Where the Tide Keeps Its Secrets
3 chapters for 1 character · about 3 minutes · told 0 times. A slow voyage over silver water, where whales hum the tide to sleep. The highlighted parts are filled in with your own characters when you make this story yours.
Chapter 1: A Knock of Light at the Window
It was the kind of evening that arrives slowly. Outside, the sky had turned the colour of deep blue-green, and inside, ⟨Character 1⟩ had almost finished getting ready for bed.
First there was ⟨Character 1⟩, a ⟨age⟩-year-old ⟨role⟩ who was born in ⟨birthplace⟩, now lives in ⟨home⟩, and loves ⟨favourite thing⟩. Tonight they were already half asleep, the way you are when the day has been full and kind.
At the window there was a path of moonlight on the water, and under it, so faint you could mistake it for your own breathing, came the hush of waves folding onto sand.
"We'll be back before anyone notices," said ⟨Character 1⟩, which is what everyone says at the start of a very gentle adventure. The room smelled of salt and warm seaweed.
Chapter 2: Someone Who Needed Finding
Near the middle of the Moonlit Shallows, ⟨Character 1⟩ stopped. Something was crying, very quietly, the way you cry when you do not want to wake anyone.
It was a tiny glass fish. It had lost the way back to its shoal in the dark. ⟨Character 1⟩ knelt down so as not to seem too tall, and said, "Hello. We can help, if you like."
It did not take long. Around a bend, under a path of moonlight on the water, they found the place a tiny glass fish had been looking for. "Thank you," it said, and it meant it twice.
"You see," said Marlo, "the night is not for being brave. It is for being gentle." ⟨Character 1⟩ yawned, and the yawn seemed to agree.
Chapter 3: The Long Way Home
"It is time," said Marlo, in a voice slow and round, like a cello played underwater. Nobody minded. The best part of going somewhere is the part where you come home sleepy.
⟨Character 1⟩ leaned against the side and watched a path of moonlight on the water grow small. Their breathing slowed. In, and out. In, and out.
Home again. The blankets were warm, the lamp was off, and outside the hush of waves folding onto sand went on, very softly, as if to say: you can sleep now. I will keep watch.
The waves counted themselves in and out, in and out. And ⟨Character 1⟩ slept. And slept. And slept. Goodnight.
Somewhere, Marlo is already asleep. So is the moon. So, very nearly, are you.
A question for tonight
What is the kindest thing anyone did in tonight's story, and who would you do it for?