Loch Song

Of all moments in the day, the young woman on the bank thought this to be the most beautiful. Sunset on the Loch. The colors of the sky reenacting one last battle of the day. They faced off with their own reflections, fighting and then making peace before dying slowly, ushering in the night.

It had rained earlier in the day, but now the sky was clear. Lingering still were the smell in the air and the dampness of the dirt underneath her. But Valerie was so entranced by the sunset display that she did not even notice the moisture seeping through the bottom of her jeans. She dug her bare feet into the soft dirt and giggled. The moon was already breaking through the top of the mountains and she could feel the warm tingle of its energy over her visible skin. A cool breeze blew in from the lake, bathing her in the relaxing scent of fresh water.

“Well, Miss Connor. Ya aren't still searchin' fer Nessie, are ya?”

Valerie had been expecting the old man and she raised her eyes from the lake to his shambling form. Edward had been a consistent staple of her annual trips to Loch Ness from the very first vacation. He'd somehow found her tent at a place where she thought she wouldn't be bothered. He had probably a good thirty years on her and he was good company for the short time that he spent with her on the bank. His eyes smiled at her even though his mouth had difficulty living up to emotions.

That night had also been the first that she'd been privy to the Song. It had drifted out from the lake itself as if sung by the very waters. That mysterious song was present now, as it had been for the five years that she had been coming here. It was dim, but real, growing louder as  the moon slowly began its ascent.

Valerie nodded her response to the old man. “It just keeps calling me back.”

Ed laughed and it was a full throated thing, alive and strong. It always made her wish that she'd had a relative like this man when she was growing up. An uncle, maybe, or even a father. Valerie would have traded her oft disappearing Mother for an intelligent, strong, kind man like Ed.

“Five years, maybe it's time ta find a home.” Ed said in his thick, Scottish brogue.

With the moon rising, the tingle she'd felt before evolved into a gentle burn over her face and neck, the only areas exposed to the night air. Ed was not the first to propose the move and Valerie was sure that before the night was over, he would not be the last. 

Valerie stared out over the lake with its alternate moon shimmering above the mirrored mountains. “Maybe I will, Ed. Maybe I will.”

“Yeh be careful out here. Ya never know what'll happen.” Ed patted Valerie's back gently and there was something in the positioning of his hand in the curve that gave her the feeling he knew more than she had previously thought. His hand landed exactly where the mark was under her clothes and a following twitch of his eyes to the lake clarified that he did somehow know. The young woman smiled and nodded.
         
Valerie waited until she was sure that Ed was gone before slipping her light blue jacket down her arms. She tossed it into the scrawny tent and gave one obligatory look around to make sure that she was indeed completely alone on the bank. Her shirt came over her head and went the way of the jacket.

The moonlight burned over her back and the scars on it in a silver bath. Valerie quickly shed the rest of her clothes and grabbed a large, heavy bag of supplies. She heaved the bag down and into the water as change began to itch over her back. With the help of the water, the bag came a little farther into the lake before she abandoned it to dive into the cool water. Once submerged, the change flowed smooth and fast, taking over with minimal ache from times past.

Valerie curved back to the surface and hooked one strap of the once too large sack around her elongated neck. It came along easily behind her, adding no strain at all. As Valerie glided through the cold water, a half-forgotten fear came to her.

Being human, the water stretching out as far as her blurred vision could make out.

Visions of sharks and other monsters suddenly appearing without warning, sending her heart into a pace so quick, she thought it to burst.

Gasping, drinking in the water around her in search for an escape. In search of air that could not be found.

As soon as the old fear surfaced, it was gone, replaced with the secure knowledge that she was safe in this lake, her size rivaling anything other than her own kind. The waters around her echoed with the Song, making her remember the sight of one long neck after another leaving the water and shifting from prehistoric creatures of myth to familiar form. Valerie had went to them, asking of the Song as if in a dream.

Now, she followed the tune like a beacon through the water to the opening. There was another large creature like herself guarding it and as she neared, he bowed his strange head to her. The entrance to the caverns was large to give room to any others that had more size to them. Valerie swam through a long tunnel that opened into one of the massive caves. 

Her head broke through the surface and Valerie gasped for much needed air. Having lungs instead of gills was a difficulty, but not too hard to overcome. The song bounced around in the underground cave and Valerie opened her mouth to add her own special voice to it. She swam up to the bank, where she was greeted by a man and a woman.

The man took the strap and began dragging it away as she began changing back. The air in the cave was cold and Valerie gratefully accepted the long blanket that the woman offered.

