Chapter 2 - The Twilight

As the crew of the Fading Dawn is still inspecting the empty space in front of them that used to be the town of Earthhaven, they notice a few things they missed at first. The most alarming of these is dark, black smoke, not very thick but definitely there. While there is of course no way to be completely sure without going outside and smelling it, there are only very few explanations for what this smoke could be, and by far the most likely one is fire.
This fear is confirmed when the wildsailors look down. Far below, behind probably dozens of meters of Tangle, the terrifying orange glow of fire can be seen, small and surprisingly localized but definitely there.

The second thing, maybe not as alarming but definitely still very relevant is that something is approaching fast from below, from the direction of the fire. Before the Dawn crew has time to really speculate, a nano sized ship, an outrider designed for one person, breaks through the bottom of the empty space in front of them. The ship is not much more than a closed capsule attached to two large chainsaws.

The vehicle stops after entering the former location of the town of Earthhaven and a large, cloaked figure steps out of it. In the darkness of the Tangle, it's difficult to make out any details about the figure as it stares up at the Fading Dawn above it. As it starts moving after a few seconds of stillness, one thing about it becomes quickly clear however: It is a tzelicrae, obvious by the fact that it has four arms and by the staccato nature of its movements.

"Who are you?", it asks the Fading Dawn in Old Hand.

"Fire," Cait says looking out the windows, "that is not good, it's a ways down below us but if it catches, I mean really catches we could have a storm."

She looks at the condition of the Tangle, trying to determine moisture content, it can't be to dry or the fire would have destroyed all this and more.

Caitriona moves out to get a better look and signs back to the tzelicrae, "We are the crew of Fading Dawn, we were sent by Narrowplate to deliver messages to Earthaven. Who are you? What happened here?"

The Tangle seems pretty moist here, the twigs are green and vibrant, but still, open fire is a great danger. Stepping out onto the deck of the Dawn is possible in this area as the dark smoke seems to be scaring off the insects, but it must also be drying out the branches. And it raises the already high temperatures of the Tangle even more so that even just standing on deck is exhausting and causes the wildsailors to sweat uncomfortably.

"We are survivors," the tzelicrae signs. They seem to be more fluent in Old Hand than Cait is but stick to very basic phrases to make communication easier. "I come on board? We talk?"

Caitriona nods, "Come aboard, are there many survivors?"

With impressive ability, the tzelicrae climbs the branches woven around this place and drops down onto the deck of the Fading Dawn. As they walk into the inside of the ship, the wildsailors first get a good view of the tzelicrae. They are short and broad-shouldered, their skin stitched together from different clothes, silk and furs. They don't have a proper face but instead wear a carved, wooden mask showing the approximation of a genderless ardent face with a neutral expression.

"My name is Katkoni," the tzelicrae says in Old Sour, its voice sounding more like the rustling of leaves than a real voice. "What remains of Earthhaven lies below us. Half of our people died when the shank fell and the quake shook our home. Half of those remaining, we have lost to the attackers. Now, there are no more than four dozen left of us in town."

"Attackers?" Elrenna tips her head to the side, wondering whether the attackers are scavengers come to take advantage of the chaos, enemies of the shank's dwellers who have capitalized on the opportunity to assault their foes, or... perhaps the most outlandish ideas, someones who have the kind of pre-v tech to actually fell a shank, like something out of a macabre fairy tale.

"I was going to ask about the fire but attackers sounds equally threatening." Caitriona says, "Is there anything we can do to help?"

The tzelicrae turns their mask face towards Elrenna. "Strange black beetle ships, destroying our defenses and kidnapping our people. It started after our town fell."

The tzelicrae looks down, even though the ship they're all in obscures the view of the fire below. "No woven wall to protect Earthhaven now that it sunk. Fire is the only thing that can cull the growth around it until we can rebuild - if we can rebuild. Dangerous but there is little choice." They look around the ship. "You offer help. You can come with me into town. Speak to our mayor."

Shaw stands there with the others as they speak to the tzelicrae. We'll be glad to help however we can. Do you think the raiders will return?

"There was a giant beetle over where the shank fell," Cait says, "bigger than the Dawn."

"If we use the jaw to clear could you repair the walls?"

