He arrives with the current, materializing as she takes another swallow of water. Her eyes – slit pupils, viridian, vibrant – stare downstream to observe how the blood dissipates. With it, the mother fades from her mind and she briefly alone. He – this titan, this beast of the river lands – presents himself, but she doesn’t regard him until her name sits pointedly on his tongue. Lifting her head, she peers up at him. ”Skaide,” she echoes, but her voice is high and immature. It drips as easily from her lips as the water while she stares at him with a hauntingly flat affect. Of course, she listens to him. Even as her ears indecisively swivel – there’s idle chat behind her, a fish jumping out of water to her left, and the beast to her right – Skaide considers his offer.
She isn’t a fool. That’s what she has been repeating to herself since abandoning the mother’s remains. Skaide could nearly taste the sadness rolling off the mother’s words; she was smothered by her solemnity and regrets and tragedies. It nearly choked Skaide, but biting Shiya and filling her with poison evicted the problem. As her venom course through the mother, the overwhelming tide of emotions receded until the child was alone in an empty void.
It has been freeing, surviving this world without a nearly tangible cloud of emotions following her. That had been the mother’s undoing, but it won’t be hers.
That’s why her expression is so distant even as she considers his offer. ”Shiya,” that had been her dam’s name, right? Already the image of her has flickered away. ”Pangea,” now she tastes the name of his home, her voice hollow as it bounces off the water’s restless surface. ”What’s there?” The beach and the river is all she knows. Their landscapes are painted across her memory with tedious detail, but Pangea is outside of her grip, unchartered and foreign. Much as he expected, Skaide doesn’t nosedive and bend to his offer. It continues to hang between them, idle and patient. ”Why should I listen to someone who knew her?” She doesn’t say the mother’s name, not giving her that power in death. Licking the water from her lips, Skaide lifts her head but her eyes stare a hole through him, reading his placid heartbeat.
i swear i'll become your only desire. i swear i'll rip you apart.She isn’t a fool. That’s what she has been repeating to herself since abandoning the mother’s remains. Skaide could nearly taste the sadness rolling off the mother’s words; she was smothered by her solemnity and regrets and tragedies. It nearly choked Skaide, but biting Shiya and filling her with poison evicted the problem. As her venom course through the mother, the overwhelming tide of emotions receded until the child was alone in an empty void.
It has been freeing, surviving this world without a nearly tangible cloud of emotions following her. That had been the mother’s undoing, but it won’t be hers.
That’s why her expression is so distant even as she considers his offer. ”Shiya,” that had been her dam’s name, right? Already the image of her has flickered away. ”Pangea,” now she tastes the name of his home, her voice hollow as it bounces off the water’s restless surface. ”What’s there?” The beach and the river is all she knows. Their landscapes are painted across her memory with tedious detail, but Pangea is outside of her grip, unchartered and foreign. Much as he expected, Skaide doesn’t nosedive and bend to his offer. It continues to hang between them, idle and patient. ”Why should I listen to someone who knew her?” She doesn’t say the mother’s name, not giving her that power in death. Licking the water from her lips, Skaide lifts her head but her eyes stare a hole through him, reading his placid heartbeat.
Skaide
@[Eight]