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Song of the Sea [Juno]

Started by DragonSong, March 22, 2016, 04:58:26 PM

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DragonSong

She was scared. Not that she was doing something forbidden- in fact that was rather thrilling- or that she may actually hurt herself, as her father seemed to think- that just seemed ridiculous.

No, Aishling was scared that she had worked this up to be something so incredible, so wonderful, that there was no possible way it could live up to her expectations in real life. Surely the ocean couldn't be that amazing, could it? It was probably just the allure of the "forbidden" that made her feel as though she so desperately need to seek it out.

She'd ignored the pull all her life, after the first time she'd wandered away from her father during market and almost reached the beach and he'd been so angry she instantly knew she'd done something awful and frightening. But now it was just too much, she couldn't take it anymore.

Breathe, Ash, just breathe, she told herself, slipping down the narrow cliff-side path that lead from her village to the shore, using the light of a waxing moon to guide her steps. Don't be disappointed, whatever happens. It couldn't possible be what she'd built up in her mind-

"Oh..." The young woman's eyes lifted as her feet touched pebbly sand and she caught her breath, absolutely stunned. She'd been wrong. It was magnificent.

Aishling was frozen for a moment, eyes wide and hands lifting to cover her mouth. Her feet moved forward quite unconsciously, like there was something physically pulling her toward the water, black as the night and strewn with the reflections of countless stars. Something clicked in her chest and she almost burst into tears.

Somehow, it felt like she was coming home.

Juno

He heard her first, the too-loud sounds of footsteps clear to him even a little ways down the beach as he pinpointed her location.The moonlight shone on her like a beacon, though, almost comically pointing her out to his keen eyes once his head breached the surface of the water.

Almost immediately -trying to be stealthy- Yan lowered himself back down so only the top half of his head remained above, just enough for his eyes and nose to keep track of her as he waded closer, parallel down the shoreline. By the moonlight there was nothing but the light reflected in his eyes and off the few lighter scales beneath the water to tell him apart from the darkness of the depths.

Body hidden along the drop off from the shallows beneath the calm, rocking waves he observed the girl. She looked exactly like he would expect some terrified maiden looked up close: Eyes blown wide, covering her mouth. He decided for himself that she must have been afraid of something. Perhaps the moon? The sea? Yet she came closer and closer.

Even in his youth he understood most humans considered it rude without an invitation, but Yan couldn't quite help himself as he attempted to project his mental voice to her -uncertain if she would be aware enough of such a thing to even detect him- so that he did not have to move from his "hiding place" to speak properly.

'Are you upset?' It was his best guess for a lone female wandering so close to the sea. He knew many sought solace in its calm and isolation from civilization and assumed she was the same.

DragonSong

Aishling jumped at the sudden voice in her mind- a voice quite distinctly not her own- and for a moment the spell the sea had over her was broken.

"Who- what-" She whirled around, searching the length of the beach. She saw no one.

Eyes flicking back out to the water, she felt her racing heart instantly start to calm and took another step forward. "I'm not upset," she murmured, not sure why she was answering a voice she didn't know the origin of.

Gaze still fixed on the gentle swells lapping at the shoreline, she asked the night softly, "Who are you?"

Juno

Well that was a relief. Sort of. If she wasn't upset then he wasn't sure what to call the emotion. As she'd drawn closer he could tell it wasn't fear.

'I am Yan,' he answered simply, cheerful enough now that he knew she could "hear" him. As much as he wanted to venture closer he was aware enough to know that most humans did not appreciate the sight of dragon. They were a fearful lot and there was no reason he really needed to reveal himself. If she was not already upset he did not wish to make her so.

'Why did you come here?' he asked curiously. 'It is very late, is it not?'

DragonSong

She took another step toward the water, the incessant pulling in her chest increasing in  intensity again. It was like it had always been there, her whole life, but she was only just now realizing it.

"Yan." Her head tilted to the side, searching the water for...something. She wasn't sure what. "My name is Aishling." It seemed only polite to introduce herself in turn. Even if it was to some disembodied voice in her head.

"I suppose it is rather late," she said softly, almost conversationally. "But...it was the only time I could come. I just- I had to see it..."

