PM to join It's Been a Long Morning (Miha)

[Kopesha]

Timestamp: Fall 13, 520 following this

Kopesha was exhausted as she slowly trudged her way down south along the beach of Mathews Bay. She had washed up too late in the day to get a good site for making camp. And it was too dangerous to sleep while exposed at night. So Kopesha had stayed awake all through the night, defending herself and her belongings with her knife in her one good arm. The other, her shoulder was dislocated and she didn't know how to fix it herself. She knew it was treatable, she'd seen it fixed by the healers in Riverfall, but never had she seen how to do it herself.

Syna was rising over the bay, and Kopesha splashed water on her face, asking Laviku for the strength to stay awake. Dawn and dusk were the most dangerous parts of the day. And Kopesha was more prey than predator right now, in an unknown land, no idea as to her bearings, injured, tired, alone. She had heard the howls of the small wolf like creatures at dusk and was hearing them again now. She had come across those in Zeltiva and Sunberth, though she didn't know the word coyote. She wasn't so worried about those.

It was the large wolves and cats that scared her most. If she had to go up against any of those now, most likely she would die. And she wasn't ready to join Chokaji yet, she had too much living to do, for the both of them. Her husband would be waiting for her to give him a long, good story. Focus. She watched the tree line constantly, and always looked behind her, to make sure she wasn't being followed. At least the sea provided a bit of a protective barrier on her left. It was why she stuck to the beach, it was a more defensible position.

But she was tiring. Being unconscious after a shipwreck didn't really count as sleeping, and she was carrying all of her belongings, save one bow at the bottom of the Bay. And she had walked so far. And her shoulder throbbed with every single step. It wasn't long until she realized water was splashing over her feet, forcing her to pay attention. She couldn't remember walking closer to the water.

How long had she been walking without paying mind?

She shook her head, and pressed on. She walked for seven days with Chokaji's body, she could keep going until she found some safety. She needed to. And so, she kept walking, almost in a trance like, zombie state, barely awake and conscious, but her feet continued to carry her forward, her good hand gripped around her knife.

[Miha]

Fall 13th 520 AV

It was a lovely early morning for a dip, and Miha had found a lovely little fishing boat some small distance from the Empyreal Demesne. It was in shallow, warm water. The fish and the crustaceans and all the other little ocean organisms made quick work eating up whatever they could in the ship, which meant all that was left were bones and treasures. Of course, her definition of "treasure" most certainly included plenty of what anyone else would consider trash. Not that it mattered too much to the kelvic. Almost anything she found could be found useful by someone, even if its use was to be melted down or as interesting decor.

In this case, Miha was particularly enamored with a ring of keys, and after some time inspecting the rest of the wreck, she grabbed the keys in her big seal maw and hauled out onto the beach. She shifted and cradled the now sandy, rusty iron keys in her human hands. It left gross marks and residue on her fingers, but she was excited nonetheless. With the keys in her hand, she got a flash of images of the keys being used and a glimpse of the face of the man who made them. Nothing that passed her mind seemed to have been on the ship itself, meaning the keys weren't useful unless she found out where they went. That was a long shot. She was still enamored with them, though, and she was going to bring them back home and find some use for them.

The seal was just about to dive back into the water when she noticed a figure, walking a long ways down the beach. There was no ship in sight, and while they weren't too far from Zeltiva, she didn't think that she'd swam far enough north that Zeltivan stragglers would be wandering the beach after overturning their rowboats, or whatever it was that they did for fun. No, Miha's mind settled on one possibility. This figure must have been lost!

With the rusty ring of keys in one hand, Miha started down the beach towards the wandering figure. Once she was close enough, it started to gain some sort of shape and form. It looked like a woman, but she didn't seem to notice the naked Kelvic wandering down the sandy shoreline towards her. She didn't seem to notice anything. One of her arms looked a bit weird, and all her stuff was on the other one, including a knife. Hopefully if she offered help, she wouldn't end up on the receiving end of it.

Once she was in shouting distance, Miha called out in Common. "Hey, are you okay? Do you need help?" She waved her arms to try and get the woman's attention as she continued to walk towards her.

[Kopesha]

Kopesha could physically hear the shout from the naked woman but it didn't resonate as more than a muffled sound to the exhausted, dehydrated, pained woman. But she wasn't alone either. Sootay had heard the sound and was running around out in front of her. "Peshi, someone is here."

Kopesha walked right past him in her state.

"Peshi, you need to wake up."

Still more empty footsteps taking her forward, fear and worry in his voice, Sootay went desperate. "You can't die until you've made it up to Chokaji!"

At the name of her husband, and the tone in Sootay's voice, Kopesha's eyes came back into focus. "No, I can't." Then her eyes focused on the naked woman who was coming her way. Why was she naked out here? Kopesha was pleased by the woman's form though, particularly watching her bounce as she waved her arms to get Kopesha's attention.

Sootay rolled his eyes, sounding annoyed, "Really? Now? Of all the times and places?"

Kopesha started to laugh but her throat was so dry she ended up choking and coughing. She kept her knife in hand but didn't have it pointed toward the woman. She half frogcroaked her words out, in her broken Common, "My ship sink. Shoulder..." she didn't know the Common word for 'dislocated,' "loose. Need water. Need sleep. Need help." If there was one thing her times in Riverfall and Sunberth had taught her, it was that pride doesn't keep you from dying.

But remembering Sunberth, and still not really sure where in the world she was, "I pay. I have coin. Please. Help. I not know where I am." A wolf's howl loosed loudly over the rising morning, silencing all of the yipping coyotes, and causing Kopesha to raise her knife hand up defensively. A knife against wolves was a death sentence. And she had to remember she no longer had Chokaji's bow either. She needed shelter to heal, recover, and rearm herself. She was only prey now.

And more wolf howls joined the first, and they weren't too far away.