06-01-2024, 11:17 AM
I watch as the mare tilts her head, shielding herself from the fish with her curling dark horns. They flop to the ground, gasping for air as their silvery tails flick uselessly at the empty air. How strange this must be for them, I think, to have been plucked from their watery home and hurled through the sky. The rich pink of their gasping gills reminds me for a moment of coral, and the empathy I feel is accompanied with melancholy.
She speaks to me then, the Queen, and I turn my bright eyes up to hers. A quiet breath of relief leaves me, grateful that she is not disturbed by my presence. Nothing about the frost-glittering monarch indicates that she might pursue me below the water, but I know better than to trust appearances. There is a bottom to this lake, after all.
“I don’t mean to stay long,” I repeat, in case she’d not heard and thinks I might stay overlong. “Just till spring, if that’s alright?”
I offer her a tentative smile, one that breaks only as the fish are flung back into the water and my sapphire eyes turn to watch them disappear beneath the surface. Something disturbs the water near me, and I though the resurfaced otter highlights my clear lack of belonging, I think that it had been kind to return the fish to the water.
Or perhaps he had eaten them, says a less nereid part of me, perhaps not all company is good company. It is a very quiet part, easily drowned out by the soft clatter of pearls as I tilt my head in a submerged shrug.
“It is beautiful here in the summer.” I reply. “Winter leaves a lot to be desired though” I remember the Queen, and add: “in the loch, anyway. I’m sure that, um, white stuff is very nice to walk on. It’s pretty. ”
@
Set @ Kreed
She speaks to me then, the Queen, and I turn my bright eyes up to hers. A quiet breath of relief leaves me, grateful that she is not disturbed by my presence. Nothing about the frost-glittering monarch indicates that she might pursue me below the water, but I know better than to trust appearances. There is a bottom to this lake, after all.
“I don’t mean to stay long,” I repeat, in case she’d not heard and thinks I might stay overlong. “Just till spring, if that’s alright?”
I offer her a tentative smile, one that breaks only as the fish are flung back into the water and my sapphire eyes turn to watch them disappear beneath the surface. Something disturbs the water near me, and I though the resurfaced otter highlights my clear lack of belonging, I think that it had been kind to return the fish to the water.
Or perhaps he had eaten them, says a less nereid part of me, perhaps not all company is good company. It is a very quiet part, easily drowned out by the soft clatter of pearls as I tilt my head in a submerged shrug.
“It is beautiful here in the summer.” I reply. “Winter leaves a lot to be desired though” I remember the Queen, and add: “in the loch, anyway. I’m sure that, um, white stuff is very nice to walk on. It’s pretty. ”
@
Set @ Kreed