a collection of tales [[ chronocompass writing ]]

Ashgar felt himself to be a patient Tsotska. One who could wait when waiting was needed. What he was not, however, was a being who liked to waste time. This is why, at the crack of dawn, he woke up in his humble seaside shack and felt like it was a good day to get some things done.

The breeze was blowing the smell of salt from the ocean in through the open wood frame of his window, and he cherished the feeling of the wind against his scales. (But only for a moment, of course - he had energy right now, energy that refused to be wasted!)

Ashgar looked over to where his ocean dragon Maristella currently rested. She was curled up in a pile of blankets (all the best ones he had gotten over the years). Mari had a kind heart, but also a deep love of comfort. So it was really a pity he had to wake her up. Cautiously, one claw step at a time, he made his way across the small room. There were certain floorboards that squeaked, and even now, in his intent to awaken his friend, he still felt the need to be quiet.

Once he got all the way over he put one clawed hand on Maristella’s mane and reached out for their mental connection. *Wake up, my dear friend. There’s an adventure for us to go on,* he whispered in both their minds. Slowly but surely, he got a response.

Ash could tell that his dragon was dreaming about something nice, especially when she hummed and her entire wyrm body rolled slowly over. Ashgar jumped out of the way and then waited. She did not wake up. Unfortunate, really. *Mari! Come on now, I can’t do as well without you.*

Finally (blessedly) the creature of the sea blinked her eyes open and frowned down at Ashgar. “What do you want?” she grumbled out loud, and Ash smiled hopefully as he spoke the answer.

“I woke up pretty early - this feels like a day to go adventuring. Perhaps salvaging? I feel like the ocean’s calling us today!” His tail behind him was swaying back and forth in his excitement - in fact he could barely sit still! “Please, Mari, you know you always enjoy it once you actually wake yourself up.”

Maristella looked out towards the ocean through their window, looked back, and smiled a tired smile. “You’re probably right. Here, give me a moment and I’ll gather up our supplies.” She hoisted herself onto her two feet and grabbed several bags from another corner of their little hut.

When Mari stood up, she was quite the intimidating presence. While only a tiny bit taller than Ashgar himself, she had a long, snake inspired body. Ash thought it a wonder that they both had a place to stay at night with how difficult it was for her to fit into smaller spaces like this hut.

Ashgar busied himself with gathering up his own equipment - several harpoons, rations for the journey (one never knew how far down the beach one might go), various helpful tools, and most importantly, his trusty compass. Ash took a moment to look at the wonderful thing - waterproofed and smithed by his own brother. “Though a planet apart we still carry each other in spirit,” he whispered to himself. Teeba had left the isle of the Tsotska a long time ago. He prayed he was alright.

“Ready to go?” Maristella’s voice took him from his thoughts. He grinned, hoisted his bag over his shoulder, and made for the door of their ocean side home.

“Absolutely!”

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The water honestly wasn’t very far from home. Their little shelter was on the rock further up rather than the sand of the coastline, and yet it was still a simple thing to just walk from home down to the water. A chill was in the air - the sign of winter, and Ashgar had to stop at the edge of the ocean and mentally prepare for how cold it was going to be once he got in to the frigid depths.

Maristella slid on up to his side, propelling herself forwards with both her two arms and her mechanical wings. “Having second thoughts?” she mused at sensing his concern. “As inspired as you are right now, I also worry about your safety.” The bright, worried eyes of his dragon warmed his heart, if not his claws.

Dipping his hands unto one of his bags, Ashgar pulled out several small vials, each filled with some navy blue liquid. “I still have a stash of cold resistant potions I picked up on our last trip into town. You’re welcome to one yourself, if you want?”

Maristella smiled but shook her head. “Once I’m in the water I’ll be fine,” she remarked, before diving in beneath the calm waves. Ashgar put the potions back away - apart from one - and then he pulled off the cork cap that held all of the magical liquid inside. He tipped his head back and drank the contents in one big gulp, and instantly the chill that nipped at his scales began to fade. Ashgar leapt into the water after his dragon friend, excited for whatever treasures they would discover that day.

