A cove of bright blue water. Along the shoreline, the tides have carved the rocks into inlets and pools where the tide catches. There are many caverns and rock formations to explore here. The tide can rise quickly, flooding many of the areas without warning. An excellent place for gathering shells or hunting crustaceans.
After being in Duskorna for nearly two weeks, Loch had established a home for himself. He had found an excellent place to shelter, met some new faces, and became familiar with the parts of the territory surrounding the Silver Lake. He had made his den by a delta where fresh river water flowed from the mountains to the north. Though he had to swim against the current, Loch was determined to find where the river lead. He’d follow them east until coming to a bend that reared south, out of Duskornas’ territory. As far as he was aware, the enemy kingdom Verdantis was far west of where he was, which meant he was safe to explore where the river went. It had to, at some point, dump into the ocean.
Luckily for him, he was now swimming with the current, which made his travel time much faster. It wasn’t that much further until it led into a cove. The crystal blue waters sparkled in the sunshine, and the refreshing saltwater breeze filled his lungs. Looking at his surroundings, he spotted many tide pools. This looked like an excellent place to look for crustaceans, but he was more inclined to head out to deeper waters. The beach was littered with bits of shells that looked uncomfortable for his paw pads anyway.
The feeling of the ocean waves splashing against his fins was euphoric. For a moment, he questioned why he had left the sea in the first place. Sure, he wanted a fresh start, but the sea was vast enough that he could have done so elsewhere. He supposed he needed a change, though, and he had been growing quite comfortable with the lake. If he needed the ocean, he could always revisit this place. It was a bit of a swim, but it wasn’t so far away that he couldn’t return if he wanted to.
Soon, the canid would find himself surrounded by saltwater. He would propel himself deep beneath the surface with a flap of his fins. Sunlight tickled in abstract shapes that danced with the shadows of the depths. Above him, he could see the rippling surface. A school of fish were hovered together, frantic as if spooked by something. It wasn’t Loch, however, that they were afraid of. His attention turned to another creature splashing in the waves—a seal.
Loch and the small band he had lived with would often hunt seals. This was a relatively small one, and he wondered if he could take it down on his own. From below, the canid would propel himself upwards at full speed, herding the seal toward the shoreline where it would be easier to take down. Attempting to overpower the smaller animal, Loch aimed to bite at it from below.
---- Roll for strength
If success: Loch successfully grabs the seal, killing it and hauling it onto the shore.
If fail: The seal is able to avoid Loch and get away, but there is a lot of splashing and commotion in the water that can be seen from the shoreline.
Character Diceroll 1: Unuccessful Diceroll must be above 500 to be successful.
0 was added for Strength.
476 was added for Level 3.
0 was added for A. No Enchantment.
0 was added for A. No Buff / Penalty.
The taste of saltwater was bittersweet; this cove of sparkling sand and azure sea was not where Delta had first entered the island, but the way the brackish water burned his gills and itched at his eyes was achingly familiar. He hadn't left the ocean very long ago, a month or two perhaps, but his body already needed to readjust from freshwater to the salt he'd once spent his entire life breathing. Delta hovered just above the cove's sandy bottom, taking deep breaths to stretch his lungs as he lazily churned his fins to propel himself forward. Occasionally he found fish like himself with broad, flattened bodies and undulating fins; most were busy suctioning the sea floor for scraps, but a lucky few ground shellfish in their bony jaws and sent faint odors of shellfish meat wafting through the warm currents.
This section of ocean, balanced just enough to still be considered inland, was wonderful, much more so than the ocean Delta himself had come from. Where he rested in the shallows, the water was clear enough to keep sight for any sharks or larger aquatic carnivores, and the water was warm and rich with prey.
The only negative was how open the cove was. Delta was used to cracks and crevices in stony cliffsides to squeeze himself though for safety, and even in such a wonderful place, he felt terribly exposed without them. The solution he found was to stick low and keep his gaze affixed upwards, occasionally flattening himself into the sand and shuffling down to cover himself if he spotted anything particularly large in the distance. Most were false alarms such as dense schools of fish or chunks of driftwood, but the one moving closer now was certainly not.
Delta pressed down at sight of the seal, dark fins shimmying themselves beneath a later of sand as he forced his body flat and still. The predator seemed not to notice him and lazily turned, a momentary relief, but neither of them in turn noticed the even bigger predator which suddenly launched itself up into its belly. The water churned wildly as the two shapes thrashed around each other and barreled towards him and the shoreline, only decipherable to the feline as a mess of colors and fins to which he couldn't recognize from any creature he'd seen before.
