"haaa." Mary was still trying to breathe from her gills when she surfaced. This body, was new and unusual to her. Crawling upwards, trying to catch her breath but it was impossible to breathe, nothing would circulate like it used to.
Lightheaded and feeling awful. Even puking out some of yesterdays lunch before fainting. Only when the conscious mind faded to nothing could her now human body start to breathe like a human was supposed to.
The cold wind and wonderous moonlight wrapping itself around her. Bathing her blue hair in wonderous sparkles and drying her plain linen dress. Like a newly washed ashore shipwreck victim.
A regular morning, the beachhead glimmering as waves upon waves crashed against it. The sunrise beautiful as always. Weird though there was no early fish to catch grumbled an old fisherman before leaving his usual spot.
(OOC:I can remove the morning if you want to meet her during the night.)
It was sunny again. Keir did not mind the sun but he liked seeing the moon more because of its softer light. Still, the sun reminded him that another day had gone and another was coming to pass. How long has it been? he wondered, thoughts grave as he searched the shoreline from afar with only his neck and upwards showing above the rocking waves. He was hungry, all of his processes slower as he trudged along searching...and yet not. Sometimes it was hard to find a meal when there were others around because he did not like causing scenes, but Keir was ready to go for anything now so it was just a matter of finding a target.
He was irritable, his hunger and frustration causing his normal appearance and attitude to disappear for the time-being, but it was not long until he spotted something on the shore...very close to the water, in fact. Curious, he dropped below the water and quickly swam towards whatever it was that had caught his attention. Slowly he lifted his head above the surface again, closer now and finding himself looking at what looked like a human girl... Perfect!
Keir dug his hooves into the sand and pulled himself from the water only to soak the dry sand beneath him now from his sopping mane and tail...but he could have cared less at the moment. His eyes were hungry as he looked down upon this girl and found himself wondering for a brief moment why someone would want to sleep so close to the waves that were crashing just a little ways away. Snorting, he lowered his head and sniffed at her and nudged her head roughly with his nose. She smelled of the sea. Strange since she looked relatively dry...
At that moment he wanted to drag this girl into the water, but he whipped his head around when he heard noises...fishermen, equipment... This was not going to turn out well. Keir sighed, knowing he wouldn't have enough time to pull her down and not make a scene with his state right now...gods knew he needed to eat! Grumbling, he made his way back down into the sea and floated further down the beach as he tried to put distance between himself and possible witnesses but stayed close enough to keep an eye on the girl just in case she woke up or something. She would be an easy meal once things on the shore calmed down a bit so Keir floated and waited as calmly as any hungry Kelpie could.
Caspian, on the other hand, wasn't particularly hungry.
He'd spent the previous night flailing desperately in the ocean, playing the role of a drowning boy to a sea captain who was far too heroic for his own good. The way his confused face morphed into horror as he was dragged beneath the surface, how he seemed to thrash like a man in ecstasy while cold water filled his lungs. Caspian had to wonder at the nature of death, pondered it as he crossed the hot sand of the coast adorned in the captain's garb. The garments just barely hung onto his lean frame - he was a few sizes smaller than his dinner.
That's when he noticed the girl strewn about the beach like she'd been simply washed up and spat out by the tides. As he advanced upon her, details came into view - her plain dress, aquamarine hair flared out behind her, sweetly sleeping closed lids... But more importantly, Caspian noticed the wet imprints stamping the dry sand, caking it dark and tight in obvious contrast. They were recent, had to be since the sun was so particularly strong on this day that the water could have surely dried if it had happened even an hour ago. He couldn't call them footprints since they were rounded impressions, and were spaced much farther than any human leg could span. Hoofprints? The kelpie boy theorized, wrinkling his nose in distrust as he padded wearily towards it.
It could have been any type of cavalry that came through here to deposit the body - or, as it would appear -, and any knight of the Adela army could be responsible. But why such a small, innocent looking girl? And how did these prints appear to be materializing directly out of the waves?
The existence of other kelpies besides himself didn't occur to him.
Besides, it was entirely possible that the mystery being had run through the waves: the other prints would have been wiped away by the ebb and flow of the water. It must have been classified, the utmost secret of missions, to keep their tracks so carefully disguised all to abandon a body on the beach. Could she be dead then?
His knees sunk into the sand beside the girl, kneeled over her to regard her with an uncertain face. "Hello?" He tried, though the word came out rough and uneasy from a lack of actually speaking to anyone for a number of weeks. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Hey, girl. What the hell are you doing?" Ah, much better. He wasn't used to initiating conversation with humans, nevermind rousing one from a nap, so manners weren't forefront on his priorities in the affairs of engaging others. Yet sunlight made the wet state of her cheek apparent, and glistened back light much like it would if salty tears had been... well, pouring out of her face, he supposed. Had she been crying, as well? "Hey..." He murmured, softer this time.
She was floating in the sky, with wings of silk. Greeting the creatures that lived up there and conversing in an environment that would look like home except there was no water there.
Drawn back to a darker place by guttural sounds that felt weird to the ear. Then the warmth and realism hit her like the memories of yesterday night. Opening weary eyes previously sealed shut with salt. Looking up at the sun with thin slits.
Eventually managing to open them fully. reaching for the big ball of fire, trying to wave away the looming shadow at her side. Whatever language this creature was speaking.
It certainly wasn't in the dialect she was used to but with the bubble magic for surface speak it had been made possible for her to speak and understand it, sort of.
"Hello?" She asked him humbly, wanting the first person she talked with to be memorable.
Keir was fuming. He had taken so much time to stake out this area! Now some human was getting so close to his prey and he was defenseless due to being so far away. It bothered him and he was going to fix it.
As quickly as the hungry Kelpie could he dove down to fully submerge himself and swam up to the beach nearest to him. When he was close enough to walk on the wet sand he hauled himself up, an absolutely furious look in those blue eyes of his as his vision adjusted and he looked at the two down the beach. He wanted to scream that she was his, yell out how hungry he was, but he couldn't do it. He just ran, charging blindly towards them as sand flung up in his wake; before he had cared about witnesses but now he had no mind for who saw and who did not. His wild eyes slowly softened, though, as he realized how much trouble he could get himself into. With that thought in mind he slowed to a lengthy walk just to cover ground faster as his neck relaxed and he allowed his head to hang a bit.
