Infertile Soil (Victor)

[Chloe]

A lone Palivar waded far out from the city of Syliras, a distant dream that faded into the horizon. Its crew of 3 having quite a delimma. Using the numbers Victor had given her earlier that evening, Chloe mapped out a path to their young stow-away's house, using what tools she could find in the rather shabby room she could only assume was the father's. The wrinkled map she worked with was riddled with holes and tears that made it difficult to read. It was all because of that stupid kid. They could have plundered another ship right now, but with a kid on board it would be too risky. Chloe cared for all of her passengers regardless of who (or what) they are, and she wouldn't be willing to risk the child's life. It would have been worth it to check the ship before the stole it, it really would. But here they were now, with a better ship, and a kidnapped child. Chloe was thankful that the boy had not seen through their disguises, but she wasn't sure if she could keep it up over the course of two days. She drew a faint dot on the piece of parchment, marking the location of the young Svefra's home. Typically, the Svefra didn't have permanent homes aside from their ships and it struck Chloe as odd that this family would have one. She could only guess that it acted as a "safehouse" in case this sort of thing were to happen. She double checked her work and placed a larger dot a few inches away from a town marked Alvadas. Chloe rolled the name around in her head in the hopes that it would spark some stored-away memory. She remembered people talking about it, at least. "The City of Illusions". Tales of how the city changed and moved constantly circulated quite well in her Sevfra pod. Chloe had always disregarded them as tall tales, told by drunkards who were to egotistical to admit they had gotten lost within the city. Chloe pushed back in her chair and opened up the drawer, being met by a cluttered mess of papers with statistics, signatures, and notes. It was written almost entirely in Fratava, and quite a sight for sore eyes. Chloe had been speaking common for so long it felt as if it were her natural language. She pushed the papers around, trying to find a map of Alvadas. It was difficult trying to search through the papers due to the sheer number of them. She would have to organize them at some point. Finally she found what she was looking for. Her long fingers pulled out an aged map that sat on the bottom of the pile. It was in fairly good condition in comparison to the others. She slammed shut the draw and laid the map out on the table, studying the layout of the city. It was a simple rectangle with several paths acting as shortcuts between the larger paths that formed said rectangle. How could someone get lost in a place like that? Maybe it really was a magical city. She had never seen magic performed before, but she read about it in books. Regardless, she would probably experience it in Alvadas. They would drop the kid off, and then float over to Alvadas to get supplies. They wouldn't have enough food to go anyplace else. Finished with her work she shoved the papers back in the drawer, grabbed a compass, and exited out onto the deck. The sun was almost lost behind the mountains in the far distance, casting long shadows through the masts of the ship. Chloe had to cover her eyes from the light that escaped past the sails. They had to take off as soon as they could. Chloe didnt enjoy sailing out at sea in the dead of night. Sleep was not a necessity to her, it was the other pirates that worried her. They weren't even carrying anything worth stealing, so they'd most likely end up getting burned down, or taken as prisoners. Chloe shook her head. She'd be able to hold herself in a fight. Chloe began to light the lanterns scattered across the deck of the ship, illuminating the wooden ship with golden light. Then she raised the anchor and took her place at the wheel, preparing for the long journey ahead. She spun the wheel hard left, the ship tilting slightly as it turned south-west ward. Water stretched out ahead out into the horizon, several small islands littering the view. It was going to be one helluva trip. Soon the boat was lined up with their destination, and Chloe spun the wheel the other way to keep it from overshooting it's mark. Then, it was just a matter of waiting. She idly rubbed the dotted scar on her hand and let her mind wander. She couldn't stop thinking about the child below deck. She hadn't always hated kids, but ever since she was 16 she had despised them. She knew why. She knew perfectly well why. It's because she could never have any. She sighed. Thinking about it always made her depressed

[Vondonos Sultros]

