Open Paradise and the Thief

[Merevaika]

Merevaika

80th Spring 517

There was a tapping on her shoulder, and the woman stirred in her sleep, not wanting to wake up. For the first time in what had seemed like forever, she had slept well. No nightmares, no bad memories, just a peaceful, empty sleep. It had been the first time she had enjoyed sleeping on a boat too, as the swaying had swept her up into her restful state. She begged not to drift out of her sleep, gripping the snags of sleep and pulling the loose blanket over her tight, despite the heat that soaked through the ship.

"Time to wake, we're here," came a voice, and Merevaika gave a deep moan, shifting again, and feeling her muscles tense as she landed on her injuries badly. "Get up, or you'll find yourself sailing back off to Riverfall before you know it!'

She twisted once more, looking up at the sailor who had woken her. He had already disappeared, surely very busy with ship stuff, which she had been very busy ignoring for most the journey. Slowly, she picked herself up from the hammock, almost slipping onto the crates that formed the rest of the room. It took her a moment to steady herself, but it was easier than before, through either experience or the fact the boat wasn't moving anymore, but it didn't matter. She was getting of this unnatural place, and she was going to reach paradise. That was what it was called. It was never going to be paradise, but perhaps it was far enough from the world to make it close.

Her possessions were few and scattered, and didn't take long to gather. Backpack on her back, weapons at her waist and bow tucked over one shoulder, she made her steady way, clambering across crates towards the sleeping shadow in the corner.

If anyone had found the journey worse than Merevaika herself, it was Beast. The dog had disappeared behind a particular clump of crates and had collapsed there for the entire journey, waking only to throw up or to bark at a particularly daring rat. She needed space to run, to hunt, to live - as did Merevaika. With a whistle, their eyes met, and she slowly joined the woman, understanding it was time to leave. Helping the dog up towards the deck, she took a deep breath, feeling the salt brush her lips and the sight meet her eyes. The rainforest stretched as far as her eye could see, green trees unlike anything she had seen before. They towered up, beyond her sight, and her jaw dropped, feeling the wilderness stronger than even the Sea of Grass.

Below it lay the strip of white and gold, dotted with tiny flecks of brown where the buildings had begun to sprout. So this was it. This was Syka. This was her new home.

Yet she didn't feel anything. There wasn't any deep longing for home, nor a sense of relief. Just an emptiness, and the planning that already came of figuring out how to make it survivable.

"You coming?" came the call from a sailor in a smaller rowing vessel designed to get them to shore. Without saying a word, she moved over, scooping Beast and holding the dog as tightly as she could as she settled into the boat. It was launched and they made their way, Merevaika sitting silently and letting her eyes watch the ripples of the oars commandeered by the two sailors. The boat gave a judder as they met sand, and the people inside began to spill out, finding the sea and the sand without hesitation.

Following suit, Merevaika flipped over the edge and found the water rush over her boots. They wouldn't be needed here. She trudged forward, feeling the sun beat against her and she realised that she wouldn't be able to wear the feathered cloak and the winter clothing from underneath in this heat. Emerging from the water, she shifted over to the shade, collapsing there. The trees loomed over her, the sea pulled forward and back not far from her feet. Tent, bedroll, rucksack lay scattered around her. Beast paced back and forward near her, finding her feet after what had seemed like forever.

Slowly, she let herself close her eyes and pull the feathered cloak off. Let herself settle as the sands shifted to her shape. Let herself relax. She had long enough until night. Long enough to let herself adjust to this land.


"Pavi"
Grassland sign
"Common"

[Nya Winters]

The Kelvic stumbled upon the woman quite by accident.

Nya had been running down the beach. Captivity and a long isolation from people had made her weak. She'd lost muscle tone and stamina. Pale skin had turned even paler and muscles that she'd had in her youth had vanished. Pacing a cell hadn't done enough to keep her fit so she'd discovered that running in the deep sand gave far more back to her than the repeated exercises the warriors did when they wanted to shape up. Nya liked to run. She liked to feel her legs moving under her in either form, no walls confining her forward motion. Her hair was loose and whipped out behind her as each stride carried her further from her home. Her lungs were growing stronger, taking in big breaths and letting them out slowly as she tucked her elbows in tight against her skin. On four legs she'd have been bounding down the sand, but on two one had more precarious balance. Humanity agreed with Nya in that regard. The sun did too. It had turned her pale sallow skin to a luminous gold and had bleached out her black hair to a somewhat more normal brindled color her particular forest cat was known for.

