[Silver Lake] Donning the Mask (Quelen)

[Yaruai]

Timestamp: 4 Summer 511

Shouldering his way through the streets and pulling his horse behind him, Yaurai could feel a dry scratchiness in his throat, and his eyes began to sting. Even though the sun was still above the horizon, the disgustingly opulent buildings of Mura blocked Syra's hateful radiance from him. He could feel the change coming. Being away from the water after that point would not be fatal, but it would be less than comfortable.

Not for the first, or even the thousandth time, he cursed the gods for his fate. They had the power to restore him, to restore all of them, and still they did nothing.

Spitting on the street in frustration, he pushed through the crowds blindly, making a beeline in the direction one of the locals had said was something called the Silver Lake. Though, with his luck, the name was metaphor and the Konti had directed him toward a mine, or a park.

"Not far, she said," his voice a low growl, "That was almost a bell ago. If I have to duck into some trash strewn alley, I'm going back there and cutting..."

Yaruai trailed off into grim mutterings as he spotted the edge of the city proper and the beginnings of what had to be the Silver Lake. Trudging forward, he left the city and walked until he was sure he was alone. Hobbling his horse to ensure that it stayed where it belonged, he walked out into the water.

As the last rays of the thrice damned sun winked out of the sky, Yaruai's form seemed to draw in on itself, hair vanishing and horns stretching and merging into a tall fin atop his head. His pupils swelled and turned pale as the entire eye turned into a pale green, slightly opaque orb. His skin thickened and became rubbery even as his overall mass diminished into a now smaller, mortal form.

With a last vile curse for departed Syna, he flexed his now webbed fingers and dove beneath the surface of the water, breathing deep and relishing a respite from the painful dryness of being above.

[Quelen Dran'Sora]

After meeting Cilaes last season Quelen had taken to exploratory swims along the shore of the Silver Lake before retiring back to her resting place for the night. Most of the time it hadn't led her to anything nearly as interesting as the Ethaefal, but still there had been smaller things that kept her doing it. Like that cute little fish yesterday.

It seemed that tonight was to be special though. Seeing a person dive into the water a little ways off Quelen smiled, expecting to see a Konti emerge from the rush of bubbles, and her mouth fell open in a blatant shocked gape as it was a pale skinned Charoda revealed instead.

Waving energetically with her one hand Quelen called out loudly in char, "Hello there! I'd thought I was the only Charoda in Mura, are you new?" she started to swim towards the newcomer with a huge smile on her lips, "I'm Quelen Dran'Sora, what's your name?"

[Yaruai]

In the dark night water, his clothing billowing loosely around his now smaller, more slender form, Yaruai rotated slowly in the water. He had no objective or goal here, simply seeking respite from having to spend the night above the water.

The change was just another twist of the knife from the gods. Not only was he trapped on this miserable ball of rock, but when the sun fled the sky his body lost any semblance of the little beauty that remained to it. Even worse, it changed into a form that shackled him to the water, lest he suffer from the air.

With a deep, watery breath, he blotted out the images of the slowly rotating lake and tried to sink into sleep. It was at this moment, naturally, that the quiet stillness was broken by the long, dragging tones of the Char speech. With a sour glare, he followed the sound to its source.

Just my luck, he thought with a scowl, I choose the one lake in the entire Isles with a fish petcher living in it.

His first response was just to ignore it and hope it went away. He growled an oath as it started to swim in lop-sided strokes toward him, shyte eating grin already plastered on its rubbery face. What did it have so to be so happy about?

"Yaruai," he answered, already considering swimming away. Even with as little real experience as he had, he could probably outdistance her with her one arm. It would be his luck though, that the blasted lake would have a colony of the things infesting it.

[Quelen Dran'Sora]

Quelen tilted her head curiously at Yaruai as he answered her, at least gave his name, and she continued to swim towards him. She'd met a few grumpy Charodae before, back in Charbosi, and it seemed that this one was another. Usually there was a reason, and maybe Quelen could help with that.

"Well, it's nice to meet you Yaruai," Quelen said pleasantly in Char as she swam up to him, stopping to offer him a hand in greeting like the landwalkers did, "You're new to Mura, aren't you? Did you come from Charbosi, or are you from the colony in the Suvan Sea?"

