Lorelei's Note: This story (set in my new Glowpebble Path setting) is a liiittle dark, but in a sweet, cute way. Please remember that consensual nonconsent and hypnosis should always be practiced safely and ethically in the real world. :)
They said you could hear the ocean if you put your ear to a seashell. Any bunnygirl could tell you that was absurd. All you'd hear would be echoing air, and your imagination would supply the rest.
All
you
would hear, that was to say. Because a bunnygirl absolutely could hear the ocean, and much more besides.
Nicu covered one long ear with a hand and listened with the other to the speckled black-and-white cowrie shell she'd plucked from the sand. Her long lashes fluttered, then shut. Cowrie shells sang subtle songs.
All around her, the sounds of the roaring surf, the wind twisting through the beachgrass, the screeches of the seagulls fighting over a dead kelphiss washed ashore, all of it sank into the sand. Nicu concentrated on the song. It was sweet, but a little sad. Notes of nostalgia embraced a slow, pulsing rhythm of nervous energy. It was the feeling of returning to a tide pool you'd nearly drowned in as a child only to find it had begun to dry up. It was the feeling of seeing those little anemones and starfish and realizing that the thing you'd been so afraid of had been a source of life to many.
Nicu gave an exasperated groan and tossed the shell away. How was she supposed to attract a husband with
that
?
A movement caught her eye. She spun and froze in place, staring out over the waves.
Her nose twitched.
Nicu was a small and solitary form on the Bleached Beach. Her long chestnut-brown hair swept behind her as a wind pulled up sand and detritus. Her frustratingly slender, decidedly non-childbearing form stood like a piece of propped-up driftwood. Her plump lips were half-parted as bright crimson eyes scanned the horizon.
The Bleached Beach was named not for its sand, but for its place as garbage heap of the Sea of Songs. It wasn't a place to have a picnic. The reddish-brown sands were littered with the bones of the ocean. Seashells and shellfish carcasses, discarded fishing nets, seaglass, masses of driftwood and washed-up dried seaweed, and, of course, the occasional actual bleached bones of beached animals were scattered in all directions. In some areas, you had to choose your steps carefully to keep from tripping.
A short ways off shore rose a cluster of imposing sea stacks. Waves crashed against the great pillars. Nothing inhabited the rocks but gulls.
She turned away and picked out another shell from her pile, this one a beautiful nautilus shell. She smiled, admiring its unblemished surface. The upper half was flecked a pretty blue-gray against the gentle white.
If
the song was good, this would make the perfect gift to finally,
finally
get a male interested.
She rubbed her legs together unconsciously at the thought, biting her lip. She needed a husband, and fast. The bunnygirl was deep in heat, and the desire was almost overpowering at this point. Breathing in her own pheromones had her constantly on edge, and it didn't help smelling the pheromones of the males back at the warren.
And the thought of finally finding a husband, of getting pinned down and kissed and petted and praised and
bred
the way her body so craved...
fffuck.
The wait was unbearable. Surely this shell would be enough.
Provided the song wasn't as depressing as the last, anyways.
She took a short breath, steeling herself, then cupped it to her ear.
This song was gentle and soft. She had to strain even her enhanced hearing to catch it at first.
She leaned against a log and listened closely.
The song had a sort of uneven cadence to it. flowed like slowly winding eddies, its pitch lilting up and down, around and around in an almost circular sound, sloping up, up, up...
... and dropping down, down,
down
.
Nicu blinked. She leaned a little heavier.
The song was exquisite. It ran around her like a small whirlpool, lapping at her thighs and echoing in her ears like a lover's coo.
Oh.
Her lashes fluttered low. She tried not to let her hand slip down her pants, not fully even registering the compulsion. Her lips parted as she pressed the shell harder against her ear. Her head spun, a twirling chandelier of dazzling lights.
Ohhh...
The song went on mercilessly, increasing in volume until it immersed her. The whirlpool wasn't small anymore, and she was at its center.
Nicu's breaths came fast and heavy. She was panting. She squirmed and chewed on a knuckle to keep her hand from drifting. She had to remind herself that she wasn't far from the warren.
She sank down until she was sitting on the log. Her knees slid away from one another. She
couldn't
, not here, not here. Anyone could find her here. Anyone could find her edging like a dumb bunny in heat.
Anyone at all.
Oh,
fuck
.
She wrenched the shell away, heart pounding. Her mind continued to spin for a solid three seconds before righting itself. Her vision slowly refocused.
She turned the shell over, and over again, and gave the back of it a firm smack. A small, round stone not the size of a sand dollar clattered out and fell at her feet.
She giggled, then scowled. She was still a little dizzy.
She tossed the shell aside. Stupid glowpebbles.
"Oh, that was a close one, wasn't it?"
Nicu barely held in a yelp as the melodious voice slipped through the remains of the trance. Her knees snapped back together as she spun to face the speaker.
A woman lounged upon one of the shorter sea stacks, only a meter above the waves. And she was...
gorgeous
.
Instinctively, Nicu scanned her for red flags. The woman's brilliant scarlet hair was done in a thick, luscious braid tossed over her shoulder, and a sleek, pale seafoam-green dress clung to her full figure. Nicu couldn't help but linger on that buxom body, a pang of envy sizzling inside her as she stared at the woman's bounteous bosom, those round, childbearing hips.
