The Abysmal Plane

Swirling around him, clumsily on unfamiliar fins, the creature that had been a two-legged drysider seemed to be having trouble keeping afloat. The dolphin did not understand what it meant – he knew that it had been, and it now was, but how it had come to be was a mystery.

It sank in the water, almost like under a death thrall if not for how it thrashed. Gently, Ecco swam underneath and nudged it back up to the dryside, where it gasped for air. Sinking down, he waited until it floundered, then floated it up again.

Before long, it was able to support itself in the water, though clumsily. More, it had started to sing.

oO0Oo

What she had wanted to say was, "Now what, Doctor Know-All?"

What came out was a strange abrasive sound from deep in her new throat. Frustrated, she tried to shout an obscenity, but it only came out as a dry clicking. Frustrated, the human-girl-turned-tabloid-sea-monster screamed, sinking below the water in the effort.

"Relax," the old man said. Although the sound he made was more of a deep-in-the-throat squeal, she understood it as Relax, and was even more perplexed; she couldn't even understand her own voice.

The dolphin nudged her up again, and she seethed. Not only was this bizarre beyond comparison, she wouldn't even be able to publish the story when ... if, she got home. No one would believe her if she tried, and it would thoroughly ruin her credibility.

And that brought to mind the if that considered she would live the remainder of her life as a human, rather than a slick, slippery, furred fish-man.

"Long ago, the people of Atlantis prayed to a being they believed was the progenitor of life. While throughout their study it never responded to them, they discovered it seemed to influence future events."

"One of the answers to their prayers was the ability to become another form of life... They called the catalyst Metasphere, and used it to walk among humans and swim with the cetaceans, that the sentient life of Earth might come together in peace and prosperity."

"How…?"

"I will answer questions to your heart's content once we're in a safer place. First, I need you to talk to the dolphin there for me."

"You're joking…"

oO0Oo

Ecco listened with interest. The songs sounded like a variant of dolphin, but garbled beyond recognition.

They are, he lamented, only drylanders.

The dolphin stopped listening, and tried mimicking the new sounds. Finding them unpronounceable in his voice, he measured the closest he could. He thought for a moment, taking a breath and sinking to ponder. He listened again, mentally overlapping his sound to the unfamiliar. It compensated for the difference better than he expected, and he was surprised to hear true expression in the song. He couldn't understand every little nuance, but he understood a little, and that fascinated him.

He discovered the one was addressing him, and listened a bit closer as it twittered. It was an excitable thing, garbling its sounds as it went on about things he failed to understand.

"Maybe if you sang a little slower," Ecco suggested, helping the thing up to get another frustrated gasp of air.

"Listen, he heard, "KeySong." "Single ... out."

It repeated a series of trills that were unfamiliar to him... and again.

oO0Oo

"It's not working!"

Her squeal broke the stale air above. She clung to the dolphin as he held her aloft, and panted in frustration. If it had been in her heart to be thankful for the air she always took for granted, it was buried deep under the anger and loathing of the dolphin; the other tabloid sea monster; and her own mind, which was taking it all quite well without asking her. She did not think that she could afford a psychotic break right now, but failed to realize that it was probably the best thing to happen given everything else that already had. When she got her head back underwater, she found that the whining and clicking noises were actually chatter.

The old man – or old sea creature – went on about how she had to get the dolphin to understand, never she mind if she actually understood or not, and that it was imperative if they were to ever get out of this particular pool. He said as much in a grandfatherly way that she was beginning to despise.

...And to complicate matters, the dolphin was introducing himself. Which, she thought, she should have expected.

oO0Oo

"No, no, listen," the little thing repeated its name, and Ecco repeated after.

The other drylander sang, the one that did not seem able to understand him and whose name the first had simply relayed as click. Click seemed patiently impatient about something, but Ecco could not understand his twitterings nearly as well as the first.

"R'ruee," he rolled the sound, and pushed it up for air.

"Yes, look, forget it, it doesn't matter!" it squealed, "There's a passage underwater and a guardian and you need to-" it trilled an unfamiliar series of nonsense, and was up for air again.

He thought about it, and there was a passage underwater. He did not know about the rest, but the first...? "Yes."

"...what?"

"How long can you hold your breath?"

"I don't know," R'ruee replied, tentative, "Not long." As if it suddenly occurred to her, she floundered and sank, squealing, "I can't swim!"

oO0Oo

"Maybe you should try it, rather than thrashing about like that," the oceanographer insisted.

"Yeah? And you know how long I can hold my breath, too, I bet!"

"I've been down here, he further pointed out, "since you started trying to pronounce your name with a sonic pulse."

oO0Oo

Ecco wondered, as he listened, why the silver creature did not see fit to speak to him directly. If one could, why not both?

He pondered over whether it would have something to do with status, but his favored guess was that, somehow, Click did not understand him the way R'ruee did. Then he wondered why.

"There is a passageway," the young one relayed, "We have to go down it, and we need your help to get us out of here."

Fair, the dolphin thought.

"Breath deep and hold on," he said, "There's a strong current."

With a surface for his breath, Ecco dove deep. R'ruee was clinging to his dorsal fin, which was slightly hindering to his grace, though not to his speed. Click trailed behind, the more experienced of the two, or so it seemed; it swam in the dolphin's wake.

The light was still there, and he fought to remain as the pressure pushed him back. The two drylanders twittered, one after the other... the repeating pattern, and again and again. The light bobbed and twinkled and kept them from going further.

The riddle tickled his mind, swelling to a most coherent thought. In a burst of insight, he understood, and followed the pattern with his own voice.

The light shattered.

Beyond, the current struck and changed, whirling about chaotically. Ecco was drawn along passages of stone, and went trustingly but without much choice. The stream slowed to the softness of the restless ocean, and the dolphin paused for thought. His echo relayed more angles of stone, and the water's surface... and kin, perhaps, of his drylander acquaintances in the distance.

oO0Oo

The woman-turned-monster scrambled over the dolphin's nose for a gasp of air, and floundered when he disappeared beneath her. She did not have the freedom to be annoyed as her companion floated on his back, otter-like, under the dim light of the sky some distance above. Instead, she fought to maintain her buoyancy.

"You should try to practice. No telling how long we'll be like this," the old man clicked and surfaced to relax for another moment.

She sank, squealing irritable nothings. All around were open passages and stone, and the dying light above. She managed to surface on her own merit, for a meager gulp of air that went less into her lungs and more into her belly. She sank again, and, seeing motion, scrambled about in fear of being left behind.

But what was there, in the pristine waterways of Atlantis...

It was like her, as she was now... but it swam blindly, fur smeared in inky blackness that oozed off as it moved. Its eyes were shut, dark tears trailed its face, and its mouth hung limply open. It stopped, floating where it was, and convulsed.

She cried out – for it, for help, perhaps, for horror – and its eyes opened, dark and dead. It rushed at her as she bobbed, helpless in the water.