Post by Marautis on Dec 20, 2015 1:37:28 GMT
Marautis bobbed in the ocean. He was simply a needle in the haystack, in terms of him in the ocean of course. Not a soul to bother him, nor a soul for him to bother. The island had been good to him. In that last week he had learnt how to survive; how to catch the fish and eat them, how to stay fit and train daily, how to keep watch upon his island for intruders. This lifestyle had come quite naturally to Marautis, yet he did not know how.
His past still troubled him; it weighed heavily upon him almost constantly. In the back of his mind it would sit, not a voluble thought, a silent and maddening thought. Who was he and how did he get here? Often the questions that appear most unsettling seem to come with even more unsettling answers. The more Marautis questioned his own obliviousness, the more he began to question; was there a reason he didn’t know? They say ignorance is bliss don’t they?
Marautis let out a long drawn sigh. He repositioned himself, from floating on his back now into an upright position, treading the waters of the ocean before him. The sun had loosened its grip by this point, it was getting late. Marautis knew that by this time, not in the heat of the day, the fish would begin to emerge. Marautis also knew that by this time, he wouldn’t have to go without want, and he wanted food.
Drawing his body upwards with force only to let the drag of gravity take hold and drag him under the surface of the water, Marautis submerged himself. Inverting his position and turning his nose down, he dove into the depths. He had become familiar with this ocean now. Initially it presented itself as a danger, possibly a threat. In merely a week’s time he had grown fond of the place, funnily enough.
His body crept into the dark depths, his eyes fluttering and adjusting to the light to observe his surroundings. In the dark deep waters Marautis ruled, he could see down here where many could not. To many an individual the deep dark ocean is treacherous. Treacherous because you can’t see what’s down there, but it can see you. Marautis could see down here however, and it wasn’t so scary. A few bottom feeders that seem to make their living gobbling up the treachery believing souls who unfortunately sink down to these depths accidently. Marautis was not one of these fools.
Waiting patiently had become a virtue for Marautis. Because waiting meant an opportunity would sooner or later present itself, an opportunity for food that is. It wasn’t long before a soundly sized tuna found its way into the path of Marautis’ vision. He held a moment of pity for the poor fish, but not a moment too long or the opportunity itself would pass.
It was time. Marautis launched up from the depths, rapidly approaching the unsuspecting prey above. He connected with the prey powerfully, his arms encapsulating the fish and holding it steady. Of course his victim would struggle but it was pointless, Marautis’ grip would not falter for a second. His grip tightened around the head of the fish, his thumb reaching into its jaw to make sure he executed his kill properly. In a single swift movement he brought his arm down, snapping the neck. Only a few more moments of struggling and the tuna would be brought to stillness. This would be enough for tonight.
Marautis surfaced with his kill cradled in his arms. From here it would be back to his cave and to devour the delicious oily meat of the tuna raw, and that would bring his day to an end. He moved over the soft glittering sand of his newfound home. A slight breeze picked up from behind. Marautis noted that the wind was changing, a southerly was blowing in. That meant cooler ocean currents carrying in, this usually signalled a decline in the amount of fish available, the cold drew them away to their homes. Much as it would to Marautis. He hurried now, in response to the quiet grumble emanating from his stomach.
It was some time later. Marautis tossed the last morsel of his meal to the floor of the cave. A rib bone, belonging to the tuna he had brought to grief a few hours earlier. The rib meat was always the most tender. A crack erupted from the sky outside Marautis’ home, no sooner than that drops of rain began to drop down onto the dry and inert sand below. Southerly’s usually bring rain.
Having finished his meal for the night, Marautis would usually settle down and nod off. But the meal had energised the young man. The hearty filling warmed his bones and forced him to stand and look to expend this energy. Holding his palm out, he bounced a small ball of ki up and down. He had spent a lot of his time learning to control this stuff. He juggled it single handedly before tossing it up only for it to land on his other hand, continuing to juggle. A few more tosses and he would test his skill further. Extending his palm out quickly and sending the ki off into the wall at the back of the cavern. The luminescent light bounced off the walls and travelled quickly to the back of the cavern, connecting with the solid rock face and exploding with quite some force. It seemed Marautis had grown stronger than he thought in his time here.
