The Hungry Sea (Kari)[Finished]

[Nako]

With the water as clear as it was, it made for a perfect day to go diving and exploring. Zuberi had recently discovered another wreckage along the shore the week before, and she'd been looking forward for a crystal clear day to go exploring it. She had no particular ability that made is easier for her to hold her breath, but training from a young age and spending most of her life in the sea made her average breath a good 3 minutes underwater. This was an ability often exploited when she farmed shellfish or other marine life.

Holding her breath, Zuberi dived down, her paws digging into the water efficiently and quickly down to the bottom. It was not terribly deep; the very top of the crow's nest could be seen from above from a boat. It was an old ship, but from the looks of it the place had already been plundered. Well, that's what she got for assuming that she had been the first to find it. She contemplating turning back, but instead she pushed on, squirming Through the gaping hold in the side that she could only assume was from a cannon blast. Swimming on, she pushed lumber to the side every now and then, seeing if she could find anything of interest. There really wasn't much... and for the second time considered turning around. Something caught her eye though, and she paused.There had been a glisten of something green above her. It was a strange... flask. It was engulfed in a skull, held together by driftwood that had seemed to grow around it to seal it in place. It was kept from floating too far by the heavy chain it was bound to.

There was always something special yet taboo about skulls. Her family often kept the bleached craniums of their ancestors to remember them by. The skull flask though, was being used as if it were a tool. There may be some bad juju attached to that skull. Even as her mind warned her, the squirrel found herself swimming towards it, turning the flask toward her to look into the dead, empty sockets. Her lungs were beginning to burn, and a decision had to be made. Pushing her doubts aside, she pulled the heavy chain around her neck. Another loop had to go around her torso and an arm. It was heavy... almost too heavy to swim with. In a burst of energy and summoning the power of her club suit, she swam back for the exit. She cleared it, and headed up for the surface.

Suddenly, she was jerked back by an unknown force. The jarring yank backwards knocked the air right out of her, and only by sheer force of will did she keep from inhaling water. Now though, instead of the tight burn of need for air, it was a feeling of emptiness, panic and hunger for air. She moved to get the chains off her body, but they were too tightly bound around her. Panic set in even worse than before, and the Midori desperately thrashed, grasped for the surface that seemed so close! Was she really going to die like this? For a Midori to drown... how miserable. Behind her, a chain link was wedged quite tightly in between two jagged planks of the crow's nest. It jostled and creaked when she pulled. her strength alone would not break her free.

[Kari Muffin]

Vacation. Rosewood needed to spend time alone, and away from everyone. He could always come to Midori with Rogers sometime, but for now he planned on spending time with himself. Every once in a while he just had to get away from everything.

Taking a swim before he had to find a hotel was probably the best course of action he could take. No stress, he could just watch the fish go by and mind his own business. Then he could deal with tourist traps.

He glided down to the water in his animal form. Landing near something that looked like a ship from the air. The water was as clear as a bell today, and he could enjoy the view. He honestly expected to see brightly colored fish or some such nonsense. However, he saw someone struggling in the water.

Without a moments hesitation he dived downwards. On closer inspection the struggling figure was very much a Midori who was seemed to be caught to the wreckage by a chain. On the bright side, it wasn't tangled enough that he even needed hands.

Slipping his beak under the chain attached to the mast he yanked backwards. Wiggling it a bit he managed to untangle the chain. Without so much as a second thought he nudged the person so they could grab on to him--if she had been struggling so she was probably out of air.

Once they were safely above water. Rosewood tilted his head to look back at the person he had assisted. "Are you all right?"

[Nako]

Air. Lovely, blessed air. Her mouth hung open gasping for air as she kept one hand on the buoyant waterfowl for support. As soon as she got those first few breaths in, her mind began working again, and that strangling fear began to ease. "Y-yeah.. thanks." She let her hand slip away from his pristine white feathers, not wanting to burden him for any longer than she needed. He was Tulgey. She really hadn't met many in her life, and the few she had were disturbing in personality to say the least. All that though, was a grain of salt in the ocean because this particular Tulgey had saved her life.

"Got stuck..." She said lamely, grasping for an excuse to tell the swan to explain her abhorrent inability to keep her own in the water. When it came right down to it, it was quite embarrassing. "I'm normally a great swimmer.." Even as she spoke, her gaze drifted back down into the water. That glistening color of sickly green against pale, bleached skull stared balefully back up at her.

And then she was back underwater, swimming down to examine her treasure that had been snatched from her. Finding the errant planks, she braced herself against it and gave it one good pull. It popped loose, the excess rust on the chains shaking off in a rusty powder into the clear ocean as she swam back up with it. One might think her crazy for doing such a thing, but she felt quite in the right for wanting to go back for it. "I'll be damned if I let it stay where it's at for someone else to find after it nearly killed me." Still under the influence of her power, she kept herself afloat easily with the chain now, grasping it tightly with her front paws. "Well stranger, thank you.. for getting me out of that bind. The name's Zuberi."

[Kari Muffin]

He was certainly surprised when she went back down underwater to retrieve the necklace that had got her stuck in the first place. It did show that she was perfectly fine though, which was a comfort. It wasn't every day you miraculously ran across someone in trouble right when they needed saving.

