Flashback You're So Domineering

[Ialari Pythone]

Late Summer 510 (Grandfathered Flashback Thread)

It took a few mizas and a bit of convincing but Ialari managed to talk the captain of the Saga Shooter, one of the trade vessels from Zeltiva, to drop her off on the coast of the mainland just over a days travel from Sunberth and stop at the same point to retrieve her some time later. The Saga Shooter was scheduled to make its return to Sahova on the 11th day of the Autumn season which provided Ialari almost a month on her own unless she needed to signal and hopefully get the attention of one of the other regular Zeltivian trade ships sooner. It would be the first time in awhile that Ialari and Shalla were apart. Shalla chose to remain in Sahova in order to engage in her own goals while keeping tabs on events transpiring in Ialari's absence.

The Saga Shooter temporarily set up anchor off the coast of the mainland and small boat manned by a couple crewmembers, escorted Ialari to the beach before returning to the ship. When the ship had lifted anchor and continued it's journey back to Zeltiva, Ialari took a look at her new surroundings. She would be spending the next month there so getting familiar with it was essential.

As for supplies, Ialari brought with her enough basic trail rations for 20 days. It would not be enough for the entire time so she would have to try and gather some supplemental food to get her by in the last several days before the ship returned. She also brought with her a simple set of clothing; black leather belt, black linen blouse, high black boots, black leather gloves, a backpack with bedroll, flint and steel, waterskin, her portable poisoncrafting kit; complete with four different types of poison, black philterer's robe, a first-aid kit, a small, battered wooden case housing a functional portable shelter, her dagger and scimitar as well as her staff. Thankfully, most of her gear either fit in or was attached to her backpack.

Standing on the beach, looking around her, the first thing she noticed was the smell. Having spent so much time around the walking rotting corpses in the Citadel, the smell of the beach was a mix of odd pleasures. There was an ever present fishy smell to the air with a salty twang. The immediate area was of course wet and sandy with various types of plant life, shells, driftwood and a few dead fish. A number of large rocks jutted out of the sand in some areas while smaller ones littered about the base of their larger cousins. Some pockets of white bubbly sea foam completed the chorus of strange color and texture that made up the beach. A couple hundred yards away, she could also make out something large resting in the sand although there was a slight mist that also lined the beach that made making out details impossible so far away.

It was still early in the day so Ialari decided to walk the beach, see what she could see and maybe check out the strange shape. As she slowly made her way along the beach, she marveled at the gulls that filled the air with their sometimes irritating calls, the crabs and turtles that skittered and crawled through the sand as well as the occasional oddity such as a weird looking dead fish or a mass of unidentifiable jelly. With the eyes of a beginning herbalist, philterer and accomplished poisoncrafter, the beach was filled all manner of strange plants, animals, oozes, jellies and other unidentifiable substances that were ripe for experimentation and further study. At one point she stopped and knelt down next to particularly colorful mass of ooze. Where it came from she could only imagine but she had noticed no small amount of jelly and ooze of various colors, textures and even smells scattered across the beach. Pulling free her poisoncrafting kit, she opened it up and retrieved a small glass dish and a spoon. She slid the spoon underneath the ooze colored with a miasma of rainbow coloring. Holding the dish close, she used the spoon to scoop the ooze into the dish. Cleaning the spoon with a small piece of cloth, she returned it to the kit and took out a small glass lid and strip of cloth. She placed the lid on the dish and wrapped the cloth around it to hold it in place. She put the dish into the kit, closed it and continued on her way.

[Ialari Pythone]

As she continued along the length of the beach, Ialari encountered something that looked to be more than just another piece of driftwood. Stopping for a closer look, the bit of wood she found looked purposely cut and shaped much unlike the rest of the waterworn pieces of driftwood that littered the beach. Looking closer around her she could see more and more pieces that looked similar to the one at her feet. Walking a bit further, coming closer and closer to the strange shape in the sand, the mist slowly lightened enough that couldn't help but slow down, stop and stare. Now, about 20 yards away from her, stood the rather large remains of an old shipwreck.

How old Ialari didn't know but it was obvious at least to her that it was old enough to have sunk pretty far into the sand yet not old enough to be overly rotted and unidentifiable. While she was not all that versed in the components of a sailing vessel, she had picked up a little bit during her travels. From the looks of things, the part of the ship she was seeing was the aft portion of a moderate-sized sailing vessel much like ones she had seen used by merchants. It looked as though the ship had someone broke in half, perhaps by slamming broadside into rocks or maybe even attacked by some horrible sea monster; Ialari pondered it all with adventurous wonder. There was debris of varying sizes and types scattered about though most of it was larger having embedded itself deeper in the sand thus avoiding being swept away by the tides. The main portion of the wreck sat at an angle, the broken middle section resting in the sand while the rest of the ship sat well above the tideline. A broken mast could be seen jutting partially out of the sand while a web of old rope and bit of netting was tangled around the bulk of the larger debris. The rudder was shattered and splintered while the keel and hull of the aft section remained mainly intact save for a number of cracked boards and small holes. A bit of torn, weather-worn sail fluttered softly in the wind as it sat impaled upon a shattered beam jutting out of the sand near the broken mast. Ialari could only imagine what happened to the rest of the ship.

As she stood there gawking at the wreck, Ialari cocked her head to the side ever so slightly as something tickled her senses. To most others the feeling would have gone unnoticed yet for Ialari it was different. The palm of her off-hand felt as though someone were tapping at it with their forefinger. It was the hand that bore the mark of Dira, Goddess of Death. Ialari raised her head slightly and stuck her tongue out as if to taste the air like a serpent. What she tasted sent an odd tingle down her into her nose as well as her throat. It was the taste of death. What she sensed was very slight, a sign of old death that had already gone through the stages of decomposition. With a quick glance around, there was only one source of this sort of death, the wreck.

Ialari walked closer to the interior of the beach until she found a large, somewhat flattened rock. Removing her backpack, she set it on the rock, jammed the end of her staff into the sand and leaned it against the same rock. She removed her robes keeping only her blouse, skirt and boots. She secured her small, ceremonial dagger in its sheath along with the scimitar on her back. Taking a leather pouch from her backpack, she strapped it to her belt and turned back to the wreck.

