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[Tanell]

31st day of Summer, 515 AV
1st bell of the afternoon

The day was murky, Syna lost behind the heavy cover of clouds. Sweltering heat abated by the false dusk falling across the city. It was, in Tanell's opinion, a far less appealing state than the weather of the previous days. Rain she quite enjoyed, the sunnier days radiant lighting the city with joy. This weather, though, was dark, mulish. She wished it would rain or not, and just be done.

It was not her luck, though, and the cloud cover remained solid and imposing, if not promising of rain. It was almost enough to keep her indoors. Rather than spending her day moping, though, she sought materials to begin her crafting with. Her ideas were many, from carved wood to delicately wrapped jewelry, and more recently, something to decorate her home. She had great plans, if not an exact idea of how to go about them.

It was her lack of know-how that send her scavenging materials, unwilling to spend coin on the tasks she knew she was just as likely to ruin as she was to succeed with. She sought the sandy beach, the cove quiet enough to offer a respite from the dancing music of other's minds, but still just as likely to offer a selection of driftwood, pebbles, and shells.

So with an empty backpack, and willing hands, she took to the sand with a smile, the closest she could come to exuberance when the weather was so thoroughly dampening her spirits.

Her arrival at the cove was quiet, the path one she was more than familiar with, and after she slipped off her sandals, her bare feet made little sound in the sand. She began her search in the gentle surf, she crashing waves revealing new treasures each time it crashed over her calves and dampened the hem of her dress.

The cool water was lovely, tempting her with its embrace, but she had a task in mind, and she wouldn't be distracted today.

Or at least, not until she had gathered a few shells from the shore.

The first thing she found wasn't a shell at all, it was wood, floating in on the tide. It was pale, and shaped rather oddly, with a sharp curve along its length. But it was wood, and after it dried it would suit her purpose just as well as any other piece of wood.

She looked out over the water, and then across the sand, a happy sigh fluttering past her lips. It was hard to mope when she was in the sea, the feel, the scent, all of it called to her to be happy, to spread joy. The domain of her father was always a welcome sight.

[Saej]

Inhale. The bowl of blue vision went red as her lungs filled with smoke. Exhale. All around her became a haze of delightful smelling perfume and as quickly as it came it was blown away by the seaside winds. Thak was with her, her furry black compainion; this marked the first time he followed her out of the city. Not only that but it was her first time ever being on a beach. They sat together by the shore amidst the sand and debris. To Saej sand was somewhat of a nusance, it clung to her bare legs and dress causing her to itch. Despite that though it was nice. The gentle hum of the waves was relaxing, amplified by the dreamy feeling of the bluvi, as she liked to call the blue vision. The dreary skies did little to dampen their good spirits.

As the bluvi tooks its toll and the sweet, peaceful feeling crept over her, Saej found herself missing temper, how nice it would be to get high again. But actually high. E-L-E-V-A-T-E-D. Bluvi gave her something similar to a high, but the actual 'high' effects wore off very quickly. What she would give for a hit off of the good stuff. Moving to Lhavit those years ago she figured there would be regular shipments from someone around here, but there wasn't unless you wanted to get ripped off. Wind Reach wasn't that far away and she would be lying if she hadn't thought to ask one of her Eagle Rider brothers who stopped in from time to time to bring her a sack. Surely they would. Over head a large white bird cawed, dipping and weaving through the skies. The pipeweed was cherried and she smoked from it lazily, this time blowing out poor smoke rings against the wind. After a couple tries she finally got one solid, it hung in the air for a few seconds before disappating. A chuckle escaped her lips and she turned an eye to Thak to see if he was impressed. He seemed to not care, just laying there asleep as a good cat would be.

Overwelmed by his cuteness she patted his head twice which earned her a slit eyes stare, he refused to open up his brilliant golden orbs any more, and kept a silent metronome with his tail. Saej began petting him fully now by starting with his head and trailing the length of his body, after a few of these motions he started his craggley purr. As she sat there, smoking her pipe with one hand and stroking her cat with other, she realised she lived such a charmed life. How good would it be to finally be employed, tough time finding a job in this city!, and go on to make something of herself. Then she and Thak could happily reside, maybe even get a dog, and she could truly start devoting her life to Zintila.

