RP format only! Worth 5 Growth Points RP minimum is 7 posts
It's hard to believe the rumors that have been circling the land. Word has spread like wildfire that the rains have opened up the river path to the south, a land all but forgotten after years of disconnection thanks to the drought. And now, after weeks of preparation, the first group has been permitted to travel down the river and to the reef. You have taken the time to join the group, and are now on your way south. What are your thoughts about the opportunity to meet the two elusive groups of the saltwater people? What do you expect to find once you arrive, having never been to the reef or ocean? What are your feelings about the opportunity, and your impressions when you finally arrive after the weeks of travel down the river? Walk us through your first experience traveling south to meet the Haukea and Moakai.
Rewi: 1
Now that the rains had let up to a slow drizzle, it was more than just inability to leave Pale'iko that kept Rewi in the small village of Ukupaia. Though it wasn't his home, and the Menehune craved the familiarity and comfort of the swamp, he also couldn't help but worry. Rewi's father wasn't a cruel man, but over the years, he couldn't help but notice that his old man was growing ever more impatient with him.
He hadn't successfully completed the trip to Noelani. Even though Rewi was sure that it didn't really matter, at this point (the rains had come, and drought had been the reason for the meeting), the fact that he hadn't even gone all the way to the Kaha'iko waterfall would surely only make his father think that Rewi had been too lazy to follow through.
Too slow to arrive in a timely fashion, too lazy to even complete the trip, too ready for the comforts of home to not make more of an effort...
Now that there wasn't much else for him to do, Rewi found himself avoiding returning to Naele on pure principle. His father would be so frustrated, and Rewi's excuses (valid or otherwise) wouldn't likely end up making too much a difference to his mood. So instead of returning home, to all the things he missed, Rewi cowered from the potential upset in the small village of Ukupaia for weeks, finding other things of interest among the riverfolk.
Today in particular, the village center seemed rowdy with activity and plans of adventure.
Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2018 7:16 am
Nikora: 1
Despite what it may have seemed like of late, Nikora wasn't actually accustomed to sneaking from her home. It happened that there wasn't often a reason to. Her village was small, and anything she had seen in it once, she'd seen a thousand times. The people, the market, the wildlife- it was all familiar, and it was nothing worth sneaking around for. But it happened that the world- her world was changing.
The rains had come, and they'd come with such vigor that she couldn't help but be excited and eager and interested in all they'd brought with them. She'd snuck from her home to play in the currents when they'd first come, and now that they were dwindling, she'd snuck from her home again.
As the clouds thinned, Nikora had to assume that whatever danger had been brought with them would pass as the showers let up. The currents would die down, the haze of silt being sent up would settle, and the people would resume the lives they'd led before. She did not want to resume that level of mundane, though! It was important, she thought, that she make the most of whatever was left. If she had to run away again to find it, she would. And so she had, and indeed a discovery had been made.
There was only a small group of villagers leaving Ukupaia to travel further south. They recognized her, of course (because everyone in Ukupaia knew everyone else), and knew that her fathers weren't likely to let her travel with them, so what she needed was some kind of distraction...
Like... perhaps a boy, with dark hair and swampy brown colored skin! He wouldn't know her or her fathers. He wouldn't turn her away. Nikora was sure of it!
So she approached him with a smile on her face and a presumptuous command on her tongue. "Excuse me, you. Are you going to the ocean?"
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Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2018 7:55 am
Rewi: 2
Rewi might have been content to do little more than watch. He leaned his weight back again the stone face of a shop, kicking his feet off the riverbed bottom and floating breezily in place, near enough to listen to the rowdy chatter of those preparing to set off. He wasn't much of an adventurer, himself, despite having come all the way from Elehun, and Rewi couldn't imagine traveling much farther than that. Certainly not so far as the ocean.
The news was intriguing, of course, and it was wonderful that his people's fear of their lakes and swamps drying up had been quelled for the moment, and he didn't have a fear of meeting the ocean-dwellers, as some of the group's traveling party had.
But it was such a distance, and there didn't seem to be much need- 'Excuse me, you.'
Rewi's emerald gaze swiveled toward a clear, rather brisk voice, and he found himself looking down at a young girl, a Kaha'iko perhaps no more than a decade old. She was a slight thing, far from being anyone to be frightened of, but her gaze was on him specifically, and Rewi felt a strange start at it.
