A Stranger by the Dock

[Alric Wilmot]

60th of Spring 512 AV Alric gave a nostalgic look at the sea in front of him. He had only been on it once, and only for three days. And, now that he was really recalling it, the ship had been attacked by pirates. Nonetheless, it was a very interesting experience unlike anything Alric was used to. He had yet to get back on the sea, but he figured he would eventually, when the Womiyu no longer needed his service. Or, maybe when Ionu required more servitude. Who knew? Of course, if neither of those things came to pass, he'd have to leave anyway. If he was to understand all there was, he'd have to experience it sooner of later. And as wonderful as Alvadas was, he was eager to see the other scattered cities. He had heard tales of cities that never moved, and he had witnessed a ship do the same. At that time, the sea was more like home, always shifting and changing shape. Alric smiled and sat down, dangling his feet over the dock. He ignored the sailors and customers, and every other person walking past, and simply watched as the sun set over the waters. Fairly soon, the rest of the dock cleared away, leaving Alric by himself.

[Rey]

Still confused as to why she left her home, Rey continued to swim up the river. Her bag still light like it had been, and food easily found all around, like it has been completely untouched by everything. Another day began to grow dark, very few items were seen on the ground, but this is where several boats still continued to drift toward. Rey had heard several stories of the treasures of the surface, which she was slightly interested in, yet at the same time, terrified of the unknown. The tentacles on the back of the charoda's head flickered behind her as the water pushed against her and she continued trying to push against it. She had put a lot of effort into her swim, until she decided to wait for the next boat, quickly launching up to grab a hold of the end of the boat and being taken up river much quicker. The water rushed across Rey's bare body, soothing and even slightly arousing the girl, but her mind stayed on course, and her eyes stayed focus on the waters ahead, to keep a look out for the first city above the waters. Rey's strength began to quickly run out, but just as she was about to let go, she noticed the large boat quickly slowing down. Her head moved again to notice several large pillars, made from a material that reminded her of the boat's material. She quickly let go of the boat, her body sank slightly before getting tossed about in the water from the boat's current. The waters began to still, and Rey was left looking at the surface, fear still filling her body, while excitement rushed through her head. Slowly, Rey allowed her body to float to the surface, carefully poking her head up, only high enough to put her eyes above the water. A sudden rush of cold air blew across her head, it was an unusual feeling, and it brought a question to her mind; why would any living creature want to live in such a cold world? Her eyes were turned the wrong way at first, looking at open water with land on the other side. Rey turned around to see the docks, a city of buildings, made of several homes made from the same material of the boats. There, to her surprise, Rey saw a man, sitting near the docks, looking out to the waters that she was still hiding within. This is the first man that was not a charoda that she had ever seen. He looked strange, with something that resembled extremely thin seaweed all throughout his head.

[Alric Wilmot]

As Alric gazed upon the shimmering waters, touched golden by the last rays of sunlight, something caught his attention from the corner of his eye. Off to the far right, a good distance away, something surfaced. At first Alric was convinced it was a turtle, or maybe a duck. However, the light didn't quite reflect off of it like either of those things. It was more, shiny? And, unlike the globs of yellow being reflected all around it, it was blue. Or at least, blue-tinted. Alric almost ignored it, until it turned around. At first, Alric thought that the light was simply playing tricks. Or, barring that, that Alvadas had reached out a hand beyond the walls and was playing a prank. Yet, none of those really seemed plausible. The thing had eyes, large enough to make it seem as though the whole body, were only a head. But then still, it seemed as though he were imagining things. Around the bulbous blue-tinted mound of flesh were the outlines of tentacles. And Alric nodded in understanding. Surely this was but some strange octopus. He had read about them in his youth. Although his books never mentioned them coming to the surface, the description seemed to fit perfectly. Alric, delighted at the octopus's surfacing, wanted to get a better look. He doubted he'd ever get another chance, after all men sailed the oceans from above not form below, so he decided to coax the creature closer. He had hypnotized beasts before, and it usually took little effort. Words were useless of course, they only responded to feelings and images. So, eager to get some hands-on learning, Alric went through what was, by now, routine. He brought out a tendril of his djed from deep within himself, and extended it beyond his body. He sent it forth, like casting a reel, at what he assumed was an octopus. When he made contact, he sent a small feeling, barely more than a whim, of curiosity. It was slight, and was not nearly as taxing on Alric as forcing a feeling. It was more of a suggestion than anything else. After Alric had sent that, he sent an image of the octopus coming toward Alric. Alric, of course, did not know what the rest of the octopus looked like, so he just used an image of the octopuses head swimming on the surface. By now, the sun was nearly set, and only a few more minutes of sunlight remained.

oocfeel free to ignore the hypnosis. Alric didn't put much power into it since he thought you were an animal.

