Ultima
Noëlle & Cassius
Despite father’s warnings, the girl is mesmerized by the ocean’s beauty. Who knew something so dangerous and unpredictable, could look so beautiful. A whole world awaits them beyond the strange, clear barrier. There are creatures with all sorts of shapes that fly and dance in the waters, together or alone, or packed and hidden into tiny crevasses.
“Papa…” About to question her father of these discoveries, she is overwhelmed by what lies ahead. Each new stranger that greets them sends an unpredictable spike of awareness. One that makes every sound louder than it should be, every touch intense, while her heart gives to chase something she cannot run from. She moves closer to the stallion, presses against his side – hoping, praying, that she won’t have to evacuate without him.
Her father gives the mare room. Stopping and dipping his head in greetings, wet, silk locks strung together in wet clumps shift and rearrange with his movement. “Hello,” he says in return. His melodic voice rather neutral, bland, as his honeyed eyes take in the stranger’s features. Noëlle can’t tell whether the stranger is friend or foe. She rather takes a liking to the orbs instead. Smiling softly at how they glowed; it wasn’t bright and painful, like some lights she had noticed.
“Are we intruding?” Father’s voice tends to slow the child’s erratic heart. She doesn’t understand how he can level his tongue, when there are dangers at every corner. Perhaps this mare might block their path, perhaps this was already her home… perhaps she would cast them out like a pair of pests. She sighed quietly through her nostrils, focusing on the orbs instead – and how they seemed to compliment the patches of colour on her coat.
“I must find shelter for my little one…” It was less of a statement, and more of a plea from her father - Noëlle could not distinguish the slight change in his tone then. It did however cause her to shift those blue eyes on him. His face was worn, no longer contrite – it’d been too long, and the muscles in his face could not sustain a frown. She shivered briefly, and wondered if he could smile like her mother had – if Noëlle could recall correctly. It was an expression that caused one to upturn their lips, to expel a funny sound at times. Sometimes it made other people do it too, it was infectious like sneezes. And a lot more enjoyable than the coughs she couldn’t help from escaping her lips.
She coughed just then, with a sniffle. And peaked out at the stranger, saying, “Why do they glow like that?” Pausing only briefly. “I’m… I’m Noëlle.”
It was an urge that overcame her, to share names and cut past the desperate air that filled her father’s lungs. And that which expelled with their noticeable fatigue. Her name made her powerful, and filled her with a bittersweet longing to see her mother. As long as she kept saying her own name, it’d remind her of those cherished moments, the seconds and minutes she’d entered the world with her mother.
The girl beamed, and shyly nuzzled her father’s leg. Trying to avoid her father’s eyes.
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@Moä Te ooc:: sorry for the lateness. was working, but I have a few days off now. :3
