Paradox laid still on the sand for the longest time, eyes closed. Everything hurt and ached. Half her body was still submerged in the surf, the tide carrying her tail out then bringing it back in as it rolled over her haunches. She opened her eyes slightly, squinting as the bright sun radiated off the sand. What happened? She thought to herself. Vaguely now, she remembered the ship she was on, full of passengers. The storm was fierce, wind and rain pounded the little ship, making visibility quite poor. The ship ran aground on a submerged sandbar, water filling the hold. The ship starting to sink. She had raced to the top deck, helping people into lifeboats. 

They had only successfully launched a few boats into the water when the ship had lurched sharply to the side. Her hooves slipped on the wet deck and she felt herself fall to her side. Her hooves suddenly appeared above her body, kicking wildly trying to catch anything to stop her rapid descent across the deck. A equine scream escaped her mouth as her hands grabbed frantically at the deck. They caught nothing. Suddenly her flank pounded into the guardrail, her momentum carrying her bulk farther and it shattered into large wooden splinters. She felt herself fall off the side, surrounded only by the wet air. Then there was a massive splash as her body hit the water.

She opened her eyes and swam towards the surface. Her head broke above the water as she tried to stay afloat. She stared at the ship, still leaning to the side. She heard people screaming and several others fell off the deck like she did, landing in the water nearby. There was a loud, sickening twist of wood cracking and the ship flopped to the side, the port side now submerged. She was in shock as she watched it quickly slipped into oblivion, her thoughts going to all the men, women, and children still on board. 

She started swimming away from the wreck, her powerful legs moving her forward. There was nothing left she could do. She passed several bodies, floating gently in the water. It's like they're sleeping. She remembers swimming for a long time, then her legs gave out and she couldn't go any farther. Her memory faded into darkness and that was the last thing she could recall.

Now she was here, on a beach, on an island she didn't know of. She twitched her hand, getting a purchase on the warm sand. Gradually she righted herself, so that her human half was upright. She dusted the sand off of her white shirt, the sea water making it stiff. She looked the surf for her bag of supplies and found it a dozen yards down the beach, resting on the white sand. She didn't see any life at all, except for the birds that flew overhead. She gave a sad sigh and shook her mane, sand flying out of it. Stiffly she got to her feet, shaking the water off her body. She went to her bag, each step labored. She bent down and picked it up. Inside were all her belongs, just very wet versions of themselves. She slung the bag over her side and looked down the beach. She limped on, hooves digging into the sand and breathing hard. If there were any survivors, she would find them.

Storms were more common in the Nyella Ocean than the western seas of Canelux, but they were not unheard of, especially during typhoon season. Rare squalls would occasionally pop up, turning the already treacherous terrain into a sailor's nightmare. Ship wrecks were frequent occurrences during typhoon season because of this perfect storm equation, to the point where a great many companies went out of their way to avoid transporting goods or people through the western seas during the middle months of the year.
 
Unfortunately, as is often the case in business, there were always those companies who were willing to push the envelope just to make some extra crescents. With three major settlements lining the west coast of Canelux, there was always significant pull for trade and transport through the channels even during the stormy months. Some entrepreneurs viewed this market force as an opportunity significant enough to truncate the dangers, and so they would commission vessels all year round while trying to game the weather patterns.
 
As could be expected, the companies occasionally lost ships from these reckless ventures, but the increased fares and shipping costs they were charging for their services made the risk worth the reward. People died, but not often enough to warrant public scrutiny. In fact, so great was their confidence in their own scheme that these businessmen frequently didn't even keep full time retrieval teams in case something went wrong. If such a case did occur - as it did with bad weather forecasts - they would just hire freelancers to go out and search the wreckage, thereby reducing their costs so long as they remained accurate meteorologists.
 
