Where the heck am I!?(solo)

[Sheva]

34th day of Fall 511 AV - Morning

Sheva stirred slightly from her peaceful to the unfamiliar feeling of being at sea. The beautiful pure white tiger quickly raised its head in a slight state of panic, before calming down and returning to its laying position. Every time she awoke she looked around in distress only to realize it was not all a bad dream...

It had been three months ago when it all happened. The old man had just passed away peacefully in his sleep about one month ago. They had both known it was soon coming, and Sheva was glad it had been a peaceful passing. The old man had left her, leaving all of his possessions including his small house to Sheva. Sheva mourned his passing but she had been expecting it and therefore was not as heartbroken as she would have been had it been more sudden. She continued to live in Zeltiva for three weeks before deciding there was nothing left for her here. One week later Sheva had sold the house and all of her other inherited possessions, keeping only the vitals for surviving on her journey. She had heard that Syliras was a large popular city and had planned on traveling there. On the day of her departure she had gotten all her needed items together, and was prepared to set off for Syliras. She decided to go to the docks one last time to enjoy the sight, smell and sounds of the ocean before leaving. That was where everything had gone wrong, she was standing on the furthest end of the docks, there was barely anyone around her but she pushed the thought out of her mind as she enjoyed the beautiful ocean view. She heard the quiet sounds of footsteps approaching, but payed little attention to them. The next thing she head was the sound of something right behind her, split seconds later everything went black as a sack was pulled over her head and before she could resist a pair of strong muscular arms wrapped around her arms pinning them to her sides. She tried screaming for help and began kicking and struggling to get free when a second person began tying her hands and legs together. She continued to struggle as she was dragged in an unknown direction, screaming and crying beneath the dark foul smelling sack that covered her head. A minute later she was thrown roughly onto the ground, she landed with a loud thud as she hit the cold hard metal floor. She immediately pulled the sack off of her head using her hands which were still tied together, quickly looking around hoping to see a way out but there was none. She was in what seemed to be a steel cage, it was high enough for her to stand slightly hunched over and was wide and long enough for her to lay flat with her arms spread out, there was some sort of black sheet over the cage, which stopped her from seeing anything outside the dark cage, the gate was bolted shut with a large steel bolt which couldn't be removed from the inside of the cage. Her possessions had been taken away from her some time during the panic, and she was left with only the clothes on her back, which wasn't much. She looked around as tears began to fall from her face as yet again she screamed loudly for help as she frantically untied the ropes that had been tied around her arms and legs before kicking at the steel bars of the cage in futile. From outside the cage came a cold voice of a man, he sounded like he was somewhere in his early forties, his voice rough and agitated "Shut up! No one can hear ya!" the man said. Sheva begged and pleaded to be released but there was no reply. Now in a state of panic Sheva began to hyperventilate, crying, when the shock all got to her and she passed out on the cold steel floor.

Sometime later Sheva awoke suddenly from her sleep to an unfamiliar feeling, it felt as if the ground was slowly swaying. There were sounds of wood moaning and creaking from strain along with what sounded like waves. She was on a ship, at sea. She began to panic again, and so it continued for the next few weeks. Every time she awoke she was greeted with the shock of being in a cage, only to realize it wasn't a dream. Once a day she was fed, a hand would put a mug filled with water through the bars of the cage, along with a dry half loaf of bread. The person feeding her never revealed more than his arm to Sheva, he lifted the sheet covering her cage just enough to put the food in and then he was gone. Slowly days and weeks blurred, she had no idea how long she had been imprisoned. She had started to stay her animal form most of the time, since the fur provided her with warmth against the cold steel floor, making sure to change back when she heard approaching footsteps. She didn't want then to know she was a Kelvic, although it was possible that they had already known prior to kidnapping her. Sheva tried not to dwell on her fate, she had trust in the Gods and continued to pray for freedom.

