On The Ocean Floor

[Yeva]

30 Cylus 720

Yeva was sitting in a boat, watching the waves swirl in a endless sea of pigment. The wind was blowing softly and the sun was shining. 'I could stay here forever,' she thought, yawning against the railing. Yeva slowly sat up and reached into the crisp water, pulling back to see that the liquid coated her fingers like thick paint, spreading up her arm without alarm. She watched it in fascination, how it dipped beneath the cover of her white dress and turned her skin prismatic, an ever shifting array of colors. Pink, blue, green, red - she had become a dripping rainbow and she wandered along the side of the boat and suddenly the deck beneath her disappeared.

She floated downward, cheeks puffed as if she held her breath, and yet there was no need. She existed easily, watching gold and silver fish pass in great schools with scales that twinkled like starlight. Further and further she dropped until all the colors began to fade, monochromatic and oh-so-silent. Yeva looked up, but the surface was no longer and when she tried to jump, her weightlessness was gone. Her body sunk a stone, and yet she still shimmered, the only glow of restless color for as far as the eyes could see. Her toes curled into the grey sand and she crouched. Little trails were wiggled into the ocean floor, courtesy of shiny black sea snails, half burrowed.

She cupped a hand to her mouth and called to the darkness that she felt no fear of, "Hello?"

Her voice did not echo, it simply ended. She called out again, "Is anyone there?"

[Rei'sari]

30th Cylus, 720

Location: ---


Ari'sora soared high above the world, dancing with the wind. Beside her, her best friend Shadow flew beside her. The flying cat was having more trouble with the playful wind than she was, but that was to be expected since Shadow was so much smaller than she was. After a while, they came to an ocean. But it was unlike any ocean Ari'sora had ever read about. This was an ocean of color. As she watched, the water shifted hue continuously. It was quite possibly the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

A boat floated in the rainbow water beneath her. But there was no one inside the boat. Ari'sora looked around, but she couldn't see anyone as far as the eye could see. How could that be? The boat couldn't have traveled there all by itself, could it? Maybe it was a ghost ship? Or perhaps the boat was alive and could sail anywhere it liked without anyone manning the sails. It was a mystery, and Ari'sora decided to solve it.

The water looked inviting, and Ari'sora decided that she wanted to try flying in the water instead of the sky for a while. Maybe if she did, she would be able to find out what was going on with that boat. So she pointed down, and angled her flight downwards. Shadow followed her, and the two of them were soon standing on the empty boat.

"Are you a magic boat?" Ari'sora asked curiously.

There was no answer. But after a few trills, the boat was rocked by a large wave. The motion startled Ari'sora so much that she grabbed Shadow, and bated her wings frantically in an attempt to keep her balance. It failed, and woman and cat found themselves in the water. It was pleasantly warm, but no matter how she tried to keep her head above the surface, Ari'sora found herself sinking beneath the surface.

Strangely, as she sank deeper, the colors of the water seemed to infuse her skin with color. When she looked at Shadow, she saw that her friend was shimmering with the colors of the water too. They continued to sink, and after a while, the color seemed to bleed out of the water, leaving the world a mixture of greys.

Just as she thought that she might sink forever, she saw the ocean floor appear below her. The sand was grey, but there were tiny shiny black things moving slowly through it. She watched them move, fascinated by the patterns they made. But after a while, a voice called out through the water.

Curious, Ari'sora followed the sound of the voice. It was the only sound she could hear, so how could she not be curious about it? Her searching paid off when she found a woman walking along the ocean floor. Ari'sora flapped her wings in the water until she was directly above the woman. Would the woman see her?

People rarely ever think to look up. she thought with amusement.

Ari'sora always looked up. You never knew what interesting things you might see in the sky if you did. Looking up had often saved her from a nasty prank too. She had learned that lesson after Mi'zuri had rigged a net to drop down on her as she walked through the door into her kitchen. That gave Ari'sora an idea. Dropping a net down on an unsuspecting person would be mean, but what if she dropped flower petals on them instead? Flower petals were pretty, and they wouldn't hurt anyone. And it would be funny if some of the petals got stuck in the woman's hair.

