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Catch of the Day [m]

Started by Draconian, January 28, 2016, 02:12:25 AM

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Draconian

Hydra just stared at her.

He wanted to think she was lying but he saw her lying. She was bad at it.

The pale of her face hand him reach a hand forward and he almost brushed his knuckles over her cheek to push her hair away. To see her features better, he told himself. Was that a fish-person thing? He'd never heard of that before. Then again, he'd never met a fish-person before.

Chewing on his lower lip for a moment he looked at the door before looking back at the girl.

"What, do you just... Die now that you're out of the water?" 'Cause that would suck and whoops. Hydra supposed that must have been why she was so frantic to get back into the water.

DragonSong

She flinched away from his hand instinctively, then gave him a puzzled look when he pulled it back of his own accord. Reaching up to absently brush away the remaining tears, she watched him as he looked to the door. Did he believe her? Was he going to get the captain?

Then he questioned her and Aura-lee nodded, keeping her eyes on his face and hoping he could read the sincerity in her expression. "Basically? Yes." She shrugged. For some reason, this was easier to talk about than what was going to happen to her if she did survive the trip to Essyrn (wherever that was).

"This," she said, waving a hand at herself and wiggling her toes cautiously for emphasis, "only lasts for three rises of the moon. If I'm not back in water by the time the moon goes down on the third night, I die."

Draconian

Hydra smiled widely.

"So we'll throw you in the net, dunk you in the ocean and pull you back up." He gave a wave of his hand like he'd just solved the problem and wasn't he just the best?  A look down at her toes and he smiled at her. One of those genuine ones that warmed his cold eyes.

"Can you walk?"

Which was a perfectly normal question to ask someone who had new legs after a mini-melt-down.

DragonSong

Aura-lee scoffed quietly at his suggestion. She couldn't help it. Sure, it would probably work, as long as they left her in the water for an hour or two, but he just seemed so pleased with himself while she was lying there all dejected.

She frowned a bit at the question and mumbled, "I don't know." Very carefully, she reached out to grab onto the bed and used it as an anchor to pull herself to her feet.

Her legs shook and twinged in protest, but it didn't hurt too bad. Warily, she let go of the bed and put all her weight on her legs.

Her knees buckled and she went down with a soft cry.

Draconian

[Hydra has a profile now =D ]

Honestly he was surprised she even got up.

Crying. Dejected. Hopeless.

Still trying to walk though.

Hydra gave a small little smile. He couldn't help himself. At least until she started to fall. On his feet with his hands on her waist in a heartbeat, his other two hands held her hands up to help her balance.

"I'll help you," He said gently and looked down at the top of her head, "I got your weight," He wiggled the fingers under her hands and slowly, carefully, let go of her waist.

DragonSong

[brb, swooning at the art...]

To her immense surprise, she didn't hit the ground. He caught her. Staring up at him with wide eyes, she thought vaguely that four hands might be useful in certain situation. Like this one.

She sort of wanted to push him away, say that she didn't need her slaver's help, thank you very much. But she knew she did, and she'd never been a very prideful creature anyway. "Okay," she mumbled as he let go of her waist, dropping her eyes down to her feet.

Taking a shaky breath, she tried straightening her legs again. With him supporting her weight, they managed not to buckle, though she still swayed a bit, unused to this orientation of her body. For one thing, she was shorter than she thought she should be- she had to tilt her head back quite a bit to look at Hydra's face.

In this form her hair brushed against the backs of her knees, and the tilt of her head made it swish ticklishly across her skin. She jumped at the sensation and grabbed at his arms without thinking, taking an instinctive step forward to get away from it.

"Oh!" Shocked but pleased at the tiny step- at least it was something- a small smile spread across her face. At least until she realized that with how close they were standing together, even that small step had brought her almost flush against his chest.

Draconian

Hydra wasn't a bad person, right?

But it didn't stop him from tugging on her just a little bit - an accident, really. To bring her against his chest. A few moments and he closed his eyes, taking in the sent of the woman. A strange combination. A warm sea wind. The salty spray.

He didn't comment on it but he opened his eyes and placed his hands back on her waist.

"You'll be a real girl in no time," he commented quietly, giving her hands a squeeze. At least she wasn't crying anymore. That always made his chest ache.

DragonSong

Skittish, Aura-lee tensed when he drew her closer and put his hands on her waist. He seemed to be only trying to steady her though, and she began to relax slowly. Not completely, but enough that she wasn't shaking anymore.

"Th-thanks," she mumbled, feeling her cheeks heat and trying to look away from him. But there wasn't really anywhere else to look, he was taking up most of her field of vision. Cautiously, she took a step back, swaying a bit but managing to stay on her feet.

"I'm a real girl now, just not the kind you land folk are used to," she muttered, trying another small step to put some more space between them. She was feeling too warm, maybe if she wasn't so close to his body heat she'd cool down. Shaking her head, she looked up at him and asked quietly, "Why? Why are you doing this?"

Her eyes started to itch again but she blinked away the urge to cry. "I just want to go home."

Draconian

Hydra shrugged.

Why was he doing this?

Because someone told him to.

A slow blink downwards and he bit his lip genty. A simple shake of his head. "This is your home for now, SeaShell." Hydra moved one of his hands to hover at her cheek again, "please don't cry."

DragonSong

She didn't want to cry, really. But she couldn't help it, glaring at him while tears started to trickle down her cheeks. Maybe if she tapped into her anger the crying would stop.

"Until you sell me," she bit out. Or at least she meant it to be biting- it came out a little choked and watery. She shook her head vigorously, clenching her eyes shut while her slowly drying hair just tangled more around her face and shoulders. "I won't be a slave," she whispered, not sure if she was talking to him or herself. "I won't, I won't!"

