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 Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2014 12:36 pm
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Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2014 11:54 pm
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George's mouth was full of pearls, and he was doing his best not to swallow. Today's harvest had been plentiful, but he still only had one way to carry them - in his mouth. Otherwise he would have been dropping them all over the place, down in the sand, losing them in the corals. They clacked around against his teeth unpleasantly, but it was the only way to do it.
Swimming into the shallows, George looked around for his tumble of rocks. They jutted into the sea next to a cave - one that he assumed nobody lived in, judging by the blowholes and rough surf he could hear within when the tide was up. That was the dangerous time for him; if he got too close, he would easily be swept in and dashed, so he did his best to come when the tide was lower, just inches deep over his cache instead of feet. Though it was easier for him to dry out under the hot sun, he'd rather be able to swim back to safety than get stuck in that cave.
With one hoof, he shifted the smallest rock off of his treasure. It was tiny, only big enough to keep the trove from running away with the tide. Beneath it lay gold chains and coins, bright jewels, and countless pearls. His more delicate treasures - his shells and corals and lighter metals - were safe at home. These were the ones that he kept on land to trade to passerby when he really wanted something that they weren't willing to give up.
Opening his mouth, George let the pearls fall among the links and rings in the little divet in the sand. When he replaced the rock, some of the gold and silver still glimmered out under the reflected sunlight, but he wasn't worried. He'd never seen anybody around this cave - his traders met him on the clean sand, where footing was surer. The rocks were treacherous to anyone who couldn't swim around them.
"Back home now, Baby," he said to his starfish, but then thought better of it. Finding his way back around the rocks, he made for the safer, open shoreline. His cache was still in sight, just barely... But here, the water was deeper and he could relax and float without having to stick his fins out of the water and endanger them to sunburn. The water was warm... Warmer than it was in the Grail, like the sun was kissing his dark scales through the cool water. They flashed blue-green against the surface and the sand below him, and George closed his eyes. The sun even kissed his lids, and before he knew it, he was lying on the soft sand of the seafloor, two and a half feet under the surface, half asleep.
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Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 6:16 pm
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When George heard the woosh of water being pushed around, he ignored it at first, thinking that it must be the tide coming in to fill the cave or something, or perhaps a sea turtle swimming nearby... Predators weren't all too common along this shoreline, he'd found, excepting the occasional predatory, feral Kelpi. But the sound suddenly stopped, and that gave him pause - it had been going away from him, he thought, but it should have faded out gradually. And if it was the cave... It certainly wouldn't have stopped altogether.
Frowning, he opened his eyes just as a teeny, tiny, indistinguishable whisper reached his ears. Jolting upright, George looked around. There was someone in the water with him, someone he didn't know, unless Illy or his daughter were playing a prank on him... But he saw no one, no distinctive rainbow or mottled blue-green markings. That was, until he saw gold glimmer against blue.
Someone's in my treasure!
Thought process going from panicked to seething, George sped over to his hoard as fast as his curling tail and paddling forelegs would allow him to go, but he didn't say anything. All he could see was an orange tail fin - one that did not look like it belonged to his breed. It looked familiar, the size, but not the shape...
It hit him.
It looked like Kali's tail, a nixie tail. If that was the case, she could outrun him no problem, in the water and absolutely on land. Staying silent until he was behind the biggest of the tumble of rocks that was still underwater and blocked most of his cache and the thief from view, he peered over it and looked down on the nixie.
She was blue - blue like the shallows of the bay, maybe that was why he hadn't seen her. Or perhaps she'd blended into something. Her fins were black-tipped orange, just as he'd seen before, her hair a swaying mop of deep blue as she helped herself to his necklaces and swung them around her neck. At least he thought the nixie was a she... She looked sort of delicate, he thought.
"Put those back," he growled, stationary. He'd make her look for him just as he'd had to come after her. "They're mine, I got them off a Kelpi. I earned those." That was a lie; he hadn't stolen them from anybody. Anybody alive, anyway. He'd gotten them from a shipwreck before he stopped hunting through those for fear of the dead inside. "If he sees you with them, he'll come after you and it'll be all your fault."
Maybe that would make her put them back. He could hope, because if she ran, he couldn't hope to catch her.
Sorry for the super long post... He ran away with me. XD First time he's done that, it was kinda nice. X3
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Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 1:20 pm
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Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2014 11:30 pm
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George looked warily at the nixie. Definitely a mare, he could tell by her voice and that haughty way she held herself. It took only a fraction of a second for him to go from "how did she know?" to "I'm an idiot." It sounds like I'm looking out for the thief that's thieving from me! Growling low in his throat and grinding his teeth, he glared daggers at the glimmering gold and silver about her neck. My lovelies, why have you forsaken me?
