Aquaria loved the storms. They wracked the island with wind and rain, brought down trees and flooded the low beaches and meadows. It was unequivocal chaos. That wasn't what she loved. It was the way the island recovered from each and every one with graceful ease.
New trees grew every year, the shorelines formed and reformed continually. New treasures were deposited on the sand by deep waves. The parrot colonies weathered the seasons as they always had, the fish migrated as they always had, and as she hoped they always would. It was her home, in weather foul and fair.
Where she rested today was by the broad waterfall spun into the earth. It was swollen with the rainfall, the banks swung broad beyond their traditional bounds. Aquaria watched the swirling wavelets lap at the mud where her hooves sank. Fat drops of rain spattered against her neck and back, trailing rivulets that ran across her body to meet their greater collective as it flowed. Her fins hung loose and relaxed across her shoulders and by her heels, shedding the rain as quickly as it fell.
The sound of a cracking shell did not draw her attention. It was the feeling of being watched that turned her head, ears pricked and eyes sharp through the curtains of water falling from the skies. Amethyst gaze fell on a striped coat that slunk towards her.
"Hal-! Oh." The feline figure resolved through the rain, and she knew it was not her child. A tiger, yes, but without her son's pattern, or his eyes. Even her gait was unlike Halcyon's. The mermare blinked at the approaching cat, he lips a delicate 'O' of surprise.
It was not her Halcyon, but there was intelligence in her eyes and the pearl woman suspected that their was more to the sodden feline than the surface would suggest. She cleared her throat softly. "Hello," she called, loud enough to be heard over the downpour. "I don't believe we've met. Would you like to get out of the rain?" There were volcanic caves she knew of that residents often used to escape the storms. They were not obviously placed, however, and a newcomer would not likely have heard of them.
@[Titanya]