Draconian

"Hey," Hydra started, "I'm not selling you. Lonely Bird is." 

Still, the hands that weren't holding hers reached up to wipe the tears away and he tilted his head at her. "You should be happy he's going to sell you. The alternative isn't much fun. Ship full of men who haven't been to land in months?" Hydra gave a dry chuckle, shaking his head. 

A dry smile, "you'll be fine. Pretty little thing like you? You'll be someone's treasure. You'll want for nothing," Hydra shrugged like it was no big deal.  "It would be that bad."

DragonSong

Aura-lee let out a short, bitter chuckle. "I'll be someone's pet," she corrected. A little confused by what he meant about her fate should she stay on the ship, she gave him a hard look.

"What makes you think someone in Essyrn would treat me any better than I'll be treated here?" she demanded, withdrawing her hands from his and wrapping her arms around herself.

Perhaps the was a mistake, because while she thought she was getting the hang of this whole legs thing, without his support she found herself swaying again and staggered hurriedly back into the bed before she could collapse again.

Draconian

"A treasured pet." What was so hard to understand about that? Hydra, if he were a pretty lady, wouldn't mind wanting for nothing. It would be easy to just... Sleep other a gross old man a few times to get the good spot and some presents. Whatever. Wasn't like she had a choice.

Hydra watched her, perhaps a little concerned.

After she pulled his hands away it was difficult to not reach for them again. He watched her with his hands at his sides and frowned slightly. "I'm your warden. At least until you get sold. I'm doing what I'm told and that's to keep you in here and everyone was out." He looked at her legs and then frowned at her hair, "can we cut that?"

DragonSong

Managing to sit herself on the bed without another embarrassing buckling of her knees, Aura-lee snorted at the term "treasured pet". A pretty little trinket to be used and cast aside as her owner saw fit. No. She'd think of a way out, she had to.

When he looked her over, she reached up to touch her hair automatically, gathering as much of it as she could over one shoulder. "Why?" she asked, looking up at him and blinking in confusion. What did her hair matter?

Draconian

"It'll get tangled and ugly." Frowning, Hydra touched his own hair. The long length of it in long little braids. "I suppose it's too long to cut," maybe it was a merfolk thing. "Can you braid?" He moved closer, running his fingers through her hair. "Can I braid it?"

DragonSong

His touch to her hair had her jerking away instinctively, giving him a wary look. He he made no move to touch anything but her hair though, she relaxed slightly.

"Braid?" she repeated, pulling a lock of her hair of her shoulder and frowning at it. "I...suppose so." She shrugged. "I know what that is, but I've never tried it myself. Perhaps-" she hesitated, then finished on a resigned sort of sigh, "Perhaps it would be better if you showed me."

She didn't really love the idea of turning her back to him- as she was sure she'd need to- but she supposed it was a better alternative to him cutting it. Gods knew she didn't want any of these people near her with a blade.

Draconian

Hydra noticed her flinch and he frowned at her, pulling his hand away again.

"If I was going to manhandle you I would have done it already," He pointed out gruffly, like he was offended that she was afraid of him. Hydra knew on some level that it was stupid. Of course she was afraid of him. Still, he shrugged if off - because who wasn't afraid of him? - and caught half of her long mane of hair in one of his hands, tucking the other side over her shoulder while he bunched the other half in his hand.

Then he paused and went to his own hair.

Slowly he started to undo a few of the little braids. His own hair - the strange vibrant purple- reached the top of his butt and he pulled the loose strands over his shoulder.

Hydra could be nice.

Sort of.

"You sort of... Get three chucks and you weave it together. Keeps your hair from getting super... tangled." A shrug and he braided the chunks of hair he just took out. "See?" He looked at her long mane of hair, it would probably take a while. "We can just do one or two for you..." He stared at it, reached out a hand again and then pulled it back.

"Sorry. I'll try not to touch you. Wouldn't want you to get stressed out and die. That's what fish do, right?"

DragonSong

Aura-lee watched the process with some interest, ignoring his comment about manhandling her. Though she supposed he had a point- it wasn't like he'd hurt her after all. Just kept her prisoner, though logically she knew that wasn't really his choice, he was following orders. Still, she couldn't help being wary.

A little hesitantly, she brought a lock of her own hair over her shoulder and tried to mimic what he'd done. The end result was messy, but it looked passable to her.

Pulling the rest of her hair around her body, she let out a sharp breath. Well, there certainly was a lot of it. "I don't think I can manage all of it," she muttered, almost to herself.

Looking up at Hydra cautiously, she murmured, "I can't reach..." She bent her arm back to try illustrate her point, showing that she couldn't even get a braid started with the length of her hair. "Could you...help?" she muttered eventually, feeling her cheeks grow warm.

Draconian

Hydra winced at her braid, the tangled mess. It was a braid sure. But it was a tangle-y braid and he reached forward to grab it and untangle it before she could do more awful things to it. Apparently she liked her hair, which meant she'd probably like it not being a tangled mess.

The flush on her cheeks had him staring at her for a few long moments before clearing his throat and gently taking her hair. "Could you turn around?" He asked gently, holding his hands out, "So I can braid your hair?" He'd do two. A wrinkle of his nose, to get her hair out of the way, he told himself. Not because he wanted to touch it.

DragonSong

Nodding, Aura-lee slowly twisted to put her back to him, brushing her hair back over her shoulders so it cascaded down her back and pooled on the bed. It was still damp from the sea, though now that it had been exposed to the air so long it was starting to crimp up in gentle waves.

"Why do you care if my hair gets tangled?" she asked in a mumble after a moment, shoulders tense as she waited for him to approach. "What difference does it make?"

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