It wasn’t long before Marautis stopped admiring his recent feat and began to notice the back wall of the cavern, was no longer the back wall of the cavern. His ki blast had fragmented quite the sizable hole and mostly demolished it’s rocky opposition. Intrigued by this, he moved closer, sending up another ki ball to his palm to light his path to this hole. Illuminating up the dark space he examined the cleft. It lead downwards?
A stairway. Looking down the hole, Marautis made out a stairway. Ragged and rough at best, but it was clearly a stairway. As much as a feeling of cautiousness and uncertainly filled Marautis, his sense of intrigue overrode this. This was his island as far as he was concerned, he ruled it. Nothing had even come close to harming or frightening him. With this thought Marautis stepped past the fissure left in the wall and made his way down the staircase.
The staircase seemed to carry on for an eerily long time. Marautis guard began to drop, the monotony of the stairs took its toll on him. His foot slipping on an unstable step and he quickly plummeted down the remaining steps and landed with a cumbersome thud upon what felt like sand underfoot. His head spinning slightly he noted it was entirely dark as far as he could make out. His ki control had come unstuck during his fall; Marautis quickly clicked and relit his makeshift torch. Marautis scanned the area, an underground grotto, appearing untouched by the outside world, almost a sort of sanctuary. Sand littered the floor of the surprisingly large crevice, its walls stretching far up, Marautis unable to make out the ceiling above him.
Marautis felt a sense of energy in the room; it was almost as if he wasn’t alone. He could feel a certain power emanating from somewhere inside of the cavern. He could not however fully disclose as to its whereabouts. It was no sooner than Marautis had made this observation that a deep bellowing voice arose almost out of nowhere. It spoke to Marautis.
“Marautis…You are lost,”
Marautis stopped on the spot. What was this voice?
“You are lost. But I can give you answers,” The voice thundered once more.
Marautis thought for a quick second, he didn’t have a way to communicate with the entity. Come to think of it, he couldn’t even identify the language in which the entity spoke, but somehow he understood it, maybe it was all in his head. Marautis thought again, maybe it was, and that would be how he would speak it to, his telepathy.
“Who are you?” he questioned, not confident in his abilities to communicate correctly to the being.
“Thyalamus, the wizard that resides in these caves.” It replied brusquely, before continuing.
“You are lost Marautis, I can read your mind young man. You are no one. You do not know yourself. I can give you answers.”
“I am Marautis! You do not know me!” Marautis challenged the voice. How could it know him? Marautis had been alone this whole time. How dare it suggest Marautis to be no one. The voice came across as arrogant; this did not sit well with Marautis. After all, this was his cave, on his island, and this entity claims to know Marautis is no one? The entity would pay.
“You do not know me you fool!” Marautis exclaimed. Taking the ki ball that had been resting in his hand. He charged it to its fullest capacity, sending the muscles in his arm tensile to contain its power. He drew his arm back before sending it up, thrusting the orb of energy skywards and releasing its energy from his grip. Leaping back off the spot in which he stood, manoeuvring through the air in a somersault fashion. Landing a good 10 feet clear of his attack.
Hitting with impact the attack would bring down rubble and dust but seemingly appeared to leave the cabin untouched. Marautis brought his arm out again, illuminating a small ki orb to restore his vision in the cave and awaiting this so called wizards response.
“Ahh, so you are angry little Zoonamite? If it is a fight you want, then it’s a fight you shall get,” replied the deep bellowing voice.
The cavern would begin to shake and rumble, almost as if in an earthquake. Marautis extinguished the bulb of light extending from his hand, he thought it advantageous to not be seen and conceal his movement as best as possible. This however brought the drawback of limiting his own vision. Marautis would give his eyes time to adjust, then his vision would improve, we would also rely on his sense of this being, he could feel it and its movements.
