Blackwater Islands still clutching at moons and echoes and emptiness and shadow

Have some inspiration that helped me write this post, haha. Here, and here!

Kalika arrived promptly, as expected. Akantha swallowed her anxiety and stepped forward to press a soft kiss to her young ward's forehead. Not a single word passed from her lips, but the love she felt slithered through the cracks to reflect boldly in her hazel eyes until she turned and bade the young woman to follow with a slow sweep of her arched tail. Together they walked with the Matriarch a step ahead as she led them to the place where Akantha sat only an hour before. Now the sky was an inky pitch, and the stars above obscured by the occasional cloud that drifted lazily by on an ebbing breeze. Before them lay an impressive display—a ring of alternating scallop-shaped and oyster shells surrounded a beautiful, but very small, collection of wave-tumbled quartz of colors ranging from smokey gray to pastel pink. It was a serene, simple, sight, but utterly fitting for the task at hand.

Akantha swung her great head around to regard her young companion with a soft smile, "Your task today is renewal." The Matriarch revealed, "The closed eye of the Mother Moon gives us a chance to begin again. To absolve ourselves of negativity, and find the strength to move forward." Her tone was clear, commanding and, yet, somehow comforting. It was a voice Akantha had practiced in private, but never used until now, and it filled her with the strangest, overwhelming sense of confidence—as if the Mothers themselves were lifting her up, and speaking through her; with her.

She continued, "I ask that you stand before this site and perform a cleansing for yourself, so that the Mothers may bear witness to your dedication." And, with that, she fell silent and curled her hindquarters beneath her so that she sat comfortably upon the sands. The only sound that filled the air was their rythmic breathing, and the gentle rush of the waves against the shore.