Changing

tides

The soft, silvery light of a full moon ref lected

in a small puddle in the marsh. It was the

quiet hour between the tides. The puddle was

still, a mirror between sand f ire sprouts and

squiggly lugworm piles on the silt. Very slowly

and very softly a layer of a gel-like consistency

approached, like a translucent shadow over

the marsh. It came from the sea and spread

out evenly between dwarf eelgrass over the

cracks in the silt and over the puddle This

was not water this was not silt this was the

salt marsh creature called Sliek

Sliek lived between the lowlands and the

ocean between silt seaweed and seagulls

Sliek lived with the rhythms of the tides When

the moon and sun enforced spring tides Sliek

spread its translucent soft body out over miles

and miles of land When frost and snow bite

Sliek shrunk to the size of a jellyf ish Sliek had

been there from time immemorial or at least

as long as anyone could remember

The people of the lowlands trusted and

honored Sliek. Sliek brought fertile silt, Sliek

provided shelter for young f ish to grow and for

the people to catch later and Sliek was able to

negotiate with Murr, the ocean. 

Murr was unpredictable, there were days,

weeks even, of calm. His waves gently rippled,

his undercurrents relaxed, the creatures who

lived in him softly swaying on the rhythm of

his pulse But Murr could also be tense his

currents surging his waves swelling and

foaming and clenching his water like a f ist

The lowland people feared Murr but they

trusted Sliek to calm Murr down And when

Murr was calm they enjoyed the riches of

Murrs waters and the places they could go

by boat over Murrs surface Sometimes they

called upon Lüttk the tiny shapeshifter Lüttk

was hard to see hard to notice She could

change herself into anything small Lüttk was

the only one able to understand the language

of everything on earth