Tales of Glory and Valour: the Seafarers Main RP Topic

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Her… wings?

Oh right. Dragon. Dolphus swallowed again. I maybe should’ve prefaced this a little before just revealing it to her.

Dolphus had to bite the edges of his tongue and compress his throat to keep from gagging. He had only seen something like this once years ago, when being forced to observe illustrations of a rather nasty illness for his formal tutelage. He had ruined his copy of that reference material by, well, ‘reacting’ to it, and he didn’t want to have that happen again.

Especially since I’m mostly lying on my back right now.

“It’s- It’s not mine.” He finally forced out, his stomach cramping. “I used to have an arm, but I…”

Dolphus reached out to the wing, lightly touching parts of an arm he no longer possessed. “…I guess it’s mine now. I can feel every feather like they grew from my own body, and I can’t recall so many of the sensations I used to feel without it. But I-”

Dolphus bit his tongue again. “I don’t mean any disrespect.” He prefaced, biting his tongue again. That’ll get taken the wrong way, dummy. “But- uh… Wings are the birthright of dragons and birds. For me to have one…” Don’t you dare screw this up, Dolphus; she can probably kill you by stepping on you lightly. “…However delicate, is uh…”

Oh my gosh. I’m going to die if I keep pausing like this. Not from being stomped to death, but from embarrassment.

“…Shameful.” Dolphus broke eye contact again, the wing retracting somewhat as he clutched the front of it. “I can’t let anyone know about it. This man knows,” He gestured to the fellow tied to the tree. “His friend was just killed by Ari; he has every reason to tell the world about my shame.”

“But I don’t- I couldn’t actually kill him.” Dolphus said, finding it more convenient to not mention how he had already killed a man for finding out about it. His body really wanted to use the wing like a blanket and enter the fetal position just now, but that probably wasn’t a wise decision at the moment. “I just- I don’t- I don’t know what else to do.”

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“Yes ma’am!” Karl saluted, and headed back towards the ship, his hunger and headache forgotten as a job appeared.
Finally, something to do, some action to help him figure out his purpose among this motley crew of maniacs and magicians, he thought as he boarded the Caelin’s Hand once more. Then, to his shock, he heard a splash from the other side of the ship:

As he dashed toward the opposite rail, he saw Mako dive over the edge, vanishing into the water even as the ripples caused by the previous person’s body began subsiding.
Oh blast these people! Why does everyone think they can go drown or burn themselves now?! As if they are even trying to do something useful…
Karl felt a surge of fury and frustration as he realized Mariner was not visible on deck.
Fine. I’ll go find that kid instead, at least he’s cultured enough to be around for his superiors instead of vanishing right when the captain needs him.

He turned to the nearest crewman.
“Pardon me, but could you tell me where I can find a member of the crew named Dolphus? The captain -er, Alexis- sent me to find out how he is.”

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“Humans have changed much in so little time if this is now considered shameful.” The Dragon sounded melancholic. “This saddens me to hear, I remember a time when such modification were done just a few steps beyond that tree there.” She nods at a tree to Dolphus’ left, where he can just see a few metres distant the old ruins of some sort of shop.

“How would the man know who to tell to shame you?” The Dragon suddenly inquired. “Perhaps you could have the wing removed?” The Dragon began to paw the ground casually, ripping up great tufts of grass with it’s large claws. “While I realize this won’t matter much to you. I do not see any reason you should feel shame. For what it’s worth, any who would shame you for it, are really not those who’s opinions should matter.” The thoughts were odd, disconnected. Such was the way with dragons, their minds were so unknowable they sometimes had difficulty communicating to other beings.

There were many shapes that could be people flitting around, more than one seemed to resolve into the same ghost sailors that were crewing the Caelin’s Hand. In fact most of them seemed to be heading towards the ship. Quite a few did double takes when they saw Mako. None of them however matched the shape of Mariner.

The sailor, who had been refastning the rigging shrugged. “Ain’t seen him since the battle with the Thauin. Sounds like this ‘captain’ of yours should organize a search party.” With that the Sailor immediately went back to fastening the ropes.

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As Mako began to swim to the bottom, he put his fingers close to his face, as a bubble of air expanded around his head. He drew a deep breath, and continued downwards, looking for Mariner.