By the time he reached them he knew he probably looked quite pitiful with his hungry, yet kind and soft eyes that only wanted a meal and not any trouble. He walked straight up to the two 'humans' and grabbed the man who'd approached his prey by the back of his collar without saying a word to either person. He tugged roughly at him, tried to take him down into the water with only thoughts of satisfying his hunger so he could rest and relax at last without worrying if he might keep living.
Of course Keir's decisions were made with a young and fairly inexperienced mind and process of thought. He did not understand yet just how much information his observations were lacking.
If she'd been hoping for some sort of pleasant conversation, she was sorely mistaken in looking for it in Caspian. Memorable, however... Memorable he could certainly grant her.
"H-Hey!" He stammered in surprise, blinking his smoldering gold eyes wide as she batted his chest lightly, nearly groggily with her outstretched limb. That action was honestly the last he was expecting, and it unarmed his tough facade. Sitting up he could understand. He was even ready when she'd blinked her eyes awake, albeit with a bit of difficulty due to the salty residue that was doubtless covering her body and perhaps starching her linen dress stiff. But this? Was she... swatting him away?
"Hello?"
Caspian curled his fingers around her wrist once her hand had come in contact with his chest, and his grip was eerily cold against her sun-toasted skin. Well, at least she wasn't dead. "Listen to me, you daft little girl..." He began in a scolding tone, his grip tightening in a reprimanding way... But the rest of his sentence died on his lips, as the flurry of sand he'd noticed being kicked up in his peripherals was advancing on them in an ominous way.
"The horse?" He wondered aloud, his previous suspicions of cavalry practically affirmed in his mind at the sight of the creature running at breakneck speed towards them. Caspian stiffened, flipping through the possibilities that could be at hand this very moment. The knight could be hiding? The knight could be dead. What knight would be without his horse, and what the hell kind of horse would be running at them like a bat out of hell without any particular reason to do so?
It didn't have a reason... did it?
The jet-black creature slowed though, and the sound of its hooves rapping against the sand became heavier in a nearly... upset way that caused Caspian to guess upon the intentions of the horse. The thing was as black as pitch, like a living nightmare walking on the beach - rather displaced given the beautiful beach-side setting they were in.
Though the fact that Caspian had never seen a horse who managed to achieve the same color of darkness that /his/ horse form did was more than unsettling.
With a huff, he cast his gaze from the horse who now slowed to a mournful trudge in the sand (which was much less intimidating) back down to the girl he had been about to give an earful to for flopping unconscious where ever she pleased. What had she been thinking anyways? Humans, he swore, could easily be the most inconsiderate and downright /stupid/ species gracing this planet. The moment he opened his mouth to tell her so, he felt a strong jerk on the oversized lapels of his captian's jacket. He inhailed sharply, the quick gasp the only vocal registration of the attack he'd make. 'What the-?!' The sentence was fleeting in his mind as he tried to register the strong force, didn't even have enough time to complete the thought as the rest of his body responded. Given that the tug was applied at the general area of his neck, his lithe frame easily followed suit of the direction the grasp was pulling him. Currently, that direction was a beeline straight for the ocean. His dark black-green hair swept over his eyes like a jagged curtain as he was unceremoniously hauled off the beach.
In his final moments, he'd used the arm of the girl he was holding as an anchor to reel her in against his chest and pin her there, arms crossed over her back, effectively dragging her into the tides with the beast who'd been taking them away in the first place. What had prompted Caspian to keep her was beyond him at the moment, and he'd really only sealed her fate with his on a last-second whim. Maybe he wasn't ready to leave her just yet. Caspian angled his head quickly, for this all happened in a matter of moments, backwards to try and catch a glimpse of his captor. Dark... hair. Had he really expected anything differently? It had to be the very horse that had been riding towards them; he knew it from the hot breath ghosting down the back of his neck from the thing's nose when it had grabbed at him. And begun to pull him into the ocean...!
Realization dawned on Caspian. Actually, it was more like realization was a brick, and that brick clobbered Caspian in the face. But that was it, before chilled ocean waves crashed down over their heads, and seafoam was the only thing left spanning the coast.
Mary was confused. What could she possibly have done to aggravate this man enough for him to call her daft. Looking up at this human creature, savoring the moment before muttering. Looking at his angry expression. "I'm sorry." That was what she was supposed to say right?
Why was he looking away.
The sudden shadow blocking the beautiful sun surprised her just as much as the man's reply. "What the?" WHAT WAS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN? On top of the already weird situation he started dragging her by the chest, pulling her with him.
Feeling sand become wet right before Mother sea greeted her, with salt and cold darkness. The first thought was a welcome sigh. Then the weird thought. "have I been found out already?" quickly followed by gasping for air again. I CANT BREATHE!
Desperate for air, recently formed tentacles grabbed every solid rock on the ground they could find until finally anchoring her main body. Still being held by this weird man, being dragged even further down. Stretching her body to its very limits before being shot up and back to shore like a giant living rubber band. Her passengers as ammunition.
Pretty soon she was puking saltwater and coughing. Begging the heavens for more air. Whatever had held her had been tossed further up the beach, possibly as far as into the tree's. Hopefully they were not too injured.
Tentacles on sand took time, She had to stake herself trough to get a decent grip. Pretty soon, thanks to the sun the smaller tentacles where already retracting.
"Bloody surface dwellers. YOU BETTER HAVE AN REALLY GOOD EXCUSE READY! THIS IS NO WAY TO TREAT A LADY!"
He had dragged the man along and before he'd even hit the water there was dead weight! Glancing to the side and ready to just throw the guy into the water ahead of him Keir realized that he'd grabbed the girl too. Great...that's going to be a waste...
