Seemingly Pointless Meandering

[Vexako]

The great white, vaporous thing crooned its sweet lullaby, and slid further up over the deck of the ship, the ropes rotted as if they'd dried up to nothing at all. It had not touched anyone, and none had touched it save with their weapons; neither seemed worse for wear. The Captain strode to where the remaining landing boat was kept off the port side.

Leddilomps was readying the great pulleys that allowed the remaining boat a trip down to the water, wondering how safe it would be to load it past its ten man apiece capacity, when a sharp crack of noise sounded. He turned. The madman was hacking at his main mast with a puny sword. His main mast, the thickest of all his masts, built wide and sturdy and regularly sealed with tar. It had withstood massive winds, held the weight of several of his sailors, and was wider than a grown man could wrap his arms around.

And there was the madman, hacking away at it. He'd nicked one rope already, and the thing loosened, whipping about in the wind. The body of a ship was crowned with masts, sails and ropes. It was lashed down tight with them, to ensure safety and stability of all of the masts and the heavy weight of canvas they supported. If one intended to cut all of them down, he might be at it for ten minutes or more. The ropes themselves were thick things, scarred with tar and swollen with seawater. Not an ideal target for a blade.

The Captain momentarily forgot about the fracas around the hatch, the tall white things that hovered menacingly at the edge of his ship -- not advancing or retreating and making that inhuman racket, and the fact that he had likely and quite accidentally sent several of his men to their deaths belowdecks, and stared at the idiot with a sword. Chopping. At his main mast. Then the braggart put his foot to it as if to kick it down. The thing didn't even sway, though scarred by several attempts to best it. The mast was as tough as human -- and, sometimes, otherwise -- hands and magic could make it. What was a sword meant to cut flesh to it?

Then the man was screaming and running, and disappeared over the side of the ship, where the water and the grindylo in the water would make quick work of him. The men who had though to stand with him ran to crowd where the madman had gone overboard, their faces showing the dismal realization that no, when told to jump off a bridge to their death they would not do that, too.

"Orders, sir?" Ever faithful Fallson.
"Get those buggered fools over here. We will take as many as we can on the landing boat, without going to unnecessary risks."
"Sir."

________________

Light was the only way out alive. Darkness stood for death. Ko threw himself towards the hatch up to the deck of the ship. It didn't surprise him very much when some fucking thing turned and caught him a hefty blow on the shin with a blunt object. Well, that was a lie. He was surprised, in the way that people get when the getting is rough and you know death is there but it won't fucking touch you, no. Not 'till it does and you're just some dead fucking bastard who, when them knows you ask, will be assigned some random gravesite with no body found.

That was in his mind when he toppled down, long thing clawed fingers raking at him, determined to have him for some foul wretched purpose. He lay about with his cutlass. Cutlasses were good for that, aye, that's why he kept the fucking thing. It didn't help much. Laying about generally didn't when you were fighting blind so you didn't turn into the ugly ass thing you wanted to kill. Thin fingers around his throat, and the stench --

"Stop swinging yer blary weapon!"

He paused. Blood sprayed over him, or some fluid that hopefully preceded death. Death stank in any case and he weren't no picky bastard about it, even if the conditions were bad. Ko wanted to live. He was hauled up by someone. "What's wrong witcher eyes, y'fuckin useless bastard?" The same someone, Ko guessed, yelled at him. Ko opened his mouth to form an answer and went sprawling over the deck as the fighting sailors shoved him out of the way. Right. They didn't want no answer to that, they was just angry 'cause their ship was downed.

Ko opened his eyes. The pulleys for the starboard side were ruined, and the mass of white slunk around it like a cat. The one on the port side was being readied. Sweet, sweet salvation.

Jinhuff slunk around behind the Captain like a whipped dog. No sign of -- yeah, there! "Selena!" He called out to her, desperately and stupidly grateful for a familiar face that was in some way tied to his own fucking safety. But naw, he was past calling to anyone in the din. He screamed. "Selena! Below! Use your jinxy magic shit on them things from below! The hatch! Get to the hatch!"

