Private Tales Riptide..

[Nereida]

When coin was the nexus between people, it would always harm the development of empathy and encourage the sort of cold hearted greed that made abduction and slavery possible.

"Get the drinks in Fabian, this one's our pay day." a gruff female voice snickered as a hard boot shoved at Nereida's limp body. Her eyes, the colour of aquamarine, rolled in her head as she fought as hard as she could on the side of consciousness. The black burlap hood was suffocating, and she whimpered as she rolled to her side, her arms bound together behind her back and her ankles already raw with the friction of rope.

"You reckon?" came the deep, rolling voice of the man who'd knocked her clean off of her feet with the blunt side of his axe. Nereida felt his thick arms coil around her to lift her from the road and haul her unceremoniously onto the back of a wagon to be covered over with a blanket.

"Fuck yeah - Randal has been after one of these for years, and I'll bet Abe will put in a decent bid. We can leave it up to those two to fight it out for her, let their pride line our pockets.." the woman grunted and laughed, and Nereida felt the wagon creak under their weight and the rolling wheels trundle over the dimpled road. Her deep gash at her temple continued to bleed and her head throbbed ever more painful with every jolt and jostle of the journey, until blackness finally claimed her.

______​

At least with her body shut down there was no pain or dizziness or nausea. But her emotions still worked perfectly, and the dreamscape she found herself in was an aptly conjured vortex. Nereida fell to her knees in the centre of it to scream into the void, barely hearing her own voice over the roar of wind and her own thoughts that whipped around amidst the chaos.

Who were they?

Where were they taking her?

What would happen to her?

Would she ever see her family, or her home again?

​

Her hands slammed over her ears and her eyes squeezed shut as she tried to quiet her mind and think about just how she planned on getting herself out of her predicament when she woke. If she woke.

"Papa?.." she whispered, and listened for a response that would not come. She had crossed worlds, moved from the elemental planes into one she did not know or understand, and the last thing she'd screamed at him was that she was capable, that she wasn't a child, that she could do this on her own. He'd refused to listen, denied her wishes to come here on her own to find her mother, demanded that she stay where she belonged.

"Please answer me..." her brow knit, and tried to reach out as far as she could, but she knew she was a fool for trying. She flopped onto her side, her sea foam hair whipped up by the cyclone that encircled her, and she curled herself into a pitiful, whimpering ball and cried.

"I'm sorry."


Kaelan

 

[Kaelan]

Buzzing. Horrid, sizzling fuzz that filled the air like so much static, tedious--no, maddening. Yet only he could hear it, it seemed. The sound invaded his mind at all hours...it had ever since his battle with the Mountainbreaker, and in the weeks and months that followed it had only grown louder. It drowned out all else, to the point that he couldn't hear the voices of his friends across the planes any longer. Just that...incessant...buzzing.

Sleep was something that did not come easy to Kaelan these days. All-consuming white noise made it difficult to reach and harder to maintain, but when he did fall into the embrace of sleep, it was neither warm nor welcoming. Sleep wrought constant nightmares these days instead, visions of a barren Arethil granted to him, he alone left to wander the wastes as wind and silence and that awful buzz mocked him. Still other nights showed him the shadow of a great behemoth as it slavered over the world, its overwhelming presence bearing down on all that lived.

Kaelan could feel himself wasting away by now, in his little hut near the Gulf of Ryt, far north of the Spine he'd longed to see for so many years, so much further north of Yore and the minotaurs of Candenord. The noise made it hard to hunt, hard to eat, impossible to socialize. He knew what it was but refused to admit it to himself. It was the Draw. Just as he'd formed a bond with each of his extraplanar friends in the past, just as he'd reached out and pulled Umi from the cold depths of the elemental seas, now something else had taken notice of him, and it wanted out.

Keeping it at bay was difficult. It wore at him with each passing day. In desperation, he'd isolated himself at the scene of Zull-Du'un's downfall--his own downfall. Kaelan stared out of the hut into the mist covered landscape, barely conscious, and soaked in the destruction he and the great dragon had wrought. It was charred, broken, washed bare, ripped to shreds. Fire and earth, water and ice...two conflicting titans had practically annihilated the area, and now it served as both his home and a constant reminder of his own mistakes, as if the buzzing wasn't enough.

