[open] skin to bone, steel to rust.

[Orieta]

I watch as the mare tilts her head, shielding herself from the fish with her curling dark horns. They flop to the ground, gasping for air as their silvery tails flick uselessly at the empty air. How strange this must be for them, I think, to have been plucked from their watery home and hurled through the sky. The rich pink of their gasping gills reminds me for a moment of coral, and the empathy I feel is accompanied with melancholy.

She speaks to me then, the Queen, and I turn my bright eyes up to hers. A quiet breath of relief leaves me, grateful that she is not disturbed by my presence. Nothing about the frost-glittering monarch indicates that she might pursue me below the water, but I know better than to trust appearances. There is a bottom to this lake, after all.

“I don’t mean to stay long,” I repeat, in case she’d not heard and thinks I might stay overlong. “Just till spring, if that’s alright?”

I offer her a tentative smile, one that breaks only as the fish are flung back into the water and my sapphire eyes turn to watch them disappear beneath the surface. Something disturbs the water near me, and I though the resurfaced otter highlights my clear lack of belonging, I think that it had been kind to return the fish to the water.

Or perhaps he had eaten them, says a less nereid part of me, perhaps not all company is good company. It is a very quiet part, easily drowned out by the soft clatter of pearls as I tilt my head in a submerged shrug.

“It is beautiful here in the summer.” I reply. “Winter leaves a lot to be desired though” I remember the Queen, and add: “in the loch, anyway. I’m sure that, um, white stuff is very nice to walk on. It’s pretty. ”

@ Set @ Kreed

[Kreed]

The life suffocating from the aquatic creatures thrashing about the frozen earth hardly grasps my attention, let alone a feeling.  I can't help but sense it tugs at the other finned creature just the slightest, though not enough for them to act upon it.  This observation causes my head to tilt even though my expression is impassive.

The soft words of Orieta bring my attention back and I contemplate all she says silently.  The winter wind was beginning to strengthen, sending a chill up my spine.

By magic, I am sure, the scaled fish are drug back into their watery home.  My silver eyes fall to watch as they twirl momentarily beneath the hyaline surface trying to regain their vitality.  I wonder what it must feel like being on the verge of death and suddenly living again just as you were.

Soon the brown creature returns with more questions direct at the trapped water creature, along with hardly an answer to my own query. I am certain there are more tricks up the creatures pelted sleeves, but I haven't the time to find out as I have my rounds to make still.

My silver brown body shifts as my horned skull turns to look out across the terrain.  I only hear the tail end of the nereids answer and nod at her response.  "It is not a land for the faint of heart that is for certain," a minute pause follows before I add in a monotone voice, "I would say feel free to come or go as you please Orienta, but it seems that choice is not yours... yet.  So, take your leave when you are able.  While trapped here you are under my protection."  My blood-stained face then turns back to view the pair again before settling on the magician, "Let me know if the trickster here becomes a nuisance."  There is only the faintest glint of satire in my silver gaze as I begin to draw myself away from the open flat that surrounds the loch.

Kreed

Crown of Bone and Thorn