Ocean of Fear [Zyra/Zylo]

[Zyra Maxwell]

"Zyyyyyyylooooooooooooooooo."

The clarion call of a still somewhat seasick Taguel broke the silence of cawing seagulls and roaring water and chanting sailors and someone yelling about - actually it wasn't very silent at all, she realized blearily, her momentary foray into flowery prose completely ruined by the icy hand of a cruel world. "Urgh," she articulately mumbled, rethinking this whole motion thing, "this was a terrible idea." And it had been, but the clarion call of adventure must have addled her brain when she heard the job description, because she had been fantasizing about glorious battle against terrifying pirates with proud dragons soaring overhead all the way to the docks, just in time to find out that docks smelled really really really bad and were not full of nice people and ships moved in really disorienting and sickening ways.

At least she'd managed to work 'clarion call' into a sentence that sort of made sense. Zyra allowed herself a grin for that one, thoroughly proud of herself. She'd read that in a book the other day and had been trying to use it in a way that didn't sound horrible ever since. It was a small victory, but another step to a brighter tomorrow! Figuratively speaking. Not literally. She was stepping, walking technically, but that had nothing to do with - and where the hell had her brother gotten off to, anyways? After glaring in the general direction of the sun for a few moments, she forced herself to focus, pondering where the lazy ragamuffin had gotten off to. He was probably asleep, he usually was, and probably alone.

She stared up at the mast, high... high in the air, swaying precipitously.

Yeah, there was no way he'd be up there, and that was not in any way an excuse to not wrestle with the rigging. Beaten but not defeated, the still-queasy wolf ambled to the higher part of the deck, where the steering wheel was - it probably had a name, but she'd be damned if she knew it. She was either bored and lonely or looking for a sparring partner, she wasn't actually sure, but there had been absolutely no pirate attacks and no firebreathing dragons at all so far and this trip was going to drive her insane if she didn't find someone to bother in the next five minutes who wasn't looking at her strangely.

[Deleted]

"Ammmm...No...no...I can't...eat another bite. Too stuffed...ahh."

The mumbling words of the sleeping wolf freely escaped as he was doing what he loved the most when he had time to himself. Just sleeping it away...inside an open crate within a cabin. There were no contents within the thing, so he'd fell out and into the thing before dozing off nearly instantly. He'd been there for at least an hour now. Really, he was pretty sprawled out in the thing with his arms and legs hanging halfway out, as compared to how he normally sleeps like he's tugged in. At the same time, he heard someone shouting his name from the bottom of their lungs that sort of popped him halfway out of his slumber, recognizing the voice clearly. His eyes were not even halfway open, and just as he was about to move his lips and tried to pick himself up, the sleepiness kicked back in as he fell back into the crate and dozed off again.

One of the annoyed sailors were in the cabin at the time moving around some of the ship cargo when he saw the taquel laid out in the empty crate. He actually had the urge to kick Zylo out of his sleep, but with how he may have anticipated the sudden aggression, it would have probably been best if he left the sleeping taguel alone before he woke up and pounded him to an oblivion. The sailor heard the shout too as he peaked his head out of the cabin and saw it was the girl he came aboard with. As such, the man grabbed the crate he needed out the place and paced back on the deck as he walked near where Zyra was standing, but was about to head off into a different direction the moment he called out to her.

"...Is that your friend? If so, you'll find Mr. Snuggles down there in the cabin..." As such, he went on his way without hearing out her possible response.

[Zyra Maxwell]

"Mr... Snuggles?" The question was aimed at no one in particular, a very confused wolf-lady staring at the retreating back of the human sailor as she tried to figure out what he had meant. It was not difficult to figure out that he must have been speaking of her brother, simple speech recognition made that very likely, but the other part was alien to her. Much as with many human customs, but at least the crew of the ship were decent folks; gruff and prone to communicate as much in insults and sea shanties as in the common tongue, but without cruelty behind their harsh words, and a warmth towards the loved ones they supported in their hearts. She had learned that much in the last few days if nothing else.

