Luma stood with a jump, drawing her sword and whirling around. She couldn't see Leif anywhere, and his absence frightened her. She didn't have time to dwell on it, though. A Chimera and a Manticore were already poised to fight in front of her.
Her right shoulder was still bleeding and hurt like hell. She held her blade in her left hand, shakily and awkward. She couldn't fight like this; surely she would die. As the Manticore jumped at her throat, teeth bared, she let her weapon clatter to the ground.
The fangs never struck.
She sat up with a gasp, her head slamming against a stone wall.
It took her eyes a minute to adjust to the darkness. When they finally did, though, there wasn't much to look at. The room she was in wasn't more than two or three square yards in area. It was empty, too, with a barred metal window overlooking the night landscape. A feeling of dread coiled in the pit of her stomach. When she pulled frantically at her hands, metal cuffs dug into her wrists and restricted her movement.
"Hey, calm down!" a voice hissed from her right. Her blood ran cold with fear at the feeling of a curved blade resting against the side of her throat. She managed a fearful groan behind her gag. Whatever artes her kidnapper had used bound her legs and head, so that she couldn't crane her neck and look over at the person as they spoke.
"I didn't mean to knock you out..." the voice continued, and Luma realized that the girl it belonged to wasn't any older than twelve or thirteen. The blade lowered. "Well, maybe I did. But I didn't have a choice in the matter."
"We were just following orders~!" a second girl agreed, and Luma realized that two more children of about the same age had sneaked up on her left. "Right, Elize?"
"R-right..."
"Anise." the first girl commanded, and the blade sliced through the gag over Luma's mouth. She cast her prisoner a glare that warned against screaming out. "Go tell the colonel that she's awake."
"Yes, ma'am! Come on, Elly."
"O-okay..."
Two sets of footsteps sauntered from the cell and—Luma was sure—down a staircase; the first was a jolly skip, and the second a slow dragging of boots. Once she was certain that she was alone with just the remaining girl, she took in a shaky breath. The hilt of the girl's knife pressed against her chin, then trailed down her neck and stopped at her collarbone.
"Where am I?" she demanded. No sooner had the words left her mouth than her ankles were released, and she fell forward, off the edge of the makeshift bed and onto the cold stone floor. Her knees stung, and she knew they were scraped. When the chains on her wrists came off, she staggered again and put her arms out to break the fall. Her shoulder ached.
"In Panamko, of course." the girl replied, leaning against the far wall of the cell. Her face was covered by the brim of a large, feathered pirate hat, but Luma could make out her smirk in the moonlight. She held a knife in one hand and a green handbag in the other, and wore a pinkish dress.
"Panamko..." Luma echoed. "The capital of the Northern Peninsula..."
"A bit out of the way, I'll admit, but..." she trailed off as the trap door in the corner opened again, and the two other girls reentered along with a long-haired man in military attire. "Colonel!"
The man frowned, entwining a gloved hand in his own hair. His scarlet eyes glinted in irritation behind the frames of his glasses. He sighed, straightening out his jacket and nodding towards the girl in the corner, who had thrown her hat aside and stood, bowing slightly and saluting.
"Didn't I tell you girls not to hurt her, Chat?" he asked disdainfully, offering Luma his hand. She pushed it away, leaning all her weight on her left arm as she stood.
"Sorry, Colonel." the pirate murmured, pulling her hat back on and shuffling her feet.
"It's quite alright...although I believe you owe your victim the sincerest of apologies."
There was a quick chorus of three sheepish "sorry"'s to which Luma hummed in acknowledgement. The colonel smiled in approval, sliding his glasses further up the bridge of his nose with his middle finger, then pointing towards the door.
"Why don't you three wait for me in the plaza? The last thing we need is you scaring this young lady away."
"Yes, Colonel!"
"Roger that!"
"Alright...!"
...
"They're gone." Luma noted weakly, feeling her knees start to buckle. The man's arm was around her shoulder before she could land ungracefully on her face again.
"Er, thank you, Colonel."
"Just 'Jade' will do." he corrected.
"Right..." the girl trailed off, watching the sunrise through the barred window. "Look...I don't mean to be rude, but I'd like to go home now. I sort of left without a warning, thanks to your little minions."
"My, my...impatient now, aren't we? Let's look at the facts here; you were trespassing in the Panamko Woods, which is within Meguro borders. That is a crime punishable by life in prison."
Luma didn't reply.
"That isn't to say I intend to lock you up."
"You already have."
"True."
Luma sighed, leaning back against the wall.
"Okay, I'm sorry." she murmured finally. "How can I get myself outta this mess?"
"Oh?" Jade smirked, looking like he was getting a kick out out of the conversation already. "Get yourself out of this? And what if you can't?"
"You already said there was a way." Luma countered. "You told we you weren't going to lock me up."
"Ah, did I?" Jade asked with a shrug, shaking his head. "Perhaps I did..."
Inwardly, Luma groaned.
