CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Everyone in the living room jolted awake, like they were awoken from a horrifying nightmare. The obnoxious rattling sound was generated from Jinlin banging pots together.
“Wakey wakey!” He announced. “Rise and shine. You’ve got a big day ahead of you.” He was all pronouncing this with a surprisingly jovial tone. Almost as if he was excited for the adventure.
“Couldn’t you just wake us up more naturally than making loud annoying noises.” Shanta complained.
“Yeah what the hell.” Zunci yawned. “Just a plain ass hole move.” Huffing as she swooped her hair to the side.
“What time is it anyway?” Shug asked, his hair all shriveled up like it was thrown around in a hurricane.
“Like.” Jinlin looked down at the watch on his wrist, bringing it up close as he struggled to read it. “8:30.”
“Goddamn. That’s only seven hours of sleep.” Zunci commented as she arose from her sleeping bag and fluffed out her hair.
“Plenty of rest for the lot of you. I already have breakfast ready. You guys don’t mind pancakes right?”
“Nope, not at all.” Zunci was the first to respond.
“No issues here.” Shanta stood with a hardy stretch.
“Sounds fucking delicous actually.” Shug rubbed his eyes aggressively, scratching out the sleep crust building up between his eyelids.
“Good, good.” He headed towards the door. “Yunga and Brentha are already up, don’t let them beat you to the dining room.” Flinging the door open he exited with a chirpy little jaunt.
“Is it just me or is he in WAY too good of a mood right now.” Zunci said.
“I noticed that too, considering what happened last night…Really freaking weird.” Shanta continued on.
“Well whatever the reason is I’m just glad that he’s feeling better.” Shug put his shirt back on. “My stomach is just yearning for some food right now.” He sleepily sauntered out of the room and down the hall.
Zunci gussied herself up before following him. Leaving Shanta all by herself as she stared down at Hillanter’s resting body. His skin tone started to get paler like his life was getting drained painfully out of him.
“We’ll get you all better, don't worry.” Shanta muttered. “Just hope to god this plan works.”
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It was just like last night, except everyone wasn’t demolishing their food, mainly savoring it as their stomachs were still kinda full from dinner, except Shug who was downing them like they were nothing. Everyone sat down in their same chairs but there was someone in particular missing. Yunga didn’t leave her room yet, though being woken up, she still didn’t show up for breakfast.
“Is the food all good?” Jinlin curiously asked.
There were multiple yeses and nods from around the table.
“That’s great to hear.”
“Your food always tastes amazing.” Brentha complimented. “Were you a professional chef?”
“No, not really. Was just taught by the best in the business. I’m basically a jack of all trades.”
They continued feasting. Jinlin was the first one to be finished as he cleaned up his side of the table and took all of the dirty dishes to the kitchen, throwing away used napkins as he waltzed by the trash can.
He came back and cleared his throat with a nice long sip of water he freshly poured into a huge glass. Sitting back down in his chair as everyone was only halfway finished.
“Anyone seen Yunga?” He asked the table.
“No idea. I didn’t see her when I left my room.” Brentha answered.
“I saw her last night before I went to bed.” Shug replied. “But as far as this morning, not a clue.”
“Hmmm, I was going to wait for her but I guess I’ll just spill it now.”
“What do you mean?” Shanta inquired.
“After long consideration last night. I’ve thought really hard about a whole lot about what I said last night. I just want to apologize to Yunga first of all, I didn’t mean to blow up at her like that.”
“Don’t sweat it.” Yunga surprised everyone as she busted through the dining room doors.
“Oh, there you are.”
“Sorry for the wait but it just takes me a while to get ready. I’m not really a morning person anyways. But, with that aside, to you Jin, I should be the one apologizing.” She walked over to him and pulled him close for an embrace. “I shouldn’t have pushed you as hard as I did last night. I should’ve just taken your answer as it is.” She let go.
“Well.” He scratched his scalp. “I was just about to get to that.”
“No way! Don’t tell me-” Her smile brimmed up with excitement.
“Alright alright.” He said to calm her down. “Yes, after rocking the thought in my head. I’ll be joining the rest of you.”