It was reassuring in a way, Zyra thought, as she wandered into the cabin where the good Mr Snuggles supposedly was. They were still - people. She had met a lot of people, and outside of the ones that were broken inside in a way she couldn't understand, like bandits, humans were generally decent folks. She'd had her doubts with the crew initially, not as experienced with their unusual method of communication, but... oh, yeah, that was Zylo's scent. Fresh and mixed with... a lot of other scents. She was starting to regret having a nose. There were definitely a lot of different kinds of foodstuffs here, as well as smells ranging from finished wood - fresher than the ship's, maybe furniture? - and quite a few that it would take longer to identify, much less locate the source.

She sniffed again. Zylo's was a lot easier to find, all too familiar and... probably in need of a bath. Zyra entertained the thought of throwing him overboard for a swim for an instant before admitting to herself that she would never do it, and doubtless by human senses he was fine. And it was still a hell of a lot better than the port had been, drenched in the stench of dead fish and body odor.

Zylo was found in short order, lazing away in a wodden box, or a "crate" as she remembered they were called, with his head inside the... Hmm. After a moment of pondering, she rapped one fist atop the crate hard, peering inside for his reaction with a devious grin as she wondered how he would react.

[Deleted]

"...Ahhhh?!"

The slumbering taguel jumped out of his sleep, completely out of surprise as his upper body rose from within the crate. However, he ended up falling right back in the thing as he didn't realize his arms and legs were still partway hanging on the edges of the crate. Landing right on his bum in the center, he had to blink twice before perking his head upward to see his sister with her little mischievous grin. Why...did she do that? Probably just to get a scare out of him. He almost...actually forgot that they were on a boat. In fact...why were THEY on a boat anyway? Oh...right. Zyra said something about some crazy advanture at sea and she totally convinced him to come along. But that was besides the point at the moment!

"Hey! Come on, sis...I was having the best dream ever..." Uh, was it? Last he remembered about the dream before he woke up was that he was siting in the middle of a large round table stuffing his face with all kinds of cooked meat he could imagine while trying to see if he could eat more than Zyra...until said person woke him up. Finally pulling himself out of the crate, the taguel warrior flipped over the other side of the thing as he stretched for a few seconds. He wondered how long he was sleep in that thing, for he didn't remember too well on how he fell out. Ah! He was actually trying to find out where Zyra was when they boarded the ship, but when he saw how quiet the little cabin was, he couldn't help himself. The sailors were already getting on his nerve when they took off, so he felt sleeping it off would have been better than running one of their heads through a plank. Besides, that wasn't like him at all...when he's in a good mood.

Speaking of which, he was wondering something for a while when he was actually awake. "Hey, uh...where exactly are we going on this thing anyway?"

[Zyra Maxwell]

"Snrrrrrkhhhaaahaahahahahahaha!" She laughed unreservedly, genuinely, at her little brother's reaction - just as she had hoped, he had proven to be a little less handy about extricating himself from his sticky situation than he usually was. She should really make a point of doing this more often. Standing up straight from her half-bent-over position of a moment before, a memory of Zylo's blank gaze came to mind again, she the she-devil snorted in a thoroughly unladylike manner... not that anyone would ever accuse the rest of her manner of being particularly ladylike.

"You shoulda seen yourself there, like a lost puppy's first introduction to the vagaries of a cruel and uncertain world." Somewhere in that sentence, her voice had switched from normal to a sort of haughty grandeur, a clear sign that Zyra was having as much fun with her voice of words as with Zylo. "But alas, poor Yori...Zylo. Yorzylo. Yorzililo." She paused, trying to hammer out the awkward grammar. "Yoro. Alas, poor, Yoro, I knew thee well. A fellow of, uh, of..." She couldn't actually remember how the rest of it went, but her mood was immensely better already. "Thanks, I needed that."

Pirouetting in place, Zyra learned up against a nearby crate, still amused but slightly more serious as her brain turned back on. Where WERE they headed, anyways? She didn't think he would accept 'dunno' as an answer, but she couldn't for the life of her remember what their destination actually was. "Ah, it's not important - life is in the journey! Some wise guy said that once, and we should all take a lesson from it." The fact that she might have taken the wrong lesson did not occur to the lady wolf. "But to answer your question: ADVENTURE. If... something ever happens," she trailed off meekly. There hadn't been a cloud on the horizon so far that day, or even a dragon.

