Dorik

Heryshaf followed the river for many miles until the land began to flatten and the river widened before him.

Then, quite suddenly, there was nowhere left for it to go.

The sea stretched to the horizon.

Heryshaf stopped.

'Wow.'

The water shimmered blue and green beneath the sun. Waves folded themselves onto the shore and withdrew again, leaving long shining lines upon the sand.

Then he heard something squealing.

'Help me... Please help me!'

Heryshaf made his way across the sand towards the sound. There, struggling above the reach of the waves, was the strangest creature he had ever seen.

It was almost completely transparent.

'Please!' cried the creature.

Heryshaf came closer.

'I'll help you. But first tell me who and what you are.'

'Dorik. Dorik the jellyfish. Now please, will you help me back into the water?'

'How did you get stuck here?'

Dorik groaned.

'Very well, sheep. What do you know about jellyfish?'

'My name is Heryshaf the sheep, and I know nothing about jellyfish. I've never seen anything like you.'

'Well, Heryshaf the sheep, I've never heard of a sheep with a name such as yours either. It is truly very strange.'

Heryshaf smiled, nodded and agreed.

Dorik relaxed.

'Aldwin the eagle told me that every creature has its own gift from the Creator,' said Heryshaf. 'What is yours?'

Dorik gave a miserable little laugh.

'If only Aldwin the eagle were right. For most creatures, perhaps. Not for me. A curse was put upon me and my kind. I can never get close to another being. I cannot touch another creature, because I am poisonous. I may maim or kill them by mere touch.'

Heryshaf took a step backwards.

'And you asked me to pick you up?'

'There is one place you can touch me safely.'

'Where?'

'The very top of my head.'

Heryshaf stared at him.

'And how am I supposed to know you're telling the truth?'

Dorik blinked.

'I suppose you just have to trust me.'

'But I don't even know you.'

'You trusted Aldwin the eagle. How long had you known him?'

'Not long,' Heryshaf admitted.

'Then why not trust me? Look at me. I'm dying. I'm in pain. You're my only hope.'

Heryshaf looked at the sea.

A wave came almost close enough to reach Dorik, then slipped back.

'I have thought about trust,' he said. 'I find it easier to trust those who seek nothing from me. Aldwin shared his experience with me. So did Jonk. Neither asked anything of me.'

'I am asking you not to let me die.'

'Yes.'

Dorik stared at him.

'You really are a very suspicious sheep.'

'I've had a complicated few weeks.'

Another wave broke and withdrew.

'Tell me something,' said Heryshaf. 'I've travelled a long way looking for the meaning of life. If you've learned something on your travels that might help me, tell me. Then I'll risk helping you.'

Dorik looked offended.

'You're bargaining with a dying jellyfish?'

Heryshaf considered this.

'Yes.'

'At least you're honest.'

'But how do I know,' said Dorik, 'that if I reveal my truth, you won't simply leave me here to die and take it for your own?'

Heryshaf opened his mouth.

Then closed it.

Dorik smiled weakly.

'You see?'

'You are one hundred percent correct,' said Heryshaf, remembering Jonk.

Dorik looked pleased.

Heryshaf nodded.

'I promise I'll put you back in the sea.'

'You promise?'

'Yes.'

Dorik studied him for a moment.

'Very well. But we must hurry.'

Heryshaf sat down beside him.

'I'm listening.'

'Much like Jonk the fish, I too have travelled the oceans of the world searching for an answer. But unlike Jonk, I can go deeper.'

'How deep?'

'Very deep. So deep that the pressure would kill almost any other living creature.'

Dorik looked towards the sea.

'I went down into darkness where there was no sunlight at all. And whenever I thought I had reached the deepest place, I discovered there was somewhere deeper still.'

'What did you find?'

'Mostly darkness.'

'That doesn't sound very useful.'

'It wasn't.'

Dorik shifted painfully in the sand.

'But I learned something from going down.'

'What?'

'That depth is not the same as truth.'

Heryshaf listened.

'On my journeys into the abyss I passed the carcasses of creatures who had gone down searching for the answer and never came back.'

'That fits with everything I've learned,' said Heryshaf.

'Does it?'

'The mountain couldn't give me the answer. Aldwin couldn't find it in the heavens. Jonk couldn't find it in the rivers or the sea. They all led me to the same conclusion.'

Dorik watched him.

'Which is?'

'That the truth cannot be found out there.'

Heryshaf looked towards the sea.

'You have to look inside yourself.'

Dorik laughed.

Heryshaf frowned.

'What?'

'That was my conclusion too.'

'Then what's funny?'

Dorik's expression changed.

'Because the truth cannot be found within yourself either.'

Heryshaf stared at him.

'What?'

For the first time since meeting him, Heryshaf forgot about the sea, the bargain and even the dying jellyfish in front of him.

'Everything I've learned has brought me to that.'

'I know,' said Dorik.

'The mountain. Aldwin. Jonk—'

'I know.'

'Then how can it be wrong?'

Dorik looked down through his own transparent body.

'Because I looked.'

Heryshaf said nothing.

'And when I looked inside myself,' said Dorik, 'I saw straight through.'

Heryshaf could see the grains of sand beneath him.

'I am transparent, after all.'

'Dorik.'

'I'm serious.'

The jellyfish's voice became quieter.

'I looked for the thing I called me. Do you know what I found?'

'What?'

'Memories. Things that had happened to me. Things other creatures had said. Things I wanted. Things I feared. Reflections upon reflections.'

Dorik looked at him.

'When you take the time to look inside, you may be horrified to discover there is nothing there but reflections of your past.'

Heryshaf felt something in him go still.

'Then what am I?'

Dorik gave a faint shrug.

'Now that is a better question.'

Heryshaf was quiet for a while.

'Thank you, Dorik.'

'You're welcome.'

Dorik waited.

'And now,' he croaked, 'your part of the bargain?'

Heryshaf stood.

'Sorry, Dorik. I must get going. I've got an answer to find.'

Dorik's eyes widened.

'But you promised!'

Heryshaf took two steps away.

'Only joking.'

'You horrible sheep!'

Heryshaf laughed.

He approached Dorik carefully and placed his hoof against the very top of the jellyfish's head.

Nothing happened.

'You see?' said Dorik.

'I'm reserving judgement.'

With considerable difficulty, Heryshaf pushed and rolled Dorik across the wet sand until the next wave caught him.

The water lifted the jellyfish gently.

Dorik floated away.

'I won't forget you, Heryshaf!' he called.

'I hope not!'

Heryshaf watched him drift farther from the shore.

Dorik sank slowly beneath the surface.

His transparent body became harder and harder to distinguish from the water around him until Heryshaf could no longer see him at all.

There was nothing left upon the surface but Heryshaf's own reflection.