Solo On Sunny Shores

[Sophia Sunshore]

13, Summer, 518 a.v.

Sophia had never seen a rainforest before, at least, not up close. The sheer amount of green was astonishing to her – it was like looking at a wall of nature.
As she stood near her tent the sea gently washed the shore behind her, a sound familiar and comforting. Sophia paused for a moment to take in the contrasts. The two sides of her new home were so opposite in every way. The ocean – open, moody, wilful and startlingly blue and then the forest – shadowy, mysterious and made up of all shades of green one could ever imagine. The sea she knew, it was like an old friend, but this rainforest was as alien to her as the surface of Leth’s midnight orb. Okay, she knew plants. She loved plants! But the plants here were unfamiliar in every way, not counting some of the fruits she’d come across before of course.

After arriving at Syka the previous day, she’d barely glanced at the rainforest before crawling into her tent to sleep. Now, Sophia craned her neck to look up at the tallest of the trees. The branches almost seemed to weave into each other and she wondered how much sunlight was able to get through to the forest floor. Casting her gaze downward, it almost looked like the rainforest had layers, something she would definitely have to investigate if she could. She imagined it was teeming with a mind-boggling number of creatures and unknown things. It was an exciting and also slightly terrifying thought.

It was about time the young woman acquainted herself with her new home. She needed to orient herself and also find some things to help her over the coming days – she didn’t want to reply on too many people if she could help it. The first thing to do would be to examine the area she had claimed. Randal had found someone to help her pace out the 5 acres she was allowed – Buraga she thought his name had been, one of the people tasked with defending the settlement. Since some of her land reached back into the wild jungle he had been the one to tell her just how far back that was. Apparently she had a stream running along the back of her acreage which acted as a boundary of sorts.

The beach was a much safer option today though. Sophia was marked by Caiyha, so in theory she should be relatively okay if she chose to venture into the trees. Her domain was the rugged grasslands however, and as much as she was drawn to the rainforest before her, the trees and animals within felt almost like strangers to her and it was a little unsettling. With time the fledgling Witch imagined she would become more acquainted with her current home, but for now she felt like a fish out of water.

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[Sophia Sunshore]

She headed down to the edge of the sea with her Tavan, Pearl, fluttering along behind her. Sophia smiled. The tiny seabird was a funny creature and loved to run around everywhere rather than flying when she was on land. Over water however she was completely different, the picture of grace as she soared over blue seas. Near the waters edge there were a couple of large boulders and one of them had a large flat surface that would be perfect for a couple of people to sit or lie on. She ran her hand over its smooth surface – it was warm to the touch, already being heated by Syna’s morning glow and it would be perfect to lounge upon.

Glancing round, a small and almost perfectly spherical rock caught her eye a short way off. She wandered over, feet sinking slightly into the damp sand, waves occasionally lapping at her heels. Sophia almost laughed at herself as she approached, finding that her rock was in fact, a coconut. She had seen one once before when one of her Pod had acquired it from a market somewhere and the woman remembered being given a handful of large, dried white flakes to eat. They had been delicious, and Sophia was delighted to have found it again. She bent down to pick the large seed out of the sand and examined it closely. Just how did one open a coconut to get at the flesh inside? She ran her fingers along the coarse outer shell but couldn’t feel any semblance of a crack or a lip where she could open it. It appeared she needed brute force.

Heading back over to the large boulder, Sophia planted her feet in the sand and tapped the coconut on the rock with a little force. The outer shell was hard and unyielding, not even a dent had appeared. Sophia sighed before gripping the nut in both hands and raising it to face level. She brought it down on the boulder with a loud thwack and the shell split open. Her eyebrows rose in surprise as a milky water streamed over the rock and splashed onto her feet. That, she had not been expecting. The coconut had split in half from the point she had impacted, and she turned it over to see the white flesh inside. It looked somewhat like a bowl, hollow in the middle, and she supposed that was where the water had been held. She balanced the halves in one hand and licked the fingers of the other. The taste was sweet and pleasant, and Sophia was disappointed that she had accidentally wasted it all.