[Deleted]

"...Urgh. I'll get you back for this." Sighing out of defeat, the still sorta-tired taguel was at least used to his sister's playful pranks, rather big or small. But now she's doing it while he sleeps! Well...he knew it was coming sooner or later, so there was no use being surprised about it. Though what seemed to never cease to arch an eyebrow is when she'd wordplay like she was now. Half of the time, like now, he didn't really get the gist of what she was saying...which in a way just gave him something to tease her about. He resisted the urge this time, though that always proved difficult. However, he was more focused on trying to think of a way to prank her. Maybe he could do it soon...heh.

Though saved by her mention of adventure, Zylo's shoulders dropped. "...So, we're basically just drifting along. Awesome." It made him wonder exactly who this "wise guy" was that she heard that from anyway. Why does he allow her convince him to embark on crazy journeys like this one? Oh wait...probably because deep down, he's totally interested since Zyra seems to know exactly what to say to get him eager to follow her. Well, not that it's ever gotten them into trouble, so what harm could this little adventure do? It's not like they were really going to run into pirates or anything like that, or carnivorous sea creatures attacking the boat...right? Man, the sea was actually one of the only places he was probably afraid of being.

And they were setting sail towards the unknown...at the sea.

...Great.

Zyra just dragged him into one of his greatest fears without him catching on. Unless...it was intentional! Well, he couldn't recall ever outright stating he was afraid of the sea, so it was likely just his bad luck. Gazing towards the entrance of the cabin and seeing the light outside made him think of sea water and shivered at the thought. Hopefully his sister wouldn't prank him to fall into the water...now THAT would be evil. He didn't even want to imagine that, so he wrapped his arms around himself as he felt a sweat drop. "I love adventure and all...but why did it have to be by boat? Wouldn't it have been more fun to travel by land? N-not that I'm afraid of the sea or anything, no! Beating up some baddies on land would be twice as great compared to tackling a hundred-foot sea monster...!" "...Why am I even here?!" He may have heard too many horror stories. Sea monsters didn't exist...right?

[Zyra Maxwell]

"You should be more prepared!" Instantly into her strident persona, Zyra looked at her brother seriously, her good mood mixed with a tinge of sincere worry. "Imagine if the boat had..." she trailed off, not entirely sure what happened to ships, then continued with her imagination supplying what seemed like a likely possibility. "...Exploded! That would be bad. And if you were asleep, you might drown or something." She couldn't help it; as much as she liked watching him sleep - a small part of Zyra's mind helpfully informed her that that did not sound AT ALL like creepy stalker behavior and she probably definitely didn't need to mention to Zylo that she did that - she worried about his tendency to nod off anywhere at any time. "I don't have a lot of little brothers to spare. And if you got shipped off to Timbuktu, I don't know how long it'd take to find you again."

She would, of course. That was a given; the possibility that she wouldn't find him didn't even occur to Zyra. The only question was time. "You should sleep with both eyes open. And... wide awake." That lecture had gone south, she realized, as she trailed off awkwardly. "But, uh, enough about that." It was a lot easier to yell at him in her head, but in person, he was her goddamn brother, and she couldn't help but soften up at him. Unless he had just done something especially retarded and she was fired up enough to yell at him properly, at which point carte blanche with the vicious verbal violence. Heh. She had to remember that one.

Completely missing the actual meaning behind Zylo's reaction, she scowled fondly at him before lightly punching him on the arm. "C'mon, waking up aint THAT bad, Z-dawg." Oh god why was she still even talking that had been so bad. At least he would never know that she had mostly wanted to know how boats worked. It was her little secret forever. "Well it wasn't because of anything silly like wanting to know how boats worked, obviously. Hah hah!" Fffffffffffffnargle. Play it off cool. She flailed ineffectually. "I-I mean, adventure on the high seas is great, right? People write books about that, and there's, like, dragons and stuff. And monsters." Zyra narrowed her eyes, her tone switching immediately to something vaguely spooky, if one was to be very kind in their judgement. "They say that sometimes the ocean itself seems to swallow ships whole into its morbid maw, a beast with so many rows of teeth that it could grind a city to dust."

Maybe she was embellishing the story a little bit, but... dramatic effect, right? And artistic liberty! "Also, pirates and stuff." Did monsters even attack at sea? They had never really spent much time by the coast. She wasn't sure, but secretly hoped they did. Zyra had no idea how a Cyclops would get out to the middle of the ocean, but the idea was so fantastic she couldn't help but hope.