“Really!?” Zunci beamed up as she basically jumped out of her seat.
“Yes, really. It’s not a decision I could’ve made on my own without the help of Shanta.”
“Oh please don’t flatter me.” Shanta jokingly responded as she cut a piece of her pancake.
“Does this mean you’re officially joining our crew?” Yunga asked.
“Woah woah, don’t push your luck there.” He responded with a little laugh. “I’m only helping you get the cure and do the ritual. After that I’ll be heading back here and you’ll all go on your merry way.”
“But who’s gonna protect this place when you're gone?” Shanta questioned.
“I woke up really early to cover all of this, I’ve already made a deal with the…Mole people outside, is that what they’re called?”
“No, though I’m not sure what they’re race is.” Shug voiced. “I never really asked.”
“Whatever they go by,” He continued on. “My sole proposition was for them to take care of the house when I’m gone. Basic security to make sure no one goes here and pokes their noses where they don’t belong.”
“Are all of them staying behind? Like, even Huune?”
“Funny you mention him.” He pointed up to the ceiling sporting a little smirk. “He’s the only one coming. I’ve realized that if we were to go into town with them tagging along we’d draw a lot of unwanted attention towards us. Also we’d be dragging Hillanters body and that won’t go over well with the dock guards, so I devised a plan. Everyone gather around.”
People stopped midway through their breakfast and stood up to circle around Jinlin.
He reached down in his pocket and pulled out a map he illustrated. It contained outlines of how they were going to move throughout the market without getting spotted. Little dots with the initials of the crew, identifying them. Lines were stretched out to show the path they were designated to take.
“Up here.” He pointed to the dots that signified him and Huune. “Huune and I are going to be carrying Hillanters body, there’s a cliff overlooking the ocean that’s near the dock. Everyone will head down and steer the ship just right alongside the land, just enough for us to hop on.”
“Seems easy enough.” Yunga commented.
The map was actually surprisingly detailed and excellently laid out. It’s honestly surprising but it shouldn't be as he has already shown his art prowess with the drawing of the ritual knife with a simple whiteboard marker.
“Really simple. Though I’ve tried my best to map out our next plan.”
He rolled out another map as he swiftly wrapped the other one and stored it directly back into his pocket.
It was a blatantly less organized drawing of Uff’s fortress with a lot of question marks littered throughout some sections. It was an almost circular map with what seemed like a bump at the end and a rectangular shape poking out at the other end.
He directed everyone’s attention to the top. “This is Uff’s office in his fortress. I looked through records my father had of other islands he visited and he mapped out the one Uff took over. I visited one time when I was young, as my father did some business with him. I remember that his personal room was at the back. Then the dock at the bottom. Sorry if it looks a little sloppy, just trying to remember from memory.”
“It’s alright, it’s the only thing we have so we’ll take it.” Zunci stated.
“Though when I was going through records I had, Uff had some strong firepower. For example, he has three really strong soldiers that can almost match you guys. Fringerly is an expert marksman, Xinder, a master of the sword, and Anften who can move faster than light. I was just reading off of little quips that reporters scribbled down. That article is from a year ago so I’m not sure if they’re still employed or not. Just take all of that into account.”
“We’re going to be taking a lot more than just some simple mercenaries.” Yunga remarked. “I hope you’re right, that they’re no longer there.”
“I hope so too, though let me continue. So up here will be the blood most likely. I have a theory why he has it, not really a theory, I’m just very confident that he’s trying to perform a ritual that’ll grant him unbelievable amounts of power. Similar to how you’ll cure Hillanter, he’ll have power of the gods-”
“Hold on.” Yunga interrupted. “Hillanter would have the powers of the gods?”
“Oh shit.” Jinlin realized. “I’ve only explained this to Shanta that I completely forgot I never got the chance to fully explain this to all of you. Ok, ok. I’ll make it as quick as possible since we really need to get going. We have another full day of sailing ahead of us.”
He quickly jumbled the words in his mind to briefly explain it while pinning down every necessary detail at the same time.