He didn't stop even when he took notice of the new edition and pulled both of them along into the water and down further as he dove in his routine way of drowning. Only...he wasn't going down anymore. Frustrated with yet another problem to deal with, Keir let go of the man's clothes and whipped his head around sharply in the water. What he saw made him freeze and he almost forgot to breathe after a moment until his determination kicked in; he would have food today! With all his strength he snatched the man's jacket between his teeth again and tugged as hard as he could, his efforts rewarding a little downward movement in the water but....something was still wrong. Before Keir had time to turn again he was being dragged along, back up to the surface this time.
At first Keir thought it was his imagination, but when he came flying out of the water, the quick motion caused him to rip a bit of the shirt and he found himself being flung across the beach. He was dumbfounded and completely at a loss for what could have the power to bring a Kelpie back out of the water like this and throw him so far at that...but his thoughts cut short as he realized he was still falling. Panicked now, Keir shut his eyes so he wouldn't have to see if anything devastating happened to his body.
When everything seemed to finally stop, the ringing and dizziness included, Keir finally opened his eyes. After testing his legs he realized that he'd escaped the worst of it and pulled himself to stand up. He wanted to change but...what if he needed to run? Whatever had thrown him had been big or just extremely powerful but he knew he had to be cautious now all the same.
Turning his head he was able to see the skid marks of dirt on his usually spotless, glistening hide. Snorting, he shook dirt from wet mane as best he could but his efforts did nothing to clear the dirt from his soaked body. "What was that?" he wondered aloud, his voice carrying a shaken tone. All this because he was hungry? The world was a harsh place to live now, he was convinced.
Keir made his way back to the sand slowly only to see a mess of...tentacles? What?! His eyes widened and he shook his head a bit to make sure he was seeing straight and...there were tentacles on the beach. The girl and the man were both still there and it took him a little while to register that the tentacles were coming from this girl. Of course, she hammered into his head that it was her when she started screaming. Is she in pain? he found himself wondering now about the very girl he'd intended to kill only a short while ago.
Now he found himself just standing there on the sand, covered in scrapes and dirt that was a stark contrast to the pristine sands of the beach they were on. If this was what he had to go through to get a meal every now and then Keir would drop dead here and now and deal with it no longer. This...tentacle-girl had him scared now and he was pretty much set on bolting down the beach if anything else frightened him. Hungry and scared...what a way to start the morning.
"KYAAAAAH!"
Caspian wasn't lucky enough to be a god damned horse, or a girl with dozens of tentacles sprouting from beneath her dress. So, when he was catapulted out of the ocean, he went spiraling through the air like a drunk seagull.
Meanwhile, the fisherman who had been grumbling nearby at the beginning of the thread, watched in disbelief as three very unlikely bodies sprung from the ocean like water demons. A girl who looked like she was being raped by a squid, a black stallion (couldn't even address how much that didn't make sense), and a boy who, after being ripped from of the horse's mouth, promptly punched a hole through the treetops and shot directly into a sand dune like a human cannon ball.
"Oof!"
Well, then...time for a drink.
The kelpie boy emerged back into the eyeshot of the other two looking quite upset as he plucked branches from his sand-encrusted black-green hair, which was currently plastered very wetly to the sides of his face. He had been lucky to avoid serious injury, but he /did/ have sand wedged into the little cuts where his skin was unfortunate enough to be exposed to the web of branches he collided with. Yes, lucky. Then again, he supposed that luck was enough, because he was already unlucky in so many ways during the past five seconds that he thought his head would spin.
"Bloody surface dwellers. YOU BETTER HAVE AN REALLY GOOD EXCUSE READY! THIS IS NO WAY TO TREAT A LADY!"
"Hah." Caspian mused, his voice dangerously calm, "A lady. Is that what you call yourself? Because, last time I checked..." His voice hitched in anger. "...ladies don't have SEA CREATURES LIVING UNDER THEIR DRESSES." He spit out the leaf that had made it's way into his mouth, wrinkling his nose. No, he didn't like that - he definitely wasn't a herbivore. "What the hell was that?" He cried, pointing a finger accusingly at the very /pretty/ girl who had just recently become a god damned monster. It wavered, then shifted with the rest of his body to point at the confused looking horse perched just a ways away. "And you! Why didn't you just take the gir-" Caspian's fit ended abruptly, and for good reason. He noticed the bits of royal blue fabric littering the sand...moved that pointing finger over his shoulder to grope his hand down the back of his jacket.
Oh, yes. It was ripped.
That seemed to be Caspian's last straw, for he pulled the oversized garment over his head - with a bit of difficulty, since it was soaked all the way through - and pitched it angrily down into the sand. "This is ridiculous!"
This was so wrong and not like her dreams of the surface world at all. She felt sick to the stomach just by the mere thought of how wrong this was. Or maybe it simply was the sea water she had swallowed.
Hugging her stomach tightly, trying to keep herself from vomiting while listening to her first conversation go from Hello and sweet words to. Insult's.
it didn't take long before the turnabout had her in tears. She sat down now using the tentacles as a chair and wiping her nose in between sobs. "What am I then? I just came here, How would I know!" She lashed back out at the pair, Her largest tentacle's following the motion of her hand.
Before any sort of angry retaliation could be performed she was forced to buckle over and puke. A large amount of grey goo that melted the very sand it hit. Smelling worse than the insides of Davy Jones locker.
"Blugh, oh godess..what is this cruel sensation. "
Her insides where burning, her nose was burning. Her eyes still cried salty tears of discontent and her heart was in shamble's. She did her best and made a run for it towards the forest by using the tentacles to Pole vault her body forward and then stumbling back down onto the sand.
Like a beached whale she hit the sand meekly in anger. Still sulking lightly.
The girl's words finally became clear in Keir's mind, though there was a haze there due to thoughts of hunger as well, and he watched her as she had her little breakdown. The vomit caused him to cringe and turn away, closing his eyes for good measure, but he turned back when he heard the man yelling as well. Everyone seemed upset now and Keir had no idea that it was all his own doing for being so...possessive of his so-desired food. The man was pointing at him when he opened his eyes and he gave a quizzical look before turning to the upset girl again.
