Chapter 3 Shipped Away & Slipped away
Monday-somewhere between 10: am and 1:pm, Aqua and Zoey had been captured for three days now and on and off both ofthem cried. The two were held in cages across from eachother somewhere in the lower deck of the smuggling ship. Other animals of various types were in cages besides across from each other somewhere in the lower deck of the smuggling ship. Other animals of various types were in cages beside them, and all of them looked sullen and miserable. Vinny came down the metal steps into the lower deck to do his routine count and feeding of the animals. Day after day it was the same thing. The animals recieved water and diced cutlets of old fruit, and some kind of mush on a thin metal tray which was slid through the small slot at the base of their cages. If any of the animals got aggressive, Vinny would poke and prod at them with a metal rod, but by now most of the animals had lost their zeal, and Zinny figured he had showed them he was the boss. But this made him lax and complacent, forgetting how crafty animals could be. Wednesday-Vnny came down to feed the animals as usual. "Yep... One more day till port and then I'll be rid of the lot of you!" Vinny said as he went about sliding trays under each cage. "Yawn...oh man, Ibeen working too much. gee, it's so warm and cozy down here, kinda feel like taking a nap...I'll just lay down for awhile...try to catch up...On my...sleep." Whether by stupidity or fate,Vinny layed down inbetween the two rows of cages and a small teal blue paw reached out from a cage nimbly fethced the key_ringoff from his belt. Aqua's heart thumped nervously as he worked the key intothe lock and turned it, and the latch swung open. The other animals pawed at the front of their cages in anticipation, desparate to be loosed. "Shhh..." Aqua whispered, trying to quiet them. Vinny began to stir. "Aqua just go, get out of here!" Zoey said in a hushed tone of voice. "I'm not leaving with out you." Aqua protested back. Vinny opened his eyes groggily,"What the!?" He said half dazed. "Aqua! Run!: Zoey yelled sternly. Aqua dropped the keys and scampered as fast as his little legs could carry him to the stairs. Vinny odve at him but fekk over the cages causinga ruchus. "What's going on down their?" Joe said, hearing the clamor, and headed toward the lower deck stairway. A blue ball of fur ran past him going inbetween his legs. "What the..!?! Its the cub! He's escaped! Get him! Joe yelled to the crew on the top deck desparately evading the crews lunging attempts to sieze him. "Not like that you embeciles! Use the nets!" Joe fumed, throwing his hands up in the air as he hollered. Frantic to get sway, Aqua scampered over the side railing forgetting there was nothing but air to run on. He plummeted down inti the choppy waters below. As thecrew ran to the side preparing to lower men in a lifeboat their jaws dropped at what they saw next. Somewhere out of nowhere came two bottle nosed dolphins. They seemed to sense the bear's panic and swam under his arms catching him on their back fins and quickly swam ahead to the Australian shore line. The crew on board the ship were dumbfounded, and all of their jaws dropped in disbelief of what they had just witnessed. "#%*!" Joe yelled belligerently and threw his cap on the deck and stomped on it.
Thursday morning-Aqua opened his eyes to find himself on land. For a moment he wondered how he got there but remembered that he had collapsed shortly after reaching the shore. Prior to waking, Aqua had been dreaming he was underwater somewhere, and this dream he saw two dolphins swimming around him. "Weird dream." He said to himself. The ocean breeze felt coll and gentle, almost coaxing Aqua to get lost in the moment. Then he remembered Zoey and the others still captive on the ship. Aqua looked around andsniffed the air. This place wherever it was, seemed entirely unfamiliar to him. Everything smelled different that where he was born, and he couldn't recognize any ofthe terrain. With nothing else to go on, he began walking along the coast, but as he went, despair had soon set in and he began to lose confidence that he would ever see Zoey again. "Its hopeless..." He muttered as he slumped down on the sand and looked towards the horizon. Minutes passed and the sense of loneliness began to set in. Aqua began sobbing as as the hot afternoon sun crept overhead. Then it seemed as if something obstructed the sunlight, which caught his attention. Still choking on tears, he looked up and opened his eyes. A tall figure garbed in a light brown robe and hood that was standing before him.
Chapter 4 ???