She carefully walked closer to the remaining aft section while stepping over various pieces of debris and avoiding some of the tangled ropes and other rigging. As she came closer to the where the angle of the wreck met the sand, she noticed a number of barrels, a couple still sealed, tangled in the rigging as well as a number of shattered wooden crates. The crates were bound together and still attached to part of the hull although their contents were long gone, probably washed away when the ship fell to whatever fate consumed it. She approached one of the two intact, sealed barrels. It appeared as though the seal was indeed unbroken though from the looks of the leather straps that held the lid to the rest of the barrel, they didn't have long left before they gave out. Pulling her dagger free, Ialari cut the straps on the barrel and used her metallic arm to pry the swollen wood lid free from the rest of the barrel. What she saw inside brought an impossibly wide smile to her face. The barrel was filled with bundles of wrapped, dry tea leaves. With tea being a staple of her diet and one of her favorite beverages, such a find was beyond great. Replacing the lid, Ialari picked up the barrel, and carried it over to the rock with the rest of her gear. As she sat it down, she couldn't help but wonder why such a thing hadn't been found before. Looking around the beach and then out toward the water, she realized the answer. There were a large number of massive rocks reaching out of the sea just off shore. From where Ialari stood, any passing ships would be difficult to see as would the wreck from their perspective.

With a smile on her face, Ialari chose not to doubt her good fortune as she returned to the wreck and examined the other remaining barrel. As she broke open the lid and looked inside, she was greeted with the somewhat sweet, light fruity scent. The source of the smell was the packets of dried, crushed tobacco that sat in the barrel. Ialari raised an eyebrow at the find. She had always like the smell of smoked tobacco yet never tried it herself. With a shrug and a few thoughts for the future, she took that barrel as well and placed it next to the other against the rock. She returned to the wreck one more and continued exploring. The state of the remains were so that Ialari couldn't get the images from her mind of what may have happened. It was then that she got an idea. Raising her off-hand and looking at the scythe shaped mark on her palm, she turned then to the broken mast that stuck out of the sand next to her. She stepped closer to it and placed her hand on the wet, slightly slimy wood and softly spoke a prayer to Dira, "Mistress of Death, I ask for your sight. Please, show me what happened here."

Again, Ialari felt a strange tapping against the palm of her hand followed by the sound of a fist knocking against wood followed again by the sound of a fist pounding against wood. The sound continued to grow louder and more thunderous as a thick fog rolled in to surround Ialari and the wreck. Then, as quickly as it appeared, the fog moved on. As it left, Ialari found her surroundings twist and morph.

She was no longer standing in the sand at the base of a shipwreck. Instead she stood upon the deck of a large merchant vessel. Three masts shot into the air with large square sails adorning them. Sailors rushed across the deck shouting as a great storm churned the sea and slugged the ship with powerful wind. Dira had answered her prayer with a simple vision, one that left Ialari standing on the deck of the ship, holding the mast for support as the crew struggled against a violent storm. Ialari knew the outcome and thus stood helpless as the storm wreaked terrible vengeance upon a ship and its crew who thought to master the waves.

[Ialari Pythone]

As the storm continued its fury, Ialari held onto the mast out of instinct when presented with such a situation. In truth, there was no need to hold on to anything as she was not really there; only viewing an event that caused a number of deaths in the past. As Ialari looked on, one of the sailors was hit by a powerful gust of wind that sent him flying over the rail and into the churning water below. On the As that sailor vanished, a particularly large wave crashed down on the deck carrying a couple more sailors with it as it spilled over the side of the ship. There was shouting barely heard amidst the whipping winds, pounding waves and booming thunder.

Then, a flash of lightning crackled through the sky and shot down into the main mast of the ship. There was an explosion of splintered wood as the mast began to fall almost in slow motion before Ialari's eyes. As it fell, it brought with it the other two masts in a tangle of broken wood, torn sails and snapped rigging. The fate of the ship and its remaining crew was set. The mast Ialari had been holding on to broke just above her head and crashed through her as if she truly were a ghost. She jumped and ran to the side, cursing herself when she stopped a few feet away and remembering that it wasn't real, not for her.

A few more flashes of lightning drew Ialari's gaze past the chaos on deck to a short distance over the water in the direction the ship was being pushed. She saw a familiar set of giant rocks growing closer and closer. She couldn't help but think they looked like the fingers of death preparing to close in on the helpless crew. It was at that moment that the strange fog returned; its thick, milky haze unaffected by the storm. The fog swept through, quickly twisting and morphing Ialari's surroundings until she was no longer standing on the deck of the doomed ship. She now stood in what appeared to be one of the cabins. Small pieces of furniture and all manner of other items were strung about the cabin floor. Anything that wasn't somehow restrained was scattered throughout the cabin. From the looks of the room and its contents and the windows, some broken, behind her, she guessed she was in the captains cabin. Indeed, in front of her sat a figure in a wobbly chair at a desk. The desk itself looked to be nailed to the floor. The figure, a man whom Ialari figured was the captain, was hunched over the desk apparently scribbling in a book. He struggled to keep his chair from falling over as he held a small bottle of ink in one hand and a quill in the other. With one arm he held the book to the desk as he frantically wrote.

Ialari leaned over and looked at what he was writing as the ship was thrown about in the violence of the storm. It was a journal.

The 32nd Day of Autumn, 509 AV

Those bastards! They thoughta me a fool to take this journey in such weather. All we'd to do was ta move east, round that blasted isle of the damned and we'da missed the storm. Instead they decide to mutiny. Mutiny against me! They wanted ta stay in Zeltiva, when I ordered them back on ship, they weren't happy. Drunken fools, we'da delivery ta make. I've fought wit'em before but they always did as'a ordered. That blasted Androsia, should'a never made'm first mate. Sumthin fishy bout him. He was'a the one thata led them in this, always eye'in my command. Ha! Now looka them. We all die this day. I hearda and felta the masts go. I sweara I'll finda that bastard Androsia in da next life and handa him his own head!

Ialari leaned in closer to see what else he was writing when a deafening crash shook the ship. The captain lost his balance and feel out of his chair. He let go the quill and ink and grabbed the journal with one hand, the desk with the other. Ialari caught a glimpse of his final words, I will not rest... before the cabin floor split open and a jagged beam of wood ripped upward, impaling the captain and holding him a few feet off the floor. Before she could see anything else, the fog returned one last time. The cabin was consumed by it as was Ialari's vision.

Seconds later she was again standing on the beach amidst the wreckage of ship; her hand was still touching the broken mast.

[Ialari Pythone]

Taking a moment to digest all that she had seen, Ialari looked at the section of the ship rising up from the sand. It had rested there for two years now. The captains journal had told the story of the final moments of the ship whose name she did not know. It was the last words in the captain's journal that intrigued her though. Stepping away from the broken mast, Ialari moved closer to the rest of the wreck. There was a smallish sized whole in the now inclined main deck that looked as though Ialari could fit through. Curiosity was always a weakness for her though she thought little of it as she stepped closer to hole. She glanced up the incline of the ship to the quarterdeck. The ship's wheel, splintered in half, hung uselessly from its mount. The door to the captain's cabin was still shut and presumably still locked while the one next to it, the door to the wardroom where officers at their meals, was wide open. Not trusting the footing or her ability to traverse the slippery incline to the quarterdeck and to the cabin, Ialari resigned herself to enter the hole in the remains of the main deck and see exactly what the wreck had left to reveal.

