(Flashback) Crisis (Selphi)

[Crest Moontide]

Spring 15 510 AV

Zulrav was angry today and Crest wasn’t quite good enough to handle a storm of this size He had escaped when the Tiderunners fell but this one, may just be too much for him to handle, caught in the middle this time he knew that he couldn’t sail. He knew what he had to do. He pointed his boat in the direction of a deserted island hoping to beach himself. His footing wasn’t good enough though and after sailing for a short time more he got washed overboard by a wave that was twice his height and covered almost his entire boat, he knew he wasn’t going to get out of this alone, and as he had been alone since the Tiderunners no Tavan or other Svefra to speak of he was likely going to die here. As he slowly started sinking under the water in the tide he couldn’t handle he managed one last gurgled “Help!”

[Selphi Moontide]

The weather above was horrible, but the dolphin was safe beneath the surface of the ocean, rising to the top only to catch a quick breath of air. While the water churned and waves crashed above, the depths were still at peace and she had nothing to fear. At one point she surfaced and spotted something in the distance, it appeared to be a ship. She had been avoiding ships ever since her previous experience with the pirates, but the dolphin knew ships were often dangerous places to be during a storm. The nameless kelvic swam in the direction of the ship. The current was rather strong, but nothing the dolphin couldn't handle. She swam quickly through the water like a bird through the sky, echolating and locating the ship easily. But there was something else she was picking up. It was large, but it wasn't a fish, or a shark, or another dolphin. ..it was a person! The kelvic swam all the harder, echolating frequently so she didn't lose track of the man as he sunk beneath the rolling waves. Finally she reached him, but she couldn't tell if he was alive or not. He might have lost consciousness already, but it didn't matter to the kelvic. Nudging him from behind, she started to push him toward the surface. Going was slow at first, but once she got the hand of it they moved rather quickly and before she knew it the man was breaking the surface of the sea. But he still wasn't moving, and started to sink. The kelvic clicked and whistled and made other dolphin noises at him, but it did nothing. Finally, she decided she would have to drag him. Biting onto his shirt and being careful not to get any skin, then dragged him along behind her as she headed for a nearby island. Once they were close enough to shore that her belly was dragging the bottom the kelvic shifted, and proceeded to drag the unconscious man the rest of the way onto the land. It was still raining, but luckily there were trees nearby and she pulled him to one of those. "Wake up!" ...nothing. "Hey.. wake up!" ..still nothing. The kelvic nudged the man, but he didn't move. "Oh god, he's dead," she whispered. But then she recalled something she had seen one of the pirates do to a man who had fallen overboard. The kelvic knelt next to the man and pressed her lips against his, breathing into his mouth. Nothing happened, so she tried again, and this time he started coughing and spurting up water. It frightened the kelvic so much that she ran away, diving into the sea and shifting before he had a chance to say anything. She didn't leave the area, however, watching him from afar and hoping he would be alright. If he did get up and approach, she would keep her distance, but wouldn't go so far that he couldn't see her. It would take some doing for the man to get the dolphin to trust him.

[Crest Moontide]

Crest sputtered awake and started coughing, He was lying on a beach unsure of how he got there, with no ship and no supplies, yeah he may make it for a couple of days but much more than that, and he had very little chance of making it out alive. The island was small but there was some food, but without his rod and reel he stood very little chance of living for more than a few days and without water, even less. He stood up, stumbling a little bit as he tried. Looking around he knew that there would be very little problem finding water, but he knew almost nothing about survival, so food, that was a different story, and with his rod and reel being destroyed he couldn’t fish.

Still looking around, but this time for some signs of life, he sees a dolphin in the water. The only living thing in site, and that made him a bit nervous. He hadn’t had a pod or a Tavan for a while, but he had never known a dolphin to travel alone. Either this one was as stranded and alone as he was, or it was thrown out of its pod for some reason or another. Waving at the dolphin, he will yell “Thank you” He knew that the only reasonable way he could have made it here was the dolphin, and that the dolphin couldn’t understand him. But it felt like the right thing to say. With the storm still raging on though, he had to find shelter. He was about to take off into the forest when he realized that the lightning would probably strike the trees before him. He will quietly take a few steps toward the dolphin, right hand outstretched in an attempt to seem peaceful.