She was not yet winded, though that had not been the case in her first days here in Syka. The sun, the sand, and the sea were a healing balm and the magical trio had given her back her breath. When a battered soul could breath, a battered soul could heal. And that was what Nya was doing.

Running free. Her eyes were so focused forward that she didn't see the woman stretched out on the sand napping. Nor did the dog evidently notice her until the last minute. He'd been equally at rest, eyes drooped closed and quiet contented snores filling the air around him though generally drowned out by the gentle crash of the waves.

Nya thought the long form in the sand was flotsam, driftwood even, so still and flat the woman was lying. It wasn't until she went to jump over the wood that she realized it was a living thing, though in a flash she thought perhaps it was a bird for there were hints of feathers under her splayed out on the sand.

The Kelvics leap was awkward. She wasn't in her cat form so her human form lacked some of the grace it used to have. She twisted badly in the air, came down late, and fell all but face first into the sand in an awkward sprawl that almost had her kicking the woman with her flailing limbs.

The moment she was down the dog was up, barking hard, harshly, lips peeled back as he was startled out of his sleep and forced unnaturally back into his guardian duties from his slumber.

Nya instinctively hissed at the dog as it advanced, teeth bared, barking. If she'd have had hackles as a human, they would have been standing on end as she gracelessly crab-walked backwards in a haste to retreat both from the woman and the dog.

The Talderian Forest Cat had learned a long time ago that women could be dangerous. So too could dogs. She wasn't Abashai. She had no great length of steel or a mighty bow to protect her. The slight girl just had claws and fangs and in that moment she chose to use them.... shifting in a swirl of light into her cat form.

For a moment the cat ignored the woman. She was, to the cat, less of a threat than the dog.

The enormous cat crouched, hissing its displeasure at the dog, and backing back down the beach towards the water and away. Her tail was as thick as the womans arm as it lashed back and forth further broadcasting its displeasure. Hypnotic green eyes locked on the dog and the kelvic tasted the magic in her mouth. Angered animals were tricky to manipulate. The dog already saw her as a threat so she couldn't use her hypnotism to dissuade him that she was not. He already wanted a piece of her hide, and now that he saw she was big, that would be easy to use against him. Nya was big in her cat form, easily matching a common riding horse, though more muscled and built differently. And she used that as her green eyes locked on the dogs deep dark ones.

Big. I'm big. I'm so big I could swallow you in one bite. I'm so big I block out the sun.

Djed burned in her eyes as the kelvic pushed her power forward, trying to convince the dog she was so big he could not possibly fight her. She could taste the djed in her mouth and pushed the power into her gaze, forward, directing it to the dog.

Believe it. Your Mistress is lost to you. She's already gone. Best to run. Best to save yourself. Leave the cat. It won't make your death easy.

Nya poured her will into the magic, pushing at the dogs mind. She could feel the link, feel its reaction forming. And all she could do was wait and hope her efforts worked and the dog turned and ran. If it didn't, she'd have to fight it unless it backed down. And she was not certain any dog anywhere could be convinced to do that.

[Merevaika]

Merevaika

The dog stared the woman down, confused about her and why there was a cat there suddenly. Beast was scared too, as this wasn't an ordinary cat. As big as all the horses in Endrykas. And her eyes were terrifying, threatening her, and the dog had all sorts of thoughts. About running, mainly, because she could never take this cat on. But at the same time, that meant leaving her woman behind. Considering her state, Beast wouldn't do that. That would meant giving her to the cat, which was not what she wanted at all. Instead, the dog growled, although she still pulled back, flattening against the ground in fear.

In her state, the woman was barely aware of what was happening around her. She wasn't quite asleep, but almost there, slipping in and out of reality as the strangeness of this place engulfed her. It was only when there was a strange hissing noise - and the growl from Beast - that she noticed the change. Slowly, her eyes flickered open, first squinting in the light. Then her hand pulled up to shield herself and she rose from where she lay slowly, glancing towards Beast.

