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 Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2014 9:28 pm
 A silver-moon necklace and the memory of a beautiful face, that was all Terran had left from the events from almost a year ago. All the scarred memories were gone now, well suppressed at the least. The nightmares had been with him for a while at first, but after that he moved on. On most matters. The girl who was with him, she haunted him still, the adventure they had been on together, only to never see each other again... It was enough to make him pine for a certain Naiad who had the same necklace that he did. The flyers were all over reminding Terran of yet another Valentine affair hosted by Venus, and there was an official ban posted by his Chief as well, but he wasn't necessarily planning on going to the event anyways, it didn't matter to him. What mattered was that it was a reminder that it had been almost a year since he had seen her. This made sense with him being a faun in Laisidhiel and her being a Naiad, but the fact that it had been nearly a year drew him to the water on this particular day. Terran dipped his hooves into the water, he honestly didn't expect to see her, she might not even live in this main lake. It was all Terran could do for some closure. None of the faun in the tree ever seemed to be half as pretty as Moana.
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Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2014 9:02 am
 Those fliers must be practically covering the isle above. It was the only assumption she could make, considering how many she'd found IN the lake today. Moana grumbled to herself, adding one more to a handful of fliers she'd already collected. No more in sight, she headed towards the surface and towards the shoreline. She'd taken it upon herself to do some 'lake clean-up' today, returning these things to the land Pae. After what had happened last year, she wasn't willing to let someone else make the naive decision she'd made; expecting a party and some fun, instead receiving the shock of her life. At the time. No thanks, the land Pae could keep these things. She was doing some poor Naiad(s) a favor by getting rid of these before they were seen, hopefully.
Surfacing, she shook her hair from her face and neared the shoreline. The dripping stack of fliers was added to the collection already piled on the land and she smiled to herself, feeling both productive and that she'd done a good deed for the day.
She couldn't believe that it had been a year already. So much had happened since then...not all of it good, but not all of it bad either. While the event itself had been scarring and terrifying at the time, she had to admit...it had opened her eyes to the harshness of the world outside the palace. It had also helped, perhaps, in some way to prepare her for the shock when her father had been found. Not that she'd coped well she thought with the incident, but if she'd been unable to spur herself to action at all, to push past the shock and trauma of seeing her father brought home in such a state...
...well, he might not still be here at all.
Frowning, she willed the sobering thought from her mind. It was fine. He was fine. Everything was fine now, she told herself. Her father was healthy again, safe back home after the meeting with the Faun, now officially their new allies. While it was strange for some to accept now that they had allies on the land, it wasn't too much of a stretch for Moana. Her own experience had connected her, in a way, with one of their number long before any treaty was signed. He had looked out for her, and they'd worked together as a team well, despite only having just met shortly before the chaos had erupted.
She sighed, lounging in the shallows, enjoying the open air and light before she decided to head for home again. She'd been lost in her thoughts, losing track of time, when a movement along the shoreline caught her attention. She instinctively slipped beneath the water's surface, watching from a distance warily. Hooves...branch antlers...not just a Faun, but a familiar one.
Well, speak of the devil fish.
How strange that he should appear now, after those fliers had stirred up memories she'd left untouched for seasons. Or tried at least. She hesitated before taking any action. Should she say something? Or just leave? Or...okay, not sit here staring like a creeper over the surface of the water. That option was out. Make a decision, Moana.
He stepped into the lake, hooves disappearing beneath the water. Was he...looking for her? No, that's silly. Get your head out of the clouds, Moana. Still, their people were allies now. If for no other reason, she should greet him as a friend, see if there were something she could help with here in the lake. That was the point of the alliance, right? To help and support each other?
Not bothering to submerge herself, she kicked off, swimming across the surface towards the Faun on the shore. As she neared, she smiled and called out, "Long time no see, stranger."
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Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2014 10:36 am
As the male sat down on the shore, his hooves still in the water, he thought he had heard a splash. He didn't think anything of it though, this was a lake, water was always splashing. That was until a voice addressed him. He could see her bright pink form just a short swim away from him. "Moana! I..." No, it was probably a bad idea to admit that he had been sort of looking for her. Keep it cool, keep it cool. As she got closer to Terran, she seemed to be more beautiful then the faint memory he had floating around in his head, it made him smile ever so slightly. Snap out of it! "... wasn't expecting to see you here," he continued. "It has been a long time." Terran was in a state of slight shock. He had though about her often throughout the year, but he had truly never expected to see this naiad again. It was strange to see her in front of him now. "How have you been?" He had never planned this far into seeing her again and so he did not know what to say.