Unsure what could await her inside, Ialari held her metallic arm forward with her off-hand carrying her dagger as she felt more comfortable fending off any dangers with her arm rather than flounder with the dagger she barely knew how to use. Ducking her head through the hole, she followed with a careful step. Taking a moment for her vision to adjust to the darkened confines of the shattered ship.

The darkness inside the wreck was not complete thanks to a number of small holes that riddled the hull. Giving a careful look around, she believed she may be in the lower deck of the ship if memory of past voyages on board a ship served her well. It was difficult to be certain especially from the condition of space. There was splintered, moist pieces of wood scattered throughout the area as well as a few remaining pieces of broken benches and a shattered table. A number of broken crates also littered the wet sand at her feet. As the area was more exposed to the seawater and sand over the course of the past two years, there was little left that hadn't either fallen to the elements or had been washed away when the ship split in half.

A short distance upward looked to be a small hallway and four doorways, two of which were still held closed doors. The actual floor of the ship now sitting at an incline also bore another hole, this one larger than the one Ialari entered through. Peering into it, Ialari knew it to lead into the lower hold. Unfortunately, it looked to be mainly filled with sand and more debris, the cargo having likely washed away at sea during the storm and following destruction. She paused for a few moments to listen for any sounds of potential threats be they a dangerous animal or unstable beams of wood waiting to fall from the stress of the elements. All she could hear were the sounds of the beach outside. Turning her attention back to the incline and to the rooms in the hallway, she noted the footing looked to be slightly less dangerous than that of the main deck along with broken floorboards and sizable gaps she could use for hand and foot holds. Biting down on the blade of her dagger to hold it, she reached for one of the gaps in the floor and pulled herself up. She found another hand hold above that one and slowly pulled herself one handhold followed by one foothold at a time until she was able to reach the first set of doors in the hall, one to her left and the other to her right.

As she reached for the open doorway on the left, Ialari lost her footing and began to slide. She hit the sand rather unceremoniously on her hind end and into a small puddle of water with a splash. "Cursed human boats. I'll never understand why they build these things so shoddily." Standing back up and silently thanking the gods there was nobody there to see her indignity, Ialari started the climb once more until reaching again the door one the left. This time she was able to pull herself into the doorway where she held on to the door frame while looking inside. The small cabin, likely an officer's quarters, was filled with mainly pieces of debri and moist, moss-ridden junk. Anything of use was, like much of what she had seen so far, had likely washed away long ago. Balancing herself in the doorway, Ialari turned around to face the doorway across the hall, this one two was open. Testing her footing first, she took a short leap across the hallway and grabbed on to the doorframe for support. As she pulled herself the rest of the way into the doorway, she nearly fell back with a shriek of surprise as something greeted her face to face.

[Ialari Pythone]

Close enough to almost touch her was a large crab, its spiraled shell wobbling as it slowly crawled its way out of the doorway. "You dirty little..." Ialari spat at the crab now that her dagger had fallen from her mouth. She allowed it to make its way past her and back to the sand below though she made a silent vow to have crab for her next meal. Taking a deep breath and a moment to calm down after such a scare, Ialari peered into the cabin. Like the other, it too was filled with little more than garbage. There was a much larger amount of moss growing in this cabin though as well as the remains of the door which hung from one hing off to the side. Ialari carefully turned back around in the open doorway and looked further up to the remaining doorways, both still containing moderately intact closed doors. With the doors closed, there was little room in the doorframe to get a solid hold to pull herself up. With that in mind Ialari looked at the wall next to her and then to her metallic hand.

An idea occurred to her, one that theoretically could work yet she would have to be careful not to do too much damage else end up falling again. Even though the fall was far from life-threatening, she didn't care much for the need to climb back up yet again. That in mind, Ialari held herself in the doorway with her off-hand. With her metallic one, she reached to the wall and with a bit of force, scraped the wood away to the point of forming a hole. She could have simply slammed her fist against it to accomplish the same result but the least amount of structural damage was for the best. Shifting herself, she reached for the newly formed hole with her off hand and began making a series of similar holes, essential creating her own hand and foot holds.

Carefully, she tested her weight against each hole before using them to pull herself up to the next door above the one she was just at. When she stood partially before the closed door, she tried to push on it with one hand to open it. It was locked. She reached for the locking mechanism would be between the door and the wall with her metallic hand, dug her fingers into the wood and crushed whatever remained of the metal lock. The wood gave way and the corroded metal of the lock fell apart in her hand. Pushing the door open with her body, she took hold of the doorframe and pulled herself the rest of the way into the doorway. Looking inside, she saw that it must have belong to another officer due to the accommodations looking as though they may have at one time been much better than those of a common sailor. Though moist from exposure and weathered by time, the room still held what appeared to be a few intact items of interest. There of course was a shattered bed piled in the lopsided corner of the room as well as a small wooden footlocker and a pile of moldy blankets. A chair with broken legs topped the pile along with a splintered nightstand. Simple to Ialari's eyes, the cabin would have been highly sought after aboard a ship at sea. Again testing her footing, Ialari took a step into the room to examine the pile of debris more closely.

Pulling the soggy, moldy blankets aside she dug into the equally moldy remains of the simple mattress that adorned the bed. It was here that she froze. After moving some of the mattress aside, Ialari discovered bones, human bones. Carefully she sat to clearing away more debris and found a complete human skeleton still dressed in moldy, threadbare clothing. Whoever it was could have died from being tossed around the room during the storm. She thought as she looked at the large crack running down the side of the skull. Moving away from the skeleton, Ialari turned to the footlocker. It was closed but not locked. There was a simple, rusted metal latch holding it closed that Ialari flipped before slowly opening the lid. Inside she didn't find much of interest other than a few pairs of men's clothing, lightweight and suited more for life at sea, a pair of bone dice and an odd looking tooth large enough that it extended from the tips of her fingers to halfway up her forearm. Whatever it once belonged to was obviously something of significant size. She put the dice in her belt pouch and tucked the tooth in her belt. The rest she left in the cabin as returned to the doorway where the door hung loose on its hinges. Opening it and repositioning herself in the doorway, she looked across the hall to the last remaining cabin and its closed door. Ialari pondered then how she would get over to it without falling.

