Closed [Sacred Arch Hotsprings] Amphibian out of water (Roderick)

[M'Wanii]

Day 65 of the Autumn Season, 513AV

Slipping beneath the surface of the warm pool, M'wanii finally relaxed. The journey had not been easy. But she was finally here. Or as close to here as she as willing to manage at the moment. The knights of Syliras, guarding the gate, had not had a kind eye to her specie's many unusual biological features, making her entrance into the city impossible out of her own self respect. Her jaw tightened at the memory of what they had called her, ' Fish monster'. Fish monster? Had those air-breathers only kelp for brains? Had they never seen a fish before? Her own grey skin had never bore the rough scales of a fish, as most other amphibians' never had. To think that had been their first reaction to a guest of another country. Ha! No wonder the majority of her people never went above the surface of the water.

Blowing out a large bubble in some hope, that her frustration would float away with it, the Charoda curled up on the stony floor of the pool. In hindsight, it had been lucky that she had found this place, had a passing caravan not pointed her in the way of this cosy little pond, she would have had to brave the cold autumn sea shallows for another night. They could never have been classed as comfortable lodgings but they were by far safer, due to what now roamed out in the deeper waters of the Suvan Sea.

This place was a small paradise in comparison. Apart from one thing, a vein throbbed in her fore head as yet more small curious resident fish swam up to her, only to be scared off when she flicked a hand at them. They soon came back to investigate her again, tickling her with their inquizitive faces. Grinding her teeth she kick another one off her foot. One of these days something would teach the blasted scale brains a lesson, most likely something sharp. With her irritation mounting near the edge of her patience, M'wanii ripped her shawl from her bag and wrapped it over her form, now forming a barrier between her and the overly-curious fish. “Tickle me through that.”

Relaxing again she concentrated on the soft muffled sounds of the world above. Distorted sqauks of birds in the trees above echoed down through the still water, acting as a peaceful lullaby for the springs' tired occupant. Consciousness fading, M'wanii hugged her travel bag to her chest, finally drifting off into dreams of her childhood self helping her parents with the harvest. Her body moving gently in her sleep, giving the occasional wriggle in reaction to a relived memory.

And as she slept the world moved on, the bright autumnal sun arching over head in the sky, the birds travelling south for the winter and all manner of life’s' comings and goings. To this she was oblivious at the bottom of the pond, and perhaps so was the world to her, as the hot springs welcomed it's second visitor that day.

[Roderick]

What the petch is that? It had grown dark quickly that evening, so that, despite not being so late in the day, a great deal of shadow had already descended on the land. Having failed to catch anything of interest that day, Roderick had sourly abandoned his hunt as the darkness grew, feeling his ability to succeed wouldn't be improved by stumbling and cursing his way through the undergrowth in what little light would be left to him. By this hour most had begun to withdraw to the warmer corridors of the citadel, leaving the frigid chill for the homely warmth of the taverns and inns. The chill in the air meant that few wished to venture outside. Being near to the springs, the hunter had decided that since he was out here anyway, he might as well stop by there for a few chimes to warm himself up before he returned to the city himself and fetched himself something to eat. It was as he drew near to the spring, reveling the warmth of it, that he noticed something within, just below the surface of the water. If he'd continued walking further, towards one of the other pools, he would have missed the figure lying in the pool completely. But he didn't; instead he stopped and stared for a moment, crouching down by the edge of the pool and trying to figure out what exactly he was seeing; some kind of fish? It had grievous injuries all along one side of its body, while some sort of cloth was wrapped around its body. And it didn't seem to be having any trouble breathing in the water around it. Utterly confused he felt his curiosity get the better of him and, taking a stick lying nearby, he pushed it down beneath the waters and prodded at its flesh - one, twice, three times - applying a little more force each time. He'd come to regret that decision a few chimes later.

[M'Wanii]

Something nudged M'wanii in the head. She shifted uncomfortably in her sleep curling in on herself more. It nudged her again harder, drawing her out into a reluctant half sleep. By the third nudge M'wanii was moving to sit up. Now partially out of the water, the sudden cold shocked her fully awake and aware to what, or more so who, was squatted on the pools edge finger lengths from her face. Time seemed to stop, or at least all breathing seemed to.

