Excerpt: Coast of Nowhere

*Note to reader: In the actual document, anything said in Riven's language is italicized; however, this doesn't work on the site. Sorry for the inconvenience, but I'm sure you'll figure it out. Writers are smart people.*

Riven stared at the sleeping creature in front of him, trying to figure out what it—she—was. She certainly looked like he did, but the way she acted was so…strange. And what was she wearing? He peered at the weird material covering her from shoulders to knees, trying not to get to close, just in case.
Riven chuckled at himself. In case what? She was dangerous?
“What’s so funny?” Gil asked from beside him. He was also staring at this new thing.
“Nothing.” Riven sighed. “What do you think she is?”
Gil shrugged and moved his dark brown hair out of his eyes. “Dunno. She looks like one of us.”
“But she doesn’t act like one of us. Why was she flailing like that? Where did she come from?”
“Well you can ask her when she wakes up, can’t you.”
As if on cue, the thing made a moaning sound. Riven automatically drifted backwards, away from it.
“Yes, it does look rather intimidating,” Gil said dryly.
Riven shot him a look, then turned back to the creature. Her eyes flickered a bit beneath their lids and her eyebrows drew together. She rubbed one hand across her face and dropped it to her side as she slowly opened her eyes.
She lay there for a moment, staring upwards. Finally she sighed and sat up, looking in the opposite direction of Riven and Gil. Her head of dark hair, which looked like it may have been wavy before getting all wet, bobbed a little as she nodded at what she saw.
Riven glanced sideways at Gil. “What is she doing?”
Gil shook his head, and his hair obstructed his eyes again. “I have no idea.”
The girl creature whipped around at the sound of their voices, hair floating out behind her. Her eyes opened wide. They were blue, Riven noted. Interesting. He cocked his head and continued to study her as she gaped at him, mouth opening and closing like a fish’s. She was rather uncoordinated.
“Are you okay?” Riven asked. She continued to stare. Was she turning paler? Riven tried again. “Are you alright?”
Sound suddenly exploded from her mouth. “What?!”
Riven’s eyes opened in surprise. He glanced at Gil, who pointed a figure at the girl and mouthed, ‘Human?’
Riven took a deep breath. “Um, I’m sorry,” he said to the girl thing. He said it slowly. He had never spoken this language with someone who was a native speaker before, assuming that this girl was. “Are you…human?”
Her eyes bulged at this question. This probably did not bode well, Riven decided. He hurried out an apology as quickly as his mind would allow him to translate. “I’m sorry, I know you don’t look human, but—“
“I am human! What are you talking about? You’re obviously the non human around here. You and…” She trailed off as she stared at Gil. “…that thing.” Her voice was becoming increasingly louder and faster.
“I’m a thing?”
“Shut it, Gil. She doesn’t even speak our language.”
“Psh. Don’t I know it.”
Riven sighed and held up his hands. “Okay…human…girl. We’re going to take this slowly because you seem to be a bit…” He stopped, searching for the word. “Stressed. I am a Sea Person. And while I hate to be the one to dash your hopes and dreams, you are not looking much more human than me.”
She blinked. “What are you talking about?”
Riven moved toward her slowly. She moved backwards. Riven stopped short. “Okay,” he said slowly. “Here’s what I want you to do. Slowly lift your hands to your face, and tell me what you see.”
Her hands moved sluggishly for the first half second, then they practically shot up to eye level. The face she made after that would have been priceless on anyone Riven knew, but on this girl it was just frightening. Her face turned whiter than a midday cloud and her eyes grew so big Riven thought they would pop out of their sockets. She opened her mouth wide, like she was actively trying to make a sound, but nothing came out, just a bit of…vibrating. Riven decided the best thing to do was wait until she finished staring at her hands, although he couldn’t see what the issue was. It was just webbing between the fingers, for sakes.
Gil had his own hand over his face as well, but he was trying to hide a laugh. “It kind of makes you wonder what she’ll do when she sees her feet.”
The girl froze, and Riven smacked his palm to his forehead. “Did you really have to say it in her language?”
“Yes. Yes I did.”
Riven raised his head just in time to see the human girl drop her head to look below her. Her face didn’t change much, but this time sound came out, a fierce, ear splitting scream that kept on going.
Riven and Gil looked at each other in mild panic. “Hey,” Riven whispered urgently, as if being quieter would undo some of the noise. “Don’t do that. Sound goes far under water. Everyone will hear you screaming, and then what will they think?”
Finally the girl ran out of air. She didn’t seem to realize yet that she would not be able to make so much noise with her limited oxygen intake. The sets of gill flaps on each side of her neck were raised and oscillating violently, and the skin around them was a bit pink.
Riven stared at her. “You need to not…do that…again.”
She whirled her head around fiercely. Her hair lazed slowly behind, fanning out to frame her head and falling a bit when she stopped moving. “Did you say under water?”
“Yes?”
She closed her eyes for a second and made a motion like she was going to draw air into her lungs. She soon realized she couldn’t, and made quite a spectacle of turning purple. Riven rolled his eyes.
“You have gills,” he pointed out.
He watched as the girl made a conscious mental effort to stop breathing, and the color returned to her face as she allowed her gills to begin working again. Surprise and relief flooded her features. She took a second to pinch herself on the arm.
“What was that for?” Riven asked.
The girl looked at him. “To make sure I’m not dreaming.”
“Dreaming.” Riven rolled the word around his mouth, trying to find a meaning for it.
The girl looked at him strangely. “Yes?”
“Well then.” Riven rubbed one arm awkwardly. “I guess I have some questions for you.”
“You’re not the only one,” she replied.
Riven knew a word for this attitude. Bravado.