By the Smell of Salt Air

[Nav]

@Everly​

Eric fled through the dark alleyways of the ship and the Captain and his quartermaster in red followed. It must have been well past midnight, he realized, because all of the halls were empty except for the two young men in his pursuit, and himself. His curly brunette hair was sticking to his forehead in a combination of sweat and rain once he broke from the bowels of the ship and onto the series of decks. How he had been so foolish to find himself in such a sticky situation, he cursed himself for, but he kept running—desperate for an escape even though his whole body was beginning to tire from the last five minutes of being mercilessly pursued through the narrow passages of the one and only vessel of Captain Sharle. Despite the rather name of Mistmill, the ship was anything but. It was a lanky ship, taller than it was long and wrought with sea-stained wood that was not at all pleasant on the eye.

It had once been painted, but the paint was peeling away from the wooden boards in flakes, make it look mange ridden. Cannon portholes jutted out from all sides but were currently clammed up as the swelling surf smashed into its sides, causing it to lurch. Lengthening his stride as he hit the deck, Eric scrambled up to the figurehead and stepped out on to the bowsprit. The narrow piece of sharpened wood wobbled uncertaintly below his weight as he gripped one of the wrapped up mast ropes for balance.

"Come back 'ere, thief! You ain't never gonna survive that drop! Come back here now n' we'll make it easy on ya. Easier than the water, n'ways," blackened teeth emerged behind the sickening smile of the quartermaster as he stepped through the rain. His boots were heavy and loud against the deck pregnant with rain. Eric hissed and looked down at the water below him. Total darkness prevailed as clouds thickened and the sky was stricken, blotting out the moonlight and stars. The wind arose to push the still waters to choppy, which morphed into mountains of angry waves. The wind was slamming rain into his face like tiny stones and caused him to lurch back and grip desperately onto the rope so he didn't fall. Below him, the bowsprit continued to wobble and below that was a fifteen foot drop into sea.

If there was any more desolate feeling than the mighty swelling of the ocean beneath one's feet and nothing on the horizon but more of the same, Eric would never know. In every direction, the grey-black tempest, laced with blue, blended into a horizon of the same hue. The ocean offered him only one fate, but he had decided that death was a better fate than whatever would happen to him in the hands of a pirate Captain accusing him of theft. So, staring into the eyes of his former Captain, he loosened his fingers on the rope until it slid through his hand. The wobble of the bowsprit was enough to make him lose his balance and before he knew it, he was falling.

Darkness enveloped him. The water closed around him, filling him with deep dread. It tossed him around mercilessly and he held his breath as long as he could, too long in fact. Red and black splotches danced in front of him and he couldn't remember if his eyes were open or closed. A few times, the sea tossed him to the surface, giving him too few seconds to inhale before pulling him back under again. The coldness he felt upon entering the water went away quickly. A desperate hot wave had come over him, warming even his frosted toes. His heart was beating rapidly in a panic as the swell of water, or perhaps the blood pounding in his own eardrums, drowned out every other sound. For hours… for days... for weeks… he had no idea, the sea tossed him. He thought he had died and was in hell. Consciousness meant nothing and faded in and out, but then he curled his hand into sand.

He crawled on to a beach. The sand was warm. The storm parted.

 

[Ethys]

"This is quite possibly the worst day of my life."

Raniash'i rolled her eyes and tossed a few more bananas into the woven bag that hung from her shoulder. Her younger sister had been prattling on for at least an hour now about how dreadfully unfair her life was. It was hard to feel bad for the teen when all she did was whine. Was she this bad when she was younger? No, she was sure she wasn't. Was she?

"Come on, Li. It isn't all that bad," she attempted, brushing her silver curls out of her face as she glanced up at the sun. It was nearing midday and they weren't even close to being done. Her sister dawdled worse than a crippled duckling. "We need to get moving if we aren't going to be late."

"Easy for you to say, Rani! Your life wasn't completely ruined today!" Li wailed, crossing her arms and only letting out an irritated huff when her sister threw a banana at her head. "I'm serious! All I asked was for the chance to go visit. That's it! It isn't an act of war!"

"It might be, these days," Rani muttered with a frown. Things were getting worse by the day. Now her sister had to go and get a boyfriend in a different faction. It was becoming ridiculous. She gave up reasoning with the girl and walked on, knowing that her sister would be forced to follow along. Soon enough, the whining faded to frustrated grumbles, then ceased altogether. An unexpected but welcome change. Too bad it didn't last.

"What is that?!" Li exclaimed, pointing to a lump on the beach.