A human. He, yes it was most definitely a 'he', was obviously tall even when crouching with his blue eyes piercing through the dim light. Dishevelled looking sporting a stick in one hand and a bow and quiver over his shoulder, he appeared worryingly well armed to be in such a place. The multiple tattoos rippling up and down his muscled arms advancing over to play on his shoulders, back and chest; did not make him any less intimidating either. After what had felt like an eon but in reality had barely been a few seconds, the newly awakened charoda's brain kicked her body into moving.

Webbed fingers quickly found a hold around the stick and began trying to lever the other end out of the newcomer's hand. All the while the amphibian screamed at him in her mother tongue, which although musical under the water held a closer resemblance to a cat being sat on outside of the water.

“WHO IN THE SEAS ARE YOU! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE! I WAS SLEEPING! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING! WHAT DO YOU WANT!”

Her limbs thrashed out in every way possible; legs kicking, arms trying to wrestle the stick out of the intruders grasp as her brain was consumed by bottomless panic.

[Roderick]

His prodding seemed to be rousing the creature; it shifted slightly in its sleep, its form becoming more noticeable; in the dimlight he hadn't realized how big it actually was. By that time he'd already given a second jab with the stick, and as he gave it a final poke it fully awoke and he realized that it was covered with a shawl; it was far larger than he'd thought, and as it began sitting up he saw the full mass of the creature being raised out of the water, eyes flitting about and settling on him. As its eyes focused in on him Roderick had to fight the urge to shout in surprise; whatever it was it was made ugly from the grotesque scars along the one side of its face - and it didn't look like it'd been pretty in the first place. The creatures hand grabbed hold of the stick the hunter was holding and began wrestling with him, trying to pull it from his grip - not that he cared about it, really; it was completely worthless. All the same he naturally resisted and tugged back, which only increased the beast's frenzied movements. When it started shrieking at him he wanted to rip his ears off; the noise coming from its mouth was something akin to a terrified animal being skinned alive. The creature's flailing continued, as did the inane screeching that poured forth endlessly from its mouth. Instead of continuing with the pointless fight he swiftly stood up and backed away from the pool, his eyes staring at this foreign creature while his mind raced. What the petch is this thing? That thought only occurred to him for a few tics before a new, more aggressive one formed in his mind, I might have to kill it. It was moving around vigorously by now, and he feared that he might not have time to properly ready a shot with his bow. Instead he grabbed the club at his waist and, stepping forwards swung out with it viciously, aiming straight for the head. With all the movement he couldn't be sure if he'd hit its head, but the length of wood certainly connected with something. Swinging out with the primitive weapon again, he felt it smacking against another part of the creature's body - then another as he swung again. He hoped that its increasingly stilled movements were due to his clubbing rather than it preparing itself for a proper attack.

[M'Wanii]

Her struggling with the human's stick proved to be fruitful as he relinquished his grip on the tool, sending M'wanii flailing back into the water. Tightly gripping her new weapon she moved to stand up out the pool, only to have something collided hard with her shoulder causing her to once again fall into the water. Turning her head to her attacker, her foot received the next blow. Quickly she drew the injury into her self out of reflex. Her grip on the twig now favouring her bleeding foot. The human had seemed to have found a bigger stick from somewhere, now deciding to smash the amphibian over poking her.

“I'LL FEED YOUR GUTS TO THE FISHES!”

The quick bark of Char sounded much too pleasant under the water from M'wanii to be content, the threat coming off as a distorted a-cappella of an orchestra's crescendo. With her anger to fuel her movements, again she tried to stand out of the water, only to be struck down by the club.

Relentlessly the barbaric land-dweller lofted the weapon again and again, bring in down on her back and then her hip. Her head crashed on the bottom of the pond, causing lights to flicker in front of her vision and a numb sensation to take over her body. The lack of movement from her body did not cease the attack. Only when the water around the charoda was marbled by wisps of her blood did a gracious darkness descended over her mind and the pain from her body fade.