There wasn't anything obviously fae or fiendish about the woman, aside from large, gleaming amber eyes and the fact that she appeared to be in the middle of the ocean but perfectly dry, her hair still full and lustrous, her thick lashes batting without a fleck of moisture to smear the light, effortless mascara that seemed almost a native feature of her perfect, beautiful heart-shaped face.
Her painted red-orange lips were like a sunrise as they curved up in a little half-smile.
Peia shot to her feet, clearing her throat. "Um! How long have you been, um..."
"Lying here?" The woman's eyes sparkled with amusement. "Not too long. Don't you fret, sweet thing." She sat up, pausing to crack her back. Nicu tried to not be too obviously jealous of how those huge breasts pushed out against the dress, but her eyes hung nevertheless on that ample cleavage. Damn it, immortals just didn't play
fair
. "Why do you ask?"
Nicu flushed red with embarrassment. She clasped her hands behind her back. "N-No reason. Um, my name is Nicu, of the Millsilt Warren. What's yours?"
"
Nicu.
" The woman pronounced her name like a sweet treat. "My name is Peia,
Nicu
. It's
such
a pleasure to meet you."
Nicu managed a minimal polite smile. "May I, um, ask if you're a siren?" She'd heard somewhere that not all sirens showed much fae influence in their human forms.
"What a clever girl!" Peia's voice sparkled like water in the morning sun. "A dusking tern siren, to be precise."
"Oh!" Nicu blinked. "Aren't you a little far from home?"
"Someone knows her birds." Peia's smile widened a little, and she leaned just a little bit closer.
Nicu ducked her head shyly. Just as the blushing had been starting to subside, too. "I've... read a little about sirens, is all. I thought terns are usually closer to the Great White this time of year. If you're, um, sworn to dusking terns..."
Out of the corner of her eye, she'd noticed Peia's eyes flicker with delight when Nicu had mentioned reading about sirens. She didn't know why. It wasn't
that
unusual. Everyone was fascinated by the women--and men, of course--of the Courts.
"I'm just taking a little vacation," the siren said, laughing softly. "I found myself a little weary of the... solitude."
Was it just Nicu's imagination, or did Peia's eyes glow a little on that word as she regarded Nicu?
"I-I should say, um. Just to not be a waste of your time." Nicu coughed. "I'm not... into girls."
"Oh?" The siren blinked at Nicu as if she'd just said something truly foolish. Nicu's cheeks burned. "Well, thank you for
telling
me, sweet thing." Her words poured like honey down a gentle slope. "I think that lifestyle choice is
perfectly valid~
"
"O-Okay. Good." Nicu kicked the sand, wringing her hands behind her back. "I just... didn't want to, um..."
"
Of course, sweet thing.
" Peia gave a musical little laugh. "It's
completely fine.
"
And Peia's voice was so pretty, so sweet and inexorably confident, Nicu found her anxieties about the clarification melt away like butter in the sun. She smiled shyly, meeting Peia's eyes again. "Okay. Good." She realized she'd just repeated herself. "Um, but... if you're looking just for company, I'd be happy to share mine, for... whatever it's worth."
"Oh? Well, your company seems like
quite
a precious commodity, if you ask me." Peia's eyebrows arched. "Honestly, I'd think a
pretty thing
like you would be busy with rows upon rows of suitors."
Nicu gave a weak little laugh, a little flustered by the barrage of compliments. By instant, she retreated into the familiar territory of self-effacement. "Yeah, well... not the right kind of suitors. I'm just not, um, endowed enough, probably."
Peia smiled sympathetically. "Well, for
whatever it's worth,
I think you're
gorgeous
." She winked. "I certainly wouldn't call you flat, either."
Oh, no.
Nicu's hands almost flew to cover her face, and she was not looking Peia in the eye anymore. Self-effacement had backfired. Badly. "I--thank you!" she squeaked. "B-But I, um--"
Stop putting yourself down. You'll just make it worse.
"I'm really nothing special."
STOP!
"I'm just... Well, i-if I was actually pretty, I would have found a good mate by now."
"Oh, stop that." Peia's eyes narrowed. "If you want more compliments, you will ask me nicely for them like a good girl, alright?"
Nicu's face was an inferno. "I--I wasn't--"
"And otherwise," the siren continued sweetly, "there will be no tearing down of the
pretty thing
before me. Understand?"
"B-But--"
Do you understand
?"
Nicu shivered. Peia's voice had lowered to a husky purr. She nodded meekly.
"
Good girl.
" Gods, the way that candied voice just
stroked
Nicu's mind...
"Th-Thank you," Nicu stammered.
"No problem at all,
gorgeous girl
~"
Nicu's hands clenched behind her back, and she rocked on her toes, biting her lip to keep from making any... inappropriate sounds. Tingles spread up and down her spine at the... the
intimacy
of Peia's voice. Nicu was straight, very, very straight, so it couldn't be attraction, but... it had to be something. Something else.
A silence settled. Nicu dared to glance at Peia, who smiled at her. She ducked her head again quickly.
"So," she managed, kicking a foot in what she hoped looked like a casual gesture, "um, how long are you... staying?"
