Fable - Ask Wild Kelpies for a Prince

[Saang Lusce]

He was certain he would find some humor for Sevir's artistry particulars in the morning, but for now he could only offer the matriarch a tempered sigh and nod of his head. Though before he moved off, he caught sight of a mare toward the back weaving a wreath he was certain he would find at his tipi before the night's end.

"I have one more question," Saang looked back down to the matriarch, languid and Queenly in her pipe smoke, "when I have chosen a mate," his words were quite specific on purpose, "what am I to do with the remaining wreaths?"

 

[Ianthe]

"Throw them back to the sea of course," Sorelia blew out a ring of smoke. "So the one it is destined for might find it."

 

[Saang Lusce]

Well now.

He wasn't sure what he had expected the answer to be, though he'd felt quite certain Ianthe's earlier intentions had been only for causing trouble. The truth was strangely far more poetic than he'd thought creatures of such uncivilized savagery capable of.

He made no remark of it, all too intent on staying in Sorelia's good graces, but instead nodded his head to her in understanding and thanks then turned back to Sevir who awaited his chance to parade his latest work out amongst the clan. The cheers of excitement and awe were soon to follow. The touching and fondling of his fresh ink did, too.

There was no escaping the attention or the celebration that roared on for hours in his name. Saang partook in drinking and feasting and socializing, getting to know many other members of his newest family and discovering aspects of the kelpie culture he would not have ever dreamt of. Sevir, despite his earlier discontentment with the idea of Saang taking on membership of multiple clans, soon fell into drunken boastful pride of being the first to mark the Flame of the Northern Sea. He stuck curiously near Saang's side for the majority of the event, introducing him to other warriors of the clan and shooing away young and hopeful mares.

It was endearing to the fire-haired Commander.

Hours passed, and few where Saang's thoughts did not linger on Ianthe. He tried multiple times to sneak away but was found quickly enough by others. When finally things began to die down under the rise of the inclement storm he'd felt coming earlier in the day, he paused to take in the growing piles of wreaths at his tent before he pushed in through the tent flaps coated in snow. The aroma of Sorelia's pipe smoke, the evening's campfire and feast, and the salt of the clan lingered upon him. He'd managed to convince some young kelpies to help him harvest sea kelp and fresh water, claiming it to be for his own needs for too much wine remedy so they would not ask any questions.

There he settled down upon the pelts by Ianthe, setting water and kelp aside, and leaned to check on her.

"You need to drink," he said to her in a low tone now hoarse from all the talking and drinking he'd done.

 

[Ianthe]

Ianthe had slipped into a fever-dream whilst Saang was gone. The faint sounds of revelry outside wound their way inside her mind and added to the flashes of images her mind concocted to torment her. Chasing, chasing... was she chasing someone or something? She tried to ask one kelpie but they merely looked at her and scoffed, another pushed her over into the black sands and spat. Outsider, they sneered. Suddenly she was out on a floating berg watching the revelry from afar. She tried to shout to get someone's attention but nobody could hear her. Nobody wanted to. She could only watch helplessly, on the outside....

Saang's shaking roused her from her delirium. Her eyes cracked open briefly but the light that permeated the tent hurt her eyes and she squeezed them shut again. Everything hurt. Even breathing.

"Idonwannaitsmellsfunny," she pulled the furs back over her with a shiver.

 

[Saang Lusce]

He smiled in quiet concern, smoothing a hand over the bump beneath the furs that was her shoulder, "Dehydration will only make it worse. It's just water." Though he was aware that maybe it was he that smelled funny. Difficult not to bring the aroma of the celebrations with him, they clung so readily to his hair and pelt cloak.

"Come now, drink and then you can go back to sleep."

 

[Ianthe]

Ianthe opened her eye again and then sighed. He had the look on his face he often got when he decided to care too much about something, which in turn meant he wouldn't let this go until she'd done what he thought was best for her. On weak, shaking arms she pushed herself up then took the offered cup.

"Tastes like sharks piss," she complained after downing the whole thing and flopping back onto the pelts.

 

[Saang Lusce]

If it was the sickness making her compliant he couldn't be too grateful, but he'd take what he could get gladly.

"Strange that you should know what shark piss tastes like..." Saang muttered as he watched the cup fly across the tent to clatter into the shadows of a corner. A smirking sigh followed. He wouldn't press his luck with getting her to eat the kelp - that could wait until morning when the hunger pangs hit but nothing else would stay down.

