[Week Long Challenge] The Island Life Part 2

The continuation of Ialari's adventure on a secluded island.

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[Week Long Challenge] The Island Life Part 2

Postby Ialari Pythone on February 8th, 2021, 6:07 am

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Day 2

Ialari woke with no small amount of stiffness. Sleeping as she did on top of the tall rock did not allow her for any room to stretch out. On top of that, her sleep was broken up by the feeling of things crawling on her. While this was all in her head, it didn’t help her sleep any. As the sun rose on the next day, she quickly realized her growing hunger. While the coconuts would likely sustain her, at least for a time, her body needed something more. Forcing herself to wake fully and sit up, she quickly noticed that the clouds were growing darker in the sky. “First the heat. Then bugs followed by rats. Now a storm?” Ialari was feeling less frustrated and now angry. “Fine.”

Carefully, she climbed back down the rock face. She needed to find more substantive food before the coming storm arrived while also needed to figure out shelter. Looking again at the clouds and how quickly they were thickening and darkening, she decided to abandon the idea of shelter and instead gather food. She’d struggled to sleep long enough that it was now late morning. With that came what she’d hoped for, one of the few things that were looking up for her, a lower tide. As she walked toward the rocks on the shore, she could see that the tide had pulled out just enough to reveal a handful of tidepools. “Finally, something I know.” She muttered as she made her way out onto the rocks. Careful to grip the slippery stone surface with her feet while taking measured movements, she approached the pools. She was quickly greeted with the sight of sea plants. They looked a lot like palm trees yet growing in salt water. She couldn’t remember what they were called but remembered that they were quite tasty; sweet and of course salty. With the burlap bag slung over her shoulder, she proceeded to pull the plants from their rocky roots. They wouldn’t be all that filling but they were much better than coconuts.

As she continued to maneuver around the slippery rocks that made up the tidepools, Ialari found a handful of snails and a plethora of tiny shellfish glued to the rocks. Digging into the stone with her metallic fingers, she scooped the shellfish complete with the rock they were attached to rather than waste the time trying to pull them from it. There were bits of seaweed and even a handful of small crabs. Of course, there were several sea urchins that she avoided while also trying to maintain a distance with her feet. There spines were sharp and able to pierce her dense flesh in just the right…or wrong places. The last thing she needed was to be poisoned. There were a few small fish to be found as well yet she was too slow to catch them without the appropriate tool. “I forgot how difficult this all can be.” She commented to herself as she picked up another snail.

After spending a bit of time harvesting from the tidepools, Ialari returned to her claimed campsite and laid out her bounty. Several handfuls of sea-palms and seaweed, a good number of tiny mussels and a half dozen small crabs would make for a great meal. With the now smoldering remains of her fire, she packed in a bit more coconut husk and worked toward rebuilding the flame. After a few failed attempts, the embers took to the tinder and a flame sparked once more. Feeding the fire with a few more chunks of wood, Ialari took one of the coconut shells that she’d split in half and filled it with a bit of sea water. She stacked some stones around the fire in a way that tapered upward and allowed for the support of the shell. This way the water in the shell would boil without the flames consuming it. The water in the shell would help keep it from catching on fire. When the water in the shell began to boil, Ialari dropped one of the small crabs into it. Although she felt a tinge of guilt for boiling the poor creature alive, her hunger overcame that guilt. After the first crab was boiled, she removed it and dropped in another.

She devoured the meat from each crap while tossing aside the shells. When she’d eaten all of them, she broke open the snail shells and dropped the creatures in to boil. She had to refill the shell a few times as the water quickly boiled away but, in the end, between the mussels, snails and crabs, she was finally feeling satisfyingly full. She decided to save the sea-palms and seaweed for later. She considered leaving it out to dry but time was not on her side. Drop by drop, she could feel the rain start to fall as thunder boomed all around her. The storm had arrived.

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Ialari Pythone
I'm Poison.
 
