Legend of Ransera

Norani listened intently at this marine biology lesson from Kaiko. It was fascinating to learn. She knew of many an animal, but had not learned so many specific things about them. Perhaps it was time to focus more on her Animus learnings after all.

She hadn’t really ever used her Animus Rune much since getting it. She smiled to herself, remember how much she had pestered and pestered Old Nurn to initiate her, because she wanted to be taller, like the giraffe that was her first totem.

But she hated the idea of making totems, to the point that she hadn’t pursued it further over the years. Now a mediocre hunter, she was less squeamish of such things, but she still didn’t care for the idea of killing something solely to claim its form. If the creature wasn’t edible, it was even further a waste.

But maybe there was another way.

And soon, amid her pondering, Kaiko had returned, a jar in hand, with several creatures Norani had never seen before trapped inside. She frowned a bit, hating the idea of these creatures trapped in such a way. Kaiko gave a warning of pretty meaning pain and Norani smiled softly.

She reached into the jar, wondering how this creature would inflict its pain upon her. “My mother, Kiki, once told me that, as children, everything is beautiful.” Her fingers scooped gently beneath the cap of the jellyfish and into the tentacles, which immediately began to sting as Norani winced, “It’s only when we begin to grow that we find that things are ugly.”

She called upon her Aether, pulling it through her rune, and offering it to the creature, much like she did when communing with the elements. Tears filled her eyes as she continued to hold the jellyfish in such a manner, keeping it beneath the water. With her Aether, she felt a connection beginning to form, one that was similar to that first time she made a totem.

“I don’t wish to lose that, just because I’m pained,” she grunted through grit teeth. The connection finished, and Norani could feel the addition of the jellyfish within her Rune upon her back. She removed her hand from the creature, then overturned the jar to let them free once more.

She looked at her hand, large welts forming in streaks now. And it still burned terribly. “What is that creature called?” She could feel that she could turn into it if she tried. But with her hand burning as such, maintaining concentration would be difficult. “Do you know a way to soften the pain? I wish to transform into that creature, but I need to be able to focus.”

Norani watched as Kaiko flushed deeply at mentioning the remedy for the stings. Norani wasn’t quite sure why she was blushing like that, but one thing she learned from Yeva was that blushing seemed to come easily for foreigners outside of Ecith.

Ecithians had no such qualms of discussing body matters such as urination, so much so that Norani could not fathom the societal taboo of such. She pressed her good hand against the hull of the ship, the other go between her thighs as she relieved herself, letting the urine soothe her wounds, hopefully. It did seem to be burning less now.

Kaiko came up in a panic, worried about the jellyfish harming everyone else. Norani peered under the water at the ones she had released from the jar. They were moving ambiently, carried by how the waters rocked and moved. Norani took a deep breath and slipped down under the water, and began pulling more aether through her animus rune, through her new jellyfish totem. She then brought that aether to her mouth, to her ears.

And she listened.

The sounds the jellyfish made, as translated by her Echolalia, showed that they were all in unison. They simply wished to enjoy being carried by the current, with a fresh batch of young. There was such an age disparity for they were coming from a breeding bay it seemed. Norani smiled. They might be a danger, but not an intentional one.

She reached into her elementalism rune, and a hand went out, letting the aether flow from her, grabbing onto the water around her. She pushed, creating a gentle current, widening it as much as she could while stil maintaining control, and she sent it straight through the large school of jellyfish that Kaiko had spotted.

She watched as it pushed the beautiful fishes away from the ship and further out to sea a bit. As she continue to push them, those outside of her current drifted into it, staying together. Family traveling together. Soon, they were all pushed into an existing ocean current and began being carried away from the ship.

Norani came back up to the surface, gasping, so focused on her task that she forgot she’d been holding her breath. She looked at her wounded hand, still marked, but only now realized that the pain was a dull throb. And it hadn’t affected her concentration. And she smiled.

“Thanks for the pee help, Kaiko!”

She looked around the bobbing ocean, “The jellyfish are moving onward now. We’re not in danger from them.”

Smiling, she found Kaiko’s face once more, “Do you have water in your room? Mine came with a lake.”

Food was offered to Norani by her young companion, the remains of a partially eaten jellyfish. Norani was grateful, cradling the soft, goopy form in her hands. She brought her fingers to her lips, slurping it inward, finding the texture foreign and strange, and obviously quite salty, but it was not an unpleasant experience. Sharing of food was one of the most important aspects of her upbringing, and would continue to be, despite her own feelings toward her family and culture.

Then Kaiko had a terribly intelligent idea.

"Jellyfish breathe through their skin?" What a curious thought. Excitedly, she smiled broadly, thinking about the prospect of going somewhere she'd never been. "Let's try!"

She reached within, grabbing a hefty amount of aether, letting her excitement take over, and ripping it through her Animus rune. She filtered it through the new jellyfish totem, feeling the flavor of it change. Soft and mellow, salty, more of a simplicity to it than any of her other forms, including her normal. They were truly simple beings. She focused on the skin, on the desire to breathe, on the feeling of the water around her, hoping to translate it into what she desired. Once she felt her aether was properly filled with her intent, she began to spread it through her own body, applying it to her skin. This would be invisible to Kaiko, but Norani could feel the itching spreading as the change became real.

