AT NIGHT, IN BED, MY LIES EMERGE AS PEARLS The first, in midwinter, Tahitian gray and silver, cold against my throat, was born a foreign object, perilous inside my chest. I slept all night to ease the pain, and while I did, I made it round, lustrous.
She rarely goes inland.
Though Locust fears the ocean, anymore (gone is the girl who would swim with sharks and dive for pearls), there is a part of her that struggles to be far from it. She might dislike it, but there is some part of her that is, like a water-horse, inextricably tied to the sea, and, as she departs Denocte’s capitol and moves inland, towards the great spires of mountain ranges that border the Night kingdom, she cannot shake a prickling sensation that runs across her skin like a swarm of ants, and, much as she wishes that she didn’t, as that last strip of blue slips out of her view on the horizon, she cannot help but look back.
Locust lingers, for a moment, on a grassy hilltop, the fresh scent of rain and newborn spring lingering on the wind, and she watches the gleam of the mid-afternoon sun on the water, which, from here, seems undisturbed by the rolling crests of waves.
The grass can be a sea of itself, when it grows tall enough. The wind sends waves through it, strumming down ridges of seed-heavy stems in its wake; she stands in grass so deep that it nearly rubs against the curve of her stomach. Everywhere, the sky is visible, as pristine and empty a blue as she can find in open waters, and here, on solid ground, she can almost pretend that she is still swimming, that each stride to carry her forward is actually a kick, that the bent strands that suggest the presence of a doe or a groundhog are the dark shapes of sharks or stingrays, and that the brush of innumerable strands of grass is actually water, an undivided and blue collective. But it isn’t, of course. It isn’t, and she can’t quite pretend that it’s the same, much as she’d like to.
Her denial can’t stretch far enough to stain a canvas of green bright blue. She keeps walking.
After hours – long enough for the sun to coat her in a fine layer of sweat that makes the grass seeds stick to her limbs, itching incorrigibly – she crests a hill, and she finds herself at her destination. Silk-smooth blue water, clear as a mirror, stretches out as far as the eye can see, lapping patiently at the foothills that roll out in all directions. Fresh water doesn’t bother her in the same way as salt; it can be cruel, but most often it is calm, and she never goes far enough into it to experience the dangers it might provide. It is only salt that turns her stomach, only salt that makes her think of a canopy of black water that could blot out the sky, only salt…
There are water-horses in fresh water, too. Different from their oceanic counterparts, she has been told, but water-horses nevertheless, and just as ravenous. (If not, some Terrastellans would have her believe, even moreso.) As she wades into the shallow water, allowing the cool, clear lake to lap at her sweat-streaked skin, Locust is aware of the burn of her knife at her foreleg -
(When Mooneye gave it to her, she thinks that it was kind. A beautiful weapon. So slender, so dark, so tantalizingly sharp. Is it crueler, now? She has heard that weapons retain the blood that they shed, and they can weep it out under the right circumstances. Certainly, it has shed enough to weep, now. She wonders how long it will take her to stumble, and cut herself on the edge.)
But nothing disturbs the serenity of the lake. No fin rises from the blue water, dark and imposing, promising teeth. A fish darts about her legs. Save for the wind, it is silent.
(Of course, you are never caught by what you see – it is what you don’t that will make a meal of you.)
@Morrighan || a little starter for you! I'm excited <3 || "tba," tba "Speech!" ||
All she kept hearing around Denocte was talk of the island. The mysterious piece of land that appeared out of nowhere after the earth shook to its core and puked out a lava bridge. Morrighan had briefly given in to the curiosity and checked it out, but it really wasn't all that special. Just a bunch of ivy that went as far as the eye could see and odd "berries" that had heartbeats.
It wasn't so much that Morrighan was scared of what the island could mean, just that it wasn't meeting all the hype that everyone was talking about. There was barely anything to see there, so why could no one shut up? Surely there were other new things happening that were far more interesting?
The grullo mare decided to ignore it the best she could and go about her day. Besides, they were supposed to be preparing for a war, though it seemed most had forgotten. Not Morrighan, not when the thought of battle made her adrenaline surge and the fire within her sing. It twisted and turned, begging to be let out, but then it lacked the power it once had. How badly she wanted to wield it to its true potential like back home. No, now she had to start all over again.
Her hooves got hotter and hotter until a spark of flame erupted upwards, but that was it. Sometimes there were no flames and just a spark of embers. Pathetic.
Her wandering took her back to the lake, a place that always gave her an odd sense of calm. It wasn't often that the tension within her disappeared, but something about this place managed to do that, even just a little bit. Although, she wasn't about to jump right in any time soon. Water snuffed out fire and she liked to keep it as close to fully functional as she could.
She was not alone here. There was another ahead that headed in to wade in the water. Dozens of ripples appeared with each movement, breaking up the stillness in the mirror-like lake. This stranger was not in a hurry and seemed to be enjoying the calmness too.
But, in usual Morrighan fashion, she decided to be a little shit.
"Careful, you don't know what you'll find the further in you go," she called to the stranger, a light in her eyes. "My name is Morrighan. Are you from Denocte?" She did not recognize them from anywhere, but they didn't act as touristy as others usually did.
