Songs of the Sea
Author:© WebNovel
Chapter 1
1
Sartin’s little body could not contain his excitement. Today was the day he would join the others in his year at Winter Beach and begin life lessons.
When the pod left Home Cove, his mother, Ballard, explained to him all along the way that when he was five seasons old and would join the other children in his season for lessons.
Sartin had already mastered the Holding Your Breath game and he could out swim his other female cousins when playing Chase the Shark. But eventually, she told him, the adults would teach him how to hunt for the food and defend the pod from predators.
Sartin sat in the shallow tide pool as the other five seasons arrived to the designated spot at Winter Cove. Some of the other Alewar children Sartin had played with before were there, too. An adult separated the amber-eyed children from the others and took them to a different area on the beach.
“Good morning, children, I am Scribner and I will be your guide this season. We’re going to start thismorning’s lesson with a story.”
The five season children, including Sartin, squirmed with delight as the guide began the story…
* * * *
The Story of the Alewars
The Princess grew up to be revered as the first of the Sea People. Along with her husband, Samsel, they had forty-six children in all. They named one daughter and one son with a name that began with a different letter of the alphabet. Most of the Sea People can recite their ancestors back to one of theseforty-six grandmothers and grandfathers, and therefore, the Princess herself.
It was the Princess’s daughters who chose names that began with the same letter that their mother bestowed upon them. Ballard was the mother of Brandt, who was the mother of Beetem, who was the mother of Bartek, who was the mother of Barakat, who was the mother of Butzi, who was the mother of Belzer and her sisters that form the family pod.
The Princess and Samsel knew that their first son, their fourth child, was special when he was born. Thebaby boy’s eyes glowed amber from the time of his birth. They didn’t know why, but they knew he deserved a special name. They named him Saric, beginning with the same letter as his father.
Their fifth child was a daughter, also born with beautiful amber eyes. They named her Swann, also using the first letter of her father’s name.
Saric grew up to be stronger and faster than most of his brothers. Samsel, although proud, thought it was because he was the oldest son, but the Princess knew it was something else. Not only did Saric like to hunt and fish with his father and brothers, he also liked to spend time with his sisters near the shore.
Swann also grew up to be just as athletic as her brothers. She, too, split her time hunting and fishing in the open ocean and with her sisters near the shore.
Saric and Swann, and their brothers and sisters, were born in a time when the land people and the Sea People lived in harmony. Sea People still had children born with legs like the land people and the land people still had children born with tails. Land people and Sea People even Coupled with each other.
When the land people had children with their legs fused together, they brought them to the Princess to raise. The Princess also noticed some of these children had amber eyes like her son and daughter. When Saric and Swann and these other children reached their eighteenth seasons, they chose mates, not only with amber eyes, but of the same sex. Saric chose Shappell and Swann chose Stone.
It didn’t take long for the amber-eyed Couples to find their place in the pod. While the males hunted and fished for food and the females tended the children, the same-sex couples became the protectors of the beach. The Princess bestowed the title of Alewar, which means protector, on all the amber-eyed sea people and elevated their status in the family.
Soon it became an honor among the Sea People to have an amber-eyed son or daughter. Both males and females were bestowed with the Alewar title at birth. Parental social rank also climbed with the birth of an Alewar child. Because of their same sex coupling, Alewars rarely had children of their own, yet the amber-eyed children continued to be born to the female and male couples. The Princess proclaimed that Alewar must be in everybody. Nurture in the mother combined with the Protector in the father to create the Alewar child.
After the Great Flood, the land people killed the Princess and drove the Sea People into the open ocean,the Alewars taught the males their methods of protection and what they knew about the predators. They helped protect the Sea People from the predators that had not been known before.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone