(This is a thread from Mizahar's fantasy role play forum. Why don't you register today? This message is not shown when you are logged in. Come roleplay with us, it's fun!)
In this forum, all the character sheets are kept for player characters. Feel free to come on in, browse the forum, look at what sort of characters others have created, and then begin your very own!
Appearance: Iolara is a diminutive charoda woman, only just clearing five feet in height. Her smooth, rubbery flesh is a light blue-green, similar to the aquamarine stones found on the surface. Io’s head is crowned with a single dorsal fin that runs from the top of her forehead back to where a group of five delicate tentacles begin. Light and flexible, the bottoms of these tentacles are covered in small suckers, and often communicate the young woman’s emotional state for those who are familiar with charodae. Iolara’s large, pupiless eyes are covered by a thin membrane that tints them a slightly darker shade of blue than the rest of her body. Her facial features are delicate, and the young charoda is quick to grace others with a toothy grin once she’s warmed up to them.
Thanks to her cartilaginous spine and rib cage, Io’s slender torso is flexible in ways that would be impossible for creatures with more rigid skeletons. Her limbs are supported by actual bones, though these are still rather thin and delicate compared to land-dwelling races. Each limb ends in a hand or foot with webbing between the slender fingers and toes. As a native denizen of the southern Suvan, Iolara prefers to keep her clothing minimalistic, often opting for a simple skirt, slit down the sides for freedom of movement, as well as a wrap to cover her upper torso, leaving her midriff bare.
Character Concept
Character Strengths: Compassionate, Inquisitive, Light-hearted Character Flaws: Naive, Over-confident, Impulsive Likes: Bright Colors, Music (especially singing), Learning Dislikes: Crowds, Loud Noises, Wastefulness
Character History
Winter 501AV: hatches alongside two sisters and two brothers Spring 505AV: begins her basic education in Charbosi Fall 505AV: becomes enthralled by her father's stories of Caiyha, takes an interest in formal religion Fall 505AV - Summer 509AV: continues her basic education, begins spending much of her time in the reef just outside of Charbosi, she often takes time to pray while contemplating the immense diversity of life around her Summer 509AV: while out playing with a pair of older charodae, Io becomes separated from them and quickly gets herself lost; the other two report her death, though search parties never found her remains Fall 509AV: Io wanders to a small island in the South Suvan with a small human population Fall 509AV - Summer 511: Io lives among the islanders, refining her Common and picking up a few words of Fratava when Svefra stop to trade on occasion Summer 511AV: the island wise woman begins teaching Io about Reimancy, mainly through theoretics and practical demonstrations Winter 511AV: Iolara is formally initiated into Reimancy, choosing water as her first element Spring 512AV: Djed storm wipes the island clean of life, Iolara manages to survive after noticing odd behavior among the sea creatures and diving as deep as she is safely able Spring - Winter 512AV: Iolara roams the coastal waters in search of a new community to call home, occasionally stopping to erect small shrines to Caiyha, and eventually coming to rest near a small coastal settlement Spring - Summer 513AV: Io takes her time observing the villagers, occasionally making contact with those that wander out into the surf Fall 513AV: Myrians raid the human village, Iolara bears witness from the water and flees before she is noticed Winter 513 - Summer 516AV: Io resumes her wandering, eventually coming to light on an uninhabited atoll. Here she builds her first coral structure and continues practicing basic Reimancy while living a quiet life of prayer and contemplation below the waves Fall 516 - Summer 518AV: After three years of living in solitude, Iolara grows restless and begins to wander once more, north along the coast of Falyndar. She travels from reef to reef, growing and shaping a handful of the existing structures into simple works of art, leaving small archways, and spiral columns in her wake. Early in the Summer of 518, she stumbles, quite by accident, onto the young settlement called Syka
