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The day I first met you was a rainy one. The clouds loomed over the cove where you stood, ankle deep, letting the calm waves wash over you. The drops coming down were not coming down hard but you were almost soaked. Just how long had you been standing there? Did you know that our meeting was about to happen? Or was it just pure coincidence?
Gura was doing her laps around the coast when she first noticed the blonde girl standing on the beach. She had been underwater looking up at the cloudy sky when a small brown shoe floated past her. Curiosity struck and Gura swam in the direction it was coming from. She took cover behind the large rocks near the entrance of the cove, trying to get a better look at the person standing as still as a statue. The girl’s face was almost emotionless as she stood lost in thought. She must have been thinking for a while since she still hadn’t noticed one of her shoes had floated away. Gura clutched the shoe and swam to another set of rocks closer to the blonde.
She watched the girl for a couple more minutes. Without meaning to, she found herself admiring her features. Her hair was soaked from the light rain but it somehow managed to fall beautifully down her face. She had blue eyes, like Gura, but a slightly different shade. They shined like gemstones despite the cloudy weather.
Gura would not normally put herself in danger by revealing herself to humans but something about this girl was drawing her in.
‘It’s fine,’ she thought to herself. ‘Just stay low behind these rocks and return the shoe. No biggie.’
She took a deep breath and propped herself up on a rock, making sure to keep her shark tail hidden from her sight.
“E-Excuse me, miss. Your shoe must have floated away when the tide started rising but I picked it up before it could go any further.”
The blonde blinked rapidly, as if she had just snapped back into reality. She wiped her face off and started wading through the water to Gura. The shark felt her heartbeat speed up a little as she got closer, from both nervousness and excitement.
“Thank you so much…sorry for the trouble. I hope you didn’t have to swim too far out,” the girl said, reaching out to grab the shoe from Gura.
She handed it over and the two of them stared at each other for what seemed like forever. Gura’s mind was racing. What could she possibly do to keep her here for even a couple more seconds? She opened her mouth to say something, anything, but the blonde was faster.
“If you don’t mind me asking, what were you doing swimming out in a storm? Isn’t it a little dangerous?”
“Oh, I’m kind of used to it because I–” Gura stopped herself from exposing her secret just in time. She didn’t know this girl after all. “I’m just a really strong swimmer…oh! My name is Gura by the way!”
She mentally facepalmed. ‘She didn’t need to know your name idiot. You were just supposed to return the shoe and go back home.’
“Gura, huh? I’m Amelia…Amelia Watson.”
Amelia reached out her hand and Gura moved further up on the rock to shake it. Her blue eyes locked with Amelia’s and for a second, she forgot that she was a shark in a potentially dangerous situation. Panic started setting in when she noticed Amelia’s eyes drift from her own down to her chest, where her gills were blatantly out. Gura retracted her hand and slipped back into the water, hiding most of her body.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I’ve…seen a lot of things so don’t worry. I’m not going to go running off to tell someone or anything like that. Your secret is safe with me.”
Not really knowing why, Gura slowly rose from the water. Her inner voice was screaming at her to stop, to swim away and let this girl forget she even existed. But the words were coming out of her mouth before she could even process her thoughts.
“You’re really not weirded out or anything? What do you mean you’ve seen stuff?”
“Let’s just say I have a very interesting job. A job that I should probably be getting back to, actually…” Amelia took a deep sigh and turned to start walking back to the shore.
“Wait!” Gura shouted, unsure of what she was even about to do. “Do you have to leave right now?”
The desperation in Gura’s voice shocked even herself. “I- uh…would love it if we could hang out for a little longer…it’s not often that I befriend a human. I live in a covered area nearby if you’d like to get out of the rain?”
Amelia stood thinking for a second. Maybe she was too forward, or turned out to be too weird after all. The apathetic look on Amelia’s face turned into a slightly more relaxed one as she let out a small chuckle.
“I suppose I could stay for a little bit.”
I led you to the part of the cove hidden away from civilization. Along the way we talked about our lives. I was a shark girl, pulled away from her home of Atlantis by the currents and the tides. You were a dimension hopping detective, employed by the mythical council ruling over all of us. What a terrible burden to carry.
Gura gathered dry pieces of wood from nearby and began setting up a small fire. Amelia sat nearby and continued with her stories, spilling probably more than she should have.
“When I was first called on by the Council, they actually offered to wipe my existence from every dimension to avoid any weird paradoxes,” she said. Her expression became somber as her past flashed before her eyes.
“Was it hard? I don’t have any friends or relatives here, but I think I would still be a little sad to leave this place…”
“At first, of course. I had friends, family, and the best dog in the world. It was scary to think of being erased from their memories. The Council reassured me that they would watch over my loved ones and told me that I could return to my universe and visit them whenever I wanted. From afar, unfortunately, but we just can’t risk anything happening.”
The two sat in silence while thoughts started running through Gura’s mind. She began thinking of Amelia in a different world, where the gods did not rely on her. In those scenarios, she imagined her sitting at a small cafe with her dog. She imagined a group of Amelia’s friends coming up to meet her, and wondered what kind of expression she would make. Would her smile be gentle? Would her blue eyes squint as she laughed?
