i’m still standing on the shoreline and nobody hears me scream --
Her life had always been quiet, and that was how she preferred it.
She did not know the kind of chaos her parents had lived through before she was born. She did not know of the seemingly endless dark and how it had tried to drive a physical wedge between Tiercel and Islas, or that her older sister had been born into that same dark and hadn’t learned of sunlight until she was older.
Isaure and her twin brother, Tiernen, had been born into an almost idyllic world by comparison. One with both parents present, and with a sun that rose every morning and set every night. Hardships were virtually unknown to her, and she had assumed she would live in this world forever.
The earthquake had brought her world crashing down, in a most terrifying literal way.
Escaping Loess was a blur, but all she knows is that her family made it out alive, and so far that is the only silver lining she can find.
It was uncharacteristic for her to withdraw from them but with her very foundation shaken she finds herself desperately wanting to escape the confusion and the stress, and so without a word she slips away from them, not even telling Tiernen where she is going.
Quiet.
She just wants quiet.
She stands along the river’s edge, admiring the stars as they glittered in the dark sky—her mother loved the stars, told stories of them as if she knew them, and while Isaure thought they were beautiful she did not feel quite the same connection.
When the kelpie emerges from the river just ahead of her she is momentarily startled, and there is a moment where she looks around for some place to go. But their eyes briefly catch as he surveys his surroundings, and Isaure feels entirely caught. “Sorry,” she finds herself saying, and she isn’t sure why. But she feels as though she has intruded, that perhaps this was his part of the river and she had accidentally trespassed. She wasn’t familiar with anywhere outside of Loess and she was sure she had just committed some kind of error. “I can leave, if you want.”
Her life had always been quiet, and that was how she preferred it.
She did not know the kind of chaos her parents had lived through before she was born. She did not know of the seemingly endless dark and how it had tried to drive a physical wedge between Tiercel and Islas, or that her older sister had been born into that same dark and hadn’t learned of sunlight until she was older.
Isaure and her twin brother, Tiernen, had been born into an almost idyllic world by comparison. One with both parents present, and with a sun that rose every morning and set every night. Hardships were virtually unknown to her, and she had assumed she would live in this world forever.
The earthquake had brought her world crashing down, in a most terrifying literal way.
Escaping Loess was a blur, but all she knows is that her family made it out alive, and so far that is the only silver lining she can find.
It was uncharacteristic for her to withdraw from them but with her very foundation shaken she finds herself desperately wanting to escape the confusion and the stress, and so without a word she slips away from them, not even telling Tiernen where she is going.
Quiet.
She just wants quiet.
She stands along the river’s edge, admiring the stars as they glittered in the dark sky—her mother loved the stars, told stories of them as if she knew them, and while Isaure thought they were beautiful she did not feel quite the same connection.
When the kelpie emerges from the river just ahead of her she is momentarily startled, and there is a moment where she looks around for some place to go. But their eyes briefly catch as he surveys his surroundings, and Isaure feels entirely caught. “Sorry,” she finds herself saying, and she isn’t sure why. But she feels as though she has intruded, that perhaps this was his part of the river and she had accidentally trespassed. She wasn’t familiar with anywhere outside of Loess and she was sure she had just committed some kind of error. “I can leave, if you want.”
-- and i’ll lure you like a landslide and i’ll show you lovely things but they’re make believe
isaure.