The monster lunged at Victor, its filaments dull and dangerous in the dim light. Victor rolled out of the way, wincing with pain as the rough forest dirt touched each of his prodigious amount of wounds and bruises. Victor wildly slashed with his huge, five foot blade, but to not avail. The monster easily dodged each blow, its eyes gleaming in the darkness. Its mouthless face seemed to gape at him, swallowing him as he stood. But Victor knew that he couldn't back down. This was his chance to avenge his family and obtain peace with himself. The beast deflected the sword with its tail and a filament pierced Victor's side. Screaming in pain, Victor turned his swipe to the creature's face into a downward stroke to its filament. It screamed as its filament was decapitated, just as Victor screamed as 3 more of those dangerous weapons lodged themselves into flesh. Victor struggled to move, but his arms wouldn't listen to him. He closed his eyes, knowing that no matter what he did, he had failed. 10 filaments hit his chest, rending it apart. Blood mixed with dirt as the carcass that was Vondonos Hammerfist Sultros hit the ground, his lifeless eyes gazing up at his lifelong foe, hatred still in his dead eyes. Victor screamed as he woke up. Panting, sweating, and swearing, Victor shook his head in disgust. He had been having the same dream almost every night, and it was getting to be rather annoying. It wasn’t all bad though. Even though it had only been a few hours since he had met Chloe, Victor already felt himself drifting away from his previous life. As if Avenger was his previous occupation, and he was moving on to bigger and better things. Victor stroked the deep scar in his otherwise adamantine arm. His dreams and scars would always keep him on the path to vengeance. Justice. A loud cry from the other room told him that there was another path that he had to walk. A path that would lead him to the kid’s room. The bed creaked as Victor slowly got to his feet, stretching his arms into the air. He kicked his right foot into the air as high as he could. It stopped short at his solar plexus level and came crashing down again. Here was one Isur who really needed to work on his flexibility. He would start tomorrow, there were more pressing matters to attend to. Victor went to his backpack and took out another loaf of bread and a piece of salted pork out of his bag. He knew this would be needed in the near future, for there was little other reason for a child to scream. Victor opened the door to his cabin, his eyes blinking unsteadily as he walked into the bright light of the late morning. Since he had awoken to a nightmare, Victor had assumed that it was still night. However, judging by the position of the sun, it was at least half past 8, maybe later. Victor rushed over to his little charge’s room and unlocked it. The moment that he opened the door, a sprawling mess of fury flew out of it, kicking and punching like mad. Bemused, Victor swung his right hand in a short arc and slapped the little boy upside the head, just as his father had done to him. “What’s the matter sport?” “Why’d you lock me in you smelly old man?” “The wind must have turned the lock, it wasn’t me. How about some breakfast to take your mind off of it.” said Victor, holding up the food in his head. Perking up, the little boy followed the “smelly old man” over to the kitchen. Victor sat the kid onto the bench and picked up the knife that he had used to prepare their dinner the night before. He carefully cut the pork into thin pieces. He dug through the drawers, and eventually found a bottle of cooking oil as well as a pan, a flint, and a steel. Victor rubbed the flint and steel together vigorously several times. Finally, a spark jumped out and into the wood stove. In a matter of seconds, the stove was ready for cooking. Victor splayed a bit of oil onto the pan, careful to leave plenty for the rest of their meals. He then layed the pieces of pork onto the pan, letting them cook slowly. This method of frying wouldn’t provide much taste, he would need some kind of spices for that, but it would render the pork edible. If he didn’t burn it. At that horrible thought, Victor put his nose closer to the pan, making absolutely sure that he would be there to flip it as soon as he was ready. They didn’t have enough food to allow him the luxury of burning anything. Several minutes later, three beautifully edible pieces of meat were resting atop three slices of bread. The bread wasn’t too hard yet, but by tomorrow it would be. The meat would be much better than yesterday, as it was fresher, better preserved, and cooked right before served. He placed the plates onto the small, battered wooden table and sat down to eat.

[Chloe]

OOCFINALLY! sorry it took so long.

Oh, and I've got something to ask of you. I'm making another character and he's going to be linked in some way to my character and Drask Amberhold, my brother's character. We're both working on him, but we agree that in order for him to be epic, he needs to have a third developer. He's gonna be a kick-ass battle-Priest, or at least that's what we want to make him. Oh, and Drask says this should be our theme song while we work together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCIMIqwmP2c <- Not sure why that got knocked out of the box, but read the OOC first.

