Shadow City discussion

Ikaki and other Spirit World creatures reside here.

Evee clutched her bag, sweating nervously. It had been a while since she had been to this part of the swamp, and the eerie silence only spooked her more. Even though it had been night time, she could recognize this area any day. It was where she killed her first-and last- creature. And it had not been pretty for her. She glanced over at Kiara, who seemed unaffected by everything. The water rippled as their tiny row boat glided across the murky surface

"Oh hell, my hair is not cooperating with me." Kiara groaned, hooking the oars of a shitty rowboat in the holders and trying to smooth the atrocious frizz her hair was committing. She was stuck out in the swamp with her weird... person she knew from witch training. Kiana couldn't call her a friend. But she couldn't call her a stranger. "Evee." Kiara started rowing again. "Name what we're looking for again." She swatted a mosquito.

Evee peered over the boat, searching for movement in the murky water. She pushed a long black dread behind her ears before answering. "Well, around this time of year, Ikaki loose a few scales. If they're not too dense, those scales float to the surface and drift their way down river, usually to this spot. It's risky, but if we manage to pull out just a few, we can make all kinds of powerful concoctions."

"Ohhh." Kiara glanced at the surface, a bad feeling stirring in the pit of her stomach. "So they molt? Like pigeons?" She asked raising an eyebrow. "Das nasty. Not as nasty as my hair right now though." She sighed at herself in the brown swamp water. A gray, fingernail-sized object floated through Kiara's reflection. She turned towards Evee, her eyes bright. "Look!"
Right ahead of them, the river was coated with what looked like ashes.

Evee almost tipped the boat over as she rushed to the front to catch a glimpse of the shimmering puddle of scales. She gasped loudly. Excitement bubble in her heart, coursing through her blood. "This is the most impressive batch I've seen in years!" Behind her, Kiara swore as the boat rocked.

Kiara steadied the boat as it rocked from Evee's weird enthusiasm with molted scales from canabalistic mermaids. "There's a reason for that, girl." She said, grimacing. Ever since the Shift happened, ghosts weren't the only creatures that starting showing up in the Big Easy.

"I know, but still! Just think of the possibilities!" she mused, taking two glass jars out of her knapsack. She tossed one back to Kiara. "Start collecting. Don't grab any of the broken ones, unless they are split exactly in half. The transparent ones have stronger magic, so if you happen to cross one, please grab it," she instructed. Evee popped the top off of her jar and began plucking them off the surface of the water. She held each individual scale to the
sunlight, judging its worth.

The young witch caught the jar with fumbling hands. "Got it." She gave companion a thumbs up, in doing so almost dropping the jar again. Kiara, with a firm grip on the jar, peered over the stern of the rowboat. She reached for a whole gray scale as fast as she could, the algae water splashing over her brown hand. The scale plopped in the jar with a soft clink.
"Let's play some music." Kiana said suddenly, snatching another scale from the water.

"Oh, um, you can. I didn't bring a phone," Evee replied, half listening. She wrapped her waist-length dreads in a ponytail with one hand, reaching for another scale with another. Suddenly, something plopped in the river. She snapped up from her hunched over position. "Kiara...was that...Oh. Oh god. Kiara, our oar. It's, um..." She watched hopelessly as it disappeared into the murky water.

This time Kiana actually did drop the jar. Glass shattered against the fiberglass bottom of the boat. "WHAT." She raced over to Evee's side, the boat rocking precariously. "NOOOOOO. HOW ARE WE GONNA GET OUTTA HERE WITH ONE OAR???" She moaned, tilting her head back while pulling her hair. Just in case, she reached over to throw the remaining oar in the boat. "Did you do this?" She demanded, motioning to the port side, where the oar fell.

"No! I was just- no! I-I was just collecting scales and then plop! and I don't know what happened!" she stammered. Evee watched the water, hoping the oar would just spring back out magically. She frantically whipped her head to Kiara. "What are we going to do? Do you have a phone or some way to contact some one?"

"Yeah, yeah I have-" Kiara dug in the pockets of her faded high waisted shorts with a panicked look in her eyes. She froze. "No. No, no no no.." The search for her phone suddenly turned into what looked like a self security pat-down. "WHERE IS IT??? OHHHHHHH MY GOD..." She plopped on the seat. "I'm stuck in a rowboat in the bayou with a witch who knows more about mermaid scales than people skills. Ohhhh my god."

