"Alright, don't panic." The girl who didn't even know her own name said to herself. "First thing's first. Food, water, shelter. People need those, right?"
She was pretty sure that assumption was true... at least as far as she could trust anything else she
knew.
Well, water was easy enough.
Walking into the ocean until her knees were submerged, she squatted down and started scooping it up. Her hands were rather poor tools for holding water, she learned, the liquid running over the sides and between her fingers. Still, it was better than nothing... probably. It tasted really salty and gross and it made her stomach hurt a little. Was it supposed to have so many little scaly things in it? Did that make it unhealthy? Was it fine as long as she didn't put the creatures on her mouth, not that they were letting her scoop them up too, or were they dirtying the water itself?
Deciding to stop after several mouthfuls just in case, she made it most of the way out of the water before stumbling. With a crash of armored plates, she hit the ground painfully. Her head slammed into a large stone hard enough to crack it.
The rock, not her head, strangely enou- No, wait... yes, there was a small scrape on her forehead where the plate meant to protect it had dug into her skin. Her fingers came back dry, but stained with a lightly glowing cyan powder. Despite it not looking, smelling, or tasting like it, she instantly recognized the substance as her blood.
-----------------------------
Why was everything going so wrong?
The plan was simple: draw the so called gods out of hiding, then surprise the God of Darkness with a surprise attack using his own sword before moving on to Light.
Weiss was a pleasure to have around, all told. Well mannered, intelligent, thoughtful; all quite similar to Hinata and Louise, it was a shame the poor dears hadn't grown up with parents that appreciated the three of them. Their loss, really. Why, that delightful Schnee child had even used her titles and enthralled father to further the group's goals. She ruthlessly circumvented Ironwood to commandeer five escort airships from the Atlas Council and arrange for proper seals to allow their operation in vacuum.
Once guided through the hole in the sky above Vale, of course.
As for the main ship, Salem had seen to it that her people understood the new state of affairs. Watts was upset at the change of immediate plans leading to their ultimate goal, but settled quick enough with a promise that the good General's survival was not necessary for the future she envisioned. Tyrian, the rabid sycophant that he was, needed no persuasion and Hazel trusted that her grudge against Ozma would see his own dream accomplished. Between the three of them, the alien reptile, Tyne's various other skilled subordinates, and the otherworldly wizard himself, the Void Voyager was refitted with quality materials.
No ship thrown together from scrap would carry Salem to her freedom, foreign magic and technological gadgetry be damned.
Cynric had wanted to kludge together some sort of flying fortress abomination using Amity Colosseum, but she'd put her foot down. There were just some things that were unreasonable. It wasn't as if the thing would have given them more than space for smaller guns and storage, which was not worth the months of extra delays it would cause at a minimum when she doubted conventional weapons would have an effect anyway.
She might have been a little too intense about refusing him, what with his avoiding her for several days afterward. It wasn't her fault he was so afraid of her, even if he hid it well from those who hadn't been reading people for thousands of years. Not that she didn't find it rather adorable in its own way, it still wasn't good for productivity. She was a few millennia out of practice with much in the way of comforting people who weren't children, but she would have thought the light touches along his arms, shoulders, chest, jawline and such in passing as reassuring gestures.
He was interesting and had a fundamentally different understanding of how magic and the world worked; she could see him as something more than a subordinate to be lead or a child to be guided. Maybe even a friend, given time. More than that, as the children so enjoyed speculating when they thought her unaware? Well, he was not unattractive and had given her the most precious gift she could ask for beyond her children returned; he'd given her the means to leave, to have her freedom beyond anything anyone could do to hold her... but it had been so long since she'd entertained such thoughts and with Ozma's betrayal and the deep scars left behind from what had happened... It was unlikely, but not impossible. Eventually, perhaps, though not any time soon. For the foreseeable future, she merely wished to let him know that she stood nothing to gain from spurning him over something so petty.
Instead, he seemed to take it as a subtle threat.
Something Moira had made sure to pass along, lovely woman that she was. Ah, but she was getting lost in thought again. Probably a bad thing given the fact she was in the middle of a pitched battle. Even if the mental rambling helped with the pain somewhat, a sensation she hadn't felt since her body had adapted to the Pools of Darkness.