"Ah... me?" He prompted a bit stupidly. "No, no. It's really something of an accident that I'm even here in Pale'iko. I don't think I'd ever go so far as to swim to the ocean..."
Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2018 8:01 am
Nikora: 2
Sap. The thought flicked across Nikora's mind as a smile tugged at her lips. The boy was surely the best she could've hoped for: nowhere near as stern as her father and nothing as frantic as her pap. He seemed... a bit slow, and it ought to be simple to convince him to tell the other Kaha'iko in the village that he'd been granted permission to escort her toward the ocean for... Oh, she still needed an actual reason that her fathers would permit this!
But that could come in a minute. He'd said he wasn't likely to go to the ocean, so her priority ought to be making sure he changed his mind about that.
"Weeeell," she hummed as she swam toward him. "What are you here for, if not to go to the ocean?" There certainly wasn't anything else of interest in Ukupaia. "It seems like since you happen to be in the right place at the right time, maybe the gods wanted you to travel with this group... Who knows when another opportunity for this type of expedition might present itself."
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Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2018 8:08 am
Rewi: 3
What a forward little girl! In all his time traveling across Pale'iko, Rewi wasn't sure any of them- Well, actually, now that he considered it, it seemed like most of the young Kaha'iko children acted like they had little to fear and were undaunted by the world at large. This one even thought it a wise idea to travel south, to the oceans, where none of their kind had been before...
Rewi tried to maintain his composure. Even if he didn't have any interest in such an arduous and lengthy journey, he wasn't trying to upset a little girl by disagreeing too harshly with her.
"I'm really only passing through," Rewi tried to reason. "I was to go all the way to Noelani, but it's time for me to head hoe now. I-" A peculiar sensation crept into his gut. 'Maybe the gods wanted you to travel with this group...' Rewi had never been one to fight against the currents. If the waters wanted to guide him anywhere, who was he to do anything except follow? Even if the trip seemed long, perhaps it really was a better alternative to returning home.
He scritched the back of his head. There was no way this girl could've known what to say to convince him, regardless of how specific it felt... "What are you so interested in me going for, anyway?" He asked after a moment.
Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2018 8:21 am
Nikora: 3
She had him! Nikora could see it in the boy's face and hear it in the way his words cut off. To be fair, she believed everything she said. This could be an opportunity for her, for him, and for everyone who dared to make the journey. If it was as simple as something she could just be allowed to do, she would've have bothered inviting anyone along. No one else needed to crop up and still any of the 'firsts' from her.
But she needed an aid, and since he seemed convinced, now was probably the time to explain all that she dared to explain.
She drifted to the river bottom, settling on the stones in front of him and scuffing a bare toe into one of the crevices between them. While Nikora wasn't embarrassed per se, it was still a bit of a chore to express any type of a need to a stranger who may turn her down. She needed an escort to convince the villagers that she was allowed to travel, or they'd plop her right off with her father.
"It's... because my parents won't let me do anything," she admitted with a roll of her shoulders. "They don't know I'm here right now, but I want to go to the ocean! The rest of the village knows my fathers wouldn't let me go alone, so I can't ask any of them... But they don't know you. They may believe that my parents hired a rough and tumble Menehune to keep me safe on my travels. These folks are used to hearing how I get everything I want, anyway."
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Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2018 8:39 am
Rewi: 4
Rewi didn't consider himself to be very great at dealing with kids younger than him. They seemed to require a lot attention and care, and they had a lot of needs that he wasn't sure he was prepared to handle. This girl in particular certainly had many, and already Rewi knew for a fact that he didn't want to get mixed up in all these lies and falsities on behalf of a child he'd only just met. She was selfish, but perhaps he wasn't so different in that regard.
True, the circumstances were different. She wanted adventure, and he wanted peace. She asked him for aid, and he wanted to refuse. He didn't know much about kids, but he knew he oughtn't be aiding one in attempts to disobey her parents.
He also knew that he wasn't ready mentally to return to his own family, yet... Seeing his mother and father again would make for more stress and anxiety than he wanted to endure, and he was here at the right time and the right place... He inhaled slowly and huffed out a sigh. "It's... a bit difficult for me to say I want to help you," he replied as he glanced down at her. "I don't know you, and I don't know your village, and I don't want to be on the end of your parents' upset... But I suppose I wouldn't mind seeing how far to the rivers we can go."
What a foolish thing he was doing. "I'll go with you as far as I feel comfortable traveling. If I want to go home, you won't argue. Is that an agreement you can get behind?"
Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2018 8:47 am
Nikora: 4
The expressions the boy made weren't exactly what Nikora had hoped for, and even before he'd opened his mouth, she felt argument on her tongue. This could be her only chance! She couldn't allow it to slip away!
"It's not difficult at all!" She tried to convince him after his first comment. 'Difficult' to agree to help her, what a foolish thing to say! All he had to do was nod! That's all agreeing with her would take! She couldn't have possibly made it anymore simple. Her brows furrowed, and her eyes narrowed, and she would absolutely not let him refuse her under any circumstances. He could either agree, or... Or she'd make up something horrible about him! Maybe he was stalking little girls or had tried to steal her away! Something truly awful that would either force him to say yes, or, if he continued to refuse, would make the village enraged at him.
She wasn't above it.
But before the threat could escape her lips, he seemed to sag with a sort of acceptance of his fate, and immediately, Nikora's expression shifted from fierce and unforgiving to pleased. "Yes," she chirped in delight. "I can agree to that! Oh, I'm Nikora, by the way."
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Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2018 9:08 am
Rewi: 5
"Nice to meet you, Nikora." Sort of. "I'm Rewi."
And with little more introduction than that, their abrupt 'partnership' began. Only a handful of the traveling party approached Rewi with skepticism concerning his involvement in the journey, but they must not have cared too terribly much, because both he and Nikora joined their group as they headed out, and southward they went. It'd been as simple as Nikora had said it would be. Perhaps they didn't know her fathers as well as she'd feared.
Rewi didn't question it. It didn't seem his place to, especially considering that if it had been any more difficult, he wasn't likely to have stuck around.
Instead, he focused on the paths they took. These narrow river ways hadn't been opened for generations. This group was among the first to travel them after nearly as long, and at the end of them: the ocean and its residents. Rewi's travels to Pale'iko from Elehun had given him some preparation for this, but admittedly, he had little idea what to expect. The information they had was minimal. Those who'd arrived before his own group claimed that the saltwater homes were warm and colorful, sandy, breezy, and also filled with the currents of the ocean.
It sounded a bit too much like the river to Rewi, and he hadn't really been too fond of the river... The river made him miss home, and he wondered if the ocean would do the same.
Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2018 9:52 am
Nikora: 5
Nikora had already decided that it was her confidence and self-assuredness that had allowed her to get this far. She told a good story and wove a cohesive tale. All she'd had to do was say how she'd wanted to visit the ocean. She'd wanted to, and her fathers couldn't refuse her that. They weren't brave enough to go themselves, of course, but how could they keep anything from their precious minnow? She had these village people wrapped around her little finger, no problem.
For her efforts, she was rewarded. Not only were these trails to the sea little-traveled, but it was the farthest she'd ever been allowed to go from home. Of course she and her parents had made trips to Noelani together, but it wasn't comparable, as far as Nikora was concerned.
She kicked her legs gleefully, propelling herself easily along with the cluster of others she and Rewi had begun this journey with.
Some of them asked if she was tired or if she missed home (it seemed she was among the youngest to make the trip, and everyone expected her to grow bored or impatient with traveling), but how could she? At home she was as good as confined, but out here, she could do almost anything!
"Rewi," Nikora began as she glided alongside the older boy. "I wish you'd look a little more excited. The sea, the reefs, the other Kahikinans! Don't you want to see them? Oh, I hope they're excited to see us. Maybe they'll invite us to stay and give us a place to sleep and food to eat. And maybe they've been to places even farther out!"
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Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2018 4:24 pm
Rewi: 6
Rewi couldn't help but chuckle softly at the young girl's exuberance. 'Change' and 'new' weren't exactly for him, but that didn't mean they couldn't hold interest for some people, and Nikora seemed like one of those the gods had destined for many adventures.
"I don't mind seeing them," he admitted with a shrug.
And he truly didn't! Rewi knew some of his race were so trapped in their mindset of having only the one task and one goal in life, and disturbances in the form of opening waterways and unfamiliar races were a detraction from what the gods had intended for them, that they almost held something of a grudge for the ocean peoples. But he didn't feel that way, himself. Things simply were what they were, and it wasn't up to him to pass judgement.
"But neither would it have bothered me to not see them," he continued. "And I certainly don't think there will be room for us to stay there. We'll see what everyone has come to see, and you'll have opportunity to speak with the other races, if you'd like, but we'll need to return home as quickly as possible. I don't want to worry your parents."
