16 - My narrative is always about some dude

[heavenlymisandrist]

[ Open Spam ]

[ A century of ice in Narnia has not been kind to the water elementals of the land. Undines are, generally speaking, family, and Ceres has lost too many sisters to thick layers of ice covering ponds. River dwelling undines are luckier, as running water is rarely stopped by even the bitterest of winters. This one has been difficult on everyone, she knows, but she can't help but be a little extra bitter towards the White Witch.

None the less, Ceres remains unaffiliated. She is rather shy of others, and keeps mostly to herself. There's good reason for this, as any undine who falls in love with a land-walker becomes themselves a mortal land-walker. She keeps to the main rivers for the most part, but does occassionally venture into smaller streams. She never goes so far as the ocean, though. She doesn't like the taste of salt water, and she is at heart a rural creature.

She is far more willing to talk with Aslan's army than the queen's cruel agents, but can easiest be coaxed from the safety of the river bottom with food. The waters are sparse of life after one hundred years of winter. ]

Comments

[150th]

[A homemade hook and bobber splashes into the river, narrowly missing Ceres.

Its owner has very little hopes about catching anything, but dried mushrooms get old after so long with nothing but.]

[heavenlymisandrist]

[ The narrow miss sends Ceres near about into a panic. From under the water the owner of the hook is distorted, almost impossible to make out way over there on the shore. She has to raise her head from the water to see as a land-walker does, away from the watched bobber and hidden by some bushes stripped bare by the long winter.

She watches the man, fear in her golden brown eyes. ]

[mistconduct]

[Unaffiliated ones are to be distrusted even more so than ones who've chosen a side.

Chris the dwarf thinks he knows a way to lure water numphs to the surface.

He lugs a big rock in both arms to the side of the riverbank, and throws it in]

[heavenlymisandrist]

[ That will certainly do it. The heavy thing nearly crushes her leg, and she lets out an unearthly scream as she beaches herself on the opposite shore. There she stares at her assailant in terror, robes made of water and algae clutched to her chest. ]

Who- who are you?

[mistconduct]

[He gives a mean little laugh, and picks up a smaller rock this time]

Servant of the White Witch! And I've come to make you swear your allegiance.

[heavenlymisandrist]

[ "Make you", he says. She doesn't like the sound of that at all. ]

I make allegiance only to my river.

[mistconduct]

Times are changing. The Queen demands your presence at her camp.

Let's go. Into the bottle.

[Yes, he's uncorking a glass bottle and waving it under Ceres' nose]

[heavenlymisandrist]

[ Her heart turns icy with terror and rage. All she can think of is that she has to escape, maybe follow the river down to the ocean and pray that her more distant relatives will grant her sanctuary.

She shoves the bottle away with all her might and dives wildly back to the water. It's now or never. ]

[mistconduct]

[Ah, hell. How do you catch a water nymph?

Chris begins running down the side of the bank, planning to find a few tree branches he can throw in the path of the stream to dam it, block her way]

Get back here!

[heavenlymisandrist]

[ She swims as deep as she can, so she can't be picked off from the sky. Her voice echoes from the depths of the water. ]

Let me go! Leave me alone!

[mistconduct]

[He races alongside - when he sees a low-hanging branch over the river, he hauls out his axe and begins to chop it down, hoping to cut Ceres off]

You'll regret this, you melted snowball!

[heavenlymisandrist]

[ She sees his plan, and with a cry of distress swims harder downstream. If she's lucky-

-but she isn't lucky. The branch falls, but rather than cut off her escape it catches her in the back. It's heavy enough that when it rolls off of her it traps her legs against a large rock by the shore. ]

Please, I just want to go! I'll leave Narnia, just let me be.

[persecutioncomplex]

[The juniper steps into the stream and shivers needles and the shrivelled remains of berries into the water. Hopefully, the beat of the current will melt away the ice that has collected in her leaves against her: after a few days free and warm she isn't about to suffer it again. The cloud of detritus begins to float away from her, but fish draw towards her, lured in hopes of something to nibble in the barren stream. It's probably bitter, all of it.]

[heavenlymisandrist]

[ Ceres makes a face as she bites into the bitter, under-ripe berry. It has the sour taste of fruit frozen on the branch before it was ready. She wanders up to the source of the sad little windfall and is almost immediately hit by the piercing cold of melting frost.

All questions are answered when she spots the girl. That will be the source of the berries, leaves, and frost. She watches at first, just waiting to see what the spirit will do. ]

[mistconduct]

[He sees where the branch landed, and gives a cruel laugh, stepping onto the wood. Chris waves the bottle under Ceres' nose]

Can't do that. You've been requested.

[150th]

[A damp, stringy-haired marsh wiggle has the other end of the line attached to a crude pole.

He looks not quite as scared of her, but at least as surprised.]

Forgive me. I did not know I was fishing in someone's home.

[heavenlymisandrist]

[ She sobs as a thigh wedges deeper between two rocks. She is an undine. The Queen will kill her. She killed her brothers and sisters. She will kill Ceres as well, and make her suffer in the doing.

In a fit of inspiration she tears a strip of wood from the branch and tries to stab his hand with it. She'd far rather be killed by a dwarf than by the White Queen. ]

[heavenlymisandrist]

[ Her pulse slows again as she peers at the man. He doesn't seem to be lying, not that she's very good at telling. She feels safe enough in her river. ]

We all must eat, and all places are home to someone.

[150th]

But not all are home to a spirit of the water. I am only a mortal, and the waters a force I dare not disrespect.

[heavenlymisandrist]

[ She smiles at him, just ever so slightly, pleased. It is nice to get some respect from time to time. ]

Very wise of you. Have you a name, stranger?

[150th]

Brackenmewl.

[He considers.]

It is more dignified in the tongue of my people.

[heavenlymisandrist]

[ Her smile widens. She likes the name. ]

Bracken is a lovely fern. I am Ceres.

[150th]

Ceres.

[He collects his rod and bows, as if to a Queen.]

I am honored.

[heavenlymisandrist]

[ She blushes at the courtesy not usually afforded minor river spirits and tries a sort of curtsy. It doesn't work well in water. ]

I am only an undine, there is no cause for honor.

[mistconduct]

[He wrenches back in alarm and nearly slips off the log, grasping it to keep from falling. His axe digs into the wood, keeping him on it and saving him from the river]

Hey! None of that now, stop it!