The sight of the cat threw her senses awake, and she scrambled quickly in the sand to seize her bow. That wasn't an ordinary creature. The cat was bigger than any she had ever seen, even bigger than the night lions in the Sea of Grass. Her fur shimmered in the light, mottled browns and greens and blacks, and her eyes stared out, terrifying. They were green and full of life and almost hypnotic. And so close to her, terrifyingly close to her.

She didn't even have Eryunt to save her.

The woman gave a light whistle, and Beast leapt behind her, growling a little more ferociously with the huntress before her. As her dog obeyed, the woman herself was stumbling with her arrow, struggling to notch it with her shaking fingers and hoping that she would get it done in time. Then the piece fell into place and she dragged the string back, arrow pointed straight at the animal.

Merevaika gave a deep growl, baring her teeth wide and staring the creature down. In the Sykan sun, the red gleamed furiously, like bloodstains amongst the green. If this was a normal cat, the woman would have looked intimidating enough, but this was no normal cat. Shaking all over, she tried to hold her ground, hoping that even with her size, the cat wouldn't want to start a fight.

She should have shot it as soon as she had the chance. But even if she had, she was too close to have another go. And one shot was not going to kill this thing.


"Pavi"
Grassland sign
"Common"

[Nya Winters]

The dog didn't run.

That made Nya incredibly concerned because animals normally did run when she poured djed into such commands. Rather than question it though, the Forest Cat decided it was most likely another byproduct of her captivity, another sort of muscle tone lost. Much like her ruined body that she was slowly regaining control over, magic must have fallen prey to the Ebonstryfe as well. Nya wondered in that moment if her reimancy was just as weak. She hated, in that instant, all that Ravok and her denizens stood more... and all that they had taken from her.

Most likely. Anger threaded through her that was unrelated to the annoyance of the dog barking like it was going to rip her face off. It wasn't. Both she and the dog knew that its size alone precluded that from even being a factor. Had she been human with all of her clothes, she'd not have worried because she would have put a boot in its face and taken out its flapping jaws if for no other reason than to shut it up. Bare feet and a smaller form wouldn't help though. Nya's clothing had been a thin tunic that had shredded the moment she shifted in it. Barefoot and basically unarmed for her run, Nya in that moment had learned a lesson she wouldn't soon forget. At least strap on the Kukri she had. Take something with her. The cat inside, for all its determination to protect itself, was often nothing more than a distraction when it came to people.

They didn't see past her size. They couldn't see the intelligence in her eyes. Only one person had ever seen past all that and she'd bonded with him instantly all those years ago. All strangers saw were the fangs and claws and the muscle corded upon muscle that made her well able to take on a tapir or small elephant if the need to feed arose.

Nya's attention turned from the dog in time to see the woman draw the bow. Stupid. She was so stupid. The big cat knew humans were dangerous, far more in fact, than were dogs. It was just that dogs were noisy, distracting, and tended to generate headaches. Nya's head was already pounding.

The woman and her arrow could hurt Nya. And the cat knew it instinctively. Abashai carried a bow for a reason. He could wound and kill without getting close. Nya disliked bows unless she stood behind them watching her proud ex-bondmate hunt. Standing in front of one, being stared down at like she was a monster, was disconcerting.

It was yet another thing that was annoying her. Taking a risk, Nya shifted again, letting the colors of her kelvic transformation swirl around her and exchange her cat form for her human one. She'd learned her lesson with Karin, trying to argue with a human in cat form just made them think you were going to eat them all the faster. Growls didn't translate well into the common language, if the woman in fact did speak common.

Nya lifted her arm and pointed at the dog that was firmly behind the woman now. "That thing started it! I was just out stretching my legs, running down the beach, minding my own business when it started threatening me. I didn't know someone was sleeping in the sand. I thought you were just a pile of flotsam. It's all up and down the beach this time of year!" Nya hissed in common, still catlike even in her human form.

Her eyes narrowed. The dog was the monster here, not her.

