Fantasy RPG Forum - Standing Trials

Cassion's blessing had caused Arlo to feel more, want more, crave more. More of everything. But the flip side of it was when he slept, he was finding he slept more soundly, less likely to wake to the slightest movement around him than he had been before. It might partly be due to living indoors, in a sense, as opposed to sleeping out in the wilds. Or that Lyova had over time become more reliable when it came to watching over them in the night. And besides all that, it was Cylus and the sunlight was as good as gone for a number of trials to come. Whatever it was though, when he woke to Vega's voice, Arlo was fully awake and quickly.

Rolling over on his back, he considered what she said and sniffed the air. "I can smell it," he said, sitting up and reaching for his trousers to pull on. He could feel it too, that charge in the air. And besides, the temperature had dropped too overnight and the cold hit him like a wave once he'd thrown off the covers. It made sense to get the Wanderlust out of dock, he agreed as he'd dressed and gone with her up on deck. There was another blast of cold waiting to smack them both in the face and he winced against the sharp breeze that was already peppered with fine bits of hail that began collecting on the brim of his hat and his clothing.

By the time he'd hauled the anchor, let loose the ropes that tethered them to the docks and Vega let out the sails, the wind had already picked up, the hail flying along with it stung any exposed flesh and was getting bigger all the time so that they could see and hear the larger bits bouncing off the deck. "Ow," he muttered as a larger piece bounced off his cheek. And at the next slip over, there was a great deal of shouting as somebody slipped and fell into the water and others worked at fishing him out again. The man would be fine and was already with so many others to help him. Still, it seemed that more than a couple other ships up and down the harbor were well on their way to putting themselves out on open water.

Vega's call to mind the boom, once they were on their way, was more welcome than usual. Ordinarily, even when it was going to come at you, it was fairly predictable and came in a steady, almost graceful sweep. But not that night. The winds that whipped around them were fickle things and changed on a whim. And not just that, these weren't steady or straight line winds either. Whatever the baseline was so far as strength and speed,the gusts seemed to double or triple it in a flash, making that boom deadlier than usual. Luckily Arlo was quick on the uptake when it came to the ducking and weaving it took to avoid a catastrophe.

Funny how Arlo was enjoying the squall. His Immortal's enhanced blood was pumping through his veins and bringing an adventurous thrill along with it. Cassion would relish all this he was sure. With a hand tight on the rail and the other round Vega's waist, he steadied them both when they kissed,and he nearly lost his hat in the process. They weren't far out of dock but the waves were growing, one right after the other and as they collided with the Wanderlust, they sent spray careening across the deck. Spray made more punishing that it might have been, had it not been carrying marble sized hail along with it.

It would be smart, he agreed, to find a place where they'd be better sheltered from the storm than on open water. And there were some places around Scalvoris that he'd already charted, based on the places they'd been before, or those he'd identified on existing maps of the area. "The wind's coming from the north," he said, trying to be heard over the wind, the crashing waves and the snapping of the sails. Digging into his sack and then sorting through a handful of scrolls he'd stored there, he looked for a particular one, and finding a relatively dry spot, showed it to her.

"Here, it's already charted. North, with the mainland coast to port, passing by Immortal's Tongue to starboard." There was plenty of room, even in a storm. It didn't exactly require threading a needle. "South of Almund, the harbor is a deep hook shape, plenty spacious and should provide a good deal of shelter from the wind on three sides." Not to mention the waves that were beginning to toss them round like a rubber duck in a sloshing tub.

Arlo didn't like wearing the chicken leg. It looked ridiculous and never mind when he did wear it, it was hidden beneath his clothing. It was the principle of the thing. But rather than argue the point, when Vega handed it to him, he took it and put it on. She had a point of course since it was colder than cold out in the storm, but he wasn't about to admit aloud that she was right.

While they worked together, he saw the look on her face and couldn't help but grin a little. Vega might be wearing a deep frown of concentration while she wrestled with the sails and the Wanderlust. But Arlo knew without a doubt that she was loving every bit of it. And as for himself, maybe it was a little bit of Cassion's blood running through his veins. But in spite of the dangers of a storm like this at sea, he was loving it too.

Side by side the two of them, there was no doubt it was going to get rougher than it had already. He'd experienced storms like it before in fact, but more on land than water. When he suggested where they might go in order to ride out the storm, and she yelled that she knew where he meant and where it was, he frowned as he put the scroll away. "Well if you knew already then why did you ask!?" he shouted back against the wind. "And you don't need to shout, I'm not hard of hearing!" It was always a good time for a scrap apparently, even a short one.

Then he ducked as the boom came at him again. "Well you heave then!" he told her when she said they wouldn't make it. "And you come blessed and marked for hope so I'd say we're in a decent position!" Seemed she'd already thought of that, considering the new feeling that came over him, and presumably her too. The hail hurt, but their thick clothing helped, his hat helped, especially after he'd tied the thing down to stop it coming off his head again with the next gust that came along. It wasn't easy with the hail and the wind whipping around them, the crashing waves, getting those sail where they needed to be. But between the both of them they got it done. "We'll make it just fine," he said, looking her way with a wink.

Before Cassion had blessed him, Arlo had been predisposed already to living life to the fullest, at a breakneck pace sometimes. Now it was even more the case. But he wasn't so consumed with living large that he'd throw himself overboard in a storm, just to see what it was like. And letting go of a handhold, not watching his step, not keeping an eye on the boom was as good as diving in headlong. Still, it was thrilling.

He wasn't so preoccupied though with staying alive that he wasn't up for a good scrap with Vega. It was part of what made them work. "Well you asked about a map and I showed you a map!" he insisted, shouting against the wind. "And I'm not," he insisted. No more argumentative than usual, that was. Better stop though, it was too easy to get drawn in and that was a distraction too. She was right. Vega was right. They could settle it later.

