Stavanger Bay you’ll be in my heart

[makes up a fish species]

[table width=65%][tr][td]

The Leviathan observed with pride as Julep learned to navigate the uneven terrain, making no comment as she slipped and emitted a little gasp of trepidation. He would not coddle her — she was a Cairn, and she did not require it. “You are,” he affirmed in his sonorous bass timbre when she declared herself a fighter, a toothy grin breaking through his characteristically somber mien. Though he did not love Qilaq and Isengrim less than Julep, the ginger-laced girl with her telltale stripes and fierce yellow eyes was more definitely his than any of her siblings — even those that had perished. He could look at his little girl and point to things and say, “I gave you this; and this, your mother gave you.” It filled him with a deep-seated satisfaction.

He watched with keen enjoyment as Julep’s eyes marked the disappearing shadow of a fish, flashing silver as it winked away. He’d seen it, too, and said so: “They are quick,” he explained. “If you let your shadow fall across the water, they will see you.” He peered down into the pool himself, marking its mossy sides and distinct lack of sea urchins. “Dip your paw in here, like this,” he told the tiny tiger shark, sweeping his paw below surface. “Feel the water push against you. You must build up strength to scoop the fish out of the water.” She was too small to plunge her head into the pool and snap up her prey, but the idea of scooping up her own food wasn’t completely out of the realm of possibility. He would show her how to forage, too — how to crack open sea urchins and mussels and crabs to get to the sweet meat inside. His children would never go hungry as long as they stayed close to the Sea.

When he judged she was accustomed to the feel of the water, he moved on to the next tidepool. This one was shallower, kinder to her still lengthening limbs, and within the water were several juvenile sleepers — blimp-like, brown-scaled fish who took refuge in the pools during low tide, using natural camouflage to keep hidden. Another scan revealed no threats to his girl’s wellbeing, so he crouched at the edge of the pool and motioned for her to do the same. “What do you see, Julep?” he asked her quietly.

[/td][/tr][/table]

---

[table width=65%][tr][td]

Even after the fishing lesson had finished, Szymon found himself loathe to return to the den. Alongside the Sea they worshiped and feared with equal measure, the black-banded Leviathan and his red-ringed daughter romped and played, gamboling in the sand and harassing various sea creatures. He showed her — through succulent, abundant example — which of these were edible and which were not, and cautioned her about sea urchins, eels, and other predators. With Szymon it was always a mix of seriousness and play; he was not a lighthearted creature. He spoke to her of her spirit guide and the history that lived in her blood — of Warsaw and the Cairns she had not met — and only when his throat was hoarse and their bellies were full did he return home with his little girl, grooming and singing her into an exhausted slumber.

[/td][/tr][/table]