Solo [Port of Riverfall] Open Water

[Lysaea Frostfawn]

Timestamp: 22nd Day of Spring, 514 AV The sun glowed with a distant light as it's rays hit the gently sparkling water making Lysa glare unhappily at it. How deceptive was that light. Just yesterday did that stupid rain come in and sweep some of her possessions away; including the only one that actually meant something to her eitherwise known as her smallspear. It wasn't as if she was particularly clever too. After all, who would be stupid enough to leave their belongings consisting of a spear in a backpack with 5 gold mizas, to be swept away by the heavy rain to wherever? Grumbling, she didn't allow her facial features to even lift in the slightest as she trudged all the way down the now pristine city to the docks. Her reasoning was the river would have most likely swept everything she owned in that accursed backpack down the waterfall and into the bay beneath it. Now she wasn't that stupid as to jump off a cliff and drown trying to find her things so she instead resigned herself to going to the port and maybe finding something. At least she had more of a chance of surviving than jumping off a cliff to her death from the second tier. Finally making her way down to the final tier, she stopped walking to take a breather. Going down three tiers was certainly a trek. As the Vantha stooped over, her eyes, currently shaded an angry light green, flickered up to the port. Oh how she loved ports. They always reminded her of a happier past when she was in the Coolwater hold. Shaking her head out of her little world, she decided it was about time she started searching. Walking over the beach, she made her way to the water's edge and blocked out Syna's light with her hand over her forehead. Now where would she start. It wasn't as if it was her best idea ever to go looking but... it was her smallspear... she didn't want to lose it without even trying to see if it might have washed up on the beach somewhere. Eyeing the dock where the ships were kept, she decided she would start her search there. As she got closer, she eventually started to see a glint of metal not coming from a ship. Heart jumping when she saw it, she immediately increased her pace and didn't look where her feet were going. That was her second big mistake in two days. Out her feet went from under her as she slipped in a puddle of water. Surprised, she barely registered the shock of falling into the water until she tried to open her eyes only to see murky water glaring back at her. Immediately panicking, her eyes turned a dark emerald as she promptly started to rise to the surface, making a commotion in the water above.

[Lysaea Frostfawn]

Lysa went into the cool water and opened her eyes wide as the initial shock of falling into water sunk in. Her first reaction immediately was to panic; and thus was what she did. Thrashing and squirming in the water, it wasn't in her least mindset that the people walking around the dock would be laughing or jeering at the woman who stupidly fell into the water.

Finally remembering what she had learnt about swimming, she made paddle strokes in the water and awkwardly kicked upwards. Panicking as she felt herself continue to lose air, she redoubled her efforts until she broke out of the surface and drunk in gasps of air.

Clinging to the side of the dock with the desperation of a wild animal caged up, she shakily drew breaths until her body slowly relaxed and her grip on the dock relaxed.

She was still recovering from her near death experience when suddenly she saw the faint glimmer of steel in the corner of her eye again. All traces of her almost drowning experience disappeared to be replaced with a clear goal.

And then a flicker of doubt shadowed her face.

She'd have to swim there.

[Lysaea Frostfawn]

Or as it so turns out, she didn't need to. Instead the young woman thought of a better way to gain access to the glimmer brought about by the supposed spear.
As her thoughts processed through her mind, she began to lug through the water as best as she could towards a place she could get out onto the deck.

She eyed a perfect spot from the corner of her iridescent green and purple eyes and heaved her way towards it. Once she got to her designated location, she ducked underneath the water and opened her eyes, a burst of bubbles escaping her open mouth and speeding up to the surface. Her eyes searched for proper hand and foot holds, logic telling her she simply couldn't jump out if she couldn't touch the bottom of the water body with her feet.

Finally finding suitable holds, she wedged her feet securely before she flailed her arms around like a useless idiot trying to make their way to the surface. Nonetheless, her face broke out of the water, mouth gaped wide open as she proceeded to suck in air. She then placed her hands on her chosen sections and pushed up with all her might, her arm muscles showing their strain as she rode their momentum to lunge on the deck as a seal might.

Alas, she managed to drag herself up in one piece onto the deck. She didn't particularly care about what the bystanders around would have been thinking of her. That she was a lunatic perhaps. Groaning as she pulled herself into a standing position, she looked down at her wet self and didn't get much of a happiness boost.

Her tattered red shirt was well...barely a shirt with loose threads of linen peeking out everywhere and the last time she checked, she could have sworn she didn't have an old spoon peeking out of a now gaping hole. Thankfully, she wasn't wearing any undergarments; if she had been, she'd no longer have any and the pants she was currently wearing at the very least weren't in as a terrible state as her shirt...or so she thought. Unbeknownst to the Vantha, they had a rip on them. However, it was unbeknownst to her and thus she didn't bother.

Instead, she sought to seek out the route she had found to the suspected object and eyes alight with a song rising in her heart, she quickly strode towards the unoccupied ship she thought she would be able to climb around and grab the item.

As she approached the ship, a thought plagued the back of her mind. What if it wasn't the spear? Lys dreaded to think if it weren't. She desperately hoped it was going to be her spear. She didn't want to lose it or never see it again.

Hoisting her leg up around the back of the ship (she did remember how to climb around ships from her Coolwater days), she placed in securely on a non-wet surface and inched her way around to the shiny object. Lys held her breath in as she edged closer and closer. Somewhere in the back of her mind she was able to wonder what people would think of the Vantha climbing the empty ship. However she was not able to ponder much as her foot slipped sending the huntress's heartbeat flying as she grasped a hand hold tightly in each hand before the rest of herself joined her foot swimming in the water.

