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Geyser Eelborn rolled 3 20-sided dice:
8, 17, 20
Total: 45 (3-60)
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 Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2026 1:38 pm
Have Faith, Stay StrongFlowers: Iris, Violet, Lavender Meaning: Wisdom, faith, hope, humility, serenity Fortune: You face a difficult choice. Reject your pride and trust in another, and you will pass through the storm.  “So what do I have to do?”
The breeze blew through Metawa’s mane and filled her nostrils with the scent of brine and seaweeds. The coast was a strange country to her. This was not her first time visiting it, but it was the first time in a long time, and she had forgotten how strange the place was. The empty horizon stretched further than the eye could see. She tried not to look at the horizon for too long. Instead, she concentrated on the figure in the tidepool in front of her. The Seathi in front of her didn’t seem in any way bothered by the environment, but then again, she wouldn’t, would she? The sea was her element, her birthright, just as the shadows and the skies were the birthright of a Kalona.
The tiny mare had called out to Metawa as she wandered down the beach. She didn’t seem to be a threat, so Metawa had agreed to get closer and speak to her. She had gotten her hooves soaked, but the little Seathi had made her an offer: to tell her fortune. I don’t believe in fate, Metawa thought. I don’t believe in fortunetelling. And yet, she couldn’t keep herself away from them.
She wished she knew why.
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Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2026 4:29 pm
Luiseach had woken up this morning with a premonition that she would be meeting someone special today. She wasn’t sure who it would be, but the signs pointed to it being a Landwalker. Odd—most of her business was with Waterfolk or the Brackish Sorts. As one of the Waterfolk, it was hard for her to interact with Landwalkers. Every so often, though, they found their way near the shore and she was able to talk to them. The currents had brought a feather to her, a dark one with an iridescent shine. It had taken her a few moments to recognize it for what it was: a raven feather. She had wondered what it meant until she saw the skin-winged mare walking down the beach. Of course—a Kalona, child of the Raven-Mocker. A sinister creature to some, but Luiseach steeled herself and called out to the mare.
Her name turned out to be Metawa, and she seemed alright to Luiseach. Perhaps a bit proud, definitely overconfident, but hardly the cruel and sadistic creature that Landwalker stories made them out to be. Luiseach decided that she liked the strange mare.
Telling her fortune would be a challenge, though. Most of Luiseach’s work was with Waterfolk and the Brackish Sort, and she could rely on the water to reveal their fates. For the Landwalkers, it was much more difficult. The water rejected them, and the currents would reveal nothing about them. Luckily, the currents had provided her with a solution along with the feather: a petal from a single flower. Flowers were strange things to a brine-child such as Luiseach, but her mentor had been Brackish, and taught her the fortunes of the land as well as the waves.
“There’s a meadow nearby,” Luiseach said. “Get your mane wet in the sea, then roll in the meadow and return to me. The flowers that stick to your mane will reveal your fate to me!”
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Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2026 4:30 pm
That was such a strange idea. None of the fortunetellers that worked for Cetex and Mizuki told fortunes like that! But then again, she remembered what her daughter-in-law had told her: that there were as many ways to read the future as there were Soquili. Perhaps this was just Luiseach’s special method. “Very well,” she said. She looked at the waves and inwardly, she shuddered. Metawa shied away from nothing. There was nothing the world held that could frighten her, but she did not relish plunging into the water. It looked freezing, even on a warm day. Still. She was curious what Luiseach would say. She took a deep breath and waded into the water.
The waves were indeed cold, and she hissed as her skin prickled and a shiver rolled down her back. She gritted her teeth and plunged her head underwater. For a moment, all sensations were wiped out in a curtain of white. Then she lifted her head out of the water, great curtains of brine pouring out of her short mane. She turned to look at the Seathi mare, who was watching the waves intently. Metawa’s head snapped toward the sea, but she could see nothing, and her nostrils were too soaked with salt water to smell anything else. “What is it?” she asked.
“Just watching the waves so that they don’t sneak up on you,” Luiseach said. “That’s very important for landwalkers. You need to make sure the water doesn’t sneak up on you.”
