A Snake and a Dead Man (Tassia)

[Vapis]

Summer 8, 511 AV

Vapis hummed softly to himself as he waded through the surf, the very last rays of sunlight glinting orange off the ocean. He'd just finished the hour of general maintenance he used every day to clean and take care of the body, and he felt it was about time he get a new one. That desire, the one for a new body, was what had brought him here, to the beach. He had hoped to find a drowned body on the sands, as there would be little to no damage to the brain or muscle. However, as that hadn't fallen through, he was going to spend the next few days looking for a possible host.

The nuit sighed as the water rose above his head, the air streaming from his mouth and nose as silver beads of oxygen. He would have considered an animal host if he actually trusted anyone on the island to help him find a host after that body was shot. He was so lonely, and he realized with a shred of genuine sadness, that he would probably remain so for the remainder of his life. The number one cause of nuit death is suicide he thought bitterly, smiling slightly as the sun disappeared.

It was then, with his thoughts hovering in the darkest recesses of his mind, and his body in the darkest recesses of the ocean, that he heard a splash. What's that? He thought, the sudden noise startling him from his reverie A person falling off a boat? No, there isn't one for at least a mile. What then? But despite the fact that it couldn't be a person, it was.

[Tassia]

She was freezing. It was the first thing that flashed through her mind. The cold bit down to her very marrow, and sent a wave of chills over her skin. It was enough to even steal her breath and leave her stunned.

As she floated there, pale limbs suspended in the cool embrace of Laviku's waters, she felt consciousness returning to her at the creeping pace of a snail. Memories stirred in her mind, faint at first but slowly refining and becoming clearer. Most prominent were her recent memories, the shimmering beauty of a world glimmering in the light of an always present moon. Light had radiated from every surface, even the beings there, and left any true source of illumination as only a decoration.

There was no frigid, dark water. The night sky did not exist the way it did here. Stars did, but they weren't set into a black canvas that stretched endlessly...

She kicked for the surface of the water as her breath came to an end. She'd never felt that way before while swimming with her brothers and sisters. As she broke the surface of the tepid waters, she panted for air and began to kick lazily to keep herself afloat, at least until she could get her bearings and figure out where she was in Leth's domain.

Her breath fogged up in front of her face, her white teeth chattered incessantly, her heart pounded furiously to keep warmth flooding though the veins under her skin. Her soaked hair was ebony and it devoured the frail light of the moon hungrily. Cobalt eyes, forest green horns, they shimmered in the radiant light of Leth... And she felt her heart break as she realized what happened.

She knew where she was and why she was there. She knew it and her mind clamped shut on it, holding the knowledge there where it could poison her and make her burn with hate. What was the cure for this? The cure to rejoin Leth or to begin the cycle of death and rebirth again...

It was suicide.

She turned her eyes to the waters lapping at her freezing flesh and felt raging tears burn her eyelids. Why should she decide to return to a place she was cast from? Would they accept her there? She didn't care... She kept telling herself that now. She didn't care, because being lonely on Mizahar was far worse than being cast asunder by one's father.

[Vapis]

Kicking his feet slowly, and scooping the water with his arms, the nuit began to move towards the person treading water in the ocean. He wondered what it was. Perhaps a Konti? That would make sense, as they can stay underwater just as long as I can...But how would one have made that splash? Vapis shook his head. It made no sense. But he was approaching the figure, who was only barely keeping her-and it was a her, as Vapis could clearly see from this distance-head above the water.

Perhaps it was the cold? It didn't other Vapis, in fact he rather liked it, but for those with a beating heart, it was a horrible inconvenience. Even if it wasn't the cold bothering her, it would still be a good idea to get her out of the water...unless. Unless he simply grabbed the ankle and stopped swimming. It would mean a perfectly good new body, female admittedly, but still good. It would also mean giving up something he hadn't even realized he had. Innocence. Up to this point he had only ever taken bodies that had already met their demise. Suddenly, the water seemed to have the consistency of syrup, slowing him as he moved through it. He had reached a crossroads, at least in his eyes. A brief companion, or a body? The smart choice was immediately evident. He needed a body, and this would be easy and quick.