The redhead continued to pet Thak and as she loved on him she thought about did not own him in the slightest, he merely graced her with his presence... Though why he always came around begging for table scraps then was beyond her, dirty stray. Now in the throws of kitty bliss.he rolled on to his side, exposing his matted stomach. "Pretty, pretty!" The Inarta cooed in her native tongue. "You want a belly rub?" Still holding the pipe in her right hand she stroked his stomach fur. It was soft but full of rats nests. The entire cat could do with a good bath and brushing. After two pets she felt Thak tense, though he seemed mostly untroubled as his eyes were still closed. "Ohhh, the kitty doesn't like the belly rubs? Thak, belly rubs are good for you!" She laughed and wildly mussed his fur, in an instant all four paws were attached to her hand-- claws out. 'Not today', his angry face told her. Angrily he kicked his back feet agianst her wrist. "Ouch, ouch, OUCH!!" The last cry startled him and he released her hand, leaping to his feet in one mildly clumsy motion. Orange eyes regarded her cooly, almost daring her pompously to try again.

Saej dropped the pipe in the sand and clutched her wounded hand. It was covered in red marks from his rather large claws, in thw area where the hand meets the wrist a clean cut trickled blood. Not much but he certainly got her, managed to pull blood. For a chime she was certain he'd take off, the cat cat there in a huffy manner. This thought frightened her, quickly she reached her hand out and ran one finger down his furry cheek. He accepted it happliy, squashed face turning up in that cat smile. Who knew, if he left her here, if he would be able to find his way back and return. Still though, her hand hurt from the assault, whether she deserved it or not. Not sure what else to do she stuck the cut in her mouth and sucked on it, hoping Thak hadn't gone digging in anything vile lately.

The waves churrned peacefully, whispering secrets of the sea and songs long forgotten. The blue vision buzz was in full force.

[Tanell]

The waves crashed over her feet, revealing muscles digging deeper into the sand, the multitude of colors catching the Konti's eye. If only she could collect those shells, they were plentiful, beautiful, and quite occupied. She sighed, it wouldn't do.

She continued along the shore, finding fragments, and yet more muscles, but nothing really so useful. She had already swung her pack down off her shoulders, dropping the driftwood into the waiting pocket, but she had really hoped to find more along her way.

She did find a few, simple shells, wide and mostly flat, with ridged from the narrowest curve to the broad edge. She collected four or five of those as she walked, tucking them into her hand to be kept safe until she was burdened enough to place them in a small pocket of her pack.

She placed the pack more carefully upon her back this time, aware of her more fragile cargo, and continued walking, eyes searching the sand for other treasures to being home.

Before her search lead her much further, a cry of pain startled her, coming from a bit of a distance down the shore. She abandoned her search for the moment, following the curve of the beach up past the rocky protuberance where the unforgiving encroached on the shore.

As she rounded the trees, she came upon a woman and a cat, the female strikingly pretty, her hair fiery ropes that fell about her frame with wild abandon. The feline beside her was all black, golden eyes peered out of a grumpy face. The cat looked perpetually grumpy, but then, pleased enough by the attention from the redhead.

The woman, after her cursory glance, seemed to be nursing a wound, likely the source of the sound she had heard before. It seemed far less concerning now that she could see the trouble was more domestic than an issue needing help. All the same, she had come up across the rocky break to see her, she would see the way through.

"Are you okay? I thought I heard a sound of distress, I was concerned. Do you need some help?" She offered her service, as little use as it might be. Her footing was sure enough, even on the shifting rocks, but a particularly wobbly stone set her eyes to the ground, seeking both sure footing and materials to collect.

[Saej]

¤

While she was just beginning to tell Thak where to go they both heard a sound of a young womans's voice behind them and stood up. Sand fell off of Saej's dress returning to the earth as crumbs. She checked the who's and what's of the newcomer as embarrassed hands shook the rest of the sand from her legs. All at once the redhead realised she had been asked a question and glanced down at her wrist which was, thankfully, no longer bleeding, then straight at the woman who approached. She was rather pale, almost like the color had been drained out of her save for feminine hues. The closer she got to Saej it was apparent that on the womans forehead was the muted colors and scales of the Konti. They glittered gracefully against the gray sky that had a dazzling affect on the Inarta leaving her transfixed for a moment. Bluvi hadn't left its grasp on her mind.

Awkwardly she managed to sputter in slurred common, "Ohey! No.. only my cat." Throwing the Konti a smile to ease her tension. The cat and his Inarta were unsure of the woman, truly, but Saej hoped she was really here just to help and not mug her or something. Paranoia crept in and she unwillingly sent her gaze back to the pipe, tobacco, and flint and steel laying on the sand beside the cat before once more observing the Konti. It took mere moments to reach the waters edge, Saej bent in to the ocean like she was born to; at the same time she rubbed the scratched and winced as it burned slightly from the salt water. This marked another first, a dip into the vast waters of the ocean. It was a deep, grayish blue at the moment. Sloshing and churning in an average paced rhythm, it lapped on the shore and in her brain while having a calming affect.

