"Oh, Miss Maea was born in the Hollowed Ground, like me. But she spent a lot of time here. And, she's... um, well, she's gone now." They cleared their throat. "But she taught me a lot about Torchline when I first got here."
Quanil gasped when they got a glimpse of the tail. "Oh, I asked a fisherman to take me out here. And I can swim a little. Enough to get out of a pond, anyway. I'm not very good at it. I need to practice, really."
They nodded at her insistence. Another one who didn't want a title used! This was always difficult at first for them. "Well, we gather and store the knowledge so that anyone who wants it can find it easily," they told her. "The most important thing is helping people. And yes, I wanted to explore the islands. Do they really shift and change a lot?"
They gave up squatting and just sat down. So they'd have sand on their pants. No big deal. "Forgive me if it's rude to ask, but... but do you actually have a... a tail? Can I see it? If it's rude to ask, I'm sorry and you don't have to show me, of course. I've just... I've never met... is mermaid really the proper term? That's what they're called in the stories. Or, um, what you'd be called, if you were in a story."
Quanil gasped when they got a glimpse of the tail. "Oh, I asked a fisherman to take me out here. And I can swim a little. Enough to get out of a pond, anyway. I'm not very good at it. I need to practice, really."
They nodded at her insistence. Another one who didn't want a title used! This was always difficult at first for them. "Well, we gather and store the knowledge so that anyone who wants it can find it easily," they told her. "The most important thing is helping people. And yes, I wanted to explore the islands. Do they really shift and change a lot?"
They gave up squatting and just sat down. So they'd have sand on their pants. No big deal. "Forgive me if it's rude to ask, but... but do you actually have a... a tail? Can I see it? If it's rude to ask, I'm sorry and you don't have to show me, of course. I've just... I've never met... is mermaid really the proper term? That's what they're called in the stories. Or, um, what you'd be called, if you were in a story."
