"But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura
T E R I N it’s not the devil at your door its just your shadow on the floor
Returning to this world had been just the same as leaving it.
A thrill, a momentary sensation of being aware of each individual scale and cell and atom of my being, of feeling them become brighter and then, just as quickly and inexplicably, the feeling leaves. Around me, the ocean has changed - less salty, with a current that somehow feels like more than just water slipping against my sapphire blue scales.
I had dreamed of this last night, and I wonder now if that had been some sort of portent, a sign that the universe would bring me back. I had wanted it to be so, and perhaps that wanting had manifested in the way that this world’s magic so oddly does.
I rise in the water, wearing the watery skin in which I am most familiar. With my head above the waves, I can see mountains ahead, red to the east, pine-forest cliffs to the west, and only sea to the north.
Nothing looks familiar.
I follow the fresh water, keeping low in the water as the afternoon sun fades. The sea floor becomes a bay, and then a river, and the moon now illuminates my steady underwater progress.
Dawn has begun to color the sky by the time I drift into the lake. Weariness makes my scaled body feel heavy and sluggish, and I climbed into the shallows to the sound of the earliest bird calls.
A large flat rock provides the perfect place to rest. A glance around in the dim light reveals no one to object, so with a few tight circles, I curl into a tight blue and white scaled ball. The end of my tail still trails into the water, but I intend to get a few hours of sleep and then carry on toward the Mountain a little farther downriver.
Beneath the waters once again I move effortlessly and without direction. Where does one go when they find out their home exists no more? My emotions are running high and if tears could be discerned in water one may be trailing from my icy blue eyes. After leaving the Chamber shores I allow instinct to drive me onwards. The flow of the water choosing my path.
I find myself in a narrow channel, land on both sides. It is not a sight I am used to in the unending ocean. My face breaks the surface as I tread slowly, trying to decide just what I should do now. I have traveled aimlessly all night and find the sky is brightening just the slightest now. A new day.
A new beginning.
Lowering under the waters I search for anything to direct my wanderings. A sign. My finned tail propels me onward down the river. My forelimbs fold under me, with an occasion push off the rivers bottom. Fish scatter as they see my approach, disappearing within the shadows of fallen trees and crevices of rocks. They weren't as bright as the reef fish of the ocean and the creature within me wonders if they taste as good. Blackened lips curl in thought but something brighter catches my attention. A strange fish of some sort with different but somewhat familiar colors. Not colors of a fish but that of a memory. Ivar
As I stalk closer to inspect this thing, I note it trails to surface and out of the water alongside a boulder. Pausing briefly, I consider what it could be with a curious tilt of my delicate head. My tail then curls under me and pushes me towards the sky. My delicate face rises from the river current and eyes search for the creature of scaled sapphire hue. What I find is something I cannot explain, and I find myself staring at it in awestruck wonder. The Siren inside of me beckons to touch it, taste it, but I cannot bring myself to disturb such a peaceful thing...
T E R I N it’s not the devil at your door its just your shadow on the floor
I know near countless kelpies, but as my golden eyes focus on the somewhat blurry form of the black haired mare in the lake, I am instantly sure that she is not one of them. I have seen enough of my siblings to know this stranger is no kin of mine. I rise up slowly, my wide yawn a display of the sharp teeth of my aquatic form. I have no interest in becoming prey, and I do my best to convey that.
Even with my eyes weakened by the dry air, I can tell that she is lovely. Lovely enough to lure a fool into the water, I know, and so I make it clear that I’ve no intention of leaving my dry rock, and rise only to my forelegs.
I thought I’d seen some signs of nereids in the lake as I swam through, and it seems the dim light and my own weariness had led to me to miss the presence of this kelpie as well.
“I’m only passing through,” I say, my tone calm and my expression as neutral as a dragon’s can be. “I’m on my way to the Mountain.” I don’t intend to cause trouble, or to linger in what might be her hunting grounds for longer than necessary. I’ve not gotten nearly enough sleep, but the danger floating in the water ahead of me has flooded my veins with an exhilarating dose of adrenaline.
As I watch in curosity I can't help but wonder about the creature. Was it a shifter like me? Was it born this way? Is it simply a wild thing of their world? I find myself wondering a lot lately...
My slitted blue eyes blink away the dry air, and in doing so the scaled being stirs. I tread the waters in place, not going closer and not moving away. I was invested in seeing just what happens. As it yawns, I note the sharp teeth, much like my own. It is bigger than I calculated too. My fine features soften as I consider that I have disturbed the creature.
I'm only passing through... I'm on my way to the Mountain.
