From being an Abandoned who had rarely left the Hollowed Grounds, to embracing the call of adventure, to dying and being reborn first as an Ascended and then as an Ancient, Maea has gone through quite the amount of changes in her life. One thing remains common, though, in her attempts to find out just where she belongs; she’s always had a craving for knowledge which has brought her to so many places and to meet so many people here in Caido. We can’t wait to see what else is in store for her!
Congratulations, Maea!
Credits
Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
Skinning and hosting by the epically talented Kaons, and functionality fanciness by the coding magic of Neowulf. If you ever see either of them around, make sure to show them some love!
Torchline's fauna was not happy with Kaiden these past few days. First the Aqueix stole their sunny napping spot, and now this tide jaguar cub was trying to steal their lunch. The mershark had spent the better part of the morning hunting down the school of tuna. The fish were fast, but Kaiden had been craving the taste of one for weeks.
Yet, after finally catching one and finding a nice spot along the rocks to eat, the little cub showed up. It was just a baby so even Kaiden was reluctant to harm the small feline. But with every lunge it made to try and grab the tuna's tail. the more the mershark's annoyance turned into aggravation.
"Fuck off, fuzzball. It's mine!" Kaiden splashed some of the water up to try and startle the spotty cat away, but the cup merely dodged it.
The little girl walked along the shore, her bare feet leaving damp footprints in the sand. She dragged her doll along behind her, holding it by one arm, the doll's delicate porcelain legs leaving twin trails in the wet sand. Her head swiveled occasionally from one side to the other, studying the passerby. Normal people, having normal days at the beach.
Boring.
The doll's head was the first to swivel towards the mershark. Trinket followed the doll's gaze, tilting her head to one side at the sight of the familiar figure, the small predator, and the rather large fish. She watched their interaction in silence for a long while, before striding across the beach towards them.
She stopped alongside the jaguar pup, looking down at it without fear, only curiosity. The doll seemed to ignore the cat, its black eyes catching the sunlight with a tinge of red as it stared Kaiden down, unmoving and unblinking.
Finally, Trinket turned her attention to the mershark. "Why don't you share?"
Kaiden's head snapped up when they heard the familiar voice. The cub tried to capitalize on the distraction and lunged once more. This time, the splash that the mershark sent up with their tail successfully hit the jaguar in the face and the cub reeled back with a squeak.
"Brat." Kaiden greeted with a scowl. "I'm not sharing because it's mine." The mer tugged the tuna closer before adding, "And didn't I tell you? You have to win the game alone, even if you play with others? Well, I hunted and killed this fish. The cub did not. So, it's my win."
Brief supplementary lecture over, the mershark tore off a piece of their kill and swallowed it whole, all while side eying the creepy doll. Unnerving fuck.
Trinket stood silently for a long moment, considering the mershark's words. She didn't move, didn't blink. Though it seemed that the doll's head moved ever so slightly, yet the eyes continued to follow the mershark's every movement.
"You didn't win," she said, glancing briefly at the cub. "If someone is still trying to take it from you, then you haven't defended your claim. The game is still on."
She considered the animal for a moment. It was unusual. The colors were different. Though no sign of emotion appeared on her porcelain face. She simply considered the cub, then turned her attention back to the mershark.
"If the cub can take the fish from you, it will no longer be yours. You'll lose."
Kaiden scowled, "I won against the tuna. I won that game." Though Trinket was perfectly correct about the game between him and the cub. If the mer truly tried to hurt the cub, it'd be an easy win. Yet, it was just a cub. A small baby trying to get a snack or meal. Its mother was probably close by hunting since this cub seemed old enough to wander but not too far. Plus, the thing wasn't all skin and bones.
Looking at the cub, Kaiden sighed. It was kind of cute. "Ok, fine. We can both win." The mer was too hungry to waste mor time arguing. It was a small sacrifice to share a little. Taking the fish up to his sharp teeth, the mer carved the cat a piece. Tossing it over, the cub eagerly started snacking.
Trinket showed no sign of being either satisfied or dissatisfied. With the cub busy eating, it was completely forgotten from her attention.
Instead, she weighed the mershark with her dark eyes for a long moment of silence. She pulled her doll up and held it against her chest. The silence stretched out for a long moment, broken only by the sound of the waves as the cub chewing on the fish.
Finally, she said, "I'm supposed to ask you your name. What is your name?"
The water lapped against her bare feet, doing little to wash off the dirt. She seemed to pay it no mind. Water was boring. She had other things to occupy her attention. So she awaited the mershark's response. The entire time she was as still and silent as the doll, almost as if she were a toy herself, waiting for someone to come and play.
Kaiden was just swallowing the last bite of their meal when the kid spoke again. The mershark paused and scanned the kid for a moment. "I suppose that's true. I'm Kaiden. What's your name, brat?" The cub finished its meal as well and to the mer's baffled horror happily walked over to them.
Kaiden's face went slack with confusion, their eyes widening as teh small cub stepped into the shallow part of the water and rubbed their head against the mer's shoulder. "Uhhmm..you're welcome?" The cub made a small chirping noise and then happily made its way out of the water before racing into the jungle. Kaiden watched the cub go, still trying to process the last few seconds. Did they just make a friend?
"My name is Trinket," she replied. "I'm going to tell my friend your name. Then they can send you a letter."
She didn't so much as glance at the cub as it scurried away. The animal wasn't interesting. The mershark seemed much more fun.
She glanced up and down the beach for a moment. The doll's eyes never left Kaiden's. When Trinket turned back towards the mershark, she asked, "Do you want to play a game? You already won the killing game today. We should play something else."