Chloe's eyes flickered open at the sudden scream from below deck, violently puling her back into reality. She gripped the steering wheel tightly, and spun her head around to assure herself that everything was safe and sound. All around her was the vast expanse of sea, miles and miles of water stretching into the horizon. Far away a number of Casinors glided across the water in the opposite direction. Even further away she could make out the shapes of several barges scattered about on the horizon. Aside from that, they were completely alone. Not a single speck of land could be seen. Normally this wouldn't bother Chloe, but with their lack of supplies and tools made her nervous. Anything could happen out at sea. She noticed that the sun was just beginning to fill the sky with the orange and yellow glow of morning, a fire lit among the clouds. Chloe pulled the compass from her pockets and checked there direction. They were still heading Southwest, just a half-notch more west than south. It was nothing major, but she knew she'd have to fix it later down the road. Her mind wandered back to the scream she had heard. She was unsure if it had been in her dream, or in the real world. She rubbed the scar on her hand idly as she questioned whether or not she should investigate where the sound had come from. With a long groan she stretched out her back and looked out across the sea. Aside from the aforementioned ships, there was noone nearby that would pose as a hazard (or a threat for that matter). She reckoned that it would be safe to head below deck and get herself some much-deserved rest. She thought about letting Victor steer the ship while she slept, but she was too protective of her ship to let anybody else control it. She'd just have to power through. Her boots thudded heavily down the wooden staircase leading into the main hall, the wooden planks groaning under her feet. The door leading into the boys room was open, leading her to believe that he was already up. That meant Victor was up, too. She padded into the kitchen area and dazedly looked at the two males sitting at the table. The smell of freshly cooked meat wafted from the table and into Chloe's nostrils, causing her mouth to gape open slightly in hunger. Dark circles occupied her eye-sockets, and her hair seemed to be rather unkempt. She silently slid herself into one of the wooden seats and stared down at the cooked pork, a much more elaborate meal than yesterday's had been. "Mornin" she said sleepily, flashing a weak smile at the two before biting into her breakfast. She chewed thoughtfully on the meat, avoring its taste before continuing to speak. "We'll get there before tomorrow's nightfall if we're lucky. Winds seem to be kind enough to allow a speedy travel." She took another bite and looked at Victor. "I hope it wasn't you that I heard. Looks like you had a rough night" she teased.

[Vondonos Sultros]

“ Morning Princess ,” said Victor as he took another bite of breakfast, his mouth tearing through the thick bread and easily slicing through the rare meat below. Victor winced at the taste, having never enjoyed the taste of undercooked meat. But it was better than burnt meat, and they didn’t have the luxury of testing his mediocre cooking skills. The Isur sighed internally. He should have known that he wouldn’t get off stock free from yelling himself awake that morning. Victor, just barely able to keep his usual slightly sarcastic face, decided to completely ignore her little jibe. It would just bring up an uncomfortable conversation, particularly with a random child sitting in between them. “ So…tomorrow night, eh? Now what are we gonna do till then?” The little boy looked up over his serenely empty plate which he had been licking. “I had a dream…um… where I was really small. So…uh… I got…er… put into a backpack, and …um…then my ..uh…Dad’s Savan ate it.” Victor looked at the little boy, feeling pity for the little tyke. He would not be having such colorful dreams once they were forced to reveal who they were. He might be scarred for life, only dreaming of kidnapping, theft, and murder, never of spontaneous shrinkings followed by a marine gormondization. Victor had always liked kids, since he had never really been one, and he was pensive with the thought that they might have accidentally ruined the kid’s life. The Isur popped the last morsel of food into his mouth, swallowing quickly to avoid the taste. Taking the boy’s thin, bony hand into his own much bigger one, the pair walked back to the kid’s quarters. Victor inspected the height difference between he and the boy for the first time since the trip. It had always been a point of embarrassment that he and his father were always shorter than everyone else that they ever met. When they were living in the Spire, his father was even shorter than some of the Jamoura while they were sitting and he was standing. Although his father told had him that Victor was one of the tallest Isur that the old man had ever met, he was still less than a foot taller than the kid, and eight inches shorter than Chloe. The two walked across the deck, looking out at the vast sea of blue that spread out in every direction. There were a number of casinors sailing in the horizon, but they were pretty much alone. Victor admired the stark beauty of the sea, a view which he had only seen a couple of times in his life. He brought the child to his room and made his way back to the kitchen, where Chloe was still sitting finishing up her breakfast. “So, how ‘bout you show me the ropes to this ship? I actually have absolutely no sailing experience so…it might be a good idea if I learned a bit, right?”

