What do you get when two ruthless assassins raise their daughter travelling through the wildest reaches of Caido? Take one look at Theea and you'll get a pretty good idea. Cheerful and tenacious in equal measure, and curious beyond all else, she began her journey on a mission to find those her mother once called family. And find them she did, soon rubbing elbows with demigods, leaders and even ghosts from the past. Her determination is resolute, her thirst for knowledge unmatched. We can't wait to see where her next adventure takes her!
Congratulations, Theea!
Credits
Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
OG Skinning provided by Kaons, with functionality and many custom plugins made by Neowulf!
It had only taken about a day to get far enough away from port to lose sight of the coast, the waves around them crashing gently against the hull of the ship. She wanted to give the crew a chance to navigate and travel on their own while still being within reach to intervene if they got any particularly 'bright' ideas that may risk The Marauder. As such, she'd come up with a compromise. They would do their best to traverse the different oceans while she stayed airborne nearby. It would give her a chance to observe without interfering, and a nice opportunity to stretch her wings, which she thought Maea might enjoy as well - a chance to get away for a few days and enjoy the warming weather.
With a nod to her friend and a final warning to her crew, Thal leapt off the railing towards the water below. Midair, she shifted, her membranous wings catching the sea breeze before she hit the water to let her glide just above the surface. After a moment of suspension, she flapped hard, salt spray scattering as she lifted herself into the sky. She glanced back to see if Maea had followed, her dark blue-black scales catching in the sunlight with the movement.
"If I could fly I would never come back", you said
Maea was right on her heels, hitching a ride on the larger avian's tailwinds. Bright sunlight made her white feathers glow incandescent against the blue ocean and one could be forgiven for mistaking her for some seabird at a glance. Her wings were the wrong shape, however. Every so often she ran out of momentum and had to start flapping, gaining altitude only to coast along in the wide sweeping arch so characteristic of corvids.
She was having the time of her life. Having been to sea before, those had been utilitarian, temporary experiences. Going from one place to the other, often with her head so full of what was to come that little attention was spared for the scenery. This time it was different. While Thalassa might have business with this journey, for Maea it had the feel of a vacation. A chance to forget about anything but the here and now - something she very much needed after the fast paced first half of the season.
Breathing deep of the salty air now, she let out a sonorous caw upon meeting the lyverns gaze. Pressing up alongside her, a quick few days upwards challenged her friend to a game; who could fly the highest of them?
Thal didn't miss the caws or 'subtle' indication for a competition, glancing up at the puffy white clouds. She hadn't tested exactly how high she could fly, but it seemed like a great opportunity to find out. Never one to turn down a challenge, she let out a low roar that would ruffle Maea's feathers without drawing the attention of her crew. They had bigger things to focus on than the antics of their captain flying high above.
Driving her wings down, she angled her body up, feeling the strain of her weight fighting the gravity that wanted to pull her down. Each beat was a struggle, but her scales made it easy to cut through the wind, her wings catching large chunks of air to lift her with every beat. She looked from the side of her eyes for Maea, wanting to make sure she wasn't throwing the crow down into the water with the force of her ascent.
"If I could fly I would never come back", you said
Her caw sounded like laughter, boisterous and delighted. As Thalassa began the ascent Maea made sure to keep a good distance between them so she wouldn't get caught up in the slipstreams of the larger avian. Though smaller and thus forced to work twice as hard for every foot of elevation, the White crow poured her everything into it. Up and up she went, occasionally lagging behind only to shoot upward once more.
A haze of moisture enveloped them as they passed through the first layer of clouds. Breaking through above them, a windstream caught hold of her wings and nearly pushed Maea into the lyvern before she could counter properly. It grew colder. When the air began to thin the ship was little more than a pinprick among the waves. Pausing to circle and adjust to the lighter atmosphere, she gazed down and saw how what had seemed like individual tongues of water actually connected, into rolling ribbons of wave that strerched for miles in either direction. Pressure kept popping in her ears; Maea suspected she could go a bit higher, but not for very long. Twisting round and round, coasting on a thermal, she looked for Thalassa to see if she had risen further.
Maea's 'laughter' only spurred Thal on, determined to win the game they were playing. Her thicker scales made it easier to weather the cold, and the large flaps of her wings shot her past the corvid with one beat. If the Ancient wanted to keep up the fight, she was more than prepared to go higher, to reach the next patch of cloud cover; however, the ship was but a spot in the distance, and she still had a job to do.
She gave a low grumble of communication, tilting her wings to carry them towards the Spillwave as she'd directed the crew to do so. They'd travel towards King's End first to give them an easier time of it, then they'd head towards Halo and the treacherous Eurybia Ocean. If they passed that, she'd accept their skills. If not, they might find themselves overboard in the frigid ice water.
