Open At Long Last

[Kaimana]

9 Winter, 517 A.V. morning Kaimana had been travelling for a very very very long time when he stuck his head up above the waves and espied a figure standing on the beach up ahead. His heart jumped up and scattered pell-mell against his ribcage at the realization of what he was seeing, as though it’d had its butt stuck by the pointy ends of his bone trident. Kaimana dove back into the water and kicked a gleeful loop-the-loop, letting out a low croon of pure delight. The sound made pleasant undulations through the water -- nothing the figure on the beach would have heard, though. Finally! Finally finally finally! The niggling possibility that he’d never see another living being again had been persistently prodding the back of his mind like an itch that he couldn’t reach, but it had been gloriously wrong. With another higher-pitched croon, he shot off in the direction of the figure, swimming faster than he’d ever swam in the past couple of days, faster than even that one time he’d had to swim for his life with a spearhead nipping at his heels. He’d been caught by surprise, having accidentally encroached upon its coral territory. His heart hadn’t stopped hammering for many bells! But this -- this was better. When he got close enough to the figure that he’d be able to stand in the shallows at waist-height, he burst out of the water, a fan of water following the arc of his body as he reared upward and shook himself. He was wearing his knapsack and holding in his right arm his trusty bone trident. Then, without missing a beat, he said in accented Common, “Hello! Hello my name is Kaimana, what is yours?” He had practiced what his first words to another living being would be and he’d meant for it to be a lot more elegant, but he was too jittery to check himself.

[Merevaika]

Merevaika held in her hand a cage. It was one of her own design and creation - similar to that which she had made previously. Sticks were tied roughly together in meshes that were secured on all the edges. It was just bigger than a palm-width wide and tall, and twice that in length. Nothing special, nothing particularly good or sturdy either, but it was enough for her to start with - and if this worked, she could move onto some real cages.

All she needed for now was a sort of mechanism to hold the door open when nothing was inside, but would shut once some sort of creature entered. She didn't need it to stay shut yet - some sort of hook could work for that, she supposed, but she could just as easily leave it as something for the real cages to have.

But how would she do what she wanted to do? Merevaika stared at the cage. And stared. And waited for a sudden thought to come to her. But nothing came and she was stuck staring.

Why was building things so hard?

She played with the flap that formed a door as she thought, hoping to get inspiration. Perhaps if she just figured out ways to keep it open for now, then she could adjust them. If she tied a piece of string to the doorway, and tied that somewhere above, she could hold it up. Or she could prop it up with a stick. Would something knock it down when entering and trap themselves if she propped it up right?

Laying on her belly, she placed the cage down and fiddled with the door trying to stand it on a small twig. But the twig broke before she got anyway and she sprung up quickly, ready to grab a new one and try again.

But as she was turning towards the jungle, something moved in the water. Quickly. It had been just ripples or a shape or something small that drew her attention, but it hadn't just been the waves, so it had.

Then it burst out of the water, spending an arc around itself and Merevaika jumped back, screaming. In a desperate attempt, she felt the sand around her, then realised she had no weapons with her, nothing to defend herself from this sea creature, this sea monster...

But what monster looked almost human, with two legs and two arms, and carried a trident and a knapsack, and spoke Common?

She screamed again at the thing and felt herself grasp something that could finally be used as a weapon. There was a pebble, easily small enough to fit in her fist, but it was the best she could use. Scooping it up - and in her haste, the sand around it - she propelled it towards the fish-man, watching it plop into the water just short.

Merevaika was hoping that she wouldn't need to worry about missing.

[Kaimana]

Kaimana blinked and stepped back, momentarily shocked by the being’s scream. Was he being attacked? A scream of hostility? He knew his ancestors of past, knew they had been cut down like so many rows of kelp, but that had been in the past. Things must have changed since then. He had to show the being that he was harmless. This being with strange hair like so many stringy jelly-lappets, but not beautifully coloured. Her’s -- he was assuming she was a woman-being -- was dark and quite boring. He quickly recovered and started toward the woman-being, unused to moving without the cool, solid weight of the ocean pressing in on all sides. His skinny charoda legs were all gangly-akimbo, spearing the waves as he ambled toward her waving his trident in the air. All the while he was saying things like: “I am not predator! I am not very strong! I hate meat! I come in goodwill! Please don’t scream again!” OOCApologies for the delay! I have been settling into the new winter term at my university -- replies will be a lot more frequent and come a lot more quickly from now on

[Merevaika]

The creature seemed to show some sort of fear. Stepping back in the water, his large pupil-less - and incredibly unnerving - eyes blinking at the sight of her. Was she as much of a monster to it as it was to her? The thought barely crossed her mind, however. All she could see was a monster, one that had recoiled at first at her sudden reaction but was heading straight towards her now.

His legs weren't made for walking. She could tell that in the uncomfortable way he stepped through the water, like a newborn foal finding its legs for the first time. Only a foal took a few bells to move normally. Which did very little to instil fate in the Drykas who was only steps away from that trident.