During one particularly stormy month, Natsumi had been hired as one such freelancer. Adan Shipping had heard of her extensive salvage operations in the Canelux area, and, as such, reached out to her when one of their tourism ships went missing. Fiona was the name of the vessel in question, and it had gone down off the northern coast of Apoy – at least according to its prototype distress beacon. It was only a brief amount of time after that crash that the winged Ice Queen found herself in the skies above the vessel's debris, at which point the survey of destruction began.
 
Sadly, the scene she found amidst the waves was hardly optimistic. Large portions of the ship's hull were scattered across the brine, as were several corpses. A quick head count revealed at least a quarter of the passengers had died, while the rest were nowhere to be seen. The storm that sank it all was still ongoing, as well, though not as violent as it had been earlier.
 
"What's your estimate, Kino?" Natsumi shouted while soaring above this hellscape. Her tunic and pants were thoroughly drenched from the storm overhead, and her trajectory was aimed to the southwest. Thankfully, despite her waterlogged nature, Kino was able to respond with precise details.
 
"Two hours have passed since the captain of the Fiona manually triggered her distress beacon," she began, "and aura scans of the area indicate no signs of humanoid life. At present, there is too little information to estimate an accurate percentage of survivors. However, it is reasonable to assume a large death toll, given the current state of the vessel. Given the debris pattern and knowledge of currents in the area, it is likely that any survivors have already found their way to Apoy Island."
 
The aforementioned island loomed on the horizon at the edge of the storm, bidding the airborne woman a foul welcome founded upon bitter memories. Her opinion of the local populace was low after her first encounter with them years prior, as was her expectation that any survivors from the shipwreck that made it there would remain as such for long. The fact that it was her most likely destination was unfortunate, because she would not even entertain the idea of returning under normal circumstances. She was being paid to rescue as many passengers as possible, though, and so had little choice but to pick up the pace. She flew toward the coast with that in mind, at least until she spotted the stray wreckage below alongside a very unique survivor.
 
It was centaur, large and majestic; truly a rare sight. Regrettably, though, the druid arrived too late to be the creature's first, humanoid interaction since the crash. Her speed was not quite sufficient enough, and a few, armed warriors dressed in tribal garb were already coming out of the jungle ahead of her arrival. They walked toward the castaway with weapons drawn, obviously ready for combat. Whether they would attack her remained to be seen, but Natsumi didn't wish to take any chances. She hid herself against the backdrop of the sun, and summoned her fire bow in preparation for combat. If the situation on the shore turned violent, she would be ready to assist at a moment's notice. For now, however, she simply waited and watched with the patience of a true hunter.

Paradox heard the natives approach before she saw them and raised her bardiche that she found lying next to her on the ground. The sharp jagged blade gleamed wickedly in the sunlight and she brandished it before her as the tribal people came out of the brush. They surrounded her and she flicked her ears back. She twisted in a tight circle, glaring at them. They looked first at her face and then at her body, the equine portion. She heard them mumble to each other in hushed voices in a language that she didn't know.

"Who are you?" She asked loudly. "What do you want?" They didn't answer her questions and instead eyed her curiously. She hissed and whipped around to face what appeared to be the leader. He was the most adorned in feathers and assorted beads, and had several piercings on his face. He spoke to the other tribesmen, using crude hand gestures and pointing at her flanks. She snorted at him and lifted her weapon higher. When he looked at her again, there was a crazed hunger in his eyes. She glared back at him, noticing out of the corner of her eyes as the others inched closer to her. She reared up and twisted around, a hoarse animal cry coming from her mouth. 

She realized then, that they didn't see her as part human, part of their own kind. Her hooves pawed the ground as she lifted her forelegs up and down. They only saw the animal, the horse that was a part of her as much as her human half. They only saw meat, they only saw food. They lunged forward weapons raised to hack into her flesh. She reared, a horrible scream emitting from her body, and she swung the polearm violently through the air. It collided with a man, almost sawing him in half and sending him flying back several feet. This caused the others to rush her at once, angered about their fallen comrade. 