@Locust I decided to have this be before Act IV and the relic hunt just in case something important happens- hope that's okay!
AT NIGHT, IN BED, MY LIES EMERGE AS PEARLS The first, in midwinter, Tahitian gray and silver, cold against my throat, was born a foreign object, perilous inside my chest. I slept all night to ease the pain, and while I did, I made it round, lustrous.
Cold water drips trails down the graceful curve of the silver woman’s neck, dangling in small rivers from the white waves of her mane; they stick flat to her skin, for once, pulled down and tamed by liquid weight. It was cooler than she anticipated. The seasons are different – far more mild - on the sea, though it is early spring in Novus, and the water is almost always warm…but the chill is almost refreshing, and, even if it weren’t, any break from salt-thick sea is one that she will take happily.
She hums, under her breath. Some shanty that her father taught her. Never mind that – she doesn’t remember the words, just the tune.
The silence – interrupted only by wind and water – of the pristine scene in front of her is broken by a voice. Locust turns, and her gaze falls upon a strange mare, with a patchwork of tan and white and dark striping adorning her frame and mismatched, striking eyes. She proceeds to caution Locust, a warning she takes with amusement. (She wonders if she noticed the dagger strapped to her foreleg.)
There is a gleam in her eyes that suggests the woman is pulling her leg, but Locust decides to take advantage of the situation and probe for more information. “I’ve heard a few rumors…” She admits, her voice something grasping - of freshwater kelpies, primarily, that would settle in the center of the lake, where the water was deepest, and snatch children from the shore. She inclines her head at the other mare, her teal stare inquisitive. “What’s so dangerous about the lake? It seems so lovely and placid, compared to the ocean.”
(Playing dumb for a moment might do her a few favors, much as it leaves a sour taste in her mouth…she hadn’t been to Denocte in a while, and she was rather out of touch with the news.)
The woman introduces herself as Morrighan, and, from her next question, Locust suspects that she is a Denoctian, not some traveler from another court or land. “Call me Locust. I’m the captain of a ship, but I’ve settled in Denocte a few times over the years. I never stay in one place for too long.” That would be too much trouble – for her business, and for her personal relationships. She’d never been very good at getting attached.“What do you do around here, Morrighan?” From her bearing, musculature, and scars, she suspects that she is some sort of…guard or soldier, but it’s impossible to know without asking.
(Besides. If she’s a guard, she might have to watch her tongue around her. Denoctians were usually pretty tolerant of the Night Kingdom’s criminal underbelly, but she preferred not to get herself into unnecessary trouble or take unnecessary risks. Best to feel her out first.)
@Morrighan || that's good with me! || "mother-of-pearl," callie siskel "Speech!" ||
It's hard for Morrighan to tell if the woman might be buying her story, but she figures she'll keep playing along. Or at least as long as she can get away with it.
"Oh you know… strange fish, river monsters, maybe even kelpies. I suppose if you believe in that stuff," she goes on, eyeing the mare with curiosity. She had heard stories of all of the above, just not particularly in this lake. It would be very unfortunate if those were true for here because she didn't want to deal with any of it herself. She steps to the edge of the shore now, but decides not to go into the water. It would be too cold this early in the season and also her fire magic did not appreciate water too much.
The woman introduces herself as Locust and that she's a captain of a ship. This interests Morrighan as she isn't familiar with those who venture off to sea, though she has heard of them before too. It was certainly not a life she saw herself living. However, she can't help but focus a little too much on the woman's name.
"Locust, huh? Is that a nickname or were you actually named after a bug?" she asks, genuinely curious and not caring much if it comes across as offensive. In her mind, it's a reasonable question. "Though I haven't heard of anyone being a captain of a ship before. Sounds interesting," she adds and wonders just how much this woman may be willing to share. Hopefully she could tell her more about life at sea because Morrighan couldn't see anyone living a happy life surrounded by water. The only ones it made sense for were the water equines as they simply had no choice.
Locust asks what Morrighan does around here and she responds with pride, "I'm a soldier - born and raised to fight." She thinks of Ourania and the many battles she won to get the several scars across her body to this day. "Just not here. I came from a world much different than Novus but now I call Denocte my home. It's not too bad I guess." The words surprise her as it took many many months for her to come to terms with Novus and Denocte being her 'home'. For centuries that had been Ourania and her people in Nieven, but somehow it seems like a distant memory. Apparently her Court finally grew on her.
She thinks to what Locust had said about not staying in one place for too long. Somehow that meant that the ocean did have more to offer, at least to those like this woman. Morr finds it very strange indeed. She was so used to the lands of Ourania and now she's so used to Denocte. She can't imagine having to leave another place again.
"What's there to do out at sea?" she finally asks. The only images she can conjure in her mind are seeing nothing but water and- well that was it. Water for miles on a ship with nothing to do but stare at the ocean. You might see some seagulls fly by or fish coming up to the surface, but was there really anything else out there? If Novus taught her anything, it was that it had strange magic and somehow portal doors to get in, but not out. Maybe Locust cracked that somehow or she just really liked being surrounded by practically nothing.
@Locust in which Morrighan has suddenly become a curious child while also making fun of Locust's name LOL
