[open quest] come forth and let the song of the sea steal you away [ROUND TWO]

[Aela]

Aela had heard him pleading to his Gods and Aela had watched because she has always been a curious thing.

Will they heed him, she wonders?

And if they did, why?

She is still bridled; the bit feels foreign in her mouth. The palomino had thought that once he had jumped off her back that she would leave him. She would go and find a way to rid herself of all these horrid contraptions. But Pollux is crying - bargaining with something - and it beckons Aela to take a step towards the kneeling man and the still corpse of his fallen brother. The sound that follows grates on her gilded ears and they flick back into her mane again as she lifts her refined head. Pollux comes towards her and while Aela pins him with her fierce blue eyes, she lets him approach in hopes of learning what kind of pact he had made with the source of Magic nearby. (Aela knows whatever it is, is a powerful being; she knows it is there but she can feel nothing from it. The feeling of an odd sort of sentience but there are no permeable emotions for Aela to sink in her Magic into.)

"I am ready," Pollux says and Aela flares her pale nostrils, jerking her head back as his deft fingers untie the bridle. His lean shoulders have sagged and he motions towards the slender mare like he might pat her neck as Pollux's skin starts to glow with starshine. The hue of an Immortal. Her eyes widen, revealing an edge of white as she gazes out. He looks back to his twin - Castor - who shares a matching shine and then the pair dissolve, undertaking a journey that is only revealed as Aela looks up to the sky.

Castor and Pollux become written in the stars.
And Aela - the fiery mount of Pollux - stands on a battlefield, reeking of sweat, blood, and shit.

There had never been any doubt in her mind that she would survive, but what was she to do now? This was not Beqanna. This place was strange, and the more time that Aela spent here, the more she was coming to loathe it. She needed to get back home, needed to figure out a way back to the world she knew -

Some time passes. A few of the men have started to gather the bodies that litter the beach. Some have started to slap each other across their backs in congratulation, others raise their blood-covered swords to their brethren as they pass by each other. They are all looking towards the tents in the distance, where they will receive their due in wine and women; the reprieve they might find in both. Aela turns her head, eyeing the camp as a possibility for answers when the ocean churns angrily. Something rises from its depth - a familiar creature that she has seen on the shores of Ischia. But never this large. She's never seen anything quite like it before, the way that it crawls towards one corpse. One claw reaches down and prods at the human as a vulture plucks at carrion and bile burns at the back of Aela's throat.

Scavengers have always disgusted her.

The men pay it no mind, which she finds odd. Have they encountered this thing before? Is this creature not terrifying to them? (And doesn't that lead Aela down a dangerous trail of thoughts: if they do not fear this mammoth beast with claws, what did they fear? Are there things more terrifying than this monster?) The two stalks atop his head move and the beady-black eyes lock on her as Aela tried to move away. There is little light as the day dies and stars emerge overhead (though the constellation of the twins remained hidden behind storm clouds). Her stripes - the only part of her not covered in mud or blood - glisten and the beast makes a noise.

Her first instinct is to hide her glow. But as it grows darker, Aela becomes brighter. Her stripes, her white socks, the proud blaze on her lovely face - all radiate with a kind of silver-blue light that doesn't dim no matter how hard she tries. It makes her a target and the giant clawed beast moves towards her, its pincers declaring their intent.

The next instinct that comes is to run.
(No matter how she fights it, Aela does share the age-old intuition that says run in the face of danger.)

But Aela wills herself to be bigger than that.
To better than the generations of her kin that might have cowered from such a terror.

First, she casts her emotions out like a web. Aela hopes to catch some of the two-legged creatures on it and then use anger to encourage them to attack the crab. If they could pick up their spears and draw their swords, they might be useful to the empath. But even free of Pollux's damned bridle, her powers do nothing. A few of the men glance their way but the large crustacean is no concern of theirs. It moves forward in an erratic-like dance, driving her towards the waves, and the palomino tosses her head. She tries darting to one side of it but the monster uses its bulk to block her and reaches forward again with a claw. Back, and back, and back, they go. She keeps trying to find a way around the crab but there is always a claw swiping at her from the encroaching darkness.

A wave surges past her pasterns and then her hocks and finally, the water reaches her girth. The crab chitters again and Aela tries to feel any emotion at all, to press it away with something like despair or dismay. It pauses a moment and then furiously swipes at her. This time it comes too close and sends Aela reeling beneath the waves.

Sends her and her emotions sinking deep.

Something stirs.

She can feel it. Something ancient, large, and... destructive. Unlike the thing from the world above, it can sense her magic. Her desperation to reach the surface drives it as well and one long arm propels from the murky depths followed by another and then another. It is curious as to what she is and deciding to take the risk, Aela reciprocates the feeling. Come, she thinks, beckoning this strange being like she might a friend with her mind. She can feel it following her to the surface and one tentacled limb breaks free just as Aela's head does. The still-glowing horse is gasping for air and the crab - having not given up on his hunt - can clearly see her struggling in the surf.

It only stills because of what looms behind her.

Those arms reach out, past Aela and towards the crustacean.
In a matter of moments, the Kraken rises out of the water and wraps itself around her attacker. The sound of breaking shell crackles like thunder while Aela weakly manages her way through the shallows back to the beach while her new friend enjoys its favorite meal, crab.

word count: 1199 words
aela tries using her empathy on the crab, it fails. while almost drowning, she does a volcan mind-meld thing with the kraken; they become insta-bff's and he gets to eat carcinus, as a treat.