Abalone: Prized for their Shells Coral Species of the South Suvan Experiencing Mild Overgiving and Sweet Whispers Foraging: Warm Water Doesn’t Usually Contain Pearls Foraging: Removing Abalone From their Shells Location: Syka Meditation: Envisioning Your Thoughts as Clouds Floating Away Meditation: Imagining Your Thoughts are Waves Rolling Away Meditation: Quieting the Mind People Will Pay for Goods and Services Persuasion: Selling Your Merits Randal Zor: Personality, Traits, Place of Residence Randal: A Carpenter Reimancy: Creating a Ball of Liquid Water Reimancy: Manipulating a Ball of Res into a Disc Reimancy: Manipulating the Movement of a Res Creation Reimancy: Only Use as Much Res as You Need Reimancy: Shaping Res into an Arrow Reimancy: Throwing Res to Hit a Target Religion: Caiyha Syka: Doesn’t Have Many Rules Syka: Founders Offer Loans Syka: Settlers Need to Contribute Syka Location: Swine Swells The Wilderness is a Dangerous Place Wilderness Survival: Sea Grass for Breakfast Wilderness Survival: The Key to Finding an Animal is to Find Their Source of Food Octopi Eat Abalone
Gnosis Phylonura (Ocean) -1; Iolara’s upper-left arm is covered in a lively depiction of a coral reef, replete with schools of fish and anemones that sway gently in a soft current. One outcrop of coral has been twisted into the triskelion symbol of the goddess Caiyha.
Song of the Sea :
23rd of Summer, 509AV
In the tropical paradise of the South Suvan, just off the coast of Falyndar, Syna sat high in the sky, bathing the sands and seas below with her radiant embrace. Brilliant waves of blue swept against the ivory sands, breaking and ebbing like the very pulse of the entire world. Beneath the azure veil that marked the barrier between Laviku’s domain and the surface world, fish of every imaginable color schooled and swarmed with their own pulsing rhythm. The graceful dance of fish schools through the water as they hunted prey, or avoided becoming prey themselves, was a marvelous sight that would steal the breath of even the most world-weary cynic. With Syna’s light shimmering from the movement of the waves above, the bright formations of live coral seemed to dance with the rest of the world as a vast multitude of fish and crustaceans executed their own dance of life and death within the caves and canyons provided by the living structure of the reef.
Three lithe figures skimmed along the sandy benthic surface of the reef: Charodae children hard at play. With smooth kicks of their webbed feet, the children glided through the sea, twisting and twirling as they called and bantered to each other in their native tongue.
”Lyra! Catch it!” called the young male as he tossed a smooth spiral-shaped shell from hand to hand.
”Throw it here, then, squid-brain!” the larger of the two females responded, laughing in delight as the shell arced through the water, nearly slipping through her outstretched hands as she fumbled to catch it.
”Bessel! Lyra! Stop it!” came the impassioned cry of the smaller female, concern and worry painted across her face. ”Can’t you see you’re scaring him?”
The young male Charoda let out a guffaw of laughter. ”Hear that, Lyra?” he twisted his voice into a higher-pitched mockery of their smallest companion’s, ”We’re scaring the spawning crab!” For her part, Lyra brushed her own shoulders with a dismissive swipe of her tentacles as she regarded the smaller female.
”Honestly, Iolara, when are you going to stop being such a baby?” Lyra spoke with the perfect mix of pretentiousness and condescension that could only come with being all of ten years of age. ”Bessel and I let you come with us, the least you could do is let us play a game of catch.” With her last word, Lyra heaved the shell back towards Bessel. As the pink spiral shell twisted through the water, a small pair of antennae could be seen protruding forth from the open end.
With an indignant huff and a kick of her webbed feet, little Iolara darted upwards to intercept the shell, though she fumbled it at first, sending the poor hermit crab tumbling twice more before managing to cradle the smooth shell in the palm of her small, webbed hand. Io’s pale green eyes narrowed in irritation, the tips her tentacles twitching as she glared at her companions. ”I came out here to explore, not to torment some poor little crab!” Turning her attention to the shell in her hand, Iolara’s voice became softer, a melodic crooning as she did her best to soothe the animal. ”There, there, mister hermit,” the young Charoda said, ”Those big meanies aren’t going to toss you about anymore, I promise!”
