Update: Sentence flow / Error corrections (June 13, 2008)
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Maverick Angels: Treasures Of The Tenshodo
Chapter 1: Of All The Chickens That Flew The Coup...
In a dimly lit den just off the shores of the Elshimo Lowlands, four figures stand shrouded in darkness. The windowless room the four beings stood in lay hidden in a grotto notorious for its scaly inhabitants and other foul unworldly creatures, as well as those who dared to call this place 'home'. The room smelled of moist ebony lumber, consistently wet from the salty kiss of the ocean wafting through the Quay where many less than favorable exchanges have taken place over the past several decades.
Within the ebony wood walls of the seaside gathering grounds, one of the four shrouded figures steps forward, facing the remaining three. Although his appearance is muddled by the lack of light in the room, one can make out the being to be an older white haired Hume. The Hume spends a few moments rummaging through the deep pockets of his long white jacket until it appears that he has found what he was looking for. The man withdraws a single stone of flint in one white gloved hand and a small dagger in the other. Bringing the stone to the base of the dagger's blade the old Hume swiftly scours the weapon with the stone, sending a shower of sparks from his hands. The small embers rain down onto a piece of parchment lying atop the rosewood desk before the white clothed Hume. Within seconds the modest bits of heat begin to take their toll on the piece of paper. Several small flames are born unto the darkness, dancing from their origins they grow and overcome the scent of the ocean, trailing lines of smoke before the face of their creator. The white haired veteran of life quickly rolls up the burning parchment, successfully tucking the flames into its tip. Lifting the scroll from the rosewood desk the man guides the small flames in the blackness around them to a bit of bees wax encompassed within a luxurious glass and bronze housing. The tiny licks of fire jump from the nearly consumed roll of parchment and onto the center wick of the bronze lantern.
The lit lantern slowly grows in strength as the flames take hold of the wick, purging the blackness of the room from the close proximity of the grandiose container. Eerie elongated shadows are strewn about the small den, all finding their centers originating from the same point. The most prominent of the shadows belongs to the bearer of the flames; the old Hume dressed in white. What the darkness hid before in its clutches of mystery is now visible through the light that shone forth from the lantern. The Hume man appears experienced through out the ages as the wrinkles and lines of his face etch his stories of turmoil and praise for all to see. Concealing several of these lines, as well as his left eye, lay a sturdy blood red bandanna tied about the Hume's forehead. Indeed, he had seen his share of battles and strife.
Of the three remaining figures in the room stood a tall orange haired Elvaan man, a masked Hume dressed head to toe in black cloth, seemingly in his late teenage years, and a woman with shoulder length auburn hair not many years beyond the masked Hume to her left. The tall Elvaan, to the left of the young masked Hume, stared intently at the burning lantern.
"Norg never seems to disappoint the curious of heart with its rare treasures. I've not seen a Tonberry lantern this close without having to fear the rancor of those green devils."
"I suppose ya be right in that aspect Corilinos. Norg be the harbor of many unique an mystical items even I cannot claim t'fully understand t'this day." the aged Hume behind the rosewood desk spoke aloud.
"I reckon ya three know that I'd not be callin' ya all the way t'me chambers just t'view me newly acquired Tonberry lantern. There be more important matters t'discuss at this early hour of the dawn."
The trio before the white clothed Hume all nodded in unison as if guided by the other two's thoughts instinctually.
"Good, good. It not be a remarkable thing however. Every member of the Tenshodo has heard the news, even down t'the very last scallywag on the outskirts of our territory. I'd not be surprised had even some of the well connected land lubbers of the great nations come t'be aware of our recent losses."
The white haired elder Hume altered his attention to the masked shorter man, to the right of the tall Corilinos, directly in front of him who had shifted his weight a mere three degrees to his right side in thought. Avoiding aligning vision with the older Hume until his thought process was finished, the young man in black connected his line of sight to the right eye of the white appareled man before him and proceeded with his verbal questioning.
"What exactly was stolen during the coup d'etat though? We haven't received exact notification as to the actual nature of the stolen goods from the strongholds of Norg."
"I'd be as daft as them scraggly packs of Opo-opo outside the Sea Serpent's Grotto t'have sent out any more information on the subject. Now that ya be here though, I suppose I should indulge yer fancies with the knowledge of the past couple long days. Three days ago a good dozen or so scurvy dogs who identified themselves t'be from the Jeuno outpost of the Tenshodo took refuge from a storm in the Quay. Foolish as we were we allowed the soaked bilge rats t'spend the night recovering from the weathered trip in the only available quarters we had unoccupied."
A softer voice broke through the hardened consistency of the other three in the conversation.
"You thought nothing of some washed up members from Jeuno finding port here, huh? It must be an everyday thing to have them coming and going through here." stated the red attired auburn haired woman to the right of the masked Hume.
"Ya be proper in yer judgments little one. It be commonplace t'find those of the Tenshodo trading treasures here an oftentimes it be the only safe haven t'deal in such taboo matters without the risk of being confronted with the laws. The crew that arrived here was t'be allowed t'spend the night in the brig of our last unoccupied ship that sat in the Quay. It not be one of them fancy pants rent-a-rooms where ya get t'curl up with them fluffy Moogles but it be shelter from the storm. Nothin' was out of tide 'til the early hours just over two days ago where I woke t'hear Comitiolus crossing blades with a good half dozen of the filthy thieves. I be right in choosing the likes of him t'guard me office. T'cut our little chitchat at the knees me mates an I fought off the scoundrels, but avast, not before succumbing t'their scurvy plots."