Whatever it was, the seal seemed to outmaneuver it, and in a flash of bubbles Delta watched it peel from the shallower water and vanish into the cove's depths. Whatever had chased it was now considerably closer, but beneath its cloak of fins laid a familiar shape.
A wolf? Delta had never seen one as aquatic as himself. Trepidation and awe churned in his belly, thoughts bouncing between whether this creature would attack him, and that of the beauty of his fins. If it was a wolf, it should understand him. But if it wasn't and instead some devious lookalike, well then...
Hesitantly, he released a questioning trill through the water. Dangerous?
---- Roll for Stealth
If success: Delta is hidden under the sand.
If fail: Delta is visible to Loch, either seen as a cat or mistaken for a weird fish.
diceroll
Character Diceroll 1: Fail Diceroll must be above 500 to be successful.
0 was added for Stealth.
502 was added for Level 5.
0 was added for A. No Enchantment.
9 was deducted for C. Vagrant Penalty.
The damned seal had managed to outmaneuver him and escape into deeper waters. Loch watched, the fins on his body fluffing up in frustration as the bubbles disappeared into the darkness. He debated chasing it, seeing if he could somehow herd it back in this direction, but he wasn’t sure if he’d be fast enough to catch it. A moment later, a different sound would catch the canid's attention.
His red and blue gaze scanned the sandy bottom from which he swore he heard the noise, but he was having trouble spotting what exactly had made that sound. Slowly, he’d swim above, scanning the sea floor as he went. It was out of pure luck that he spotted the strange creature. At first, he thought it was one of those flat fish, but he noticed some feline qualities upon closer inspection. His eyes widened in shock, and he cocked his head curiously. What was this creature?... Could it speak?
The curiosity now drove him closer. His large, colorful tail flapped gently behind him. He moved slowly, but there was enough movement to create a trail of bubbles that would drift to the surface. He decided to keep enough distance between them not to scare the smaller creature off, atpooing and letting himself drift in place. It looked part feline, part one of those small sharks he couldn’t remember the name of.
“You speak?” Loch couldn’t help as the words left him. He wanted to find out what exactly this was. Were they a sentient creature like him, or were they just some weird-looking fish he had never seen before?
The colorful wolf had heard him, though quickly Delta's hesitant curiosity swung to regret as it began scouring the seafloor. Perhaps it wouldn't see him, perhaps it was friendly and wouldn't move to snap him up if he caught sight. Its body language seemed curious and much less predatory than when it had sprung after the seal, but Delta was far less experienced in reading canids. The little feline parted his jaws and tasted the water, but the stranger's scent alluded him as it pushed upwards and floated above in the higher currents.
The wolf's eyes widened, and it seemed then that Delta had been spotted. Unease prickled at his pelt as it sunk towards him, tilting its head sideways as its many fins bobbed and swayed with the gentle current. It was beautiful, almost like the little tropical fish he'd seen flashing in the deeper water, but Dela's claws curled into the soft sand in preparation to kick off and follow the seal's example. He opened his mouth again, and at this distance the wolf's scent wafted through the water to meet him. It seemed male, and behind the scents of many others clouded and clung to his fur.
He finally spoke, and a trickle of relief broke through the hard anxiety in his chest. Thank Tsillah he was not some mindless beast.
"I do," Delta said, tenseness easing from his claws. He didn't quite trust the wolf not eat him still, but his ability to speak had it seeming it was a much less likely outcome. He opened and shut his mouth, still unaccustomed to talking as a hesitant excitement began to rear at the back of his mind; it had been so long since he'd spoken to another creature such as himself, even if the stranger here was of considerable physical difference.
"I don't see--I have never seen a wolf Here. Only on land,"and in groups. Delta flared his whiskers and felt the force of little fish against the currents. He hadn't seen anything besides him larger than the seal in the time he'd spent here, and the scent of wolf had only come apparent once he'd approached. If he lived with others, it seemed perhaps they weren't yet here. The same anxiety roiled in his chest at the thought, and his gaze flicked momentarily behind them to make sure nothing was stalking in the deeper waters.
Loch's expression lit up with surprise as the creature responded. So, it was a sentient water-dweller like him and his kin. This was the second time he had met with someone like him since he had journeyed to the land world. Though he wasn’t on land now, so perhaps he shouldn’t have been too surprised. "I don't see—I have never seen a wolf Here. Only on land," He listened as the feline spoke. "Well, I don’t typically see felines here either.” He couldn’t help his snarky response. “I originate from deeper waters, the abyssal plains,”perhaps that was already evident by the glowing lure on his forehead, which was rarely seen beyond the deep waters.
