Journey on the Grand Seas(Whitebrand and Tigra9)

[tigra9]

Naria smiled making sure not to miss a single book or cranny as she washed Raven, the way Naria did it though would be reminiscent of a sister washing their younger sibling, Naria had practice with that after all. “See? Giving thanks isn’t world ending” Naria said with a hint of an older sister tone “so… are you really a witch? Or is you to proud to deny a false accusation?” Naria stopped her hands on Ravens breasts at this point though Naria was standing behind her and was leaning over Raven to reach “cause this plant wrapped around your collar isn’t going to go stopping a witch, superstitious people just like to think it does” she shifted to her hybrid form for a moment and took hold of the collar with one hand getting ready to break it, the thing had been fastened by a key and Raven certainly couldn’t be carrying that naked as she was

[Whitebrand]

"The plant is thought to," Raven replied. "But the solid iron does. I am a Night Witch. Iron is too much of the Earth. My powers come from Maab, the Raven Queen, you see."

As if that explained everything.

[tigra9]

Naria hmmed “a night witch huh?” She commented putting a thinking look on her turtle face as she gave her snake mouth the washcloth then gripped the collar with her other hand and tore it off by force, she wished she could cut steel cause that would make her life so much easier.

With the collar off though she tossed it away and spoke shifting back to human form “you know I heard stories of night witches before, they were said to toil away in front of their pots and bottles and tools producing liquids that could have a variety of effects depending on what they used. And they got the name of night witch because they did most of their work in the dark of night while sleeping in during the day” she tilted her head as she went back to washing “am I at least on the right track?” She wasn’t going to say she learned that knowledge from a book that was dated 200 years ago, and near the end it had expressly said ‘this practice is what we now call chemistry and medicine’… her village was very very remote so the fact even they had a book like that showed how dated the practice was, not that it was necessarily a bad thing, if she did follow that practice it meant this woman had the makings of a quack doctor or chemist at the very least.

[Whitebrand]

Raven shook her head.

"I practice what is called 'black magic'," she said. "In the Greek sense. Not black as in evil but as in arcane. Hidden secrets and lore. At one time our tradition was the basis of medicine and herbalism. I know poisons and healing treatments. Among other things."

Now that the collar was gone some of the tension left the woman. She held out her right hand and a skull of green fire appeared above her palm.

"And now I owe you my life. I have nothing but my powers and my service thanks to those idiot villagers."

"Accepted."

Rey's voice came from outside the bath room.

Raven's head snapped around towards the door.

"Who speaks?" She demanded.

[tigra9]

Naria tilted her head, Greek? And why could she produce green fire? It wasn’t a Devil fruit power or simple iron wouldn’t have been able to bind her. Truly this Raven woman was strange, after all her ability could only be considered magic which did not exist in the world… though she had also heard stories of islands in the sky and an island that made ships float into the air… so maybe it wasn’t impossible.

Hearing Rey’s voice Naria turned to look at the door “Rey you can come in if you blindfold yourself” she commented then looked back at Raven “your direct savior, the one that took the form of a Kirin and broke you free” she stood having finished washing ravens body and grabbed a bucket filling it with water “close your eyes raven” she warned before dumping it over Raven to rinse her off, repeating the process a few times before being satisfied “and there you go, I don’t have any clothes that fit you, as you can see I’m smaller then you are, and Rey is a guy” she got out of the tub and then stopped and gave a focused glare off in a random direction “what the hell is with that current? Such a strange…” she didn’t get to finish as their surroundings shook for a moment before settling down “well… I don’t know if this is a good or bad current to be riding but it’s a big one”

[Whitebrand]

"Let his eyes fall out," Raven said, stepping boldly out of the tub and grabbing a towel. "I am not ashamed of my body. And what is this tide you speak of?"

"Naria here is both the girl you see and the creature we are riding in," Rey's voice explained. "I'm not entirely sure I understand how, but she can split her attention between them, at least partly."

"So you are shapechangers," Raven said as she stood drying herself. "Zoan powers."

"Yes," Rey confirmed. "Very good. Just a second. Naria, what are you seeing?"

Raven's hair would certainly take another entire towel to dry. She looked a little affronted at Rey's 'very good' comment...as though the idea that such knowledge would be expected to be unknown to her was a kind of slight.

[tigra9]

Naria tilted her head “umm… to be honest just the sea floor and the water same as alaways, this sea current is pretty big though, it’s completely around me in my full form, I can escape it though I’ll ride it for a bit” she pulled out the compass and turned to face the wall with the tube Raven had been deposited from “hmm it’s going East by south East… yeah I’ll just let this carry me for a bit and rest in it” she turned back to them and smiled “my Devil fruit is a special case, normally fruit users become hammers in the water but mine allows me to still swim, I feel weaker but it’s not enough to hamper me usually. Also Rey I can divide my attention between the two but the more focused on my real body or this clone I am the less awareness I have from the other. So I usually just treat it as if I were closing one eye for a bit to watch through the other”

She tilted her head again “hmm I’m going to need to make another bedroom aren’t I?”

