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She usually wasn’t one for freshwater, unlike some of her siblings. She hated anything murky or brackish or otherwise tainted. It was gross. So you wouldn’t find her in any swamps or otherwise slimy puddles out of anything other than sheer necessity. She’d heard the song and dance about better hunting and all that, but she could not get over the ‘ew’ factor.
Which is part of what had sent her hunting for, well, somewhere. She’d tried the whole nomad thing but decided it wasn’t her thing. Maybe this was maturity or something because she wanted to find her place, not just somewhere she should stay because of her dad or her siblings or whatever. So she’d gone searching.
And finally decided she needed to search some of the inland waterways when she found that the coastal areas just…weren’t right.
But this? This was like…perfect. The water was crystal clear. There wasn’t a super annoying crowd. There was plenty of space. She could easily get back to the sea via the river without having to like, climb a mountain, which absolutely wasn’t going to happen, like, ever.
The kelpie made her way closer to the shore, mildly curious about the terrestrial residents but also just so not caring right now. She tucked her fins to her side, but didn’t bother to shift to her equine form as she dragged herself on to the shore. And more gracefully than you’d imagine, too. It’s not like she planned on going far from the water, anyway.
She settled herself along the shoreline, letting the sun was over her iridescent scales. She let out a soft sigh as she felt the warmth seeping into her skin, letting her cerulean eyes flutter shut as she did so.
She could get used to this.
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there's fire in your blood
“What.”
Mazikeen asks herself under her breath while she’s still a distance away. That’s the moment when she begins to drift towards the lake. She was starting to settle in here - it helped that there were familiar faces. Wherever Breach wanted to make her home was good enough for her, and though there was always going to be a sense of fondness for the Cove she found this mountainous land growing on her. It was a joy to soar through the peaks as an osprey, to dive into the lake and swim as an otter, to try her skills at following the vertical invisible pathways of the mountain goats.
Time had not yet stolen her enjoyment at every shape she could take.
Right now, though, she was looking at something she had never seen before. Part horse, part… fish? But unlike any fish Mazikeen had ever seen.
There are many questions she wants to ask - most of them variants of ‘what the fuck’ but the one that the young orange-eyed mare asks as she comes to stand on the shore, keeping a careful distance away, is:
“Have you been living in our lake?”
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image by Reitro
@[Sabal]
| s a b a l .
This was very relaxing and as she leta the sun’s rays warm her, she silently congratulates herself at finding like, the absolute best home.
She wasn’t sure how long she let herself sunbathe in the shallows until someone literally casts a shadow on her day. By blocking the sun. The kelpie pries one of her cerulean eyes open and lets out a soft huff as she raises her head to look at the stranger.
“Um rude, you’re blocking my sun!” she says, with a petulant huff, while righting herself so she can better see whoever it was that had interrupted her afternoon. She idly swishes her long tail in the water, knowing that if this girl does anything threatening, she can easily escape into the depths. I mean the girl didn’t look like much, but Sabal knew better than to assume. That was what kelpies relied on half of the time – stupid people just like, assuming that they were harmless.
But Kelpies aren’t without their own protection. Sabal not so subtly runs her tongue across one of her sharp teeth before finally answering the girl’s question – her teal gaze narrowing slightly as she did so. She’d just found this place and she’d be damned if she had to give it up already.
She wasn’t going to go back to living in some disgusting swamp just because some land-lover happened to call dibs on this lake. ”And yeah. Is that like, a problem or something?” she added, with a toss of her long, silky mane, the very picture of nonchalance.
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@[Mazikeen]
there's fire in your blood
Orange eyes practically roll back into Maze’s head when the fish runs her tongue over her sharp teeth - but an eye-roll wasn’t enough of a reaction. So she fakes a yawn, pulling out a trick she had been playing with recently where she shifts only her teeth - so that the canines of a wolf gleam as her mouth widens.
