Post by graypath on Mar 21, 2014 7:49:50 GMT
The Early Years
First Contact
Chapter Three
By Arthur Pepka, aka GrayPathMage
After the incident at the river, Cambrey became concerned for his people. He wondered what would happen when the two intelligences met for the first time. Again, his arrogance blinded him. It was not humans who first contacted the Mariners. It was the Elves.
Laurel was a young elf who delighted in her new world. She had barely survived the black pits on Earth where her family had been enslaved. Too young to work, she had been underfed and mistreated by the overseers. Often, she had been forced to feed the Cursed’s appetite for energy. She had been carried on litters from this foul underworld by Gray Path mages when they captured her masters. Immediately her elders sought to flee Earth as quickly as possible. Now Laurel was healed both in flesh and spirit.
This day found her gathering nuts with her siblings. They made a game of it, teaming up to climb the trees and gather the fallen fruit. Laurel felt infused with pure joyous energy as she tackled a new tree. As she scampered up the trunk, she noticed its branches filled with nuts. She didn’t notice that it overhung a cliff. She proceeded to climb on to branch after branch. On each, she would bounce up and down, shaking the ripe nuts off to fall to her younger brother below. He would then run around picking them up. Laurel was already imagining how these would taste. These would be roasted on the fire. The meaty flesh was succulent when steaming hot. Her father compared them to chestnuts from Earth. Once cool, the nuts would be shelled and stored whole or ground into a delicious paste that added flavor to their flatbread. Laurel’s attention was more on the anticipated feast these would bring, then on where she stood.
Suddenly, a loud crack shot through the air. Laurel had bounced hard on a dead limb and it gave away. Her hands closed on leaves as she opened her mouth to scream. She dropped down the face of the cliff into the sea water below. Her mouth closed instinctively when she hit the ocean’s surface. Her lungs now hung onto the scream she hadn’t had a chance to let out. She thrashed about momentarily in the water, but then oriented herself and swam to the surface. She bobbed on the waves for a moment, then the tide began to carry her toward the rocks. Now she screamed, as she saw the sharp rocks before her.
Her brother had seen her fall. Already he was shouting and running to the nearest adult. Unfortunately, that was back at camp. Little Branch would never make it there and back before his sister died. Seconds before Laurel was split by the dagger like rocks, she felt an arm wrap around her waist. As luck would have it, she had just inhaled when she was dragged under the water. She flailed about, but fear froze her motions into jerky twitches. The pits had taught her not to fight back. She was carried away from the rocks. But she wasn’t brought to the surface. As her lungs began to scream for air, Laurel forgot her fear and began to thrash in panic. The restraining arm released her and Laurel shot to the surface. She broke out and inhaled deeply. She laid back and floated on the surface. When she calmed down she looked about. She was far out to sea.
Laurel sat up, which promptly dunked her. She began to tread water. She realized that she couldn’t just swim straight back, she would have to find a beach to get safely ashore.
She looked from side to side, then decided to go one way. She began paddling to her right, hoping to find a safe spot. She got herself moving when a hand touched her leg. She jumped in fright. She spun around and saw a head floating in the water beside her. It was hairless and covered in tiny oval scales. It had large double lidded eyes, a small nose and small mouth. There were thin streamers fluttering along its body. Laurel could clearly make out its appearance. The figure gestured to the left and pointed.
“Are you the one who pulled me away from the rocks?”, Laurel asked.
The strange creature clicked its tongue and continued to point to the left. Laurel looked that way, but could not see anything different about that direction. She began to swim that way anyway, either way seemed just as innocuous. The creature calmed down and dove underwater. Laurel laughed. She dove as well and swam along, but she stayed near the surface as the creature continued deeper. Laurel finally shook her head and began swimming in earnest. When she would not follow it, the creature returned and paced her. Laurel noticed the bottom rising towards her as she swam. Soon, she reached a submersed sandbar. Here she could stand for a time and rest. The creature surfaced and began clicking at her. Again, it pointed. Laurel looked shoreward. During her swim, she hadn’t paid attention. The cliffs had receded and a pleasant beach had appeared. Laurel smiled at the creature and made her way to the shore.
When her parents found her hours later, Laurel had almost returned to camp. She was crusted with salt and sand and strands of seaweed were in her hair. More fantastically, she had quite a tale to tell.