Reclamation

Zein was glad for two things as she stared into the murky, green depths of the moat that seemed to have grown in depth since her last visit. First, she was glad her breakfast was light. Second, she was glad she'd taken the time after her nap from the previous day to peruse the armory for new equipment. She hadn't quite picked out a sword she liked yet, but at her hip was a thin, triangular dagger. Since there were some sort of beasties in the moat that were supposed to be a pain in the ass, she was happy she now possessed a weapon that would actually be useful underwater.

She unhooked the leather belt that was holding the dagger to her hips, and removed her shoes and pants. She retied the weapon to her thigh, pulled her hair back into a ponytail, and dove in, hoping her thin figure would help her be more hydrodynamic. She kicked as hard as she could once her feet were underwater, heading down for the light at the bottom. She pulled the dagger out of its sheathe and placed it in her mouth once she hit the bottom, immediately setting to work on cracking open a scallop. She made a mental note to surface once she estimated that her breath was about halfway out. If she were to be grabbed by something while almost out of breath, she wasn't sure if she'd get a breath of air before she passed out. Better be prepared for the worst, she thought to herself.

 

Roxanne had been avoiding everyone and everything because of her encounter with Marcus. She trained alone now, refusing Abal's and everyone else's help. She barely ate, and she kept crying at night. She knew she was being stupid and this wasn't getting her any closer to her goal of stabbing Vanthus repeatedly, but she couldn't stop herself.

She came out the morning of the challenge and crinkles her nose at the smell of seafood. And... Rabbit stew? What an unusual combination. She tried a bite of the rabbit stew simply out of curiosity, and it was nasty. She immediately got up, and went to get ready for the challenge.

Which... Involved swimming. That explained the seafood... But not the rabbit. The rabbit stew had to be important. It was so out of the norm it had to be important. How odd. She took her jacket and her shoes off, leaving her in her jeans and t-shirt, and dove in to get her pearls.

This would not be as open and shut as her victory in the last challenge. She wasn't a terrible swimmer, but she wasn't great. So she'd have a bit more of an issue here. Nothing she couldn't manage. Until she was grabbed by the ankle by something and started sinking like Marcus had. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Unpleasant. She kicked and thrashed, trying to get whatever had a hold on her off.

But that was using up her breath. Nope. Stop doing that. So she sank. She let herself sink to the bottom. Maybe if she didn't fight it, it would get bored and let her go. Or maybe she would die down here, and she would see her family again. Not bad. Not bad indeed.

 

Riley sighed, glad Marcus was safe and that they could breath. As Sydney tried to shake off several fish, she let go of the pearl by accident. Riley grasped the pearl as it came in her direction, rolling her eyes she pretended to do a back-flip motion before swimming and quickly getting two other pearls. As fish latched to her hands, she punched them into the wall. Seeing as how she was done, she collected three more pearls, tossing one to Zein, Marcus, and Roxanne.
Hope they can catch.
She sped up out of the water and onto land, clenching the three pearls in her hand.
----
Sydney groaned as she lost the pearl. She saw what Riley did and did a back-flip, the fish on her legs hit the wall, breaking and her eyes widened.
Holy Shit.
She saw as Riley tossed the others a pearl, pissed she was completely pearl-less. She grabbed two other pearls before noticing the nearest scallop required a bit of a swim. As she swam for her last pearl, she came across a group of three fishes.
Why me?

 

Roxanne saw the movement of figures in the murky water, and when she squinted she saw that the figures were her friends. She watched Riley slam something of Marcus' into a wall, and suddenly Marcus was okay. What? Okay. So, she slammed her ankle in the wall. And there went a weight. Yeah! She could move! Right on!

But she felt the uncomfortable feeling of water pouring into her lungs and panicked as well. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. Wait. What. Breathing. How was she alive? And not drowning? What? Okay. Awesome. One less problem without it. 99 problems and breathing wasn't one. She caught the pearl that Riley tossed her, and started sinking again as more fish caught her, and she sunk to the bottom to find more.

She started to pry open two scallops next to each other, and found one to be incredibly difficult. Come on, come on. She needed those points. Come on. she chanted to herself as she fought to pry open the shells. Why was this one so difficult? Fuck it, there were more.

