-Adria-
Leliana had warned her, hadn’t she? Adria has listened and hoped it wouldn’t come to pass, but when War broke out across Tephra and her warm, golden eyes had turned east there was no denying the truth of it. The next morning, smoke billowed from the Volcano like it always had and silence drenched the shores instead of water.
She was uncommonly sad about it. Now two kingdoms had felt loss and destruction that would echo into the future. There’d been no call for help and aside from drenching out the fires last night (which a steady rain seemed to do anyways) Adria couldn’t heal and she couldn’t save what was lost. All she could do was make the passage from Tephra to Ischia dry and safe for a band of stragglers who wanted out, and in the early hours she’d seen to it that they made it home safely.
Serenity came again, bittersweet. Adria felt weary and satisfied enough to turn away from the distant sight of it and head inland towards the safety of freshwater. The gentle, wet leaves stroked her as she passed among them, through them, and her labouring began when they broke to reveal an uncommonly sunny blue pool in the midst of their greenery. Picking her way carefully past the roots seeped into the water, she descended and tried her best to relax.
Her mother Nyxa had never gone through this experience alone. Hod was always there, the shadow in the ocean beside her, and Adria lamented that she was void of such security. Eva wasn’t fit for this, not yet at least, and the Nereid highly doubted that she would ever seen signs of the child’s father again. Her face contorted and her eyes fluttered closed.
Not that it was Brennen’s fault. Not that she exactly wanted him there anyways, hollow comfort that he was. But it would’ve been nice.
Her sides, covered in faint scales, rippled painfully when the first of the two was born. A boy, eager to make his way out of Adria and into the cool water where he most rightfully belonged. She moved to address his needs and saw the dark blue-ish red glint of him, sucking in a breath of mild confusion. He was Kelpie. Not Nereid as she had hoped, but the animal of the sea that devours his prey. Watching him flutter, using her powers to keep him close but not too close, Adria wondered at her still remaining pain until another contraction bent her head in shock.
A twin. A girl! A… horse.
A filly colored blue that wriggled to swim but clearly could not. Adria swept around to grab hold of the child, her son edging closer as well, to lift the small blue head and dark navy muzzle out for air. The smaller girl snorted and coughed a breath of pure steam, finding life with the dizzy blink of two crystalline white eyes before her dam pushed her up onto the shore of roots and leaves.
Oh my love, don't forsake me; Take what the water gave me
@[Brennen]