It took Dolphus almost that entire silence to realize his emotions had been relatively pacified by the song. Had that been the desired effect? Was this a coping mechanism he was employing, in the hopes that this random kid might have the same experience with it that he had?
Regardless, even though Dolphus very much liked leading people around by the nose whenever he could, he didn’t like even the slightest redirecting of his own psyche, and as Mariner resumed the conversation the beat of the rain and howls of wind slowly broke back into reality as he bit his tongue to avoid a scowl. I definitely didn’t like the song, I didn’t like it at all…
Dolphus gave an awkward courtesy nod as he glanced down at the blob of cream on his fingertips. His alien muscles twitched; he mentally dragged them into an alleyway and beat them half senseless to keep them quiet.
His mouth slightly parted and then closed again. Could he really afford to be that trusting?
“Yes, of course,” Karl replied, taken slightly aback by Mako’s appearance. He began coiling the rope, setting it to one side so as to avoid blocking the entrance to the hallway.
“Well that’s going to be a problem.” Alexis muttered to herself as she tried to keep the wheel steady in the harsh winds. The sight of the massive wave was enough to make most sailors quake in fear, but not her. Thinking fast she turned the wheel hard to port, hoping they might be able to ride the wave out instead of it capsizing the entire ship and crew. “Everybody might want to hold onto to something!”
ooc: Bada bing Bada boom I resurrect this topic from its doom.
Karl heard Alexis’ shout as the ship began turning, the angle of the deck increasing slightly as the rudder turned. He grabbed onto the nearby handle of a door as the ship angled towards the impending doom…
The ship turned slowly, it was almost completed it’s rotation when the wave took it. The ship rocked dangerously, sailors slamming into the railing.
The ship was able to right itself before capsizing however, and the sailors, a little battered, picked themselves up. “She’s a fierce one, we ain’t had a storm this bad in years. I pity whatever fools are out in this weather.”
Not two leagues away, some poor fool was out in the storm. Unfortunately for them, they did not have a sturdy warship to offer some protection.
Ari Wohlford was caught unawares by the storm that seemed to form right on top of her.
(@NOTaHFfan)
Saying that the situation Ari has found herself in was hopeless would be an understatement.
Her vessel was a small trading ship with a singular sail, just barely big enough to not be considered a boat. Made for short trips in calm waters near the coast and on rivers, it was certainly not fit for such a venture that she was attempting, even in best conditions, and right now Ari was caught in the middle of a terrifying storm that seemed to have materialised out on nowhere.
Even if the ship’s crew consisted of a highly experienced captain, helmsman and navigator, and several other sailors who would take care of scooping the water aboard and patching the leaks, getting out of this storm would be an insurmountable challenge, but Ari was neither of those things, and moreover, she was completely alone…
As these thoughts flashed in her mind, a giant wave slammed into the side of the ship. The vessel tilted dangerously, and Ari was barely able to avoid getting hit by a barrel filled with supplies, which flew past her and plummeted into the abyss of the ocean. Even though the overwhelming noise of water raging around her, she could hear the sound of wood squeaking and cracking from inside of the hull. It was a clear sign that the ship wouldn’t be able to withstand even one more wave of this size, so powering through the storm was not an option. Outrunning it seemed hardly possible as well, even on such a light and fast ship, as it was trapped too deep within the storm.
The only thing left for Ari was to frantically look around, trying to spot a bright spot on the horizon, a ship, an island, anything she could attempt to reach in hopes of saving her life.
It simply couldn’t end this way, it was too soon, she hasn’t managed to get out yet
But the seas of the Armada held Ari in their unforgiving grasp, refusing to let her go no matter what…
The storm raged on well into the evening. The Vessels trapped in it’s wrath battered and beat about on the waves.
On the Caelin’s Hand, one of the masts, previously damaged in the battle with the Thauin, split up along the length. There was a colossal groan as the halves Began to sag apart, becoming caught up in the rigging. The ship had little hope of control in these waves. Every now and then, the crew would experience a strange weightless sensation, as a wave tossed them about.
The obscuring clouds made navigation impossible, every reference point wiped clear in favour of an endless sea of gray.
The crew gripped whatever they could, waiting for the wave that would spell their doom.
