waterborne destiny

*Ajax* · 11-12-2022, 03:39 PM

The stars shone high in the sky, reflecting in Ajax's oceanic eyes as he stared up at them beneath the shadows of the Steppe. There was no much he didn't understand, couldn't understand, and yet on a night like this he felt like he could, if he just reached out. Peering down at the bottled seawater by his paws, after all why wouldn't he carry water around, he was quiet and contemplative. How very unlike him. Even to a pup like him this didn't feel like the sort of place where he should be loud and rowdy, voices carried as did sentiments in beating hearts. He believed in the Gods, though he couldn't exactly say why, or what he expected of them. The world's scale was larger than anything he could even dream of, so was it so impossible for beings to be greater still? Moreso, it was something to aspire to. A goal above his ordinary, daily desires of wanting to chew on ears and do what a pirate did best.

And yet he was focused that night, gently left his bottle of salt water be as he sought out a shallow bowl to pour it out in. Sure enough, it didn't take him too long to find what he'd been looking for, like it had been foreseen by one of the many familiars scampering about the place. Watching with their knowing eyes that saw too much. Taking care to hold the bowl gently between eager teeth, he brought it back to his little stone stab where he'd left his bottle of water. It was an old and earthy thing, cracked from centuries of use but still sturdy all the same. Not a drop of water would slip through its cracks, Ajax didn't know why he was so certain of that, only that it was true.

And so he began, pulled the cork out of the bottleneck and spat it aside-only to think better of it as he hurried over to collect it from where it had fallen. Littering here probably wasn't such a good idea, no one had told him as much, it was more of a gut feeling. Settled right in the pit of his stomach, like a piece of fish that had gone off. Once he'd put the cork aside all neat and proper, did he pour out the water into the bowl, careful not to spill a single drop. The flow was soft, rolled right into the bowl and filled it near to the brim. Not a droplet gone to waste.

Stepping back a little, so his reflection did not obscure the view of the night sky, he peered down into the rippling water and counted the stars in sight. So many, higher than he could count and yet a shape was recognisable to him amongst it all. A constellation. His constellation. Diagonal lines with a triangle in the centre, like a horned narwhal swimming effortlessly through the night sky.

Monoceros Caeli.

His heart ached, a pang in his chest at the feeling of familiarity. Like looking at himself on the water's surface, except the stars were so far away, forever out of his reach no matter how hard he could possibly try. Did everyone have a place in the night sky like he did? Did everyone else have their own constellation? An ever lasting mark on the universe, stars that would shine on long before and after his paws graced the earth. He wasn't so close to the ocean to hear it was clearly as he would like, but the sight ahead of him was grounding all the same. Proof of all he needed to know, like all of this was worth something in the end.

Idly, he reached out to the water and dipped a toe in, watched the surface dance and ripple. Giving the impression that his narwhal was truly swimming, weaving and twirling amongst the stars. Just as they did out on the open ocean, free as a pirate. He was a little jealous, couldn't wait to be grown, to find his place amongst the chaos of it all. A nice little nook to call his own. Till then he would have to wait and see, to wait by the shore before it was time to swim out into the great unknown. And that was okay, he could be a good and patient boy. Recognised that sometimes good things came to those who waited. That there would never be a treasure quite as shiny as the stars twinkling above.

He took a step back, and for some reason...felt as though he should leave the bowl full as it was. Facing the stars and drinking them in, taking their countenance as its own. But what he had, what was truly his could not be stolen or coveted by others. He felt it in his beating heart, in the smile that tugged as his lips as he faded into the scenery of the Steppe.

W E T

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