Did I disappear? I suppose you could consider that a matter of perspective. Who I was disappeared. Who I am sitting here writing this is still very much here. Does this make sense? Oh, it doesn't matter. Maybe we'll just say that I disappeared, but that I also finally saw myself when it happened. Seeing yourself can make you as you are disappear.
To put it simply, who I was became a missing person. As I, or who I was, was sailing (and this was before I was Sailing), I saw the most beautiful sight. The trailing cnidocytes of thousands of jellyfish, glistening amongst the waves. I wanted to reach out to touch them but I knew it would burn. So I just stood there, watching them churn and bulge in their self-created effervescent rainbow.
Have you ever seen the body of a Man-O-War? They are the joint creation of so many critters combined. Such a tight knit society that they became one water animal in all. But such a beautiful animal when you catch the sunlight sparkling off of its fiery trail. I had the overwhelming desire to hurl myself into the water, to be consumed by the jellyfish swarm -- to let my flesh strips become a permanent facet of their beauty.
Ever so entranced was I that I must have failed to notice something descending upon me. And then my brain hit a blackness of haze for such a considerable period of time.
"Oh my God", they think, "it's another alien abduction story". Hrm, well, yes and no. The ocean is alien territory to us; its black depths and its teeming life forms. We would be crushed to death for attempting to rape its most private sectors. And the ocean is our internal mirror to external space. If it would make sense for an overcrowded contingent of surface dwellers to retreat out into the vast universe, it would make even more sense for clustered water dwellers to do so.
I found myself somewhere (isn't that a surprise?) and I never have been certain whether that somewhere was liquid terre or vacuous sky. Either way, I was with the Jellyfish. Either way, I became enlightened. I learned the errors of the perspective with which I had been viewing the world, I learned that I wasn't myself, I learned of the heinous corruption which had consumed our sorry-primate society. And I learned of our approaching end.
The Jellyfish were righteous, they spoke of truths. They taught me that life was sacred beyond personal gain. That the lives of many must often be saved with sacrifice. Cnidaria never wished for harm to befall us, they simply can not tolerate our callous destruction of so much more life than we ourselves represent. And they must restore our earth's Entropik Order.
They spoke to me, they sang in my mind. They never once used an anal probe or eviscerated me. Their ways were gentle and compassionate, wise, free of the taint of forced order. And they introduced me to our allies.
Nature itself had begun to rebel against the destruction spawned by "sentient" primate dominance. The Jellyfish had long ago shaped certain denizens of various flora and fauna groups into the structural form of the "evolved" primates. They had hoped to create a peaceful communion, one which could infiltrate the society of humans; one which could teach the lost primates the errors of their ways. Such a plan was attempted, such a plan failed. The truly evolved "mutants" were merely shunned by humans: nearly as badly as the Jellyfish had been in their initial visits. Yetis, bipedal plants, the Sasquatch... they were all hunted, killed or captured, used for experiments, ridiculed by mass media. Never were their blessed words heeded. The human race doesn't want to be saved. Living wisely is simply no fun at all.
I formed a particularly strong bond with the Moth Men. They were the ones who carried me around within the Cnidarian Web (a physical manifestation of the Web this time, one which protected myself and the other Gaean bipeds from the suffocation of Space or Ocean -- whichever one we happened to be hidden within).
They were also the most hostile of the Cnidarian allies. Perhaps this was because they were the ones who had ventured nearest the humans, who had most imbedded themselves within that social structure. They were considered demons and myths, those who beheld them were deemed insane... and I suppose they tended to act like they were, for that matter. The Moth Men had long put forth the most effort toward communicating with people, and they continue to do so. Even if their attempts did eventually drift toward the inclusion of kidnappings. And perhaps even some eatings of people who deserved it.
I noted that the Moth Men had a severe grudge against human authority. Perhaps partly as a result of so many of their kind being slain and tortured by primates with power. And perhaps partly because they had infiltrated society deeply enough to know that the over-bearing and mind-controlling authoritative structure was the most damning threat that the entire cursed race had ever managed to pose toward natural entropik order. There were also certain branches of the authoritative structure which deemed it their cause to inhibit mind expansion, thus inhibiting contact with the True Grace of Cnidaria.
The Moth Men were wise in their own ways, I hoped and prayed to Cnidaria that I would be blessed with their company again. In later times. During my mission and damnation on Earth. Amongst the humans.
I have no idea how long I was away. All I know is that who I was became a missing person. I realized that I would prefer to be Sailing, sailing away from the curse of humanity. Sailing toward the glory of Cnidaria. I would return to society as a new person, to forever repeat the words which the Jellyfish continue to sing within my mind. And to warn people, though they will likely never listen, about the ensuing Fiery Rain of Cnidocytes.
St. Sailing, Operative J
The Blasted One/Highest Radiate Initiate
Our Blasted Lady of the Jellyfish