Landing boat wasn't no use if everyone who tried to board it got ripped to tatters. If it lasted that long. Ko ran to the remaining boat, peering over the side. Yeah, they were grounded, but no telling how deep the fucking water was, or what was in it.

[Shann]

The grindylo weren't satisfied with pulling the passengers overboard and dragging them down under the cold, dark water. No, these murderous little creature had to flood the lower decks of the ship so that they could trap the helpless oxygen-dependent people caught somewhere between dying in the ship or over the side of the ship to decide which could possibly be any better.

Screams came from both below and above. The dark halls and rooms below deck that had once felt quite large were now not nearly big enough. The ship rocked again and with it the water rose. Then, the sounds of splashing, gurgling and nails digging into wood as they tried in vain to pull themselves upwards and away from the water could be heard getting ever closer.

Zain remained frozen in fear. He knew that these things were crawling across the floor, making their way to him. He didn't have to see them to know that they were there, he could hear the terrible sounds they made, he could feel the way Thanmorion tensed up all the muscles in his body as he prepared to defend his elf friend. He knew that sitting there would mean that he too would drown but his legs felt too heavy to move. His arms were too heavy to lift. His eyes refused to open, even if it wasn't dark he just couldn't face certain death.

Long fingers wrapped around his ankle.
________________________________________________________________

Shann ran without direction. He knew that Zain had been below deck but not where. He learned soon after descending the stairs that it was completely dark down there. Before his eyes had a chance to adjust to the change, he pushed onwards and stumbled into a barrel that had been knocked over either by the rocking of the ship or by other passengers who had thought to flee in a hurry. He had to lean a shoulder against the wall as he made his way forward, using his hands to move things out of his way and feel for further obstacles.

"Zain!" He yelled. "Zain, where are you?"

If the boy was calling back he couldn't hear him over the sounds of screams and water. However that didn't stop him in his search. "If you can hear me, say something. Zain? Zain, are you hurt? Can you make it to me?"

Nothing.

"Zain?"

Water was rising, the bottom of his boots were already wet. Before long water would be over his boots, his knees and then he'd be waist-deep. If he didn't turn back soon he too would drown down here even if the creatures didn't get a hold of him.

"Zain?"

He was trying to push a floating sack of what smelled like apples out of his way when he heard the distinct sounds of growling off to his left. He couldn't see a thing but he was sure that it had to be a dog, Zain's dog, it just had to be. As much as he despised the animal he would take it all back if the thing led him to the boy. They had to be together, they always were.

"Zain? Zain are you there?"

He didn't need an answer, he clumsily splashed through the water into the small room looking for the boy. His hands dug at the air in front of him. When that turned up nothing, he began to kick at the water. There was little over a foot of water, Zain couldn't be under it or could he? It hadn't even registered with Shann yet but he was breathing heavily and his heart was racing as he searched for his nephew.

"Zain?"

And then he bumped into something solid. Not hard like the barrel or a wall but something soft...like a body. Curse Baresi, he was dead. He was too late. Then it moved, it flailed, it fought against him as he tried to pull it up. Zain was kicking and slapping at the water as Shann got a hold of his soggy clothing and pulled him up by the shoulders.

But Zain couldn't be pulled up to his feet, something had him by the legs and it was just as determined to hold him under.

"You have to fight it. Kick it. Show it you can survive. Don't let it win."

Shann hooked his arms under Zain's and wrapped his hands around his ribs. He leveraged himself to help pull the boy out of the water. He managed to pull him up to his knees and then the two of them sunk down again as the grindylo fought to keep hold of its victim. Zain kicked at it as hard as he could but it seemed to have little to no effect. The only thing that seemed to helped was that Thanmorion had taken it upon himself to bark and bite at the thing. The grindylo must have been conflicted upon picking the easy target or bringing down two at once because the thing seemed to loosen its grip an focus on the dog, only to tighten its grip a moment later.