Evee ignored that comment, for she was equally panicked. "Forget the scales, we have enough." It pained her to say it but she knew it was true. "If we don't get out before sundown, we're dead. And since the dock is upstream from here and we only have one oar..." she swallowed. They were so dead.

"Wait, I can send a beacon to the elders." Kiana scrambled through some items in a cooler they brought just in case. "You don't have a chicken head, do you?" The young witch asked, her curls falling into her face.

"What? No. Why would I have a chicken head on me?" She shook her head repeatedly. "I know we're desperate but still. Why would I...no." She sighed deeply. We are so screwed.

"Ok, what if I paddle with the oar, and you paddle with your hands?" Kiara suggested, slamming the cooler lid shut. The humidity was draining her sanity.

"Oh, I am not losing a hand thank you very much. Ok, how about..."Evee trailed off, her eye wandering. She looked around the boat, placing her fingers to her lips. Her eyes stopped at the cooler. She leaned over to grab it, now extra cautious not to tip over. Evee then proceeded to unhinge the cooler lid. She held it up to Kiara. "This."

Oh my god. They were paddling upstream with a cooler lid. The chances of them not getting their arms torn off by Ikaki's decreased ten-fold. But Kiara grabbed it anyways, not seeing any other option. "I'll miss you." She said to her right arm, mumbling into her right shoulder. With that, she lowered the buoyant piece of plastic into the swamp water and started paddling.

They managed to travel upstream a little bit without having their arms torn off. That's a plus I suppose. Evee thought to herself, trying (and failing) to remain optimistic. Even though she knew that not all creatures were violent, Ikaki still posed a major threat. After all, they were on their turf. One pissy mermaid was all it could haven taken to end their lives. Her arms ached from paddling, though she knew it was Kiara who had it worse. Evee cleared her throat. "Wanna trade for a bit?"

"Yes." She wheezed, practically throwing the cooler lid at the other witch. She wiped sweat off her brow as she ambled over to the starboard side of the rowboat. The boat shook for a bit at the sudden movement from the younger witch...then shook a little bit more than it was supposed to. Kiara froze just as she was about to snatch the oar from Evee's hands. "You feel that?" She asked, daring herself to meet the the other witch's eyes.

Evee froze, gripping the cooler lid a litter tighter. She swallowed, then nodded. The boat continued to shake. The speed of the shaking increased. Evee's heart was ready to burst through her rib cage. A flash of onyx blurred past in the inky water. "Kiara!" she shrieked, grabbing the side of the boat in order to stay inside. More bursts of color flashed in the murky water around the boat: black, silver, and pearl fins dashing under the surface.

As she held fast to the side of the boat, Kiara wanted to scream so badly, but nope. This was her area of expertise. Killing Ikaki was her specialty, it's what she was known for in the witch community. She had to show Evee that she was in good, badass hands.
So Kiara threw her shoe at the mismatched, serpentine cluster of fins.

"Are you shitting me?" Evee shrieked at Kiara. The famous Ikaki hunter in the flesh, using a previously unseen tactic: the projection of harmless objects. Evee whipped her head back around to the water. A tail broke the surface, cold water splashing her in the face as the boat rocked dramatically.She felt her own magic bubbling in the palms in her hands. In the midst of panic, she couldn't draw out her old gifts. She cursed. I swear, if I live I will practice magic every chance I get. Oh god, I don't want to die this is the worst what do i do?

"I DIDN'T MANAGE TO BRING A GODDAMN JAVELIN WITH ME, OK?!?" She screamed at Evee, struggling to take off her other shoe. The feeling she had on the steamboat when she detected the Ikaki was increased. She could sense their movements under the swamp water, each flip of the tail, each bubble that streamed from their oily skin... everything was so clear. Weird. "AH!!!" She yelped as boat rocked precariously to the left. Rushes of water streamed into the boat, and Kiara threw herself to the right to balance it out.

More water poured in the hull. The hoard of Ikaki had the power to overthrow them at any time, and both of them knew it. The excess rocking was just to inject fear. Muddy swamp water bubbled at Evee's feet despite their best efforts to stabilize the boat.
Suddenly, a calm yet powerful voice spoke.
"Now, now. We mustn't toy with our friends like this. It's uncivil." The splashing and rocking halted. Evee craned her head around the Ikaki that spoke.

Kiara opened a sealed shut eye, and held back a loud groan. Shit. Not her again. "Heyyyyyy Dubaku!" She smiled at her, while leaning down to scoop excess water out of the rowboat. "Long time so see, girl!" She forced excitement as she cupped her hands and threw the water back into the swamp.