[Chloe]

Chloe scratched at a cut in the wood table, chipping off small splinters as she did so. She was still trying to recover from her earlier power-nap at the wheel, which she wasn't too happy about succumbing to. It was a Captain's duty to be vigilant and unmoving. Falling sleep on the job was the exact opposite of that. She knew neither Victor or the boy would care much about it, but to Chloe it was a sign of weakness, and that did not bode well for her. She pulled up a small chunk of wood and flicked it off the table, watching it ricochet off one of the chairs before falling to the floor. With a sigh she looked around the shabby room, a disgusted groan escaping her lips. She had been a spoiled child, especially before her teens, but when it came time to go off on her own she was hit with the hard truth of reality. instead of embracing it, she scoffed at it and became a pirate, taking whatever she wanted, regardless of the consequences. She was happy with her life, even when they got rough, yet something inside her was growing. An urge to change. An urge to stop. Every chance it got it attempted to overpower her, but Chloe always won. Her father had called it her "concise". She scratched at her chin and continued eating her meal. she couldn't wait to get into the city. Smuggling new furniture onto the chip might prove to be a problem, and pickpocketing wasn't much of her forte, so simply buying it wasn't a likeable solution either. Her concise told her she could get a job and earn the money. She laughed at the suggestion, but it seemed like a plausible solution. However Chloe was not one to respect authority, and a job under someone else watch would be... troublesome. She could see herself as a merchant. Well, than again, she had never been good at talking to people. She looked towards the door, a small smile spreading across her lips. "Victor... he seems like a friendly chap." The more she thought about it, the more it intrigued her. It was too soon to determine whether or not they were a good team, seeing as how they'd been together for less than 24 hours, but Victor was quickly gaining her trust. So far he had seemed to be quite trustworthy. Still, Chloe couldn't shake the feeling that he was hiding something. She flashed him a smile when he returned. " I guess it wouldn't hurt ta' show ya the ropes. I don't want to hear any complainin' from ya though. First thing's first. You got to know the rules of sailing." she walked past him and out the door, waving at him to follow. "I'm not all to familiar with Palivars, but I don't imagine they're too different. Sailin' is real easy once you get the hang of it. Steering is all about the feel of the ship. you have to use your head. Know the limits of the ship, how fast it turns, how wide, how smooth. If you don't, then you'll end up at the bottom of the sea" she pointed down at the deck. She led him up to the wheel and gestured to it. "Give it a shot, mate"

[Vondonos Sultros]

“ Alright, I’ll move her a bit to the right…I mean Starboard. Okay ,” said Victor, his hands shaking with anticipation and trepidation. He hadn’t expected to be asked to pilot the ship so soon, especially with no suitable explanation as to the procedure. Chloe did seem to be quite the adventurous type. In the 24 hours or so that he had been with her, he had started to see her as a courageous person with a side that was much nicer than she let on. Though he had first approached her, and helped pull in her boat, because of her beauty, that wasn’t why he had agreed to journey with her. He had grown, even in just a few hours, to admire her forthrightness and dedication. Chloe, Victor could see, was someone who was never hesitant to speak her mind or shy away from a challenge. And she had performed admirably in stealing the ship, right under the nose of the guards. She wasn’t quite as nice when it came to children, but maybe there was a reason for that. But back to the task at hand, steering the ship. Common sense dictated that he grasp the wheel and turn it in one direction or the other, so Victor grasped the wheel firmly. His left hand, sparkling red in the sunlight, gripped a little bit too tight and left slight furrows into the wood. Victor quickly lessened the grip, remembering he routinely shaped steel using just his hand. He couldn’t just grip things with all his might, no matter how nervous he was. Victor assumed that the wheel was connected directly to the huge piece of canvas and rope that made up the main sail of the ship. Moving such a massive object would probably take a good deal of strength, as did all the other things that he did. Victor regrasped the wheel and pulled it to the right with all his might, grunting a little bit at the effort. A great groan rose through the air as the mast swiveled across the ship and the ship started to slow to a stop, the sail in such a different position that it wasn’t able to catch the wind at all. The woefully inept new sailor jumped back, his eyes wide with shock. “I’m sorry! I misjudged my strength.” He attempted an apologetic smile, but he didn’t quite make it.

[Chloe]

