From Tried's Mouth to the mysterious Tower, the waters around Scalvoris and the island itself hold a vast array of secrets, just ripe for discovery. Here are landmarks, jungles, mountains, forests and islands of note.
Having decided to ask for the day off, and gotten it off as requested, Nalin wanted to take Lavender somewhere. Somewhere that neither of them had been to. So, they were going to go to Faldrass. To visit beaches that they hadn't seen before, hadn't been on. And since it was harvest season, Nalin figured that not many people would be around. That would allow his sister to relax a bit. At least that's what he hoped.
He held her close as they rode the early morning ship to their destination. She was excited in her own way. Signing at him furiously. Things like "Oh! Look! That Gull just dove to the water!" and other cute little things like that. He smiled at her and just nodded the whole way. They were getting some weird looks from a few of the other passengers but no one directly talked to them to ask them questions.
Quiet, just how Nalin and Lavender liked it. He smiled at her and played his left hand through her silver-gold hair. Feeling her shiver a bit in his arm, he pulled her closer. Whispering in her ear. "Almost there Sister. Little Flower, happy?"
He smirked a bit as he saw the pink dusting on the pale skin of her cheeks and ears as she nodded furiously. He kissed those cheeks gently and chuckled. "Good. Trial, all for Lavender."
She pulled out of his arms then, looking totally embarrassed and nervous. She let her hair in her face so that she didn't have to look at him directly. She did that often when he teased her. It just made Nalin smile bigger, and he stood up looking as they slowly started docking.
Finally off the ship, he took his sister's hand and started running. This was one of the few times that he was going to be allowed to act as a child again with his sister, he was going to make the most of it. Smiling as he they made their way to a almost too quiet part of the beach, they flopped onto the sand, with a chuckle and a smile from Nalin and silent laughter from Lavender, they looked to each other, they were going to be a mess, but that was okay! They were here to have fun! And Nalin had made that very clear!
There was a few others around, but it was pretty quiet, the docks far busier than the beach was. They practically had it all to themselves. The two seemed to be in their own world, a silent, soft, pale world. Surrounded in sand and blue oceans. Crashing of waves and the calling of gulls. It was quite the scene for them to be surrounded by.
That trial, the beaches of Faldrass were the perfect place to be for those that wanted a place to enjoy themselves and relax. The sand was pleasantly warm, but not too hot and the waves were gentler than normal. Gulls were content to drift lazily over the sea or nestle on the sun warmed breakwater several yards off the shoreline.
The beach itself was fairly empty as it was still early in the day and many of the locals were working in the market and tending to the few tourists that were drifting around. A few local children could be seen playing on the beach, chasing birds or running through the surf. One in particular was a young girl who was kicking a ball around in the frothy surf. The water would start to pull the ball away before she kicked it back toward the shore.
The wet sand itched between her toes as she dashed through the shallow white tipped waves. The young brunette girl ran across the firm wet sand, kicking an old leather ball toward a couple sticks staked out in the sand as a makeshift goal. The child wore a pair of simple brown canvas pants that reached to her knees and a burgundy tunic belted at the waist. Her dark unbound locks screamed behind her as twelve arc old Sephira kicked it through the homemade goal. Throwing up her hands over her head she squealed in delight.
The ball was so soundly kicked through the goal that it rolled toward the docks where a pair of individuals were disembarking from their ship and heading toward the beach themselves. The two individuals stuck out like sore thumbs with their silken blonde hair and slender forms. They looked more like people from a fairy tale that the normal tourists that Sephira ran into from time to time.
“Hey! Kick it back!” she shouted as the ball rolled up to the pallid siblings. Sephira’s eyes flashed between a deep calm brown and a blush of curious blue. She had never seen anyone like this before, and her curiosity was getting the better of her. The brunette child stood there awkwardly with an expectant but excited smile running across her lips. Most of her friends were in the market helping their parents, but her mother had sent her off to get her out of the way. Sephira had a habit of getting herself into trouble if she was left idle for too long. Perhaps these two strangers would be an interesting diversion.
