Fire Emblem Tides of Dawn: Lost at Sea
 

The salty sea air wakes you up, it's strong smell stinging your nostrils with every whiff. Though when you sit up, you notice that you're not where you were before. Like everything before that was a dream. In front of you is bars, some more then others and on the walls, runes. The sound of soldiers talking lingers around you. Like these guys have nothing better to do. Listening carefully, you can hear what they say.

"Oh man, as if that demi-human wasn't hard to lug on board. Dear god I felt like my back was going to give out. Luckily they have a few fire mages around the cell in case the bastard tries something."

"Yeah I know, did you see that wyvern chained up in the basement? Man, once that thing woke up, it really was angry. Almost took out a few guys until we could calm it down."

"Did you see that blond haired mage freak? There's something different about him, but I can't put my finger on it. He had a light tome on him, but he didn't look like clergy. What's up with that?"

"I dunno man, but we had to throw this strange looking girl into a cell. The guys couldn't get those weird bracelets off of her so she still has them. I don't know why, but the captain wanted her thrown in the silence cell for mages. She doesn't look like one, she didn't have any tomes."

"If that wasn't strange enough, there was even a mercenary that was captured. There's nothing big with him, it just looked like he had everything he needed. Including some extra cash on him. Geez, the boys are going to have fun spreading that out."

"Anyway, what are all these guys for anyway? Does anyone know why we took them?"

"No clue, but the captain said there was something special about all of them. Hell, I don't care. I'm just doing my job. Luckily enough, they had the smarts to disarm these guys first. I would hate to see what would happen if they all escaped."

Other then that, it was all silent. Though there was soft whisper playing on the ears of everyone there. The words weren't decipherable and it stopped after a few seconds.

((You all are disarmed and have no items on you. I'll wait on your posts before continuing on to the next part.))

Nothingness.... so fleeting, strangely. Although, it does make sense when you think about it. A split second of thought has more in it than an eternity of void. So why should the void seem to encompass more time? Just because there was more of it to begin with? Perception is funny that way, but its differing from instance to instance, person to person.

So that what is nothing to one person is a lot of events to a different one, and to yet a third just a blissful detail, to be overlooked, perhaps adored for a moment before moving on to another thing. But, does having something not happen in your perspective truly change anything? Does it somehow.... make you a different person by non-interference? What if one were to experience these 'nothings' as what they were to the others, perhaps live through the changes in themselves. Even if they were to not be able to do a thing to interfere, would the mere having witnessed its presence, its passing, change the views at all?

It probably would, but what if one can't remember that they had participated in these events of blankness? What is ones perspective then, split into different sections? Is awareness only a simple thing, ones perception of everything around based on past perceptions and happenings, guessing at future ones while they go by, the conscious being a different entity every second, or smaller dividends? Am I not the same person as I was when I first began thinking about this entire thing, though I can clearly remember myself, or perhaps, my past consciouses thoughts? Is it like simple past lives then, each infinitely divided by fractions undiscernable by our current understanding? Each new revelation bringing about an entirely different person to occupy this body of mine?

And what do I mean by 'us' anyway? Society in general I think.... Collective thoughts, connected and massing into information in similar fashion to how my mind collects it, making rapid changes and subtle twists to my mind to make way for the new information I possess. Societies do this too I guess, but then again, for what purpose? Why do we collect this info, to survive? To thrive, to gain power over each other? I think for the sheer joy of it all really. However, thats different depending on the person you're asking about it. For me... well, I dunno. Interesting things I guess. For my darling, its simply being with me, and existing, and growing too.....

"Wait..... where the hell am I?" Rachel woke up, abruptly breaking out of her trance and stopped poking the 'imprinted' dragon twisting all around her shirt, and took a glance up. This place wasn't where she slept last night. True, she normally did have trouble remembering where she was at times, and it did lead her to trouble in which she would forget the place she slept in, and had to spend a good half hour realigning herself with reality, but she knew for certain..... "I've never been in anywhere like this before, spare that one time...."

She stood, but heard voices. A lot of them, coming from somewhere outside the room, or perhaps prison.... She kicked the bars some, looking for a door, finding it. She pulled and pulled at it as the voices prattled on. "Nope, definitely being emprisioned... wait." She listened closer to those voices. "Hey, those aren't in my head. Must be my captors.... They sound like a bunch of thugs and hired hands." Rachel walked a bit to the edge, so she could hear them better. "Ok, calm down, lets try to access whats here."

