To Luster the water is a beautiful relief, the memory of those that live below a bright spot in the dark mess of memories cluttered at the edges of her lonely thoughts. She comes to the ocean as often as she can, could spend hours waiting for a glimpse of the man who calls such deep-waters home. A man with skin as smooth and dark as the molten stones in Tephra, with eyes her favorite shade of blue - the color of deep, dark, secret places.
It’s been years since she’s seen him, so many years that even the wounds they had drawn together across her heart have lost their edges, lost their bite, and it is easier to look back and miss him without clutching the jagged pieces of a broken heart in the palms of bleeding hands.
Other wounds, similar wounds, have not yet healed.
She is a beast who does not learn from her mistakes, who loves with a heart so broken it must only be capable of harm by now.
She watches someone make their way toward the Island, a smudge of bay and white cutting through the white-capped waves of a windy oceanscape. At this distance they remind her of a leaf trapped on the waters surface, blown her direction by the will of the air kicking up across the open way. She is not left to wonder long what their intent is as the shape grows larger the closer it comes.
There is a prickle of unease inside her chest where once there would only have been soft friendliness. It was all too recently that the Island came under attack and the people were subject to the whim of a dragon who would rather take than talk. So she makes her way down to the shore with some wariness hidden in the backs of such soft brown eyes. But she watches this woman as she takes in the architecture of the beach - the sand and stone, the trees and the strange wooden caves now falling apart with too much passed time, and she finds that some of the unease fades.
She is only soft and curious, only herself when the mare turns to find her and she thinks she can see something special knit into the soul of this woman, something that is hidden everywhere but for the wisdom in those beautiful eyes. “Strangers,” she says by way of answer, not comprehending the true intent of the question, “though, hopefully not for long. Welcome to Island Resort, my name is Luster.” A pause, a smile that slips out onto her lips without her permission. “What can I call you?”