The streets of Panamko were surprisingly empty, even taking into account the odd hour. Luma stared at the ground while she walked, side-by-side with Colonel Jade Curtiss.
The city was large, she'd give it that. Every building was huge; three-story, Spanish-title roof kinda huge. The streets weren't the dirt paths that she was so accustomed to. They were paved with cobblestones and what looked like silver or gold dust, so that the whole of the ground seemed to shimmer. Market stalls and such lined the sidewalks. The whole city was clean, like some fastidious leader reigned and outlawed any and all filth.
—Skit No. 001: Thunderstruck—
"Whoa..." Luma breathed.
"You seem impressed." Jade chuckled.
"I've just...never been in a city like this before." Luma replied.
"You grew up in a village in the Neutrality Crescent, didn't you?" Jade inquired thoughtfully.
"Yeah." Luma replied. "I never got to ride in elevators or have a second story...and I never had to worry about crossing the street."
"Oh?" Jade prompted. "Do you have something against streets?"
"N-never mind." Luma huffed.
—End Skit—
The plaza came into view after twenty or so minutes. It was a huge, round common, centered in front of the palace. More shops were crammed haphazardly into every inch of free space on the circumference. Children and a few adults hustled about, either shopping, or playing in groups, or being late to school.
The three girls from earlier were leaning on the fountain in the center of the plaza. Luma could finally get a glimpse of the inferior two children; the taller, more awkward of the two had long, blonde hair that cascaded down her back and ended just below her waist. The shorter had darker skin than the tall blonde, but lighter skin than the pirate. Her hair, black as night and full of curls, she wore in pigtails. Around her shoulders, an ugly, patchwork doll clasped its arms. All three of the girls were now clad in the same pink and blue sailor fuku.
The pigtailed girl looked up, smiling a Cheshire cat grin upon noticing Jade and Luma. The latter sucked in a sharp breath and groaned, while the former smirked and adjusted his glasses.
"Colonel, you're back!" the girl cooed, all but glomping the man, then sending Luma a menacing glare. "We were afraid that the little rat turned on you!"
"I couldn't bear the thought of you getting hurt, Colonel." the taller girl agreed. Her eyes were downcast, and she held a pink and purple doll in one hand.
Jade chuckled, wrapping an arm around either girl. The pirate girl hesitated, then joined in on the group hug after a moment.
Luma cleared her throat, stamping her near-bare foot on the ground.
"If you don't mind me asking," she interrupted, jabbing a finger at the girl with jet pigtails, "who the hell are you three?"
She swallowed hard, regretting the harshness of her own words as eight eyes—two brown, two sapphire, two gold, and two red—watched her with either hurt, disapproval, or a mix of the two.
"Okay, forget I asked..." she mumbled. "Let's just go."
"Go where...?" the long-haired girl asked quietly.
"Back to the base." Jade replied cheerily, taking a step back and putting his hands on his hips. "Luma here has agreed to assist us on our mission!"
"I...I have?" she sighed.
—Skit No. 002: The Three Musketeers—
"So...who exactly are you?" Luma asked.
"Us?" the pigtailed puppeteer asked. "I'm Master Puppeteer, Ex-Thief Anise Tatlin of the Panamko military, third division!"
"Um...I'm Elize." the lolita murmured.
"Chat!" the pirate finally added. "Greatest pirate to ever be caught and imprisoned by a Panamko soldier."
"Thief? Pirate? You sound more like criminals than soldiers." Luma mumbled.
"They are." Jude cut in.
"What!?" Luma squeaked.
"They're in the same boat as you, as it happens." Jade added with a smirk.
—End Skit—
It was dark.
That was the second thing Leif had realized when he awoke. The first was that Luma had vanished from his presence. The third was that he was in a cage with two other creatures.
He recognized one as the blue wolf that attacked him earlier. A growl rose in his throat, and he had to bite his tongue to stifle it. Picking a fight wouldn't help him out of this mess. That wasn't how Luma did things, so that wasn't how Leif would do them.
Neither of his young masters were here to save him. He would have to rely on his own brute strength—not Luma's willpower, and not Sol's wits. He didn't have the girl to urge him on, or the boy to advise him.
Something moved in the cage behind him, and Leif bristled. A black and violet, catlike beast stood by his side, swishing its tail nonchalantly. The wall-eyed canine sneered, taking a step forward and nicking his muzzle on the wiry bars of the cage.
The cat chuckled a human-sounding chuckle and ran one paw over his face.
Leif whipped around with a snarl, lashing his forked tail in irritation. Pain seared into his throat from the insignia on his neck, which glowed in anticipation of battle.
"Now, there's no need for that." the cat scolded playfully, smirking. "I meant nothing by it. Merely a jest."
Leif paused, letting the fur lie flat on his back. The pain in his neck dulled to a throb, and his tail stilled.
"Good boy." the creature purred in Leif's ear. "Let's find your master, now, shall we?"