He could see that she was crying now and he suddenly lost all left concern over his hunger. Watching as she struggled up the beach with her tentacles flailing about, Keir felt a bit sorry for her. Slowly and with extreme caution, he walked towards her, making sure to stop in what he felt was a safe distance from the tentacles he'd seen her lash out with. "Umm...I'm sorry that you're upset...did I make you upset? I didn't mean to...why are you crying?" he asked her softly, trying to be gentle with his tone because he didn't like it when he saw people cry. Still, he kept himself alert in case anything sudden happened and he should find the need to run. Kelpies were very good at fleeing and he would be more than happy to if this turned any worse.
This girl was full of surprises, that was for sure.
"What am I then? I just came here, How would I know!"
Caspian blanched, all color draining from his face at the sounds of ... sobbing? The noise of anguish pulled at his heartstrings, made his demeanor change completely. Long gone was his hostility - it was replaced with a blend of terror and the classical look of male confusion, because he had absolutely no idea how to react. It was ironic that a creature who survived through the killing of man was unaccustomed to tears, but he hadn't ever even /heard/ a woman cry before (to his knowledge). By the time he had women drowning under the water with him, tears had gone unnoticed, and their screams of terror were .. well, muffled by the lack of air. Just distorted noises as they twisted around in his arms.
"Wait..." He didn't know what to say, and stayed silent throughout the whole pitiful performance of her trying to make a hasty get away and failing. Caspian winced inwardly at the sight of her crashing against the sand, almost wished he could have... caught her. 'Or perhaps that would have been a terrible idea.' The kelpie boy mused to himself, his eyes falling pointedly on the melting sand where she'd retched. Imagine if he'd gotten any of that on himself? She would have gotten her revenge tenfold.
"Umm...I'm sorry that you're upset...did I make you upset? I didn't mean to...why are you crying?"
Caspian's eyes flared wide. 'He spoke?!' Although he, too, was able to speak in his water horse form, he wasn't willing to do it so openly. And to a human he wasn't about to kill? Was this one absolutely crazy? He could blow Caspian's cover for the next time!
Then again, she wasn't exactly human, was she?
Some guts that horse had. Perhaps it would startle her, to be comforted by a talking horse. But by the sound (and sight, obviously) of it, she probably wouldn't be experienced enough to recognize it was out of the ordinary. Caspian knit his arms against his chest, suddenly very aware that he was the cause of all her distress. 'I woke her up. I pulled her into the ocean; she wasn't that kelpie's intended. I even yelled at her.' He sighed, long and weary, as if getting over his previous anger was somehow exhausting.
Well if even the horse, who had nothing to do with her distress in the first place, was seeking to console her, he might as well. The soft sand welled up around his feet with every step he took towards her, until he was closer towards Keir, but standing directly before her. Falling to one knee, he outstretched a hand to help her up. "Hey. Don't be so sensitive all the time." He cooed, with a voice so soft it betrayed the harshness of his words. Caspian was unfortunate enough to catch the sight of her face, and it damn near broke his heart. He tried harder. "You're too pretty. Crying doesn't suit you. We'll start off on a new foot, agreed? My name is Caspian. What's yours?"
After which (though he was still holding his hand out to her), he tilted his head to regard the black stallion with an arched eyebrow. "Which you might as well answer, too, since you speak so suddenly. Tell me, horse. How'd my jacket taste? Good, I presume, since you took a piece of it with you?" He frowned a bit, not really upset at the loss (since it wasn't his to begin with), but more interested in why he seemed to be prime kelpie bait. Wouldn't a girl knocked out on the beach have been better? Or maybe Caspian was simply appetizing. 'Yes, that's probably it...' He thought while sticking a hot pink tongue out at Keir. "Who are you?"
Rita finally accepted his hand, hiding her tear stained face with the other hand. Steadily rising upwards with the aid of tentacles and the hand offered to her by Caspian he had said his name was.
"Thank you, Caspian. I am Mary, pleased to make your acquaintance." Straightening her hair with renewed dignity, already wanting to forget what had happened.
She looked around herself, trying to find whoever else had spoken out. Finally settling on the four legged creature that Caspian was speaking to. Apparently angry over something called a jacket.
Recalling his words, that she had selfishly ignored earlier. "Why would you be the cause of me being upset? I haven't even seen you before in my entire life. If it isn't too rude to ask I would like to know your name."
With renewed faith in the conversation with Caspian and this weird creature. She tried to smile happily. Like in the descriptions from her mother. Curling back her lips, displaying an incredible set of dagger shaped teeth.
After all the day was still young, no need to be sad anymore. Still the failure to communicate lay thick on her mind. Gathering every available tentacle to support her new position on the sand.
"I'm truly glad to have met someone understanding. It wasn't the plan for anyone to see me like this and I guess it kind of made me go overboard, emotionally."
Keir had looked up when the man came over and was a bit puzzled in his shift of emotions. He comforted the girl, much better than he ever could in his true Kelpie form, and he watched as she slowly came down from the state of pouring tears. He realized now that she had been trying to run away from them and everything that had happened, but he was glad that she'd been able to calm down. He did not like it when people were upset, even when he killed it bothered him to hear the desperate noises of his victims as he pulled them down. Somehow, today was different. Keir had been the one pulled back up and he was still trying to figure out how it had all happened, though it did not occur to him that the girl had such strength.
The man had addressed him. Turning his head to look down at him as he knelt before the tentacle-girl, he gave a blunt snort at the mention of the jacket that had torn while flying through the air. Of course he knew it had been his fault, with trying to kill the man and all, but now he didn't think it was worth mentioning; Keir did not think it would be wise at all to tell the man that the jacket would have been spared had he not been in his way of the girl...with her just having calmed down and all. As he thought about it, though, he was glad he hadn't ended up trying to take her down alone after seeing what had happened. Maybe just him...
Both had asked for his name, though, and he knew he'd need to save it for later if he wanted to have another go at drowning Caspian. He lowered his head a bit, trying to put on his best confused face as his mind scrambled for an answer. "I'm called Torin," he lied, looking first to Mary and then Caspian. "Err...I'm sorry, Mary. I just...thought it might've been my fault." He chose not to say anything to Caspian's remarks about the jacket, the man irritated him with the way he had spoken...and then to stick out his tongue. Keir had never had anyone do that to him before so he just assumed it was an offensive gesture and narrowed his eyes at him.