[Deleted]

"...Ships explode?!" He responded in surprise. If only he'd knew she probably didn't know herself, he wouldn't have been so nervous at the very thought of it the ship just randomly smashing into a glacier or something and they'd end up sinking and immediately blowing up into billions of pieces. And the thing is, he believed her. Heck, he believed just about everything Zyra says, since she IS his big sister and he wouldn't know what he does now today if not for her. And she taught him something about boats and the sea today...they're scary! But he did at least...get where she was coming from about falling out just about anywhere. He could probably fall asleep on someone's back and wouldn't even know it. Hopefully that wouldn't happen if he fell on the back of a bandit or something. Releasing a sigh from within, he knew she was right...but sleeping is what he does!

When she punched his arm in response to his prank threat, she...didn't catch onto it, which made him stare at her a bit panicky like. "....Roll with it." It could work in his favor as he realized, so he could surprise her better! But why did she have to go and bring up SEA MONSTERS? He wasn't minding her reasons for going on the boat as she told him about it, but when it got to the crazy part about the giant monsters is when he got that damned chill down his spine again. Just imagining the HORROR of that giant...thing emerging from underneath the surface was a mental image he couldn't get out of his head. "So much sharp teeth...you think they'd be sharp spikes instead...and with a bunch of spiders in between them...or spiky spiders...spikers...!" Gah! His sister's tendency of playing with words and stuff has rubbed off on him...at least the thoughts weren't voiced openly. Why did he just imagine getting swallowed alive by the thing and trying to punch and kick his way out it's stomach only for it to be in vain and get digested? Ew, eww no. No more of thinking about that. That's gross.

"...So, about those pirates!" He tried to change the subject of monsters as quickly as possible. He'd rather beat up a bunch of out of shape sea brigands than worry about getting eaten. "I guess it would be fun to kick them around and regain all the loot they steal. Finding out where all the treasure belonged...could be another adventure for us to take, right?" Actually sounding enthusiastic to take his mind off the monsters, he clenched his chest a bit as he barely resisted falling back into the crate. He could sleep the thoughts off...

[Zyra Maxwell]

"Yeah!" Energized by the thought of adventure at the high seas, Zyra forgot about exploding ships immediately. "Buried treasure has to come from somewhere, like pirates. Maybe we'll even run into a batch of them today as they go to bury some treasure!" Did you call a bunch of pirates a batch? Maybe a murder. No, that was crows. She shrugged. "And it would be interesting training to fight on a ship..." She trailed off, trying to figure out how it would work. "The whole ship is moving, both in a direction and back and forth, so footing would be harder. You also couldn't rely on the ship being there forever, so if you, like, jumped a million miles up, by the time you came back down you might end up in the drink."

Drink. She had heard that one from a sailor, and was now bandying her linguistic achievements as if she had earned them. The irony was lost on her. "And stuff like ballistae and fire-throwers are common on ships, so it would be more dangerous than just fighting bandits." Having eight feet of steel skewer you as you sank beneath the seas did not sound at all fun, and Zyra grimaced at the thought. "No healers, either. So not getting killed is even more important than usual." Which was saying something, because 'not getting killed' was already pretty high up on most people's lists of priorities. Then again, most of them couldn't regenerate body parts.

"...It sounds like t'd be harder," Zyra allowed cautiously, not yet willing to stop being secretly excited about the possibility. "Having to swim home would be seriously lame though."

[Deleted]

"Hrgh..." The mere thought of the ship moving back and forth like that during combat caused him to feel a bit dizzy. How were people expected to fight on boats anyway? Really, weren't ships for like...delivering stuff or something? Though if crazy pirates can hold their balance while attacking other ships and such, then he figured it was just a thing you had to get used to with experience. But combat in general at sea seemed too tough...even for a taguel. They were used to fighting on land and those of which Zyra spoke of were mostly human tactics used at sea, something Zylo figured wouldn't be too useful knowledge for a wolf like himself. However, once he thought about it from a different perspective, it didn't seem all that bad to fight out here.

"...I just had a thought. What if learning to fight on a rocking boat serves as the next step in training? Finding out how to balance ourselves on a constantly moving ship and with all of that craziness going on might...actually do us less harm than good if it'll increase our skills." He crossed his arms, showing that he was dead serious about the idea. "And no one would expect a taguel at the sea and being able to fight very well onboard on top of that. It may even make fighting on solid ground even more easier if we're used to sea fighting!" Ah jeez, now he was getting all excited about punching a hole into a pirate or something now. He even completely forget about the whole sea monster business that had him secretly frightened to death.

