@blueeyedstark replied to your post “hubris is getting the spiciest chicken option bc rarely is the spicy...”
I want that sandwich
strong encourage if only for the adventure.
@haraldskaer replied to your post “hubris is getting the spiciest chicken option bc rarely is the spicy...”
i believe in u
i’m trying. the problem with having to eat it slow is that now i’m getting full. and also i’ve taken a break and moved onto a biscuit which is so gentle and now i’m scared to go back to the chicken.
are they crabs? are they crab people? you decide. god what am i doing.
she knows that she is old enough when her eyes start to see differently.
the sea is not a safe place, and rey learned long ago to fight in it. her shell is strong, her pincers strong, her determination strong. no crab has ever bested her, and any who has tried has faced the full brunt of her might.
but her sight is different now and when she sinks down in the sands she knows her time has come. males are appearing, drawn to her through the chemicals she is emitting into the water. some are small, some are large, and all of them know that this is her chance to mate--the only one she’ll ever have.
rey wishes they would go away. all of them are weaker than she is. she can see that in their size, in their gaze, in the way they are all trying to impress her. i want the largest, she thinks, one who is my equal.
but none of them are, she can see that. they are lesser beings, and rey wants them to go away. she is more than just a thing to be mated. if she is to mate at all, let it be someone who will not weigh her down.
(somewhere, a curling corner of her mind whispers, someone who will keep you safe. isn’t it tiring to fend for yourself for so long?)
a mate who will not abandon her or her child--as her parents did.
rey hardens her heart even as her shell begins to crack. the males approach her, waving their claws, showing their strength. two of them begin to fight, and then a third joins the frey, and soon they are cracking at one anothers shells with grips strong enough to break.
“is this what you want?” he asks and she swivels her gaze to him. he is crouched in the sand behind her, his shell dark, his eyes darker, and rey lifts herself up slightly. odd that he is not standing tall and proud, that it is she who raises herself to him, not the other way around.
when she stands, though, he raises himself up as well. he is massive--easily the largest to have been drawn to the scent of her weakening shell, and rey feels her legs begin to shake. not with fear. rey is not afraid of anything. she doesn’t know what it is.
“i don’t want any of this,” rey responds quietly over the sound of dueling males.
he reaches for her, his shell brushing the side of her head, and she can feel her head turn towards his touch.
behind her she hears one of the males shout and--quick as a flash--the dark-shelled male passes her and knocks one of them down into the sand without another word. when he turns back to her, rey’s heart lurches. he is the strongest, she thinks. but will he leave me?
what does it matter if she is left behind? she has made it this far on her own. but he asked what i wanted.
did he care? or was it a ploy to get in her shell, to take her when she is soft and shellless at the only opportunity?
“you know what you want,” he whispers and he makes his way off across the sands towards a protective outcropping of stone.
her shell weakens.
she follows him.
he helps her climb from it carefully among the stone, his gaze steady and even. “i will keep you safe,” he whispers to her, taking her in his arms. he is warm, now that he is so close. rey feels safe. she does not remember when last she felt safe. she rests her head against his shoulder. she likes the way his scent fill the water around them. “i will keep the offspring safe too.”
she jerks her head up. that is why this is happening, isn’t it? that it is her time to mate, and he has won her favor?
he tightens his grip around her and rubs his face to the side of hers, and the way his shell rubs against her exposed sends a strange sensation through her. “you first, though,” he whispers, “you until you have a shell again, until you can protect yourself again. then i will stay with you as long as you wish.” his gaze is so very sincere, and she could swim in those deep, dark eyes. “you don’t have to be alone again.”
and the way he says it makes her wonder...
she reaches up to touch his face, and he trembles under her skin. “neither do you,” she whispers, and they give themselves to one another.
