Today, they aren’t alone for long. A girl’s whinny breaks the silence, and Syrena looks up to find a brown and white - no, more cobweb than white – filly sliding down the dunes toward them. There seem to be a lot of children in this place, and admittedly, Syrena finds that strangely comforting. Children seem far less judgmental, and when they do judge, they say it aloud and don’t whisper behind her back. Sometimes they are a little peppy for Syrena’s taste, but she can learn to deal with that. Maybe, with Thea playing cute and cuddly, she can even stop being so damn off putting without meaning to be.

The girl comes to a stop near Thea, and for a moment Syrena’s heart lurches. She’s not a huge fan of the snake form only because it seems to easy to step on, but she knows that Thea is more than capable of not getting herself smushed. Still, Thea also likes attention, and wiggles closer to the girl, writhing with delight when the girl starts paying attention to her. She switches forms at that, picking a tiny little fennec fox with huge ears as if to say yes, yes I am cute,. “I moved here recently, so I’m sure we haven’t met yet. I’m Syrena, and that is Thea. The attention whore.” Thea gives her a face, sensing the fake insult, but Syrena gives her no face back. Then attention, emotions never do cross Syrena’s face.

The girl asks if she can join Syrena, and Syrena nods in agreement. It’s not like it’s her oasis, the way the pool of the Storyteller had been her pool in the Falls. There, no one ever dared bother her. Here, she knew she had to share, had no claim to lazing in the oasis by herself. And then the girl was asking just what Syrena was, and she’s about to answer when another Hello cuts across the oasis. She turns to find another filly, largely brown, as she crashes into the water with far less care than the first girl had shown. Ah, youth. She might be annoyed, but really, she enjoys the water that splashes on her coat, turning her gray skin red and orange and pink.

”Syrena,” she offers for Melita’s benefit, and then “That’s Thea. And the color changing is a remnant of my magic from before Helovia. My mother, you see, was part kelpie and part siren. My sire was equine. I am a combination of all three. So no, not quite a normal horse.” she says, trying to offer the spider-web girl (Vezer, they have names she reminds herself) a smile, though pretty sure she fails. Her muscles aren’t well trained in smiling, or moving, but she’s trying. Getting slightly better as the days go by. Though quite possibly, she’ll never be good at it.


les words "chat chat"

Syrena

let the water take me