Flashback Adventure and Aftermath

[Eleret]

Summer 66, 472 AV
early afternoon

Green-gray waves splashed against the sides of a duller-gray precipice, churning up a skirt of white froth which clung to the water's surface. Gray-winged gulls with vivid yellow beaks soared and dove and heckled one another above and before the stonewall, cries both raucous and haunting ringing out over the shore. Sometimes, if Eleret looked really hard, she could spot the black-speckled brown plumage of a chick peeking out over the edge. If she wanted to, she could go all the way around the rise to where it sloped down, not smoothly but at least something she could reasonably scramble up. Then she'd be on the rubbled top with the gulls and could get a good view of their nests and chicks.

She could. But she wouldn't. Last summer's adventures had included such an endeavor, along with the lesson that gulls were even louder and less pleasant up-close. Not to mention kinda intimidating, despite their smaller size, when a few dozen ganged together and started dive-bombing! No, she'd leave them to their clifftop nests and just observe from below.

Another cry sang out over the beach, one distinctly not the call of a gull. "Ellie! Come look!"

Turning away from the cliff, Eleret spotted her friend some ways down the shore, where hollowed-out cups in the bedrock provided harbor for sea creatures abandoned by the tide. When had L'nai gotten all the way over there, without Eleret even noticing? Though she shouldn't be surprised. While four years her elder, L'nai seemed largely incapable of staying put for long, and was always getting into something.

She usually found interesting things, though.

Eleret padded over and knelt beside her friend, peering down into the tidepool in question. Green anemones nearly carpeted the asymmetric stone bowl, interspersed with brown seaweeds that resembled leafless trees, and a pinkish kind reminiscent of coral. And barnacles, of course. But also, between the anemones slunk something soft and squishy-looking and red, flecked with white like snowflakes caught on a sweater's sleeve. "What is it?" It looked a little like the sea cucumbers they sometimes ate, except flatter and with some kind of horns. And prettier, too.

"I think it's a sea hare. At least, I saw one like it before and that's what Mother called it. That one wasn't so red." She paused a moment, studying the pool and the creature, then reached down into the water. "I like this one. Maybe I could take it ho-- oh! It's sticky, too!" L'nai exclaimed, drawing her hand back and rubbing the sticky stuff between her fingers.

"I think it's happy there," Eleret pointed out. And even she knew that, if L'nai took a pet home, it wouldn't be her friend looking after its well-being; L'nai just wasn't that diligent. So she thought about what else they could spend the afternoon on, something to redirect her friend's attention. "Hey, didn't you want to go out to the big rock? The tide's low, we could do that now."

That suggestion had L'nai up and away from the pools in an instant.

Common | Kontinese | Tukant | other people
Eleret's Konti gift is to perceive the moods of others as one or more scents.

[Eleret]

As they made their way down the beach, water-worn rock gave way to loose pebbles, which then segued into smooth sand. Rolling waves lapped at Eleret's ankles as she walked, swirling the sand between her toes and erasing the footprints she left behind. L'nai forged ahead, driven by longer legs and eager purpose, her feet splashing through the surf. The younger Konti smiled at her friend's back, then turned her attention towards their destination.

The big rock rose up from the water, a solitary sentinel of stone framed by expanses of sand to either side. It peaked in a vague cone shape some fifteen feet above the surf, with smaller boulders scattered about its base. Currently, with the tide at an ebb, the beach side of the boulder lay in water no deeper than Eleret's ankles.

L'nai looked back only when she'd reached the rock, casting Eleret an all too familiar you're not here yet? look. Not that the younger girl was all that far behind. She picked her way through the smaller boulders, mindful of their water-slicked surfaces. The big rock was liberally speckled with barnacles, drying seaweed, and some other shellfish -- mussels, mostly, all blackish with a hint of purple.

"Ellie! C'mon, we can climb up over here."

Here denoted a couple of larger stones by the base of the big rock which provided convenient first steps. L'nai hopped up onto them and studied the surface of the big boulder, then selected handholds and started clambering up the side. She made it look almost easy; but then, she had a fondness for perching up there.

To Eleret's eye, the rock... really was kind of daunting, when she stood with her nose nearly against its side. Its grayish surface was worn by wind and water, but not entirely smooth; the boulder seemed altogether too large even for erosion to have its way freely. There were places where the rock was fracturing, cracks dark but not seeming all that deep; it was all just superficial damage. A few of these provided Eleret's first hand and footholds, places where she could get a reasonably good grip.

After that, the process became more difficult.

Scanning the rock's slope, she spotted a shadow that suggested a depression. It was comfortably in reach of her hand, as was the next one up; Eleret then scrabbled to find new purchase with her feet, something that would give her a boost up the side. Her toes curled over a little ledge, barnacles an uncomfortable, nearly painful, pressure against their tips. Then she had to find handholds all over again. That one, on the left, looked good -- it held her hand. On the right... on the right, the only candidate she could see proved to be just beyond arm's reach. If she leaned a little, pushed a little, she could reach it...

...only her fingers slid off the shallow divot's other side. Her left hand had eased up on its hold in order to make the attempt, and provided no anchor now; and the girl's sudden, startled rush of adrenaline didn't help one bit. Her toes lost their grip, and Eleret skidded back down the rock's side, landing in shallow water with a splash far noisier than it had right to be.

"Oh no! Ellie! Are you all right?"

Common | Kontinese | Tukant | other people
Eleret's Konti gift is to perceive the moods of others as one or more scents.