As Essielure lounges in her room, reading one of her many books from the Library, she decides to take a trip the Rapax River. Placing her book neatly alongside the others on her sidetable, she begins to pack.
Packing a small lunch and making sure she grabs her fishing rod, Essie heads out the door and makes her way towards Rapax River. Her hooves clop against the cobblestone as she hums a sweet tune her father used to sing while they were fishing together. As she passes the marketplace before exciting the citadel, she smells the intoxicating aroma of freshly baked bread. essie couldnt resist, she trots right up to the vendor and purchases a small loaf to take with her. before placing the loaf inside her satchel, she takes a quick bite of the warm bread. "mmmmmm" essie mumbles as her mouth is full of the sweet snack. she continues on her way.
Finally reaching the river, essie flops her satchel on the ground next to her and abruptly plops her rump right down next to it. she unlatches her fishing rod from her satchel and begins to assemble it. carefully making sure the hook is tied tightly to the line, before placing the poor worm onto it, essie does this without a pause. taking another bite from the bread she purchased, essie tosses her line into the water. crumbs fall down her chin as she watches the line with intensity.
I thought of angels choking on their halos get them drunk on rose water
Dainty strides bring Pandora cascading down the riverbank, nimbly navigating unstable stones and jagged ledges; it helps, she thinks, to have a few thousand years of experience travelling under her (metaphorical) belt. The sun filters through the canopy of outstretched leaves above her head, filling her with the most delightful warmth. The narrow streets and crowded buildings of Delumine weren’t much to her taste; give her the wilds any day, with the wind sifting through her hair and the cool splash of droplets from the spray of small waterfalls against her skin. She heard that the Rapax River was quite dangerous, so she’d avoided it until she felt a bit more comfortable with Novus’s landscape and inhabitants. Pandora loved trouble, but slipping on some rocks and splitting her skull open wasn’t the fun variety. Now, she felt a bit foolish for waiting – she hadn’t seen anywhere lovelier in Delumine. The ocean that bordered Novus was dark and murky, but this water was almost clear enough to remind her of the oceans of her childhood.
She misses them, occasionally.
Her attention is caught by a figure on the opposite bank, and she turns, blinking, to a somewhat strange sight; a little horse – not quite a child, but not an adult either -, fishing. She was a sweet-looking girl, all deep, dark blue and white, save for a splash of red between her eyes; the wings on her head put Pandora in the mind of cherubs, flapping clumsily through a rose garden, and, with the girl’s gentle expression, stained with bread-crumbs, she thought it quite fitting, in spite of the intensity with which she was watching her line. She was quite civilized, with her little picnic basket and her fishing rod, and quite put-together, perched comfortably on the shore; Pandora wonders if she’s a native. Either way, she’s interesting, and so is her task. She doesn’t know much about the fish that swim in Novus, and, frankly, she’d be a bit confused if the girl were carnivorous. (She’s heard stories about kelpies, but she isn’t sure if she believes them yet. In her experience, they were as likely true as they were children’s tales.) With that in mind, she strides a bit closer to the edge of her side of the river. She wasn’t the kind to turn down a chance for good conversation. “What are you fishing for?” She quizzes amicably but with her voice raised just high enough to be audible above the rush of the river. Pandora fixes her with a lazy, but genuine, smile – doesn’t want to scare her off, though, considering how small she is, it’s hard to do.
completely soaked into the moment, essie hadn't noticed she was being watched. she sat slouching on the river banks as she watched her bobber gentling float on the rivers surface. then a voice abruptly spoke.
essie yanked her line right out of the water, spooked from the voice, and the line flew back and tangled into her wings. she gazed up at the tall, elegant mare who had asked her a question. still having the line wrapped in her wings, essie smiles sweetly and slightly embarrassed, at the mare. "oh, um hello!" essie replies, with a squeaky childish voice. she is unsure if she might be invading someones property or is not allowed to fish here. she notices the mares sparkling gold scales that run down her back and behind her hocks. essie is intrigued and in awe of such glamorous scales, as she has never seen a horse with them before. usually the only scales she sees are of the ones that cover the fish she catches. she wonders to herself, if this mare could be of some hybrid. curious and eager to fully greet this mare, essie speaks.
"well i got really inspired to catch some of the local fish here, you see, i like to think of myself as an avid fisherman... woman! fisherwoman!!", essie snorts at her own joke. she begins to unravel the line from her wings. "i read that sockeye salmon come through here while they are on their breeding route, and i really do love their vibrant scales." she struggles with the line, as she yanks on her wing, slightly squinting one eye in a deep focus.
"my name is Essielure, by the way. i just moved into the Citadel a few days ago"
I thought of angels choking on their halos get them drunk on rose water
The girl lets out a little shriek of surprise at the sound of Pandora’s voice, and she jerks away from the river, tugging her line from the water and throwing it so far behind her that it got tangled up in her wings. Pandora winced, slightly, fixing her with an apologetic look. “Oh, sorry – did I startle you?” The girl stares at her for a moment, wide-eyed, and she notices the way that her eyes linger on her golden scales; it isn’t unusual. In some lands, her condition is quite rare. (Although, in light of later comments, she hopes that the girl doesn’t think that she’s some kind of an oversized fish.) Pandora doesn’t mind, though – if anything, she loves to be the center of attention. She waits patiently for the girl to collect herself, and smiles benevolently at her girlish, high-pitched voice, still rigid from surprise. She’d never had any of her own, – something of a surprise, considering how long she’d lived and how many lovers she’d had - but she loved children.
