In time you'll find, I've got baggage too

Maea

give me shelter, or show me heart

Maea got to her feet as Sunjata stood, horrified as she realized what he was going to do. "Sunjata, wait - "The kiss to her cheek, the makeshift bandage, it all was ignored for the blinding panic as he leaped into the water in a single, smooth dive.

The sharks noticed immediately. While they may have fled from the orca if they were alone, there was blood in the water. There were a great number of them, and they were hungry. Enough to risk leaping onto even this oversized, potentially deadly meal.

As they swarmed him, the water became white with the foam of thrashing fins and snapping jaws. Sharp teeth aimed to tear up long gashes in Sunjata's black fins, their sleek, slender bodies swift as they darted away from his teeth, out of reach. Like uncoordinated wolves they darted in, made a swipe at him, and then zipped off again, threatening to leave wide tooth-marks and a stream of even more blood flowing free, lest the Attuned found a way to escape their attacks.

watch me fall apart
and I'll be yours to keep

SUNJATA

the flood

but is this what you want? what you wanted?
do you need love? am i enough for you?

There was no time to wait, not as the man reaches the edge of the rock and dives in, shifting to his orca shift — there were more than he anticipated, but he did know to expect the unexpected. He does, however, expect them to turn their attention to him — the break in the water, a meal perhaps.

But then the bites happen, and he flips his tail unhappily as he thrashes within the water, a few more and he hisses mentally against the pain, the flush of saltwater hitting bleeding wounds. And so he tries a different tactic.

He tries to break free and dive down, hoping that the blood that seeps from him might distract them to follow him. Rolling within the water, he aims to spin quickly and propel himself up toward the cluster of sharks, fins shifting into claws of his panther form that aim to tear and maim, maw parting in the hopes of latching onto one and crushing down.

in time you'll find i've got my baggage too

Maea

give me shelter, or show me heart

Maea watched in horror as the white foam became tinged with pink, then scarlet as the struggle continued. She couldn't see anything, had no idea who was injured, if it was Sunjata or the sharks.

His attempt to draw them deeper down succeeded. In a great swarm the sharks were after him, following the trail of blood down to its source. Two were close on his heels fin and tried to snap at the wounded tail again. But as he turned in the water and spun upwards, they were suddenly in the reach of his now-clawed pectoral fins, and more blood flowed out as deep gouges were cut into their thick hides. Sunjata's maw closed around the middle of one of the sharks when it tried to turn and flee, his teeth digging deep into its muscled body, taking a great big chunk out of its side.

But the water was scarlet now, and more sharks were drawn in from all around the area, attracted to the carnage and the promise of a free meal, regardless of who came out of this alive. Dark shapes were everywhere, surrounding the rocky ledge where Maea stood... and those that weren't watching the orca, waiting for an opportunity to attack, had begun to make passes around the top of the reef where the pale woman stood.

watch me fall apart
and I'll be yours to keep

SUNJATA

the flood

but is this what you want? what you wanted?
do you need love? am i enough for you?

Claws gouge lines in the sharks that follow and there’s a hint of pride in his movements while his maw closes around the shark in the center. He can taste the blood on his tongue as he shakes the shark and rips a piece free, before continuing on. More blood seeps from him, and he finds himself arcing up toward the surface again — for air and breath — clawing his way again until he breached, exhaling and breathing in deep, acutely noticing the sharks that circle the rock.

So he reaches out to two nearby Encantados, blush colored and hidden away beneath the rockery. He compels them to come to the rock with him, to circle away the danger of the sharks. And the blush colored dolphins do arrive — spouting pulses of water with their magic toward the sharks to herd them away, moving to try and circle the rock and create a barrier.

A barrier of which Sunjata joins, breaching the water again to reveal his back with bleeding crescent wounds and slashes.

in time you'll find i've got my baggage too

Maea

give me shelter, or show me heart

This time, the sharks seem wary of his novel attacks and keep well away from him as the orca rises to the surface, to breathe. But perhaps surfacing wasn't the best idea, because now they close in on him from beneath, and again sharp-toothed mouths are snapping at his pectoral fins, and the already injured tail, hoping to incapacitate him enough that he cannot swim as fast anymore.

Maea wasn't aware that she screamed at the sight of his gouged, bleeding back. The splashing and crashing of waves overrode her own hearing, or perhaps she was just too focused on what she could see of the battle to notice. She too had seen the sharks that circled her rock, and gaped as two pink creatures zoomed in from some hidden depths to aid her. But their tricks with the magic seemed to only aggravate the sharks further, and they lashed out at the dolphins, losing interest in the pale human in favor of more easy-to-reach meals. At least the Encantados were swift enough, clever enough to dodge; they darted out of the way just in time, escaping without a scratch.

