The moon hangs just above the horizon like a heavy silver fruit. She stirs him from sleep with a light touch, beckons him with gentle kisses. He faithfully moves towards her embrace. Across the hills the court is built into, through the fields that surround, and finally down the cliffside trail that leads to the long, thin stretch of beach. Everyone knows that a full moon requires a body of water to be appreciated properly. All the way he prances and two-steps like a colt trying to impress a filly. If anyone were awake to see, they would either think he was a little cuckoo, or they would recognize him, roll their eyes at the boy and his antics, and go back to sleep.
If it isn't the moon he's courting, it's a pretty stranger or the sun.
He breathes in deeply the cool salt air, lets it whip his mane against his neck. As he walks he looks at the moon coyly, from the corner of his eyes, and begins to croon sweetly to her.
"I have you to myself tonight,"
Mateo's voice is the burnt gold of autumn, the warm spice of mulled wine. His wings unfold as though to better let his song flow through them; they gently move with the hymn as though we was gliding. Mateo loves flying almost more than life itself, but oh- what no one knows is that song is his secret set of wings! Certain the rest of Delumine is asleep, he raises his voice so the moon may hear him over the gently crashing waves.
"So hold me closely, hold me tight,
Wrap me in your silver li-"
Just when he thinks he might get a blush out of his pale beau, a quiet splash! interrupts his song. He stops abruptly, peering into the water. Was someone... was someone swimming at this hour? He feels suddenly as though he's swallowed a belly full of ice water as he wonders- did they hear him??
He thinks he might vomit.
"H-hello?" His speaking voice has all the honey of his singing voice, but not much of the spice. He sounds young, boyish. Spring, where he once was Fall. He hears the high, nervous pitch in his voice and it makes him cringe. "Is someone there?"
The seaside is painted in shades of silver-blue, but if it weren't then perhaps he'd catch a glimpse of rainbow-colored hair.
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@Odessa I made the executive decision that this needed to happen, I hope this is okay!
The moon was a beautiful babe, adrift yet swaddled tightly among the tender clouds. These were some of the most serene nights; the ones where she enjoyed floating atop the salty water, alone with the sea.
Tonight was no different as she lay on her back, eyes staring up into the deep midnight sky and her belly bathed in moonlight. The Terminus sea - one she knew by no name - and its gentle waves nearly lulled her to sleep, their touch soothing and delicate. For a brief moment, her lids slipped shut. She was alone with her thoughts and the gentle crash of the water.
That was, until she heard the supple coo of a voice. For a few moments, she thought that it was the Mother Ocean singing her a beautiful song... but no, that was not the case. The revelation that this was some stranger's voice had her eyes snap open and her breath catch in her throat, the phantom forcing herself silent in an attempt to register the situation.
So hold me closely, hold me tight... — She swallowed the lump in her throat.
Wrap me in... — Body twisted gracefully quick, and with a quick snap of her fin, she disappeared beneath the waves and the water. The moonlight's cool embrace grasped at her skin even as she disappeared beneath the waves, its tendrils coming up short as the water's cold embrace took its place.
Even beneath the water's surface, she heard the stranger's sudden silence. It took her a few moments to realize she wasn't breathing, suspension trapping her breath right in her throat. She stared hesitantly at the shadowed figure above the surface of the water along the bank, unsure whether she should recede further into the ocean's depths or if she should resurface. She was certain she'd already been seen...
But their voice called to her, the song ringing in her ears even though the dark figured had long since stopped its melody.
So slowly, she drifted towards the surface and broke through. Her hair spilled about her face and floated along the surface like a beautiful oil slick, teal doe eyes almost appearing to glow in the moonlight as her gaze met his own. She may not know the words to his song, but she certainly knew the words to one of her own.
Her voice had a haunting lilt that echoed off of the rocky shores. "What if I jump off the edge.." came the coo, voice carrying like an omen across the waves. ".. and I give in to the great unknown?"
Through no uncertain terms, Mateo was sure to feel the incessant tug, like a thread was connected to the center of his chest and pulling insistently towards the siren who drifted closer to him. Her song alluring and beautiful.
"I can't find sense in my reasons to stay.."
She drifted to the surface, caught in the melody of her own song. She lay in the water upon her back, moonlight tenderly caressing the iridescence of her stomach once more as the brilliant and vivid caudal fin cut the surface and caught the moonlight alongside her scales. Innocent doe eyes stared into his own chillingly green ones... Just as she was a phantom to the sea, he was a phantom to the sky - all inky tones and midnight hues.
Caught in the haze of her song, she drifted close enough to the shore that he could maybe reach out and touch the slickness of her scales. Close enough - so close - that if he waded out into the shallows, he might just get tangled and enveloped in the rainbow expanse of her hair.
He feels it in the quicksilver moonlight on his wings, sees it in the gleam of her iridescent scales. Most of all he hears it in her song, "I can't find sense--" which sends his heart racing "in my reasons to stay--" happily off into the deep dark depths of the sea. Slowly he is able to make out the woman floating closer and closer, belly-up like a seal, and what he mistook for sea kelp is actually a mass of rainbow colored hair.
He shivers, suddenly cold. He then realizes with surprise that the water is up to his knees-- has the tide risen, or did he really walk forward that far? Instead of retreating to the shore he stays where he is and lifts his wings, so they might be spared should a large wave come. (There are few things Mateo hates more than getting his feathers wet) The action makes him look larger and more majestic than he really is, a happy coincidence for the painfully short, keenly self-aware stallion. But self consciousness is quickly the farthest thing from his mind.
Mateo's eyes are wide with captivation as he peers into the water. She comes closer, or he does, or both. Close enough for their eyes to lock, and when they do something hits him in the chest like a tidal wave. He forgets to exhale for one-- two-- three seconds, maybe more? Then his breath comes tumbling out in a sigh that almost sounds like a song in its own right.
"The moon once had a dream..."
He begins to sing, but in the heat of the moment he can't think of a word that rhymes with dream (except cream, but...) so his song fizzles into the night. With another sigh he reaches forward until his muzzle is just above the water. There is salt on his lips, in his nostrils. The wild tangle of hair and scales is mere inches away, but it still feels as though there's a world between them.
"Do you have a name, beautiful one? Or will I only know you as the song that sits closest to my heart?"
He holds his breath as he waits for her answer, and his eyes seem to shift to a mischievous shade of green.
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@Odessa <3 loved that song, thank you for sharing!