After she had given her name her took to speaking and introducing himself.

"It's nice to meet you Miss Zuberi, and I have no doubt in my mind that you're a very good swimmer. I suppose the ship wreck was just reluctant to give up its little treasure." The swan dipped his head for a moment. "My name is Rosewood."

Now, what to do or say? He had just saved someone's life... that didn't happen everyday, he wasn't quite sure what to do in a situation like this either. He had already made eye contact, so there was no helping his Tulgey weird having an effect. Well, it could be worse than just being awkward.

[Nako]

Between his Tulgey ability and the great service he had performed, there was no reason she should feel in any way this particular Tulgey could be a danger to her. Anyone who saves someone's life has to be good, right?

"Rosewood, good to meet you! I'd shake your wing but I don't want you to have to save me again." Her laugh was a bit lame though; after all, she meant it at least a little. Her ordeal would be one she wouldn't forget.

"Heck of a way to start a vacation, eh?" She was making an assumption, but then again there was no reason for her to thing he was there for any other reason. "You know... if you haven't found a place to stay yet, you're very much welcome to stay at my hut. A roof over your head and a good meal is the least I can offer you after saving my life."

[Kari Muffin]

He couldn't help but chuckle at the comment. Lame laugh or not, it was a terribly amusing situation to be in at the beginning of a vacation. Then she proceeded to hammer the nail on the head by predicting his predicament to a t.

Of course, figuring he came for a vacation wasn't a weird deduction. Not many people came to Midori for other reasons. IT was the biggest tourist trap of the realms.

"I haven't found a place to stay, but I wouldn't want to impose on you for very long--but spending the night would save me a lot of the trouble. Thank you for your hospitality...." He smiled. "I suppose we should get going since I imagine it's quite uncomfortable swimming like that."

Perhaps he would come out for a swim later. That might be nice. He debated offering to help her carry that necklace. It looked pretty heavy... but it had just almost killed her. Maybe it was best to let her deal with it.

[Nako]

Zuberi gave a nod before setting course back to the shore. She was a powerful swimmer, but regardless of her upbringing and her region she was not as at home in the water as some other Cards are by design. How nice it would have been to be born a seagull!

Her feet finally came in contact with sand, and she pulled herself up onto dry land. What she had misconstrued as the normal sway of the ocean took hold of her even as she walked upon the sand. The ground under her feet seemed to move and sway. She was quite startlingly reminded of being on a boat being tossed roughly by the seas. She glanced down at the heavy chain still around the neck, and into the eyes of that skull...

Tearing the chain off of her neck, the feeling ceased. Obviously, this item was imbued with some sort of magic. How... thrilling.

She was distracted by the sound of splashing behind her, and she turned to grin at the swan. "You wouldn't be imposing at all, you know. It's not often I get to entertain company."

[Kari Muffin]

Rosewood shook off the the water when he stepped on to dry land. It was such a nice day, he had to wonder if it was always like that in Midori. "That makes me less uncomfortable." He snorted, "That and I'm used to doing the entertaining. It's been a while since I was a guest in someone's house."

That's probably why he was on the vacation in the first place. All right, he needed a change of subject.

"By the way, do you treasure hunt for a living or was this just a rare occasion?" He might as well throw that out there, since he was curious in the first place. He wasn't used to coming across shipwrecks and the like, the city, the Wood, Esterberry, none of the places he had lived really had large bodies of water. He had to wonder if there were treasure hunters.

[Nako]

Interestingly enough, the squirrel actually giggled at that... almost as if there was some old joke attached to that question. Whatever she was thinking about though, she didn't share it. "Often? No... on occasion I like to seek things out when they make themselves known to me. I don't necessarily have the wanderlust that some treasure hunters have."

"Hopefully, 'less uncomfortable' will become 'comfortable' once you settle down. If you find my decor to not be of your liking, my mother also has a spare room of a more.. neutral nature. If you want to get away from it -all- though, I'll admit my hut makes a cozy little retreat." She grinned, obviously feeling a sort of fondness for her abode. The squirrel shook herself from her thoughts, replacing her dreamy smile with a grin more suited to someone who was meaning to entertain a guest. "But anywho.. the day is yours! I by no means wish to hamper any of your plans, so feel free to go and do as you would like to and know that the door to my home is open to you when you need to sleep or eat.. but enough of my prattling.. would you like me to show you where I live?"

[Kari Muffin]

Getting away from it all was the reason why he had come to Midori. If he spent one more minute dealing with ungrateful customers... he was going to explode. He'd already done something like that before, and he didn't want to do it again.

"Please lead the way," he said cheerfully. Having fun was his main priority, but at least Zuberi was willing to let him spend the nice. "And I can't imagine I'd refuse your hospitality. I wouldn't want to impose on your mother, either."

He briefly wondered about family values in the area. Were people as close here as they were in the Wood? He shrugged it off. No time to think about social functioning or analyzing things like that. Vacation was a vacation for a specific reason. If he didn't relax then there was no point of getting away from it all.