The boy is not afraid – he is never afraid, even if he ought to be. Where her eyes feast with hunger, he finds them only bright with wonder. In this place of festival celebration, who wouldn’t wonder? Giddy with the mood of the night, the boy’s cheeks are flush and warm with excitement. Oliver rests lazily across his shoulders like a cloak, pawing at beads and baubles which drape from the ceiling, but not in an overly-excited manner. Instead, it seems that Pan’s furry companion has worn himself out from the sensory overload, and he merely chirps at Sereia, barely blinking twice her way.
I love the sea, he whispers with appreciation in his tone. In another life, the boy had been a water elemental, manipulating water into playful shapes and spirited fountains. He’d been able to breathe underwater, diving to the depths of the sea and swimming among the fishes. Oh, what a marvelous sort of place the ocean was. In another life, he’d have liked to be a dolphin – or maybe a bird soaring high in the sky… he couldn’t decide. All of the world around him held such wonder, so Pan was never bored in his daydreaming.
He notices the way she looks over the silks, and offers a helpful suggestion. Go with the gold, it matches your eyes. He grins and drapes it against her neck, liking the jingle of her shells as the scarf lays against them. When she compliments his satchel, he grins and turns to show it off more. It isn’t much – a faded leather thing he’d found discarded in his travels. The skin was well-worn and sun-cracked now, but it swelled with treasures inside, jingling as he walked. He fished into the depths of it, clattering about before pulling out a spiny Venus comb murex and offering it to the kelpie.
Deftly, he weaves it into her mane with the others, seemingly unaware of etiquette as he smiles at the way it looks, nestled in her sea-tossed locks. I’m Pan by the way, and this is Oliver. The boy is kind and his eyes are warm as he watches his companion, beautiful and delicate, if not a bit thin. He wonders where she came from, for she seems starkly out of place. Curious to know more, he asks with childlike innocence. Tell me about your sea… I’m sure it is a wonderous place.
The boy longs – oh how he longs – to race along the shore once more. For too long, he’d been lost to the magic of the forbidden island. At first, it had given him wonderous opportunities to explore… but now, he wished for something more familiar. The sea would give him that – for as lost as Pan could be, on the seashore he could always find peace for his vagabond heart. It was time to give the drifter his rest – it was time for the boy find his way home once more.
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