Herb Hunting [Sitkanis]

[Maliken]

Day 75 of Spring, AV 511 Time: One Bell Until Midnight Cold water, cool air. Everything chilled the world of Denval to the bone. Maliken stalked quietly through the rocky coast just a short ways from the Seaside city, her feet bare, her robe cast aside and left safe from moisture. Even her staff lie there against the rock. Maliken walked slowly, unabashed of her nudity or likely-futile search of herbs. She was not familiar with this place, not like the rest of Kalea, which still wasn't even that familiar to her. Never before had she been around water so much, yet she found that it already made a small place in her heart. The misty air clinging to her nostrils, the droplets of water crawling down her legs. She stepped forward, crouched as if she was trying to sneak up on another without revealing her presence, her arm, black and strong as any weapon made, moved slowly underneath the surface of the water. Her hand would move, digging a line through the moist sand as she walked. She knew very well that she wasn't going to find anything. Not right here, not this close to shore, not with this rocky ground beneath her. She could move inland, or swim out a ways. Either location would like prove more valuable to her search. Maliken decided to wade out towards the water more, that is until she was up to her chin in the cold water that embraced her short body with a nipping coolness. She gasped as it felt like the very cold pierced into her body. Her skin might be tough, durable, but it wasn't any warmer than the last person's. Maliken lowered her head, falling all the way under the water. Her eyes searched, blessed with the gift of sight in darkness, but quickly found the discomfort too great to remain there for long. Maliken stood tall, or five feet tall that is, and gasped once again as her hand, her only hand, worked at moving dark hairs from her face. Maliken stood there for a long time, little more than her head lying above the surface of the water as gentle waves lifted and fell about her with methodical pace. He smirked lightly as her arm reached around her body, cradling her thin frame in a one-armed embrace in that silvery shimmering moon-reflecting water. Despite feeling a strange comforting warmth in her for leaving how she did, abandoning the person she searched for so vigorously a few seasons ago without a word, made her feel more mature. It was like she was on her own now, truly alone. It both nipped at her like the cool air on her moist cheeks and pleased her with a gentle joy.

[Sitkanis]

Since falling to Denval Sitkanis had come to the shore quite often. He did not do much at the shore. He did not know how to swim. He felt as though his constant trips to the shore were a show to Leth that he was sorry. He wanted to prove to him that the death of the girl Ethaefal was haunting him. He left Adalia in the Chapel, kissing her pale forhead softly and headed to the water. He could not sleep at night anyways. He kept hoping the night would bring a little more... intimacy but the Konti kept to herself quite well. At first he had not minded it too much. He was newly fallen and she was new to the city. They were both getting situated. His past was slowly starting to show himself in his mind though. He was starting to see who he used to be and the cravings of his past self was starting to claw at him. The girl would come around eventually, at least he hoped. The streets of Denval were quiet as Sitkanis walked down them. He looked ferverently at the Moon as if he was worried it glared down at him. "I am sorry father, I really am." He walked slowly, the waterline in his sights. When he arrived he was surprised to see he was not alone. A lone woman seemed to be wading in the water. He walked closer although he was less interested in the woman and more in the moon. Silently he sat down on the shore remembering all the events that had happened there. It contained the best and worst memories that he could remember. He had met the beautiful Adalia on the beach but he had also pushed one of his Ethaefallen sisters to their death there. He felt as though Leth scorned him from his seat in the Ukalas. Lilac eyes wandered over to the woman in the water. She was really setting him off balance. He looked at her confused. Why would a woman be in the water this late? Was she like him? Had the woman fallen from the Ukalas? This could have been his chance to redeem himself to Leth! "Miss, are you okay? It seems a little cold out tonight for a casual swim."

