((Everyone welcome our newest PC! ))<br/><br/><br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold"> An indeterminate amount of time ago...</span><br/><br/>It was not the first ship-to-ship combat Rakkis had been in, but it was by far the most visceral. The Reds - a group of primarily human pirates that tended to stick to the eastern coastline - were not generally to be trifled with. That, of course, made them prime targets for his captain. The ambush had been sprung expertly, a heavy back broadside that allowed 'The Cat's Meow''s cannons to unleash absolute hell upon the vessel, effectively destroying it's ability to maneuver.  Like a wolf descending upon a lamb, the ship had closed the distance, broadsided it, and the crew had begun to board.<br/><br/>Outright warfare had never been so brutal. Entirely uncaring of proximity or even their own crew that had lept over to do battle, the 'Silverfish', the Red's vessel, unleashed a volley of cannonfire point-blank.<br/><br/>The blowback was horrific.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">KaBOOOOM</span><br/><br/>The shockwave hit Rakkis like a proverbial ton of bricks, throwing up wooden splinters into his chest and belly, penetrating through his fur to drive deeply into the flesh beneath.  Despite his size, the sudden impact threw him off balance.<br/><br/>He stumbled....<br/><br/>...and soon enough, water was rushing up to meet him.<br/><br/>The sudden shock of the icy-cold water hit him every bit as hard as the cannonblast, and despite his own swimming ability, the weight of his armor began to drag him downwards.<br/><br/>It was a moment of absolute serenity.<br/><br/>High above him, through the gray, murky haze of the water, he could see bright flashes of light, flames that licked the very water that sought to drag him ever downwards to his burial ground. The concussive blast of the cannons, the fire of small arms, reverberated through the water around him, though it all seemed so far away. His entire world was a murky light show, and the absolute serenity of the water that sought to invade his lungs.<br/><br/>Somewhere in the back of his mind, a part of him screamed to swim upwards, to claw for the lifegiving air that seemed so far above, but as much as he willed it, his body simply refused to respond.<br/><br/>A dark shape swept soundlessly before his line of sight - a shark person, by the looks of it - only to flash upwards when a second body hit the water. The thrashing form only gets a single, brief second before the shark closes in, grabs both ankles, and begins to greedily stuff the frantically fighting form own his or her throat. There is no contest - within a matter of seconds, the unlucky crewman of who knows which ship is just a squirming bulge inside the bloated midsection of the hazy sharklike figure. Was that to be his fate...? Food for some shark...?<br/><br/>It mattered little. His lungs burned....<br/><br/>He needed air. Just one mouthful....<br/><br/>He breathed...and water finally found it's purchase within his lungs, plunging him into darkness....<br/><br/><br/>**<span style="font-weight: bold"> An Indeterminate amount of time later </span>**<br/><br/>Rakkis's eyes slowly open, his blurry vision focusing on....sand? Hardly has he a moment to regain his senses when he felt his lungs suddenly begin to burn, and he is forced to violently retch, coughing up sputtering mouthfuls of rancid, salty water onto the sand beneath his head.<br/><br/>He felt awful. His body burned, his lungs and arms ached, he was hungry, cold, sodden....<br/><br/>But alive.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">CrackTHOOM! </span><br/><br/>The sound of lightning overhead sounds around him, followed by a cry of anger, pain....and then another. More and more....<br/><br/>The war raged....<br/><br/>((Sadly, we don't get to play out this part. x3 I've already pretty well described what has happened in the remainder of the thread, and Rakkis has pretty well hidden himself while this horrible war raged on around him. Eventually, the armies moved on, leaving him to pick across a scattered battlefield, incidentally right towards the party....))<br/><br/><br/>****<br/><br/>It had been nearly four hours since he'd awoken, and every part of his body simply screamed fatigue, but he was alive. Alive in an alien landscape with no knowledge of his surroundings, but he was, indeed, alive.<br/><br/><br/>((I could go into further detail here, but I'd more or less like you to describe your entrance to the party. You can more or less see a lone figure's head peeking up from above a trench in the distance, and you just saw a naga wiggle down into it, leaving a rather nervous-looking dragon girl behind....from there, it's up to you. x3 If you are going to try and remain hidden, you'll need to do stealthy things, or....yeah, up to you! ))