“So I’ve written down instructions to do the ritual, which will most likely be me doing it but just in case I’m unable to, you can perform it yourself, it’s not really complicated. But, the one we’re going to do is extremely risky. The god of cruelty, Wipter, will take control of Hillanter’s body for a limited time, which he could cause as much chaos as he wants to. We just have to hope and pray that he spares us or just not get caught in the crossfire. While Uff’s ritual will grant him great power but under his control. We’re lucky enough that the power he’ll draw it from is being sealed away on an island by a grand wizard. He’s been there for many decades and it’s most likely that-”
“Wait.” Yunga made the same conclusion that everyone else made around the table. “We encountered somebody like that.”
“Really?”
“Yes, it was this island that had a bunch of yellow water and machines benign worked on by rats and-”
“Oh god please don’t tell me. You didn’t-”
“We killed him.”
“Shit, that’s bad, that’s really bad. What the fuck.” He started panicking a little. “Why did you guys do that!?”
“We didn’t have any other choice, he tried to kill us first. He wanted to make his magic more powerful so we had to stop him.”
“Ok, ok.” He took really deep breaths to calm himself down. “Then we have no time to lose; he could have already formed the ritual himself. Pack your bags and dip!” He scrambled to put the map in his pocket, crumbling it up in a rush. “Someone also needs to help me drag Hillanter!” He announced just as he left the room.
“No wonder it felt like we made a terrible decision.” Shug said. “It all just felt off and weird and-”
“Don’t dwell on it.” Yunga said. “We’ll deal with it just like everything else. Get your gear and let’s get right out of here.”
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They didn’t bring much to the mansion, only their weapons and some miscellaneous items. Wasting no time, they waited inside as Jinlin made some neat tidy changes in the house right before leaving. Huune had Hillanter hoisted on his shoulder, as he was the only one that could carry him without any struggle.
After all was set and done they headed off onto the path they entered and followed it back into the forest. Waving one last goodbye to the moles before disappearing into the trees.
“We still have to cross the Silent Sea for the quickest route. We should be fine if we just carry in a straight line and don’t stop for anybody.” Jinlin kept explaining the plan as he took front.
“Should’ve learned that before we had our own encounter.” Yunga chimed in.
“Rookie mistake. Tons of vile creatures there try to take advantage of people like you, just trying to help out and then suddenly you’re fighting for your life.”
“Vampires disguised themselves as victims of an overthrown ship.” Shanta said.
“Not the first I heard of that happening.”
Yunga dropped behind a little next to Shug as they trailed the group. Not so far to cause suspicion but not close enough for them to easily overhear. He already knew why she wanted to talk to him, and was just waiting for her to say the first word.
“So…” She started the conversation with a whisper. “I need to know. How did you even survive when I burned down the ship?”
“Oh that. I’m actually even surprised that I did.” He responded. “I locked the door to the cabin because after the fight ended, I was scared of Rint. When the smoke started floating in I jumped out the back and landed in the ocean. There was a string that was drooping down from the side of your ship and I just took hold and never let go.”
“I wondered about that but I swear I didn’t see you when I double checked my ship. It honestly made me doubt what you were saying but at the same time I know you wouldn’t make it up.”
“I’m not smart enough to even come up with such an elaborate lie.”
“Come on, don’t cut yourself short.”
“It’s just the truth.” He chuckled a little. “But it’s fine really, I have no reason to lie anyways.”
“I guess,” She shrugged. “Say, thank you for last night. I really needed to hear that.”
“Don’t sweat it really.” He brushed off the compliment.
“I just wanna apologize for how I treated you the first time, at Quint.”
“Oh please you had every right to be mad at me. I wasn’t paying attention at all.” He put his hands in his pockets. “Honestly over the past few days it’s got me thinking about what value I bring to this team. I don’t feel like I add much.”
“Of course you do.” She tried to comfort him. “Even if you’re not the greatest physically, you’re always there for moral support and that’s just as valuable as any other aspect.”
“You’re right, I know. I just wish I was better at fighting. But, we all can’t be experts, just don’t want to be a helpless victim that needs to be saved constantly.”
