Post by tovaana on Sept 18, 2018 18:12:35 GMT -5
Muze - 16th birthing day at Eastern Hold, when she finds Coyli
Every year she asked for the same thing. Every year, her father frowned, as he did so his great eyebrows pushed together.
Muze bit the inside of her cheek, lips pressed together with stubbornness. There was nothing else she wanted. She didn’t want any marks, how would she spend them? She didn’t need any nice clothes. She didn’t want any new do-dads. All she wanted was a day exploring with no responsibilities at the hold. No fish. No stink. No work…just the ocean and beach and finding shells to add to her small collection.
What she didn’t know was that she had lacked a childhood that let her be, well, a child. For as long as she could remember she had tried to impress her father: working hard, focusing harder, and being the hardest on herself. What craved she did not understand completely, the best she could describe it was how she wanted to fly like a dragon. Not on a dragon, but with or like a dragon.
“Well. Alright then.” His voice was disapproving. Obviously he would have rather have given her a small gift and have her work – despite it being her nameday. Her face split into a grin and she leapt at him, jumping and swinging her arms around him. It was one of the only times she ever hugged him, and the only time he ever accepted the hug. Her father made an ‘oof’ noise, patting her back intermittently in response. She pushed away from him, her face still consumed by her grin. It was the only thing he had ever granted her that she had wanted, so she tried to let him know how very grateful she was.
“I promise to be back by nightfall.”
He grumbled something as she skipped off to the kitchens to gather a sack of foods for her day trip: dried fish, dried fruit, and stale bread. The bread was from the day before; since fresh bread had not been baked for the day yet – and regrettably the sea air quickly worked on anything fresh in their hold, becoming stale by the day’s end. “Thank you!” She said to one of the younger cooks who had been helping her, despite the wary looks from the older experienced cooks.
She continued her skip out of the hold, alongside the cliffs until the hold was out of sight. Muze took in a deep breath full of sea air, pretending that it had a different smell – something that signified the short freedom that she had that day.
On a trip years prior she had even spotted fire lizards once, though she had not told a soul and had not seen them since. This year, she vowed to either find the biggest shell yet for her collection, or better yet, spot fire lizards like she had before. Muze was practically running now because she was so excited.
When the adrenalin in her body was not enough to numb her sore feet, she finally slowed down, glancing behind her as if to ensure that the hold was indeed out of view. Her eyes flitted to the sun that was rising, mentally remembering the angle and about how long it had taken her to get so far… She’d need to keep track of her day in order to get the most of it while still leaving enough time to get home when she had said she would.
She found a part of the cliff that was sloped toward the beach and had obvious path down to the sands. It looked as if wild animals had used the inclination to get down. Muze only slipped once on the way down, scraping her arm a little on the cliff when a shallow plant uprooted from the sandy cliffside.
Muze spent her day of celebration on the beach and in the ocean. She jumped waves, dug in the sand, and hunted for spiderclaws and other fish that flitted in the shallow waters when the tide went out. During one of her ocean escapades she heard the humming. It was hard to hear over the roar of the ocean, and it took her a moment to realize that it did not follow the crashing waves. She sloshed out of the water, looking around the small inlet and realized the cliff walls must have blocked the sound, because she couldn’t hear it anymore. She gathered her things and slung her bag over her shoulder, climbing up the way she had come in. Muze moved quickly, her heart beating quickly, trying not to get her hopes up. She had not found a shell worthy of her collection, but perhaps she would indeed find fire lizards. The further away she walked from the hold yet, the sound of humming got louder. She ran, her sore legs protesting as she glanced down at every inlet, searching for the source of the noise.
Then she saw them. The wall of the furthest cliff that jutted out toward the sea moved and shifted, as if it were alive with the colors of the sunset and ocean. Greens, blues, browns, even a couple of bronzes and – a gold! Fire lizards! Her heart was in her throat, her excitement sparking a few happy tears to roll down her cheeks. She rubbed them away and got down on her knees, crawling closer to the inlet and peering down to spot the cluster of eggs that were rocking violently on the sands close to the cliffside. As they started to hatch she heard the hungry creels as they emerged and rushed the ocean in search of food. She had been so excited; she had not thought once that she could have one of them to herself. When later thinking on it, she wondered if this was why the queen had let her get so close.
She wanted a closer look. It would be tricky… she eyed the cliffside, biting the insides of her mouth nervously. Getting down would be possible, but she worried about getting back up. Recklessly, she valued the moment to be worth the risk. She scaled down the cliff, scraping her hands and falling the last eight feet of the incline. The fire lizards closest to her startled and disappeared, but most of them weren’t bothered – they continued to hum and call out encouragement to the new hatchlings. She crawled closer to an egg on the outskirts of the clutch, glancing nervously at the queen who had spotted her and was watching her with a sharp eye. Slowly, she pulled out food from her bag, dried fish she had planned to use for herself. What was that old tune that spoke of the gold fire queen?
"The little queen all golden
Flew hissing at the sea
To stop each wave
Her clutch to save
She ventured bravely."