With a strained groan he eased himself down onto the furs next to her, eyes glowing faintly like candle flames in the dim light, "I informed Sorelia that you are free now. No one knows you are sick and I do not think anyone will bother you." He closed his eyes as he settled in, taking care of the tenderness of his fresh ink.

"Storm rolled in just as the last round of wine went out. They're all completely sloshed."

 

[Ianthe]

His words faded in and out, weaving like a river through the fever-fog of her mind. Some distant part of her understood their meaning and the weight of them but she couldn't think on it in that moment. She was just so cold. Her teeth chattered despite her efforts to keep her jaw clamped tight. As he laid down beside her warmth immediately beckoned. Sluggishly she scooted closer. Was it Saang or a real fire? Was there a difference? She settled only when she was flush against him, her head resting on his shoulder.

"Tell... anyone... and I'll... gut you," she mumbled but her shivers slowly died and soon, the kelpie was fast asleep.

 

[Saang Lusce]

Red brows raised so high they nearly disappeared into his hairline as he felt the kelpie's weight shift at his side. Saang lifted his arm out of the way and wrapped it snugly beneath her bundled form, the other coming to loop over top and pull her against him. The shudders and shakes stirred deeper concern and a weighted frown in which he instinctively responded by diffusing the potent warmth of his inner flame into the tent.

Those words, however, got a chuckling response and an affectionate kiss to the top of the blue tornado's head. Though they had hundreds of years of history in camping at battlefronts together, he could not recall a time in which such closeness had ever been permitted. Despite how carefully he'd watched over her through the years, ensuring her good health and livelihood, he'd never allowed himself to think of his fondness for her as anything more than ... something akin to paternal. He had practically raised her, after all.

What he felt now was different. So different.

And the reality of her new freedom ached in a way he'd never expected. Stung at his heart to think he might lose her after she regained her health. Saang realized now that he wanted her to stay, desperately so. But how was that fair to ask? How could he possibly even think to after the life she'd lived?

He worried his face into her hair, nuzzling at her scalp, and held her a bit more tightly as he drifted off.

 

[Ianthe]

Ianthe was a truly terrible patient for the next few days.

She complained endlessly: she was too hot, too cold, hungry, sick, bored, tired. It seemed no matter what Saang did or offered to help her feel better she made as much fuss as she could over it. Seaweed and kelp tea were hurled at heads, selkie jerky shunned, and the puzzle Saang had suggested on the second day she have a go at had ripped tiny holes in the walls of the tent when she had thrown it. The only thing she didn't seem to complain about was each night when Saang would wordlessly lift his arm and Ianthe would press close and drift off into some of the best sleep of her life.

Of course, she threatened him every time she did so.

It took a full week before Ianthe finally felt fit enough to leave the tent. The pressing need to be submerged in water far outweighed the lingering light headedness she still occasionally got.

"You don't need to hover like a maiden mare," Ianthe muttered as she walked towards the shore, Saang trailing by her side in case she face planted the snow. "I feel fine." Though, she had said the same seconds before throwing up on him a few days ago.

 

[Saang Lusce]

Like an extremely prickly version of his sisters as they traversed their formative teenaged portion of their lives, Ianthe had proven challenging only in testing his creativity. Usually he'd been able to find something to abate the temper of his sisters - they all had hobbies and likes that revealed themselves through their youth. While he knew several things that Ianthe enjoyed, almost all of them involved battle fronts, hunting, or sparring. None of those were conducive to her recovery and he watched multiple times a day as her temper would take out of her all the vigor she'd managed to gain overnight.

It prolonged the recuperation by days.

Still, he would not be a beacon of patience were it not for the many younger siblings he'd helped raise. His fondness for her also helped.

The marriage wreath piles had continued to grow, but with each passing day a little slower than before. While he'd made no announcement of choosing a mate, his time spent alone with Ianthe had engendered confusion on the matter. Saang did not feel compelled to clarify, and so he did not. The attention he'd been getting from the clan began to abate as well as the excitement of his joining died down for newer things. There was no escaping the gossip and chatter about the expected visitation of other clan leaders. Many did not hold out much hope for it to happen, some were offended by the idea of Saang attempting to join multiple clans, others were intrigued. He worried about the idea that he may have potentially sparked unnecessary controversy, but the Commander had to remind herself what the end goal was.