[Maliken]

Strong firm dense fingers of ink-black coloration and silvery shimmering veins slowly massaged Maliken's closed ease. The fingers tried to force the water from her vision, which was blurred by those salty droplets. Then a voice, masculine yet gentle, called out to her. She froze there a moment, leaving her bare back facing him before she lifted her right arm, her only arm, and rested it across her smaller-than-average breasts. She then turned her head, not her body, to catch a glimpse of the intruder in the corner of her gaze. "No, I am not. I have found myself in a place I don't belong. I'm far from home, but I don't feel I have one anymore. Not within my grasp." Maliken looked back down into the water. The waves of that calm cold liquid offered images of stars shivering in the cold, and a moon above dancing in some strange illusion. She may have originally come out here to look for herbs of some sort, any plants, but she had certainly taken her time to just be along and soak in the water. A chill was settling though. "Did you know that plants can grow under water? I've seen many plants, flowers and roots, but never anything that grows under the sea." Maliken turned her shoulders so that she could look directly at Sitkanis. Maliken's eyes, darkened by the absence of sunlight, looked almost solid black, but they expanded in surprise as she gazed upon the man. He was not human, not Isur, not anything she had seen. He was pale, short (not as short as her though), thin, and he had horns. Maliken stared for several moments before she realized what she was doing. She was watching him watching her. It was as if she had found some new flower and wanted to examine it, every detail, until it was known and useful to her. But he was alive, it was different when you were dealing with living beings. "Who are you?"

[Sitkanis]

The girl's words hit home for Sitkanis. He knew how she felt. He loved Denval more than anything he could think of but it was not the Ukalas. Of course, he did not know much past the limits of Denval. "I know how you feel. I am a long way from home too. Where are you from?" He looked up at the moon, his lilac eyes seeming to reflect it's shine. He wanted to be back with Leth. He was safe there. The memories did not seem to haunt him like they did in Denval. He was sure there were people he missed there but he could not remember them. Even if he could remember them his mouth could never speak their names. Sitkanis looked quizzically at the woman as she spoke. He knew nothing about plants and even less about water. All he knew about water was that boats and fish liked to frequent it and he was scared to death of the stuff. "I did not know that. I don't know a lot though." He felt very empty, very ignorant. He wanted so badly to know more but he simply did not. He was an empty book but he was clothed to tightly to fill his pages. Lilac eyes looked the girl over as she turned around. She was small and lacking the horns his kind had. She wasn't an Ethaefal. Maybe she was a human? She did not seem like one. He simply watched her in the water like a curious hunter. He wanted to figure out what she was. It had become like a game since he fell. What was everyone? He rarely found people like him. This fact made him feel even more lonely. He knew a Konti, Adalia. He also knew some humans and a Symenstra. The girl in front of him did not look like any of them though. "I am Sitkanis." He did not know how else to say it. His name was borrowed from the stars. Some far off constellation which he had yet to see off the shore of Denval. "Who are you?" The real question in his mind was, what are you. He could not ask that though. Even he knew that question was not polite.

[Maliken]

Maliken wasn't bothered by the fact that she was naked in front of a stranger with horns and skin that seemed to reflect what faint moonlight there was. She, however, had no intention of releasing all modesty. The isur woman turned away from Sitkanis once again, offering only her bare back shimmering as much as the water. Isur veins, silvery and luminescent, always shone like this in light, but in contrast to the darkness around them, she nearly seemed to glow. "I am from Sultros, but it is not my home." Maliken peered over her shoulder at Sitkanis. "I haven't found my home, yet. Denval is not my home, Sultros is not my home, Izurdin is not my home. I know this, but I do not know where to find it." Maliken ran her fingers gently through the silvery surface of the water, rippling trails of tiny waves chased after her hand as she did so. Maliken had briefly turned her head from Sitkanis, only to return her gaze upon him again from over that shoulder. "You may know little, but you are wiser than most to understand this. Those that claim to be wise claim to know everything, but they know so little. They have deceived themselves into a deepened state of ignorance. You, however, understand your limits, therefore you can push them, expand them." Maliken smiled. As flattering as it might have been, it was not her intention to make this strange horned person feel superior. It was, however, what she truly believed. A man who thinks his bucket is full of water will never try to fill it. A man who's bucket is knowingly empty, can fill it whenever water comes to him. It was a story her mother told her long ago, before the accident and exile of course. "Do you want to search with me? I don't expect to find any, but the water is soothing, cold, but soothing." Maliken reached out to him, despite not even being remotely close enough to touch him. She was, almost, as intrigued about him as he was her. It wasn't often she was so kind to people without reason, but something about this night just forced a calming sensation to flow around her. "Sitkanis, I am Maliken, exile of clan Pitrius."

