lepis, comtesse of taiga
RUN AND TELL ALL OF THE ANGELS; THIS COULD TAKE ALL NIGHT
i think i need a devil to help me get things right The younger mare acquiesces, and Lepis gives her only long enough for doing so to ask her follow-up question, intending to take full advantage of any upper hand she might have. Aquaria might be reluctant to answer the question that she finds too probing, but at the same time, Lepis is Comtesse to her diplomat, and mother to the young man in question. There is some hesitation, but Lepis thinks that perhaps her tactic has been successful as the finned mare speaks.
There seems to be genuine fondness in her voice as she recounts Pteron’s exploits.
Somewhere – very deep, so far down she does not even recognize it – a tendril of fondness uncurls in her mind. Lepis does smile, an immaculate facsimile of amusement at Aquaria’s description of her son’s adventures. Just friends, the nereid assures her; Pteron is only nice. Well, that is good thin, and another little bit of shame that she might have thought such a thing of her son possible writhes imperceptibly. Aquaria asks if their friendship is alright, and the pegasus glances back toward her from where her gaze stretches ahead toward the deeper woods. The visitor is stepping over a branch, and Lepis takes the moment to look at Aquaria in a way she hadn’t before. The ethereal beauty often blurs the rest of the creature that wears it, and Aquaria is no exception.
The fin along her mane, the little stars beneath her ear, even the salt-scent imbedded in her skin. She is a creature of the sea. If she were brought to land for any length of time, Lepis half-thinks she might shrivel up like the saltfish in Loess that splashed themselves into a freshwater pool.
“I’d like him to make a good marriage,” she says, the pointed tone of her words betrayed by the easy way with which she looks around them. Raising her navy muzzle, Lepis points out the curious eyes of a trio of possums. The little family watches the horses with beady black eyes in their skull-white faces, chittering back and forth for a moment before resuming their laborious climbing of the wide tree. The nereid strikes her as someone who had been born and raised at sea, and while possums are not the most intriguing of Taiga’s wildlife, they are at least something that the Comtesse doubts they have back in Ischia. They do pass the tracks of more interesting animals (hours old lynx-prints and the scraping along a tree where only a moose could reach) but the dun mare does not veer off the most direct route to the meadow where Pteron is most likely to land.
The dun mare does not elaborate, does not clarify with Aquaria what she might mean. That Aquaria might be one such marriage? That she might not? That she might, but Lepis is still considering it? Yet before there is really even time for the Ischian to formulate a reply, Lepis continues: “He is a good boy. If he were to be hurt, even by a friend, I would not be pleased.” For just one moment, Aquaria’s pale face becomes someone else’s entirely to Lepis’ questing blue-grey eyes, and she knows precisely what her displeasure would entail. And then Lepis’s smile – the absent one she has worn this whole walk, brightens even further when she points out a place in the woods ahead of them that is infinitesimally bright than everywhere around them.
“The meadow is not much farther. I’ll wait with you until Pteron arrives, and then I’ll be taking my younger children on a trip to the Playground and the Common Lands. I trust Pteron will be able to give you a more intimate tour of Taiga than this brief jaunt.” The Comtesse is still smiling, even though she has glanced surreptitiously toward Aquaria as she added the adjective. She means to keep the girl off-balance, unsure of exactly what Lepis’ true feelings might be. The girl seems to have a good head on her shoulders and a healthy amount of respect for authority. She’s certainly better than that hellion from Loess that Pteron keeps visiting; even familial ties have not swayed her opinion of too-wild Reia.
@[Aquaria]
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