Forked tongue flicking out, a slow grin spreads on the face of the young female. The salt on the wind calling the Captain and her misfit crew back to the ship. As her scaled tail switches from beneath her coat, she reaches the dock. To the east, the closest star burns hot. The palm trees dance in the breeze coming off the water. Though Parthas is a beautiful world, the Captain would tell you the seas are the only source of true beauty.
"Cap! You ready?" Turning with a full smile, the Captain of the Chámase, faced to the source of the voice.
In his half-form like her, a younger male bounds up to the young captain. At first glance he could pass for any normal fifteen year old human boy. Only after staring into his bright eyes full of fire does one notice he's different. He, like his Captain, shows all the hallmarks of being a dragon. Beneath his shirt, scales shift along his shoulders. Out of no where, his tail slips out and snags a piece of fruit from a stand while the shopkeeper's back is turned. Sharpened teeth sinking into his pilfered treat, he addresses the female, the juice from the fruit running down his chin. "Ship's all loaded. Want to pull out before the so called king realizes we're here?"
They both know if the King catches them here, all on the crew will be banished through Parthas' portal where all creatures the various kings deem criminals are thrown. Though it is said by very few that the portal will send them to a parallel Parthas and not to death, the Captain refuses to take that chance. Her main mission in life is to keep the crew she calls family safe and with the living. With a nod, she dismisses the boy she refers to as "Brother" back to the ship, fully intending to join him and the twelve others after she made sure to pay for the piece of fruit Brother had liberated.
Transaction handled, the scales running along the Captain's throat flushed a bright, happy blue. She was returning to her only lovers, her ship and the sea. The thought of the rolling waves rocking the creaking hull of her prized home… she was sure nothing could ruin her spirits.
Until she neared the dock.
The beach was crowded, soldiers keeping everyone off the dock as all eyes stayed on something in the distance. With the authority she's learned since having to take the head of command among her crew, the Captain pushes her way though the crowd. Stepping onto the dock, she expects the soldiers to stop her, but instead, they take a step back and allow her to pass.
At the end of the dock stands the captain of the royal guard and the King. Though older than our pirate Captain, the King's still not quite old yet. With their posture and similar features, King Lume Nacido might have been mistaken for the Captain's father, if not for the fact that he was born of fire and she's a daughter of the sea.
She stops dead in her tracks as the King addresses her without turning to see who was approaching. "Ah, the so-called captain of those thieves. You're right on time. Have you considered my offer of immunity for your crew if you abandon your life of crime and join my court?"
The Captain's hands ball into fists, claws digging into her palms as she growls her answer, "Quit bringing supplies to those you've robbed to become just another of the slaves you use only for their bodies? Leave my family to lay in your bed?" Her eyes flash a dark violet, scales along her neck changing to match, a sign of the intense emotions that fuel her reaction. "/Never!/ I do what I do to provide for those you oppress. Only death or banishment could stop our work!"
That was the answer King Lume expected. His own scales that run the entire length of his arms nearly grow red as a wide grin spreads on his face, sharpened teeth glinting in the sunlight. "Very well." He turns to face the captain of his guard. "Proceed. We have her final answer."
With a wave of his hand, the guard signals the King's archers. Fifty archers, fire dragons like their King, blow bright hot flames onto the ends of their arrows, then send the blazing arrows towards a ship in the distance. A ship that was loaded the night before with a barrel of oil for each archer. A ship that was guarded by two young males, one a fae, the other an earth dragon. A ship where both those guards were murdered before the crooked King loaded the barrels onto the ship. A ship where the rest of the crew members were locked below deck to await their fate as the ship was anchored just off shore. A ship named Chámase that began to burn before the Captain's eyes.
"No! You monster!" As she lunges at the King with a rage she didn't know she held, the guard captain tackles her, the blackness taking her as her head smashes against the rough wood of the dock.
~~~~~~~~~~
Not quite two years later, the Captain, now with a name instead of just a title, wakes up in a bed she calls her own. Screaming and soaked with sweat, her eyes wildly search the room as her mind finally comes back to the current day and reminds her where she is. The wave drown out the sound of her night terrors, and for that, she’s grateful.
Tesouro Chámase slips from the bed and makes her way to the bathroom. A scar on the inside of her wrist, a jagged claw mark that was seared by a flame as the royal claw dragged though her flesh before the King personally threw her through the portal is visible in the pale moonlight that reflects off the bathroom mirror from the skylight overhead. It's the only physical reminder she carries from his hellish deeds.
In the distance, a party rages on the hidden earth island the once Captain, who never had a name back in Parthas, now calls home.
Her little bungalow that sits on the water was a gift from the island's current owner. Like her, he's a dragon of the water, an older male. The male spent eighteen years on earth, turning the little island that only nonhumans know of, into the world of parties where creatures know they can be what they are and have no fear.
Fado, the island, is the premier destination for vacation, provided you are a member of the Third Race and have the cash. And it is here the portal in Parthas dumps all those that are forced through it. Here in Fado, those unlucky souls spend a year hidden from the vacationers, receiving training to work the island and to be assimilated into earth. After that year, Parthians are expected to spend another year employed at the resort on Fado to compensate for their training and lodgings. When their second year on earth ends, most creatures take their earnings and leave Fado in the past for the world outside of it.
Nearing the end of her year of work, the Captain Tesouro Chámase must decide if she'll stay in Fado, to work as she has been all year, or venture off into the world. It's a choice they all must make. But as far as Tesouro is concerned, there is no decision. Fate led to Fado, so she feels that's where she is meant to stay.
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