But that had all been so long ago, the white tiger layed sadly in the steel cage as the ship continued to sway from side to side, she heard voices screaming commands to one another on the upper decks of the ship, but these voices were muffled and she was unable to make sense of them. Then there was the sound of something large hitting the waters surface, followed by a rattling metallic sound. Both the rattling and the splashes continued with no pauses in between. It sounded as if a chain was being thrown into the water, 'maybe an anchor?' Sheva thought to herself, hoping that something was about to happen. Sheva heard two men approaching and changed back to her human form with a quick flash. The men pulled the black sheet off of the cage, finally revealing the surroundings and themselves to Sheva. She was clearly in the dimly lit cargo hold of a ship, surrounded by many wooden crates, it seemed she was the only prisoner in the hold, which made no sense to her. The men laughed tauntingly at the captured young girl laying in the cage, Sheva immediately recognized their voices as the two men that had been feeding her over the past weeks. The men both looked as though they were in there forties, one standing about six feet tall and the other was much shorter, somewhere around five foot three. The taller man was rather muscular, he was covered in scars both on his face and arms and his hair was short and dark . The shorter man, was the complete opposite, he was thin, hairless and hunched over, he had a sly menacing look. Both men were filthy, wearing equally filthy rags for clothes. "Time to go little one. You should fetch a high price on the market." said the shorter man in his creepy snake like voice. The tall, more intimidating man simply grunted mockingly as he began to pull the bolt out of the cage door. The smaller man began laughing as he held up his hands, in them were a uncomfortable pair of shackles with chains. Sheva said nothing as the tall man opened the gate, she could not let thm get the shackles on her, or she would be unable to shift into her tiger form. Her mind began to race, thinking of how she would escape. She noticed her backpack a few meters away laying on a pile of other items, which she assumed were stolen.

