Upon darkened sands

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.

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Mero
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Upon darkened sands

Vhalar 7th 717Cycle

Standing alone the boy watched the surf. The wreckage of the small boat he’d washed ashore on was gone now, he didn’t know what had become of it. Only that it was gone now. But the memories of that storm were not so easily lost. The crashing waves the Tattooed man who had freed him, they eyes of the Pirate. All of it played fresh in his mind when he slept. Nightmares, memories of his past were always behind him like wolves ever nipping at his heels.
Sitting down on the sand he pulled his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms about his legs. Looking out onto the ocean. The stars above still twinkling before dawns rays conquered the sky. He came here often, to look out onto the sea to remember, it calmed him after nights where he could not rest well. Rubbing his hands together he blew into them. His hot breath warming his chilled fingers. The weather was getting cooler as the seasons moved on. He didn’t know if he’d be able to visit this place much once the real cold settled in.
Shivering slightly as the sand’s cool temperature sapped warmth from his body. Out of some stubborn commitment he sat in silent vigil waiting on the sun still some long while off. He knew the tattooed man was not going to walk out of the surf, he was gone but he still held some childish hope that his old…. Friend… could emerge from the seas that had claimed him. It was sobering and something he still held himself in part responsible for, even if it was entirely beyond his control. The dark tongues of water lapped at the sand releasing it’s languid sounds. The ocean was scary, Mero hadn’t gone deeper than his ankles since he’d washed up on shore, and lightning and howling wind still haunted him. Storms were unpleasant and the deep black of the ocean scarier still, yet the dark beach was a hallowed place for him. So he stayed even as chills occasionally worked there way up his spine, even his wings were beginning to feel the chill through his downy feathers.
word count: 374
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Qit'ria
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Upon darkened sands

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Qit'ria stood behind the tree, peering out into the night time surf. The beach was well light by the smile of the moons, and the sound of water lapping against the sand was calming. The air was a bit brisk, and Qit pulled the cloak tighter around her shoulders. She'd been here earlier the day before, and had seen these very unusual tracks being washed away by the surf. They had a tight ridge in the center, with broad sweeping marks on the outer edge.There were deep indentions in the center. Qit had noticed that the "steps" if that's what they actually were, were not staggered, suggesting that perhaps the creature dragged its body rather than walked. And with that reasoning, she assumed the creature had come ashore from the sea.

She'd followed the trail, and had found an unburied hole, with egg shell fragments scattered around. It seemed this creature had laid eggs, and either they had hatched or something had raided them. Since she hadn't seen smaller tracks, she assumed the latter. She had noticed that the sand hadn't really been kicked up and scattered like might be found by fast moving feet, so she assumed this creature was slow moving. A slow moving creature, that had to leave the safety of water to come ashore and lay eggs was an easy target. That probably meant it came at night, using the cover of darkness for protection. And if one had come, surely more would come soon as well.

And so that was how Qit found herself waiting in the early morning darkness, hiding, watching, waiting.

Until she'd finally seen it. In the distance, barely perceptible even with the bright moon, a stout figure, low to the ground crawling from the water. She watched as it humped forward in a dragging motion. Slowly it moved, ever so slowly, until she finally recognized it. It was some sort of turtle. A sea turtle. Qit gripped her javelin, waiting for the creature to continue its trek up the beach. She considered striking now but then remembered, it was coming to lay eggs. And that meant if she waited, she could kill two squirrels with one arrow.

She watched as the turtle got near the brush, away from the exposed area of the beach, and it began to dig. It was a slow process, and Qit was becoming impatient. But still, she waited. Little did she know, on the far side of the turtle, putting it between them, was a young, winged boy. He was too far away for her to see clearly. Yet, he was there, in this beautiful scene on a lovely beach, as this mother laid her eggs.

Created by Yolande
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word count: 462
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Mero
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Upon darkened sands

It’s a unique sensation. The feeling that you are not alone, unsettling especially when you can’t see anyone else. He glanced about when the first shiver ran up his spine. Though he saw no other people he did after some time catch sight of something else a small figure on the sand. Forcing his cold limbs into motion he stood walking over to the seen, slowly and quietly as to not disturb it.

When he got close enough to see what it was he realized it was a turtle, laying eggs at that. He’d seen chickens before at cally’s enough that he knew where eggs came from but it hadn’t dawned on him that other creatures also made eggs. Looking back to the sea and the turtle he wondered what else could come from the sea. He had… but so many other things had not, the Tattooed man had never emerged from it’s murky depths. Watching the turtle for while and looking at the sea he wondered how much longer it would be before the sun found it’s way back from wherever it was and brought some warmth back to the world.

Suppressing another chill he sat back down on the cool sand waiting on the sun to peek up like he always had before. The Sea was strange and mysterious, so many things came from it, but he knew better than to think the sea anything more than a waiting hungry maw ready to consume anything that went into it without proper caution. Sometime he though he hated the sea, but when he watched he wondered how anything so beautiful could be evil.
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Qit'ria
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Upon darkened sands

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Qit continued to watch the turtle with concealed eyes, still not seeing the young boy that had moved closer for a better look. She was too focused on her target, failing to take in the big picture. She watched as no more eggs were dropped from the mother. She heard the scratchy, flapping sound as she buried the eggs in sand with her hind flippers. Still, Qit waited, she wanted to be sure the mother was ready for her.

Drawing her sword as quietly as she could, she saw the mother start her tired, post birthing crawl back toward the ocean. With all the stealth of a wailing banshee, Qit burst from her hiding place with a bloodcurdling snarl. She started running for the mother turtle, who really couldn't crawl at a faster pace, as tired as she was from giving birth. Every pump of Qit's arms brought her closer, every swing caused her shortsword to catch the moonlight just right so as to shine.

