INITIATION: CHANGES
S1E1 | Sci-fi | Biopunk | Coming of age
Hello my fellow voyagers🖖. Initiation is a coming of age, biopunk, sci-fi mini-series in four parts. In this episode a young girl learns the date of her initiation.
Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4
A gust of wind blew the white curtains away from the window, showing a glimpse of the waning moon. The crashing of the ocean waves hit her eardrums, strident and longing, rippling through her body, naked against the bedsheets. The velvety smooth fabric pined on her skin with its papillose structure like the epidermis of a gigantic rose petal. The petal effect technology kept her body dry and cool in the sticky monsoon weather. She adjusted the sound of her hearing implants, tuning in to the communal song of the palace whale pods. During the first monsoon month, their song had switched to a higher pitch in preparation for the colder autumn and winter months, though she could still hear the summer’s low-pitch moaning. She allowed the song to sip into her body, feeling the soothing embrace of these familiar yet mysterious beings who experienced the world through sound and water.
‘Young mistress, you seem to be still awake,’ her personal assistant whispered in her ears. ‘Should I drip some sleeping potion?’
‘Wait a second!’ she ordered.
She tapped into the palace security behind the night-wall and connected to Alva’s feed. She suddenly felt an urge to check on her young whale. Alva had been agitated during the day, and she wanted to make sure that she was well. The first thing she heard was the loud thumping of Alva’s heartbeat and the reverberating sound of several male whales singing behind her tail. Were they chasing her?
‘Amiie Vesper, go to sleep!’ Her mother’s sharp voice almost made her jump from bed. ‘Tomorrow you have lessons in the morning!’
‘Maa, something is wrong with Alva! She seemed very agitated!’
‘Alright, I’ll take a look! But afterwards, you go to sleep young lady!’
Amiie sensed her mother’s calming presence on Alva, heard the strange clicking, squeaking, squawking and whispering sounds she made to communicate with the young whale. ‘I checked her vitals. Alva has her first oestrus cycle.’
‘Her what?’ Amiie said.
‘She reached her reproductive age, meaning she can have babies now. She’s in heat and is chased by about six males competing for her.’
‘But where is her maa? Why doesn’t she protect her?’
‘Whale mothers drop their daughters once they achieve reproductive maturity.’
Amiie clasped her hands together under the blanket.
‘Plus, the mother should do nothing in this case. Now that’s enough talk! Go to sleep, alright?’
She had so many questions burning on her tongue, but something in her mother’s tone told her that now was not the time to ask them.
‘Good night, maa!’
‘Good night, jaan! Sleep well!’
Her mother ended the connection to Alva, sending Amiie back into the dark silence of her room. The sleeping potion administered through the nano-drippers in her bloodstream made her eyelids heavy. Images of Alva chased by a hoard of singing male whales crossed her mind’s eye. Then she herself was Alva but in human form, swimming with her naked body in the vast ocean, her world a blur of blue waves, her chest cavity vibrating with the whale song, her body beautiful, wild and free.
~~~
The cool, salty breeze of the ocean tickled her nostrils come morning light.
‘Rise and shine!’
Her mother entered the room like a whirlwind.
‘Maa, what are you doing here?’
‘Someone didn’t hear her alarm this morning!’
‘What?’ Amiie checked the time and jumped out of bed. ‘Why didn’t you wake me up earlier? Now I have only five minutes to get ready! Where is my dress?’
But her mother stood frozen in the middle of the room.
‘Maa?’
Amiie turned her head and that’s when she saw it. On her pristine white bedsheets, there was a large red bloodstain. Amiie clasped her hands in front of her bare chest. A gust of wind blew through the white curtains, sending a shiver down her body, making her aware of something wet and sticky between her legs for the first time. Her eyes traveled down her skin, past the budding breasts, the smooth belly, the soft chestnut pubic hair, to the inner of her thighs stained by two messy red patches of drying blood.
‘Maa! I’m going to die!’ Amiie screamed at the top of her lungs.
Her mother smiled at her gently, but there was something new in her eyes that made her feel ashamed of her naked body.
‘Your first cycles synched,’ she said. ‘It’s a sign.’
‘What are you talking about, maa? I don’t understand anything! What’s happening to me?’
Her mother looked at her once again with the familiar teary, smiling eye, but just before she grabbed her shoulders to give her a tight embrace, there was again that cool and distant shadow in her eyes.
‘You’ll learn everything on the next full moon when your initiation takes place.’
The initiation. Amiie had been waiting for the initiation her whole life. She never knew it would come with the red, warm shame trickling down the inner of her thighs.
To be continued…
Initiation: Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4
Author’s notes
This is the first part of Initiation, a short story I started writing yesterday evening. I usually finish every work of fiction before I publish it here, but this time, I want to try something new: serialized fiction. I’ll write the second part in the next few days and send it to your inbox next Sunday. There might be a third part, something I don’t know yet, which is exciting!
This story is set in the same world as Welcome to gulmohur, the first short story I published on Story Voyager in March 2023. This story world is a continuation of the Dust Road universe and is set in the year 3600 CE.
Like ‘Welcome to gulmohur’, ‘Initiation’ explores the youth of a prominent character from an upcoming novel with the working title The Deep Dive which will be a sequel to my ongoing cli-fi series, There Is Hope.
I hope that you enjoyed this glimpse into the future. Once I finish my experiment in serializing Initiation, I will edit the story and publish it here. Let’s make this an exercise of writing fiction in public!
As always, thank you for being here. It means the world to me 💚.
P.S.: My husband told me the story finished so quick, he barely had time to throw the first popcorn in his mouth. If you felt the same, here’s more popcorn 🍿.
Initiation: Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4
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Nice work Claudia.
I’ve never thought about syncing cycles between humans and other animals, but I loved the idea that she could also sync with the whale using technology, making her feel more in tune with the creature. How might we evolve if we were more in tune with nature?