Illusionist Salvatore of the Mist and Dante the White Rabbit
Chapter 1 - The Castaway
The act of drowning is not some sort of experience anyone would enjoy. The water running in and out of the mouth. The lungs fill up with seawater and involuntary contractions force it out. The whole life flashing before your eyes. Probably the worst of it is the taste. The taste of the seawater is always disgusting regardless of whether your life is destined to end in The Salt or The Brine. Lucky enough, The Brine has this chicken aftertaste. Unlucky enough, the oily layer at the top makes you less buoyant. Who would have thought I would end my life in this chicken broth?
The night sky and a full moon is a breathtaking spectacle. Spitting a handful of seawater as you cough chronically is even more breathtaking. I can finally breathe. I’m alive. How the hell did I end up in there? As I hear waves crash against the shore I feel a bit more relaxed. The sounds of untouched nature make everyone calmer and I am not an exception. I’m just an ordinary wizard. An ordinary wizard who is out here in the open. In the middle of the night. And I smell like chicken. As much as I would like to lay down and get my strength back, I’m not willing to risk becoming a meal. The Runiverse is full of creatures, I have no strength fighting them now, especially during the full moon. I need to start moving.
Easier said than done. Turns out while I was simmering in The Brine, I got myself wrapped in kelp. It’s wrapped around real tight. I’m basically a seaweed chicken roll waiting for someone to feast on my flesh. Who would have thought I would die like this? This is ridiculous! I need to stop panicking and think for a second. As I hear the wolf howling somewhere out there, I notice something weird. Some pinnacles sticking out of my feet. What the hell? Is that my toenails? How did they get so long? It seems to me I have more questions than ways to get out of this sushi wrap. I need to stop panicking and think for a second, again. I scratch my butt. It’s a good scratch. I can nearly scratch up the way where it’s only appropriate to scratch when there is no one around. It kind of hurts a little. Like a blunt knife trying to slowly peel away your skin. - You idiot! - I shout out loud. Your nails are long, all your nails are long! – I start laughing. The birds who apparently sat on the surrounding trees had enough of watching me struggle and decided to leave. I’ll move my butt scratching effort towards kelp. I may get a chance here.
After a decent amount of time of rubbing my thumb nail against the kelp surrounding my butt and back I manage to cut myself loose. I free my legs with significantly less effort. Cutting kelp with 10 overgrown nails is undeniably easier. I can finally stand. Wolves howl again, sounds much closer this time. I need to move. I start to run parallel to the beach, but away from the woods. In the blink of an eye I’m tackled down to the ground. I scoop a mouthful of sand with my jaws on the descend. Both my nose and feet brings this sudden urge to yell. I turn my head, spit out the sand I just scooped and yell. I utter some words that wouldn’t make my momma proud. The pain moves away from my nose to my toes. Such an idiot! – I tell it to myself. However, I can’t blame myself too much. My toenails are as long as a magic wand broken into two symmetrical pieces, I never learned how to walk with an obstacle sticking outside of my toes. Talking about symmetrically broken pieces, I observe the damage to my toenails. Certainly in an instant, they became shorter. The full moon illuminates the fractured toenail pieces that stick upwards from the sand. I gather my nails from the sand, just in case, I may need to use them again. Without anything else stopping me I continue my escape from this beach.
Entered by: 0x6EbA…4c92 and preserved on chain (see transaction)
