"But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura
breaking like the waves down on the coastline breaking like the wine-stained glass that held my drink
In the confinement of the ocean, peace and quite was all she knew.
There was only serenity within the waters. She was the daughter of the water. The ocean was hers, not holding her form living and exploring the deepest parts of the ocean. Where not everyone is lucky enough to wander and explore to. The mysterious of the ocean were her secrets.
But even how marvelous the waters of Beqanna were to the girl, there were other curiosities that edged at the back of her mind. The sea was beautiful, the water creatures were fascinating, and the storms of oceans and waves were admirable. But these no longer filled her with what she wanted to know.
Eva wanted to know it all.
Understand the world.
Make it for her own.
The large land and small islands that is not the sea intrigues her. She baffles at what it could possible be and what it could not be. Often, Eva had watched the creatures that live and breath on the land. There had only been one time the young sea-girl had mustered the courage to get closer. It had gone well, surprisingly.
But it had not been enough.
It would not be until she felt the sand beneath her own hooves.
Eva knows a place. She has circled around these lands for some time now, admiring them from all angles from the water. But there was one place. A place that water ran deep and wide into the heart of the biggest land. She isn’t sure what it is called—but eventually she will learn it is a river what the dryland folks call it.
The purple girl pushes through the water with ease. The sight of the river is closer. She nears it with ease, pushing and pulling the water with each limb and hoof. The waves of the ocean, beneath her, push her forward, guiding her closer to her new adventure.
Eventually, she reaches close to where the mouth of the river opens into the water that folds around Beqanna. Her orange-golden eyes light up with wonder. Her curiosity makes her heart pound hard against her chest, but a small dull feeling of fear fills the pit of her stomach. Eva glances to each side of the river where the river divides the dryland.
She doesn’t move any further now. Unsure if this was even a good idea. The fear within her stomach grows larger now. The sea-girl snorts in irritation at herself now, and swims closer, feeling the embankment of on her right hoof. She quickly pushes back, sending herself further back then before away from the shoreline.
“Get a grip on yourself!” She says loudly with annoyance.
Oh, Adria understands the duality of their existence. Part sea creature, part land creature, able to inhabit two worlds. A conflicted life; you can’t seem to devote yourself wholly to either land or water so you constantly move between them.
From a very early age her mother Nyxa, the first Nereid, had warned Adria what to expect of a long unfolding future. “There are few like us,” She warned her daughter, knowing that a filly wouldn’t be a filly forever - eventually curiosity would spark and a desire for companionship would grow, “I was lucky that your father grew to be more like us. But we’re rare, darling.”
The sea would always call a Nereid home. Sadly, there were so few creatures in Beqanna able to follow that calling.
The older Adria grew, the worse that longing became and the more unfulfilled it felt. Eventually the dark basin of Hyaline’s lakebottom lost her interest. She decided on a whim to head out, swimming into the River’s current, where the waterway bent and twisted between snow-capped mountain ranges and the chill of icy rapids sank through her impossibly thick, seasonal coat. The further she swam, the more silty the water became and each bank spread wider apart from one another. Eventually Adria found herself rolling peacefully through the belly of an immensely squat, deep river and she could feel the subtle change of temperature. A current was different here, tainted with sediment and hints of salt.
Using her gift to control the waters around her, Adria sank like a gator to the bottom of the murky depths and walked forward as if she were on dry land, eager to watch the film clear and reveal the area where Beqanna’s great ocean met her freshwater cousin.
However, the faint cry of Get a grip on yourself! steals her attention and the fuzzy, submerged waterhorse perks up. In her naive sense of mind, she considers that someone might possibly be drowning so, like a truly considerate creature of the deep, Adria sends a powerful wave curling outward towards the gaping bay. It drags debris in its wake with great force and she smiles to see it go. There! She thinks, pleased, That will sweep them up and put them back to dry land.
upon my journey i must go, to where the river flows
breaking like the waves down on the coastline breaking like the wine-stained glass that held my drink
She has only known the serenity of the ocean. The uniqueness of being the only nereid there was. But she barely knows what she is capable of. The beauty and dangers of the very creature she is.
The waters around her is all she has ever known to protect. It had made her what she is, taking her when she had nothing. They had made her a daughter, a child of the waters.