"Probably some debris from the storm last night," Rani said, her tone dismissive, though she was uncertain. Even from where she was standing, it seemed to be something big. Maybe there was a shipwreck nearby and that was a piece of it? Ships usually did not make it close, but they had gotten bits of boards and sails on their shore before. She hesitated, then decided that now was not a time to be a coward. It was just some garbage from Outside. She walked closer, showing nothing but confidence and swagger.. until she realized it had a face. Li apparently saw it at the same time, because she shrieked and took off into the trees as if a demon were on her back.

Raniash'i took several steps back and glanced behind her, but her sister was long gone. Now was not the time to panic. She had to think logically about this. There was nothing on the horizon but waves, and the rest of the beach was clear. This.. creature was obviously alone. It had darker skin than she did, she noticed, and the fur - or was it hair? - on top was very dark as well. Also, she thought it might be male. In all honesty, it looked like some sort of discolored person, but that couldn't be true. Everybody knew that everything Outside was a monster. There was nothing but fish and demons. The island was the only place people could survive. This creature, whatever it was, probably couldn't even speak. It looked dead, even. What was she so worried about?

But.. What if it wasn't dead? It might need help. She sighed, arguing with herself for a minute longer before she decided that she needed to find out if it lived, then make the next decision. Nodding to herself, she pulled a banana from her bag and threw it at the creature's face.

 

[Nav]

Waking up was no longer the pleasure it usually was. There was a fleeting moment he was whole again, but it evaporated faster than summer rain off the burnt earth. As he roused, he was first aware of the heat of the air and its loamy fragrance. The ground was lumpy but soft, water-logged sand, that he curled deeper against his fingers. He was complete sodden and he could still feel the ocean tickling at the tips of his toes, making him wonder where he was. For a moment, he laid with his eyes closed. His brain desperately grappled for answers and wailed in pain inside his skull, though his face remained peaceful and his lips silent. He half wondered if he was dreaming but it began to occur to him slowly… the men, the accusations, the jumping off of the ship… his head began to ache more deeply at the stem of his spine.

Then, there was the talking. At least, he thought it was talking. He couldn't clearly make out the words, but he heard muffled voices that seemed vaguely reminiscent of speech. He was doing his best to rationalize where he was and what was happening, but he couldn't. Hell, he could barely get his eyes open. His eyes cracked a sliver and all he saw was a fuzzy stretch of pristine beach. Whoeever, or whatever, was making the noise was out of his line of sight as his head was turned to the side with his cheek in the sand. Above all else, the beach was a fantastic colouring. Above the tide-line, the grey rocks were splashed with gorse-yellow and close-growing lichen. Beneath were the vivid orange-brows or wrack-weeds, a violet spray of mussel-beds, dead-white sands, and water through which one could surely see the bottom, as through a pale green bottle-glass. Starfish and big spiny urchins of pink and purple rested upon the broad leaves of the sea-tangle. Never before had Eric seen such a beautiful beach.

The voices faded and his eyes began to shiver and close again, his body trying to force him back into concussed unconscious when something smacked him in the head and flopped down on to the sand next to him. It didn't hurt, but it did surprise him, causing his whole body to jolt and his eyes to snap open to see the banana that had fallen next to his head. The sight of the yellow fruit immediately made his stomach clench in hunger, though he had only seen bananas once before… and he had always been much too poor to have ever eaten one.

He sat up suddenly, sand spilling out from his dark curls as he did so. The action sent a rush of blood coursing through him and made his stomach flip several times in discomfort causing him to swallow down a bubble of nausea that threatened to creep up his chest. His muscles ached. Hell, everything ached, but he could stare wide-eyed at the woman standing a few yards off. She was unlike anything he had ever seen before and clearly not of any European lineage.

"Hello," he groaned, reaching up for his head that was swimming with disorientation, "Are these the spice islands?" It only felt logical: exotic, tropical. He assumed there was bound to be a port somewhere, perhaps on the other side of the island, where he could find employment to take him back to Europe. What luck, he thought quietly to himself. It didn't even occur to him that the woman standing there may not speak the same language.

 

[Ethys]

Raniash'i considered herself to be fairly brave. Sure, she wasn't about to go swimming off into the sunset just to battle sea monsters, but she was no coward. She had explored more of this island than most, and knew several secrets. Despite all that, she jumped at least a foot when the creature launched itself up after being smacked with the flying fruit. She landed and immediately half crouched in a defensive stance as she stared at it. Him. Him? It looked like a man more and more as it moved! Nothing made sense anymore!

She frowned when he looked over at her, meeting his eyes with her own, which were a deep blue. He seemed to be just as confused as she was. While he stared, she kept staring as well. His attire was a bit strange. Why did he wear no metal to protect himself? Her shirt clung to her body, so tightly woven that the stitches were barely visible. It was a deep tan color, with strips of a silvery metal attached along the hem and edges. Added protection, just in case. One never knew, especially when visiting the beach. Her skirt barely hit her knees and was made of the same material, minus the metal. She wore no shoes, as she felt she moved better without them.