For Ari, there was an even more pressing issue. Her boat was taking on water at an alarming pace. Quickly rising from her boots to halfway to her knees. However her scanning of the horizon proved fruitful. As a swell broke to her starboard side, she saw the distinct lines of a warship riding the currents.
Mariner braced as a wave knocked the ship. Still searching in his bag for a medicine that would counteract the Squid’s acid. With an exclamation of triumph he retrieved one. He began to soak some bandages in the stuff. After a moment’s consideration he retrieved another bottle and stared at it thoughtfully.
Dolphus decided the cream on his hand was much better as a wood stain and decided to leave it smeared into the floor at the foot of the bed. He pushed himself back up with his arm, finally allowing his feet to touch the floor once more in the event that another wave rocked the ship and he needed to stop from tipping over.
The completely unrelated thought crossed his mind of how he had never considered the repulsive smell inside the Thauin until this point, and Dolphus stabbed that thought to death with repeated and vicious blows to stop himself from ‘reminiscing’ over the incident.
Dolphus noticed Mariner’s legs had shifted to take the impact while the rest of him remained fairly unchanged, still sifting through his bag of supplies, presumably all medical ones. I hope he is not holding something more potent, possibly disinfecting of wounds perhaps, just because he thinks me a child. Somehow incapable of handling it.
He turned slightly away as a sinus noise threatened to suddenly hiss out his throat, and swallowed once or twice to shut it up. Yes I know I bawled all over the deck. I’m better now. I’m definitely not just saying that.
Mariner’s exclamation drew his focus back towards the crabby captain, now soaking bandages in yet another medicine. I’m really beginning to feel like he’s babying me slightly. Or maybe a lot. Okay I’m probably reading into this too much, he’s just working with what he has.
Dolphus could feel his fingers tightening around a wrinkle in his pant leg. Okay, I’m sure of it. He’s holding something back. He’s not sure if I can handle the pain. His teeth clenched slightly as his lips threatened to part. Does he have any idea what I’ve been through? What I go through every day? Every night, every dream I have? Does he really think anything he could do to me would come close to that?
His eyes fluttered back towards the wall, half of him saying to just quietly accept whatever position he was put in, to be happy he was getting help at all, to not be offended by someone just trying to care for him as best he could provide.
The other half, however, was a bitter teenager.
“I can take it.” Dolphus said, quietly, but as resolutely as was necessary to convince his jaw to unclench. “Whatever medicine you have, I can handle it.”
Ari knew that the boat couldn’t hold together for much longer. Filled with knee-deep water and bursting at its seams, its inevitable demise was only a matter of time. As if confirming her thoughts, another wave crashed into the side of the boat, sending a shockwave through the entire vessel and prompting the wooden hull to squeak and crack ominously.
But there was still a tiny ray of hope, as Ari caught a glimpse of what seemed to be a sizeable ship getting thrown around by the same unrelenting force of nature. A simple silhouette on the horizon that was her only hope of survival.
What is it doing here in this weather? Nobody in their right mind would go through this storm without a good reason. What is it here for? Are they coming after her? They couldn’t have noticed that she went missing so quickly… no… and they wouldn’t send such a big ship. She couldn’t fall into their hands again… not anymore…
She didn’t have time for these thoughts. Whoever was there on that ship, was her only chance of survival. She couldn’t let it slip away, even if it meant starting her escape from the very beginning. She couldn’t die here.
Without any further hesitation, she turned the rudder, directing the boat towards the distant vessel. She acted quickly, throwing aboard any materials she could find in hopes to lower the weight of the boat, including the last barrel of provision. It’s not like she would need it in any outcome. The only thing she kept was her old toolbox, she would rather die than let go of it. But despite all of her efforts, the progress was slow. She wasn’t moving quickly with the torn sail not catching enough wind, the waves getting in her way, and the elusive ship didn’t seem to get closer fast enough. Can she make it before her boat completely gives in to the unrelenting power of the sea?
Mariner looked up in vague surprise, “Of course, but there is the question of if it has lost it’s potency, or if the intended use will be beneficial in this situation.” He lightly shakes the bottle. “This draught is for protecting feathers and furs from acidic scaring…” He was about to go on, when he was thrown from his feet by a tremendous impact. Shakily rising, he set the bottle back in the safety of his bag. He was about to check on dolphus when an even greater impact hit, and he knew no more.
