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[npc-excolo.livejournal.com]

Dream.

There is a great sea. The sky is grey, the water green, and the seafoam is the flecked white of milk on the turn. The shore is stone and shingle, and the cliffs are bone-shades. Will you wake on the little fishing boat that rides the waves, wary of great beasts that lurk beneath the surface, or on the cold and stony shore? Or perhaps as some watery thing yourself, breathing in water as cold as ice and with a salt-iron taste like blood?

[OPEN TO ALL]

Comments

[tereixa-zann.livejournal.com]

It's so quick coming in, waves and gears all running together like strings and brass in music, forward and forward and the blurred shadow of the boat rises to meet us, running quick and ragged across the stones of the sea.

"Excuse me! (http://community.livejournal.com/estdeus_innobis/405311.html?thread=10254143#t10302527)" I sing out as we're closer. "Are you alright, what happened, what did it want?" Hopping out of the boat and drawing her up and that grounds me for a minute, makes the moving slower, but then I'm hurrying again, up to meet them.

[kateohara.livejournal.com]

I feel dizzy with everything that's happened, and I'm glad I learned riddles at school so that I can ask something. I help up the woman who was swallowed by a snake, and then a little boat is mooring up on the beach, a boy - no, a girl, a short-haired girl - jumping out, and there's the palest girl I've ever seen behind her.

"Are you alright, what happened, what did it want?"

"Riddles," I say faintly. I look at Tess, and reach out and put a hand on her shoulder.

[leah-pontarlier.livejournal.com]

We stare at the huge magnificent snake for a time and then it heaves out a woman and goes slithering back into the sea. Some thing gleams on the share and Zann turns the boat and then we are moving so much faster towards the ground. And then we are slowing and then stopping. Except that Zann does not really stop she just gets out of the boat and heads straight for the people. I follow more slowly.

Some one, a woman with blonde hair who I think I remember from somewhere tells us that the snake wanted riddles. I can't help asking, "But why? Why would it want riddles?"

[sapphira-ststep.livejournal.com]

I must say there is a great relief to not being eaten. The salt air is strangely sweet, and I am shaking a little as I help the fisherwoman to her feet. Kate is tending to the snake-witch, and I bow my head towards them.

"I am sorry," I say, "for any trouble I've caused you; I truly am."

Then a new voice says "But why? Why would it want riddles?" and I cock my head at the white woman and think she must be very new to things indeed. The sea is coughing up the strangest people today; I would not swear to my luck, but it has certainly been an interesting day to be fishing.

"Ask the fair man," I offer, gesturing towards Arik. "He likes giving answers to that sort of question." The power of names and caution around wishes, I'm sure he has something to say about the use of riddles. Meanwhile the small dark woman is circling--nearly everyone, I think, looking around and darting through the small crowd minnow-quick, and then coming up and asking to see the cog that's been brought to light.

[tess-thiess.livejournal.com]

I am Amergin, sharp-tongued, fire-speaking.

I am a minnow, small-bodied, quick-darting.

I am an apprentice, unknowing, learning.

I am a wife, serving and served.

I am Tess, self-heeding, true-loving.

[syl-thorn.livejournal.com]

Th'serpent takes m'answer, an' fin'lly vomits th'woman back up. I help pull'er up, since't seems like th'thin' t'do, an' she holds up a toothed wheel made'a gold. "Pulled this I must from its stomach. I don't think it's meant for me."

Nod. C'n see'at. As we's talkin', I hear th'crunch'a wood on sand an's th'rapid crunch'a runnin' footsteps. Excuse me!" Calls a girl, short-haired 'n bright-eyed's'n otter. "Are you alright, what happened, what did it want?"

S'another'a those weird moments, like when I saw th'snake-girl, an'I press m'hand t'm'head. "I know you too," I says t'er. Wish t'fuck I knew from where, but I do. 'nother comes wit'er, blonde, askin' silly questions. "Th'why don't matter sometimes." I says. "What counts's'at allovus're still alive." I shake m'head, "Anyone got any idea what th'fuck's goin'on 'ere?"

[marbasthefallen.livejournal.com]

I can honestly say I know what fear tastes like for the first time in an age when my CeeCee speaks as only children can and angers the serpent. This may have started out as a mere shared dream, but there is real danger in this. My lips pull back into a snarl as my arm encircles my daughter. Thankfully, she remembers one of the riddles I shared with her and manages to appease the beast. As do the others, and the Selkie woman answer the monster's riddle in kind.

The fisher-woman is spat back up, and the serpent retreats back into the sea. Releasing a breath I did not realize I was holding, I transform back into Arik, hoisting Cee Cee to my hip and resolving not to leave her side again. There are now more people, the ebb and flow of voices about us, and I don't care, I need to get---

"But why? Why would it want riddles?"

"Ask the fair man, He likes giving answers to that sort of question."

Look about to see some of the assembled looking towards me. "It was the way of things, ages ago." Look to the sea. "Riddles talk in circles, as many ancient things are wont to do. Also, it makes one think in new ways and directions, opening one's mind. I could say more, but I believe Aristotle covered it already in Rhetoric." I say with a shrug.

The Selkie woman gets more to the point, that it doesn't matter now because we are all still alive.

"Anyone got any idea what th'fuck's goin'on 'ere?"

Arch an eyebrow at that. Am I the only one that realizes what's going on? Should I tell them? "Let me as all of you a question; Does the word Excolo mean anything to anyone here?" Hopefully that will help.

[kateohara.livejournal.com]

Tess. The feel of her shoulder is a comfort to me. I've known her all my life, I think; all the life I know, even though I didn't remember her until I found her again. There's a great babble of voices, and then the man who turned into a lion and then back again returns to his lion form.

"Is everyone here part animal?" I say faintly. "I wonder if I should check for a tail."

"Let me as all of you a question; Does the word Excolo mean anything to anyone here?"

"All roads lead," I say promptly, and then frown. "I don't know where I heard that."

[pollyladon.livejournal.com]

Ignore I do people's chatter. I have been inside the belly of a serpent, and I live. I have been inside godkin, and that is something. I look at the shorthaired girl, and something about her makes me think of cogs turning.

"You," I say, and I take her hand, press the cog into it. "You'll know what to do with this, when the time comes."

[tereixa-zann.livejournal.com]

"I know you too," the selkie says, and I reach up and touch her face, smiling, and then the blonde woman says "Is everyone here part animal?" and I laugh.

"I'm not," I say brightly. "I'm all me and gears, and Leah runs like the river." I step back from the selkie, smiling. "And I know you too, pattern and work, though I've never seen you. You're solid, I think."

And the blond man is saying something I don't listen to particularly, but one of the words chimes in my mind when I take the gear and hold it up to the light (http://community.livejournal.com/estdeus_innobis/405311.html?view=10309951#t10309951).