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 Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 5:14 pm
((Note: Ninetails uses the pronouns it/they normally, but uses feminine pronouns when impersonating Rao.))
Ninetails walked along the shore. Though it wore the garb of Rao, right now it was itself. It looked for food. The shore was a plentiful place for a predator. In the tide pools sometimes one could find trapped fish, sea urchins, or other delectables. Clams could be delicious if dug up, and crabs put up a fight, but their delicate flesh was beyond compare. Carrion was commonplace there as well. Though Ninetails had too much pride to regularly make a meal of carrion, a particularly fresh specimen might attract its eye.
As it walked, it spotted something appealing. Peppering a muddy embankment were colonies of mussels. These were smaller than the more robust clams, but there were enough to easily make a meal. Ninetails used its claws to dig the mussels from their perch, amassing a pile of them in preparation to feast.
That was when it noticed something, a shape in the water too large to be a fish, and too colorful to be a dolphin. Ever secretive, Ninetails shifted seamlessly into the bearing of Rao. As Rao, she smoothed down the parchment-like fur of her many tails, making them smaller and less imposing. She buried her pawed feet partially in the sand, hiding them. There were few that would believe she was a purewalker as this, unless they were exceptionally clear of mind and eyes.
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Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 5:26 pm
It was a beautiful late summer day. On days like this, Lorelei found herself drawn closer to shore. She liked the warmth there, and the life. The trees sang with the noisy voices of cicadas. There were no cicadas in the ocean, only the long sad songs of whales, though Isenath assured her that whales weren't as sad and profound as they liked you to think.
Lorelei was swimming along when she noticed something on one of her air breaks. It was a soquili! She knew that neither of her mothers would approve of talking to random land-bound strangers. Even Quinta had apparently had some bad experiences that left her wary. Lorelei understood that, but she didn't feel like obeying it at this precise moment. That soquili looked interesting, and she couldn't miss out on that.
"Hello!" she chirped as she waded over. The soquili looked strange, but that didn't faze her. She knew that there were many things about land soquili that she didn't know about. It was probably just some breed she wasn't aware of.
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Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 5:28 pm
"Hello," cooed Ninetails-as-Rao. She was the very picture of feminine beauty, though with some traits that would obviously be considered mutant by most soquili. Her words were accented. She had only recently learned the accent of the locals but she already spoke it well. Tongues were one of her many talents.
"I didn't know there were kelpi about. If I had, I might have called on you earlier."
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Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 5:31 pm
"Called on me for what?" asked Lorelei, amiable. She let her head and shoulders come out of the water but kept her hindquarters and tail submerged for now. Sometimes soquili got a little spooked to see her tail, though she never quite understood why.
She looked over the mare. She was lovely, but strange. There was some sort of texture to her that Lorelei couldn't quite put her hoof on. What was it? As she glanced downwards, she noticed the pile of unearthed shellfish. "Mussels!" she exclaimed, delighted. "You eat mussels too?" Mussels were one of her favorite treats. She didn't need to lie in wait to hunt for what didn't move.
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Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2015 4:14 pm
An idea came to Ninetails-as-Rao in a moment of insight. This was no ordinary creature she had discovered. Kelpi could go places that she could not, and she did have something she desired that was currently beneath the waves. She swept the mussels aside with a paw, disinterested in feeding now that she had a goal in mind.
"The gods smile upon me to send you to my side," she said, putting on her best expression of charmed gratitude. "For you see, I am in a terrible bind. There is something that I cannot do myself, because I cannot swim like a fish like the kelpi do." She heaved a sigh that made her chest billow. She batted her eyelashes, as if fighting off tears. These were the tactics that usually worked with the stallions. Mares were more tricky, but sometimes the methods didn't differ by much.
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Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2015 4:18 pm
Lorelei blinked owlishly when the mare abandoned the mussels, then blinked again when the conversation switched tone to one of sad desperation. Her mouth screwed up in a wry smile of sympathy. She wondered, what could be troubling the strange land-bound mare so?
"What is it that you need?" she asked, curious, but not yet volunteering herself. There were some plants and fish in the ocean that had medicinal properties. If the mare needed her to pull up some seaweed, that would be easy enough. Lorelei had quietly run a few similar errands for others when her mothers weren't paying attention.
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Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2015 4:27 pm
"I came here on a boat," replied the disguised fox-walker. That much was true, though she had been a stowaway rather than an accepted passenger. "I came from my home in the Floating Kingdom and brought with me many powerful artifacts of my religion." That much was true to a point as well, though the only real religion she practiced was self-worship.
"When the ship went down, all of my precious artifacts went down with it." Her voice grew unsteady, as if she fought to control her emotions. "I keep thinking that they must still be down there, but I can't reach them myself." Her fox rods. Those lay on the bottom of the ocean, her most precious possession. If she could only get the kelpi to fetch them for her...
