None Miraculous [Private RP]

She was late, this morning, judging by that hateful sun.

She could feel its rays upon her back like eyes so full of scorn, chastising her for her tardiness. Endure your just punishment, young lady.

And so she did, but she did it sweating.

Væna, usually so punctual and awake just as dawn's light peeked over the horizon but before even that pernicious sun had a chance to raise its weary head, had slept in this morning. It was pure accident, but now she was behind on literally everything until after the lunch rush at The Pink Lady.

She couldn't even blame her father, who was accustomed to rising hours before the dawn in order to tend his crops and still have time to forage the Wilds; he never woke her, and she normally never needed him to. She'd learned her professionalism in large part from him, and her punctuality, and her slightly unhealthy need for control of her own schedule which was making this morning's jog much more stressful than it needed to be.

Most would've just skipped the morning exercise in favor of saving what little kitchen prep time she had left to her, but lingering memories surrounding her mother's death filled Væna's head each time she contemplated adjusting her exercise routine, and sent spikes of guilt through the pit of her stomach.

So at the risk of being under-prepared for lunchtime, the young restauranteur was taking her morning jog down to the beach some hours later than normal, and at a rather increased pace.

That is to say, her muscles would undoubtedly be sore tomorrow and the day after, because usually it was a brisk jog but not an all-out extension as it was today.

It was strange, arriving on the beach mid-morning, descending the last few yards of the steep, sandy path and emerging onto the shore to find that she was not the only creature here. Two hours prior and she probably could have still staked that claim, but now there were at least two others on the sand.

It's cheating if you don't go, thought Væna. Dipping all four of her hooves into the surf was what she considered to be the exact midpoint of her jogging route, and so even though she was pressed for time today, the little mare set her jaw and trotted, breathing heavily, toward the waves.

Except she'd judged it badly and in a moment of sun-blindness she nearly collided with another, galloping lengthwise down the beach, and she had to pause for a moment in her scramble to avoid collision. "Sorry!" she called after the other horned stranger, thinking she recognized the unicorn from town but not being entirely sure. It was as she followed the stranger's path that her eyes alit on the second body she'd espied from the scrubline.

Whom she had first believed to be merely a common horse from a distance, Væna recognized now as the most treasured species in Aquore.

Væna was from a small town, this town, and as far as she knew, there were few hippocampi native to the area who had chosen to remain throughout the generations. It didn't surprise her, then, that she didn't know this one's face.

He was close enough to hear her voice if she raised it a bit, and so not knowing what else to do but feeling somehow that she owed this vision of grace an explanation for her clumsiness, she called to him with an embarrassed grimace on her face and a laugh in her voice.

"Been a rough morning!"

And she made for the waves.


words: 603
tags: farquaadstarquad
notes: sorry for the late reply! had a 3-day in town this weekend, and i spent an exorbitant amount of time spectating. :'D

As if it hadn't been obvious before, it could not have been any plainer once the finned horse spoke that Væna had never come close to meeting him before in her life. He was so friendly that she was certain she'd have remembered his voice, or his style of speech, or something even if she (in some wild fantasy universe) hadn't been able to recall his appearance.

And Væna was pretty good with strangers usually; she was unaccustomed to trouble in her restaurant, even past sundown when it tended to function more as a bar than as a restaurant, and she'd been told that the peace was due in large part to her particularly hospitable brand of diplomacy.

It's just that usually the strangers she served in The Pink Lady's dining room didn't quite exude the sense of class that this one did. Apart from her aunt, whom she knew well but seldom saw, and her grandfather, whom she'd known only briefly, Væna had very limited experience with Cascade's blessed creations, and there was always a certain element of starstruck-ness that colored her interactions with them.

This morning was no exception, and he was charming to boot. A bad combination.

"Yes, I -- I come down the mountain every morning," she replied, letting a little yelp punctuate her sentence as a wave caught her from behind, reaching all the way up to her belly with its foam. It unbalanced her a bit, and she staggered forward half a step in surprise. Normally the morning ocean was calm, and indeed when she looked behind her the waves were few and far between.

Cascade laughs.

"And now I'm due to go back up again," said the tawny mare as she delicately exited the mischievous sea. "I'm Væna, I run The Pink Lady."

To any of the locals, that would've gone by way of explanation -- that is to say, of course she's due head home again so soon, because she runs that restaurant and surely has things to do to prepare for the day's business. But she realized too late that, to a stranger who wasn't familiar with the town, it was just an extraneous bit of information and a business with a funny name.

The heat crept higher on her face, and the sea roared behind her.

Cascade laughs.


words: 386
tags: farquaadstarquad
notes: ♥