He would be too slow to catch her; seathi were not made for speed, but for fairly stationary day-to-day life among the seaweed - boy, had he learned that over the years. He would be better off playing on his stealth, but the ship had sailed on that. She knew he was here. So what else could he do? Sweet talk her into giving them up? Perceptive as she was, that did not seem a likely solution, either. Lying might suffice, but she'd already detected one... "The clasps are delicate," he said, putting a pained note in his voice. That much was true. Aged by both time and seawater and once encrusted with sealife, the ocean had not been kind to the more dainty of the necklaces' parts. "If I try to take them, they might break, and then what use would they be? Pretty to look at, impossible to wear. Even just swimming around in them could damage them, and we have no one down here to fix such brittle metal. The Merlok do not cherish the metal of mankind and the craftsmen are few and far between." He was still in his spot above the boulder, stationary and following her with his imploring eyes. "I need to keep them safe."
...At least he wasn't outright begging.
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 8:40 am
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Posted: Sun May 18, 2014 3:34 am
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The "legs" comment was a low blow, though his species should probably be over it by now. Still, he'd relived the unfortunate circumstance of being born with two legs instead of four his whole life - and not to mention the pathetic tail. Gritting his teeth, George forced air through them, hoping to surprise her with his breed's ability - blowing bubbles that held their form. Not so useless after all, are we? he berated himself. He slipped out of sight behind the rocks under cover of the opaque bubbles, and meant to approach her from behind.
The advantage of having such a pathetic tail was that it curled and uncurled without the noise of fanning fins, and he slipped around the end of the tumble of rocks to where she stood. One of the necklaces was on the ground; that was good, maybe she wouldn't have time to pick it back up. But the silver-and-sapphire was still around her neck... Though he'd found several of those in his time, this was one of the prettiest. Getting closer, he hovered a foot above and behind, hoping his shadow wouldn't give him away. Craning his neck, he reached out with his teeth. If I can just get it over her head...
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Posted: Sun May 18, 2014 4:02 am
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Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2014 11:13 pm
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Apparently unbeknownst to the mare, George had latched his teeth around the delicate chain of the silver-and-sapphire necklace. He was just about to paddle upward, to pull it off over her head, when she took off - and he did, too. No. No, no, no, no! he thought to himself as the necklace dragged him along after it; as light as he was, the necklace was heavy enough to act like an anchor, pulling against her chest, but he wasn't about to let go. Oh no, that was not going to happen.
Curses and obscenities blossoming in his mind like foul-scented flowers, George tried to figure out his plan of action. His best - and his only - bet was to get it off her before she got out of the water; elsewise, he would be going with her, riding on her back, and that was the very last thing on his list of things he wanted to do ever, right after get eaten by a kelpi and be confronted by one of his exes. He couldn't even blow bubbles to vent some of the frustration; that would be letting her onto his presence, giving himself away.
Thinking as she headed for shore, he realized he had two options: he could either push off her shoulders with his hooves and try to get the necklace from around her neck before she realized what was happening... Or he could try to undo the clasp without her noticing. Neither was particularly appetizing, but the second seemed far more difficult, for it meant he would have to try to undo the complicated, brittle clasp without breaking it - and he would have to do it with his teeth. No, the first option was the far better plan, and it had, after all, been his original plan all along.
Wishing that he could suck in a deep breath before starting (maybe it would relieve some of the pressure he was feeling, but he obviously could not indulge that urge; they were underwater, for crying out loud), George braced himself. He would have to do it fast, and just get it over with. Every second he wasted was another foot closer to shore, and another foot closer to being high and dry. On the count of three, he told himself, he'd put his hooves down and push off, and then everything would happen so quickly he wouldn't even remember it tomorrow.
One.
This would be just another regular day in his life, facing off against a nixie mare who fancied herself enough of a princess that she could make off with his treasure.
Two.
Only when he told the tale, especially to his children, it'd probably be a kelpi mare he was facing off against, or maybe a mer. Both were huge when compared to him, after all; much worthier opponents. At least in a story. In real life, not so much.
Three.
George steadied his hooves on the nixie mare's shoulders, and in the next half second, pushed himself up with all the force he'd mustered thinking about the tale he would tell his children. He made it above her head - and now all there was to it was to let gravity do its work as it carried him to the seafloor, his treasure finally his again.
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Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2014 11:26 pm
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Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2014 10:09 pm
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Quote: "Actually, it's mine," George said, sitting on the seafloor where the necklace had towed him to, a few feet below him. A few seconds later, however, he saw her muscles tense, and his eyes widened. Uh oh.
