Prologue-To kidnap the princess
A small boat was out at sea on a treacherous night. The ocean was violent and choppy; there was an abysmal thunderstorm. The whole world seemed to be palette only with several shades of grey; A heavy fog blanketed everything as far as the eye could see, and around the boat, water splashed in from all angles-it was apparently the eye of a hurricane. The boat was caught between the torrential waves, being hurled across the murky sea to an uncertain fate.
The craft was simple: wooden, with a large sail and two barrels on either side. It was hardly more than a canoe, and although it was crafted decently, it was already very worn from the beating it was taking and was no type of vessel to set out in this type of storm. It was only big enough for the passengers it already carried, of which there were two.
There were a young woman and a small girl, each who had dark hair and wore reddish-colored cloaks to shield themselves from the weather. The two huddled together with what belongings they could salvage, holding on for dear life as their tiny boat spun and dipped nonstop. They could not see much due to the weather, but the sounds around them gave away the danger they were in: the whistling of the gusty winds, the crashes of heavy tide, the loud creaking of the wooden boat that would probably eventually become driftwood…
By now the boat had been so beat by the tempest that not only had the structure become rickety, but the sail had become tattered and the current was all that carried the boat across the vast ocean. The young woman prayed as she and her infant went over a particularly colossal wave, tumbling over the edge and crashing down into the water below. It seemed that the tide was growing even deadlier than before; the waves grew even higher, to the point of tsunamis.
As soon as the tiny ship had dropped, another crest of water surged up from behind, this time even larger than the previous one. The young woman took notice immediately, horror reflected in her eyes.
She shielded her frightened child from all of this, giving her comfort by humming a familiar melody that would always remind her of home. The child did not see the wave crash down nor what happened to her mother or the boat afterwards…
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A young woman awoke suddenly, startled, within her massive, elegant chamber, sitting beside a windowsill. She wore a white gown and had an ornate tiara around her head. She had beautiful, long, dark hair.
She had fallen asleep sitting in a chair, which was positioned to look outside through the slightly open window shutters. The window was as elegant in design as the rest of the room; it was complete with red drapes, a carpet to match, a finely furnished dresser, polished pottery, and a queen-size bed. Anyone, at a glance, could see this was the quarters of someone of high rank.
The girl rubbed the sleep from her eyes, adjusting to the morning light. Several doves flew by the window, chirping, and the young woman arose, pushing open the shutters fully so as to take in the full view of the world outside-which was quite impressive from the tower where her bedroom was located.
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A flock of white doves flew in the direction of a nearby vast and splendid kingdom. Coming up through a thick fog, a plateau became visible, over which several waterfalls flowed down across a wall of rich, shapely rock. Atop the plateau was the foundation for this kingdom, which was situated between the river system that formed the waterfalls. On this land was the well-established town of the kingdom, and looming up over it from the backdrop was the castle itself, extravagant with many towers and a noticeable, reflective blade-like structure reaching up from the top of the castle, higher than anything else in the land. The sight was rare, and breathtaking to behold.
It would become clear to anyone witnessing these birds' flight the reason why, exactly, they soared so closely in this direction: bringing up their rear was a gigantic, manmade structure that headed for the kingdom. A manmade structure that flew, like the birds, through the sky.
It resembled a ship that would be seen out at sea, but it had no sails, but instead many propellers coming up out of various places on it. It was a handsome-looking ship, with grand towers all throughout it, and a fine finish; on the bow of the ship was carved the beautiful figure of a mermaid with wings. The ship flew only just above the mist that surrounded the plateau, but soon, began to emerge and headed in, towards the town.
The inside of the ship was a bit less extraordinary; it was a bit more plain and wooden, and looked more like a place of work-a base of operations, and indeed, the plans for quite an operation were about to commence within this ship, and so, through the corridors came a certain member of the ship's crew, who was on his way to the meeting room.
He was a boy, in his teens, dressed casual yet suave. He wore blue pants and a pair of short boots, and had on a belt that was tied in a knot instead of buckled. There were two daggers in holsters at his side. He had on a white undershirt, and over that a closed, green vest with a small white bonnet complete with a bow. He wore no sleeves, but he wore gloves that had rather large cuffs, blue to match his pants. He had long, slightly layered dirty blonde hair, which he tied into a small ponytail at the back, letting most of it hang loose. He had a youthful-looking face, with bright blue eyes and a subtle smile that seemed to always be present.
