He was a son of saltwater and clear skies, every bit the islander his mother was, but perhaps with wider desires. Ma loved her home. He did too, but the world was so much bigger than that. She'd shown him that, and then taken it all away again. Brought him and Hal back to the shores of home without even asking if they wanted to.
It wasn't fair.
Worse, he was missing Al. They'd spent the better part of a year together, growling from exuberant infants into gangly yearlings together. He missed always having someone by his side. Hal was okay, but he more and more often wanted to go off and do his own thing. That left Cormorant alone to wander the island that felt no more familiar than the landscape of the moon.
It was their duty to return home. Ma had a responsibility to their tiny, quiet, nothing-ever-happens-here home, and that meant they all had to go. The sea colt kicked at the sand viciously. Duty meant very little to a boy who's best friend was on the other side of the world.
He'd been walking, something he did a lot of these days. The island wasn't very large, not so that he couldn't get all the way around it in a day if he wanted to. The beaches were thin strips of gold today. The tide was in, leaving the waters deep enough to obscure the sand bars most horses used to travel between Ischia and the mainland. Another reminder of how cut off he was from the rest of the world.
His seafoam eyes glanced at the water for the hundredth time, roving over crystal waters capped with white foam. Colors reflected in his own sleek skin. His eyes skimmed the horizon, before he blinked, looked again. Like a curious sea bird, his head tilted from one side to the other. Something, someone was coming. Not Alcinder (he always had to push that hope aside when he saw someone new these days), this head was dark, dark black. As it drew nearer, he saw the shape of neck and shoulders emerge, followed by a back and barrel. At last emerged a sopping wet horse, looking like he'd been dipped in blood and not the ocean.
With as much puffed up dignity that he could manage, the porpoise colt strutted up the the stranger as he dripped on the beach. "Who are you?" He asked, maybe a bit sharply. Ma might nip him if she saw his standoffish posture, but right now Cormorant felt the need to be big, big enough to protect this island his mother loved so much, big enough to feel the emotions grew didn't want to know were simmering inside him.
@[Osiriis]
It wasn't fair.
Worse, he was missing Al. They'd spent the better part of a year together, growling from exuberant infants into gangly yearlings together. He missed always having someone by his side. Hal was okay, but he more and more often wanted to go off and do his own thing. That left Cormorant alone to wander the island that felt no more familiar than the landscape of the moon.
It was their duty to return home. Ma had a responsibility to their tiny, quiet, nothing-ever-happens-here home, and that meant they all had to go. The sea colt kicked at the sand viciously. Duty meant very little to a boy who's best friend was on the other side of the world.
He'd been walking, something he did a lot of these days. The island wasn't very large, not so that he couldn't get all the way around it in a day if he wanted to. The beaches were thin strips of gold today. The tide was in, leaving the waters deep enough to obscure the sand bars most horses used to travel between Ischia and the mainland. Another reminder of how cut off he was from the rest of the world.
His seafoam eyes glanced at the water for the hundredth time, roving over crystal waters capped with white foam. Colors reflected in his own sleek skin. His eyes skimmed the horizon, before he blinked, looked again. Like a curious sea bird, his head tilted from one side to the other. Something, someone was coming. Not Alcinder (he always had to push that hope aside when he saw someone new these days), this head was dark, dark black. As it drew nearer, he saw the shape of neck and shoulders emerge, followed by a back and barrel. At last emerged a sopping wet horse, looking like he'd been dipped in blood and not the ocean.
With as much puffed up dignity that he could manage, the porpoise colt strutted up the the stranger as he dripped on the beach. "Who are you?" He asked, maybe a bit sharply. Ma might nip him if she saw his standoffish posture, but right now Cormorant felt the need to be big, big enough to protect this island his mother loved so much, big enough to feel the emotions grew didn't want to know were simmering inside him.
@[Osiriis]