Lotus [https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/AP1GczNd8Lh8HqLjjc58DderbGhk6Xsfzu4rYV2u-BfXg5w3bR24Sd-2eJzS0aZYW1_-IlCNYozZXqPyYWqr2KWwnYvP8ioLZx6EXz8W1V1T8dYm0bBJ7dWkUQ5mmAgTTDGW5R1Dz2RSfojgV9Q7edziyD1C=w661-h992-s-no-gm?authuser=0]
Saiya didn’t normally consider herself afraid of heights like Rayna definitely was. However, free-falling through the air towards the awaiting mouth of a giant monster definitely made her less keen on ever being that high in the air again. Feeling herself be pulled into Phoenix and the relief of finally finding her as she tried to cling to her immortal friend, was supposed to make the fall better. However, sensing Phoenix’s own panic and the sudden halt that almost flung her from her friend’s grip made her own terror run rampant. It wasn’t made better when she was violently tossed up into the air and shoved away from the safety of her friend’s hand.
It wasn’t quite the same as the terrifying fall towards inevitable death as she was pushed through the air back toward the ship, and she noticed the grip of those sticky tentacles around Phoenix now instead of her. However, it was still terrible to feel so helpless with no way to control her own movement.
“Catch her!” was the only clue she had that Phoenix had some sort of plan other than a harsh landing against the side of the ship. Her worry proved unwarranted when her flight was gently halted by strong arms wrapping around her and pulling her against an armored body.
She recognized the aura before she registered his face, as Dazien held on tight to her and Rex’s mane. The Familiar flew them through the air toward the mouth where Phoenix was being shoved.
As they got a better look at Phoenix falling the last few yards toward the monster’s throat, her Perception felt a zing of panic flood Dazien’s emotions through his aura, and she was able to hear him yelling both aloud and in her mind when the giant mouth began closing around its snack. “Phoenix! Stop! Don’t blast the ship!”
Saiya knew he was too late when she heard the explosion and the mouth reopened to release part of the blast back out at all of them. She whipped her head back toward the ship Dazien had warned about and couldn’t help the sob that escaped from her mouth as she saw the invisible shield break. Saiya saw her sister’s scared face and tucked tails as the ship treacherously rocked among the already turbulent waves, and everyone started glowing with a pale pink light.
“We have to help them!” she yelled back to her leader, and his grip tightened around her waist.
“Rex can’t carry all of them. We’ll have to—”
His words cut off as Rex dodged an incoming tentacle that crashed down into the Victor’s Tribute instead, sundering the ship and sending her sister and friends crashing either into the air or into the ocean. The tentacle moving back up into the air from the wreckage is what surprised them and managed to knock them hard enough that Dazien and her were both free falling through the air this time.
He tried to grab her again, and she tried to stretch further to reach him as the wind rushed past and tried to separate them further.
“Save her!” Dazien shouted for a confusing moment before she suddenly stopped falling and found herself nestled between golden wings on a softly furred back.
“No!” she replied when she realized what he had meant, but she was forced to watch helplessly as Dazien crashed into the waves a moment later, quickly disappearing from her sight.
Another tentacle forced them to fly out of the way, and she quickly lost track of where Dazien had submerged before spotting Rayna in the water among the wreckage of the ship with at least a dozen other people. With a grimace, she had to trust in her leader’s survivability and told Rex, “Let me down near Ray and go get Dazien! I know you can tell where he is better than my bracelet will right now. I’ll retreat into my lotus while we wait for you both to rejoin us.”
Rex gave a soft rumble before swooping down toward Rayna, and she leaped the short distance into the water. Once her arms were finally wrapped around her sister, she cast her [Restful Retreat] by incanting, “May the weary find rest in the solace of the tranquil retreat.”
The last few words were spoken partially underwater, but it still triggered pulling nearby allies into the dimensional space that appeared from the outside as a giant white lotus blossom. No water was brought in with them, and a few of the Crystal Casters that got caught up sputtered the water from their lungs as they still had a set they required to breathe.
Rayna helped her sit up within the tranquil pocket space, and they quickly glanced around to realize that none of their other teammates had made it into the spell’s area of effect. They were somewhere still outside among the wreckage with a very angry Emerald Caste monster.
Saiya could feel the fear permeating from everybody, including her usually fearless sister, who was the one clinging to her for a change. She felt at a loss for words as she held her distraught twin and knew the scene of her almost getting eaten was likely replaying itself in Rayna’s mind.
“I thought I lost you,” Ray sobbed against her, wrapping her tails around them both for extra security. “How did you even let that thing grab you?”
“It’s impossibly fast for being so massive,” she replied with a grimace.
“Well, don’t ever do it again!”
Saiya simply sighed and indulgently shook her head as she hugged her sister and agreed, “I’ll try my best.” After a few moments to calm down, she gently pushed Rayna back from her to meet the eyes that were identical to her own. “We need to prepare for what awaits us. There’s not much time left to prepare.”
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Rayna sniffed loudly, wiping her eyes on her sleeve of fur as she nodded. “Right. We, um… we need to—” Her voice broke slightly, and she tried to swallow her fear once more. “We need to get to shore. Get what survivors we can.”
Saiya nodded. “Do you think you can run atop the water to find the others?”
Her sister’s eyes went wide as she shook her head and argued adamantly, “I’m not going to just leave you floating in the ocean. Who’s going to protect you?”
She rolled her eyes. “I may be the healer, but I’m still Sapphire Caste, Ray. I don’t need protection all the time.” At the dubious look she was given, she added, “Just a quick sprint to let the others know to head south toward the shore… and see who’s still alive. Rex should be retrieving Dazien to bring back to us, but I have no idea what happened to Uriel or Camilla… and maybe Phoenix managed to survive.”