Posts: 619
Words: 923994
Joined roleplay: August 13th, 2009, 3:26 am
Race: Isur
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Medals: 7
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Overlored (1) Riverfall Seasonal Challenge (1)
2013 Mizahar NaNo Winner (1) 2012 Mizahar NaNo Winner (1)

[Week Long Challenge] The Island Life Part 2

Postby Ialari Pythone on February 8th, 2021, 6:07 am

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Lightening crackled across the sky preceded by thunderous booms. The wind blew violently, the rain poured with a vengeance and the waves tore against the rocks surrounding the island. Her choice to forego shelter proved to be a mixed blessing for Ialari. While she’d sacrifice shelter for the gathering of food, she was now left with no real respite from the storm. At the same time, no shelter she could have built would have been able to protect her from what she was facing. Although it was still rather warm, the wind and rain were relentless and the thunderous booms shook her to her core. There was no escape from it. As the palm trees above her swayed with the wind, she had to dodge falling coconuts wrestled loose from their perch high above. Realizing the potential benefits despite the Zulrav’s wrath, she quickly tried to set up as many coconut halves as she could in order to capture as much rain water as possible. Each one wouldn’t be able to hold much but together, with what she’d gathered, she might be able to collect a useful amount.

Although the wind and rain were not all that cold, Ialari was immediately soaked. It was uncomfortable and if the storm lasted well into the night, the cold could definitely become a problem. She tried to escape the wind by hiding behind the central rock formation, opposite the direction of the wind. While this helped to some extent toward reducing her exposure to the wind itself, the rain still continued to drench her. Gripping the stone, she closed her eyes and prayed to Izurdin for strength to overcome. Although she’d dealt with storms in the past during her time living alone on the coast, she was never as exposed as she was now. With every boom of thunder, she jumped. Her nerves were stretched to their limit as she began to shake from rain that grew ever colder.

She huddled against the rock for a couple bells before the rain finally began to lighten up and the wind gradually died down. The storm finally abated just as night fell. Starting a fire would be impossible so soon after the torrential downpour which left Ialari wet, cold and without any escape from it all.

A long, wet, cold night followed with no chance for any sleep. Naked and exposed to the elements, Ialari was left only with her chaotic thoughts for comfort. Unable to focus on anything and only able to think about how cold and wet she was, the morning that eventually greeted her was only somewhat appreciated. Thus it was that the second day of her strange isolation on the island had passed.

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Remade In My Dominion!

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Granted Flashback Threads between 510 and 512 by Tarot.
User avatar
Ialari Pythone
I'm Poison.
 
Posts: 619
Words: 923994
Joined roleplay: August 13th, 2009, 3:26 am
Race: Isur
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Medals: 7
Mizahar Grader (1) Trailblazer (2)
Overlored (1) Riverfall Seasonal Challenge (1)
2013 Mizahar NaNo Winner (1) 2012 Mizahar NaNo Winner (1)

[Week Long Challenge] The Island Life Part 2

Postby Ialari Pythone on February 8th, 2021, 6:08 am

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Day 3

Upon her third day on the island and after the terrible storm that assaulted her the night before, Ialari realized the need to move forward and make her way to the other island where, at least according to the strange map, she would find something symbolized by the large “X”. What that entailed she could only imagine but as far as she was concerned, it couldn’t be much worse than staying where she was.

Wet, cold and having had no sleep the night before, Ialari took stock of her situation. The storm had soaked the island. While the rising of the sun would bring with it welcomed heat and dryness, a fire would still be difficult to get started. Thankfully her efforts at gathering food the previous day had paid off in that she wasn’t overly hungry. Water was still an issue however especially with what she would need to do to get off the island. The storm however would have filled the basin she’d carved at the top of the towering rock so she once again began her climb. The stone was wet and required greater care in climbing. Ialari was forced a few times to sink her fingers into the stone to create new gripping points in order to keep from falling. When she reached the top, she was relieved to find the basin filled with water. From the looks of it, the water hadn’t been fouled by birds so she leaned in and took a long drink. For the next several moments, she drank as much as she could knowing that the rest of her water from there one out would come from coconuts.

When she’d drank all she could, Ialari proceeded to climb back down the rock. Returning to her stash of salvaged material, she retrieved the eggs she’d gathered a couple days earlier. With everything wet and a fire out of the question, she split the eggs open and ate the contents raw. It was something of an unpleasant texture but after the last egg was eaten, she felt somewhat satisfied.