"Damnit." A holy mage? Why damnit WHY! I can deal with fire, beasts and wyverns, and certainly thugs, but this I'll just have to keep away from. Ah well. Lets see, I think Ill be outta here in about... four minutes. What do you think love? She poked, then nudged, slapped, and finally began tugging at her shirt in desperation. "Answer me!" She took a deep breath, and calmed down a tad. Then, with a sigh, she turned to the bars. Right, the silence thing... "I guess I'll have to do this by myself." She flicked her writ in the direction of the bars, yet nothing happened. Confused, she did it a few more times, becoming more obvious and upset in her motions with each progressing try.

Finally, she took a huge step forward, and flung both her hands in the direction of the bars, staring at them with determination. Now, if her relentlessly tugging at her own shirt wasn't a humorous sight, this certainly was. "What the fuck! Sure, they disarmed everyone, but I can't be disarmed! This is freaking ridiculous, I mean, sure, there is silence preventing any magic in this room, which makes my pet effectively dead until I get out, but why can't I use any magic!" Rachel began to pace around the room, deep in her own thoughts, and looking around the room, constantly taking details down about different things in it and slightly panicking.

Jeremy was a bit groggy as he sat up, but aside from feeling like he'd been hit in the head by the wrong side of a pegasus (take it from him, it isn't a pleasant experience), couldn't feel anything broken or anything like that.

Where the hell am I? he thought to himself, trying to get the world to stop spinning. He could hear some nobodies murmuring about something or other, from the other side of some bars. Safe to assume they were locking him in, instead of the nobodies out.

He'd have to find a way to bust out of this place, but as he became more and more oriented, it was looking less and less likely. For starters, he didn't have his weapon... and these bastards lifted his pocket change, so he couldn't very well bribe 'em.

Right then... only one thing to do!

Jeremy sprung to his feet as best as he could (which wasn't very well - who knows how long he'd been out?) and pressed himself against the bars, shouting as loudly as he could, "Hey! Hey, hey! Over here! Who the hell do y'think you guys are, lockin' me up in this half-rotted little hole without so much as a how-dee-do!? Who are you workin' for, I wanna have words with 'im!"

Whether one considered it a good thing or bad, Jeremy was exceedingly experienced in tavern "etiquette", and it showed.

Donnel got up slowly, rubbing his head gingerly. The last thing he remembered was coming down on the soldiers, ready to skewer then, as Lasheth prepared to ascend. Then; nothing. That was what frightened him. The sudden skip in time, when he ran from 'then' to 'now', without anything in between. He hated being helpless.

Confused, Donnel decided to take care of the basics. With great care, he began to slick his hair back down; making sure no hair was out of place. His mind was racing furiously, processing what the soldiers had said. When he began to brush the dust off his clothes, he got his first pleasant surprise since waking up. Someone, supposedly his captors, had managed to get his armor off. He had taken to sleeping with it recently. He hadn't been able to get it off after some soldier had tried to beat his chest in with a hammer.

Having finished cleaning himself, Donnel decided it was time for the matter at hand. Rescuing himself, and, far more importantly, Lasheth. It wasn't her fault, and, judging by what the guards had said, she was frightened. Alone. She was his responsibility; he had to keep her safe.

Donnel spoke up. "Quite an unsavory place, isn't this?" He said aloud, tugging on the bars noisily. "I don't suppose anyone has any information they are willing to share? An explanation? Maybe even a daring escape plot?"

Ok, lets try to figure this out. You can do it Rachel... Now, the situation is, I've been captured somehow, by a pack of thugs that I don't know. Might be a band of pillagers, some group from either army, or even fathers solders, having finally caught up to me. Or possibly something else altogether. I don't really know. What I do know is, I'm locked up here, and for the moment at least, I don't know how, but my magics are totally ineffective. Meaning, I'm defenseless. I don't like being defenseless, I'm not used to it and its scary. So, what are they going to do with me... why would they capture me really. By that nature, somebody here knows about my magics, but not many. Might be some higher motive there. Though collecting a lot of powerful people, well, possibly makes sense. if we are supposed to go and do something. But locking us up, doesn't seem like the best way. Unless, we were poisoned, and will have horrible nightmares every time we sleep or something. And we can't get the antidote to these ever growing terrors unless we find this crystal ball, or whatever the questing is for. But, I didn't have any horrors unspeakable, so thats pretty much ruled out.