Floating just behind and above her now, Iolara could hear Lyra and Bessel snickering. ”Lookit,” said the older girl in a stage-whisper, ”Io thinks she can talk to crabs!” The two older children’s snickering turned into outright gales of laughter. Her tentacles lashing the water around her in anger, Iolara spared an over-the-shoulder glare for the two older children before darting off among the reef. ”Caiyha, they just don’t understand,” lamented the young Charoda as she glided among the reef and its inhabitants, slower now, propelled only by the smooth undulation of her legs and feet as she searched for a suitable location to return her rescued hermit crab. She couldn’t very well set it on top of a live coral: that would almost certainly mean a slow, stinging death for the crab. But at the same time, she was loathe to place it outside the protective safety of the reef.
After what felt like an entire bell to the young Charoda, but was in reality only about fifteen chimes from her impassioned departure, little Iolara settled on a smooth, sandy spot that was well within the reef, but not immediately adjacent to extant coral formations. ”This should do,” she spoke in a soft but cheerful tone as she set the smooth pink shell down onto the sandy seafloor. Reorienting her body to hold her face close to the creature while her legs and torso floated gently upward, Iolara watched in fascination as the crab...well, the crab did a whole lot of nothing for at least a chime, which was all the time for which Iolara could force herself to float still. Satisfied that at least the small crustacean would no longer be a plaything for ill-mannered Charodae children, Iolara allowed herself to rise above the reef formations. As she cast her green eyes about, the young Charoda’s stomach plummeted. Despite being a denizen of Laviku’s domain for all seven (almost eight!) years of her life, Iolara had never strayed so close to the Falyndar shore, or so far from the welcoming coral structures of Charbosi.
”Lyra! Bessel!” Iolara called out, straining her pointed ears for even the slightest hint of a response. Nothing. ”Bessel! This isn’t funny anymore!” Io’s voice cracked, fear apparent in her wavering tone. ”Lyra? You can come out now!” As Iolara called, she swam in a wide circle, casting her eyes about frantically for a familiar flash of blue-green flesh. Still nothing. Her tentacles gathered into a small plume of fear near the base of her skull. Had they abandoned her? Or were they merely caught up in another of their games? Io shook her head, doing her best to ignore the tightening of her throat as she grappled with the one thing she knew with absolute certainty: she was lost.
The young Charoda floated about in a listless state of near-shock as her mind tried to grapple with the situation. ”They’re gone! How can they be gone? Weren’t they just there?” Iolara took a deep breath, letting out a smooth exhale from her nostril slits. Worrying would not get her anywhere. After a few chimes, her tentacles calmed and once more rested across her slender shoulders. Iolara allowed herself to sink down to the sandy seafloor, her knees and toes digging into the soft grit as she turned her gaze towards the surface, where the waves continued to roll and break. ”Lady Caiyha,” the young Charoda prayed, ”have mercy on your lost child.” A short prayer, to be sure, but the only one Iolara’s child mind could muster at the moment.
[color=green]”Shelter.” The thought came in a flash through the young girl’s mind, though in a voice that was not her own. Iolara dwelled on this oddity only for a moment before the flash became a flood of inspiration. A kick of her feet left a cloud of sand behind her as Iolara rose once more toward the surface so as to gain a better vantage over her immediate surroundings. Iolara swam in ever-widening circles out from the sandy clearing where she’d left the small hermit crab. It didn’t take her long, a few bells at most, to find the sort of feature she was searching for: a small cave formed by coral outcroppings. Nestled away from the reef wall, Iolara was fairly certain she’d be safe from the barracuda and sharks that stalked the reef within.
