Re: Inexorable Altercation [Round II - Armada]
07-07-2010, 04:44 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by SleepingOrange.
In the brief moments between Greyve's death and the wrenching sensation of planar travel, Annaliese had snatched up her knife from where she'd laid it. It wasn't even as though she particularly thought she could use it in combat or that it was of some sentimental value; it was simply her knife and she intended to keep it. It was hers!
It was actually rather fortunate for the witch that she had picked it back up, because...
Anna was in a crow's nest. Crows' nest. Crow nest. Anna was in a big wooden basket that was rocking back and forth forty feet above the ground but the ground was a boat and the boat was in the ocean and how should Anna know how to swim she grew up in the mountains! Sure she could probably turn into a bird again and just fly down, but a quick glance at the moon oh goodness where are the stars told her that it was an inauspicious phase to be attempting major magic and any implications that it was simply because the hummingbird spell was exhausting would be slanderous at best.
Anna slid down onto her haunches, back against the rough wood of the nest of crows. She held the knife to her breast and closed her eyes, savoring the cool feeling of a familiar object in her hands. The knife was stability and home; the knife was not being hurled through the multiverse and told to kill people; the knife was not terrifying heights or demons or subtly horrific starless skies. Mostly, the knife was a knife, and Anna could respect that kind of simplicity.
Apparently the sound of the ocean was supposed to be calming, but Anna didn't believe it; the ocean was big and you drowned in it and it stormed. Everyone knew Worse Things Happen at Sea. The susurration of dark purple waves lapping against the empty ships did little to calm the mountain witch's nerves. Quite the opposite. The combined stress of everything that had happened so far and what Anna considered an unrelenting aural assault frayed her already-frazzled nerves; probably because of this, when an unfamiliar squawking noise sounded near her head, Anna's eyes snapped open and she yelped loudly. A grey-and-white bird took off hurriedly, disappearing almost instantly into the gloom of the night, and the sound of Anna's outburst carried over the white noise of the sea, instantly alerting everyone abovedecks to her presence and position.
In the brief moments between Greyve's death and the wrenching sensation of planar travel, Annaliese had snatched up her knife from where she'd laid it. It wasn't even as though she particularly thought she could use it in combat or that it was of some sentimental value; it was simply her knife and she intended to keep it. It was hers!
It was actually rather fortunate for the witch that she had picked it back up, because...
Anna was in a crow's nest. Crows' nest. Crow nest. Anna was in a big wooden basket that was rocking back and forth forty feet above the ground but the ground was a boat and the boat was in the ocean and how should Anna know how to swim she grew up in the mountains! Sure she could probably turn into a bird again and just fly down, but a quick glance at the moon oh goodness where are the stars told her that it was an inauspicious phase to be attempting major magic and any implications that it was simply because the hummingbird spell was exhausting would be slanderous at best.
Anna slid down onto her haunches, back against the rough wood of the nest of crows. She held the knife to her breast and closed her eyes, savoring the cool feeling of a familiar object in her hands. The knife was stability and home; the knife was not being hurled through the multiverse and told to kill people; the knife was not terrifying heights or demons or subtly horrific starless skies. Mostly, the knife was a knife, and Anna could respect that kind of simplicity.
Apparently the sound of the ocean was supposed to be calming, but Anna didn't believe it; the ocean was big and you drowned in it and it stormed. Everyone knew Worse Things Happen at Sea. The susurration of dark purple waves lapping against the empty ships did little to calm the mountain witch's nerves. Quite the opposite. The combined stress of everything that had happened so far and what Anna considered an unrelenting aural assault frayed her already-frazzled nerves; probably because of this, when an unfamiliar squawking noise sounded near her head, Anna's eyes snapped open and she yelped loudly. A grey-and-white bird took off hurriedly, disappearing almost instantly into the gloom of the night, and the sound of Anna's outburst carried over the white noise of the sea, instantly alerting everyone abovedecks to her presence and position.