just an Otter

[Kaiko Marina]

Frost 48

The newest addition to the duck beach crew was wrapped onto the back of its new mom. Kaiko had found cloth and had used it to make a quick baby wrap to hold the little otter on her back. Turned out that the little fluff ball was more curious than she was and was just as likely as she, to follow a butterfly off a cliff. Since Kaiko was not responsible enough to keep herself safe, she decided this was the best way to keep the baby safe. Kaiko sat with her staff laid across her lap. Her small clam knife was tied to it. Her eyes stayed closed. She took a deep breath. In.. Out.. In… Out…

Most of her meditation time had been spent thinking about the captain, a man who was quite odd, and the quest. They were supposed to save a ship. She did not see how they could help a ship from land. She wished the captain would come and give some kind of instruction. But expecting help from him was useless. The rest of her time was spent deciding on whether she would erase her slug totem and replace it with a sturgeon or if she would keep her slug and just add the Otter to her forms.

She finally decided to take the otter foot out of her pocket. She forgot about the world around her as she focused on the foot and what little she knew about the creature. She thought of the thick fer and its sharp teeth. Soon the foot would dissolve in her hand replaced by a paw print on her mark. As soon as she could fill the new form she wanted to switch but food would be the first priority as shifting without food could be dangerous.

The tide would be at its lowest point soon and so that meant her meditating time would be over. Food would be easier to catch when the tide started to rise. There is always a slight change in the air when a tide changes. She opened her eyes and slowly got to her feet. A big yawn escaped her. With the warmth from the sun a nap was tempting but she was now feeding two and so she had to hunt.

The otter shifted and it made her look to make sure it was still doing well. After she confirmed it was still asleep, she moved slowly down the beach. The otter had teeth which meant it was predatory hopefully past the milk stage. But she will learn the answer soon. She climbed onto a rock and waited for the water to rise. She remained completely motionless. Her makeshift spear over the water as she waited for the water to rise and the fish to swim by. Any fish would have been fine as she stood there for what had to be hours. But a big moray Eel was near the rock and so became her target. But it was stubborn and mostly stayed out of reach with the same goal as Kaiko. A small fish got too close to the eel and so it strike. As soon as it struck she struck. She then jumped into the water to hold it down in the sand until it stopped fighting.

When it stopped, she raised it above her head and started walking through the tide to the shoreline. Away from the tide she put the catch on the sand. She then untied the wrap and put the otter down. When it finally woke up, she handed it the fish that was stuck in the eel's mouth. It took the fish without hesitation and ate as if it had not had food in days. Kaiko put down her spear and stepped back away from the pup. She turned her back to the trees and stripped so as to not rip her clothing. She took a deep breath as she began the transformation. The first mammal and semi terrestrial creature she had ever tried to take the form of.

Kaiko could feel her size grow as her bones broke, twisted, and hardened. It was a rather unpleasant feeling. Then came the thick fer as she fell forward becoming quadrupedal. She felt the playful energy of an otter and found the experience different from the simple hunger drive of her other forms. As she finished the transformation she immediately felt the hunger that came with the use of such magic. Immediately she began eating the eel. She had planned on ripping the meat off the bone but found that she crushed the bone with her bite instead. She did not seem to care as she almost immediately ate the rest of the eel.

Kaiko then laid down beside Fluff and nudged the pup with her nose. The pup immediately started dragging its fish away as it growled. Kaiko tilted her head and sat up. Finding Kaiko did not follow, Fluff continued to eat. Kaiko rolled her eyes and decided to lay down and watch.

[Imogen]

With Carina departed to the far North as part of her scheme, Imogen had found little reason to return to the beachfront which The Duck had unceremoniously dumped her over months prior. Now, however, fresh from her exhausting battle against the jaguars and their umbral master, the witch had found herself troubled by yet more haunted dreams. Unable to sleep, and waiting for an opportunity to return to the mainland, the young Ork decided to return to camp and steady her mind with long walks on the beach.

Mindful of the lesson the iron ants had given her shortly after her arrival, she stuck to the soft sand, letting the grains dig against the scales on her feet and rub the dead skin away pleasantly. She watched the tides as she walked, musing over how strange and stressful life had become since her fateful trip to Ecith a year past.