It was yelling things too, now. But Merevaika didn't understand what it was saying. Neither of their ability at common was any good. Mixed with accents and panic and confusion, she didn't even try to pick out words. She didn't know she could.

Her hands dug around in the sand again, searching for another rock, but now she found nothing, only more handfuls of sand. Against a trident, they were useless, but the shock at least of having more stuff thrown at him might give her the chance to get up and run. Grabbing as much as she could, she brought the sand-filled fist in front of her, aware of the gushes of sand that dribbled out of each crack in her fist.

She chucked it again at the monster from the water, wishing sand was a better projectile. In that moment, she scrambled to her feet, jumping back a few steps.

Merevaika allowed her gaze to pass over the area around her. The jungle was a quick run away. Her tent a similar sort of distance, just angled in a different direction. The former had plenty of place to hide, and most likely some sticks to use as defence. The latter had her weapons, ones she knew would be there - and knew how to use, for some of them.

The latter seemed like a better option. She didn't want to wait more to weight them up.

The Drykas stared the monster down for a few seconds, trying to sense where he what he was going to do next. Then she leapt, starting a sprint towards the familiar canvas. If she could get there in time...

[Kaimana]

Fortunately, the woman-being did not scream again. Unfortunately, she still seemed to see Kaimana as a threat, for she flung sand at Kaimana once he managed to get a little closer. He was still getting used to ambling about above-water, so when she did this Kaimana yelped and fell backward into the surf. The water surged against his back and splashed outward, like a gnarled watery claw, and left him dripping with clumps of dark wet sand. By then, the girl had already managed to sprint away. “Why are you running? Why are you running?” he cried, switching back to Char in his frustration and confusion. All he wanted to do was meet her, he wasn’t scary at all; in all honesty, the woman-being was definitely more equipped to do damage to Kaimana rather than the other way around, not that either of them were aware of that. He jumped up, bone trident still firmly in his grip -- he didn’t seem to realize it to be the source of the woman-being’s fear for he would have put it down or something if he knew, but right now all he was thinking was that he would have nowhere to put it and he didn’t want to lose his only defense against the great Mizaharian wilderness. Taking a deep breath, he sprang into a full-tilt sprint after the woman. Under normal circumstances Kaimana was very quick, unhindered by the massive weight of the ocean which sought to impede his movement and in which the charodae had learned to slip and spin and wheel through in the earliest of days. However, unused to land-walking as he was, his quickness was more of a hindrance than an asset: only three ticks off the block and he tangled his skinny legs together, stumbling and falling to the sand. And, ugh, sand was so much different when it was dry. It stuck to him in places his smooth rubbery skin was loath to agree with, and he decided at the back of his mind that he didn’t like it one bit. Spitting sand, he scrambled to his feet and continued to chase after the woman-being, who by now had widened the gap between them by quite a bit. OOCWhy_are_you_running.vine

[Merevaika]

More shouting; now she definitely couldn't recognise it. It wasn't human sounds, but shrill shrieks and cries that may have sounded good under water but sounded like a wild bird above, without any of the melody and all of the anger. She couldn't even hear frustration, just noises that were unfamiliar and therefore scary. It only fuelled her running more.

But he was on her tail, trident up and waving behind her. At first, her heart rose in her chest, almost slipping in her throat, but the sand he threw up like a cloud behind him and the stumbles instilled her with confidence - get him out of the water where he belonged and she automatically had the upper hand. Merevaika knew her best chance against it was to keep running. Two birds with one stone if she reached her tent.

And with his stumbling, she managed. The gap was widened and she let that spur her onwards. In the last few steps, she stumbled too, her legs working too quickly against this sand and her body, but it was too late. She had reached her tent and on her knees, she crawled inside, throwing things in a flurry of movement. Finally, her hands landed on the bow and she dragged herself out again, not wanting to get ambushed in the tent.

With a swift movement, she lifted the wood in the direction of the monster who was scrambling closer and pulled the bowstring back towards her ear.

And realised in her panic she had forgotten the most important part about her bow. How the petch did she not grab an arrow? Now her bow was useless and the monster was still coming towards her. She probably didn't have the time to rush back into her tent and find an arrow, not before he reached her, even with the way he ran.

Instead, she decided to jump up, bow now in her hand like a standard stick and take a gamble. Something in the monster's eyes looked vulnerable. She was about to find out how much.

Letting out a commanding shout, hurling syllables that meant nothing in Pavi or Common at the creature, she forced her entire voice out with the noise. Brandishing the bow out wildly, she swiped it in front of her, back and forth in successive motions. And she charged, head first at the creature. She tried to not let any fear or hesitation show in her movements, but her eyes watched the trident warily.

In the last possible moment, if it showed no sign of movement, she would have to dodge out of the way. But if it showed doubt, perhaps she'd be able to do something.

She wans't certain quite what yet, however.