He’d continue to study the creature before him. He had never seen anything like Delta before, though he assumed there were others like him somewhere out there.“There are lots of us there. I suppose the oceans are just so vast, it still seems an unusual sight.”Even though he had grown up here, he realized he had barely explored the expanse of the great oceans. No one really could. It seemed to go on and on forever. Was there even an end to it? It made him wonder what other life might be out there. Part of him still wanted to explore it, but he had a home in Duskorna now. Besides, he was growing quite fond of his little lake.
“I don’t live there anymore, though.” Loch would continue, intrigued by the small feline and wanting to keep the conversation going.“I’ve found a home on land, in a kingdom called Duskorna. We follow the goddess Tsillah. There’s a nice lake where I’ve made a den. However something called me back here to the ocean. Guess I couldn’t stay away for too long.” He’d finally let his gaze fall off of Delta, looking past the feline to the blue ocean around them. In the distance, he could make out the dark outlines of a school of fish. Frustration filled him again as he remembered the seal he had let escape. Well, a fish was a much easier catch. “Excuse me a moment, I don’t want to let them get away.”
With a swish of his tail, Loch would propel himself through the water at top speed, aiming to separate a pair of fish from their group and snatch them in his jaws.
Dice roll for agility:
Success: Loxh catches 2 fish and offers one to Delta.
Fail: The fish continue to school together, making it impossible for Loch to catch one.
Character Diceroll 1: Success Diceroll must be above 500 to be successful.
0 was added for Dexterity.
548 was added for Level 3.
0 was added for A. No Enchantment.
0 was added for A. No Buff / Penalty.
Delta nodded sagely at the wolf's snarky response, unused to his tone nor the idea that felines such as himself would ever be adverse to the water.
"We do not like to be seen," he said, slowly waving his fins and shedding the coating of sand camouflaging him to the seafloor. It was so much lighter here, his dark pelt was much better suited to the dark stone of his previous home or the murky bottoms of inland freshwater. He'd never seen a sea dweller that could afford to be so bright, though his stubby ears perked with interest at the mention of the abyssal plains. Delta himself had never dove so deep, but the rumors he'd heard described it as a place barren and dark, even more so than the upper ocean. He eyed the glowing lure; were the creatures themselves the only light at such depths? He had so many questions now, but he bit his tongue to not overwhelm the Deep-dweller.
"I am from the Slopes, above the Rise," his dark eyes widened with interest, leaning forwards ever so slightly as the anxiety in his chest unraveled to curiosity. The Slopes were a quiet place, but everything Delta had known of the Deep had made it seem nothing short of...well, nothing. Never ending darkness, where the slopes and everything it held would fall even further than Tsillah could see. The thought that there were many creatures down there, wolves even, was mindboggling to the little cat. "Lots of you," he mirrored, nearly disbelieving.
The wolf spoke further, of new homes and lands and something called Dusknora, but it was the Goddess' name which caught his most attention. Delta, perhaps his species as a whole, were a solitary breed. What family he had were few and far between, and the times in which their territories overlapped and they could speak face to face, it could best be described as cordial. They traded news of changing seasons and migrating fish and whether their long-distance calls were answered by distant neighbors, but it wasn't much different than the rare discussions he'd have with other felines he had no blood relation to. The one thing that bound them however, no matter the distance between them, was their knowledge of the Goddess who forged them for such trials.
"Tsillah!" he said, gaze flashing with interest. "Praise be upon her, for our cunning and resilience," or perhaps, just his resilience now. Wherever they all were, if they had not passed her trials in this life, he had no doubt the next would prove successful. It was who they were, after all. What they were meant to be.
Delta nearly missed the wolf's next statement, and he instinctually flattened himself to the seafloor again as he darted overhead and past. The cat's heart leapt into his throat, but upon turning to see where the stranger had gone, he found that he was off to snap his jaws not around Delta's neck, but of a few silver fish that schooled behind him. The cat puffed a sigh of relief from his gills, slowly beating his fins to rise from the sand again and pushing off with his stubby legs.
Slowly, he snaked across the seafloor and paused beneath the wolf again, and his cautious eyes flashed with excitement as one of the fish was offered to him. He hesitated, hungry gaze flicking between the fish and the wolf, before finally lunging forwards and snapping the meal up in his jaws. He swallowed it whole, hoping to avoid both the wolf rescinding his offer, or lunging forwards himself to catch him off guard in some sort of trap. He ran his tongue across his whiskers satisfactorily and floated down so spread his fins across the sand again.
"Thank you, Wolf," he said. Though, with such a generous offer, Delta supposed he should return the favor with something of his own. "I am River Delta. And may I ask," he paused for a moment, expression twisting between a strange mix of gratitude and hesitant curiosity, "why did you leave?"
