Greetings from Sor Solir — Part 2


Authors
Jesse
Published
4 years, 7 months ago
Updated
4 years, 7 months ago
Stats
1 2510

Chapter 1
Published 4 years, 7 months ago
2510

My prompt entries for part 2 of the Sor Solir summer event.

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The Aeoss Sea


Fhyu is getting antsy. It's been several days and his ship is still nowhere closer to being repaired as it was the first day he tried to go home, and on top of that, Szigfried has gone radio silent. Any attempts to reach the bird wind up failing, but Fhyu can reach the resort's communications systems just fine. Szigfried is ignoring him. It hurts, Fhyu won't lie. But maybe it's just for the best. Szigfried is his employee, all things considered. That, and Fhyu still feels like he doesn't deserve to be allowed to move on from Katzya just yet. He'd rather emotionally and mentally torture himself over his mate instead of doing what Katzya would want him to do, which would be to move on and be happy with someone else. He can't. Not yet.

All of this stress just results in the bird staying indoors, soaking in the bath and drinking more wine than what was good for him. He did return to the ship to fetch his perishable food items, opting to use them to make some meals rather than letting them rot, but with eating being an unfortunate and temporary solution to his anxiety and boredom, the meals didn't last all that long. Fhyu's been back out to the capital a couple times on some food runs, but he hasn't returned to the festival. Too many people. Too much beach. No real reason to return; once was enough.

Still, it's hard to stay inside and mope around when he gets something in the mail. At first, Fhyu assumed that it was just standard mail addressed to his client, since he's staying in his home, after all. But closer look at the envelope reveals Fhyu's name above the address. Someone knows he's here. Curiosity gets the better of him, and he opens the envelope. Inside is a flyer, which wasn't something he was expecting, but Fhyu decides to read it anyway. The browbird depicted at the top of the flyer looks vaguely familiar for some reason, but Fhyu can't put his finger on it. He idly scans the flyer, taking note of the nice paper it's printed on. And is that.. gold ink on the edges? The entire flyer just reeks of something fancy. The information on it is really rather vague, and it strikes Fhyu as nothing more than nonsense. But still, he's more than curious about the illustration of the browbird, and wondering why it's tugging at his memory the way that it is. He doesn't really want to go back to the festival, but maybe he'll stop by for just a moment to see what this is all about. Even if it's mostly just to scratch a mental itch, he'll do it. It's not like he has anything better to do, anyway.

And so he goes. 

There's more sand in his tail than there is on the beach by the time Fhyu makes it to the stage area. Everyone seems intent on kicking sand everywhere in their revelry, and Fhyu's fluffy tail is a magnet for all of it. He holds it in front of himself, rapidly batting it with his hand to shake the grains out, but it does very little to help. He'll have to go through the entire thing with a fine-toothed comb after he cleans and deep-conditions it. What a pain. He elects to just sharply flick it behind him as he stands there, kneading his talons in the sand, not enjoying the long wait.

Eventually, the crowd starts to stir. Murmurs become excited chatter, though still keeping the low tones. Fhyu takes a few steps back as the crowd edges him that way, parting their ranks for someone to come through. Though he's fairly tall, Fhyu stands on tiptoe to peek around the shoulders of the two kitbulls in front of him, and then immediately wishes that he hadn't.

Mosaic.

That's why he recognised the illustration.

Fhyu stands back on his feet, lowering his face into both hands with nothing but frustration, wondering why he'd been stupid enough to have been duped into whatever this is. He knows who Mosaic is. Two years ago, the bird had booked one of Fhyu's hot springs resorts in its entirety for one of his treasure hunting parties. "A quaint little sidestop," as he'd put it. Fhyu had spared no expense making everything perfect for his guests, only to have heard Mosaic talking about the "low quality décor" and "boring gardens". Clearly Mosaic is more used to resorts that cater to the wealthiest of birds, and while Fhyu's resorts are considered to be along the same lines, he just doesn't feel like spending his money on crystal floors and golden doorknobs. Also screw you, Mosaic; the gardens are absolutely stunning.

