Post by Lexx on Oct 31, 2017 21:38:42 GMT -5
Naiad took in a deep breath as she tread water. Her back leg still throbbed, but it bothered her less to swim than to walk, and the seawater was still as warm as a summer day. She had gone straight to the beach after her vision, in hopes of completing the task set for her. She dipped down, and let the water close over her head for the fifth time that day. As always, Naiad marveled at how instantaneously all sound was lost, surrounding her with the muffled push and pull of the water overhead. Everything was blurry and strange beneath the waves. After a moment of adjusting, she could hear bubbles of air escaping her maw, and a strange clicking in her ears, and thought about what a fine thing it would be to be able to breathe down here, and to see and hear as clearly as any ocean creature. The water was so clear around her that she felt as though she was flying. She drew her legs up and glided over the vibrant reef below her, careful not to disturb the sharp, brittle plants with her paws. Here and there, fish would flit briefly into view and then away from her shadow overhead, and she smiled at them with her eyes, delighted by their bright colors and delicate fins. Fish, however, were not what she was looking for. She made herself turn her attention away as she scanned the seabed for discarded shells. There were plenty, but most of them were flawed. Many were cracked, or had been reduced to mere fragments, or rubbed featureless by the sand and the sea. Some seemed lovely and intact, but then she would see some snail had drilled into the shell to consume the soft thing inside, leaving it with a small, perfectly round hole. It was frustrating, to draw close to something that met the goddess’s specifications only to have her excitement ripped away. Again, she surfaced for air, and again, she ducked back under to search, despite how her eyes smarted from sand and salt. Naiad was not entirely sure what constituted a perfect shell, but she imagined that if a shell captured her breath in a way that she deemed perfect, then it would be enough for the goddess. There! She swam lower, bubbles trailing from her pale form. A single, lovely shell rested just beneath a ruddy branch of coral. Gently, she prized the shell out with her paw. It was a small, spiral conch, and it looked almost crowned at the top by evenly-spaced spikes. It was golden-brown, but the smooth part that fanned outward showed her that the inside was sweetly pink, fading almost to white along the edge. There was no sign of any marine creature living within. Carefully, she took it in her jaws, and then swam back for the surface—but suddenly she was no longer in the ocean. She set the shell gently upon the lip of the forest pool she’d found herself in, and then dragged the rest of her body from the water. She recognized those vibrant flowers, so unlike anything she’d seen in the world before. She knew this dark, close forest. She knew the silver fox goddess would be listening. “A perfect shell,” she said, softly, and was relieved her voice seemed only slightly hesitant. “From the reef off of Sharktooth, as you requested.” "speaking" table by lexx |