"I'm only passing through as well," I say simply. "I saw your tail while swimming by and it reminded me of someone I once knew," my words trail slightly in thought. My eyes shy to the waters I still tread in, "I'm sorry to have awaken you."
My mind considers the last of what the creature said. Why a creature adapted to the water would wish to go to the Mountain has me wondering too. I have never been and have no intentions of ever going, but I still wonder just the same.
She doesn't come any closer to my sun-warmed rock, neither hunting nor defensive of her lake. Perhaps because it is not even her lake at all, I learn. She is no more a resident here than I am and that - along with the softening of her ethereal features - lessens some of my concern. It seems a strange coincidence, that the first creature I meet upon my return to this world is the kind that spawned me.
That is who she'd once known, I suspect, my sapphire scaled sire. I did not know him as anything more than as patriarch of our Ischian island, a distant presence that ignored me just as he did my many scaled siblings. He'd been curious about me at first, my mother had said, when I was so strange and scaled. But that had not lasted long, and my memories of him are blurred and faded with time.
I know of his reputation though, know it well enough to wonder why this stranger would come closer rather than turn tail and swim away as far and as fast as she could. As I observe her though, I realize that perhaps her ability to swim away had kept her safe. He didn't drown them all, I knew, yet I was sure she was no member of the harem that he had kept.
"My name is Terin," I tell her. "Many of my siblings share our father's coloration. Was it him you knew? Ivar?"
The morning light begins to shimmer on the waters rippling surface, as well as my iridescent black scales. It is warm and I welcome it.
My dark ears twist upon my exposed head as I listen to the creature once again. My large, finned tail effortlessly retains my position within the water.
My name is Terin. Many of my siblings share our father's coloration. Was it him you knew? Ivar?
It is the first I have heard the name spoken in quite some time. A gentle smile curls my lips before I reply, "Nice to meet you Terin. Yes I knew your father quite some time ago. I resided at the waterfalls within Ischia at the time he ruled the island." I wasn't sure if ruled was the correct word, but it was the only explanation I could comprehend. It mattered little to me the political ranks one would go by. I simply existed there in my crystalline pool.
My gaze shifts to the area around us in my musings of the past, "I've been gone for some time, and I guess Ischia is no more, so I am searching for a new pool to call home..." As if my gaze did not find one here I look back to Terin in question, "You wouldn't happen to know of any places that would suit a creature such as myself would you?"
T E R I N it’s not the devil at your door its just your shadow on the floor
As I wait for her to reply I glance east, to where the sun rises. Traveling beneath the water, I had paid little mind to the world above the surface, and only now do I take in rocky hills around the lake. They climb into the eastern mountain over which the warm morning sun streams, and are forested with trees of many unfamiliar types.
When I look back at the kelpie she is smiling, and it is a gentler expression than I had come to expect from her kind. I find myself smiling back.
She was Ischian. I am not surprised, as the place had been an ideal home for aquatic creatures, and had lived there when my father had ruled. The kelpie had always considered himself the place’s ruler, but I am slightly surprised to learn that at some point his claim might have been legitimate. Not surprised enough to inquire more though, as my interest in the male is on part with my interest in barnacles.
“I’ve visited that waterfall,” I tell her, remembering the short trips. The place had been lovely to behold, but the crashing of the falling water was not like that of the surf, and I had not lingered long before returning to the open sea. “It was a beautiful place.”
I’d been able to tell that this world had changed upon my arrival. I’d arrived where Ischia should have been, and yet somehow was not and so I nod in resigned agreement to the black kelpie’s assessment. When she looks back in inquiry, I can only offer a shrug.
“I’ve just returned myself. I had hoped to find some guidance at the Mountain, some quest to give me purpose.” It had not occurred to me to look for a home. But then, I suppose, she is a kelpie and I am a dragon, and perhaps there is some biological explanation behind our priorities. As long as there is deep water and the tugging tide, I am home.
My sapphire gaze intently watches the strange creature as I await a hopeful answer to my question. One does not come and I am slightly saddened my search would have to continue on. I could not fault him though and so I smile at his response.
I’ve just returned myself. I had hoped to find some guidance at the Mountain, some quest to give me purpose.
I tilt my head in consideration at the dragons' words. I knew of the Mountain as the home of their world's magical entities, but it had never crossed my mind to go there in search of something, much less purpose. I had never considered my purpose I guess, nor to seek guidance in finding it. The world has become much more complex than I remember it being.
My treading has begun to wear on me and so with this I nod and smile to my new friend, "I hope you find whatever you are looking for on the mountain." My eyes blink away the dry air as I look downstream, "I better continue my search as well," I look to the sapphire scaled creature once more. "It was nice to meet you Terin," I pause momentarily before sinking beneath the water's surface and pressing on down the river to find my home.
