Only I'm a wild sea // Any

[Cormorant]

If you were watching the slate dark waters off the edge of the frozen coast of Icicle Isle, you might see a dark shape cutting through the waves. You might not. Sleek as a waterborne missile, the figure would breach the surface occasionally, very like the orcas he so resembled. 

They didn't trust him at first. A series of scrapes and scars along his back testified as much, evidence of large teeth he hadn't quite managed to dodge. He was stubborn though, and in time the pod had let him in. It helped that he could walk on land when he chose. The pod enjoyed his trick of stalking seals on the ice floes, driving them unsuspecting into the water where his kin floated in wait. Dinner for all was a motivating card in his hand. 

It was a feral life. Communicating with clicks and whistles and haunting strange songs, he would swim with them for endless miles. Little silver fish would dart away from his jagged mouth, and chewy seals made him sleek but fat. Fat was warmth here, insulation when the salty water dipped so cold that it would make another creature lose feeling in minutes. He enjoyed the brutality of his existence. 

Rarely though, the land called him back. Not yet to his mother's islands, no. But to the land he'd left her for. Icicle Isle was perhaps not the most imaginatively named local, but it was accurate. Only spare remnants left reminded it's residents of the dragonfire that had scalded its surface. Ice, thicker every year, crept back down its length. Bristling pines grew taller with each passing season. And the land rose up to meet the arctic stallion when he emerged from the seas. 

With a cool, calculated gaze he took in the surroundings, nostrils flared to breath in more quickly than he had in moons. It was always strange to have such free access to air. Unsettling for the first day or so. His bare skin prickled in the winter air, drying in patches as he stood on the gravelly beach. He couldn't stand here all day though. 

He wanted news of the surface, and for that he would need to find someone who actually paid mind to those things. So he set off, for one of the windswept fields where Spartan forage could sometimes be found, and therefore those who needed to eat it.

[Moonlet]

She has braved the frigid sea and come out upon the barren shore shivering like she’ll never be warm again. It was worth it though! To see the shards of black glass glittering amidst the sand and other detritus the sea has thrown up. The same could be said about her in her current state of freezing unkemptness. Moonlet though, shivering and sodden, is happy to be there on yet another patch of the dragon’s keep.

This might be a bit defiant… to still be skulking about and oh so blatantly, as he had not yet given her permission to freely traverse the North. Moonlet just didn’t think she quite needed it either. How can a dragon rule a horse’s land anyway? She was still puzzling out the answer to that as she shook some of the water off her brown skin and slapped her sopping black tail against her haunch with a loud thwack. 

Nothing quiet and delicate about her at all! Despite how she might have initially looked it until one realized it was just a fierce burning fire to explore, the kind that was almost feverish and frenzied with an unusual brightness in her eyes that was perhaps borderline madness. That accounted for the thin feral look of her that began to skip merrily along the coastline until a grumbling that was more felt than heard halted her mid stride. 

“Oh!” she exclaimed, with a giggle as she realized that her swim had made her rather famished and she could devour an entire field of whatever just to quell it. Which sounded quite delightful at that moment except judging by the looks of the isle, forage wouldn’t be much or all that tasty. No matter though! She liked a challenge, somewhat and would feast on whatever she could find. Plus, she could always pretend it was something else…

Ah, the power of imagination! She giggled again and resumed her skipping stride, only this time she began to angle away from the sea and go more inland. Naturally, that would be where the better fare existed anyway. Probably near some rocks or trees where it would give some coverage from the elements to make the tasty bits grow some. Then again, Moonlet was a horse and not a tuft of grass so she couldn’t attest to what conditions were better suited for growth.

She just knew that she was hungry and she’d find better food inland. Until she realized there was someone up ahead who must have had the same idea that she did. Or so she assumed and sometimes, assumptions get her into trouble as she neared the creature because what else could she call this fantastical beast?! “Are you looking for lunch too?” she asked boldly, grinning at the halfling-horse that was now to the side of her as she squeezed in along the path.

@[Cormorant]

[Leilan]

This time, I’m not shifted - and I doubt she’ll recognize me. Cormorant will, of course - I’ve spied his fruitless and fruitful efforts in the waters from afar, actively choosing not to mingle. Not only because water and ice do not mix, but I wanted to see how he would develop himself. Sometimes the only encouragement one needs is an empty slate, and Cor had done just that.

The little trespasser Moonlet though, she is something else entirely. She goes wherever she pleases, and though from our first meeting I know that she doesn’t intend to harm, it is clear to me as a leader that she might still harm unintentionally. Be that herself or another, I figured it might be worth keeping track of her while she is seeing the sights.

When Cormorant emerges, emitting a sense of purpose, I’m already on the move. By the time he makes it to what passes as a field here, I’m casually grazing. My one ear turns to catch the sound of hoofbeats, and I swallow calmly before lifting my head to assess the both of them. ”You again?” I say it to practically either or both, a lazy grin on my features. Cor has been busy with the whales, and Moonlet, well she isn’t new to me either.

It occurs to me that neither of them might know this, though. So I approach them and nod to them, my tail leisurely brushing my scaled hock as I take the pair in. ”Is there something I can help you with?” I wonder.

they say I did something bad, then why’s it feel so good?

@[Cormorant] @[Moonlet]

[Cormorant]

The solid earth beneath him still seemed to rock with phantom waves as he made his way to the flat, scrubby plain. His gait rolled with the habitual flow of one who most of their time swimming, alien on the surface. Alien, but known. 

It was a pair of them he came to. One small, nondescript, a girl who seemed fair enough suited to the harsh landscape if one was measuring in determination. The other, well. Cormorant flashed a wolfish smile to the elder stallion, sunlight gleaming on predator's teeth. "I might be," he answered the girl, voice rough with saltwater and disuse. "Are you on the menu?" He asked with slow cadence. 

Chuckling at his private joke, the whale-skin man nodded to the Freyr's question. He'd been looking for someone with a clue, and as luck would have it, he'd stumbled on the stallion who's job it was to be in the know. 

Broad, fleshy tail flicking in the open air, he whistled a breath and shrugged. "Only came up to see if there's anything worth knowing about the land these days." He said, more statement than question. Lately, the sea had held his attention far better than the land had ever managed to. The deeps were home to unimaginable adventure, danger and sport. All the things a young stallion wanted in life, or close enough. Anything else, and he usually could find it near enough the shoreline here or on the mainland. 

He was doing his due diligence though, and checking in with the draconic stallion who in all reality was hosting him. He could be that civilized. 

@[Moonlet] @[Leilan]