SHARDS of GEMSTONES

YOUR PRIDE

Wind batters the forces of the skies, and trickles into the sea's strutting waves. The oxygen filled pool of substance leaks into Loch's gills, filling his large gill bags with the energy he needed to finally rise from his slumber. The buck turned his hind legs, and stretched downwards, legs shaking in the chill of early spring. Finally, the ice was melting and the spring showers of ice cold rain would fall towards the sea, now a warming mass of swift curls and hilly waves.

Loch turns his head towards the deep purple curtains held by the pole stuck between his den entrance, taking a few soft sighs to his wet lips, and rubbing the silky coat of mucus off his eyelids. They were to grow again anyway. The sunny lights of the shoal's luminescence brought him to shiver, now seeing the dribble of liquid blend with the clearing's color, yet still remaining so dark. The buck took to his desk, nudging the lone bottle of nectar and a blonde smoking pipe from the surface. The mirror, sitting patiently and hooked to the desk, ached to show his face back at him. When Loch finally turned, he furled his lips and glanced at the itching marks on his lips. His teeth were a lot more crooked than he thought they were, a saggy eye he bore since birth hung with a squinted sight, and the resting glare he had accumulated scrunching up his nose. He swore that Whaletooth could have just killed him, with how his body barely could mimic right, and how much of a deformity he was. He was ugly, that is what the shoal would snicker about. Yet, Clawwhisker, a mater with a high position due to her brother, saw otherwise. Yemo'eia saw otherwise. There, in those two, was something that kept him waking up in lightbell.

The buck lifted onto his hind legs and took his teeth to a comb and gel that sat on a small shelf over the mirror, moving the comb to his palms and cupping his long strands of hair with the egg gel. The buck slathered it into his scalp, while his foot thumped the earth with joy. There was something soothing about feeling this roughness through his hair, something that reminded him of a familiar place. The smell was distinct, and proved itself to him to be of his childhood, but the sounds of the shoal beyond his small den was drawing him away from those memories. A rising hoot from Whaletooth quickened his pace, and the buck nudged his materials away after combing thoroughly. The eel shuffled off his dirty undercloth from his hips, and replaced it, then dressed in his subranked clothing. As usual, a gold tasseled drape formed around his shoulders and was streamlined across his belly and tied back. A couple of scars across his tail indicate his newly awarded status, and once the buck left his quarters and bounded outside the underground cave, he saw the shoal's brightened tails wagging in the spring weather. They too saw the benefit of the waters trickling inwards and ever since the freezing fins had warmed, they too warmed up to Loch.

Redspine curled her tail, waiting just out of sight, and flicked her ears in his direction. The smell of his gel was unique, and the jingle of his various keys sounded out in the winds of the ocean. Her blindness was on levels that the other merfolk could not comprehend, and with their all seeing eyes, she saw not only the world before her in three different ways but could imagine outcomes and predict the movement of the waves like a forecast. Her body clutched as a draft wandered, but she lowered her body to the shaded seafloor and widened her eyes behind her tinted glasses. All seeing, all knowing. They all didn't matter to her. Redspine slowly crept when Loch was facing away, nodding his head to the playing gliders in the clearing, and she slowly stretched her body to a leap. One long leap. And her spine ran across the ground as Loch twisted to react. Dust clouds gathered only for a small second, and when the two had wrangled themselves onto their hind legs, the conger eel bellowed a laugh of genuine surprise.

"Redspine!" He exclaimed, now running his scales against hers like Whaletooth once did. "You have to be faster than that!" The eel, with only a few months of training, dodged a leap from the all seeing maid.

Surprise against her pelt ran through her spine. How. Redspine shook it off, and nudged him back, "I am surprised you dodged that, not even agile Sir'eyi can." She began to chuckle a bit, nervously, and with her fins rubbing her eyes.