Post by Fujishima Shigenobu on Mar 21, 2014 6:55:44 GMT -7
*poke*
A child laughed (or were there many?), an ephemeral sound that echoed off of the intense black nothingness and came back multiplied.
*poke*
Another point of pain on his cheek, an annoyance to be swatted away if only his stupid limbs would respond.
*poke*
Ow, you little bastards! Knock that off! Shigenobu mustered the effort to move an arm, but too slowly to be of any use.
*poke*
The laughter again. There was always laughter. And now there was anger. How dare they treat him like this! They were only children. He was the great Fujishima! He was--
*poke*
OW! The darkness receded slightly, replaced by an equally intense brightness.
*poke poke*
It was like they were trying to bore into his cheek with whatever it was they were poking him with. It wasn't fair! Why were they picking on--
*poke*
With a gutteral growl, his arm finally responded properly, slapping at the terror children. There was a slight buffeting of the air and the sound of.... flapping?
*poke*
More sensations returned to him. The grit against the side of his face. The breeze swirling around his unkempt hair. A warm, wet feeling from the waist down. By all the gods and demons, if he had pissed his pants because of these children...
*poke*
One eye finally squinted open, momentarily blinded by sunlight. When his vision fully returned, a curious face stared back at him. Not a child at all (that would just be weird), but a stupid, ugly, annoying sea bird. Gods, he hated birds.
*poke*
The little mongrel pecked at his cheek again. Why you little......! His arm shot out even faster this time, and the back of his flat hand connected with the bird's head, knocking him away to squawk in righteous indignation as it took wing.
The rest of the world came slowly into focus now, and what a depressing sight. Sandy beaches, trees gently swaying in the breeze. Waves lapping gently against his legs. Oh, thanks the gods, it was only the waves. Rolling slowly onto his back before sitting him, Shigenobu rubbed a hand across his face. Sand that had stuck to him fell off, and he could feel a small cut from where that damned bird had poked at him so much. Hmph. Well, at least it hadn't been his eye. He'd get that bird if it was the last thing he did. Well, maybe not, but still. Vengeance and all that.
He surveyed his surroundings with a keener eye now that his senses had truly returned. A scattering of boards and planks, the tattered remains of a sail, what looked to be another body lying in the sand about a hundred feet away. This one was dead, however, unless the man had learned to breath water, as his head was what the waves were gently lapping against instead of his feet. And nearly naked. Gross. And useless. Shigenobu looked down and saw with relief that at least he still had most of his modesty, if little else. His bandolier of throwing knives was empty save one, and only Susano'o knew what had become of his claw gauntlet. And except for some soreness in his leg and a massive bruise on his ribs, he was unharmed. This might not be so bad.
An hour and a half later, he was right back where he had started, having circumnavigated his entire miserable, beachy domain. Not even a mountain! Disrespectful but it would have to do. He had at the very least managed to find a small spring that was reasonably acceptable to his palatte, but he still had no idea what he would eat. Well, first things first, he supposed. He would need to construct himself a hammock in order to relax, a small raised dais with a proper throne (that would be the tough one, given that there were no readily available chair-shaped trees), and perhaps some sort of rope and pulley mechanism to fan himself with whatever fan-shaped branches he could find. Nodding to himself, he had just begun surveying the area for a decent location for his dais when the familiar sound of flapping wings came from off to his right. His head snapped around immediately, finding the source of the disturbance merely 20 feet away. The devil-bird was perched atop the buttocks of that corpse, staring back at Shigenobu as if it was Shige who was intruding upon the bird! How arrogant. And the bird's name wasn't even Fujishima. At least, not so far as Shige knew. And if it was, then Shige was about to commit fratricide, but he was reasonably certain that would not be the case. Ever so slowly, Shige reached up to his bandolier and slid the throwing knife out of its sheath.
Bird: This tattered ape thing certainly is acting strangely. I wake him up from his dream and he swats at me, and now he is just staring.... Perhaps he is just trying to find the correct way to thank me for my help. Yes, that must be it. FISH PLEASE!
SQUAWK! The sound grated against Shige's nerves. With a fluid grace and swiftness, he let fly with the knife with unerring accuracy, the metal glinting dully in the the sunlight as it flew.
Bird: Oh! The ape thing is giving me a fish! He certainly has terrible aim. My mouth is down here, ape thing. Don't worry. I got this.
Clearly the knife was flying too high and too far to the right and the accuracy was very erring. Shige, feeling like the world was moving in slow motion, shouted Noooooo! My vengeaaaaaance! and watched helplessly as the knife sailed into the ocean, to be lost for all eter--- wait, what? Suddenly, the devil-bird took flight, squawking furiously as he moved directly into the path of the oncoming knife and catching it fully in the face. That was.... odd. But....
