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!
As the Spillwave appeared under them, the currents softened to something gentler and more soothing. At least the crew had passed their first obstacle of navigation, although Thal would have been extremely disappointed if they couldn't manage to find the ocean directly next to the Arclight. Even without a map, they could have followed the coastline to get there.
She turned her reptilian head to look at Maea, making sure the smaller avian wasn't struggling with the long flight. It was already expected that they'd have to land a few times during the journey, since they couldn't stay in flight for days on end. Especially with her shorter wingspan, the Ancient would be doing twice as much work to stay in the sky, so Thal would go based on her exhaustion levels as indication of when they needed a break. Her throat rumbled low in question, checking in on her status.
"If I could fly I would never come back", you said
Fatigue was not even registering in the gore crow's mind for a while yet. It was enjoying the flight too much, and the game that it had made of reading the winds and figuring out which ones would carry her up and which ones that could sustain a long, controlled coasting that lasted for hours on end. Gone were the days where her wings were new and the currents of air was a strange new land, and yet Maea was still learning something during this long flight.
Her response was an echo to the lyvern's rumble, harsh and high pitched in comparison. Confident, and jubilant in equal measure. This time her suggestion wasn't so much a challenge as it was making good on a promise. "Meat! Fish! Eat!" she called, pushing the limits of what her birdy vocals could accomplish given the lack of practice. Descending to lower altitudes, she began to scan the surface of the waves for signs of movement. Between large fish, encantados or sharks, surely something had to be available for snatching up and carrying off to some reef for consumption.
Maea seemed to be doing better than she'd expected, drifting along beside her in the current of air. The caw of suggestion was met with a low roar of excited agreeance. Thal could always go for a good hunt, and the long flight was already making her hungry.
She tucked her wings, twisting into a spiral corkscrew that sent her plummeting towards the water after Maea. The world spun around her eyes, a blur of blue the darkened as she got closer to the waves. Thal didn't stop, keeping her body coiled tight against the rush of wind around her. It wasn't until the spray of ocean breeze hit her scales that she opened her wings, the membranes snapping to catch the air in time for her claws to scrape against the seafoam, her eyes peeled for any shimmering scales or sleek bodies.
"If I could fly I would never come back", you said
Could anything be better than this? With the wind stroking her plumage and the salt spray of ocean waves crusting on her beak, Maea felt truly at peace with herself, as much as was possible without Shii nestled against her soul. The vastness of the horizon and the black depths of the sea shrank her down to insignificance like nothing else could, and with it came a freedom she never felt except when she was flying. Free from cares, free from choices and freedom to go wherever she wished - no barriers of any kind held her back out here, and she loved it so fiercely there was no word in any tongue she knew that could convey it.
A flicker of silver beneath the waves alerted her to the presence of something moving down below. Large bodies of mackerel had been chased close to the surface by a pod of dark hunters - orca, from the look of it - and were trying to outrun them. Sounding a caw to alert Thalassa, the crow began to follow their movements, looking for an opportunity to make away with a fish before the wolves of the sea began their feast.
Hearing the caw, Thal turned her head to see where Maea had drifted off to. She lifted her legs enough not to scrape the waters and scare away any potential prey. Her wings tilted to carry her closer, still hovering just above the cresting of the waves, close enough to feel the damp breeze that rose up. It didn't hinder her ability to spot the dark figures hunting just below, the ones in pursuit of the fish.
Keeping her shadow from spooking the school, she drifted down until she was a breath from the surface - watching, waiting. As the orca made its move, Thal used the chaos to plunge her head into the water, the sharp teeth of her open mouth acting like a fishhook, skewering three who had been attempting to escape the predator they knew of, straight into the mouth of the one they hadn't noticed.
When Thal lifted her head, their flapping tails had weakened to the occasional flick. She gained altitude before shifted her flight to hover in place, tail dangling above the ocean as she gave Maea a grumble of pride, offering forth the fresh catch should she want one.
"If I could fly I would never come back", you said
There was food enough for all hunters to eat their fill today. Given enough time and a bit of luck even the gore crow, who was out of her element this far out to sea, would have been able to snag a writing body from the waves. But being ever the pragmatic opportunist, the lyverns offer to share was too good to pass up on. Like a tiny jester being tossed a pittance from the queen's high table Maea darted in beneath the wings of the larger avian and snagged a blue-striped fish from its claws. Had they been of an attuned nature Thalassa would have felt the gratitude and shared pride like a warm glow against her mind - but unfortunately all the crow could offer now was approving corvid noises, loud and boisterous like a smattering of applause.
It took some searching to find a reef tall enough to land on. When finally one appeared in a spray of white caps crowning the waves, Maea was hungry enough to dig right in the moment her taloned feet touched rock. Even to her avian palette the fish was delicious, fresh as could be and more than enough to fill her up. Unusually guilt free about the hunt, a thought occurred that it wouldn't be bad to fall back on a pescatarian diet if that meant taking the pressure off her already overencumbered sense of right and wrong... It just might be worth a try. And then other Ancients could call her picky however much they wanted.
It was only later, with a full belly and her pale beak glittering with fish scales, that Maea began to feel the effects of the prolonged flight. Rejoining Thalassa in the sky, she fell back into the slipstream of her larger friend, content to coast along for a while longer – this time, she would be quite willing to stop and rest for a while when the chance came.