But fairly certain was not certain enough when one’s life was on the line. Fitting her lithe body into the small cave was no challenge, though the interior left only enough room for her to crouch or lay in the fetal position. Which meant that anything close to her size would be able to reach her, and there would be little she could do to stop it. She needed to close the opening up, even if just a little bit. Io set her mouth in determination. While she had learned enough at this point in her life to know that all Charodae had a natural ability to work with and influence coral, which Io saw as a gift from Lady Caiyha, the young Charoda had never relied on the skill herself. ”A first time for everything,” she thought to herself as she gathered her will.
Taking a deep breath, Iolara reached out her hands to graze the upper and lower edges of her cave entrance. As her hands brushed the rough limestone surface, the young Charoda giggled in surprise and excitement as the tiny polyps revealed themselves, unusual when Syna ruled the skies. The polyps seemed to follow the movement of Io’s hands, turning their tiny tentacle-rimmed mouths toward her fingertips in defiance of the current. While Iolara had never practiced magic of any sort, in this moment she felt an intense, emotional connection with the coral. ”Can you grow for me, little polyps?” Iolara queried the small pink animals. ”Bessel and Lyra are probably still laughing at their great joke,” the young girl thought with a flash of resentment. In that brief moment of time, her connection with the coral appeared to cease, the polyps drawing back into their limestone casing almost in unison.
Iolara frowned, running her hands once more along the edge of the limestone. ”I’m very sorry,” she said in a soft, gentle tone. ”I’ll try not to think anymore bad thoughts, promise.” Once the polyps had once more issued forth from their stony prisons, Iolara grinned and began envisioning what she wanted the coral to do: namely for the top shelf to grow downwards while the bottom shelf grew upwards. Not enough to completely enclose her, but enough that any would-be predator would have a very hard time getting in! Iolara began working with the upper edge first, continually raking her webbed hands down through the water, away from the coral there even as she willed them to grow. As she worked, the young Charoda could barely contain her joy at witnessing firsthand as the polyps began cloning and dividing themselves to accommodate her!
Unfortunately, her progress was very slow, and after an entire bell, Iolara had managed to bring the upper lip of her ‘cave’ entrance down by an extra centimeter, or perhaps two in the area nearest to her. Io’s arms and shoulders ached, though she had performed no physical labor. Io’s eyes, normally a vibrant green, were now cloudy with fatigue and exhaustion. The young girl pressed her body as far into the back of her makeshift cavern as possible. The extra centimeters would help with camouflage if nothing else, at least. ”Lady Caiyha,” Iolara thought as her mind drifted off to sleep, ”have mercy on your lost child.” Just after the young Charoda had surrendered her mind to sleep, two familiar forms crossed in front of her small cavern.
”She’s been gone for two bells now,” came Bessel’s voice. ”Probably swam out too far and got herself eaten.”
”How can you say that?” Lyra’s voice was more shrill, ”The only reason she’s even out here is because of us! Oh, we’re going to be in so much trouble if she doesn’t come back!”
”Relax, didn’t you say she was swimming off toward the shelf anyway?
”Well, yes, but she could have turned! She could still be out here, somewhere!”
”Fine, we’ll keep looking for another bell. After that….”
”After that?” Lyra’s voice faltered.
”After that, she’s probably shark food anyway. Let the grown-ups come out here and look if they want.”
***
When Iolara awoke, she had to fight back the initial onset of terror. This was not her bed, not her beautiful coral home in Charbosi. Where was she? How had she gotten here? Touching her delicate, webbed fingers to her temples, the little Charoda rubbed in small circles as if that would somehow help clear the fog from her thoughts. As her mind stirred back to wakefulness, Io’s memory of the day’s events returned in a rush. ”I wonder if Bessel and Lyra even bothered to look for me?” she thought in a childish huff. Peering beyond the mouth of her tiny cave, Iolara could see that Syna’s light had begun to fade from the world, casting the surrounding reef into an eerie twilight. Iolara’s arms ached as she pulled herself from the small crevasse, allowing her lithe body to undulate through the water. Kicking her legs in a slow rhythm, Iolara took a slow circuit as she worked out the residual soreness of sleeping in such a cramped position.