[Roderick]

The creature recoiled from his first strike, unleashing a string of syllables that were more pleasing to the ear this time. Bewildered about how its words could sound so different underwater when they had been ear-splitting above he still wasn't prepared to ease off his assault, aiming towards knocking it unconscious so he could get a proper look at it. As the onslaught bore down on the creature relentlessly it grew increasingly lethargic and still, eventually coming stopping utterly. Laying there, with small pools of blood rising to the surface of the water, Roderick stood back as he found his heart thudding loudly in his chest. Taking deep breaths as the rush of adrenaline faded he moved forward once more and reached daringly into the pool, taking a chance by hoping the creature truly was unconscious and not simply toying with him. It felt surprisingly light as he dragged it out by the arm, abandoning his club so he could lay it out fully upon the ground. When he'd done that he began to feel that he'd made a rather terrible mistake about what exactly the thing was. Seeing it in full before him he knew that it wasn't any mindless beast - monsters didn't wear clothes - or jewelry, for that matter. As his mind cleared the haze that had fallen over him lifted all too suddenly as he fully understood what had just happened. Whatever the creature was, it was sentient - at least in someways - and he'd just clubbed it senseless. Now that he knew it was probably capable of understanding him in someways, but also knowing that it would surely attack him properly after what he'd just done, the hunter pulled a length of rope from his belt and hogtied it - the speed with which he did it showed that the Zeltivan had done such things before. When he was sure that it couldn't come free he sat down on a nearby rock and relaxed himself somewhat; everything would be fine. The knights didn't need to know about any of this - they probably didn't even know what the thing was. All the same he knew that he couldn't murder the creature in cold blood without some amount of effort being involved in hiding the act - such things were always complicated. So going along those lines it seemed he'd have to take the thing to a healer, judging from the bad state it was in. He knew he could find such services at the Soothing Waters Bathhouse, but that would involve travelling through the crowded streets of the city, a hard enough task with a wounded burden - but even more so when that burden was a foreign creature. Now do I wake it up first so I can try talk to it, or do I just carry it into the city like this... Both were equally risky decisions to make, with bad conclusions to either choice; if he woke it up it might just start screeching at him again and he'd have to deal with it again; carrying it into the city was a dangerous decision because it might wake up while he was walking through the streets - and then he'd have to answer a lot of questions. The knights in particular would be interested in finding out what he was doing with the creature. With an annoyed sigh he decided that his best bet was to get it into the city and to a healer; the realization that it was being helped would hopefully placate the thing and keep it from clawing out at him. There was of course the question of how exactly he would get it through the streets without anyone noticing, of course. He remembered that there'd been a bit of cloth in the pool with it, so he collected that and wrapped it around the body, but found that it was far too short to conceal it. At that point he decided his cloak would do - the creature was far smaller than he was, so the garment would be more than enough to hide it from any passing glances it might receive. Hurriedly unclasping the length of cloth he laid it out on the ground and then lifted the creature up and set it down on top of it. Clasping the garment again he lifted his latest burden up onto his shoulder after ensuring that it was completely enveloped by his cloak. Turning he swiftly started walking away, completely forgetting his club in his haste to get rid of this responsibility. The time that passed as he marched through the streets seemed to be equally fleeting and lethargic. As he went he was given a few odd glances, all in the direction of his burden, but he wore the garb of a hunter and so they all simply shrugged it off; no doubt he was just carrying some wild animal he'd caught. Heart beating rapidly as he went, he made sure to avoid any knights or squires he sighted, though thankfully they chose to ignore him. When the bathhouse finally came into his sight he felt the creature stirring on his shoulder and knew he had to hurry. Quickening his pace he made his way through the doors and demanded about seeing the nearest healer. He received a confused jab towards a blond woman who was standing in a nearby corridor. Marching over to her she turned and he recognized the face from earlier visits; Silria. "I need your help - can we find a quiet corner for this?" The Konti looked at him, then his burden, then back to him and nodded, leading him away to a more secluded spot of the bathhouse. When he laid the creature out on the table for her to see, her eyes widened and she stared at him in disbelief. "The thing surprised me at the hotsprings.It was shrieking and spitting at me. I panicked and clubbed it a few times - and now here I am." The hurried explanation seemed to placate the healer, although only marginally. He'd have to do a lot more to convince her it was all a misunderstanding.

