lightwithin | 5th Light - [Text/Common // open commentlog]

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: Crustacean Cove

5th Light - [Text/Common // open commentlog]

It's just like home.

I didn't think I'd miss it like this. If you spend ten years building sandcastles and cracking coconuts, it gets kind of boring.

Now I'm here, and it's fun. But still exactly the same.

I don't want to stay. I know some of you do, but nothing ever changes in a place like this. And it's not home, not without the people who make home special.

I guess this place has reminded me that even if I could go back, there's only sandcastles and coconuts waiting there for me.

And if the Elegante is the only way forward then, no matter how bad it gets, I'll take it.

[Kairi is at the cove, ankle-deep in the surf. She's watching something bob out over the waves as she writes. When it disappears, she turns away and begins walking along the beach. She picks up and pockets seashells as she goes.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

D-Did you, uh, do this m-much? B-Back home? W-With all those rafts y-you all b-- built?

[Kairi laughs and watches Xanth so she can get the timing right. It works, sort of. They're moving forward anyway.]

Oh, we never got to sail the raft. But we all had our own row boats. There was an island that was too small for houses. All the kids in the town would row over to play there. It was - heh - a lot of fun.

[Kairi's staring into the water, her smile turned soft. Oh nostalgia~]

M-Makes me wish I-I lived somewhere l-like that. There weren't any l-little islands where I lived, j-just... open o-ocean.

But you had other ports. If there had been other places to visit on my world, maybe... Well, things might have been different.

[Just bobbing along~ Singing a song~ Oh look! It's an outdated pop-culture reference.]

Besides, you had a whole desert city to play in, right?

W-Well, yeah, b-but I didn't... play m-much there. I-It's another port, and I-I didn't travel around m-much un-- until I got o-older, and then I s-spent a lot of time w-working.

[Kairi glances sideways at Xanth. What had he said before? He liked climbing over rooftops and watching the ocean for fun.

She can't help but feel he's missed out on a lot. Still, it's not like there's any shortage of time around here.]

Well, when we get back to the ship, we should get a group together and go camping.

It's not a game exactly, but - heh - it's definitely not working.

[Was that a shadow under the water?]

C--Camping, huh? L-Like, out-- out in th-the forest?

Th-that-- that could be f-fun. W-What do you do, on-- on trips l-like that?

Sure. I went before with Renna and Zeke and... April. We just talked and ate marshmallows mostly.

But back home we'd tell ghost stories or play campfire games. Heh, sometimes someone would come over from the main island and try and play a joke on us. Sometimes we'd just eat snacks and stay up all night to watch the sunrise.

[The boat rocks slightly. It's probably just a wave or something.]

...what are m-marshma--mallows?

[Kairi just stares at Xanth for a minute. It shouldn't surprise her that he's never had marshmallows. It really shouldn't. But she has no idea how to explain them.]

They're--

[Okay that was definitely not the ocean. The boat lurches. Kairi grips her oar like it will somehow hold her steady. It doesn't, and she just ends up elbowing Xanth.]

What-?

Ow!

I-I, uh, I didn't-- think th-the sea was th-this... rough...

Sorry! Are you okay?

[Kairi looks from Xanth to the cove's mouth to the water to the boat to the water again. She sees the shadow, but fish are not what she's looking for right now.]

... It shouldn't be. We haven't even made it past the headland yet.

I-I'm, uh, fine...

...w-what's... that?

... A fish?

[A Big Fish.

A big fish that is swimming straight for the boat.]

Oh-!

[Kairi grabs for the side of the boat. Too late! It's tipping, and tipping, and the next thing she knows, she's lost her grip and is under water.

Facing a really big fish.]

[You know, being swallowed whole by a Monster Fish would probably be far more frightening if Kairi didn't have the strangest feeling that it had happened before.

It's still pretty frightening, but it could definitely be worse.

At least she didn't get chewed.

Did Xanth escape?

...

OH CRABCAKES! She just got eaten. By a Giant Fish.]

[Oh there's Xanth.

Wait, that's not a good thing.

The fish hasn't swallowed them down, but it's moving and squelching and it smells. Kairi shudders, but before she can even start to think about what to do, the fish shudders too. And then regurgitates into the shallows.

Kairi splutters and coughs and tries to ignore the fish-spit dripping off her.

Eeeeeew.]

Wh-- what w-was th-that!?

[Kairi holds back a cough and ducks her head to try and get as much fish goo off as fast as possible. She's salty and sandy and covered in fish spit and it feels disgusting.]

That... That was awful.

[She coughs again. She really not ready to get up yet.]

I... I don't think we're allowed... To leave the cove.

U-- ugh. I g-- I guess n-not.

A-Are you, uhm-- a-are you al-- alright?

I... I think so?

[She glances over at Xanth. They both must look half-drowned. At least she doesn't feel that bad. Wait! She promised they wouldn't fall out!]

Are you?!

Um--

U-Uh, uhm, y-- yeah, I'm-- I'm alright. N-No worse th-than-- than b-before.

I'm sorry.

[Kairi frowns but looks away. She straightens her clothes and brushes away water - it looks suspiciously like fish goo - as she stands. She offers Xanth a hand.]

I guess that wasn't much fun.

W-Well, the-- the f-fish part wasn't, b-but it was...

It was n-nice before that.

(no subject)

lightwithin - 2010-05-29 11:44 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

brittlenerves.livejournal.com - 2010-05-29 13:30 (UTC) - Expand

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only