A little intra-clan drama was nothing compared to wholesale kidnapping, enslaving, and slaughter of the wild kelpies. It seemed Sorelia rather enjoyed the sudden stir of frisson among the clan, too. Kept their blood hot.

His gaze followed Ianthe distractedly as she made for the water's edge, a wry smile forming at her scoff, "I'll stop hovering when you start walking in a straight line."

"Besides," he continued, "I want to make sure you are healthy and strong before I return home."

 

[Ianthe]

The kelpie bared her teeth at his insult.

"I can walk in a straight line, I'm choosing not to," if she had been in her horse form her ears would have been pinned firmly back though it was only in part due to his insinuation she wasn't well enough still. Her foul mood could also partly be attributed to learning Saang had decided to go on some nonsense quest to collect the clans like some kind of... person who collected things. Mostly, however, her mood had to do with what he had said.

Before I return home.

Without her.

This freedom had been what she had wished for for years but now it was here she felt hollow. Sorelia had promised she could receive her own ink before the clans arrived but Ianthe still held doubts it would heal the part of her that had never felt like it belonged anywhere. When they reached the shore she kicked off her boots and peeled off her clothes. Before she could second guess herself she dove into the waves.

 

[Saang Lusce]

"Of course you are..." Saang replied, pausing along the shoreline and watching out along the distant waters. He could see the clan mingling among the various icebergs and fragmented sheets. A small school of foals being taught how to dive and forage while others lounged, hunted, fished, and socialized. He'd come to enjoy watching them here, out in the wild sea. It was so different from anything back within the Court where they spent the majority of their lives within the stables.

The longer he lingered, the more he learned, the greater he regretted so much of his life.

Ianthe's naked form disappeared into the frigid waters with nary a splash and for a moment he considered joining her. A pause to think on it made him change his mind. She likely wanted and needed space - time to herself after having been relegated to his forced company for the last week. So instead he moved to a nearby ice sheet that had formed from the last storm up along the shoreline and sat at the ice's edge, pulled off his own boots and dipped his bare feet into the waters. They hissed and steamed as he pushed heat through his body down to his toes.

It would be nice to get a reprieve from having to constantly generate warmth for himself out here. How he would delight in a hot bath. With soap. His hair needed a deep conditioning and a thorough combing. Though it had been in a braid most of the time out here, it was becoming wind-licked and whirled from the salt waters.

 

[Ianthe]

Ianthe wasn't sure if it was her head still clinging to the last fragments of her iron illness or if she truly was different but the change between forms felt... strange. It came more naturally, like shrugging into an old coat. There was no physical twist of magic she could feel just a rightness to what she did. The salt water tasted crisper, the sounds beneath the waves clearer. Had such a small bit of magic really bound her so much? The kelpie luxuriated in the feeling as she swam along the ocean bed until it fell away to the darker depths below. She skimmed around large icebergs letting the scales of her kelpie form shift from the azure blue to a pale white, making her almost indistinguishable from the berg. Delight filled her. Never had it felt so easy to use her magic.

She felt... free.

Elated, she lost track of the amount of time she spent testing out the new limits of her iron free body. She chased a narwhale across the depths and sated her hunger on a berg miles from shore before finally admitting it might be best to return. The tug to Saang might have gone but an odd almost echo seemed to remain. Or, at least, that is what Ianthe told herself made her want to seek him out and check how he fared. It was still easy to find him; perhaps she merely knew his scent so well at this point she could have followed it across the globe. She shifted back to her two-legged form and pulled herself onto the berg beside him.

"Are you ready for the meeting? Pretty speech all planned?" She teased as she kicked the water.

 

[Saang Lusce]

"Speech?" the fae raised a brow at his companion, "I'm not sure pretty words are going to convince anyone, if what Sorelia says is true."

He hadn't used pretty words with the matriarch, merely the truth. Saang sighed in resignation, gave Ianthe a short look that lingered a little longer than usual along her figure before slumping back onto the ice and closing his eyes against the brightness of the daylight above.

"She did not seem to think it was likely that any other clans would come. Given the history of the kelpies...I cannot say that I blame them. I'll have to seek them out ..." and now they would all be expecting him, though he wasn't certain if that was a good thing or not. "Sevir has offered to take me to the ones he knows. He does not like the idea of me taking their tests to prove myself but I do not know any other way to gain their trust."