The Ocean waited patiently. She knew that Time always brought her more, so there was no reason to be in a rush. She bellowed her waves in a mighty laugh while imagining herself rushing for her reward. Humans rushed; she waited. Unlike those who walked on two feet and paraded around as gods, she was not fooled by the idea of Time. Time was not a friend per se, but an entity that she knew. Time was full of himself. Slowing and racing, trying to persuade the humans that they could control him only to rip away from their grasp at the final second. He enjoyed his dance with the people, but not her.

She did not mind the humans at first. They were full of discovery, love, and enlightenment. There was a time they worshipped her, and it was good though brief. But now she despised them, their careless pollution, the disdain for her creatures, and the idea that nothing could stop them. She could stop them, and she took her time to remind them. She relished her depths filled with their broken crafts full of foolish glittering treasures and scattered with their polished bones. Her layers were lined with their souls, and it fed her children. Sharks tore apart the bodies spreading the carcasses across her floor, relinquishing the people of their unneeded appendages. Below, crabs helped their cousins pick away at the sunken eyes and lips. This circle fed her children for weeks. And the gall of humans believed still they were invincible, so they sailed her plains. And she welcomed them with watery graves.

This craft was the same as the others, large wooden things, clumsy on her waves. She rocked the piece gently for a period wanting to separate them from their brothers. Let them feel safe. When her open waters surrounded them, she called to the Wind. The Wind, unlike Time, was her friend. They were full of dance and music, sometimes solemn, but mostly they laughed with their breeze. The Ocean loved them. She loved the Wind as much as she loved her children, for the Wind brought her ships full of humans.

With a wink of the breeze, the Wind stirred up her waters. They rustled and danced, creating a symphony of noise. She laughed her bellowing, splashing laugh and let her anger take over. The soft waves that once gently rocked the ship now were taller than the masts. Sailors rushed to pull in the flimsy sheets of sail. The helmsman, a broad man, fought the wheel, pulling to right the vessel, but the Ocean was not weakening to his fervor. And already she could feel their panic. Feel their worry and realization that maybe they weren't as indestructible as they once thought. She roared, and the Wind echoed her scream. The skies grew dark, and the Rain, normally gentle in her touch, fell harsh and cold.

The Ocean watched the ship with eyes of furious curiosity. The captain stood calm aboard the boat; with his steely gaze, he barked immediate demands to his crew. The men, although nervous, pushed a long board from the deck of the ship. In his tight grip, the captain held firm the arm of a woman. Her tall stature made slight under the weight of her translucent clothes heavy from the crashing waves. Long dark hair was pulled tight up top her head, letting free a few strands that framed her pale, frightened face. Her brown eyes were soft and melting with the tears that filled them. Salty tears that fell from her cheeks and mixed with the Rain. The Ocean tasted them on her waves. They screamed of sorrow, of weakness, of pain. The captain pushed the woman further on the board, and one of the sailors handed him a sharp sword with a nasty biting edge. With a stomp of his boot, the woman fell into the waves below. The Ocean was shocked. Such violence was unusual from humans caught in her clutches. The small thing began to sink in her depths, and she could feel the woman's fear start to ebb as her life left.

Leaving the captain to a calmer sea, the Ocean and found the human in her waters and carefully wrapped her with gentle waves. A touch as soft as those she used with her children. The Wind watched with curious sad eyes as the Ocean wrapped the woman in scales. Scales her children had lost or shed over time. She continued to clothe the child, and when she was done, her creation was unlike the humans in many ways. Those flimsy two feet melded into one glorious garnet and amethyst fin that her babe could use to soar the Ocean's depths. Still, the woman was dying, so the Wind entered her lungs and taught them to breathe the water the way the fish did.

The woman awoke. Her rebirth was welcomed peacefully in the calming waves. The Wind whispered her name, and the Ocean placed it upon her soul. Asherah took in her new surroundings. An azure world alight with sparkling colors that gleamed from the backs of her siblings. The Ocean watched as her children nuzzled the girl and created a place among their schools. The dolphins took her by the fin and taught her to fly. Sharks sharpened her teeth so she could hunt for herself, and the whales helped her find a voice, a voice that sang loudly. It called to the Wind and rivaled their melodies. The Ocean loved Asherah, and her daughter rested daily in the Ocean's bosom.

For a while, ships passed through her waters without problem as the Ocean delighted in her new daughter's growth. Until the day the ship came again. The vessel was polished from the Ocean's briny waves. Fresh, bright sails blocked the moody clouds that floated in the midnight sky. Aboard the boat, pale lanterns glistened upon the deck, creating twinkling spots of yellow light across the wooden boards. Asherah's eyes darkened. Her steely gaze threatened the vessel in the sea. Then with sudden ferocity, she took chase. Her sleek fin, strong in the Ocean's waters, glided through the waves. The handmade scales sparkled in the moonlight, and at the break of the water, the girl used the whale's songs—a haunting tune of sadness and desperation.

Sailors ran to peer over the ship's side. Eyes wide and searching, lanterns pointed to the sea. They scoured the depths for the source. Asherah flicked her tail at the crest of the water's break. The men ran aft aboard the ship, but her daughter was already gliding to the other side. The Ocean carefully led the vessel towards a rocky crag that lapped at her wake. The captain, the horrid man with his biting steel and yellowed eyes, began to shout and pull at his men, but the girl's song was captivating. The sailors were in awe. They called and pushed through each other to finally gaze upon Asherah's slender form and her melodious tones. With smiles, they gaped until they were awoken by the nightmarish crunch of wooden boards splintering on a rocky mass. The bow of the ship tried to leap across the rocks but was halted in its half-devoured state. Water rushed through the gaping wound, pulling out the intestines of the boat. Trunks, cots, barrels stocked with goods leaked into the Ocean's water and sank to rest in her sandy embrace. Men rushed aboard the vessel. They scrambled through the rising waters on deck, pushing out heavy items and trying to pail the water back into the sea. But the Ocean roared her salty cry and raised her waves to crash against them. Some grappled with the wooden posts holding out hope for safety; others slipped into the waiting teeth of her children below.

The captain, a proud, pitiful man, held tight to the wheel of his vessel. His hardened gaze glared into the open seas. Knuckles white on the spokes of the wooden helm, his loyalty held him firm aboard the deck. This standing as a sign of pride for his craft. A sad sign with a pathetic, flimsy meaning. A useless meaning with no reward except the arms of Asherah and her sharp, dangerous teeth. Her smile is vicious and welcoming. The man’s mind began to falter as he accepted his fate.

"I need you to know the ocean is cruel and cold to those uninvited, but to me she is a home that you are not welcome in." Asherah’s icy voice greets the captain's blood as it tainted the waves around her. The other bodies litter the Ocean's depths once more, and the sharks disperse them among their siblings. Fish, crabs, whales, dolphins, every creature living in the sea feasted gloriously.

And so, the Ocean's dance began again—a deadly one that brought ships to her floor and people to her children's bellies. With time men tossed more women into the Ocean's waiting waves. Like her first daughter, she clothed them in extra scales, and the Wind filled their lungs. Sirens were born in her waters. Women of every shape and color were welcomed in her arms. They were taught to sing and hunt and swim, and they helped feed their siblings with their haunting voices. Every one of them found vengeance upon the humans that cast them aside, and each found a home within the Ocean's gaze.