He was speaking to her. She tilted her head a fraction, eyeing his face. Though his accent was bizarre, she could understand the words, though the meaning was lost on her. 'Hello' was not used a greeting anymore. Why was this creature so outdated? And what did he mean, talking about spices and islands? There was only one island and they were standing on it. It did not taste spicy at all. She wasn't sure how to respond.

"Why are you here, demon?" she finally demanded, not realizing that the purple crystal she wore around her neck had started to glow the second the man started talking. It was designed to automatically translate both incoming and outgoing language for the wearer and outsiders, though that purpose had long been lost and it was more a piece of useless jewelry now. The glow increased once more as she spoke, making herself easily understood by the creature.

"You belong in the sea. Leave now," she added, pointing toward the lazy waves.

 

[Nav]

A groan and Eric's hand was on his head. He rubbed his fingers through his curls and looked down to inspect his hands before returning his eyes to the woman. All of his fingers were still present. He wiggled his toes. They, too, were still fine. Slowly, carefully, he articulated every single part of himself as if to make sure it was all still there. It was. He wasn't sure how it had happened, or what mysterious forces turned the tide in his favour, but he had escaped persecution on the vessel and washed ashore on some island… only to end up getting hit in the head with an incoming fruit, of some variety. The woman stared back at him in a crouched position that resembled that of a rabbit, he noted.

She looked genuinely terrified, like she had never seen another human being before and he couldn't help but wonder if she was perhaps alone on the island. Had she somehow washed up on the island, too? Grown up here? Was nothing more than a feral animal? He blinked and stared back, unsure of what to do or say. He didn't move at all except for the gentle rising and falling of his chest for air. Then, of course, she called him a demon. His eyebrows arched up his forehead in surprise at her accusation. He scoffed at her. "Demon?" he echoed, "I'm not demon! I'm just a man… I'm from Spain." Her accent was confusing and foreign to him, though when he strained his ears he could make out what she was saying. The words rolled off her tongue in a timbre of warmth, the melodic sounds distinctly foreign.

Though the idea of her speaking English ruined his theory that she was some lonely, animalistic woman living alone on the island. He wondered then where she had come from. She looked different. Human, yes, but unlike any heritage he had ever seen. She was definitely not European, certainly not Asian, and he had never met a Carribean who looked like she did. In fact, he had never met anyone who looked like she did.

"Leave?" he glanced back at the water and squinted, "I can't go back… I'll die out there. I'm not a fish or a water demon," he clarified again, "I'm just a man. I'm from Spain and I… fell… off my ship." He decided to leave the story about being accused of stealing the pirate captain's gold for another time, leaving his story as he had just fallen off the vessel. It wasn't entirely untrue, after all. He had fallen. "I mean you no harm. I don't even have a weapon on me." His clothes were still wet and stuck to him like a second skin. It would have been awfully hard to him to hide a weapon of some kind of himself in such a state.

 

[Ethys]

Not a Demon? Pah. That was precisely what a Demon would say! Rani frowned, but she was starting to realize something. The more that she looked at him, the more he really did resemble a man. If she ignored his odd coloring and the nonsensical clothes that he wore, plus the fact that he was filthy and half soaked.. He looked like a real man. However, that could be nothing but an illusion. Everybody knew that the Demons had more tricks than any hunter could hope to know. He could just be luring her into a false sense of security.

"Spain?"

She frowned more, straightening up and pulling a freshly sharpened dagger from her bag. What was he talking about? He spoke of a place that she did not know, but that was impossible. No other land existed, unless he had dubbed the sea 'Spain'. That seemed idiotic. She hesitated, then slowly moved closer and nudged at him with her blade until he rolled over and she had examined him thoroughly. No weapons. Well, he wasn't lying about that, at least. She paused, pondering. If he really was a man, leaving him here to die was wrong. Yet, if he was a Demon, she could be inviting death into her home. She leaned down, slicing the blade in a shallow cut along his forearm. Blood. Demons didn't bleed.

"Get up. We have to move away from the water," she said, too confused to properly assess what was going on. A man, a real man, had just washed up from the sea. This had too many meanings for her to fathom. All she knew was that lingering on the beach was a terrible mistake, and now she had mixed drops of blood in with the sand. Already the water was churning, a warning to what was coming. Waves started crashing against the beach, drawing her eyes to the dark shape that was now edging closer to them under the surface of the water.

"Move!"

