climbing out the back door, didn't leave a mark ; any

[Kerrigan]

KERRIGAN

 The seas had been peaceful. 

Endless floating, gliding, ethereal drifting.  It had been so easy to lose herself in the currents.

His hand had forced her away from the home she had known, and there had been a simple refusal to bide his wayward desires.  The images of those she had silently tracked, stalked, lured into a false sense of security had grown dimmer like the effortless melding of ocean blues turning black in its deepest reaches.  But the memories were still there, easy to recall, not as easily forgotten. 

Just like him.

Favoring the warmer embrace of tropical waters, she hugged the boundaries of Ischia and Tephra regularly.  On occasion, Kerrigan’s wandering would bring her to the brackish waters of where the River met the seas.  Today was one of those occasions.

Atop a well worn boulder still stubbornly holding the last warmth of the autumnal sun and under the guise of a banded sea Krait, she lay coiled languorously peering through dark eyes much too intelligent to belong to a serpent alone.

Never one to stay on the shores for longer than necessary, she let the time flow freely by anyway.  A small spark of interest is the only thing that pins her down, seeing in the distance for the first time in a long time, the characteristic silhouette of someone equine coming closer.

She couldn’t help but wonder if her peace would last much longer.

i am everything you've ever lost.
i am everything you've never had.

[abysm]

Those eyes - dark and doelike - cling to his mind, awake or asleep. 

They follow him, even if he cannot ever truly make out the shape of the face they belong to. He knows that face well enough though. It haunts him despite every caress he’s laid upon it. Only in dreams though. Only in dreams. Only ever the eyes as the most memorable piece he brings back with himself. Even the touches and murmurs become remnants that he’s certain might not have been more than dreamt up but Abysm knows deep down in the heart of himself, all of it was real.

No less real than the river beside which he finds himself as he rips through the fabric of the dream-plains and finds himself back in Beqanna.

It is the river of his misspent youth. So much time gallivanting through wildflowers and beneath stretched-up arms of this tree or that tree. Time spent in the company of his father. Their golden skins almost indistinguishable from one another until the sunlight picked upon the paint pattern that broke up the champagne of Abysm with foamy white color. He stares at the river like he’s never seen it before even though he has. It just looks different through eyes that have found something he’s always sought since he was a child - love, the kind that usually only comes from a mother or a lover.

Everything looks different now.

Even that snake over there on that rock…

“Hello little snake,” he murmurs aloud, certainly not expecting an answer from it nor does he notice that the eyes hold more intelligence than the eyes of a snake have a right to hold. Abysm has never really given much thought to the level of intelligence snakes may or may not have. Nor has he ever given much thought to the intelligence of any creature. Makes him seem kind of vain and self-absorbed which to an extent, has been true the past couple of years. He knows what has been the catalyst for the change in him - that dream-lover and the farseer, and all of a sudden, as he looks from the snake to the river and back to the snake again, it dawns on him that they have the same kind of eyes.

“What would you do little snake, if you could change the nature of your dreams?”
Again, he doesn’t expect the snake to answer him. It’s only a snake after all, content to sun itself upon the rock just as he is enjoying the sun on his back. Simple pleasures for simple lives that aren’t so very simple after all.

@[Kerrigan]

[Kerrigan]

KERRIGAN

 
"Hello little snake."

The blinding innocence of the greeting holds her interesting, staring unblinkingly with amused fixations at the friendly youth.  The boy appears somewhat lost in thought, glancing between her resting body and the river beyond and so she swallows the temptation to greet him back, watching with simple fascination at the subtle quirks of his features as he further ponders something.  If she could smile, she would, but her current form does not allow such a reaction, and even then she's not entirely sure if her muscles remember how to perform such a task.

But inwardly, she smiles all the same.

It is short lived though, as her own memories lapse backward, baited out by the same inquisitive nature this young lad seems to possess, easily reminiscent of the child she'd raised then abandoned.  Despite the many times she'd called upon the memory, the dread and regret it elicits never seems to fade or lessen, always left to send a chill down her spine and drop a heavy weight in her gut.

He's talking again, asking something much more philosophical then she'd think one his age could be so capable of.  And it is enough to raise her small black and white head to peer at him more directly, casting her head thoughtfully to the side in easy consideration of his inquiry.

"Then nightmares would become dreams, and I would know freedom, if only for a short while."

i am everything you've ever lost.
i am everything you've never had.

@[abysm]

[abysm]

The far-seer and the dream-lover have the same eyes. 

Shock hits him with the full force of a wave as he stares at the little snake all curled up and cozy on the rock. The silence and the sun try to cozy up to him too. Warmth pools in his muscles and slithers across his back and unknowingly, he cocks one hind leg in a restful position. He’s not taken his eyes off the snake but the sun kills his eyelids k to dropping just a bit as if he dozed. Abysm might have but he’d turned inward to consider just how two different entities could have the exact same pair of eyes.

How indeed!

The shock comes hurtling back through humans he jolts wider awake than he was minutes before. He can see that the snake is still there, sunning herself... her? Why on earth did he get the impression the serpent was female in nature? Abysm knew then he just might be losing it from a lack of definitive sleep. Too much time spent in dreams dreaming up all the things he’d ever wanted from life.

He’s about to murmur at her some more since she seems to be the only company out and about on this fine sunny day. Except she stirs! Her head raises and he would swear on his not so brilliant soul that she’s staring right back at him with a keener awareness than any snake has ever had before. 

(The exception being probably that original serpent that instigated apple-eating and sin.) 

Even more amazing is that she’s answering him and that shouldn’t be all that amazing given the plethora of shifters that exist at the moment. But he is amazed nonetheless and his mouth gates open since he hadn’t expected the snake to talk back. Somehow he manages to close his mouth and regain his composure as he steps nearer to her rock. 

“What if you could have your freedom and a good dream for just a little while? Would you take it?” 

Now who is the snake in the garden offering temptation?

@[Kerrigan]