Juno

Aishling. He stared out at the girl upon the beach, very interested to hear what she was up to, to know why a single human would wander so far from her kind. In his experience they only traveled with a specific purpose.

'See it? What are you looking for?' He knew it wasn't the best idea but he crept a little closer to better study her, stretching his neck towards land as he settled his forepaws into the rocks and sands of the shallows. It was barely a disturbance, but once the dragon was resettled beneath the surface he felt confident the slight rippling along the surface between waves for his movements would be invisible to the human eye.

DragonSong

For a moment Ash thought she saw a ripple that wasn't caused by one of the regular swells spread through the water. She frowned, trying to peer closer, but it was too dark for her to really make anything out.

"The sea," she murmured after a moment in answer to the voice. "I wasn't...looking for it, exactly. I just- I wanted to see it. I had to see it."

Juno

'Had to see it? But it is the same as it always is.' Yan almost laughed at that, an amused snort spraying a bit of extra seawater over the wave cresting before him. He didn't see how anyone could have such an urgency.

'It is prettier in the day. Too dark to see well at night,' he informed her, tone shifting to something a little more playful now that he understood she had not come to do any harm.

DragonSong

She blushed faintly and scowled. Great, now the voice in her head was making fun of her. "I wouldn't know," she muttered. "I've never seen it before."

She sighed then, staring out over the water. "I'm not allowed to come," she explained quietly. "I had to wait until Da was asleep."

Although perhaps she was asleep herself, now that she thought about it. This whole thing was seeming more and more like a dream.

Juno

'Not allowed?' He pondered that and then gently accused once it dawned on him, 'So you are being sneaky.' For some reason he liked that. He didn't even know the reason for her wanting to see it but she was willing to go to such lengths to be able to. It must have been very important to her.

He recognized one of the many terms he'd heard humans use to refer to their sires, uncertain what hers had anything to do with it all. It was very difficult for him to grasp the importance of obeying one's parents.

'Sleep is so that...he does not see you?' he guessed. 'Does your Da hate the sea?'

DragonSong

Okay, she must be dreaming. No way could she really be having this conversation. With some random voice in her head. Perhaps she was subconsciously working through what might happen if she did sneak out to see the ocean.

Deciding to just go with it, Ash let herself plop down onto the pebbly beach and pulled her knees up to her chest, kicking her shoes off and smiling as she wiggled her bare toes in the sand. Well, if it was a dream no point in getting squeamish about a little cold.

"I think he does," she responded to the voice. "It's more like...he's afraid of it though, really. I think maybe my mother drowned, but he's never given me a straight answer."

Normally she wouldn't share something so personal, but she didn't really see any reason to hide things from this voice. Yan. If he was a part of her dream, then what did it matter?

Juno

Yan watched her as she made herself comfortable on the ground, pleased that she was willing to continue speaking with him but uncertain what her apparent loss meant to her. She didn't seem upset by it. Though he itched to haul himself out of the water and join her on the shore he was still a little wary of this human stranger, deciding he was content speaking as they were.

'You are an orphan?' he wondered, unaware it was not the proper term to describe a human that had lost only one parent and guessing that it was just the same as losing both.

DragonSong

Ash smiled wryly and shook her head. "No. Not an orphan. I've still got Da." She shrugged. "He's a good man, and I love 'im to bits, it's just... He can be a little smothering sometimes."

Tilting her head at the water, she asked with a lopsided grin, "What about you then, oh voice in my head? Where are your parents? Do you even have them?" Did disembodied voices in dreams really need parents?

Juno

'I am not a voice in your head. I am Yan, and we are speaking,' he insisted gently, uncertain why she would think that he was just a voice.

Beneath the water the dragon curled up within the shallows, nestling himself into the sand to keep any more of his body from breaching the surface. It felt more like a proper conversation when he settled down instead of leaving himself to float.

'I have these "parents." They live. My mother is Suravi, but you will not find her here. She prefers the deeper ocean. My sire, Ranik, makes his home in the mountains, but that is very far away.'