She listens attentively to the girl’s explanation, odd eyes trained on the girl’s own. “A fisherwoman, eh? How did you pick that hobby up?” Pandora was from a relatively civilized land, but, in spite of their close proximity to the ocean, she’d never met a fisher before. (But, she supposed, there was a first time for everything in her endless travelling – and, even as she reached what was presumably the end of it, it was a comfort to know that there were still surprises along the way.) “What do the sockeye salmon look like? I don’t think I’ve ever seen one.” “I’m Pandora. I’ve been here for a few weeks – it’s nice to meet you, Essielure!” She flashes her a cheerful grin – seems like the girl’s a sweet kid. (She can barely remember being her age. Youth was a bliss.) She tilts her head, the bright, branching extent of her horn catching in the sunlight like polished gold. “How are you liking Delumine, so far?” A question from one foreigner to another, she thinks. It’s always interesting to see what other, less jaded travelers see in new lands – where she sees yet another stuffy library with a few new tales to add to her collection, another might see the world’s grandest repository of knowledge. It was all a matter of perspective, or so she liked to think.
her head tilts to the side, as a puzzled look washes over her face. where she comes from fishing was everyones hobby, a concrete part in the lives of each citizen. their calendars marked around the dates of tournaments, she can still smell the savory taste of fresh cooked cod. "oh?" essies wings flutter, she gets quite excited when anyone asks about her love for fishing. she takes this opportunity and eats it up. "well i come from a small town that is built on a lake, so we were surrounded by water and naturally used it for out sole purpose of food and survival." as she speaks the words, essie can still see the overlapping and somewhat endless bridges that piece together each hut to the next. the houses bobbing gently on the river, one who was not native to the town might suffer from nausea if they are not used to life on water. but for essie, is was a haven, a gentle movement that rocked her into a peaceful bliss.
"sockeye salmon" essie says slowly as she closes her eyes and imagines the fish, "they are bright red!" she snorts as she goes cross eyed and points to her red marking between her eyes to show a good example of the fishes scales. "they're my favorite" essie giggles. the mares horn hits the sun and sparkles gently in the rays. essie widens her eyes, unsure if that sharp tip has ever been used in an unfriendly manner. keeping a close eye on the sharp protruding bone that sprouts from the mares head, essie throws her line back into the water. the plopping noise of the bobber hitting the water makes essie smile naturally.
as the mare fully introduces herself, essies line abruptly sinks to the bottom of the river. "AHH!" essie was startled as she digs her hooves deep into the ground. "its a big one!" essie mumbles out, struggling as she reels in the fish. little beads of sweat gather at the crown of essies head. unconsciously slipping her tongue out between her lips. with one final tug, the fish flops onto the bank. essies eyes sparkle with enjoyment. the fish was an average size, but for essie, it might have been her biggest yet. she holds it up to Pandoras curious face. the slimy fish wiggles with displeasure. "isnt it gorgeous?!" essie asks as she looks at the mare, awaiting her response. hoping she is just as in awe of this sparkling red scaled creature.
I thought of angels choking on their halos get them drunk on rose water
Her wings flutter eagerly as she describes her homeland, which sounds beautiful – she can practically imagine a small town suspended above a lake, perhaps on stilts or boardwalks – and the reason behind her love for fishing. Pandora thinks that what she can’t quite understand is eating the fish. She’s travelled to many different lands, and she’s tried many different things – however, the idea of eating any kind of meat has always been…difficult for her to wrap her mind around, so she’s shied away from it. (Fish, she thinks, might be a bit different than, say, deer or rabbit, but the texture…even touching it feels strange.) She thinks again of the stories of cannibalistic, demonic water horses that live in the sea that borders Novus and the great swamps of Terrastella, and she looks at the girl across from her. She is, of course, nothing like a demonic water horse, – in fact, the little wings that sprout from behind her ears are closer to something angelic than anything else – but the thought of any other equine regularly consuming meat lends a bit more veracity to those tales. “Why did you leave?” She asks without wondering if it might be too personal a question; she seems to love the land she comes from, after all.
As the girl describes the salmon, she goes cross-eyed and gestures to the red spot on her forehead. The sight is silly, but genuinely innocent, and it is all that Pandora can do not to laugh. “Bright red, huh?” Pandora says, with a soft giggle. “They must be a sight to see, with their scales.” She can practically imagine the color, when she closes her eyes – like a swarm of rubies, gleaming in the sunlight. The texture and the shape are still a mystery to her, so she allows her thoughts to glide through a sea of glistening red that warps and weaves about her, contorting itself into the silhouettes of fish she’s seen before. She knows that none of them are the “sockeye salmon” that Essielure is describing, but they are the closest thing that she can imagine. When she pulls herself from her imaginings, she notices the girl’s eyes on her horn, and smiles conspiratorially. She stands at a good height to thrust it directly into the chest of some, and, while she wouldn’t admit it, she’d had to, on a few, unfortunate occasions.
Suddenly, the girl’s line sinks towards the bottom, and she lets out a little shriek. Pandora watches with fascination as she reels the fish in, clearly straining herself from the weight of it; after a long – but perhaps it is only long with anticipation – moment of pulling, a bright red fish pops out of the water. She held the wriggling, unhappy creature up towards Pandora, and she thought for a moment to throw the poor thing back in, but, looking at the girl’s eager, proud expression, she didn’t have the heart. (She silently apologized for, presumably, leaving it to an unfortunate fate on a fryer.) “It’s stunning – such a beautiful color,” She agrees, instead. “I’m so impressed that you caught it!”
