The Lophian's Pearl
Author's Note: I quite adore the concept of Lophian's from @fumbledevil, especially their gluttonous boy Lelantos, so I wrote this OC based on what they talked about with how he met his human.
I hope you like her, and if I got anything wrong or want anything changed, just let me know!
Warnings: Mistaken Courting Rituals, Subsequent Character Deaths, Drowning, Blood and Gore, Yandere, Mayhaps Self-Indulgent. (I put the violence under the cut just in case for anyone)
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" Why the sad look on your face, Love?"
Her head turned, seeing the smiling face of her fiancée Hadrian as the caravan they were riding on rocked like a ship upon the ocean.
Over the creaking sounds of wood, or the crumbling sound of the earth below that, she could hear the distant sounds of the ocean crashing upon the rocks, and the faint sound of her hometown's chimes growing fainter and fainter, aside from the two hanging from her ears, the soft bell sounds the only thing that stopped her from being completely homesick.
" I just... don't feel so happy about leaving Morning's Chime." She found herself spilling how she felt as Hadrian moved to sit beside her, wrapping an arm around her slender shoulders. " The sea has been my whole life, and the thought of leaving it behind..."
" Don't worry Love, we'll come back here eventually. It's just temporary. Try and keep the land fresh in your mind, we'll navigate it back together when everything works out."
She looked back to the small oval that was once her home in the distance as the caravan continued to move.
" Do you promise?" She whispered softly, such so she was unsure he would hear.
Her light ash brown hair was brushed away from her face, his lips meeting her cheek.
" I promise."
-
Eyes of deep sea blue opened with a soft gasp, rolling all around the environment she found herself in.
A tent.
She was on a pallet.
Where was her home?
What was home again?
Sitting up, the weight of her New Moon Pendant thudded against her chest, a dark stone against her soft sleepwear, reminding her.
Right... She was on her way back to Morning's Chime.
After 30 years.
Running her hands through her silvering hair, she moved it out of her face, hearing the sounds of her travelling companions packing up.
Had she slept so deeply that she missed out on helping?
With a small curse, she moved up and to get dressed, loose robes that protected one from the wind fluttering as she tied back her long hair at the back, clipping back her short hair from her face, practiced hands sliding small wind chime earrings back into their place after sleep before she hurried from her tent.
" Finally awake Pearl?" A young traveler woman asked with a giggle, bringing a flush to the older woman's face.
" Yes, I was just... What can I help with, Sephie?"
" You can help with putting away your tent, but otherwise you haven't missed out on much for you to do.
You are our guide, remember? You know the way better than any of us do."
" That doesn't exempt me from work." Pearl shook her head, turning back to roll out her pallet and take down what she had been sleeping in the night prior.
" Don't worry about it too much. Also, some mail had flown in for you." Sephie stated as the tent crashed to the ground, being rolled up with the pallet and tucked into the bag Pearl was carrying, along with her preciously carved jewelry case filled with silver works she had crafted, mostly of a windchime variety.
Perking up, she moved to take the letter offered from Sephie, tearing into it, finding a small message from her eldest.
Dear Mother,
I hope your travels have been going well.
I have heard from merchants that there have been bandits sighted on the main road to Morning's Chime, so for the sake of father's spirit, please try to keep a level head going forward, and send me a letter as soon as you get there.
With the warmest wishes,
Marley.
Pearl couldn't help a smile as she ran the back of her fingers against the page.
" Something good?" A young man asked as he carried some of the tents the group was using to the cart they were using.
" Why yes, my daughter just worries for me." Pearl chuckled and folded the paper, tucking it into the inner pocket of the loose jacket she wore, close to her heart and the Pendant she wore, " Though she did say that there were bandits sighted on the way to Morning's Chime.
If it is alright with everyone, we can take the long route closer to the coast."
A few murmurs sounded around as the idea was rolled around, Pearl reaching aside her bag and pulling out the map she carried from so long ago, faded and well loved from years tacked on the wall of her home, one of the ways she had told her husband that she would keep the trip in her mind's eye.
And now she was going it alone, back to the place she had always wanted to return to.
" We should hit a fork in the road soon, we'll take the long way around by the Coves over here." Pearl informed them, looking up and around to the group of six people aside from herself.
" Sounds like a plan." Sephie smiled, the others nodding along with as they lifted their packs.
Pearl grabbed her walking stick, carved into a crook at the top with a windchime hanging from it, giving soft calls to those around as she led the group, the sea a taste on the air they knew they would see soon as she started to whistle a rather loud and clear tune, something she did to fill the time, whistling or singing folk songs she knew from her childhood in Morning's Chime.
-
The day slowly glid past them as they took breaks to eat, but otherwise kept their pace, turning to the right at the fork in the road, moving with the rise and fall of rocks, a rougher way than the main road, but much more beautiful, especially when the sea came into view.
The sun winked off the water like gems, rising and falling in multiple breaths that moved their robes, a few clouds fluffing against the sky like dropped cotton balls on a bolt of pale blue silk.
The beauty of it made tears well up into Pearl's eyes.
She had missed the beauty of the ocean.
Missed the home she had come from, the culture of it with its gentle chimes used to ward off evil.
It had became the path she walked on when she was away from it, making oceanic and chime jewelry for those in the city, singing the folk songs she sang now to her children...
She was so happy to see it again.
The sun was slowly sinking down as she led the group closer to ocean, picking up her own pace marginally to meet with it again just as it was getting dark, leading her group behind her to the water with matched excitement.
It was completely unknown to her as to why there wasn't a settlement along this stretch of road, and for that a price would be paid she had not even thought of.
---
Meanwhile, a certain Lophian was on the hunt after his sister had brushed him off from eating the human she had been observing, marginally irritated as it would be the eighth observed human that week, and while she didn't care about human lives aside from observation, she needed the humans alive to observe them in the first place, and he was simply always eating them beforehand, so he was not welcome on this day.
So off he was on a hunt, his territory having a recent expanse with the need to compensate for his hunger, but as he was on the way to the edges of his territory, he heard noises.
Human ones, which was rather strange because no one had been by this certain section after he had overhunted the coves by accident.
Humans were a lot of things, and frightened was usually one of them, especially when a lot of their own disappeared around a certain area.
Peeking his head above the waves, he could hear it, above the usual crashing waves, which were gentle in this weather, he could hear the ringing of a chime being jingled almost furiously, snatching his attention.