She took the coconut back up to her tent and fetched her sharp eating knife from inside. She roughly started digging away at the flesh inside the nut in an attempt to make the large flakes she remembered from childhood. Instead, she was making some sort of pulpy mess, so Sophia laid the halves out in the sun for a little while so they might dry out. Squinting back at the sea, the Svefra could see Pearl hopping about in the surf, so she decided to have wander round some more of the area. She headed off toward the city core, the area where she had landed the previous day. As she approached the edge of her boundary, a pair of trees caught her eye.

Oranges! Sophia grinned and picked one of the plump, round fruits as she passed. As she walked, she dug her nails into the waxy skin and peeled it away, extracting the segments one by one and sucking the juice from each.

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[Sophia Sunshore]

Eventually Sophia made it to the core and picked out The Commons, the large open seating area where she had found Randal the day before. She wanted to see what else was around and wandering nearby she found what appeared to be a storage for barrels of water, and then a kitchen.
Sophia smiled delightedly as she took in the edible plants growing around the place. She ran a hand over one of the smaller herbs and felt faint whispers of nourishment and health. The young woman was still finding herself continuously amazed by her new gift and hoped that she would be able to grow comfortable with the life here before she made her way elsewhere. She was able to listen to the plants here, but it was as if she was only getting half of the messages. She could understand them, but she was unable to tell if they fitted, if they were right, and that was the thing that she needed to understand in order to truly use her gift. Of course, these cultivated plants were different, and Sophia smiled as she brushed her hand across the soft, fluffy branches of some fennel. The next place she came across was the fish station, and Sophia made a mental note to remember that it was here – it would definitely come in handy.

She decided to wander on, meandering around the top of the beach. She loved the feel of sand under her feet even if it did get stuck in between her toes. A large, open structure came into view and she peered up the steps to see what it was. Footsteps sounded, and an Akalak walked into view. He waved down at her, ”Hey, new face! Welcome to The Panacea! I’m Jansen.” Sophia smiled. “Oh! Hi, sorry I hope I didn’t distract you from anything. I’m Sophia, I just arrived here.” Jansen chuckled.
”Not at all. This is an open building, come on over if you’re ever in need of some healing okay? I should probably get back, but it was good to meet you Sophia.” Another wave and a nod, and Jansen headed back into the clinic. The Svefra waved back and turned to wander further down the beach. It was good to know that Syka had so many useful places already. She imagined that a healing clinic came in very handy this close to the rainforest.

As she went, this time Sophia started to gather. She collected sticks that were relatively short – about the length of her forearm as she wanted to try to make a fire when she returned to her tent. A little way beyond the Panacea, she could see a cluster of buildings over the sea. She could see a couple of people wandering about and assumed it was another public place, but one that she could explore another day. Her stomach was starting to grumble, protesting over the lone orange she had fed it so far this morning.

She wound her way back past the city core, continuing to collect sticks as she went. She knew there were enough small rocks on her part of the beach to make a ring that could contain flames, so she left those, but she did pick up some dried grass and a sorry looking palm leaf that had dropped from a tree and started to curl in the heat. Her shining find though, was the large, ripe papaya she had spotted on a tree, that was just low enough for her to reach if she jumped.

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[Sophia Sunshore]

Back at her tent, Sophia inspected the coconut first and noted that it had dried a little. Hopefully it would be easier now to remove the meat from the inside. But that was for later, now she wanted to make a fire. She carefully arranged the sticks she had gathered, then shredded the palm leaf to add in with a handful of the grasses. The Svefra then headed back down her little slice of beach to scavenge some stones to make a ring around her make shift fire pit. As she slowly gathered, she cast her gaze back down towards the sea. Her seabird companion Pearl wasn’t in sight, and she figured that the little prion had flown out over the ocean to find food for herself.

After carefully arranging her small rocks around the sticks and grass, Sophia dug through her bag to find the flint and steel she had bought over with her from Riverfall. Crouching over her little collection of sticks, Sophia tossed the flint in her hand. She had never lit a fire before – it had never been asked of her within her family, and she had completely forgotten to learn how to do it while she was in Riverfall. She knew the rough technique though. You had to make a spark to light the tinder, in Sophia’s case the dried grasses, and to make the spark you needed to strike the steel onto the flint.