Rayna grimaced but nodded in compliance, both of them silently praying that their party members were still alive. While Phoenix might come back, Dazien, Uriel, and Camilla wouldn’t if the monster decided to eat one of them too.
After Saiya informed the others who were taking refuge within her spell about what was coming next, they waited for the ability to finish running its course before finding themselves dropped into the ocean once more. They were shocked by how far away the monster and wreckage were, and Rayna hesitated a moment, still holding Saiya’s hand. Apparently, the force of the waves had been enough to push the lotus away.
“Run quick! We’ll start swimming,” Saiya told her sister as reassuringly as she could while one of the crew started leading them south, their perception power acting as an internal compass to guide the way. Meanwhile, Wally, her Wellspring Wyrmling that usually wrapped himself around her wrist and forearm, flittered above the ocean on tiny wings while using his power over water to help guide the waves to take them all southwards.
Rayna gave a quick nod, then Saiya helped push her above the rolling waves so that she could free run atop them as fast as she could with her [Agile] Passive ability granting the implausible feat. Saiya was already having a bad feeling about what her sister would find, considering that even after leaving the dimensional space, she couldn’t contact the others via Dazien’s communication power.
Only a few minutes later, Rayna was back to confirm her suspicions: their other party members were nowhere to be found. The rest of the crew were attempting to flee south while the Emerald Caste Captain attempted to hold off the beast to buy them all time despite being fairly crippled without the power of her ship to call upon.
The monster was worse for wear but still alive. Luckily, the storm seemed to be quickly dying down, and she wondered if some Caster on the enemy’s side had been the source of it. Unfortunately, both Rex and Tala were also nowhere to be seen which made them fear the worst for their friends.
Rayna seemed to have resolved not to lose another family member as she returned with a long rope, salvaged from the wreckage of the half-ship that remained and tied it around Saiya’s waist first before wrapping the other end around herself. Then she took another salvaged rope and began going to each of the surviving crew to help them stick together as they all headed for shore through the waves that were beginning to calm.
One of the Crystal Caste crew members was able to conjure barrels that the survivors climbed into and used as makeshift rafts while the Sapphires helped pull them to safety with the bit of rope assisting with the undertaking.
Saiya could feel the sorrow attempting to consume them all and wanted to comfort them, but the current situation made that impossible. As they traveled across the darkening waves, all of the Sapphire Casters pushed themselves to their limits to swim south, and Saiya could feel Rayna’s worry slowly grow as the endless expanse of water let all of their minds wander to the people who were missing from their midst.
Rayna had always been rather quick to process her own emotions, usually with the help of punching something. By the time the shoreline came into view on the southern horizon, the bard had already made her way through the panic phase. It had been hours already as they swam, trying to conserve as much stamina as possible.
The ship had been following the coastline for the most part, just in case of emergencies like this, but it was still a staggering distance that threatened their lives should they exhaust too quickly. The Crystals might have drowned, and the Sapphires would eventually suffer from exposure to the cold and wet if they didn’t get to rest and recover properly. All of them prayed silently that another monster wouldn’t come across them.
Once they reached the shore—everyone completely drained and barely able to move further—that was when Saiya sensed the anger start to boil up in her sister. Rayna punched the rocky beach as she let out a frustrated growl.
Saiya forced herself to move to her sister’s side as she tried to hug Rayna and calm her with the tranquility of her aura. She wondered if she should have specialized in grief counseling instead at this rate and tried to shake the morbid thought from her mind as she tried to hold Rayna, who kept periodically punching the ground.
It was then that the Emerald Caste Captain caught up with them, carrying her own load of survivors and looking much the worse for wear as she stalked over to the twins as though they were prey. Captain Clisson paused briefly when she registered their grief and the pain both voxen were in from processing the potential death of their party member and being separated from the others with no idea if they were alive or dead.
Saiya could feel the shift in the stern woman’s emotions as they went from roiling fury to simmering anger and pity as she said roughly to her, “Yer companion blew up me ship’s shields.”
She nodded silently but didn’t offer any words since they would only be empty ones. She clung to her sister, wanting the anger to calm. Even though she didn’t speak, Rayna did as she glared up at the Captain. “If you had shot the right target and freed Saiya then she wouldn’t have had to try and save her!”
“I made the choice to save mine,” the woman growled, “and I’d make it again.”
“So would we!” Rayna retorted, and Saiya’s grip tightened to keep her sister from attacking the Emerald Caster in her rage. The bard’s tears flowed freely as she brokenly said, “Phoenix would sacrifice everything to save one of us, and so would I! We’ll go as far as we can to keep our family safe!”
“How safe are ye now?!” the Captain shouted back. “Yer Chosen One dead. Me ship destroyed. The rest o’ ya scattered to the wind. Yer lucky that explosion didn’t cause more o’ mine to fall otherwise I’d be sendin’ ye to join that girl right now!”
“Her name is Phoenix, and she’s still alive!” Rayna angrily retorted. She sunk against Saiya and almost whined, “Everyone has to still be alive…”
Saiya finally spoke up as she rubbed her sister’s back and said to the Emerald Caster, “You’re right. We’re not safe. We’ve lost our party and don’t know where we are. We’re at your mercy now, Captain.”
The gruff woman gave an annoyed growl, kicking at one of the rocks on the stoney beach before turning back to the pair and saying bluntly, “Ye both follow my orders now. Heal and protect my people, and I’ll see ya to Serenydi, where I know I can get a proper ship replacement, but then I hope to never see yer faces again, got it, Adventurers?”
Both of them nodded in silent capitulation, and Saiya got to work, healing up the injured as some of the others helped make a makeshift camp to rest in until daylight.