It was hard to get a read on the other mare. Sometimes she seemed barely held together; spun sugar, gold where the sun shone through. Eggshell blue eyes, begging to be cracked, longing to ooze sunny yellow yolk. Other times she seemed… Like the ocean. Depths unknown until you were in them, and even then what you saw was just a promise, or maybe just a suggestion, of something even deeper.
Anandi didn’t like it. She did not like anything that might be out of her control. So she made it a note to keep the girl close. At least until she could figure her out more, gauge her usefulness.
“Thank you, Anandi,” she says, and the kelpie glows. They walk to the gardens, Elena takes the apple, and again the words “thank you” fill her sails. She smiles, magnanimous. Sharp teeth carefully hidden. “You’re welcome,” she says. “Any Terrastellan would have done the same.” She blinks coyly.
But none as sweetly as me, as gracefully, as easily
“Oh, no.” She laughs at the thought. How… undesirable… to be born in the dirt, the grass, the mud. “I was born far from here.” She brushes it off casually. It was not a well-kept secret that the Dusk court emissary came from beneath the sea. It was something she even flaunted, when she thought it could get her something-- or when she was just feeling reckless. But this is a card she keeps close, to play later. “I’ve only been a member of the court for a year or so. It feels like longer, though,” the admission is given with a smile that is almost shy, as though divulging a secret.
“What about you? Where are you from?” She reaches for an apple herself, sinks her teeth in. It was nowhere near as satisfying as fresh meat, but she makes a show of enjoying it anyway.
Very quick. Very intense,
like a wolf at a live heart.
@
some say the loving and the devouring are all the same thing
☾