A pang of hunger lanced through Io’s abdomen. Clearly, she had missed lunch, to say nothing of her afternoon snacks or supper! Backing up, Iolara clung to the rocks just below her little sleeping spot. Leth’s silver light only just penetrated the shifting barrier of the waves above, and rather than the inviting reef she had frolicked in earlier, the young Charoda found herself among what seemed a different landscape altogether. Fear gripped her heart even as hunger clenched her stomach. ”Oh, what should I do?” the young girl worried. She didn’t know this reef well enough to find food and return, she risked getting even more lost. But what choice did she have, besides starve? ”Lady Caiyha,” Iolara prayed in an attempt to calm her mind and steel her nerves, ”have mercy on your lost child. Guide me, as you will, just please don’t let me starve!”
With that fervent prayer still on her mind, Iolara began carefully picking her way across the seabed. At night is when the reef truly came alive; coral polyps unfurled their colorful tiny tentacles that swayed in the gentle current. As she swam, the young Charoda’s hunger was momentarily forgotten as she marvelled at the beauty around her, even as the pale silver light provided by Leth seemed to leech the color from her surroundings. Before long, Iolara felt an involuntary grin spread across her face as she caught sight of shimmering strands of seagrass forming a gentle carpet along the seabed, a rolling meadow amongst the craggy outcrops of coral. Another rumble of hunger through her gut was all the motivation the young Charoda needed to dive head-first into the soft tendrils of the seagrass bed.
For the next few chimes, Iolara drifted through the seagrass, pulling off leaves and stalks to chew on. While her rows of sharp teeth made short work of the rubbery grass skins, Io had to fight back a grimace as she chewed and swallowed. Raw seagrass was hardly a delicacy, but the flavor was only a mild deterrent to the ravenous young Charoda. She had hardly finished swallowing a bit before another leaf or stalk made its way into her toothy maw. As the young Charoda chewed on the seagrass, her belly filling and hunger subsiding, a long sinuous form circled through the water overhead, unseen.
Lost little girls were not the only hungry creatures in the sea tonight.
Content with her meal and oblivious to the shadowy threat above her, Iolara rolled onto her back as she kicked her webbed feet, gliding lazily through the seagrass as she took the moment to contemplate Leth’s beauty from beneath the waves. It was only by chance that the glimmer of Leth’s silver light caught the great barracuda’s scales as it flashed through the water towards the young Charoda. Io had barely a tick’s worth of time to process what was happening, twisting her flexible torso more by instinct than design to avoid the snapping jaws of the large serpentine fish. Reorienting herself, Iolara kicked off from the sandy seafloor, stirring up a cloud of sediment as she darted further into the meadow.
Her heart was racing, adrenaline coursing through her blood as the young girl fled. The barracuda was hungry and huge, far larger than the others she’d seen hunting near the outskirts of Charbosi. And it was not about to give up its meal so easily. With a two strong strokes of its tail, the barracuda rocketed out of the sandcloud left by little Io, its jaws opened with jagged, mismatched teeth ready to rip and rend.
Sparing a quick glance behind her, Iolara rolled her body to one side, letting the dire fish flash by once more, though it was a close call. One of the large teeth managed to cut down her arm, causing her to cry out in pain as blood began to mix with water. As the barracuda passed, another powerful stroke of its tail buffeted the young girl, sending her spinning. After regaining control, Io could see a large rocky outcrop nearby. The barracuda circled overhead, readying itself for another strike. She didn’t think it would miss this time. Using her hands and feet both to kick up another sand cloud as she made a mad dash for the outcrop.