Aqua could see the skin of his hands were dark, akin to asken black like coal, and long locks of flowing white hair putruded out from the hood. But Aqua didn't feel afraid as the figure stood there, with his robe blowing in the wind. Caring, compassion, and strength seemd to flow from the figure , who's face Aqua couldn't see due to the glare of the sun behind him. The figure knelt down on one knee and lowered his hood revealing his prominent drow features. "Hey there little guy, what are you doing out here all by yourself?" The drow asked , more as a wonderment than an actual question. "I'm lost..." Aqua said through his sniffles. The draw was taken aback. "You can speak!!? That is interesting, I am Mel'feir, do you have a name?" He asked. "My name is Aqua." Said the ruffled looking cut as he sat up on his hind paws. "Aqua eh? You mentioned you were lost, do you remember how you ended up here?" Mel'feir asked him. So Aqua began explaining everything that had happened up to that point. Mel'feir stroked his chin. "That ship sounds like a smuggling boat, do you think you could identify it if you saw it again?" He asked. "I think so." Aqua replied. "Okay, then let's see if we can find your friend." Melf'eir said as he picked up the cub and set him down inside his hood, "What was her name again?". "Zoey." Aqua replied as he latched his paws onto Mel'feirs pointy ears to sturdy himself. Melf'eir's eyes burst white with light, then after a few minutes blue and white energy prisms fluxed around his body and he and the cub vanished from the spot and phased in somewhere near the seaward harbor. Shortly after teleporting in, Aqua noticed a distortion in the color spectrum of his vision. "What's going on?" Aqua asked with concern. "Shhh...we are in shadowcloak, what are you seeing is the effects of the light bending around us, people will hardly seeus, but we can still be heard, so we have to be quiet." Mel'feir explained in a whisper. As he walked alongf the dock, carefully avoiding collisions with oncoming pedestrians, he told Aqua to point out the boat if he saw it. "There it is." Aqua whispered excitedly, pointing to a large cargo ship with a black hull. "Looks like its already been unloaded." Mel'feir said. "How can you tell?" Aqua asked him. "See that faint water marking around the hull? That's where the water came up when the ship was fully loaded." Mel'feir explained, "But the animals could still be on board, I'll have to come back later and see what I can find." "Come back later? Why?" Aqua protested. "Because I have to put you somewhere safe first." Mel'feir said. On the way back to the cave near the shore where he'd been living in the past few month's, Mel'feir got an earfull of the bear's protests. "Aqua! That's enough! I want you to stay in there and wait for me, can you do that?!" Mel'feir scolded him. "Oh...alright, I'll stay and wait." Aqua said, pouting. "Good, I'll be back." Mel'feir said and left.
Nightfall, between 11:00 P.M. and midnight. Joe entered the cabin room in the ship and flipped the light on, to find Mel'feir lounging back in his captains chair. "Who are you?!" Joe stammered. "I'll be asking the questions." Mel'feir said and waved his hand to shut the door behind Joe. "Who do you work for and where did you take the animals that were on this ship?" Mel'feir asked sternly. "I don't know what your talking about." Joe said, reaching for his hand gun. Melf'feir shook his head,"Wrong answer!" An ethereal force pulled the gun up out of Joe's grip and drew the pistol into Mel'feir's hand. He released the clip, then pulled the slide back and knowcked out the slide stop and dropped the dismantled pistol on the floor. "Tell me where they are and we can pretend this never happened." Mel'feir said as he crossed the room. Joe turned around and tried pulling on the door but wouldn't budge. Mel'feir seized him by the back of his collar, spun him around, and grabbed him by the throat, lifting him off the flor,"I'll ask you one last time, where are they?!!" "Okay, okay, I'll talk, they were cargo loaded to an industrial building not far from here, its near the central square of the city, its a tall corporate building with a sign out front that saids Purinty Corp, you can't miss it, now that's all I know, I swear!" Joe said nervously as beads of sweat ran down his face. Mel'feir brought him down and pushed Joe's head back against the door with two fingers pressed against his temple. A small surge of electricity emmited from his finger tips, zapping Joe's forehead, and Joe slumped to the floor unconscious.
I hope for all of you who are reading my series enjoy this story of the origins of the three bears and Mel'feir. I'll write more as you drop off reviews concerning this story. So please read and review!