The old Hume stared deeply into the Tonberry lantern's flame as he crossed his white dressed arms before his chest. The trio across from him stood intently awaiting his next words as he gazed in thought, almost remorse. Seconds passed before the ebb of the silence was broken.
"You still didn't tell us what they stole."
Corilinos and the masked Hume quickly turned their attention to the young female of the group as the white haired man in the blood red bandanna simply grinned an aged toothy smirk and continued to peer into the flames.
"Koriandr, what do you think was stolen? It must have been something of great value to the thieves." Corilinos motioned with an open palmed hand to the woman two bodies to his right.
"It was a weapon." the masked Hume muttered more under his breath than to the group while staring off into the slowly spreading blackness in the corner of the room.
This nearly unspoken verse was enough to knock the experienced Hume from his trance with the fires of rancor.
"Ya seem t'have the pirates sense of value at hand! It be many weapons however, fifteen t'be on the mark. Not much be getting' by ya Ninja types, ehh Tigerhawk?"
Corilinos and Koriandr looked inward toward the young Hume identified as Tigerhawk between them both in question as to how he acquired this knowledge. They had not known Tigerhawk to have experience in the ways of the Tenshodo besides the previous missions that they had been called upon to accomplish before by the white clad man behind the rosewood desk in front of them.
"Me mates and me may not have been bladed for such an onslaught on our own docks but I'd be damned if I allow me house t'be ransacked like some war worn seaside village." the one-eyed man shouted as he slammed his previously crossed arms, fists down, onto the desk before him, nearly shaking the life from the flames that had grown dim from nearly consuming all of its resources within the lantern.
The loud thud of the surprisingly sturdy clenched fists bluntly dropping to the desk sent an echo through the room as it ricocheted off the damp ebony wood walls. Almost instantaneously, in response to the sound, the only door leading into the room had opened hastily. Comitiolus, on the other side, quickly poked his black and white masked face in to inquire about the rumble that shook even the door that he was, seconds before, propped up against.
Comitiolus' face, even in the dim light of the dying lantern mixed with the outer lamps in the hallway behind him, was obviously scarred and scathed badly. The caked blood on the wounds had turned a rusty brown and hardly even appeared to be healing in the downtime since. With an open handed semi-wave from the now unclenched white five fingered glove, Comitiolus nodded in heavily concealed pain and backed out from the threshold of the doorway, closing it behind him.
"As ya can see, we be not fully settled in rest from the bout. However, we lost not all the sealed weapons in the chaos. Of the greater dozen of the fish-lipped bilge rats a few were unable t'escape with their prospected loot. I personally saw t'the disposal of these wretches after claiming back two of the fifteen weapons they possessed."
"I trust that you recovered information as to where the rest of the group was planned to reorganize." Corilinos stated as if he had done so many times before.
The old Hume shifted his vision toward the protruding end of his great katana at his side. His visible eye gleamed with the reflection of the rancor flame between the wrinkles that outlined it. With an almost sinister smirk he continued on with the conversation.
"Ya know… often times -- in the heat of battle -- before the wrongs done t'ya have been corrected it just makes more sense t'give in t'the blade an let it speak the words kept behind yer lips. Also, I might have misspoke the order of which we claimed back the two weapons and tearing the throats from the scrawny gulls; at least for the first three seadogs. I be afraid me mates and me don't have much t'go off of from the remaining survivor of the coup. Before chewing out his own tongue he muttered not a word of the damned. The Sahagin in the grotto made quick work of his bloodstained corpse being the little piranha they are."
Koriandr spoke from the three, almost on their behalf as it became brutally obvious as to the group's next inquiry.
"Where then can we search for clues as to the whereabouts of the remaining thieves? You must have a heading if you called us here."
"Aye, me mates came t'me a day ago with news of one of the thieves. They said he be headed into the village of Kazham an from their view it was just the one of them. They lost his trail coming upon the Temple of Uggalepih, the cursed home of them Tonberry you were so privy about Corilinos."
Corilinos' gaze shot from the elder Hume to the Tonberry lantern and back to the crimson banded man.
"So they brought back a lantern. The rancor of the devils is sealed within it." Corilinos said, almost as if telling himself his own thoughts aloud.
"Me mates brought back the lantern an what information they could muster from our only available source -- the blasted Tonberry themselves! They came upon the wounded body of the single Tonberry while tracking the hidden thief an, lo an behold, in a last ditch trade for his life the bloody reptile traded the information that he procured about the thief as well as his unlit lantern as a sign of his steadfast oath of truth in his words."
As the fires of rancor drained the last bit of fuel from the wax around them a faint puff of smoke escaped the dying breath of the heat. To Corilinos and Koriandr this gray wisp came and went unnoticed. However, to the shaggy haired Tigerhawk, a half second glimpse of what he thought to be evil embodied in an ominous sign emerged and threw itself into the air, dissipating a fraction of a second later.
"I need ya crew t'ride over t'Kazham an speak with a Mithra who had a run in with the thief outside the temple. Do yer crew an ya understand?"
As the darkness once again enveloped all within the room the faint smell of smoke gave in to the power of the sea's kiss, succumbing to her will. The smell of the wet ebony wood returned and all grew quiet in the pitch black of the grave-like room.
"Yes, Gilgamesh…"