Prompt# 183 - Bullock - Pebbles in a Mountain - Tekia - original/Exalted

[tekia.livejournal.com]

Title: Pebbles in a Mountain
Fandom: Original/Exalted
Prompt: Bullock
Warnings: none
Rating: PG 13
Summary: Sari and crew get stranded on an island with a secret in store.

Sari cursed as she sloshed through the knee high waves, debris from the wreckage floating around her like so much garbage. She pulled her hair scarf from her head and spun on her heel to look at the galleon still perched on the ocean like a cloud, triumph. She bared her teeth in a silent snarl and kicked at the nearest bit of wood that had once been her small ship.
Around her, her crew sloshed ashore, each one with a dark thundercloud of a face as they glared hatred at the galleon. If looks could sink ships, that one had a watery death awaiting it, beside her schooner.
They’d sailed under a neutral flag, armed, but not dangerous to anybody. Her beloved ship, the Green Tear, was safely at berth, but that left her stranded on this small island filled with the unknown. While that didn’t bother her a whit, it didn’t bode well for her crew.
They were all sailors at heart, and were well used to working together, but being stranded was very different than doing their job at sea. She glanced around once more at the wreckage that was her ship before marching to the sand and plopping her arse down in the wet sand and slamming her scarf down beside her. It made an unsatisfying squishy squelch and Red Crest knelt beside her.
“What’re your orders, Lady?”
She turned her glare onto him and he grinned, tugging at one ear, newly equipped with a golden ring. It still bothered him, she thought with concern before brushing aside the thought for a later time. She turned her gaze back to the ship, sails unfurled and moving away with her bartering goods.
“Remember that ship,” she said.
“Aye, Captain,” her now gathered crew shouted, making her jump in her skin. She smiled, a bloodthirsty grin, a pirate’s slash of teeth.
“Yes, remember that ship, and they’ll remember us.”
Cheers went around the group, but quickly subsided as their situation returned to them. Stranded on a island with no food or water.
Well, she wasn’t captain for nothing she thought and stood gracefully. She turned to her crew now standing in a semicircle around her and stood arms akimbo, feet braced apart as if she were standing on the deck of her ship.
“Luck dig a shallow pit and line it with stones. Fierce Sea and Warm Water bring dry wood for a fire. Dust Dream, Jess and Baron find us water. Dark Sand, take Ice with you and find us food, we’ll need lots if we’re going to spend any time here. Red Crest, Gene, and River bring what you can of the wreckage to shore. Let’s see what we can salvage. If you find any bodies, lay them out over there and I’ll send their ghosts on when I get back.” They nodded and began heading in separate directions, fulfilling their duties as laid down by their leader. Sari caught Kelp by the arm. “You’re with me. We need to explore this island and see what we’re up against.”
“Maybe it’s occupied on the other side,” he said with a twist of his lips. She didn’t answer but turned to watch that ship leave them.
“That ship will be mine, Kelp,” she said, with conviction. He nodded beside her, then led the way into the dark growth of trees and brush.
_~_~_
The island wasn’t all that large, but it wasn’t tiny either. It took most of the day to make it to the far side, walking the beach and climbing a cliff that protected a fresh water lagoon from the sea. Nodding to the shapes of Dust Dream and Baron filling bags of water, Kelp moved on and Sari took a moment to take in the ocean surrounding them. Crystal blue and endless.
She brought a hand up to shade her eyes and followed the horizon, but saw nothing, neither a grey smudge that would signify land, nor the white dot that would hail a ship. Their enemy was well gone now as the sun began its decent. She scowled, then shrugged off the anger. They were pirates, it’s what they did.
When they returned to the group, there were wonderful smells wafting from the fire and Dark Sand was grinning happily. “They found pigs!”
The men were happy to have meat and Sari knelt among them, accepting her share and, between Kelp and herself, laid out the island. Small broken off cliffs to the west, beach the rest of the way ‘round. A small stream led from the lagoon behind the cliffs around the cliffs and into the ocean, turning into nothing so much as wet sand at the mouth. The middle of the island was forest and thick at that. Jungle, Kelp said.
Gene and Jess agreed that it would take longer to fight their way through the jungle than just to walk around the island.
When Sari had returned, the twins and Luck had already fallen asleep and the crew had set up a rotation for watch. Sari approved the rotation and sat with Gene and Kelp and River as Jess and Baron took the first watch. At some point when they were gone, Shanks, Sari’s rat catcher, an orange, overweight cat, had arrived and was licking himself dry on Fierce Sea’s chest. The others snored softly in the night as they murmured about plans for escape.