But what if they plan to demoralize me? Make me think so low of myself that I'll obey them, and through some cultic training, become their slave? Hrm...... well, they've restrained my magic, so that seems likely. Isolation is a possible tactic, so is killing loved ones. But, I kinda don't have those, and these don't seem like the type to try anything like that regardless. They will probably be more direct, like inflicting harm on me, and doing things of that sort. But what could they do to me, honestly! Except beat me up.... and mutilate my body.... and make me cry..... Suddenly, out of the lmost coma-like silence she had been in, staring at the wall, she snapped back to reality screaming. "I don't wanna get raped!"

"Ok Rachel, calm yourself... These aren't the type to do that to you. At least, I'll hope not." She slowly paced a bit more, getting over to the runes, drawing her finger around them, and examining them a little closer. "For some strange reason, these seem very familiar to me somehow. What could they mean though? Do they have any purpose?" She balled her hand into a fist, and angrily glared at one. "Could they be what is keeping me weak and helpless? And why the hell am I talking to myself out loud!" Damn, I really have to cut that habit. It gets me into so much trouble all the freaking time. Ok, lets think rationally. First off, you need to calm down, and not..... Rachel punched the rune, though this only led to her hand hurting immensely, and her holding it with her other hand, tears welling up in her closed eyes. Do anything stupid. Anything else stupid....

Kiran had been slow to wake up, despite the sounds from outside the cell he was in. He sat up slowly, and blinked several times, trying to clear the fog of sleep from his mind. The blond took a deep breath, trying to calm is nerves and orient himself.

"Alright..." he whispered, standing, a little unsteadily. He turned his head slowly around the room, then shook it. No idea what's going on here. He reached up to his chest, checking for his tome. He panicked when he felt the inner pocket of his coat empty, but managed to calm himself a few moments later.

With another deep breath, he closed his eyes and tried to call up his magical defences, but after a few moments, gave up. Something's...blocking me. He scanned the cell again, looking for that something. The blond sighed when he saw the runes on the wall.

He walked over to them, lightly tracing them to make sure he was correct. "Silence Runes." He whispered grimacing.

He sat back against the wall, I was…walking, yes, that was right. In the forest, I like the forest, then…nothing. He felt the back of his head, there didn’t seem to be a wound, and he didn’t feel any pain. A sleep spell maybe? He sighed, I need to figure this out. He looked up, And deal with these damned runes.

Rousing slightly, giving off a slight drowsy purr, Sernith slightly stiffened upon the realization that the surroundings were not familiar. Different scents, different humans, different... everything. Wind no longer blew past and the ground now was stone. Instead of the forested smells that had been there before, now there was the unmistakable smell of saltwater. There were many different human smells, none of them familiar. The stench of iron was also prominent, marking the work of humans, which probably meant weapons and armor in the vicinity. This led to a conclusion that the humans were probably soldiers. Why...? What...? Where...? None of it made much sense to Sernith. Very anxious now and much more awake, his tail started twitching uneasily as it did when he was troubled.

His ears perked upwards, twisting towards the voices, straining to hear all that was possible in an attempt to find out more to work out this puzzle. The movement was concealed by the hood he was wearing and he remained motionless elsewhere as to give an illusion of unconsciousness. Perhaps if they didn't think him aware, they might be unprepared enough for him to fight his way past them... He could hear the breathing of humans close by, as well as smell them, and assumed he was being watched. If so, it should only be a matter of waiting, he thought. Or to be more precise, he hoped as much. If they left, he might be able to shift and escape that way, or find a way to make his own way out.

There were others, too, farther away, he could tell, for their words were easily received by his keen ears. From the conversations of the humans, apparently he wasn't the only one in the same situation, but seemed to be the only Laguz here. There was still the question of why and even the humans didn't seem to know. If anything, this was probably even more disconcerting. ‘Something special’? This boded ill to Sernith’s mind. Well, at least some of it had been useful. He now knew that the humans outside the cell were practitioners of fire magic. Fire magic, he silently cursed. He mentally bristled at the mere thought of it, as all Laguz of the four-legged variety did. He knew that such sorcery could prove deadly if he wasn’t careful.

