The South Star

[Prime]

The wood creaked and groaned as the ship rolled in the light night wind, whispy clouds still lit by the light of a very late dusk. The cool wind blew across the deck, bringing the smell of the calm, dark sea. The Madorn rolled lazily over light swells, the deck slowly drying as the night shift rotated on.

Inochi, standing in a clear space amidships, clapped the hilt of his blade to his chest. His chainmail shirt rattled against the hilt, and the bracer on his right armor. Leather creaked as his left arm came up, a folding lantern shield affixed to his left forearm and hand. He closed his fist as he took his stance, left arm leading, sword long and behind. The shield snapped open as he closed his fist, pieces of metal with sharpened edges forming up into a diamond with an old tree painted across it.

Across from him in the clear space, Berric squared up. His squared his lanky frame to Inochi's lithe athletic one, buckler shield leading with his warhammer close to his hip. His boiled leather armor goaned as he moved around, rolling his shoulders. Leather bracers covered both arms, and upper arms. His shoulders were capped with leather pauldrons, a light layer of chain covered his midsection.

He tapped his warhammer to his chest, letting Inochi know he was ready. Their balance shifted slightly with the rolling of them ship, both of them slowly testing their footing on bare feet. You couldn't move properly in the footgear they normally used.

Inochi shuffled forwards, whipping his sword out to test Berric, who countered quickly with a strike from low with his hammer. Inochi parried it and slipped around Berric, coming up behind him.

Berric grunted and swung his buckler at Inochi, who blocked with his own lantern shield and pushed into Berric. Berric tilted the shield, letting Inochi slip off, and raised his hammer to strike on Inochi.

Inochi's hand snapped open, his shield folding away. He caught Berrics arm at the top of the strike, and directed it down around him. He shoved Berric away with a should, and felt a sharp return strike as Berric hooked one of his calves with the hammer as he stumbled back.

Inochi squared up again, balancing himself against the rolling of the ship. Berric hooked the spike in his hammer around Inochi's sword, wrenching his grip and he pulled himself forward. Inochi followed the sword in, crossing against Berric, kicking him on the inside of the shin as he stepped forward. Berric elbowed Inochi in his lantern shield, shaking his arm with the shock, and swung a blow for his arm.

Inochi caught the blow with his upper arm, and slipped under, laying his first cut across Berrics kidneys. The sharp sound of a sword grinding across metal ringlets filled the air, as Inochi's sword slipped off. He took a deep breath and squared up against Berric again, breathing a little more heavily now.

Berric was taking slow, measured breaths, considering Inochi thoughtfully. He lunged, taking a wide swing as Inochi dodged, and brought his shield on him with a charge. Inochi bashed into Berric, taking the charge on his shield and slipping under Berrics arm again. Berric, expecting it, caught Inochi in the leg. As he tumbled over Inochi grabbed the back of Berrics knee, pulling him down. He grabbed his arm, and tried force it up behind his back.

Berric rolled over aiming a blind shot at Inochi, who rolled off quickly to avoid it. Berric caught Inochis leg as he tried to move away, and pulled him down with the spike on his hammer. He aimed a blow at Inochi's chest, letting off a ringing rapport as it struck his lantern shield, then spike the hammer and aimed a second one down.

Another ringing rapport rung over the ship, following by metallic skittering as the hammer slid across the shield and landed with a light metallic clang against the chainmail across Inochi's chest.

Inochi grinned, "Nice one man, I'll feel better about you covering my ass from now on."

As Inochi reached out to shake Berric's hand, the ship suddenly lurched forward. The already darkening dusk seemed to shift straight to night, as if skipping those last few minutes of twilight.

"What the hell?" Inochi said, rolling to his feet. "Whats going on, why did the stars just change?"

"There still the same back there," One of the sailors said, pointing off aft.

"You're right, but its like only a small circle is familiar behind us." Berric said.

Inochi nodded, "Looks like there's a dark line framing it too. Its not hard to imagine this is magical or something."

"We should not down some of the new magor star positions, just in case." He continued, "I'm not sure whats going on, but I think it could be worth exploring.

"Captain, would you bring out some charting paper please?" The young merchant captain, standing at the wheelhouse not to far away, nodded and headed below decks.

"Look," Berric said, Inochi turned to look in the direction the man indicated. "What is it?"

"The star here, the brightest star? Its in the south, not the north, look behind us. You can see the other one."

"You're right," Inochi said...

"This isn't the same place," He looked thoughtful, then slowly brightened. "Well, what do you think? What direction should we go in?" Inochi asked.

Berric gestured at the waves, "Maybe we should follow them?" He said, "They all look like they're going in the same direction."

Inochi grinned, "Damn thats cool, alright, wave chasers it is."

Inochi sat down to wait for the captain to come back up.

SPOILER: Click to show

ch00b edit: made the portal transition a bit more distinct to make the premise a bit more clear.

[ch00beh]

No, this is not home at all...