He reflected on that for a moment, studying her. She looked young, by human standards at least, but she did not seem like a child. He remembered himself as a true "child" as well as what human children looked like, and while she was smaller than some females he'd seen she was not so much that he would suspect her to truly need the care of a parent.

'Why does your sire "smother"?' He wasn't quite connecting her father's fear, as she'd said, or her mother drowning to any real reason why she would not be "allowed."

'You do not seem afraid,' he pointed out.

DragonSong

"Oh, right, of course. Forgive me, Yan," Ash said with a smile, overly formal. This was such a funny dream.

She tilted his head as he talked about his parents- his "sire", that was an interesting choice of words. A small shrug and a sigh were the first answer to his question. "He...I suppose he's just worried about me," she murmured eventually.

Then she smiled again, digging her toes into the sand and shivering slightly at a breeze that came off the water. "I'm not afraid," she said simply. "Maybe if this were really happening I'd be a little- concerned. But what's the point of being afraid in a dream? If something bad happens I'll just wake myself up."

She suddenly wished it wasn't a dream though. The call of the ocean just felt so real, and this odd conversation was rather nice. It would be a pity to wake up and forget this.

Juno

Dream? He snorted at that, unconsciously lifting his head entirely out of the water to stare at her incredulously.

'What is there to be concerned about? Why afraid?' he asked, suddenly quite serious as his eyes scanned the beach, expecting there to be some sign of danger that wasn't actually there. The sea, to him, was a peaceful place. As a dragon there was nothing he feared within the depths, but land... He imagined there were probably some rather unsavory things he'd yet to see for himself.

DragonSong

Ash's eyes widened as his head rose from the water. For a moment she was stunned, speechless and unmoving. Then she gave a sharp cry and sprang to her feet, falling back a few paces before she tripped over her own feet and landed on her butt in the sand.

"Wh-what the-? Holy gods!" she yelped, just staring at him. That clinched it, this was definitely a dream.

Juno

Well, shit. He hadn't meant to do that. Green eyes went wide in surprise as he suddenly found himself looking down at her instead. He supposed it was too late to retreat and pretend like it didn't happen at all. 'I'm sorry, Aishling.'

Assuming she was afraid instead of just startled he hunkered back down into the water with slow, calculated movements, once again leaving only the very top of his head exposed as the rest of his massive form remained curled on the sands against the gentle currents.

'There is no need to fear me,' he insisted, 'I mean you no harm.' He wasn't even sure if she would accept that. She certainly looked startled, possibly afraid, and Yan was eager to pacify her as he assumed he would need to do.

DragonSong

"What...what..." Aishling just shook her head, climbing slow to her feet. She could make him out clearly now, at least the top of his head, having been unable to take her eyes off him as he shifted.

"What are you?" she whispered, a little fearful but mostly in wonderment. She inched closer to the water, blue gray eyes wide and staring. "A sea dragon," she answered her own question, shaking her head again. With a sudden, rather hysterical little laugh, she muttered, "Of course the voice in my head is a sea dragon."

There were stories about his kind, but none of them were very concise, at least not in her village. Once or twice she'd seen wild dragons overhead as they made their way to and from the Thunderblacks, but she'd never seen one so close before. This was the oddest dream she'd ever had.

Although... It suddenly struck her that even she wasn't mad enough to dream up something like this. Was she? So did that mean...?

Juno

He didn't like the obvious tone of fear in her voice, but it was quickly changing faster than he could think to react and suddenly she was laughing hysterically. At least she'd figured it out for herself -he hadn't expected her to know what he was exactly- but it wasn't comforting when she somehow still seemed disbelieving of the whole situation.

'Yes...a sea dragon,' he confirmed, eyeing her curiously. It was annoying how she kept referring to him as the "voice" in her head. He understood that it was how that particular form of communication manifested more or less, but he had always preferred to think of it as more magic than true voice. After all, he was merely sharing it with her not pushing her out of her own headspace.

'Well, you're right. Bad things don't happen in dreams,' he reminded her mockingly, rolling his eyes and lifting his head from the gentle waves once more. There was no use covering it if she was just going to walk right up to the water like that. 'So I am still Yan. And you are still Aishling. Nothing changes,' he decided.

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