[open] your waves are pulling me under; any

[Eva]

your waves are pulling me under
i'm caught in your riptide

She listens as he speaks about the dreams and hope he once had. He wanted to have a herd of his own. A herd she could have been part of. A life that she could have shared with him all these years. But it had not been that way. She did not share a life with him like she had dreamed and hoped for. Life had more for her than she had ever imagined—she found a family and a home, created a family of her own too, and became the Dame of her tropical home. Everything was different. So much more than she had ever dreamed of. There had been nothing that tied her down, burning the wild spirit out of her had been impossible. She loved becoming a mother and the Dame of Ischia. Eva spent every single day of her life living it to the fullest. Making every choice she felt was right within her heart. Loving every offspring that became part of her family. It was perfect in so many ways, and she had forgotten what it was like to live in the moments of doubt. Doubt was something she did not know how to feel. She cannot imagine what it was like to even think what if or look at the world in a different way than she does now. The purple nereid can only do what she can, but now she wonders what she can do now about it all. Her heart aches, no it burns for him. Her mind screams, telling her no, it wasn’t right. She is torn between it all. But she has always followed her heart, and it has never led her astray. “Life had a very much different story written for us both when we first met, Aodhan,” she says softly and slowly. Her thoughts form her words one by one as she tries to decipher what her heart is trying to tell her. “I was never meant to live a simple, quiet life that I thought I was going to have.” The sea mare had never imagined becoming the Dame and be the protector of more than her own immediate family. She had to consider more than herself and the family she created. Everyone on this island was important to her—even the faces she did not know. A soft smile touches her lips now as she holds her gaze still with his. “We have different lives than we imagined we would have. Dreams and hopes we thought could be.” She pauses for a moment, considering it all and where they were both meant to go here. It wasn’t a question she needed to consider anymore. Eva knew well in her heart she could never turn Aodhan away. “But we don’t have to live without the dreams and hopes we had before. We can have them still if we try hard enough.” If we give it a chance, she thinks with hope. “I don’t care what you have done in your past. I don’t care if you have others that need your love and attention. If I have you with me, I don’t need anything else.” Her voice is soft but grows stronger and firmer as her words are spoken. Each is said with truth and sincerity. The purple nereid takes a step forward towards Aodhan. Her golden gaze gleams bright with warmth and love. “I cannot live without knowing if we could have made things work.” Then everything right now would have been for nothing.

Eva

the dame of ischia

@[Aodhan]