Ahh...his stomach was growling now. "I um..." What did real horses eat?! "I should get going...my master will be missing me if I don't get back," he lied again while blinking those blue eyes of his; he hated to lie about things but at the moment it seemed necessary. He started backing away slowly while mumbling, "I'll miss my rations." With that, he bolted off down the beach, back the direction he'd come. A few miles down he veered sharply and crashed back into the water before turning again, once he was far out enough to swim properly, to head back towards where he'd left Caspian and Mary. He wanted to keep an eye on them from a distance for now so he stayed where he was out in the water, though his limbs were tired and his senses a bit hazy from being deprived of nourishment, and started to plan how he would lure Caspian back out into the water.
Of course, things would be a bit easier if the pair stayed on the beach all day, but Keir did not want to leave himself with no other options so he thought about what he'd do if they headed into town as well. He would get his meal today if it killed him, but now he wanted the man Caspian for being so...loud and mean.
"Mary? A pleasure to make your acquaintance." He mustered in the most charming voice he could, still a bit worried she might teeter off the edge and make those sad noises that made his gut wrench. In helping her up, he'd pulled them both to their feet/tentacles (XD) and released her hand to cross his arms...then use them to dust sand out of his face... then to simply shove them into his pockets out of a lack of what to do.
It was an understatement to say he felt a little awkward. He had tried to tease the other kelpie to elicit some sort of playful response from him, but he hadn't seemed to appreciate it. In fact, all he'd done was snort and ignore him. Not to mention he was narrowing his eyes at him. Caspian tensed and returned the look with wide gold eyes, uncertain about how to react or feel in the specific moment while he remained the without-a-doubt 'bad guy' in the situation. 'Why should I care? It isn't as if this is a new position for me.' He thought bitterly, now glowering at the horse, 'Ironic since /he's/ the one who wanted to kill someone here.'
Caspian was a skilled enough liar to be able to detect the hints of fabrication turning cogs within the horse's mind, but he wasn't certain enough to know if the thing truely /was/ a kelpie anymore. He had a hard time believing he wasn't the sole one in existence these days. "Torin.." He echoed, watching the horse shiftily state some vague reasoning for his excuse from the group. Caspian could hardly speak before the beast was trotting off down the shoreline, just barely managed a "Goodbye..." before he was just a black speck on the horizon, fizzling out of eyeshot.
"I'm truly glad to have met someone understanding. It wasn't the plan for anyone to see me like this and I guess it kind of made me go overboard, emotionally."
Oh, god! Those teeth! To the average human, the sight of such an intimidating row of fangs would have sent them scattering, but Caspian was no human. He'd spent centuries in the depths of the ocean, and was all too attuned to the sight - in fact, his /straight/ teeth were an oddity where he was from. The boy leaned in and tucked one stray blue hair behind her ear, gave her a playful grin. "I understand," he leaned back again, and lifted the hand to shield his eyes from the sun, "But what were you doing sleeping on the beach? Did something happen to you?"
"A pleasureTorin!" She waved him goodbye's before the clogs of her brain sent questions she wanted answered. "Your master lives in the water?" But he vanished into the waves before answering anything. Slightly sad that he had just left like that.
Confused she turned to Caspian. "I haven't practiced shifting at all before I got here. It was my first crossing between the surface and my home and when I arrived at the shore I couldn't breathe out of my gill's so I fainted. I'm lucky to be alive I guess."
The tentacles where already retracting a slow process that would take hours. Hopefully he wouldn't leave her alone during those hours.
"Now I'm stuck here until I can grow a pair of legs. Shifting takes time to get right for us Abyss dweller's. or at least that was what my mum said. She never ventured onto the surface like this."
This was definitely the great frontier like in the middle of a fairytale she giggled with excitement.
"I hope you won't find my questions boring but What are those green things? Its called grass isn't it? My grandmother said her grandmother's grandmother had gone to a beach like this and questioned passerby's for information before heading back down? But there are no yellow fruit hanging from brown errr. Palm trees here?"
(OOC: NOOOOOO A TOURIST FROM THE SEA ;OOOO WATCH OUT. RUN AWAY)
'So she's a sea creature.' Caspian deducted, furrowing his eyebrows. He wished he could answer all of her questions, but it wasn't often that he ever ventured past the shore, and the only time he would, it was out of sheer loneliness. Such overpowering loneliness that he couldn't bring himself to speak with anyone without immediately killing them for fear they'd speak about him to others, unearth his secrets. But the fact that she was from /his/ hometown, so to speak, was comforting.
"I hope you won't find my questions boring but What are those green things? Its called grass isn't it? My grandmother said her grandmother's grandmother had gone to a beach like this and questioned passerby's for information before heading back down? But there are no yellow fruit hanging from brown errr. Palm trees here?"
The kelpie boy dragged his fingers through his thick, dark hair and heaved a sigh. So this experience was popping her surface 'cherry'. He could almost recall the first time he'd seen the surface, but it was a fleeting thing: people weren't particularly accepting of kelpies in Scotland back in those days. Scotland - no one would know what that place was in these times, would they?
"The ones poking up out of the ground? Yeah, it's grass. Kind of like seaweed. Actually, without being like seaweed at all..." He tapped his finger against his chin in thought, mulling over a good way to explain the entire /world/ to her. It was... an immense task. "Perhaps you're asking the wrong person, gir- I mean. Mary." He pitched his voice down into a whisper, the next words he spoke for her ears alone, "To be honest, I'm from the waters myself. This isn't my home, so I can't tell you what you want to know. I'm sorry."
For the first time in many years, Caspian felt the overwhelming urge to protect someone. He didn't want her to realize what this surface world was really like, didn't want her to understand war or to witness poverty. She seemed so... enthusiastic. "Actually, the surface world isn't accepting of sea creatures. So perhaps you'd best go back into the sea, alright? I promise you, a girl like you could be in a /lot/ of trouble" -or raped- "all by herself up here. It isn't safe even for me! When you're older though, yeah?"