The voice had seemed unphased by Marautis’ attack, yet he remained confident in his abilities to challenge it. No sooner than Marautis had thought this a small light illuminated itself in the centre of the cavern, not too dissimilar to that of a flickering candle.
“Come to the light little bug,” the voice leered.
Marautis highly anticipated this to be a trap, but decided to test the waters. He cautiously stepped towards the light, playing into the entities wishes.
“But don’t get too distracted!” the voice mocked in glee.
Marautis felt the energy closing in on him; he made a swift duck and observed a fiery blast of ki soar right over his head from behind him. If he had not been guarded, it surely would have been a direct hit. The former blast sailed clearly over and sizzled out in the discarded corner of the room. The flickering light faded. This entity somehow appeared to be able source energy right out of thin air, Marautis needed to careful doing combat with this caricaturist.
“So, you’re not as stupid as you look, Marautis!” the entity bellowed.
“I will find you, and I will kill you,” Marautis chortled back threateningly.
Marautis took up a ki ball in his hand, sending it off with great speed to the far wall in front enclosing the far end of the cavern. This was one of many; he began rapid fire, assaulting the cavern wall, attempting to somehow land a hit on this being wherever it may lie. Each sphere detonated with great force and soon began to slowly dismantle the limestone quartz confinement in which Marautis stood. He watched as the disturbed face of rock broke into small minute particles and clouded the air. He would continue for a few seconds more before the deafening roar of Marautis’ assault would be drowned out by the laughter of the voice.
“Hahaha, your effort is somewhat commendable young man, but you’re simply aiming too high, figuratively of course,”
It clicked for Marautis. In this instant the clue had been given away. Whether or not the entity would care to admit, it had been careless in its jeer. Purely, it had not given Marautis the credit he deserved maybe, had it misinterpreted his intelligent as a result of his aggressive assault. This being, entity, whatever it was, was about to learn a valuable moral, a moral that Marautis himself was surprised that this so called wizard did not value. And what would that moral be? An enduring classic no less; never judge a book by its cover.
“Your riddles have failed you!” Marautis roared, of course not in actual rage, but in an attempt to alarm the unseen voice. For he now knew the whereabouts of the fraud.
Initially sending out a single hand and straining intently as a large and potent orb of ki would generate in no time. Sending further energy too it, Marautis would watch it grow in size. It bulged and began to quiver. Marautis raised his remaining arm to support his first and control the volatile spark. His energy level surging past a plane upon which Marautis had never reached before. There had never been such a need to exert himself this much but Marautis found this occurrence a nice touch. It felt good to finally see what his body was capable of.
The impulsive energy in his hands would begin to crack and spark in small shudders of escaping electricity. Now it was time.
“Oh and what do you plan to do with that?!” returned the voice to mock Marautis once more.
“I intend to not aim as high….figuratively of course…” Marautis split a sinister grin, before lifting his attack high above his head only just maintaining his control. He held this momentarily before bringing it down with force directly below his feet, forming his hands in a shielding position as to force the blast down and redirect any extra energy that would reflect back up onto him.
The attack levelled the entire floor of the cavern, illuminating the entire space and spreading like a wildfire along the floor, dispersing horizontally. It burst with formidable force and Marautis was launched several feet in the air nearing the roof above him. Cracks ripped through the flooring beneath like broken glass and not even a moment later the entire surface shattered and dropped down into a deep crevasse. As Marautis returned from his airborne position, he found himself dropping down further and further, before as he would have guessed, a hard landing brought an abrupt end to Marautis’ downwards journey.
Upon landing with the impact he did, moments of silence followed and Marautis took up another orb of ki to light up the deep crevasse in which he now resided. He stood to find himself in ankle deep water which two high parallel walls running either side, forming somewhat of a path, it probably would lead to the ocean at some point. His attention was also drawn down to beneath his current eye level where he observed an obscure figure. A small frail appearing old man, on his knees, head hung in defeat, almost as if awaiting a death blow.