Cursing himself for being the most shyte-headed vagik on the planet, he swam up beside the floating woman. Once above the water, he realized she wasn't human. Horns and a bizarre eye color showed that much. Rather than speaking, Vapis simply floated next to her, waiting fo her to speak.

[Tassia]

She snorted in frustration, the desire to end this still rushing through her mind. Drowning would be painful, the water flooding into lungs in the place of oxygen would be a crushing method of dying. Perhaps she could find people, whoever lived out in this chill location, to do it for her. Maybe she could get into a fight and be stabbed? Strangled in her sleep? Devoured by some monstrous aberration?

Cobalt eyes burned with the frustration of this moment. She was such a weakling of a creature, having decided she couldn't kill herself. She wanted to scream in frustration, to curse her Father and his lover for sending her here, into who knew what form she'd possess when the sun rose. She didn't want to know what she'd be. If she were a Symenestra, she'd be able to die quicker, of course, but most other creatures were disgusting for her to see.

Muttering a curse, kicking her legs, she felt the cold settle in again. Her inner ranting had pushed it from her mind, made it nothing, and now that she was thoughtless it came rushing back...

A man's head popped up out of the water at her side, bringing a yelp of surprise from her lips. Her dark eyes met his eyes, and she noted the pale colour of his skin, the dark circling under his eyes, and the overall dead quality of his stare. She had no idea what he was, so she went with the assumption that he was a human male who was staring at her as though offended she, a naked woman, had disturbed his calming swim. Maybe she had.

"Are you staring at me for a reason?" She hissed softly, fighting the urge to grab on to him and have him bring her to whatever shore he came from. Thoughts of death had fled when she saw him, giving way to the desire for life. "Where is the land you came from? I wish to go there. Or would you have me drown?"

Her rich voice was laced with the divine accent of Leth's home, it flowed smoothly past her pale lips, laced with her sadness, anger, and incredulity.

[Vapis]

With a small raise of an eyebrow, Vapis inspected the woman. Her admittedly beautful figure, full lips and piercing eyes were noted as dully as the color of her hair. The real thing that caught his attention was the voice. It flowed past her lips like liquid choclate, the strong emotions contained within it somehow making it even more delicious.

At the first question, Vapis started slightly, then chuckled.

"You ask me why I stare?" he said, smiling, his voice falling slightly flat "You are a naked woman with horns and a voice like the night itself that would appear to have fallen out of the sky, and you ask me why I stare? In any case, land is that way" Vapis nodded his head the way he had came "I presume you can't breathe underwater? Of course you can't, but that's no matter. Follow me"

With those last two words, Vapis began to swim slowly toward the island, wondering if he had scored a body, or a companion.

[Tassia]

The woman admitted a very slight smile of his description of her. She felt nothing for the man who gazed at her naked form, nor any embarrassment that she was bared to him fully. To her, a body was a body, and while she didn't yet know the nature of the man who had found her, she would have had no problem getting him a body should he have stated an interest in one, hers included.

"Land is that way?" She turned her body to face the direction he started in, her voice lowering slightly. "Where is it I have fallen? And what is your name? Or should I call you 'Stranger'?" She smirked slowly at the prospect of doing that, of taunting a strange man, of seeing if he would kill her should she aggravate him enough. Why she wanted to see that was beyond her. She was shock still from her sudden rebirth, maybe.

She followed after the man then, unsure as to what he was, what he planned, and what he would do, but uncaring either way. If he murdered her, why should she bother? She was new to this life. She wasn't even sure yet if she wanted it.

[Vapis]

Vapis allowed a smile to spread across his lips as he swam slowly but surely towards the lights in the distance that he knew marked Mura and the Konti Isle out of the sea. He wondered if he had made a mistake in taking her back to the island. Who knew if she was evil or good? She might simply wait a moment for him to let his guard down before attacking him or trying to betray him in some way. But I suppose that's the inherent danger in meeting people He mused You never know what theyre going to do...

"Yes, land is this way" he answered "and my name is Vapis. Yours? I presume though you just fell out of the sky, you do have a name? And do you always have those horns, or only when you've fallen into the water and met a stranger...?"