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Alexis began to head towards the boat, but saw Tharos stumble out of the treeline. Perhaps he was back for a fight? She wouldn’t be surprised if he was, well she wouldn’t have if he hadn’t collapsed on the spot. “Gods you test my patience every day.” She mumbled to no one in particular as she strolled up to Tharos. “Alright kid up you go.” She hooked her arm under his and pulled him to his feet. “You had any water? And I don’t mean the gallons of sea water all of us no doubt swallowed during the storm last night.”

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W… What…?

Dolphus turned his head slowly towards the shop with terror looming in his eyes. Could this desolate little island really be the source of all his misery? Okay well not all, but you get the picture.

If this is where it was done, I want to get out of here. Dolphus swallowed again. He was running out of saliva to gulp down. I want to flee this place immediately and never look back. I want to run and keep running until this island and the whole sea disappears over the horizon, never to appear again.

I used to think I wanted to know the answer. He felt himself wrapping the wing close to his body in spite of his earlier protests against the notion. But this seems like far more than I ever wanted to know. And… If any of that still works…

…I might just get the temptation to rid myself of my wing once and for all…

“His… Superior,” Dolphus murmured. “An evil man who knows a great deal. If he were ever to find out, he could do me tremendous harm.”

Dolphus didn’t respond. He simply looked at the wing despondently, fingers feeling through the coarse feathers atop it.

Dolphus blinked a couple of times before responding, the words seeming like two separate, disconnected sentences mashed together but intended as one.

“I don’t fear repercussion because of it.” He eventually spoke, holding one of the larger feathers in his hand. “I fear… I…”

It was difficult to get the words out. This was a conversation topic Dolphus had only ever pictured having with his mother or with Alexis, and although the dragon’s ‘voice’ was soothing and accepting, it was still awkward, despite his willingness to discuss it. “…I guess I fear myself.”

“I’ve spent so long running and hiding from the world because of… Of my father.” His fingers caressed the feathers as his eyes followed the motion. “Many people were hurt by him, and many would be glad to do worse to me, if they knew who I am. That I have lived with; this, I… I don’t… know that I could.”

“Knowing what someone else did, knowing human emotion, it’s outside of me; I can handle that. But every day I wake up expecting to see my arm returned.” Dolphus hurriedly dried a tear before it had the option to form. “I hold out hope every day that I can tell her about it, but for the longest time she never appeared. I waited more than ten years for her to appear, and… and she finally arrived.”

“I have to tell her.” His eyes traveled back up to the dragon’s, emotion glowing inside them. “If I’m to one day tell the world, I have to tell her first. And I’ve been getting careless. More and more people are beginning to find out on their own. Ari, she knows.” Dolphus nodded his head towards the exhausted Ari. “And Mariner knows too, I believe. But I can’t… I can’t run from this.”

“If this is who I am, I have to find the strength to tell her. But only her. And only when it’s time. Until then, no one must know.”

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Eventually, Mako could see the distinct shape of Mariner trudging along the sea bed. Hauling a barrel over his shoulder. He stopped and picked up another off the sea floor, then slowly began trudging back to the ship.

Tharos was entirely limp as she hauled him up. Pretty much dead weight. His eyes fluttered a bit, “Too much magic.” He muttered. “Burning, burning. Tried to save ship, storm was” his words trailed off for a bit. “Storm too powerful.” Then his head dropped again.

His body felt warm, no not warm hot. The man was almost hot enough to burn her hands. It was like touching a log that was burning on the inside. After a while he made some weak movements. “Thank you” he mumbled.

The Dragon nodded sagely. “I know better than most about that. My own father was one of the most wicked wyrms to ever live. Many of my kind were hunted down by humans for the actions of a few bad individuals.” A single large tear drifted down the dragon’s snout, when it fell to the ground it was audible. “I spent centuries fearing persecution for his crimes.”

“What of those who already know? Are you planning to kill them all?” The Dragon then took on a tone that could best be described as sly. “Are you going to kill me?”

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Dolphus watched the tear fall.