As she swam, Iolara repeatedly dug her hands down into the sand, flinging clouds up as she was propelled by her kicking feet. Her ruse worked long enough to reach the outcrop, though she no longer had the cover of sand. The barracuda seemed to sense that its meal was about to escape, and flashed out of the darkness once more just as Iolara had found a small alcove just large enough to fit into. Pressing herself as flat to the rock as she could, Io waited for the barracuda to pass. Instead, she heard only a large crunch of bone. Peering over the lip of the outcrop, the young Charoda was treated to a sight that was at once grisly and breathtaking in its splendor.
If there were one cardinal rule that all creatures of the sea (excepting, perhaps, the mighty velispar) lived by, it was this: there is always a bigger fish.
This rule was on full display for Iolara tonight. The great barracuda that had been pursuing her, was now caught firmly in the jaws of an even larger shark, no doubt drawn to shallower waters by the flurry of activity and the scent of fresh blood in the water.
With that thought in mind, Io hastily tore a wide strip from her kelp dress and wrapped around her injured arm as best she could. First aid was not something she excelled at, but in this case, necessity trumped inexperience. Iolara sat back. Her muscles ached from fleeing the barracuda, but she doubted sleep would be forthcoming. Slowly, Io came to the realization that she was now even more lost than she had been before, and her stomach was once again grumbling in hunger. If Charodae had the capacity for tears, they would have been streaming down the young girl’s cheeks. Instead, she felt her throat tighten, her tentacles drooped and listless across her shoulders.
”Lady Caiyha,” Iolara prayed, her small hands clasped as she fought back sobs from her clenched throat, ”have mercy on your lost child. Your cycle feeds plant and animal alike, and I am not immune. Here, in the wilderness of the sea, I am but a lost child. I beg of you, Lady of the Wilds, make me as your own. Suffer me not to swim these waters as a stranger or an intruder, but make them my home.” As the young girl spoke her devotions in her mind, she felt a sense of peaceful relief come over her. ”Wonderful Caiyha, guide your lost child to your will, and make her your humble servant.” As Iolara’s mind finally drifted toward sleep, the same strange voice from before spoke to her: ”Sleep, child. Then, seek.”
”Caiyha…” the words were spoken in whispered reverence as Io found slumber at last.
*** Golden rays of Syna’s light flickered down onto the seafloor, filtered and distorted by the constant motion of the waves above. Iolara crept with care to the lip of her impromptu shelter, the stinging pain in her shoulder and the soreness of her muscles a physical reminder of last night’s events. Before her, various schools of fish swam to and fro among the seagrass, dining upon the rubbery green shoots...and occasionally being dined on themselves, as Iolara noted a school of barracuda, much smaller than the huge beast that had pursued her the night prior, darted among the other fish, searching for their food. Even lost as she was, with her stomach rumbling and her muscles aching, Io felt a near-euphoric sense of peace wash over her as she observed the cycle of predator and prey, this time from afar rather than an active participant!
Even when she had been barely more than a tadpole...as long as she could remember, really...Iolara could remember her mother telling her stories about Caiyha and the cycle she helped create together with Dira and Kihala. But it was one thing for Io to hear the stories, and another thing altogether to truly witness it. Keeping a sharp lookout upward for sharks or other predatory fish, Iolara dove back down to the seagrass meadow for her breakfast. ”Lady Caiyha,” Iolara prayed with a toothy grin splayed across her face as she plucked leaves and stalks from the sandy floor, ”Bless your lost child, and nourish her with this gift which you have provided.”
After Iolara had finished eating, she allowed herself to be carried on the gentle current, rolling onto her back to gaze at the sky through her own firmament of the ocean’s surface. For a brief, fleeting moment, she forgot that she was only a little girl, lost in the wilderness of Falyndar’s coastal waters. The young Charoda then turned her thoughts to the strange voice that had come, seemingly in answer to her prayers the night before. ”Caiyha’s voice,” Iolara thought with renewed reverence. ”It must be! And she told me to seek...but seek what?” Lost in thought as she was, little Io didn’t notice that the ocean current had shifted, and rather than drifting along the shore, she was being carried further out to sea.
