Story 7. The return of Liata. Part 1

'Seee-ea, oh sea, boundless world, the foamy rustle of coastal waves…' This song kept spinning in my head. And as it spun, a picture formed before my inner eye: a light turquoise expanse of water, sparkling in the sun; salty spray, smelling of iodine and seaweed, tingling the skin with pleasant coolness. Yes, yes, tingling! It's not a stylistic mistake. It's just that when your skin is warmed by the lazy southern sun, saturated with the fragrant, ozone-scented, healing sea air, the cool splashes of salt water feel tinglingly cold.)
 
Dreaming about the sea is no less pleasant than actually being there. I tell you this as a seasoned expert in the matter. I was doubly lucky – we were almost at the sea itself, but that didn't stop me from dreaming about it. Humans are strangely made that way. Especially if that human is me. While my eyes were greedily drinking in the soft blue distance of the vast waters, my inner gaze rushed off to all the seas I had ever seen in my life. And all these images – the real one and the inner ones – intertwined whimsically and merged into a single magical monolith – the Sea!
 
To start with, Muss, Kotess, Rozzea, and I decided just to wander along the shore, collect colourful pebbles and shells, dip our paws (well, they have paws, I have perfectly good feet) in the salty water, and run away from the cheerful foamy waves that love to grab everyone by the heel and drag them into the water. In short, to enjoy the peace and tranquillity of the sea. Hmm, it seems something is still missing for complete happiness. What could it be? – Right! Ice cream!
 
'I call dibs on the vanilla!' said Kotess.
 
'And I'll have chocolate!' Rozzea chimed in.
 
'And for me, for us,' Muss and I exchanged glances, 'raspberry and pistachio! We'll eat them together!' we laughed.
 
'Oh, look, who's that over there?' exclaimed Kotess, pointing a paw at a large boulder on the shore, half-submerged in the water. 'I see your cheeky eye, don't hide,' she said cheerfully.
 
We all turned towards the boulder and saw a little crab peeking out from behind some ice cream packages lying on the rock.
 
'Did you bring this for us?' I asked admiringly.
 
The crab shyly nodded and waved a claw at me.
 
'Oh, thank you! Join us!' we all cried out at once.
 
The crab pondered for a moment and began to shimmer with different colours.
 
'What kind of ice cream do you like? We'll share with you!' I offered.
 
'I suppose my favourite ice cream is prawn-flavoured,' the crab said shyly. 'But you didn't order it, so I didn't bring any,' he added, a little sadly.
 
'Right, who wants to try prawn ice cream? I definitely do! Who's with me?'
 
Everyone nodded happily and expressed their complete readiness to enjoy double the amount of prawn ice cream (just in case, so the crab would be sure to have enough). The crab cheered up and disappeared under the water. A minute later, a group of three crabs appeared. They busily started hauling a large box onto the boulder. We went to help them. Once the box of prawn ice cream was safely on the rock, we invited all three crabs to join the feast.
 
The crabs happily agreed.
 
'My name is Zeo,' said the first crab. 'And these are Neo and Keo,' he introduced his friends.
 
We introduced ourselves too. When all the formalities were successfully completed, we sat down on the shore, almost at the water's edge, and each tucked into their own ice cream. Perfect harmony and bliss reigned among us. The waves lazily lapped the shore and, having licked someone's ice cream, just as lazily slid back into the sea. No one felt like talking. We sat silently on the shore, watching the water, and it felt good. Nothing disturbed the silence and serenity we had sunk into.
 
I don't know how long we sat there like that, gazing at the sea. At some point, I felt a kind of inner jolt and understood that it was time to set off in search of Liata. Muss immediately sensed the change in my state and looked at me questioningly.
 
'Did you feel the Call too?' he asked.
 
'The Call? You mean that jolt behind my breastbone?' I clarified.
 
'Yes, that's exactly how it makes itself known,' Muss replied.
 
Our new friends – the crabs Zeo, Neo, and Keo – stirred and looked at us attentively.
 
'If you've soaked up enough sea, we can move on,' said Zeo. 'I've just been informed that the underwater carriage is waiting for you. It will take you all straight to the Twilight Zone. There, you will meet the one you came to our world for.'
 
My jaw dropped in surprise.
 
'So you knew from the very beginning who we were and why we came, didn't you?' I asked in astonishment.
 
All the crabs, Muss, Rozzea, and Kotess giggled.
 