His eyes were heavy. His body was weak. The white noise could only stave off the nightmares for so long before the elf's body demanded sleep. Kaelan let his eyes fall closed and braced himself for the horrors that awaited him...

_______

​

Darkness...static...stuck between the serenity of the dreamscape and the monotony and abject terror of that thing that called. The crushing weight of its claw wrapping around his frail body, squeezing the life out of him and shrieking its shrill, awful buzz.

. . .L e t. . .m e. . .o u t. . .
​

Sssshhhhh...that constant noise, like cicadas in summer or an axe to a grindstone. There was no tempo to it, no beat, just a constant noise. Sssshhhhhh.
"Leave me be..."

. . .L e t. . .m e. . .
​

Sssshhhh. It never quit. It was nothingness. Emptiness. A sound that served only to fill a limitless void, the void that was it. A name he had come to know but dare not speak. Sssssshhhhhh. Like a wave upon a shore. Wait...what? No, that wasn't it...was it? SSSSssshhhHHHhhh...

"...Please..."​

"...What?" Who was that? It did not ask. It did not make this sound. It demanded, it was a constant, an unnatural constant that violated nature's rhythm. This was...these were waves. Like a heartbeat or winds in a campfire, it was paced, measured. Sssssshhhhhhh.....

"...answer me..."
​

"Who are you? Where?..." Like the elemental sea, ice cold water surrounded him again, a whirpool coursed around him, he gasped for air then was tossed under the waves. Tempo. Sssshhhh.

--"I'm sorry."--

_____
​

Kaelan's eyes snapped open. Night had fallen by now. Four hours of uninterrupted sleep had passed, and the first dream that had graced him in the many months since Zull's fall had come and gone. There was someone else out there...someone who had managed to overwhelm the omnipresent, buzzing influence of that thing...but...who? And why?...

 

[Nereida]

Nereida hadn't truly expected to hear anything, not this far from her home. Her reach was nowhere near strong enough to communicate. But this voice, as faint as it was, she did not recognise, and the sound of it caused her eyes to snap open to peer into the vortex that surrounded her. The cyclone suddenly slowed to a snail's pace, and Nereida let her head fall back, feeling her waves of hair tumbling further down her back as she stared up into the funnel that swirled into nothingness above her.

Who are you? Where?... The voice was quiet and distant, but it echoed, giving her the impression that it came from all directions at once, growing louder rather than quieter as it reached her ears.

"Hello?" she called back, soft and hesitant. Her brows furrowed and she walked to the swirling edge of the tornado in her mind, her hand reaching out toward it.. "Is..Someone there?" she asked, her gaze narrowing nervously as her fingertips finally touched the whirling wall. The second she did however, it turned to water and rushed toward her.

---------​

She woke with a jolt, a scream choking it's way out of her chest as someone threw a bucket of frigid water over her hooded face. She could hear the man's laughter as she spluttered and choked, and she screamed out in rage, ignoring the pounding headache she had. The darkness bothered her more, the inability to move, to see where she was or who was there, or what they planned on doing.

"Rise an' shine princess..You're home sweet home, for now." Fabian rumbled with a cruel chuckle as he threw the empty bucket against the wall. She flinched and rolled onto her side, dragging air into her lungs..The hood was dragged from her face and her turquoise eyes squeezed shut against the dim light of the room. It was difficult to see, there were no windows and the only light came from the hallway outside the open door. She suddenly realised, that she was terrified of the dark, of this sort of dark.

"What do you want?.." Nereida asked, recoiling as the man reached out to grab her chin and study her face, his face suffused with a menacing and greedy grin.

"Ah, I jus' want my pay, lass.. Ent nothin' personal, jus' tryina make a livin'.." he winked, but it wasn't friendly. "Then again.." his grin twisted, his brows arching as he let his hand slide down the slope of her neck and his fingertips tickle along her shoulder and down her arm as his eyes crawled over her.

Her heart pounded, and her eyes closed. She focused on the rivulets of water on her skin and soaked into her hair and clothes, and slowly it ran to the floor and pooled, drawing into a large puddle of water, collecting every ounce that had been thrown from the bucket.