She felt an arrow hit her hindquarters and she kicked out with her legs before racking down the men with her axe. She bucked at several individuals, catching their bodies and launching them backwards. Sand flew threw the air, specks of red blood soaking into it and creating dark patches. She circled around, hacking with her bardiche, then rushing forward and trampling a screaming native under her hooves. She cried out in a twisted bray as she felt another arrow hit home in the muscle above her foreleg. She grabbed a man by the throat and bit deeply, blood seeping down her chin. The man flailed before she dropped him to the ground and slammed his body with her hooves. 

She snarled at the few remaining natives that remained standing, her mane flapping and giving her the look of a beast. The men backed away from her and she lowered her dripping weapon. She panted heavily and growled at them. She leaped towards them and they ran towards the trees. She yelled after them but didn't move. They weren't worth it. She turned and walked towards the water, she needed to clean her blade off or it would start to rust. She hadn't made it more than a few steps when she heard dozens of feet running towards her. She didn't have time to turn around before the net closed over her.

She collapsed to the ground and writhed furiously in the sand. The net tightened around her legs as she struggled to escape. She couldn't raise her axe and clawed at the net with her hands. She screamed and thrashed and rolled in her attempts to escape. At last there was a point she couldn't move and was forced to just lie in the sand, her legs and armed trapped. She stopped screaming and snorted into the sand. She glared at the men around her and hissed. 

Although ready to strike before the assault began, Natsumi eventually found herself unable to intervene. Her accuracy was good. That was not within question, but the violently chaotic nature of the ongoing battle developed into an unforgiving hurdle. Combined with the centaur's wide girth, the resultant reduction in visibility made it nigh impossible for the Ice Queen to get a clean target. She was far more likely to hit the person she was trying to save than simply picking off additional bandits, and she realized this full well.
 
Luckily, it quickly became clear than the female below didn't require aid. She tore into the initial raid like a lion does a deer, driving them off into the forest. Or so it seemed. After a few grizzly casualties, the surviving members retreated to regroup. They waited until the centaur let down her guard, then came back with a net. Thusly, the combat on the beach died down. A mighty centaur had been tamed, bound by rope and ground into the sand.
 
Yet these shackles were naught to last. Whilst the men gloated over their victory and moved to transport their quarry back to camp, the Ice Queen lashed out.  Thirty men emerged from the jungles of Apoy, and fifteen of them were floored by three, well-placed arrows. Natsumi had loosed them in quick succession, aiming straight for the sands between each formation. They weren't just normal arrows either, having been infused with enough explosion magic to toss them about like a gust of wind does parchment. Clouds of dust rose in their aftermath as well, obscuring all view in a short amount of time.
 
"You lot never learn," the angelic fox shouted as her smokescreen manifested. To the now blind masses, this booming voice would sound as if the owner was coming in for a bigger attack. In truth, that was not the case. Natsumi was counting on the fact that the threat alone would cause the tribal warriors to withdraw from the centaur for a bit, allowing her to get closer without endangering her own person.
 
As it turned out, her hunch was right. The soldiers regrouped in the confusion, their auras diverging from the creature they had downed.  This provided the Ice Queen the opportunity she needed, and so she descended upon the castaway.
 
"I'm not staying to fight 30 men," Natsumi said while grabbing the crude net, "but I am getting us out of here." With only the slightest of warnings, a tinge of arcane energy infected the air. It sparked and crackled, flowing out toward the downed centaur. A recall spell was coming: one that would transport both Natsumi and her ward to the inland hot springs of Apoy. The action would free the captive woman from her binds while also preventing the small army from following. This was the ideal solution for the situation at hand, and one the druid wouldn't suffer denial on. "And no, I don't care if you don't like magic."

