Two Eyes Cenote Dear gravity, you held me down in this starless city

For @Minuet if you want it <3

Melody was not idle. In one of the open air caverns, she began her work: a map of the stars to reflect all that she'd seen in that wasteland where the stars were so clear in the sky. She slept during the hottest parts of the day, and worked well into the night.

She scarcely ate, though she found the time to bathe. She found herself fond of the water, now. Anxious when she was away from it. Melody could hardly comprehend these changes in herself. Eventually she took a rare break to lounge by one of the pools, watching the water, and wondered if she had ever been so alone before.

Minuet Medeiros's escape from the chaos of her father's betrayal was marked by a constant feeling of sickness. It churned in her belly and worked at her bloodstream, and any concept of normalcy that she might have previously known had become so foreign.
She did not know who she was. Mother, father, sister; all no more than faces in the rubble of a dirty, smashed glass frame. And the Sea—
She arrived a girl, and left a woman; and right now, she did not feel quite like either one.
Her paws grace the silt, pads burning with the heat of it, and she squints through the spitting haze of the desert. A vulture glides above her, and she watches it with a lash of her tongue from between her teeth; eyes, ever piercing.
And all the while, she was completely unaware of where she was.

A creature of the sea hardly belonged in a place like this. Ptolemy wrinkled his nose in distaste as he lifted it to test the air for any hint of water nearby. A touch of greenery on the breeze, perhaps, but what stood out to him was the scent of a girl.

He followed. His slinking gait slowed to a halt when his eyes touched the pale figure, and from a distance he studied her. Pretty thing, all alone, a daywalker in soft sun tones. His mother had harbored such a woman once; he'd never met her, but had heard the tale of how The Listener had tried and failed to make a druid of an unbeliever. Studying the girl in the distance, here and now, Ptolemy wondered. He wondered if he might succeed where mother had failed.

For now he only watched.

Melody did not often leave the safety of the water's edge — but something called her away. Later she might name it intuition, or a beckoning from the Gods. What else could explain such timing?

Peering out at the desert beyond her sanctuary, Melody saw — no, that wasn't right. An illusion, surely, surely, like the shimmering image of water which had led her to the starlit place where she'd almost died. She blinked. She rubbed her eyes. She looked again.

Minuet! She shrieked as she realized all at once that yes, this was her, it was her sister — here! Melody started toward her and noticed, belatedly, that they were not alone. Someone was watching. Just standing there, watching Minuet intently, and Melody found a surge of protective fury at the realization. Hey - hey, get away from my sister, you fuckin' creep!

Minuet!
She heard it, heard her name, and yet it did not fully register until she looked to her left and the figure of mauve tones came straight for her. She knew that face. She knew that voice.
And it ate away at her like acid.
Why was she here?
Her tongue flicks over her lips again, this time to wet them, and her eyes narrow with uncertainty. W-- where are we? Do you hate me? Why are you--
And it was then that she saw him. A tall wisp in tricolor, a mirage in the oasis, and all she could do was stare. This venture into the sand had already become more than she could handle, and as the bile rose in her throat, she found herself wanting to flee.

Spotted. Damn. Ptolemy had wandered into something of a reunion, it seemed, and so he would make himself scarce. He cast a dark look to the girl in earthen tones, displeased to have been interrupted.

But he had the other girl's scent now. Her name, too. Minuet. He murmured it to himself as he turned to slink away, thinking now of the islands. There, perhaps. It was where the first druids had been made, and where he would bring those his mother had abandoned, when he found them; a fitting place, then, to achieve what the prophet never had.

Melody was tempted to give chase, even in her weakened state. In the end she settled for halting at her sister's side, glaring at the man for a moment as he left. Then she turned to Minuet.

That man was watching you! She half-cried, filled with exasperation now that her fear was beginning to fade. She pushed her nose into Minuet's cheek. He could have been a murderer, or - you really should pay more attention, Minuet. It's not safe out here. Why are you so far from home? Melody was frowning now, pulling away. Had Minuet followed her here?

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And just like that, the stranger was gone, and left her only with a sibling she hardly recognized. Bigger, taller, now, both of them were, and it was a bizarre feeling.
And yet she hadn't changed a bit — no, not at all.
You should pay more attention, Minuet. Suck a dick, Melody.
I don't know, and yet, as always, her gaze fell to the floor, and her voice dropped low. I left. I couldn't do it anymore. I-- I needed to leave. she swallows; her throat tenses. I didn't expect to find you out here.