These musings were interrupted by something that was like a whisper, yet not quite. The words weren't really understandable, but the Laguz was fairly certain it wasn't said in the human tongue. It stopped a few seconds later and his attention went back to the proceedings, only idly wondering about it. Apparently, some of the other unfortunate humans with him were also awakening with various reactions. Listening to them, along with anything else of interest, Sernith resigned himself to his waiting.

The guards just laughed at the misfortune of the people in the cells. They were glad it wasn't them, cause one mistake and they'd be in the same cells. So, they went along their merry little way across the line of cells, ignoring the prisoners, they patrolled along for a while. It was at least another 10 minutes they would be left to their own devices. At least, until a noise came from the opposite wall. "What the hell? Charles? Are you messing with me again? Playing assassin won't work a second time." He said, running over to the other end.

A few blurs passed the views of the cells and left small things of wind blowing past the others. Another sound and a guard flew into the view of few people. "What the hell was that? We have intruders!" One shouted, grabbing a group of his buddies and heading down the hall. A small struggle later, another group had appeared, they had been freed previously. Though a rogue walked along the cells.

"Well well, look at you poor saps. They got a hold of you guys good and it looks like they took your stuff. Maybe I should leave you here and just take your valuables." He said, moving along the row of cells. A crackle of magic and a flash of flame shot out. Of course he forgot the mages. Catching the ceiling after a backflip, they were more then easily taken care of.

Walking along the cells again, he stopped at Rachel's cell and did a wolf whistle. "Look at the looker we got here. Pretty girl, you're first." He said, his hands worked the lock like magic and the cell opened. "Hey Durran! Get your ass over here and help me free them!" He said, moving over to the laguz cage. "Nice kitty, here kitty kitty." He said, undoing the lock and opening that. On one point, he walked along, freeing each of the captives.

"Point of order! I'm Weiss! Nice to meet you all. Now here's the game plan. We're going to go into storage and grab off of your stuff! Next step, we're going to take this ship and head over to Begnion. Any objections?"

((Yeah, this post cues the entrance of people I forgot to mention.))

"Yes sire Weiss, want some rum with that?" Said Durran wryly as he went over to a cell and picked the lock. He opened the cell with a red haired ragged person who he assume was a merc. "Go with Weiss, he'll help you." He said then stealthily ran over to the next cell. this one had awesome green hair that durran wanted to have greatly, but alas. He freed the armored man. He looked in the other cells. He found one more that looked like nothing more than a boy, His hair shone golden. He opened the cell with his lockpick and turned to the rest of the cells. That seemed to be all of them.

He went back to weiss like a shadow. "I think thats all of them. time for storage. Maybe I'll find a new dagger." He patted weiss on the shoulder and headed for the room. I really could use a new dagger, and maybe those people had some valuables they'd be willing to part with from gratitude. He smiled to himself. Saving people had its merits after all. But durran wondered about that boyish prisoner. He looked quite weird to me, even though he looked like a regular person. Probably my imagination. His mind wandered back to the storage.

Here we go!
 

After waking up from what seemed like a night of partying gone horribly wrong, Zeiss noticed the incredibly unfamiliar territory. "Where the hell am I?" he asked to nothing in particular. Reaching for his weapons, he muttered a few curses when he didn't feel the handles anywhere.

"God Dammit", he thought, "I'm being held captive. GREAT!" Thoroughly now apprehensive and distressed, he began to pace, and shortly thereafter sat down and just waited for what would probably be his death. "Guess, I'm going to be joining you guys soon," he thought kinda morbidly.

Suddenly noticing the large amount of racket, and fireballs rocketing buy his cell, he ran up to the bars to see that that all the guards, mages included, were out. Soon after, a mysterious person, unlocked his cell. Surprised, Zeiss muttered a quick thanks before striding out to see the other captives slowly joining him. Hearing this man, apparently named Durran, telling him get moving, his feet trucked him along. He headed over to the name apparently named Weiss, and soon asked, "So tell me, what's going on? I also owe you my thanks as well."

"Wow. This will be interesting. I guess today isn't the day. He quietly chuckled to himself. Yes, today will be very interesting