Water was still rising and by now Shann's pants had become completely water-logged. It was weighing him down. He'd have trouble running should they get the option, but right now he was solely focused on freeing Zain. The grip on his ankle loosened once more and Shann pulled as hard as he could. His arms were killing him but he couldn't give up.

The two of them nearly toppled backwards as the grindylo lost its hold but Shann didn't have time for them to stop. He threw Zain's weight against his shoulder and pushed the two of them towards the door. They could hear the sounds of Thanmorion being held underwater as the creature stole the life out of him, but there was no helping the dog. If they didn't flee now more of the things would get them and they were barely able to escape the one.

"Keep pushing forward." Shann was getting tired, he wasn't made for this kind of physical exertion. If it wasn't for the adrenaline rush that had been pushing him thus far he probably would not have made it this far, he had to keep going.

They sloshed through the rising water as they pushed floating debris out of their way and climbed over that that had sunk to the floor. It seemed to take forever, longer than forever but they finally made it to the stairs and what light remained above deck.

They were wet, they were exhausted but they had made it. Well two of the three did.

[Selena]

Still crouching low, Selena growled as she was given an item then had it taken away before she even realized what was going on. Her emerald eyes and her mind were all in overdrive, observing everything around the deck, and the mysteries of this weird creature. She had never experienced something like this before, and by the Gods, she wanted to destroy it, so that it would never kill innocent life again.

Hearing Jinhuff, Selena breathed in deeply. He had made it. It was only moments after hearing his voice that her eyes noted Shann with Zain. Another breath of relief came over her. Jinhuff was saying something and it took all of Selena's attention to try to hear him over all the commotion. The hack? Selena looked confused, but as she looked where Ko was just pulled out, it made sense.

"The Hatch!" She said, as she leaped forward, her form moving with the grace of a feline in motion. Her hands began to glow as her spell she was holding and charging began to surface. Selena moved in a dead sprint, jumping over several obstacles that stood in her way. "I am coming!" She said loudly as she reached the area where the hatch way. Her hands were consumed by swirling orbs as she kicked open the hatch, and released her spell. The winds moaned as her spell was released, sucking in the very currents of the air, and directing them into the hatch, churning and manipulating the wind into blades of havoc. Her spell had come to fruition, and the ship moaned greatly, as the wind blades sliced through everything in it's way. Selena did not know what was down there, but did as she was instructed. Selena could feel the energy pouring out of her, and she stopped, before she had met her limit. She slammed the hatch, and ran over to the side.

"We have to jump....now."

[Cat]

Being a fish was a very boring thing to do in life. Or, it would have been if the baitfish had been capable of possessing human wants and willpower. As it was, he was not capable, he was simply a baitfish who had spent his life following the massive ball of other baitfish and trying not to get eaten every time something that smelled weird or looked weird or didn't look or smell weird but had the ability to move came toward his school. He had swum like a billowing flag under water when a large mass had moved the water and vibrations hit his body. The mass was unknown, as it didn't need to be known, but a little line of yellow flashed through his body because that's what it always did when things felt scary to him.

If he had a bigger brain he might have believed that the Great Designer had put those on him to make him confusing for things with teeth but as it was he didn't have a bigger brain and couldn't even see the color yellow properly. As it was he didn't see anything right now except for shadows because he happened to be in the middle of the school on this particular day at this particular hour. And as it was he felt something else change in the water and swam down at the same time that everyone else swam down, which sort of defeated the purpose of changing direction because the mass was still coming, sinking toward them. So the middle of the school broke and he broke onto one of the inner sides and swum in a circle simultaneously as everyone else.

