Wheeling Gull Isle Still you give yourself away

Maybe @Dinah, @Simeon or @Malakai?” Going to keep things vague since my previous thread on the Isle has stalled. Anyone on the Island is welcome. Other tags are for reference.

John hadn't been on the island long, and he didn’t plan on staying here, as much as he loved the crumbled island temple that was once Sweetharbor. The memories it brought back, some touchy, others joyful. That night, he found a place to rest, and he bedded down surrounded by the sea grass, the cool ocean breeze tickling his ears, the waves crashing on the sandy shore. 

When he slept, he dreamed, almost recollecting what had happened on his journey. He saw the face of @Boris, the quiet young man, @Esma, their conversation about religion, and last, the lovely, yet pale face of @Heda, when he said goodbye. To him, she was an angel, her dreamy figure brought a smile to his sleeping face.

Soon, he woke up to the call of seagulls, the gentle first rays of the sun, warming the earth. He stood, stretched his body and put his nose to the wind. There were more scents, familiar ones, so he set out that morning to find them.

Keeping this vague since what are timelines? Lol!!

So much had happened as of late, and Simeon still hadn't make sense of it all.

For a long time, he been on his own. Then, it had been him and Malakai. Now, Dee too - and Judah! As though back from the dead. Gramma still lingered on the Isle, and John - a connection back to mom, and maybe even Ava, Ana...

Family, being knit together - or so it should have been.

Simeon noticed how Malakai retreated, how Dee now planted herself at Judah's side where Kai used to be. Simeon bounced between them all, but the loss of dad, then Judah, then the Isle itself, had left them fissured, fractured.

He set out that morning to pray. A pillar in the early light, though frayed himself and broken at the edges. He'd dreamed of the day they would all come together again and make this place their home. But it seemed El Shaddai had other plans for them.

Always good, but still... why like this?

He sighed as lavender warmed the air around him.

He picked one scent, following it to its beginning. He crested the lavender hill and right before his eyes was the red figure of Simeon. John’s heart skipped a beat, and he would have flown to cover the distance between them, had Simeon not been praying. 

He quietly strode down the hill, and only when Simeon would end his prayer, did John look to him, a heartfelt look in his eyes: “Simeon. It is a blessing to see you. You have been missed, dearly. You are well?” 

Oh how he wished to embrace the young man, yet he was not the young lad that John had saved from the waves a year ago. He was a young man now.

Head bowed, his eyes remained open, surveying the coastline, remembering the sound of laughter in early days. Dad had watched them from up here. Mom, Everett, John. And each had sought to guide him, to teach him the right way.

The Isle had been his sanctuary and his family, his security.

You give and take away.

You give and take away.

Show me your ways, Lord, a whisper, a breath, teach me your paths.

Too often, he'd followed his own, or trailed after Dinah or mom or Kai. Saviours, in his eyes. The benchmark of whether or not he was doing okay.

They always pulled in different ways. That's what had gotten them separated to begin with, wasn't it?

He didn't linger long on those days anymore. Just long enough to wonder where he had set his own eyes through them all.

Guide me in your truth and teach me, he was ready to listen now, for you are God my Savior,

He recalled water, the splash of waves, the excited chatter of Dinah when she spoke of her baptism, the sure look of Kai.

He had not been ready then.

Simeon closed his eyes.

and my hope is in you, the breeze played along his wild fur, all day long.

Silence. And then, a voice.

Simeon blinked. John stood beside him, quiet and still, even in his searching. When had he come here? Bright eyes stung with a deep stirring in his heart at the look in John's own. 

John, he said, and his tongue felt heavy. It had been so long - ! I - I'm fine. I'm good. I'm doing okay. He glanced away, ears askew. I don't know. I... thought it would be easy, once everyone came back together, but, he paused, gazing over the land, nothing's the same anymore.

The young man spoke, his eyes bright, and John’s smile reached for his eyes. 

“I know, Simeon. I know. Yet you are alive, that is an answer to prayers.” He told the boy, oh how he had grown. “You are strong. Your mother would be proud.”

Simeon was right, though, in the fact that everything is different, no longer the same. And he thought of words to tell. “There is one thing that has not changed. That is God’s love. He has guided us, he guided me here, to you, the island.”

In his heart he hoped that Simeon would choose to return with him to Rivenwood. But, he was old enough to do what he wished, and to follow the path that the Father has set for him.

“Your brothers are here? Have they stayed? I encountered Judah, and Malakai. You all have grown, so much.”

