>>6335157Ah, a hunting pair? Clever, even if a tad irrelevant- bulk the size of an iceberg is an asset of its own.
It is of no matter- it seems the Beast will greet his marines soon, despite their best efforts.
Elsewhere, the lil’ soul swims in the light- was this what the Lantern’s warmth felt like, so long ago?
>And what is it that brings you all the way unto my seas, little swimmer?‘Oh, I’m sorry for being rude- the waters here feel so warm, so different from the cold waters with white floating blobs.’
Unbidden, images and sensations flash of icy waters, fields of icebergs interspersed in the dark, and a glacier that hold connotations of home to it.
‘We are pil- pilgr- we are explorers! Here to sing the jolly tune of the Beast’s enlightenment!’
Images flash, more fantastic than the last- tales of the Beast freeing the Maltides, their ancestors, from their tomb in the ice. The warmth of a lantern’s flame. The beautiful, evershifting aurora in the seas of the stars. The feeling of a new leaf, brushing against blubber, and of swimming between the land-coral they call trees.
All but the aurora is indistinct, ethereal, for it was sadly before this lil’ one’s time to experience in this world. But, o’, what beautiful colors that graced the night!
>Do you seek to become one with the waters?At that, a small head tilted. ‘What a silly question! A marine cannot escape the water! In that way, we are one!’
And then, the juvenile swims slower, the light motions of his swimming fins fading.
‘…in that way, I could never become one with the forest, not truly.’
A melancholic melody surfaces, a siren’s yearning as old as the marines themselves as a species. Of a call, never to be answered.
As quickly as the melody arises, so too it falls into the seas of the lil’ soul. With joy, the child of ice twirls around in warm waters.
‘…hey.’ Suddenly shy, the lil’ one treads water nervously. ‘….are we friends?’
A hopeful melody shines though, surpassing the melancholy from before.