Berric Vor looked up at the changed sky as he absentmindedly clipped his buckler to his belt. He briefly looked down to slide his hammer into its proper loop, then returned his gaze back to the sky and placed his now freed hands on the ship's side railings. Crewmen were coming up on deck around him, but the man hardly noticed.

The Hunter should be out tonight...

Truth be told, he would have much rather turned the ship around, but that wasn't strictly possible. They were running after all. Homes were a luxury that deserters didn't deserve. And now the gods wanted to take away his stars, too.

Berric continued to scan the skies for the Hunter's bow—an arc of bright stars—and instead saw a faint trail of light that formed a large, hazy circle. As he stared, he realized that the points of light he took as stars were moving slightly within the halo. Berric put more weight on the ship's railing, then thought better of it as the ship's gentle rocking made him move his feet.

Strange skies...

[Prime]

Inochi nodded to the Captain as he returned, and passed him the papers and the charting tools. "Excellent thank you, we should be able to keep track of our position with this. Considering our purpose for being out here, this could end up being a huge turn of luck for us." He said, smiling at the Captain.

"To right sir," Captain Verge said, "I'd not like to see any more of those Empire ships on the horizon. But, we don't know anything about whats going on right? Perhaps we should be using some caution."

Inochi nodded, "Yes you're right. This is obviously magic of some sort, and we don't know what the rules are for it. Could we sail a circle around that space we came through? At the very least we can try to observe something about its visible nature."

The Captain nodded and snapped off orders to his crew, who were already scrambling with the changes in wind that the transfer had caused. The wheel man began cranking the ship to port, and slowly they began a circle of the portal they'd come through.

Inochi watched it carefully, observing. As they approached the edge, it looked flatter and flatter, and the edge looked like it carried a line of mist. As the pulled up beside it, it looked like nothing more than sea spray somehow fixed in the air. An odd sight, but not exactly easy to spot from a mile away.

"I wonder if this is unique," Inochi muttered to Berric, "The way its formed, there could be one, dozens, or even hundreds. And even with those numbers, it wouldn't be surprising to have never discovered them." He ground his jaw thoughtfully, bracing himself against the rail.

He shook his head, moving away from the rail. "Mind giving me a hand here?" He asked, spreading the charting tools and paper across the top of a barrel. It was tied down, so one of the few flat surfaces that didn't slide around with the motion of the ship.

"If you take the south, I'll take the north. We can pick out the brightest stars we see, chart them first. I guess we'll use that bright south star as our general reference, don't seem to be any brighter out in the sky." Inochi took out his compass and set it on the table, so they could keep track of their changing position as they moved around the portal. Inochi kept a curious eye on it as they moved, adding small notations about its nature in a corner of the paper.

[ch00beh]

"Aye," Berric said, his words almost drowned out by the sounds of an active deck. Verge's booming voice commanded all from the aft of the ship, and the dozen or so deckhands were shouting at one another as they adjusted the sails to capture the changed winds. Berric almost felt like he was in the way, but the deckhands were used to scrambling around the fixed barrels, deftly moving around the two as the ship groaned from side to side.

The soldier picked up one of the sextants then looked to the stars again. He was not a man of science, but to say that he didn't enjoy the night sky would be a lie. Looking at the stars was something he used to do every night. He could name just about every constellation and could tell most of their stories to boot. She always liked that.

Berric shook himself from his reverie. His eyes settled on a star that was significantly brighter than all the rest, nestled close to the strange halo above them. Without taking his gaze off the point of light, Berric put the sextant to his eye and rotated the tool. The sky split as he shifted the mirrors, one side of his vision staying with the star, the other half descending for the horizon.

Once he found the line of water, Berric took the tool from his face and noted the measurement. He turned back to the empty star chart and penciled in a dot at the appropriate spot.

Berric looked to the northern sky. The southern star was still brighter than the one in the north. "It needs a name."

[Prime]

"Well, it isn't that I don't agree." Inochi said, lining up his instrument and taking down the location of the south star, as the primary on page reference. "But, where-ever we are, well." Inochi shrugged, "We don't know how long that portal has been there, true enough. But it seems stable to me, could've been there a long time."

He gestured vaguely out at the horizon, "Could be that where ever we are, there are people here, just like us. Or, well, maybe a little different. Maybe no Corralleans, or Gotei." He shrugged, "But all the same, if there are people here, could be the star already has a name. They could all be named, with a whole map of constellations, just like home."

Inochi grinned, "Hell, maybe you point a telescope at it, and you're looking down on the three Islands of Tyr, eh?" He looked down at the map again, "But I guess we should label them something, and A1 through Z99 don't exactly make for colorful reading."

He looked up at the South Star again, "Know how to say home in a suitably old language?" Inochi asked, "You know how they always called the North Star the path to home? Follow it to find your way home? Seems suitable, your point of reference always leads you home." He shrugged, "How about you Captain? Any idea's?"