Paradox laid still on the ground, tangled in the netting, her bardiche just out of reach. She saw several more men rush towards her out of the trees. She steeled her gaze at them and hissed, teeth bared. She wouldn't let them take her without a fight. Suddenly she saw three, silver flashes of light race towards them from some place above her. The arrows sent many of the individuals flying in all directions. The sand was thrown up in a sheet and she couldn't see the trees any longer. 

She heard a scream from behind her and twisted her head frantically to see who it was that had fired the arrows. She was incredibly loud and the voice carried through the air like thunder. Her eyes scanned the sky and saw what appeared to be a girl. She was flying towards her, her wings large and white. She had animal ears like herself and a white furred tail. Paradox had never seen anything like her before. She landed next to her, the tribesman that had surrounded her retreating back. Instinctively, she kicked at the net and struggled to escape.

Her efforts were futile and the girl grabbed the net with her hands. She saw the air shimmer from energy and heard the crackle of a spell coming from the girl. The spell rippled over their bodies and she felt the bonds of the net loosen. In an instant, the pair were transported to another part of the island. This place was very warm and there were springs that steamed. She laid still looking at the girl for a second, before realizing that the nets were gone. 

She slowly got to her feet and looked down at the girl, the arrows in her legs stinging. She lifted up her bladed staff and leaned against it. She met the girl's eyes, piercing grey to the palest of blues. She smelled something odd about this girl, she wasn't a normal person. She didn't know what it was, but the wings, ears, and tail interested her. Another "hybrid," she thought to herself. She hadn't met many creatures with animal features as well as having a human appearance, except for her herd of course. 

"Thank you," she said, after looking at the girl for a while. She shifted her weight to her other foreleg and turned her head to the side, looking at her curiously. "I don't recall you being on the ship when we went down. But I believe that is irrelevant at the present." She flicked her tail and scraped at the ground with a hind hoof. "How can I repay this debt to you?"

[OOC: Promises fade when I fall asleep as soon as I get home. Sorry about that.]

Recall was a marvelous spell, and one of Natsumi's favorites to use. In exchange for having less control over the destination, the caster was provided with a free probe to measure danger. If there was any hazard at the second location, the spell would backtrack to another until found a secure area. This made it incredibly useful when fleeing, which was exactly what the Ice Queen wanted to do while surrounded on that soggy beach.
 
The arcane energy executed beautifully as soon as it was released, transporting Natsumi and the centaur to the hot springs. This location, by the nature of the spell cast, was obviously safe, so the young woman disarmed herself whilst waiting for her guest's senses to come back. Any type of teleportation could disorient the uninitiated: a fact that Natsumi knew well. Thankfully, however, Paradox seemed to weather it enough to stand up and talk.
 
"No need for that," the druid said when her acquaintance finally asked for methods of repayment.  "I'm already being paid to rescue you." Reaching out her hand for a shake, Natsumi continued. "My name is Natsumi. I'm a temporary hire for Adan Shipping, the company that owned the ship I assume you are referring to. The onboard, magical, distress beacon was activated, and I was dispatched to investigate. I'm to bring back as many passengers as I can, and in as few pieces as possible."
 
Pausing for a bit in order to await the rejection or acceptance of her greeting, Natsumi began to examine the wounds on Paradox. She noticed the arrows now, and, remembering her first encounters with Apoy warriors, decided to speak up without delay.
 
"Those arrows should be removed as soon as possible," she said with dour expression. "Especially since the natives here like to use poison on their weapons."

Paradox flicked back her ears at Natsumi's statements. "So, you're using me for a paycheck," she said, a hint of anger in her voice. She snorted and shook her mane. "You do not genuinely care," she hissed. "You just want me for a few measly coins in your pocket." She reached into her pack and took out her money pouch. She took a handful of coins and tossed them at her. "There's your money, now leave me with my pride and say I was lost at sea." 

She reached down and picked up her blade. She tucked it in it's long sheath on her back. She'll take the arrows out later, they were in her muscle and not that deep. It wouldn't be difficult to remove them, but she might have to dig with her knife to find the heads. She knew they weren't poisoned, the tribesmen would never use poisoned arrows on a food source. They may be primitive, but they would never intentionally poison their food. Especially the thick meat on her legs, that would be the prime choice for the elders and chiefs.

