Unfamiliar Waters

Putting the mysteriously familiar elf maiden's identity aside, Kelp listen's to Tidas explain his tribe's situation. He hears a word he does not know, "Trolls" and wonders if they are a group of humans unknown to him.

Kelp hears a scream suddenly coming from another in their boat, as she falls overboard. Then next to him, Tidas falls to his knees in obvious distress. Torn with indecision Kelp doesn't know who to aid first. Then making his choice Kelp prepares to jump into the water to save the she-elf from drowning. Others in the boats have been busy tying what they can together to make a makeshift rope to toss out to her and hope that she can grab it and they can reel her in and rescue her. Kelp instead now moves to aid those in pulling her to safety, but before he can help do so, the unexpected happens. Several of the sharptooths are expelled from the water, and those on the boat are able to save the female elf. Those sharptooths plucked from the ocean sink below the choppy waves, now dead or dying. Mouths agape, He and Tidas look at one another, Kelp offering up these words, "Lord Tidas that was not of my doing."

Then the elf who seemed familiar to him, touched both Lord Tidas' and his arm, and he felt a tingle run up to his brain, a calmness over came him. He sensed a request for strength of sending he was not sure he was still able to provide, but he tried. Those in shock or panic regained their composure due to the magic of this hauntingly familiar elf. 'Who was she and how, why did he seem to know her?' He asked himself without success. Then she said, "Kelp? .... I knew a Kelp once....."

Kelp watched this familiar but yet unknown elf for a while trying to puzzle her out, as Lord Tidas busied himself behind Kelp. A sudden movement caught Kelp's eye. He turned to look and was stunned to see something akin to the little winged ones he had see years before near the cove beach, only this one had no wings but a fin down it's back.

"By the high ones, what is it?" Kelp asked quietly with awe and wonder in his voice. There followed a rapid exchange of talk between Tidas and this creature, ending with the demand for "wrapstuff" whatever that was? Tidas knew something that Kelp did not about this tiny creature, perhaps something that would help his people. Kelp slowly sat down in the boat adjusting his spear and carry net, totally captivated by this little being. Surprisingly it started to spit out what looked like fine silvery hair algae wrapping up some of the injured one by one. As the busy small thing did it's work moving from one seriously injured elf to another, Tidas spoke to those in the boat.

"Lace, ShineBright and even you Kelp I know you come from other areas of the vast deep, we need to find land soon."

"Ah", thought Kelp, "names to go with new faces. Shinebright and Lace, but which was which? Which was the one he seemed to know and be known by?" And then he focused on the request, where was there land?

"Lord Tidas, I m unsure of this immediate area. Other than that, I know there is land, a cove in fact that could harbor your boats. I passed several years back, I have been traveling slowly, meandering as I went. It might be closer than I remember. I am unsure how far away it is in straight distance by boat. It is towards sun goes up and towards the unmoving star." Kelp points north by north east. "I remember the fishing was good there. And I saw a few winged creatures similar to the one who is covering your people in..." and he stumbles over the unfamiliar word,"ropestuff?"

"I am good at hunting and gathering food from the sea. I am happy to gather what I can to help feed your people, if... it is possible, I would join your tribe? I have been parted from my tribe and alone far too long. I have some magic of my own, which is coralshaping." Kelp waits expectantly, hoping these tight knit strangers are in need enough to trust him to join them. That he has skills and magic they can use. As he talked Lord Tidas took his cloak and wrapped it around the injured elf who had fallen in the water earlier, warming her against shock.

Lace was puzzled by the new elf and gazed at him… She heard ShineBright introducing her and she blushed, because she had stared at him. “Greetings….. Kelp….. Oh Great Tides!!! You are Kelp! Brother to Wavecatcher!!! We… I thought you were killed by the Landers, the humans!!”

OOC: Taking a guess that that Tidas's Bond whale Current has arrived (also spoke with Sam)  and  meris did you want Coralscar to fall in the water, going to roll with it since it has happened? Just checking I don't want folks assuming they can move characters at whim just in case that player has something else in mind ~_^ Moving Littlehawk cause he is mine LOL)

BIC:

Merle came out of her thoughts when she sensed another elf and saw him climb into one of the boats. She was about to break surface and see who it was and what was going on when she heard a squealing and a series of clicks.  She banked towards the noise and saw Current Lord Tidas bond whale.  

'What is she trying to do?' thought Merle, the whale looked and sounded distressed. Then she caught a shadow above her that was not a boat! 'OH no how could I be so careless Daggerteeth!' That was what was happening Current was fending off the daggerteeth,  usually striking them up and out of the water. Merle pumped her tail veering straight for the predator closest to the boats. She aimed at it's gills as she had seen wavedancers do when protecting thier pods. >WHAM<  the world spun as she focused getting her sense of direction back she floated a few moment stunned by the impact but then so was the Daggertooth as it was no longer interested in the boats. The other however came closer still  when suddenly Current showed up from the depths grabbing a hold of the tail of one dragging it away down it into the darkness below.

The rest of the daggerteeth seemed to think better of the situation that this meal would not be an easy one with the white whale about as guardian and took their leave as they were escorted a little ways to be sure none changed their minds.