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Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2014 11:41 am
Maybe he had been thinking about her? After all, these fliers were everywhere...and they'd prompted her to revisit her own memories of that night a year ago. Maybe he had too.
Or maybe not.
Silly girl, Moana reprimanded herself. Why would he look for you? It's not like you have any REAL friends or anything. Not as if you went looking for him either, you know. It was true. In retrospect, she realized she'd not technically left the lake since she'd returned from the party last year. For a long time, the surface had been something to fear. Even if she'd come up to the surface, she'd not stepped onto the land. Only recently, she'd dared to even sit in the shallows again.
Pushing the revelation aside, she started to do just that, slipping into the shallows near the shore to take a seat, not far from the Faun. She wondered how to answer his question, and after a moment, she chuckled and replied, "A fair bit better than the last time I saw you, I think?" Maybe it was a good sign that she could make jokes about the situation. She thought it was anyway, feeling that was how she'd managed to cope with the events, not only of that night, but those to follow later. Settling in the sands, she drew her tail up, wrapping her arms around it as a Pae would their knees. "What about you? Been well, I hope?"
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Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2014 7:56 pm
"That's good, that's really good." Terran had probably spent more time worried about her after the events then anything else. Yet, this was the first time he had actually sort of came to look for. Although... come to think of it, almost anything was better then when they first and last saw each other. Terran leaned back, letting his hands that propped him up dig into the sand. "I have been doing alright, keeping out of trouble at the least." He smiled at her. They had never really gotten the chance to sit down like this at all before. "Honestly, I was kind of hoping I might run into you when I came down here." Maybe it didn't sound so creepy afterall. "Just to see how you've been doing... there's another one of those..." Terran wasn't even sure what to call it, "...fancy parties going on, made me remember last year." Terran watched her carefully as he spoke, she had sort of joked about what happened too.
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Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2014 7:55 am
Chuckling softly, Moana answered, "Keeping out of trouble is always positive." Sometimes, that simple task seemed far more difficult than it should be. No matter how hard one tried. She seemed surprised by the statement that followed though. "You were?" she blurted out, shocked that he actually had come looking for her...well, sort of. She glanced away, smiling shyly as she shifted her tail to the side.
Sure, she knew plenty of Naiads from living in and around the palace, she was even a Lady of the Queen. And yet...Moana had few that she really called 'friends' in the casual sense. None on the land, at least, who would go to the trouble of trying to find her again...or so she'd thought.
At the mention, however, of the parties, she let her shy, sweet persona slip for a moment with a completely lady-like snort, expressing some mixture of amusement and weary resignation. "Oh, by the Waters...THAT. I've been cleaning up those stupid fliers all morning. I think someone else may have tried dumping them in the lake to be rid of them. There's a sopping pile of them over on the shore not far from here," she giggled to herself. "The promise of 'no labyrinths this year'...you buy that?" She rolled her eyes, keeping strain from her voice at the word. It was okay, she'd distanced herself from all that.
Pausing suspiciously, she turned her eyes back to her Faun friend. "Wait...you don't really believe that, right? I mean, you're not thinking of going are you?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2014 9:16 am
Surprised by her outburst, Terran's eyes widened and he nearly toppled over in the sand. At least she had turned away and might not have caught his act of clumsiness, he thought as he straightened himself out. He began to nod his head, but if she wasn't looking that didn't do much good either, "Yes." The faun cocked his eyebrows at her snort and let out his own chuckle of amusement. "Yes, that.... hmmm I can't imagine the chieftain would be throwing fliers in the water... they have been taking them down all around the tree. But with the recent alliance, that would be rude..." he pondered out loud with a smirk on his face. "I guess we are allies now." He said with some delight looking over at Moana. Terran thought about her questions, in truth it was something that he had thought of a bit and debated on. "What happened was not necessarily Venus' fault... not that I will support that mad..." he quickly added, but he wasn't even sure what to call her. Terran had no experience at her previous parties to know that these kinds of things were a usual occurrence. "I'm honestly not sure, it might be fun... to get out for a night." Terran shrugged her shoulders. "At least it would be fun if her promises are true." Being a faun, he'd really be getting out for a night if he decided to go considering that the reason the fliers were being taken down was that the chieftain had made it very clear that faun were banned from going. Terran assumed it was likely for their protection and he was confident he could take care of himself. He just had to make sure he wasn't quick to return to the tree afterwards.