Eva, still a child, naïve and curious of the world did not have a guiding hand of a mother and father. It was the mother of the ocean that protected her, making her a nereid and capable of controlling what she had been called to protect.
But she wishes to know it all, drawn to the very dryland that she circles day and day out since she found its very existence outside of her land mother’s womb on the shore of the bone-bleached beach. A tint of darkness and sadness mixed into one while she had been a gift of life that day.
The voice of the dryland callers her in some sort of dark and dangerous way. That’s why she is here today, trying to find courage within herself to explore what lays beyond the waters of her home. The dangers that could hurt her and what she protects fiercely.
She is thrusted suddenly though after screaming out with annoyance. The great force of the wave pushes her forward towards the dry land she considered not going up and exploring. Eva screams out in fear, but also annoyance thinking her mother ocean did something without her approval. The sea-girl squirms and pushes the water as much as she can to get away from the shore coming forward, but she twists and turns, unable to manage her control over the powerful wave that pushes her onto the dryland.
Eva feels the embarkment suddenly on her wet body as she rolls up onto shore, the sand and dirt cling to her soaked and scaled coat. Her head spins slightly, feeling dizzy and unsteady as she lays there for a moment or two. It feels like a long time, but eventually she finds the dizziness finding and her balance returning. The sand beneath her feels strange and different. Definitely different from the wet sand that harbors at the bottom of the ocean.
Realizing she has landed on her belly during the whole chaotic situation, Eva quickly glances around, realizing she is on the dryland. “Well, you didn’t have to do it like that,” she says loudly, speaking to the ocean as she has not realized it has another one that sent her all the way to the shore. Eva snorts with irritation as she finally gets a grip of herself and glances out to the waters. She quickly catches sight of the waterhorse perked up where the river opens into the ocean.
“WHO ARE YOU!” She asks with a great demanding tone. Eva puts one hoof out and attempts to find her balance on the dryland. She struggles like a newborn foal trying to find their footing in the world. “Did you do this to me?” She asks with anger, still trying to attempt to stand up. Eva falls down on her bum, and she lets out an annoyed snort of frustration, blowing the few strands of her mane up and then over her face again.
Eva shakes her head in a frenzy. Orange-gold eyes bright and bold keeping her attention clear on the older horse. “Well, are you going to say something?” She says, clearly making no effort this time to move from the position she fell into.
Immobile, Adria watches the purple girl tumble out of the ocean and over the waiting shore. From here it did not seem as if the young one was in distress, though Adria was certain she had heard a cry further out in the water. In fact the brightly colored creature looks to be the exact opposite of grateful; Eva looks very upset.
As if having read those thoughts, the royally dressed filly (in a deep satin coat and with her hair flaming like the morning sun) turned around and caught sight of Adria’s bobbing head, which she promptly screamed at. Adria herself looked taken aback by the outrage. Had she done something wrong? Did the girl want to drown?
Impatient from hearing no reply, the other seahorse barks out across the empty space between them, demanding some excuse from the guilty party that floated silently offshore. Inhaling for courage, Adria gathered the water around her with easy power and lifted her entire body up from the depths. Her chest and hips rose, gleaming, from the river, streaming rivulets of water in their wake as a magical wave pushed her (this one less violent) towards the shore. She made no move to lift her legs or fake as if she were swimming - the entire ordeal seemed ethereal and graceful, right up to the moment her hooves touched down against the sandy beach.
She walked forward, then. Her bright violet eyes glimmered with curiosity over the jelly-legged girl, and a hesitant smile crept along her impossibly lovely mouth. Between the two, it seemed as if the world had spilled all its beauty into this little gathering. “Padonem, madame.” She spoke softly, her tongue twisted by an islanders accent and language. “Forgive me Lady. I assumed you were drowning, no?”
A soft laugh, like air bubbles rising to the surface of a lake, escaped from Adria’s throat. She tilted her refined head and blinked quietly. “Don’t be mad, tanpri. I didn’t mean to frighten you. Are you feeling hurt?”
upon my journey i must go, to where the river flows
breaking like the waves down on the coastline breaking like the wine-stained glass that held my drink
Eva grows even more impatient by the second. Eyes burning bright and bold as she stares at the water mare that lingers in the ocean. She sulks at having to wait for an answer to who this other creature was.
