IceAndWave/UnregrettedLeavetaking

Unregretted Leavetaking

In which battle is joined, a friend mortally wounded, and a mystery left behind...

The 6th Day of Descending Wood, Realm Year 763

Cassia and Venia stand on the deck of the Jaunty Rose, peering over the edge of the ship and waiting for the inevitable pursuit by the tentacled, once-human creatures. Sian emerges from below decks, wondering what all the noise and bells were about.

Cassia is leaning on the side of the ship, peering out into the fog, something in the set of her body suggesting frustration or annoyance.

Venia notices Sian, but tries to act as if she doesn't, watching the other side of the ship just in case.

Sian ignores her, wandering up behind Cassia and brushing water from his hair. "What's going on?"

Sailors cluster around the shore-side deck, murmuring to themselves that two of the five parties sent out earlier that day have yet to return. There are lots of pale faces and angry words are whispered.

"Oh, Sian." she turns to him briefly, then looks back out onto land "We went looking for the tentacled things... and we found them on the other side of the island. And then we had to run away." she sounds resentful of this fact. "And they chased us back here." She looks at him again "You're wet. How are the repairs coming along?"

"Two-thirds done. Lost another crewman to... something. I killed it, though." He squints into the fog, then gives up after a moment.

"...Oh." she carries on looking out into the fog. Cassia speaks a little quieter "I think I saw the thing thats leading them. I was bigger, with lots of tentacles, and eyestalks..."

"Lovely. Let's hope we're gone before it arrives." He briefly considers going to talk to Venia, but she'd probably just hit him again.

Venia is not in the least considering talking to Sian, no.

The fog surrounding the ship continues to swirl and eddy in response to the slight breeze that passes through the air, although it seems to get, if anything, thicker and everyone watches for any signs of movement.

Cassia nods again, slowly.

Sian shrugs a bit, then turns back to the hold. "No use standing here twiddling our thumbs."

Captain Rook emerges from the fog that swallows the prow of the barge, "We need to get away from here. I've already lost almost a third of my crew. Much more and we can't sail."

Sian sets his shoulders, "Then we'd better keep fixing the ship, then."

"The hole is mostly patched now, only two or three more planks and it's done. But the repair still needs to be waterproofed and the Rose is still far too full of water to even consider sailing," Rook looks around and whispers, "If we're lucky, we'll be away by sundown."

Cassia wanders over to Venia, and relates the news about the ship in quiet tones.

Venia sighs sadly. "I don't think we can kill the large one without Sian..."

"I see something!" one of the crew yells, pointing over the side. Something moves in the fog, soon joined by others, fuzzy shapes and grey shadows revealed and concealed by the tormenting mists.

Cassia suddenly looks up. "They're back." she probably sounds a little too excited at this.

Sian returns again from his brief few moments of preparing to work, sighing a bit. "Great."

Venia shrugs, and simply readies her blades, running a long lick down each side of the blades.

Cassia looks at her oddly, then shrugs softly and goes over to the side.

The things stay in the mist, not advancing towards the ship, remaining partially concealed in the mist.

Sian likewise prepares his javelins for throwing, and just settles down to wait.

Cassia draws her dagger, anxiously flicking it from hand to hand.

The... things remain where they are for many tense minutes, before fading from view as if they had never been there at all, leaving the ship and its crew alone once more.

Venia bends over to Cassia and explains, for future reference, that until she decides otherwise, her body is deadly poison.

Cassia looks suprised to say the least, but nods.

Sian looks somewhat annoyed. "Right. Call me if they actually attack, not if they just sit out there. I'm going to fix this ship."

Cassia sighs again, but nods to Sian.

"What are they doing? Why don't they attack?" one sailor whispers aloud.

"They're testing us... making us sweat. They might even feed on fear."

"What... what did you see, out there?"

Cassia glances to Venia.

"Fog. More of them. Old ruins." Venia smiles lazily, "The components of any good scary story."

Sian is meanwhile working hard belowdecks, helping to pump out the water as quickly as they can. All they need to do is get going... the work can finish when they're underway. The Water-aspect Dragon-Blood becomes a flesh-and-blood machine of pumping, working the mechanism with a power and fury that leaves the other sailors agog. Water gushes out of the barge's bilges at a high rate.

Meanwhile, the things approach the ship again, this time slightly closer than last time, allowing those on the barge to actually see them, if only fleetingly. Their pallid grey skin glistens in the mist as their tentacles wave bonelessly.

Cassia disappears below decks, reappearing with the pin she was working on before, working on it to ease her annoyance, occasionally looking up at the things standing there, and glaring, eyes blazing.

