[Riverfall Port] Day at the Water [Veno, Open]

[Mindi]

Time Stamp: Day 24 of Summer, AV 510

The Bluevein, what an interesting little river, a waterfall, just enjoyable to watch. Mindi, willing servant and follower of Rak'keli, sat at the edge of the wooden walkway of the port, eyes dark and full of thought, stared without expression as the water soared from the cliff and crashed down into the sea below, only a few hundred yards from her own location. It was a little frightening to be honest, water would swallow her up so easily. Her skin was dense, her right arm was an anchor, a single misstep would send her straight to the bottom of the sea. Luckily she had two things in her favor. One, it was fairly shallow here, she could manage to crawl on the floor underneath the water back to the shore before she drowned. Two, there were dozens of the average Blue Giant Akalak man loading and unloading cargo nearby. Each of them desperate to become a young woman's hero. They would try pretty much anything, at least anything legal, to get a female to give them a son. The thought chilled Mindi quite easily. Mindi shook her head, pushing away those thoughts, they were unhealthy to her standings with Rak'keli, and even more of a danger with her belief in Cheva. Her Goddesses, along with Izurith, the God consistent with nearly all Isur, is what took up a majority of her time. Well, they were, now there was one more person, this one mortal, that took a good deal of her time and attention. Mindi couldn't help but scowl, the man that was training her in Reimancy, as well as in sexual harassment (which she did not initially intend to take part in). An old man, human, wise and powerful, yet a pervert. A real shame. For the next several minutes, Mindi would close her eyes and lower her head, placing the large black hood of her robe over her head. Rak'keli would dominate her thoughts, attempts to speak to the Goddess of healing from Riverfall. Mindi wasn't sure if Rak'keli could hear or feel Mindi from here, but she would try, faith in the thought that her intentions were not wasted.

[Veno Aroit]

Veno stirred in the small underwater cave she had found a couple of metres on the shore nearby Riverfall, a decent port-town she had found some time ago. She smiled as she saw a sea-snake clamp it's jaws shut around a silvery herring. The cycle of life was beautiful. She piruetted lightly in the saline water, swimming to the open sea with light graceful strokes. She paused for a moment to tear a strip of sea-weed from the bottom of the sea. She was about to do it by hand and frowned, taking out her Coralline Dagger. She had seen her mentor totally shift the shape of the dagger, making it grasp sea-weed and tear it out without actually moving his arm. She extended the dagger and frowned, watching in admiration as the tip of the dagger parted to form two distinct tips. Yet the movement was miniscule and she tried pushing the Coral Manipulation farther, to be instead let down. The dagger wouldn't budge further, her limits were quite restrictive. She willed the dagger to become single-tipped once more, taking it's original form. And this time the dagger replied. After facing utter disappointment and berating herself, she sighed and swam to the surface, no longer caring about swimming in long graceful strokes. Her face broke the water's surface but; being a Charoda, Veno didn't gasp for air. Charodae breathed through their skin, no trouble there. She started walking into the Port town's bustling streets dotted with stalls and shops. The coastal air was smelt good. Sea-birds dotted the air, attracted by the persistant smell of fish and thus, promise of food. Veno was looking for a stall to rob, or someone to pick-pocket when she spotted a human-like female immersed partially into the water. Her home turf. Veno immersed herself in the water, crouching down so she wouldn't be seen easily and moving cautiously and slowly. Hopefully this would yield to better results than coralline manipulation. Veno was about to run an ordinary pick-pocketing when she thought of something. She tackled the female's legs roughly, using her shoulder to throw the female off balance and possibly get her to fall into the water. Veno went for the female's purse with a hand and for the female's shield with another. She didn't expect to loot both. Just one of them would be great. If things got too risky, Veno braced herself to flee and swim away. No one would be able to keep up with her swimming, and she had been underwater all the time. They wouldn't be able to recognize her after this. The female would probably blame the incident on a big fish, and if she did lose some of her belongings... she would probably blame it on her carelessness, not on an underwater thief. The adrenaline rush made Veno grin. She thought of biting into the female's leg, but meat was plain gross and she'd rather not hurt innocent people- where possible.

[Mindi]

