PM to join Sea you weeding me out

[Draven McNiel]

Day 3,Fall, 520 AV

Times were getting harsher in Zeltiva, Draven could tell that much. He had been here for over a year now, and while fall in Zeltiva was harsh, Winter was harsher. The season itself was gone, which in of itself was the problem. It was a city which rationed, and as he neither held a Visa nor Citizenship, it was time to not fall apart as he had done last year. ”Ah what’s going on?” He said with a sigh.

He walked across the beach, well out of the city at this point but at the same time his mind was stuck on that place. Fall had just started, and he needed to figure out what surrounded this place, what there was in this place. Sources of food later one would be great, but right now he was simply taking a look around. His steps were slow, relaxed, taking in his surroundings, the sand below his feet was rather strange, a part of him noting that running on this might end up a little difficult.

The other part of him realized that this was his first time on a beach. A strange thought, he had been here this long but the closest to the sea he’d been was the docks themselves. But he shook his thoughts away from such notions, and considered everything in front of him. The bay seemed to be thinning out in front of him, truly a large place. He felt as if he could spend his lifetime walking from one end to the other, but today was merely the south.

”Hah. Living here would definitely be the life.” It seemed relaxing if anything. Maybe he could….

It seemed a little bit stupid to do something here, but as far as he knew no-one was around, it was away from anyone else, and he felt restricted in Zeltiva. Here he felt more open, it was cool but not cold, it was breezy but not windy. Maybe…

He could take a dip in the water. He walked towards the shoreline and lowered himself before poking his finger in, the waves came back and forth. However a larger wave came in and Draven yelped as he leaped back. ”A mercenary...Scared of water…” He could do it, and so he approached again, took of his boots and dipped his feet in before he yelped once more, fell onto his butt as he lost his balance and waved his feet in the air, a shriek escaped his mouth for a moment until he realized that the wibbly-wobbly thing that had gotten stuck to his feet was green.

”First water, now seaweed…” He sat up with a sigh and pulled the weed from in between his toes and threw it back into the water, but it seemed to catch the air instead and stop short. It seemed today was just going to be one of those kinds of days.

Credit for boxcode goes to Karin

[Kelski]

Sometimes she wandered.

It wasn't as if she didn't have duties or held her responsibilities in high regard. She did. But she was a wild thing, inhuman, and sometimes she had to shift her form to feathers and take to the sky and fly. Her animal nature made her a creature that really only felt alive in that slim zone of defiance between the earth and the sky where the winds were her playmates and the clouds only teased her.

Sometimes she called it patrol, but that would be a lie. For often, flying over her land was a good thing. It was needed to track the changes and watch the seasons pass. Nysel had gifted her with time, more than most it seemed, and she liked to watch the world pass by beneath her wings held aloft by the invisible fingers she attributed to the hand of the sky. Closer to the truth would be that she needed to get away from people, from duties, and from making the land thrive she'd picked to be her own.

The Meraki wasn't doing well. Those that had been hired to craft the guild and make it thrive had stuck around, learning that with her there was more food than the city offered. But those that had decided to help because it was a thing of magic and a place of mages wandered on. Kelski suspected it was because there was so much inherent danger in openly professing to be mages. It was a magnet that drew trouble instead of metals... and that was something she hadn't anticipated.

But she was convinced she could protect her people by training them, paying them more than a decent wage, and sheltering them within magics others had no access too. But life was more complicated than that. The K'etir and Damazar families - what was left of them - lived here in the wilds. And they were at war with an enemy Kelski didn't understand. It wasn't a war she started, but it was one that had gone spilling into the open when she was taken at birth... stolen away from her heritage and sold into slavery.

She rose above it though. Like Dessarian said... "Blood always flows true." And she was a K'etir through and through. And one of the traits of her blood was that a strong Kelvic factor ran through it. There had been no surprise she'd been born an eagle. There was no surprise she'd survived slavery and worse in Sunberth. And now she was determined, finally, to thrive. But even the determined needed a day off now and again.

And that was what Kelski was taking.... stealing time for herself as she navigated the edges of the bay, circling it, planning to come over the city and trace Matthew's Bay on its far side before crossing back over to the Empyreal Demesne.

And as such plans go, she got distracted. There was a man alone, on a beach by himself, well outside of the city. He had stripped off his boots and was wading into the water. She watched, curiously, until he yelped, fell on his ass, and scrambled backward dragging kelp with him. He almost looked like a crab... a man shaped crab... pulling a move like that.

She circled, distracted from her flight, and back winged down to the beach where he was to land near him but far enough away to not be threatening. As she reached the level of the sand, her almost seven foot wingspan kicking up little whirlwind dervishes, she dissolved into a swirl of colored lights and reformed into a crouching woman.

Her laughter easily carried to him, where she knelt in the sand, hands on either side of her. She didn't have a stitch of clothing on. Kelvics had no access to carry clothing with them in the normal sense when they were out being wildlings. Kelski was no different. But she didn't care. Her skin was milk-white and her hair a cascade of tangled black curls that ended in white tips that echoed her Sea Eagle coloring. Silver eyes danced with mirth and black lips twitched upwards into a smile.

"Are you okay? I've never seen such vicious seaweed." She admitted, gesturing at the swath of green he'd tried throwing back to the sea. "Normally only small waves come in due to the nature of the bay unless a ship goes by. That was a Svefra's wake rolling onto the land that caught you. The waters around here are relatively harmless. I haven't actually seen anything more vicious than a fat salmon. It's too cold around here for most sharks." She added, then tossed her hair over her shoulder and rose slightly to more of a cautious stoop than a crouch. "Sometimes the crabs are nasty tempered things though.... especially if you accidentally step on them. Its a fun way to hunt them though. I could show you." She offered, relaxing and rising to her full height.

"I'm Kelski. It's not safe to be out here even on the shore alone." She added, glancing around. "The Sea isn't that dangerous at the moment, but the Wilderness is." The Kelvic added, cautioning him gently.