Though he's more than irritated right now, Fhyu decides to leave. He doesn't particularly listen to whatever Mosaic is chattering about, and he only sticks around long enough for Mosaic's voice to really grate into his ears before he turns heel and starts heading over to the festival. He wants another one of those stuffed squids.

However, the few words that Fhyu manages to catch as he leaves has him whirling around. Rainbow-haired backpacker? Surely that could literally only mean Angea, right? Of course someone like her would be a detriment to a bougie-ass bird like Mosaic. Alright, fine. He listens for their next meeting time. He doesn't care about Mosaic; he just really hopes that Angea might show up.

And she does.

It's days later, but she made her way into the event just like Fhyu hoped she would. Clearly Angea and Mosaic have their histories together, but so do she and Fhyu. His interest in Mosaic's astrean lock isn't as piqued as his desire to talk with Angea is, but he's patient and waits for the hullabaloo to be over and done with. Astrean artifacts aren't anything new to Fhyu; he has several of his own spread out among his resorts to use as decor, but each one of them has a detailed descriptor next to it stating what it is, where it came from, a rough idea of how old it is, what it was used for, etc. Angea herself helped him make several of those placards. He more than trusts that she knows what she's doing, so the fact that she's inserting herself into Mosaic's fancypants idiot business tells Fhyu that something greater is afoot here.

Angea is surprised to see Fhyu there, to the point where she questions "why would a sensible guy like you get pulled into Mosie's pile of shit??"

Fhyu's lame answer seemed to irritate her, but there wasn't really anything that could be done about it at this point. 

"Well, who cares 'bout that anymore," Angea grumbles, looping her arm through Fhyu's and pulling him off to the side with her. Mosaic watches the two of them from the corner of his eye, but he's too busy with his guests' peppering questions to be able to do anything about it.

"Look, here's the deal. Mosie's gonna be sending off a whole herd of morons off looking for stuff, but I have two places I want you to look for me. I'd go with you, but someone really need to keep an eye on that guy, and I'd rather it be me. I know you, and I know you're good at what you do. So I need you to scout this part of the Aeoss Sea," she points to a particular spot on a map she's suddenly produced from who knows where, "And over here in the Solance Forest."

"I don't treasure hunt anymore, Angea," Fhyu interjects, wishing he'd said it earlier, "Not after what happened to—"

Angea takes hold of both of Fhyu's shoulders, gripping them tightly. She looks up at him from her shorter height, and gently shakes Fhyu a little bit. "I know what happened, Fhyu. I'm really sorry about Katzya. He was a good guy, and you two were great together. But what Mosie's doing here is dangerous. He's playing around with stuff that shouldn't be played with, and he's taking advantage of a huge group of morons who don't know what they're doing. As of right now, you're the only person in this crowd that I can trust, and I really need you on my side. People can get hurt. Please." Angea's eyes pleadingly bore into Fhyu's, her fingers tightening around his warm arms until he raises them to get out of her grip.

"Alright, fine. I'll go." Fhyu snatches the map out of her hand, using his other hand to discreetly wipe away the film of tears from his eyes. Hearing Katzya's name being spoken aloud was a lot more painful than he imagined it would be, especially by Angea. 

As he tucks the map into his pocket, he notices Mosaic giving him the side-eye, clearly not liking Angea giving someone things, or even just having a friend in the crowd. Fhyu narrows his eyes in response, giving the bird a rather nasty look before walking off. He'll never forgive Mosaic for talking shit about his resort, and even more so now that his gaudy stupidity is dragging Fhyu into emotional turmoil at having to dip his feet back into a lifestyle that he buried years ago, along with his mate. 

But whatever. He just wants to get it over with.

The nice thing about swimming is that no matter how cold the water is, Fhyu never notices. The fiery aspect of his magic constantly exuding from his body keeps him warm and insulated no matter where he is. Plus, it's not too bad taking a little dive here. From the shoals to the deeper floor, the Aeoss Sea is beautiful. Being a dual water-magic user, Fhyu is attuned to the location, and is able to hold his breath for longer than most, so he almost starts to enjoy his little excursion. Tiny seasuns follow him in a little train, amusing him to no end, but they seem to scatter off after awhile. 