Mindi was taken completely by surprise as she began to tip over. For being only five feet tall though, Mindi was nearly two hundred pounds, and at first glance that would not be recognized. Added that Mindi was wearing a heavy black robe, chain-linked armor underneath, and even clothing under that, probably made a good two hundred and twenty pounds. However, Mindi did fall backward, but not without securing a firm grasp on the thing, whatever it was, that was attacking her. Mindi felt quick certain something was. Mindi's right arm, blue and as strong as Isurian steel itself, would grab around the water, which would easily take a firm grasp of the Charoda if she didn't depart immediately, not to mention that Mindi's coin purse was indeed inside her robe, putting it well outside of a simple grab and run job. Mindi did get several looks at the fishlike humanoid, yet she was unsure of what she had actually seen. Mindi never once heard of or saw a Charoda before, much less been straight up assaulted by one. Yet after it departed, and thankfully for Mindi, without her gear (the shield was large and her purse inside her robe), she began to wade back out of the water, and unlike the Charoda, Mindi did gasp for air as she pulled herself above the surface of the water and slowly drug her body back to shore. This was the second time in mere days that Mindi had found herself completely dressed, and then completely soaked. Damn that Vincent, damn that... fish... thing. Mindi grunted to herself as she moved about two dozen paces from the water and began to strip down. Off came the soaking black robe, off came the chainmail shirt, her clothing stayed, but that was only because the Akalak men would become a little too excited if she went farther, something she did not want to deal with. All of her discarded belongings found themselves in a single pile, money pouch under chain shirt under black robe, all resting on the large and extending shield of her people. The shield was most valuable to her, she would have been distraught to have lost it. With all her belongings resting in one pile, Mindi sat down right beside it, not even an arm length away, and she kept a steady gaze on the ocean as he tried to wring the water from her very long black hair, which was earlier concealed by the robe. Mindi wasn't so sure that she wasn't the victim of some sort of dire fish attack, perhaps a shark even, and whatever it was, bothered her too much to approach the water again. When she decided to leave the shore, she would follow the land straight up into Riverfall again. Forget the water, she knew it was bad. It was foolish to test it.

[Veno Aroit]

The attempt at robbery was futile, the female seemed anchored to the floor, she barely budged as Veno bashed her with her shoulder. Furthermore, their eyes met a couple of times. Luckily, the female didn't raise the alarm. She just relaxed at the water-line. Veno waited from the depth of the water, watching the female as she stripped, bewildered by the blue arm. Was she some kind of Akalak-Human Cross breed? Veno had to do something, before the female alerted anyone about the attempt at robbery. She waded to the shore energetically with a grin on her face and lied down next to Mindi. "Hi there, I'm Veno! Sorry about that, did I startle you? I was swimming and you stepped on my dagger. It's very important and tresured to me, so I panicked." Veno offered, as she showed the coralline dagger to Mindi. "What's your name? Are you from around here? You're the first person I've talked to in AGES! Are you really a Human-Akalak Crossbreed? What do you do for a living? How old are you? What is this place called? Where are you from? How's the temperature over there? How old are you? Do you want to be friends?" Veno asked, bombarding Mindi with questions whilst rocking hyperactively on the shore, hugging her knees to herself and occasionally giggling softly. Veno was being really noisy, and most of the sailors and by-passers ended up onlooking the two. It was obvious that from the quality of their stares at Veno's skimpy clothing, some of the Akalaks didn't know that being a Charoda, Veno didn't have the prequisites to reproduce. Unless they wanted to masturbate upon a coralline pouch of eggs, she doubted that would work, though. Veno decided to ignore them, and focus on the mysterious girl in front of her.

[Mindi]

Mindi was watching the surface of the water intently, making sure that something along the lines of a Dire Shark, or even a normal shark for that matter, wasn't going to walk straight out of the water (as highly unlikely as that was) and eat her. And thanks to her watching said water like a hawk, she instantly saw the Charoda as she surfaced. Instantly Mindi shot up, standing as tall as her five foot body could manage, and eyed the water-dweller suspiciously. Once Veno found her place to sit on the sandy shore, Mindi sat next to her, a wave of anxiety, awkwardness, and all around confusion bashing into her like thirty foot wave. She might have allowed the fish woman to sit, but she did not take away her accusing glares or suspicious gazing. A dagger, right. Chances are that Mindi would have felt the dagger under her feet some several minutes ago, since she hand been walking through the water, but rather standing in it. An unlikely story, but Mindi didn't feel like pressing the matter. In all Honesty, it would only create conflict, something Mindi did not particularly hunger for at that moment, or ever really. Mindi, unsure of what to say, was shocked as a second thirty foot wave pummeled her, confusion, bewilderment, this fish woman asked so many questions, so quickly (and spoke Common so fluently) that Mindi had to take a double take. Most of the questions were lost in the whirlwind of interrogation. Mindi, however, felt a faint chuckle as the Charoda made quite a comical scene. "My name is Mindi." Mindi watched the various Akalak men nearby gazing at them. Were they actually watching the fish woman? Bizarre, Mindi knew they were desperate to keep their race alive, but did they not have ANY standards? Perhaps that's why Mindi was chuckling, who knows. "I'm not Akalak, I'm Isur, Vizarian Clan." She lifted her right arm, a solid blue and dense as could possibly be, and showed it off to Veno. It was clear she was proud of her heritage. "Servant of Rak'keli, healer, student under Vincent Callatori, and Novice Blacksmith."

