Marianas often stared at the sky, watching the sea birds wheeling while fullness grew in his chest. He let his thoughts stray to the clouds. What would they feel like to cuddle, to slice? Was their fluffiness a farce? Their inviting plumpness looked like spun cotton. Perhaps someday he would dance upon it. For now, he remained content to frolic in the dimensions of land and sea.
Today, his first love held his attention, and the daydreamer held his gaze on the steady but wild flow of the river. The yellow flowers tumbled like darters in the current, vagrant droplets beading on their petals like magnifying glasses alighting a hundred glowing suns. He thought of his sister, the woman of sky and sea, and a smile floated to his soft lips like mist settling a forest.
So lost in thought was he that he had failed to notice Aureline’s tail, a draping vine from a feline shadow melded into the bark. Only when she chose to cast away the veil of dappled shadows did Marianas’s mauve eyes roll over her form. The silver fin along his neck was thrust upright, slicing into a stream of light and reflecting its brilliance like fire along the edge of a blade. He inhaled sharply, breath catching and burning his chest. Alarm was soon replaced by knowing. However distrait Marianas was in that moment he was not a green colt, and he quickly captured the mischievous demeanor Aureline wore. A wry smile fell upon his face and his head tilted up in feigned indignance.
“Do you often surprise poor, unsuspecting souls like mine?” He blinked somberly, shaking his head and speaking in a woe-is-me fashion. “I nearly died."
He wilted his body to the ground in all the melodramatics he could muster, turning his head away from her until the river brushed his lips. The Nereid silently drew in a mouthful of water while Aureline spoke reassurances, the cool liquid filling his cheeks like a turgid balloon. It took all of his gumption to not spit it out in amusement as she insisted her disinterest in piercing his flesh.
Slowly he turned to look at her, meeting her eye for a moment. Mirth swirled in his mulberry gaze, and soon water burst forth from his pursed lips in a fine jet the circumference of a child’s marker. Ideally, it would make gentle contact with the ebony button of her nose, but anywhere would do.
marianas
how the heavens they opened up
with arms of dazzling gold
@[aureline]