Elemental

For millennia, few legends arouse human ambition like the fountain of youth. Countless adventurers and explorers have given their lives in the pursuit of two little questions:

“What and where could it possibly be?”

They laughed at me when I told them that I had a vision of the truth, but I left them with a smile on my face. Why? Because I happen to know that we have not failed, we have simply been asking the wrong questions. What if the fountain is not what we have all imagined, but is instead even more mysterious than our wandering minds alone could conjure.

Laugh as you see fit, but I have seen for myself that truth is often stranger than fiction.

-Professor Alexus T. Ravenscroft

Not long before dawn, and yet again I am painfully awake.

So silent is it here that it keeps me from sleep. I can smell the sea, and feel it perhaps…but there is barely a sound. I don’t even know why I try…I can never sleep on a full moon… Period.

I open my eyes slowly and climb out of bed, pulling the thin gray robe around my shoulders that I had folded neatly on my nightstand. I cross the room to the large glass doors that lead out into the garden, standing open in the night. I wait there for a breath or two, still shaking the sleep from my eyes.

This pale and eerie moonlight illuminates everything, bringing the world to life in a dark and unspoken form that quickens my pulse and haunts me with its pure beauty no matter how many months pass me by. Just outside the door the old cherry tree is in full bloom, almost arrogant in its splendor. As if hearing my thoughts it sends the occasional blossom floating down to rest on damp earth, already covered in white pedals like a fine layer of snow. It sits in the center of a large garden with white stone walkways that spiral outward from the trunk and disappear into the shadows.

Tonight it will happen… I am certain of it. Everything is just right. The air, the stars… the energy… everything.

Finally I walk out into the open air and the smell of Jasmine hits me like a tidal wave. Start down the little stone path that leads down towards the sea, I can see moonlight flickering through oak branches just beyond the edge of the garden. I pass the old fountain choked with long strands of ivy… curling between the weathered stone statues who stand with arms wide, expressions of concern still etched upon their faces. I pull my robe tighter around my shoulders as I walk, occasionally pausing to listen to the sounds of the night.

I follow the path around the edge of the garden and out beneath a lattice archway that must have held a gate somewhere in the distant past, now replaced by a mass of vines that bear yellow, cup shaped flowers, hanging like a curtain over the aging gateway. I brushed through the leaves and felt a shower of dew fall around my head and down my neck sending chills up my spine.

Pause to look down at the sea from the edge of a slope, where the trail makes a sharp turn beyond the gate and leads down to the sand and the sea beyond. The full moon dances over the waters in a pale white stream leading off into the horizon.

Still not a breath of wind, but the night is alive;

It all comes together so perfectly, just like I knew that it would. All this time, the months of preparation and study, the hard work. All of it has been to assure the outcome of this very night.

I stow my excitement and start down the path once more, brushing my hand over tall grass that grows from the path, down a sharp slope and almost to the beach itself. My feet carry me down a short distance and in a moment the walkway widens out as it reaches the sandy shore, revealing a large and familiar stone plateau perhaps 10 meters across, nestled against the hillside above the sand. It may once have had walls judging from the dozens of large rocks piled neatly round the edges, but it was impossible to say for sure.

I know this place well. In the center of the circle stands a large stone slab about waist high, the edges worn to smooth curves after centuries of abuse by steady wind and sand. It must have been used as an altar, a throne of some sort, yet it is large enough to accommodate several men lying lengthwise.

I step to the edge of the circle, pulling my robe closer and staring out across the bay. On the beach ahead there is a strip of black pebbles that mixes with white sand, forming a little pathway that stretches from the edge of the circle and across the beach before disappearing beneath the black sea. There is no way to tell what this “road” was really intended for when it was created several thousand years ago, but I assure you…I have a very promising theory. There are several similar examples located world wide, strips of black gravel that seem to run down to the earths crust and many miles long. It was this very spot that motivated me to purchase this property when the previous owner passed away.

I take another deep breath and peer out into the night. No clouds… The moon is huge now, bloated and yellowing overhead. It casts that ghostly light down on these shallow waters and sets them aglow with a silver blue that is not describable in words…My heartbeat quickens ever so slightly, and I wait. I look up at the night sky once more, so bright I cannot make out the planets beyond.