And then she leapt atop the turtle, expecting it to be a rough landing. But as she oomphed against it, holding on with one hand, and getting her feet behind it into the sand, she realized its shell was more leathery. And she hugged it, dragging at it, wrestling with it with her free hand, before she got a foot beneath her. She lifted the large turtle a bit off the ground, and was now noticing that it wasn't hiding within its shell as she had expected it to. Maybe it couldn't. Just made it easier for her.

Her shortsword came up to the mother's neck, and sliced through it like butter. Blood spurted out into the moonlight, falling upon the virginal sands, as the head fell forward, rolling toward the surf. Qit felt the creature's blood splatter up over her chest and down her body, and she roared in victory, pumping her sword to the sky. She tossed the body down into the sand in front of her, letting a stream of blood flow toward the rising tide. Qit beat her sword filled hand against her chest and hooted loudly. The thrill of each and every kill, particularly knew ones, gave life to the predator.

Turning around in her victory celebration, her eyes fell upon the boy that had been spying on the mother. And she snarled loudly at him in challenge, seeing him as a threat against her prize. She didn't take kindly to thieves or challengers. And he appeared to be both to her.

Created by Yolande
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Qit'ria
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Upon darkened sands

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But the boy didn't seem to react or move. Qit'ria just stared at him with squinted, suspicious eyes. Why wasn't he moving? She figured he'd either run away or prepare to attack. Instead he was just... frozen. It was insanity. But it seemed he wasn't a threat. She pulled out a coil of rope, and set about to securing it to the corpse. She laid the rope longways next to it, all while keeping a side eye on the immobile boy. Was he just so big of a coward that she'd scared him so bad that he was frozen? Not moving in the hopes she wouldn't chase him? She shook her head and smiled. City people. Bunch of weaklings.

She knelt to the opposite side of the turtle, and flipped over onto the length of rope, its head flopping comically from the wound she'd inflicted. She dragged a length of rope up the belly, and tied a simple overhand knot with the two ends, near the sliced neck. But instead of tightening the overhand knot, she expanded it, dragging excess rope from beneath the corpse, until the knot was wide enough to wrap around the turtle. Still crouching, she grunted as she lifted the turtle's front half off the sand, letting it rest against her torso as she slipped the knot over it, tucking the rope just behind the front flippers. She then pulled the two ends taut, and the knot tightened around the sea turtle. She then tied the two ends into a square knot, which could be used to put around her torso as she dragged her kill off.

Turtle secured, she looked back at the boy once more and just laughed. Why was he still here?

She followed the sea turtle's tracks up to where she'd watched it lay eggs, and pulled out a small bag. Kneeling down, she scooped a wide load of sand into the bag as she unburied the eggs. There were so many! They were squishy too. She gingerly plucked about half of them from the hole, and slipped them into her bag, burying them under some more sand. She then covered up the hole. She was a hunter, but she wasn't greedy. This would let there be more turtles to hunt one day. She secured the bag to her waist, then returned to the turtle.

Picking up her drag rope, she slipped it over her torso, draping it from one shoulder down to her opposite hip. She leaned into the rope as she began marching through the sand down the coast, heading for her camp. Once there, she knew she needed to bleed out the turtle the rest of the way. She undid her barrel hitch around the turtle and did it in reverse. She then took the guide ropes, tied them both to a stick, and tossed over a tree branch. With a deep crouch, she sprang up high and grabbed the stick, pulling the ropes down, thus raising the turtle up. She continued to grunt and strain as she raised the turtle upside down from the tree until it was high enough off the ground that other predators couldn't easily reach it. She then tied the lead ropes around a root, and looked on proudly at her kill, as blood continued to leak out of its severed neck and onto the ground in small pitter patters.

Qit'ria built up her cooking fire until it was nice and hot. Then she set her egg rock, a nice, smooth, clean rock on the edge of the fire, and let it get nice and hot. She went to her food stores and scooped some of the solid fat from the bowl she kept it. She dropped the fat onto the stone where it began to melt and sizzle. She licked the fat from her fingers before getting the eggs out of the bag. She cleaned the sand from them as best she could, and pulled out one of her throwing knives. Gently, she stabbed the tip into the shell, just barely, and pulled it through the membrane. She then opened up the egg over the rock and let the egg tumble out.

The large yolk landed on the rock, and immediately began to sizzle. It was amusing to her, there was almost no egg white, almost all yolk. And she waited, occasionally poking at the gooey yolk until it finally felt firm. Using another rock, she half scooped, half scraped the egg off, and dropped it into her open mouth. It burned her tongue a bit, but she didn't mind. It was delicious and creamy. A master chef would describe it as "an abomination to all eggs. Truly this should never be served to anyone." But she liked it all the same.
word count: 820
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Alistair
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Upon darkened sands

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Qit'ria


Knowledge
Skill
Acrobatics: Crouch into a verticle leap
Blades (Shortsword): Dragging the edge across a throat
Cooking: Sunny Side Up Sea Turtle Egg
Detection: The sound of a turtle moving over sand
Hunting: Sea Turtle Kill
Hunting: Sea Turtle tracks in sand
Seafaring: Barrel Hitch Knot with Square Knot lead
Strength: Hauling a sea turtle

Loot: N/A
Injuries: N/A
Renown: N/A

Points 15

Comments: Unfortunate that this thread was abandoned, but not really, considering your brutality against harmonious, loving turtles. Alistair has partaken in the murder of sea animals at one point, but it was just rapey dolphins. Turtles are kind, loving, monogamous creatures and the one you killed likely had a whole family depending on it. Please delete your character sheet.
word count: 127
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