MABEL
She scarcely noticed the companion’s glide off into the ether, her eyes on the horizon, on the flowing swells of tides and currents, listening to things that lived within those waves, a life outside the Hollowed Grounds, where everything felt like a wreckage, ruin, and rubble. Whales, sharks, crabs, birds – merfolk. Her mind conjured an image that felt foolish, but she didn’t really know how else to conceive it, immersed in things that were meant to be in stories, all come to life before her eyes. “Merfolk,” she mumbled, somewhat under her breath, quiet and contemplative. “Have you met any?”
Still her eyes didn’t turn to his, mesmerized by the pattern work of the undulating flow; fists clenching into balled knots beneath the safety of her long sleeves. Only when the griffin returned, on shades of wings, did her notions conjure to the movement and not the sea, surprised to find shade in the form of a parasol. Her mouth rounded into a light gasp, surprise igniting on her features, before she rendered them back into some form of gratitude; a little smile curling on the edges of her lips. “Yes, sorry. Thank you.” First, a scratch was offered to Haai, and then she lifted the umbrella-like fixture above her, casting her frame into designated shade with a relieved sigh. “I’m Mabel.” But she didn’t ask his name, uncertain if he’d want to give it. She twirled the handle in her grasp, let it play along her fingers. “Have you lived here long?”
Still her eyes didn’t turn to his, mesmerized by the pattern work of the undulating flow; fists clenching into balled knots beneath the safety of her long sleeves. Only when the griffin returned, on shades of wings, did her notions conjure to the movement and not the sea, surprised to find shade in the form of a parasol. Her mouth rounded into a light gasp, surprise igniting on her features, before she rendered them back into some form of gratitude; a little smile curling on the edges of her lips. “Yes, sorry. Thank you.” First, a scratch was offered to Haai, and then she lifted the umbrella-like fixture above her, casting her frame into designated shade with a relieved sigh. “I’m Mabel.” But she didn’t ask his name, uncertain if he’d want to give it. She twirled the handle in her grasp, let it play along her fingers. “Have you lived here long?”
I bare my teeth
and stretch my claws out
and stretch my claws out