“Back again, are ya?” Sean was a Shoche male about Valerie's age. He walked up to her and when he got close enough, he pulled her into a tight hug.

Valerie laughed into the embrace. “I probably wouldn't have been back if you'd just let me go that first time. But you had to involve me.”

“Hearing the Song means you belong here. With us.” An old man with a thick gray beard stepped up to them and Valerie hugged him as well. “It's unfortunate that you were not born with the rest of the clan.”

Valerie patted his arms when they parted. “You have no idea how much I wish I had been, King Shochen. Now that I know the joys of the Loch.”

King Shochen smiled and bared his worn down teeth. “Spoken like a true Shochen.” He looked at Sean and leaned in close to Valerie. “You know, my Son has less and less time to look for a bride.”

Valerie watched Sean's face turn several shades before settling on red, bright as a tomato. But she felt her own face heat, also, against wish.

“Father,” he said, pleadingly.

“Nonsense, I'm getting closer to the end and I would like to know that the Shochen are being cared for by both incarnations of the Gods. Duality ensures happiness, Sean.”

Valerie dropped gaze to the stone floor at the edge that she'd almost fallen that first time.

~ ~ ~

Upon waking, then, Valerie's mind had held only one word, repeated over and over until muddled conscious could make sense.

Flee.

She had woken alone on a hard bed in what appeared to be a house made of solid rock. Like a frightened animal who'd ventured into a predator's territory, Valerie ran. She ran away from the stone city that surrounded her, but she had to stop before she fell into the pool that closed off the only exit she saw. If Valerie had been a different person, she just might have dove into that dark water and tried her luck at escape from her captors. But, her odds were closer to drowning, so she stumbled to a halt before the very edge that she stood at, now.

Valerie turned to face her pursuers, led by Sean. She let her head fall in defeat and she saw that she was not wearing a shirt, a fact that she'd missed in her run. Valerie covered her chest with her arms and waited. The skin of her lower back burned and she wondered what they could have done to her. What they were going to do.

Sean tried to explain, but it was all so ludicrous. Impossible. But then one of the girls suddenly stripped out of her clothes in front of everyone and stepped beneath a silver beam of light that fell through circular break in the top of the cavern. She turned her back on Valerie and stood with arms outstretched.

Thick scars formed the outline of a finned creature with a long neck in the lower curve of her back.  Her skin turned gray-green and then her body began molding like clay under an artist's hand. The girl flopped into the pool behind Valerie and when she reappeared, it was the head and neck of a creature rumored to be extinct. Her mouth opened into the Song and Valerie's head grew light with the sound.

She reached around to touch her stinging lower back and there was a small stab of pain as her hand pressed to one of the cuts. It was wet and when she pulled her hand back, her fingers were smeared with fresh blood. Valerie swayed on her feet before falling forward.

~ ~ ~

“Still in there?” Sean asked and Valerie nodded, raising her head to look at him.

“Present and accounted for.”

Sean smiled and it was so bright that Valerie had to drop her eyes. “Father's changing now to lead the pod into the Loch. While ya were driftin', he wanted to know if yeh'd made a decision yet about stayin' with the Clan.”

Valerie searched her mind for a reason not to, but all of them had been destroyed. By her fiancee, by her boss, by the death of anyone and everyone she could have called blood. The song began again from the pool and Valerie looked to find two large green eyes staring at her from an almost alien face. The Song sent a chill over her that was not from the cold, underground air. Valerie shivered and Sean touched her arm through the blanket she huddled under, bringing her attention back to him.

“If it helps any, I want you to stay.” His eyes were the same green as the rest of the clan, an effect of the Shoche blood flowing in their veins from the mark. And now within her own.

Valerie smiled and moved closer to Sean. She opened the blanket and wrapped it around him, enveloping them both. Her naked body pressed against his clothed one and she nodded.

“I am Shochen.” She said and the Song grew louder as more of the clan had changed.

Valerie rose onto her toes and kissed Sean. Electric heat flowed through her body and he slipped his hands around to her back under the blanket, pulling her tighter to himself. Sean moved them both back and when they were under the Moon Well, he slipped out of his clothing. Valerie dropped the blanket and reached around to touch the rough scars on his back, much older than the ones on her own. Fire burned over their skin as the shift began. The others had left and they slipped into the pool. Valerie entered the tunnel first, knowing he was close behind.

For the rest of the night, the lake was a playground for creatures that should not exist. And the air rang with the smooth Song of the Loch.


A/N: If I had to name a favorite among any story I've ever written....I don't think I could. BUT, this would definitely be near the top.

Original form as posted at FictionPress in 2012.