It was not an unusual shape, but it seemed to be filled with a thousand refracting beams of light, all telling different moments of this dragon’s life. From joy to grief, a wide selection of emotion and experiences danced before his eyes in the fraction of a second before it hit the ground with an audible plop.

The thought of how in the world he was feeling these experiences with no idea what they even were or how he could feel them never crossed his mind. It seemed perfectly natural, like looking at a painting, except this was thousands of paintings all at once, and each one spoke its own tale in clear, articulate form.

Dolphus’ mind was basically comprehending none of it, and was possibly inventing some of the experience just because it could, but he was also being extremely emotional at that moment.

“NO,” Dolphus emphatically replied, having to put a lot of effort into stopping his knees from traveling to his chest, forcing them in place halfway. “It’s just- I- I don’t…”

His eyes could avoid looking at the marine no longer. Just a random man, likely one of tens of thousands of soldiers in the Northern Fleet. He meant no malice, but surely he would now, now that his friend had died. Had been murdered.

“I don’t know what else to do.”

He gulped down the desire to start crying as best he could, his eyes traveling from the unconscious prisoner to his sword, embedded in the ground. “If I let him live, if I give him his life, all is lost. If I take his life, I am lost. The decision seems to defy any other solution; I cannot free him without compromising my world, but I compromise myself if I secure it.”

“I don’t know.” Dolphus gripped his head, the red on his hand now too dry to leave any trace, as his fingers slipped through the curls in his hair. “I’m so very tired from it all. I still have to deal with two people knowing my wing exists, right after I got eaten by a massive squid, and-” He shivered, deciding it wasn’t really the best idea to recall that at the moment.

“And now the crew is no doubt looking for me, wondering if I died somewhere out on the sea.” He looked at his reddened palm, his level of energy suddenly decreasing, most likely from being extremely battered, having gone through shock, and having lost a noticeable amount of blood. “Ari, she has to be introduced to them. She’d want to be introduced, wouldn’t she? She promised she wouldn’t tell anyone about my wing. That’s nice of her. I think she’d want to be.”

“Mariner,” His mind stirred again, recalling the dragon’s initial question. “He is strong; I don’t think I could kill him even if I wanted to. But I don’t want to. He’ll be tactful, I’m sure. And… I could never kill you, of course. I would never want to. Never.”

“I think…” Dolphus inhaled with an effort. “I think I’m getting tired.”

…

“How long… Have you been here?”

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“I have no way to keep track of the time. Especially since the Humans left, I believe they left a few hundred years ago.” The Dragon looked around at the various ruins in the trees. “That’s based on the wear on the ruins. They were here for quite a long time before that. Until I had to force them out.”

The Dragon complemented that for a bit. “You carry a lot of pain little one. Perhaps I could help with that, show you some of the good in the world.” She looked back towards the cottage. “I can promise it won’t take long”

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Force them out…?

Dolphus pushed back against his weariness. What could they have done to…

I’m literally a Gorov why am I asking this question.

Dolphus looked at the cottage.

Instantly danger warnings lit up in his mind. Something about that place seemed awful all of a sudden, but… Surely he must be wrong. The dragon had invited him in; what could be harmful there?

Gritting his teeth, Dolphus strained upwards, the pain of his side suddenly rekindling itself. Wobbling to his sword, he pulled it from the soil, and after a moment of staring at the marine, he sheathed it.

…It didn’t stay there long. Fluttering up from the marine’s resting spot, his eyes landed on Ari, still worn out so heavily that she appeared completely motionless. He staggered onto the path once more, unsheathed his sword, and traced in the soft soil.

[GO TO SHIP → ]

(The S had definitely not been written as a B and had to get scrubbed out and written again, no sir)

There. He sheathed his blade. I don’t think I’ll be very long inside, and surely she won’t be waking up anytime soon, so hopefully I’ll be able to return ahead of her and preface what’s been going on so nobody jumps to conclusions.

Reaching under his tucked wing, he balled up some of the shirt tucked in his pants to help absorb any further bleeding. Why did he feel so confident now about his own survival, when a moment ago he was surely about to die?