Taking her hands from the water, flicking them, she turned her face back to the newcomer. "Thank you for the concerns," came a semi-genuine, polite statement. Saej was unsure if the woman was staying or leaving, but wiped the rest of the water from her hands on to her dress and returned to her spot behind Thak. He seemed undisturbed by the Konti's presence and sat happily by himself, ears twitchng in each direction to catch far off noises. When Saej sat back down he began licking the bottom of his left back foot, as nonchalantly as possible, the aggression from earlier all but gone.

Saej couldn't help herself. "Were you raised in Lhavit? Or a traveller to here, like myself?" The Inarta hoped her question couldn't be misinterpretted as something rude. Usually she wouldn't bother to start up a conversation but despite her inital paranoia she had a feeling the well kept Konti meant goodwill.

[Tanell]

The woman stared at her for a moment, or rather, at her forehead, and Tanel could guess right away what it was she saw. The glittering scales that marked her skin, cried Konti to all who had heard of the pale water loving women of the Konti Isle. It didn't bother her, the markings were striking, like a crown of jewels, they were beautiful, she had never met a Konti who wasn't. There was pride in belonging to the stories of siren women of the white isle, confidence. Rather than inspiring arrogance, in Tanell it inspired kindness. She just smiled, waiting for the answer to her question, the gentle bell of happiness ringing in her mind.

"Ah, your cat scratched you?" Tanell questioned, mildly surprised at the blase acceptance of the attack. She wasn't sure she would be so calm about a pet clawing her, but then again, she didn't have a pet of her own. After a moment, the tone of the woman's mind changed, growing darkly afraid if the rumbling bass was any indication. A furtive glance at her possessions clued Tanell in, but the woman didn't act further on the feelings, instead going to clean her wound in the salt water.

Tanell was left with the cat of unknown scruples, and when otherwise she might have crouched to offer a hand to the creature, recent events said that perhaps it was not a good idea.

Her glance away from both the cat and the woman led her to the rocks, particularly a reasonably sized stone that was blue gray in color. She moved away to add it to her collection of found items in her bag, and when her attention returned the woman was back, asking her a question.

"I am a traveler, I suppose, but I was raised near the sea. I actually arrived in this city last summer, an entire year's come and gone already." The last part, spoken aloud, was more to herself than to the woman, the realization striking her as strange. Had she really been here so long already? It hardly seemed so.

"Where did you travel from? Was it very far?" She returned with an inquire of her own. Shuffling forward into the sand where she could sift for shells with her feet.

"Do you come here often?" She asked, looking out across the sunny beach and the glistening waves. She was hoping to inspire talk of the sea, perhaps they would swim together, she hadn't had such an opportunity in a while. It struck her, after a moment, that her question might be strange, but it was too late to select more appropriate words in the common tongue. "That is, do you come to the beach, to see the ocean, often?"

[Saej]

¤

"He did." Saej replied with a wary look towards the cat who was doing his best to look non-chalant. He had gotten up and made his way to a large rock not many feet away and was sniffing it before Saej looked at him to which he returned the look in full. Striking yellow orbs stared back into her brown ones for no longer than two breaths before leaping on to the rock and resuming his hearty sniff of the area. "Krric troo.", the Inarta mumbled, casting a glance back to the woman. Their gazes returned at the same time when the Konti stood upright from picking up the rock. 'Odd, wonder what the rock's for,' she wondered as the woman spoke. The scaled woman was indeed from somewhere else, how far had she travelled was the burning question for Saej. Konti weren't unheard of in Wind Reach, most of them had just been born there. It was evident to Saej by the strikingness of her headpeice that the woman was born somewhere else, as well as her calm demeanor. "I come from the volcano Skyinarta, where Wind Reach was carved. I was an arti-san before I left. It took me an..." she paused, in thought, pointer finger now wrapped around her chin. Even after five years of living among those who only spoke common language, Saej still found herself speaking with an accent and stumbling over her words. "The whole season... two summers ago? It was a trech-el-ous hike." The final word, treacherous, came out poorly and Saej's eyes widened in embarrassment-- causing her face to redden slightly, made evident by the heat rising on her face. She hoped the woman would understand as she couldn't grasp the actual word, even in the depths of her mind. Common could be tricky. A worried laugh escaped her lips then she asked in return, "How far does the ocean woman travel?" It was a struggle sometimes to remember the correct wordings of sentences in common and this, along with the inflections because of Nari's many trills and "ch" sounds, is what usually bogged her down.