[Tassia]

"My name is too great for the likes of you." The Ethaefal spoke in the most pretentious voice known to man, although it was still honey-sweet and rich. If they were on ground, and she standing taller than him, she would be glaring down her nose at this man. "I can't even speak it for myself." But she could see it. Written in flowing script, whispered in a deep, dark voice. It was so frustrating, to know your own name, but to be unable to speak it aloud for fear of distorting the language it was born in. She had to choose another name, like the others that fell before her.

She could have laughed at the question about her horns. Had he not heard of her race? The only two-legged horned race walking this burnt land was her own! A race that was divine, like the witches of the white island, or the savages of the great rain forest. A race much greater than them, though! While they bore marks, Ethaefal bore the bodies gifted them by their patrons, forms as lovely as day or as beautiful as night.

Before she answered, the Ethaefal furrowed her brow and kept swimming almost idly, her arms already burning. She had no skill in swimming, but at least she wasn't quiet drowning.

Now, though, her thoughts were off the movements propelling her and her founder through the water. She was thinking of a name, just as great as her own had been when Leth first spoke it. The names of stars flowed through her mind, constellations presented themselves to be discarded. None bore names she wanted. Until she came to the name of a particularly bitter star. Tassia, the Lonely. A yellow star, set among blue and pink stars, that Zintila the Alvina of Lhavit tended to make burn brighter once a day every decade or so. The Ethaefal knew the story of why the star became lonely, but it took a while to show itself in her floundering mind.

"My name is Tassia." She said to Vapis eventually. A slow smile caught up her lips, curving them gracefully. "And these horns are permanent, though by day they'll have faded away." She spoke the last sentence with the quiet acceptance of one who both despised their fate, yet knew it was unchangeable. She'd change with dawn, she knew, but into what was what she was unsure of. Perhaps a human, like this man next to her who seemed so oblivious to the nudity of a woman who was, quite literally, a horny piece of work, although in a physical, visible sense. And, as far as "Tassia" could tell, those horns adorning her temples were quite the pointy ones.

[Vapis]

Vapis smiled wryly before shaking his head in consternation. He had just saved this woman's life and she refused to do him the simply courtesy of telling him her name, and did so with her rich and powerful voice absolutely dripping with contempt and pretention. He was starting to wish he'd simply left this woman to drown when she spoke again, declaring that not even she herself had command of this name. "I wonder" he said, more to the night sky than his mysterious companion "What is the use of a name if it cannot be said?" As he finished speaking, he saw a bonfire appear not too far from where they were. It would seem they were close to the beach than he had thought. Only a minute or two more and they would reach the shore.

Instead of actually answering his questions, as social conventons would dictate, she simply continued to swim behind him, the splash of her arms masking his aggravated snort. Had she no semblance of manners at all? Or worse yet, was she some sort of nobility? Vapis dreaded the very notion. Not only did Vapis loathe the highhanded-ness of nobles, but he did have something of a problem with authority.

Vapis' lips twisted when she announced her name to be Tassia. He had heard of the star, but as of yet had not been told its story. "What a positively sky high name" He said sardonically "And what do you mean, faded away?" As he asked his final question, his foot scraped sand, and he realized they had reached the beach

[Tassia]

"I come from a place where the language spoken cannot be repeated by any mortal tongue." She said in a dignified tone. She wondered at the use of this man. Would he be friend or foe? She had to think about his usefulness. A tool to return to the Ukalas would be something beloved, and if he could return her there she would be so happy.

"It's most certainly a "sky high name"." Tassia said cooly. "The people of my race always look to the stars for our adopted names. Where is yours from, Vapis?"

What did she mean? "I will change forms. My horns will return tomorrow night, but they will disappear come Syna's light." She said slowly, as though speaking to a particularly dense child struggling with basic enumeration. "It's another racial feature. A curse we suffer that some cherish as a blessing. I don't look forward to it."

They hit the beach, and Tassia immediately wondered what she should do. She was naked, and she had no idea who was tending that bonfire. She didn't even really know where she was, or what sea she'd been cast away into.

"Why did you save me from the water, Vapis?" She asked suddenly as she faced the fire, her cold tone dropping as she spoke softly.