She cannot help but wonder who the other seahorse is. How did she move the water like that? It didn’t feel possible that anyone else could control the water. It isn’t, she tells herself. Plainly, it would never be. Eva was the only one that could. The only one at least she has ever met. She was the daughter of the ocean and knew the ends and outs of the sea.
But perhaps she truly did not.
Perhaps she was not the only one.
Suddenly, the water moves around the seahorse. Eva gaze widens at the scene that unfolds before her. She watches as the water answers to the call of the mare. The water moves around her, carrying her forward. Each movement, the water and the seahorse become one, move with grace and beauty. It is something she has never seen before.
Except Eva cannot help but wonder if that’s the way she looked. Did she look as graceful and beautiful as the other water horse did? Sometimes she felt clumsy and off balanced. But she always enjoyed pushing herself quickly at the surface of the water.
The seahorse is than at the shore. Her orange-gold eyes fade away with irritation, but they remain wide-eyed as she stares at the mare. There is a glimmer of curiosity as she stares at Eva and a friendly, warm smile lifts on the stranger’s lip. Eva doesn’t return the smile. She isn’t exactly sure what to say, except the mare takes the lead in answering her finally.
Eva’s small ears swivel at the strange accent and language that leaves the lips of the mare. The seahorse assumes she was drowning. Eva snorts softly at that idea. She could never drown. She was the best swimmer she knew. Then the mare laughs softly. She then peers at Eva with curiosity. There was something quickly charming about the other mare instantly now. Her anger and annoyance recently suddenly vanished.
“No, I was not drowning,” she says softly. “I could never drown in the water. It’s my home.” A warm smile crosses over her lips. The very ocean was her favorite thing and it brought her instant warmth at the thought of it. “And I’m not scared!” She rushes to say, remembering the last words of the mare before she got caught up in admiring the grace and beauty of the stranger. “I just-“ she stumbles over her words. “Well, I’ve never been on this dry land before.” She confesses quickly, spilling the words out that jumble together almost.
The girl then realizes she is still in the same place she fell before. Her eyes widen when she remembers. “It can’t be that hard can it?” She asks as she quickly attempts to find her balance again on the sandy shore. Eva quickly stumbles back into her position as quickly as she tries to find her footing. A look of annoyance crosses over her face. “Maybe not then.” She huffs, sending a few strands of her mane up in the air and then falling back over her face.
Between the strands of hair, she can still see the mare. Her eyes peer at the mare curiously now. “I don’t mean to be rude, but what are you?” Eva’s small-shaped Arabian head tilts as her orange-gold eyes glimmer now. “The ocean likes you,” she says referring to the way the water had answers her call and pushed her to the shore.
Eva was stunning, there was no doubt about that. Even lying there on the ground in front of Adria she still seemed impossibly beautiful in a vulnerable state. Her looks, along with the quick explanation of what she’d been doing in the sea so close to shore, already lead the elder Nereid to a conclusion that they were more or less the same. Kindred spirits and types have an odd way of finding each other in this strange world. It makes her warm smile all the more genuine as she steps back to give the smaller, purple mare some room to try and stand.
“Mhm, the land is not so forgiving as the sea. He’s fò ak vle di, always unmoving.” She told the girl, when asked if walking through air was harder than water. Gravity had been a pain to overcome, especially when the sea responded so quickly to her needs, but the benefits of moving from water to land were unparalleled. Most horses of Beqanna could live topside and never think twice about the ocean. “It’s worth the struggle little bote, you lovely child. There are few who can live in the waves like we do.”
Her lips tug into a quiet laugh and Adria extends the graceful curve of her curtained neck, so that they might get to know each other’s distinct scent. “We,” she pauses, confident in this assumption, “are Nereids. Sometimes you may have scales, and the closer you are to the water the better she listens, no? Well the same goes for me.”
Ah! Her heart is nearly fluttering! For her whole life Adria believed that she would be singular, perhaps unbearably lonely in her quest for others like her. Now Eva sits like a pearl on the tongue of an oyster; the answer to all of Adria’s quietly unspoken prayers. Can she help it if her voice pitches high with excitement when she says, “My mother is one too! And my baby sister. For the longest time I thought… but, pa gen okenn pwoblèm. Here you are, which means that I was wrong. Gwo!” The seamare beams.