Evee looked at Kiara, then at the Ikaki. The mermaid- Kiara had called her Dubaku- glided over to their tiny row boat. She shouted something in another language. Immediately, the other Ikaki snapped away. They knew who really ran things. Dubaku turned back to the boat and pursed her dark lips. "There is no need to feign happiness, Kianna." she stated. She crossed her scaly arms over the edge of the rowboat. "I would like to know what your business is here."

"Ok first off, it's Kiara, ok? Secondly, we're not here to hunt you. We're just collecting old scales from your peeps." Kiara really couldn't see the harm in doing so. Picking up the molted scales of psychotic mermaids was the equivalent of picking up toenail clippings. If those toenail clipping had some wicked ass magical qualities. Wait, what was she talking about?

Evee stared at the Ikaki and the witch. When had these two interacted? Dubaku leaned into the boat, making the water at the bottom slosh around. "I see you've lost an oar," she said, nodding to the other side of the boat. "That must be troublesome for you, especially up-stream." Though her expression hardly changed, a new smugness was present in her voice. She glided effortlessly to the other side of the boat near Evee, who instinctively backed away. Dubaku lightly shook the drops of water off her frizzy grey-blue hair. She stared straight into the eyes of the witches as she spoke. "My kind isn't as lenient after sundown. Let us hope you can make it out before then."

"Wait-what?" Kiara blinked rapidly, then clambered over to Evee's side to face the Ikaki. "Are you just doing this because you're bored???" She demanded, her hair falling in her face, which often happened when she was spitting angry. She wanted to wipe the stupid look off Dubaku's stupid face, preferably by impaling her with a javelin. "What do you want?" She asked, not breaking eye contact.

Dubaku smiled."I'm glad you decided to ask so soon in our encounter. It saves time." She placed a scaly finger to her lips, thinking. She obviously enjoyed being on the more powerful side of the table this time around. "Oh! I know. I want food. The fishermen have left us with hardly anything, and what we do have is... unsatisfactory. So I want your high-quality human food," she stated. "In exchange, I will aide you in finding your way out before sunset."

Kiara glanced at Evee. They both knew that making deals with creatures wasn't what one would call...smart. Creatures in the spirit world were known to be tricky; they found loopholes in contracts, botched wishes, and fucked up promises to their best ability. "Two conditions-" It was always best to be firm (but fair) with deals made with tricksters- "You will not aide us in finding our way home, you will bring us to the nearest dock without any of your freaky deekies coming after us. Two, we will give you the food tomorrow at noon, a lot of it, by the dock."

It was fair and to the point, Dubaku's favorite type of agreement. She nodded."And I suppose this also promises that you won't be killing me off as soon as you thought, yes?" she didn't wait for an answer, "Good. Now I hope your choice of meat is agreeable." Dubaku slipped under the murky surface for a moment. Evee stood frozen, glancing at Kiara. Suddenly the boat lurched forward, sending both witches tumbling and slipping in the hull of the vessel.The boat continued to glide forward. Behind them, the mermaid smiled. "Nothing like a good push in the right direction to get us started," she claimed."Now row. I can't do this on my own." Technically, she could, but that would require more effort.

As she got up from the hull of the boat, Kiara rubbed her tailbone and gave Dubaku a dirty side glance. She reached for the oar, and dipped it in the water, paddling uselessly along the river. The boat paved through the algae covered swamp water, a soft breeze hitting her skin. The scales of the Ikaki gleamed in the sun. "So how are we gonna get all the meat?" She whispered to Evee.

Evee shrugged."This was your agreement. I had nothing to do with it," she whispered back. "Just give me some time and I'll think of something." Her mind refused to focus on the meat dilemma. Each time she tried to channel her thoughts, she was thrown off by the oddness of the situation. They were in the middle of the swamp with one oar, being helped by a dangerous Ikaki. Evee felt a giggle tickle in her throat. She was going to lose it in this heat.
Not too far behind, Dubaku the mermaid bobbed over an under the water's surface. Evee stared at the dark, nimble creature as she rowed. She turned to Kiara. "Just how did you meet this Ikaki?"

"It's really not interesting or important." Kiara assured her, her light brown hands gripping the oar so tightly they turned white. "I'll tell you later though. For now I'm worried about what the council will think, and how I'm gonna function in the freaking swamp without my left shoe." She blew a brown frizzed curl out of her eyes.