[Rey]

Rey kept her eyes just above water level as she continued to stare at the man sitting near the water. She could only blink twice as she began to wonder why the man merely continued to stare back. Curiosity filled her head, but fear kept her where she was for a moment longer as a small breeze of wind began to pick up. The cold that began to cover the top of her head was painful, too painful to remain above water, so quickly, her head disappeared below the surface once more. From below the charoda kept her eyes on the shadowy figure that now looked to be dancing from the shimmers of the water. With a quick push, her body flew through the water, toward the man that remained on the dock. Rey stopped staying almost completely below him, rubbed her webbed fingers across her head and tentacles to remove as much of the cold feeling as she could. Slowly, she floated back up, returning her eyes above the water once more to look at this man closer. She blinked a couple of times, tilted her head a little, and continued to stare. Never before has she seen a man of another race, and she never would have expected them to be so calm on her presence as well. Their bodies were bare like her's was, and they wrapped themselves in dry cloth, much like what she finds under the water. They were very simple with their clothing however, much unlike her people, that wore many items they found stitched in with their clothes. The thought of clothing began to make her think, she was still unclothed, though she was also not above the water and from what she could see, it was more difficult to see down into the water than it was to see above it. To the side of the dock that she was sitting, she noticed some stairs that led out of the water, like it was made for her people to step onto their land. She thought for a moment, trying to decide if she would actually desire to come any closer at all, or if she would stay where she was, in the safety of the water, capable of fleeing if she wanted.

[Alric Wilmot]

Alric frowned when he saw the creature dive under the water. Why didn't it come? He was skilled enough to handle animals for Ionu's sake! And he wasn't going to hurt the thing, he just wanted to study it! A little harmless fun, that's all it was. Alric shook his head as he studied the surface of the water, near the place he saw the creature dive under. Perhaps it would surface again? If it was, though, Alric might not be able to see it. The sun finally drifted into a deep sleep, and gave its domain to the moon once more. Gone were the globs of yellow, and dancing reflection of mountains. Instead, the water shone with the brilliance of stars and the glory of the moon. Alric gave off a heavy sigh. Although he was disappointed in the creature's disappearance, it was a nice night, and hard to stay upset. The wind was light, and the weather was warm. As Alric looked upon the bay, it almost seemed as if there were two skys within Mizahar. The illusion made him smile, and wonder if Ionu had ever tried to convince Leth that there should be two moons. It made him laugh, mostly because he was sure that at some point Ionu had. Alric stayed where he was, despite the lateness of the hour. It might be troublesome getting back to the Womiyu headquarters in the dark, but he felt a serenity here that he had never felt in the ever-changing city. Ionu taught that variety was the joy in life, but the city's variety had, in a way, become tiresome and stale. In an odd way, staying in a place where everything was still, was the odd and unique. So Alric stayed where he was, enjoying the feeling, and quite happy that things were so spectacularly mundane for once.

[Rey]

Confusion began to fill the mind of the small charoda, the man that had been staring back at her hadn't even noticed her resurface. She watched him carefully, studied him slightly, and decided that even if she is above the surface, she should be able to jump back in if anything were to go wrong. Carefully, Rey sunk her head once more to open her bag and pull out her simplest clothing. A quick shift of her arms and legs, she managed to pull her bra and skirt over her body appropriately. She looked over to where she saw the stairs once more, and swam over to them. When Rey placed her feet on the bottom most of the steps, she was still completely submerged under the water. Slowly, the girl pushed her legs through the water to take her first steps onto the dry land above. Water began to churn from her pushing her body though it, splashing hard enough that even she could hear it loudly. Her head first emerged from the water, just like before, her eyes just high enough to see around her. The next step brought her full head above, bringing a certain amount of chill to her face, but putting it aside to take advantage of this moment. Slowly, her body came from the water and began to glow from the moonlight itself, revealing her dark skin in a beautiful way. Slightly, Rey continued up the steps, her eyes focused on the man, making sure he would not jump to kill her.

[Alric Wilmot]