[M'Wanii]

The dark world swan back into focus, a blonde female human and the brute from early appeared in her vision. Her body ached all over and the injured Charoda had no idea where she was. But all this knowledge came to her late because right now, she could not breath. The cause, M'wanii realised gasping for air; her biologically primitive lungs struggling to provide her with a single breathe of relief; was her now bone dry skin.

Charodae breathed primarily through their skin like most amphibians, without a covering of water over it, they could not breath and quickly became dehydrated. This was the main reason it was rare that they came above water, preferring to stay in their watery capital of Charbosi. The local Myrians also helped keep them below sea level.

Too tired, dizzy and in pain to thrash around in panic. M'wanii rasped out in every language she knew the source of her salvation, still unsure if those around her would understand. Her mother tongue now resembling a click and squeel and the two languages of humans coming out heavily accented.

“Water.” “Wadar.” “Wadir.”

[Roderick]

Roderick wasn't exactly sure of what had happened on his way to the bathhouse - his mind seemed to be blank when it came to that area of his mind. At that particular moment he was having a bit of a frenzied hissing match with Silria, as she tried to figure out why exactly there was a hogtied amphibian lying on a table in front of her. They both broke off when the creature started croaking feebly at them; first in its own language, and then, to their surprise, in heavily accented common, it asked for something. "Wadir?" He repeated blankly, before his mind translated, "Water!" The hunter had a waterskin at his belt; tearing it free he opened it and unleashed a stream of the translucent liquid down towards the creature, watching as its strength seemed to return. It avoided getting any in its mouth, instead shifting so the water fell on its skin, reviving it. "I wonder what a Charoda is doing here..." Silria's quiet comment slipped his notice for a moment, before he caught on and fixed her with a fierce stare, "You know what this is? Can you fix her up?" He knew it was a female from the shape, but otherwise it was utterly foreign for him. The Konti healer stepped forwards and laid her hands on the creature, holding it still as she concentrated on her work. After a few tics her gnosis flared and the telltale signs of developing bruises swiftly faded away, with the odd bit of broken skin healing just as fast. Within a chime the Charoda seemed to have almost fully recovered. "Impressive as always..." Silria smiled and nodded pleasantly as she went about untying the creature. Roderick helped her. After a fair amount of tugging, pulling and fiddling the two of them managed to undo the knots. As the creature was freed from its bonds it started moving around again; Roderick stepped away to the right, out of its line of sight. Let Silria explain the situation to it. The creature would probably react more pleasantly towards the healer, given the Konti hadn't given it the injuries in the first place. When he'd made his way around to the other side of the table Silria laid a hand on his arm and her gnosis flared, warmth flowing through the limb as Rak'keli's power cured him of his aches and pains. It was fast becoming a ritual the Konti performed on him whenever they met; he came to her every other day with some bruise, cut or other injury he'd gotten when he'd been out on a hunt. Taking her hand away a tingling feeling was left inside as she moved away to and began conversing with the creature. Smiling kindly at her Silria made the situation clear; "My name is Silria. You're safe here - its all been a misunderstanding. You just surprised Roderick." The hunter had no idea of what he should say at that point. "I'm sorry." would probably sound a little weak, considering the beating he'd given the poor thing.

[M'Wanii]

Her attempt at communication had worked, giving a deep sigh as the blessed liquid of life was poured over her skin. The idiot had been aiming for her mouth but either way she could at least breath better now. The blonde woman seemed to hold a motherly radiance about her and a great deal more knowledge than the brute. The Charoda's face near enough split in two at the mention of her people. Finally someone that knows of us. The brute displayed a laughable look of shock over his face at her knowledge. The woman then proceeded to place her hands on her stomach.