Venia is calm and quiet, resting easily against the railing as if in a dream, thinking more of how to find a good bottle of wine for later than any immediate, visceral feelings.

Eventually, they depart again, but this time they leave behind a sense of being watched amongst the ship's crew and passengers. A presence hangs in the air, forboding and malicious, infecting the crew with the black emotion of fear.

Venia does a few kata to kill time, counting the minutes bit by bit. "Of course, it might be they who are afraid. "All that they've sent against us have died, so they're trying to make us panic."

The water level in the bottom of the barge retreats before the righteous pumping fury of Sian Nerivus, and the barge slowly, oh-so-slowly begins to lift, reacting more to the waves as it rises, the motion giving heart back to the crew as they sense their deliverance from this dark island is at hand.

"We're moving," they murmur to themselves, "We're moving!"

Cassia looks up.

Sian continues working just as hard, the slow motion helping to move the water away.

Venia nods, "Moving is good..."

Cassia nods, still carefully removing slivers of bone.

Captain Rook pats Sian on the shoulder, "You can stop now, we're mostly floating and can get underweigh, and there's still plenty of light out. Thank you again, my Lord."

Sian nods, letting out a long breath and wiping cold sweat from his forehead. "Glad I could help."

"Now we just need to push the Rose off the beach. We do that and we can think about getting on to Broken Back," the captain grimaces.

"Let's get to that now, then. No use waiting."

The sense of impending freedom, and even hope, that had spread across the ship is rapidly soured by the re-appearance of the creatures. This time they stand clear of the fog, its grey tendrils licking around their pallid, slimy legs, just looking up at the crew on the ship.

Sian makes sure to have his weapons close at hand as he prepares to get down to the beach.

Cassia carefully sets down her carving and moves over to Sian "What's happening?"

"Boat's fixed. Just gotta get it moving."

Venia asks, "And that requires being down there?"

"Yes. Your royal highness can stay on-board, if she likes." He ties a rope to the railing and starts to lower himself down.

"And let you get killed? No thanks." Venia waits until he's down, and slides down the rope behind him, taking up a stance to keep monsters off of him.

Cassia leaps down lightly from the deck of the ship, landing with a small burst of flame to slow her descent.

A number of sailors shimmy down ropes after the trio, carrying smooth planks and other implements necessary to getting a large ship off a beach, while their crewmates stand ready near the prow with long poles, to push away with. They begin using mallets to push the planks in, but on the first *thump* the creatures begin to move in, closing the distance.

Cassia flicks her daggers a little, and then is engulfed in flame.

Venia renews the coating on the blades, spinning them in her hands once, twice, and then taking her stance. "Do hurry, boys. I'll appreciate it."

Sian finishes up his current piece of work, then moves to join the others, javelins at the ready.

Venia waits for them calmly on the surface, but suddenly lashes out as they approach, darting forward and tracing the edges of the blades lovingly against her foes, wrenching the handles at the end to tear great gouts out of the flesh. She runs up the front of her final opponent and drives her heel into it's eye socket where her dart remains, flipping back over and landing behind the small pile of corpses for cover.

Cassia runs after Venia, flames peeling off her as she does, leaving a trail cleared of the mists behind her before she leaps, dagger flashing as she lands the midst of a group of the beasts, spinning as she does, the flesh of the monsters steaming as she opens their skins.

Whole swathes of the creatures fall to the ground, blood-curdling screeches coming from their gaping mouths as they bleed and die on the sand. The group breaks in two, one bunch heading for the two Dragon-blooded women who have inflicted such insult on them, and the other for Sian and the ship that he stands in front of.

All of them are attacked by the horrid grey tentacles of the creatures.

Cassia flickers away from the tentacles, brushing herself past one especially clumsy one, hearing him burn, then twisting under the tentacles of the others.

Venia again uses the fog against her attacks, dancing and twirling with un-natural, bone-defying grace while it swirls around her, ducking under and flipping around each deadly attack.

Sian is rather less flashy in contrast, throwing a carefully-aimed trio of icy javelins at the oncoming foe. He remains steady throughout the barrage of tentacles, interested only in forcing the enemy back so the moving of the ship can continue... he can heal when they're underway.

A pair of the creatures fall under Sian's assault, the third staggers back as its left tentacle and shoulder freeze and fall off. The sailors behind Sian work feverishly to push the barge off the beach.

Venia notices, and severs the right shoulder and tentacle, kicking it up into the face of another monster and running up it as it falls, taking a flying leap and kicking it back into Cassia's dagger. She twists in midair, landing on another beast and flips backwards, single scissoring sweep taking out three more beasts as she stands untouched by the geysers of blood.