"If it doesn't stop that horrible noise, I will make it! Dogs are rude. Incredibly rude. It's not like I'm going to eat it or anything. Dogs are disgusting, filthy, and utterly gross as food." Nya hissed again, crouching low in the sand, eyes warily on the bow in the woman's hands and knowing there wasn't much she could do if the woman did try to shoot her.

The wind stirred up then, swirling the woman's hair, and Nya turned slightly as if following the breeze with her eyes if such a thing was possible. "I know. More strangers...." She said softly though the dog and woman could hear if they weren't shouting back at her... It was as if Nya was answering something unheard in the wind. It made her seem slightly unbalanced, as if she were one of those people that talked to thin air.

Then Nya stood up slowly, hands down at her sides, palms open, arms out so that the woman could see that she wasn't armed. Her eyes grew luminescent again, instinctively protecting herself with what was one of her animal's natural talents. Nya slowly backed away even as she tried again, pooling djed into her hypnotic gaze.

You don't want to shoot me. I'm no real threat to you. I don't want to eat your dog. I'm even backing away...

"My name is Nya Winters. I live here in Syka. I'm one of the settlers. Don't shoot me with your arrow. I have no desire to bleed today because someone is too afraid to make proper introductions. If I were something wild, you'd already be dead before you even woke up. Sleeping on the beach isn't very safe." Nya said in a matter of fact tone. It was in that moment, and in that statement, that she wondered what the woman was actually doing anyhow...

[Merevaika]

Merevaika

Then she was woman, and Merevaika stumbled back even more, more from the shock of seeing her transform than anything else. Kelvic, the word lingered on her lips, but her mind began to doubt the unsaid word. Why, she couldn't tell. Back in Endrykas, everything had been normal, and the only thing that could transform from human to animal was Kelvic. And her. But now... It had been like no thing she had ever seen, that cat. Terrifying, a monster in physical form, but beautiful in that wild way. The woman that stood before her was too, catlike in a way that could only be Kelvic. Right?

There was hissing before her mind fell on the fact the Kelvic was trying to talk to her. Common, so she struggled to understand, but her tone of voice and posture said more than she could have guessed. Blame roared through her as her eyes narrowed in on their target. Her sleep-deprived, memory-tortured mind couldn't make out what else she wanted to say. About years and beaches. The confusion was clear in her own body language too, her shoulders sagging, the grip on the bow weakening. Eyes narrowing but in a lot less threatening way.

But the woman was still at it, crouching in the sand, yelling at the dog who kept shrinking back, terrified of the woman who was cat, smelled of cat, acted like cat. More insults, Merevaika could make these out this time. Rude and filthy - and something about being food, although the ex-Drykas was certain that it was negative. She had nothing to say to that. She didn't care, not about dogs, anyway.

Merevaika wanted to shoot, to yell out, to say something in reply, but her actions were stopped by the whisper from the woman. Not to her, clearly, but to someone else. There was no one around. Merevaika shook her head, trying to tell herself she had dreamt it, imagined it in the wind, tightening her grip on the bow and letting herself focus on holding it and watching the Kelvic.

Clearly, though, the Kelvic wasn't stupid, didn't want a fight. She stepped back, arms up and empty. Suddenly, Merevaika realised she didn't want to shoot her. There was no need, she wasn't a thread, she was backing away. The words about the dog and food - they were just words. As if in a dream, she lowered her bow, letting the woman have her peace. She wasn't going to shoot. In her human form, the Kelvic was no different than her. Weak, vulnerable, standing naked on the beach with nothing to defend her. The woman couldn't even tell that those thoughts weren't hers in the first place.

The scenario changed, just like in a dream, and the woman was introducing herself, lecturing her like a schoolteacher. Don't sleep on the beach, don't do this, don't do that. Merevaika wasn't stupid. "Where do I sleep, Nya?" she asked, a little abrasive in her voice as she realised that she had been that stupid. "What is.... settler? And where is food - where can I get food?" She almost forgot to introduce herself. But what would she introduce herself as? Was she even Merevaika Stormchaser anymore? No. That was the name of a bonded Drykas. No name, then, for now. She was hungry and tired, and introductions - her side of them- could wait.

"Pavi"
Grassland sign
"Common"