She went to another one and pried that one open much more easily, and was about to start another when she noticed it was getting dark. Night already? How long had she been down here? Wait... it was coming from the scallops! Oh crap. She quickly made work of another scallop and got her third pearl, and then looked down at herself. By now, several little fish had grabbed her, all over her arms and legs. She got to a wall and started smashing her limbs against the wall. She looked ridiculous at the moment, but she really didn't give a shit. She needed real, normal air. And to get as many points as possible so she could win and kill Vanthus and figure out what to do from there.

 

"Aha! Gotcha ya fucker!" Claire cheered as she snagged the last pearl she needed. By now at least seven fish had latched onto her all over and she was practically dragging herself along the muddy floor like an idiot. She didn't care though! She had the pearls and now all she had to do was get the damn things off of her. Catching out of the corner of her eye (what little she could with the dimming light) the sight of her supposed "friends" slamming the fish into the nearby wall, the young teen quickly tried to force herself up to at least a sitting position. She failed several times, but somehow managed to raise her right leg enough that the fish in question broke itself in two upon her half-kicking-half-falling down. With one leg freed, she started awkwardly slamming her one leg onto the stone creature latched onto her opposite leg.

They took forever to break and she could have sworn she might have broken something not made of the weird mutating fish, but eventually she was able to stand again. The bubble of water protecting her head vanished and she took in a big gulp of the nasty water. UGH! she thought vehemently, coughing for awhile before realizing she was quite alright. Still able to breathe even though this water tasted god awful. Looking down to the fish that still littered her body, and seeing several more on their way, Claire's jaw tightened. Get the fuck away from me! she screamed mentally, throwing her body against the wall and thrashing like her life depended on it. The fish appeared to break and, finally freed, Claire kicked off the floor and started to swim to the surface with her pearls in tow.

 

Zein managed to wrench open the scallop and snatch a pearl, right as some movement just barely caught her eye. It looked like...Riley? Yeah, it was Riley, who was also in her underwear. She was tossing out pearls, apparently. Not wasting a moment, she kicked off the ground and grabbed it, stuffing both of the pearls in her bra. Something suddenly bit down on her shoulder, and she slammed herself against the wall of the moat to loosen its grip before grabbing her knife. That's when she realized the heavy little beastie burst into a bunch of stones. Well shit, she thought to herself, feeling less worried about going up for air now. She took a break for air anyways, only managing to get a small breath in before three fishes clamped on to her legs. She let them drag her close to the bottom before she smashed the beasts against the wall. She then began her search for another scallop.

She picked it up quickly, kicking away from the kid that was approaching with as much strength as she could muster, still keeping the dagger held tightly in her mouth. She'd have to isolate herself before she could pry open the scallop--just to make sure that she could get the pearl out without the threat of it  being stolen. She  was feeling out of breath again, so she threw herself to the bottom of the moat, trying to make herself less visible. She slid the blade of the knife into the gap of the scallop's shell, and split it open. She sheathed the knife and stuck the pearl in her bra once more, then kicked off towards the surface, just about to finally get a breath of fresh air before something grabbed her leg once more, yanking her father away from the sweet salvation of fresh air.

 

Claire had gotten out fairly quickly and handed off her pearls to Anya with a small cough and false shiver. Okay. Maybe not totally false. Her clothes were soaked now and there was nothing she could do to fix that other than dry off. She gave the shadow boy a look that beamed withheld admonishment. "Did you play fairly this time?" she questioned, not giving him a chance to respond as she went straight into the tower. Someone handed her a towel at some point––she slipped her wet clothing off and wrapped it around herself.

 

Riley tossed the pearls to Anya with a wave "If it isn't Ms. Umbrelly."
She denied the offer of a towel and quickly put her dry clothing back on. She looked around and realized she was the first of her entire group to finish, so she sat down on the grass to wait for them. Eventually, Claire came up and said something to the shadow kid before promptly disappearing into the tower. Guess Riley'll have to wait for someone else to come up if she wants to talk.
"At least no one stole my falcata..." she played with it's decorated handle.
---
The three fish quickly attached themselves to Sydney's back, the girl swam quickly to her third scallop. It was dark in this area, almost all of the scallops gone, and she quickly hit her back against the wall several times- the fish breaking off. With a sigh she sped to the surface, coughing as she climbed out. Sydney scampered towards the dry cloak she had left on shore and quickly put it on, melting into it's warmth as she handed Anya her pearls. With another sigh, she flopped down on her back somewhere near Amir, completely exhausted "I thought for sure I'd win first in a swimming contest... damn fish..."

