Slimy, that's how she always felt when she took this shape. It felt weird to be able to breath underwater and to not feel the chill of the ocean. She was lithe, silver in the cold water with fins where her arms use to be and a beautiful thick tail where her legs use to be. Her nose had grown into her mouth and whenever she opened it chirps rang through the water from her throat. She could have chosen to be anything, but for Miriana dolphins had always been the least disgusting sea creature. Still, she hated the slimy feeling of their skin. 

She swam as fast as she could, for the daughter of a pirate the ocean had always terrified her, and she wanted to be out of it as soon as possible. It was no wonder then that when she saw the shore, with a forest growing almost right to the beach, she jumped out of the water, chirping with glee. As soon as she fell back in she jumped once more, relishing the wind on her face. It didn't take her long to reach the land and she flopped as far out of the water as she could before changing shape. 

The silver skin of the dolphin seemed to melt off of her, her fins stretched and broke as her arms began to take shape once more. Her tail split in half, morphing back into two human legs until finally, a young girl lay in the sand, completely naked. She had long black hair and smoldering red eyes. Her ears were sharp and pointed like that of the elven race. Two horns, much like those on a ram grew from her skull, and behind her a long reptilian tail grew from her tailbone. It always took her a few moments after a long time having shape changed to find her own sense. Standing on shaky legs she looked around her surroundings. The sun was still high in the sky and the warmth beat down on her, making her curl her toes and let out a hum of pleasure. 

Ahead of her the forest stretched away, in the daylight it looked very inviting and exciting. Her first day on her own and already it looked promising. She had always thought life off of a pirates ship would be horribly boring, but right now, it felt like she might be wrong. Taking a deep breath-not even glancing back at the ocean- she took her first few steps into the woods.

The light was much dimmer her then it had been on the beach and she felt herself growing a bit cold. "Looks like you're out of luck for clothes miri." She sighed to herself. She usually always carried spares with her, but her ejection off the boat had been so sudden that she hadn't been able to pack. Not like she'd have been able to keep those clothes dry in the ocean. She sighed again as she thought of the look of fury on her captains face and the look of pure horror and fear on the crew. Most of them had liked her, and so the sudden command of their captain to throw her overboard had come as a shock to them. She knew they were weak, otherwise they never would have done as he had commanded. 

Shaking herself she realized that the sun was setting and if she didn't want to freeze to death she'd have to find some shelter. Picking up as many branches as she could, she built herself a little shelter, and just to make sure she wouldn't freeze she changed shape once more. Fur grew all along her body, her back arched and snapped, dropping her onto all fours. She let out a soft cry which turned quickly into a howl. Ears popped up where her horns had been, but the eyes stayed the same, bright and red as she curled up in her little shelter and let her eyes close. 

Shreiks woke her in the middle of the night and her fur stood on end. A growl rose in her throat as she looked out from her shelter, wondering what could be making such a horrible sound. 

Harrison had anchored his ship off the coast of the Koschei Forest. He had certainly learned his lesson the last time he had come here and came out empty handed due to the restless spirits in the woods. He took his row boat to the shore and jumped out into the water and tugged the vessel firmly into the beach. The Captain pulled his compass out from a small pouch and looked at it briefly before he picked a direction into the wood. He was a handsome man, almost six feet in height, dark brown hair and blue eyes. He wore a black leather coat with a white shirt that was tucked into his black leather pants. His black boots came nearly up to his knees, and he had a rapier attached to his belt as well. The thing that stood out was the hook he had for a left hand, the rogue used it to clear some hanging ropes out of the way and other things. It was midday when he had come ashore for adventure and treasure. After all, he would need more coin to hire a crew to help him sail his ship, it had been a difficult voyage to this point but he had managed.


It would seem that luck wasn't on Harrison's side today. He had managed to find a trove of belongings to the widows who had killed themselves in these woods. The dashing rogue had started to load up smaller things to carry back with him to his ship when he heard the noises once again. “You've got to be joking.” He heard the woods drop to a dead silence, the pirate couldn't even hear himself breathing at this point. Then all at once there was a cacophonous screaming, Harrison dropped what he was holding to cover his ears. He then took off running from the disturbed spirits that were angered by his thieving of their belongings. It would seem his feet thought before his brain and he got good and lost in the woods. When things seemed to calm down it was getting close tonight fall and the spirits would only grow stronger.


