The victory of taking a verbal stab at the stallion was a short lived one. She'd been fortunate in life, all things considered. Still, one didn't live by the water long without learning respect, and she knew she was tempting the riptide the longer he found reasons to stay. Much longer, and it would be like prying barnacles from the rocks to get rid of him.
Even she knew better than to turn her back on a barracuda.
Aquaria smiled indulgently at his invitation, took one step, two closer to the water's edge. It licked very nearly to the edges of her hooves, ebbing and flowing to the same rhythm the painted stallion swayed among the waves. Her eyes danced in a way that said she was considering his offer, playing with the idea of joining him among the seafoam and salt water.
A bubbling laugh rippled across the surface of the sea, her smile pretty and unbothered in the dappled cove light. "It's a living," she shrugged, amethyst eyes blinking vacantly at him. "After all, what's not to admire?" One hoof landed in the lapping waters.
The cool wash of ocean over her coroner, bracing in its tangible strength. These waves were playful things, never harsh enough to harm their sheltered cove. A tendril of water curled up her hemlock, and she could feel it's eagerness to embrace her. Unlike the kelpie's charming invitation, this was one she willingly obliged.
The brightening of her smile from a careful mask into something far more genuine was the only warning before the ocean tightened its grip on the floating sea beast. Where it had swirled placid about him a second before, now the water tightened like a tuna net on an unwary school of fat fish. She let him sit there just long enough for the realization to shine in his eyes before she pushed with all her might and sent him spinning out of her harbor with all the grace of a tugboat caught in a hurricane.
"And stay out," she murmured to the shrinking figure, the tension draining from her in a sudden flood. It had taken a lot of effort to shove him the way she had, even with the ocean's willingness. Hopefully it would take him a few days to try again, else wise she wasn't sure she could pull the same trick again.
@[Ivar]