[Whitebrand]

"I'm certainly not going to share a room with him," Raven said tartly. "I owe you my life and service, but I give myself to whom I choose."

Rey raised an eyebrow, though she couldn't see it.

"I didn't even suggest anything," he said.

"Good," Raven said as she stepped out of the bathroom and stood defiantly in front of him with her hands on her hips.

Rey almost swallowed his tongue. Any smart remarks he might have made vanished.

"Uh," he said. "Wow."

"That will be your last look," raven said as she turned and marched out of the bathroom.

She had no idea where she was going...and she found herself getting annoyed with herself because she was regretting her boldness. She'd been prepared for some old loser. Not this clean-cut guy. This really good looking guy. Who really rocked his long coat. And had such amazing eyes...

She shook that thought out of her head, not liking where it was taking her. She was a Night Witch, completely independent and strong enough to not have to rely on any man. Even such a good looking one...

Stop it! she snapped at herself.

Rey shook his head.

"Reminds me of you," he said with a smirk at Naria, knowing he was risking a smack to the head.

[tigra9]

Naria blinked watching Raven walk off and down a dead end section of hallway “ah give me a second and I’ll show you to it Raven” she called out to her and then looked at Rey at his comment and didn’t say or react it him with more then a brief roll of her eyes.

Once Naria caught up with Raven the stone hallway suddenly gained more to it in the form of a stone staircase “ok now this leads straight to a little bedroom I made for you. Umm just to be clear though don’t bother trying to memorize this layout, I change it up quite a bit depending on what we need to use.” She frowned “I need to practice on just changing my entire insides to a proper fort but I don’t exactly get many chances to expel everything in myself for that to be ok to attempt”

Once they reached the top of the short stairwell they would be at a wooden door that Naria opened, though she called the room small Raven would find it had a rather comfortable looking bench style bed, long enough to fit her and very cushioned too, there was also a short but long table set a few feet in front of the bench no doubt for use while laying down or sitting there, atop the table was a warm looking silk sheet “I didn’t know which type of pillow you’d prefer so you have a few options” she pointed at the ‘few’ options, over a dozen of pillows of different shapes and thickness and by looks of it stuffing. The rest of the room was pretty basic though with stone walls and floor and ceiling, the ceiling did carry a chandelier that was lit though for light in the room.

[Whitebrand]

"Your efforts on my behalf are...appreciated," she said in the tone of someone not used to expressing gratitude. "Thank you for your consideration. I will not take up any more of your time."

She closed the door once Naria left the room. She looked around quickly to make sure she wasn't being watched. Finally she abandoned all dignity and gave in to her impule to leap on to the piled up pillows and hug them. They felt and smelled wonderful. How long had it been since she could enjoy such a pleasure? Certainly not since she had come to that cursed village. She took a child-like pleasure in just rolling around naked in the soft puffiness...but she would die before she admitted to such a silly thing. Especially not to that...man.

"How did it go?" Rey asked lightly as he waited at the bottom of the steps. He had adjusted his pants so it wasn't obvious that he'd been aroused by the woman's naked and defiant display. Raven was practically a sexual traffic hazard.

Not that Naria didn't have her appeal of course, but how long had it been since he had seen her in her birthday suit?

[tigra9]

Naria nodded “your welcome, if you need anything just call out, I’ll hear you no matter what since your inside my actual body” with that she left the room and as she walked down the steps she had one eye closed and a small smirk, though she didn’t spy for long she could tell Raven was starved of simple comforts, a position she could sympathize with, three months ago she was in the same boat, no clothes and not allowed even such a simple comfort, but for a completely different reason.

As she reached the bottom a hand had thoughtlessly gone to her neck where the iron collar had been during her time as a slave and she looked at rey removing her hand as she realized it “it went well enough, she is a lot more proud and boastful… but hurt and lonely” she frowned, rey could see it, the despair that still swelled in Naria during her service to him, but after a second she shook her head to rid herself of it “she will need time and I don’t know how long it will take until I can get her clothes so… please don’t mess with her until she is ready” she walked up to rey and leaned into him “seeing how happy she is with the little gestures I did in her room….” She curled her fingers tightly on his coat where she had pressed them to the sides of his chest, her face was buried in his chest but he could feel Naria shaking, it had been a few years since she had let her vulnerable side show to him “…it makes me remember that place”

Naria couldn’t say she hated her time with Rey, but she was not allowed much during those 9 years she was a slave. This wasn’t because Rey didn’t provide for her but because comforts he was allowed access to were limited, a comfortable pillow and sharing the bed with him, these were the only things he could provide her, even food was not a consistent thing she got, Rey’s family barely even fed him three meals a day and seemingly expected her to eat crumbs. Had Rey been a less generous person Naria would’ve starved and had to sleep on cold stone floors with her stomach constantly growling.