She hummed the song in a quicker beat than she had learned it, and her voice was not the most melodious, but it came easily to memory. A few of the firelizards closest to her were looking at her with a curious gaze as she sung. She paid them no heed; she just wanted them (especially the queen) to understand that she was no threat.
"As she attacked the sea in rage
A holder man came nigh
Along the sand
Fish-net in hand
He saw the queen mid-sky."
She put out a hand to touch the egg closest to her and it rocked against her hand as she did so.
"He stared at her in wonder
For often he'd been told
That such as she
Could never be
Who hovered there – " she stopped here, the egg was cracking now. A body uncurling was pushing the cracked shell open. The tune was supposed to be ‘bright gold’, but instead she whispered in awe – "bright green" though the dragon was hardly 'bright'. The small slender creature creeled and Muze almost forgot to offer food to the crying creature. The pale delicate looking firelizard almost stumbled away, but she deftly pulled out the food and put it in front of the creature. She wasn’t sure what else to do, she had only ever heard stories. There were a few that were owned, but she had not known the owners.
“Eat up, little one, oh… you did.” It was looking at her, and she began to feel something touch her feelings. She was all of a sudden hungry, no, she had snacked throughout her day. She wasn’t hungry – the little flitter was. She shoved her hands into her bag, grabbing whatever came first, which were spiderclaws that were still damp from seawater. She kept eating until she was bulging, but she had been carefully veracious. Was that a thing? - taking things cautiously, but almost swallowing the food whole. “Aren’t you a coy thing.” She giggled breathlessly, and the pale green firelizard jumped nervously at the strange sound. “I’m sorry Coyli...uhm...” she mused over the slip of her tongue, “Coyli... Are you… mine?” The firelizard looked at her with green and blue whirling faceted eyes, humming softly as it found her bag and curled up inside of it. There was another feeling that brushed against her consciousness; it made her feel grateful and pleased. The feeling of content paled to her excitement that she hardly noticed it, just as she hardly noticed the sun lowering in the sky.
Muze sat there with her legs sprawled to each side, pulling her bag to sit between her legs. She stared at the pale shadow curled up in her bag. She did not notice the shadowing elongating and the sky performing with more colors; the little creature she had found enthralled her. Not once did she worry about coming home with her, or how she would convince everyone about what had happened.
”muze…” She broke out of her reverie, looking toward the sun that was getting closer to the horizon. “Oh, no..” She whispered, still feeling like nothing could ruin her moment, but feeling a building panic. She stood up, slowly gathering her bag and holding it and its treasure to her chest. Her dark brown eyes looked up at the daunting cliffside, which may have been manageable by herself… but with her sleeping firelizard? She had a sudden protectiveness wash over her mind, almost overwhelmingly. “I won’t let anything hurt you…” She blinked tears away and focused at the task at hand. “Muze!” Then she realized she /had/ heard her own name earlier. Her eyes moved away from the cliff and toward the ocean where she spotted her brother in a small fishing boat. “MUZE!” As he got closer his deep voice carried her over the rolling waves. Luckily he had spotted her already and she didn’t have to yell to get his attention.
She waved one hand in greeting, walking out into the ocean as far as she dared go with no hands and precious cargo. “I thought you may like a ferry back home.” He called as the waved pushed him quickly toward her. Luckily the tide was out and the waves were easier managed. As he hopped out of the boat, he held out a hand to help her. She smiled at him shyly, “Thanks Vavi.”
“Let me get that for you.”
“No…it’s okay.” She smiled, encircling her bundle with one arm and using the other to try and get into the boat. It proved impossible with the waved that kept jerking the boat’s position.
He eyed her and then the bundle while holding the boat steady. “Uh-huh…”
She just smiled back at him. “Aren’t you going to wish congratulate me on my new turn? I’m 16!”
Vavithan gave one more suspicious look at her and simply picked her up and put her in the boat between waves. He then started to push and wade the boat back out to sea. It took a while to get past the waves, but once they had, Vavithan got them back quickly.
“So, are you going to tell me what you found?”
“…Not yet.” She paused when he gave her a skeptical look. She realized that she may need his help… She’d need him to cover for her a couple of times, maybe help her get extra food portions to feed her new friend… she grimaced at the thought of all the food it had consumed just when it hatched… “Okay, but, you promise to keep it a secret?” Muze paused again at his expression, “Fine, I know you will…”
Vavithan had tied the boat up properly and now hopped back into the boat with Muze. Reluctantly she pulled the bag out on her thighs and opened it up a little bit so Vav could look inside. She watched his face, his eyes growing large and his mouth opening a little. “Is that - ?” His question hung in the air and finally turned to Muze, sitting down so he could process his shock. “You… found… impressed?” Muze grinned at his tongue twisted words. She nodded eagerly.
“Her name is Coyli.” She whispered with fondness in her voice.
“Remind me to go on your adventures with you next year.”
She grinned, her brown eyes looking down and pulling her bag close to her once more.
