With The Help Of Some Fireflies (Aoide)

[Gossamer]

Timestamp Early Fall 516 A.V.

The older man certainly wasn't the oldest human alive, but at 45, Mathias was older than most. He had laugh lines around his eyes and looked to be in good humor even though what he was doing didn't seem to be working out so well. Mathias had a fishing pole - a big one - well in hand and was casting out into the surf to do a bit of fishing outside of his little bungalow just off Swing Beach. In fact, he was indeed fishing on Swing Beach, though luck seemed to have abandoned him utterly. That was fine with Mathias. He'd never much bowed his head to Ovek anyhow. His true heart belonged to Xhyvas, a God that owned the spheres of Transcendence and Possibilities. It was only possible he'd catch fish today. But a bad day of fishing was always better than a good day of working, or so Mathias had decided long ago.

Xhyvas had brought him to Syka and urged him to open the settlement. Slowly he was discovering why. Their explorations of the jungle around the small outlet had lead to amazing discoveries. An ancient city lay all around them. Even now, casting out into the surf, he might be fishing among ruins that held greater things that the teaming schools of fish. Mathias was a dreamer and a visionary. He looked ahead always and rarely let setbacks bother him. Problems were just opportunities to excel.

And thus it was he cast out again, mulling over the problem of actually getting settlers to Syka. The settlement wouldn't' thrive without new people around. He needed them and more importantly their skills. Strangers didn't wander by any time and offer their services. They were, for all intent and purposes, halfway around the world from most human settlements. And as much as he liked other races, Mathias longed for humans to come to Syka and populate it. A few kelvics couldn't hurt either. He just wasn't sure how to draw them in.

Reeling in his line, he checked his bait, found it stolen, and slid another shrimp on the line. Shrimp he could catch, by the dozens with a net, at both dawn and dusk. In fact, it might be better if he got out his net and cast a few times to replenish his bait. To do so he'd have to move down the beach to where the still water was lapping up against mangrove. Mathias didn't want to move though. Not yet. He could almost feel the possibility of a fish coming soon. And besides, he was tired of eating shrimp. Mathias longed for a full grilled fish for dinner. So rather than switch to his net, he re-baited his line and cast out again, hopeful this time he'd get a bite.

And he did... almost instantly. The yard tug on his line had him grinning and practically dancing in place. Old he might be, but dead he wasn't. There was a fish on the line... something large enough indeed to fill his belly.

It was about time too. Fireflies were out already, dancing in the pre-dusk air and teasing about a long hot night to come. Mathias wanted his dinner sooner or later so he set about trying to jerking his line and trying to set the hook deep in whatever fish's mouth he'd caught with his fat wiggling shrimp.

[Jacinth]

There was only one thing that Aoide could possibly love more than fish. Swimming was in her veins and written in her code, but on the voyage to a new land, she had little time to devote to the activity. The kelvic hadn't dared to risk going overboard because she assumed that would give the crew and passengers too much of a scare. And being chastised for something she loved to do just didn't sit well for her. So she had waited, walking in circles continuously around the ship, or clinging to the railing and leaning out as far as she could, head lifted to the sky to catch those precious droplets of salt water from the parting waves.

But the second she glimpsed the sight of land on the horizon, the kelvic girl stripped what meager clothing she wore on her person and tossed them to the wind. And she jumped, right into the wide blue sea. The impact left a large splash and a minor sting on her belly, but the kelvic didn't care. Her transformation was swift, and the girl--now a dolphin-- relished in the expansive freedom that was finally at her fin tips. With a flip of her tail fins, she propelled herself out of the water and into the air with a jump that soon sent her back crashing into the rolling waves.

Her time on the boat had felt like an eternity, but now... now she was free! And there were even fish! Fish all over! The dusky dolphin darted through the sea like an arrow through the clouds, right toward a swarming school of fish. One of them, a moderately larger fish with a golden scale patterning darted away from her advances... towards the shore.

Oh no you don't!