Lavender jumped and curled closer to Nalin. Confused he looked over her and saw the ball and then smiled, laughing a bit at her. "Just ball Lavender. Fine." he pet her head and sat up, grabbing the ball with his hand and rolled it on the sand to the girl with a smile. He wasn't really interested in playing with her but, she was a child alone on the beach.
Standing up, he brushed himself off, then helped Lavender up and brushed her off. The wind blew their long hair as he took care of his sister. They looked very much alike, though the sister looked almost ghostly, and her dark eyes didn't help that fact.
She pushed away from Nalin and signed at him furiously. "I can take care of myself thank you!" She frowned at him. Looking upset as she finished brushing herself off, and shaking out her hair. Her dark eyes fell upon the little girl. "Make her go away, this is MY day with you dear brother." Her hands moved swiftly and gracefully.
Nalin scoffed. "She is just a child Lavender, younger than you! A budding flower! Don't be rude!" Turning to the little one with brown hair he smiled. "Nalin." He pointed to himself, then pointed to his sister. "Lavender." He smiled and pointed to the little girl. "Name?"
Lavender stomped her foot in the sand. She looked upset, but one glare from Nalin made her stop. She knew she was being rude, he wasn't going to say it, and she knew it. He knew she wanted him to herself, but that wasn't going to happen.
He looked back to the little girl and smiled. "Alone? Want to play?" His common seemed, funny. As if he couldn't form full sentences with ease. And though he was older than her it seemed auffle weird that he wasn't able to speak common at his age as well as he should be able to. It was also weird that he kept moving his hands when he turned to his sister, some kind of code? Or a language that the little girl probably didn't know? She might have heard of it before in passing though.
The girl’s face broke into a wicked grin as the two introduced themselves. Her eyes glittered with amusement as the pair moved their hands quickly between each other like they were trying to bat away sand flies.
They were really weird…Sephira liked weird.
“Nice to meet you.” she said demurely while glancing rapidly between the two pale siblings. The older girl stomped her foot at her brother as if she disagreed with the whole scenario.
“Sephira” The little girl said proudly as she pointed to her chest like they had pointed to themselves.
The little Faldrassian girl peered at the young blonde woman with her umber eyes squinted against the sunlight before looking back at Nalin while he stumbled through the words to ask if they could join in her game. She was not at all against a proper game with a few more people. It was a shame that there were three of them and not four, but she would figure out some way to make it work.
“Uh-huh…play” Sephira said slowly as if she suspected he was a bit slow due to his halting use of Common. Maybe they somehow talked a different way, though Sephira didn’t know how exactly. She had never met anyone even remotely like the two siblings. Their pale locks and ivory skin stood out starkly against the dark headed and darker skinned people of Faldrass. Though Sephira was less tanned that some children, at least she appeared to fit in with the community. These two were two very odd peas in a pod.
Without warning all of the girl’s inner musings bubbled out into three words that perfectly summarized her feelings. “You talk weird.” She blurted out rather cheerfully with all the honesty and bluntness of a child before waving them toward the bright sparkling surf sweeping across the beach. Her hair whipped behind her in the wind as she starting walking back toward where she had been playing, fully expecting Nalin and Lavender to follow. Maybe they would explain their strange mannerisms in due time
Quite the blunt child. If he were younger that might have hurt a bit. But he just smiled at the girl as she started walking away. She didn't know what the brother and sister were doing to communicate. Which was alright, that's one of the things that Nalin wanted to correct. To show people that there's more than just verbal language.
He looked to his sister, but she just sat down where she stood. She turned her head defiantly away from Nalin and frowned indeffinitely. Which in turn made him frown.
He followed the girl and looked to the young one with a smile. "Sister... not feeling well. Won't play. But. We can play!" He smiled at her. "Talk funny cause learned Common Sign instead. Common still difficult for tongue." He looked to the girl who'd given her name as Sephira.
"Can understand fine. Just... not speak well." He looked to the girl. He was lucky that he could still see Lavender from where the girl had been playing before.