No matter. My calculations have been checked and re-checked until my eyelids turned to led. I still see the symbols that line the edge of the stone circle, occasionally clearing the sand away with my bare foot to make sure of their consistency.

I hear it then, like a long whisper, barely audible. A slight breeze washes over grass and up through the trees behind me. I dare not breathe, straining to hear anything above my heartbeat. I keep my eyes on the water as if transfixed. Another breeze, stronger now, rippling across the bay and touches my skin… warm…impossibly warm. The hairs stand on the back of my neck:

It is coming…There is no stopping it now.

I feel panic rising in me for a moment, but it is quickly crushed by the sheer weight of my curiosity.

Think not of the danger, but of the rewards! Is this not what you are living for?

In an instant the wind stops and the sound dies away, leaving an eerie stillness. I begin to wonder if something went wrong; when a deep rumble sounds somewhere out in the bay. Barely audible at first, then growing louder until it begins to drown out the pounding of my heart. For a moment I could swear I see a disturbance in the water, barely discernable, but there nonetheless. I could see it churning and bubbling around the reflection as if the moonlight were boiling the sea where it touched. It moved along the silver line of lunar light, getting visibly closer to the shore now.

I try not to tremble…but in my horror I glimpse the form of something dark and massive thrashing beneath the waters surface, but nothing emerges…. only this patch of boiling water moving closer and closer to the shore.

My heart jumps as all at once, it seems as though the entire world has fallen silent and still. I cannot breathe, my eyes grow wide and I shudder at what they behold.

By the Gods…It’s coming! I knew it; by the Gods I was right all along…

I check everything frantically, one final time and take my place at the entrance to the circle where I am easily visible. I hear a splash in the shallows and turn to gaze upon this apparition for the first time.

As if climbing out of the underworld itself, she rises from the water, standing slowly. Skin as pale as the moon which brought her forth, and much more petite than the commotion would have suggested; I could have mistaken her for a child with distance lying between us.

A Woman? Or some devil… come to punish me for meddling in divine affairs…

She stands there with her head back with water running from her hair and down her back and her tiny breasts, capturing the light as it falls. Then as if sensing my presence she lowers her head and her eyes open to stare directly into my soul..

My first urge is to run. I fight to hold my place, raising one arm above my head and muttering an incantation, retrieved from another piece of parchment found within the forgotten places of history.

In other words, I have no Idea what I am doing.

By some miracle I stay put, I can feel her eyes upon me…what is it thinking? Or could it think in the first place? Again as if hearing my thoughts, she raises one foot and steppes onto the black pebble path. She is a little shaky, moving carefully on the black stones as if one step beyond the confines of the path would result in something undesirable. She stands for another moment looking up at me, and begins walk towards the circle where I stood helpless, moving slowly and with great purpose.

What am I seeing here: Is this the wrong temple? Is one of the symbols too damaged or worn to function properly? Or maybe the Gods are simply angry with a poor fool who is dabbling in things he does not understand. I swallow more panic, and again the voice in my head shouts at me to be reasonable:

You have no Idea what you’re getting into…that thing could kill you…or worse. In fact, it probably will, and you’ll have no one to blame but yourself. It is plain to see that this is anything but the fountain of youth…

Perhaps… but I have conjured SOMETHING here tonight, and I cannot leave here without knowing what it is.

I ignore the voice and open my arms in an inviting gesture and wait. She moves with an otherworldly grace, her dark hair held back perfectly by the water, it shines almost white in the moon’s glare. Her face is somewhat elfin, composed of angles and delicate curves…her eyes are closed as she walks. A tiny breath of wind brushes by when she reaches the edge of the circle, and she opens her eyes and stares up at me. I am unable to move, transfixed by an alien gaze that shows no hint of any familiar emotion. Eyes of pure silver, with dark blue lines stretching out from her pupils like the spokes of a wheel.

I know then, without any doubt, that this being that stands before me is not human.

She is waiting for something… something keeps her from entering…and I think know exactly what it is. I walk backwards into the center of the circle, slowly, carefully…making sure not to lose eye contact with this vision of the night, as chilling as her stare may be. I bumped into hard stone behind me and let the robe fall from my shoulders and onto the altar.

There I stood, naked and trying to remain calm.

She begins to move. Cocking her head in a gesture of what must be curiosity and walking softly to the center of the circle to stand only inches in front of me…stark naked and still wet from the sea. I know what I must do.