The chase was only a half a chime long, through mazes of coral and kelp and by-standing sea turtles. But the fish, perhaps in desperation, had wandered into the shallower shores, where the dolphin couldn't wade. You live another day, little fish! But more than disappointed the kelvic was, especially with a rumbling belly that had yet to be filled.

Aoide settled into a slower wander around the shore, until something gave her pause. A wriggling in the ocean currents... of prey! And as she swam a little closer, she found a moderately large colourful fish struggling against something that vaguely resembled a.. fishing line?

A fisherman? Oh! The playful streak in the kelvic, cultivated by her gnawing hunger, immediately kicked into overdrive. She launched herself at the fish like a torpedo, her sleek snout open wide to chomp down on her struggling prey with a vigor that could have matched a great white's. But she didn't shake the line, oh no, she pulled right back at the fisherman, as though she was reeling him in! And while she was a good size, she wasn't as large as her other whale and dolphin cousins, which lent this a more challenging game.

oocI hope this post was alright! If you want me to have her shift and talk to him immediately I can always alter my post!

[Gossamer]

Mathias should have known it was too good to be true. His dreams of fresh fish on a grill for dinner were crushed when a hearty yank on the line surprised him and dragged him into the surf about four feet from where he'd been standing. He mouthed an oath, gripped his pole so he didn't loose it, and grabbed at his reel and began slowly bringing the line in. There was a sturdy pull, as if the two forces had reached an impasse, and then a snap as the line broke and drifted loose.

Mathias almost lost his footing again.

The curses were a bit louder now as Mathias reeled the remaining line in and turned to wade to shore where his tackle was. He didn't notice the dolphin at first, not when he was fighting the line, but as he turned he caught a glimpse of her surfacing to breath and then redive. His features which up until that point were twisted in frustration definitely softened.

"I suspect someone stole my dinner." He muttered with a laugh and knelt down in the sand near the tackle box to take the broken end of the fishing line and tie another hook onto it. From there he baited the freshly added hook and turned towards the water again. He shook his head as he saw the dolphin breath one or two more times out past the surf. Then he let out a bit of slack and cast out into the water, patiently hoping this time if he got something on the line nothing would interfere.

Soon enough, something was on the line. Syka's coast was teaming with hungry fish and bait was usually not ignored. Mathias figured the dolphin was just being lazy if it couldn't catch its own dinner in the rich waters. Wading out again into the surf, Mathias was the embodiment of patience as he carefully worked the bait around. This time he used a bit of shrimp on the hook.

Chimes pasted. He caught no further signs of the dolphin, probably because he was on low enough ground he couldn't see over the breakers. Then, at almost the fifteen chime mark, he felt another nibble on his line. He waited, tugged hard suddenly, and then set the hook in whatever it wast hat he'd caught.

[Jacinth]

The dolphin would have giggled enthusiastically had she been able to. Instead, she blew air out of her blowhole and dipped back into the water, circling out into the drop off and back around toward the fisherman. And she brought with her a small herd of little fish whose scales glistened in a myriad of colours. Though a few stray fish managed to diverge from the swarming ball, Aoide managed to herd them closer to shore, using her powerful tail fin to dip below them when she wanted them pushed further to the surface.

In a way, she hoped the fisherman would appreciate the gesture as a way of making up for her losing his fish. While she was playful and rambunctious, she could relate to the general disgruntlement that came with losing a catch, and so she hoped that by herding the fish right into his waiting (and quite juicy) shrimp, he'd at least have something yummy to fill his belly.

She darted through the shoreline with the remainder of the herd, catching what few morsels she could in her short snout, and swallowed them whole. With her own stomach nominally full, the dolphin shed her fins and rubbery flesh in a spontaneous flash of light, and emerged a girl, who promptly waded toward the shore and finally stepped onto the new land on her own two feet.

With the hot sun beating down on her drenched flesh, she was anything but cold. She raised a hand to shield her eyes from the glare of Syna's rays, and found the fisherman where she'd last seen him, not too far off. A large grin graced her lips and she waved a hand excitedly. "Oi! Did you catch one?" She called, bounding over.

oocSorry for the delay!