So Arlo took the wheel like she wanted, and made the adjustments when she called them out. And by U'frek the thing fought back. It took strength and focus to keep hold and not let the thing spin out of his hands, or him with it. That salty kissed sustained him though. Then ten degrees to port it was, and it wasn't easy. Just keeping himself steady on his feet took a combination of balance and strength, and when Vega called out, he lashed the wheel in place with a strong piece of rope before stepping away to join her.

Naturally, he'd have told Vega, he preferred to stay up on deck. Except that the words were cut off by a loud crack as soon as he opened his mouth as something above them definitely snapped and came tumbling down towards the deck.

More and more, Arlo was coming to understand that the Wanderlust had had it's own personality, it's own quirks and even it's whims. And the Wanderlust was definitely a she. She wasn't unlike Vega either, maybe. Whichever the case it had taken some doing, keeping hold of that wheel then tying it in place. A biqaj hitch? Well that would work nicely and he committed the little intricacies of the knot to memory. It would hold. That was unless the rope itself was to snap, and it would take a lot of force for something like that to happen.

"Got it," he assured her as they finished tying the thing up and he finally stepped away from the wheel. But then before he could take hold of her again in order to steady them both and just to have her in his arms, something above them snapped and in the same instances she was throwing herself at him. "Vega, no!" He'd begun to reach for her and duck away in order to pull her away with him. But she was quicker, collided with him and knocked him onto his backside. Safe and sound, him. But as it turned out, not her.

Scrambling onto his knees, Arlo realized that the puddled water round him was tinged with silver. "Vega, no!" he shouted against the storm as he reached her. There were any number of immediate concerns. The first was whether or not she was still breathing, and a quick check insured that she was. But the next immediate worry was that in her limp state, she'd be easily washed overboard if he left her long enough to somehow get control of the ship. He couldn't do that, and tend to her at once. And if he didn't stop them from being swamped, it wouldn't matter to either of them then.

So carefully taking hold of her, he dragged her to center ship and carefully tied her there, in order to hold her aboard and relatively safe for the time being. "I'll be right back," he told her though she couldn't hear him, and offered up a prayer to U'frek to keep her safe in the meantime. And Cassion, even Xiur for good measure. If he untied the wheel, the thing would go crazy, surely. But when Arlo looked beyond the rail, he realized what their most immediate problem was. A wave, much larger than the ones before, was heading right at them.

Twenty-five feet? Maybe more? The thing would swamp them and he knew it. Even if it wasn't for the broken bit that had left one of the sails flapping loose, it would be catastrophic and he didn't have time to fix one before the other came crashing down. But on a whim, or maybe it was divine insight, he became aware of the gift U'frek had given him. It might just work, so focusing, Arlo created a wave of his own. Just fifteen feet tall, a little smaller than the one coming in, but from the ship heading out to meet it.

And when they met? They clashed in such a way that while the one that would have swamped them kept coming, it's energy was depleted by quite a lot, and it grew much smaller in the process. In effect, they'd met where one went up and the other went down. In the scheme of things, rendered harmless. There was no time for celebratory jigs, and Arlo knew on instinct that he wouldn't be able to create another one as quickly. It was only one disaster averted. But it allowed him to get back to Vega's side in order to check on her.

Kneeling beside her, where he'd fastened her tight, he looked into her face. "Vega?" Whatever bleeding she'd been doing had slowed, and was just a trickle now. And in order to stop it completely Arlo tore a strip of cloth from his sleeve to tie round her head. Then prying an eye open, he looked to see if her pupils were responding.

She'd taken a swat at him, protested, ordered him to stop. There was no question that Vega had taken a good knock to the head. But Arlo could at least find some consolation in knowing that so long as she was being stubborn and argumentative, then she wasn't too far gone. Which was all the comfort he had at that bit, since the greater part of his focus would be needed to keep them from getting swamped and ending up little more than shards of wood scattered across the waves.

When he'd sent one wave crashing into a larger one coming right at them, well any other time he'd have pumped a fist in the air and celebrated. Except that the rogue wave wasn't the only one out there, and there were probably others waiting to come up from behind. He had to do more, and the ability, such as it was, was depleted. Arlo's worry for Vega though was nearly overwhelming, especially when he saw the warring colors in her eyes. Surely though she was just feeling a little loopy? Anyone would.

"We must have," he told her when she asked if they'd been kidnapped. Better to humor her for now. "And of course I escaped. Always do. I have to make sure it's safe though. I'll be back. I promise." And with that, he was off, back to trying to figure out how to avert a disaster that was inevitable if he didn't find a way. There was no question that Vega was more familiar with the rigging than him. He knew what all the bits and pieces were. He knew what they did. But what he knew was mostly book learning or word of mouth, not necessarily practice. What was broken, he'd have to put back together again best he could.

The hail continued to beat down on them and sideways too. The waves kept tossing the Wanderlust around, soaking her deck with salty spray. And it was cold, wet and it all made it difficult to keep his footing. The fewer steps the better, Arlo thought. Less to go wrong and so he pulled the sail that needed pulling in. Naturally though it didn't completely do the trick. So dashing back to the wheel, he untied it, heaved to again with a great deal of wrestling with the ship, and tied it in place again.

Really, it was all he could do at that bit, so dashing back to her and dropping down on his heels, he looked into her eyes again. "Alright then. Tell me the name of your father. When's my birth-trial, and how many giant bees does it take to make two hats and a set of long johns?" There was reason behind that line of questioning. The first, so that he could get some sort of idea just how hard of a knock she'd received. The other? Well, if she still had her caustic wit, then she was well on her way to lucid already.