05-11-2024, 11:58 PM
I watch curiously as the figure on the far side of the lake draws nearer. She is as fascinating as the rest of the land dwellers, with a shaggy coat that I imagine must feel enviably warm right about now. I wonder if there will be more snow soon, glancing up at the clouds gathering overhead.
When I look back down, the dark-haired creature is close enough for me to see that there’s more than horns atop her head. That is a crown. This is a queen. My sapphire eyes then flick down to her silver ones, to the blood that drips from them, to the scarred stump of a wing that I can see on her near side. I swallow slowly, but offer her a smile nonetheless.
The sound of the black horse shattering the ice with a hoof is a welcome reprieve, even if it does startle me a bit.
I am not usually so jumpy.
I think it might have something to do with this lake, with how I feel very much like a minnow trapped in a tidepool, with how cold it is and how the aquatic grazing is bland and tasteless.
There is very little I enjoy about this place at all, come to think of it, and so even though the approaching queen has reminded me that this kingdom once had a longer and more descri[tive name, I am not so easily dissuaded from the first conversation I have had in months.
‘You can’t leave the water?’ He asks, and I shake my head as I answer.
“Not and move quickly. Not with this. I twist in the water, lifting the end of my violet tail above the water to demonstrate my lack of appropriate anatomy. I’ve done my share of sunbathing on sandy beaches, but my body was not made for a life on land.
It could be, if I’ve inherited the ability and I can master it, but thus far I’ve had no luck at all. I’d never bothered to learn, and I wonder if learning now in adulthood will be harder than if I’d asked to be taught as a child. How long had this shifter been practicing, to transform so easily back into the form of small brown otter? Those glittering eyes now seem all the more mischievous with the knowledge that it is not at all what it seems, and I find myself smiling as it skitters across the ice.
The otter dives beneath the water, and though I long to follow, I cannot leave the queen of this place alone on the shore without a greeting. Being in this lake is terrible enough, I cannot imagine being both trapped and unwecome would do much to improve my situation
“Hello, I’m Orieta. I don’t…” Before I can distinguish myself from the shapeshifter, he emerges from the water once more. I can only stare in awe as he hurls the pair of fish at the queen, my expression belying my inner battle between horror and hilarity.
@
Kreed @ Set
When I look back down, the dark-haired creature is close enough for me to see that there’s more than horns atop her head. That is a crown. This is a queen. My sapphire eyes then flick down to her silver ones, to the blood that drips from them, to the scarred stump of a wing that I can see on her near side. I swallow slowly, but offer her a smile nonetheless.
The sound of the black horse shattering the ice with a hoof is a welcome reprieve, even if it does startle me a bit.
I am not usually so jumpy.
I think it might have something to do with this lake, with how I feel very much like a minnow trapped in a tidepool, with how cold it is and how the aquatic grazing is bland and tasteless.
There is very little I enjoy about this place at all, come to think of it, and so even though the approaching queen has reminded me that this kingdom once had a longer and more descri[tive name, I am not so easily dissuaded from the first conversation I have had in months.
‘You can’t leave the water?’ He asks, and I shake my head as I answer.
“Not and move quickly. Not with this. I twist in the water, lifting the end of my violet tail above the water to demonstrate my lack of appropriate anatomy. I’ve done my share of sunbathing on sandy beaches, but my body was not made for a life on land.
It could be, if I’ve inherited the ability and I can master it, but thus far I’ve had no luck at all. I’d never bothered to learn, and I wonder if learning now in adulthood will be harder than if I’d asked to be taught as a child. How long had this shifter been practicing, to transform so easily back into the form of small brown otter? Those glittering eyes now seem all the more mischievous with the knowledge that it is not at all what it seems, and I find myself smiling as it skitters across the ice.
The otter dives beneath the water, and though I long to follow, I cannot leave the queen of this place alone on the shore without a greeting. Being in this lake is terrible enough, I cannot imagine being both trapped and unwecome would do much to improve my situation
“Hello, I’m Orieta. I don’t…” Before I can distinguish myself from the shapeshifter, he emerges from the water once more. I can only stare in awe as he hurls the pair of fish at the queen, my expression belying my inner battle between horror and hilarity.
@
Kreed @ Set