A loud crackle from the fire snapped the shark back into reality, where the detective was now staring at her with her eyebrows raised.
“Are you good?” She asked. She brought her hands up to the fire to warm herself as she was still somewhat wet from the rain.
“Yeah…sorry. I guess I just got a little lost in thought thinking about what kind of worlds there were out there.”
Gura laid down on the sand next to Amelia. The clouds were beginning to clear out and the sun was starting to go down. She wondered how long she would stay with her. Turning her head, she admired the way the light from the fire lit up the detective's face. The orange light contrasted her beautiful blue eyes, which were once again looking into the distance.
“So how long have you been here?” Amelia asked, breaking the silence.
“I was pretty young when Atlantis was starting to fall. Somehow, in all of the panic and chaos, I ended up in the outskirts of the city where our people were always advised to avoid. One wrong move and I ended up in a current… it kind of knocked me out and by the time I opened my eyes, I was in this little cove. I’ve been living here ever since.”
“So this whole time you never made friends with any humans? Your family didn’t try to come find you?”
“To be honest, I have no clue how far away Atlantis is from here, if it’s even still standing at all. Humans don’t really come by too often. The water is a little too cold for swimming and the waves aren’t big enough for surfing. The few humans that do show up…are not the friendliest. When I was younger, I was a bit careless. Some fishermen on a boat saw my tail and thought they found this coast’s Nessie or something. I hid for a week before they finally gave up. Ever since then, I’ve been trying to stay out of sight.”
Amelia chuckled.
“What made you come up to me then? I’m just some stranger after all. I could have ratted you out to the locals or gone after you myself.”
Gura hesitated. Admitting that she found herself enamored by a stranger on a beach was embarrassing, to say the least, but she was not clever enough to come up with a lie on the spot.
“Something about you just drew me in. You looked so sad standing in the water and I was curious about your story. Plus, I had your shoe.”
“Thanks for that, by the way. It totally would have drifted away if you didn’t grab it.”
Another silence.
“So, how long are you going to be in town for? I could take you around and show you some pretty amazing sights!”
“I’m….not too sure yet,” she said as she pulled a pocket watch out from her skirt pocket. “The bosses haven’t sent word yet but the second they do, I really have to get going.”
Gura’s eyes fixated on the golden watch in the detective’s hands.
“Whoa, is that how you communicate or something with them?”
“Sort of. Both of the hands will move to the number twelve when it’s time to go and it’ll set off a very quiet ring,” she explained. “I can also jump to different dimensions with this. When the Council decides where to send me, they’ll send the exact date, time, and world coordinates to the watch. All I have to do is press down on the dial and I’ll open my eyes to a new world.”
“That sounds crazy! I can’t even imagine how many different worlds you’ve seen by now. Does it ever make you sick? Traveling between universes doesn’t sound like it would be too gentle on the body.”
“Traveling was definitely a little scary and nauseating at first. My body is basically getting pulled between the fabrics of time and space every time. If I do it too often or too soon, I’m sure there will be some sort of problem eventually.
In the time that they were talking, the sun had set completely. Stars of all shapes and sizes filled the sky and shined down on the girls.
They continued to talk into the night, talking about more adventures Amelia has been on or funny things Gura had witnessed over the years. At some point, Gura felt her eyes closing but she fought it as long as she could.
I fell asleep sometime past midnight. Talking with you felt so natural, as if we had been friends from the beginning. I didn’t want this moment to end.
I dreamt of us that night, together in another alternate universe. There, your detective clothes were traded for a white blouse and black skirt. Your hair was longer, in a neat little bun. I was meeting you at the local arcade. It was so small but we could have stayed there for hours. I watched you in awe as you spent way too much money trying to get a little plush dog out of the janky claw machine. In this universe, your blue eyes seemed to sparkle way more and your smile was so bright it was almost blinding.
We ended up by the beach; a different one than the one I lived at. I was not afraid to be among the humans and we stood together at the shore, basking in the sunlight. What a completely different scenario than the one I actually found you in today.
We walked up and down the shore as the day was winding down. I picked up funny seashells and brought them over to you. You took whichever ones you found pretty and shoved them in your pocket. Then you pulled out your watch. How could you have that in this universe? You were supposed to be a normal girl and I was supposed to be enjoying as much time with you as I could get.
I couldn’t see the time, but I knew from your expression that you had to leave soon. You gathered your stuff and we hugged goodbye. I called out to you as you started to walk away.
“Will I ever see you again?”
I will never forget the sweet, gentle expression you wore as you turned around to face me.
“Of course. Don’t worry, Gura, I always manage to find you somehow”
I awoke to the sound of seagulls loudly honking at each other. I rubbed my eyes open and looked next to me, only to find you gone. Part of me was hoping this was also part of my dream, and you would just appear out of thin air. Of course, it was silly to think you would be here for any longer than you already were. You were so busy with your duties after all. I got up to clean up our fire pit mess and noticed a medium sized seashell by the spot where you sat. I brought the shell up close to my heart, remembering the last words you spoke to me in the dream. Someday, maybe, we’ll meet again.