[Ialari Pythone]

After a few moments of staring at the other door, Ialari got an idea. Leaning back a bit and pushing the door behind her open with her body, she reached up to where the hinges were. They were rusted and barely holding the door. Running her hands around the edge of the door, she looked for a grip. It was a little awkward as keeping her balance was more than a little challenging. When she managed to get a good grip on the door with one hand while holding herself in the doorway with the other, she pulled. At first nothing happened but the more she pulled, the more she could feel some give in the door. Eventually, the hinge tore loose from the wall. Ialari repeated this with the other hinge until the door came loose. Pulling the door past her with one hand was not easy. It was heavy, the wood waterlogged. Spreading her legs a bit, she braced herself in the doorway with a knee until she was balanced enough to use her other hand to hold the door. Pulling the door around in front of her, she lowered one end of it against the doorframe across from her. It set into the doorframe about four inches. The end closest to her, she rested on the doorframe at her feet. With an odd sort of bridge created with the door, she tested it with a foot. Slowly applying more weight, she felt the door creak and groan. As an isur, her dense body was much heavier than it appeared and the newly formed bridge was not very safe.

Shrugging she muttered to herself, "What's the worse that would happen? I fall into the wet sand again?" With that she took a full step forward and quickly took another then another until she was at the other closed door. Reaching up she pushed against the door. Ialari felt a sudden flush to her face and a tinge of frustration as the door opened. The lock on the door looked to have fallen apart some time ago. Pushing the door open, it swung away and fell against the wall. Taking a better position inside the doorframe, Ialari leaned in to see what she could see. From the looks of the cabin, it may have once served as the ship's office. From what Ialari remembered from her few times on other ships, this could very well be where the ship's paperwork is kept as well as cargo manifests, pay records and perhaps even the ship's paychest which was usually a rather sturdy, locked chest. The most obvious sight in the cabin however was a large beam of wood, broken from the lower hull, ripping up through the cabin floor and extending up into the deck above. The memory of the captain's last moments in her vision came to mind as she looked up.

Taking things one step at at time, Ialari glanced around the ship's office. There was several wet pieces of paper and parchment scattered about with some stuck to the walls. There was a shattered desk laying against one wall along with a broken chair. A set of shelves barely hung against one wall. There were a couple of empty leather scrollcases laying just inside the door, they were a little worse for wear and empty. . Half buried in the debris, Ialari could see that indeed the ship's paychest remained. Taking a careful step into the room, Ialari slowly scuffed her way the paychest. Though called a paychest, it was actually a rather sturdy lockbox with a strong lock on it. The lock, though a bit corroded, was still intact. The lockbox itself wasn't very large and for Ialari, it wasn't that heavy when she picked it up. Shaking it, she could hear that there was still something in it. The condition of the box itself was surprisingly good so Ialari thought twice about breaking the lock and latch to get in. Reaching over for the leather scrollcases, Ialari used her metallic arm to pinch then tear at the leather. Carefully she tore the scrollcase in a way that it produced something of a rough strip. Doing the same with the other then stretching the leather but stopping short of tearing it more, Ialari made a few leather strips that she then tied together to form a strap. She then tied it around the lockbox so that she had a a way to carry it. Slinging it around her shoulder she looked up.

The hole in the ceiling that the beam from the floor had created wasn't big enough to fit through but the shattered wood of the hole would be easily enough to pull away to make the hold larger. Thankfully, the ceilings in ship cabins were not that high and the beam looked thick enough to support her weight. Wrapping her hands around either side of the beam, she pulled herself up toward the hole. She used the fingers of metallic hand to dig into the wood for a better grip. When she reached the hole, she positioned herself so that her left arm was wrapped around the beam to hold her in place while swinging one leg up and over it for more support. With her metallic hand, she began breaking open the hole so that it would be wide enough for her to fit through. It didn't take long until enough of the ceiling was torn away and she was able to shimmy up the rest of the beam and through the larger opening.

Once through the ceiling, Ialari saw a familiar sight. She was now in the captain's cabin. Most of the contents of the room was resting against the wall with the locked door leading outside. What remained further in the room was the captain's desk as well as the captain himself, or at least part of his skeleton. Still dressed in the clothes Ialari remembered him in, albeit in much worse condition, the dead captain's skull stared open-mouthed at the door behind and somewhat below where Ialari stood.

From the looks of the captain's cabin, aside from the obvious damage caused from the ship's overall destruction, much of it was more or less intact compared to the other cabins. Moving away from the hole while trying to maintain balance on the inclined floor, Ialari began sifting through the contents piled against the wall. There was a battered wardrobe, splintered in areas with its door broken in half. Inside, some musty clothes lay in a pile. Turning from them, Ialari continued searching. She found a number of battered metal cups, a few plates and a couple bowls. There was a shattered bed frame with the bedding wrapped around the frame's broken pieces of wood. Along with a few other bits of shattered furniture and clothing, Ialari found the captain's footlocker and a familiar journal. The lid of the footlocker looked like it had been damaged in the wreck and was easy to open. Inside, Ialari found only some more musty cloths and a small leather bag containing a couple simple silver rings and a silver necklace attached to a small ruby. Taking the bag and putting it in her pouch, Ialari stood up and made her way back to the hole in the floor.

As she approached the hole, something dawned on her. "Kinda odd that the only life at all in this heap was a single crab. Thought there'd be some rats or something else." It was at that moment that Ialari felt the air in the cabin grow very cold. Goosebumps spread across her skin and her hair felt like it was tingling. The feeling was one she had come to know well. It was the feeling that she was no longer alone in the cabin.

"Excus'n me, my dear. Where ya be off to s'quickly?" Spoke a familiar sounding voice. Ialari's eyes darted around the cabin coming to focus on the impaled skeleton looking down on her from its morbid perch. An ethereal shape formed around the skeleton. The bald head, scraggly beard and worn face of the captain could be seen in the ghostly features of the shade that seemed to emerge from the skeleton. It floated down from the end of the beam and stopped in front of Ialari where it hovered while looking at her with a very somber gaze."

[Ialari Pythone]

Ialari stood still in front of the ghost. Having spent plenty of time in the company of a ghost along with clashing in an epic battle with another, she was not afraid of this one. Even so, she knew enough not to try and anger one as there was no way of knowing exactly how powerful it may be. She knew this one to be quite young as far as ghosts went yet that meant nothing as far as being a threat was concerned.

Unable to simply ignore him, Ialari responded calmly, "My apologies for disturbing you, captain. I was merely exploring what was left of your once fine ship. If I may, why are you still here?" She didn't really want to spend eternity engaging in idle conversation with a ghost so getting to the heart of the matter seemed the best option.

