The Poison Polar's Tale: The Love Day Market

Thagom liked other Aqrions very much and flitted between friends as fast as a school of fish would disperse when attacked. But during the time of Lua's Love Day, the first holiday he experienced as he began to grow, the time when winter started to fade and the waters grew warmed again, Thagom found himself liking other Aqrions very much, perhaps much more than someone as young as he was should.

 

Upon a trip out to the icy shelves one day, the one who caught his eye was a grey female with her tail fading to red and a white mask-like marking over her face. She mulled about, minding her own business and letting others pass by her without a word. She may as well have been a part of the background if Thagom had not seen her.

 

He wove his way through the crowds to swim up by her side. "Hello," he said.

 

She jumped, not having noticed his approach. "Hi," she responded quietly.

 

"What's your name?"

 

"Grimr," she said. "And yours?" She added quickly like it was a sudden afterthought to include the question.

 

"Thagom. Do you come here often?"

 

"I live here."

 

"Really? I've never seen you before. I live up in the caves with my grandmother. She raised me since my mom didn't want me and my dad is a fool."

 

Grimr stared at him long and hard, but it did not seem to click with him that such information might have just been oversharing, especially for someone he had only just met.

 

Today was a market day, Aqrion selling all kinds of treasures and food from all over. Thagom had a small amount of pocket money, given to him by his grandmother to spend on what he wanted after he'd bought the groceries she needed. Thagom left Grimr alone and swam off to a nearby market stall selling water flowers of all different colours and sizes. He purchased a large one in a deep red shade that was a near-match to the tinge colour of Grimr's tail.

 

When he returned to where he had been before, she had moved on further away from the market where the crowd was more dispersed.

 

"Hey! Wait up!" Thagom saw after her. She turned to look at him with a rather disgruntled expression which he did not take any notice of. "Here. This is for you." He offered up the flower.

 

Grimr took it from him and examined it. "Thank you, but I can't accept it here."

 

"It matches your tail, see?"

 

Grimr hummed, mulling over a thought. "I'm not the only one with red on them. Look."

 

She reached up to tuck the flower between the white spikes that formed a frill formation on top of Thagom's head, then motioned to a nearby large piece of glass, indicating for him to use it as a mirror. He swam over towards it and took a look at himself.

 

His neck was a red colour, which he had already known, but he hadn't ever really realised that it was quite so dark red of a shade until he saw that the deep red flower he had chosen to match Grimr's tail seemed right at home on his head.

 

"How do I look?" He asked, turning back to Grimr and swishing from side to side as he showed off to her. She smiled gently.

 

"Very nice."

 

"Why, thank you. Maybe I should keep it. You're pretty enough without it."

 

Once again, Thagom failed to notice the signs of his compliments being unwanted, but Grimr slunk back a little.

 

"You're very kind but... you are very young. And I'm just... not interested. I'm sorry."

 

"Oh!" Thagom said, things clicking into place in his mind. He took the flower from his head. "Right. Right right right... don't be sorry. I probably should have noticed sooner." He extended the flower out to her. "Please, keep it as an apology."

 

Grimr hesitated for a moment but accepted the flower. "Thank you."

 

Thagom smiled. "I need to be grabbing some groceries for my grandmother anyway, and as nice as she is, she can be very fussy if I'm gone for too long."

 

Grimr nodded. Thagom said his goodbyes and turned to leave, but paused and looked back at her.

 

"Hey, Grimr?"

 

"Yes?"

 

"Can we... at least be friends?"

 

"Well, we'll see about that next time we meet, alright?"

 

"Yeah, alright. Goodbye!"