07-18-2020, 06:01 PM
never thirsty, ever drinking
The girl struggles beside him, and it's no surprise, she looks as if she has fought the currents all night, and even an hour would be exhausting in the storms that passed them. He leans forward to bolster her attempt to stand against the strength of his leg and shoulder but her weary legs give out with a sob and a heavy flutter of feathers and she sinks back into the sand.
Dace presses his lips together, lifting his head to scan the shore around them, the secretive sea, and the river's mouth that roils and tumbles into it nearby. Bright ears turn back with a thoughtful swish of his bright tail. Weak, dehydrated, her voice rough as a shiner's growl, he supposed she won't get far, certainly not as far from the windswept shore as he meant to take her. Thoughts of the protected copses at the edge of the woods drop away from his mind.
"Yes, okay, it's alright." His muzzle brushes her poll with warm breath and then he pulls carefully away, picking up an easy trot through the shifting sand and pebbles. With flared nostrils he seeks out freshwater, dipping his lips into each pool and puddle he passes until he finds a tributary of sweetwater untouched by the storm surge from the sea. An unspoken word draws the water to him, silver and reflective like a swirling mirror that twines and spreads around him. Well-armored, he returns to the speechless girl, water pulsing around him, and when he drops his head it pours down his neck like a spout, pooling in a pocket of sand near her.
"Drink," he says, while he positions himself between her and the rushing wind, his voice low and calm, as though they have all the time in the world. He cannot know her private worries, but it is not hard to guess that she frets over something lost, her family, her home, the feeling of belonging that comes with knowing your world so intimately. A little lost girl in a world full of strangeness. He smiles softly.
"I'm new here, too, but we'll get you home again. The world feels so big now because you're lost, but it's often smaller than it seems."
Dace presses his lips together, lifting his head to scan the shore around them, the secretive sea, and the river's mouth that roils and tumbles into it nearby. Bright ears turn back with a thoughtful swish of his bright tail. Weak, dehydrated, her voice rough as a shiner's growl, he supposed she won't get far, certainly not as far from the windswept shore as he meant to take her. Thoughts of the protected copses at the edge of the woods drop away from his mind.
"Yes, okay, it's alright." His muzzle brushes her poll with warm breath and then he pulls carefully away, picking up an easy trot through the shifting sand and pebbles. With flared nostrils he seeks out freshwater, dipping his lips into each pool and puddle he passes until he finds a tributary of sweetwater untouched by the storm surge from the sea. An unspoken word draws the water to him, silver and reflective like a swirling mirror that twines and spreads around him. Well-armored, he returns to the speechless girl, water pulsing around him, and when he drops his head it pours down his neck like a spout, pooling in a pocket of sand near her.
"Drink," he says, while he positions himself between her and the rushing wind, his voice low and calm, as though they have all the time in the world. He cannot know her private worries, but it is not hard to guess that she frets over something lost, her family, her home, the feeling of belonging that comes with knowing your world so intimately. A little lost girl in a world full of strangeness. He smiles softly.
"I'm new here, too, but we'll get you home again. The world feels so big now because you're lost, but it's often smaller than it seems."
@[Elayne]
