Songs of Reamere - Hurik's Entry: Something is Afoot

Quietly waves crashing upon wood can be heard in the quiet of the night. Inside a large room with various bunk beds and hammocks are some people sleeping the night away, though there are beds that are empty. The room is located inside a large barque, with it's three main masts open and in current sailing. Iolana, a human female of about 165 cm with dark navy hair and red eyes that are currently closed as she sleeps wakes up as she hears something trying to make its way into the room with clicks. It was not easy for her to get to sleep at night on the ship, though she got better at it from the many days the ship has been at sail since she and Hurik, a dark point and bright skinned brown hawk stryx that she is accompanying in the effort to try and find out just what the sea monster is in Reamere that is attacking any ship that goes to far from shallow waters.

Not many people were willing to chase the mystery and defeat the menace that is keeping ships from their businesses as they feared being the next to fall upon the maws of the mystery. Hurik wanted to come as she saw it as a chance to fight something new and large, a challenge for her but Iolana came not only to uncover the mystery but to also keep Hurik in check for Fionnlagh, Hurik's elf rider who did not come along because he knows that the sea is not something that he, as a forest elf, cannot handle. The elf knew that his hawk would be a bit reckless without someone to watch her and he only knew of Iolana that could do so. While the human female has her own stryx to take care of, Fionnlagh did not hesitate to ask for help to which Iolana agreed once she knew that the elf would take care of Keahi, her fiery red tyto, in her stead.

Getting down from the bed, Iolana looks toward the doorway only to see the hawk she took under her hand for the journey making her way into to room, though not without some struggle once she got her head through as the doorway was not quite meant to let a stryx of Hurik's width through. Hurriedly making her way over to the hawk, Iolana puts her hands on the hawk to get her to stop moving. "Whoa there, girl," Iolana quietly tells the hawk. "What's got you wanting to come here?"

Through the rune covered translator she obtained from Fionnlagh just before she and Hurik left for Reamere, Hurik's words pass to her from a similar device hanging on the neck of the brown hawk. "Up human!" The hawk urges, "the night is restless tonight! I can feel it! All the fish are making scrambles everywhere not minding being an easy catch from what I saw on my flight around this wooden contraption. It has been getting fiercer after some hours of boredly watching as the night passes on here. I can hardly stand being stuck on here at night with nothing to do!"

Patting the hawk to give her some comfort and not minding Hurik's naming of her - all of Iolana's previous tries to get the red-tipped, blue beaked hawk to call her by name have failed - she starts to push her friend's stryx out of the doorway. "Come on. Let's stop blocking the doorway and go back up on deck. Thankfully at least the corridors have a bit more room to maneuver or else I'd have to wonder how you got down here." With that came the minor struggle and some grumbles at ruffled feathers from getting the stryx back out of the doorway and leading them back on deck. By the sounds coming from in the room besides from Hurik and Iolana, it seems the shipmates that were sleeping woke up from the noise and decided to get up as well noticing that there was a stryx down in the hold.

Once back on deck, Iolana took Hurik over to an out of way spot to reorder and smooth the ruffled feathers. It took a couple of days to figure out where the crew will work and when so as to not be hounded or get in the way of their work, but with Iolana watching daily it was not hard to memorize the tasks even if she could not do them herself or catch them with an expert eye of what needs to be done. Once the brown feathers were all put back in place, Hurik gave Iolana a thanking nip to resettle some of Iolana's hairs back in place then nudged her current rider to the edge of the deck. "Human, go see what I've been seeing this night and last night. While it was not so bad last night, there was still much movement of the fish. I would have like to snag some, but feared to loose this contraption while I hunted. Not that there is not enough food to eat, just that it can get stale to eat less fresh food after some time." 

