Tiny hooves scattered sand in every direction as a soft brown colt galloped down the shore. His pink nostrils quivered in the fresh morning air, thin fingers of dawn pinkening the sky where it touched the endless sea. Huffing and puffing, his thin chest expanded with salty air.
His brothers were off on their own adventures. Seeking their own fortunes in the big wide world. Halcyon off being a warrior, Cormorant trying on diplomacy for size. Marianas doing whatever it was that Marianas did when he disappeared. No one seemed to have time for the youngest of them.
He grunted, kicking at the sand in a bored tiff. It was barely even morning and already today seemed too long. Torrent dropped to his knees, then leaned into a long roll that clotted sand in his hair and left fragments of shell and driftwood stuck to his topline. It relieved an itch, even if it didn't leave him any more entertained. There had to be other foals here. Someone to play with, if his own siblings were too busy.
That would be his quest then. Today, he would find someone to play with. He dashed in a circle, excited even if he wasn't sure what the first part of finding a playmate was. "If I was a foal, where would I play?" He asked aloud, looking up and down the shoreline. Shrugging, he trotted up the trail he thought probably would take him inland a bit. Maybe there was some kind of baby meadow in there. Not that he was a baby.
I yawn sleepily, and snuggle my pink nose more firmly against my golden sides. But the sharp caw of the parrot that had woken me sounds again, and I blink open bleary green eyes.
“I’m sleeping!” I shout. The bird replies with another screech. Huffing irritably, I untangle my gold and white legs and stand upright. The parrots have been drawn into my dreams before, and they had not responded well. Grandmama says that they are jealous of my ability, but she doesn’t have to hear their mean-spirited shrieking whenever she tries to get a midday nap.
My feet stomp heavily, and I kick out at the trunk of the tree where the bird sits. My ringed and glowing fetlocks don’t make much of an impact on the thick trunk, but I feel better for having done so. I probably looked as cool as the big kids when they’re practicing, I think to myself. With that in mind, I rear up and lash out at a hanging vine of red bougainvilla. I can hear Papa’s voice as I do it, just like he sounds when teaching Halcyon, Asena, and my other siblings.
“Barley, you’re the most awesome! I was wrong when I said you were too small to fight. You should be the Champion of Ischia.” My mimicry is imperfect, but it is clear I am throwing my voice, especially as my own true voice comes after. “I will be the very Best Champion! I will represent the Island bravely and without fear!”
Lost in my game of make-believe, I had not noticed the boy coming up the trail. When I see him, I let out an ear-piercing shriek of terror that would put the parrots to shame, and then vanish completely from sight.
@[Torrent]
Today, she visits the waterfall. Nasrin, being the wild, sea-safe filly that she is, is unable to keep to the one island where her father lives. Well, he and some siblings and one or two friends, she supposes; but she’s not too interested in them. They’re all older than her, and way, way boring. Not entirely true - her big brother is also a sea serpent shifter, but he is allowed to go so much farther away. And able to, too, even if she doesn’t want to admit that the currents up ahead are too strong for her small, mini-serpent shape.
She had planned to swim upstream and see how far she could get, het black and shimmering shape easy to see in the water. She didn’t quite make it all the way, tiring easily still; so, Nasrin was sunning on the Ischian stream’s beach to warm her reptilian body. She kind of forgot that she would shift back that way, and had grimaced when she noticed; she would never make it all the way if she kept this up!
Looking around, she concludes that nobody had noticed her accidental shift, and stands up to get back in and continue her long journey inland. Just then, a very loud shriek echoes through the jungle, and she jumps pretty high: with no-one to be seen however, she hyperventilates for a moment, but pretends nothing has happened. Her heart is still racing when she goes into the trees to look for the source (finding only one of the two boys) but she masks it with a scowl. ”What the hell?”
@[Torrent] @[Barley]
He hadn't been going very fast. And he hadn't been trying to sneak through the tangles of philodendron and thickets of bamboo. No, he'd been going at a moderate trot, looking this way and that for whatever might be interesting enough to stop for further investigation, when pale girl had appeared.
And then disappeared. Torrent stopped in his tracks. "Uh... Hello?" He called out tentatively, eyes wide. He was almost positive someone had been there. He'd heard her scream. Oh. Oh! "Are you a ghost? It's okay, I won't tell, you can come back!" He danced lightly on his tippy-toes, looking for some sign of the ghost girl. He was sure none of his brothers had ghost friends.
The sunburst marked colt jumped when another voice came from behind him. This one he did recognize, at least a little. Nasrin had hatched from an egg like he had, and Ma had let Nasrin's Da keep the egg with hers. Which he guessed was nice of Ma, but he now that that were hatched, they didn't hang out much.