Her pondering reverie was shattered by long, mournful cries that seemed to resonate in her very bones as much as in her many-pointed ears. Twisting and turning as she tried to identify the source of these cries, Iolara registered with a mixture of shock and fear that she had been washed out nearly two hundred meters from the coast, and relative safety. But ahead of her lay the source of the melancholic melody: a rorqual, small as such magnificent creatures went. Io’s brows furrowed in confusion. Rorqual were pelagic creatures, she’d spent many an afternoon watching them sail over the abyssal deeps from the shelf near Charbosi. What was a rorqual, even a small one, doing this close to the coast? Something was not right.
Iolara’s curiosity and compassion drove her to override the gnawing terror in the back of her mind as she swam further out into the deep waters. As the ocean floor dropped away into the azure abyss below, Io kept her eyes fixed on the magnificent animal before her, its mournful cries continuing to echo through the water. Though the animal was diminutive as rorqual went, the huge marine beast dwarfed the Charoda girl as she approached with caution. Now that she was closer, Iolara could see the problem clearly: a harpoon had been lodged into the animal’s back, near one of its dorsal fins. A thick rope was still attached, and Iolara turned in the water to follow it back to its source: what had once been a boat had since been capsized and wrecked by the rorqual’s great tail. ”Svefra would never do this,” Iolara thought, her heart weighing heavy with sorrow and concern for the animal. With much of the boat above attached, the rorqual was unable to dive to the depths it was accustomed to, driving the magnificent beast towards shallower waters.
The young Charoda knew then exactly what she must do, never giving even a second thought before she swam right up to the wounded animal. The low-frequency cries reverberated in her mind as Iolara trailed her hands along the rorqual’s flesh, not unlike her own. At her touch, the great animal seemed to calm itself somewhat, almost as if it knew that she had come to help. ”Lady Caiyha,” Iolara prayed as she reached the harpoon, ”this marvellous creation of yours was injured out of cruelty and now suffers needlessly. Guide your lost child, that if it is your will, this great beast be saved.”
Iolara wrapped her webbed fingers around the haft of the harpoon, settling her feet onto the flesh of the rorqual. The spear-point was barbed, and the haft longer than she was tall. Brute strength was not going to be an option here. Using the haft of the harpoon to steady herself, Io crouched down and shifted her grip closer to where the harpoon pierced the thick flesh. She gave a light tug, but the hooked point had been twisted in the wounded whale’s initial thrashing, and was now biting from the inside. ”Forgive me, great one,” Iolara spoke aloud, though she knew the whale wouldn’t understand her words. Leveraging her flexible body for all she could, Iolara pushed down on the spear point, but the rope connecting it to the wreck above was stretched taut.
Now that Iolara was in action, her heart and mind raced. She hadn’t thought to bring a cutting tool with her when she’d left Charbosi with Lyra and Bessel, nor had she picked up any particularly sharp stones or shells from the reef. So instead, Iolara used the only tools she had. Biting into the rope, Iolara whipped her head back and forth, her rows of sharp teeth severing it in short order. With the rope and attendant weight of the wrecked ship removed, Iolara found she was more than able to push the harpoon’s point down, removing the backwards-facing hook from its hold, and twisting to re-align it with its point of entry. Once the cruel metal spear-point was removed, Iolara cast it into the depths in disgust.
Thankfully, the wound left by the harpoon was rather small. Small enough that Iolara was able to improvise a bandage from another length of her skirt. Without actual adhesive, she knew it wouldn’t last long, but hopefully it would keep enough of the rorqual’s blood out of the water to prevent sharks or other predators of the deep from tracking it down. As Iolara kicked off from the great whale and headed back towards the relative safety of the coastal shallows, she twisted and turned to look back just in time to meet the massive animal’s gaze. She had no idea if whales thought in the same way that Charodae did, but she thought she recognized gratitude, and the rorqual seemed to confirm her suspicions as it rolled on its side, waving a pectoral fin before turning back towards the depths in which it belonged.
