Natalya emerged from the forest and onto the beach, venturing out towards the waters of the Eldarin Sea.
She had arrived in Niba last night, and chose to camp in the nearby forest. The castle was visible in the distance, and the city beyond, which she knew she would have to visit at some point. Her shoes were nearly entirely worn, and she was down to her last apple, so she'd have to find a generous villager today who can give her free food, or find a way to barter for food and supplies. Beyond today, she'd also have to decide whether to stay in Niba or continue onwards to some unknown destination.
But for this moment, before she took care of all those details, she wanted to visit the sea. It must have been fifteen years since she last visited the shores of the Eldarin Sea, when Marianne once let her swim by the docks as a young child, splashing around and trying to pull Francis into the water with her. Now that she was free from the tower, the first thing she wanted to do was step into the water with her bare feet, and feel the sensation of the sand and water again.
Natalya ventured out towards the edge of the water, finally stopping at the last patch of dry sand to drop her bag, sit down and tear off her shoes. Once her feet were free, she dug both them and her hands into the fresh sand beneath her, flexing her foot and hand muscles to feel the sand against every inch of her skin. After splaying her hands through the sand, she picked some up in her cupped hands and let it sift through her fingers, then repeated that motion several times.
Several minutes passed as such, until she finally arose from her spot and stood again. She looked out to the water, prepared to walk towards it and dip her feet in, only to see something floating in the distance towards her. She tilted her head as she tried to make out what it was, but it was still too far away for her to see what it was.
She shrugged as she walked towards the water, whatever it was would get pushed to shore by the waves soon enough. For now, the most important thing in the world was stepping into the sea for the first time in years. She got a little shiver as her feet, previously warmed in the sand and late morning sun, entered the cool salty water and wet sand beneath. She lifted her skirt up to her knees, before kicking at the water and chuckling to herself.
She then slowly waded out to where the water reached her knees, stopping there and scrunching up her skirt a little more. Perhaps she could acquire a bathing dress somewhere, so that she could come back and go for a full swim in the ocean, but for now this depth would have to suffice. Keeping her skirt up with her hands, Natalya closed her eyes and took several deep relaxing breaths of the salty sea air, basking in the sun.
After several minutes, Natalya finally opened her eyes again and saw the thing was now floating much closer to her now. At this distance, she could finally make out that it was a large piece of flat wood floating on the water, being pushed wherever the waves took it.
And there appeared to be someone on it.
"Hello?" Natalya called, dropping the right side of her skirt to wave over to them, "Over here, can you hear me?"
There was no response, they just floated closer to her.
Realizing that the person might be asleep, or something worse, Natalya waded through the water to close the distance, dropping her skirt and no longer caring how wet it got. As she got within a few feet, Natalya was finally able to see that it was a young woman floating on a big flat piece of wood that must've once been part of a ship. The woman was wearing only a ragged sheet of linen around her body, tied in place with rope, and had long golden blonde hair to her waist.
"Hello?" Natalya tried again as she grabbed the woman's shoulders and shook her, "Can you hear me?"
Teal-green eyes suddenly shot open at the shaking, and the woman blushed as she tried to sit up, leaning on her elbows to do so. However, the wood was not strong enough for such movement, and so it toppled the woman off the other side and into the water. The woman managed to stand up in the water, but seemed a bit wobbly.
"Here, let me help you to the shore," Natalya offered, "Are you hurt at all?"
The woman shook her head as Natalya wrapped the woman's arm across her own shoulders, and one of her own arms around the woman's wrist, before leading the both of them back towards land. The woman seemed to stumble quite a bit at first, which threw Natalya a bit off-balance as well, but their steps became stronger as they reached the shallow waters.
Once they were only a few feet from dry land, Natalya felt the woman's arm drop away from her shoulders as she took the last few steps onto dry land alone. She turned to look back at the woman, only to see she was just standing there in shock. The woman was looking around their surroundings in bewilderment, as if she had never seen any of it before, or if she didn't know where they were.
"You've arrived in Solyra," Natalya informed her, "We're at the outskirts of the city of Niba."
The woman seemed not to pay attention to Natalya's answer, and had turned her attention downwards. She lifted her makeshift skirt up and held each foot out in turn, a huge smile forming on her face as she flexed each foot. Finally, she took the last two steps to leave the water, taking her time to step on the dry land, much like how Natalya stepped into the water only a little while ago.
That first step on dry land for the woman was quickly followed by more, as she sprinted away from Natalya to go run around in circles on the dry land. Natalya could only stand there and watch, as this woman seemed to be ecstatic about reaching the shore, even skipping a few times and kicking the sand at other times.
After spinning in circles, the woman finally tumbled to the ground and laid there, chest heaving as she caught her breath. Seeing her opportunity, Natalya walked over to join her.
"You're really excited about being back on dry land, aren't you?" Natalya remarked as she sat down beside the woman.
The woman simply nodded, the huge smile still painted on her face in delight even after all that activity.
"My name is Natalya. What's yours?"
The smile finally dropped from the woman's face at the question, and she glanced away as if uncertain how to answer.
"What's the matter?" Natalya pried, "Can't you tell me your name?"
The woman finally pushed herself up to sit straight, before using her hand to touch her throat and shake her head.
"Are you not able to speak?" Natalya attempted to interpret.
The woman nodded solemnly.
"Okay, let's see," Natalya considered, "Why don't you write it in the sand?"
The woman looked at the sand, a bewildered expression on her face, before looking at Natalya and shaking her head again.
"You can't write your name? Can you write anything?"
The woman shook her head again, a blush creeping onto her cheeks.
"Okay, that limits what I can ask you then. Should I just stick to some yes and no questions?"
The woman nodded that time.
"Were you out at sea? Did you get shipwrecked?"
The woman glanced out at the ocean, as if contemplating the question, before nodding.
"Are you hurt at all?"
She shook her head as Natalya noted that her poor choice of clothing wouldn't get her too far.
"These old rags you're wearing, is this all you have?"
The woman nodded.
"We'll have to do something about that then, we can't have you wandering around in just that," Natalya determined, "It just so happens that I've also been travelling, and need to get my own fresh supplies, food and clothing. I was planning to head into the town today, into Niba, to get that sorted out, would you like to join me? We might be able to find somewhere to stay for a few nights as well."
The woman eagerly nodded at that suggestion.
"Alright, let's do this," Natalya directed as she stood up, "We just need to grab my things from that pile over there, then we'll head over."
Natalya walked over to grab her bag, and slipped back on her shoes. She didn't have much to give the girl, but there was that last apple in the bag that they could share.
"Are you hungry?" Natalya asked as she pulled out the apple and a knife, "I've got an apple here we can share."
The woman nodded, and Natalya cut the apple in half, before quickly removing the core from each half. She then passed the one half to the woman, before taking a bite of her own as she put the knife back in the bag. Once she stood up, Natalya noticed that the woman was hesitantly inspecting the apple before finally licking it, after which she finally took a bite.
"Okay, let's go," Natalya said as she pointed in the direction of town.
As they began to walk, the woman quickly caught up to Natalya, tapped at her shoulder, and pointed intently at the castle in the distance.
"That would be the home of the Royal Family of Solyra," Natalya identified, "Niba is behind the castle there."
The woman continued intently pointing at the castle.
"You want to go to the castle?" Natalya guessed.
The woman finally stopped pointing and nodded vigorously.
"The royals aren't likely to interact with commoners like us," Natalya judged, "Still, maybe if there's a servant's door, we can ask the staff for some help. I suppose we could try it."
The woman's face lit up at the suggestion.