Parris flung down the inadequately made back pack off his shoulders, dropping down on the sands with a deep sigh. He flung out his arm and messaged the shoulder, feeling the muscles loosen in their tenderness. It felt like such a long time since he had a break. Had a chance to do more than just sleep. Which was somewhat of a lie, really. He wasn't exactly spending all his waking hours working at the forge, but he was spending so much time there lately that he spent all his free time shooting areas at the targets he had made against his house. Fun this was, but it was fun that made his fingers sore at the end of the day. He set himself a goal of practicing his archery for a certain length of time a day. This was exactly how much time he had away from the forge, leaving him going to bed with not only sore arms but sore fingers from holding the string of his bow.
Yesterday enough was enough. Let the requests pile in. Let his stored food run low. He was taking a vacation. And where better to relax than at the edge of the lake, listening to the waves crash against the beach? He could almost fall asleep with that sound in his ears. Just lie back and close his eyes.
Within minutes the brown Pae was asleep, one hand still clutching at his back pack's strap. So tired and fallen was he that he didn't hear the loud splashing just before him, a few feet from where he lay. In his dream, this was the sound of the waves against his ship. He was a sailor, here, out on the wide ocean with the island far from his sight. All alone with only the occasional bird or dolphin for company. When a splash of water hit his face this was the waves bounding against the wood as he leaned down, watching it. Parris even smiled in his sleep.
What he could not ignore, however, was the slapping of something against his leg. A sail broken lose? No, they were too high. A fish? There were no fish jumping.
Another slap.
Groaning slightly at being awoken, the male opened his eyes slowly, raising himself to a sitting position...
Only to lean right into a single glowing yellow eye. Startled, he backed away on the sand, leaving a skid mark in his path until he realized there was nothing terrifying in his line of sight. Just a Naiad. On the beach. Leaning over him.
Leaning over him...
As he tried to make sense through his grogginess, the Naiad took the pause to speak. "You were awfully close to the water, you know. That is not a good place to sleep." She tilted her head, as if she was confused by his sleeping just inches from the waves. Indeed, he had not noticed the water was so close when he sat down. But he saw now. Half of her tail still resided in the cold liquid behind her.
He rubbed his eyes. Looked at her.
"What is wrong with your eye?" By that he meant the yellow one. Still tired from his quick nap, he wasn't thinking properly. There was nothing strange about a glowing eye. Less about a pale grey one planted on the same face, meaning she was probably blind in that one. Being the first thing he seen when he awoke, he couldn't help focusing on it like it was an oddity.
The Naiad's mind, however, seemed on another track. She giggled lightly and slapped the water with her tail, not wishing to move further out of her wet comfort zone.
"Not a thing. You are strange to ask. Is blindness rare where you come from?"
"Well...No," he couldn't help stammering, taken aback by how she had perceived his question. With a shake of his head he dismissed it. Along with the groggy look on his face to be replaced by one of irritation. "Unimportant. Why were you so close to me? You don't appear to be a Naiad unfamiliar with the surface world."
As if the question bored her, she sighed and flicked her hair over one shoulder before answering. "You were asleep. You did not seem to mind."
[Finish later. Brain died.]