Her nature overcomes her and Adria finds that she’s suddenly spilling out questions for the other horse. “Is your mother the same? Did you travel with others like us?”
upon my journey i must go, to where the river flows
breaking like the waves down on the coastline breaking like the wine-stained glass that held my drink
She is blinded by the obvious facts that she shares a common piece of who she is with the other mare. It was only her curiosity of finding out why the ocean was kin to someone else that drove her to find out the answer. The sea might have been her home, but it was even filled with more mysterious than she would ever know.
Eva beams back with a warm smile at the mare. When the other nereid steps back, she decides to give it another shot at finding her place on the dryland. If the other mare could do it, why couldn’t she?
Moving one hoof out from underneath her and then another, she finds a firm grasp onto the shore. Eva pushes all her strength into her limbs, forcing herself up was not easy at first, but she did not give up. “Not this time again,” she huffs quietly under her breath as she encourages herself. Pushing her weight even more into her limbs and then firmly into her hooves, she finds herself swaying less than before.
She continues to do so, and then finds herself fully standing now in front of the other mare. “I did it!” She beams with excitement, eyes wide looking at the vermillion sand colored mare. Eva gives a soft laugh before turning her attention as the island-accent mare.
Eva could agree that this dryland was not forgiving. It did not answer her like the sea did. It did not cradle her like the sea had done when she first became apart of it. “We?” she asks with a tilt of her head on the other side now, not truly understanding what she meant. Eva thought she had been the only nereid to exist.
The other seahorse was confident in her words at answering Eva, though she wasn’t sure exactly. Everything that the mare said was correct. Her brow furrows in confusion for a moment though, trying to make sense of it all. It sounded too good to be true, but maybe at last she was not alone. A grin quickly replaces her confusion as excitement consumes her finely chiseled face. “I never met another Nereid before!” She exclaims with soft excitement. It was bewildering to think that she was not alone now—she never has been!
Every word and action from the other seahorse rings with excitement. It seemed she was also thrilled with the idea of finding out she was a Nereid as well. It made Eva’s heart flutter with happiness. Living her entire life alone in the sea so far had not been so bad, but there was at times she wanted to find another. Maybe that is why she finally sought out exploring the dryland. If she had not, then she would never have met another like her.
“Others?” She asks with excitement as Adria mentions her mother and younger sister. Of course there would be others, silly! The seahorse even thought the same about it all, perhaps even more than Eva had recently. Eva smiles lightly when Adria explains to her what she is saying in her natural tongue. It sounds strange, but she likes the language that Adria speaks in sometimes. “I was definitely wrong too,” she admits, but she is happy to be wrong about this.
Adria continues to beam with excitement at the whole situation. Eva cannot help herself either about it all too, except the next question that Adria asks hits her hard. Her excitement fades quickly from her eyes. She had not thought about her mother in a very long time.
“My mother,” she whispers, glancing her gaze away from Adria to the sea and then back to her. “My mother is dead.” The words are said flatly, leaving little emotion in them. “I don’t know if my mother was like me,” she says quietly as she starts to remember the day she was born. It all looks like a blur to her at first, but the pieces begin to fit back together and focus once again. “She died giving birth to me, I think.” But she would never know that her own father was the one that killed her mother. “And then the sea took me away, and that’s all I really remember.” The sea had become her home, and she had become the daughter of the sea. “It’s only been me since then,” she adds with a soft smile because now she knows that has changed very much.
Adria isn’t sure exactly what it is about the younger seamare that reminded her of her own mother, but there’s something there tickling the back of her mind over this encounter. She watched wondrously as the filly tried her hooves at standing again, surprised that her balance on land would come so quick but not exactly in disbelief. They were still horses anyways; even if it was only a sliver of their existence that tiny truth anchored them to land. Magical horses still grazed (be it seaweed or natural grass) and personally, she and girl still had legs for a reason.
“Of course you did! There’s nothing you cannot accomplish, congratulations beauty.” Adria praises, finding a suiting nickname in lieu of the girl’s actual title. She let the moment grow and kept it for herself with the blink of her long, delicate lashes before continuing to tell the water-born horse what she considered to be the honest truth - that they were one in the same.
Just as the news pleased Adria, it also seems to please Eva. Nothing could have made her new friend happier. Both mares share a breathtaking smile at the obvious connection which in turn makes Adria’s heart grow softer towards the girl, so she reaches forward with the gentle curve of her satin nose and bumps Eva softly with it. We were both wrong, and that’s ok she says without words, pulling back.