 

[Nav]

"Yes, Spain!" he chimed in enthusiastically after she echoed his homeland, hoping she recognized it. Unfortunately, his mentioning of his homeland seemed to have an adverse effect because next he knew, she was pulling out a knife. His eyes turned to it, squinting as the metal caught the sunlight and gleamed in his eye. "Whoa, whoa, whoa," he murmured, both of his hands coming up to show he had no weapon and that he was at her mercy. A muscle twitched involuntarily at the corner of his right eye, his mouth formed a rigid grimace.

How could he have survived so much only to end up dead on the beach? Cold sweat glistened across his furrowed brow. As she approached, his stomach began to squirm with nausea. He was glad he hadn't eaten in several days, as he had nothing to throw-up, but his stomach still clenched and heaved several times all the same. He didn't know what she was doing, but she nudged him with her knife and he immediately rolled over, still showing his hands. "Easy now," he breathed out in a wispy voice, "No need to hurt me--- oh! Bloody…!" a long string of curses fell from his mouth in his native tongue as she dragged her knife across his arm.

Searing fiery bursts pulsated around the wound; his arm ached, no matter how much he moved it and clamped his other arm down on the wound. The dark red blood made its way out of his body, oozing through the spaces between his fingers as he covered the wound. It wasn't bad, as wounds went, but it hurt like a mother fucker. Next, she was demanding him to get up and without hesitation, he lept up to his limber feet and did as she asked, not wanting to face the wrath of the pointy end of her blade a second time.

"Alright, alright!" he barked back, "I'm moving… I'm away from the water, see?" he scrambled away from the shoreline, kicking up sand as he moved with more haste than he thought his exhausted body was capable of doing. "What the hell is that?" he leapt further away from the water's edge as a darkened mass moved through the surf. The sudden burst of wind almost rocked him back on his heels. It flowed across his skin and damp clothing, chilling the skin beneath and tousling his hair into ringlets.

"Okay… what the… I must be dead," Eric finally concluded, "I must have died and gone to heaven. Or hell. Fuck, is this hell? Shit. I'm in hell! Damnit. What the hell is that thing?"

Panic was beginning to grip him. He felt the panic begin like a cluster of sparks in his abdomen. Tension grew in his face and limbs, his fingers clamping down harder on the wound on his arm. The thoughts accelerated inside his head and he would have done anything to dampen the primal urges to flee.

 

[Ethys]

Rani almost felt bad about cutting the man after seeing how he reacted, though she knew she had only made a shallow wound. It had been completely necessary, after all. How could she continue on if she did not know the truth about his possibly-demonic background? She glanced out at the sea, taking note of the encroaching blackness that the stranger had suddenly noticed. It certainly was moving quickly.

"That is a water demon. It can smell your blood," she explained, frowning a bit. She sighed, glancing up at the sky. It was no use now, there was no time to complete the objective that she was supposed to do today. Of course, it would have been difficult without her sister, but she would have attempted anyway. If only things did not keep going wrong! She was rather tempted to blame it all on this stranger, but he was a man. She still did not understand how that could be so.

"We should go," she said eventually, turning and heading toward the trees. As she did, a figure broke the surface of the tumultuous sea. It was a woman, gasping for air, her skin a dark chestnut brown. She had long black hair that clung to her wet face, her eyes wide with fear. Flailing a bit, she made her way to the shore as quickly as she could.

"Wait, please! Please, help me! I don't want to be devoured by the demon!" she yelled, her words slightly muffled as she kept getting pulled under by the waves. She came up, spluttering water, still reaching out toward Eric with a desperate expression as she tried to reach the sand.

Rani did not turn around, still moving toward the trees as though she could not hear the woman at all.

 

[Nav]

Well, he knew he had just died and gone to Heaven. Or Hell. Definitely Hell because nothing about his experience had been pleasant so far. His head still ached from being tossed around in the sea, his stomach clenched painfully with both hunger and nausea, and his arm pulsed with pain. He did end up pulling his hand away to see the wound had clotted. The blood dried from red to brown and clung to the dips and ridges in his fingertips. Hastily, he tried to wipe it away on his sleeve as best as he could, even though his eyes were trained on the waters of the ocean. They looked dark and menacing in a way he had never seen before and the dark glob continued to move closer and closer to shore.

Subsequently, Eric stumbled further and further back. What did she mean 'water demon'? He had spent his entire life on the open ocean and had never encountered such a creature—sharks, yes. Dolphins, of course. Fish a plenty… but a water demon? The fear sat quietly, eroding his last shred of sanity and bravery. What started as a contortion of his stomach became a feeling of being smothered by an invisible hand. His breathing became erratic, deep, then shallow. He wanted to fight it. He didn't understand this island or how he had gotten there. The winds continued to pick up and whipped against his face as the shadowy figure began to emerge from the water.

