<div class="floatleft">(http://i.imgur.com/wyqzW.jpg)     </div><em>The taste is the first thing she knows, the bitter tinge on her tongue making its way into what must be the fitful dreams of pain, suppressed by unconsciousness.  The dolphins are gliding through the night-black water, and the ship-- nets lowered-- looms, dotted with the golden fires of lanterns, shadows of monstrous men.  Vile men... stinking of city-fouling, sour poisons and greasy metal.  Men of the 'civilized' world, no doubt, the world where agony breeds glee in the hearts of villainous men.<br/>She cannot hope to keep pace with creatures born to the sea, only to reach them... only to warn the dolphins, to steer them from the danger they cannot understand.  But in her dream, her strokes in the water are floundering, ineffective-- she swims against an invisible tide that lashes her against the shore.  The tinge in her mouth is the sand of that oily shore, tainted and poisoned by spilled tar and ashes.  Her body is thrashed against rocks, but the pain is distant, dull-- half-numb, as if remembering a broken bone.  The cliffs-- she knows their danger-- but she's dashed against them again and again...</em><br/>Pain.  Her head is splitting with white-hot rails of it.  She opens her eyes, and one won't part all the way.  Her lips sting, her back, hip and leg throb against the pallet she sleeps upon.  She fights the pain, reaches to steady herself, to launch to her feet--  she elicits nothing but a painful wrenching, the bite of rope into her wrists.  Panic sets in, and her breath comes in rapid succession-- she fights it down, she hears the groans of others.  A shape passes the white light-- a portal of daylight spilling into some festering galley of wood and iron.  She is in a ship, the ocean strains at its groaning planks.  She is trapped in a hell of men.<br/>She tries to suppress it, but a groan of misery and anger slips out from behind her clenched teeth, and she presses her swollen cheek to the wooden plank, then rolls angrily to her feet.  She tests the ropes... could she break them?  Or at least break her own wrists trying?  She reels on her feet, the pain and disorientation threatening to kick her over onto the galley floor.  She spits dryly, puckers her mouth and tries again, desperate to rid her mouth of the last of the bitter plant's oil, more than certain of its effect on humanoids.  The man with the whip... she'd caught barely a glimpse of him when she was hauled onto the deck, and like the others his face is only a vague memory of torment and humiliation.<br/>Her garments-- woven hemp and linen, worn thin with age-- are wet with sweat and cling to her back, and her bare arms are livid with bruises from the net and hull.  Barefoot, she still seems a little unsteady, and starts reflexively at the loud pop of the whip.  She looks over the others nearby, understands-- with some uncertainty-- what must be their fate.  Quickly, she scans for any who are too injured to stand, recognizing the pain that surely awaits any who do not comply... if she can aid anyone, with her hands tied as they are, she will try to do so-- even if just by encouragement.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">fort- 39694   Noone or Anyone   2012-07-15 09:45:24   At 2012-07-15 09:45:24, icsyhyat (uid: 768) rolls: 1d20a4 Result: 9 (http://elliquiy.com/forums/dicebot.php?r=39694)<br/>k.nature- 39693   Noone or Anyone   2012-07-15 09:44:42   At 2012-07-15 09:44:42, icsyhyat (uid: 768) rolls: 1d20a7 Result: 25 (http://elliquiy.com/forums/dicebot.php?r=39693)<br/>percep- 39692   Noone or Anyone   2012-07-15 09:43:53   At 2012-07-15 09:43:53, icsyhyat (uid: 768) rolls:  1d20a6 Result: 15 (http://elliquiy.com/forums/dicebot.php?r=39692)<br/>int- 39691   Noone or Anyone   2012-07-15 09:43:05   At 2012-07-15 09:43:05, icsyhyat (uid: 768) rolls: 1d20a1 Result: 12 (http://elliquiy.com/forums/dicebot.php?r=39691)<br/>Current possessions: clothes (poor), shell jewelry.</div></div>