Flashback The Ocean Roams (Anibesa)

[Meriann]

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56th Autumn 510 AV
"Speech"

OOC :

Meriann is 18yrs old in this thread. She is part of a pod called the Kelpfires, they have like a palivar and maybe a couple of casinors (as casinors are personal ships and the palivar is for all the family).

Meriann didn't quite know how they had collectively got it so wrong. Their Lia had made sure they had started their journey south at a decently early time, but the winds had not been in their favour, and various small accidents and mishaps along the way had put the Svefra on edge. Now, they were making their passage through the middle Suvan much later than they had hoped. Still, not everything was bad. Finally, Zulrav had blessed them with a good wind, and they were making their merry way across the chopping waters of the middle.

Theirs was an annual migration to the warmer waters of the southern Suvan Sea. Naturally, it took them through the middle Suvan, which was renowned for being difficult to navigate at the best of times. They never kept to a particular pattern of navigation, in fact sometimes they stayed in the north and enjoyed the bracing winds and chilled waters that were cooled by the ice of Taldera. Sometimes they even strayed to the Outer Oceans. But this year, time and location had forced their hand into a typical migration. Thus the Kelpfires geared themselves up and prayed to Laviku for a fair journey.

It appeared their prayers had finally made their way to the god of the seas. Meriann grinned as she winded a coil of rope to tighten the tension of the sail. Zulrav's fairest zephyr gloried in the white sails, and the familiar rippling sound eased her soul. This was the most content the family had been all season. They had spent her birthday on an unmarked coastal beach. It had been a lovely occasion, but a quiet one despite her grand age. A few of the lads circled, but she had fairly rebuked them all. Her birthday had involved copious amounts of prayer, dancing, and alcohol. Men were off the table, for now, although she still flirted like a wildfire with the brush. She couldn't help it, for she enjoyed the attention they gave her, despite never wanting to give them the attention they felt they deserved.

Distracted by her thoughts, Meriann slipped and fumbled the knot, and cursed colourfully in Fratava as the sail began to loosen. She grasped after the rapidly unravelling rope, and managed to fasten it in her hands and then re-tie it. She frowned, then her brow cleared as her younger brother Murray approached and offered her a cup of ale. "You good, Meri?"
"Aye! Thank Zulrav for this wind, eh? And Laviku, blessed father. Of all the gods, he's the best for granting us this petchin' good speed." She winked, and knocked back the mug gratefully. "Still, I hope we get through without any other mishaps." She grew serious, and Murray nodded his head as he sat on the railing. "Do you have this feeling, too? Like somethin' else is gonna go wrong?"

Meriann thought for a while, a frown turning to a perplexed smile, then back to furrowed brows until finally she spoke, "Aye, I do. Weird, huh? Like we've done something to upset Laviku. Maybe we dawdled too long at the beach... Gods, I dunnae know. We'll make it through though, don't y'worry!" She smiled again, brightly this time, as she lunged forwards to wrap her arms in a tight bear hug around her brother. She pulled back, and gently kicked him in the shins, to which he growled and playfully slapped her arm. It was their usual greeting, and for the next bell they chatted contently as they kept an eye on the ship and carried on their journey.

After some time, with the coast some way in the distance and their course good and true, Meriann yelped with surprise as someone called out, "Hey, ship on the horizon!" It was true, as she squinted out across the shimmering ocean, a ship with sails billowing in the good wind was sailing at a fair pace ahead of them. It was incredibly likely to be another Svefra ship, and the sighting seemed fortuitous. Meri grinned, and skipped up to her father who was manning the tiller and coordinating with the Lia sailing the palivar.

"This is great, right?" Her face was alight with a radiant happiness. The pod had been sailin alone for a while now, and truthfully although she had loved her birthday celebrations very much, there had been something missing. That had been the presence of friends, of other pods with whom they could adventure and share stories and pass the time of day with unfamiliar but nonetheless friendly faces. Her father, after finishing off the yelled conversation, turned to his daughter with much the same look on his face. "Aye Meri, this is shykin' great. We'll signal them and catch up in a short while. As long as they're paying attention to their arse as well as their forward." He joked, and the Kelpfires sailed onwards to meet the strangers.

