06-03-2023, 04:32 PM
I won’t be back till sunset, her mother tells her. Stay here in the kelp forest, and don’t let anyone see you. Orieta nodded solemnly, giving the adult nereid no reason to doubt her. Orieta is not a troublesome child, she thinks gratefully. The girl occupies herself within the safety of the northern edges of the kelp forest, often playing with the seals that dwell on the rocky beaches of the Plains, or with the dolphins that live on the edges of Stratos. Her existence causes little change to Moira’s way of life, which makes her especially fond of the black-haired filly.
Orieta’s coloring had surprised her mother: a black as dark as the deepest oceanic trench. Her gold and violet markings were just like Moira’s though, as was her marine nature. There was so little of her father in her (and so faint a memory of him in Moira’s mind, oft addled by the use of her song), that Moira had told the girl that she has no father at all, and that it was the Sea and Moira’s desire for a child that had resulted in Orieta’s existence.
That story is one of the girl’s favorites, and one that she has requested much elaborated on in the months since Orieta’s hatching. There is so much of the ocean in the filly, from the shape of her body to the pearls twined through her mane, that Orieta has never been given a reason to doubt the truth of her mother’s story. Unlike many of her mother’s stories, that one was always believable. Her mother had told her once that the kelp forest stretched almost the entire length of the shoreline of the Plains and the Beach. Apparently the southern kelp was halfway between dead and alive? Orieta had been frightened by that particular story and asked her mother to stop telling it before she’d gotten to the end.
After her mother leaves, Orieta does spend some time looking for the pod of dolphins that she’d raced with the night before. But they have moved on in pursuit of fish, and the black filly turns and swims back east, toward the shore. She’s no interest at all in stepping on land. It is the source of the crisp water that she means to find today. It is the current from the north, and after floating nearly to the surface to be sure that her mother is far away, Moira then drops to the sea floor and begins her pursuit.
The fresh water grows thicker and colder as she swims north, chilling the summer sea. The water that moves through her gills slowly transitions from salt water to brackish. When the shoreline begins to converge, she pauses, uncertain.
Floating just above the sediment, the young nereid-like creature ponders her choices. Swim farther upstream? Or keep to the brackish shore and see what she might find?
@Squirt
Orieta’s coloring had surprised her mother: a black as dark as the deepest oceanic trench. Her gold and violet markings were just like Moira’s though, as was her marine nature. There was so little of her father in her (and so faint a memory of him in Moira’s mind, oft addled by the use of her song), that Moira had told the girl that she has no father at all, and that it was the Sea and Moira’s desire for a child that had resulted in Orieta’s existence.
That story is one of the girl’s favorites, and one that she has requested much elaborated on in the months since Orieta’s hatching. There is so much of the ocean in the filly, from the shape of her body to the pearls twined through her mane, that Orieta has never been given a reason to doubt the truth of her mother’s story. Unlike many of her mother’s stories, that one was always believable. Her mother had told her once that the kelp forest stretched almost the entire length of the shoreline of the Plains and the Beach. Apparently the southern kelp was halfway between dead and alive? Orieta had been frightened by that particular story and asked her mother to stop telling it before she’d gotten to the end.
After her mother leaves, Orieta does spend some time looking for the pod of dolphins that she’d raced with the night before. But they have moved on in pursuit of fish, and the black filly turns and swims back east, toward the shore. She’s no interest at all in stepping on land. It is the source of the crisp water that she means to find today. It is the current from the north, and after floating nearly to the surface to be sure that her mother is far away, Moira then drops to the sea floor and begins her pursuit.
The fresh water grows thicker and colder as she swims north, chilling the summer sea. The water that moves through her gills slowly transitions from salt water to brackish. When the shoreline begins to converge, she pauses, uncertain.
Floating just above the sediment, the young nereid-like creature ponders her choices. Swim farther upstream? Or keep to the brackish shore and see what she might find?
@Squirt