With food and water in her body, she turned her attention to the idea of a raft. She’d never built one before although she’d seen many used during her limited time in Syka and Riverfall. From what she could remember, their construction was simplistic yet functional. Those in Riverfall tended toward more solid construction with a bit of flare while those in Syka went mainly for function. Often Ialari would see the settlers in Syka sitting in the sand on the coast, weaving plant fibers into rope. While she’d never done such a thing herself, the concept seemed pretty straightforward.

Thankfully there were yucca plants growing on the island. In Syka, yucca plants were an important source of cordage. The settlers used the leaves from the plant to weave rope that was used for all manner of things. With a few yucca plants at her disposal, Ialari began harvesting the leaves and gathering them in her bag. When she’d filled her bag, she returned to her campsite. Setting down the bag she went to the shore. With a bit of effort, she dragged a large stone from near the shore back to the campsite. With her metallic arm, she flattened the top of the stone as best she could. Dumping out the yucca leaves, she laid out the bag on the stone and smoothed it flat. She then picked up a yucca leaf and with a flattened stone, she began scraping away the skin of the leaf. She’d watched Syka settlers do the same and when asked, they said that it helped break down the plant fibers of the leaf and separating them.

Ialari did her best to mimic what she remembered as she scraped away the green, oily material from the leaf. As she did, the leaf began to separate and the fibers became pronounced. She pulled the fibers apart into thin, stringy material. She repeated this several times for every leaf she’d collected. When the leaves were all treated in this manner, she set to braiding and weaving them. The process was time consuming with a number of bells passing as she scraped the leaves, split them and then twisted and braided the resulting fibers. The first few attempts ended in the leaves being crushed too hard to be of any use. It took a few tries to get the right pressure and movements down. It took awhile to get the right braiding motions to stick so that the material was able to bind to itself with the right twisting motions.

Eventually, a short length of thin yet surprisingly durable rope was created. Building upon this success, Ialari continued to weave and braid a number of long lengths. Doing so however took many bells and before she knew it, the day was quickly turning to night. She paused from time to time to break open a few coconuts that had fallen during the storm. The fruit provided enough sustenance to keep her going but she couldn’t help but wonder how anyone could live off of such things for very long.

When the sun was finally at the point where it was drifting past the horizon, Ialari declared herself finished with her work. After a day’s worth of weaving and braiding yucca leaves, she was left with several feet of useable rope. “Ok, tomorrow, I’ll get the wood ready and then hopefully get it tied together so as to not leave me stuck in the open water struggling for breath…” The thought of going out in the water toward the other island caused her to shake a little. She was not worth much as a swimmer and the possible presence of sharks only added to her anxiety. Fighting off the feelings, she brought her attention to what was to come. Night was falling and with it would come the rats. The sky was clear and there didn’t look to be any chance of an imminent storm. “By Izurdin, it looks like another night on the rock.” She muttered to herself with no small amount of venom in her voice. Gathering her rope, she put it in the bag which she in turn slung across her shoulder. She didn’t want the rats getting into her rope, chewing it or even carrying it away to wherever it was they spent the day.

Ialari then made the climb once more to the top of the rock where she used the rope filled bag as a pillow as she tried to get some sleep. She was cold but at least dry and free from the biting vermin below.

Words 1,113
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Remade In My Dominion!

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Granted Flashback Threads between 510 and 512 by Tarot.
User avatar
Ialari Pythone
I'm Poison.
 
