Snippets of Eventide

No.2: Cirrus and Millie go Fishing

The sun finally rose above the glassy sea surface, peering dim through the mist and fog rising above the waters. This early in the morning the air was still crisps, damp all along the sleeves of Cirrus' jacket. He shifted, gripping the sides of Millie's little boat. With his long legs, the two of them barely fit in her row boat, but somehow she'd managed to make them both fit as she cast her fishing line over the still water. Cirrus yawned, leaning back as far as he dared without unbalancing the boat and rested the handled net over his knees.

Millie grinned, seal coat draped over her shoulders like an insulated cloak. "Comfortable?"

Cirrus scowled and crossed his arms. "Not really." He broke eye contact, gazing out at the foggy outline of Eventide across the water. "Why bother fishing like this anyway? Can't you just, you know, catch fish in the water?"

She shrugged, resting her fishing rod against the side of the boat. "I like the experience." She glanced out over the water, following Cirrus' eyes. "And the view." She turned back to him. "It's more of a hobby than a necessity really."

Quiet filled the air between the two of them as Millie stopped speaking. She half closed her eyes, humming an unfamiliar tune to herself as they drifted across still waters. Cirrus yawned again, watching the empty shoreline. Of course no one was going to be there, it was the freaking crack of dawn. His shoulders fell and he closed his eyes. He couldn't remember how Millie talked him into this. He wasn't even getting paid.

"So," Millie spoke soft, quiet like the morning mist. "I'm curious—and stop me if this is prying—but how did you end up in Eventide anyway?"

Cirrus shrugged. "My mother cursed me as punishment for being a disgrace."

She nodded. "How long ago what that now?"

"A while."

"Right." Millie paused as something caught her eye.

A harbor seal peered out from the still water, big eyes round in the while light and nostrils opening wide. Millie smiled and a gave a friendly wave, and it dove back under the water.

She turned back to him. "How do you like it, living here?"

He shrugged again. "I'm getting used to it." He paused, slowly bringing his eyes back to Millie. "I don't think I'm ever getting back home at this point, so I don't have much other choice." He shifted again, hoping in vain to stretch out his legs. "It's not bad as I thought though." He paused. "I'm, I'm pretty lucky."

"How so?"

"Oh," Cirrus fiddled with the net, turning it in the boat to prop it against the bottom and rest his chin on the top. "That Asher found me, and that he and his brother kept looking after me, and still are."

"Asher..." Millie paused, thinking. "He's that cambion Ginger's working with, right?"

Cirrus stiffened, lifting his head from the net fast enough to make the boat rock side to side and casting ripples out into the glassy water surface.

But Millie only giggled. "Don't worry, it's pretty hush hush. Only me and a handful of faculty have any idea."

Of course, the two of them were friends, weren't they? Cirrus slowly rested his chin back on the frame of the net as the tension released from his shoulders. It didn't seem to come up very much, but he knew Asher preferred to keep his demonic half a secret whenever he could. Especially in a college full of wannabe exorcists.

The water rippled again as a different seal, lighter than the first one, popped it's head above the water. It blowed air that fogged in the morning chill from it's nose and paddled closer to the boat. As it got closer, Millie leaned over the side of the boat with one hand and gave it's shoulder's a loving pat before it disappeared into the depths.