The frigid temperature of the ocean would have frozen him had he not had one of those potions, and the Tsotska quietly thanked his past self for the insight. He treaded water for a few moments, located Mari through their mental connection, then took a deep breath. Time to dive.

One thing Ashgar never got used to when he sunk beneath the waves was how the salt stung his eyes at first. He loved the deep blue, but he never enjoyed those first few minutes. As inside eyes adjusted to the new environment, the blue scaled being looked down to the shallow ocean floor below. The shallows were always a reasonable spot to seek out tiny treasures, and Ashgar hadn’t had the classic gills of an ocean rider for long enough to go deep down. He still, even now, was just used to holding his breath and not letting the water around him grant the oxygen he needed. Maristella’s voice echoed mentally in his head, and he paused his survey of the ground to listen.

*Didn’t we check this spot just two days ago? I think we’d get better luck down the coast.* Mari was in her element here in the ocean - she was a cheerful, graceful master of the open waters and seemed to be such at ease down here. Ash wished he could feel that comfortable under the water some day. As it was, claws weren’t ideal for swimming.

*I say we skim this area, just in case, as we head down the shore,* Ash replied, swimming downwards to reach the ground below him. There were always a lot of rocks, a lot of odd stones - the real challenge was telling the useful bits apart from the less useful ones. Good thing Ashgar had had a lot of practice.

Maristella swam away, off to slightly deeper waters, and Ashgar busied himself with the rocks in front of him, until he had to go up for air. (He was not ready to learn about these gills yet.)

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A couple seconds passed as Ashgar caught his breath above the water. Something cold and wet landed on his head and he looked up to see what was going on. There were clouds far above him - there had been heavy cloud cover for the last few weeks - and now a freezing rain was falling from the sky. The rain was never Ash's favorite thing, but he was at least thankful that it wasn't snowing. Yet. There had already been so much snow up in the main part of the island, and it was awful trying to trek through the frozen white flakes whenever he had to go into town.

But that was neither here nor there. Ashgar gave some small thanks once more for the warmth of the potion he had drunk, and then dove back beneath the waves. The sea floor below him - maybe 15 feet down with how far out he was - looked like a scattered mess of rubble, kelp, and other odd things. So it was a good thing Ash knew what he was looking for. He saw the glint of something shining deep down, but it was trapped beneath a rock that he knew he would not be able to lift... at least not on his own.

*Mari, where are you now? I need your help with something,* Ash mentally called out, and it wasn't long before the agile form of his dragon appeared, hastily swimming up towards him.

She looked at the Tsotska, then at the stone he had fixed his gaze upon, and gathered her claws around it. Even she had some trouble lifting it at first. *I think the earth around it has gotten it stuck. Help me out, will you?* Maristella asked with a smile to her friend. Ashgar simply nodded and tried to stick his own claws into the mud around the stone. It was fairly challenging to dig through the hardened stuff, especially when he was running out of air very quickly.

*Your gills, you fool!* Mari mentally said to him. Ashgar didn't feel too confident about the whole thing, but realizing that they wouldn't get anything done otherwise, he took in a huge breath of water -

- and instanly started choking. There was water in his lungs, oh by the worlds this was it he was going to die -

But then, blessedly, he started to realize that he was able to breathe. It was an odd feeling that he wasn't quite used to yet but he had air, he was okay! *Mari, let's never do that again,* he said jokingly. They both knew he'd never give up the life of a salvager, though. The ocean dragon laughed silently, and bubbles rose from her mouth as she did so.

*Whatever you say, silly.*

Focusing fully on moving the dirt away from the huge rock, he managed to clear away enough of the debri that Maristella was able to shift it. First just an inch, then two, and then with a loud sucking noise it was pulled free from the mud to reveal the treasure underneath.

It didn't look like much, covered in dirt as it was, but Ashgar recognized a shiny necklace when he saw one. With a bit of clean up this could sell for quite a bit! Or perhaps he'd try to use it in one of his own projects (but then he'd always been a woodworker, not a blacksmith. That had always been Teeba's specialty.)

He reached down and grasped the dull metal, and once he had pulled it out Mari let the rock fall back into place.

*One treasure down, many to go, eh?* Ashgar thought to Mari brightly.

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