Cassia slashes left and right, gutting the two beasts that just tried to molest her with the tentacles. She pulls the dagger out of the one venia kicked back to her as she leaps herself, landing between another pair and disbowling them with a pair of sizzling cuts.

More swaths of blood and gore litter the beach in the wake of the two Dragon-Blooded dervishes, leaving them in circles of entrails and worse that used to belong to the comrades of their assailants. Heedless of casualties, however, they press their assault, closing in on the ship and the Exalted.

Venia ducks back through the sprays of blood, hating the necessity but willing to use what cover is there. Her blades lash out as she is hit, dtabbing in to steady her as she pushes off for another leap, arcing out and over her assailants.

Cassia is ready for the attacks, leaping backwards from the first two that attack her on trials of flame, landing with her hair flying around her in halo of flame then ducking under the third with a flame-fast shimmer.

Venia lands, almost back to back with Cassia, taking the split second to enjoy the warmth. "This is taking too long... how many of these things are there?"

The tentacled creatures flail madly at the two blade-wielding Exalted who torment them in their midst, and yet they remain unharmed despite the overwhelming numbers. Sian is not so lucky, having taken some minor wounds in his underwater battle, and more now he is slowing.

A voice from above screams "SIAN!" and a figure jumps down from the boat with a knife to hand, only to land right in the path of a vicious strike from one of the creatures. The blow opens Ealene's chest and throws her back into the surf where she lies unmoving, eyes wide.

"A lot. Too many to count." Cassia twists at the scream... Sian is still standing so...

Sian whirls as Ealene is knocked past him, almost immediately starting after her. He lets out a cry as a lashing tentacle opens up a whip-like slash across his back, turning only for a moment to fling a javelin right into its face, before continuing on to kneel at the woman's side. After his quick check shows her to be in dangerous health, he tugs his jacket off and slips it onto her, hoping the bulky (if somewhat torn) material will keep her alive for the moment.

The creature drops to the ground, its head exploding into a thousand icy shards even while Sian checks on Ealene. The sailors working behind him, begin to slowly move the barge out, the first rumblings of movement ranging out across the beach.

"Try to hold them, Cassia... I'm going to get Sian and check on the fallen one... you jump on as soon as I yell right?"

Cassia nods then turns back to the horde.

Venia falls back quickly, blades weaving in a delicate, yet deadly pattern as she goes through the crowd, leading the beasts to run into each other and tripping others with quick kicks. She moves past Sian, checking on the girl and quickly using some bandages and a rare herb under her tongue to momentarily revive her.

Cassia dances amongst the mist and fog and monsters, trails of clear air and pain left in her wake, flames peeling off her as she cuts and slices at the tentacles, trying to stop any more reaching the ship. Her blade dances and sizzles through clammy flesh, Cassia's blows wounding more than killing now, spraying boiling blood in every direction as she fights off the attackers, while Venia tries to revive the seriously-wounded Ealene enough to get her back aboard the Jaunty Rose.

Sian tries to reassure as she wakes, barely noting in time the incoming tentacle, grabbing Venia and pushing her down even as his last javelin leaves his fingertips.

Venia just barely manages to prevent herself from hitting Sian by reflex, but contents herself with a deadly glare and more work on Ealene.

Sian's javelin leaves its victim a lonely statue of ice, with a metal pole embedded in its heart, as the sailors finally get the barge free of the beach, to a loud roar of approval from the crew. "Quick!" Rook yells, "Grab the ropes, get on!" And the sailors at the back of the barge pole frantically, the vessel crawling away...

Venia cradles Ealene in her arms, running into the cold water to wrap the rope around her waist, glaring at Sian. "You'd better pull us up fast."

"Gee, really? I thought I'd let you dangle for a bit." His glare is no less angry, as he quickly scales the side of the ship and starts hauling them up.

Cassia turns back to the boat and starts to run, the flames peeling off her as she does, stooping and tumbling to pick up a pair of Sian's javelins then leaping for the boat in an explosive burst of flames landing perfectly on the back deck

The Jaunty Rose picks up speed, but still crawls away from the island far too slowly for comfort. Many of the creatures slip into the water and catch up, only to be knocked down from the bow by pots and plates hurled by sailors. Eventually, the barge is free and a sea breeze picks up, filling the sails. The Rose is back on course.

Venia settles Ealene back down, finishing up the steps necessary to stabilize her on the deck.

Sian is rather relieved by this. He looks to Venia. "Thank you."