[Selphi Moontide]

The dolphin watched as Crest approached with a mixture of nervousness and curiosity. She was glad he was alive, but that didn't mean she trusted him entirely. He as a stranger, and her last experience with humans hadn't been the most pleasant. It was hard for her to be on her own, she wanted a friend, but that didn't mean she could trust just any old human who fell off his boat. As he reached out his hand toward her the dolphin let out a nervous whistling sound before turning and diving beneath the waves. She did not surface until many minutes later, though she was much farther out than she had been before and Crest might not even be able to see her. She remained in the area, however, keeping an eye on the human and making sure he was alright. When the rain finally stopped and the human slept, the dolphin went to work. Dolphin's did not sleep in the way humans did, and she was able to keep moving throughout the night, taking short cat-naps here and there. The dolphin dove beneath the waves and sent out burst of rapid clicks. The sound bounced back to her an instant later, painting a clear picture in her mind of what lie beneath the surface of the water. There were fish everywhere, and the dolphin chased them down one by one. The first few she ate herself, but she wasn't all that hungry. But many of the fish she collected and brought to the shallow waters where she could shift and bring them to the shore. By the time the sun rose in the east the dolphin had collected a rather large pile of fish, lying them all at the human's feet. Sixteen in all, of varying shapes and sizes, Crest would find when he opened his eyes the following morning. If he looked into the rising sun he could see the dolphin playing in the surf. She loved the beach, and loved the waves. She would ride them and leap over them, dive beneath them. After one such leap the dolphin spotted another fish, and realized she had only had a few fish to eat herself. The dolphin chased the fish down under the water, diving into the seaweed growing along the seafloor. The fish was fast, but she was faster, and it couldn't escape. Her jaws closed over the fish and the dolphin swallowed it down. It was quite tasty, in fact, and so tasty that the dolphin shot up toward the surface and leaped from the water with joy. Her entire body broke the surface, and the dolphin splashed down on it's side, letting out a series of happy clicks and whistles. Such was how she spent the morning, at least until the human tried to approach her again.

[Crest Moontide]

Crest understood very quickly what running away meant, in any species, it was fear. Why the dolphin had saved something that it was terrified of Crest had no idea. And as the rain was starting to die down he went quickly into the forest, in an attempt to find a thin supple branch, he lucked out though and finding a thin and supple branch and some thin string to fish with. He tied the two together and in the morning would make an effort to find food, water, and make a shelter. He had no idea how long he was going to be on this island, and needed to make the most of his situation, at this point he will look down, he breeches and shirt are soaked and torn to bits, so he strips them off, intending to make use of them in his shelter tomorrow.

At this point Crest lays down the clothing and the make shift fishing rod on top of that, and fades to sleep on the beach.

He awakes to find a rather large pile of fish, a gorgeous sunset, and an extremely excited dolphin. He takes it all in for a few moments and quickly realizes again that he is stranded on a deserted island, he has food, but he has no shelter, no fire, and no water. he also has no idea how he will get the shelter or fire, as all he currently has, are his knife, his shredded pants, and shirt, both of which are dry now, and a makeshift fishing pole. Which ironically he no longer has need for. As either the dolphin out there threw fish onto shore with its tail, which admittedly would be incredibly interesting to watch, or Laviku has decided he needs to live for one reason or another. Either way, if he is going to survive he needs shelter.

He takes off into the forest again this time looking for large branches, something he can lean on a relatively large rock to provide some shelter from rain, maybe even eventually become a home if he is truly stranded here. He leans them up against the first thick tree he can compare it too in the sand and digs out a shallow hole underneath, it would have to do for now.