[Kaimana]

After what seemed like a never-ending production of continuously stabbing his delicately-inclined feet into the hot hot hot sand -- and Laviku, Best and Greatest, how could something be so unpleasant, he was never going to willingly subject himself to sand ever again -- Kaimana caught up to the woman-being and found himself being quite aggressively aggressed with something Kaimana was not so familiar with but unwilling to examine until he was not being aggressed anymore. The most dangerous of creatures were the ones backed into a corner, Kaimana knew, having had his fair share of wilderness lessons at the behest of his elders. It was usually wise to cede ground, metaphorically or literally, but Kaimana, for all the zippy little thoughts speeding through his head like a hyperactive school of fish, wasn’t thinking of this when he dove all the way the petch left and into the ground. Suddenly the sand wasn’t so much unpleasant as it was going to be the actual literal death of him. It went everywhere, and it stung; it was hot and crumbly and some had managed to sneak away into the edges of his eyes. He was feeling a lot worse than he was a couple ticks ago -- he’d never been so dry in his life. He needed water. He chirred mournfully as he hopped to his feet, swiping at himself in an attempt to get the sand off. This was terrible. This was not how he’d thought first contact would go at all. In his distress he momentarily forgot about the woman-being; if she wanted to bowl him over it would be pretty easy. His bone trident was laid on the sand at his feet.

[Merevaika]

She charged and he dove to the ground. Her face lit up, the fear that had been there before replaced with triumphant glee. Of course, she wasn't quite certain what she wanted to do now. Everything up until this point was getting herself into a position where she didn't have to worry about this monster hurting her - and also been the affects of sudden shock and fear coursing through her blood. Now that she stood in a position of power, able to think more rationally, she realised she still didn't know what that was.

Up close, far too close, she could see how human it looked. Of course, the skin was strangely coloured, the eyes lacking pupils and fins like fish instead of hair. But he also had two arms and two legs, in places you'd find them on humans and stood at a good enough height for a man, too.

Fish-man, that was what he was.

While he moaned vocally, although the moans were more like whistles than human moans, she watched him carefully. He was attacking the sand on him, almost completely forgetting that she had charged at him. The weapon he had been carrying lay on the ground near him.

She could have this all under control with one swift movement. As he distracted himself with the sand, she ducked, snatching up the bone handle as quickly as she could. Her hand trembled as she shifted it up, unused to the weight in her grip. But it was up and she had pointed straight towards the fish-man. Her bow lay in her weaker hand, still as a stick but there to back her up if she slipped with the trident.

If she could, she pushed it closer towards the fish-man. Then she barked harshly at him. "What you? Why here? Do not move!" The Common grated roughly against her tongue. Merevaika did her best to harden her gaze and warn him with her eyes. Who knew if he would understand her Common?

[Kaimana]

Kaimana could do nothing but turn and chirp in surprise when the woman-being darted in and snapped his trident up. He blurted out, “That’s my trident!” and managed a tentative step toward her before she shouted at him, in Common. Flustered and crackly from sand, it took Kaimana a moment to register the words -- two questions and an imperative -- but his languages elder had always praised him so he understood, and stopped. But he ignored her questions and said instead, “Why are you scared? I am not scary.” He held out his hands beseechingly, arms straight as sticks and palms flipped outward, and at 4 foot 11 he looked very much as he was: a child, barely a year out of his lessons. For all his tiny bones and tiny feet, though, he did not look as scared as he ought to be, at an alarming tactical disadvantage against an unknown species of being. He continued quickly, “I scared you? I scared you, I’m sorry.” Phrases he’d learned in lessons tumbled out of him, rote. “Can I have please my -- my,” shyke, he couldn’t remember the word for it in Common, “my thing. It is mine, my Papa gave it to me, as gift.” Actually, he’d taken it when he left without asking, but the woman-being didn’t really need to know that. He dropped his hands, and looked at her.

[Merevaika]

Finally he spoke and now that she had calmed down, she finally understood him, too. It was common, this time. Definitely Common, even despite the accent that she couldn't place. But what was he saying? That he wasn't scary? Merevaika's eyes narrowed, lines of confusion running down her face. This thing, this literal monster, was standing there and claiming he wasn't scary.

The trident slipped in her hand a little and she shuddered as she regained her grip. Tentatively, she pushed one foot forward in the sand, rooting herself deeper into her aggressive stance as she tried to hide her real confusion.

The thing was talking more now. She sized him up further. There was youth in him. A lack of structure in his body, of still to be developed flesh and bone. He was smaller than she had first taken him as. The slope on the beach, that must have affected her perspective. He still wasn't too short, too short to be counted as drastically different from human, but he was short enough to be less of a threat. To appear young. A child monster. Was that what he was?

He was still bubbling over his words. But he was saying - was he really saying that - that he was sorry? Merevaika blinked, trying her best to keep her face expressionless. But she was confused and this was almost too much to take. Was he human enough to apologise?

Cautiously, she extended the weapon. Not to give it to him - her grip stayed firm on the bone. But in some sort of gesture. More warning, than anything else, but she kept the points away from the fish-man enough to reduce the instant threat. "Tell me my questions," she hissed, not eager to do anything he said before she knew what he was. "What. Are. You?"