[ i know your shadow ] [ eilina & rohan ]
It was a day like any other, which was to say from the moment Eilina opened her eyes, the sun had to compete to shine as brightly as she. The river struggled to imitate her laugh as it flowed downstream, over rocks and the discarded, sunken hearts of old lovers. Even as she perched herself upon a rock, the wind had to remind itself that she was not true north, and that it must continue to blow every which way without bias. It was the greatest blessing to be beautiful.
"Eilina, your greatest suitor is here!" A sister called from across the river. She smiled and straightened from her torso. Indeed, how great it was. But which did she speak of? Perhaps Gal- "The Sikla has arrived to sweep off the maiden fair!"
Or perhaps the greatest curse.
To a cacophony of cackles (when had her sisters gained beaks and become vultures?) was the music to which Eilina sunk down, the scaled end of her body returning to the water. From her lower position she spotted exactly who the other mermaid had foretold of, swatting at one of the jibing mermaids who continued in the mockery. Should her greatest skill not have been knowing her face, she might not have been able to control the war her pretty lips underwent. As it was, she had spent many a long hour in the trenches, gazing into her reflection, and knew with certainty how to twist the upward twitch of pink tiers into a frown. She rolled her eyes, a gesture of annoyance routed in true emotion but embellished for the crowd. Considering every inch of her had been stitched together and trained for an audience, this was no surprise.
What would have been shocking was the small flutter of anticipation that had manifested in her bones. The fact that Eilina enjoyed the visits of odd, persistent Rohan would have been declared slander should someone vocalize it within her earshot — but it was true. Or at least a half-truth, which was the medium Eilina lived the majority of her life in. She certainly wouldn’t have admitted that his tongue was quicker and more humorous than many of the fauns, and she would have sooner parceled out her jewelry than acknowledge there was something worth admiring in his sleek muscles when he arrived from a hunt. But he was not lightning-born, nor was his tongue eloquent as a faun’s, his shoulders did not look as though they could carry her a great distance, and he was not littered with valiant stories and deeds that might redeem him.
But Varahk strike her down if her tail hadn’t begun to flick back and forth beneath the water in something like stifled zeal.
She turned over to lay on her stomach, having long ago decided depriving Rohan of anything others might easily have seen and appreciated was amusing. Keeping her gaze inconspicuous - there was no reason for the Sikla to think himself of any importance to her eyes - she carefully watched until he was within earshot. Crossing lithe arms above her head, she casually came to rest her profile in the crook of one elbow with closed eyes, hiding a lazy smile as she drawled with gilt but detached voice:
"As equal parts skinwalker and man — which are the things my sisters and I love to drown best — it continually amazes me that you persist in your forays to our riverside. I would call you brave if you were not so stupid, my near-wolf."
Even along the undergrown outskirts of the copse, that melodious chatter was already audible, an almost angelic canticle punctuated by the occasional splash and fleeting laugh. It would have been quite pleasant, actually, were the sun not beating down on his back and were the deer carcass not weighing across his shoulders and were the angels in question not a bunch of fucking crazy man-killers. It was just the little things in life, really.
He paused just outside the mermaids' inevitable line of vision, hefting his game onto the ground, grimacing. With the back of his hand he wiped the beaded sweat from his brow, twisting to extricate himself from the folds of his grimy jacket and toss it haphazardly to the dirt. An almost frantic kind of rigor seemed to fuel his movements as he concisely rearranged the hair across his forehead, fingers tearing apart the knots they came across, eliciting little more from him than a grimace. Upon the side of his head, however, was a noticeably large mat; of fucking course. After a half-moment of indecision he brought the knife to his hair and cut it out, patting and pulling at his shirt and generally assuring that he looked as attractive as a skinny-ass woman-beard Sikla could - something he quite impressed himself with, really. Not to sound like an ass, of course. But it was true.
He guessed he was a bit of an ass anyway.
Rohan approached the riverbank then, the dense-trod dirt fading away to the rock-studded sand peculiar to this particular stretch of water; personally he could barely scarcely fucking bear the constellations of tiny stones soon to be embedded in his feet, yet for some reason Eilina seemed to favour this area. Personally he would have thought that water was water was water, and living literally in it would have felt the same no matter what - dear me, I'm surrounded by water. Again. Oh, lo, what a majestical seaweed. Again - but apparently not. She was one damned picky fish.
And here he was, no less, without even a vague excuse. Official skinwalker business? Skinwalkers had no business with mermaids. Except getting drowned. They really did excel in that. Which, strangely enough, didn't sound overtly appealing.
His soft gaze raked across the myriad of impeccably-perched mermaids, hopeful to catch the white-tailed woman unawares and with glorious body exposed. The other little shits, however, were very successful in ruining this element of surprise. "Eilina, your greatest suitor is here! The Sikla has arrived to sweep off the maiden fair!"
A brunette lunged from the water, sleek hand grasping playfully - playfully? - for his ankle. He swatted her away with the flat of his knifeblade, narrowly missing his target and eliciting a chorus of laughter. No breasts could possibly be worth this fucking much trouble.
"Rohan, our brave hero!" "Our hero!" "Returned from a hunt!"
No breasts whatsoever.
A white flicker from beneath the water caught his eye, that blonde head finally breaking the surface before an irrepressible smile worked its way across his face; it wasn't often that the expression on his features proved to be genuine, yet there seemed to be some strange disparity caused by this riverside where he couldn't get the damned smile from his face. He struggled particularly in proximity to Eilina, it seemed, the sides of his mouth twitching vainly as he removed the bow from his back, laying it beside him to sit down. Goddamn it; she'd already flipped onto her belly, peering at him from her slight advantage upon the rock's surface. The only skin he could see was that of her face and arms, those dark boundless eyes blinking at him, pale hair dripping softly about her cheeks. As always, he resisted the urge to reach out and touch it for himself. He'd rather not fucking die on account of some hot mermaid.
How long had it been now? Almost ten years - ten years since he'd first seen her, that was. Barely more than one since he'd first talked to her, chickenshit that he was, and due mostly to the fact that he'd almost sent an arrow into her pretty little head (interesting story, actually) at the time. And now here he was. Conversing. Trying to catch a glimpse of anything at all, which was surprisingly difficult. She was wickedly good at that, damn her.
"Your near-wolf, hm? How quaint." The Sikla repeated with raised eyebrows, amused as he crossed his legs. "Perhaps you should ask dear Danica about that. Last I knew she was quite interested." Absently he picked at the bowstring. Thrum. Hell if he'd want to be Danica's near-wolf over Eilina's. "Most likely in drowning me, but that's beside the point. Even as skinwalker and human, I don't think any of you would want to kill a cripple, would you?" He feigned a forlorn mien, finger tracing an imaginary tear down his cheek. "So helpless. So tragic. Why, you haven't killed me yet. What's it for? Good looks? Great company?"
He smiled.
