Oceane's quiet joy in her home was contagious, and the seamare find herself calculating when exactly she could take up the invitation to visit. A day in the warmer season, preferably. With a gentle whicker, she agreed to it. "Yes, that would be wonderful. When should I make the trip?" It wouldn't do to walk in when she wasn't expected, after all.
It was an exciting prospect, visiting a new kingdom on personal grounds instead of political. She'd come to learn over the last several years that diplomacy was not her strong suite. She could bluff her way through it, usually, but found that the carefully worded life of a diplomat was not one that came naturally to her. Speaking her mind had proven a much more effective route to the nereid, when the situation called for it.
Her outspoken leanings weren't always a benefit, but she did try to listen when someone needed to be heard. Oceane's dancing around the source of her misgivings towards Ischia translated very clearly to the girl who knew the island so well.
"Oh," she said, nose wrinkled in knowing sympathy. "You've got kelpie troubles." They stayed on that little daughter island most of the time, and kept to themselves. There were several that roamed the waters of Ischia, but one held a bit more infamy than the rest. The elder kelpie, Ivar, who kept his children and his herd of blank-eyed mares close, and who's hunger was a quiet warning to the other islanders.
The pearl nereid made a mental note to bring the subject up with Eva when they next met, that perhaps they needed to revisit the subject of the kelpie's residency. In the meantime, she wished to ease some of the bitterness from the pegasus woman's experience of her home.
"I'm very sorry that happened to you. I'm a nereid, if you were wondering. The kelpie are sort of cousins to my kind. Just that while nereids are more easy going, the kelpie are... more hungry, I guess you could say." She puffed a cloud of breath at the words. Cannibals is what they were, if the stories were true. Her spine prickled just to think of it. Still, she wanted to prove that a clan of sharp toothed sea dwellers were not the runners of her home.
Her smile returned, a bit more subdued perhaps, but warm nonetheless. "If you'd like to visit again, I'd love to give you the tour. I'll show you all the beautiful places Ischia has to offer, and we'll steer clear of the kelpies." She promised, offering a second chance at the serenity that was her home. She would see to it that her new friend was not harassed a second time.
@[Oceane]