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[Anibesa]

"Common" | "Fratava" | "Tukant"

Anibesa and her pod had spent most of the season in the middle suvan, spending time moving between Riverfall and Kenash, sometimes briefly stopping on the few small islands scattered through the Middle Suvan Sea, and sometimes pulling onto land to gather more resources and to cook the food they’d gathered.
Now they were on the sea, relying on the breezes and winds that Zulrav provided and the currents that Laviku controlled within the sea. It was peaceful and pleasant, and Anibesa was on board the Lia’s son’s casinor, helping him to control the boat and keep it on track with the other boats, or more specifically Lia Jarci’s boat.

For the day so far, Anibesa had been helping the Lia’s son to control the direction of the casinor, her hand on the tiller of the casinor and holding it steady under the boy’s instruction as he controlled the small sails and monitored what was happening around them.
The weather was good for them, and from other boats she could see a few other pod members that weren’t controlling a boat jumping into the sea to swim with their Tavan, or just to play games with each other before climbing back onto the boats again, though the sea was something that scared Anibesa a bit too much for her to jump in and swim with them. She knew that with Laviku watching over the oceans it would likely be safe enough for anyone that knew how to swim, though in her time Ani had barely managed to even attempt to swim, and with how deep the water could be she didn’t want to risk anything yet, not until she’d practiced swimming somewhere shallower first.

“Ani, pay attention! Follow the others.” she heard the boys voice and she shook herself out of her thoughts and looked, seeing the other boats beginning to gently veer, and Anibesa instantly started to move the tiller. She was gentle with it, too gentle at first, and she heard the Lia’s son audibly tut before he spoke again. “You can move it more than that, lass!” he said and Anibesa grinned sheepishly at him, pushing the tiller more and more until she saw boy nod at her.

”Like this?” Anibesa asked, watching the man nod before she grinned widely, holding the tiller steady as it attempted to buck with the currents and chopping waves as they hit the casinor, making the whole casinor sway and buck gently. It was rhythmic, and calming to Anibesa, the feeling being one she had grown accustomed to within months of her joining the pod and a feeling that she missed whenever she found herself on solid ground. It was something she even found soothing, especially when she wanted to sleep. That was the weirdest feeling of all, sleeping on a solid floor that didn’t sway. She doubted she’d ever be on land long enough to get used to a non-moving bed.

Grinning, she glanced around, eyes scanning the blue seas until she spotted something out on the seas behind them, and she instantly shouted to the rest of the pod.

”Lia! Lia! There other pod!” she shouted, hopefully loud enough for the other casinors to hear her, and she raised her arm to point towards the other boats, accidentally jolting the tiller harshly and swaying the boat more than would ever be necessary.

Instantly she put her arm down and focussed on fixing her mistake, and carefully she returned the tiller to its previous position, pushing it slightly further in the hopes that it would correct her mistake and prevent the casinor from going off course.

She heard shouts from the other pod members, discussing what they were to do, then another shout came, one that Anibesa recognised as slow down, seeming to mean that they would be slowing pace to allow the other pod to catch up to them.

“We’re waiting for them to catch up. They’re coming this way, but there’s no point in us turning around to meet them. That would just waste time and energy.” the Lia’s son said to her and Anibesa nodded, watching as he fiddled with the sails, tucking them up slightly so the breeze didn’t catch them.
The boats were still moving, though now they were moving much slower, at a speed that should allow the other pod to catch up in a matter of minutes.

Excited, Anibesa kept her head turned to the other pod, watching them as they crept closer and closer while she listened to the excited Fratava being shouted between the boats, though she noticed as the wind started to pick up slowly, and a small handful or darker looking clouds approached slowly from the horizon.
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