Metawa glared at the water, almost daring the waves to try that. “Thank you,” she said stiffly. “I would not want to be dragged out to sea.”
“Oh, no,” Luiseach said. “No rip currents in this cove. But sneaker waves are like predators, they come up when you least expect them to.”
The Kalona lashed her tail and decided not to ask what a “sneaker wave” was. “I’ll be back,” she said, and turned toward the land. She would have to move quickly, before her mane dried out. She had seen the meadow on the way here, and it was just over the dune. The warm summer air would work quickly on her mane if she wasn’t careful.
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Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2026 4:31 pm
“I’ll be here!” Luiseach said cheerfully, and waved her fin at Metawa as the Landwalker mare took off in the air. Now there was a sight to see! Idly, Luiseach wondered about the term they used—Landwalker. Obviously it was because they walked only on land, never in water; and yet, Metawa seemed just as comfortable in the air as she did in the water. Like a gull—but those are Brackish Sorts. Does that make a Kalona or a Wind a Brackish Sort? Or are they something else? She looked up at the sky, where the sun was burning off the morning fog. Cloud Chasers? Yes. She quite liked the sound of that!
It was idle musing, of course. And she supposed she would have to ask a Brackish Sort about that kind of thing. There were some with wings, at least in theory, although she’d never met one with wings. Perhaps I should take a journey inland, up a river. Maybe I should meet more people. The idea of traveling so far up river was…intimidating. She’d never left the ocean before. All of her friends were here, and people relied on her to carry messages back and forth! She couldn’t possibly go on a lark inland just on a whim!
And yet…she was curious what it was like there. That was why she liked traveling up and down the coast, because of the people you met here. It was dynamic, always changing, with the tides, with the seasons, with the time of day. What life was like inland was a complete mystery to her. Enticing and frightening all at once. Looking into a river past the ecotone, where the brackish water finally gave way to fresh water, was like looking into the deepest abyss. You knew there were people living there, but they lived such different lives from you, and you didn’t know what to expect. It was the very idea of the unknown that frightened her.
Before Luiseach could think any further, Metawa returned.
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Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2026 4:33 pm
She had gotten there just in time, she thought. The meadow stretched from the dunes to the edge of the forest, and Metawa had taken a risk, remaining in the air until she could identify the patch with the most flowers. Near the forest edge, that was the key. She spied several shades of purple down there. Metawa felt a pang of regret for what she was about to do. These flowers were about to be crushed beneath her body. At moments like these, she thought about her grandmother, who had tried to raise her to be gentle and kind. She had been trying to mend that bond ever since Cetex and Episca were born. It’s funny how becoming a parent can change the way you see the world, doesn’t it? Funny how something can change the whole trajectory of your life.
She landed in amongst the flowers. They were flowers—it was just the same to them whether you rolled on them or you ate them, though Metawa was careful about what kind of flowers she ate, as was sensible. Then she tucked her wings in tight, lowered herself onto the ground, and rolled in them. The hardest part was not shaking herself off when she got back up again. She couldn’t let the petals fall from her still-damp mane. She would just have to go back into the water again if she did that, and she would rather give up on this whole thing than have to put her head under the waves again. Her nose still stung from the salt water that got into it. With her burden of flowers, Metawa chose to walk back to the beach rather than risk losing them in the wind.
As she walked, her mind strayed back to the thought of her past. Ever since the business with her father had been settled, she had wondered what she would do with her life. The world was still full of dangerous creatures, and innocent people who needed protection from them. Perhaps that was what she should do now—find the monsters. Protect people from them. It was food for thought, if nothing else.
Luiseach was waiting for her by the water when she got back. It looked like she had ducked her whole body underwater while waiting. That made sense—she’d heard that Mer and Seathi couldn’t spend long outside of water. Something about their skin, she thought? She wasn’t sure, she rarely had any interactions with those ponies who needed to spend their whole lives in the water, and not many with Kelpies or Nixies either. They were as mysterious to her as she imagined she was to them.