 For now she just wanted to get as much ground between herself and this winged creature as she could. She should have known better than to trust a fox, they almost never told an honest truth. She held her head up high and kept her chin even, jaw locked. Her legs hurt, but she wouldn't limp, not in front of this creature. Now she was starting to understand why humans treated hybrids as animals, because, to some degree, they were animals. And like her animal ancestor, the horse, she wouldn't show any pain or weakness.

Toloch was standing in a void. The blackness was absolute, an unnatural blackness deeper than any pitch-black night he had ever seen. He called out, but his voice couldn't be heard. He tried to recall how he got here, but all he remembered was the sound of a bell, a rocking sensation, and the sound of water. Toloch blinked, trying to adjust his eyes to the darkness. Suddenly, he found himself in the familiar savannahs of home, seeing horses in heat and children of the tribe running naked through the grass, playing. Toloch felt sick. The scene was a little too perfect, a romanticized presentation of his homeland. What he remembered were children in foreign clothes, and horses penned in and bred. He remember the children of his tribe as fat and clumsy. Suddenly, his tribal chief came up to him with a growl and began licking his face. The absurdity of it all startled Toloch greatly, so greatly that his entire world began to spin and vanish. All sensation soon left him - the savannah vanished from sight, the sounds and smells of playing horses and children faded into nothing. All that remained was the feeling of his chief licking at his face.

Groaning, Toloch opened his eyes. Occupying his entire field of vision was a large brown and black figure, with something red sticking out to lap at his face. Toloch now felt he was lying on coarse sand and dead shells, drenched in saltwater. He groaned and blinked, waving the figure away. Soon, the light came into focus, and he could see he was lying on a beach, the bear that had licked him sitting on its haunches a few feet away with a curious, cocked head. Toloch groaned and tried to get up. It took a few minutes, but he eventually managed to get up on his knees and have a look around. His small chest of belongings had, thankfully, washed ashore only a few hundred feet away. Toloch looked at the bear, which now seemed more concerned with cleaning himself than figuring out what Toloch was doing, and smiled weakly. "Thank you, sister, for waking me up." The bear looked back at him with a growl of approval, and waited. Toloch sighed deeply. "Mind helping me to my posessions? Over there." Toloch pointed in the general direction of his chest, and the she-bear trotted over to him, allowing the man to support himself on her. She let him climb on top, then cantered over to the chest. "Thank you, sister." The bear let forth a gurgling sound which may have been an amused giggle, before disappearing into the forest.

Toloch opened his chest to find his posessions waterlogged, but largely intact. His backup sword, a broad blade as long as his arm, was still attatched to the outside of the chest. Toloch brought out all of his posessions, and ate a few medicinal herbs. Their fragrance and juices soon revitalized him. Toloch had a look around, frowning. He was used to living off the land and surviving on the tyhings around him, but this was a place he was unfamiliar with. he'd have to familiarize himself with local hazards before any of them could kill him, he knew. At least there were bears in the area, which was a good sign. Toloch uttered a low prayer, then headed into the woods, treading carefully. Instict, he knew, was what pulled him in the direction in which he was walking, for he sensed the resolution of magic a short distance ahead…

[ooc: Sorry for the delay. Been really busy and distracted.]

Hatred; it was always hatred. Even when Natsumi saved someone she didn't have to, even when she expressed concern for that individual after the fact, there was always some form of purity test that they held her to. Did you actually mean it or are you just after the money? How can you live with yourself, you coin grabbing bitch? Paradox wasn't the first to insinuate such things, and she wouldn't be the last. In all honesty, that type of personality was so common that Natsumi had grown apathetic toward it.
 