That time in the palace had left its scar on the pair, but Naria had always tried to shoulder the bigger burden and make sure Rey got the most out of the comforts he was given access too.

[Whitebrand]

"We will never be back there," Rey said quietly in her ear. "I promise. I'll protect you with my life if I have to, but no one will ever put a collar around your pretty neck again."

He wanted very much to comfort her in the manner a man could comfort a woman, but she was in a vulnerable space right now. He held her close, massaging her back and shoulders with his hands.

"Love you," he said.

There was no way he could express his gratitude to her for not resenting him...she'd certainly has the right to. She might never have been in chains had his family chosen to raise him on isolation. That guilt probably explained why he hadn't taken her when she had been offered to him...and perhaps contributed to his uneasiness about following through now that he was Old Enough.

He ran his hands through her hair and tried to comfort her as much as he could...aware that this was just a clone body of hers.

[tigra9]

Naria lifted her head looking him in the eyes though her words didn’t quite match her expression “I don’t want to be protected… I want to be able to stand up on my own…” she still had that spark of pride and defiance from the day he meet her, but even had he not met her she still would’ve been in chains, perhaps under a harsher master.

She buried her face again and after a bit pulled away in haling then letting out a big exhale having calmed and vented her sadness “sorry… I-I needed to vent that” she smiled to him “I’ll go ahead and fix some food, didn’t really get a chance to restock my food stores so I hope your ok with some bread and soup today. I’ll try to catch fish while I’m relaxing in this current” with that she leaned in and kissed him on the lips for a moment before letting their lips part “I’ll tell her that as well” with that she gave a wink before her clone dissolved, though she could produce a clone of herself anywhere in her body she could only make one at a time and had to dissolve it to produce her clone elsewhere. She wished she could practice just making and keeping her entire body a fort but that was something that required her to expel everything in her body… and she still had a couple secret rooms containing stuff she didn’t want rey knowing about. Though in her heart Nadia wondered if rey had noticed she never seemed to complain of them needing money and even when they had found that treasure she wasn’t excited as he was and had merely shown interest in the chest she had to look at herself to find out what was in it. Currently that chest was sitting in Rey’s room as she had told him on the ship she would hold onto it inside herself but ultimately what they did with it was his choice to make.

——————————————————
On an island that was normally a few days distance from the island the group had left a girl would be humming as she wiped a cloth over a cannon cleaning it “hmm hmm hmm… gotta make sure it’s nice and clean, make sure it’s also loaded and the gunpowder is still good, never know when this baby will need to be used…” she would stop looking out at the sea with her different colored aqua and gold eyes her short silver hair blowing a bit in the breeze “oh, the wind is north-north East a bit… so let’s see an adjustment… there we go should still shoot right on target” she smiled “I feel like tomorrow will be a good day.”

[Whitebrand]

"Everyone needs protection and help," Rey corrected her. "Eventually."

Rey nodded and headed for his own room. He opened the chest and stared down at the strange fruit. It was a lot like the one he'd choked down...the one that his grandfather had slated for one of his more-favored cousins. Look it over as me might, though, he couldn't intiut much about it at all. He closed the chest and locked it...as if it was possible for an intruder to somehow get to it without Naria being aware of it.

As useful as Naria's form was, he had to admit he felt a bit stifled. Unless he told her to go in a particular direction, he had little control over where they went. An open deck would at least let him look around and have the option. He had little to do other than wander around on a day-to-day basis, and felt like he was more of a burden on her since he couldn't offer much help. Aside from the charts that had been stolen, he had little to stimulate his mind either.

[tigra9]

Naria had on a few occasions since their leaving the Seras kingdom actually surfaced and just lazy swam along on the surface of the water letting him ride outside on her back, she wasn’t unaware how stifling being locked up in her body was so she tried to alleviate that by surfacing and letting him walk around her nearly small island sized back. Her shell thankfully was fairly flat though it did rise at a slight angle towards the center line where her spine would be and was decorated in black hexagon shapes that had a bone solidness to it, and based on what Rey had experienced the one time they stopped at what could only be called a small bank of land to actually spar in the open outside of her body he found that when she curled into her shell only his quakes could actually damage her, anything else he tried did little more then bounce off the hard shell.

