Nameless

[Tally]

The soulless, the nameless...they looked out at the sea and fretted.  Out over the ocean, day had turned to darkness though it was yet high noon.  A storm—no, a tempest the likes of which Kattal had never witnessed rolled inexorably toward the white beach, brought with it the promise of ruin.

His clothes at least protected him from the chill winds rushing in off the water.  Only his eyes and shoulders lay bare.  Leather and cloth hid the rest of his skin and the writing on it.  Only yesterday, revealing those words had been his greatest worry.  No longer.

Lightning cracked across the sky, and Kattal cringed downward with everyone else.  The townsfolk made preparations, laying out bags of sand, pulling up tarps, hiding themselves away in their study walls.  Kattal stayed where he was, watching the great storm come.  He had nowhere to go.  Every in was full to bursting, and he had no coin to buy his way into any place.  He would have to face it out in the open.

[GoblinFae]

The wind howled, tugging at her clothes and braid but still she stood there, watching and waiting. Living by the sea meant weathering against many a storm yet to Riley each one was just as new and exhilarating as her first. She loved to watch the ebb and flow of the tides as they sent waves to crash brutally against the shoreline. The thick feel of moisture in the air that sent her hair into a frizzy mess felt like a warm hug on a grey day. The first drops of rain were kisses. As a child her father had told her not to be afraid of the storms because it was her mother coming to visit. Even as an adult she still held onto those childish beliefs.

Riley walked down the beach slowly, her boots clutched tightly in one hand so that she could feel the cool sand beneath her bare feet. It amused her how the grains of sand swirled and curled around her as if they were dancing about her.

Lightning streaked the sky making her vision sport flashes of white beneath her eyelids with each blink. Some paces ahead of her a lone figure also stood on the beach, staring out at the water even as the villagers rushed home to their dry roofs and warm beds. The fisherwoman continued her steady pace, approaching him from the side until she stood beside him.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

[Tally]

The presence of another prickled at his skin.  In the gloom, he could see only a gray silhouette until the woman was right beside him.  It was one of them.

He couldn't stop the frown from crossing his face.  Already the rising tide had backed him up nearly to the streets.  Beyond, a stark divide halfway up the buildings closest to the beach marked the last flood line.  Tonight the waters would rise again, bring down homes, drown livestock, destroy years of toil and sweat.  The winds would down trees, shatter windows and weak walls.  And this one thought it beautiful?

Was this what he had been looking for and could not find?  Evidence of their soullessness?

"Is it?"  He had to raise his voice to be heard over the wind.

[GoblinFae]

"Why else would you weather this storm if not to see its beauty? You have not run like the others, surely you are not so daft as to consider staying the whole night, or are you?" Riley looked the other figure over from the corner of her eye. There was not much to see of him though as much was covered by his clothing. It was his eyes though that kept her in place. His eyes entranced and fascinated her, demanding that she stay a moment longer instead of begin her trek home.

She could tell the storm was nearly right on top of them. Even if one ignored how the water lapped at her toes there was always the sand being tossed into her face or the thickness of the fog. Soon if she was not careful, Riley would not be able to see her way home and would have to rely solely on memory. This tempest with its gale winds was beginning to worry her and yet she still remained, if not to watch the sea then to watch the stranger.

[Tally]

"Daft—no.  I'm...not one of yours."  To say he had nowhere to go and no one to take him in sounded unbearably pitiful, so he left it implied and she could take that to mean whatever she willed.  Who knew where these soulless minds wandered?  He would never be able to fathom their thoughts.

All the while she watched him, he could not bear to look at her.  He watched the sea instead, and so he saw the surge rise and rush toward them.  He grabbed the girl's arm and pulled her backward with him, nearly too late.  The water rushed about their knees before receding again.

The beach was gone, cloaked now by the rising storm surge.  From their new vantage, Kattal could make out the curve of the coast line in both directions.  He realized he still held her arm and dropped it like he would a viper.  "Ah—my apologies."