Then something shiny passed his outward eye and he decided to swim toward it. Along with half the school. It was a large animal with a dead face (although he was incapable of recognizing faces and saw the animal only as something possibly edible) and shiny shell. And the animal was sinking. If he had, once more, had a bigger brain, he'd have known it was armor and the animal in question had drowned because of it's mass.

Of course, as it was, he was a stupid creature, and picked some spare nutrients off of the thing's nasal cavity.

________________________________________________

Water swept over the cat, clinging desperately to the rail of the ship while little white things curled and coiled over him and swept at the men's feet. Cat didn't know what to do. There had been a cry to abandon the ship but abandon it how? Leap off of the side of the deck? The criminal had tried to do that and had simply fallen through the ocean's surface to his death. Although Cat wasn't wearing any armor and could swim relatively well, he wasn't about to try to do it in the wide open ocean. There was no chance of success and nobody seemed to be getting any of the emergency boats in order either.

A large wave was thrown at his side of the ship and the cat was swept back onto the deck. When he regained his footing, he realized he was crying, meowing, aching for some sort of direction. He found it in the elf who had previously carrying him and now had an adolescent boy with him. He ran to them, his feet scraping and sliding on the wet wood of the deck's surface until he was clamboring just behind them, frantically searching for a boat to take them to what unlikely shore was nearby.

[Vexako]

The landing boat had been built to hold ten men. There were currently fifteen men on deck, not counting that wretched cat. Leddilomps' first mate and bosun were on deck, along with the three men who'd chosen to court the murderer's orders. Leddilomps would not be letting them board the boat. Of the two sailors and one passenger who had been fighting at his hatch, one sailor remained there. The other had disappeared into the dark before the woman had done her witchy work.

Fifteen men. Twelve spots on the boat if he wanted to push it. His ship. His duty. His men and his passengers dead or about to be dead belowdecks.

"Into the boats now, all but Trin and Gasten." The tarboy could be forgiven his insubordination. He was a lad, and light besides.

Fallson echoed his orders loudly, and the two men named dead showed wild panic in their eyes. The remaining sailor loyal to Leddilomps -- Gray Talbugh was his name -- spat and menaced them with his cutlass. The hireling of the gnome Jin backed him up, a sick grin showing teeth on his face.

Trin rushed the two, sloppy like any brawny sailor, and Gray met him with ringing metal. Ko slipped sideways and slid his blade towards Trin's ribcage. Trin made to dodge it, drawing back from Gray, and earned a fist in the face for his efforts. Gray deflected Trin's sword wide, and Ko gutted the poor cuss.

Gasten had hesitated to join his mate, and as blood pumped to the deck he backed off.

Two people had scurried into the landing boat while that happened. Three. Alberto, the bosun, kept them moving with crisp commands while Fallson watched Leddilomps watch the spilling blood. The Captain didn't want to die. He reckoned few men ever did. He couldn't say he'd met any personally, though he'd known his share of foolish heroes who'd sacrificed themselves for the benefits of his mates. He didn't know the chances of survival for any of them, but when compared to the near certainty of death on his ship, the urge to flee was paramount.

Jorge Leddilomps didn't want to die.

"I'll stay," Fallson said so softly Leddilomps could almost ignore him.
"My ship. My responsibility," Leddilomps said it to himself, not looking at Fallson.
"Men need you."
"My ship, you cur. Either serve me or get off my blary ship."

Fallson gave a strangled chuckle; following orders and disobeying orders would mean the same thing, here.

Seven men in the landing boat.

"Go," Leddilomps said, "and keep the men safe." He pinned Fallson with his hard stare, the one that meant business. The one that got tired sailors jumping and moving beyond the state of exhaustion. Fallson met his gaze, and they stared at each other. They'd sailed together a long time. They knew each other's families; Fallson had met his wife and children, and Leddilomps had been harried by Fallson's mother.

Fallson moved to the rail, nine now in the boat, and helped Jin in. Leddilomps watched the desperate eyes of Gasten, and showed the traitorous dog some teeth.