"How want play?" His words were a little more awkward this time as he spoke to Sephira, he seemed to struggle a bit more when trying to form the question. "Throw? Kick?" He looked at the ball then at the girl again. "Try and keep air? Maybe? Something more simple?" He was pretty good at coming up with games that others could jump into if they wanted but that was up to the girl if she wanted to have any part in his ideas. Lavender was being a prude sitting in the sand. Acting like a snot.
If she was going to act that way, he wasn't going to play into her brattiness. She was going to either play nice or be alone for the entirety of the trip. He wasn't going to play games with her attitude. Not today. She sometimes got her way this way, but he wasn't going to let her win today. Today they were supposed to be together yes, but he didn't like seeing that a little girl was out here playing alone.
If it were Lavender playing alone he would stop whatever he was doing to play with her, and Lavender knew that. Though, Nalin knew that she wanted to spend time with him alone. He would make it up to her. In time.
Hefting the cantaloupe sized ball in one hand the young girl peered at Lavender seated sullenly in the sand. She had never met someone who didn’t speak common well, or at all. Shrugging off the pale woman’s weird mannerisms Sephira made it over to the makeshift goal she had made that morning with some pieces of driftwood staked out in the sand about four paces apart.
The water was quite close, the waves gently swaying in and out only fifteen or so feet away. The tide was on its way in, so quite soon they would be ankle deep in the surf. This really didn’t bother the girl as she quickly dropped the ball to the ground and gave it a swift kick toward the goal. The ball went a little wide and missed, but rolled to a stop fairly quickly.
“You defend the goal.” She declared while pointing Nalin toward his post. Kicking up warm sand as she ran to retrieved the ball. On her way back the girl paused briefly to cheekily widen the goal by another two feet. It was only fair after all, Nalin was bigger and had longer legs. She smirked and rounded the goal to take up kicking position about ten feet from where Nalin would be standing.
Again Sephira squinted a Lavender, starting at the woman’s pale blonde locks and her deeply contrasting ebony eyes. The pale sibling’s dark eyes brought a shiver down Sephira’s spine, though only because they looked so different to Nalin’s. Sephira own Biqaj eyes faded now between blue and silver; being both curious and wary of the other girl. Perhaps it was due to Lavender’s odd nature, but more than anything Sephira felt a strange sense of pity for Nalin’s sister. She was not like other children, so she obviously clung to her brother because no one else would have anything to do with her. Sephira may have been playing alone on the beach, but at least she had friends. Lavender likely had none aside from her brother.
Shrugging off the thoughts Sephira waited for Nalin to take his place and lined up a kick at the goal. Taking a couple steps back to get a running start she shot toward the ball before sliding into the sand with a subtle show of acrobatics to punt the ball low and fast toward the right corner of the goal.
Nalin watched as the girl watched his sister for a moment. He couldn't help but give a soft smile. It was times like this that he wished that he could be the mute one, so that his sister could be the one to have all the fun. To be able to talk to other girls, gossip and whatever else it was that girls did.
At the same time though he looked to Sephira, she was alone right now too. Not that he knew the exact situation but he wanted to be there even for a short time. He kind of was protective in that way. Not that he knew why he would be protective over a girl other than his sister. He patted her head and nodded. "Protect goal." He walked to his spot, not having missed that she'd widened the goal for him. It just made him smile.
He bent himself at the knee's and a bit at the waist so that he had a good stance to get pretty much anywhere in the goal. He smirked and just stood there, waiting for Sephira to wind up.
It was quite a kick, the ball came flying up to his right. He jumped wildly and landed on his side in the sand. Kicking sand up everywhere and up into his face, he grunted as the ball hit him square in the gut. He coughed and sputtered as he slowly sat up with the ball in his hand. Trying to brush some of the sand off of him and out of his face. He looked like a total mess. But he gave Sephira a big smile as he tossed the ball back to her.
"What think? Sephira?" He sputtered a bit more sand and couldn't contain his laughter anymore. He broke into a huge fit of giggles and a glance at Lavender it looked like she was smiling at her brother's antics. Maybe even a few silent laughs coming from her as well.