He moves away from the shelter, and digs another hole, shallower this time, and places some wood in there, and deciding that no one was here, he would try some magic that he saw once. He wiggles his fingers at the pile of wood and yells “WOOSH.” When this doesn’t work, he will wiggle his fingers and yell, “FIRE NOW”. Slightly disheartened he will start to rub to sticks together, it works with his hands, maybe it will work with dried up old driftwood. Sure enough it does, after two hours of rubbing. But now he can eat. And he places most of the fish on sticks over the fire, and sits down to wait.

[Selphi Moontide]

The dolphin dove back under the water, swimming out a little deeper, and let out a blast of echolocation. The sounds that bounced back at her painted a beautiful picture of an underwater world full of seaweed, coral, and tasty fish. An entire school of fish, for that matter! The dolphin chased down the fish, snatching one after another in her jaws. Each time she successfully caught a fish she rocketed skyward and leaped out of the water, wiggling in the air and landing on her side as she crashed back down. On one such jump she glanced back at the beach. Where was the human!? He was gone! Why did he leave? Was he unimpressed with her high flying acrobatics? The dolphin had to know, and as Crest was trying to light his fire in the woods the dolphin approached the shore. When she saw that the human was nowhere in sight she shifted and waded out of the surf. The sand was hot and burned her toes and the dolphin turned human quickly darted across the beach and into the shade of the trees where the ground was cooler. She breathed in deep through her nose, closing her eyes and taking in all the scents of her surroundings. In her true form she had no sense of smell, as dolphins lacked the olfactory nerve and lobes required to pick up scents. She didn't know any of that, however, and only knew that as a human she lost the ability to echolocate but gained the ability to smell. As she breathed in a strong odor filled her nostrils and she realized that it was the smell of fire. Fire meant humans, and there was only one human on the island that she was aware of. Following her nose the kelvic made her way to the Svefra's campsite. She tried to remain hidden, crouching down behind a tree and peeking out. The kelvic girl peered around the tree and spotted the human sitting next to his fire. He seemed to have lost his clothes, but she didn't mind. She had always thought clothes were silly anyway. But what was he doing? Waiting? For what? The kelvic leaned out a little more, trying to get a better look, and lost her balance, smashing into the ground and making all matter of ruckus as she tried to get back on her feet. If Crest looked in her direction he would see the bare backside of a teenage blond running for her life towards the beach. Though he couldn't see her face, it was blushed red with embarrassment. When the kelvic reached the shore she glanced back over her shoulder to see if the man had followed her. Either way she would wade out into the water until it was about waist deep before plunging in and swimming with strong overhand strokes out to deeper water. When she was a good ways out she finally slowed and looked back behind her. It didn't matter if Crest was there or not, either way she would dive beneath the waves. Though he could wait as long as he wanted, he would not see the girl surface again. Some distance away, a dolphin leaped out of the water in a playful manner. It was the same dolphin he had seen that morning, still playing as if nothing had happened at all.

[Crest Moontide]

“What the hell was going on either I’m going insane or I am getting too hot, either way I have got to be hallucinating, I think I just saw a naked blonde woman, but there is no way that’s possible. Wait I’m talking to myself, yup definitely going crazy.” He starts to follow the woman’s path. Leading him back out to the beach the pat stopped at the shore, It was easy to follow the footprint’s in the sand leading out to the water. Crest scratches his head, confused as all get out, there was a person, they ran out into the water, and now there was no person. Either that or he wasn’t taking into account

Wait, there was one thing he hadn’t factored in. The dolphin, he had heard of Kelvics before, but didn’t know that they actually existed. Could it be that the dolphin, was also the little blonde woman, the idea was almost absurd, but it was the only one that makes any sense. The only person on the island was Crest, but the woman ran out into the water, and didn’t come out.

There was only one way to find out, Crest waded out into the water and tried to flag down the dolphin, hopefully the dolphin will come to him, It saved his life, and now was sticking around to make sure he was ok. It had to be her, she had to be the blonde woman, Crest had no idea what was going on, but maybe, just maybe, the woman was the dolphin.