The captain gave Ialari a dumbfounded look while motioning all around him and said, "The door's locked, missy. Do ya think I'd stay'n this god-forsaken wreck if'a I could get out?"

She counted it a win that chose to focus on her question rather than addressing her answer. The last thing she wanted was an angry ghost upset that she was tresspassing on his ship. His response though stupefied her for a moment. He was a ghost after all and the decaying walls of the wreck would do nothing to prevent him from leaving at any time. Then it occurred to her, he obviously wasn't in his right mind; death had a way of doing that to a person. He could leave whenever yet he still thinks that the door is the only way out. Wonderful. She thought to herself.

"Captain, you realize that you're, um, dead, right?" Why not ask the obvious and see how he answered.

The captain let loose a hefty laugh and said sarcastically, "Of course I know. I died the night of the storm. The ship hit some rocks and'a I got impaled." The captain pointed at the gaping hole in his ethereal chest.

"So if you know you're dead, you realize you can just pass through the door anytime you want, right?" Attempting to reason with a ghost hadn't always gone that well in the past for Ialari yet she wasn't one to give up trying.

"Missy, I told you, I can'ta leave. Androsia locked the door and has the key. Without it, I'm trapped." The captain sounded as though he was starting to get agitated by Ialari's questions.

Ialari too was feeling a bit annoyed yet tried to keep it out of her voice. "Captain, Androsia died along with everyone else on board the night of the storm. The key is gone. However, if you want, I can open the door and you can leave whenever you want."

The captain's voice now sounded genuinely angry as he floated closer to Ialari and said with through translucent clenched teeth, "He's not dead. He's alive! After da storm, I woke ta noise outside. I look'a through the wind'uz and saw Androsia. He'a survived! He'a stumbled off da beach an inta the woods. He lives! You saya you canna get me out?! You will helpa me find him! You will!" As if to emphasize his point, the entire cabin began to noticeably shake for a moment or two before growing calm again.

This was not what Ialari had in mind when she thought to explore the wreck. She wanted no part of running on some wild chase of into the wilds to look for a man who was probably already dead, long gone or never actually survived outside of the crazed ghosts own delusional mind. "Captain, I can't help you find him but I can get you out so you can look for him yourself."

The captain did not seem to like Ialari's answer. His face twisted with rage and a ghostly tendril shot out from his body and hurled against Ialari. It wasn't enough to knock her back but it was enough to get her attention. It felt like someone had threw a snowball at her face. With a reluctant sigh, Ialari decided it was probably better not to anger the captain anymore. He was already displaying more control over his ghostly existence than she felt comfortable with. She was thankful however that the captain hadn't asked her how she knew so much about what had happened to him and the ship. That would be a rather awkward talk indeed. Perhaps if she agreed to help him and got out of the ship, she could either convince him to leave her be and/or finally embrace death. At the least, perhaps she could just ditch him somewhere and move on. "Alright captain, calm down. I will help you find Androsia."

The captain's anger subsided and his face returned to a slightly more friendly appearance. Softly muttering her annoyance to herself, Ialari turned around and half walked, half slid down to the cabin door. A quick examination of the lock revealed that even though it was rather corroded and covered in rust, it was still intact. Not feeling like making a show of anything, Ialari looked to where the locking mechanism latched into the wall. Raising her metallic hand, she extended her forefinger and pressed it into the wall just above where the latch would be. The wood gave way to her touch and she pushed down. Her finger parted the wood as if it were little more than wet paper. When it touched the latch, it too gave way. Then, taking hold of the door handle, she pulled and pushed the door open to the side. As for the captain, his eyes grew wide as Ialari broke the lock and opened the door. With the opening to freedom revealed, he rushed forth, passing through her and out of the cabin. After leaving the cabin, he stopped on the ground below and hovered. To Ialari it almost looked like he was taking a deep breath before staring around in wonder at the world outside the confines of the wreck. As for her, Ialari leaned out of the doorway while holding herself with one hand on the door frame. To her right was a tangle of ruined rigging. It didn't extend all the way to the ground yet it would offer her some support to climb down enough that she could then jump the rest of the way without any trouble.

Taking hold of the rigging, she did just that and in a few seconds jumped the last several feet and landed in a splash on the wet sand below. "Good, good! We'a go find him now!" The captain yelled with a mix of cheer and determination.

Ialari thought to herself, I can't believe you're agreeing to this. She then looked at the captain then motioned to her gear over by the rock. "Let me grab my things and we can go?" The captain nodded yet his posture was that of urgency.

Ialari walked over to the rock where she had left her pack. She put the things she had gathered from the ship into her pack. Those things too large to fit she tied them to the outside. Placing her staff in a set of loops on the pack, she slung it over her shoulder while taking her scimitar in hand. She turned around to find the captain hovering right next to her. "Alright, captain, lead the way." As the captain floated off into the woods, stopping several times to make sure Ialari was following, she uttered a prayer to Izurdin asking him for the patience to endure this new challenge against annoyance.

[Ialari Pythone]

The heat of the Summer day was more than a little uncomfortable for Ialari especially after stepping into the forest. It was humid and in little time she was soaked in sweat. Thankfully the captain seemed to be following a trail of some sort. Ialari was no tracker but she imagined it was some sort of animal trail. With the heat and humidity growing more uncomfortable with each passing moment, the pack on Ialari's back too grew heavier. As she and the ghost continued on the trail, she was forced to use her scimitar to chop away at some of the thicker brush that grew up in places. Tromping through the woods was not something she made a habit of so the experience was becoming more of a test on her patience than dealing with the obsessed ghost.

Deciding to give herself a chance to consider some alternative to what was going on, she felt getting the captain to talk a bit might be a good start. "So captain, why exactly did this Androsia fellow lock in your cabin? Wouldn't that be considered mutiny?"

Though the captain didn't turn his attention away from the trail, he still responded. "Of course it'sa mutiny. I saw the storm on'a the horizon as'a we left Zeltiva. I gave'a the orders to go around Sahova to avoid it. Androsia didn'ta wanna. He said the crew rather go backa to Zeltiva and wait it out. It be hard enough to get them away from the port to begin with, I didn'ta wanna go through it again. We had a schedule ta keep and goin around'a the island would not take that much more time and it'a be safer. Androsia didn'ta like that and witha some of the crew behind him, they threw me in my cabin and took over. By the time they turned'a the ship around, it be too late. The storm moved faster than expected and caught us." The captain stopped talking as he began to speed up. "He'sa near! I can feel it!"