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Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2014 12:24 pm
Moana returned the smirk, shooting back, "Not the nicest first action to take as an ally; dirtying up a comrade's home." Having delivered her quip, she giggled at the thought of the Faun Chieftain dumping armloads of fliers into the lake to get rid of them. Not that she knew what he looked like... Even if it was an imagined faun figure taking his place, it was still an entertaining mental image.
"Yeah, so I've heard," she agreed, failing to mention just who she'd heard it from. "Though, to be bold, I thought we worked together pretty well before there was any official alliance," she teased. Even if they hadn't had much time to talk beforehand, she felt that when it counted, she and Terran had worked well together when danger had reared its ugly head. Apparently, it took their people a year to decide that they could possibly do the same. "Maybe we're some sort of...early prodigies or something," she mused aloud, then waved off the silly statement.
She sobered as she listened, realizing that Terran was actually considering attending this crazy 'celebration'. Maybe it hadn't been Venus' fault last year, but that other woman's...but it had still happened. Though, the Love Goddess and the rest of the deity had scrambled to help those dragged into the labyrinth. The Goddess of the Hunt, Artemis, looking much like a Faun herself Moana had noticed, had in fact rescued the two of them personally. Unconsciously, the young Naiad had reached up to touch the silver pendant at her neck, twisted around the pearl strands she already wore, as if reassured by their presence. It was still as brilliant as the day the goddess had blessed her with it, despite nearly a year underwater.
"I don't know...I'll admit, the idea of a simple night out, food and fun, dancing and people...sounds nice. But what if they can't keep those promises?" Hadn't that been what she'd sought last year? Not what she'd found, that was for sure. "Though...aside from...that bit in the middle," she muttered, glossing over the labyrinth incident, "...the party hadn't been bad to start. And, after everyone was safe again..." Unable to say what possessed her, she looked back at the Faun, no longer muttering to herself. "If you do go...can you at least promise to be careful? I don't...I mean...it'd be awful if something happened to you," she trailed off, glancing aside awkwardly.
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Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2014 11:00 am
"And you left to clean up the mess..." Terran shook his head in dramatic mocking of their made-up story. Or at least mostly made up, since someone really had dumped the fliers in the lake. The faun shifted, pulling his legs out of the water so they were folded beneath him, it was a little too cold to be dipping ones hooves in the water in all reality. "You're right. We were a good time, we should have them give us credit for the idea that faun and naiad could work well together." Terran would never suggest such a thing in all reality, he wasn't even sure what the whole purpose of an official alliance was. It sounded like the reason behind it could be good or bad. Terran shook out of his thoughts on the meaning of an alliance when he noticed her hand on her necklace. "Hey! You still have yours too." Terran smiled as he puffed out his chest to show off his proudly. "That's the appeal to me... sometimes things feel pretty tense, its nice to have something like this to go to. As far as things going wrong again..." Terran narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. "I guess there's always the chance that something could go wrong every time we step out into the world... can't hide from it forever." It was the best rationalization Terran could come up with for why he wanted to go despite what had happened the previous year. In his mind it hadn't been all bad anyways, he had met Moana afterall. Terran watched her as she glanced away. "I could make that promise..." He said thoughtfully. "You know... you could always come too, make sure nothing happens."
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Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 7:25 am
Moana chuckled; likely their story wasn't true, but it was funny to imagine if it was. She covered for a slight chill, noting that it seemed rather cold here on the surface. There'd been a bit of that lately. It wasn't as bad in the deeper waters of the lake, so she hadn't noticed the change until coming to the surface.
Glancing down at the silver chain twined around the pearl strands, she nodded. "Haven't taken it off since I got it," she admitted. Of course, she didn't mention that she'd also kept the hair comb as well. It stayed in a box by her bed, except for special occasions when she brought it out to wear again. She never explained to anyone else where it had come from.
With a sigh, she nodded once, agreeing with his assessment. "I think we learned that well enough last year. You can never say for sure what could happen in the world, can you?" It'd been an eye-opening experience for the young, sheltered Naiad. Her whole life had been the safety of the lake, the wonder of the court, and her fascination with royalty. The labyrinth had opened her eyes to the harsh reality of the world outside all that. And she couldn't escape it just by hiding away. It invaded her world anyway, nearly taking her father from her. She'd tried to hide away in fear for a while...but, she couldn't do that forever. There was still a whole world out there, and trying to shut it out didn't keep it from existing anyway.