The gate was now open, the shorter man cautiosly began making his way toward Sheva with the shackles, still laughing. Sheva was in the corner of the cage on all fours, her hair and body filthy from the weeks of imprisonment. The short man was slowly inching nearer and nearer, this was her chance, it was now or never. Sheva's only available offensive skill was Reimancy and she didn't have nearly enough time to cast an effective spell, her only choice was to use brute force. The shorter man was now only a foot away from her, it was now or never.
The man began to lean toward Sheva, holding the shackles closer to her. With a growl she suddenly jumped up and used her shoulder to tackle the man to the side. The small man screamed in shock as he slammed against the bars of the cage with a loud clang. She ran toward the gate toward the larger man who was prepared for the young girl. Unfortunately for him, Sheva was a Kelvic, there was a quick flash and where there once stood a young girl was a one and a half meter white tiger running toward him. The man was clearly stunned by the sudden change and soon after he had been slashed in the face by the tigers claws. Sheva shifted back into her human form after hiding behind a nearby crate. The now screaming larger man was holding his bloody face in pain as he gained yet another scar. Sheva, now naked, began to emit liquid res from her palms, she concentrated as hard as she could under the current state she was in. The res gathered into a glistening floating ball about the size of a golf ball. She heard the men approaching cautiously, Why you little shyke! We'll skin you alive!" came the shorter man's enraged voice. The men had drawn their weapons, the shorter man had a small dagger, while the larger man weilded a jagged looking sword. Sheva had now formed a mango sized ball of liquid res, she turned from around the corner, hands stretched out, palms facing toward the men. Suddenly the ball of res ignited into a rather large ball of fire, before shooting toward the men. The smaller man dived out of the way as the firebolt flew straight at the large man. It hit him right in the chest exploding and sending the man flying across the corgo hold. He screamed as he flew threw the air slamming against the wall of the ship. Sheva watched, amazed at what she had just done, a feeling of supremecy washing over her, "Destroy them, you have the power." an sweet voice called from inside her head, but Sheva was not fooled, she knew all about 'overgiving' and as good as it felt she decided it best not to use any more magic for now. Suddenly the shorter man ran toward her, dagger raised above his head. Sheva lunged to the side as he brought the knife down, she quickly rolled back onto her feet and tackled the small man yet again, the man yelped yet again as he landed on the floor dropping the dagger. Sheva now ontop of him began punching him in the face, her punches were weak and ineffective. The man caught her hand before delivering a powerful closed fisted backhand to her face. She shrieked as she fell to the side, feeling the slight pain in her face. The man got up and began laughing again as kicked her in the stomach making her scream out in pain. The man dropped down and began to strangle the naked struggling Sheva. Sheva struggled, resisting the man with all her strength, her hands reached out for anything she could use as a weapon. Then she felt something, it was cold against her fingertips, it was the mans dagger. She wrapped her fingers around it tightly as the lack of oxygen began to cause her vision to fog up. Then with a single swing she drove the dagger into the mans neck, crimson blood spewed from the wound as he screamed from the pain, and then dropped slamming onto the floor, dead. Sheva got up gasping for air, she didn't know how long she had till more men came so she effortfully pushed herself to her feet and walked back toward the cage. She grabbed her clothes putting them on as quickly as possible, she wanted to get out of this place, even though she had nowhere and no one to got to. It took her only a minute to get dressed, she hastily grabbed her backpack from the pile of stolen goods and the bloody dagger she had used to kill the short man and began making her way up the ladder to the upper deck of the ship.
Her head poked out of the hole looking for any nearby people, but there were none, it was day time, probably around morning, the sky was a beautiful and welcome site to her, but the light hurt her eyes. Squinting to adjust to the brightness as she emerged from the cargo hold, dagger in hand she began to sneak toward the edge of the ship. The ship was old, and had many cracks, it had large dirty sails that looked rather old, as Sheva approached the edge of the ship hoping to see the harbour of a city, she was greeted by the ocean. The ship had anchored near the coastline, in the distance was a unrecognisable town, but not close enough for her to swim to it. There were a few row boats making there way from the ship to the town docks. They were far enough off for Sheva to safely take the next one without being seen. There was a rope ladder hanging from the side of the ship leading down to an empty row boat. Sheva quickly made her way down to the boat and began rowing as quickly as she could. She was now about 50 meters from the ship, and was convinced she was unreachable when she heard the sharp piercing sound of an arrow flying through the air. The arrow had missed only a few feet from the boat, making a feable splash. Sheva looked quickly toward the ship for the arrows origin, and there stood the larger man, blood dripping from his face along with a large patch of crisp black skin where his chest should be. The man was holding a large crossbow as he continued firing arrows at her, his aim however was terrible. Sheva was no longer as fearful, but more enraged as she once again began to form a ball of liquid res between her palms. The res slowly gathered into a golf sized sphere of glistening energy between her palms, she pointed it toward the ships sails hoping to burn them along with the ship. She began to concentrate once again, using her djed to ignite and propell the ball of res toward the ship. The ball of fire flew through the sky until hitting the ships sails with an unsatisfying poof, but several moments later the evidence that the fireball had worked was visible. A large trail of smoke rose to the sky as the ships sail began to burn, the fire quickly spreading.

When Sheva had reached the shore of the city she jumped off the boat onto the rocky land thanking the Gods that she had survived. She turned once more to look at the ship and saw that it was now a giant bonfire. Sheva who hadn't had time to react emotionally to the series of events that had taken place over the past half hour was suddenly overwhelmed by her emotions, as fear, anger, shock rushed through her body. She had commited her first murder, but although it was completely understandable and necesarry she couldn't help but break down and cry. For the next hour she sat their crying, it was now about noon and Sheva was alone in a foreign land near to a city she had never seen before, but she was still grateful for her freedom. Sheva slowly began to make her way from the shore toward the nearby town, which she would soon learn was Denval.

[Tabarnac]

XP Award! Sheva XP Award: Observation +2; Escape Artist +3; Reimancy +1; Unarmed Combat +1; Dagger +1; Swimming +1 Additional Notes: I would think a Kelvic tiger would be a bit fiercer, but she did escape, so... welcome to Denval! Feel free to PM me if you have any questions or concerns. Keep writing!