Part of your world

[light_another_life]

Sea monsters aren't typically in this area, but sometimes things can go wrong and a sea beast will rise up from the depths to try and drag the ship down with them to munch on the tasty humans inside. Sometimes when this happens, the ship gets away, if the people on it are clever or have the right enchanted items or have a particular talent for magic. More often than not, though - they don't.

So even when a sea monster attack is very, very unlikely, if Lirlaveth notices a ship anywhere nearby, she'll put what she's doing on hold and quietly follow the ship to make sure it's not going to be attacked by a murderous monster that wants to eat humans. Or, if it is, to help prevent the humans from becoming food.

She's spotted one such ship, and so even though it means putting her study into enchantment on hold, she goes to follow it to make sure it'll be all right. Probably just paranoia (sea beast attacks aren't that common), but it might turn out to be justified one day.

Comments

[thisbrokenworld]

"Amain," says Esri.

[nothing_noble]

"Yeah, I got it."

And with the other two sisters supporting Lirlaveth, it falls to this one to try to actually teach her how to feet.

[light_another_life]

Well.

She's wobbly and has barely any idea what to do with her legs, but she can successfully take a step if she focuses on what she needs to do. Step.

[nothing_noble]

Amain signs 'success' and continues to attempt feet-related instruction.

[light_another_life]

Yay achievement, too bad this is freaky and disconcerting! But she would like to cease being on this beach as soon as possible, so. Steeeeep. Step.

[nothing_noble]

They will take a while to get to the beach house at this rate but nobody seems inclined to complain about giving her the help.

[light_another_life]

She is easily the most annoyed by her inability to walk. She improves, gradually, and speeds up. Her balance is awful, but she gets some practical control over her new limbs quickly enough. She couldn't tap dance, but with someone to help with balance she can carefully walk on her own. Looking annoyed every time she stumbles. A few times she opens her mouth to swear, shuts it before she manages to fail to say a syllable, and works on walking with a great deal more determination.

[nothing_noble]

When the house is actually in sight, it's Amain who runs ahead to explain the situation.

[light_another_life]

Yay. House. That means she is almost done being terrible at walking.

She kind of wants to collapse once she's at the house, but maybe someone will want to talk to her.

Hopefully not, but it might happen.

[thisbrokenworld]

"Indoors or in the water?" asks Esri, signing along with her free hand.

[light_another_life]

Fuck, what does she even want. Yes she would like to be in the water but she suspects it might start the inevitable crying early. And she's holding herself together with stubbornness and pride, she's well aware that she's a bit delicate. How would she handle the issue of clothes, the trousers are distinctly not waterproof, she would like to not have to deal with clothes that aren't water-appropriate while in the water and she'd like to not deal with being indecent, either.

.... Indoors, she decides, after a long pause.

[gloriousdawn]

"Sure."

Indoors they go. It's a lovely house, not that Lirlaveth will have had much experience with human dwellings.

And there is a soft couch for Lirlaveth to flumph on!

[light_another_life]

Welp!

She flumphs.

Ugggghhh why does walking suck so much.

[gloriousdawn]

"Pretty good for a first try," says Idalta. "We can leave you alone for a while if you want."

[light_another_life]

Thank you, she signs, a little mechanically. Followed by a nod that she attempts to soften with an apologetic smile. ... It sort of doesn't work, but she's trying.

[gloriousdawn]

"All right, see you later," says Idalta. She and Esri clear out, leaving Lirlaveth alone on the soft couch in the cozy little room with the tables and bookshelves.

[light_another_life]

...

She's too tired to cry, too frustrated to sleep. Holding herself together with stubbornness and pride is hard to put down. It's hard to even try to. She buries her face in a decorative pillow and wonders how she's going to get a message to her family about where she is. She wonders how she could possibly be fixed, if fixing's even possible. Are there professional curse-breakers or something? Could any of them break a curse made by a siren? Does that make it more complicated, or is it all just the same - she doesn't know.

Ugh. Misery.





Eventually she exhausts herself with what-ifs enough that she falls asleep.

[thisbrokenworld]

When she wakes up, there is a blanket on her and a tray of food next to the couch, with a big pitcher of water.

[light_another_life]

Well.

That is incredibly sweet, and also now she is crying.

Does the food look like it'll keep while she gets this out of her system? (... And what even is the water for?)

[pythbox]

The food looks like it will totally keep.

[light_another_life]

Awesome. Then she's going to cry. She's going to cry a lot.





She gets hungry before she stops. Lirlaveth quiets the silent sobs to silent sniffles and dutifully eats - well, food that she recognizes, anyway. Some of it's weird. Well, most of it's weird, but it's a recognizable kind of weird. This-thing prepared in this-weird-way.

...

Partway through she notices that she feels - dry is the word she wants to use. This - makes sense, she guesses, but she's not entirely sure how to solve it without getting up from the couch to swim. The pitcher might have been for this, now that she thinks about it. Uh. ... She attempts to switch to water breathing with some minor difficulty, considering that she's breathing out of a pitcher. And then she's just awkwardly holding her breath with water that tastes weird without any salt in it.

She breathes it back into its pitcher. She feels a little better, but - not very much, and switching from air to water multiple times in a row sounds highly unpleasant. Ugh.

Okay. Plan: she will finish crying, then go see about going and being in the water. Maybe that'll fix this.

She finishes crying. And then she gets up, wobbly and supporting herself on walls and furniture, to look for someone.