Lake. Chapter 1. The Dark Room
A silent and rather dark room, cramped and packed with heavy mass. A mass that flows and goes and swallows and showers. It breathes, it lives and it creates life, so cold and yet so warm. The room is comfortable, for some. Some may live, some may suffocate and die. It covers everything with a sheet of its life and then a blanket of its pressure. Yet in this room, though the heavy pressure, we can fly so freely. We simply breathe alongside the flowing mass and spread our wings and then we all may fly. The room is secluded and enclosed just like a secret, so when you enter you may learn something new. Often when you bestow upon it as an outsider, you may feel a number of things. You may feel scared, enlightened, intrigued, comforted or even transformed - a very different experience. The room inhibits many types of life but few for its kind as it is a small room. However the room has recently started to feel even smaller, as if the walls are, although very slowly, closing in.
When people talk about these rooms in the world they call them lakes. Some people take their boat out on them to go fishing and some go for a little swim. Its fresh water makes a good drink for many people and animals surrounding it. Some find the lakes scary, especially at dusk, as its mysterious dark depth carries many secrets but also may lure you and suffocate you to your death. Some also speak of legends about the people of the Lake; about their half-fish like appearance and how they lure drunk men down in the water and drown them. Many even claim to have seen the people of the Lake yet how could that actually be the truth if the Lake people so rarely see them. Maybe then people would also know that the people of the Lake do not have fish tails. The legend has remained but a legend.
However, in this particular silent and rather dark room, our adventurous Lake wants to wash up on the shore one day and breathe the crisp air. She has had this curiosity about the land for what feels like an eternity. Mama is however not so happy with Lake's fascination for the land. "Don't go dry", mama says. "You need the life that lives right here." But Lake wants to open the door to the world outside. The sun shines through the layers of mass to touch a shiny rock. She follows the reflection of light. "There is life right there mama. Can't you see?". "It is not your life", she mutters. "I'd rather dry than stay here forever mama" Lake shouts, although not angrily, the people of the Lake should always whisper as not to disturb the peace of the room.
An even younger Lake was eager to learn about the air and the sky. Mama said the room has its own sky without the danger of men. Lake was even more eager to learn about men, but Mama said we must drown them if we see them. Although she explained they look just like Lake, but they grow old with time and that they wear 'fabric', a material of the outerworld, not seaweed and clams. Sometimes a bottle would fall down into the lake and Lake would make it her most priced possession. Another time a button and another time a rope. Of which none Lake knew what it was, of course, but in her head she would make up stories what it would be used for. But her made up stories would never satisfy her need to know the truth. Lake was not even allowed to swim close to the surface for the longest of time because Mama would get angry. It was dangerous and Mama would rather Lake focus on taking care of the peace of the room than explore.
One good morning after a night of summer rain, Lake wakes up, rises and walks slowly along the lake bed. Every step sinks in. Every breath is serene. Today is the day, this morning is the morning. No breakfast, just moving forward, there will be no waiting today. "Lake don't leave, it is your duty to stay here, this is your place" Mama says to try and stop her. "Mama I know every corner of this room, I know every stone. I've talked to every fish, I've tasted every plant. It's like my life has already ended or like it never begun. My desire is to be bigger than this room. Nobody can tell me what to do anymore. I've longed for the land forever mama" Lake says not averting her eyes from her desired destination, although not annoyed just determined. She does not stop to listen for very long and just continues walking until her head finally emerges through the very surface of the water. Alongside swims her sea turtle friend - also adventurous. Seaweed stuck in her hair and water dripping off her chin Lake just enough peeks out of the water, though she is not scared, it's better to be cautious.
The forest is a dark green with a musky smell. The long stems of trees that reach far up into the sky. The moon light touches every rock and gives it a silvery glimmer where it is not covered by soft green moss. The leaves and the grass are holding small iridescent raindrops. The wind is bouncing off the trees and creating a melody Lake has never heard before. The sky and the stars and the moon all welcome Lake on her arrival to the new world with their shine and their presence. Every sound is like a song and every visual like a movie, every second a lesson. Breathing air feels so different without the gills, which now close and flatten against the skin becoming unvisible, as Lake's respiration switches to air mode. Now Lake is seemingly human.
"It's beautiful. It's beautiful!" Lake squeals with joy. Lake slowly and carefully heaves herself up on the shore from the deep water and touches the dry ground for the first time. Quack, her turtle friend, quacks and agrees with her opinion on the above-water though he has seen the shore and forest before. Lake steps with her bare feet on the grass and the soil, a whole new feeling, a whole new experience. Quack in following her, transforms by every step into a new turtle. They start wandering through the woods and they never look back.