[Raking leaves]

The roads were silent heading toward Wales. The big motorway headed to
Liverpool cut to the north, leaving and endless web of roads. Not that they
ever had much use, with the few hamlets tucked into tiny valleys, but late in
the evening, there was nobody else. 

Dr. Renfield made good use of the empty roads, letting her car cut the corners
slightly, and using the extra room to drive even faster than usual. She deftly
made the twisting turns up the mountain, then, as the road came over the pass
at the top, she slowed suddenly and pulled to the side of the road.

Meera looked up and gasped. A golden triangle sprawled away to the right,
spokes radiating from a half hub in the center. Liverpool’s lights, and the
triangle cut like it had a mouth by an inky blackness, river emptying into the
sea. The sky met the sea far out, the inky blackness pushing back the deep
charcoal grey.

“And look at this.”

Dr. Renfield pulled them back away from the city lights, and after a moment,
their eyes adjusted. Above mirrored the spectacle of lights, this time in
blues, but instead of a mouth of inky blackness, a rivulet of stars cut the
blackness itself and littered the sky with jewels. What looked like swirling
clouds at second glance were themselves fields of stars. A brief flash of light
made one of the stars look as if it moved, then vanished.

They sat in silence.

Finally, after almost an hour, Meera shivered and slipped back into the car.
The others followed, though she leaned against the window and kept one eye on
the sky as they drove.

The quay was silent, almost forgotten. In other years, fishing boats would have
been strung close here, but now, only a few resting hulks creaked in their
moorings. The shops that used to line the walk were shuttered, having moved to
places near roads instead of the sea. Dr. Renfield took three torches from
under the bonnet of the car, and they started to walk down the beach toward the
jetty.

The water was low, leaving behind the stink of fish and seaweed, but along with
it it left pools of water, now still and reflecting the jeweled sky above. 

Something moved sideways when Meera stepped over it, and scuttled off into one
of the pools,  momentarily breaking the reflection of the heavens. She yelped
involuntarily before aiming her torch into the pool.

She stopped short. It was teeming with motion. A feathery form waved back and
forth until the beam of light hit it directly, then it vanished into a tiny
shell that she was sure couldn’t contain it. She spotted the crab that had
rushed into the pool, clutching jealously to a little overhanging rock. She saw
a couple eyes peer out at her before vanishing back under another rock.

She put her fingers over the lens of the torch, leaving only the dull red glow
of light filtering through skin. Her eyes slowly adjusted, and she thought she
saw fireworks in the pool. She turned the torch off completely, and saw it
again, a green flash spread through the water and then faded again. A ripple of
glowing green motion, like a snake coiling through the water, then another
glowing flash from the water itself.

She looked up and saw Dick watching her and staring into the water too.

A noise sounded behind them, long and low.

Meera straightened and turned to look.

Dr. Renfield stood, ankle deep in a pool with her trousers rolled up to her
knees, holding something that looked like a hose. She put it to her lips and
blew. Out came the long low sound, until she started laughing and smacked her
lips together. “Kelp!” she said, holding up the brown hose.

She blew on it again, but this time started laughing almost immediately, making
only a squeak.