Looking over the side of the ship while keeping a tight hold on the railing, Iolana can see the restlessness of the fish below. Pondering on if she should mention to the captain about trying to catch some of the fish with nets, Iolana turns her attention back toward the hawk by her side when she hears the clicking of the claws and the quiet yet loud in the night rustling of the feathers of the hawk over the sounds of the barque parting the waters as it sails around the Reamere. The night at sea is quiet, yet beautiful and not something that should be missed to come and see. On her right, the human female watches the female hawk restlessly look intently in the distance at something that is blind to her at this night. The hawk could easily blend in the night with her brown colored feathers so long as she had a way to hide her beak and feet that stand out in red backed by blues. Less lights were placed where they stood and the beak and feet of the hawk was the best way to know where she was on the ship in the night. While her gray eyes did help to show where she looked, it did not help much should the stryx decide to blend in where she could at night. With clear skies, the night gave full view to the half-moon that hung in the sky allowing Iolana to see her elven friend's companion easier, but not so much as to what was lurking in the waters below. "Iolana." The hawk speaks to her, giving the human a start from her focus on how the hawk hides, yet shows in the night. Focusing back, Iolana finds the hawk looking straight into her eyes. "It's time to get ready."

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It's so boring. A female dark pointed brown hawk with gray eyes thinks to herself as she watches the crew and the water from out of the way. Where is that dratted monster! There is nothing to do here and I can hardly fly around for long or far. Earlier I wandered around, but there was not much to see except all of the restless fish. Watching the waters of the Reamere once more, the hawk boredly watches as once again a small school of fish swim past deeper in the sea than the human eye could see at night. Soon after the school left another one passed by again as frantically as the first one she saw. Watching as a few more schools of fish swim past, Hurik thought it would be best to get the attention of her rider's female human friend that came along with her. She has yet to see what can be so bad about coming out to sea, even if it was boring with little for her to do around the ship.

Knowing that her "babysitter" - as she will call her for this trip - was sleeping down in one of the rooms below deck, the hawk carefully made her way down into the interior of the ship as it was not entirely set up for large birds to make their way down under the deck. While quite glad that the walkways were not extremely tight, she grumbled once more upon reaching the room Iolana was assigned to sleep in. She tried to go through it once before when first boarding the ship, but found that it was a tight fit for her. Thankfully, she was allowed to sleep in the ships hold that had more spacious doorways for her to fit through.

After some struggle and noise, Hurik feels a pair of hands on her and stops trying to make her way inside once she hears Iolana prompting her to settle and stop trying to make her way inside the room. Knowing that thanks to Fionnlagh, her elven rider, she could speak with Iolana through the stones hanging from each of their necks, she looks straight at the female and urges her to get going. "Up human! The night is restless tonight! I can feel it! All the fish are making scrambles everywhere not minding being an easy catch from what I saw on my flight around this wooden contraption. It has been getting fiercer after some hours of boredly watching as the night passes on here. I can hardly stand being stuck on here at night with nothing to do!"

Getting a pat from the human and being pushed back out from the doorway, she listens to the human's reply to her as well as the sounds coming from inside the room as a result of the small noises the duo were making. Well it should be fine if they wake up in any case. More hands then. With that the hawk readily follows Iolana up onto the deck and in a spot out of the way that had less light view besides the half moon that hung in the clear night sky. Hurik watches Iolana looking out at the fish shadows that peeked through the restless waters for a moment then goes back to watching the waters alongside her.

Looking father in the distance than what she had already watched around the large three main mast ship, Hurik stares intently at the shadows that the water hides and makes as they travel through the Reamere. With at least a bright half moon and clear skies for miles, the waters of the Reamere showed what hid underneath, but that did not keep the waters from making their own shadows in the night. It would be good if nothing shows up, but I cannot help but feel the restlessness and fear from all the fish. The hawk thinks to herself. The night has been long, but has yet to reach its peak when the dark point brown stryx catches a larger shadow than the schools of fish had made in the distance with her gray eyes. Feeling urgent she calls out, "Iolana." Looking at the startled female human that was watching her she continues, "It's time to get ready." 