The boat was full. Fallson, Alberto and Gray watched him from their positions at the paddles as he loosed the winches and started lowering the boat, an eye on both the white mass that slunk closer and the doomed sailor on deck. The boat hit water below, and Leddilomps drew his sword. It had been a gift from his father, and he'd meet his doom with it in hand. He'd always pictured himself dying on his ship, but he hadn't imagined being scared and shaky. But at least, in some stupid way, he could be proud of himself for not giving in to his personal weaknesses.

His ship.
His men.
His responsibility.
His death.

[Shann]

Crossing the distance that had separated them from the landing boats had been the single hardest thing Shann had ever done in his life. Never had he worked harder at trying to complete something he had started. If he gave up now, pulling Zain out of the sinking ship and away from those water demons would have been for nothing. If he gave up, like he had done so many times before, this time he too would die.

He pushed himself forward, each footstep harder than the last. Every muscle in his body ached. His soaking clothes weighed him down. Zain, whom he had been half-carrying half-dragging, seemed to weigh more now than he ever had before. It felt as if he could collapse at any moment but he kept pushing.

It was nothing sort of this determination to live that kept them alive. It kept him from seeing the events around him, it kept him from realizing that trading their ship for a small boat would be pointless in a sea full of monsters, it kept him from acknowledging that while they were fleeing for this boat that there were others who would not be joining them.

People, innocent people, were going to be left alone to die.

It was not much of a shock as to why Zain was crying, it wasn't the first time he had lived through such an event. Shann want to reassure him that he was going to be safe, they were going to get through this, things would get better but all he could offer at the time was a firm squeeze on the shoulder as the landing boat began to lower with them inside of it.

[Selena]

It was of no consequence that Selena took her entrance onto the smaller boat before it was lowered. The truth was, she took up a space that another man could have. Selena felt it, with in the pit of her stomach the wrongness of the situation, but it was either that man or Selena. Her destiny was not meant to end just yet. She did not come on this journey to die just yet. This creature would not have her, not this day, nor the next.

Selena's eyes gazed upon the water, as she began to breath softly, her eyes closing. She could feel the vibrations of her magic, still ripping beneath the wooden planks of the ship. Any human caught in the fire would have been torn a sundered and for that, Selena asked for forgiveness. She felt horrible, but there was no time for that. Selena had to ensure the safety of the boat. In doing so, Selena began to whisper again. Her mouth moved but nothing came out, for she was deep in thought. It seemed to Selena that her magic had effectively pushed back the monster in the pit. If the monster attacked again, Selena was determined to be ready. She would fight it back, and prove her worth. The safety of those who made it out was of highest priority.

Beads of sweat appeared upon Selena's face, as she felt the taxing of gathering her magic. Selena was only a novice, studying the ways of magic. She knew she couldn't uphold all this magic for long. They needed help....a lot of it.

[Cat]

His brain had prevented him from even seeing the landing boat. The sudden realization that not everyone on the ship was an incompetent idiot could have made him cry out with glee if fear had not had him shaking and the waters hadn't made him soaked with unhappiness. His thoughts were too muddled with confusion to even really notice the conversations flying around him. Few stayed, most found themselves on the landing boat. The tiny, terrifying landing boat that could at any moment be eaten by the creature wandering the depths of the sea.

The elf tried to comfort the boy, the crying, terrified boy. The boat was lowering, and everything felt fast and quick. A silver shape flew over the low rail and landed nearly on top of the boy. Cat was shaking and he couldn't stop. His mind was spinning and there was a high pitched ringing in his ears. His eyes were burning with salt and his fur was standing on end while he shivered. He was cold, and wet, and the wind pierced his fur like knives on his skin.

It was only times like this when it felt inhuman. Every instinct, every thought in his mind was geared toward his own survival. He meowed like a cat, he cried like an animal. He clung to the wet pant legs of the teenager in the boat, desperate for warmth. The boat hit water and rocked on the waves.