Ari’s frantic adjusting of the trim, although not entirely efficient given the panicked nature of it. Did help to counteract the additional ballast of the water. This helped the boat stay closer to it’s waterline and made as good speed as it was able.
Surprisingly the ship was growing closer much faster than anticipated. As the storm bashed the two towards each other. Hope not far off for a rescue, the feeling swiftly withered like grapes left on the vine in autumn.
As the two vessels converged on their paths, Ari’s boat suddenly started pulling towards the large ship on it’s own accord. Caught up in the massive rip current generated by it’s hull. So close now, Ari could make out the livery of the Armada Sailors clutching on for dear life.
Tharos stood at his post desperately trying to hold the ship together, redirecting the worst of the waves, and trying to dispell the poor visibility to find safe harbour. He was utterly exhausted, desperately praying for some sign of dry land.
Fate has an odd way of answering prayers. Odd, yet undoubtedly cruel. Just as he finished the thought, the boat shuddered with impact, a great scraping sound from the below decks. They had struck a reef. Tharos has no idea which way to bring the ship to avoid further damage, however he didn’t have to worry long, as a large swell took them from behind, lifting them over the reef, and sending them down hard into the shallows of a small beach.
By the time the crew came to from the impact, the storm had broken, and the morning sun shined bright and pleasant.
Ari woke on a beach surrounded by the wreckage of her boat, a little down the beach she could see the Warship from the night previous, tilted slightly in the shallows. The foremast broken, a massive gouge in the port hull, and a battered and beaten crew stumbling to shore.
Karl was thrown to the floor by the impact, his head striking the wall on the other side of the hallway. As he slid limply to the floor, the thought crossed his mind that he had definitely taken worse injuries in his fights on land. Right? He wondered dazedly if his memory was correct as everything seemed to blur, a a border of dark haze apparently shrinking around his vision… it wouldn’t be for a few more hours that he would realize he had received a decent-sized concussion from hitting the wall, leaving the door handle pulled partway out of its socket and putting a small dent in the opposite door.
Dolphus tried not to let his jaw lock up again. This sounds so much like nothing talk. You’re just trying to find some polite way to say it’s too much for me; just spit it out and get it over with. I have more important things to do, like have flashbacks to a little while ago and be depressed.
Dolphus nodded as slightly as he could, his mind pausing suddenly to ponder what had just been said, but before the realization could land the impact struck, dramatically dumping Mariner off the bed and absolutely chucking the significantly lighter Dolphus into the far corner of the room.
His vision blurred, slowly coming back into focus as his head rang with the sound of a thousand bells. Two thoughts crossed his mind: one was to get his shoes back on, which he somehow managed to slide his feet into before toppling over. The second thought occurred only after his new horizontal perspective informed his smarting mind that he was being blanketed by his wing.
The band’s gone. Dolphus reeled it in as quick as he could, but the horror that it was not quick enough persisted, as his vision traveled back to Mariner just long enough to see him beginning to move towards his new position on the floor before a sudden blackness seeped into his vision, refusing to allow any more thoughts to dirty his mind with their constant inquiries.
Does he know?
Less than half the distance from Ari to the Warship, and caught in a tangle of seaweed, Dolphus was having one of the nicest sleeps he had the pleasure of enduring in a while. His wing had the convenient notion to not unfurl this time around, and the salt water in his ears did little to ruin his relaxing slumber, muffling out the sounds of chopping waves and the distant, dizzy crew.
All the immediate cares of what had happened to the ship, the encounter with the Thauin, failed to penetrate his weary mind now.
Ari came to her senses laying on her back with a horrible pain all over her body and her lungs filled with sea water. Her first attempt at standing up ended in her crumbling to her knees in a coughing fit. Not the most pleasant experience, but at least it got most of the aforementioned water out of her body. With a loud ringing in her ears, her vision blurry, she looked around trying to make sense of her immediate surroundings. She was on an unfamiliar beach, surrounded by the sad leftovers of her trusty vessel. A dark spot on the horizon caught her attention. Trying to focus her vision, she made out a silhouette of a battered ship stuck on the same beach not too far away from her, with its unlucky passengers spinning onto the ground around it.
