lake spirits and lost spirits (emy)

Na Lan Tai Hu

Technology was a bit awful when Na Lan really thought about it. Beyond the obviously terrible aspects -pollution, pollution, pollution, and people getting better at killing each other- there was the slightly troubling over reliance on smaller electronics. Computers, for example, were either a boon to scholars or a well planned assassination of their health. Eyesight, to be specific. The artificial light from the computer screen never failed to give him a headache and there was something just a bit wrong with the idea of a water spirit messing around with something so out its domain.

This was why after ten years at the Academy, Na Lan still turned in his assignments written on scrolls. It had taken a while but after three years or so, he had finally gotten into the habit of writing horizontally. After five, he had finally become confident enough to actually write in English. Four years after officially graduating from the college level, however, he was still stuck writing his Master's thesis because firstly, electronic resources hurt, secondly, he was tired too often these days and thirdly, he wanted to write everything remotely related to his topic. Also apparently it was not in good form to use personal experiences in an academic paper.

Time on the lake was what Na Lan really wanted. Summer was too warm of a season for him to think otherwise but at least it was cooler here than back in China. And, somewhat childishly, he thought that he had done quite enough work on his assignment. He could afford the break.

So that day, Na Lan was contentedly melded with the water. Normally, when he was in a rush, he would retain his more solid form but work was adequately paid attention to for the day and the classes that he continued to sit in on had finished hours ago. He barely noticed the one person floating at the surface, so engrossed in the the temporary freedom of all cares. But on the other hand, he had been in the lake so often that the single displaced element stirred some curiosity.

He waited and waited but that person at the surface seemed content to remain there. After enough time had passed, he collected himself and somewhat hazily drifted upwards, half forming himself a distance away.

"It is not very good for humans to be in the water so long, is it?" Na Lan said. From the waist up, he had manifested his solid form but beneath that, he was still very much part of the water.

Na Lan Tai Hu

He blinked at the girl there almost sleepily and sank a few inches back into the lake. The sun was shining brightly but compared with the rest of the week, it was not bad at all. Still, it was more pleasant to be as far away from it as possible.

"Are you going to turn into one of the mermaids, then?" Na Lan asked innocently. "This lake I freshwater and I think that most would rather prefer salt." He was almost completely certain that dialogue was intended as a joke but the idea of having to share the lake with yet another being made him feel just a bit uneasy. It was already crowded enough as it was and while he was not nearly presumptuous enough to claim it as his own -seeing as it did have its own lake spirit- he still was fairly territorial in that regard.

"Thank you, I think." He said after a thought, with a slight tilt of his head. Compliments were always strange to deal with. "I am a lake spirit, although not of this one. My appearance is considered quite plain among my people, however. You would not think that way if you were to see them."

Na Lan Tai Hu

"Mermaids can be a bit strange at times," he said, a seeming non-sequitur to the girl's comment. It was in fact, a very polite way of saying that Na Lan often found them to be silly and sometimes vain. But then again, he supposed that he might feel that way, too if he did not have an empathetic bond with any particular body of water. The freedom must have been nice. "That is not too much of a surprise, unfortunately. Some water spirits are very secretive."

There was silence for a few moments as that girl ducked under the water. Na Lan wondered if she had gone to take a look at the lake natives herself. They were mostly invisible to the naked human eye but if she had some version of the true sight then she might be able to manage it. His thoughts were confirmed when she surfaced again.

"Ah, you can see that?" A very good version of the true sight, then. "That would be the result of pollution in my lake. It can be difficult to deal with The easiest solution to that would be to simply walk away as I have done."

Na Lan Tai Hu

For a little while, Na Lan had no idea what this girl was trying to accomplish. From time to time, his horns did catch people's attention but usually observers were more restrained about touching them. It was not that he particularly minded, as long as one was not seeking to break them, but the comfort that was tradition made him slow to the fact that Oh, yes. This is rather unusual for normal humans, is it not? With a bit of a sheepish hesitance, he sank more into the lake, just enough to close the distance from her fingers.

"As long as you do not bend them," he told her after a moment of slow thought. "The growths take quite some time to return, far longer than your lifespan, maybe longer than that of your great grandchild." He paused for a beat before continuing, "You understand, we are not the same, you and I. It would be unfair to draw comparisons. But where you see fullness in age, I, at times, see deterioration. Both are present, of course, but be mindful of the errors in those generalizations."

The spirit gestured a little to the lake around them. "You see this lake and perceive it as a great body of water. But I assure you that the lake itself sees not a thing at all. People are much in the same way."

Na Lan Tai Hu

"Our lifespans," Na Lan clarified as the girl withdrew. "Even if you looked as I do and could meld with the water, I do not think we would be the same. Time and philosophy would still divide us. We spirits may gain our substance simply by waiting over time. For humans, it is normal to find that one day, it has suddenly manifested itself."

He rose from the water slowly, half-heartedly recreating the few inches he had lost and maintaining only a vaguely defined form. It was always hard to leave the water when he had already been in it for a while. "This is only a perception, mind you, because if we were to judge everything based off of how full their lives are, none of us would ever be content." Na Lan said, "I personally would not judge this value too harshly. The gods did not make us to grieve and struggle, even if it may sometimes feel like it."

When she asked him her last question, he tilted his head to the side and thought for a few moments. Based off of his previous interactions with humans, he had come to the conclusion that they simply had a unconscious tendency to over-complicate. "I suppose it calls itself a lake," Na Lan answered with a bit of confusion. "Please understand, determining exact degrees of anything is a rather difficult task when the entire range has already passed you by. Simply being is normally how these things are defined. Absent of consequence and expectations, many things simply are. There is nothing wrong with simply being. I think that such a thing should bring you joy."