WHEN: 6/22/2022 - 6/25/2022 WHERE: Carynthia WHO: OPEN AVAILABILITY: 2/3
“Listen good, skoulíki.” It was a siren’s insult. Worm. Digger and dweller of Earth. As if she was not covered head to toe—yes, toe—in dirt right now. Dried dirt, sand, wet dirt, moss, blood. Filth of all sorts. Her elbow pushed deeper into the V of their collarbone, threatening the windpipe where it was vulnerable there. “I saw you palm my knife and I am going to fuck your life up if I don’t have it back by the end of this sentence, because if you think that’s my only weapon—”
It always went like this in Carynthia. She avoided the mountainous region whenever she could, but it wasn’t always a luxury that was afforded those who didn’t have a home, ergo, didn’t have reliable plumbing, ergo, sometimes a bitch needed a bath that wasn’t supervised by pirates in the bay or old men in high-rise apartments.
Ergo, Carynthia.
Except the fresh water made the inhabitants stupid she was pretty sure, because every fucking time she came here some slick bastard wolf tried to take her shit. Including the knife she’d kept safe for—
“OW!” Fable rasped out the exclamation. She had the knife back alright. Right in her side. She raised her fist and punched the mutt square in the nose, but when they stumbled back (taking the knife with them) and ran, Fable didn’t follow. “You stupid bitch!” she screamed at their retreating back.
One ragged breath in, one ragged breath out. She steadied herself on a tree with one hand, pressed hard against the wound with the other. “Spare the tides,” she prayed in resignation. Don’t stop the world for me.
Anyway, she’d been bluffing. It was her only weapon. Great.
She wasn’t worried about the wound. Judging by the shaking of her hands she had little time left before the shitty ethereum she’d taken that morning wore off. Physically, she’d heal in the water over the course of the night, forced back into her tail. Because if they’d swiped her knife, they’d sure as shit swiped her e, too. She’d be stuck in this stupid pool until she could charm a dose off someone else.
Fable walked into the water—it grew red around her, then faded back to the same glassy blue—and waited. This morning she had prayed that the trails in Carynthia would be little traveled today. Now she regretted that, and hoped her god hadn’t heard her.