'Well, there you go! As usual, everyone knows everything, and I'm the only one left in the dark,' I lamented.
 
'But none of us would have thought to treat the Messengers to their favourite prawn ice cream! So your ignorance was very much appreciated,' Kotess said gently. 'Isn't that right?'
 
Zeo, Neo, and Keo nodded happily.
 
'Yes, no one has ever treated us to ice cream before. That's a fact. Thank you, Enny!' said Keo for all of them. And they all came closer to thank me.
 
A light blush spread over my cheeks from embarrassment.
 
'Oh, come on, what's so special about that?' I mumbled, embarrassed. 'It's just ice cream. How could I not treat such wonderful crabs?'
 
Now it was Zeo, Neo, and Keo's turn to be embarrassed. They blushed all the colours of the rainbow and began to glow and shimmer.
 
And Muss, Rozzea, and Kotess, chuckling, admired this heart-warming sight.
 
Finally, the edge of an underwater carriage, drawn by seahorses and decorated with coral and mother-of-pearl, emerged from the water.
 
'Your ride is here,' said Zeo, pointing a claw at the carriage. 'Time to say goodbye. But we'll definitely meet again!'
 
'Have a good journey!' cried Neo and Keo. 'Come again! We'll be waiting for you with your favourite ice cream.'
 
We waved goodbye and began to settle onto the soft silk seats of the carriage. As soon as we were comfortable, the seahorses reared up like real horses, just short of neighing, and briskly set off, plunging deeper and deeper into the ocean depths.
 
At first, I held my breath, afraid to inhale. I immediately remembered that I couldn't breathe underwater and almost panicked. But then I looked at Muss's sly little face and how he was demonstratively exhaling colourful air bubbles, and I calmed down. I tried exhaling calmly too. I created a swirl of shimmering little bubbles around us, caught Rozzea and Kotess's surprised looks, plucked up my courage, took a deep breath (I have absolutely no idea how I managed to breathe in water, but the fact remains – it was definitely air, and very tasty and fragrant air at that), and exhaled a huge, bright blue bubble. The bubble shimmered with golden specks, then burst, and a tiny, beautiful fish swam out.
 
For the next half hour, Muss, Rozzea, Kotess, and I amused ourselves by competing to inhale and exhale colourful bubbles of all conceivable sizes and shades, releasing all sorts of sea creatures from them, and delighting in it greatly. Meanwhile, the seahorses carried us through the water column, through dark forests of seaweed, and through the swirling bubbles towards some strange, bluish glow.
 
At first, the glow was small and faint, easily lost in the whirlwind of bubbles, sea creatures, and mysterious lights swirling around the carriage. But as we approached, it grew brighter and more all-encompassing, until the waters around us were tinted a uniform, shimmering azure-turquoise, and through it emerged a fairytale palace of unimaginable beauty!
 
We stared mesmerised at this wonder of nature and didn't even notice at first that we were no longer sitting in the carriage drawn by seahorses, but walking along a soft, fluffy, golden carpet covering the sandy seabed, and swimming towards us was – who do you think? – Punia himself! What a reunion!
 
It turns out Punia lives in this fairytale palace, which is actually a palace-portal, with exits to all the worlds in our Universe. That's why you can always contact him from any world. Well, that's news!
 
Punia offered us a chance to rest after our journey and stay with him. He said he would accompany us to the Twilight Zone himself. But we had to go at a very specific time, related to the cycles there, otherwise we risked meeting not Liata and her friend, but their ghostly doubles, and then the process of reuniting all of Liata's parts and returning her friend Hamba to the world would not be complete.
 
We had no objection to staying with Punia, especially in such an extraordinary, magical place.
 
'I'm sure Punia will tell us something very interesting,' I thought as we either walked or swam towards the palace, 'and feed us something tasty and…' – at this point, my eyes began to close, and I realised I would fall asleep right then and there – 'and I can finally get some sleep,' I stubbornly finished my thought and passed out, lulled by the gentle, wavy motion and something warm and cosy.
 
It turned out that Muss had long noticed I was almost asleep on my feet. He became huge again and laid me on his back in his soft, fluffy fur, like a bed. Rozzea and Kotess also clambered onto his back, one on each side of me, keeping an eye on me to make sure I didn't fall off in my sleep as Muss carried us all, following Punia towards the amazing, shining, fairytale palace-portal.