The seventh wave rolled towards them, swelling larger than those before. Just as she said it would. She pointed a diagonal path destined to catch the wave as it crested and then shouted for Briar to start swimming. She began stroking efficiently towards the shore and flanked him. She grinned over her shoulder as she passed and with a laugh urged him to go faster. His form was already improving and he made good time. She had given him enough of a start that he would catch this one with her.
        Having reached the perfect spot for catching the wave she stopped for a moment to gage the speed and distance of the wave to their position. They had a quick moment to review. Briar came up on her side and she nodded. ''Like before, Kick hard to stay in front of it, then when it lifts you let it take you but stay low this time. Keep your head up. Arms out to guide, belly tight and body stiff. Ready?'' She could not help but smile reassuringly when he nodded, his face was marked with intense concentration and a small vein of nervousness. ''You�ll do well, Briar. Stay with me. Now kick!'' She turned began to quickly swim towards shore and he was right beside her matching her stroke for stroke when the swell of the wave reached them.
        This time, unlike the others before, he kept low on the wave and followed her sweeping line that angled across the face of the wave as it curled in and crashed behind them. He felt the churning roar of power behind and under him and let out an exuberant whoop as he found the balance that kept him skimming right in front of it. She heard his shout and laughed as they rode the wave in.
        When they got to a point where the propulsion of the wave ebbed on the shore Briar jumped up and yipped and howled in triumph.. and ran through the water to tackle her in his excitement. ''Mother, I did it! I rode waves!!!'' She fell into the water laughing and hugging him close. ''That�s my cub! I knew you could!''
        He scrambled up to go running up and down the shallow waters leaping over the small waves that came in. When he came close she whipped a strand of kelp at the water spraying him and he splashed her in return. She growled, threw the kelp at him and began a chase through the water. He ran, swinging the kelp over his head like a sling, yipping, taunting and hollering various nonsensical phrases. Mostly badly butchered insults and curses. A few so mangled that they even made her stagger or stop in her chase as laughter overtook her despite the crass words. As soon as she recovered she kept up the pursuit. He turned and ran towards the waves leaping over the smaller ones and diving over the waist high ones.
        ''Again! Lets go ride again mother!'' he called over his shoulder as he began to swim out into the deeper water. She smiled and ran to dive into the face of a small wave on her way out to the deeper water as she followed.. He swam further out and she couldn�t seem to get past the lazy push of the smaller waves. But the more she swam it seemed like her strength was flagging.
        Soon he swam out so far that she could no longer see him. She called out to him and tried to ignore the growing fatigue and push herself out further to where she had seen him swimming. But the waves began to work together to easily push her back. She still kept on even as she began to struggle for breath and her limbs dragged. Her faulty vision blacked out at some point and the world tilted and changed somehow. When her vision cleared she was on the shore watching Briar ride another wave in.
        Reaching the shallow waters he stood and walked towards where she was. And as he waded out of the water he changed before her eyes. Every step he aged years at a time and grew. When he reached her, he was a young man in his prime, of solid build and more rugged angular features than the thin boy of nine years that she had just been playing with. She moved to push herself up but was slow and clumsy at it. He bent on one knee and easily picked her up from the wet sand.
        ''Mother.. ? You are sick. Stay here with me. I will hunt for you.''
        She looked up into his hazel eyes and shook her head slowly. His hard lean face now etched with worry where only moments before so more innocent and filled with carefree laughter. ''My heart, I can�t. . . I don�t belong here. I have to go away soon.''
        He held her closer against himself ''Don�t go. Stay. Your pack needs you. Flame needs you. She�s sick. I need you.''
        She sighed and leaned her head against his chest, drawing her eyes closed for a brief moment ''I know, cub. I know. But I�m not here . . . I can only-''
        ''I�ll come. ''
        ''No. Where I go, I go alone.''
        ''I�ll fight. I�ll kill those that have you. I�m strong.'' He insisted.
        ''Shhhh, my cub. Just hold me here as Dreamspirit as long as you can. Be strong for me, Briar. Watch over Flame.''
        The water began to sizzle and steam around them.
        She shuddered and clutched onto him. He whimpered softly and held her close, moving his head to nuzzle her tenderly even as the world around them began to change. She opened her eyes and Briar was gone. She stood alone on the edge of a familiar yet alien Dreamscape.
        The sea had boiled and evaporated in the rush of dreamtime. Leaving curled withered kelp fields and bloated husks of dead sea creatures. The stark lifeless seascape sweltered silently under the unforgiving sun. Now the cliffs of Quickning beach presided over an entirely different terrain. The water that used to relentlessly crash at the foot of the cliffs was gone.. From the canyons below rose a thick hot cloying mist that when breathed in, choked her. It hurt to breathe but there was no getting away from the gasses that where now part of the air. There was the sound of muffled voice, a click and then clack.. the slow sound of a key being forced to turn through the tumblers of a lock. The sun cracked and then plummeted from the sky to fall into a far off misty canyon. All went black. She was back in her body.