VENGEANCE!!!!! Shige did a little dance, ran up to the filthy bird, and danced again, pointing at it and laughing, singing "I got you, I got you!" all the while. Obviously, when he retold this story to any who ever heard it, he would leave out the part where he was going to miss the bird completely. Yes, that wouldn't do at all.
Later that afternoon, sitting in front of the tiny fire he had made and holding headless remains of the stupid bird over the fire, Shige could feel his stomach rumble. It occurred to him that he hadn't eaten now for.... well, he really didn't know. He didn't even remember getting on a boat, much less wrecking one. Whatever had happened, he felt absolutely certain that it was somebody else's fault, though. At least the weather was considerably nicer than in the mountains of his home village. Not a snowflake to be seen!
By day four, Shige was mostly back to normal. The dehydration that began plaguing him the morning following his waking up on the island was alleviated, as had been much of his hunger when he discovered a (thankfully non-hallucinogenic but still very purple) fruit that grew in some abundance. The remnants of the sail had been repurposed into a crude hammock, so put a check in that box. The raised dais hadn't constituted much of a problem either, given the abundance of sand on beaches. The chair had been the issue, and still wasn't fully up to Shige's exacting standards, but at least it was progressing. He had managed to find a great many branches and other sundry pieces of wood all throughout the island. Apparently a major storm had passed through recently, which may have explained his sudden appearance on the island. Or not, he didn't really care. The most important part was that he now had a semi-functional chair on a dais, just like back home. The fawning masses had been a bit of an issue until he realized just how many filthy devil-birds visited the island. There was now a small but quickly growing audience of devil-bird-heads-on-sticks spread out in the sand facing his dais.
Within another week, he had completed his dais but was growing a little restless. The devil-birds were no longer much of a challenge, he had long ago buried the poor wretch who had landed with him, and the island wasn’t terribly large. Even more sadly, he could see no feasible way of constructing his desired rope and pulley system, so he had to settle with just making himself a large (but fashionable) hat from some ferns that grew further inland. He would have to ponder how best to keep himself occupied.
Week 3. A new development in Shige’s growing kingdom. The Grand Calendar of the Empire of the Sand had been completed, and the marking of the passage of time was now considerably easier. Except when the wind kicked up enough to blow the sand around and destroy it. But such was the way of things in the Empire of the Sand. Life was so very fickle here.
Week 4 had come and gone mostly without incident before a dolphin washed ashore, carried by the tide of a storm that was brewing far to the south. Shigenobu the First, Grand Imperator of the Empire of the Sand, first discovered the poor creature while he was on one of his daily walks to survey his domain. Removing his devil-bird feathered crown (which he had constructed several days ago by weaving feathers into his fern-frond hat), he knelt before the corpse. With a single finger, he poked at it a few times. Yes, the flesh was still firm, so it did not seem to be long-dead. He and his subjects would feast tonight. He whistled tunelessly as he cut the carcass into more manageable pieces with his throwing knife, a rather long process if truth be told.
Week 7. The last social dance of the season would be held tonight. The Empire of the Sand had grown rich and powerful during Shigenobu the First’s tenure as Grand Imperator, and to flaunt his wealth, he had begun arranging social dances for himself and his growing array of subjects, which now included not only a vast horde of devil-birds, but also two dolphins, a very small shark (which had been fairly simple to subdue, but tasted awful by the way, thanks for asking), and several small, large-eyed furry things that he had discovered were completely nocturnal. His traditional garb had been especially prepared for him by the Imperial tailor, and was especially sumptuous. Thick silk brocade of the finest weave, gold-thread tassels, and an absolutely show-stopping pair of shoes. The gods themselves would be jealous of such fine garb, but it was all his. The musicians began their chorus as the last rays of sunlight dipped below the horizon, and the bonfire was lit. The dancing would last throughout the night, as was customary, with the Grand Imperator leading the dances as always. The pageantry, the side conversations, the marvelous food. It was truly a night to remember for all!
Further along the beach, just outside of the fire’s light, sat a trio of sailors with incredibly confused looks on their faces. They were watching a naked and unkempt man jump and tumble around a large fire with reckless abandon, occasionally interspersing some semblance of a dance maneuver apparently conducted to music only he could hear. From time to time, the strange man would stop his mad leaping and bow to one of the collection of heads on sticks that were all for some strange reason also facing the bonfire. After nearly ten minutes of this, one of the sailors shrugged and motioned for the others to follow. Whoever this man was, they should probably take him back to the mainland. After all, it was only about ten miles away, so the man could easily get back if he really wanted to.
Edit: +4 Exp plz kthxbai