Chloe laughed heartily and shook her head, amused. "No worries. I guess I should've told you to pay attention to the wind too. The boat may move in a particular way due to it's shape, but it ain't goin' nowhere if it doesn't go with the wind. Here" She playfully bumped Victor out of the way and took her familiar place at the wheel. She stood still for a moment, letting the wind blow past her to determine its direction. It couldn't choose between southwest and south, so Chloe went with the former, seeing as how it was the direction they needed to head in. She spun the wheel with enough force for it to emit a clicking noise, but just soft enough that you could see the studs (instead of them being blurred lines). The sail rotated again in the opposite direction across the deck, the white sheets catching the wind and expanding like a frog's chest. The ship picked up speed and began it's regular course. "Maaaybe I should get ya' familiar with tha' rest of the ship instead, before I let you try and crash it." She patted him on the shoulder and went back down onto the main deck, leading him over to one of the masts. "I'll show ya to raise sail then. She picked up a thick rope and offered to him. "This is the halyard. What's nice about Palivars is that they have very easy-to-raise sails, by which I mean they have most of tha' equipment already in place, since it's only got one sail. But a bloody big one at that." She pointed up towards the top of the mast. "It's hard to see, but there's a block up there. Basically a pulley to make your life easier. Now over there... " She pointed to a hook-like piece of metal at the top of the sail. "That's the shackle. That's what holds tha' halyard to the sail. Over here is where you attach the halyard so the sail doesn't fall." she gestured to the metal cleat, similar to the ones she used for mooring in Syliras. the rope was already fastened around it quite tightly, and Chloe was curious to see how he would undo it. typically the force from the sail would pull her a few feet after undoing the tie, but with Victor she was unsure of how he would react. "Don't worry 'bout the ship. Just lower it gently, ya' don't want to get it caught in the block. It'll be alot harder with the wind too, but I think you'll do fine. Just untie the rope if you think you're up to it. Just don't let go or it'll whiplash. Gods help you if it does."

[Vondonos Sultros]

Victor thought about what had happened. Why had the sail been so easy to move. Though he wasn’t as good at Gadgeteering as others of his race, he had seen such systems all over his homeland. There must have been some kind of pulley system that was connected with the rope and the wheel to make it easy to move the sail back and forth.

The Isur grasped the halyard with his left arm and peered at the knot. Knot untying. He wasn’t used to untying anything more than his shoes, and this knot was complex indeed. Using only his right hand, Victor started to pull at different strands and push in others, poking and prodding at the fibers. This continued for some minutes before the knot finally gave way. Victor dropped his weight and clenched his left hand, bringing his right hand back to grasp the rope as well. The rope didn’t move at all. Bemused, the Isur let go with his right hand, his dominant left hand still holding on to it with all its might. Still no movement. Victor then tried loosening his left hand, just a little bit. The rope flew, almost out of his grip, towards the iron cleat. Victor quickly tightened again, stopping the movement of the rope. He pulled the rope back the couple feet that he had let it go.

Victor scanned the rope with apprehension but thankfully couldn’t find any hint of damage to the pulley system. He started to slowly push the rope. The powerful sail started to come down, as a result. Pleased with his work, Victor gave Chloe a wide smile. “That worked out alright.”. Victor tied the worn halyard back to the dull piece of iron using a rather gauche knot. Victor’s face moved down until it was a couple inches away from the cleat. He touched it lightly and delicately, before shaking his head. “Some of these pieces really need to be replaced. I have a bit of steel in the back which I can use for it.”

[Chloe]

Chloe smiled at the Isur, impressed with his work. Not many people were able to master the sail so quickly. It had taken her days just to learn how to keep herself from being pulled up the mast, and much longer for her to be able to tie the rope back. Of course, she had been much younger then so it was understandable why it would be so difficult for her. Still, she was surprised by his mastery nonetheless. Now if she could work on his ship-handling, then she wouldn't have to be one who steers the boat all the time. She would finally be able to relax. She folded her arms across her torso and gave Victor a wide smile. "Not bad, mate. I guess you'll be useful to me after all." She teased him before addressing his concern about the cleat. "It does look like it's seen quite a few seasons. I guess it wouldn't hurt to fix it up. Do what you like with it, just make sure you don't break anythin' , or we'll be in really hot water." She waved a hand towards him and pulled out the compass to assure herself that they were still heading in the right direction. They were, and Chloe placed the compass back in her pocket with a relieved sigh. She wanted to hurry up and get to land. Last night had been uneventful, but she kept fearing the approach of rival pirates. Trouble was, Chloe had more enemies than friends in the Suvan Sea. The pirates in the sea were ruthless, and Chloe worried about not only her life, but the lives of her crewmates. They were in danger, and they didn't even know it. Most pirates Chloe knew weren't known for being forgiving when it came to the enemy's passengers. She knew she included herself in that. She sat herself down on the railing of the ship awaiting Victor and his supplies. Hopefully there was enough equipment on the ship to be able to do some low-level maintenance. When he finally arrived, Chloe struck up a conversation to relieve the boredom she was feeling. "So, Victor, you like to travel a-lot, aye? Is that because you're lookin' for something in particular, or are you just a wandering soul?"