The grindylows whined and squealed from the lost ship.

[Vexako]

Grindylow flesh squealed and popped in the quiet heat of the fire, but not all of their brethren had crawled into the human ship. A group of them put their sticky fingers on the side of the landing boat as it made for the mass the ship had run aground upon, and Ko and the other two sailors and their first -- whatever that meant without a ship -- hit them with their paddles. Beyond them, the tall white shapes cringed away from the ship and its heat, shrieking like dying children. It was a grim affair. Them, the cat, and the splashes of water were the only sounds. No one was talking. Crying, sure, but a pall had settled over the landing boat. They could have been the last people alive in all of the world.

They inched closer to land. "You. Take a paddle. Gray, start cutting them off," Fallson finally snapped, and his voice made several of the others flinch. He was pointing at Shann, though Shann's hands were still full of the boy.

Gray wordlessly held his paddle out to Shann with one hand, drawing his weapon with the other. Ko didn't look at any of them, concentrating too hard on hitting grindylow in the faces and spindly arms without looking at them too closely. That, and without thinking too hard about their situation.

He'd good as told Selena to do something witchy about the grindylow belowdecks, but the fire had been unexpected. He'd no way to tell how real it'd been, but ships and fire didn't get along none. That'd mean they were stranded. With no vegetation visible, and no fucking clue how the land had gotten where it was, Ko figured they was good as dead. That wasn't no comfort to him, no thought that would carry them through. So he cut off the thoughts, stroking the water with his paddle, hitting grindylow, and gritting his teeth over his own cursed drive towards survival.

[Shann]

Like the others aboard the tiny boat making their way towards the only visible mass of land, Shann felt an overwhelming sense of numbness in regards to everything that had just transpired. The last thing he wanted to do was take the time to actually think about what happened or what was going to happen to them in the near future. It was easier just to sit there, to stare out into the dark water, to pretend for just that second that nothing existed.

But the moment was not to last.

Shann felt a paddle being forced into his hands. The same hands that had been holding the sobbing boy close to his body. He couldn't do both at once. He would have to choose, he would have to retreat from the numbing darkness just long enough to process the task before him.

He had to let go of the boy, let go of Zain. He had to help the others, he had to help them all reach the safety of dry land that they could not have on the water.

So why then did he feel so guilty for taking the paddle? Why was there this sinking feeling in his chest when he plunged the piece of wood into the water and slapped at the remaining grindylow who sought to bring them under?

The boy was still curled up in his lap, his head was still resting against Shann's chest but it just didn't feel like it was enough. He felt like he should be doing more but what more could he do for the boy?

[Cat]

The cruel coldness of the seawater pushed him to move closer to the young elf on the older one's lap, his fur wet and spiky. Instinct overcame him and he could not keep himself from yowling and crying once every thirty seconds or so. It was times like this that rendered him incapable of speech, a slave to his own feline brain and its overreacting cortex. There was a tiny bit of land visible near them, but Cat was much to busy curling himself uselessly against the leg of Shann to look and see just how close it was.

Terror still gripped him. He was throwing his wet fur and shaking and shivering, and doubt rushed over him as to whether or not they would live. The monsters of the sea in those old books he remembered reaching slipped through his consciousness, and the illustrations held him fast on the floor of the life boat.

Possibly the most unfortunate thing was that his custom-made hat was still sitting on that ship, and as it burned and sunk Cat knew that it was forever lost. Along with it, the scent of Ardys and her ratty self, not that he cared. The more important thing was that it matched him so wonderfully, of course. He meowed.

