-Adria-
If one listens hard enough news will travel fast enough, and the news of another Nereid mare washing onto Ischia’s shores quickly comes around to her leader. Currently the small group of islands were keeping a vacant, sleepy eye on who was and was not here, which suited those gathered just fine. But the horses who specifically lived an elementalist lifestyle were the ones that interested Adria the most. Two Kelpie could be accounted for, Eva’s son who was neither Kelpie nor Nereid but something else entirely, and Brennen (sly, scandalous dog; Adria’s affection for him grew the longer he crept around trying to be secretive) meant that this newcomer would make a third Nereid.
That was if Adria could find her roaming around and convince her to stay, whoever she was.
So she leaves the ragged humidity of the suffocating jungle and heads for the shore, toting her young protégée Sande along for the adventure. The pale palomino filly seemed just as interested to be tagging behind, furiously tromping down broad leaves with even paler legs that looked adorably too long. Not to be forgotten, her companion animal (a hefty little brown Fossa) skittered around the filly’s hooves and chattered away.
Not for the first time, Adria rolled her eyes as they walked single-file down the sand dunes, hips dipping and trailing dark furrows in the sand behind them. She adored Sande to the point that she considered giving next season a rest, but the constant company of her chittering Fossa could sometimes drive Adria to the brink of insanity.
It would be nice, she breathed to herself as the first ocean breakers slapped against her pink fetlocks, to enjoy the silence of the ocean floor for a while.
So the mother mare dunked underneath with an almost audible sigh, and Sande trotted over the waves without falling through. Swimming out, Adria could still clearly see the dark points of splashing water where Sande stepped. To her, it appeared that the filly was suspended over a piece of clear glass, disturbing only a thin sheet of water at the surface. She could look up and see Sande’s belly, and Sande could look down and see the glimmering sparkles of light that were her mother’s scales.
For about a mile or so the two inched further out. Soon enough the outer reefs of bright, neon coral began to sprout up from the ocean bed and Adria slowed down to linger among them. Her daughter stalled and peered below, then wheeled around to canter off nearby so she could talk to whatever other animal might be lurking.
Looking through fans of yellow and green, past rough-looking tubes of bubbling water, Adria wondered if the neighboring fish of this island were getting just as exhausted with her chatterbox foal as she was.
Oh my love, don't forsake me; Take what the water gave me
@[Aquaria] yea it’s my turn now <3