Moira and the Kelpie
Moira felt herself slipping. She’d set sail from Asura Cove that morning expecting calm seas. She had not anticipated the sudden gale winds 3 hours into her voyage thrashing her sails and creating 20-foot waves. Her plan had been simple: leave the cove, bank around the peninsula, then head northwest toward Saltwreath to where her sister had been expecting her. As things were, she was now sinking with her boat somewhere between the peninsula and Gull Island. Soon to be “Skull” Island if she couldn’t get her foot loose from sinking, heaving, mizzen lines.
Moira felt her consciousness slipping again, the effort to get her foot free using too much energy for how little air was left in her lungs. She had to calm down but couldn’t take a calming breath and that thought maddened her. Then she saw it – a blurring strip of current, water, and bubbles rush toward her feet, starting to pick at the lines that were dragging her deeper. She tried to focus on what was at her feet but had no luck. Her vision faded and consciousness with it…
Suddenly, eyes darting open, she felt her foot freeing as something pulled her toward the surface. Fast. No human could swim that fast and she’d only ever heard fairy tales of what lurked under that water’s surface. She gasped for breath when they broke the surface, clinging to the thing that carried her, the kelpie, she realized. He was a beautiful grey-blue creature with a mane as soft and silkie as seaweed. He smelt of salt and sand. Though the Kelpie’s back was wet with cool ocean water, he’d felt warm.
“Thank you,” she breathed, slumping from exhaustion around his strong neck.
The Kelpie simply kept moving, bring her closer to the land waiting on the horizon…
...
Nymryn had never met a human so completely unafraid of him that they’d actually fallen asleep on his back. Normally the humans he saved from a water grave would scream until they passed out under the ocean’s depths, ruining all he had done to try and save them. This one didn’t so much as flinch when he freed her from the lines of her treacherous boat. It was an odd feeling to be thanked instead and warmed his clammy heart to it’s core.
Moira felt her consciousness slipping again, the effort to get her foot free using too much energy for how little air was left in her lungs. She had to calm down but couldn’t take a calming breath and that thought maddened her. Then she saw it – a blurring strip of current, water, and bubbles rush toward her feet, starting to pick at the lines that were dragging her deeper. She tried to focus on what was at her feet but had no luck. Her vision faded and consciousness with it…
Suddenly, eyes darting open, she felt her foot freeing as something pulled her toward the surface. Fast. No human could swim that fast and she’d only ever heard fairy tales of what lurked under that water’s surface. She gasped for breath when they broke the surface, clinging to the thing that carried her, the kelpie, she realized. He was a beautiful grey-blue creature with a mane as soft and silkie as seaweed. He smelt of salt and sand. Though the Kelpie’s back was wet with cool ocean water, he’d felt warm.
“Thank you,” she breathed, slumping from exhaustion around his strong neck.
The Kelpie simply kept moving, bring her closer to the land waiting on the horizon…
...
Nymryn had never met a human so completely unafraid of him that they’d actually fallen asleep on his back. Normally the humans he saved from a water grave would scream until they passed out under the ocean’s depths, ruining all he had done to try and save them. This one didn’t so much as flinch when he freed her from the lines of her treacherous boat. It was an odd feeling to be thanked instead and warmed his clammy heart to it’s core.
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