With a wordless look at the dragon, Dolphus began shuffling towards the cabin, partly out of courtesy to the request and… mostly because, well, ignoring just how exceedingly kind the dragon’s thoughts were, literally any positive influence on him was addicting. Devoid of it for so long, he reveled in the warmth the voice carried, and found every difficulty to be easier and easier to bear, as even his walk to the cabin very slowly shifted towards a natural stride.

ooc: I wonder who might wake up the moment he leaves @NOTaHFfan :smirk:

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He felt the soft, but powerful thumping of the Dragon’s footsteps. “The Orchard’s owner will be very pleased to meet you. Then again he is pleased to meet everybody, even those who would do him harm.” The Dragon sounded a touch irritated by this train of thought. She was silent for a while, was she taking too big a risk to trust this young man?

The power was too much to have in the wrong hands. How did she know she was making the right choice? Too late now, if she backed out, he might assume it’s some kind of trap or trick. She would have to have faith. Still, a little insurance couldn’t go wrong.

“Unfortunately many people see Devan as a resource to control. That’s the reason I stay here, to… remove anyone who wishes to exploit him.” She let that sit a while. She kept her tone sombre, to convey that she regretted having to do this, it was a necessary evil.

“He’s very innocent.” She eventually said breaking the silence. “He doesn’t really have anyway of seeing bad in anything in the world. I won’t allow anything to break that.”

As they came up to the cottage she stopped, being many times too large to fit through the door.

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Dolphus’ mind was racing. Who could this be? The humans were all driven out. A Halinth? A Druth? Or maybe a human that wasn’t as bad as the others?

The irritation in the dragon’s voice was evident. In spite of the gentle, caressing tone of her thoughts, it made Dolphus flinch in anticipation of some followup. Instead, there was silence, if only for a moment, but it made him nervous nonetheless.

Devan.

He immediately rejected the idea that he might somehow know this person. Sometimes I forget I’m still on a tiny island in the Summer Isles and not in another realm entirely. It’s almost like… like, uh…

Something, He thought, but I just can’t place what.

Dolphus slightly nodded, his mind mostly thinking about how happy he was nobody referred to him like that. But if this fellow was truly so innocent, avoiding anything potentially undesirable should be easy enough, at least in theory.

Besides, he was armed. If this was some kind of a trap, it was not a very good one.

Dolphus walked up to the door and stopped.

For some reason, the door to this tiny house felt… Monumental. Tremendously important. As if the consequences of entering would have ramifications for the rest of the journey, if not his entire life. But I’ve come this far; even if it’s only a few yards to retreat on to escape this, it’s just too far now to turn around.

With one last naive glance back at the dragon, Dolphus very slowly opened the door.

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Inside of the Cottage was dark, a cozy dark with sunlight flitting through the windows. The furniture was rough and rustic. There was a small bench at one end, stools scattered about the place, a bed tucked into one corner, and in the other a tall wardrobe. Perched atop the wardrobe was perhaps the oddest creature Dolphus had seen.

The only thing that seemed to be recognizable about it, was that it was long and gangly. It’s other features seemed to subtly change, sort of like a Chameleon. It was for certain a unique creature, a singularity even in this odd world full of odd things.

“Who you?” It said, in a surprisingly deep voice. It slowly climbed down the wardrobe, careful in it’s footing. It slunk across the floor to the door. It’s eyes, slowly shifting from green to brown looked him up and down. “Friend” it declares. “New friend. You write?”

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What.

Dolphus blinked twice at the sight of this creature. He was surprised his senses weren’t set on edge further, with this strange little creature resembling nothing he had ever researched. The only thing it could remotely be equated to was some kind of bogeyman, a hypothetical at the most, and as it shambled across the room Dolphus had to resist the urge to move his hand towards his blade.

“Uhh,” Dolphus replied, slowly closing the door with his foot. “Y… Yeah. Friend. My name’s Dolphus.”

“Uh, yeah, I can write.” He continued, the rest of the creature’s sentence catching up with him suddenly. What in the world… Okay, calm down, there’s probably a perfectly rational explanation for everything going on right now. Perfectly rational.

Or I’m actually bleeding out from my injury and now my dying brain is hallucinating.

ooc: well would you look at that, he’s gone @NOTaHFfan :goo:

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The Creature’s eyes unfocused. “Dolphus; Loss, pain, suffering, mutilation, fear, and hope.” He seemed to snap out of it relatively quickly. Immediately he scuttled over to a stool and picked up a letter, he turned and presented it to Dolphus.

