#she's gonna have a great time hanging out at kafagur

[aurore-parle-de-ses-idees]

7 with est 👀👀👀

7- hoarse/voiceless

this is absolutely au for est, because there are quite a few major beats in waves & wind that wouldn't really land right after all the au-ing i did four or five years ago. however. i wanted to put est on a boat <3 rough ch 5.3 for spoiler purposes

It’s a little funny, you think, that you’ve never really sailed. Not properly, not like this, not on the open sea where there’s no horizon in any direction and the water is even more unchanging than the open fields of Rohan. The Long Lake is wide and so is Nenuial, but they have nothing on these endless waters- and Sirgon and Daxamat both laugh when they tell you you’ve not yet left the Bay of Belfalas.

You know the storm is coming even belowdecks. It’s no sense so arcane as some of your crew seem to think- only long years spent studying the rising and release of thunder. You warn the others, and hope you don’t frighten Caebar too badly, and go up to the deck.

Dark clouds gather in the distance, visible from miles away with nothing at all to hide them- or to break them. You clamber up into the tangle of low-hanging rigging in the forecastle where Daxamat scowls at the oncoming storm.

“I swear the storms did not used to be so frequent or so angry in the Bay,” he says, and you grip the nearest lines for balance as the Wave-hunter tilts down a steep swell. The waves are already growing rougher.

“Is there no avoiding this one?” you ask, though you have no hope the answer will be yes. Daxamat gives you a disbelieving look.

“Not unless your fancy rocks can split the storm before us,” he says and you smile with half your mouth.

“You overestimate me,” you say, and he sighs.

“I was afraid that was the case.”

You study the angry stormfront. “...is there anything we can do to prepare for it?” You know the storm, but not the sea.

“Tie down anything that can be tied,” Daxamat says with a grim laugh. “Stay out of the way of actual sailors. And… make sure your knights are out of their armor. They wouldn’t want to go overboard like that.” You glance at him sharply.

“You think that’s so serious a risk?” Dax only shrugs, half leaping and half falling from the rail to the pitching deck.

“The way my last voyage ended? It seems better to be cautious in these waters these days.”

You wish, an hour later, that you could indeed control storms as Daxamat said, but you only ever borrow their power for a moment. There is power enough in this one to tear the ship apart.

No one is abovedecks who does not need to be- especially those of you who aren’t sailors. Sirgon listens to the groaning of the Wave-hunter and frowns over the nervous muttering of the rest of your crew, packed into the largest cabin and summarily instructed to stay there until the storm passed.

“We are far too near the Shield Isles for my liking to cross a storm this fierce,” Sirgon says to you under his breath. “We are on the side of the Grinding Jaws, and they were not named lightly.”

The Wave-hunter pitches to the side and even Sirgon staggers. Daxamat has already gone up to the deck to help, taking Sigileth and Legolas with him. You wonder how long it will be before you and the sons of Elrond will be asked to follow. You flex your hands, cold from the damp and the biting winds, and tighten the bindings on your rune-bag and Elenagil in her sheath.

The Wave-hunter shudders under your feet. Sirgon draws a sharp breath. There are cries from above. You're only halfway to the narrow stairs up when the deck goes out from underneath you and wood splinters with a sound only a little softer than thunder.

The water is cold and dark and churns so badly you couldn’t say if it was stone or ship or scattered crew that slams into you from all directions. You’re not a stranger to the water, but you've not seen anything quite like this before.

Well. You’re hardly seeing anything right now, either.

Lightning illuminates the water, brief but bright enough to find the surface. You reach for it, clawing your way skyward while thunder rumbles the water around you like a drum.

Something heavy strikes you across the back. Something cracks; you can’t tell if it’s you or the unseen thing. You lose your air, and you breathe in seawater, and you grab fruitlessly for something solid and choke on the wrathful bay until the waters take you away.

---

It’s dawn when you wake, pink in the sky and gold in the sand and black and brown and brilliant green in the cliffs above you. Your legs are still in the water, brushed by waves that seem gentle in apology for the storm before. You push yourself up, and your back screams as if struck anew, and you fall flat in the sand with a groan.

What became of the rest of the Wave-hunter? you ask silently of the sand beneath your cheek. It doesn’t reply, and you spit some of it from your mouth and drag yourself inch by inch beyond the reach of the water. You lost a shoe somewhere- only the one, though. Your throat hurts. Slowly, you gather yourself, and hope that walking will seem like less of a trial once you are standing.

A shadow falls over you. Someone speaks, and it sounds like Black Speech, and in sudden panic you throw yourself to your feet, already reaching for where your rune-bag should be.

Somehow, it’s still there, though it’s full of water and some of its contents must have escaped. You draw out a stone, but instead of words of power you only get out a harsh fit of coughing as your throat protests absolutely everything it can think of. When you can breathe again you throw the stone aside and draw Elenagil instead, falteringly taking the stance Faeron had tried so hard to teach you.

It is a group of goblins and orcs who scramble away from you, weapons raised and eyes hard, but they don’t fall on you immediately, even when you wobble and fall back to one knee. One of them elbows another and they argue in almost-whispers among themselves. Your head aches less badly than the rest of you and you think you can follow most of it. Some words are Westron and some are the Black Speech and some are another tongue altogether. Umbari, perhaps? You don’t know much of it yet. You catch wait and recognize and Gundabad, and after that trust and safe and can’t let her-. You try to speak, and cough some more, and, eventually, lower Elenagil.

“Who are you?” you ask, hoarsely, in Black Speech like you only really practiced properly with Viznak in the swamps. You’re not sure which of them is more surprised to hear it.