"well. I won't say my family didn't do theirs to warn me about the surface. But now that I'm 6 Nixes long they said I could go up and see for myself."
Brushing aside his warnings like she had with her parents. Looking like a defiant brat as she folded her arms and teased him with a large black tongue. "I kind of want to go further than my ancestor's at the least. And the disguise is perfect. My tentacle's will turn to leg's."
Paused a slight bit Holding up her largest tentacle. Frowning slightly at the pace it was shrinking. Before looking back at Caspain "Eventually!"
ooc: *does secret squirrel entrance* psst! Era, Ric! You guys can keep skipping me unless there's a big change that I might want in on. x3 *slinks away all non-penguinlike*
(( Okay! >.< Sorry guys, I had a lab practical AND an exam within a two day span of each other so I've been super busy trying to learn it all. I'm back though. ;] And Ric, before you told me it was cool to like.. :x do certain things without asking within reason? Lemme know if him pinching her tongue isss... unacceptable and I'll just tweak my post, mmk?))
He didn't care what her elders thought was permissible. It was more than likely that they had no clue what kind of prison they were marching her off to, and it was up to Caspian to banish her back to the depths she'd come from. After all, she was a being of the sea like him, right? They were kindred in that way... 'And like hell I'll let her mingle with the humans.'
With that thought, he lashed out and snagged her tongue before she could retract it, pinching the black mass in between two of his fingers. "I liked you better when you were unconscious," With gold eyes narrowed dangerously, he continued in a taunting tone, "Why would you want to look like them? Afraid they'll treat you like a monster if they see your true form?" His face was level with her now, bent swiftly at the waist to contemplate her with a scowl. "I can't promise you that you'll be treated any better if you resemble one of their kind. In fact, you'll probably be treated worse. And if any human got a hold of one of your tentacles..." His eyes strayed from her face, fingers relinquishing his hold on her tongue so that he could stand up right with his arms crossed against his chest.
"They'd eat you. Fry you. Boil you. It would doubtless amuse them that a morsel like yourself delivered herself right to their door."
Tasting her tongue, it was hurting from being gripped and it felt dry in Mary's mouth because the wind and sun had dried it. Wiping off the tears that had come because of his harsh word's.
Her parents had never been this mean, what right did Caspian have to command her and threaten her with his scare tactic. How dare he try to manhandle me and say that she was going to be eaten by human's.
Defiantly she wrang one of her main tentacle's across his neck and chest. Letting the dry pores suck themselves into his skin and tighten her grip. Puffing and wheezing with divine fury.
Mary couldnt help but want to slap him super duper hard. But then she rememberd how kind he had been and decided to appologise. Releasing her grip on him slowly, every suction cup releasing its hold with tiny tremendously painfull *Plops* His entire neck was filled with round blue circle's.
Ghasping at the scene before hiding her face in shame. «Sorry. I... You are just trying to help and I'm behaving like a child.»
Caspian was immune to her tears now, had built an impenetrable wall around his literally cold heart. He wasn't, however, prepared for her anger. It hadn't crossed his mind that he might invoke her wrath with his overprotective tendencies, and he met the emotion with wide eyes. "Nngh!" He grunted as heavy, dry tentacles adhered to his bare chest and neck, and applied enough pressure with suction to make him panic for only a moment. But then... what could she really do besides hurt him?
She could break every bone in his body, for one. If she wanted to, she could cripple him for life, or inflict the most horrific pain he could imagine. These suckers, he knew, were nothing compared to her real power. If she wanted to hurt him, she could have easily mangled him to bits and pieces by now. Maybe she would.
And he was morbidly curious about the nature of death. Did it feel as good as it looked when he dragged mortals to their inevitable demise? 'Dying today is much like dying any other.' Caspian reasoned, closed his eyes despite her livid face and came to a terrible peace within himself.
If he were going to die, he'd much rather it be to this... octopus girl than anyone else. At least she wasn't a human.
Still, he didn't figure her to be the type to act out in aggression. She'd seemed such a sweet girl when he'd first met her, sensitive and curious. The fact that she'd found it necessary to hurt him at all made him a little ticked himself. Perhaps she belonged on the surface. "Go ahead. Kill me." He hissed, his voice dripping with malice while he planted his feet firmly in the hot sand, "You can tell your family - if you /survive/ long enough to return - about how you met a boy on land and took his life. That'd be a fitting experience for a trip like this, don't you think?"
But the tentacle was already setting him free, making him wince involuntarily with the removal of each sucker. The sickening, wet sound of it made him grimace. God, that hurt. But he wasn't about to let her know that, so he merely took a cautious step back and ran his fingers over his cold, tanned skin experimentally. Oh yes. That'd leave marks. It looked like Caspian was covered in a bunch of large hickeys. Unfortunately, that would keep any potential female prey at bay. He'd have to resort to using his water horse form to survive, now.
"Sorry. I... You are just trying to help and I'm behaving like a child."
"Forget it." He whispered, as if the will to carry on had been drained out of him. "You're already off to a good start, aren't you, Mary?" Backtracking now, each backwards footstep sinking into the gradient of wet washed over the sand from the tides. Sea foam, remnants of the waves crashing behind him, danced between his toes. It was obvious that he was taking his leave of her. This conversation was quickly heading downhill at an ominously rapid speed, and he no longer felt compelled to stay in her presence any longer; he was heading back to where he belonged. 'At least I know where that is.' Caspian thought bitterly, now up to his ankles in water. "I'm sorry I woke you."
Keir had stayed far from the scene on the beach, floating with just his head above water. To any boat he probably would have looked like some piece of charred debris. He listened to the conversation between Caspian and Mary with a sort of delight. A chuckle came here and there and he remained patient while observing the pair, feeling no need to rush out. Aah, but now! Caspian was backing away, coming towards the water! Keir grinned broadly for this, feeling that all his time had been worth it for this moment.