Maybe with a bit of friendliness and pleasantness he would warm up with her. After all, who wouldn't be happy to see one of their own in a place so far away from where they were from?

[Yaruai]

Yaruai's response to the greeting was a surly grunt, "I'm sure it is."

It was the questions that posed the problem, though. If he did not answer, he just knew that the fish petcher would harass him until he did in some fool effort to 'cheer him up'. Which left him with two options: tell her the truth, or lie.

Just the thought of her reaction to the truth left him tasting sour bile in the back of his throat. Everyone's reaction was the same. Pity. He hated the looks of pity, hate on par with that he reserved for the gods, sitting content in their power and uncaring about mortal affairs. Every look of pity at his fate was another twist of the knife, and it left him wanting to break something for hours afterwards. The imaging that look of thinly veiled pity creeping across her face made him want to lash out at her.

Which left him with only one choice, really. He would lie.

"Is it that obvious?," he asked with a blatanty forced levity in his tone. Hopefully, she would go away on her own, "I am recently arrived from the Suvan Sea."

[Quelen Dran'Sora]

"I've never met anyone from the Suvan Sea before. What's it like there? Is it true there are pirates everywhere you look? It must have been a very long swim to here, even longer than from Charbosi," suddenly Quelen gave a gasp, "Or did you come over the land?"

She hoped that Yaruai had come over land. It'd been something she'd thought about doing as part of her journey, and she was curious if another Charodae had done it. She'd certainly never heard of anyone else who traveled over land for great lengths of time.

[Yaruai]

...And that was exactly the wrong answer, Yaruai thought to himself as Quelen's excitement vomited forth in a torrent of questions, Not that there would have been a right answer with this one.

He could not have followed the rapid fire questions even if he had been interested in answering them. One question out of the barrage caught his attention though, and he flashed a sharkish grin, baring rows of fine, sharp teeth when he answered.

"I came here overland. Most of the way across a continent," he glanced upward, where the waves lapped over their heads, "The world up there is fascinating, filled with plants and animals you cannot even imagine."

His enthusiasm in his answer was not entirely feigned, only exaggerated. If he could convince this idiot fish petcher to wander out into the surface to dry up and blow away, he could end the day with a smile on his face.

[Quelen Dran'Sora]

Quelen gasped again as Yaruai answered like she hoped, and her eyes went wide with delight, "Most of the way across the continent!?" she repeated, delight plain on her face, "What was it like? What peoples did you meet? How did you keep from drying out? Did you see any dances or hear any songs on your way?"

If Quelen had been on the land she would have been bouncing up and down in excitement, but in the water she ended up more trembling than anything else. She could not believe her luck. Not only another Charodae, but one who had traveled on land!

[Yaruai]

It was an effort of will to keep the smile on his face from cracking and shattering into an irritated sneer in the face of the verbal onslaught. It would not have surprised him to hear that she had lost her arm to a random stranger hacking it off just to distract her from talking long enough to get away.

His rigid smile deepened into a sharkish grin and he feigned a laugh, "It was very... dry. But amazing. You have to make sure to travel near a river and, where that is not possible, always end your day near a body of water. In an emergency, you can survive for a day or two on land if you travel at night, when it is cooler."

IIf it were possible, his grin deepened even further as he found the hook that would reel this fish onto land. "Every city I traveled to had its own songs and dances," he said, looking upward, as though at the cities above the waves.

His smile wilted as he admitted, "I have no ear for songs, though. I am afraid I cannot provide much help there myself."

[Quelen Dran'Sora]

Quelen nodded energetically at Yaruai's explanation of how he had traveled across the land, "I hadn't realized there was so much water on the land! I'd heard that it was very dry, but I guess not!" the smile she gave the other Charoda was positively radiant.

At Yaruai's next words Quelen leaned her head back and gave a triumphant yell that echoed through the water, kicking her legs and swirling her arms so she did a quick spin in the water, "I knew it! Oh, I can't wait until I get to visit them all!" she said brightly, her smile still as strong as she turned her gaze back to the other Charoda, "Come, you've been so kind to me, let me show you some of the best plants for eating I've found here. It's the least I could do."

Fully expecting Yaruai to follow after her Quelen turned and started to swim along through Silver Lake, making her way towards some of the more familiar places she had found here.