Sciger Winning Entry

It all began with an egg. A jelly-filled egg that floated aimlessly on the ocean currant, away from its parents as the journey began for its yet unformed being. As all gouran have started their existence and all gouran ever will, it eventually began to dream.

In this dream, the gourix saw water as far as she could see. She saw faceless oceanic creatures of many forms, fish, other misticpets, misticpals, misticans in strange looking gear that seemed frightening to her. She saw kelp and coral beds, plants and creatures of every color. She could not imagine that something so amazing could possibly exist beyond this dream. It was utterly beautiful and if she could use her lungs at the time, she would have been breathless at the sight.

Then the dream took a terrifying turn. Vicious predators came upon the faceless beings as the gourix seemed to observe from the sidelines. She watched the attacks helplessly as the shrieks of terror bounced to and fro, giving an effect of an even larger distressed populace, water frothed into bubbles in the widespread panic. The gourix tried to open her jaws to call out warning but no sound escaped. She found herself swimming forward, seemingly to attack one of the innocents that she witnessed peacefully resting. How could this be? Was this her future?

As quickly as the dream had occurred, the gourix opened her eyes for the first time. Realizing she was unable to take in the wonderful first gulps of fresh air, the infant began to swim powerfully. Somehow, she knew how and where to go. Quickly, quickly! To the surface! At last, the surface was broken and the young gourix opened her tiny jaws and brought in great lungfuls of wonderful oxygen. Being near land, she instinctively swam to shore and rested her tired little body. She felt disturbed by her dream but was too tired to think of what it could mean at this time.

The infant was soon found by a small gam of quari that had spotted her from nearby and they took pity on the miserable little creature. Using a strange box that she did not understand, they transformed her so she could join them in the water. Pleased to return to where she had been born, she followed them without a complaint or worry. They called her Beach for that is where they found her.

Time flew as she began to learn and grow. It took a little time but her new gam came in contact with other gouran so they could better understand her questions about her natal dream. They tried their best to help her understand but Beach was still very confused. What was the point of her dream? What was her destiny? Beach described the beautiful place that she had seen before the attack and they had told her that she likely had seen Sango Reef. As soon as she was old enough, Beach left the gam so she could understand what the dream meant though she intended to return as soon as she could.

Beach soon arrived at the beautiful Sango Reef and began to look around. It did not take long for her to become frightened of her dream. Was her destiny to harm these lovely creatures that she had met? They were kind, thoughtful, willing to help her at any given moment. The young gourix felt a despair rise in her heart and she contemplated leaving as soon as possible. This simply could not be her fate, she did not want to bring harm to them!

One day, in fact the day she planned to take her leave in hopes of avoiding her dream becoming reality, Beach was nearing the outskirts of Sango Reef when she saw them. The shadows of large beasts coming towards Sango Reef. Alarmed, she screeched a loud call to any sea creature that could hear her. No! She would not become what her dream had her be! Using every ounce of courage that she had, Beach swam with powerful strokes at the impending attackers. She opened her jaws and shrieked such an alarming roar that even Beach had frightened herself. The coming creatures came to a halt, debating their situation. There were several of them and only one of her that was opposing them. The seeming leader of the ugly creatures came forth with a scarred body. Its snout curled into a snarl before it darted towards her. Beach gasped and closed her eyes shut, panic gripping her heart as she knew this was a battle she could not win.

The blow never came and when she opened her eyes once more, she saw something else. A massive fish that she had never seen before was battling the attacking predators! Realizing she would be of no use to this battle, Beach swam towards the residents of Sango Reef and shooed them into the safety of small caves and crevices. Then to her horror, she could see one of the beasts was in hot pursuit of an oceanic emperon with a crippled fin. Her fear transfigured itself into a horrible feeling of rage and she tore towards her adversary. Everything was a whirl of emotion as she sank her fangs, albeit doing little damage due to her weak jaws, into her opponent. As soon as she had attacked, it was over as the predator, apparently surprised by the young gourix’s aggressiveness, turned and sped away as fast as its fins could carry it.

Beach turned her snout over to see the gigantic caribyss that was chasing off the remaining of the attackers of Sango Reef. Her adrenaline faded as the residents slowly began to emerge from their hiding places. As the light of battle ebbed from her heart, an acceptance had begun to glow.

Her dream was not to harm those that she had seen in Sango Reef. Perhaps it had seemed that way in her dream but Beach finally understood. She chose to attack the predators rather than her new friends.

It is not the gourix’s dream who makes it so but their choices instead.