For a moment everything seemed alright. For a moment Adria had her, until her tongue slipped loose from its polite cage and popped the happy aura surrounding them.
“I see.” Adria murmurs softly, never once taking her attention away from the youngling that now stared out towards the crashing waves. Her heart, so soft already, breaks fresh in two for the immense loss this one has suffered at such a pivotal time in her early life. To lose not only one parent but never know the other… raised by the sea and just now building the courage to come ashore…
“It doesn’t have to be.” The islander tells her suddenly. An idea strikes her hard and fast. “Only you; it doesn’t have to be that way. I could -” But she pauses, uncertain that such a fiercely independent creature would take her up on the offer. “I could stay with you.” Adria amends with a pleasant, hopeful glow lighting up her face. “I’m making my way to Ischia to visit that family I told you about. We could go together and you wouldn’t have to be alone.”
It takes everything within her to hold back from blurting out ever.
upon my journey i must go, to where the river flows
breaking like the waves down on the coastline breaking like the wine-stained glass that held my drink
She beamed happily at the older mare’s congratulations. It felt good to share such a moment with another. While it had always been nice to achieve something herself, as she internally praised herself and found herself to becoming proud about what she was learning, it was not truly the same hearing it from someone else. Something she should have heard from her mother, but Eva truly would not know what it was like to need that validation and praise from her parents.
While the news was bewildering, it brought excitement into her own heart. Adria was certainly pleased with it as well. The other seahorse gave Eva a gentle bump on her nose. Eva jumped at the strange gesture and pulled herself back a little from the older mare. A wild and confused look took over her for a moment, but the look on Adria’s face told her everything was alright. Eva laughs softly, and gently bumps her own nose with Adria.
The atmosphere of excitement shifts after Eva tells her story. The nereid never found herself telling anyone about her story. It was something she really felt had any meaning when she had been alone. She didn’t look towards the past and focus on the death of her mother. It only seemed natural that life was meant to happen like that. The circle of life within the sea was either dangerous or generous. It took and gave what she wanted; Eva had learned.
Adria suddenly bursts out with an idea. Eva’s small purple ears flicker forward towards the vermilion colored mare as she hears out what the mare proposes. “Ischia?” She asks quietly as she considers the idea of that Adria suggests. Eva’s eyes light up quickly and a large smile widens quickly across her delicate, finely chiseled face. “I would be happy to go with you! When do we go?” She beams happily again at Adria.
The idea of being alone again did not settle with her. After meeting Adria, she couldn’t see herself living a life away from another. Perhaps she truly was not destined to live a life alone as the only nereid. And she would be going with Adria to meet more nereids too! “I’m Eva by the way,” she adds with a smile after she realizes she never told the other nereid mare her name.
The instant Eva chooses to return Adria’s touch is one the elder seahorse will not forget. Guilt struck her at the shyness of the girl, she should not have been so bold and assumed that the beauty would appreciate her affection. But as the flower blossoms in the spring, so it seems that her delicate, newfound friend might not be so against the idea of being comforted. Nor does she seems against the idea of them both traveling to the birth home of all Nereids - a place where Adria is sure the youngling will flourish and grow in her already confident strength.
“Why wait? I have you bote and you have me; let us start now.” The coral-colored female suggested. Her earlier concern has drifted away, like flotsam over the sea, and a smile replaces it. Her eyes roam gently over the other horse to see that she was fit for travel (already she assumes they will go by way of water, Eva is strong but not strong enough to avoid danger should they cross the land) and she cannot help but feel her admiration for the beautiful young thing grow as her gaze lingers over the soft glow of her healthy skin, and the array of bright shells woven into her nearly-golden mane.
There is very little doubt in Adria’s mind that the girl will eclipse her own beauty in time. That much is evident, even in the childlike stature of her legs and face.
“Eva, a pleasure to meet you. My name is Adria.” She introduces herself.
And so the two are something of a family now, or at least the beginnings of a family. They will travel together and make their way to Ischia, and as she turns to call for the sea, Adria makes a vow that she will mentor and love this Nereid as if she were her own.
upon my journey i must go, to where the river flows
Adria
@[Eva] I figured this was a good place to stop (for Adria at least) I can make them a new thread in Ischia <3
I love them