“I’ll teach you.” She proposed with such enthusiasm. “Even if it’s not a full lesson I could definitely give you some quick tips on combat.”
“Sure,” He smiled. “I’m all ears.”
“So for you I would say that you always need to keep your guard up.” She started, “If your opponent is constantly attacking you, just wait for an opening and take it. Being on the defense can always help you but don’t back yourself into a corner-”
“Are you two hiding secrets from us?” Zunci joked as she faced them, walking backwards with her hands behind her head like she was stretching.
“No, not at all.” Yunga replied.
“We’re heading up on the town.” Jinlin announced. “This is where we’ll split up.” He paused. “Yunga!”
She perked her head up, turning to Shug for one last comment. “We’ll continue this when we can.”
“No worries, thank you though. Even if it was brief.” He gave her a hardy thumbs up.
She formed a smile before rushing past everyone to get to Jinlin. He grabbed her hand and placed the map on where to pick them up in it.
“I’ll trust you with the map.” He said. “Shouldn’t be too hard but we always wanna be sure.” He signaled to Huune just as they reached the edge of the woods. There was a slight side path carved from dirt that led in between the bushes and the vast trees.
“We’d be plain obvious to spot, especially with Huune.” He pointed back at him. “No time to waste, see you soon.” He started to wander off the path.
“See you guys.” Huune waved as he followed.
They left their sight and the crew gathered up before they completely exited the enclosed forest. The familiar sight of the lively marketplace was displayed out in the distance right next to the dock. It’s only been two days since they were down there but it’s felt like it’s been decades.
Heading down they noticed that it was way more crowded than they could have expected. Still no problem, just walk through and find their ship. It was really easy to spot as it stood out completely, being one of the crummiest ships in the dock compared to the polished ones resting next to it.
Entering the populated market they caught some curious eyes casted their way. It’s very uncommon to have anybody walk down from the forest, usually all of the traffic comes from the ocean. They walked down the middle aisle where all varieties of food were being sold.
Over the hundreds of voices negotiating and casual small talk it was difficult to hear within their small circle. But worse than their hearing was their sense of vision, being clouded by just a huge crowd of buyers.
Even with that handicap they were still able to see their crows' nest. Brentha was up in front, not really paying the best attention to her surroundings, she really didn’t need to anyways. She popped her head up just to check for the ship one more time when she spotted a familiar face.
An all too recognizable face that, when spotted, scared her stiff. It was a green haired man that towered over everybody with his abnormal height. The hair is eerily the same color as Yunga’s. He had a crooked look on his face, with a scar running down the side of his right cheek ending at the edge of his pursed lips, like he was whistling. He wore an oversized white coat, making him stand out even more, sporting matching white gloves. Black pants that sagged down lined with a glistening golden belt. When she stopped, everyone else behind her stalled.
“What’s wrong?” Shug was the first to ask.
“Hide!” She tugged on his shirt and pulled him off to the side. The whole crew followed her lead.
“What the hell is going on?” Zunci questioned as they stood in between booths, masking themselves behind the tents.
“Did you see somebody?” Shanta followed up with her inquiry.
“That’s Granjeel.” Brentha said like she was completely out of breath. “My dad’s best soldier.”
“What? Why the hell is he here?”
“I have no idea.” She peeked around the corner, trying to get another look at him. He was veering away from the middle aisle and looked like he was heading to the hotel/bar. “Ok he’s not walking towards us.”
“Velantriff is still hunting us even all the way out here?”
“How did they even find us?” Shug asked. “Are there rumors being spread that we’re here?”
“No clue.” Yunga said. “I don’t think we’re that well known. But, we did escape prison and burned down all of their ships. I’m not surprised we caused a stir. Or even have a bounty that we don’t know about.”
“Did he spot our ship?”
“Shit, didn’t think of that.”
“However he found us I don’t care.” Brentha stood up. “Just head out and we’ll never see him again.” She started trotting forward and the rest of the crew quickly sprung off the ground to follow her.
