dragged her into the wooden object that contained them all. When she felt she was safe Luna gave into the waves of darkness that had threatened to envelope her as soon as the transformation took hold.

                    Chapter three
    Luna awoke surrounded in softness. Her surroundings were dark but for a single light glowing peacefully in the corner. From the next room she could hear voices. It took a few minutes for Luna to remember just what was going on. She grasped for her Orb only to remember that it had been left in the sea where no harm could befall it. She hadn’t been sure weather the Orb could survive in the surface world and the risk was far too great. The last thing Luna wanted was to remain a soft skin forever and she knew that she needed both Orb and blood to change back.
    Luna took a moment to look around. She was lying in what felt like soft skins but the feel was different, some how less like it belonged to a creature then to a plant, she wondered how that could be , then she realized that she was also wearing the same material all around her. She suddenly realized that this was exactly how the soft skins change their colors. They wore garments, which only made sense when Luna thought about how much the sun had hurt her skin the first time she had been out in its unfiltered light.   
    She remembered how she saw the soft skins wandering around on the two appendages that now took the place of her tail. Luna threw off the fabric that covered her and swung her legs over the edge of the soft platform she had been laid upon. She took her first tentative step and nearly collapsed. Luna concentrated and tried to imagine how one of the soft skin walked. One appendage in front of the other. It was a matter of balance she decided as she tried the maneuver again. She’d managed to make it all the way across the room when suddenly a small furry long tailed creature jumped at her from the dark corner of the room,
    Frightened half to death Luna let out a scream, instantly the door was thrown open and three soft skins made their way inside. They looked frightened and confused until the smallest one of them picked up the furry creature and brought it over to where Luna had fallen. The small one came near to Luna and took hold of her hand, which was then placed upon the small creature as if to reassure her that the creature meant no harm.
    “Are you alright?” the tallest of them asked her. Luna only blinked in response. It took her several second to register the fact that she understood perfectly well what the strange soft one had said.
    “I-I’m fine… I think”
    “Well you gave us quite the scare!” the tall one said with relief clearly written on his face. “We had no idea what to make of you when we found you, clinging to that rocky island”
    “Naked!” one of the smaller ones exclaimed with a look of glee in his eye.
    “what-what is naked?’ she asked. The tall one gave her a strange look and walked over to her and helped her stand once more. He led her over to the sleeping platform and gestured for her to sit down. She did so with out resistance.
    “Naked is how we found you, with out clothing. Which leads me to question just how did you get out to the island with no boat or clothing? What happened to you? “
    “I’m not sure” she said softly. She thought for a moment on how much she should really reveal to this new species that she had discovered. There were so many mysteries.
She decided that the best way to learn was to feigning full ignorance. Which given her experience with the Soft skins wasn’t hard.
    “You must have had some accident or maybe a ship wreck.” He looked at her thoughtfully “My name is Darien; these are my children Sandree and Marcus.” He pointed to the two smaller ones.   
    “We know not where you came from or what be your name but you are welcome in my home as long as you have need.”
    “Thank you for your kindness” Luna replied looking directly into his eyes. “My name is Luna, but it’s all that I can remember,”
Darien held her gaze for a moment and then looked away; a sudden redness entered his cheeks that Luna had never seen before.
    “Get some rest,” He said as he ushered the children out of the room “Tomorrow will be a long day for all of us. I am glad to offer hospitality but there will be work to be done in the morning.”
    Luna nodded, she was aware that some how she could understand these people but some of the words they used were so unfamiliar to her. What was this ‘work’ that they spoke of and why were the children so much smaller then Darien? It was obvious that the three were closely nit as if forming their very own tiny tribe. This seemed silly to Luna, All of her people were one big tribe, there were no pairings or smaller groups that didn’t fit into the whole, and there were no separate dwellings. It was one huge community that shared all…Luna sighed and wondered just how long she would have to remain among the soft skins before she discovered the secrete that would save her people.