Chapter Text
“Why?”
Soft as her voice was, it stilled carried above the whistling sea breeze. Selen wondered whether that was because of some kind of magic, or because she’s so far gone that she’s always waiting for that voice.
She turned back to gaze at the demigoddess, sat on the railing of her ship. Her hair flowed behind her, gleaming iridescent along with her scales under the midday sun. It caught Selen’s attention like no other treasure, and she almost forgot her question as she traced her positively glowing form.
“Hm? Why what?”
“…why are you doing this?” Finana’s eyes trained on her, midnight voids stealing Selen’s breath away. She had to look away, lest she reveal something she’d regret.
“Wasn’t it obvious? No way was I going to pass up such a good two-for-one deal.” She threw the leviathan a cheeky wink. “An ancient relic and a beautiful thing like you make even the finest treasure look paltry.”
She stayed silent for a long while. Selen chose to believe she was flustered.
“I meant why you collect. Why you travel.” Her eyes traced the purple tail lashing behind the captain, and she forced it to still. “You have dragon blood. Diluted as it may be…there’s not a lot of things that you can’t get with it. So why this, of all things?” She gestured towards the open sea. “Why gamble your life on the open sea? For a few coins and some gold?” Her eyes slid back to the captain again, who was suddenly fighting the rising urge to turn tail and flee. “What are you looking for?”
Selen swallowed the lump in her throat as she leaned casually over the railing. Some insane part of her wondered whether the leviathan would keep pressing her over this if she dived into the water.
“Just…adventure, y’know? A bit of fun, a lot of ladies-” Another dashing grin, this one met with a roll of her eyes. “-maybe something nice to bring home.”
There was a long pause. And for a moment, she foolishly thought that was the end of that.
A smell pressed against her side – warmth (because heat is a smell no matter what her crew said-), and a scent like tropical flowers and the cave she found her in. The leviathan leaned against the railing, humming gently.
“Home…”
That one word held so much – sorrow, wistfulness, bitterness, regret, longing. Selen risked a glance at the leviathan’s face, and the expression it adorned was one she’d only seen on the oldest and weariest sailors.
“…I wonder if I’m still welcome back there.”
Selen’s tail paused, as she rolled that though in her mind. Welcomed home…for her, that wasn’t a question…perhaps it never was.
Slowly, shyly, her tail inched towards the leviathan’s larger one. It hesitated, then retreated, as the sound of waves against the hull filled the air between them.
Selen wondered how much Finana understood. She wondered how much the leviathan knew.