thamior

Hey, even though I haven't been able to get any good lyrics going, I'm still writing. *Crosses fingers for lyric ideas*

This story is written for a MUD I played, which, in short, is a text-based multiple user online roleplaying game. I actually want to recruit a bunch of people from here to try and start a Sea Elf kingdom... but I digress.

As with anything, you comment on mine, I'll return the favor, though I'll favor shorter stories rather than longer (I'm a busy college student). This excerpt is maybe a little more than half of what it will be in the end.

__________________________________________________ ________________________________________________

Ashalia steered the ship out of the Haven’s port, headed southeast across the sparkling blue waters of the Arsataw Yaa sea. Standing at the wheel, Ashalia felt the first rush of exhilaration that she’d felt in a long time, probably since she’d learned that Kelowyn was missing, and likely dead. There was still a pit of horrid empty feeling whenever she thought about it, but Ashalia focused on getting the ship to steer more southwards, peering about to see where the land was and gauge her location.

‘Raise sails, full trim!’ she yelled, expending all the air in her lungs to do what her voice struggled to do. She was a vocalist, she could sing loudly, but yelling seemed so foreign to her. However, yelling was the best way to communicate to those on the ship.

‘Sails raised, full trim!’ yelled Tereia, a guard in the seaborne division of the Arkainian military. Ashalia didn’t know much about her, but she felt a connection upon meeting with the girl. The wind took the sails and sent the ship onward, Ashalia smiling as she steered it south east and then east, entering into the bright waters of the Roully Bab Binb. The sea there reflected her current mood, the waters sparkled, crisp, clean and clear, like liquid crystal it sat, it seemed alive and smiling to the skies.

Ashalia let go of the wheel, maintaining a loose grip only to keep the ship on course, due east, headed for the mysterious isle of Shokono. It had been awhile since she’d sailed, she felt as though she might do something wrong, but had not erred yet. Suddenly, a large, resounding BOOM echoed throughout the ship, followed by another. Ashalia first feared that she run the ship across something treacherous and had done irreparable damage to the ship. Then she realized that cannons had been fired, but still confused, she sought an answer.

‘What was that?’ she asked, but there was no response. Another sudden BOOM ripped through the stillness of the ship and Ashalia squeaked, falling backwards in her fright. She landed hard on her rear, but, despite a little soreness, she seemed otherwise uninjured. She asked again, ‘What’s going on?’

‘Testing the cannons!’ was Admiral Flike’s reply, a certain glee in his voice. Ashalia was shaken, but got back up and resumed her spot at the wheel. Ashalia tucked her hair behind her ears, breathing in a little heavier, but trying to keep calm. A few strands of white hair fell back across her face, into her vision. The swath of white in her rich auburn was an oddity that none could explain. She’d grown up with the unusual trait, and had accepted it as her own.

The seas continued on, no land in any direction, she felt free of the worries and troubles that gripped her. Right now, and maybe only for right now, she only had one thing to focus on. She guided the ship in a southeasterly direction, hoping to skirt the southern Arkainian coast and the tip of Shokono, there was no need to dock in Doija’s harbor. The wind took the ship at a fairly good clip, Ashalia had to keep her hair in check as it blew in front of her, splayed like a mop-head. She smiled, the sea-wind was not bitter to her, it was refreshing, and she felt a connection, a revitalization within her.

A few hours passed, quietness pervaded the ship. Admiral Flike would walk in occasionally, check on Ashalia, then would continue on elsewhere on the ship. Tereia was in the crow’s nest, on the lookout for land from a far better vantage point than Ashalia, but Ashalia kept lookout too. There had been a speck of land they’d seen just an hour or so before their present time, and it confused Ashalia because she knew that they never passed to the north of Tropica, and it was too warm to be in the cold seas just north of Icewall. A table behind her had a navigation map, she glanced on it, trying to figure the ship’s location in her head, and then she saw a little island just between Arkane and Tropica to the south, Zaven Island. With no other land feature in sight, it seemed logical to conclude that that was the land mass she saw just to the south. It was strange how you could never see the shape of the continents like they were shown on the maps, only seeing but a brief glimpse of their coastline at a time.

As the sun began settling in the western sky, Ashalia wondered why she had not yet seen the rocky coast of Shokono. She’d been relaxing at the wheel, sort of spacing off into drifts of a different sort of consciousness. But, she’d received a sudden gust of wind which woke her back up into a normal state, leaving her confused as to what was happening. The compass on the table beside the wheel said that she was headed southeast, but that was not the way to Shokono! Ashalia gripped the wheel hard and powered it hard port-side, until the ship was going northward. She steered with a strength that most would not attribute to her, but her training extended beyond just communing with nature. She maintained a strict conditioning routine, of a style that was consistent with many martial arts styles. She had deadly training, even if she looked like she could be snapped like a twig.

__________________

Dark and Shattered Lands