Ialari struggled a bit to keep up with the captain. It wasn't that he was faster than her, but he didn't have to worry about the brush and the fallen limbs and the unsteady footing while she did. They continued off into the woods for easily a couple of bells. She had no idea how far they actually went from the beach as the trail seemed to weave back in on itself at times until she almost felt as though they were going in circles. A couple of times Ialari slowed down and thought to let the captain continue on his own while hoping he would just forget about her while in pursuit of the man he felt still lived. Each time, just when she thought she lost him, the captain blinked into existence right behind her and said, "Keep up, we're gettin close."

As they meandered about seemingly lost, Ialari took a few moments to examine some of the various plants that surrounded her. The captain didn't allow her to stop for any real collecting as he was always pushing her forward yet she did discover quite a few useful things, things she may return for later if she could ever lose the annoying ghost. There were numerous plants with roots, leaves and flowers that could provide a wealth of material for a variety of poisons. She saw more than a couple different types of snakes and even a few spiders, all of which could provide her with some truly amazing ingredients in quantities that would drive experiments for many seasons.

At one point, Ialari decided to try convincing the captain that is was better to accept death and move on. "Captain, you know, you could just give up finding Androsia and allow yourself to move on to the next life. You can't possibly enjoy this existence. I mean, trapped in a wrecked ship, torturing yourself with thoughts of killing a man who could already be dead. Even if he isn't and you find him and kill him, then what?"

The captain did not answer her. Instead he came to a complete stop a few feet in front of Ialari. The sounds of birds and insects filled the air around them and the sound of the sea could actually be heard relatively not far away. The captain pointed in front of him and whispered, "He's in there."

Ialari tried to see where the captain was pointing but had to take a few steps past and in front of him to get a better look. A few yards away through a bit of brush she saw a bit of clearing. In the clearing there looked to be a handful of stone structures covered in plant-growth. They looked quite old, possible even from before the Valterrian. From their vantage point however she couldn't make out much more in the way of detail yet the captain seemed certain that his target was somewhere in or around the structures. Ialari highly doubted it.

[Ialari Pythone]

Though Ialari doubted that the captain's traitorous first mate was somewhere in the ruins, she did feel the strange sense that death was indeed near. The palm of her hand began to throb as if someone were tapping it with their finger. Such a thing only happened either when she prayed to Dira and received an answer or when something related to death, dying or undeath was near. It was a perfect warning signal as it sometimes didn't work at all however it did provide her with a heightened sensitivity to such things when they were close. Indeed something was close.

Ialari scanned the ruins a little closer from where she stood. There were at least four structures that she could make out. They were covered in plantlife to the point that only their general shape gave any indication that they were actually artificial. One of them, slightly larger than the other three, had an opening that wasn't completely covered by leaves, vines and assorted brush. From the angle she was at, she couldn't see inside and there was still too much light left in the day to allow her nightvision to take effect. Whatever death she was sensing though was coming from inside the central structure. As for the other three, they were noticeably smaller and looked more like the remains of structures rather than anything remotely close to whole; perhaps leftover walls or something similar. There was even a broken, overgrown in most places road of sorts that Ialari could barely make out stretching out nearby. Whatever this place was had fallen into ruin very long ago.

As for whatever the captain supposedly detected within, Ialari no longer really cared that much. Her curiosity was exploding thanks to the growing pressure of the thumping on her palm. Growing. It had never done that before. The feeling has always remained constant when it happened, even among the nuit and ghosts of the Citadel. "Wait here." She whispered to the captain. She didn't need him stirring up any unknown threats with his obsessive foolishness. Father, give me strength. She thought in prayer as she carefully took a few steps into the light clearing. She was no hunter nor was she all that stealthy so that even though she thought she was being quiet, there was no doubt that the opposite was true.

Ialari, as quietly as she could manage, approached the central structure with her scimitar in front of her. She carefully removed her backpack and leaned it against a tree as she passed. As she got closer to the structure, she veered a bit to the left then leaned to one side of the opening. The structure itself, the best she could make out, looked to be roughly the size of her laboratory back in Sahova or about the size of one of the smaller habitations back home in Sultros. There was obvious stone behind all the greenery that draped over it. She paused for a moment and listened inside but heard nothing. The thumping in her hand was almost painful now; whatever the source was, it was inside.

Leaning over to look through the opening, she squinted into the darkness as her vision tried to adjust. Without warning, something jumped out of the darkness. The suddenness of it sent Ialari falling back away from the opening and up against a tree. Turning her head to see what jumped out, Ialari's jaw almost hit the ground. Hunkered down on its hands and feet was a human, or at least may have once been human. It was a man, dressed in tattered rags, covered in filth with matted, dirty brown hair, pale skin and a faint reddish highlight to his eyes which looked bulged and crazed. Around his neck he wore necklace baring a dirty, rusted key. In a dry, graveling voice it hissed, "He said you'd come! You, the woman with the black arm! He said to wait for you! To devour you and I would live again! So long now but you've come!

Ialari heard the captain speak with disgust from the spot she left him, "Androsia?"

The wild man's bulging eyes rolled to look at where the other voice came from. Seeing his old captain, Androsia, now a Chained One of Uldr, grinned widely, his broken, blackened teeth displayed prominently. "He never told me you'd be here too! Don't worry my captain, I'll deal with you soon enough! But first..." Androsia's over-sized eyes rolled back around to look at Ialari. His face carried the visage of one who hadn't eaten for weeks. He licked his broken teeth with a blackened tongue and jumped at Ialari.

As the undead bastard of Uldr flung himself at her, Ialari jumped to the side and rolled. Androsia landed where she had been, bumped into the tree and turned to face her before charging at her with his hands outstretched and his mouth open. The weapon she carried was useless for stabbing so she took it in both hands and brought it around in a wide slice while falling again to the side. The blade sliced into Androsia's side as barely missed her with a swipe of his hand. There was no blood drawn from the sword as Ialari noticed with growing concern and no small amount of fear. Androsia turned again and laughed at her; the sound was that of rocks being ground against a washboard. "Oh yes, you'll taste so much sweeter now that you're all worked up! Come, little girl, give ol Andy a kiss!" Androsia taunted as she came at her again.

This time Ialari raised the scimitar as Androsia charged and brought it down in a slashing motion. The blade bit into his shoulder and dug down into his torso several inches before he lurched backward, freeing the blade. Again there was no blood and Androsia appeared unfazed by the wound. Now only a few feet from each other, Ialari toss the sword to the side. "Enough of this. You've been waiting for me? You plan to feast upon me? Well come on then dammit! I don't have all day!" Ialari was not Izurdin. Her patience was not infinite. She had tolerated the obsession of the dead captain and humored him through the woods in search of some long dead traitor. It turned out that the traitor was still around and was now some form of unliving wildman set on eating her. A girl could only take so much before snapping.

