Falaria’s Journey
Waves were rocking the small, wooden, brown boat back and forth in the middle of the Sruna Ocean. The rocking motion worried the boat's occupant that it might capsize at any time. Another reason its occupant worried was that even though the boat was well crafted it was not stable in a storm like this one.
The storm itself was very brutal with the pounding rain, strong gusting winds, lightning and high tumbling waves.
Another reason to worry the occupant was with storms like these it drew sea serpents.
The sea serpents would slowly circle a boat with their snake-like bodies and move their tails back and forth. Their fins that traveled from their heads to the end of their tails were like thin sheets of paper. Their heads were twice as short as their bodies. Their eyes were an unnatural bluish-gray color. Their mouths when opened were filled with razor sharp teeth and a large grey tongue. They were fifteen feet long and about five feet wide. They were one of the most intelligent creatures that lived in the ocean. They were usually the colors gray, blue, or red.
The sea serpents circled the small boat causing its occupant to worry more.
The occupant was throwing water out of the boat but more kept coming in. The occupant was drenched and shivering.
The occupant was obviously a woman due to her slender build and hips. Her curly black hair was gritty from the salt that got in it. Her face looked like she was about twenty but her eyes told otherwise. Her molten silver eyes held a look that she was a lot older than she looked. Her eyes also told of great sorrow and pain. She was beautiful in her own way and the way she stood was as if she were royalty. She stood about five feet and eleven inches tall. She wore a loose plain navy blue dress that went past her ankles, and flared out from the waist and elbows. She had a brown sash tied around her waist, which held a sword and many small pouches of various things. The black cloak she wore was soaked and was tattered at the bottom. Her brown leather gloves she wore were starting to rip at the seams. They were also elbow length. Her black leather boots were starting to get tight on her feet, and she was starting to lose feeling in her feet.
The bucket the woman was using was knocked out of her hands. She quickly looked around the boat to see water that covered the bottom of the boat. She knelt down to discover that the water went to her mid-thigh. She quickly bent over and stuck her hand in the cold sea water. She moved them around to find the bucket when she felt her hand hit something smooth and cold. She picked it up out of the water and just stared at what she held in her hand.
The object she held in her hand was a large opaque sphere. She quickly inspected it to find an inscription on the glass. It was hard to see what it said but there was enough light to see that it was an unusual language. She couldn’t really understand it but the first word looked very familiar she put it in a blue cloth bag that was hanging from her sash. She closed the bag and continued to search for the wooden bucket.
She finally found the bucket and then again started to empty the water out of the boat.
The woman stopped and muttered to herself, “Falaria, what have you got yourself into this time.”
Falaria noticed that the storm was finally calming down. The waves were becoming less brutal and the sea serpents had slowly retreated. Also the rain was lighter and there wasn’t anymore thunder or lightning.
Falaria also noticed that there was debris of a shipwreck in the water. She looked more closely in the debris to see if anyone had survived.
After scanning the water for the third time Falaria turned around only to see a strange creature in the boat with her.
This creature had the roundest and largest eyes Falaria had ever seen. It looked to her like they were halfway out of their sockets, and the eyes were completely a murky brown color. Its head was shaped like an egg and had no hair. The skin looked metallic but was just the sun shining off its bronze skin. Its mouth was barely even existent unless you noticed a black line a few inches below its nose. The ears were small as a mouse’s ear. Its neck was stick thin and twice as long as its head. Its body was more muscular than lean. Its hands were large and had long spindly fingers.
The creature looked at Falaria closely before turning its head to look across the Sruna Ocean. She watches as the creature lifted its hand and with one spindly finger pointed to the east. Its gaze then slid back to her while it still pointed.
It took a while to try and figure out why it was pointing and looking at her. She then thought that the creature looked sort of familiar to her. Like she had seen it some place long ago.
The woman then though about a picture she had seen in a book when she was a child. It was a creature much like this one but the one before her looked much older than the one she had seen in the picture. She barely remembered what was in the inscription below the page. She could only remember the part that went something like this, “rarely, ever speak and found around or in the Sruna Ocean.” She could not remember what the creature was called only that it could see the future and sometimes show other people. Though that only happened when people came across one of theses creatures.
The creature was still staring at her and pointing. She then figured that it wanted her to look where it was pointing.
It seemed to be pointing at a small island a few miles east. Falaria could just begin to see what looked like green leaves of trees. There were what looked like purple specs moving around in the sky about the island. Falaria saw what looked like a bronze head. She looked back at the creature to discover that it had stopped pointing and was gazing back at her. The creature now pointed at her than pointed at the island. Falaria thought that the creature wanted her to go to the island.
The woman looked at the island again and then back to where the creature was sitting in the boat. Though the creature was no longer there instead there was a wooden oar.
She leaned forward and picked it up. It felt smooth like that of a soft feather. It also felt warm to the touch. She ran her hand over its handle to feel what seemed to be something carved into the oar. She looked down at the oar to find an inscription. She noticed that it was in that of the same language as the one that had been on the orb.
Falaria remembered the orb and pulled out the blue pouch. She opened it and looked in it to find the orb no longer there.
Falaria then looked down at the oar again and inspected the inscription closer. She found a smaller inscription below it and found it hard to read. She was thankful though that it was in a language she knew.
Falaria slowly read the inscription aloud to herself in her small musical voice, “To those who came across an opaque orb and an oracle shall appear to them. It will point them towards a certain directions for where their future awaits. It shall leave behind what the person needs most.”
Falaria now understood and decide to use the oar to get to the island.
As Falaria got closer to the shore she got out and pulled to the boat up on to the beach. She looked around and noticed nothing unusual about it.
She decided she would stay here a few nights to regain her strength. Then she would return home and tell her family about her adventure and run in with the oracle. Though until then she would rest and hope to have a safe and quick journey home.
The End
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