But Maea had about enough of standing there to watch, helpless to help. Baring her teeth like a hissing cat, she found a spot in the water that seemed free of activity, and dove in. Not quite as smoothly as Sunjata had, but with far more impact. Because the moment she hit the water, she made ice erupt from all around her, aiming to strike at any shark that dared approach her, the dolphins, or her man.

watch me fall apart
and I'll be yours to keep

SUNJATA

the flood

but is this what you want? what you wanted?
do you need love? am i enough for you?

’Gods fucking dammit.’ He thinks as he surfaces and feels the sharp hint of teeth beneath him, rising for an injured tail, along the sides of it as he tries to slam it down toward the offending sharks. The Encantados are swift too, shifting away from the sharks as they go to dive, continuing their attempts at pulsing water toward the sharks to drive them away.

Sunjata notices this among everything else going on, circling the rock and diving toward a splash in the water — only to find it as Maea, and he comes up short, nearly running into the woman as he shifts to the side — dorsal fin aimed at his girl. A quiet, high pitched reverb courses through him almost as if he’s telling her to grab on. His adrenaline is too high to notice the wounds in their full painful potential, driven too much to ensure her safety that its a second hand feeling.

There’s no way to wait the sharks out, but they might be able to pass through it if she climbs on his back and they dart back toward the shore, using the Encantados as bodyguards of a sort. He keeps them darting near just in case.

in time you'll find i've got my baggage too

Maea

give me shelter, or show me heart

She saw him, heard him, and held off her ice so as not to injure him further. Maea's pulse was racing too, hyper aware of every moving body around her. She grasped onto Sunjata's fin, used it to drag herself up on his back until she lay flat along it, hands clasping his dorsal fin tightly. When she was ready she tapped him quickly on the back, understanding; they had to get out.

Sharks were closing in on them from everywhere now. Only the water spouts from the dolphins held them off, and Maea tried to find a whole, some opening for them to slip out through. But all around them the sharks were circling, surrounding them completely and closing in from beneath. Gritting her teeth, Maea dug deep into her reserves of magic and tried to clear a path for them by pushing the water away - along with the sharks in it - and gasped when she found it next to impossible to move. It was too heavy, too dense, too much water for her to even budge.

Fear was beginning to take hold now. Rarely had she felt so powerless before, surrounded... and that was when pain exploded into her side, as sharp, jagged teeth clamped down around her flesh, spilling crimson blood into the water.

watch me fall apart
and I'll be yours to keep

SUNJATA

the flood

but is this what you want? what you wanted?
do you need love? am i enough for you?

So distracted, he winces internally against the feeling of her as she climbs onto his back, feels the way she presses against his wounds. But he rises again for a breath of air, to try and remain along the top of it and pull the dolphins closer to his sides when he feels one lurch and grab at Maea’s leg.

He turns slightly, trying to keep her on him, trying to zig zag through the sharks with fins tipped in claws, aiming to create a wide berth. And hopefully, the dolphins find their way to joining him, a storm calling in the distance toward them, both threatening and dark. Caused by the creatures? Perhaps, it’s hard to tell.

Right now he tries to keep his focus the best he can to shallower waters, hoping she has a good hold onto his dorsal fin — that’s missing a small piece in the bottom just before it connects to his back.

in time you'll find i've got my baggage too

Maea

give me shelter, or show me heart

Making their way through a shiver of frenzied sharks was no easy thing. Sunjata had to really work to keep them away, and they kept swiping and snapping, right on his tail; and he couldn't quite seem to shake them off.

Maea clung to him as best she could, unable to do more than hold on. All her focus had turned to pressing water against the wounds in her thigh, desperate to keep the blood from flowing too freely. How long would she be able to keep it up though? It hurt bad, and she didn't dare look at it for fear of what she might see.

But they were not alone. The Encantados remained with them, compelled to help in the escape attempt, and she saw their pink shapes dart back and forth, guarding their injured wards with a ferocity that kept both Maea and Sunjata from further injuries.

Now if only they could break free from this persistent pursuit. It seemed it would take something immense, or perhaps a distraction of some kind... but she couldn't think what it might be. Thoughts too hazy from pain and shock to work properly.

watch me fall apart
and I'll be yours to keep

SUNJATA

the flood

but is this what you want? what you wanted?
do you need love? am i enough for you?

Muscles ripple along his back each time the sharks bite at his fin, more marks, more blood as a signal to his location as he tries to dive and zag between the sharks. He focuses on trying to keep Maea there, trying to keep from being attacked, trying to keep the dolphins at his sides. He can’t ask her if she’s okay, but he knows they’ll need a healers soon as they get back.

Most of the bites are along where his legs would be, and the thought has him hissing internally at the annoyance and pain of it all.