“There are plenty of trees, we’ll make a raft.”
“With what tools?”
Kelp shrugged. “We got strong men, they can pull the logs down to the beach and we can tie them together with vines.”
“It’d be better if we had a animal of burden, the men won’t like being treated like a bullock.” There was general laughter, then they sobered, thoughts once again on escape. Sari disengaged herself from the group and walked along to where they had laid out the two bodies they had found in the ocean. She said a quick prayer and did a quick bit of magic to make sure their ghosts won’t rise to haunt them. In the morning, she’d have Red Crest swim them out to the deep and let them loose to the darkness under the water.
Afterwards, she walked away and stood alone in the encroaching night, waiting for inspiration to hit. It would, she knew. It always had before and now was not a time for her to doubt herself. She walked toward the dark shadows of the jungle and paused just under the overhang of thick leaves, peering into the darker shadows.
They had entered the forest once already and found pigs, water and trees. She shivered as she wondered what else they would find hidden in the unexplored depths. Placing her feet carefully, she ducked under a low hanging branch and went further.
It was her curse, this constant desire to explore and search for answers. Maybe it was because her father had disappeared so abruptly in her youth, without a single clue as to what had happened to him. Maybe it was because Old Man Rama had so many secrets hidden away and has always encouraged her to seek them out. She couldn’t know, but there it was, her desire to learn and find.
“Captain?”
She spun in place, knife at the ready and paused when she recognized Dust Dream in the low light. The moon had taken its place in the sky and bathed the beach, putting the young man in shadow, mush as she suspected she was to him.
“Dream, what are you doing? Shouldn’t you sleep until your turn at watch?”
He gave a soft snort that was at odds with his usual demeanor. He ducked under the branch and came to stand beside her. “You know they won’t put me up for watch. I’m liable to wonder off.” He said it as if it weren’t a joke, but a fact. Sari smiled at the man, clapping a hand on his shoulder.
“That’s true. There was that one time you almost fell overboard because you were too busy looking at the stars.”
She couldn’t see his face, but she knew he was blushing at that memory. He always did.
They walked in silence for a bit. Dust Dream paused now and then to inspect an odd flower or leaf, and Sari kept an eye out for hogs, or even something bigger.
Bugs and birds were the only sounds besides the noise made by their feet, so it came without warning when Dust Dream gasped loudly.
Sari whipped her knife around, purple eyes searching the darkness. Body still tense when she didn’t see anything, she turned her glare to Dust Dream. “What?”
His own eyes were wide and his body was shaking as he pointed to their left. “I think I found your bullock.”
She stood next to him and smile. “Indeed you did.”
Hidden by years of overgrowth, the statue was more green than stone, nostrils flared and lips peeled back. She stepped around Dust Dream and reached out to lay a hand on the broad shoulders of the beast. “I don’t see how that’s going to help us with a raft, though.”
She felt his hand snake around her arm, keeping her near and bit off a chuckle. He was so young and innocent and fearful of things that weren’t make of paper and ink. She could still feel him shaking.
Carefully, she led him around the statue and inspected it. “It’s old, but hasn’t been covered with growth for long.”
“H-how do you know?”
“Look, there are no trees around it, only saplings. It’s been abandoned recently.”
“How recently?”
She shrugged. “Maybe fifty years, maybe two. The spread is thick up there, so it’d be hard for a tree to grow with any speed.”
“What’s that?” A finger pointed to the base of the statue where there was a bit of white stone, unblemished by moss. She knelt and felt Dust Dream shift closer so that his calves touched her hip. If she glanced up, she would bet that his fingers would be itching to tangle in her hair, just to have another connection to something protective.
She touched her fingers to the white stone and smiled. “It’s a crack. There’s something under the statue. An opening.” Even she could hear the eagerness in her voice.
He didn’t grab her hair, but her shoulder as he bodily turned her to face him, to see the fear in his face. “Not now, surely? It can wait until dawn and you can have Jess and Gene and River to help you move it.”
He made a good argument and she just couldn’t put more fear into him. Standing, she turned him back to the beach. “Very well, kitten, it’ll wait until morning.”
As they made their way back, Sari turned to set her eyes on the ox once more. Where had it come from? This was an island in the far West. There were no bulls here. That was something for the East, the Realm even, but not for the West.
_~_~_
Dawn found Sari tying her scarf over her growing hair to keep it out of her face. She sat with Baron as he practiced tying vines together to make rope. Fierce Sea was with them, making torches from bundles of twigs and pitch salvaged from the remains of their ship. She’d told them about the statue when they woke and they all agreed to her desire to explore. Dark Sand had led Dust Dream back to the stream for more water and Jess and Gene had taken to clearing the path to the statue. Warm Water and River had taken to laying out logs to form the basics of a raft, awaiting Baron’s results with his experiment with the vines.
