05-19-2021, 09:15 PM
Somewhere between Ischia and one of it's islets, a great, golden something drifted. Sunlight streaked across its wet skin, drawing flecks of rainbow color from the leathery surface. At one point, a nosy gull surfed the air to land nearby, near enough to peck inquisitivly at the mass. This prompted a long, very long, limb to snake from the water, swatting at the pesky bird like most would swat at a buzzing fly.
With a squall of terror, the grey bird took back off into the too blue sky. A motion that might have been called a shrug in a creature possessing shoulders, the golden brown creature rolled over in the waves, revealing one massive, glowing eye to the sun. A shudder ran through it, and then with a churning of waves it began to move, very quickly, towards the shoreline.
Golden as a sand dune, and shedding the sea as easily as a snake does its skin, Acionna trotted onto the beach. Sunlight caught on the scales of her face, and was making quick work of the salt water clinging to her body. She liked the sunlight. The way it made everything so warm and real. Sometimes it seemed like nothing had been really real, until the sun shined on it.
She included herself in that. Even now, when the burning ball in the sky dropped beneath the ocean, she felt a piece of herself go with it. She turned into a ghost, a not-quite girl, and the eerie lights that glowed greenly from her skin only added to the illusion.
A shiver drew itself from her skin as she walked beneath the shadow of a stand of palms. Yes, ghosts had been on her mind a lot lately, ever since Ma told her and Moira that their home was haunted. She wouldn't say by what, which left all sorts of room for imagining. A long-dead pirate stallion, maybe. Or a herd of drowned dead foals who had wandered too far from their ma's sides, and couldn't swim half so well and she and her sister could.
On the edge of the sand, it was hard to believe anything that sad had ever happened here. Something had to account for the far-away misty look Ma's eyes got some nights, though. And, well, ghosts were as good of a reason as any. Acionna pondered as she walked, and was soon enough distracted by a jewel-bright frog leaping wildly across her path. With a shriek of giddy joy, the filly leapt after it into the tangles of fern and vine growing in ever-thickening carpets across the island.
With a squall of terror, the grey bird took back off into the too blue sky. A motion that might have been called a shrug in a creature possessing shoulders, the golden brown creature rolled over in the waves, revealing one massive, glowing eye to the sun. A shudder ran through it, and then with a churning of waves it began to move, very quickly, towards the shoreline.
Golden as a sand dune, and shedding the sea as easily as a snake does its skin, Acionna trotted onto the beach. Sunlight caught on the scales of her face, and was making quick work of the salt water clinging to her body. She liked the sunlight. The way it made everything so warm and real. Sometimes it seemed like nothing had been really real, until the sun shined on it.
She included herself in that. Even now, when the burning ball in the sky dropped beneath the ocean, she felt a piece of herself go with it. She turned into a ghost, a not-quite girl, and the eerie lights that glowed greenly from her skin only added to the illusion.
A shiver drew itself from her skin as she walked beneath the shadow of a stand of palms. Yes, ghosts had been on her mind a lot lately, ever since Ma told her and Moira that their home was haunted. She wouldn't say by what, which left all sorts of room for imagining. A long-dead pirate stallion, maybe. Or a herd of drowned dead foals who had wandered too far from their ma's sides, and couldn't swim half so well and she and her sister could.
On the edge of the sand, it was hard to believe anything that sad had ever happened here. Something had to account for the far-away misty look Ma's eyes got some nights, though. And, well, ghosts were as good of a reason as any. Acionna pondered as she walked, and was soon enough distracted by a jewel-bright frog leaping wildly across her path. With a shriek of giddy joy, the filly leapt after it into the tangles of fern and vine growing in ever-thickening carpets across the island.