Such was why she wasn't surprised when her acquaintance reacted violently to the truth. Idealists never changed, so it seemed. That thought that kept the fox girl company when she didn't even try to dodge the centaur's fistful of coins. She simply caught what shiny bits she could, allowing the rest to scratch her arms before she picked them up from the ground with her fluffy, white tail. Natsumi remained the stoic in the face of her discomfort, not even giving a grimace before pocketing the change she had been given.
 
She didn't leave as requested, however. The stubborn mule just happened to be going the way Natsumi needed to, and so they would march together for a time; though not without a significant conversation from the scorned fox.
 
"A few years ago, I might have come to this island without warrant and rescued you out of charity," she stated while maintaining distance enough to avoid a strike from Paradox. "But those days died out once I was on my own. Maybe where you're from, everyone looks out for each other and compassion is the rule of thumb. Human culture - the culture I live and was raised in - is different. Altruism is not the baseline of their kind: it is the exception. A majority of humans don't care about others when those people don't have coin to pay for the resources they take up: even less so when those others have deviant appearances." Flying up into the treetops, Natsumi shot a glare down at the stubborn centaur before continuing. "In other words, I'm not here for your thanks, centaur. I'm here because I have a daughter that depends on me making a living, and Adan is furthering that goal of mine. If this offends you, then you are welcome to stay behind on this gods' forsaken rock while I take any other survivors back to their homes. Just always remember that I could have left you there on that shore and instead made a beeline toward the village while the warriors were distracted with you. Perhaps I should have if you were going to treat me as you have based on some sort of purity test that doesn't exist in reality."
 
The Ice Queen might have left Paradox behind after that scathing review in order to travel to the village – as their paths were about to diverge - but a newly discovered scent prevented her exodus. The odorous anomaly blew in from the shore, smelling of wet bear. Even now, there was the faintest of silhouettes associated with the newfound sensation, and it could be seen tromping through the undergrowth on a direct course.
 

'Another survivor, perhaps?' The possibility existed, but Natsumi would have to wait in order to find out for sure. If he continued on his current course, the towering giant would find himself amidst the fox and horse. Until then, however, the former patiently observed, keeping pace with the centaur that obviously wanted her gone.  

Paradox looked behind her when she saw the fox girl following her. She flicked her ears back and kicked out at her. She dodged away from her flying hooves and she growled. "I don't need your charity," she hissed at her. Once she started off again, the centaur wheeled around and lunged at her. She stopped and stared the girl in the eyes.

"How dare you," she said firmly. "How dare you, you ignorant human, lecture me on your kind as if they are something special and different from my own. Our races have been intertwined since the first centaur was conceived. I am aware of both races and can make my own comparisons. Each have good, compassionate, selfless individuals and each have backstabbers and cutthroats. You don't need to lecture me on that."

She cackled wickedly at Natsumi when she brought up appearances. "Deviant appearances? Oh really? I am a genuine race, created on accident, but a genuine race in itself that breeds true. You, on the other hand, you are a definite accident with no reproductive capabilities whatsoever. I can smell your sterility, no pheromones, no copper tinge, nothing. You can't create another in your image, so no, I do believe you are a greater abnormality than I am."

She watched her fly up to the tree tops and stare down at her. "I never offered you gratitude foxface," she called up at her. "I offered, only if you chose to do your actions from the goodness of your heart, not the depth of your money purse." She shook herself and carefully pulled out one of the arrows from her shoulder. "You act like the fact that you have a daughter should have any affect on me." She stared at her and crossed her arms. "Well then maybe you should have left me on the beach. I would rather die with dignity than be used for a cheap coin alive." 

She pawed the gravel with a hoof and flicked her tail, irritated. "I can swim back to the mainland. Go find others that actually need your help." She turned and walked away, back through the trees. When she was in far enough, she bent over backwards and pulled the last arrow out of her flesh. She spun it around in her hands as she went through the woods, her hooves crunching lightly on the leaves that had fallen from the branches.