"Day after day, day after day
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean."

Imogen sang tunelessly as she walked, remembering a relevant ballad she'd seen performed in the Pfenning long past. It had seemed overwrought at the time, but struck more poignantly now.

"Water, water, everywhere
And all the boards did shrink
Water, water, everywhere
Nor any drop to drink..."

This song was interrupted by a sudden splashing in the quay. Even considering her legendary lack of observational skills, it still took Imogen a while to see what was going on- but she got there eventually. There were signs of sentience out by the ocean in the form of clothing and a makeshift spear, but no signs of the owner. Two otters lay on a rock, one larger than the other, but otherwise? Nothing.

Curious, the woman approached the discarded clothes and weapon, scanning the horizons to try to find their owner. Nothing. She dropped to her haunches, leaning down to inspect the find more closely.

[Kaiko Marina]

Kaiko hurd the footsteps in the sand and sat up to look. She would notice the Orkhen. But it was not the Orkhen she had got to know. This was the one that told the story of the arrows. As she approached her clothing however Kaikos curiosity perked causing her to tilt her head just a little. This curiosity was lost when the Orkhen went for the staff. She could get more clothing if she had to but she could not replace the staff. She jumped off the rock immediately trying to fuss about the rudeness of messing with other people's stuff but all that came out of her snout where annoyed barks

She did not realize that she was not actually talking but she would have kept barking anyway. She got to where the Orkhen was standing and gave a deep huff of annoyance and gave another bark before grabbing her staff in her mouth and stomping a few feet away before dropping it and turning to sit and look at the orkhen. Her animus mark showed a dark pattern in the fur of her shoulder. The paw, the slug, and the shark all in the perfect circle. The pup trying to be cute would do just like Kaiko. It would get up and make cute little baby barks that almost sounded mocking and would walk over with a pointed swag in its step to take the shirt. But once it got to the shirt it did not retreat but instead started playing with the shirt. Vinsue would give a sharp bark at the pup but the pup did not listen. Instead of stopping the pup Kaiko simply sat guarding her staff. The pup finally tried to play catch me if you can with the Orkhen. As the pup grew in excitement little plants would start popping up under its feet.

[Imogen]

Imogen's hand was interrupted by a sudden barking, and her head snapped up. One of the otters had disembarked from its rock and was making an unholy racket, sounding like the forlorn child of a small dog and a dying car engine from the streets of Gel'Grandal. The Ork blinked at the strangely aggressive creature, not particularly threatened by the little beast but rather perplexed by its strange behavior.

"Whoa- whoa, hey! Easy, there, easy."

Without further ado, the otter seized the staff lying on the ground and made off with it, dragging it along across the beach. The Ork stared at the retreating creature, still uncomprehending, until she suddenly noticed the mark across Kaiko's fur. Even then, it took her a few moments to realize what she was looking at (her own mark of Animus notwithstanding.) When she realized, however:

"Oh. Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were a mage. I thought perhaps someone had been lost at sea. There are a lot of dangerous creatures just past the shoreline, so-"

Imogen's protestations were honest and earnest, but they still sounded a little bit hollow, and the tips of her ears burned with embarrassment. She'd been a thief and a smuggler for the better part of a decade, to be sure, but accidentally stealing someone's stuff was still a serious faux pas in her book. "Listen, I didn't mean to-"

The embarrassed Ork was interrupted again, this time by the otter pup. She scanned it, too, for any signs of a Cardinal Rune; spotting none, she assumed it was a true animal. The little creature poked at her, clearly hoping to engage her in some kind of game, growing more and more excited until the mage barked at it again. That was when the sprouts began shooting up around its paws.

Imogen's eyebrows rose. Some form of wood-aligned creature, perhaps? A very interesting little creature. But the size difference between her and the little creature was much too extreme for any kind of play. Still, perhaps...

The witch shrugged, then spread her arms. A moment later, she collapsed in on herself, her body shifting with preternatural speed, collapsing into silver protoplasm. Within a matter of seconds, Imogen's sparse clothing were lying on the beach near Kaiko's, and a small lemur sat in her place, staring at the otters with its little golden eyes. She waved at the smaller otter.