This island seemed just as strange, just as marvelous and magical as the rest of what Anandi had seen of Novus so far. She did not know what birds should look like, or what sounds should rise from the jungle at night. The trees, the birds, the sound of waves breaking on the shore, it was all new to her.
So-- was it god that called her to the island? Or magic? Or was it just happenstance that she should be at this pivotal place in space and time?
There are some things not even a narrator knows.
Let's stick to what we do. By day, the princess kept to a small grotto that flooded with the tides. Her eyes had adjusted to the brightness of the surface world, but sunlight still made her uneasy. She occupied an interesting section of the food chain (predator to some and prey to others) and instinct propelled her to stick to the shadowy parts of the day. It was with great eagerness that she awaited sundown, for she had circled this island for days and was finally ready to test her land legs.
Day turned to dusk to night- a very dark, very comforting night. The darkness reminded her of home. She tried not to think about it very much, home that is, but so often something would bring to mind her sisters, or her childhood, and before she knew it her mind ran away with longing. It wasn't that she was not excited to be here in this huge, strange world, but sometimes she missed the familiar. It was nice to have something, anything, to hold on to, to be certain of. So when she leaves the cave and slips into the dark sea, she lets herself be comforted by the night for a few long moments. When the moments pass, she straightens her spine and steels her nerve.
She is princess Anandi, sixth in line to the deep twilight kingdom, here on royal business. The dark is a comfort, but not a prerequisite for her success.
When she reaches the shoreline, there is another there, standing in the water. Her face is the color of bone and-- and-- a color she's never seen before, one that tastes like blood. She watches from the depths for a time, curious and unafraid. The mare stands still, breeze moving her mane the way the current does with Anandi. Finally two pale green eyes, rimmed in kohl black, rise from the calm water. Perhaps beauty and terror are not sequential but two sides of the same coin.
"My," her voice has a breathless hitch to it. It still felt unnatural to have air come and go from her lungs, to be out of water at all. The world felt upside-down up here. It was not a bad thing, but it was different, and she hadn't yet made up her mind about it. She smiles, sly and certain. "You're a lovely creature."
The clouds stir suddenly and moonlight streams down upon the two women. A look of uncertainty crosses Andi's features, but she observes how the land horse is not stirred by the strange, silver eye in the sky. She tilts her head curiously, and the water splashes quietly as she moves. "What is that light?"
All is visible and all elusive,
all is near and can’t be touched.
@Boudika <3
some say the loving and the devouring are all the same thing
☾