Slipping his head underwater again, the young Kelpie darted forward, heading towards the beach. When he was still far enough away, feeling it would be safe and nobody would see, he dived even deeper before shifting into his human form. Trading his more efficient Kelpie form for what he thought would be an unidentifiable appearance was worth it to Keir, he wanted that human! Of course he did not take into account the fact that his hair was long and black or that his eyes were the same color in both of his forms, but even if he had he would not have cared. Pushing off from the sandy bottom, he turned his head to look up, locking his focus on Caspian's feet as they moved into the water. Closer and closer and the water was getting shallow with every stroke. Not wanting to ruin his entire plan, Keir positioned himself to slink along the sandy bottom, flattening his body while stretching his arms ahead of him.
Finally he found himself rocking along with the waves in the shallowest of water with arms outstretched towards his intended prey. Glaring, a bit frustrated that the man hadn't moved just a bit further out, Keir scrambled to calculate how much energy would be required to pull the standing man out into the water. That plan was quickly scrapped, though, it only fueled his frustrations. Instead, he made a lunge for him, quickly locking his hands around Caspian's ankles and pulling back with all the strength he had, desperate to drown this man. Once he'd dragged him back against the sand a ways Keir lunged forward and locked his arms around his torso to try and sink him faster.
He had him! He had him! At least for the time he thought so with all his being.
Mary was reduced to a steady steam of tears again. Seating down on her tentacle's with sorrow. So this was how her first conversation on land was ending?
A terrible tragedy that she had no knowledge as to how she'd be able to correct. «Im not sorry you woke me.» was all she could say in between the sob's. It felt natural to cry out now that he had vanished into the sea. Her chest throbbing with regret.
If only she had been able to calm down, he would probably still have left her but atleast the parting wouldnt have left her such heartace. Maybe he was right. She could just head back down and never return but somewhere deep inside the adventurous soul still resonated within.
Crushing the treetrunk of an oak with her tentacle's. The crushing sensation let her rid the soul of some pent up fustration. Then tossing it into the sea with anger. «Fine!» Then another tree followed. «I never needed you!» And another one. «I can find others!»
As the last one hit the surface she turned her back to the oceans and the man who had treated her like a child. Still infuriated and with crossed hands as she let the world flow by. Waiting for the squid part's to become leg's
She could cry for hours for all he cared. The salty undertones of the coastal breeze was luring him into the sea, and even the fragmented shells that bit into the soles of his human feet ignited nostalgia in him. For a kelpie out of water, he had been braving the surface world for an impressive amount of time given the circumstances. After all, he stayed on the surface after all of this trouble with the other horse and this damned octopus girl. I'm not going to fall for her tricks again. He steeled himself, still reeling back into the downwards crash of the tides.
Just as he was about to turn around and nosedive into an oncoming wave, two hands arrested his ankles and swept the world out from under him. Caspian landed facefirst in the wet sand, hitting the gritty shore with a thud before the wave came falling down over his head in a torrent of white and blue. He dug his human fingers into the sand to try and root himself into the beach, but the force was too strong and swept him away like a vicious riptide.
Now they were descending the continental shelf, such a dramatic cliff that gave way to the dark, empty blue expanse of the ocean. The cold waters awakened the kelpie boy, who promptly pivoted in Keir's arms until his naturally chilled body was chest-to-chest with the other. His eyes were wide, glowed like puddles of liquid sunlight.
Just a boy?! A boy had managed to overcome him, one not much too bigger than himself? Caspian had been braced for sea monsters, myths, even mermaids! Stupid humans, 'dunking' and playing about in the water as if they weren't in /his/ element! Furious, he writhed in Keir's arms, thrashed his body in a very fish-esque nature to try and break free of his grasp. "Nnngh!" He cried out in his final jerk, his green-black hair flickering like seaweed in the water, then stilled as the flurry of bubbles stirred from the frenzy drifted up and away. It had finally dawned! Was this kid trying to... drown him? Really?
Well, that wouldn't do at all.
Caspian, with a new plan of attack, kicked off against the water and latched his arms around the boy as well, caught in a rather awkward hug if not given the situation. But, no! He was determined to teach this human a lesson he would have to pay with his life! Just as soon as he drowned!
He clung fiercely as the two sunk lower and lower, and watched the boy's face for any sign of horror.
Keir was so pleased with himself as Caspian struggled against him, the human trying to shake him off. Of course that would not work, he had it set in his mind to hold on or starve. It did surprise him a bit as he twirled to face him, though he just ended up smiling at him, but it was puzzling that the human would hold onto him as well. What was he thinking?
It did not make sense at all but he held on tight as they continued to fall deeper into the water. The human had even kicked to take them deeper...did he want to die? Why was he staring at him? Keir simply rolled his eyes and leaned his head forward, onto the chest of the other, to listen for a pulse. It was still there. How long have we been under!? he thought frantically, wondering if he'd somehow mistaken this man for some other species. He looked human, though...
Keir moved his head back to look him in the eyes, a bit of irritation in his own as he twirled them around a bit. He wanted to yell die already! but this guy just...what was wrong here?!
Too much time had passed now for any average human to still be alive without oxygen. Caspian frowned, his determined face falling. Even at these depths, any /ordinary/ thing would have succumbed to the pressure of the water around them!
So why wasn't this guy dead yet?
His feet stilled in the water, and the rest of his body went slack as confusion took over. Did he just.. roll his eyes at me? Caspian pondered, furrowing his eyebrows at the offensive action. With each passing moment, he wished more and more desperately for death to take it's hold of the abrasive boy, but it seemed obvious it would never come.
Not to mention, the vaguely familiar blue of those rolling eyes was causing Caspian to faulter, as if he had seen them before but couldn't put his finger on it.
He almost drew back when Keir ducked his head down to settle against his chest. As if enough random things hadn't decided to adhere themselves to Caspian, it was almost becoming sort of normal for unexpected things to be happening to him this afternoon. More troublesome was that the boy was /still/ not dead, and the longer that state continued, the more confused he became.