Just another sign of how confused he had become.  Here he was looking out for one of them when he'd come to prepare for their destruction.

[GoblinFae]

Riley shook her head and smiled sincerely. "Thank you. Falling and getting swept away would not have been ideal now, would it?" Returning her gaze once more to the turbulent waters, she watched as the waves battered unceasingly on the rocks and shore. 'I am not one of yours,' rang again and again in her head, to be remembered and pondered later. There were more pressing matters to consider now.

"Come," she spoke softly, reaching for his arm. "I know a place you can stay and weather the storm in for the night. Neither of us should stay here for this or we'll both be swept away. Come, please?"

Her hazel eyes as changing as the sea, implored him to not be stubborn. This stranger seemed so very odd. The things he said made her wonder as to who he was and why he was here. However, Riley knew better than to pry. For now, her only concern was getting them both to higher ground and a roof over their heads. It was foolish to linger here.

[Tally]

"Ah...no."  He followed her gaze out to the boiling sea with its treacherous clouds.  Out in the distance, a curtain of rain raced inland, blocking the horizon from sight.  He didn't know if anywhere in this town would be safe tonight.

The angry wind stole away whatever soft spoken words the girl said to him after that.  He couldn't hear her, but he could see the meaning in the movement of her lips and way she reached for him.

He looked at her for the first time and found her eyes to be neither infinite nor barren,  neither miraculous nor horrible.  They were just eyes, and it was the banality of them that decided him.  He nodded and followed her as the first heavy drops of rain began to fall.

[GoblinFae]

Taking the stranger's arm in hand, the young fisherwoman began to run up the beach. Her feet slid and sing in the wet sand even as she trudged up the shoreline and back into town. Her home was in an impractical place for that of a family of fishers, far away from the sea clear on the other side of town. Riley's mother had not been a lover of the water and as such her father had built their home to accommodate her desires.

Another heavy clap of thunder sounded in her ears just before the heavy rains began to pelt down upon their backs. The waves swelled behind them as they were further fueled by the heavens. The winds shrieked and howled as they tugged and cloth and hair, uncaring of what they touched on their path.

Riley attempted to pick up her pace but found herself continuing to slip and slide, unable to run on such a malleable terrain. Blind to their path, she relied on her memory to try and navigate them, although the wind that knocked carts over and sent barrels rolling certainly was not helping.

"It's getting bad!" she loudly commented, trying to be heard over the storm. "I've never seen one like this before!"

[Tally]

Kattal kept up as best he could.  The girl set a brisk pace, and good thing for it.  Their going would get even rougher once the rain started falling in earnest.  Forcing his way forward through the wind was hard enough as it was.  Thank the gods she lead him inland, well away from the sea.

The streets lay nearly empty of people.  Only a few stragglers yet darted about their homes and shops, tying down canvas tarps and getting anything vulnerable to water off the ground and piled high.  The further they went, the higher the land raised, and the less frantic the people became.  These townsfolk must have weathered dozens of tempests of this kind—the air was tense and yet...confident also.  The confidence of those who have faced difficulties and survived all their lives.

More than once, Kattal found his arm to be the only thing keeping the girl on her feet.  He drew close so they could both be heard over the wind.  "How much farther?"

[GoblinFae]

"Just ahead!" Riley pointed to the last house ahead of them as she dragged them both towards it as fast she could. A heavy shove of her shoulder swung the heavy door open and into the room she tumbled, dripping water all over the floor. For some moments she struggled to close the door once more behind them as the wind fought to rip it from her fingers and march its way into her home.

Breathing a sigh of relief she allowed a small smile to cross her lips as she beckoned her companion further in. The house was small but functional. A door to the side led back out to their storefront. By it, father was stuffing rags under the door to prevent more rainwater and cold air from blasting through it. A warm fire bathed the large room in a comforting glow, casting dancing shadows to the four corners, two of which held curtained off sections for the two family member's places of slumber.

"Boots off Minnow. You're getting water about."
"Sorry father," she laughed, hopping on one foot as she tried to pull first one then the other shoe off.