Ari'sora checked her pouch, and sure enough, she found that it was filled with flower petals of every color imaginable. She grinned at Shadow, then turned the pouch upside down, watching as the petals drifted down towards the woman on the ocean floor. The flower petals seemed to twinkle like little stars as they fell. After a few trills, she giggled.

"We're here!" she said gleefully.

[Darius Baer]

Arc 720, 30th of Cylus

Darius' fingertips scythed through the sand that surrounded him. In every direction, from head to toe, there were golden grains that he could not see beyond.

But he did not panic, for they subsided with each sweeping movement of his arms. It didn't seem to matter which stroke he employed: freestyle, backstroke, butterfly...the sand always shifted away to let him through. Breathing was no problem, either. It was as though his lungs could function perfectly fine when filled with sand.

And then he heard a voice.

Far above him, in an echoless vacuum, there were muffled words that he couldn't distinguish.

Up, up he swam, and as he did, the gold of the sand slowly darkened, until it became a mixture of grey shadows. Above him, he could see two shapes. They were unclear at first - two blurred shadows of colour - but as he neared, they began to take on the shape of feet.

Darius reached up, his fingers meeting resistance for the first time. He clawed at the sand, and little by little, it gave way, until he heard a crack, and his hand burst through and up into the ocean floor, just a few inches from Yeva's feet. Immediately, water began to rush through the hole he'd made, turning the golden sand into all manner of hues. Reds mixed with greens, which merged with purples, and within moments he was surrounded by the colourful waterfall that washed over him as he gasped, struggling to climb up and out of what remained of the sand that was caked against his body.

[Yeva]

30 Cylus 720

Flower petals drifted from the water above like stars. Yeva blinked and looked upward, spotting a woman and her companion as they sounded a round of giggles, "I was wondering where those were coming from. What are you doing here?" the red head was curious, her hair now crowned with shimmering flora. She had called out to find them but it seemed like a logical question, as if asking someone she already knew. Yeva could not recognize the face, but she felt at peace and offered a smile, "It's an awfully long way from home. Are you lost too?"

She waited to see if the woman answered. Maybe she lived nearby!

Beneath her feet, the ground cracked and the medic jumped with a yelp, a man's hand emerging from the ground as water rushed and pulled her towards its current. Yeva fell to her knees, sand and rainbows stirring as a man struggled to free himself. Her skin color shifted to bright orange and seemed to stop there, "I think he needs help," Yeva feared he might be struggling to breathe and despite her recent scare, she tried to grab his hand and pull him upwards. He was... surprisingly heavy in the weightless sea and rush of water. She gritted her teeth and tried to get her feet beneath her, hoping to tug him further from the hole, "How did you even get down there!"

Yeva strained and looked at Ari and her friend in a silent plea for help, then at Darius, "You're really big, ya know?" Petals were shook from her locks and sucked into the waterfall, sandy grit matted on the man's skin, kicked up to a cloud of muddied color. Yeva released him, panting, and tried to claw away the sand around him instead.

"Here," Suddenly and without logic, Yeva held a rope and threw one end towards the other woman and tried to press the other in his palm, "We can try to pull him out."

[Rei'sari]

30th Cylus, 720

Location: ---


The woman's hair was beautiful with its crown of shimmering petals. So much so that it distracted Ari'sora from the woman's questions for a few trills. When she did realize that the woman was talking to her, she gave the questions some thought.

"What are we doing here, Shadow?" she asked her friend when she couldn't come up with an answer herself.

"We fell in, remember? You wanted to talk to the magic boat, and a wave came and dumped us into the ocean." she explained.

Ari'sora turned back to the woman.

"Shadow's right. That's exactly what happened. As far as home goes...I think you must be right. I'm not even sure what direction we'd need to go in to get back to Beacon, so we must be lost."

A man's hand emerged from beneath the sand, and the woman tried to help pull him out of the sand. Ari'sora watched this with mild curiosity until the woman silently asked for her help. Shadow told her that it would be a good idea for her to help, and so she did. She drifted closer to the bottom of the ocean floor with the vague idea of helping the other woman scrape the sand away from the man. But she didn't think it would do much good. The man appeared to be completely buried save for his hand. It didn't seem likely that the two of them could unbury him without help.

