Mira

This.

This was mesmerizing

Nothing else mattered to Cecilia. Not her home ablaze. Not her husband’s final wishes. Not even the life growing within her.

She had watched the water rise. Watched it swell like a foamy bubble ready to burst. Her boat swayed along the agitated waves. Her knuckles white from squeezing the wooden edges too tight. It was painful but it was all she could do to keep herself within her only form of safety. She was unable to control where the boat went. Completely and utterly at the mercy of what broke through. Cecilia had only heard about them from her mor-mor.

A sea giant.

It eclipsed the sun from her view. Loomed above her with little care for what was below. A dark obelisk made of flesh. The body crawled in height, scaling over trees. It was almost endless. The shadow it made completely swallowed her. She had to lay back in her boat to see the top of it. Squinted her eyes against the light along the edges of the giant.

Then relief. She could see. In its totality. The tail left the water and it was flying.

She felt so small. So helpless.

And as harrowing as it was, Cecilia couldn’t imagine anything better than now. All of her happiest moments paled in this moment. The dread that clung to her soul seemingly lifted in awe of the mighty beast. Her lips curled up and showed teeth. Bearing witness to a sight, to a closeness Cecilia was sure no one else could fathom.

Her green eyes fought against the water that rained upon her. Despite the salt stinging at her sight, she wanted to see it all. The head that speared the heavens. The gray-blue surface fading into a worn white belly. The foreign bumps and grooves indenting the wet leathery skin. It gleamed sunlight in droplets and did little to cover the deep scars lashed across a blackened fin. It was larger than her body. Than her boat. It was like a rash made out of armor and crawled along the body at random.

Then it fell.

The giant fell with purpose. Like a hollow tree. Like a burning tower.

And Cecilia refused to look away. Didn’t dare close her eyes. She wanted to take this with her. Wherever she might end up. The shadows grew darker around her, yet the vision was so much clearer. Under the body of the falling beast. Like a cruel joke.

Maybe…

This was okay.

Not because she couldn’t stop it. Not because she was tired of running. But simply because she was fulfilled.

There was no fear here. Only peace.

Or maybe Cecilia was being dramatic.

The sea giant crashed through the surface, dispersing the sea in its righteous wake. The sound of water breaking rivaled that of lightning cracking the sky. The sea giant's storm stirred and lifted the small vessel off the ocean. And for a moment, she was flying.

Cecilia was being jostled worse than when the giant first emerged. Panic seized the woman as she was left to be tossed in her insignificant boat. She held herself and cried at the top of her lungs. It served no purpose. The wails being drowned out by the crashing waves and sudden rain surrounding her.

The chaos mellowed out. Faded into a calm Cecilia desperately needed. She lay prone at the bottom of her boat. It had taken on an inch of water and she was left drenched. Her black hair darkened and matted to her face. No dry spot left of her lamb wool dress and her leather boots were soaked from heel to toe. Her body shook at the chill that crawled down her spine. She wasn’t sure if it was the panic or the water doing it. Just as well have been all the salt water she drank. Cecilia coughed out a glob of sea-spit deep in her chest and it clung to her flaking lips. Slid down her red cheeks. Her eyes burned. Her throat burned.

But anything was better than being capsized in the middle of the ocean. All she could hear was her own heavy breathing, as if she had ran. Her mind reeling from the overwhelming fright. She truly believed she was at death’s door. She almost couldn’t believe she had accepted it.

She pried her eyes open. Not knowing when she had closed them. Something bobbed in her vision of the clear and sunny sky. It made her jolt up. The sea giant was still here.

Cecilia grabbed the edge of the boat. Nails near peeling from her pruned up fingers. But she had to see it. She met eyes with the beast. Or with one of its eyes. The left one, she imagined. It was the size of a cannonball.

No, bigger. Like a glass globe. Reflected like it, too. Cecilia could see herself in its dark eyes.

And it was close. The giant was within her reach. Against all her senses prior, she was once again overwhelmed with awe. A ruddy hand was slowly cast. She felt grime. Wet muddy grime against rough leather. Like a blacksmith’s glove left out in the rain.

But she also felt warmth beneath her palm. Something divine coursing underneath its skin. A deep thrumming beating like war drums in the distance. That same sense of calm returned. It forced Cecilia to find the why.

She closed her eyes to focus. Feel the waves of life pulsing from it to her. And she felt the drums again. But they were off. One set beating faster than the other. Beating fast like the one in her belly. And she gasped.

It was a mother.

Just like her.

The lone woman petted the giant as if she were a cow. “Thank you for not crushing me.”

The waves rolled with a low inhuman hum, quaking the wood beneath her. A noise that Cecilia knew came from the giant. And just as quickly as the sea giant arrived, she vanished back into the depths.

The name of Cecilia's child came to her moments after.

Mira.

To honor the greatest wonder in only a few short minutes.