Sari didn’t have much hope that it would do anything but dismantle the raft once they were far enough away from the island for them all to drown. But she let him have their project. It kept them busy and out of trouble.
Once her hair was tied up, she stood and picked up the spear that River had carved for her and turned her feet toward the statue. She felt a thrill go through her as she moved closer. What would they find? A crypt of people that had once been stranded on this island as well? People from the East, perhaps. Or maybe a tool for the operating of Creation. A religious altar. A Wyld touched place.
Thoughts whirled through her head as she fell in step behind Gene and ducked the branch barring their path. Jess was crouching next to the statue, eyes dark with concentration as he rubbed one hand along his stubbled chin. Ice Marble and Red Crest had joined them at some point and were also crowded around the statue. When Ice saw that Sari had arrived, he turned toward her.
“It looks like it’s supposed to move on rails.” He pointed to the half buried stone groves in the ground and Jess cursed.
“Why didn’t you say that before!?” He stood. “I’ve been trying to shove it the wrong direction.” Shanks hissed at his feet and Ice stared at Jess, only a slight curve to his lips.
Sari pushed her way between the two men. “You’re not captain, Jess, that’s why. Now, lets find out what’s under here.”
Grumbling, Jess took his position beside Sari and Ice and pushed their shoulders against the heavy stone. Gene found a branch sturdy enough to put in the exposed gap and used it as a lever. Cold, stale air blast up from underground as the statue finally settled into its open position.
The pit was dark and echoed with a dull roar of the ocean. Gene knelt and put a hand to the stone.
“It’s man made, not naturally formed.” He frowned. “Maybe it opens to the ocean, though.”
“It floods with the tide, you mean,” Sari said and he nodded. She grabbed a bit of twig and dropped it into the darkness and they all listened for it to hit bottom. “It’s not that deep, maybe the height of a cabin.”
Fierce Sea chose that moment to arrive with the torches and handed them out. He’d lit them from the base fire and Sari took one. “I’ll go first then.” She swung her legs around and dropped herself down.”
Her torch flared, almost died, then regained it courage to fill the darkness with a circle of light. The room underground wasn’t all that large, but large enough. She laughed at what she found. The laughter was loud in the small enclosed space.
“What’s down there?”
She looked up to see five faces filled with a range of emotion, from idle curiosity from Ice Marble, to eager excitement on Fierce Sea. “Gold. Jade.”
There was a moment of silence then a cheer when up and she heard Fierce Sea running to tell his twin about their good luck. Sari returned to surveying the booty and laughed louder. Behind her, Red Crest dropped down.
“Dynastic jade,” she said. She turned to face the other three still hanging about the opening. “We’ve found a pirate’s hold.”
“Do you think they’ll be back for it?” Jess asked.
“They haven’t been back for a few years.” She nodded to the far corner where a human body had rotted away to nothing but bones and leathered skin. Red Crest sneezed. “There’s dust enough here to coat the width of Creation.” She looked to the floor. “No footprints but our own.”
Jess groaned. “Well there goes that hope.” His shadow disappeared from the opening. Gene watched him go before turning back to Sari.
“Nothing there will help us get away from here.”
“Sorry, mate.”
He nodded to himself and stood from his crouch. “I’ll see what I can do to help with that raft.” He left and Ice Marble tossed a vine down to them.
Red Crest sniffed through the booty and stuffed some items into his pockets. Sari watched a moment before something caught her eye. She stepped around the Lunar and held her torch close to a wall and gasped in surprise. The torch in her hand trembled as her free hand sought the book always kept in her bag at her hip. She thrust the torch at Red Crest.
She fumbled with the pages until she found what she was looking for. Above her, Ice questioned, “Captain?”
“I know this pirate.” She shook her head. “I know the pirate who made this hold.” Finally, she found the page she was looking for and they heard a shout from the beach.
“Sail ho!”
Ignoring the commotion from above, Sari confirmed her guess and smile grimly to herself. Yes, it had been her father’s mark on the wall. She closed the book with a snap and replaced it in her bag. “Let’s close this and see who’s come a-visiting.”
She scrambled up the rope and the three of them pushed the statue back in place before returning to the beach. There would be time later for the taking of their prize, but, while without a ship, the booty will have to wait for them here.
Sari would return. And not only for the wealth hidden away underground. Her hand caressed the book in her bag as she joined her crew in watching their approaching rescue. Another adventure come to greet them.