...Though the mention of swimming made the wolf shiver again. He HATED being cold and they say sea water can be pretty cold too. Falling into that deep body of water was a scary thought, and he only knew how to dog peddle...in overdrive. He couldn't swim worth a damn in his human form. He'd likely sink like a rock. He wondered if his sister was the same? If she wasn't, then he needed to beg her to teach him how to swim in this form. Didn't want any risks while fighting off pirates!

[Zyra Maxwell]

"That's a first" was her gut response, a lopsidedly repressed - 'repressed' smile killing any attempt at subtlety to Zyra's haphazard jab. Zylo's idea was intriguing enough to torpedo any attempts to further rile him up, and Zyra leaned in unconsciously as she tried to mentally picture the scene he was describing. She had never even tried fighting on a ship or anything similar, but it... kinda made sense? She wasn't sure if relying on conveniently-placed whales as landings was entirely realistic, but it was more fun than landing on a bed of spikes and seething teeth, and that had been the only other option her imagine had provided. "High risk high reward, huh?" She lightly jabbed him on the shoulder, grinning. "I knew one of us had to be the thinker! That totally makes sense, the harder something is to do, the more you can learn from it."

It was all well and good to try to imagine it utilizing her limited pool of relevant experiences, but Zyra had the feeling that in practice it would be harder than she could imagine now, with a million tiny things to keep track of that she wouldn't even realize existed until they were a problem. Everything from the durability of the sails to natural shifting of parts of the ship could happen at the worst possible moment. "You'd have to... pay a lot of attention to your surroundings, I think. Jumping onto the mast would be like trying to jump into a tree in a windstorm, it'd be shifting and stuff, and sails could break falls or flight, but they can rip, and depending on the wind they might be in different positions..."

Of course that was all ignoring the whole sailor thing. "And we wouldn't have a clean deck to land anywhere on, there would be sailors, and wounded people, and possibly pirates too if they were boarding us... sounds like fun! Dammit why can't there be pirates right now!"

Someone aboveboard yelled with eerie timing, though the lack of cannon fire and general screaming suggested they were probably not under attack by pirates. Yet. Zyra tried to play off her start at the voice by shrugging.

[Deleted]

"...I somehow knew you'd say that." He responded towards her comment of the pirates being on board while they could be possibly hanging on for their lives. Sometimes he wondered if his sister actually enjoyed the very thought of experiencing mayhem on a crazy level. She seemed passionate enough about it...but at least all the chat about pirates and surviving the countless and trials and tribulations at the sea was taking his mind off the possibility of a giant sea monster emerging from the deep waters and devouring their ship whole...then they'd be forced to live inside it's belly for an eternity until they'd inevitably starve the death...unless they get desperate and decide to steal the monster's food when he eats it himself. He'd rather starve instead. Just because he was a canine by nature didn't mean he'd resort to that.

Dear lord, Zylo had to stop for a moment and admit he possessed one weird imagination.

...Getting right off of that, the thought of improving during the experience was still exciting enough for him not to get freaked out by his own inner thoughts. "Maybe we should transform during all the constant movement? We'd probably be able to hold ourselves much better...well, no..." He crossed his arms again as his sights were shifted to a completely different direction, a little sweat drop visible on the side of his cheek. "Not only would we draw some unnecessary attention, but if I fall into the water in that form...I...uh, well...swimming wouldn't be, uh...very fun...yeah. Guess it'd be great training for our normal state...!" Bah, even now it was still hard to admit that he couldn't swim...whether he was in overdrive or not. He'd sink like a ship if he hit the water. Seriously, could Zyra swim? That was one of the questions of the day.

The yell from above caused his ears to move up and down out of instinct. It certainly didn't sound like a "Yaaaaar!", so they were apparently clear of any pirates so far...or maybe the yell was a warning that danger was nearing. Great, now that unsettling feeling in his stomach was coming back. At first, he was beginning to like to sea, but now the phobia didn't seem to be cured at all. Just all the talk of these exciting opportunities merely distracted him! Shaking his head, he stepped away from the crate and a bit closer to Zyra. "Uhh...shouldn't we check that out? Maybe our new pirate buddies are coming." He wondered how she'd react to that.