"You were at the fallen crown?", the tzelicrae asks in their chattering voice. "That was no beetle. That was one of their ships." They look at Shaw. "They will certainly return. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow, maybe the day after, but they don't leave us alone for long enough to rebuild."
They consider Cait's suggestion and then say: "It would be more efficient and safer than fire. Come, I will lead you down into town. You should speak to the mayor."

Katkoni then climbs back out of the Dawn, down the woven barrier and back to their ship where they wait for the Dawn to start its engines to follow them down below, giving the crew a moment to discuss the situation in private if they want to.

Once Katkoni climbs on board of their micro-ship and sails back down through the Tangle, the Dawn starts its engines up as well and follows them down towards the faint glimmer of fire below. It's not a long journey, no more than a few minutes until the remains of Earthhaven become visible.

Large clumbs of black earth, broken apart from each other and caught in the thick branches. Houses, broken apart and haphazardly fixed up, placed on some of them, improvised tents on others.
Small groups of people are encircling the encampment that used to be a town, burning twigs, sawing off branches and weaving them similarly to the wall further up.
Looking down, the sailors can see the branches and twigs thin out just meters below the town's new location. They're located in the lowest parts of the Tangle now, with the Sink, too thin to build and live in, looming just below.

The tzelicrae guides the Dawn to the side of the colony and, after climbing out of their vessel, points them to an area where they can park the much larger, though still fairly small Dawn.

More people come up to the Fading Dawn now and as the three wildsailors emerge from it, they are welcomed by a small committee of five people. There is an ardent and a gau but the other three are all tzelicrae, though only two of them are immediately recognizable as such. The last tzelicrae is wearing a male ardent skin almost convincingly, his movements just slightly unnatural, his expressions just a bit too false.

The almost ardent looking tzelicrae steps forward, holding his arms open in a welcoming gesture. "You are wildsailors," he says, before adding something in Knock that none of you can understand. "You do not belong to the others, to the attackers. You are here to help?"

"We were hired by the council of Narrowplate to check in on you after the shank fell," Caitriona says pushing her tangle of crimson hair back from her face, "they were concerned about you and wanted us to see if you were all right and report back to them."

Cait looks about intriguing by this place under the waves. "Is there anything we can do to assist you?"

"Narrowplate?", the tzelicrae in the ardent skin asks. "We will have to thank them for their concern." He gestures around at the destroyed settlement. "As you can see, we are not alright. When the shank fell, it caused our spit to break and fall, it destroyed our homes and killed many of our population. We could have rebuilt from there but the black beetleships came. With our defenses destroyed and most of us injured, we couldn't defend ourselves and they abducted some of our people. They have been back three more times since then, always destroying what we have built and always taking more of our own."

He looks back at the Fading Dawn. "You offer help, of what kind? Your ship is too small to evacuate all of us, even if we were willing to leave our taken behind. Are you corsairs and slingers? Can you help us defend against the beetleships and maybe get our people back?"

Looking around at the devastation, Shaw turns his attention to
the Tzelicrae that is speaking. Right now, I can help with any repairs that you are working on. What are the more pressing issues?

"I can help with repairs and scavenging too," Cait says with a smile, "I’m not much of a fighter, if we hid the Dawn close by we might be able to use the jaw on one of their beetle ships before they knew we were here."

"Fighting is my forte, I can help to defend, I don't know if I can get your people back but if there's a plan of some sort I can definitely offer my fists to help out." Elrenna shrugs her shoulders, ready to give them assistance, but this situation seems like a lot more than three people will be able to turn the tide on.

"Help with repairs is definitely appreciated," the tzelicrae mayor replies. "But I think the best way to help for you right now would be to use your ship bite to trim down the tangle around us. The weave will still take us weeks but you can buy us time faster and safer than we can with our extremely limited tools and with..." He shudders in disgust at the thought of methods they've been employing. "...fire."

"If you understand engines, maybe you can find our broken tanglebike as well," Katkoni, the tzelicrae the Dawn met above, chimes in. They gesture towards a second nano-ship almost identical to the one they rode to meet the Fading Dawn.

"Right," the mayor says. "And, excuse me if that's inappropriate, but we have a wounded, an ardent. Most of us are tzelicrae so ardent injuries are strange to us. Maybe one of you would fare better in treating her wounds than we did."