She held the piece of flint close to the grasses and brought the steel down in a quick motion. Nothing. She tried again. Still nothing. Sophia frowned and shifted her grip on the steel. She tried once more, putting deliberate force behind her motion, directing it towards the middle of her empty fire. This time it worked, and a couple of small sparks flicked onto the grasses. Quickly she bent closer and gently blew until a small wisp of smoke appeared. Satisfied, she sat back and picked up the papaya again, grabbing her knife from where she had left it next to the coconut earlier.

She carefully cut around the long edges of the fruit, repeating the action until she was able to split it in two pieces. One half she placed just inside her tent – she didn’t want to accidentally cover it in sand, and she picked a few seeds out of the other. She popped them in her mouth and chewed. Papaya seeds were interesting she thought, for they tasted absolutely nothing like the fruit itself. They had a strong flavour, one she would almost describe as ‘hot’. She ate a few more and then scraped the rest out into a small jar she retrieved from her pack. They would make great seasoning for if she ever got better at cooking. The rest of the papaya she sliced up into chunks and then speared them onto some of the more slender, twiggy sticks she had collected.

She waited a little while for the fire to pick up some more and then held one of the sticks just over the flames. She waited for a chime or so, her aim wasn’t to char the fruit, just to roast it a little. Popping the soft, warm papaya chunk into her mouth, Sophia smiled at the taste. She could definitely get used to living on Syka with its abundance of delicious fruits. She just needed to learn how to prepare them all properly first.
She ate an entire half of the papaya this way, piece by piece, with only one minor incident where she accidentally caught her stick on fire and had to drop the whole thing into the flames. Her grumbling stomach sated for now, she scooped the seeds from the remaining half of the fruit into the little jar with the rest. The fruit itself she would save for later.

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[Sophia Sunshore]

Sophia now turned her attention to the coconut once more. She knew that they could be used for other things such as oil but did not have the first inkling on how to go about making that. She imagined someone around the settlement would know and it would just be a case of finding the right person, but for now this coconut would do for another tasty snack.

The halves had been left in the heat for a couple of bells now, the rapidly warming sand beneath also helping to speed up the drying of the flesh within. Taking up her knife once more, the Svefra grabbed the nearest half and tried shaving off a flake, scraping from the edge down into the centre of the ‘bowl’. To her delight it worked this time, and she immediately popped it into her mouth. The taste reminded her of being a child back on her grandmother’s ship, salty sea air tangling her hair around her face. The memory sparked a thought in the girl. What if I could find salt and somehow add it to the coconut..? She imagined the taste would be delicious. The ocean was filled with salt, she knew, but she wasn’t entirely sure how one would go about extracting it. Another project for another day.

Sophia made quick work of the coconut halves, getting into the rhythm of moving the knife gently through the white flesh to shave off thin curls. It wasn’t quite dry the whole way through, but that was of little matter. Occasionally she would pop flakes into her mouth and chew as she worked, and after a little while, Pearl appeared once more, fluttering down to rest near Sophia’s feet. Eventually both of the coconuts had been relieved of their offerings, and she left the flakes loose in the two halves, back in the warmth of Syna so they could finish drying out. With a contented sigh, Sophia stretched out in the sand and closed her eyes. Yes, she definitely felt happy here on her little sunny shore.

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OOC :

Small jar - 6cm

[Okara]

Grades and Awards Sophia Sunshore Experience Observation 5 Foraging 3 Socialization 1 Wilderness Survival 2 Lores Buraga Shamzen: Syka Settlement Defender Foraging: Coconut, Harvesting and Appearance Foraging: Oranges, Harvesting and Appearance Syka Location: Syka Commons Syka Location: The Panacea Jansen Alavarth: Akalak Healer of the Panacea Foraging: Papaya, Harvesting and Appearance Wilderness Survival: Gathering Supplies for a Fire Wilderness Survival: Building and Lighting a Fire Misc Rewards or Injuries (+) Papaya Seeds Notes It’s nice to see Sophia getting acquainted with Syka. Now she can feed herself too! I can't wait to see more of Sophia's personality emerge as she continues to explore what the settlement has to offer. Please edit your post in your grade request to reflect that it has been graded. PM me with any questions.