Androsia howled and lashed out at Ialari. Ialari, not the most skilled fighter around, swung at Androsia at the same time instead of getting out of the way or otherwise trying to block him. Her fist connected with his with a morbidly disgusting crunching sound. Androsia's hand literally shattered within its own dried, unliving flesh and the bones of his forearm shattered. However, Ialari didn't not have a chance to avoid the Chained One's other hand as it grabbed her throat and began to squeeze. For such a broken looking creature, Androsia's grip on Ialari was quite powerful and even through her dense flesh she could feel the crushing strength of the undead upon her. Androsia leaned in close and with his dry, blackened tongue, licked his way up the side of Ialari's face. Ialari could feel her air being cut off by the crushing power of Androsia's grip as she tried to push him away with her off hand.

Just when she felt the darkness of unconsciousness starting to drop, something slammed into Androsia's head causing him to turn his attention from Ialari to the source of whatever had hit him. Barely seeing past the undead, Ialari saw the captain. The ghost had flung a large stone at Androsia. The resulting impact had tore away the first mate's flesh and revealed a slightly cracked skull from where the rock had struck. Androsia's grip loosened ever so slightly on Ialari giving her a second of breath and as well as a window of action. Clenching the fist of her metallic hand, she forced a kissing sound at Androsia who immediately turned to look at her just in time to feel her fist swing up from beneath and catch him where his lower jaw met his neck. The force of the blow was such that the dried flesh of his neck tore and the lower part of his skull exploded. His head snapped back as his neck broke to the point of severing. Androsia's grip on Ialari was released as his headless corpse fell backwards. Ialari also fell back, clenching her throat while coughing and gasping for air.

Several moments passed while Ialari attempted to breath and gather herself. Androsia's headless corpse lay several feet away while the captain's ghost hovered above it. When Ialari was able, she stood and slowly walk/half-staggered over to them. The captain didn't move only floated in one spot with a strange look on his face. Ialari, looking down, noticed something in the brush at her feet. Bending over, she picked it up. It was the rusted key. Both her and the captain looked at each other. "Captain, I believe this is yours." She held out the key held by the small chain of the necklace. The captain looked at the key then back to Androsia.

"He's, he's dead." The captain reached out with a ghostly hand, a hand that slowly grew more solid until the captain, the one she saw in her vision in his rugged, slightly worn and not all that un-handsome form, reached out and took the key from her. The gaping hole in his chest was gone and he was dressed in his captain's attire. "Missy, I don'ta even know ya yet ya helped me more than I could'a every thought. I never wanted things ta end'a up like this. I hadda wife, a daughter and only ever wanted to someday get back ta them. I'm sure by now, they've lefta me behind; moved on."

Ialari considered herself the farthest from being a person who care anything about a human, no matter what. Though she had let go of her hatred of them as a race, she still had little to any use for them. However, she couldn't help at that moment to feel sad for the captain. His fate was not a pleasant one. What happened to him was unfair. Death was unfair. "Captain, what is your name?" Throughout their short yet intense adventure, Ialari had never learned his name.

"Aaron Birewell." The captain said quietly.

"Aaron, my name is Ialari. Please listen when I say that I'm certain your family remembers you just as you do them. Life, death, it's all a cycle. You will see them again in another life, another time and in another place. What happened to you will be forgotten and the events that led up to it will mean nothing. You will begin life anew. You will once again meet your love, fall for each other, have a child and live your life as you are meant to. This, this will never be seen again. In the meantime, your family will live their lives now as they were meant to. When they die, they too will join the cycle and experience great joy and wonder as they enter the next stage."

Captain Birewell closed his eyes, his face creasing as he considered Ialari's words. "I...I want to believe you, Ialari, but this, this is too much..."

Ialari could not argue with him. She too had thought it all too much when two gods graced her with their presence. One of them revealed to her sights that no mortal have seen in even the most distant memories of the gods themselves. She had saw the wonder, terror, possibility and unbroken boundaries that was the world beyond mortality.

"Aaron, I'll tell you what. If you are able, join with me and I will show you the truth of things. Through me you will see that what I say is true and that the reality of it all is even more." Ialari opened herself up to the captain so that he may enter her body and see what she saw. Hesitant at first, Captain Birewell accepted her offer and became ethereal once more. He passed into her and merged as the two entities became one if only for a short time. Through Ialari, Birewell saw the Ukalas. He saw the infinite possibilities and realities that Ialari had experienced through Dira. When he had taken as much as he was able, Birewell emerged from Ialari, his posture and attitude completely different.

"I...you..." The captain's ghostly eyes were impossibly wide. "Thank you, Ialari Pythone, for what it's worth. If you're ever in Syliras, look up the Birewell family. If you do, look for a woman named, Mila. Give her that necklace you have your pouch and tell her that Aaron loved her." At that, the ghost of Captain Aaron Birewell separated and drifted away on a soft wind, the rusty key to his cabin door, the one that had locked him away for the past two years, fell to the ground. Ialari took several moments to stand in silence before walking over to where she had set her pack. WIth a deep sigh, she turned back toward the opening of the ruined structure from which the Chained One had emerged. It's not over yet, is it, Father. Ialari thought to herself and to Izurdin as she walked back to the ruins and stepped inside.

[Ialari Pythone]

Taking a step inside the central structure, Ialari's vision adjusted to the darkness. While there was some light coming through the opening, the rest of the interior appeared to be solid as no other light seeped through. There was only a single chamber with stone walls and a stone floor. the ceiling too was stone. Some amount of moss grew up the walls and hung from the ceiling while the floor was littered with bones and roughly torn pelts of fur. From the looks of things, Androsia made the interior of the ruins into a sort of lair. Judging from the piles of bones and hides, he maintained himself on whatever animals he could catch. Though she could not identity the bones specifically, she did not see any indications that any of the remains belonged to humanoid beings.

The whole place stunk of old death and not so old rot. The ceiling was roughly a foot higher than Ialari was tall and the walls were smooth. As she wandered about the interior, she ran her hand across the stone of the walls. The seams in the stone were not perfect; obviously it was the work of humans. However, despite being imperfect, the stone was adequately worked and tooled. The fact that it survived intact as long as it had was either a case of exteme luck or coincidence as far as Ialari was concerned. Examing the ceiling, she noted only a few surface cracks and indentations. Otherwise, there were no solid breaks or danger of collapse that she could see. As she studied the interior, she wondered at what purpose it may have onced served. Any furnishings would have long since turned to dust as would any wooden separation walls if there had been any. Kicking some of the bones and left over hides out of the way, she kneeled down to examine the stone floor. There was light plant growth in the seams between the stones and blood stains throughout yet the floor too was in relatively decent condition considering its age.