M'wanii's eyes widened as a tingling feeling spread through her body easing all pain and healing her skin. Her slight headache from being dehydrated vanished and her breathing eased out. Seeming to take advantage of her shock; the idiot and the healer quickly untied her bound limbs; no doubt the morn's handiwork along with everything else.

Sitting up on the table, M'wanii crossed her left ankle over her right thigh; letting her leg swing loose off the table. Now healed, with sensible company and in the knowledge of what tongue to converse in, the amphibian felt on much more stable footing than she had previously. The healer began speaking to her in the common mizaharian tongue. Although her understanding was decent of the language not all that the maiden told her was understood. But she got the gist of what had happened.

The brute had ventured to the pool wishing to take a swim. He had spotted her head and the moron had thought it a type of odd fish. So being the idiot her was had decided to poke it with a stick.. She had sat up and panicked. The moron had panicked, thinking her a wild animal and then had gone on to Kill said Wild Animal with a Stick, which of course was the Logical Thing to do.

Having finished explaining that the healer then motioned for the dubbed hunter to come out from the corner he appeared to be Cowering in. The man. This freaking human irritated M'wanii to her very cartilage. She kept her eyes fixed on him, sending him dirty looks whilst he was healed.
The healer then turned but to her at which she immediately dropped the look taking on one of wide eyed innocence. What she said next M'wanii did not fully understand but she nodded and grinned at her happily. The grin became genuine when 'Silria' gave out the names of both herself and the brute, a 'Roderick'.

Smiling at Silria, she stumbled out a musical “I thank you very loads.” before turning to the hunter cheerfulness turning venomous, “I thank you, not loads, Radwick.”

She would have said more but her stomach interrupted with a rumble. Embarrassed she turned her head to find her bag, which contained many leaves of seaweed for her to consume. Looking over the floors and surfaces she couldn't spot it not even next to her shawl which meant.... The idiot hadn't taken it. Fixing her eyes on him the expression seemed to pity his very exsistance.

“Where be me bag?”

His reaction to this statement was confusion. Whether he had understood her meaning or not, didn't matter the idiot had left most of her worldly possessions at the bottom of shallow spring out in the woods.

“Me bag. Me travel bag. Radwick, you left it in pond, yes? You foolishly left it in pond, Yes?! Radwick.”

Her fists clenched and unclenched and her teeth seemed to chitter together as she grit them together. Where the bubble was she anyway? Inside the city walls? Well it was certainly somewhere civilised. She would need 'Radwick' to take her to her bag. Kiss a cuttlefish. Hunger added to her rage even more and she could already feel the air stealing the moisture from her skin again. Looking even more annoyed, she slip off the table gracefully and not so gracefully tripped over her own webbed feet landing promptly on the floor. Propping her head up with one elbow she was beginning to regret coming to this place.

[Roderick]

