#sefalo

Lazy doodle but I was particularly fond of this moment in my last reply to @pyrotrolls

@videcoeur​ 

--

Follow me, it whispered. 

Sefalo hadn’t been doing a good job at this hide and seek game. She seemed to keep losing herself more than locating the source of the voice that echoed nearby. Chasing shadows wasn’t new for her, but it was rare she stuck with it for this long, normally she would get distracted. This one wouldn’t let her- every time her eyes wandered, it hissed in her ears to pull her attention back. But out of her hive, out of her neighborhood, she was following nothing into the open waters. Her lusus always warned her about that, how dangerous it could be if she wasn’t guarded. But this was where she could find The Squid, and surely it was him who was calling? 

She wasn’t a deep water seadweller, her eyes weren’t evolved to see in complete darkness, even trolls needed some light. She didn’t have any freckles that glowed, or tricks that helped her stay oriented in the icy waters where there was miles and miles of nothing. How long was she drifting further and further away from the reef she lived on? 

A flash of a tentacle caught her eye, and she spun around, feeling hopeful as a something with light was within reach. She started to swim towards what she could make out as a building of some sort. Only instead of moving closer to it, she found herself unable to move at all, like she was in a glue trap. It wasn’t normal water resistance, no amount of fighting moved her out. A normal troll might have panicked, might scream for help, but Sefalo paused. Her eyes adjusted to see a sort of box like shape around her- whatever this was, she had swam into a trap. 

Well... a trap usually meant a hunter right? So a hunter would come by and see she was not food and release her. She just needed to be patient until then. 

That is a bad idea.

@cloudbattrolls

--

Waves crash against the rocks with no mercy. The weight of the water threatened to knock the rocks from their already unstable tower, weathering them till they were smooth enough to crumble down and hit anyone unfortunate to to be under them. It wasn’t always like that- there was times where the moonlight was bright and the water was calm enough for lovers to have picnics at the base of the cliff. Now it seems like a storm was always ready to carry the history away, to hide the blood only visible to those who had shed it. 

But Sefalo knew it was there. 

Her head screamed as she dragged herself from the water up the rocky shore to stand where she would always stand. Memories flooding back to her, of falling into the water, the searing pain of a rock connecting to her temple, the confusion and loudness of trying to reach for a hand that wasn’t there.

“Velrum,” she whispered to the wind, but the waves drowned her voice. Her eyes narrowed to the spot she knew he had stood too, right before the rockslide happened. She half expected it to happen again, to confirm her fear.

Her gaze broke from the imaginary ghost, and drifted down to a puddle where she caught her reflection- if she could call it that. Moments like this were rare, the total clarity, the memory of who she could have been possessing her now. Her eyes were black, pupils shifting from bright icy colors like the single eye her Friend had. More noticeable was how they were leaking ink down like tears. Curiously, she squatted down to touch the puddle, but a tendril reached out to wrap around her fingers, blocking her from looking too hard at herself. When her mouth opened to protest, more ink expelled. As if she had released a valve or a dam. It could have fallen like mist, if she didn’t feel it drip from her teeth, her tongue, down her chin and through the fluttering of her gills as she tilted her head back and screamed. 

The waves stopped, all movement in the water stopped, even her puddle didn’t bounce from the echo of her voice. She knew it made a noise though, could feel her vocal cords vibrate as her fingers tightened and those tendrils appeared from the still water. It snaked towards her, but stayed out of touch, just threateningly on the outskirts of her person as she pushed down against the air and kept screaming until more and more ink pooled out of every hole in her face, ears, and gills. Sefalo brought her hands up to her face, catching the ink through her fingers. As it fell between them, tendrils began to form like thick slime. She pulled her hands away and flicked it off, watching it hiss and react as it clung to her, starting to climb back through her hands, covering her up her arm until it stopped. Completely and entirely as her head snapped to the sound of rustling. 

The ink crawled back into her gills, like liquid going down a drain. The waves started back up, and the ghostly tentacles collapsed into shadows of the rocks, dancing with the water’s reflection. 

She tilted her head to meet the gaze of the guest, invader really... This was her spot, she lost herself here, she deserved privacy when she fought to regain it. 

a mix of old and new ones. 19/20 missing just one boy for my updated select page. also they arent all size accurate I gave up trying to get the heights correct since it stretches the images poorly.