Looking the stranger up and down the old man finally brought his eyes back to his daughter. "Who's he?

"Oh this is...um...well he needed shelter from the storm. Isn't that right, mister...?" Riley blushed at not getting the man's name earlier. 'There wasn't time for that then,' she consoled herself.

[Tally]

Kattal stumbled inside, pushed by the wind.  The girl had difficulty even getting the door closed again.  He put a shoulder in into it and together they forced the thing shut.

The sounds of the storm seemed somehow more ominous—grander, more powerful—now they were inside and couldn't see what was going on out there.  So, this was what their houses looked like.  He'd never been inside one before.  It looked...like a house, and once again it surprised him how normal they seemed.  There were differences, of course, but so many similarities.

A familiar flightiness settled in him after only a few moments, the same urge to flee that he always felt then trapped inside four walls with any of these people.  He shifted his feet about and tried not to look at the man—the girl's father.

He supposed he should take his own boots off as well.  Good thing he'd thought to wrap his feet in linen strips so no skin would show.

"Kattal," he said, when she urged him for his name.  The first part of the name had no power by itself, only all three together.  The second part of his name scrawled in midnight blue words across the back of his shoulders.  The third part, about his wrist like a bracelet.

Not knowing how to greet someone like this in their own home, he settled on a simple bow.

[GoblinFae]

"Riley," she replied casually, finally tossing her soaking boots into a corner and beckoning the now named stranger towards the fire she was already warming herself in front of. "And the grumpy man in the man in the corner is my father, Linus, Linus Bellerose. We're one of the fisher families, so you'll have to excuse the smell. You get used to it really after a while. Just be glad it isn't running season when the fish come in by the barrelful. That isn't a pretty perfume, I'll tell you."

"Daft girl, you're rambling. Let the poor boy rest his ears of your chatter. He's probably had more than his fill of your tongue by now," the older man chastised gruffly, sending a stern look towards the girl before adding an apologetic one to the other male. "What brings you 'ere boy?" he continued. "You picked a mighty poor time to wash up on these shores, I'll tell ya. You won't be finding much work, or much else for that matter."

The wind screeched and howled its displeasure over head, sending tendrils of icy coldness in through every nook and cranny it could worm its way through and interrupting the man who paused to look up at the roof as if to see the wind become a full-bodied specter.

"Seems, Minnow reeled you in just in time. A moment more and you would be fishfood right about now."

[Tally]

Kattal followed Riley's—Minnow's?—lead and left his boots with hers.  He followed along behind her to the fire, nodding and making short wordless sounds of assent, keeping his arms close to his sides, trying not to touch anything or...or do much of anything at all really.  He felt rather like a lamb invited into a wolf's den.


He winced at the man's question.  Was that ever the last thing he wanted to talk about.  Instead he followed the man's eyes upward and asked a question of his own.

"Does it do this often?  Storm this badly?"

[GoblinFae]

Riley looked to her father, awaiting his answer but she could tell he was already lost to his thoughts. She glanced hurriedly up at the ceiling, sending a small hopeful prayer that it would weather the storm until she could have someone get up on it to patch the worst of the leaks.

"Well," she finally cut in, wincing at how awkward it felt breaking the relative silence that had settled in around the howling outdoors. "Um I don't ever remember it being quite this bad. But it does storm a lot during the rainy seasons." Riley shrugged and began to unbraid her sopping wet hair before ringing it out by the fire. "The price you pay when you live by the water. Sometimes the water just wants to join you! Can't really blame it now, can you?"

Her cheeks flushed as she hid behind her hair, wishing she could stop herself from doing that, saying things as she always did that sounded so childish and stupid even to her own ears. A mumbled apology followed as she continued to try and hide her shame.

"Umm Kattal? Right? Yeah, are you hungry? Cold? I can get you a blanket or something to wrap up in. What am I saying? You're soaked through and through, of course you need something!" In her haste to right things, her legs tangled with themselves and she stumbled to her feet in frantic search of something to give him.