Ducking his head into the necklace, George got away the only way he could with the heavy chain around his neck - pulling himself along the seafloor with his hooves, his tail pushing him along every few steps as it curled and uncurled. It wasn't a very fast getaway strategy, but the rocks and weeds on the ground kept him mostly out of sight and unreachable for somebody bigger than him. Ha, gotcha, he thought, and then the dropoff opened up below him, a deep expanse of open water without shelter. Just as quickly as he'd found himself in a protective maze, he'd found the exit. "Damn," he muttered, looking around furtively. Maybe he'd lost her?
Quote: Lissianna smirked as she watched him vanish into the reeds that lined the seafloor. "It's only yours for now little thing. I will have it eventually." She perched on top of a rock and watched the seafloor. He'd have to surface eventually and then she'd have it. This territory may not be perfectly familiar but she could see the drop off expanding below them and grinned. "So then how do you plan to escape me?"
Quote: Little thing echoed behind him, and George scowled. At least I'm not bigger than any female has a right to be, he thought sardonically. She had to be somewhere above him, where she could see him, because her voice seemed to know where he was - turning to look for her, he caught a glimpse of her bright orange eyes and fins up above him. Looking back at the dropoff, he judged the weight of the necklace. It was heavy; he could only imagine how many headaches had been begun with the weight of it. Looking back up at the nixie, he smirked and said, "Like this." Then he swished himself backward, and let himself fall down to the bottom of the dropoff, where more shelter awaited him.
Quote: Now that was a surprise. He just jumped off the drop off, into open ocean. 'What a fool!' She thought. No one went into the drop off without looking first. She swam closer to it and looked down at the falling seathi. That was when she saw it. A dark shape moving upwards towards him. "You fool!" She screeched. The shape was that of a shark moving fast towards easy prey. Her fins were moving before she had even decided to save the little seathi from his certain doom. Her larger fins allowed her to catch up to him quickly and she hit him head on in the back hopefully moving him out of the way of the attacking shark, but moving herself into its line of attack. 'Who's the fool now Lissianna? A seathi over yourself...'
Quote: Still looking back up at where he'd jumped from, George had completely missed the dark figure down below him, though he had some inkling of the danger when the mare called him a fool; paddling around to turn himself, he saw a great maw opening just yards from him, and then something slammed into his back, knocking much of his air supply from his lungs. He was right beneath where the shark would strike, safe for now, but what about whatever had run into him? Looking up, he saw the blue of the nixie's body, and panic shot through him.
It was one of those moments of pure adrenaline - a complete inability to think, where everything is action and there is no other option. Flipping the necklace up and off his neck, George let it loop into the corners of the shark's mouth, and the shark, sensing it had caught something, closed its jaws before it ever reached the nixie. Metal screeched and clanked over the rows of sharp teeth, making his ears ring. "Swim!" he yelled, paddling downward - at this point, the floor of the drop off was closer than the ledge that led to shore.
Quote: Lissianna was both dismayed and grateful to the seathi for sacrificing the necklace to save her. Using her powerful back tail she swam down to the reeds deep below, the darker parts of the ocean claiming her and the seathi in its embrace. Her hooves hit the sandy floor and stuck fast. If she hadn't been underwater she'd be gasping after such an event. Finally the adrenaline wore off and she looked around herself hoping that shark had no intention of following them down here. Seeing the seathi she looked at him with no emotion showing on her face. 'Why did I save him again?' She thought.
Quote: When the mare just stared at him, George couldn't help but laugh. The exhilaration was still in him, and it was all he could do not to suck in air after each breath. "You're welcome," he said, grinning at her. "I'm George. Who're you?"
Quote: "Lissianna..." She said hesitantly, unused to talking civilly for the first time in a long time. She looked around anywhere but at him, for now that they weren't chasing each other or running from a shark she noticed his markings had some very interesting appeal to her. He was lovely if such a thing could be said about such an abrasive creature. He was annoying and selfish and her hero... She started slightly bubbles rising from her mouth from the speed of her movement. Her hero? That was new... |
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Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2015 1:15 pm
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George waited for the mare to say more, more than just her name, and when she did not, but kept staring at him, he stared back. "Uh-huh," he said eventually, studying her in return, as she seemed to be studying him. She was pretty, if he thought about it hard enough. She was the pretty bright blue that the waters of the shallows became when the sun hit them just right, her fins the orange of a starfish. Her bright eyes were even more vivid, the color of a clownfish close up. The gold and emerald necklace, however, did not fit her half as well as the silver and sapphire that he had given to the shark. "Well, I'll be having that back now, since I saved you," he said, pointing a hoof at the jewelry around her throat. "And it wasn't yours to begin with, anyway."
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