Syna remained high in her domain as Iolara crossed back over the shelf into more comfortable waters, once more among beautiful coral and all their attendant organisms. She sank down towards a large shelf outgrowth of coral, leaning back to gaze back out into the deeper waters. The rorqual had all but disappeared from sight now, and her young Charoda heart was filled with joy knowing that she played a part in helping. ”Lady Caiyha,” Io prayed, that feeling of joy now spreading from her heart into her stomach and even up to the tips of her tentacles, which were relaxed and waving in the gentle current, ”thank you, for the marvellous gifts you have brought to this world….”
”You’re welcome, little Iolara.” This time the voice was not in her head, but as if someone were sitting right beside her! Indeed, Iolara gave a start when she turned and saw that she had been joined by what must have been the most beautiful woman in all existence, delicate coral reef structures grew where her dorsal fin and tentacles should be, with tiny fish zipping in and out among them. Her delicate smile filled Iolara’s heart near to bursting. There could be no doubt in her mind that this was her goddess! The Lady of the Wilds herself, here before her!
The Charoda child was struck speechless with the realization. All of her father’s stories paled in comparison to the real thing. And despite years of faithful devotion, encouraged by her family, despite her most fervent prayers, Iolara had never in her life expected to come face to face with the Lady Caiyha herself! For her part, the goddess of Nature simply gave the young girl a reassuring smile. ”Little Iolara,” her voice was warm and nurturing, like a mother speaking to a newborn babe, ”you have proven yourself both faithful and resourceful. Your courage and compassion are remarkable.” The goddess reached out to rest gently on the young Charoda’s left shoulder.
From where the divine being’s hand fell, down to the middle of her upper arm, Iolara’s skin took on the deeper blues of the ocean. The flesh around her elbow took on a sandy hew, and before the young girl’s amazed eyes, outcrops of coral and seagrass appeared, with schools of fish darting among the reef. On her upper arm, a great barracuda circled, hunting for its next meal.
”This is my mark,” Caiyha spoke in that same motherly tone, ”With it, the plants and creatures of the sea will know you as one of their own. And in turn, you will be their shepherd and caretaker, from the tiniest coral to the great whales of the open seas. Above all, you must maintain the balance I have created. Do you understand?”
Iolara nodded, finally able to find her voice after being nigh overcome by the divine presence before her. ”Yes, Lady Caiyha,” she tried to keep the quiver out of her voice, but the goddess’ eyes shone knowingly as Iolara continued, ”I am honored to receive this gift.”
”This is not just a gift, child,” Caiyha’s voice was now that of the stern mother, correcting an errant toddler, ”this is also a responsibility. You will be called to wander the seas wherever I have need of you, and you will be called to do that which is necessary in order to uphold balance. This is not always a happy or pleasurable life. Find comfort in the wilds in all their glory, for they are your home now. The creatures of the world are your new family. For now, get to know them, and get to know yourself. Gather knowledge and uphold My balance, and when the time comes, I shall call on you once more.”
Possessions
1 Set of Clothing -Simple Seaweed Wrap -Simple Seaweed Skirt -Simple Undergarments -Simple Cloak -Simple Boots 1 Belt (fishleather) with two mesh pouches -1 flint knife tucked through a small belt loop 1 Set of Soft Kelp Armor 1 Waterskin 1 Backpack which contains: -Balanced Rations (1 Week's worth) -1 clam shovel -Flint & Steel Mizas558 gold, 7 silver, 5 copper
Heirloom: A coral triskelion symbol grown by her father, worn on a cord of braided fishleather.
![[Verified by Gossamer]](./images/checkmark.png "[Verified by Gossamer]")
Iolara Lyada 
by Iolara Lyada on August 23rd, 2017, 2:50 am