Once the Therianthropy finished, she severed the connection. She looked down at her hands, not seeing anything that was physically different. Well. Maybe? Maybe she was a bit shinier? It was hard to tell. Without warning, she immediately dunked herself underwater without taking a breath with her lungs. She didn't get so far, bobbing upward with the air still within her lungs. She blew it all out in a series of bubbles, feeling herself growing less buoyant. She expected to feel a burning in her chest, the hard contractions of her body yearning for air. But nothing happened. She was fine. She smiled broadly.

Still didn't solve her floating problem.

She pulled some aether through her elementalism rune, offering it to the water around her, asking it to treat her more like Stone instead of an Elementalist. She'd never tried asking an element to interpret herself differently, but she did know that stones sink in water and she wanted to go down quickly.

A startled underwater yelp escaped her lips as she began racing downward, leaving a trail of light bubbles behind her, seeing the light above quickly fleeting. She severed the flow of aether quickly, coming to a slow stop, bobbing in place fifty meters or so beneath the surface. Looking around, she was realizing that the ocean was far bigger than it looked even from the surface. She still couldn't see the bottom, couldn't see any creatures, could barely see the ship above against the light. Massive, lonely, and scary.

She tried the same type of Influence use again, but this time asking to be treated as Air, like a bubble, and she began to float upwards, smiling all the while, looking for Kaiko. It was going to be exciting to explore these oceans with her. Once she found Kaiko, she would try to speak through the water, asking it to carry her words to the girl, "Lead the way!"

Norani saw the nod from Kaiko, and watched as the young lass began an animus transformation. It had been a while since she'd seen someone other than herself transform. It was fascinating. Limbs disappeared, reshaped, reformed. Norani knew it to be painful from her own experience, especially being such a slow process. She waited, watching and studying Kaiko until her new form took hold. It was big. And terribly scary looking. Some sort of fish, and it looked incredibly fast, powerful, and those teeth could do some serious damage.

Norani only now realized how careless she'd been. If creatures like that existed in the ocean, she was rather defenseless, a warm slipped off a hook. She didn't have any aquatic forms that could provide any sort of defense against such a creature, so she'd have to be very mindful to stick to her elementalism. More likely needing to escape than to fight.

With Kaiko circling her, Norani reached out to the proffered fin, and let Kaiko tow her. They swam about like this, Kaiko clearly looking for something. Soon, she found the trail she sought, and they raced toward it. Norani's eyes strained to look through the ocean, but once she saw it, her eyes grew wide. Some massive beast, as large as those in North Ecith, was dead and floating in the ocean, being consumed by many of these dangerous fish that looked similar to Kaiko, though pointedly different. Norani dismounted Kaiko, who swam forward to take a bite and came back.

Norani stayed there, suspended in the touch of the water around her. She wished to approach as well, if only just to capture this in her mind, so she could draw it later in her journals. She fed her aether into the water around her, taking an invisible hold on a sphere that held her at the center. She maintained that, so that if she needed to react to the fish, she could do so as rapidly as possible. And then she began to frog swim toward the animal carcass. As she drew closer, she was surprised to see almost no blood, even as they ripped large chunks out of the creature. She kept her distance from the large fish, staying above them, closer to the surface, as she looked down upon them. She studied each of them in turn. She watched as some tore the flesh sideways, others up and down, some had teeth that just sliced through like butter. Some were solid in color, others speckled, one was striped.

She swam down to the corpse itself. The flesh was tough but spongy directly underneath. An exposed area revealed the sponginess to be an incredibly thick layer of fat. She tore off a piece, popping it into her mouth. Strange taste, weirder texture. She swam about the carcass, studying each of the sharks from a respectable distance, until she felt satisfied. She asked the waters which direction the Duck could be found and they gently pushed her that way in response. She thanked them, then floated off to the side, to wait for Kaiko to finish eating.

Norani watched cautiously as she saw Kaiko's approach. She realized that if she were to explore these seas more often, she'd need to grow her repertoire of ocean forms. She felt more than capable enough on land and in the skies, when with Ruvaf at least. But here, she was vulnerable, weak.

Still, there was a fascination with this world she knew so little about. It was so big, so much to it. There was an excitement growing inside of her, so much to learn and to see. And Kaiko seemed more than eager to help and to join her. She smiled at the lass as she shifted away from her form back to the girl she recognized.

At Kaiko's question, Norani gently nodded back that way, "I asked the waters and they say it is back that way. We can ride the currents that way." Norani fed some aether to them, and the pair began to drift toward the ship at a comfortable pace. Norani thought on the other question. "Sharks seem to me as a high end predator, with scavenger tendencies. They look terribly fast and powerful, so quite the danger. Their colorings make them hard to see as well, so I assume they get in close unseen then strike fast."

With that thought, she asked the waters to let her know what creatures were close or would come close as they traveled. "I am not even sure what I would do if one decided to attack me. Quite vulnerable out here." Norani was a fledgling huntress at best, so wasn't used to being the prey. But she had the suspicion that maybe everything in the seas, sharks included, were more often both prey and predator.

"How do you deal with shark attacks? What about where you're from? Do they build protections against them?"

Kaiko Marino

Loot: Some captured jellyfish
Injuries: None

Points: 10 Exp, may be used for Animus

Comments: I quite enjoyed this thread and I await your return so we can write some more together.


Norani

Loot: +1 Jellyfish form for Animus
Injuries: +1 Jellyfish sting

Points: 10 Exp, may not be used for magic