[Selphi Moontide]

The dolphin eyed the human curiously as he entered the water in pursuit. Did he really think he could catch her? But no, it looked more like he was trying to get her attention. He was waving at her.. should she answer? He must have seen her. He had to have seen her, otherwise he would still be at his fire, doing whatever it was humans did with fire. Making hot food, warming stuff, things of that sort. Why did food need to be hot anyway? The dolphin's mind drifted back to her time in the desert, the dry ocean of sand. Even there human's had preferred their food hot. It just didn't make any sense. But that wasn't important. What was important was that the man was waving at her, and she needed to figure out what to do. The human did not seem to be like the pirate people she had been with before. He seemed to be friendly. Perhaps it would be okay to give him a chance. She so wanted a friend, she needed a friend, but she had run away from her last friends because they were bad for her. The dolphin dove under the water and swam toward the man, jumping over him playfully when she got close enough. He had been waving to her, so she decided she would do one of her coolest tricks and wave back. The pirates always seemed to enjoy it when they were drinking. Selphi swam in front of Crest and floated on the surface. Very carefully she turned on her side and waved a flipper at him as if to say hello. She waved twice before letting out a happy clicking sound and diving back under water. When she came up it was to shoot into the air next to Crest, and he was showered in her splash when she came back down on her back. All of it was a lot of fun to the dolphin, but eventually she calmed down and bobbed up next to Crest, staring quizzically into his eyes.

[Crest Moontide]

This dolphin knew that he was trying to get his attention, knew that something was going on, and knew that he was out here for a reason, and Crest knew that. He didn’t know how he knew that, but he knew that.

The dolphin will jump over him and start doing tricks all around him, all of which were entertaining, but still there is no way to prove that the dolphin isn’t a dolphin but a human. Waving diving jumping, all of this was so entertaining he almost forgot why he came out here but then the dolphin calmed down and he remembered. “Are you the little blonde woman who was in the forest with me?” looking to the sky “I must sound crazy but It has to be her, or someone else she rescued” Now stroking the dolphin on the head, “I’m not crazy am I, there was a petite blonde woman, and I saw her.” Taking his hand off of the dolphin, “Well thank you, I know you have to be the dolphin that saved me, or you wouldn’t still be here. I’m going to go look for the tiny blonde woman now.” And he will start to wade out of the water slightly downcast, but still quite content to be alive. And will go back and sit down by his fire.

[Selphi Moontide]

The dolphin had no idea what the human was talking about. It wasn't that she couldn't speak, but he was speaking in a language she knew nothing of. When Crest reached out to touch her on the head she shied away at first, but quickly realized that he wasn't trying to hurt her and it was in fact a little pleasant. As he mused to himself, speaking gibberish she couldn't understand, the dolphin enjoyed his petting rolling over so he could pet her belly. When he finally turned to go the dolphin was sad, but she did not pursue at first. Instead she watched him go, trying to decide what would be best. Was he safe? He seemed so friendly. Did it even really matter? He needed her. How else was he going to survive on the tiny island alone. Once Crest was out of sight the dolphin approached the shore. When she was close enough to walk she shifted into human form and made her way up the beach and into the trees. Once again she delighted in the sense of smell her human form granted. True, a human's sense of smell wasn't as impressive as other animal's, but she didn't know that and to her it was wonderful. ...not as cool as being a dolphin, but her human form certainly had it's perks. Smell, the ability to walk on land, hands. All pretty useful. She wondered if the human's were even aware of how useful their bodies really were. The little blonde girl quickly located Crest's camp. Having been there before made it easy, and once again she took to spying on the man as she hid behind a tree. He didn't seem to be doing anything particularly interesting, so it was a boring thing to watch. But she wanted to make sure he didn't do anything dangerous looking. After a while she finally stepped out of hiding and walked up to Crest's fire, staring down at the flames for a moment before looking up at him and smiling. "Hi," she said in common, doubting the man knew anything in Arumenic. Ever since leaving the desert she had found the language pretty useless to her. After that she simply sat down across from Crest, staring at him over the dancing flames. OOCI just kinda assumed that you were speaking in Fratava, since it's your main language and all.