Burnt sienna never looked so marvelous as it did on the woman emerging from the sea. She looked Spanish, or Portuguese, and her skin and hair colour matched his own. "But.. it's a woman!"

Still, he didn't feel himself moving forward to help her. She looked human, she even acted human, but something about her felt wrong. He couldn't explain what it was other than just a deep, dark feeling, but looking at the woman begging for help caused his stomach to lurch even further. "We shouldn't help her?" he asked, though he already knew the answer. The woman, if he could even call her that, kept wailing and reaching out for him.

Turning, his eyes followed the woman who had found him. She didn't look back, but she was already directing him away. With one last look at the woman crawling from the sea, Eric turned his back to her and followed behind the islander. "Water demons, huh…" he muttered more to himself than to her, "I've been sailing the sea my entire life and never thought…" Sure, pirates had rumors and stories about water demons and the like, but no one truly believe them.

"Where are you taking me now? And hey… what's your name? I'm Eric."

 

[Ethys]

The woman in the water continued to cry and beg, struggling helplessly against the water until Eric turned from her. As soon as it became apparent that he wasn't going to approach her, she shrieked with rage, her beautiful face contorting into a distorted demon with fangs and mottled skin. She rapidly crawled up on the sand, continuing to shriek, but she couldn't fully leave the water. By the time he glanced back, she was retreating into the sea once more, hissing and glaring at him with glowing green eyes.

As Eric followed her, they went deeper into the forest. The ground was beaten into a narrow dirt track, doing minimal damage to the nature around them. To be honest, it was more 'rainforest' than normal, with bananas and oranges growing everywhere. Bright blue berries grew in thick bushes along the path, along with clusters of red and green ones. Several birds were sitting in the trees, singing their songs and darting about as they ate the little white bugs that were floating around.

"There are many types of water demons," Rani explained as they walked.

"That one, I believe, was what we call Niraa. She can only been properly seen and heard by males, which proves my suspicions about your gender, at the least. If you had gotten too close, she would have ripped your heart out and eaten it whole before dragging you into the depths. Nobody can survive her attacks. If you believe the old ones, she's only upset about her own broken heart, but I think that's just a story for children."

"My name is Raniash'i. I am taking you inland," she said, pausing her steps to turn to him with a serious expression.

"You bleed. That means you are not a demon, but it does not mean that I trust you at all. No people exist beyond the island. You come from the land of demons, with dirty skin and strange eyes. I don't know if you are cursed or not, but I will say this. If I find you to be a threat in any way to myself or my people, I will slit you from top to bottom and hang you from a banana tree by your entrails."

"Deal?" she asked, holding a hand out to him as though fully expecting him to just agree and shake it.

 

[Nav]

"Many types of water demons…" Eric echoed, sounding like he was mesmerized by his disbelief.

Dead or alive, he wasn't sure, but the place was unlike anything he had experienced before… water demons and tropical rainforests. Moving into the damp forests, he couldn't move without a plant touching his skin. The sheer denseness of the foliage had made him feel cozied, like in all that space he could still be snug. Thousands of noises had crashed over him as refreshing as any waterfall, overriding his senses and setting his brain to the same chemical soup it was when he drank some whiskey. In the cocktail of endorphins, he wandered behind the woman

"You know, if you just wanted to prove your suspicion about my gender, you could have just asked," he mentioned lamely, levelling his eyes with the back of her head before glancing down at himself. He looked like a male, or so he had believed. His shoulders were roped with muscle from his labor on a vessel and his chest was broad and powerful. He painted an intimidating picture at his towering height. His hands were thick and wrought with callouses, certainly nothing feminine about them, and his jaw square and boxy like any man's ought to be. So, her questioning of his gender sent him into a little bit of a tizzy. Was it something he said? Something he did?

He acknowledged her name and tried to repeat it in his head a few times, but the syllables and accents were hard for him to wrap his tongue around. "Rani--?" he paused a moment, his Spanish accent thicker and dewier than it had happen, "Raniash…ee?" He struggled with the hardness of the vowels, though he did so even in English, and his native language of Spanish tended to be much softer on the lips. She paused her step and in his thought, he nearly bumped into her.

"My skin isn't dirty!" he argued, "It's tanned. I'm Span—" but he stopped himself before he continued, knowing already she didn't know (or care) what Spain was. "I'm not sure that's really a deal, I mean… I have no negotiation or any part of this besides 'I might die if I do something wrong.'" He looked down at her hand and raised his brows, not sure how to react. Women didn't shake hands where he came from.

"How can I prove to you that I'm not demon? Nor am I cursed?"

