It had been a long time since Gahz'rilla had last seen his mate. Long enough that, as far as he was concerned, she must have swum away and found a partner she wished to spend more time with. It was a little sad, knowing that she was as good as gone, but he still had his daughter Tethys, her (female) mate, and their daughter, so it wasn't exactly like he was lonely, per se. It was just that his girls weren't around as much, and he was starting to feel like he wanted to find someone to have foals with again, foals who would mature in clams, but have the option to move freely between surf and turf, as he could not. Sure, it was probably a weird and reductive way to be, but, in his own way, Gahz'rilla wanted company, friendship, family, and even that thing he'd heard of called "romance." In retrospect, he hadn't really experienced it with his first mate, as he'd been looking for someone who could give him children who could explore the land, and she'd been looking for someone who could give her strong children. That wasn't really what people said romance was, and it definitely wasn't what his daughter Tethys had experienced with her mate, Darya, who was a nice pearl diver.
On top of that, since his first encounter with the mare Leimomi, he'd started looking for excuses to spend more time around her reef. She was pretty, she was nice, she had lots of knowledge about the land, and an appreciation for sea and shore, and all who lived in both places. He could see having a happy little family on the reef with her, her with her plants and her dancing, him with his...weird craving for the land and his taste for fish. Huh. Kinda uneven. Leimomi could probably find better, but didn't seem to have a mate in the picture, and seemed to be in no particular hurry to find such a person. That said, she also didn't seem off-put by him snapping at her the first time they met, so maybe it was worth a shot.
He'd heard from his girls about giving bouquets to those you intended to court, and, thus, eager to make an attempt, he'd gone on a spree, gathering kelp, seaweed, sea grasses, and whatever flowers he could find floating on the ocean's surface, and tied the results together with rope from a shipwreck. From what little Gahz'rilla had heard of bouquets, and the rather more he'd seen of terrestrial flowers, he didn't think they were supposed to be so soggy or droopy, but, hey, it was what he could find. Thus, he'd left the first bouquet somewhere Leimomi would find it the next morning.
And it promptly wound up in a pile of sea wrack with detritus that had washed up the night before when Leimomi proceeded to clean the beach that morning. It was a little disheartening. The next few attempts yielded similar results, with no apparent curiosity as to who was leaving her bouquets.
Thus, he was now swimming along the reef, trying to figure out what to do next, unaware that his "sharking" was attracting attention.
Keone had seen the soggy "bouquets" for what they were with the second one that her mother had cleaned up, and it didn't take much observation to see that the pathetic and unhinged attempt to give her mother a gift came from that weird Mer stallion that kept finding excuses to start lurking around their reef. From what her mother had said, "Gahz'rilla" didn't really seem to know about anything on land, and seemed to forever be asking for stories. Which made sense, that the Mer had no idea what he was doing if he kept making sad-looking bouquets without regard to how to do it, or to convey meaning that her mother would recognize. Leimomi was aware of floriography, but not to the extent that Keone was. And Gahz'rilla clearly had no real idea that his bouquet could be strangled into some permutation of "I wish to fish with you and drown you in sunshine and despair, burn in the fires of the sea." Which, while funny, was nonsensical, and probably didn't express his true feelings for her mother. Which were probably romantic, given how he seemed to want to do nice things for Leimomi, her children, her familiar, and their reef.
After the fifth attempt to get her mother's attention once again landed unceremoniously in the pile of sea wrack the family stacked up to use for various purposes at a later date, Keone had made up her mind that Gahz'rilla fundamentally needed help. It would probably be faster to bring a whole bunch of plants from her little garden to the shoreline, along with a scrap of ribbon she'd found on the beach, and offer to help him construct something her mother would recognize as romantic.
Plumeria, white egret orchids, red-and-pink roses, pineapple sprouts, clianthus, cape jasmine, bird of paradise, and anthurium filled an empty giant clam shell that she carried down to the beach, where she saw Gahz'rilla's dorsal fin prowling around the reef. All had good, clean, romantic meanings, and would also look very pretty together. The Mer just had to choose what he thought looked pretty, and Keone wound bind it into a bouquet for him to deliver. If he had any questions, she could answer them.
Stepping into the water, carefully towing her clamshell of flora behind her, Keone approached the stallion who, on further reflection, would likely be her future stepfather, if this all turned out all right. Surprisingly, Keone found that she wouldn't really object to this, as Gahz'rilla mostly just seemed poorly socialized and extremely curious. Not bad by any stretch, but, at worst, more of a nuisance than anything else. A nuisance that could be taught how to be less of a nuisance. It wasn't a bad idea.
"Hey, Mer!" she called out. "Want help with those bouquets you've been sending?"
Candy Apple Red = #FF0800