[Selena]

It didn't take Selena long to assess the situation at hand. They were indeed in trouble, and with that trouble Selena knew not exactly what to do but still she would aid the best she could. Seeing as she released much of her magic earlier, Selena had still a couple tricks up her sleeve. A temptress she was...a Harlot of nature...she would not allow them to fail so soon. Selena stood up and leaned over the back of the boat. Her eyes sparkled slightly as she took a deep breath, and blew outwards, making sure her grip was clamped upon the edge of the boat tightly.

A rough wind came from Selena's mouth, which caused the boat to move slightly faster away from the wreckage. Selena felt her magic pure from her body as she used her mana to fuel that of the wind which aided in their escape. There was land somewhere close. Selena could feel it...She could feel it. Someone from up above was watching out for them...

[Vexako]

If someone from above was watching them, then someone from the Plane had them in a steely, uncompromising grip. Jin had never had such a bad day. He supposed, mathematically, it was remotely possible such a tangle of awful things could happen in rapid succession and in such a weird way, but instinctively he felt that someone, somewhere had reached out with a bony finger to proclaim death and doom. Such a person would then let loose a booming laugh and settle back with a cagey grin. But perhaps Jin was only thinking of his father.

It was a distraction. Jin swallowed sourly. The sheer scope of things he had lost to the blasted ship and its death creaking and spitting flitted around the edge of his mind, hinting at the improbability of ever having it back again. Jin was a genius -- that was a statement of fact and not some bit of hubris -- but even so he didn't know if he could recreate that which he already had, with all of its meticulous details, all the same as it'd been. Was he lost then, from his clan? Had they succeeded in ruining him?

Jin had drawn into himself, away from those around him as he so often did when under stress. He didn't notice the sniveling, or the grunting men at the paddles, or the rise and glinting fall of swords into malodorous things. The jolt of quicker movement didn't touch him, and even when the boat ground up with a squelch of rocky sand against the unmovable he didn't sit up with hope. Fallson's grating voice sunk under his layers of personal angst, and the gnome looked up with no small resentment at the taller man.

"Gray, steady the boat. Ladies off first. Alberto, give them a hand."

Fallson was one of those men who was becoming dignified and handsome as he aged, settling into a tragic hero sort of look that made Jin instinctively hate the man. The brave set of his shoulders and streaking of dark blood and grime only served to intensify the image. He looked like a man who should be leading, and in the face of everything Jin had presumably just lost, it was simply too much.

Jin turned his gaze away, sweeping over the mass they'd landed at. It would be a folly to think it a strange island of some sort; it was unlike anything Jin had ever seen before. The whole of it was a dreary grey that promised hardship. It was spotted with dark sand and a few miserable clumps of vegetation that in no way looked like anything familiar. And as they disembarked -- Jin on the heels of the women -- the first step gave Jin some impression that the mass was rock, but it seemed to give underfoot. He stooped to press his fingers against it, and found it both hard and rough. It did not indent under his fingers, but he could not dispel the notion that it was no rock he'd ever encountered before.

Over everything rose the stink. It had been noticeable from the deck of the failing ship, though not given much heed with all of the catastrophe that had chased them from it. On the mass of land, it smothered Jin from feet to head, and he spent some time breathing shallowly as he became accustomed to it. It was as though the sea had vomited all of its worst up in a geyser of fumes. It was the stench of gutted fish concentrated in a bath of rotting sea grasses, smothered in a broth of overpowering seawater. It was so powerful that Jin knew were he to be transported to somewhere, anywhere else the smell would cling to him, and he would not escape it for days. Only because he was so conscious of his dignity did Jin not give in to the urge to gag on the smell. He held himself rigidly, and glared at Fallson as though the whole mess was the other man's fault.

Ko, however, was not dignified. His boots hit ground and he bent over and retched. "Changers' balls, what is that smell?"

Whatever it was, a shock to the system no doubt. Ko'd been all wrapped up in dark thoughts an' death, but bettern' smellin' salts he was brought right up out of it. Not even a row of sailors' boots after a hard day o' trompin' about would smell so pretty as the rock they was stranded on, Ko figured. He gawked. For all the world it looked as though the rock went on forever, sky all clouded up with stinking fog and the sea behind them -- treacherous bitch 'twas -- crowded out by more fog.