Purely to flex that she could have sharp teeth too - and show that she wasn’t intimidated in the least. She waits until her false yawn has ended and her mouth has closed before she releases that part-shift, having cut her lips a few times already.
The hair-flip is another cause for an eye-roll but Maze decides to give them a break and focuses on the question, which required a little bit of thought.
Was it a problem if this fish-horse was living in their lake? Mazikeen honestly didn’t know.
“Maybe? How the hell long have you been living here anyway?” The last time Maze had been swimming about as an otter she didn’t remember seeing anyone living down there - though admittedly she hadn’t gone very deep at all. And then, because what's one more somewhat-rude question, she continues - frowning a little. “Do you have legs or are you always half a eel?”
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image by Reitro
@[Sabal]
| s a b a l .
“I don’t know. Awhile?” Sabal offered, nonchalantly, even though that was like, a total lie. But whatever, it was obviously this mare knew nothing about what went on below the surface of the lake so Sabal planned to take full advantage of that fact.
The kelpie narrows her eyes at the land-dweller. A shifter, judging by the teeth, but one who obviously wasn’t fond of the water. Interesting. But it wasn’t enough to intimidate the girl. “And you better decide if its a problem or not because I happen to really like this lake and I have no plans to leave anytime soon.” Stubbornness was something that Sabal had in spades and like hell she was going to leave just because one very grumpy land lover told her to.
But it seemed that the rude questions weren’t finished yet. ”Of course I have legs, what kind of question is that?” But before she can say anything more her eyes bulge as she finally processes the tail end of the other mare’s question. Sabal is not one who is skilled at even trying to mask her emotions so the disgust, frustration, and simmering anger practically pour out of her.
“I am not an eel,” she manages to spit between clenched teeth - aghast that she’s been compared to something so...so...revolting. She shivers at the thought and steams at the idea she was mistaken as something so....gross!
“Eels are slimy and disgusting. I’m a Kelpie. Obviously.“ she said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Which it was but. Whatever.
With an angry huff, Sabal pulls her forelegs beneath her as her tail shifts into back legs to match. She angrily slaps her wet equine tail against her scaled sides, still frustrated by this whole interaction.
“See! Look! Legs! Happy now? she said, with a petulant stamp of a foreleg, trying to suppress the growl building in her throat as she narrowed her vivid blue eyes at this very strange and bossy mare who seemed to have no purpose in life aside from ruining her once very good day.
”Are you always this charming to people you meet?” Sabal adds, thoroughly peeved by this entire interaction.
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@[Mazikeen]
there's fire in your blood
Mazikeen already isn’t feeling bad about calling the fish girl an eel, and since the stranger didn’t seem too impressed by her own show of teeth Maze resolved not to feel bad about it at all. Especially when the explanation given did not clear things up at all. “Never seen or heard of a Kelpie before.” She states simply with a little shrug though her grin is growing as the dramatics continue.
But then the mare moves and pushes up from the ground - that aquatic tail shifting into hind legs until she's standing and well, that’s that. The issue just solved itself.
Mazikeen can’t decide whether the petulance radiating off of this mare is annoying or entertaining, but she’s starting to lean towards entertaining now that she knows she won’t actually have to try to chase her out of the lake.
At the question about whether she was always this charming to those she’s just met, Mazikeen’s orange eyes dance with a smirk and her next words are punctuated with a wink for good measure. “Yes, actually. Wouldn’t want you to go thinking you were special or anything.” She relaxes, though, and that smirk brightens into a kinder grin. “I’m Mazikeen - or Maze if you want. And you can keep living in the lake - we only allow shifters to live in this kingdom but since you can turn into a…” and Mazikeen makes a very exaggerated point of pronouncing the next word carefully “kelpie, you’re alright.”
Her attention turns to the lake and her head tilts to the side a little as she asks with obvious curiosity. As though the other hundred (potentially rude) questions had not just happened. “Is there anything cool down there? In the lake?”
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image by Reitro
@[Sabal]
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