For the seamare, home always had been Ischia and the sea. When she was stressed or worried or heartsick, the warm waters had never failed to sooth. Things were undeniably different now. With the moon and the sun locked in their torrid affair, the sea no longer moved in its predictable ways. The currents grabbed and tore when she least expected it, and the waves had grown reluctant to listen when she pulled at them herself. The waters themselves had grown confused in these dark days. Worse still, the once balmy lagoons of her tropical home were now cold and she could feel the life in them dying out like stars blinking from existence one by one.
Soon, it would not be one by one. Death would come in its hundreds and thousands, if the sun did not come back to warm them. To grow their food and thaw the ground. Her head spun momentarily as mortality stared back at her from the looming dark. That was why she had made this journey, wasn't it? To find answers, to seek help. To find some scrap of hope to cling to until the dawn returned.
It hurt, to hear that the mainlanders were no wiser about the eclipse than she had been on her island. So hope was a little further off than she'd realized. Her head dipped slightly, before remembering that she would not be well understood without speaking now. So many small adjustments to make...
"I wish we were meeting under better circumstances, Wishbone," she answered, voice rolling softly like waves under a full moon. There was a pause, and sure could feel the hesitation in it. There was not to be good news today, it seemed. A sharp exhale pushed past her lips. "You're not wrong," she confirmed, the muscles of her face tightening as she spoke. Tiercel had been the most recent guest, and his visit had been for many of the same reasons she had made her own journey today.
That, more than anything, had been a reality check for the scaled woman. Hospitality was her calling in life. Taking care of her herd, of the guests that traveled to Ischia when an escape from their real lives became necessary. Hard to justify a vacation though, when it felt like the world was well and truly ending. What was the point in travelling from one dark and gloomy location only to see more of the same, quite possibly with a higher risk of danger?
No point at all, and she could hardly blame others for staying at home. Never mind that she missed the conversation of strangers. Shifting her weight from one heel to the other, she shrugged absently. "Safe as I can make them. I've warned them to stay clear of the waters. The ocean has gone... tempermental, without the moon to guide her. I'm lucky to have made it here at all." She admitted, acknowledging the fear that made the pit of her stomach ache. It was awful, to be afraid of that which you love most of all. That she was dreading the return trip. So she turned her mind from it as long as she could, and looked instead for some sort of information to build on.
"How is Tephra, do you know?" She asked, peering into the dark, thinking that she was just maybe beginning to make out the outline of the landscape. Black on black, it was hard to know for sure. So easy for the eyes to be fooled when you wanted to see badly enough.
@[Wishbone]