I Just Gotta Know

It had been awhile since she had last made the swim to the nearest island between the coastlines of Auster and Boreas. It had been the island where she had encountered the lone castaway, Absinth. In the days following her discovery, she had often gone to check if the obsidian fae had for some reason returned to her state, though that had been almost two seasons ago. Talyssa wasn’t even sure if the other girl had made it off the island alive- after all, it was wondering what happened that had become the worst of her concerns. The Carpathian princess had kept her distance through the winter and spring- not really interested in fighting hypothermia to spend the afternoon on a vacant stretch of sand with a few trees on it. But now that summer- though mild as it may be- was in full swing, the ocean had the opportunity to absorb some of its warmth. It was on that day that Talyssa decided she’d go out and see if anything of interest had washed up on the edge of the archipelago- though she had never been brave enough to travel to some of the larger isles.

She had always been an apt swimmer, so it took her very little time to cross the stretch of ocean that divided the land masses. As her paws once again touched sand, she hauled herself out of the tide, only to take a few strides towards shallow water and sink back on her haunches. With a few labored breaths, her tongue lolling out of her jaws, she turned her back on the island to find the land bridge in the distance- where she had kicked off from at the beginning of her brief adventure. Today was an attempt of speed, and that may very well have been the quickest she had ever crossed the channel. She certainly felt the burn in her legs and lungs. The ebb and flow of the torrent continued to crash into her lower body as she remained sitting against it in resistance. Or at least until a particularly powerful surge hit her more-so in the chest- forcing her to turn around to catch herself to avoid being pulled under the riptide.

"Talyssa Carpathius"