"Uh..." He began helplessly, one hand coming up to rest on the top of the boy's head. Caspian searched for the appropriate words for the moment, but came up short. What could he say, really? It felt like his tongue was caught in his throat. Instead, he settled for stating the obvious which only required a marginally higher IQ than his previous vocal emission. "... You're not drowning."
He'd meant for it to be a question, but it fell off his tongue as a statement and.. it was a horrible finish. But there it was.
Mary's head was spinning from this constant crying as rage started consuming her. This wasnt her fault! In fact it was Caspians fault! He should have felt honored that she even cared! Yes he should have! Instead he had yelled at her. AGAIN. And disappeared into the water with haste.
She had not seen the bit where he departed but there where a pair of shadows thrasing about down there at the crystal clear dept's. Oh yes! Maybe it was a pair of catfish locked in a mating ritual. OR MAYBE IT WAS CASPIAN AND A FRIEND LAUGHING THEMSELVES TO DEATH AT HER EXPENCE!
Oh she was so angry now, Fuck him! YEEES. She was going to make him regret ever talking harsh and then running out on her. Observing her surroundings with fury and haste looking for something to take the sting off. «Aaaaaaa.» she exclaimed with a nasty inhuman grin and thin red slit's for eyes. Tentacles buried themselves into the cold sand. Like penguin torpedoes they dove faar down. Latching every single aviable tentacle to a small mountain of a rock.
With the divine fury granted to her by this unbecoming ever consuming rage. She hauled it up from the very sand it had been thrusted into. Took aim.
And fired a 25 meter long rock torpedo at the shadows. Whatever it was down there they both deserved to die for laughing at her expense. Even though she was only guessing at what they had been doing.
Her eyes still hurt from the salty tears, and evergrowing heartace started turning rage into some pseudo maddening emotion. She needed more outlet's to vent of the steam before it was too late. Roaring with female fury while finding more suitable objects to toss. "YOU CAN BET THAT I WILL MAKE YOU FEEL SORRY FOR EVER WAKING ME NOW!"
At this point Keir was just as confused as Caspian as he floated along there in the water trying to figure out why the other wasn't dying. When he heard the man speak to him, though, he glared, his body taking all it had not to yell and lash out at him for daring to speak when he should have already been dead. When was he going to be able to eat?! Keir was getting desperate on the inside but he was just as astonished with Caspian. Perhaps he had made an error somewhere along the line?
"You...you're not drowning either..." It took great effort to wrap his brain around the idea that this man wasn't human at all. Even so, what could he be to not drown after such a time under the water? And at their depth? Keir shook his head, slowly easing his grip on Caspian. That was when he heard the crash of something quite heavy slamming against the surface of the water, a giant shadow cloaking them in darkness immediately. Startled, Keir released Caspian completely and darted for the edge of the shadow, scrambling to get away from it. When he was in considerably shallow water and a little ways from the sinking object he looked back and saw it was a...boulder. No, boulder was too gentle a term for this. It was...-poor Keir didn't even have words to describe the behemoth. It was just...gigantic.
Popping his head above the surface, he scanned the beach for a brief moment. The tentacle-girl was gone, a bit to his dismay, but he made his way up to dry sand anyhow. A little ways up the beach he plopped down and began picking at stray threads on his pants in a silent form of pouting and disappointment over what had just happened. Looking out at the blob of darkness, the...rock now sunk to the bottom, Keir wondered where the thing had come from. Did someone drop it out of the sky? No....no... But where had the darned thing come from? That was when he saw it, more stuff flying from...the woods? Wah? Keir jumped to his feet and cocked his head, looking through the trees but seeing nothing immediately. Though, he clearly heard the screeching. Screeching was never good.
Through all of this, besides his short escape from the sinking rock, Keir remained fairly calm. Though he was a mature, if still young-looking man on the outside his brain was still...a bit unconnected in terms of what he should be afraid of or mad about. Food...I'm so hungry, he thought desperately as he stood there, soaked and a bit helpless at the moment.
Despite Keir's glare, Caspian grinned wildly. After all, it was a pretty simple conclusion - neither of them were drowning, so both of them could exist underwater! He felt so lucky to be able to have met three potential sea-dwelling creatures in one day, he couldn't help but smile in the face of one...
Wait! Three? Unless this boy is also the kelpie? The familiarity of the those blue eyes lanced through him. "W-Wait!" He managed as the shadow began to descend upon them, but couldn't finish. For now the boy in question had scattered, and he'd been abandoned in a very 'every man for himself' manner.
What's his problem? Caspian scowled, then angled his neck up to inspect what had scared Keir off. Well, well, well. If it wasn't a huge piece of Earth sinking towards him faster than a lead ship. "Oh..." He trailed, his eyes as wide as saucers. If kelpie fae weren't equipped with the ability to transform into a turbo-charged horse, Caspian would have been squashed beneath the sheer weight of it. But he /had/ taken advantage of that, and bolted with flailing equine limbs down to the ocean floor faster than the 'rock', and used the ocean floor as a springboard to launch himself just out of it's area of damage.
Caspian shook out his horse mane with a snort, trying to fan away the sand which had clouded and billowed from the impact. That's terribly inconvenient.
On one hand, there was no real natural means of that thing falling so far out into the ocean, unless it came from outer space. On the other, Caspian really should have expected something so random to occur once again. All in all, this was beginning to become a rotten day. A crybaby octopus girl, a badly behaved kelpie, being catapulted from the ocean, thrown into trees, attacked by said girl, attempted to be drown by said boy... and now this, huge slab of rock plummeting to the very deaths of the ocean just over where /he/ was.
The nightmarishly black horse flicked his tail in annoyance. As enticing as it was to meet another kelpie, it just... wasn't worth it to Caspian to attempt to chase after him. He couldn't fathom where Keir had been whisked off to, and after all the uninviting glaring he'd done, Caspian found he no longer cared. About-face, he marched off into the sea and far away from the coast, until the only traces of him remaining were the fading clip-clops of his hooves tapping against the rock's face.
(( Aww! :X Silly kelpies. Byeee guys! Maybe they can meet again sometime and work out some of their differences or something. xD ))