Washed the Spider Out

[Korva]

30th of Ashan, 719
**Common
** Rakahi

Previously

"We no go back." The Mer hissed as she dragged the Biqaj through the water, blood streaking like a trail behind them. Now it began to throb near her hand, the salt water soothing and stinging it in equal measures. It distracted her enough to take several dangerous seconds to digest what the Mer had said.

"To the ship or yer cave?"

"Cave." Was the snapped answer as they finally stopped, far enough away that they could still see the ship but seeing them might prove difficult for humans not embellished with fish gifts. Korva found herself nodding as if she was capable of comprehending anything at that moment. The Mer had no qualms abusing her shock, "We go back boat, cousin. They no see, follow blood."

"Aye. 'Course." A warning niggled in the back of her mind but it was hard to pinpoint, "Ya gotta help me swim."

But her companion was far ahead of her, dragging her through the water with startling ease while Korva struggled to keep up. It wasn't just her physical body struggling either, the Biqaj logically knew something was wrong but it was like her brain had drifted out to sea and left a shell running on autopilot. The shape of arrows, a hull, bodies swimming clouded her vision along with the sudden pungent taste of something she couldn't describe right as her brain filled with rage.

It was not her own. Images, words, colors, all of it red, rage, revenge and she couldn't help but latch onto it rather than focus on her hand that refused to be quieted in the dark recess of her own mind.

“Fucking fish!”

The words hit her ears strangely as she broke the surface, the Mers plans hitting her head like an unseen coral reef under a ship, ripping through any other plans. Even now they were dumping whatever it was into the water. That was why there was no fish to eat the rest of her along with her finger. To come here would mean death. Even Korva could feel the strange heaviness in her limbs as she finished hauling herself over the side.

Her hand dripped steadily, the sudden appearance of her and blood startling the man still on board. But he recovered as quickly as the Biqaj used the Mers rage to fuel her actions even as her hand twitched in spastic pain. Her legs wobbled a bit, nausea rearing its ugly head as she retorted hotly then charged him, the arrow slicing through her side then out as if it never touched her to beging with.

“Faldrun ball licker!”

The two rolled into the boom, the Biqaj using it like a battering ram the moment she lifted herself, the spray of blood from his face all she could see through quickly spotting vision. His cross bow lay to the side, and in a fit of stupidity, rather than use it she tossed it over the edge right as she was tackled on her knees again, a fist meeting her eye and making her see spots. Another colliding with her temple before an inhumane shriek tore through the air, a Mers tail flashing above her then landing heavily on her stomach as the man was tackled off her.

**Borrowed this template from free to use

[Korva]

30th of Ashan, 719
**Common
** Rakahi

Korva heard the scream from the man before the crunch, the warmth seeping against her back no doubt was blood. It wasn't even in her to be upset about it so long as it wasn't hers. A foot widely kicked near her temple as she struggled to shove the Mers tail off of her to stand. Her legs nearly buckled underneath her and there was gasping from the deck. Double vision showed her the Mer and her bloodied body flopping on deck like a beached whale.

"Ya gotta be kidding." Korva murmured to no one as an arrow lodged into the Mers tail, her eyes widened, her body falling to its knees gratefully when she ducked, "Ya didn't kill the other ones?!"

There was no answer from the Mer only desperate scrambling to the edge of the boat and everything finally clicked, the Biqaj eyes widening as she struggled to hurry and help the other woman. Her entire hand and arm throbbed now, her stomach even roiled unhelpfully but Korva tried to pull the Mer to the edge of the boat. If she could get her close enough to pull herself over because there was no way she would be able to do it herself.

But there was blood on deck, the water and the inability to get her arm to just move! Curses flew freely and the Mer was entirely unhelpful, thrashing as the Biqaj tried to get her arms up under her. "Ya are the worst! Shoulda let me get hit or dead now we're both gonna die 'cause U'frek can't get 'is ass over here and fix it 'imself!"

The words were howled irritably at the water as a crossbow once more peeked over the edge of the deck, arms and legs following. But she finally had her own arms wrapped around the Mers torso, trying fruitlessly to drag her over to the edge. The Mer was too heavy, she was too tired, and her hand would not let up with it's screaming to just sink into painless oblivion. Quickly she looked around as the man and woman finally made there way on deck, there had to be something! Already the Mer in her arms was growing heavier, the thrashing dying down into weak twitches though her chest rumbled with a snarl when she spotted the newcomers.

They were struggling to notch arrows or reach them, slipping on the bloody deck. Korva remembered suddenly when her ma used to reseal the deck and she and her sisters would slide across the deck until the either hit the edge and sailed over or their ma caught them and tried to drown them for fucking up her deck. It wasn't the same situation but the idea could work.

"Ya ain't gonna die yet." She whispered to the Mer then waited for the right wave to hit, rocking the boat towards their enemies who sliced at Korva with a blade that dug snugly into her thigh. There was not point in holding back her cry of pain as she pushed her wave into it, using the motion of the boat and the slickness of the deck to propel her and the Mer into both of the other Biqaj and over the side of the boat.

The water hit her face hard, a barrel and the other bodies smacking into her back and head hard enough to make her vision black out. Silently she prayed for someone to hurry up and help or just let her stay sleep and not wake up again. But even that wasn't a prayer to be answered, the brief but endless sensation of floating ending as the Mer perked up in the water then ripped herself from Korva's arms, leaving her to let herself sink, far too exhausted to do anything more.

At least with her gills she couldn't drown yet. Just watched as more silver and red ran into the water from above as the mer fought with the last of poison pouring idiots. The barrels that had still fallen in when she'd pitched them all over the side now breaking her heart because it was all for nothing as she could practically see if polluting the water around them just as before or was that just her finally blacking out?

**Borrowed this template from free to use

[Pig Boy]

Korva would feel as if she'd been sinking for hours upon breaks. The time slipped by as her mer-gifted gills grew weaker, the salt water drawing less and less air with every heave of her lungs and gills, until it seemed she was drowning.

She was caught in the waters, sinking farther and farther, until at the edge of her vision, she saw a hazy, prismatic light shining down on her and the mer. The light extended, if it were possible, like a mesh so fine that it appeared iridescent, and it wrapped its way around her and the mer, pulling them up to the surface. The aurora net drew them upwards, until they came through the surface, allowing Korva a breath of sweet air just as her gills disappeared.

Then, she did black out.



Korva awoke later, at night, though there was an inexplicable glow illuminating the boat on whose deck she lay. Her mer friend was nearby, grumbling and gnawing on a fish, her wounds patched up by kelp bandages.

Across the way, Korva would see a man with pale, sunbleached hair and dark complexion, a feather in his hair. An albatross stood at the helm of his ship overhead. They were both looking down on her with concern.

"Are you well, girl? You gave all of us quite the fright!"

U'frek smiled down on her, as he extended a hand for her to take. "Not many of my folk would give aid to a mer, much less one so surly and disagreeable..." He cast a playful glance at the mer, at which she snorted. Then he turned his prismatic gaze back on Korva. "But you've done well. You put your own life and limb at risk to help a cousin. For that, I think you should be rewarded... But how to?"