Nothing, however, was as uncanny about his features as the long tail that ran from his back: a brown, furry tail that looked like it would belong to a monkey. It poked freely through his trousers, trailing behind him wherever he went. It seemed that he had no intention of hiding this unusual characteristic, and that people who he'd met had easily accepted the fact that a seemingly normal human had a tail.
The boy slid down a ladder to a floor below, landing with a hop. He was in one of the hallways of his ship, lit up by the windows along the hull that let in the sunlight. He strutted over to a nearby door, peered in a small circular window to see inside, and then he promptly opened and entered the room.
The boy could hardly see his finger in front of his face in this room. He peered through the blackness, wondering to himself.
"Sure is dark…" he muttered, taking a view blind steps forward, "guess nobody's here yet…"
He pulled out a candle from his pocket, lit it with a match, and walked over to the center of the room where a larger candle was, lighting it from his own small one.
The room lit up, and could now be seen to be a basic cargo hold room in the ship. Someone in an adjacent room must have noticed the boy's presence in the room now, though, as a voice quickly shouted through a nearby door.
"Who's there?!"
The boy replied quickly, "It's me, Zidane!"
Immediately, Zidane was joined by three other crew members who ran in from the other room. All four of them saluted each other , and began conversing.
One of them, a young man with red, spiked-up hair and an eye patch spoke,
"Hey, Zidane! You sure are late!"
"Sorry," Zidane apologized, "So where's the boss?"
Another crew member replied-a plump man with a beard and a chef's hat, who carried a hammer.
"Ain't here yet.-"
Suddenly, however, all four of them spun around at the sound of another door opening, at the top of a small set of stairs. Out came a figure wearing a large mask of a dragon with a long neck, who proceeded to leap down the steps and let out a rather realistic roaring sound. He pulled out a sword.
Soon, the four members of the crew began to spar with him, Zidane pulling out his daggers, the bearded man readying his hammer, and the redheaded man and the other man (who wore a bandana and had sharp teeth) pulled out short swords. They clashed with the masked man's own sword, although, he was still seemingly strong enough to stand his own against four others.
As the man swatted back the hammer's wielder, and held back the two swordsman, Zidane, of course, leaped on top of their opponent, hitting his dagger to the mask on his head, causing it to split in half and fall to the floor. Zidane leaped down, and the man now stood there, grasping his cranium, as if he had a headache.
"Uuugh, my head!" he exclaimed, "Go easy, you guys!"
His true appearance now showed: he was a large, hairy man, with a thick, purplish beard and ears that stuck up through a goggled headgear at the top of his head. He wore similar clothes to Zidane and the rest of the crew
As his crew was catching their breath, this man pulled himself together and began to mockingly compliment them on their performance.
"Hey fools!" he exclaimed, walking over the four heaps on the floor, "You're looking a lot better!"
He patted Zidane on the head, and proceeded to let out a hearty belly laugh.
"Gwahahaha! Alright, let's start this meeting already!"
With this, he walked over to the nearby door, kicked it open, and went in. His crewmen got up and followed him in.
The five of them took places in what looked like a briefing room. Their boss stood behind a table with a model castle on it and began to speak.
"Here's the plan!" he began, "Tantalus, the infamous band of daring thieves (that's us), is heading to the kingdom of Alexandria…" He held up a doll with a crown on its head for demonstrative purposes, "Our mission: to kidnap their heir to the throne, Princess Garnet!"
The bearded man with the hammer stood up.
"I'll take it from here, so listen up!" he announced, holding up a model airship and waving it back and forth, "Our ship's about to dock at Alexandria, and when it does, we're gonna put on our costumes, and put on 'I want to be your canary', the most popular play in Alexandria!"
He looked over to the crewman in the bandana.
"Break a leg, Marcus!" He continued, " 'cause you're playin' the lead!"
Marcus nodded, "Leave the actin' to me! Of course the real kidnappers will be Blank and Zidane!"
Blank, the red haired thief, pulled out from his pocket a small insect with an exoskeleton that resembled a skull.
"I'll distract the audience from backstage with these little buggers," He explained, then, looking at the bug with disgust, " I can't stand oglops…"
He put the 'oglop' back in his pocket.
"But I'll manage," he continued, smiling a bit, "so don't worry about me," then, looking over at Zidane, "and that'll be your cue, Zidane!"
"Okay," Zidane replied, "That's when I kidnap princess Garnet, right?"
The boss nodded.
"You bet!" he exclaimed, then, holding up his princess doll above the model castle, "You're gonna kidnap the most babe-licious beauty in all of Alexandria, Princess Garnet!"