“I…surrender…” the old man uttered, appearing short of breath. Long scraggly locks draped down his face, over his worn and crinkled brow. Gaunt cheeks only concealed by more hair, a long beard that sunk down and met with the water. His fragile body wrapped in a plethora of robes that seemingly held his feeble frame together.
“Thyalamus…?” Marautis replied, the name of the wizard returning to him, could this be the entity that taunted him before.
“Yes, I am the real Thyalamus….before I was merely an apparition of a voice, I cast my spells from down here…” the old man conceded
“I see you for who you are now, I will not harm you, I will act in peace,” replied Marautis,
“It still troubles me though, you knew my name, you claimed to know me…” he further questioned.
“That much is true, I sensed your power level when you entered this domain, I can read minds, I simply picked up your thoughts…”
Marautis knew this to be true, as much as he attempted to deny it earlier; those thoughts had indeed resided in the back of his mind. He was in fact no one, the wizard had been right. Maybe however this old man could help Marautis.
“I want you to read my mind old man, tell me what you see in there, for I cannot.” Marautis confessed to the old man.
“I had gathered that, when you entered I detected the unease in your mind. You are lost here Marautis and you cannot delve into your own mind to withdraw the truth that does in fact lie there!”
Marautis’ eyes widened at this news. The truth he did seek, laid in his mind this whole time, he though, was unable to access it. It came as a surprise but slowly began to make sense as Marautis recalled the cloudiness in his mind he had experienced in his days here, unable to remember his origins.
“Remain where you are, think as intently as you can on your past, draw out the haze for me and I will shed my light to dispel it” the wizard commanded.
Marautis remained still and cast the thought into his mind. He recalled awakening in the egg of sorts many days prior, he intended to go further, but that was it, nothing.
“Indeed your mind is heavily shrouded Marautis, I have not dealt with such a lost mind in all my years here. It seems however your appearance in this land was due to the actions of two individuals…I can see them…yes…your parents Marautis.”
Parents; the thought alerted the young man, he had never given mere seconds to the thought of parents. For he was a lone being, alone for the short time that had been his life, Parents are companions to their offspring. They look after and care for them, this had not been Marautis’ case and they idea seemed absurd to him.
“It seems to me they placed you in the egg Marautis, for their fate, was not so assured at that time. These are deeply repressed memories Marautis, from your extremely early childhood. It appears that they sent you away in this ovum to ensure your fate, in their final days Marautis….that is all I can read…”
Marautis simply stood in awe, processing the words that entered his ears and sent the contents of his stomach churning. His heart lumped in his throat and he became lost for words.
“It is a lot to take in I know, but that is what I saw, there is more there, but it seems it will surface in due time, I cannot draw it out Marautis.” The old man murmured, letting his client now wait in silence and come to terms with this hearsay.
“Thankyou…for all your help,” Marautis broke the silence. Words spilled from the empty husk he called his body, for that’s all it felt like now. Emptied out by the macabre information that had almost muted all forms of thought and speech for the young man, Marautis felt it was time to go.
“Sometimes when we are lost Marautis, we know deep down it is best to find ourselves, despite the times when what we find frightens and confuses us. When I felt your power earlier, I could feel your strength, and whatever awaits you, however confronting, I believe you will survive, and exit stronger on the other side. There is nothing for you here, take this away from here and solidify it in your own mind Marautis, I will bid you farewell. The path ahead of us leads to the ocean; I think you will know what to do from there.”
“Fare…well” Marautis breathed, as he watched the old man seemingly dispel into a cloud of smoke and dim light. Now it was simply Marautis standing there, allowing the bulb of ki in his hand to fizzle out he stood in darkness. Moving forward slowly of the spot he felt the scent of the ocean breeze blowing into the corridor of which he moved along. He had a lot to contemplate on this night. Maybe by tomorrow morning, after Marautis had made it home, and rested his dreary body, it would all make sense. Maybe.
WC: 3,474
Requesting zenni for this rp.