The creature visibly gasped and sighed as the water revived her. Shifting about it laid itself so that the water fell upon its skin, rather than in its mouth and, seeing this, the hunter adjusted the flow so that he was pouring the skin out onto her flesh. After a chime or so of this he had completely covered her entire body in water, and she was no longer shifting around weakly but rather was moving with renewed strength and vigour. The Charoda's eyes bulged as Silria laid a hand upon its stomach and activated her mark, letting its power rejuvenate and heal its bruised skin. Her breathing also became far easier. Leading the way the healer loosened the bonds that held the amphibian in place, with the archer stepping in to provide a hand in freeing the thing, despite his misgivings about letting her move around unrestricted. The creature quickly sat up in preparation for climbing off the table, sitting for a few chimes as Silria explained the situation to her. Now that he wasn't in a frenzy he could make out the scars across her side more clearly, seeing that they were just as grotesque as he'd thought. As he stepped forwards from where he'd been standing, the Charoda glared angrily at him, while he let Silria work her magic on him. On this occasion she did not have to do much for him; he was more cold and hungry than genuinely tired and aching, but all the same a few sore spots in his legs and feet that he hadn't noticed before vanished. Looking at her with all the nonchalant disinterest one could possibly show, his lips curled up to one side ever so slightly in an absent-minded smirk. His manner would no doubt rub salt into the wound. Silria turned her attention back to the Charoda, who promptly exchanged her venomous looks for a dumbfounded look. She looks like she's soft in the head. Fitting. The next explanation offered by the Konti seemed to only partially translate for the creature, but the important details made their way through and it started grinning like a fool. With a smile she thanked her healer, then turned towards the archer with a hateful look and expressed her displeasure with him. Well done, you fail at basic common. Your parents must be so proud. The Charoda's gut growled audibly. Looking around it tried to locate something, but there was nothing but stone and wood all around it. “Where be me bag?” He raised an eyebrow at her as she seemed to place all of the blame for a situation upon his shoulders; while he had clobbered her senseless, she'd been the one to come bursting out of a pool screeching like a dying cat. "Me bag. Me travel bag. Radwick, you left it in pond, yes? You foolishly left it in pond, Yes?! Radwick." The broken common it spoke with was so awful he nearly laughed. The Charoda clawed at the air with its hands and ground her teeth. As she looked around again the hunter knew that his night with the creature was not quite over yet. With a notable amount of grace it uncoiled its legs and slid from the table. He laughed quietly to himself as it landed on its face. Silria shot the thing a sympathetic look, giving him a shake of the head as he found the Charoda's antics amusing. "Getting you in was annoying enough - I'm not explaining you to every knight I happen across. Silria, make sure she stays here. Anyone asks about her you can say she's your new assistant. I'll go fetch her damned bag." Without another word to either of them he started walking away from them, crossing the floor and slipping away into the night. The streets were still crowded but this time he didn't have to worry about any burdens he might have been carrying. Tics turned to chimes as he sped himself forwards and, finally free of the walls, broke out into a run, feeling his feet pounding the dirt as he headed towards the springs with all the haste he could muster. At some point he must have sped up, because before long he was sprinting at full pelt, the wind ripping against his face and body as he streaked through the treeline and skidded to a stop beside the pools. In the poor light that was left to him finding the bag was agonizingly slow; the first pool he stopped beside was empty, as was the one sitting beside it. Going along in a semi-permanent crouch, he slowly eliminated the different bodies of water as he continued his search. He couldn't tell which of the pools he'd been standing beside, until he spotted some rocks and grass that seemed familiar. Walking over to them quickly he checked the shape and found that he'd been there before. He strode about for a few more chimes, looking around for the specific pool the creature had been in. When he found it he resisted the urge to cry out in joy and instead seized hold of the blasted thing and started making his way back to the city, his walking turning into an agitated march as he began to feel the niggling caution that always gripped him when it grew this dark. He was grateful when he drew near the city again, and he quickly made his way through, giving one of the guards a nod in greeting before moved on again. It was as he was returning to the bathhouse that the creature's appearance occurred to him; moving around would be extremely difficult for it, considering how odd it looked. With that in mind he suddenly found himself stopping by every merchant he could find, hands nimbly taking different garments and lengths of fabric and piecing together a full set of clothing. He paid with the Charoda's money - she'd be wearing this after all - and without any regards as to what the garments were made of. The most important aspects of the disguise were a robe and hood which would serve to hide most of her features, while a pair of gloves and boots would hopefully keep the creature's webbed hands and feet out of sight. He purchased a scarf too so she could could hide more of her face. With all this - and her bag - in hand Roderick returned to the bathhouse and made his way over to the Charoda, who would hopefully still be inside. If not then he'd be left with a bunch of useless clothing and a big bag of gold. If she had slipped away from Silria he wouldn't complain about the money. When he was standing beside the Konti he placed the things down on the table and looked around the place. "Where'd that thing go?" He received a disapproving look for that, "Her name is M'wanii, Roderick. She's swimming - her people breath through their skin; if it becomes dry they begin to choke. I see you found her bag - and some clothes, too." He shrugged at her, "I figured she'd need them. A walking, talking fish might scare some people." "She's an amphibian, not a fish." "Don't start..."