[AW] Remembering Hope

[Annabeth]

Like all important things in Terrastella, something unusual occurred today at dusk. Well, to be fair it started in the late afternoon and was marked by the seagulls of all creatures. Perhaps someone had noticed the birds circling above the ocean far in the distance. That in and of itself wasn't unusual, though the object of their interest was much more than the typical school of fish. A mare, or what was left of a mare, was embedded onto the boards of what was once the deck of a mighty ship. For a lack of a better description, it could be called a raft. Waterlogged, the raft hardly seemed enough to support the weight of the incredibly emaciated equine who depended on it for survival.

A sudden dip in the waves caused the mare's rump to become submerged for several moments before the raft righted itself. Not even a flicker of an eyelid was moved in response. The seagulls, reckoning that to be akin to a gracious invitation to feast, began to swirl closer. One particularly bold specimen landed upon the mares' thin neck, and began to pad over her sharp bone shoulders and perch on the scant rib-cage. Disapproval shone in his beady black eyes. There was hardly any meat left and on top of that, it was probably all tough and dried out from the sun and salt! Crying his disappointment, he clacked his beak and pinched the mare's hip hard as if scolding her for her condition.

Not anticipating a reaction, the seagull was thoroughly shocked when a sharp inhale displaced him from his perch. Alarm colored his tones has he whirled away to a safer distance. Eyes completely crusted with salt struggled to open as the mare tried to respond to the assault on her person. Soon giving it up as hopeless, she slipped back into unconsciousness.

The seagulls kept their distance for the rest of the afternoon, simply watching and wheeling as the raft and its passenger were deposited onto one of the few coves nestled within the cliffs. Sand ground underneath the wood and stilled its incessant rocking. Somewhere deep in the recesses of the mare's subconscious, a tiny little neuron realized the implications and began to hope... not that there was much to hope for.

With her sun-bleached and salted coat, the mare almost seemed a lump of sand heaped over common driftwood. The cove that housed her could only be reached if someone knew to look for it and could avoid the danger associated with climbing down the steep cliffs. Despite the curious seagulls marking her location, dusk was beginning to fall and in the night she would be even harder to find. It was a slim hope indeed that anyone would find her before night fell and the tide swept her back away into her watery grave.

ooc: open to anyone and everyone to come save my poor dear! the more the merrier ^^