When the woman tossed the end of a rope up to them, Ari'sora caught it reflexively. What was she supposed to do with this? Use it to free the man who was trapped in the sand? It seemed likely.

"Maybe we could tie one end around his wrist? Then we could pull him out that way." she suggested.

Or her. The hand that was sticking out of the sand looked like a man's hand, but it was possible that it belonged to a woman instead.

[Darius Baer]

Darius strained against the current as the water swirled around his wrist, his body having seemingly unplugged the ocean as the water began to escape its normal home by creeping up his forearm and then disappearing out of sight. He felt one hand take hold of his own, and then another, and he held them firmly, hoping this would pull him free as his legs kicked behind him, but his ability to swim through the sand was curtailed by the underground river that was forcing him to move upstream.

Through the gap that was forming around his arm, he could see a face. It was familiar somehow, though he couldn't name its owner. The figure's skin was made of a multitude of colours, but there was something about the outline of its face, and the locks of hair shifting in the water, that sent a feeling of peace to run through him.

Which, of course, was absurd, for he was gasping to breathe!

His other hand burst through the sand and clung to the figure's wrists, his large palms wrapping around the slender limbs before they let go of him, and a rope was placed into his palm. He felt it go taut, though he somehow knew that this was not simply because someone else was holding it - the rope itself had become rigid, like the shaft of a spear. Darius gripped it firmly, and began to pull himself along it and out of the sand. His elbows were the first to break through, then his head, then his shoulders. He was able to look up at the figure, her orange skin glistening, but his rhythm didn't stop. Hand over hand, he pulled himself further out, his bulky form revealing itself, sand cascading off tensed muscles as he gasped for breath. It was only when he had finally made his way through, and his feet were atop the sand rather than stuck in it, that his lungs began to fill once more, and the hole beneath him closer up, plugging the ocean once more.

He sat on the ocean floor, and looked up, now seeing the second figure who held the other end of the rigid rope, and he sent a wave of thanks. He caught sight of his own hand as he did, and as his gaze fell over himself, he saw he was turning silver. He wore white leggings and nothing else, but the material looked curiously dry. But that was something he could worry about later. For the time being, the human decided to lie on his back, just so he could catch his breath.

[Yeva]

30 Cylus 720

Together they worked to free the trapped from confinement, the rush of sand and water a muted roaring beneath their feet. Yeva looking over her shoulder to speak to Ari'sora. She appreciated the suggestion to tie it around his wrist but she had her doubts. Wouldn't the strain of a taunt rope risk dislocation? Yeva fretted, it wasn't the time for a debate, "We can try it," Dislocation was better than death, after all.

Snatching at great fistfuls of sand, the medic tossed the particles away in clouds of murky dust. The hole was opening, and she could see a grey eye peering up between the small opening while the hand locked around her wrist. The fingers were rough. Male. Yeva just knew somehow, and so she made sure his fingers still held the rope and continued to pull and dig, "We've got him!" she yelled in excitement, overjoyed when the fissure began to widen and another hand soon joined, followed by arms, and then - a whole man!

(Talk about a catch?)

Yeva dropped back on her bum as he fully emerged, smiling breathlessly to the trio in the thrill of recent events, "Are you both alright?" his skin was shifting silver, and he laid out to catch his breath. He had been through an ordeal, but trying to pull someone from... wherever he had come from, certainly was emotionally taxing. Health extended past just the physical, after all. Yeva pushed her plumage of hair back from her face and watched as the hole sealed itself with a 'pop', reminding her of the opening of a champagne bottle.

Peaceful silence soon followed, laying upon the group like a quilted blanket. With the immediate threat conquered and Darius pulled free, she was reminded of what Ari'sora and Shadow had spoken of prior to his arrival, "You wouldn't happen to know how to get to the Beacon, do you? I think we're all lost."

[Rei'sari]

30th Cylus, 720

Location: ---


Their efforts paid off, and the person they were trying to free was a man. Ari'sora stared at him curiously for a few trills before the woman's question distracted her. Was she okay? She thought so, but she took a few trills to check both Shadow and herself over to be certain. Then she nodded.