The point she'd been pondering over the ships and mystical weapon originally was because they had possessed every advantage entering this fight!
Yet they were down to one escort ship and the God of Light was wrapped around their shields as he peered directly at Salem herself. Unable to see the radiant dragon-serpent looking through the walls at them, sweet little Hinata helped ease her into sitting against the wall. "You're bleeding! Let me- Louise taught me some heal-."
"I don't blee-" The coppery taste of blood hit her tongue as she tried to deny it. "I- So I am."
How many times had she tried to end her own life, only to not be able to cause even a scratch? How many ropes had snapped, walls crumbled to dust against her skull, knives dulled on her skin, fire starved after devouring the area around her, gallons of water and acids and even molten lava passed through her lungs? That last one wasn't particularly pleasant to live through, what with the weeks it took to break up and cough out all the cooled stone. After all that, the would-be god undoes his curse only when she'd moved beyond such desires?
It would have been infuriating if she hadn't expected him to do as much... the headache from contending the Dark Brother's will probably didn't help either, truth be told.
How had things gotten to the point?
"M-miss Salem?!" A voice called out... Who was the child staring at her? Those white eyes were rather distinctive, she would have expected to remember something like that.
The girl clearly knew her.
Reaching out to grab the worried child's hand, her vision faded.
-------------------------------
Eyes fluttering open, she was back on the beach and even more confused.
"Salem?" She muttered, forcing herself back up.
Was Salem her name? She didn't think so, but how would she actually know? Well, she wouldn't assume it was, since that dream was different than the first one. More like she was listening to someone tell a story than remembering something she'd experienced like the first had felt... but dreaming someone else's memories didn't make much sense either.
She must have hit her head harder than she'd thought, doubly so considering the fact she'd apparently been out for hours. It'd been around noon judging by the sun, but now the sky was turning pink from the setting sun.
No sooner than noticing that fact did her stomach rumble. She needed food.
But what
was food exactly? Something to eat, obviously, but where did it come from?
'The store' Her mind immediately supplied, which was completely unhelpful.
'Kwama?'
Familiar sounding, but she didn't think there were any giant bugs nearby and didn't have a way to find them if there were.
'A fish market?'
Also not something she was likely to find, but it did connect the idea of food to the little scaly things she'd seen in the water. Given how nasty and salty they made the water taste, she really didn't want to put those creatures anywhere near her mouth. Maybe she could stick to plants?
It certainly didn't sound as bad as the 'fish' and the island had a lot of it.
Walking away from the water, careful to watch her step this time, she snatched up every stalk she passed as she approached the trees. Her teeth made quick work of the bark, tearing through without problem and grinding it down into a pulpy mix. It didn't exactly taste good, but it wasn't horrible... it wasn't filling either, even after her sixth tree.
By the time she finished the tenth, she had to admit defeat. Plants didn't seem to be good food either. Hungry, mentally tired, and irritably picking splinters out of her teeth, she set about building a shelter. Might as well have somewhere to sleep since she probably wouldn't want to risk swimming to another island until she found something that actually sated her appetite.
That at least seemed to be something she could do right.
A frame of trunks lashed together with twined together fibers was erected in maybe half an hour. Another ten minutes to gather discarded branches and leaves, she had some walls. Sure, it was a simple box made of wood and leaves, but it was her first real success.
And! And! And! It could double as a raft, being basically three small rafts serving as walls and a fourth as the roof, with the front open toward the sea in case she might be able to see a boat's lights in the distance. Should she need to, she could break the whole thing down and tie all the parts together for a pretty spacious float-y thing.
That was something to be proud of!
Grinning, she sat down in her little house. Now she just had to wait out the night, then she could... do something.
Staring at the wall, her smile slipped.
Her stomach growled as she shifted on her bed of sand.
Status: ??? Hungry
Choose:
[] Go to sleep and try to ignore the hunger, you can look for something in the jungle tomorrow.
[] Try to start a fire, maybe you can signal for help now that it's dark.
[] Waiting until morning will just mean you're more hungry and tired, go search the jungle now.