 

When the fish were broken from her body, she quickly kicked her way up to the surface and gasped for air when she broke the surface. Umbrella lady was there, helping people out and taking the pearls. She deposited her three pearls in the woman's hand and went inside without even saying anything to her.

She found her jacket and shoes and went inside, where she declined a towel as well. She didn't want anything from these people right now. Except maybe weapons. That's okay. She saw Marcus and approached him. "Are you okay? I saw you get tugged by the fish pretty early on back there. That was scary. I hope we don't have more challenges with that," she said to him. It was the most she'd said to anyone in a while, except maybe refusing help.

 

Roxanne sighed. "So am I." she said, and sat down across from him. She put her jacket on to try staying warm for now, and refused the warm drinks. The jacket once fit her nicely, now it looked too big, like a child was wearing it. The cold and wet merely emphasized it. She shivered a little, and appreciated his grumpy company for a little bit. But then she finally said "I almost let myself drown back there. Didn't work too well because for some reason I could breathe underwater."

 

Zein was too stunned to move for a moment, bubbles escaping her partially parted lips. She swam with as much fury as she could towards the wall, so she could slam her leg into the wall. She finally made it, almost halfway to the bottom of the moat. She kicked as hard as she could several times, and headed towards the surface, her vision going blurry just as she managed to burst from the water, gulping in air with a loud gasp. She focused on breathing for a moment, savoring every breath of the cool fall air. Once she'd calmed her breathing, she swam over to Anya, and allowed the woman to help her out of the water. Zein handed over her pearls, and accepted a towel, draping it over her head and gathering up her clothing before heading back inside and taking a seat across from Marcus. She chugged down a hot mug of coffee before saying anything, then pulled the towel off her head and wrapped it around her waist.

"Well, that challenge sucked ass. I hate this nasty-ass water. I had enough of it out in the wild," she said grumpily, flopping against the table. "I might go take another hot shower and take a nap." She stared blankly across the table, then closed her eyes and sighed. "I think I'm becoming too accustomed to naps."

 

"I read a book where they used liquid oxygen to make someone think they drowned someone, but then the drowned person woke up in a coffin surrounded by the stuff and was incredibly confused about how they can breathe in this liquid. But that doesn't explain how the fish could survive." Roxanne shrugged, and continued to shiver a little. "I'm not concerned about it. What's done is done. There are other things to worry about." A nap sounded good too. She folded her arms on the table and rested her chin on them. "I'm napping too much. I need a nap intervention," she sighed. "I should be training."

 

Zein remained quiet for a moment, thinking about the breathable water. She didn't know about it, and she was pissed with herself that she almost blacked out trying to reach air. "I think liquid oxygen is too cold to be safely breathable. There's some other liquid that can supply the lungs with oxygen, though. I think I heard about it once when one of my old otaku friends was talking about some lame ass anime." She turned her head to the side so she could see Roxanne and Marcus. The look in her eyes was somewhat sad. She missed the world before the storm, definitely. She hoped she wasn't crossing any lines by bringing it up. There'd been an unspoken rule among the kids that speaking about the time before was forbidden--it was something nobody ever did.

"Anyway, maybe we should go train. Y'know, beat the nap addiction out of each other. Then I'll have another good reason to take a hot shower...Man, don't tell me I'm going to have to give those up too. It's literally the greatest thing to happen to the world," she said, laughing slightly to herself, though the sad expression didn't leave her eyes. "Whaddayou two think?"

 

Sydney groaned and forced herself to sit up. She heard Amir and turned to the boy "No need to be rude little man." She stood and walked past him, entering the tower. She saw her friends at the table and dropped down next to Zein, huffing. She listened to their conversation tiredly.
"I love swimming, and this probably would've been easy and fun if it weren't for those damn fish."
---
Riley sighed, standing from her seat on the grass. Lilian was right- She'd get sick out here. She pet the girls head as she walked past, going up to her own room. She quickly changed out of her normal clothes, now wet, and into her spares. She also retrieved an old lamellar cuirass style armor of her brother's from her bag, slipping it on. It definitely wasn't anything like her casual clothes.