[Veno Aroit]

Veno smiled cutely at Mindi and offered her a wet, webbed, rubbery hand. "I'm Veno Aroit, of the Charodae. Where are you headed, Mindi? I'm looking for adventure and excitement! Underwater life can get boring really quickly." Veno explained, as she sighed and gave a slight shrug. "I love this side of the world. It's... full and the smells, sights, sound are all really tropical and exotic to me. It's like being born again. My senses are screaming messages I never felt before at me. It's equally bewildering and invigorating." "Do you want to be my friend, Mindi? We can travel the world together! We'll haul huge mountains of treasure and riches and stow them away safely in underwater caverns and coral beds!" Veno dreamt on, talking to herself more than to Mindi in particular. "Where's our next destination? What are we going to do there? How far is it? Is there plenty of water for me?" Veno asked energetically. "We can look for jobs here. We can run favors for people! We'll gain a huge amount of Mizas, which we'll use to set up our business and..." Veno paused, frowning as if confused and trying to remember about something. "You did say you wanted to be my friend, right? I forgot. I got carried away thinking about how exciting our travels will be!" Veno looked like she was going to wait for Mindi to answer when her mouth seemed to open on it's own accord and start talking at rapid fire again. "By the way, Can you breathe under-water? I can show you the coral beds! They're a lovely sight! And I'll teach you how to ride sea-horses and swim as fast as any fish! ...I did it again, didn't I? I'm sorry..." Veno sighed, as she realized she got carried away once more. She really didn't ever talk to anyone in her life, especially someone her age. So seeing someone in front of her willing to hear her and possibly be her friend was driving her half-mad with excitement. "Will you be my friend and companion-in-adventure, Mindi?"

[Mindi]

Mindi, who was more comfortable thinking that this woman was some sort of shark-like assailant than an ignorant adventurer seeking comrades, slowly outstretched her arm to accept the handshake. With her right hand she firmly grasped Veno's and, not enough to hurt her, hopefully, Mindi gave a fairly strong grip in said greeting. Almost like a subtle, unspoken threat not to try anything on her. She offered a smirk, a faint, false, smile. "You need to slow down Veno. So far you have asked more questions than I can keep up with, answered a few, and offer me into a traveling companionship with some creature I know nothing but the name of." Mindi paused a moment as she withdrew her hand, her smirk faded back to a straight stare now. "I'll answer a few more questions, but then it is my turn to do so." Mindi was taking control of the conversation. "First you ask about a friendship. I must respond with my personal belief that friendships are fickle, myths, nothing more than a word used for acquaintances under an illusion of a relationship of trust and devotion, but in my experience, few but my own people offer such a relationship and hold to it. We are acquaintances Veno, and we can be friendly, but do not expect much from me. I have my own issues to resolve, my own tasks to complete." A simple question turned into a philosophical preaching, you'd expect nothing less from a religious zealot as Mindi. She had opinions on everything back either by the gods, her belief in them, or personal experience. If none of the above applied, then it was probably a waste of time to her. Next question, or comment really, the treasure, this unplanned adventure. Mind heard that once already, this very season in fact. 'The Crawlers' they called themselves, Vitalos, Emma, Korin, and Griffith, was a mix matched group of people. Fortunately they vanished from Riverfall and didn't bother to drag her along. She wouldn't know what to do around those people. "Treasure does not interest me. The water does not interest me. Also, you say 'we' rather than 'me' or 'you'. As I have said (though Mindi was unsure if Veno was listening, a frustrating thought), we are acquaintances, not friends nor companions. My destination may be different from yours. I am at my destination, Riverfall, home of the Akalak. I am studying Reimancy under Vincent Callatori, and once he is pleased with my abilities I will probably return to my home in the mountains, Sultros. Your destination, I could not possibly know." Mindi watched in disbelief as the Charoda continued to prattle on, talking like some madwoman, hardly bothering to breathe in between sentences. Was she breathing at all? Mindi couldn't tell. She did live in the water after all. She stood up slowly, taking her chainmail armor shirt and sliding over her small body. Feeling the weight of the iron links around her shoulders, she gave a brief nod of satisfaction before returning her attention to the Charoda. "You assume much of me Veno from the Underwater world. I am not an adventurer. I am an Isur, chaste until Cheva offers me a mate, I am a healer by the name of Rak'keli, which I would do not for price, but for care for others. My path has ended (those words held a very faint twinge of sorrow), here in Riverfall, and when my time is done, I will walk the path back whence I came, and meet my father and mother in Sultros once more." Midni gathered her belongings as she now took her turn to ask a few questions. "Veno, do you follow any gods? Mindi smiled now, a natural healthy smile that told now that Mindi was talking about something she was passionate for, something which many were not. Several people worshiped and was done for the day, for Mindi, however, she worshiped throughout the day, did, to the best of her ability she'd like to believe, as she should. She was pleased with herself, and convinced the Gods were as well, at least the ones she followed. She didn't like the idea of Vayt detesting her in particular.