"We're both fine. What about you?" she asked.

The hole sealed itself with a popping sound, and Ari'sora stared at the space where it had been with curiosity. Where had the man come from? Did he live in the sand, or was the hole a magic portal to...somewhere else? And if it was a portal, where did it lead? What kind of place was at the other end of it?

When she turned her attention back to the man, she noticed that he didn't look so good. Or maybe it was that he was just tired. Ari'sora couldn't see any obvious injuries, so she relaxed a little. Silence fell over the group, and she took the time to wonder where the man had come from once more.

The woman asked the man if he knew how to get to the Beacon, and Ari'sora frowned a little. That wasn't right...was it? Beacon was a place, not a thing. Well...at least it was if they were both talking about the same thing.

"Beacon is a place, not a thing." she told the woman.

"It's the village where I live." she added a trill later.

Then she turned back to the man.

"If you know how to get there, I'd really like to know. I'm supposed to get home soon, and I'm completely lost. I don't even know where here is, never mind how to get back home from here."

As she spoke, the water began to churn slightly, and music began to play. It was a pretty sound, but no matter how hard she looked, Ari'sora couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Then the water slightly to the right of them began to glow a deep blue color, and the music got louder. As Ari'sora watched in awe, a shimmering portal appeared in the water. It felt welcoming somehow, and Ari'sora felt a strong desire to go through it. It was almost as if the portal was calling out to her.

"Maybe..." she began hesitantly.

"Maybe we're supposed to go through there?" she asked, gesturing at the portal.

"Do you think that we'll get to Beacon if we swim through that portal? Or does it lead back to the world that you came from?" she asked the man curiously.

The desire to swim through the portal got stronger, and soon, it was too strong to resist. Ari'sora lingered long enough to hear anything that the others might have to say, but then the urge to go through the portal was too strong, and she had to obey it. Shadow glanced back at the others briefly, then followed.

[Darius Baer]

Darius spent several trills lying on the ocean floor. His silver form shimmered in the thin shafts of light that were able to penetrate the water, his bare chest rising and falling as he caught his breath.

Then a voice reached his ears, and, having regained his composure, the bearded blond slowly opened his eyes. He saw his two rescuers standing nearby. One looked down at him, a halo of orange strands drifting about her head. The other, a winged waif, was talking to the first, her feathers dancing in the water.

As his mind woke up, and the words that were being spoken began to register with his mind, he realised that the duo were lost. And in that moment, it dawned upon him that he, too was lost.

And yet he knew the way...

He slowly rose up until he was standing, and he saw that he was much taller than both women. The sand caressed the soles of his feet, and he watched as the portal slowly formed. He had never been to Beacon, so he shouldn't have known where to go, but he did.

None of it made any sense, and yet it made perfect sense.

Both figures had asked him which way to go, and he raised one arm, silently pointing towards the portal. Water began to spill into the portal, and before long, the current was tugging at the trio of dreamers. He could see that both women were being drawn in, and so he reached out, taking a hand of each, and let the growing surge take them. He kicked out with his feet, the three of them swimming until they reached the portal and, holding his breath, he closed his eyes as they slipped through.

Even after they'd gone, the water continued to pour out, the ocean gurgling as it was drained, and the last drops finally poured through the portal. It left behind a brand new desert, with a bed of curiously dry sand stretching as far as the eye could see.

[Doran]

Ari'sora:

Knowledge: -
Loot: -
Wealth: -
Injuries: -
Renown: -
Magic XP: -
Skill Review: -
Points: 15

Darius:

Knowledge: -
Loot: -
Wealth: -
Injuries: -
Renown: -
Magic XP: -
Skill Review: -
Points: 15

Yeva:

Knowledge: -
Loot: -
Wealth: -
Injuries: -
Renown: -
Magic XP: -
Skill Review: -
Points: 15

- - -

Comments: I find it interesting that none of you three seem to be particularly scared even though they are on the ocean floor, apart from Darius. I’m glad that Yeva and Ari managed to free him. The ending seems to be a bit abrupt, but all in all it was a good read. Enjoy your rewards!