12-09-2020, 03:46 PM
He is the raging sea. Water when the winds tease it into ever taller tidal waves, the briny deep where secret creatures live and die without ever knowing the sun. When he smiles, it is like jagged rocks revealing themselves on a calm strait, no lighthouse giving warning to the devastation just beyond sight.
Blue tinged and white, he is like a patch of errant sunlight on the water. Easily missed if one wasn't looking for it. Only when he surfaces to exhale, twin bursts of mist from his nostrils and a new lungful of air greedily taken in, is he more clearly known. Caught between equid and orca, Cormorant dwelt between the two worlds, parts of both but fully neither.
He spent most of his time in the waters of Icicle Isle. Cold water and a pod of tolerant porpoises made it as close to home as he wished to get. They were migrating soon though, on to warmer waters and easier hunting as summer neared its end. He couldn't blame them. Was curious, even, to know where his warm weather companions would go.
South, it was always south. Further than he could follow without rest. His mother's gifts went far in the ocean world. Not far enough to carry him miles from land. So he whistled his farewells, and turned back when they passed his point of no return. Made landfall where fresh water met salt, and ran cold from melting off the mountains.
Like an ancient creature found in the corner of an old, half written map, he broke the surface and drank in free air. The muscular flesh of his tail hung heavy behind him without the water's support. The tall mast of his dorsal fin leaned likewise to one side. Like so many waterbound mammals, he was less graceful on the shores. Still, years of near constant swimming had given him muscle that compensated for his wobbling sealegs while he acclimated to the solid land.
It was a pleasant cove he'd come upon. Idyllic and calm, gritty sand beneath his dripping hooves. He snorted, pleased in an offhand way. Eating was a much more pressing matter in the moment, and he would consider a rabbit in lieu of edible vegetation.
Ah. But that wasn't a rabbit, was it. The burly stallion froze, a predator having spotted potential prey. A little grey mare also stood on this slice of land, and he wasn't sure she had spotted him yet.
@[alleria]
Blue tinged and white, he is like a patch of errant sunlight on the water. Easily missed if one wasn't looking for it. Only when he surfaces to exhale, twin bursts of mist from his nostrils and a new lungful of air greedily taken in, is he more clearly known. Caught between equid and orca, Cormorant dwelt between the two worlds, parts of both but fully neither.
He spent most of his time in the waters of Icicle Isle. Cold water and a pod of tolerant porpoises made it as close to home as he wished to get. They were migrating soon though, on to warmer waters and easier hunting as summer neared its end. He couldn't blame them. Was curious, even, to know where his warm weather companions would go.
South, it was always south. Further than he could follow without rest. His mother's gifts went far in the ocean world. Not far enough to carry him miles from land. So he whistled his farewells, and turned back when they passed his point of no return. Made landfall where fresh water met salt, and ran cold from melting off the mountains.
Like an ancient creature found in the corner of an old, half written map, he broke the surface and drank in free air. The muscular flesh of his tail hung heavy behind him without the water's support. The tall mast of his dorsal fin leaned likewise to one side. Like so many waterbound mammals, he was less graceful on the shores. Still, years of near constant swimming had given him muscle that compensated for his wobbling sealegs while he acclimated to the solid land.
It was a pleasant cove he'd come upon. Idyllic and calm, gritty sand beneath his dripping hooves. He snorted, pleased in an offhand way. Eating was a much more pressing matter in the moment, and he would consider a rabbit in lieu of edible vegetation.
Ah. But that wasn't a rabbit, was it. The burly stallion froze, a predator having spotted potential prey. A little grey mare also stood on this slice of land, and he wasn't sure she had spotted him yet.
@[alleria]