fair as the moon,
clear as the sun,
terrible as an army with banners
The mare says “no one comes to mind, I’m sorry to say,” and Anandi displays her disappointment with a prim frown. By some strange magic, even that ugly gesture is made beautiful. And then she says “I understand more than you think,” and Anandi cocks her head and waits for an explanation that does not follow.
Anandi hates waiting.
It probably doesn’t matter anyway. She’s got enough to distract her. The hunger is coloring the edge of her vision a hazy red-grey, and her senses are alive with the alien newness of the surface world: The scent of the earth beneath her and before her, the caress of the ocean breeze on her wet flanks, the sheer, senseless enormity of the sky, which cannot be truly understood until you stand beneath it and feel its silver weight on your shoulders.
And of course, the sharp awareness of Boudika. Boudika who stands so arrogantly close and flicks her tail like a lioness. Boudika who smells so tantalizingly raw and fleshy, who wields her horns like a crown. Who speaks of being eaten as though its something she’s considered before, on more than one occasion, and each time she thought about it deeply and respectfully before saying thank you, not today. “I have the feeling you wouldn’t be an easy meal,” the words tumble from her like a love poem– and isn’t there something just a little romantic about a girl reigning in her violent desires for another? “Not even if I asked nicely.” She laughs a little lightly, a little tensely, the hunger knotting and unknotting in her stomach like an eel. Anandi liked a little bit of a challenge, but she wasn’t used to really working for a meal. And Boudika would be work. “You’re too beautiful to kill, anyway.” The flash of a famished smile. The kelpie was always generous with complements.
Maybe there was a god. Gods, even. For out of nowhere arrives a feast, emerald-winged and stupid. Her mouth waters.
Boudika makes it too easy. The flock veers away from the horned mare, out of the frying pan and into… Anandi lunges forward. She sinks her teeth into feathers and fat, flesh and blood and bone. Tastes bloom in her mouth like a flower, like a wound, borderline holy the way it fills that primal hole in her soul. A violent, joyous shake of the head, and the water is splattered with dark drops of love. An offering to the ocean.
The kelpie utters a guttural sound, something between a growl and a moan, and the bird, in its entirety, is gone.
“He’s for my sister. Ailsa.” Anandi licks the crimson from her lips, gently rolls her eyes. “The future queen of my clan.” Queen of dark waters and endless waiting. Endless self control. Endless hunger. It was a life that now seemed so very small and stupid to Anandi. Upon coming to the surface she had very quickly decided she would not be returning to the depths, at least not permanently. But this was a decision that was made in some very small and private place in the core of her being, and it had yet to infiltrate the rest of her body and mind.
The flock has moved to the water, still stupidly squawking the ugliest symphony she’s ever heard. It would be a justice to the world to silence them. Princess Anandi, vehicle of justice. She heads into the water instinctively, and she is up to her knees before she turns to the captivating Boudika on the shoreline.
“Thank you, lady Boudika of Night Court.” A wicked, beautiful smile cracks across her lips, illuminated by the light that reflects off the rippling ocean. “When we meet again, I would love for you to dance for me.”
@Boudika gdlsaj SO SORRY this took me ages ;_; gah I love Bou! <3 <3
some say the loving and the devouring are all the same thing
☾