As Alric tried to enjoy his serene and spectacular mundanity, he was interrupted by the sound of churning water. At first he ignored it, but he soon came to realize that the sound was coming from the stairwell that led into the Suvan Sea. That was odd, had someone been swimming? He hadn't seen anyone for nearly half an hour. Surely they would have made themselves known? For a brief moment, he thought they might have simply been underwater. But he dismissed the idea almost as soon as it came into his head. They wouldn't be able to hold their breath for that long! Curiosity finally overcoming him, he pried his eyes away from the light of the night sky. What he saw, was completely unexpected, even for a man who had lived his entire life in Alvadas. A smallish streamlined humanoid, emerged from the depths of the bay. It was feminine in appearance, and shone with the light of the moon as surely as the waters. It was quite a breathtaking sight, despite its strangeness. Though if anything, Alric found it more appealing due to that fact alone. What was it? He stood up, transfixed by this oddity. It was human-shaped. Could it be a creature of thought? Something like a Zith, perhaps, but of the Sea instead of the sky? He slowly came closer, keeping his distance in case he might frighten it away. As he came closer, he could make out details that made the creature even more strange, and enticing. It had no nose, as far as Alric could tell. Only small slits. In addition, she (for Alric was now certain that it was ,in fact, a she due to her clothing) had no hair. Indeed, what she had instead were long tentacles sprouting from her head as though they were dreadlocks. She was so... wonderfully strange! He had to find out what she was! He had no idea if she spoke common or not, but he was going to find out. "E-Exuse me! do you speak Common? I was hoping to have a chat with you!"

[Rey]

Rey flinched when the man stood, but calmed when she was slow to move, certainly not meaning to cause any harm. For reasons she couldn't imagine, this man was interested in her just as she was with him. Perhaps all creatures are interested in learn some of the unknown, maybe there were those that were even scarred of her like she was of them. As Rey remained in the air, her tentacles clung to her body with little lively movement, as they were not something that she typically needed to move. The charoda shook out her head, letting her tentacle loosen up and the small fins on top of her head lifted slightly. Unlike many of her race, her fins were small and hardly mentionable, and she kept them down most of the time if she could. When they were down, it was difficult to tell if she even had them, as some of her friends believed she may not. Rey's head tilted slightly as the man began to speak, she knew what he said but was surprised that they spoke common the way they did above the surface. It sounded so much different than when they practiced it below the water. Her head nodded, what he said for now was easy to understand, but to try and make sure he didn't get too complicated, she lifted her hand and wobbled it. Hoping to learn something from this, Rey took her final steps out of the water, stretching her webbed toes out as they touched the dry land. She found air to feel strange as she breathed it in, it actually required a little bit of thought and effort to make sure she was actually breathing. Rey put her attention back on the new person, she found it fascinating that he could breath this air with no effort at all. Her preference would definitely be water, but to explore some new worlds, some people have to leave their comforts.

[Alric Wilmot]

As Alric began to speak to the creature, he was delighted to find that she could actually understand common. It appeared that she was not fluent, however, as she made a gesture with her hand that indicted such. Alric took a few more steps, and she took her final steps out of the water. This was absolutely amazing! What were the odds that they would know the same language? Granted, she had implied she was only familiar with it, but that was still incredible to him. To think, a whole race of thinking beings might be under the water! Wait, now that Alric thought about it, he had read about this. He had read about an underwater race existing in Mizahar. And, in fact, his father made him learn their language. He had complained almost every day that it was useless, and unneeded. The language was called Char, he could remember that much. But what was the race's name? Alric couldn't remember. He couldn't remember anything other than the simple fact they existed, an that they spoke Char. Alric couldn't stay too mad at himself, though. After all, she was right there! A race he had never encountered before, and he was able to ask whatever he liked. He could only hope she was talkative. As Alric came even closer, he could see that she had small fins on her head, something he had missed before. How curious. Alric, beside himself with blissful curiosity, sat down close to her, and beckoned for her to sit opposite him. Without waiting to see if she would accept his invitation, he asked another question. This time, he used Char, to see if she was indeed the race he had read about so long ago as a child. "What are your people called?"

[Rey]

As the man began to get closer, Rey felt uncomfortable, nearly to the point of jumping back into the water and swimming away. Her whole body began to tremble as he then stood directly in front of her. Then he suddenly sat down, was it normal for the surface people to get so close then sit in front of each other? She toyed with the thought for a moment and started her way to sit with him when he suddenly began to speak in her own language. She was dumbfounded, frozen in place before she could properly sit; a surface being knew of both of the charoda's languages? He asked an interesting question though, how does one know the languages, but not what the people are called. Completely sitting down now, Rey began to think, how can she speak with the man, normal she could draw in the sand, but here, there was no sand. She could just motion out a lot of words, but how could she motion charoda? A few moments passed, Rey continued to sit still as she was thinking of a way to communicate, when suddenly she thought of something that probably would have been useful from the start. The charoda looked at the man, he even sat higher than her, forcing her to look up, and used a very simple motion she was taught long ago. Her right hand was held up, palm facing the moon, and laid flat; her left hand came up to point at the right, and zigzagged across the palm. Before he could actually answer, Rey pulled her own bag forward, to make sure she didn't have something that she could use herself. Unfortunately, all she had was some spare food that she had found along the way. Then it occurred to her, trying to write and read in the night with only the moon above for light may not work as she hoped. She couldn't believe that she would be the girl that shows up on the surface, wants to answer and ask questions herself, and can't even speak to the surface people.