It's useful that Angea had waterproofed the map, since Fhyu can check it while he's under the water. He finally arrives at the point that Angea had indicated, which is little more than a moss-covered, rocky area, with a small bit of sandy floor. Fhyu gently shoos away the nearby sea creatures, not wanting any of them harmed while he does a bit of scouring. His magic is perfect for creating a little cyclone of water, its tail touching the small bit of sand and beginning to suck it up into the funnel. It makes digging for things in the sand quick and easy, and without creating giant clouds of sand and debris everywhere and winding up unable to see anything. He does gently push the funnels off to the side, past the rocks, once they get too full of sand and they become harder to control. It keeps his area clear, and he's able to continue working. Stuff like rocks, shells, and terrified undershore critters constantly wind up in his little cyclones, and if terrorizing the local marine wildlife was a crime, Fhyu would be heading off to prison. 

Still, his hard work is rewarded once a giant chunk of something flies out of the ground, too big to be contained by his water funnel. It flies right at him, nearly smacking right into his face if it weren't for him catching it at the last second. Impressive, for being confined to slower movements underwater. Unfortunately, the surprise had him lose control of the funnel, and the bird is now enveloped in a large cloud of sand and bits of moss. Fhyu clutches at the hunk of whatever it is, tucking it into his arm and against his chest as his feet push off the rocks, heading for the surface. He needs to breathe, anyway.

The moment his head pops above the water, Fhyu holds up the object he found, steadily kicking his legs so that he can remain upright. It's an odd piece of stone, looking like it might have been part of a disc at some point, but was now broken into crumbling slices. Fhyu wagers that he's holding at least one-fourth of whatever it was. Though, from the astrean runes on the border, and the intricate designs in the center of the piece, Fhyu knows that it's part of an astrean key, which most likely fits into the lock that Mosaic's been showing off to everyone. He has to get this to Angea.

"I knew you'd pull through for me," Angea says, tucking the piece into her bag, "Thank the stars you were here."

Fhyu brushes off her thanks, choosing to busy himself unwrapping the towels from his tail. "So what now, then?"

Angea takes another sip of her drink as she sits down on the sofa across from Fhyu. "From what I know, someone else found a piece of the lock in the water, too. Only problem is, they gave it to Mosie."

"Great."

She leans forward, keeping the bag safe in her lap. "One of the other pieces should be in the forest, at the location I marked. I want to stay here and make sure Mosie's not going to be up to anything rotten with that lock, now that he's gotten a piece. Honestly, Fhyu, I'm heavily considerin' giving him this piece, too."

Fhyu stops unwrapping the towels, staring at Angea with surprise. "You can't be serious."

"Look. I don't like him, and I don't trust him any farther'n I could throw him. But this is a seriously important artifact. If we could unlock it, think of what we could learn from it!! Plus, I'd be stickin' real close to Mosie to make sure that he's not going to be even more shady than he already is. We've each got a piece, so that means we're on even ground. If he wants it unlocked just as much as I do, he'll agree to let us work together." 

"Sounds like you know him pretty well."

"Believe me, I wish I didn't."

Smirking, Fhyu peels off the remaining towels, flicking his damp tail out a few times. He'll wait til Angea's gone before he starts to groom it. "Alright. I trust your judgement. I'll head to the forest in the morning. I just want some sleep for the night."

Angea grins, and she downs the last of her drink before leaving the cup on the side table. "Thanks, I knew you'd understand. And thanks for invitin' me over; I'd prefer to keep all of this stuff private, ya know?"

"Likewise."

The two birds bid each other farewell, and Fhyu is left to start the lengthy, tiresome process of combing his tail from top to bottom. And think about Katzya. And Szigfried. He misses them both, but in different ways.

Why do feelings have to hurt more than they make you feel better?

Screw Mosaic for making things even more complicated.