Unseen Academy

XXIII: Abigale Spring Ryder-Merlot

It was a small wonder that the two hadn’t noticed each other sooner. For Abigale - it was odd as she had taken up a roost up there, keeping a birds eye view on the deck below. Perhaps she had been too worried about her sister, and had been keeping to watchful an eye on her and the boy that she was pretty sure would never have the nerve to try and court her sister, even if he obviously wanted to.

For Patches, it was odd because in theory, he should have heard her before he saw her - for while all alone up in the crow’s nest, the girl had been practicing her singing. The song was nothing unique nor original - although the range was a bit difficult, which may have been why she was practicing it while by her lonesome- something about caged nightingales, that refused to sing while locked up so.

However, Abigale was not the completely oblivious sort, and while she had missed the bright blue haired boy climbing  up to her little personal hiding spot- she did fairly quickly realize that she wasn't alone, quickly halting her song to a stop.
   
For a moment she remained silent, a slight tension hanging in the air as her mood had suddenly changed, a very defensive vibe almost radiating from her, as she prolonged turning and seeing who now joined her. She seemed to stiffen, the only movement really coming from her was her long, recently let down hair caught in the breeze.

“Well ye don’t need to be stopin’ on my account.” The blue haired teen said with a grin as he pulled out his Doss Lute. “We can be playin’ together, if ye be wanting.” His fingers lightly trace the strings of his instrument.
   
    The girl’s brows furrowed - she didn't recognize the boy’s voice. This wouldn't be her first year at the school, so she had a decent chance of recognizing returning students - at least ones that would be on the same boat as her - and being a bit of a troublemaker back in her home city, she recognized at least most voices, even if she couldn't always place them to a face.

So finally, the girl looked over to him, propping herself up a bit from the position she had been leaning to watch the deck below. “Who are you?” she asked, eyeing him up and down, as if trying to determine something or another about him. She didn't seem to bat an eye at his pointed ears, though the vibrant color of his hair did seem to make her expression soften a bit.

Whether he noticed or not - this made her the first person he had met who noticed that he wasn’t human - yet didn’t comment one way or the other.

“Patches O’leary greatest bard to ever sail the seas.” He said with a quick bow, and with a flourish he would take her hand. “And who might this siren before me be.” Patches uttered as he kissed the back of her hand.

A single brow arched on her expression, seeming to take the corner of her lips with it into a small smirk. “L- heh, I'm Abigale. Abigale, Spring, Ryder.” it almost seemed like she was about the start her sentence with something else, but had changed her mind about that. She didn’t want him to know she had a title. Why? She couldn’t say. Just a sudden impulse of a decision to keep that bit of info to herself.

She watched him kiss the back of her hand, for the duration her eyes seemingly locked on his facial features, particularly his beautiful green eye, before her attentions turned back to his instrument. “So you just be pretty good with that thing if you're ‘the the greatest bard to ever sail the seas,’" though she had never said the additional words, there was a slight implication in her tone that she wanted to see, have him prove the skill behind his claim.

“Of course fair maiden” He looks her right in the eye as his fingers danced across the strings. A song spilling from his lips as he gave the girl a smirk. His voice lightly dancing on the winds excited to tell it’s tale.

When I was a lad in a fishing town
Me old man said to me
You can spend your life, your jolly life
Just sailing on the sea
You can search the world for pretty girls
Til your eyes are weak and dim
But don't go searching for a mermaid, son
If you don't know how to swim

Cause her hair was green as seaweed
Her skin was blue and pale
Her face it was a work of art
I love that girl with all my heart
But I only like the upper part
I did not like the tail

I signed onto a sailing ship
My very first day at sea
I seen a mermaid in the waves
A-reaching out to me
Come live with me in the sea, said she
Down on the ocean floor
And I'll show you a million wondrous things
You've never seen before

So over I jumped and she pulled me down
Down to her seaweed bed
And a pillow made of a tortoise shell
She placed beneath my head
She fed me shrimp and caviar
Upon a silver dish
From her head to her waist
It was just my taste
But the rest of her was a fish

Cause her hair was green as seaweed
Her skin was blue and pale
Her face it was a work of art
I love that girl with all my heart
But I only like the upper part
I did not like the tail

But then one day she swam away
So I sang to the clams and the whales
Oh, how I miss her seaweed hair
And the silver shine of her scales
But then her sister, she swam by
Set my heart awhirl
'Cause her upper part was an ugly fish
But her bottom part was a girl

Yes her hair was green as seaweed
Her skin was blue and pale
Her legs they are a work of art
I love that girl with all my heart
And I don't give a damn about the upper part
'Cause that's how I get me tail.”

The blue haired teen finished with a smirk as he finished playing. His single bright green eye sparkling as he winked at the red head.

Abigale had watched him carefully as he played, entertained, but also trying to learn the song as best she could. By the end of the tune she was already humming along, even if she couldn’t guess the lyrics, grinning, and trying to contain herself.

“Well lass I best be goin’, I need to be findin’ a room for the night since me own be taken.” The blue haired boy said with a smirk before he jumped out of the crows nest.

Abigale was still doing her best to not burst into laughter. She moved fairly quickly to the side he had jumped out of, flashing a mischievous grin. Surprisingly the blue haired boy was nowhere to be seen. However that didn’t stop her from calling out, “ See you leg man~!” as her hair spilled forward over her shoulder from the movement, before catching like a flag in the breeze.

Admittedly she was curious as to how and where he disappeared to - but...she kind of didn’t want to spoil it for herself. While a short encounter, it had been a particularly fun one.  So instead of looking, she simply resumed her own singing, with a bit more joy in her voice this time. She sang for a while - a peaceful moment as the wind swept through her hair.

She had no idea that her mysterious new friend had actually decided to eavesdrop, and was now hiding beneath the crow’s nest hoping to catch a chance of her singing again as well.

Well, until she realized that she had lost track of watching her sister. Her singing practice very abruptly stopped as the realization dawned on her, and she moved back to the side she should have been able to most easily see the pair from. Only to find an empty deck to greet her. A slur of curses unbefitting of a lady of her status escaped her lips. “Boat full of the strongest assholes our age the town has to offer and they just wander off-” She continued grumbling frustrated curses, before quickly sliding down the ladder, not exactly one to doing things the right or proper way, and darting off to try and find them the second her feet hit the deck.