With eyes growing wide, the dark haired human female stumbles and rushes off, presumably to find one of the crew to figure out where the captain is currently. Watching for a moment before turning quickly making her way to where she sleeps during the day, Hurik opens one of the saddlebags and takes out the metallic fake claws. While they are not as good as the battle gauntlets and gear she has seen other stryx wear for the arena fights, but they work well in protecting her own claws and make a sharp weapon she can use to fight. After retrieving the talons from the bag, she makes her way to a larger package that sat nearby. Iolana did not have much clue as to what was inside or why Hurik insisted on bringing it, but with Fionnlagh piping up about it, the human female agreed to bring the heavy and awkward package along somehow.

Grabbing the long and bulky package, Hurik takes hold of each set of ties and pulls them apart in turn, flipping the leather off what it contained and showing what was inside. With a dark metallic luster inset with dark red and blue lines to match her tastes sits a pair of wing armor fit with razor edges on the long metal feathers that are set inside. Knowing about Hurik's love for fighting and hunting, Fionnlagh had gotten an armorsmith to make this set of wing armor for her and inlaid rune to help keep them clean, sturdy, sharp and a light fit for his stryx. Hurik shyly covered him with her loving weight when he presented them to her and she made him help her fit them on to try them out. Even though they had not seen much use, they were still as sharp and clean as ever thanks to the delicate runes the elf inlaid and the brown hawk took some time to admire the wings despite the severity of the time. "Hurik!" Look up, the hawk saw with her gray eyes that Iolana had come to find her and that the barque had much more noise from feet and the occasional loud call above deck and outside the hold. "There you are! I was wondering where you had hidden yourself." Walking up to Hurik, Iolana finds that the mystery package she had to figure out how to bring along was opened to show a set of dark wing armor neatly folded and looking very sharp and dangerous.

"Iolana," the hawk softly calls her bringing the female's attention back to the hawk, "help me gear up will you? I'd rather wish to do more to fight than just my poor claws and beak. Buffing with my wings can only do so much with larger opponents." Maneuvering around to nudge the human toward the metal wings, Hurik grabs the talons a works her way to tying them onto her bright feet. It took some effort on Fionnlagh's and the armorsmith to make it easier for the gray eyed brown hawk to put on the claws without help, but it was worth it in getting ready faster and giving Hurik at least one weapon that she can use without any help. While setting the claws in place she hears Iolana making exclamations and mutters ahead of her, most likely at the light weight of the armor and trying to figure out how they work. 

With the claws in place, Hurik brings her attention back to the female, and with louder clicks from her talons, she walks toward Iolana. "I take it the captain knows considering all the noise coming from above?" She asks while giving a brief look above to indicate where the noise was.

Nodding while focusing on opening and setting the wings out for a clear view on how they look she replied, "Yes. Captain wasn't to happy about the disturbance, but once he knew that the monster was most likely here, he sprung up with joy and yelled for the crew to wake up and get ready for battle." With a huff she looks up at the hawk, "Now come and help me get this on you. I have not a clue what to do as I've only seen this on a rare occasion from a distance and never had Keahi needed anything of the like."

"Yes, yes. Well first it would be best to close the feathers up so you can set them on my back." Crouching down in an more open space of the hold to allow her wings to unfold when needed, the hawk then prompted Iolana, "And it would be better to get the saddle on first since there are some ties that connect with it in case a rider were to join me in battle, unless you would rather stay on board?" With a quick shake of her head as a no toward the question, Iolana saddles up the stryx and follows her instructions to place the wing armor correctly and firmly while the Captain, with some worry about being abandoned by the stryx and their rider upon the break of battle, orders the crew in the preparation to tackle the sea monster with cannons, harpoons, nets and spears.

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Word Count: 2766

Hurik's AP count:

Literature: +54

Event: +4

Rider: +5

Personal: +3

Total: 66