It seemed the more she spoke to others, though, the easier it became for her to speak it, kept the vocabulary fresh in her mind. Another gull cried as it swooped and dived, surrounded by omnious gray clouds that never wanted to give way to the summer to that beautiful summer. Saej spotted something brown floating among the waves and in the back of her mind she hoped it was a cask of wine.
"The ocean is new to me, or rather this is my only time being here... I mean the first?" The previous hiccup made her nervous and she was second guessing herself. She began fidgeting with her dreads, twirrling and tugging on one wrapped in a yellow string. Fom her sitting position in the sands, the grains were beginning to make her legs itch again, but she gave up combating it. The redhead rummaged around her bag and from it withdrew the small leather tobacco pouch. She was packing the pipe as the Konti trailed off and gazed at the sea, not hearing the first time the woman spoke the question. Perhaps she liked to smoke. Saej's dirty fingers poked the leaves tighter, enabling her to pack a little bit more into the bowl.

Following the woman's trail of sight Saej gazed at the ocean with her. Finally Syna decided to peak out of the clouds opening up her brilliant rays on the ocean. The illumination on the waves revealed what looked to be a tumultuous, dusky blue, diamonds all over the surface. They raised up and down in a fluid, steady motion, glittering in the sunlight before diving back into a deep blue void for a brief moment, as the waves oscillated in rapid succession. She was sure she was in the throw of a return to the funkus but when the Konti woman corrected herself, breaking the spell, and Saej turned her eyes away from the scene everything was normal. The scales on the woman made such sense now, "Childe of the sea. I've only been to the sea this time, no time before. What are your beaches like, from home?" The sun had already been covered by the clouds by the time she returned her gaze to the waters, much to her dismay.

[Tanell]

"Skyinarta, Wind Reach, I nearly visited there, or so they told me was the travel plan, it wasn't to be though." She smiled, recognizing the shortcomings of a second language because she too often found them in her own speech. "A treacherous hike indeed, I don't know that I had ever made such a climb before as I did to this city. It's quite worth the trouble, though, even if hiking has become commonplace in my time here."

She eyed the travel worn path from the shore back up the mountain, sometimes taken on foot, others assisted by okomo, but always with the relief of home in one form or another at the end.

When their conversation continued, Tanell settled herself on a large rock, still reasonably close for speaking, but outside the range of her gift. It was always nicer to converse just on the feather's edge of her range, either for a gentle hint of feeling, or the peace and quiet of being alone in her mind. She chose quiet today, as she pondered the travel she had done to arrive in Lhavit.

"I was born on the in Mura of the Konti Isle. It is clear across the continent from here, and it took many years to move from one city to another moving with merchants, caravans, and knights. To be fair, I did not travel endlessly, often a city caught my attention for a season or two." A city, or a person, she reminded herself, some good memories, others far from good. Not something she planned to share, though, it would rip her facade apart, and her appearance was everything if she wanted to court all the people of the city to her business in the years to come.

"The ocean is lovely for swimming, but the ocean at home was wildly different. The beaches glistened, reflecting the colors of the sea and sky, the corral was plentiful, natural and grown into delicately beautiful patterns by the Charoda, or even some were built by Laviku to protect the Isle. It was beautiful."

Child of the sea, indeed, it was a worthy epithet. She smiled to soften what might have sounded like criticism of the shores and waters here. She adored her home in Mura, the rough cliff faces, the sandy shores, the tranquil parks, but she loved any place where she could be in nature and swim in the sea.

"It is beautiful here too, perhaps even more so than my home. The city gleams at all hours, and the people do too, enjoying every aspect of the glittering city, not deterred by things that would halt others. No care to do harm, but not overly mindful of their actions and how they might affect another. It is a freedom I had not experienced before my journeying led me here." She continued, the rambling tones of recollection and reflection turning her voice soft, floating it just barely above the sounds of the crashing sea.

The woman's gaze returned to the sea, and Tanell took the opportunity to scrutinize her hair, twisted into an interesting interpretation of what normally fell delicately around one's face.

"Your hair is not like anything I've seen before, is it very hard to maintain?" This question felt less personal, hair, while adding in most instances to the beauty of a person, was merely hair, and could be changed. It was easier than memories of home and travel.