The Coastline & The Coastal Road [POST HERE FIRST]

Squigg's weapon of choice had served him well for many years; it was strong, sufficiently pointy for any stabbing/harpooning he needed done, and its jagged points and asymmetrical shape made it ideal for defending himself as it tended to rip holes more than cut cleanly into the flesh of attackers. This last point, one he prized the spear for, now seemed to be its biggest downfall. It would do no good cutting the net, at least not while it was wrapped around Kelda.

"Rock. Sharp edge." he repeated a confirmation of Kelda's request, a bit calmer himself for hearing her to be lucid enough to suggest a way they might get the net off of her, and back to the ocean.

Looking around, the small blue creature at first glance would find no such rocks. The ocean and weather had spent millennia wearing each and every surface of the rocks in their general vicinity smooth. This, again, would seem like both a blessing and a curse, as if the rocks were sharp, they well would have killed Kelda as she was tossed upon them; to say nothing of what shape Squigg would have been in trying to reach her if somehow Kelda had managed to survive.

Squigg bent to pick up a small rock about the size of his hand. Like every other rock in the vicinity, it had been worn into a near perfect oval shape, but this one was slightly different. It was a much darker color, nearly black, with some faint striations in it.

"I've got to make one!" he gurgled, a bit of the urgency returning as he turned and moved away from Kelda.

Squigg placed the small black stone on a much larger rock, only half of which was poking up through the sand of the shore; a perfect anvil. With a bit of testing, wiggling, and pulling of the rocks around him, Squigg was able to loosen and then dislodge a much larger rock from the ground. The Merfolk hefted the rock above his head in his webbed hands, and smashed it down into the small stone, which promptly cracked into several bits. Success. It seemed as if the pair had caught their first bit of luck as part of the small black stone cracked off into a sharp blade with just a few serrations in it.

"Kelda! I've got it!" Squigg bubbled as he picked the rock up and wobbled back to his friend.

In his hurry and unfamiliarity with dry land, Squigg would make no allowances for his forward momentum as he moved, and toppled over perhaps a step/slither sooner than where he'd planned to stop. Undeterred, Squigg pushed himself the last few inches and came to rest close enough to Kelda to begin cutting the netting wrapped around her wrist.

The netting was tough, and it took some sawing, but it eventually would begin to fray, and then give in and be cut.

Squigg pushed himself up off of the sand, raising to his tentacles. He watched his friend try to move herself with her arms, with a bit of success.

"If we could get you to the water, maybe it would be easier to get the net off!" Squigg stated what Kelda was obviously already attempting. He turned to look at the ocean. It was far enough away with enough rocks in the way to make the proposition doubtful, but maybe they could make it.

"I'm going to lift your tail up close to your waist so it might not hurt so much, and you can push yourself along with your arms. Alright?" Squigg's panic was replaced once again with worry as his words gurgled and clicked. The longer the pair waited, the dryer and weaker they would both become. If Kelda was able to move at all, it was more than she'd be able to do in 10 minutes. If they were going to move her, it had to be now.

Squigg would, of course, help his friend. Small, but still relatively strong for his size, he was able to lift the bottom half of her body up enough to keep her from dragging her already injured tail across the rocks. He'd by this point gotten used to walking on land again, and given the speed they were going was able to move without much risk of falling over.

He looked ahead of them, the sea and its life-giving waters inching ever closer to the pair.

"I think we can make it." Squigg bubbled, knowing that Kelda was undoubtedly expending a great portion of what little energy she had remaining to get this far.

"We can do it Kelda!" he tried to encourage her, and to some degree himself, to keep pressing on. If they could make it to the water, even if they couldn't get the net off of her, Squigg was more than capable of pulling her along in the water until they found help.

When the little one started scrambling towards his spear, Raoul slid to a halt. “Damn, no... “ He looked to the sea, then to the two creatures, clearly in dire straits, trying to gauge how long it would take. The little one had been obviously struggling. He couldn’t help but wonder if he should, or if it would be a death sentence. Especially in light of the delay he’d just created.

There was no time for a language lesson, that much was clear. He hesitated for a moment, then turned and ran back to his horse. Grabbing the large waterskin from her kit, the turned and ran back. It wasn’t a lot, but it was something. And with any luck, it would get his point across.

Assuming he wasn’t speared in the back first, Raoul turned and ran back, not approaching too closely just yet. “Look. It’s water. I’m trying to help.” He opened the skin and poured some of the clear water into his other hand, holding the skin out towards them. “Look. Here.” Roul could tell they didn’t understand him, but he kept talking, anyway. He held the skin out, miming pouring and gesturing towards the mermaid, then pointing to himself, then to the sea.

When the little one put its weapon away, Raoul breathed a sigh of relief. With any luck, his help would save more time than the delay caused by his interruption. In any case, it was two more hands, and possibly fewer injuries to the sea creatures forced to traverse the land.

He walked closer, ready to leap away if they should try to attack him, but there was no time for being over-cautious. “Good. Yes, I’m here to help. Back to the water, right?” They gurgled to each other their sea-tongue, and Raoul just kept talking. Partly, he hooped some concept of what he was saying was getting though, but mostly, he was keeping himself focused and calm, talking himself through what he was doing.

In between the words, Raoul clicked his tongue, looking back to his horse. The beast whickered and snorted, obviously not entirely comfortable with the unfamiliar creatures, but it was obedient enough to come over anyway. While it came over, and assuming he wasn’t attacked while doing so, Raoul mimed putting his arms under the mermaid and lifting, then gestured back to the horse. “You can ride. It’s faster.”

Well, so much for that idea. She didn’t seem to grasp how strong a horse was, or maybe she just didn’t trust land animals any more than she trusted humans. Either way, time arguing was time wasted, and that was in short supply. “Right, then. Fuck it. We’ll do it the hard way.” Despite his less than pleasant words, Raoul kept his tone gentle and soothing.

Last man on the scene, he wasn’t in charge here. All he could do was suggest, and if they passed it over, he could either help with this plan, or walk away. And after causing a delay just by being here, he didn’t think he could live with just leaving. Instead, he stopped and shoved his arms under @mermaid ’s tail. With a grunt of effort, he hefted a portion onto his shoulder.

Tall and lean, and using a bow as his primary weapon, some people might have assumed the monster hunter wouldn’t be much stronger than the average person. Those people would be wrong, of course. Decades of pulling the massive draw of powerful war bows designed to puncture armor and heavy monster scales had gifted him with a deceptive strength.

Bearing as much of the weight as he could, Raoul shuffled along, doing his level best to see the mermaid carried back to the sea rather than simply dragged. Or at least, dragging as little of her as possible.