He'd already decided that he wasn't going to play babysitter for any lengthy amount of time. He'd agreed to help her because he was in the 'right place at the right time,' and so he had, but she'd made an agreement of her own: to return when he was ready, and it wouldn't take long for Rewi to tire of the ocean, he was sure.
Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2018 4:33 pm
Nikora: 6
Perhaps she should just make peace with the notion that it wouldn't be infrequent for people to say something she disagreed with. Rewi sounded like he hardly intended to stay for more than a single turn of the sky. One night! But Nikora didn't have the feeling that she wanted to return at all. She didn't intend to stay gone from her home forever, but neither did she plan on leaving the reefs until she'd gleaned all the enjoyment she wanted from them!
She'd suckered Rewi into escorting her, but Nikora didn't really need him to stay. With a roll of her eyes and a tiny huff, she spun, lashing forward and hovering directly in front of his nose.
"Don't say 'us,'" she commanded shortly. "I said I wouldn't argue with you if you wanted to leave, but I didn't say I'd go back with you! So if there is room for me to stay, I will. You can do what you want, but I'm not leaving until I'm ready." And then, because she thought it necessary that he have some understanding of the situation, she couldn't help but launch into more detail. "I just want to see more of the world beyond the confines of the river, or even just my own village!"
"My parents may worry, but I'll return to them when I'm ready, and I'll be better and happier for it! When I come back, they'll realize that I'm not so delicate as they've always feared..."
She swallowed. "So... When you're ready to leave, you can, but I won't say I'm going with you."
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Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2018 4:43 pm
Rewi: 7
Rewi was utterly dumbfounded. And his complete and utter shock at her brazenness (she was just a little girl! Why did she want to travel on her own?) was what made him hold his tongue against any further arguments, until the entirety of their party crossed the final stream and saw the reefs for the first time.
Haukea was a beautiful place full of warm sunrays and bright colors. The Hapuna people were as bright as their surroundings, with warm-colored skin the likes of which Rewi had never seen.
It was beautiful, but it wasn't his home, and nor was it Nikora's. A part of him wanted to argue with her. After all, he couldn't abandon someone so young to her own devices after escorting her all this way, and he'd only come at all under the impression that she would listen to any reason he put forth. He was the adult here! Shouldn't he have some authority? Couldn't she see what a dangerous and unfair this idea was?
But in the end, after spending as much time as he wanted to in Haukea (and not as much as he felt obligated to), Rewi wondered if it really was his place to question her motives. Nikora was a girl he'd only known for the length of their trip. Sure she was young and selfish, but she was confident, headstrong and intelligent to some degree (she had managed to convince him, after all). And her life was her life, so what business did he have trying to manipulate it?
He glided over to her and lay a hand on her shoulder. "You... quite like it here, huh?" Rewi asked softly. "It's a place that isn't really for me, but I can hardly force you to return home, if that's not what you want..."
Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2018 4:52 pm
Nikora: 7
For the past several days, Nikora had braced herself for the worst. Rewi was someone she'd picked out off the street, so she had little way of guessing how he might react to her demands, and she prepared for the worst. She'd prepared for his rage or for him to try and force her to swim alongside him as he brought her home, and she'd known right as soon as she'd made it clear that she would fight these efforts.
When they'd landed at last in the waters of Haukea, she'd kept her distance as much as possible and busied herself with exploring all the reefs the ocean waters offered her.
But Rewi wasn't to be ignored, and he seemed intent on not leaving until he'd said something to her. She simply couldn't have guessed his intentions, though. To not even try and coerce her to return to Pale'iko! She wouldn't have thought anyone would handle it in such a way. Certainly her fathers wouldn't have... They were much more persistent and aggravatingly strict than Rewi.
"I wouldn't have let you force me," Nikora agreed with a curt nod. "But... yes, I suppose I do like it! The sand is so soft, the breeze is so warm, the people- have you seen them? They're so lovely! And they're so happy..."
It was all she wanted- to be as happy and free as these people all looked to her. "I'm going to stay for a little while longer," she told him, though she'd decided before she'd even arrived, and Rewi probably already knew as much. "But, Rewi... I do want to thank you for bringing me here. I want to tell you not to worry, and that I'll stay safe so that I can return home whenever I'm ready. You really couldn't know what it means for me to be here. So thank you. So much. And I'll see you again, I think. Who knows, maybe one day we'll wind up back here together."