 

[Ethys]

Rani frowned, having no idea what 'tanned' meant. It must be another word for dirty. He seemed insulted. She frowned more as he did not immediately shake her hand. How rude! She was offering him a perfectly good bargain, fair on all sides! Behave or die. It seemed simple enough. Once she paused and thought about it more, though, she supposed it came off a bit.. abrasive. She sighed and dropped her hand, trying to put herself in his place, but it wasn't working. Having no idea about arriving in a new place, she couldn't relate very well.

"I know that you aren't a Demon. Demons don't bleed," she reminded him crossly.

"As for being cursed.. Well, I'm not sure how you could prove that. You certainly seem cursed to me. Here you are, on a place you don't belong. You have no friends, no family, and no way to leave. You told me yourself that you fell into the sea and washed up here, near dead, and your blood summoned a water demon," she added, ticking the points off on her fingers. "Sounds cursed to me."

Of course, she had no real concept of the differences between being cursed and having bad luck. Coincidence was not even a word in her language. They firmly believed that everything happened for a reason, and if you were having a bad time, you were cursed by the gods. There had never been anything to prove them wrong, so she had no reason to question it now.

"Are there more of you?" she demanded suddenly, switching tracks rapidly as she realized he could be followed. "Will they come for you? Did you lead more here?"

 

[Nav]

"I have friends… family." He informed her, when it suddenly hit him.

The grief began to surge with every expelled breath, always reaching higher peaks, never sufficiently soothed by his long intakes of damp, forest air. There had always been hope before, just a tiny flicker against the wind. His eyes froze over like the surface of a winter puddle, robbing them of their usual warm, brown tones. His future felt like an unwalkable road—he had survived jumping off the ship, but for what? He would never see his family again, not his father, not his brothers. He'd certainly never see any of his old friends again. He turned back, looking out towards the ocean that was now only a glimmer between the trees. Perhaps he should just let that water demon seize him. The notion of hope had suddenly become meaningless and when his mind tried to wander on to such ideas, they began to feel like cruel tricks, as cruel as any desert mirage.

"So yea, maybe I am cursed."

Perhaps that was how he ended up on the island, after all. Maybe he was cursed. "There are more of me," he admitted, beginning to head back towards the water. He answered her question, but didn't look back. "I came on a ship, I suppose. I jumped off when they tried to kill me. Nearly drowned and washed up here. I guess if that's what makes a person cursed, then I'm cursed." His boots crackled along the underbrush of the forest, snapping twigs and crunching leaves. "They aren't coming this way though. They were close to here, must have been. If they were coming this way, they would have been here already."

He returned right from where he had come though he didn't go all the way to the water. Instead, he collapsed down into the sand, just watching the waves. The water had calmed itself; the demon must have gone. It looked like the same ocean that he saw back in Spain. The horizon was perfectly clear and terrifying, without so much as a cloud to tie it down. There wasn't any ship or masthead to be seen anywhere. Where ever the ship he had come on had gone, it was bound to be a very, very long ways from them.

"No, they won't come for me." Though he was pretty sure she was already out of audible reach.

 

[Ethys]

Blinking in surprise as he turned away from her and walked toward the beach, Rani hesitated. It would be wise to leave him behind and go home, leaving him to fend for himself. She knew that. Her father would have killed him already and been done with it, and her sister had run away. But.. the more time she spent around this man, the less of a threat she saw him as. He was just a person. Sure, he looked like a dirty thing, but he wasn't a demon.

She followed him to the beach, her steps silent as she trailed behind. When he plopped down, she looked at him curiously, trying to fathom what he was thinking. Perhaps it was not so hard to relate after all, if she really tried. If she were in a place that she had never been, and had no hope of ever seeing anybody that she knew again.. That would be terribly hard. She frowned at the thought, then slowly put her blade away in her bag and sat on the sand next to him.

"I know that we do not understand each other well," she said, looking over at him. "But try. This place is the only place that we know that has people. Nobody else has ever come here. There are only demons in the sea. Bits and pieces of broken boards occasionally wash up on our shores, but those are from demonic vessels too far away for us to see. We have never had a sign of outsiders that could be like us.. until now. I'm not sure what to even think about it," she explained, sighing and turning to look at the sea.

"But.. I think that you are perhaps not cursed. The gods make everything happen that they want. Perhaps you were meant to come here for good things, not bad."

 

[Nav]

He hadn't expected her to come after him. Or, if he had, he would have suspected she would have come after him knife first. He wouldn't have blamed her, though. He remembered going from Spain and arriving in London for the first time. He could still remember how his head spun at how different, terrifying everything was. It was culture shock and if what she had said in bits and pieces was true, than she had never met a foreigner like him before. He shouldn't have been surprised she didn't trust him, after all, he hadn't trusted anyone when he first went to London, either. Now he was on some island in the middle of God knows where without any hope of going home. Immediately, his eyed clenched shut in despair against the blinding light of sun.