Steering themselves through the meandering crowd they were just on the brink of exiting when a loud shout caught their attention. Not just theirs, but an immense amount of people as well. A confrontation was playing out in front of one of the tents.
“What’s yer’ fucking promblem gretcha!” A rough male grouchy voice echoed with a heavy accent. “You green hair looking twig.”
There seemed to be no response from whoever he was demeaning, though they did have a rough idea.
“Are you just going to stare?” He continued to taunt.
“You’re very confident for a man who has to tilt his head up to even meet my gaze.” The guy responded with a surprisingly calm voice. “You’re just like a troublesome child.”
“I’ll still kick your lanky ass!” Footsteps could be heard rapidly stomping then stopping suddenly.
“Oh, I recognize your symbol. You’re Uff’s men aren't you?”
“Yeah. So what?”
“Gives me more reason to do this.”
A cracking thwack followed as the man came flying into view as he barreled through the tent. His body flung into the next one breaking a table making produce products launch in the air and rain all over the aisle. Screams came flooding in as the crowd dispersed in terror as gunfire started firing off and more yelling that was incomprehensible to hear under the chaos.
The man had the left side of his skull crushed in, like his bones just crumbled. Blood came pooling out on the ground as his body’s nerves gave one last spasm before shutting down completely.
“Holy shit!” Shug quivered. “What kind of weapon caused that!?”
“No weapon at all.” Brentha answered. “That’s how strong his kick is.”
“Are his leg’s made of steel?”
“Yes, literally.”
“Stop ogling and let’s bounce!” Yunga commanded as they started running with the crowd.
They made it out of the middle aisle to finally see the carnage that was going on. Granjeel was stomping on Uff’s soldiers, squishing them into bits like it was nothing. Town guards came rushing in, pointing their guns at him.
“Stand still with your arms raised!” A guard demanded.
They were all peering around the corner, waiting for the chance to run when they were not in view.
“Relax, I have no quarrel with any of you.” Granjeel said as he scraped the bits of human that remained on his shoe. “I’m only looking for some…Particular individuals, have you happened to come across them?” He unveiled a poster that had a slightly realistic sketch of Yunga’s face. He then had a series of images that had the same style but for everyone in the crew.
The guards sternly stared him down as their fingers hovered over the trigger, ready to shoot at any sudden movement he made.
Over at the hotel, the doors burst open as several men come barging out all together. They darted their attention towards the conversation and the man in front points dramatically at them.
“There’s that fucker!” He shouted out, unholstering his rifle. The rest followed suit as they lined up in formation.
Granjeel bolted to cover inside a merchant tent that was nearby as the men opened fire, and the guards returned fire, leaving the whole marketplace in chaos. It looked like there were way more of Uff’s men there then they thought.
Yunga and the crew took the chance to dash out of the way, moving over to the docks trying not to get caught in the crossfire. Multiple boxes scattered the harbor, leaping to them for cover. She was about to make a final sprint to the ship when Shanta grabbed her hand.
“Wait.” She stopped her. “We could overtake their ship.” She pointed to the ship that floated right at the end of the dock. It had the flag that they recognized from Uff’s fortress. It was a big burly one and it was impressive that they didn’t notice it earlier.
“Huh? During the middle of all of this!?” Brentha asked.
“Think about it. We were talking about sneaking in as an option and we’ve been given this opportunity to do so. It’s a way more safe bet then what we originally planned.” She pointed to their ship as multiple men started to fall one by one.
“You do have a point.” Yunga followed up.
“But we bought all of those supplies.” Zunci countered. “We can’t just leave those behind, we’d waste our money.”
“That's the least of our worries right now.” Shug replied. “We’ll just have to take the loss.”
“I guess, Let’s just go for it, fuck it!”
“Just don’t get spotted by him.” Brentha nudged her head towards the direction of the ongoing battle. “We don’t need any more of them on our trail.”
Frantically looking around, making sure they weren’t spotted as the battle died down as both sides dwindled in numbers. Gunshots were still firing off like crazy, they didn’t find Granjeel but they went for it anyways.
