[Gift] The 11th Hour | Candlelight

Soft flickers danced along the bed of the lagoon, ripples and rocks painted in gentle yellow and orange long after the sun had set. A shoal of silver fish scattered, flashing until they were swallowed by sudden darkness, shadows moving over the top of the water.

A long, lithe body stretched, disturbing algae-covered rocks and sand, kicking up faint clouds that quickly dissipated. His nose, whiskers, barbel twitched as he stretched his front paws, languid and lazy, and cast a wary eye overhead.

Boats were a rare sight on the water at night. A barrier reef kept the water placid, and it was tricky to navigate even when one could see. It wasn’t unheard of for someone to launch a skiff from the beach, but Lagoon could usually hear the muffled rhythm of the oars, the sound of the boat carving through the water.

Instead, there was silence.

And when Lagoon looked up, yellow eyes narrowed, he saw not boats, but lights.

Slowly, he swan upwards, fins fluttering at his sides, paws making long, determined strokes as his tail propelled behind him. Candelight caught on his smooth scales, the natural iridescence and shine of them gleaming, casting brighter in the clear water around him.

He surfaced, just his head, ears and headfins flat, peering over the gentle lap of waves.

There were paper boats floating on the lagoon, wending their way back towards the shore. The boats were full of precious cargo: flowers, morsels of still-steaming food, seashells, and small bundles of grass twisted and wrapped in such a way that they looked like humans. Each had a short candle, flickering with firelight.

On the beach were dozens of shadowy figures, silhouettes in the darkness. A sudden burst of flame revealed humans Lagoon had never seen, dressed in colorful clothes. Candles were distributed, and the last of the boats were set on the water, drifting out with the tide. A tinge of Ocean magic made Lagoon’s nose itch, protecting the boats from the low, curling waves, setting them free.

“Look!” Someone called out.

Lagoon instinctively lowered his head, but it wasn’t him they were looking at.

There was a burst of flame out at the end of the line of boats. Lagoon lowered himself, and swam after it, curiosity thrumming behind his ribs.

When he arrived, and emerged, he saw another boat burst into seemingly-sudden flames, roaring with a small inferno that smelt sickeningly sweet and charred, a flash in the pan that was over all-too quickly.

He paddled closer to watch as the low candle in the next boat reached the end of its wick, and, with nowhere to go, reached out to consume everything in the boat around it, swallowing everything until it met the water and left a little pile of ash floating on the surface and shells floating back to the briny deep.

Lagoon felt, at first, a sting of alarm, but Kano reached out with a single word, and everything slid into place.

“Offerings.”

Back on the beach, every time fire consumed one of the boats, there was a loud murmur of noise echoing down the beach and across the water. But it wasn’t alarmed, anymore. It certainly wasn’t upset or mournful. There was reverence to it, but it was unabashedly joyful.

Lagoon backed away from the procession and let the boats float and fire in peace, basking in the ceremony and the growing celebratory atmosphere of it all.

When there were few boats left, and the first shades of dawn kissed the far horizon, he propelled himself through the water as quick as he could, and jumped over the boats with a joyous noise of his own, flying for a few precious seconds to ensure that he didn’t land too close, listening to happy applause and cheering, before plunging into the water and back out of sight.