It was the sound of her feet in the sand he heard first, then her voice only a few moments later. Her tone was gentler, warmer, and it caused him to sit upright and look back at her. "You've really never had any one here before?" he wondered aloud in amazement. A soft 'hmph' of confusion fell from his lips and he turned his eyes back to the sea, squinting to get a better look at it. "I wonder how that could be. How could we have missed such an island for so long?" Perhaps the island was cursed… or enchanted. Hell, perhaps the island was Atlantis, just like the old stories used to tell. Whatever the island was, Eric was on it and there was no viable way of getting off any time soon. Even at the realization of his grief, the idea of having his heart ripped out by a water demon wasn't all that appealing.

As she sat down next to him, he offered a weak smile. It wasn't particularly sincere, but it was a start. "Thank you for that," he said, extending his hand out to her to be shaken, "I'll behave, and if you don't, you can cut me to bits. Deal?"

He didn't believe he had been washed to the island for good or evil… or anything except for dumb luck and object stupidity, but he was there, and he needed to make the best of it. If Rani was going to extend any shred of friendship towards him, he was going to leap at the opportunity to take it. Something told him he would need her on his side sooner rather than later.

"Have you never wondered what's out there before? Beyond the ocean, I mean? Hmm," he looked back to the water, "Where I come from, we've never seen demons. We believe in them. I believe in them, but I've never seen one." Of course, the Bible spoke about them in detail, but nothing like what he had just witnessed emerging from the water.

 

[Ethys]

"Deal," she laughed, her bright blue eyes amused as she took his hand in her own and shook it. "Also, you can call me Rani," she added as she released his hand, recalling his earlier struggle to pronounce her name correctly. She glanced up at the sky, noting the fact that time was passing more swiftly than she anticipated. They would need to start moving soon if they wanted to avoid a fight.

That was all they needed.. a fight between factions with a newcomer in the midst..

She glanced at him as he began to speak again, but any trace of a smile quickly vanished as he asked about what laid beyond the sea. Instead, a severely pained expression crossed her features for a moment before she mentally slammed her walls up and forced herself to look passive once more. She shook her head a little and stood, brushing the sand off.

"No," she muttered, giving the sea a mild glare before turning away from it. "Come. We need to move. Things are not safe when the sun goes down," she added, gesturing for him to follow her once more.

The island was much larger than it seemed, which probably made little sense to Eric. How they had gone undiscovered for so long was indeed a mystery. Half the island - including the half they were standing on - was ringed with sandy beaches. The other half was more of a rocky shore, with rougher tides. That was where the Niraa usually lingered.

The forest that Rani was leading him through was dense and vast, but if one climbed a tree, they could easily see a pair of mountains in the middle. They formed the Valley of Sarana, which was their destination. It was roughly in the center of the island and would take at least two hours to walk to.

 

[Nav]

So, it was the ocean.

She had become amicable for a second, as had he, and they had even shaken hands but the moment he brought up the water again, the woman, Rani, became irritate and her expression as close to blank as one could come while still alive. "Alright," he agreed measly, deciding not to push the matter. She didn't want to talk about the ocean, they wouldn't talk about the ocean. At least the wonder of the island would keep him from dwelling too deeply on what being on the island meant for him. Swallowing down the growing lump in his throat, Eric pushed off the sand and rose to his feet. He quickly dusted himself off, his clothes long having dried out in the hot sun. "Right, things aren't safe. Okay."

After seeing the water demon, he wasn't sure anything was safe ever, but he didn't question it. The sun was sinking fast, but there was still plenty of daylight.

Eric had suspected the island would be small, no longer than maybe a half hour walking from edge to edge. She had spoken briefly of her people, and he imagined it must have been an awfully small tribe—perhaps previously marooned slaves? Shipwrecked people who had been so traumatized by the sea they believed it evil? Naturally, that didn't explain what he had seen in the water—the water demon—but he was beginning to write that off as a result of his own trauma of being tossed around in an angry, stormy sea for an entire night.

Quickly a half hour passed… then an hour… and there was still no sign of the other side of the island. They walked in relative silence, Eric just glancing around in wonder. Spain was warm, but not tropical. He had only heard stories of places like this—rainforests, but had never seen one. The air was laden with moisture and every available niche was crammed with flora and fauna. He could only imagine how many herbs and plants could cure in that forest, and also those that could kill, with indecent efficiency. It would have been easy to forget the colour of the sky in a place like that, because he looked up and could only see a think green canopy overhead. Noises came from every direction though: squeaks, clicks, rustles, bird songs, and mammalian calls. He felt saturated; his eyes, his ears, and his skin were all bathed in stimuli.