        Her eyes began to sting without the moisture of tears. Her head no longer pulsed like someone drumming on china, it had gone numb around the edges. A strange sensation and something she wondered about in detached fascination as her mind would drift off to the dreamscape. But her breath came in pained rasps through her sandpaper throat. And with each constriction of breath moving through it there was a promise to close for good. And if it did, she would welcome it. As she did whenever her mind returned to the state of her body now slowly dying of thirst.
        She knew it wouldn�t be long before her body gave out. It had been far too long. She had been put in a box and forgotten. The voices in her mind had even shut up and left her alone in her black tomb.
        The closet they kept her in allowed no light to pass and even seemed to suck the sounds from the air around her. She couldn�t tell how long she had been left there. It was three days. Four? Maybe longer. Bound and fettered to the inside wall she could not move from her knees. The collar at her neck was a attached to a rod anchored to the wall. She could not sink to curl up on the floor but neither could she lean back against the wall for support.
        After two days the Warder set a plate of food before her but well out of her reach. He left without releasing her. She thought the smell of the food would drive her mad, hungry as she was. He did return a day later and fed her. Making her eat out of his hand. She devoured what was on the plate and then suddenly she realized with that there was nothing to drink. ''Drink.. I need something.. water to drink'' He grinned in the murky darkness as he sat back and watched her. Slowly he stood and stepped back towards the door. In the back of her throat she made a small sound and moved against her bindings realizing that he was leaving again. ''Please.. just water.. I need-''
        ''You need to learn to live without it'' He moved out of the closet and closed the door on her. Letting the darkness feed on her again for more than a day. And so, little by little the space around her sucked every bit of moisture from her sweat, breath and tears. Till she felt like it was hot sand that burned in her veins and her breath was acrid fumes and ash from a kiln.
        Her eyes were stabbed by the sharp brilliance of the door opening. The burning light made her cringe and attempt to turn away. She instinctively moved to bring up her hand to shield her eyes but was then reminded by the dull ache behind her back that even the arm that ended in a metal cuffed stump was secured behind her. After a prolonged silence she tried to open her eyes and squint towards the light before her. The form she saw there was the black silhouette of the Warder in the back drop of glowing daylight.
        He did not stand at the threshold of the door but back from it by a handful of paces. Still she could see him well and the Bane blade he held. She almost sagged in relief as she imagined her release from the tortures of her body that the Bane blade would deliver. So be it. Let it end.
        ''Yes, very good. Look on the instrument of your release.''
        The blade�s murky gray surface glimmered and in a flash, a ripple of blue energy was chased by a shimmer of gold. The surface of the sword was calm again for a heavy moment but then began to gradually change. A misty sheen began to form, and as the condensation progressed the sheen became minuscule beads of water. The beads of water started to coalesce into larger forms and begin to slide off into each other until as a thin trail of moisture it reached the edge of the blade and became a pregnant drop of water. That drop slid along the edge to the glistening tip of the bane-blade and waited there.
        The manacles and collar suddenly went slack and released her from their hold. She fell forward at first but lifted her eyes again transfixed by glistening drop of water.
        The Warder �s lips curled in a cool smirk, ''Come on your knees and drink, Mongrel.''
        An inner voice that seemed to have abandon her spoke once again: ~~~ Whatever it takes. Crawl if you must but you will live through this. You made a promise. ~~~
        And so she did force herself to crawl out of the shed she was kept in, towards the blade promised to relieve her present torture. So focused was she on the source of water before her that she did not see the entire area surrounded by the other Lyeazic of the Caste as they watched her crawl on her knees to the Warder.
        Once she reached a trembling hand and leaned forward to drink from the tip of the blade he quickly jerked the blade back away from her. The crowd cheered, jeered and taunted but was cut off as the Warder raised a hand. He looked down on her tilting his head as he watched her waver miserably on her knees. He spoke softly and soothingly as he lifted it towards her lips again. ''Just one thing. To touch my blade is to accept your place as a member of the caste. I will be your guardian, your teacher your master. Accept your place.. and I will see you attain it.''
        She looked from the water wanting to drip from the blade to the Warder.
        ~~~ Swallow it. Endure it. Survive it. ~~~
        She shivered and drew her hand up to bring the blade to her lips. She heard herself whimper softly as she tasted the crisp purity of the water.
        When he felt she had drank enough he stepped back despite a her protest.
        ''Now, the first thing you will learn is that your first weapon is your body. And like every good weapon it must be tempered.'' He offered nothing else as he walked away. She began to struggle to her feet, to rise and go after him.
        That is, until the rest of the Caste cut her off and descended upon her. This time, for her �tempering� they had no qualms about beating her down, into her place.

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''The Price of Water'' Copyright � 1999 Angelina Greenwood