"Shh," he scolded, tail thrashing the air friskily. He turned back to the empty air that had so briefly held the shape of the screaming girl. "I think there's a ghost here. Don't you scare it away." Torrent stepped forward again, nose in the air. Did ghosts have a smell? He thought they might, so he took deep breaths trying to find the ghost that way.
@[Barley]
My heart pounds in my chest so loudly I fear it might betray my position, and I do what I can to stifle the sound of my rapid breathing. Having scampered away as quickly as I could, I now peer out at the dunskin colt and the ombre filly from beneath the protection of a large fern just off the path. The boy is looking for me, it seems, and he thinks I am a ghost! The thought of that is so delightful that I cannot help but laugh. And then I stifle it before it becomes much more than a single soft gasp and a huff of air. The girl says a word that makes my invisible brows raise with respect. That’s a word for serious conversations, my fathers have said, and I realize that perhaps I have truly frightened her.
The thought worries me back to visibility, though I remain mostly hidden behind the greenery.
The colt seems intent on finding me, even going so far as to hush the filly to sniff me out. He’ll find me soon, I know, and decide to make my entry.
Stepping out onto the forest path, I shake my pale mane away from my shoulders like I’ve been out for a leisurely stroll in the woods. I feign surprise at seeing them both and ask:
“What’re you guys doing here? Which one of you screamed just now?”
@[Nasrin]
She finds only the boy she knows as the Dame’s youngest, the one with a permanent fin on his back. Nasrin’s at least is safely hidden away when out of the water. The thought had crossed her mind once or twice if he dries out easily, and what would happen to his large back fin then. Right now, her initial swearing and bristling aside, she manages a grimace that might be mistaken for a greeting smile. With another there might have been an outright snarl, but he is lucky.
He hushes her, and that scowl still appears. ”Don’t shush me!” she claims. ”Ain’t no ghost scared of you.” she follows up, then snorts. ”Not a real ghost anyway.” she says, just to challenge any ghost that might hear them. Maybe they’ll appear.
A rustling announces not a ghost, but a filly. The black girl’s eyes navigate the pale one’s body, then she shrugs. ”Probably Torrent.” she decides. It sure wasn’t her. ”He’s scared of ghosts.” she adds. She might stick out her tongue to him, but supposes that making him look the silly one between them is enough, when meeting a stranger.
@[Torrent]
The scatter marked boy rolled his eyes. Of course it would be Nasrin he ran into today, but he supposed there was only so much island to go around. It was bound to happen sometimes.
With the air of someone explaining things very slowly, he nodded back to the seemingly empty path. "I don't want to scare the ghost. I want to be friends with it." His mouth twisted into a half-smirk. "You might make friends too if your Ma wasn't a barracuda." He jibed. It wasn't true, he didn't think, but he'd seen Nasrin's teeth some days, and barracuda was the closest creature he could imagine them coming from.
His train of thought was interrupted when the pale girl reappeared. She was light enough to look like a ghost, but he couldn't see the trees through her, and when he looked at her feet they definitely touched the ground. A pebble of disappointment dropped through him, before it vanished in a wave of annoyance.
"It wasn't me," he snapped, blunt teeth bared in a predatory way when he looked over his shoulder to the multicolored Nasrin. His mother would have a thing or two to say if she saw him snarling at the girl, but Ma wasn't here to see it. There was just something about the other sea child that rubbed him the wrong way. Made him want to fight.
Tail thrashing impatiently, he turned back to the stranger. "You're not a ghost, are you?" He asked, feeling a little put out that his game had ended before it had really begun. Too bad but, there were three of them now. There could be other games.
@[Nasrin] @[Barley]
The colorful filly blames the finned colt for the scream, and I glance back and forth between them. The colt – Torrent – seems less than pleased by the accusation, but I’m unwilling to take responsibility myself either, so I remain quiet.
Quiet until he turns back to me, at least, and asks if I am a ghost. I shake my gold and white head.
“Nope, not a ghost! I’m Barley.”
He is Torrent, the other filly had said, but her name I still do not know.
“What’s your name?”
As I wait, I take a moment to look over these two strangers, who despite having just met them, I think that I could make my friends. I do not have any friends yet, and Maman had said I would need some. I like the filly’s pretty coat, and the colt’s fin.
“I bet you’re a really good swimmer,” I tell him, gesturing admiringly at his dorsal fin. “I’m not allowed to swim in the deep water yet but I found a really cool pond on the big island and I swim there sometimes.” Not wanting the other girl to feel excluded (despite her lack of visible swimming accoutrements), I ask: “Do you like to swim? Maybe I could show you my spot!”
@[Torrent] @[Nasrin]
|