"How much further, Rani? Where even are we going?"

 

[Ethys]

Rani knew in the back of her mind that she wasn't being hospitable by walking in silence, but she didn't really care. It wasn't his fault for bringing it up. She knew that. It was just too hard for her to think about. Tomorrow it would be a year ago. An entire year since.. No. She wasn't going to dwell on it now. The time for mourning was gone and she wasn't about to dredge it all up again. Still, she found herself lost in thought until Eric asked her where they were going. She blinked and glanced around, mentally ticking off landmarks along the familiar path.

"We are about halfway there," she mused, pausing in her steps and turning toward him. "I am taking you home. Would you like to see it?" she invited, gesturing to a large tree nearby.

She hopped up and grabbed one of the low-hanging branches, climbing up easily as if she had spent her entire life in the trees. It wasn't far off from the truth. She went up to the top, popping her head out of the canopy and waiting for him to join her. Once he made it, she pointed to the mountains.

"There, in the valley. That is my city," she explained. Even from where they were, it was easy to make out the massive city between the mountains. It sprawled for miles, with the late afternoon sun glinting off metal rooftops. There was a gated fence that ran around the entire perimeter like a winding silver snake. It was how they stayed safe at night and ensured that everybody was safe. They did what they had to.

"Does it look like your Spain?" she asked curiously.

 

[Nav]

"Home?" It made sense but the word felt foreign on his tongue. It also made him nervous. Rani had not taken to him all too kindly when they first encountered one another, and he worried none of her friends and family would take too kindly to him, either. A pulse of worry ached in his heart for a moment. Then again, he was living on borrowed time as it was. He should have drowned after coming off the vessel, but he hadn't, so any time was good time, he supposed. "And only halfway?" Once that statement settled into his brain, he perked up curiously. How big was the island, he pondered? It must have been huge if they were only half way there. Nothing looked familiar to him, and nothing looked remotely human-like.

He kept keeping an eye out for tell-tale signs of humans: buildings, architecture, felled trees… but nothing. It was only rainforest and more rainforest.

"Wait, what?" she popped up into a low branch and swung up, his eyes followed her as she danced up the length of the tree like it was some kind of dance. "I haven't climbed a tree since I was a boy, Conejito!" but that didn't stop him. He fumbled for the lowest branch and pulled himself up, still feeling weakness from a night spent in the ocean. Though he wasn't nearly as elegant or swift as Rani was, he made it up to the top of the tree in no time at all. From up in the canopy, he could see an entire landscape unfold before him. Mountains, oddly enough, pierced through the heart of the island, which was still bigger than he had imagined.

"That's your city?" he squinted to where she was pointing, nestled deep into a valley. He could see the metal rooftops gleam back at him, but he couldn't make out any further definition of what the city might have looked like.

He shook his head at her question. "Not really," Eric said, swinging his foot on to another branch so he could perch up and get a little better look, "Spain is…" There weren't even words to describe it. He missed it, home. Then again, it was a place he could never go back to, even if he was able to get off the island. He couldn't go back so long as he wanted to keep his head and neck firmly planted upon his shoulders, that was. Sitting back against another branch, he folded his arms across his chest.

"Spain has lots of rolling hills, but no forests like this. We have fields of gold wheat and flowers. We have beautiful towns and villages, too. The best food you would ever eat in your life, too."

 

[Ethys]

Though her pendant was still glowing and automatically translating all that he said to her, Rani found that she still did not understand half of what he was saying. What was wheat? And a hill? What was that? Here they had forest and mountains, streams and beaches by the sea. That was it, other than the hot springs. It was mostly flat. She had no idea of what a hill even was. Flowers she knew well, and food. Her stomach rumbled a bit at the thought and she pulled an orange out of her bag, offering one to him as well.

"What is wheat?" she asked, unable to help herself. If it was made of gold, she did not understand how it grew in a field. Did they have golden flowers? How was it so? She tried to picture golden lilies that grew instead of staying still like a sculpture, but the idea seemed a bit stupid. What would even be the point?

She peeled her orange, tossing the peel aside to fall to the ground. A bird would pick it up, most likely. She munched on the juicy fruit, taking advantage of their brief rest to look around. From up here, everything seemed peaceful. Even the sea. Sure, if she really tried, she could make out the dark shapes of demons in the waters, but she could easily pretend they were shadows from here. Even the songs of the sirens could do no harm if the wind carried them this far inland. It was nice.

[Eugh x.x So short.. I'm sorry!]