Kendra worried about the amount of time she would have to spend in her water form, fighting for her survival like the other marine animals.
Was this how her Mothers felt when they were trapped in the black water?
She threw the crutches against the concrete wall when she reached the old dolphin enclosure.
Some of the cracked white paint flaked off and floated to the floor like scattered feathers.
Kendra wrapped her clothes in a plastic bag and edged her naked body along the concrete ledge into the old seal display pool.
She rolled herself to the bottom of the empty pool into a shallow puddle of stagnant rain water.
The muddy droplets dripped down her limbs following the red pattern of her scars, ending their journey at her ankles as Kendra got down onto her hands and knees, crawling inside the drainage pipe leading to an underwater holding-cage.
Her land-body immersed with the cold salt and floated slowly out into the open waters.
Kendra gritted her teeth with the familiar pain.
Her feet pointed out at right angles; her groin fused under the sudden growth of grey membrane.
Kendra surfaced for a huge gulp of air as her lower body bubbled with trans-activity.
Fine streams of blood pulsed alongside the current spinning around her writhing water form.
Her grey eyes looked for the constellation that would show her the way.
If her body needed sleep, she would find an inlet or small island to rest.
For now, the luxury of the safety cave was as far away as her childhood and as remote as Emily's last kiss.
Gliding past the skeleton of the Mandalay wreck, Kendra swam in the direction of the abandoned oil rig platform.
She could still feel the suffocating oily patches in the remaining black water, sticking to her skin like plastic.
She swam on the surface keeping watch on the stars.
If she stared out onto the black horizon she could imagine her Mothers’ bodies smothered by the burning oil; pores clogged and drowned by the blackness.
If she wished hard enough, could they still be out there beyond Mandalay Bay, past Moorditj Island and out beyond the currents running under the Seven Sisters?
Kendra gripped the carved tooth hanging at chest.
The markings might make sense if she fine-tuned her homing instinct and kept aim towards the constellation.
It would be worth everything, if Kendra found some remnant of whatever became of her Mothers.