Valthor: Aboard The Galleon

I was down in the bath when someone reached in and shook me. I shot up, putting my head above water, and heard someone squeak as I wiped the water away from my eyes.

"Harvest Mother!" shouted a woman's voice. "How long have your been down there? I thought you were drownt!"

I leaned back in the still-warm water. "I don't drown," I said. I opened my eyes again and found myself staring at a petite redhead with her hair cut short, wrapped in a towel and still gaping at me. "So I find it relaxing to sit under the water."

"So you're... you're not dead?" she asked. 

I laid my head back against the edge of the bath and sighed. "No, I'm not dead." Then I gathered myself, because of course she had a point. "But I appreciate your concern. I'd appreciate it even more if you didn't mention this to anyone."

"So... you're a sea elf? Like the Captain?"

I weighed that for the barest moment, because it would have given me an easy out. "No," I told her after a moment. "I'm something else."

"But alive, right? Not some vampire we accidentally invited on board?"

I chuckled, and it wasn't a pleasant sound. "Yes, I'm still alive, so no, I'm not a vampire." I lifted a damp hand, held it out. "Valthor."

She hesitated for a moment, then clasped it. "Kiela," she told me. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to disturb your bath."

I shook my head. "Perfectly natural reaction," I told her. "No reason you would know."

She shrugged apologetically, then grasped at her towel as it started to slip. "Well, now I do," she said. "It won't happen again."