Of course the first day away from home would result in a typhoon. Quiana let out a curse as she watched the heavy rains pelt at the island, the reeds bending and cracking in half as the furious winds ripped into them and the heavy drops of water finished the deed with their additional weight against the slender plants. She had been content to try and find higher ground, the Elidae scrambling for holds despite her aching hands so that she wouldn’t get swept into this mess as the water in the cove started to rise higher and higher than ever before. Her satchel was soaked against her back, her leathers clinging uncomfortably to her flushed skin as the rain continued its onslaught of the area. “Is this some sort of sign?” She murmured with worry, her expression shifting as she realized this was not the best beginning to a journey indeed. In her entire life on the island the Elidae had never witnessed the water rising so much. Then again she was in a completely different area since she had decided to try and travel across the world to find her long-lost mother so who knew what the weather did here? She already missed the safety of home, the easy way she could simply retreat into the shared hut with her grandmother and ignore the wrath of nature as the storms raged outside.

Now though things were different and Quiana was quite frustrated with the situation. Why now? Why not a week ago or like a month from now when she would no longer be in this particular area? A sigh left the Elidae before her expression shifted. Was that something bobbing up and down in the waters? “For Esena’s sake…” She started to nearly turn away before that damnable thing called a heart started to tug at her subconscious. Could she simply leave someone in that mess? Another sigh left her lips before she left her satchel tied to a tree and decided to take a dive down into the rising stream. Anyone else would call it foolish, Quiana included honestly, but she was confident in her swimming skills and that bobbing form looked way too limp to give her confidence in their ability to not go back under the water. If someone drowned and then she was haunted by that….nope. Quiana refused to deal with it and so she swam.

Thankfully the rain seemed to ease up a little and she found herself tugging a dark arm against her body, the Elidae tucking the foreigner against her chest as she pulled their limp form from the dark waters. A few curses, bruises and potentially a cracked rib later as the water tossed her back and forth through some rocks and floating trees and debris the Elidae found herself on the shore. Panting, her teal dreads slapping into her face now that they were free from her bun because of the struggle, Quiana made a note to not try and save anyone else in the future from deep waters. Everyone else and everything be damned, never again. Her whole body felt like it was on fire and she found herself barely able to drag the other person up the cliff, the darkness of the storm making it hard to see any features until she too passed out beneath the tree now that she was thankfully far away from the churning waters.

Though when the storm finally broke and the morning sun woke her, Quiana found that she had rescued one of the Kahi. The man had been struck by a loose rock when trying to swim around the rising waters so if she hadn’t gotten to him…well even the swimmer was afraid of what could have happened. He had prepared a fire, taken care of her wounds while she slept and even prepared a quick meal while explaining his journey. He was a trader of sorts and was trying to get a quicker route to the town on the southern island. Cutting through this area had seemed like a good idea at the time, but obviously the storm had other plans for him. Now that he had been rescued though he was more than willing to pay back his savior if wanted and so he would gladly help her onto his small boat and take her to the southern island where hopefully she could catch up with some earthlings and sail all the way to the other continent if that was what she wanted. So maybe the storm hadn’t been completely horrible for Quiana now that she had met another Kahi and found her own way to continue her journey, the ship giving her hope that she could easily find a vessel willing to take her across the bigger ocean to the continent her family had left decades ago.

[814]