[open] don't think twice

[Terin]

T E R I N it’s not the devil at your door its just your shadow on the floor As I wait for her to reply I glance east, to where the sun rises. Traveling beneath the water, I had paid little mind to the world above the surface, and only now do I take in rocky hills around the lake. They climb into the eastern mountain over which the warm morning sun streams, and are forested with trees of many unfamiliar types. When I look back at the kelpie she is smiling, and it is a gentler expression than I had come to expect from her kind. I find myself smiling back. She was Ischian. I am not surprised, as the place had been an ideal home for aquatic creatures, and had lived there when my father had ruled. The kelpie had always considered himself the place’s ruler, but I am slightly surprised to learn that at some point his claim might have been legitimate. Not surprised enough to inquire more though, as my interest in the male is on part with my interest in barnacles. “I’ve visited that waterfall,” I tell her, remembering the short trips. The place had been lovely to behold, but the crashing of the falling water was not like that of the surf, and I had not lingered long before returning to the open sea. “It was a beautiful place.” I’d been able to tell that this world had changed upon my arrival. I’d arrived where Ischia should have been, and yet somehow was not and so I nod in resigned agreement to the black kelpie’s assessment. When she looks back in inquiry, I can only offer a shrug. “I’ve just returned myself. I had hoped to find some guidance at the Mountain, some quest to give me purpose.” It had not occurred to me to look for a home. But then, I suppose, she is a kelpie and I am a dragon, and perhaps there is some biological explanation behind our priorities. As long as there is deep water and the tugging tide, I am home. @ Deiti