On the letter was written.

A young shipbuilder looked on his work with pride. He had completed his first ship, all the care and pride with which he’d worked really showed in the final product. The ship was an absolute beauty, a vessel fit for a king, but who to crew it? The shipbuilder knew he’d have to make his choices carefully. Perhaps a blind lottery? No, that seemed ridiculous, the ship would require far more than that. Instead he knelt and prayed, prayed to his god.

He expected nothing, even the most pious individual can be ignored. Instead however his fate was rewarded, when he opened his eyes friends long gone seemed to walk the deck. Vaunted heroes all, they now strode the deck in ordinary roles. So the man wept, everything he’d worked for was coming to pass.

As the man slept that night, a vision came to him, a chosen individual residing in a land far away. He was also given glimpses, brief images of people whom he should find. When the man rose he knew what he must do. He got out his pen and began to write.

“Good friend wrote that” Devan said proudly. “Devan writes to all his friends, good friends write back. Other friends likely busy.” At this moment, he appeared to notice Dolphus’ injury. “You hurt” it stated simply. “Devan fix?” He held out one long fingered hand.

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“I mean, I don’t know what I did. Where should I be look for the God of the Sea, anyways? If you wouldn’t mind telling.”

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Dolphus’ pupils shrank so sharply they almost appeared to snap from one dilation to the next. His hand recoiled upwards in shock and his whole body followed suit, slimming dramatically as it tipped away from the tiny creature.

How did he know How did he know How did he know How did he know How did he know How did he know

Bewildered, Dolphus hesitantly accepted the letter, his eyes darting between different portions as his brain tried very hard not to be overloaded with everything going on. Ship… Praying, friends long gone… Individual residing in a… Glimpses, brief images…

Some noise vaguely resembling the word “Yeah” escaped Dolphus’ lips. He didn’t bother looking back up at the creature, his eyes too focused on the paper before him. His head was throbbing again, but somehow this letter, this story, seemed vaguely familiar…

…Tharwin?

“W… …What…?” He finally looked back at the strange creature on the floor, his hand still clutching the eloquently-penned letter. “Fix?”

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“I fix hurt. If friend wants” he spoke with his hand still outstretched slightly, keeping a respectful distance from Dolphus.

Behind him above one of the stools there was a slight pop and a scroll dropped out of nowhere neatly onto the seat. It was a different seat from the one Devan had grabbed the letter off of previously. Perhaps a different correspondent. It may have helped explain the large amount of stools all over the cottage.

Devan ignored this for now, still patiently waiting for an answer. Looking up at Dolphus with a slight smile. He liked this new friend.

“If we knew, we would have already said, the only thing we know, is that you are close.” The Guardian of the South Seas stated.

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Dolphus’ frightened eyes stayed locked on the mysterious creature, so close to the floor, the terrifying proposition now fully presented and comprehended. The word Dolphus had been searching all that while, on his way to the small cabin, dulled by the calming and pleasant voice of the dragon.

The only explanation for this kind of a creature who could do what was being suggested, and the explanation for dragons, as well as the explanation for the scroll which took Dolphus’ attention as it suddenly appeared. That old enemy of the intellect, the greatest curse upon all mankind.

Magic.

Fix hurt.

Dolphus knew what he meant, but as the words bounced back and forth inside his rattling brain, the injury he had received seemed to take a back seat to his wing, to his painful memories, and his equally constant shielding and protection of it.

He couldn’t stop his eyes from traveling to it, either. Now, in that tiny, cozy room, Dolphus was met with the same confrontational split he had faced when the dragon asked him to explain his motivation for threatening to kill the marine. Does he share all?

Or does this creature already know?

“…No.” He finally replied, if only to end the obnoxious silence, as he softly tugged at his cape to cover the wing further, the threat of compliance with magic and the threat of opening up to yet another person sufficient to deny himself expedient medical help. This creature’s voice was nowhere near as lulling as the dragon’s had been, and likewise all defenses remained standing.

“What… What is this place?”

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Fair enough. Mako thought, swimming back upwards towards the surface.

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