She was nearly floored by his invitation, looking back with wide eyes before attempting to compose herself. "Me? I-I don't know...I mean, do you...really think there's something I could do?" She looked down at her hands. She wasn't sure what she could do to prevent anything bad from happening. Though, if something bad did happen, she did have her healing abilities...so, she could prevent something worse from happening in that case. "I don't know," she muttered again indecisively, though her resolve seemed to be waning. "I mean, if you really want me to...I suppose I could probably go..."
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Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 10:29 am
Terran nodded his head enthusiastically when Moana talked about wearing the necklace all the time. "Yeah, me too." It had been a strange experience that had blessed them with these necklaces. He had not really used it to summon a deer like the one they had helped, but it was nice knowing that he had it available to him, and a reminder as well. His heart sunk slightly as she weighed going to the event or not. Terran could certainly understand the hesitation, since he had his own doubts as well and even more since he wasn't even supposed to go by the decree of his Chief. However, there was some truth to what he had said about hiding in fear of something happening again, and he couldn't do that and that had settled his mind on the matter. Just because he had made up his mind, didn't mean he wanted to force Moana to go. He couldn't bare the thought of something happening to her, all because he had urged her to do something she had doubts about. "It really is up to you. I don't want to pressure you into it." His voice was soft and sympathetic. "I would be honored if you went with me though." A soft blush came to his cheeks. Perhaps one of the more bolder things he had ever said in his life.
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Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 11:55 am
She had been relatively on the fence about the whole matter, until suddenly the warmth that flushed her cheeks melted away the last of her resistance. There went all hope of turning down the offer and staying home where it was relatively safe.
She was just glad that he wouldn't be able to tell with her natural coloring.
"Oh, well...in that case, how could I refuse such an offer, kind sir? You do flatter me so!" she tried to play up the statement with a laugh to hide the truth in what she said. She glanced to his side, then to the shallow water around her, then back to the shore before she started to shift towards the dry land. Once seated there, she flicked the water from her tail which slowly started splitting to form legs now that she was on land again...for the first time in a year.
Might as well start getting used to it again.
Now it was her turn to be bold, taking a seat next to Terran, if turned away slightly so that she could hug her knees and lean back to rest against his shoulder. She put on a teasing grin and quipped lightly, "I mean, if it makes you feel better to have me come along to protect you, of course." It took everything she had not to break into a fit of giggles.
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Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 10:55 am
Terran laughed at her acceptance of his offer, it made the blush die out from his cheeks. There, that hadn't been so embarrassing after-all. She had taken it as a friendly offer, and he wasn't going to tell her otherwise, and she had accepted as friend. There was still a reluctance in his chest, that he might have put too much pressure on her to join him, he was just going to have to be extra protective to make sure nothing happened to her. He almost froze up when she had suddenly gone from being a short distance away to right next to him, leaning on his shoulder! "That would make me feel safe..." Terran looked down at the ground in mock-shame, he quickly looked back up, a smile apparent on his face. "Though... I do feel better knowing you're coming with me."
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Posted: Fri Jan 31, 2014 12:55 pm
Giggling now, the warm-hued Aernyn laid her head back, eyes closed and grinning, seemingly relaxed. "It's settled then. I will go as your guard and protector to the party." The thought of her guarding anyone seemed absurd and she could barely keep up the ruse. Yet, there was something amusing in the game that kept her trying to play.
Letting the silence settle as she took in the scenery around her, she realized that there were some things about the surface she had missed. After a bit, she spoke up again. "So...how do we do this? I mean, do you wanna' just meet there? Or here? Or uh, okay, I don't really know where you live," she admitted, sitting up and pulling away in order to turn and grin at her friend. To be quite honest, she was feeling more than a little awkward about this. Awkward, but not necessarily regretting her decision to go. Not yet, at least.
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Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2014 3:10 pm
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" He praised her for going as his protector, the last bit of fun from their little game. Terran quirked his eyebrows at his female friend. How did they want to do this. That was a good question. He gave her a warm smile, "I live in the great tree," Terran pointed over his shoulder at the direction he had approached the lake from, "Probably better we don't meet at my place. You live here in this lake?" It was entirely possible she was just visiting too. "Whichever you feel most comfortable with, I'd be happy to oblige." Terran supposed her answer might be the true test of things. It would make sense for friend going to an event together to meet there, right? If she wanted him to meet her here... well that might mean more, although it could mean that she was just really nervous about going still.
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