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BY THE PRECEPTS OF HER PURITY
”The water must be far warmer here than in the Falls,”
When she had stumbled into the Hidden Falls by accident she had been ill with the black sludge. Then, the water hadn’t felt like anything in particular on her coat; no cold, no warmth, no pleasure, no pain. As if she hadn’t been supposed to feel it, but rather smell it, or look at it to decide if it even had a temperature. So she wouldn’t know, yet; she nodded, assuming the way Kaj told it it was probably snowmelt — hoping that Kaj didn’t notice how she had rolled her eyes away from him, seeing as she realized once again that he had been lead when she had infiltrated his herd-land without permission. The embarrassment she felt for such an out of character thing... It felt slightly too real with him here up close.
As intrigued as she had been with the harmony dancing on her taste buds, he was voicing his thoughts about the tea now as well. She smiled at him, wings shuffling in amusement, a giggle pushing against the opening of her throat as if it wanted out. She left it with the classic smile, kept her elegance composure in the midst of fluttering lashes, her childish manifestations hidden and forgotten; she was a proper dam. Sometimes she forgot that — Sometimes it was nice to be reminded. She was reminded now, here next to him; the feathers of Kaj’s wigs brushing her skin. She listened to his conclusion on the taste and laughed in agreement. He was like a performer; front lit and shining in his suit of perfect perfection and boyish grins as he entertained and threw roses into the crowd. She was the crowd. Enchanted. “It is,” Mild, like the spring breeze, like the curving of wakes and the flowing of water. She closed her eyes and inhaled the smell once more. “Hmmm, I think it might just be rather calming to the mind. I tend to think a lot, you see,” Too much. Even about useless things, although she would not ever admit that — Enough to go mad one day, she assumed in the quiet of her secrecy. “...Whereas peppermint tea does the opposite.” It spiced up her thoughts, like an eruption of a volcano, creating new islands as it flows. Awakened her.
Kaj’s teasing grin appeared again, the one she was slowly growing familiar with, perhaps too familiar, because his joke flew right over her winged head. Her gold eyes widened in surprise as she looked at him in question, her ears folded towards him with a sense of shock. “Doómed?!” She repeated in dramatic surprise. “I hope not," her words reflecting the little hurt she felt in careful sounds, trailed by an uncomfortable laugh. She would much rather be a savior to him, or a blessing — Or was that arrogant, perhaps too pretentious for her to think? Anyhow, it was a very confusing thing of him to say to her religious face. Behind Maren’s golden eyes her thought process still danced around the word doomed, but Kaj mentioned how he’d like to explore the world of Tea and this, of course, brought her back on their main point of conversation and she couldn’t help but tell him about this Johnny from the Aurora Basin, who had peppermint-flavored mane and tail. Perhaps one day Kaj could help her persuade Johnny to donate some of his splendid hairdo for their (m-)tea-ningful and essen-tea-al cause. Kaj in turn told her more about the World’s Edge. She nodded, intrigued, to the origin of the herd-land’s name and let out a disappointed sigh when he mentioned how the water wasn’t directly accessible from the place itself. Perhaps one day she would take the coastal route and visit the place to see if it was true.
”I’m afraid I was staring for quite the opposite reason — I would apologize, but I have a feeling you enchant far more than me on a daily basis.”
His teasing, flirtatious poetry that he had mastered seemingly so well, had tangled itself in something else. A joke... but rather a question. He might have found that, even for him, this game of provoking and seducing could only go on so long until he had to shake his deck of cards. She sensed it through the canyons of his handsome voice and the glittering stars in his eyes. She gave a teasing smile in return, then brushed her velvet nose gently over his gold cheek and whispered rather low: “...Then I must keep enchanting you.”
Architecture, she smiled, liking the way he spoke about the vessel she had found half rotten and wasting away on the bottom of the river. “A boat is a vessel that can carry you on water.” She said it quickly, not hiding her enthusiasm for his piked interest. (As much as a dam she pretended to be, when it came to her toys she was still a child.) “I secured mine close by here — I’ll show you!” Maren jumped up hastily.
He would love to see it, she repeated in her head, thrilled. It was like getting a dog to show them their toy.
With a spring is her step she followed the coastline once more until a bunch of rocks appeared, together with the swaying silhouette of the old boat. Salty water splashed around her ankles as she pulled the vessel on its chain upon the sandy shoreline for Kaj to see. She looked at it, her ivory wings happily flapping beside her cheeks, totally forgetting all the chemistry she had felt pounding in her veins moments before. It was as if she was a youngster all over again, talking about the best flying methods and wind patterns to soar for the longest, most effortless time.
“So when I found it, it was terribly beaten. Duckweed, water plants, snails, leeches — Everywhere. Miraculously, the wood was still usable after a good scrub, and the stems were fine too, but the support was baaad, so I had to repair it. Luckily, I was able to do so with enough metal and strengthen the keel. There were also theses strange planks taking up space in the tub, which were pretty useless, so I removed them. It can easily carry two horses’ weights, but I wouldn’t dare add a third. Mr. Teatime is the exception, since he provides an excellent ballast to keep the gutter steady in the heavier weather conditions.” She nodded. “Of course there is always room for improvement, I am planning to do some experimental strengthening with sticky tar and fur. Got to keep up with the maintenance ya know, HA-HA,” she roared as if it was the greatest joke she’d ever made. While striking away a tear with one of her feathered fingers, her golden, shimmering eyes trailed the curling stem, plankwork and deep vee of the gutter with more love than she would ever look at anything else. “Its name is The Flying Dutchman,” she announced proudly, though almost out of breath from all the fast-paced talking.
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