Chapter Text
There was a light on the bluff where there used to be nothing.
The usual evening silhouettes, hazy pines melding back into the dark mountain, were interrupted by a stupid glowing orange rectangle. It sliced rudely through the landscape, right at the belly line where the cliff rock met the forest above. Long lines of illumination stretched out from it, streaking down the cliff and over the water. The ugly yellow reflections reached clear across Namjoon’s lagoon, and he had no goddamn idea why they were there.
This bright addition to his day-end rhythm was horrible and unsettling. The weird light might be brand new, but Namjoon was dead certain that the normal palette of blues and greens and purple-grays was better. Objectively. That was night as it should be. Bright colors and light were for day, where shining things are in their right time and order. He liked bright things just fine when they were where they belonged, like the insides of clam shells or loud gull’s mouths, or a peachy morning sky. NOT in his quiet evening roost. It was unsightly. Unnatural. Like an ugly boat flew up into the cliff, crashed, and didn’t die.
He flipped a fin petulantly to toss a piece of beach wood at the reflection. Out in the water, the light scattered into equally bright rippling fragments and he huffed, deeply annoyed. How was he supposed to sleep like this?! He shuffled back down to the water and started to swim around to the far side of the sandbar. He’d have to scout out a new sheltered spot for the night… Out of sight of that damn light.
Normally his nest was perfect. Objectively. It lay protected from sea wind in the soft dip between dunes that faced the land, with a perfect view of the entire cove. It was lined with the exact right amount of tamped down seagrasses and well-chosen soft kelps, and a collection of the little rounded stones that he liked best.
At the memory of the pretty round stones his jaw tightened - he should have grabbed a few for the morning. It was a necessary part of his routine to roll them between his fingers as he woke up… but if he went back now he’d have to see it again. He growled loudly at the back of his throat as he swam, hoping his irritated clicking reached back up the bluff. None of this was correct.
Hoisting himself back up the beach and towards the less ideal sea-facing dunes, he began to brusquely scoop out the bowl of his new nest. No. His temporary nest. The grasses here were a similar density as on the other side of the sand bar, but it wasn’t the same. The grass in his nest was just softer. And he liked hearing the lick of quiet waves when they first met his sandbar and again when the swell reached the mainland edge of the lagoon. He kicked at a piece of driftwood to make more room for his tail. It was too big to move and the impact kicked him right back.
Tail throbbing, he harumphed himself down in the sandy pit, staring out at the open ocean waves roaring inky and gray-capped in the dark. He tried to tell himself it was a trick of the mind, but he could still see the faint trail of yellow out over the sandbar and into the sea.
There was a light on the bluff, where there should be nothing.