The water moved as though it had a life entirely of it's own, and Fabian was so busy letting his hands explore her curves and contours that he hadn't noticed it slithering toward him and start it's ascent up his leg. It reached his chest and he threw himself back from her with a cry out in fright and confusion, but the water drew itself upward and surrounded his face, locking his head inside a swirling orb, robbing him of breath.

She could hear his screams bubbling free as he staggered and fell around the room, his hands trying desperately to throw the water from his face.

"What the fuck is going on!?" the woman's voice barked, her footsteps thudding loudly in her ears, moving closer to her. Nereida's eyes opened just in time to see her boot flying at her face, and the water splashed to the ground as she fell back into instant darkness. It was the first and last time they'd let her anywhere near a drop of water.

-----------
​

She was crying now - curled in a ball in the middle of a dark dream space, staring at her reflection on black glass. Aside her quiet sobs, she was silent for a long while, wondering who had heard her, if they belonged to this plane she was in now, if they could help her. She frowned, recalling the question the voice had asked her earlier that she hadn't a chance to answer, and she breathed..

"My name is Nereida..."

 

[Kaelan]

Another night, another few hours spent in weary malaise. Yet, despite the eternal buzzing, he now sought more than ever to return to sleep. He wanted to--no, needed to hear that voice again. Like a sweet siren call heard from within a rampaging storm, the voice promised some small level of comfort in a sea of affliction.

His eyes hung heavy as his gaze remained locked on the landscape outside his hut. He didn't stare at the sundered ground this time though, no, instead his amber eyes watched the stars as they slowly shifted their way through the sky. He watched the moon fall to the horizon and silently thanked her for her blessings, recalling his friend Taiyo and the many times she'd healed his wounds, then his shadowy friend Yoru and his fierce protectiveness.

Night's chill upon his exposed skin took his mind to Shimo, the icy creature's staunch loyalty and its aid in weakening Zuul in Kaelan's battle with the dragon an invaluable asset. The cool breeze that rolled through the open window brought Kaelan's thoughts to Sora, that windy steed that nimbly pulled him through the harshest of obstacles.

Kaelan's eyes drooped lower, sinking back to that ruined earth that stretched on before him. Ruto and Ishi sprung to mind, each one a gentle giant capable of fierce guardianship, and he thanked them for their protection. Giants and the sea that stretched past the land pulled his mind to the titanic Umi, and the crab's valiant efforts in bringing down Zull. Kaelan still wondered if perhaps he should have died fighting that night, allowing all of his friends to go free of their bond to him. He wondered now if he should do what Zull failed to all that time ago, if for no other reason than to keep the world safe from...it...

Yet as dawn began to break on the horizon, Kaelan's mind was pulled once more to one more companion: his oldest and closest friend. A warmth that he hadn't felt in months filled his chest as he heard a faint, screeching cry in the back of his head...Netsu. That little firebird wouldn't have it. He'd never forgive Kaelan if he did that...

And somehow, with all of his friends on his mind, Kaelan's weary body and mind slinked back into the realm of sleep, eager to hear that mysterious voice once again.

---

SSSsssshhhhhh....SSSSHHHHhhhhhhhh....Sssshhhhhhhh....

Waves. A vast sea, both familiar and unfamiliar. A beach and the warmth of sunlight on his skin. Where was this? It was far from the harsh static and ceaseless void that it pulled him to night after night. This was far more akin to Umi's home...but why?

"Hello?"
​

That voice again! Distant, echoing, but there. Muffled, yet clear. A question, not a demand. Wherever he was, his friends were still not with him, but...but this voice was, and for some reason that lifted his spirits. Kaelan knelt upon the sands and smiled, happy to listen to the voice and not the static, not the hungering demands of it.

"Is..Someone there?"​

Okay, now he was certain this was no mere voice. Was it talking to him specifically? Answering couldn't hurt, could it?
"Hello...I'm here." He spoke back to the limitless sea before him, expecting nothing, but curious nonetheless. Many minutes passed in silence, only the waves and wind filling his ears. Until...

"My name is Nereida..."​

Kaelan blinked, then blinked again. The voice could...hear him? And answered! He exhaled sharply in disbelief, pleasantly shocked by this revelation.
"I'm Kaelan. You can hear me?...Where are you? What are you?" He asked, excitement daring to enter his tone, and eagerly awaited the voice's reply.