She didn't know any other games that mersharks could play. But she was sure they could think of something. Kaiden had come up with a good game last time. He probably knew lots of good games. So she stood and waited, her expression blank of the expectation that her words carried. No signs of emotion touched her porcelain face. It almost seemed as if the doll wore more emotion on its face than the girl did. It stared Kaiden down. Weighing him. Judging him. Never stopping. Never blinking.
"Do you want to play a game?" Trinket asked again.
Kaiden scrunched their noise in confusion, "Your friend? Who's that?" They really didn't want some random person sending them letters. And they didn't have anyone that they liked enough to receive letters from either. Double the annoyance then. The mershark glanced briefly at the doll before addressing Trinket. That was a weird name. Concerningly weird. But it was none of their business.
"Sure brat. I've had my lunch so let's play." The mer glanced around them and back at the doll before an idea came to them. "Your doll, it's not just a toy, right? You said it was your friend? Can it fight?" Maybe they could teach the doll and Trinket how to throw a punch?
Trinket glanced down at the doll. The doll looked up at her. Then two pairs of glassy black eyes turned back to the mershark.
"I never made her fight before. That might be a fun game."
She stepped back, then set the doll down on the sand. It stood under its own power, unmoving. It would do nothing more than stand, and stare, and mimic her movements, not until she gave it a new command.
Trinket knew nothing of fighting. She knew the words, the definition of a punch and a kick. But not how to do such things, at least, not to do them well.
Still, she gave the doll a command, fight the mershark. It immediately moved forward to obey.
The doll waddled across the sand on porcelain feet. Its soft body was cloth beneath the dress, the arms and legs and head porcelain, sewn onto the fabric. The doll reached the mershark and began flailing its tiny porcelain arms at its tail. It had no real strength, no more than a toddler might have, but it continued to flail its arms, lightly smacking the mershark's tail over and over again with its minuscule hands.
Trinket watched the doll. Dissatisfied. It was not good at fighting. Maybe as they played the game, the mershark would teach her to fight better.
She looked back up at him with a blank stare, waiting.
Kaiden eyed the doll's approach warily. Seeing a toy move on its own was damn creepy but it quickly proved mostly harmless. The mershark flicked their tail slightly and the doll toppled over from where it attempted to punch and kick the mer. Tsking, Kaiden shook their head.
"No." They gestured Trinket over and held their palm out. "First, I'll teach you how to actually punch." Once the brat seemed to be listening, they spoke, "First, curl all of your fingers apart from your thumb inward. Your nails should be pressed against the center of your palm." For a brief moment they wondered just how they had ended up this kid's go to teacher for survival games.
Pushing the thought aside, Kaiden demonstrated their instructions as they continued. "Next fold your thumb in. The top knuckle of your thumb should stretch mostly across the knuckles of your first two fingers." After they repeated the motion of making a fist a few times, Kaiden assessed Trinket, "That's how you make a proper punching fist. Got it?"
Trinket followed the instructions and made a weak little fist. She looked at her hand, turning it this way and that. She knew, generally, what a punch was. But she didn't really know how to move her body the right way.
She stepped over to the mershark and gave a pathetic punch. She tilted her head, looking at the completely unbruised flesh. She must have done something wrong. Maybe, she thought, she was simply too weak to fight like this.
"Fighting like this is boring," she said. If someone tried to kill her, she would not be able to kill them first if she used her hands. She has to find a better way to fight.
"I can find a more fun way to fight."
She looked back towards the direction the cub had run off to. The animal fought with its teeth. That sounded much more fun than using her fists. But her teeth weren't very sharp. They would be no good for fighting.
She looked on the beach. There were rocks and shells scattered about. Those would be fun to play with. She looked at two shells and commanded them to come together. The two shells clacked together like a mouth opening and closing. It needed teeth. She commanded some of the rocks, making them roll over to the shell. The rocks rolled into the shell and dug their pointed ends into the shell, twisting back and forth to drill their way into the shell. Bits of the shell broke off, leaving jagged edges. The rocks wedged themselves into the jagged gaps until they were snug in place.
The shells clacked and snapped, jagged edges and rocks jutting out like mangled teeth. The monstrosity snapped its jaws, clattering around on the sand.
Trinket picked it up and looked at it. It would do.
"Now," she said, looking up at the mershark, "let's play the fighting game."
She threw the snapping shells at Kaiden, jagged edges and sharp rocks following her command: Bite. Hard.
Kaiden hardly felt a thing when Trinket punched them. They opened their mouth to give another direction to aid the brat, but then she came up with another idea. Their eyes widened as they watched her with rising horror as she created her diabolical shells.
"Gods! What the fu...heck!" The mer was a lot of things, but at least they had enough tact to try and not curse in front of a brat. Twisting sharply, they forcefully swatted teh incoming shell away with their tail. Having a hunch that that would only delay the incoming bite, they hastily looked for a weapon.
A piece of driftwood was close by and the mer shot forward and grabbed it, wielding it like a bat. "Alright! Let's do this." Their eyes narrowed with determination, awaiting Trinket's next attack.
The corner of Trinket's mouth inched upwards just a bit. This was an interesting game now. The amalgamation of sharpness and teeth hit the sand, unphased. It could not feel pain. And shells were hard to break.
She watched the mershark with their piece of wood. She took her time, considering the best way to play the game. Not by throwing the snapper again. No. That would not be a good way to play the game.
Instead, she gave the snapper the command: burrow.
The snapper shuffled and wiggled against the sand until it burrowed beneath the surface. Out of sight except perhaps for a slight lump in the sand. Then she commanded it: bite the mershark. The little lump of sand moved this way and that, heading towards the mershark. Trinket gave it small commands to move left or right, to make sure she could direct it where it needed to go. Then, only once it was right beneath the mershark, did it burst out from the sand, snapping its mangled jaws at the mershark's tail.
