#steph 001

There was the ticking of a clock, muted at a distance. There was the sound of sporadic typing, then the occasional frantic turning of pages. There was the clinking sound of a coffee cup being set down, its contents having grown cold hours ago. And then there were the sounds Elistra was making. Wary sighs, the quiet tap of her fingers as she scrolled on her phone. There was a saying that humans used about horses and how they were able to bring them towards water, but how they couldn’t force them to drink. Elistra had a feeling she could relate to the humans who had come up with the phrase. She’d brought Steph food to keep her energy up-- cooked brown rice with a fried egg and sweet potatoes over top-- but so far hadn’t seen her eat even a little bit of it.  

It hadn’t been long since the discovery of the amulet had been made. Elistra still wasn’t sure what to make of it all. She’d never seen a mermaid princess’s jewel before, but something deep in her bones told her that had to be what it was. It would explain all the new faces in town, but why would it be around the mermaid statue’s neck? It was as if someone was trying to deliver a message, a message that the humans in town would have no context for. 

With another sigh from her spot at the adjacent table to where Steph was sitting, Elistra cleared her throat. “Oh, hey it says here in this article that frequent rest, food, and sleep actually help the human brain recognize patterns and make connections it otherwise wouldn’t have. Isn’t that interesting, Steph?” She looked at the woman buried in her laptop and several stacks of books. Elistra picked up a pen from the table and chucked it at Stephanie's arm. “Stephanie Anand, are you listening to me?”