Captain Jones pulled out his compass again and squinted at it in the fading light. He knew what direction his ship was in and decided to move quickly. He hadn't realized how far he had gotten from the shore, it was getting close to the witching hour when he finally heard the crash of waves on the shore. It was then the screaming came again and he felt them beginning to grab him. The rogue slashed at them helplessly with his hook hand, that seemed to at least disrupt their form to allow him to escape. When he did so they screamed louder, it was then he started to run full sprint for the shore, he had to get out. He then almost tripped over a make-shift shelter that had been set up on the beach. Harrison however was quick on his feet and quickly danced around it. His blue eyes then focused on the creature beneath the shelter, “I have a boat, if you come with me you can get away from the spirits that are bound to burst through the tree line at any moment.” He would wait a moment to see if the horned dog with red eyes would follow him, then a screech sent him running to the row boat that was on the beach.


He pushed the row boat until he was waist deep in the water before he looked to the creature, giving it another moment to jump in.

Everything happened so fast Miriana didn't know what to think. All she knew was that the screams belonged to a numerous amount of creatures, too many for herself to handle alone. When the man burst upon her a growl ripped from her throat and the silver fur along her back raised even higher. She lunged at him but his human scent stopped her mid strike. Faltering she slipped awkwardly, her paw sliding out beneath her as he took off for the shore. In the time it took for her to regain her feet the spirits had passed the tree line. While she wasn't afraid-it took a lot to frighten her-she wasn't stupid. She knew she could never handle so many and not when it seemed nothing solid could harm them, so instead she took to chasing after the man. 

She slashed at the ghosts or spirits nearest to reaching the shore and their escape route only to feel her paws strike empty air. She shivered and set her paws faster to the ground. By the time she reached the shore he had already pushed the boat into the ocean. Spraying sand she forced herself to move even faster and took a flying leap at the boat. Mid air she shifted, the skin melting off her bones and forming the much smaller figure of herself. 

She landed in a heap of arms and legs at the very edge of the boat, her lower half slipping into the water. Scrambling she managed to haul herself into the boat where she sat, chest heaving, breath billowing and eyes wide. "That…" She huffed. "was…brilliant." A smile lit her face and she turned to watch the spirits shriek as their quarry floated away. "Do you happen to have an extra shirt?" She asked softly beginning to shiver in the night chill. 

Taking the time at hand she looked the man over. He was rugged, in a very dashing way. Not at all like the pirates she had traveled with all her life. Those were vagabonds, dirty stinking drunkards who could barely hold a sword, no, this man definitely knew what he was doing. She liked his eyes. She had always loved the look of blue eyes and often wished she had that color herself. All in all she liked his face. She didn't trust him, no, not yet. She never trusted anyone she didn't know very very well. That's why it had been of no surprise for her when her crew had thrown her overboard. 

(ooc: I am so sorry for the delay. I will do my best to not make you wait so long again.)

(OoC: No biggie.)


Harrison saw the creature run along the beach and then leap towards the boat. Then much to his surprise the dog turned into a nude girl and he stared briefly at her before he climbed into the boat. He smiled a little and laughed when she said what he did was brilliant. Then they were a distance away from the actual shore and it was then she asked if he had an extra shirt. “Unfortunately not on me, but we can get you in clothes on the ship. In the mean time…” He trailed off for a moment and slipped out of his leather jacket and then slipped his shirt off and tossed it to her. Harrison was toned but not overly built and his torso was covered in a reasonable amount of hair. With that he began to row the boat towards his ship, his hook hand didn't seem to have too much of a problem working the oars.


“To give you a warning, my crew is entirely men right now, they shouldn't give you a problem. There is one rather grumpy guy, you'll recognize him right away. Come to think of it they're all kind of grumpy… With the exception of me of course.” Harrison continued to row and the ship was now within sight of the row boat.


“So tell me, how did you end up on such a nasty shore? I mean of all the ones you could have camped out on that is certainly one of the worst ones.”

She slipped on the shirt and relished in its warmth. It was soft, not something she expected from a pirate. She had to smile as she watched him row the boat. It seemed like her life was one adventure after the next and she would have it no other way. Glancing around the ocean she had just come out of that morning she shrugged off his fear of the men. "I'm use to being around just guys." She hummed. "I didn't know the shore was bad. I was…" She paused, should she tell him the truth? If she did…he might feel threatened and leave her back with the specters. "I was just exploring." She crinkled the edges of the sleeves in her hands and stuffed them between her legs to keep her hands warm. 

"So you work on a ship? whats your captain like? wont he mind you bringing back a stray?" She spilled out. She was excited to see what these men were like. Maybe they would help her practice her sword play. None of the others on her ship had, too afraid of making the captain mad.