To sail once more

[Miri]

Inara stood in the bright afternoon light, chewing thoughtfuly on her lower lip.
Usually one days like this, she would be stretched out on a beach somehwhere, or possibly the deck of her ship, basking in the soothing warmth of the golden sun.
Not today though.
Today she stood in a shipyard, impatiently watching as the human workers fixed her ship.  The job should have been complete almost a week ago. She had only brought it in to have the mast restepped, but the eve before she was due to reclaim her pride and joy, the idiot workers had "forgotten" to lock up the yard and her property had been cruelly vandalised.
She had been livid at the time, threatening to keelhaul the fools and use them as shark bait for such incompetancy, but thinking back on it now, she was glad that her journey back out to sea had been delayed.

Three days ago Mal'ynrae had stopped her in the meadows of Magincia, informing her of a Felinus to be sold at a slave auction in Buccaneers Den.  Inara had been suspicious of the Drow maidens apparant generosity in sharing this information, and rightly so.  As it turned out, the black-hearted wench had already bought the cat in question.
Inara had found her only hours later, bound to a post by chains, the locks secured by magery so that even her dexterous claws could not pick them.

Inara hissed quietly, remembering the state of the creature.  Beaten, bound and broken, a slave in every sense of the word.  It made her angry that someone would treat a cat in such  manner, that the cat in question had given up, lost the indomnitable spirit that their species possessed and had given in to a life of servitude.
It made her even angrier knowing that this particular cat was her long-lost sister.

Inara held out her hand and turned it palm up, staring down at the small white circle that had graced her palm as long as she could remember.
Navun had possessed an identical mark.

'Three days, miss' a rough voice cut into her thoughts like a saw through timber.  'Three days hence, she'll be ready, so she will.'

Inara looked at the short, bedraggled man standing before her, his wispy beard unkempt, his hair unbrushed and pimples adorning his greasy, grimy face.  She didn't need to inhale to know this one never bathed, but unfrotunately she needed to breath. Gods, but she wished she did not!

'Good,' she said brisky, not willing to waste any more air than she had to, knowing that inhaling again would probably murder her sense of smell for weeks to come.  'The sooner the better.'

'As you say, lady,' he leered at her, showing the rotten stumps of his teeth.  'She'll be done.'

Thankfully, the horrid little man walked away then, shouting at one of his employees to mind that thar brace, whatever that meant.  Inara watched, willing them to complete the job earlier.

So, she thought, on saturday she would be back at sea, the spray on her face and the salty wind in her hair.  How she looked forard to it!  Being so long landbound had been taking its toll on her.  However, what had been planned as a journey back to sanity had now taken on a more urgent role.
She needed to visit the caches, all those little places that her former shipmates had stored their plunder.  She needed that gold!

'Navun,' she muttered to herself as the wind brought the tantalising scent of brine to her sensitive nose.  'I'll be back for you. I'll raise the money she wants, and you will be freed.'

[Miri]

Inara stood out on the deck, the sunlight filtering down through the heavy clouds overhead making the ocean before her seem to dance to a song only it could hear.
She loved moments like this: when the storms had abated and the sea, choppy still, sparkled, the reflected light spinning and leaping from crest to crest in an elegant waltz of its own devising.  The fresh salty air delighted her sensitive nose with its sharp tang, blowing through her hair and around her body like the most loving of caresses.
After all, that was what she realy wanted, wasn't it?

She had come back to the ocean to find herself, to think, discover and know... as well as to raise the gold needed to buy her sister back from slavery.
Well, she had done all that now.
She had the gold for Navuns freedom.  She had sat, her back against the mast at night as the moon shone and the stars twinkled like fireflies, forcing herself to see all that she had turned away from before.

Love.
That was the key.
Oh, she still wanted her freedom more than anything, still wanted to sail, to see what was beyond the next wave, visit places she had never been to before, dream the dream, live the life and know that no matter what occured she would forever be free.
But she also wanted to be loved.
As much fun as it was to walk into a room and have every eye on her, as much fun as all the flirting and teasing had always been, beneath it all she had seen her need for something a little more substantial.
And that was what the ocean had been about, hadn't it?
Males came and went or, more to the point, she breezed happily into and out of their lives in a heartbeat, staying only long enough to make them want her before going on her way with not even a kiss exchanged.
But the sea...
The sea endured.  The sea was always there.  Oh, it may move a little from time to time as coastlines changed, islands rising from the depths or sinking back into them, but that was not a worry.  She knew her life would be short compared to most and thus the chaging expanse of the ocean did not worry her.  Instead, it fascinated her.  Ever changing but ever present.  Whereas toms of any species could love you today and not tomorrow, the Mistress of the Waves would always love her.  She knew this, and that knowledge made her heart soar on wings of everlasting joy.

But now it was time to go back to the land.
The Mistress of the Waves would name her as child of the sea forever, whether she sailed the vast expanse of iridescent azure or set her feet upon the gentle emerald clothed earth.
That realisation had taken away her fears of being landbound, washed away the irational idea that to stay too long ashore would mean she could never go back to her beloved oceans.

So now, her heart and mind set, her soul still dancing even as the choppy sea before her did, she walked to the tiller and gently pulled it until the prow faced to the east.
Navun needed her.  Navun waited for her.
And so did he.