“I’m back,” she said, then immediately felt stupid for saying something so obvious. Of course she was back, she was here, wasn’t she? But if Luiseach thought she sounded stupid, then she didn’t say so. Instead, the Seathi mare beckoned her closer with her paws and smiled at her.
“Lower your head and let me look,” she said. Metawa obeyed, and she waited while Luiseach ran her paws through her mane and hummed. “Okay, you can lift your head now!”
Luiseach had brushed some of the petals out of her mane and arrayed them on the water in front of her. While waves crashed all along the rocks, the water of the tidepool she sat in was clear and calm. They felt distant now, the whole world compressing down to a small, bright yellow mare, submerged in water as clear as a winter night. “Iris for wisdom and faith; violet for humility; lavender for serenity…” She looked up at Metawa. Her voice was different now. While before it was bubbly and warm, now it was as smooth as the pool. “You face a difficult choice ahead. Your first instinct will be to bluster, but you must reject it.” Her orange eyes bored into Metawa’s silver ones. “Reject your pride, put your trust in another, and you will pass through the storm.”
What does that mean? Does that mean I shouldn’t help people? No, such a thought was unthinkable! Is that…wise, though? Is this the pride I must reject? “Luiseach,” Metawa said slowly. “May I ask your advice?”
At once, the somber air dissipated, and the energetic Seathi was back. “Sure!” she said. “I’m not much good at advice, but I’ll do what I can!”
“I’m…trying to find a new purpose in life,” Metawa said. “I want to help people. I want to save them from dangerous people. But is that my pride talking? Or is that the path of wisdom?”
Luiseach sighed. “I see a shadow over you,” she said. “Maybe not a physical one, but, like, a metaphysical one? You’re like the moon, ever shifting in phases, floating in darkness one night, swimming in the daylight the next. But you’re nice!” she said quickly. “I think your heart is in the right place.” Luiseach swirled the petals in the water in front of her. “I don’t think…that’s a bad idea,” she said slowly. “I don’t think that’s the fate the flowers are warning you about. I think the difficult choice is further ahead than that. To protect people is a noble goal; I see nothing wrong with that.”
A weight lifted from Metawa’s chest and she bowed her head. “Thank you, Luiseach. For the advice, and for the fortune.”
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Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2026 4:34 pm
“Hey, no problem, Metawa!” Luiseach’s heart felt lighter at that. She had been afraid that Metawa would be upset. Luiseach had spoken the truth: this was not the darkness in Metawa’s future. That was further ahead. Besides, Metawa was already taking the flowers’ advice! Trusting others! It was very good advice. The longer she thought about it, the more certain Luiseach was of that. “I would like to ask you for advice, too.”
Metawa tilted her head, the end of her tail twitching. “Sure,” she said. “I’m not much good at advice either. You’d have to ask my grandmother for good advice.”
“I’m sure you’re good at it!” Luiseach said firmly. “Listen, I’ve spent my whole life at sea. And I’ve been thinking lately…maybe I should try checking out inland? Going up the river for a little while. Seeing new sites. Meeting new people. Until today, I’d never met a Kalona before. There’s lots of people I’ve never met, and kinds of people I’ve never met, and forms of fortunetelling I’ve never tried before!” Like today’s flowers, but she wasn’t going to tell Metawa that! “Do you think it’s a good idea?”
“I’ve spent most of my life traveling from place to place,” Metawa said slowly. “Meeting people. Hearing their stories. I think…I think it is a very interesting thing to do. Most people are nice,” she said. “Or at least, they’re not dangerous. Some of them are jerks, of course, but mostly…mostly people are people. And I think traveling is something everyone should do at least once in their life. I think you should take the trip.” Metawa smiled. “Even if only a short trip. See what the woods are like. Get to know people. Try out some more flower fortunetelling. In fact,” she added, “I could escort you. If you’re nervous. I know a lake a couple days’ journey inland. I could meet you at the mouth of the river, then we could travel to the lake together, if you’d like someone to keep you company.”
“I’d like that,” Luiseach whispered. She pushed her fear aside, took a deep breath, and put her faith in her new friend.
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