The smile decorating Lavender’s face caught the young girl’s attention and she turned to Nalin, gazing at him from across the playing field. Finally, seeming to make a decision Sephira jogged up to his spot at the goal posts before smiling mischievously at his sand covered clothes. The amber colored sands of Faldrass were bright and colorful, and the tiny grains stood out clearly against his pale skin.
“Good catch.” She giggled as she spoke, delighted that such a prim looking boy could stand getting a little dirty.
Sephira leaned over and looked at Lavender again, squinting at her as she tried to remember what Nalin had told her when the first arrived. Apparently the girl could not speak. However that did not mean that she could not be communicated with. Nalin had mentioned something called Common Sign that they used to speak to each other, but Sephira had never heard of or come close to ever speaking with the use of her hands.
Turning to Nalin with genuine sincerity she nodded toward his sister on the beach. “How do I say hello to her?” The girl waved her hands at him, flexing her fingers to imply that she wanted to know how to sign a greeting to his sister. Maybe she could get her to come play after all.
Almost as an afterthought she stared intently at Nalin. “How to ask her to come play?”
Sephira really didn’t like the idea of someone being left out of the fun, she knew what it was to be left alone to your own devices. She also wanted to be the one who asked her. The young girl had a feeling that Lavender did not really speak to anyone aside from Nalin, maybe she could learn a bit of this Common Sign so Lavender would have someone else to talk to.
She was smiling and laughing! This was good! He smiled up at her, staying on his arse in the sand for a bit before looking to her then to her sister with a smirk. He laughed and looked to the girl. "Lavender understand Common, just can't speak.. though.. can teach sign if like? Might be more receptive?"
Slowly he stood up and smiled as he saw her finger's move, seemed like that's what she wanted to do anyways. That was good. Brushing himself off some more, he put a gentle hand on the girls shoulder and stood close to her blocking their hands from Lavender's view, who kind of seemed to try to look around him to see what they were doing.
Slowly, he started to try and teach her the simple symbols for how to say "Hello Lavender, would you come play with us?" At first he gave her the whole phrase in sign to show her how it would look. "Now.. One sign at time kay?" He started with Hello, helping her move her hand and fingers in the right way. Moving through each word with her slowly, adjusting her fingers as need be.
"Now, try slowly together" He smiled at her watching her hands patiently as she showed him the phrase. But he smiled and shook his head a bit. "Close, watch" He signed it again for her slowly, and then smiled. "Try once more. Can do it!" He smiled at her and waited for her to try again.
Sephira awkwardly moved her fingers to try and match Nalin’s own. Her signs were very clumsy with the first few attempts as she worked through the different motions. The sea breeze ruffled her hair as the girl bit her lip in concentration. It was difficult, thinking of your hands as a means to talk to someone but Sephira didn’t want to leave anyone out. Being left out of the fun was terrible, even if Lavender had made the choice herself.
Finally her hands began making the signs with more surety as she worked through them with Nalin’s help. He was a pretty amazing brother, learning another language with his sister so they could always have each other to talk to. Sephira was an only child as far as she knew, but she had always wanted a sibling. She had plenty of friends on the island, but a brother or sister was always supposed to have your back no matter what. It was good to think that Lavender had a brother to help her through the world. He was her buffer, a shield that worked constantly to keep her smiling.
She watched his nimble motions and finally started to get the hang of it. There were about ten signs total to communicate with Lavender. Sephira continued to visualize them in her head as she nodded to Nalin and set off running toward his sister. Her feet kicked up sand as she went, her hair drifting behind her.
Sephira approached the pale girl slowly, her eyes swirling with a multitude of colors before settling on a combination of blue and brown. The girl knelt down in the sand in front of Lavender, glancing up at her expectantly before raising her hands and starting to make the signs. It was a struggle at first, remembering not to rush and to make them as clear as possible. Her little fingers moved hesitantly before becoming a little more fluid as she repeated the signs that Nalin had taught her.
She sat there expectantly, before climbing back to her feet and waited for Lavender to respond. Hopefully she had done a good enough job to get the idea across.