Lysa breathed shakily as she calmed her jittery nerves. Her heart fluttered as she glanced at the murky water below. There appeared to be numerous objects within the depths and she didn't wish to pierce herself on them by falling in.

Not even realising she was holding in her breath, a gush of air was emptied by her lungs as she finally reached the glimmer. She was so close, just that one inch away from seeing her spear. Leaning downwards (and noticing her pants rip even more), an intake of breath was to be heard as she cast her eyes onto the...

[Lysaea Frostfawn]

...broken shafts of wood.

Broken?

The hope that had been slowly rising in her suddenly plummeted to below 0 degrees.

It was broken. The only thing that was close to her heart was broken. Numbness spread throughout her body and the only thought she was to dive inside to try and find the shattered spear's remains but common sense managed to stop her from recklessly doing so. Instead, she just stared at her heirloom as if somehow it would repair itself.

She would have stayed like that if it weren't for the fact that her hands had begun to hurt from clinging on to the ship. Slowly, she shifted her feet from her position and began to pull herself away from her position; but not before she looked back at the spear. It was like tearing her heart away from her chest and leaving it alone there. She hadn’t noticed how much it had meant to her before that moment.

She couldn’t just leave it alone. Lysa turned away from the ship and replaced herself into her original position before she plunged her hand in the water. She could feel the scraps of random pieces floating by but there was only one thing she was looking for. There! Lys’s eyes gained light as she felt the piece of wood with the engraving on it. She clasped her hand firmly over the top before bringing herself up and throwing it onto the deck of the ship. Now all she had to do was drag herself back onto the ship.

The huntress did so in a few minutes and less, athletically swinging herself over the top before landing on her two feet on the deck. She approached the piece of wood and picked it up. Her eyes softened when she looked at the engravings before she stood up and straightened her back, fully drinking in her surroundings. It had been so long before she’d been on a boat. She remembered her father had told her that right was starboard, left was port, the hull was the framework of a ship and the bow was the front of the ship.

Regret hit her as recalled the memory. Her father had told her that she would one day navigate for their ships. She had never done that before. She remembered how excited she had been but then, her husband happened. It hadn’t been his fault directly but she had willingly gone to the Frostfawn hold due to the fact he didn’t want to go to the Coolwater hold when they married.

It had been her choice she guessed and many times she had wondered whether she had been doing the wrong thing. In a way she had since it was because of that thinking she decided to learn reimancy despite her initial fear of the magic. But she couldn’t regret learning reimancy. In a way it had brought her to the Sanctuary, a place she decided she had found home in. And it wasn’t like it was a terrible skill to have.

Lysa sighed, there was no point for her to be so stuck in the past. She did that a lot; reminisce. And then she had her resolve in the beginning of Spring to recover her old self. The groom looked at the carving in her hand. It was a stupid resolve in a way. Recovering her former happiness was impossible, at least in Riverfall. In Avanthal, maybe she could have begun to reconnect with her old friends and thus gain a piece of her old self but even so, it wouldn’t be her fully. She was scarred by her life back in Avanthal and pretending it never happened was just as bad as never being able to remove herself from the events. The past shaped the future. Her fingers tightened around the wood that once was part of her father’s small spear. The carving it had was exactly that. ‘Don’t forget your past’ it read in Vani. When she had received it from her dad before she went away, she had assumed it just meant don’t forget the Coolwater hold and maybe it had. Now she felt though, that it was more of a reminder to never forget the things that happened before because those things were the ones that shaped someone’s character.

Funny for the past year of her life she had never done that despite the fact it was engraved on her spear. Lysa looked back towards the water. It was also funny how one never knew how much something meant to them before they lost it. At least she had a memento of the heirloom. She wouldn’t return to Avanthal for a while. To patch up her past, she felt she needed a stronger present which she didn’t have at the moment. Lys gazed around the ship one last time. How unfamiliar it is she thought to herself. Well she wouldn’t be staying on it for much longer.

Lysa moved her feet from her position and was about to make her way to the exit when a rip in her pants made her remember her clothing problem. She sighed. It wasn’t good to steal but nor was it in her best interest to return to the Sanctuary with bad attire. She skimmed her eyes over the deck before she stopped as the words ‘target acquired’ came up in her head. It wasn’t pants but it was something she could wear even if it wasn’t her style.

She moved towards the item quickly and without sound aware that the person owning the ship could come anytime. The item was a short orange skirt and would have to do for a suitable item of clothing. She quickly slipped into it and to her relief she could fit in it although it was a little loose. She had no intention of leaving her pants behind so thus kept them on. Instead she spied a knife hanging on a hook at the side of the ship and used it to slash the visible bits of her pants from under the skirt and threw them away of the deck. If she was going to be a thief, might as well be a good one and leave no trace behind. Once she was content with the fact that the person on the ship wouldn’t catch her, she jumped off the ship gracefully and headed back towards the Sanctuary. She’d go hunting the next day with her other spear and pay her respects to the one she had lost today.

[Ragdoll]

Grade Awarded!

Skills

Skill	Points
Planning	2
Acrobatics	2
Climbing	1
Swimming	2
Observation	3
Larceny	1

Lores

• Suicidal Actions are Bad
• Swimming: Find the Surface
• Don't Forget Your Past

Loot

Orange Skirt
Hunting Knife

Comments

THANK YOU FOR USING THE CALENDAR!
Seriously. Caps aside, it's great to see people use the calendar Goss made ^-^ And this was a fun thread to read, though it was sad at the end. :c

Don't forget to edit your grading request! Though I try my hardest to award you what you deserve, I may occasionally mess things up! If there's something you'd like to discuss about your grade, then please don't hesitate to send me a PM and I'll be happy to work things out with you.