Sprinting out of cover, scampering across the tattered wooden planks of the dock, heading directly to the ship at the end. Everyone was caught up in battle, that they basically didn’t even exist in their world.
Successfully crossing and climbing on the ship, they looked over at the battle one last time. A few guards were left standing while only one Uff soldier planted behind cover, firing off rounds without peeking over. Granjeel still didn’t reveal himself.
Quickly they got to work to get the ship working. Shug and Zunci were dragging the anchor up, Yunga, Shanta, and Brentha hoisted the sails. Soon enough they were ready to depart without anyone knowing the wiser.
Yunga got to the wheel and started veering away from the dock, the ship slowly starting to drift away. Giving one last look at their ship, in a way, it was a signal of where they all started. A beacon of how they persevered against the odds. Having to leave that behind, it struck something in her.
Shrugging that off as she looked towards the battle and it completely ended. The last Uff got struck with a bullet in his head, piling along with the other bodies. The guards exited their cover and started helping out the injured folk around.
During the aftermath of the fight, Granjeel jumped out from his hiding spot. The guards were startled, trying their best to fire off a shot as quickly as they could. He kicked the closest one next to him in the stomach.
The guard wheezed and dropped his weapon. While the rifle was still in the air, he swooped it and shot the next guard in his sight. He stomped on the man he kicked, crushing his spine, twisting his foot to inflict more pain.
He screamed in agonizing pain as he was left paralyzed on the floor. The one other guard left standing started fleeing, running to a building that seemed to house them. Granjeel let him go off, walking away cracking his shoulders and neck, like he just got done with an intense workout.
The more they sailed away, the more the vision to see the carnage started to falter from view. The distance increased between them. Brentha looked over the edge at it, leaving it all behind.
She squinted her eyes, spotting the bright green hair standing straight up facing their direction. She noticed that he was staring directly at them, standing still looking as they drifted away.
That was the last they saw of him and the ship before disappearing behind the corner to pick up Huune and Jinlin.
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Pulling up slowly to the cliff, they slowed their speed at the near perfect pace for them to hop on without any complications.
“Don’t worry!” Yunga called out. “We stole one of Uff’s ship. It’s just us.”
Jinlin peeked his head down to see the rest of the crew waving up. “When the hell did you guys do that?”
“Uff’s men showed up and then there was this green haired dude.” Shug began explaining. “Just so much shit happened.”
“We’ll jump down and then you can tell us all about it.”
He vanished from view just for a few seconds. Reappearing on Huune’s back as he plummeted down. Landing on the ship he broke some of the boards and the deck drooped down. Not enough damage to be of significance, but extremely annoying to deal with. Jinlin hopped off his back and dusted off his clothes.
“I knew I heard gunshots.” He said. “I wasn’t sure though, worried something major happened since you guys took longer than you should have.”
“We’re just like.” Zunci paused. “The most unlucky crew, always running into trouble and it hasn’t even been a month.”
“True.” Shanta smirkily added.
Yunga steered the ship away from the cliff and started sailing away from land. “Ah.” She sighed with relief. “Feels like ages since I’ve been on the sea. Feels great to be back.”
Huune waltzed over to the edge of the ship to look down. “Wow.” He said in awe. “I’ve actually never been on the ocean before.”
“Been stuck on that stupid island forever?” Brentha asked, shifting up beside him.
“Born and raised there. Feels nice to see something different, a whole new experience-”
“Guys!” Shug shouted from down into the living quarters. No one else saw him walk off, shocking everyone. “Come down here now!”
It sounded like an immediate emergency, so everyone rushed down to see what he was hooting and hollering about. Huune being unable to as the doorway was way too small to fit his body through. Crowding down the stairs together, around the corner their jaws dropped.
What appeared to be a hundred people chained up alongside a wretched smell. It wasn’t just a normal run of the mill person, Purks. What they raided was a slave ship. Most of them looked terrified and some looked malnourished.
All of their spirits dropped down to their stomachs, like a huge stab to their heart. Their expressions turned to horror, knowing that they just acquired another huge issue. The big question being, what the hell do they do with them now.61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR7oNNMZuiv