"We will need a fire. Alberto, take Gray and . . . Ko. I will take the elf, and the magic user --"

"I come with you," Jin, the shitfire, flared up with his little mad caper. Ko looked at the gnome without meaning to, and found the sight right hilarious. Little wet gnome, all hunched up and glowering. Not at all ugly enough to trigger any unwanted changes in his body, though mebbe that wouldn't hold true were the situation not so bad and the gnome weren't lookin' like a little puppet at some alley play.

"Now, sir -- "

"I. Come. With. You." Little terrier terror, the gnome. Ko couldn't hold back a snort, and he quickly looked elsewhere afore the dragon glare could fall upon him. Oh no, a little rat had taken a disliking to him. Whatever would he do?

Fallson tightened up all over, lookin' like some corked bottle ready to pop. "Fine," he said, and in the word was the tightly contained danger of a man pushed up against the rail, churning seawater below. Not that anger would do much good. They was all gonna die nohow.

[Shann]

Shann had smelled all manner of foul-smelling monstrosities in his life. In his younger years, when he first got into the business of assisting discerning businessmen at discreetly exporting delicate packages that for whatever reason could not go through customs or be checked by port authority, he made the mistake of insisting that he needed to inspect some of them. He had seen the inside of several barrels of what could only be described as pink sludge, boxes of rotten meat and discarded ears. Surprisingly enough, ears must have been all the rage in Setkhantos because they imported the things at an alarming rate. As disturbing as all these things had been, it was the gut-wrenching smells that had stuck with him. Never in his wildest dreams had he thought anything living or dead could smell that bad.

This was one of those times. He could feel the bile pooling up in the back of his throat, he could taste something so horrible words could not even describe it. There was something about it that wasn't natural. This was not the smell of low tide, dead fish or even the rotting smell of some sea mammal unfortunate enough to have washed ashore to be picked apart by scavengers. No, this was something unlike anything he had smelled before.

Zain ceased his tears just long enough to spit up down his front, over the cat he had been holding and onto the floor of the small craft. Today was not his day.

Had it been any other day, under any other circumstance, Shann may have tried to play on any sympathy that may have been gained as to the boy's condition, but not on this day. Everyone looked to be hardened by the events they had just undergone and all he could offer the boy was a pant on the shoulder.

It was hardly reassuring but it was all he could muster.

He helped the boy and the cat out of the boat and led them over to the sailor who seemed to have taken charge of the situation. At least one person had some idea of what to do.

[Cat]

The scent of fear was thick in his lungs, swiftly twisting around his body like a serpent preparing for the kill. It was the stench, however, that overturned his senses the most. It was a smell of decay, of death, of disease. It was not an air from the ocean, but something from a completely different plane. It was the way he imagined the darkest and most sickening parts of the Astral plane would smell, the place all demon spawn and horrific monstrosities were birthed from, a pooling brew of blackness and devilry. It was the smell of a thousand years of blood, the stink of a million lonely suicides and easily the most horrendous thing that had ever grazed his nose.

So sensitive to it was he, the unfortunate cat, that he nearly fainted when it hit him.

Instead he had to wait for the younger elf to vomit onto the floor before a much more pleasant darkness took effect, and brought the silver tabby cat to sleep. There was bile and wretchedness in his fur, but it was nothing in comparison to what they approached. In his sleep he dreamed of something pulling off his skin, bit by bit, and turning his body parts inside out.

The sleep lasted not more than a minute or two before the sudden jerking of his body startled him to wake, caused by the boy getting out of the little boat and onto the land mass. He uttered a half-second long, very man-like yell, which then fell apart into a drawn out and tortured meow. He did not struggle in the arms of the young man. He simply wished his own death in silence.