[Sitkanis]

The girl spoke with a tone that seemed to resonate with Sitkanis. She was detatched and rootless, or so it seemed. "I'm from the Ukalas. I don't know if that is my home anymore. I think Leth still watches over me." His eyes flicked over to the glowing orb in the sky. Leth was his father, he had to watch over him. He was always there over the waters, what else could he be doing? "I don't know if Denval will become my home. I like it here though. I would like it if it was my home." Sitkanis watched the girl curiously. He did not know what Sultros or Izurdin was. The best he could guess was that they were cities. He cursed his inorance. He hated that he knew so little. If Leth truely loved him then why did he allow all of his son's memories to wash away when he fell? It only made returing to him harder. Sitkanis let a small smile twitch at the side of his mouth. He liked that the girl called him wise. He rarely felt like he was. "I guess that is right." He smiled a little brighter when he saw the girl grin at him. He felt a little worry rip through him when the naked girl invited him into the water with her. What would Adalia think? Why did he even care? Adalia had been distant for the whole season it had seemed. He was not sure why he even worried about her anymore. Even more so, he was scared to death of the water. It seemed to haunt him every time he faced it. "I really want to but I can't." He blushed a little. He did not like to admit his faults, especially to women. The girl had been so kind though. "I am scared of the water. I can't swim." He could not look at the girl as he spoke. She must have thought there was something wrong with him for sure. What sort of man was scared of the water? "I would help you look on land if there were herbs on land though." He felt like a child as he faced th girl. He would learn how to swim some day. He would not let Laviku haunt him forever. He smiled at Maliken as she introduced herself. "It is nice to meet you Maliken." He wondered about her. Why had she been exhiled? He almost asked but quickly stopped himself. That probably would not be an appropriate question to ask. "I don't know if I could say I am exiled. I just fell out of the sky." He shrugged as he sat down on the beach and looked at the girl in the water. "That is why I am scared of the water though. I almost drowned when I fell." The man spoke simply and bluntly. He had never been too much of a creative talker. "Were there a lot of plants in Sultros?" He tried to remember back to Endrykas. The land that seemed to be a hundred lifetimes ago. "I remember a lot of grass being where I was from. Horses too."

[Maliken]

Maliken stared at Sitkanis for a long moment, obviously displeased with his refusal to enter the water. It wasn't that she was told 'no', but it was actually because he wanted to, or claimed to at least, but was convinced it couldn't be done. Maliken shook her head and slowly waded out of the water towards him, her arm extended out towards Sitkanis, beckoning him to take a hold of that strong-as-steel hand that reached for him. Incidentally, it forced her to give up hiding her body, which didn't particularly seem to bother her. "No." Maliken was going to be stubborn about this. Sitkanis didn't understand the meaning of being able to do something. Maliken's left arm was taken from her, she was unable to do things. Sitkanis, he was healthy, no missing limbs, no reason to be afraid. He wasn't disabled. "Come here, we aren't going to swim, just standing in the water. Only to your knees." Maliken almost pleased with the Etheafal to join her. She didn't have any urge to search for grasses and flowers right now, she wanted to show him how capable he was, simply because he didn't understand what it was like to be without such an important part of your physical body. "Please, Sitkanis, just a few steps. I will protect you." Maliken would return to the water, only if Sitkanis's hand found its place in hers, otherwise she would remain on that shore, hand extended, waiting for the Fallen Man to give in. "There are mushrooms that thrive on the warmth of the underground earth, mosses that thrive off of moisture and darkness, but there aren't many grasses or flowers. There's a variety of things, just not as colorful or large as out here. Everything is more beautiful out here in the open air. It's comforting, but disheartening at the same time." Maliken meant, it was uncomfortable to be away from home as she was, Sitkanis understood this, perhaps better than she did. "I don't want to talk of Sultros or the Ukalas."