Coin Flip - Lo'ak

14:

Lo'ak's POV:

Was there a windstorm happening right now? Why did I feel as though our marui was being swayed so much?

Slowly, I opened my eyes to see what was causing this movement, I realised that it was in fact because I was in the ocean and not my marui.

What was I doing here? What time was it?

Shit.

I'm was still out at sea where that thing attacked me! How did I escape?

I looked around, realising that I'm in fact floating atop a giant rock in the middle of the ocean.

But how?

I remembered fainting from the lack of air. My lungs burned as my body began to feel cold and slowly shut down into darkness.

What saved me? Was it a fever dream?

Looking around, I tried to determine the time of day. The sun was still brightly out so it mustn't have been that long that I was out for.

I tried pulling myself up onto the rock but I felt the rock move.

I was confused if it was just my lack of orientation due to the past events or if it really did move.

As I pulled myself up and out of the water with my arms, the rock exploded with water coming from a hole. This also redirected my attention in front of me where gills opened and closed for air.

Oh no. This was no rock. This was some sort of animal. And I've been resting on it without a single worry. What if it didn't know I was here and when it does, it'll try and eat me? Shit, what am I gonna do?

I needed to calm down, if this animal really wanted to eat me, it would have done so already.

There was no way I climbed onto this thing myself. This animal saved me. I'm alive because of its help.

It blew out more water into the sky so I moved, not only get out of the way but also to face the animal and see what had actually even saved me.

I swam just below the water's surface, observing the body of this being.

As I came to a fin, there was a metal rod sticking out through it. It was definitely injured by it.

Sitting on the same fin, I tried being careful to avoid the wound. Sitting in a position allowing me to keep away from the metal rod and help keep half of my body out of the water to breathe and be in eye-level with this animal.

Having inspected it, I realised this living being was in fact a tulkun. They're very friendly from what I've heard from Tsireya and I knew for sure that he was my saving grace from before.

"You saved my life, thank you." I showed him my gratitude.

I remembered Tsireya saying they better understand us with sign language, so I thanked him again, using sign as well.

He tried communicating back but his wails were hard to understand, however his eye looked in the direction of the metal rod within his fin and I knew what he was implying. They hurt him: the sky people.

Seeming as I owed him for saving my life earlier, I tried to see what I could do about that metal rod.

I submerged myself in the water once again and swam around the wound to inspect if I could remove it while hurting him in the least way possible.

I reached for the metal to push it up through the wound but unfortunately it got stuck. Noticing why, it was due to there being a latch attached to it, too bulky to squeeze through the hole already made. This latch was there to help untwist the rod from the top and bottom.