He wonders if she could create a barrier of ice, like how she had done with the water to surround him during the river but a dome to protect them in a sense. But he continues to zoom toward the shore, toward where even the sharks wouldn’t dare to dive for fear of getting stuck.

in time you'll find i've got my baggage too

Maea

give me shelter, or show me heart

Maea had no strength in her to do anything but stem the flow of her blood. She tried to stem his too, keep little barriers of water pressed to the worst of his wounds so he wouldn't bleed out as he fought his way out through the sharks. The efforts of the pink dolphins were tireless, and the sharks were tiring. Falling behind ever more as the orca sped them along towards the shore, into deeper waters far away from the reefs where these predators belonged... and then towards the shallower, warmer waters near the coast.

Soon, only one or two persistent pursuers remained. And in a fury rather unexpected from such happy looking creatures, the Encantados began to attack the sharks. Swarmed them, poking their noses into their gills, dragging them backwards in the water so that their gills ceased functioning. In a daze, Maea watched from Sunjata's back as the sharks finally sped away, back towards the deeper ocean... and very faintly she patted the back of the orca, to try and tell him he could slow down. That she was still there, still conscious... if barely.

It was a good thing indeed that she had the Cloud Manta crystal... or she would have been in real trouble. At least this way, she didn't have trouble breathing as her lover carried them towards safety.

watch me fall apart
and I'll be yours to keep

SUNJATA

the flood

but is this what you want? what you wanted?
do you need love? am i enough for you?

He releases his hold on the dolphins as they attack the sharks and freedom reigns in. The waters here are warmer, and as Maea pats his back he slows down enough to realize the pain of the wounds on his back, along his fins. He shifts back fully into his orca shift, though it’s a slight struggle to do so. And before long, he can feel his wounded underbelly brush against sharp shells and sand as the beaches shore grows near. And he slows more, beaching himself a small amount along the sand to give her a decent place to get off of him if she could.

Even if she didn’t, he was shifting back.

His orca form becomes human again, both legs marred with blood and wounds in the shape of teeth and circles, half moons. Along his back there’s a few longer gashes as well as he goes to prop himself up in the sand. The wounds to his stomach are shallow but still painful, still seeping as he hangs his head a small amount.

“Are you okay?” He asks, muscled arms tending as he continues to try and push himself up, a muscle clenching in his jaw as he realizes one of the wounds sits along the space of his knee where it would bend, causing it to bleed more.

in time you'll find i've got my baggage too

Maea

give me shelter, or show me heart

He brought them ashore, and the surf helped bring them up onto the beach as his orca shift faded back into human skin and limbs. Maea was just able to roll off from his back as Sunjata's form shrank back to normal, and clutched her leg with one hand as she too tried to drag herself up out of the water.

The injuries on him that had looked bad on the big whale were gruesome now. Jagged cuts, deep gashes, and blood seeping all over the the sand. Maea realized that despite her pain, she had gotten off easy, and sucked in a breath as she dared look down at her leg. Two semi-circles of deep puncture wounds had been stamped into her thigh, slightly deeper on the back than at the front, and cuts raked up over the outside of her leg from where the shark's bottom teeth had cut through the flesh. But it was far from the gaping hole of torn off muscle she had feared.

"I'm... alive. Better off than you," she winced, turning back to Sunjata. Pulling her knife, Maea began to cut strips of fabric from her trousers, cursing the fact that she didn't have her usual long skirts to take material from, and with it she began to wrap the worst of his wounds. The knee, the worst of his legs... and she worried over the state of his stomach for a while, before she finally determined that nothing vital had been damaged. No guts, not discoloring of the blood... that was as far as her medical skills went.

"We need... a healer," she said uselessly, and cast her eyes about the coast. Desperately searching for something - buildings, people, anything at all that might help them.

watch me fall apart
and I'll be yours to keep

SUNJATA

the flood

but is this what you want? what you wanted?
do you need love? am i enough for you?

She says she’s alive, better than him, and he believes her when the wind casts its chill on all his cuts and wounds, bites and markings. But she’s there to wrap him up quickly, and with his back bandaged mostly, he finds it in him to roll onto his back, cursing out a string of accented Korofi curses as the pressure aligns with it. His stomach is criss crossed by shark bites, but nothing too deep, nothing cutting into the muscle, but it still bleeds with how he pants to try and catch his breath.

A shaking hand lifts to his face, rubbing at it and blocking out the fading sun as she comments that they need a healer. They do, and yet… He’s not sure he can walk yet to get closer. “Just… Give me a few seconds to catch my breath.” He rumbles quietly, reaching out to see if Haai is near. There’s the flicker of something far away, at the end of the bond that he’s not sure whether or not is her. So he tries to tug at it again, sending whatever he can to his griffin, wincing against the pain to his legs and sides, the loss of blood that makes him surprisingly dizzy in a far less familiar way nowadays.

in time you'll find i've got my baggage too