The more Ialari studied the interior, the more of an idea started to grow in her mind. She had originally thought to simply wander about the nearby beach and give her mind and her body a break from the drain Sahova tended to have on both. Yet, as she stood in the center of the ruined structure, she considered a number of possibilities. First, the location was more than a little remote. It was buried in a stand of trees along a secluded beach that was also hidden from sea-view thanks to a wall of jagged rocks. The closest habitation that she new of was Sunberth and nearest she could tell, the ruins were far enough away from the city and any residuals to be in danger of being uncovered by others. It was close enough to Sahova that she stood a good chance of being able to make regular trips too and from the Island via the merchant vessels on their routine trips, at least until she could figure a cheaper and more efficient manner of travel. There was also a source of building materials in the form of the shipwreck which she could scavenge supplies from. If done right, the ruins could serve as a nice personal getaway from the sometimes oppressive aura of death and stagnation that hung over Sahova unendingly.

Of course there was the matter of preparation. The central structure was a mess. She would have to clean out the inside of the dead remains as well as remove all the plantlife within. Also, she would need to take a look around the immediate area. That in mind, she left the central structure and began exploring the other ruins that lay nearby. Retrieving her scimitar from the ground near the now headless corpse of Androsia, Ialari used it to clear away some of the brush around the other parts of the collective ruins. As she did so, she began to see something of a picture form in the dirt, among the walls and between the trees. The other stone structures looked to be pieces of walls that may have once connected to the central structure. The old, overgrown, broken road that ran nearby may have offered a clear path to whatever these ruins once were. In all, the ruined walls along with the central enclosed structure filled an area roughly 2000 square feet in size. Other signs of worked stone, none of which were preserved even a fraction of the actual structures, revealed that there may have been even more buildings and symbols of humanoid habitation ages ago. Perhaps it was a fishing village of some sort, Ialari didn't know.

After spending a few more bells worth of time in the ruins, Ialari decided to find her way back to the beach. She picked up her backpack and set off. It wasn't difficult as all she needed to do was follow the sounds of the sea. The trip was short, perhaps a hundred yards or so in total. As she cut her way through the light brush, Ialari noted the absence of much wildlife save for birds and insects. She attributed this to Androsia's presence for so long; he must have cleaned out most of the native wildlife in the nearby area with his scent driving off any others who may come close. This would serve Ialari well for awhile and allow her to settle in to her new home away from home. When she emerged from the trees, she found that the lengthy amount of time spent following the captain along the animal trail had indeed took her around in circles for when she stepped onto the beach, she was but a short 20 or so yards away from the point she entered.

With a soft sigh of irritation, she then chuckled to herself and wiped her brow. She had been moving hard and steady for many bells now and fatigue was beginning to seep into her bones. The heat of Summer as well was having no small amount of effect on her. Retrieving her waterskin from her backpack, she drank heavily. As she pulled the her lips from the waterskin, she realized that she would need to find a good source of fresh water in order to make this place work as a sort of retreat. That was something she resigned to handle later as she walked over to where she left the two barrels of goods salvaged from the wreck. She kneeled down and wrapped an arm around each barrel and stood. They were heavy but not overly so; more awkward than anything else. Turning back to the woods, she made her way down the trail she had come out of and went back to the ruins.

Once she returned, she sat the barrels outside the central structure. Setting down her backpack, she leaned against a nearby half-wall and took a break. As she rested, Ialari considered another possibility of what to do with the ruins. The central structure was remarkably intact. The walls were solid as was the ceiling and the floor was also in decent condition. A bit of maintence and cleaning on the inside, a bit of paint, charcoal and a door and it could serve as a good testing ground for Dominion. The thought of returning the Ukalas sent shivers crackling down her spine. She hadn't been able to get back since leaving Nyka and Sahova was too dangerous a place to risk revealing such a secret to the likes of the Council, at least not as unskilled and unprepared as Ialari currently was. She still needed Sahova else she would cut ties to it altogether. Sahova held infinite resources that she could use to develop herself into an accomplished mage. It also offered her the only insight into an enemy that was still out there, Drainira, Champion of Sagallius. It was only a matter of time before the pair learned of Ialari acquiring Dominion if they hadn't found out already. Ialari would need Sahova and its resources if she ever hoped to face such a foe.

For now though, one thing at a time. Ialari stepped away from her lounging spot and walked into the central structure. The first thing that would have to go was the nest of bones, hides and refuse that Androsia had formed into a kind of nest. Removing the mess proved to be a bit more daunting that she initially thought. She didn't have a broom or anything like that to simply sweep it away so she had to do it all by hand; a dirty, disgusting job to say the least. Armful after armful of animal remains were carried out of the structure and dropped in a pile several feet away. Ialari continued this until all that could be picked up by hand was removed. For the rest, she sacrificed her bedroll; she had the portable shelter still if needbe, and wrapped it in a mass at the end of her staff. Using her belt, she strapped the cloth to the staff and formed something of a mop/broom. Though it wasn't enough to have moved large debris, it seemed to work quite well with the finer material.

When she was satisfied that the vast majority of the loose debris inside the structure was removed, she began pulling down the plant growth on the walls and ceiling. In several places she needed to scrape and cut with her sword. The majority of it was moss and a few scraggly vines. The enclosed area and lack of sunlight prevented an abundance of plants from growing so the task wasn't as great as it could have been. The plant debris was also tossed in a separate pile from animal remains as the latter may have other uses. When Ialari had finished with the initial clearing of the interior, the sun was setting and darkness was falling. Ialari decided to add one more thing to the plant pile, Androsia. She took hold of one of the corpses legs and drug it over to the pile. She then walked over to where the head lay. Picking it up by its greasy, matted, foul-smelling hair, she tossed it to on the pile. Gathering a bit of dry wood and underbrush and adding it to the pile, she then retrieved her flint and steel from her backpack. Moments later, she had gotten a good spark going for a fire and a moment more had the pile going up in flames. Though the smell was rancid, it would serve to further drive off any potential animal threats for the night. While the fire burned, she sought to gathering a bit more scrap wood to keep it going. It was late into the Summer and the nights were growing a bit cool, especially close to the sea. Once the corpse burned down, a good bit of firewood would be great to cuddle up near.

Unstrapping the battered case containing her portable shelter, Ialari opened it and began setting it up. It didn't take long before she finished and stretched out; a bit of trail rations serving as dinner. The day had been ever so long and her mind and body were taxed hard. Sleep could not come sooner for her as she closed her eyes and welcomed the rest.