Merle realized she need air and as she made her way towards the surface as she came up near the boat that held her clothes It was near the one Tidas was in along with a newcomer who must have been the one she had seen earlier. Her icy blue eye peered at him he seemed afraid? for some reason. She could not tell.
**The daggerteeth are gone, Current drove them away Lord Tidas,** Realizing he would recognize her sending but not her form she changed back to her elven form and climbed into the boat and started to dress. Her eyes told the look of exhaustion and worry and her skin was paler than it should have been. Her Brown black hair looked completely black at the moment in the damp and dark.

**Who is this?** she nodded toward Kelp. **Are you hurt?** Her sending held no tone or emotion to it, if she allowed herself and of that right now she would be more distracted than she already was.

Vaun was alive But she could not find him... not yet. He said he'd find her after he got Raven... he promised and he kept his promises...

Kelp is aware of all that is happening around him. But his mind is elsewhere, years long ago. Another boat and among other elves. He speaks, but not to those around him. "Foam, Flotsam, make ready the boat, the others are coming back pursued by humans." Memories come flooding back. Too much, too fast, too many elves, dead, alive, here and now. Too much air, not enough water. Head spinning, just as it had when the others died. When he too should have died.

Kelp see's One-wing start to make wrapstuff, one foot and hand disappearing under the threads. He reaches for his spear with his other hand, and as he grabs it he leaps up boosted by adrenaline, making a prodigious leap overboard, his body lithe and arching to clear the side, seeking the dark waters, the dark places, deep down, trailing wrapstuff behind him. Kicking hard he heads for the bottom, his selfshaping in over drive masking his form with his shifting stripes. Reaching cooler waters they help clear his head some what. He stops swimming, floating in place, and looks about, seeing the boats' small shadow shapes upon the surface. Too much too soon, new people, old memories, all at once. Pure panic! Heart pounding fear. Of what?

Kelp swims over to the base of a tall coral outcrop, he starts to shape it to form a an open space within it. One in which he can hide and rest, a place he can be safe. Alone. Memory free. Terror free. 'The humans can't find me here.' he mumbles,'They can't breathe water.' So he hides within the coral, trying to regain himself. One little cleaner fish is picking at the wrapstuff still stuck  to his webbed fingers, eating the wafting threads with relish. Kelp watches with detached amusement. With a thought and a movement of his hands he closes the opening of the coral to a finger wide crack, his hiding place plunging into near darkness.

Too much was going on at once as Tidas tried to clear his head. Tidas was confused as to why Kelp had suddenly flung himself from the boat and disappeared beneath the waves. What could have disturbed him so?

As Tidas looks up he sees chittersweet fly above the boat Moondove was located in. "Chittersweet Coralscar is in need of Wrapstuff. As Chitterswet obeys Tidas's command he replies to the locksend that he had receive from Kimu. *We must go back and try to save those we had to leave behind your daughter included. I have been hearing weak sendings from some survivors. We are too far away for me to determine which of our people are sending for help. We need to try and find land soon.*

Breaking away from the locksend Tidas sends to ShineBright and returns the memories of land she had earlier sent him. Tidas had asked her earlier but with everything going on she was unable to reply.

ShineBright had needed al her attention to fix the boat again. The wood was old, almost too old to float. **I am sorry Lord Tidas, I fear it will be too far. We need fresh water and food quickly. And we need time to heal our wounded.** ShineBright shook her head, she tried to remember what she knew of the Vast Deep Water when she heard a bird shrieking.
"A bird! There you see it? You hear it? That means land must be close!" She screamed to the other boats. And she started looking.
**It must be a small island, maybe we can find rest and shelter there?** She locksended to Lord Tidas.

Kelp sat in his dark coral cocoon, watching the last of the wrapstuff wafting suspended in the water. The little cleaner fish, stuffed to the gills, had swum off through the crack Kelp had left in the corals. His lanky form was becoming cramped in his refuge, the water becoming stale. He stirred and placed his hand on the coral and with a though and his will, opened the crack wide to let him out, then he slowly emerged. He scanned the waters around him, looking for threats and prey. Something he always did now, so much so that it was an automatic act.

Kelp was actually thinking about his brother, His face tantalizing close to remembering. What had Lace, called his brother? "Wavecatcher"? Yes, that was his name. An image remembered of a young elven boy, body surfing with the wave dancers in the surf. Young laughter echoing over the beach. Kelp smiled to himself.

Lace's sending interrupted his thoughts. **Kelp? Are you alright? I feel your confusion, I am sorry, I don't want to force myself onto you, but your emotions and memories were too powerful to block for me. Please, know you are with friends again, we might have answers for you.....**

Kelp sent back to Lace, **I too am sorry in how I reacted. I do not know what came over me. It was hard to breathe, my mind hurt, too many people all at once. So much pain and sorrow from all of you. I needed to clear my head, and only deep dark cool waters can do that for me. I am better now. Do you all wish me to return to the boats? I can bring some urchins up with me, they are good eating raw.**

While waiting for a response from Lace, Kelp busies himself with gathering sea urchins, as many as he can carry in his arms. He realizes he has left his carry net in the boat. He starts to rise to the surface.