08-09-2020, 09:16 AM
The sea makes her queasy. There was a time when it had been easy to ignore that she was surrounded by it, when ekking out her bare survival on the Isle was the only thing that mattered and the icy sea water could be forgotten, but she has grown, and she has left the Isle, and her life no longer hangs on a tattered string tied hastily to a frost-covered stallion. Beryl wonders what she might have done if the black dragon had come and she could not leap through her shadows to warn the mainland, to attack or escape. If she had had to brave the grey water of the northern channel, she thinks she might have walked straight into the flames instead.
But it hadn't come to that.
Her shadows converge on the gravel beach, twisting and writhing like smoky snakes knotted together like a hydra, and when they have fled back to their rocky crevices and back into the wet, dark, sea, Beryl is sitting quite and tense, her round ears laid back and her tail whipping side-to-side, agitated. Neverwhere may not have intended for the girl to come here, but she could no longer stand Lilliana's sad eyes and the gratitude in her voice. There had been accusation in the Khaleesi's frown that pierced through to the place where all her guilt had burrowed but nothing cut her heart as deeply as the bereft mother's kindness.
She had barely paused to say goodbye when Neverhwhere said Brennen needed help, the palomino had touched her nose to the red mare's poll and disappeared.
Now, she wears her lion skin because it makes her feel more brave - although the lion loves the water no better than she does as a horse - and watches the trio of stallions in the chest high surf with a flat expression. The bay pegasus is unassuming and the young chestnut glitters brightly, but it is the roan who demands her attention.
Leilan.
Brown eyes follow him as he moves, but she does not call out. He will see her - she is convinced he sees everything. Instead, as she watches, she feels the way the darkness moves in the sea, unmoved by the waves and currents, lurking deep below the sparkling surface. There is a touch of panic in that feeling, her heart races and skips and her lungs fill with the memory of seawater. She thought her mother had come to take her somewhere safe, but she had been dying. Beryl knows it now, it was those shadows that plucked her from their depths and dropped her on her father's doorstep.
It was Leilan that had been her somewhere safe. She should not have left for so long, so she watches, and she waits, and, when he finally looks her way, she gives him a snarling grin full of shining sharp teeth.
But it hadn't come to that.
Her shadows converge on the gravel beach, twisting and writhing like smoky snakes knotted together like a hydra, and when they have fled back to their rocky crevices and back into the wet, dark, sea, Beryl is sitting quite and tense, her round ears laid back and her tail whipping side-to-side, agitated. Neverwhere may not have intended for the girl to come here, but she could no longer stand Lilliana's sad eyes and the gratitude in her voice. There had been accusation in the Khaleesi's frown that pierced through to the place where all her guilt had burrowed but nothing cut her heart as deeply as the bereft mother's kindness.
She had barely paused to say goodbye when Neverhwhere said Brennen needed help, the palomino had touched her nose to the red mare's poll and disappeared.
Now, she wears her lion skin because it makes her feel more brave - although the lion loves the water no better than she does as a horse - and watches the trio of stallions in the chest high surf with a flat expression. The bay pegasus is unassuming and the young chestnut glitters brightly, but it is the roan who demands her attention.
Leilan.
Brown eyes follow him as he moves, but she does not call out. He will see her - she is convinced he sees everything. Instead, as she watches, she feels the way the darkness moves in the sea, unmoved by the waves and currents, lurking deep below the sparkling surface. There is a touch of panic in that feeling, her heart races and skips and her lungs fill with the memory of seawater. She thought her mother had come to take her somewhere safe, but she had been dying. Beryl knows it now, it was those shadows that plucked her from their depths and dropped her on her father's doorstep.
It was Leilan that had been her somewhere safe. She should not have left for so long, so she watches, and she waits, and, when he finally looks her way, she gives him a snarling grin full of shining sharp teeth.
@[Nashua]