Posts: 619
Words: 923994
Joined roleplay: August 13th, 2009, 3:26 am
Race: Isur
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Medals: 7
Mizahar Grader (1) Trailblazer (2)
Overlored (1) Riverfall Seasonal Challenge (1)
2013 Mizahar NaNo Winner (1) 2012 Mizahar NaNo Winner (1)

[Week Long Challenge] The Island Life Part 2

Postby Ialari Pythone on February 8th, 2021, 6:08 am

Image
Day 4

The following morning found Ialari a little hungry, somewhat thirsty but overall, determined. Climbing down from her rocky perch, she took a moment to plan out her next steps. She had plenty of rope to use in the construction of her raft but still needed the actual wood. What she had gathered thus far as wood material was concerned, was not enough to make any sort of serviceable raft. For that she would need actual logs as opposed to a few branches. With the stone axe in hand, Ialari approached the nearest palm tree, a rather tall one, and began swinging. She took caution in her strikes however in regards to how hard she swung and the angle of her strike. The axe wasn’t the sturdiest of tools and breaking it would complicate the task. So, with carefully positioned swings, she chopped away at the tree.

Eventually, the axe did its job and the tree was ready to fall. With a strong push, Ialari sent the tree to the ground. From there she began cutting the trunk into small lengths. The tree itself was more than 40 feet tall which allowed for quite a few pieces to be cut. With quite a bit of effort and the consumption of a number of coconuts, Ialari was able to reduce the tree into six, six foot logs roughly 5 inches in diameter each. After looking at the logs and running it over in her mind, Ialari rolled her eyes as her shoulders slumped. “I’m going to need one more…” She then moved on to cutting down one more palm tree that was roughly the same size in height and diameter as the first. She ignored stripping and shaping the logs as she was mainly looking for something that could float; it didn’t need to look good.

One by one she pulled the logs close to the shore. With each log, she used her metallic fingers to carve shallow grooves toward each end and then down the middle. The idea was to give the logs a place where the rope could be wrapped and provide the best hold as she tied the logs together. She then unraveled her yucca rope began wrapping it around each log, lining it up with the carved grooves and pulling it all tightly together. One of the lengths of rope broke mid-construction which left her with having to try and reweave it while maintaining consistent strength. “Hopefully that will hold.” She said as she finished fixing the rope. She then continued tying the logs together. It was a struggle at first to get them to stay aligned and straight as they seemed to want to separate in place and drift to one side or the other as she tried to square them up. After a few choice words and a break for a few coconuts, Ialari finished the rather unattractive yet hopefully function palm tree raft.

With the raft finished, she would need something to steer and propel it with. As there was no sail material, that left her with needing a paddle. Taking a 4-foot-long tree branch, she stripped the bark away with her metal hand. It took little time to create a sturdy handle. Unfortunately, she found herself a loss for how to craft the end that would help steer and move her through the water. That was when she remembered the deerskin moccasins and the animal snare. Retrieving the items, she used the stone dagger she’d made to cut away at the moccasins, undoing the stitching until she had two separate pieces of deer hide. Dismantling the snare, she used the wire along with some left-over yucca rope to attached the wood of the snare to the branch she’d turned into a handle. She then stretched the deerskin across the rough wood frame she’d built. With her dagger, she punched holes in the deer skin and ran the wire and rope through it so that it created something of a fan shape at the end of the long handle. It was not pretty but when she’d finished, Ialari had a paddle that she hoped would stand up to driving the raft.

Finding herself growing exhausted more quickly and with decreasing effort each day, Ialari decided to call it a day. It was well past afternoon and growing into evening. Another trip to the tidepools resulted in a couple more crabs but not much else. Combined with the sea palms and seaweed she’d already gathered, after starting a small fire and boiling the crabs some more sea water, it was a modest yet satisfying meal.

Sadly, Ialari would have to abandon the fire for one last climb atop the rock to avoid the rats. Even as she began her ascent, she could hear their desperate squeaks and it was as if she could feel their teeth biting her ankles even though she was several feet above them. When she’d reached the top of the rock, she tried to sleep while fighting back her overactive thoughts about what awaited her in the morning.

Words: 848
Image
Remade In My Dominion!

Character Sheet

Granted Flashback Threads between 510 and 512 by Tarot.
User avatar
Ialari Pythone
I'm Poison.
 
Posts: 619
Words: 923994
Joined roleplay: August 13th, 2009, 3:26 am
Race: Isur
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Medals: 7
Mizahar Grader (1) Trailblazer (2)
Overlored (1) Riverfall Seasonal Challenge (1)
2013 Mizahar NaNo Winner (1) 2012 Mizahar NaNo Winner (1)


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