John had never stopped praying. John had never forgotten him. He didn't say so forthright, but his words implied it.

An answer to prayer. 

Your mother would be proud.

Was she still around to see it? Why hadn't she come here herself? Maybe it was too much, to see this place again, like it seemed to be for Dinah. Maybe something worse. Tears stung his eyes at the thought of it. Was she still around to see it? He couldn't quite squeeze out the question.

He focused on God.

I know, Simeon said softly, and he remembered when Dinah had returned from the sea with dad, smiling, on her heels, and with trinkets and gifts and news of her new name: Dinah Marina. He remembered where he'd tucked the little piece of petrified wood she'd given him. Safe. Surrendered, on the night he'd descended into the Lion's Den after dad had died and Judah had disappeared.

No one but he knew what had happened down there. No one but he, and God.

I know He hasn't left me. Even when He was silent. Even when it felt like He took much more than He'd gave.

They're here. Dinah, too. And Grandma Towhee, but for how long? Distance had not mended the rift between Kai and Dee, and Simeon did not know if he could choose between either of them now, or if he even wanted to.

No. He knew that.

John, he had so many questions to ask him, so many queries, so much need for wisdom, guidance, direction, help. So much need for someone to lead him. His jaw set, trembled. Same old, same old, go running to the first ears to listen. John, now - but it couldn't be John. It couldn't be Malakai. Couldn't be Dinah. Couldn't be Judah, Gramma, or mom. Not first.

Can you... a long pause. The wind settled. Stillness. A gentle breath. I want to be baptized, then, with more resolve, I want you to baptize me. The thought of water crashing over his head, of fear, filling his lungs. I need this. I need Him, his leg quivered, I'm ready.

John saw the littler tears stinging Simeon’s eyes, and John felt it too. 

He listen, to all that Simeon had to say. His grandmother Towhee, who John had only met once, and not even formally, and what really surprised him was to heard Dinah’s name. He nodded in acknowledgment of what Simeon had been saying. He thought of how happy Heda would be to know of her children alive and well. But, his eyes widened, and not just because of who had come here, but because of what Simeon had requested. 

 “I want you to baptize me.” Is what Simeon had asked. To be baptized is a special moment, and he remembered back when his father baptized him, with his mother there to help dry his fur. Tears had trickled to the corners of John ocean eyes, and his words were gentle, filled with honor as he said “Of course. It would be an honor. We shall prepare you, we will pray. Do not let the fear take you, for this is a rite, to dedicate yourself to our Father, to the Son.”

John motioned for Simeon to come, and they would seek out the shore on this golden morning for the Baptism of a God revering boy.

To have mom and dad here. To have his siblings, too, as witnesses. But mom was far away - please not dead, please not dead! - and his siblings, so far in heart. He didn't know if Dinah kept the faith anymore. He didn't even know Judah at all. And if he only brought Kai -

John brought him back, gentle eyes and gentle voice, and Simeon nodded. I want to pray for everyone, too, he said as he fell in step with the preacher who'd saved him, once. Now, he barely knew how he'd been small enough for the man to drag him from the sea. For mom. Gramma. All of my siblings, Ava, Ana, Tzedeq, and Abel, too.

I am a little scared, a lot scared, mostly just of the water. But maybe that's okay. Because there were many things he was scared of, weren't there? Of losing his family, of leaving his homeland, of turning away from this place he thought he'd call forever. Of starting again.

I don't want my fear to keep me from doing what He's asking me to do.

Maybe this fear wasn't a bad place to be. 

Maybe in this moment, this tension in between, it was perfect.

What Simeon wanted, what he proposed to do, showed the Holy Spirit in his heart. Not that it hadn’t been there before, but it showed John those with pure hearts can withstand the waves, and even tsunamis, of life. 

“We will do that, Simeon. Before your baptism, we will pray for the family. We must also pray for your mother, her faith I believe is waning. She needs God’s guidance once more.” His face wore a small smile now, a hint of sadness, yet compassion in his gaze.

As they neared the shore, with its lapping waves, Simeon had admitted that he was only a little scared, and John understood. “I too, was afraid. And that’s is okay. But you are strong, strong in faith as much as in body.”

And there they were, standing between sand and surf, the water was calm, the morning sun bright. John sat by the water’s edge, asking Simeon to sit beside him. There, they would pray, and John would place his paw on Simeon’s. Before John bowed his head, and closed his eyes, he asked “Would you like to start the prayer?”