07-04-2020, 10:53 AM
The black-haired girl is too lovely to not trust, and I return her smile with one of my own. Whatever soul had first learned our kind fall so easily for symmetry was a clever one, and even I – raised among perfection – have difficulty shaking off the effects of unnatural beauty. To be fair, I do not make much of an effort, having no reason to be cautious. This stranger is either a sister of mine or one of the nereids.
If she is a sister though, she is one that I have never seen before, and I find myself searching her features for anything that I recognize. The pale pink flowers twined through her dark hair are not like any of those on the mares of Kelpie, but those horns glitter like Izmir’s seaglass antlers. Her nose is silver rather than gold, and the teal of her scaled skin is not like those of any siblings I can name. I reach out to touch it, thinking nothing of the contact, and smooth my dark mouth across the surface of her shoulder.
“I wanted an adventure,” is my answer. “You won’t tell, will you?” If she is not a sister of mine, raised on Kelpie, perhaps she will not understand my question, or the worry that has drawn a shadow over my spotted face. We are not to leave, not without permission, and I have just made it quite clear that I do not have it. Ivar has been gone for weeks now, as he often is in winter, and the opportunity was too good to pass up.
“Please don’t tell,” I continue. “I just get so sick of the same view every day. And I’ll go back, I promise, I just wanted to see…something.” What those somethings might be I am not yet sure. There are dangers outside Kelpie, I have been told of them every day. Monsters haunt the empty places, ready to steal away and eat anything they find.
@[tiasa]
@[Tiasa]
If she is a sister though, she is one that I have never seen before, and I find myself searching her features for anything that I recognize. The pale pink flowers twined through her dark hair are not like any of those on the mares of Kelpie, but those horns glitter like Izmir’s seaglass antlers. Her nose is silver rather than gold, and the teal of her scaled skin is not like those of any siblings I can name. I reach out to touch it, thinking nothing of the contact, and smooth my dark mouth across the surface of her shoulder.
“I wanted an adventure,” is my answer. “You won’t tell, will you?” If she is not a sister of mine, raised on Kelpie, perhaps she will not understand my question, or the worry that has drawn a shadow over my spotted face. We are not to leave, not without permission, and I have just made it quite clear that I do not have it. Ivar has been gone for weeks now, as he often is in winter, and the opportunity was too good to pass up.
“Please don’t tell,” I continue. “I just get so sick of the same view every day. And I’ll go back, I promise, I just wanted to see…something.” What those somethings might be I am not yet sure. There are dangers outside Kelpie, I have been told of them every day. Monsters haunt the empty places, ready to steal away and eat anything they find.
@[tiasa]
@[Tiasa]