That night Naria would actually surface again at one point and blinked as she noticed an island was nearby thanks to speaking with the fish, she still hadn’t told Rey she could do that trick but it waste of a never thinking to mention then actual secret. Once she surfaced though her clone spoke to Rey “seems the stars are out tonight Rey, I’m staying surfaced for a few hours, though I’m going to tell Raven about it aswell so please keep that in mind” she told him before moving her clone to do just that as she floated lazily on the surface.

Naria had also at one point before nightfall managed to alter a sheet enough to act like a chiton dress, it did little to hide the massive orbs but it was certainly better then being naked

[Whitebrand]

Rey gratefully climbed out on to the shell. He looked up into the sky and sighed audibly. The stars were still in their familiar patterns, but he knew that would likely change in the Line.

Behind him Raven climbed out and also looked up. Her dress certainly couldn't hide her figure, and it barely passed her hips. She deliberately walked away from where Rey sat and stretched with her arms high.

"Lady give me strength," she said towards the moon.

Rey noticed. He could hardly not. He chose to let her have her space.

[tigra9]

Naria smiled but said nothing as she saw what they did through her clone, her clone couldn’t leave her body’s inside but it could peek out of any openings she made as long as it didn’t try to put its body through them. Naria just lazily decided to shift her course to move towards the island she had been told about but she was only barely moving her limbs so her pace was quite slow.

After the time Naria told Raven and Rey to head back in she actually picked up her speed a bit for an hour before deciding to get some sleep while still surfaced, daybreak was still a few hours away so she doubted she would be attacked.

In the morning though Naria’s clone who was making breakfast, with her main body still more or less asleep, would be talking with Raven who had gotten hungry and talking to her. “Yeah to be honest Raven… you and me have different pasts… but the result it’s had on us is pretty simil….. GAAHHH!!!” She cried out letting go of the pan she was holding and fell back her hand going to her face which was now bleeding bad. The clone was a reflection of her real body when it came to injury so if it was this bad on her clone then the real body wasn’t in any better shape

“Yess! Hit its head perfectly, now for the second shot, the island will have a lot of food tonight with such a big turtle” a pair of two colored eyes looked down to pull on a string at their feet, they had just shot Naria’s face the only part besides her shell visible, the second shot hit the shell as the cannonball in it exploded against her shell shaking the rooms inside her though as Naria withdrew into it for protection, blinded in her right eye and wounded as she was diving wasn’t an option and she would have to keep her head exposed to turn which left her in harms way for that second shot

“Hmm… well darn I expected it to turn but it withdrew into its shell instead. Well I just gotta wait and reload.. already got the target locked so I’ll shoot when it pulls it’s head out” the person mumbled to themselves as they set to work

[Whitebrand]

Rey heard the shout of pain and shot to his feet in response.

"Someone out there," he announced as he raced for the ladder to the shell. "Has made a very, very big mistake."

Raven caught the clone and kept her from falling, pressing a hand against her head. Unlike Rey she didn't really know many details about Naria's abilities. She saw Rey become larger as he moved and realized he was leaping into his hybrid form.

"That fool will need help out there," Raven said as she set Naria's clone into a chair.

Rey shot out and into the sky in a golden blue, his celestial fire blazing around him. He went straight up a few stories before he looked down at these miserable fools who dared harm his Naria.

[tigra9]

Naria grabbed raven’s arm “no… I need your help… this body doesn’t mean anything, I need treatment on my head, go out in the hall and head left… it will take you through a room of sheets grab some and go through the other door, you’ll have to crawl part way but it should put you on top of my head” the clone was remaining rather calm but Raven could tell by the hand holding her, Naria was shaking.

“Eh?” The person manning the cannons blinked having noticed a streak of light come out of the turtle and they lowered their goggles focusing, from Rey’s position the person was hidden by thick shrubbery, the land shape at this shore was weird, there was a single carved out dirt path connected to a beach that lined aounrd the land proper for ships to land at. On either side and making up the rest of the lands edge was steep cliffs overlooking the sandy beach with a thick forest of trees and shrubs. “Hmm what exactly was that?” She asked though as she looked down she realized the turtle without opening the shell and risking being shot again out had begun moving towards the beach.

[Whitebrand]

Rey shot down at the cannons in a straight line, landing directly in front of the weapons. He glared at the user as he drew back his foot. A moment later he kicked the weapons so hard that it ended up pointing straight up.

Raven nodded and ran for the sheets. Soon she was making her way through the tight quarters towards the giant head of the beast she was in. She caught the smell of blood almost immediately.

"Okay," she said, unsure if the beast could hear her or not. "Keep calm. Slow steady breaths. That's it..."

She did indeed have to crawl through a tight area...not her favorite thing considering her body type. She forced her way through and soon found herself above the massive head.