Charlie continued well past the point he would normally have turned back - he now had quite a ways to swim against the current back to Brad. It didn't matter - he felt amazing, sure he could make the upstream swim for hours. Finally, he stopped and looked upriver. Brad was not visible at this distance, especially in the dark. Odd - the surface of the water around him was reflecting a greenish light.
A faint sound, like high-pitched laughter, came from somewhere above him. The source looked like a huge firefly that was circling overhead. He hadn't know fireflies made sounds. As he tried to focus on the insect, the fish darting past came to mind. They would normally snag bugs off the surface, but these salmon had only one purpose. He puzzled at the thought - none of this was new, he'd been thinking about their spawning earlier. But this was so intense. He could imagine the drive, the overpowering urges clearly, sense the urgency, feel the muscles ripple, the rush of water. Then he had a less thrilling image of dying fish floating on the surface of a lake, being snatched and eaten by wild animals and birds of prey while they were still alive. It was more than just the death - there was a sense of total resignation, as if the salmon knew they had no further purpose in life. It was worse than hopelessness - they were nothing at all, debris to be cleared away.
Charlie shook off the dark thoughts. Man, what a downer! What had brought that on? He pushed the images out of his mind and focused on the excitement of merging with the salmon. Diving under the surface, he found a concentration of the spawning fish and swam as fast as he could.
Overhead, the purple fae followed Charlie, the now-silvery body a bright streak. His legs began to merge, bones thinning and developing more joints. and his arms drew in. Una giggled as the teen's shoulders sloped back even as his chest barreled out. He was getting shorter, narrower across the body, but much deeper.
Charlie was amazed to find that he could keep up with the salmon now, his body moving fluidly through the water at what must be record-breaking speed. And some of these fish were huge! He'd seen some that were probably 30 pounds or more, but the ones around him might be twice that! He was vaguely aware of his speedo slipping off, but was too focused on the incredible swimming to care. Pressure built inside, and he began to relieve himself of both solid and liquid waste, and still he swam.
Una applauded gleefully as she watched the odd creature below her dwindle and change. The former boy was already so caught up the same instincts that drove the salmon around him that he did not realize he was far more like the fish than the human he had been. His legs finished merging and his entire lower body flexed smoothly, the tailfin that had been his feet pushing him powerfully through the water. He was looking forward, not even aware that he no longer had a neck. The back of his head merged into the sweep of his body, and gills opened up to take over for lungs.
Swimming so fast, so far. So far to go. As Charlie streaked through the water, odd things started to break through the fanatical need to keep going with the salmon. He was not holding his breath any more - he could feel an odd sort of movement that was not his lungs, and the sense of having air. And the salmon themselves had become monstrous, many as big as he was or even bigger! How far had he gone? Not far enough. he had to reach the spawning grounds.
That last thought finally shocked him out of the daze and he struggled to turn out of the salmon run. They were carrying him with them, and it was nearly impossible to resist his own need to be part of the spawn. He tried to surface, but only managed to leap out of the water and splash back again. Why couldn't he stand up? Or look around? Even as he tried to understand that, he found himself starting back upriver and had to force himself away again. Another leap. There! He was near Brad. Fighting the need to keep swimming, he managed to work his way to the shallows.
A curious red glow hovered around his friend, darting back and forth. Another firefly? Charlie swam in circles, desperate to understand, to call out for help. Wait. Was that Brad? Charlie's vision had become distorted, but even allowing or that the shape and size were wrong. Yes, that was Brad. he caught a glimpse of his friend's face. Except... the rest of the boy's body was vastly swollen and shaggy. Charlie swam back, leaping up in the air over and over, getting a time-lapse view of what was happening. Brad's face pushed out, his nose turning dark and forehead sinking. He fell forward onto thick clawed paws, almost completely a bear.
Charlie was swept back by the current as he stared in shock, not only from watching his best friend become a beast, but in realization of what had happened to himself. Panicked, he shot forward in a burst of speed and saw the huge bear swipe at something in the water. A salmon was flung up onto the river bank and the animal snatched it up and tore it apart with powerful jaws.
Self-preservation joined with primal instincts to send Charlie shooting back into the center of the river, where he merged back in with the flow of salmon. He was confused and terrified, and the spawning fish surrounding him provided a sense of comfort, of purpose. He was one of them, swimming back to where he had been born... no! He was not salmon, he had not been hatched, had never been in this river before, had not grown up in the ocean. There was more to his life than simply making one new generation of salmon.
And yet - even as he thought that Charlie could not make himself stop, could not turn away from the salmon run. He had to fertilize the eggs of the female he would mate with. He knew those were the thoughts of a salmon, understood that he was swimming to pre-ordained death. He was no longer a teenage boy just starting off in life. Now he was a fish on its last journey, driven by a single, overwhelming need. He could not fight that need, could not resist the instincts that had taken over his life. But he still understood what was happening, and where his journey would end.