redstallion (redstallion) wrote in themoderngods, @ 2012-04-28 11:44:00 |
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Her mortal body felt the cool air as it hit her wet skin but she didn't bother with even reacting to it. Instead the weight of her water-logged skirts pulled at her and her hair fell in matted dripping tangles around her face. It was her second attempt to clean more of the water out, a second attempt that she knew would not last and it broke her heart. The filth in the water that gave all the mortals life had her so distracted she did not even pause to notice the stares she was getting from the people as she walked up the shore and back toward the sidewalks of the city. It wasn't every day a girl just seemed to appear out of the water, or for that matter nonchalantly slip back into the fold as if it was not odd that she was soaking wet. As her bare calloused feet made careful steps along the cement path, the rough gravel only adding to the rough soles, a woman--sitting on the side of the street--a beggar, reached out for her skirts, clinging to them as Despoina passed. "Oh Woman of the Arcadia! Bless me Lady of the River!" Her voice was craggy and hoarse, her face scarred and tortured with age but Despoina's swirling eyes looked down at her with kindness and she bent down to stroke her hair. People stared as she leaned in to whisper quietly with the woman, a hand brushing over the old woman's brow, looking at her softly and eventually taking her hand. The proximity must have made the elder cold as she dripped unnoticed onto her, yet not a word was said to stop it. People began to give them both a wide berth as if they could sense the power growing and radiating off the smaller girl though nothing had physically changed. And then, suddenly, there was a burst and had anyone been paying attention, the way Despoina's skirts fluttered did not match the wind, her hair seemed to swirl around her face as she leaned in to kiss the old woman on the mouth softly, tilting her chin into the affection before she stood once again, smiling down at the beggar. "Blessings upon you streetwalker, you will have what you seek." Which was to say, not that anyone else could tell, the old woman, too old for children, would find herself with child in nine months time. |