She hurried back down, and composed herself as she stood in the elevator. The doors opened and she calmly stepped out- armor on and decorated falcata sheath slung crosswise over her chest. Without a word she sat herself down beside Marcus.

 

Malik woke up the next morning, still angry about his broken arrow. He had stayed behind to salvage what he could from the arrow and had managed to save the sinew binding the arrowhead to the shaft, but that what it. Beating the arrowhead back into the shape was possible, but he no longer trusted the arrowhead to not bend again. Stupid people wouldn't even let him leave a mark on their nice cabin. As a way to get some pay back for his broken arrow, Malik had peed in front of the door to the cabin before leaving. The rest of his day was spent training inside, which was boring, but helpful.

He put on his clothes and grabbed the rest of his gear before heading out the breakfast. The smell of seafood and rabbit was a strange mix, but Malik welcomed the scent of food. After thinking about what would make a light breakfast, he spooned up a small bowl of broth and a small handful of shrimp before sitting down alone and eating. Once again he prepared himself for the day's challenge and prayed that it wouldn't have anything to do with things biting him.

As breakfast finished, Malik followed the rest of the kids outside and was introduced to the next challenge which involved the moat. Swimming couldn't be that bad, except for how cold it was outside, this should be a piece of cake. Malik's father had taken him swimming in a lake plenty of times before the storm, and even once after it. The swimming was usually followed by swimming. Good times. Now the times were less good.

Malik was taking off his pack and scarf when he witnessed Marcus dip in and get pulled under by something in the moat. Great. Things that are either biting or pulling. Please don't let there be squid or something in there, he thought as he began to undress. It took him a while to get completely naked, but he decided it would be worth having a dry set of clothes. The one thing he did keep was his knife that he had in his hand as he dove to the bottom of the moat. About half way to the bottom, he felt something bite him on the arm and start dragging him towards the bottom. It wasn't swimming him to the bottom though, as the strange fish had turned to stone. As he struck the fish with the pommel of his knife and shattered it, Malik wished suddenly that he had kept something on to protect his junk. The wish only made him swim faster.

The first two pearls were easy to find and the fish were harassing him in groups of twos or threes that he could hit with his kinfe and remove with relative easy. Finding the last pearl turned into a game of feeling in the mud and muck as the light began to dim. Malik's lung began screaming for air as his hand closed on the last oyster/clam thing. The knife made quick work of opening the thing and he snatched the pearl and pushed off and up towards the surface.

Malik gulped for air as he broke the surface which resulted in him inhaling a big mouthful of the water. After dragging himself out of the moat, he fell to his hands and knees and coughed up the water in his lungs, and also ended up puking up his breakfast due all the coughing. Yay. The pearls were thrown towards the girl collecting them before Malik grabbed a towel and began to dry his body off. The looks he received because of his nudity weren't all bad as he winked at one of the girls his age that was drying off. A smile spread across his face as she turned red and looked down. 

The dry clothes felt great and made the nudity totally worth it. Malik went back into the tower to eat again before making his way to the armory to find Vanthus. He pulled his notebook out and prepared a note for the armorer that said "I need arrowheads or spoons and a grinder. I also need new shafts and feathers. Preferably peacock feathers. Thanks." When the note was finished he kept it in his hand and pulled out the tomahawk at his waist before using it to knock a sword off a nearby table. That should get Vanthus' attention no matter where he was.

 

Roxanne shook her head at Zein's offer just as Riley sat down in fancy armor. She wanted some of that. It looked nice despite her not getting it. "N-no. I need to do it alone," she insisted as she stood up. The chair behind her made the annoying nails on a chalkboard noise as it was pushed behind her. She didn't bother pushing it back in. Her chest hurt like hell, she had just refused to acknowledge it. She gripped the back of the chair beside her as her skin paled. Her other hand clutched her chest, right over her heart. "I... I need to go." 

She walked out of the hall and started towards the training room, where her heart was starting to hurt too much to bear. When she reached the training room, she leaned against a wall to try and recover and relax, but that failed miserably when she collapsed on the ground. Good job, Roxanne.