| oh darling, do | |
| Reef appreciates his silence. She can tell he considers what she says, takes it seriously, and it makes her keen to tap the deep, quiet lake that is Jabari. Her question had been, in part, to try to explore more of those depths— but he laughs, a light, almost self-conscious sound, and turns her question back to her. Reef tucks her nose a little closer to her chest to still the flutter there. It isn't rejection, she reminds herself, nor mockery, and if anything she should be encouraged that his response was not to change the subject, but simply the focus.
There is a sheet of ice across his lake, she thinks, impenetrable for the moment. She desires to get past it. One could lift a hoof and strike, pointedly, to crack and shatter that shield. An abrupt question, perhaps, or something sharply flirtatious to break that guard. Reef prefers to draw closer, rest her muzzle near that pristine barrier and melt it away with her breath, and the opportunity presents itself as Jabari shifts closer to her. One step, one small subtle adjustment from his original place, and yet notably closer. Reef exhales thoughtfully, her attention apparently on the sea. "I think to be a gull would be glorious," she replies. "They float over the water so freely, and yet—" Reef rocks back from the edge, stepping just-so away from the precipitous edge and sidling closer to Jabari, dropping her voice and her head a little as she divulges a close-kept secret, glancing over at him through her dark lashes to gauge his level of interest in this fantasy she gives away: "And yet there is something spectacular out there that I have no name for. I've seen them only twice, and each time—" her breath catches with yearning "—each time I have been struck dumb by their magnificence. These creatures.... how do I describe them? They're massive, Jabari, and shaped so oddly they can belong nowhere but within the water. Imagine featherless wings, two great fins outstretched from a body almost indistinguishable from its two limbs, and a great long tail, snake-thin behind it. It has—" she almost pauses, wondering if he will even believe something so incredulous exists, but pushes on, seeking common ground to help shape a manta ray within his mind— if only he could have seen it, a whole great flock of them rising up out of the waves, leaping and splashing back as if they, too, wanted to be the gulls coasting above on thermals. "It has these two, hm, claws? In front of its face. Like a crab, but not built for pinching from what I could tell. It looked like part of its mouth, but I didn't see any teeth. I know sharks, and I know whales, and I know dolphins, but these? I have no name for these." She does pause then, lists closer. "But if I could have been born one of them, Jabari. I think my soul would feel so free." | |
reef | |