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Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2015 4:46 pm
"You were shipwrecked?" Lorelei perked up. She had sometimes explored shipwrecks that she found on the ocean floor. For the most part, they were older wrecks, long since abandoned to growth and sea life. Once though, she'd found a fresher one. There was the smell of decay there... and worse things. She'd found one skeleton that wasn't quite a skeleton yet. Some bits of flesh still had clung to the dead human's remains, and she remembered watching even as small fish picked at it.
She shook herself from her thinking. Now was not the time for getting lost in her experiences. "Where were you shipwrecked?" she asked. "Near here?" Despite herself, her curiosity grew about the mare's story. She tried to bite back a third question, but it spilled out despite herself. "How long ago did it happen?" She wondered, was it a fresh shipwreck? She didn't know if she wanted to go swimming among human bodies again...
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Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2015 6:34 pm
She had ensnared the kelpi, that was obvious. If she was any creature other than a skinwalker, she might have even pitied the weak-minded fools that made such ready and willing servants. As it was, she disdained them all the while she used them. This one was and would be no different.
"It happened north, but not too far from here. We were close enough to see the shore but not close enough to swim to it." The imitation of pain crept into her voice. "I was lucky. I found a piece of wood that I held onto until I could get to land." That was actually the truth. Ninetails' tails made it an inefficient swimmer. When weighted down by water, the nine tails became like an anchor. It probably would have drowned along with all the wretched humans had it not transformed into fox form and climbed on top of a piece of wood large enough to support it.
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Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2015 6:46 pm
Lorelei's eyes grew wide as her companion told her story. Though she lived in the ocean, she had never witnessed a ship in distress before. She tried to imagine what it may have been like. It was difficult to think of the ocean as an enemy. She was swimming almost as soon as she walked. What was it like to fear drowning?
She shivered slightly, visions growing too vivid. "I'm glad you made it," she said, honestly. "There are some kelpi and mers that rescue shipwrecked humans, you know." And then, a pang of guilt struck at her. There were some kelpis that hastened humans to their demise as well. She knew that Isenath had drowned a decent number of humans in her time. Never before had Quinta really thought about what that meant. It had always seemed so natural. After all, humans didn't belong in the ocean. Now that she really thought about it...
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Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2015 6:50 pm
"I am glad that I survived as well," sighed Ninetails-as-Rao. "But I could only save myself. I was not fast enough to save my most precious of possessions, the fox rods." And there it was, the truth of the encounter. The fox rods were what Ninetails longed for and desired.
"May I ask that you..." She cut herself off, shaking her head in sorrow. "No, it is too much. We have only just met and I do not even know your name." She turned slightly so that she faced away from the kelpi. This was it, the moment of truth- or deception.
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Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2015 6:54 pm
"My name is Lorelei," she blurted out. Almost as quickly, she followed with another declaration. "And I'll help you find your fox rods." She had guilt, but if she could help this one soquili, it would be a step towards proving herself and proving that she was a good person.
"If you just... tell me where they are." She still was imagining death by drowning. How terrified were those humans when their lungs filled with water? Could they all truly be so wretched that they deserved it? She was starting to understand the answer. She watched the other mare, heart in her throat.
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Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2015 8:18 pm
"I can do better than that," cooed Ninetails-as-Rao. She let her tails draw slow circles across the sand, coyly seductive. These sorts of tactics worked to disarm even the mares that only liked stallions, or so it had discovered. In the art of trickery, there was no one better. Ninetails even modified its voice to be unrecognizable when taking the guise of another.
"I can show you," she continued. "It is a day's walk north of here. That's where we'll find the wreck." She lifted up her head and looked along the distant shore. She could certainly tolerate whatever inane babble it would take to keep Lorelei interested for long enough to get what she needed. And once she got the fox rods back.... she could kill her and be done with her forever. Her kitsune spirit smiled within.
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Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2015 8:24 pm
So close! And yet... it was still a hefty distance away. It would take a day to get there, and then a day to get back. That was two days, plus whatever time it took to explore the wreck. Her two moms would notice if she wasn't back by the morning, and they'd start getting more seriously worried if she was still gone by the following night. She'd never stayed away for so long without telling them first, and she could just imagine what they would think if she disappeared suddenly now.
"I..." she chewed her lip unhappily and hesitated. "I have to tell my parents first. Sorry." She hunched guiltily. She'd already agreed to help and definitely couldn't back out entirely. "I don't think it will take long." She wasn't even as confident as her unsure voice sounded. Sometimes Quinta and Isenath wandered far during the day. She might not be able to find them until nightfall.
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Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2015 8:27 pm
"No, we need to go today." A sharp glint came to Ninetails' one visible eye as she said this. Secrets were best kept by one. She didn't want anyone else knowing about her plot, and she absolutely didn't want anyone else coming with. The kelpi parents might have more experience with skinwalkers and be able to detect her, or keep their daughter from helping in other ways. Even worse, they might conspire to steal her fox rods away from her forever. There was little she could do if they hid the rods away under the sea.
"Please," she added, more gently. "I have seen it in the tea leaves that a storm will come on the morrow. We need to do this tonight, or it may get washed away."
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