A successful attempt to stand up was made, and Ari, with her thoughts still scrambled, started taking unsound steps towards the wreckage, pressing her hand against her aching head. Quarter of the way there, a realisation suddenly hit her. A memory of a ship filled with Armada soldiers amidst the storm, followed by a horrible crashing sound and darkness suddenly appeared. Her mind cleared immediately. Armada soldiers were the last thing she wanted to be around right now. She needed to get as far away from that ship as she could and fast, before they come to their senses and spot her.
She started frantically looking around trying to make sense of the layout of the island and find a place to hide. Suddenly, something caught her attention. Something she hadn’t noticed before. Something, or rather, someone, a small human figure in blue, was laying on the beach between her and the Armada ship.
Suddenly Ari knew that she needed to do
OOC: @Winterstorm345 Can you provide me with a description of the part of the island that’s visible to Ari when you’ll be responding to all of this. I need that to set her plan in motion
Alexis woke with a start; surprisingly enough, this wasn’t the first time she’d apparently been a shipwreck. With a stumble, she managed to get her feet underneath her.
God, her head was killing her; of course, this is most likely due to the fact that, upon impact, her head had made direct contact with one of the helm handholds creating quite the nasty gash. Rubbing her hand along her forehead confirmed this, as she felt the sensation of dried blood running down the length of her face.
She raised her head to get a good view of the condition of her ship, and to say she was disappointed in what she found would be an understatement.
“Who’s not dead?” She made her way to the stairs that led below deck and shouted. “Everybody sound off!”
Mako felt unpleasant. Every joint felt sore, and his back ached. As he shifted his body, he soon realized where exactly he was. The rope was on top of him, collapsed in some heap on a staircase. Hauling himself up, he made his way to the top deck.
The island, while not as large as emberhold, was still large enough that from Ari’s perspective she couldn’t quite see where the beach curved to form the other side of the island. Towards inland, the beach continued perhaps 10 metres and gradually became rockier, ending in a thick woods. The woods seemed to take up the entire core of the Island. Although here and there stone ruins popped out of the tree line, far too uniform and neat to be a natural formation.
Tharos shook out his boots nearby. “Caelin reporting, unfortunately I have some bad news. One of our human crew went overboard.”
Mariner woke with a splitting headache. Literally, as he checked himself over, his hands caught on a 3 inch crack running just above his left eye. Immediately his concern was replaced by the fact that he was alone, Dolphus was nowhere to be seen. He ignored his head, and rushed to the deck.
“Is anyone hurt” he rasped out. Unfortunately few on the crew could understand him, as he’d subconsciously slipped into speaking in his native tongue. Even those who spoke the language would have a hard time following his archaic dialect.
Huh? What? Why am I on the floor? This makes no sense… wait… something hit the ship… I think…
Karl’s eyes began opening, allowing him to see the now tilted hallway through a bleary, smeared filter of half-closed eyelids. Someone was shouting, and he thought they were coming closer. What had just happened, and why he was slumped against the floorboards of the main hallway would have to wait.
He tried to sit up, and immediately felt a wave of dizziness and pain throughout his head.
“Urrgh… ouch! How…?”
Karl realized that his question was answered by the open door across the hall.
“I see… I fell over when that shock hit the ship,” he said to himself.
After a few seconds, he climbed to his feet, head ringing, but at least he was now standing.
“I do believe i am alive. If you can call feeling like you just swallowed a bucket of chum the same as being alive, that is.” He clambered out onto the deck, sliding back on his now dry mask. His mouth was full of grit, clawing at the roof of his mouth. To call this an unkind awakening would be more than true.
He turned to face Alexis, and his eyes widened.
“Uhhh…you seem to have a…” Mako pointed to the side of her forehead.
Mako’s attention was quickly drawn by the somewhat pained rasping down into the ship. Without another word, he sped down into the ship to the source.
“Which one?” Alexis called back, her voice weary, the events of last night had really taken a lot out of her and the splitting headache wasn’t helping.
“Observant, are we?” She cracked a quick joke before wincing in pain again. “are you in well enough condition to start gathering some wood we’re gonna need it.”
“Nevermind.” Alexis mumbled before turning to scan their surroundings to see if she spot any points of interest. “Is that a boat?” She said as she moved close to the railing, making sure to avoid any debris that had suddenly made their new home upon the deck.