Disclaimer: The people, places, and things you recognize, I don't own. They belong to Intelligent Systems and Nintendo.
And all my thanks go to Tom-Ato13 for proofreading this!
So enjoy!
. . .
She was in the cabin deck of the ship. Lying down with her hands behind her head in a hammock, remembering how she got to be there in the first place.
Why am I even here?"…That's right… Five years already past and I'm not even looking for you anymore… I'm such a letdown," she closed her eyes from the flickering flame of the candle that was placed beside her. "I miss you dad."
5 Years Ago
It had been six month since her father left and now Blair was getting anxious. He was rarely gone for more than that period of time, so she knew that that month was the month he'd be back. It was now close to the end of the month when she received a knock on the door. Too excited to check on whom it was, she swung open the door.
"Welcome home da-!Oh… Uh, hi Thomas and Angeles. I thought you were..." She cleared her throat and shook her head. "So, what brings you here?" The two would usually knock early in the morning for her to train or at night to eat. So their showing up at her door caught her off guard.
"Blair." He didn't even look at her when he said her name and Angeles started sniffling. She didn't notice this before but Angeles's eyes were red and puffy.
"Yes? What's wrong? Angeles, what's the matter?"
He continued as if she didn't say anything. "The merc-band came back today. Not everyone made it back… A lot didn't, matter of fact."
It took her a while to process what he had said. "A lot of them didn't make it back?"
"Correct."
"Well, what about…Did he make it? Where is he?"
"No your father didn't."
"…Is he dead?"Thomas didn't answer right away which caused her to raise her voice. "Tell me!"
"No. Dak's not dead-or we don't know for sure-but he is missing." Thomas was the only one who called her father by his first name.
"Missing…But how? Why? What about the crew?" That's all that she could think of with the news bombarding her thoughts.
"They're going on another assignment in about a week."
"How many members are there left?"
"Less than half. The team was already small to begin with, so they're desperate for more members, but-"
"I'll join." Thomas was taken aback by what she said and just stared at her. "I can't keep relying on anyone anymore. You can try to stop me, you too Angeles, but I won't… And maybe since Dad is lost, I can try to find him. Wasn't this the reason why everyone started teaching me in the first place? I know that's why dad did." The two grown-ups looked at each other and slipped small smiles of approval onto their faces.
"We understand. We won't stop you if you want this. But being a mercenary, it's serious. Sometimes you would have do things that you would never think of doing. Money is the most important thing out there. To everybody. You will have to kill to survive and you need to protect yourself first and always. Which reminds me," he pulled from his hip an ax. "A crew member found it on the ground and knew exactly whose it was." It was still covered, just like how it was before he left. When he handed it to her, she held it like a mother would hold her newborn. She stared at it for a long time, taking in the memories she had of them when he was with her.
She started slowly."…But what about my home and everything else?"
"If you want us too, Angeles and I can live here for you. We'll keep watch of everything until you get back."
"Yes, we can do that! We didn't really like our home to begin with because I've always adored this house!"
Blair shifted her eyes to both of them, smiling. She nearly pushed them over when she hugged them. "I love you guys. You're like my second parents, you know?" tears fell down her face. After a while, Angeles managed to separate from Blair's grip and held out a gold necklace to her. She looked at it wide-eyed. "What's that?"
Angeles put it on Blair. "It was your mother's. She wanted me to give it to you, but your father wanted to wait until you were older, scared that you might lose it. And I was going to give it to you as a present when you turn eighteen, the same time she received it, but I think now is a better time. You've grown into quite the woman that I'm sure your mother would have been proud of. Your father, I know he is for sure. Let's just hope everything goes for the best. We'll be rooting for you and your father's homecoming."
For the whole week, Blair's training intensified, since it was her last time to learn anything from Thomas. Her training from before was always hard, but this time it lasted the whole day, every day. That week ended and now she had to go to an inn to meet a crew member of her father's, to start her first job.
She stepped inside and noticed that the place was filled. People were either drinking themselves drunk or laughing and telling stories that didn't even made sense. A person was playing a piano but it could barely be heard from all the noise. There was nothing but men.
As she walked on to get to the back, somebody stopped her. "No skirts allowed," she pulled at the hem of her skirt, feeling somewhat self-conscious thinking that it was a bit too short, and ignored the man. Blair was about to keep walking but he put his hand on her shoulder. "I said 'no girls allowed.' So that means you-"
She pushed his hand off her. "Don't touch me." He grabbed the collar of her shirt and when she glared at him, he let go. He was muscular, tall, and had a few scars all over, almost intimidating, but her mind was too clouded to be caring.
"You're Rhodes'girl, aren't you?" her looks were very distinct in that area. And since many people knew who her father was, they could somewhat pick out his features from her. They respecting him and did the same for her. "I'm sorry, I had no idea. But girls really aren't supposed to be in here."
"I don't think I'll be bothering people. And I'm not going to drink or anything. I'm to wait for a crew member here for a job."
"So you're going taking your father's place, huh? And at such an age too. It's a shame that he's gone missing. Good luck out there. And try to stay away from the drunks."she nodded and resumed walking. Her father was a hero to the villages there and probably to places he traveled to too, which was almost everywhere east of the continent.
Blair reached the bar area in the back and turned around to face the door. I must be early. She felt a nudge at her shoulder and turned. "Hey, go get me some more ale from that keg." A man was pushing his mug at her and the keg was on the other end of the bar. He was talking to another person who had long red hair, covering half of his face and was wearing a black hat.
"No. Get it yourself." The man turned to her and the other guys looked as well.
"I said get me more ale." He pushed the mug at her again.
"Fine, have a drink!" and she grabbed a filled mug that was beside her and splashed it in his face. He got up fast and pushed her hard against the wall, pinning her left shoulder with his right hand and her right wrist with his left. "You can't touch me! I'm-"
"I could care less, sweetheart."
"Why, you!" she tried to lunge at him, but it only made him push her some more. "Get off of me!"
"Ah, so you want to be a tough girl, huh? You even have an ax to pull it off too. Hah- Wait…" he stopped and stared at her for a few seconds and grinned. "I've never seen a girl as fresh and young looking as you. How old are you anyway? Eighteen? Nineteen?"His face was so close that their noses were almost touching. Blair knew that he was trying to get her to blush which made her furious.
She jerked herself but that did nothing. "I don't need to tell you."
"Well you're going to need to soon, or else I'm going to do something to you. And in my defense, you didn't say anything. Heh heh. You look young but it's impossible for a girl to have a figure like yours." He was looking her over with hungry eyes.
Gritting her teeth, she answered. "F-fif-teen… Now get off of me!" She could barely be heard because then a group of men laughed at something they were talking about at the same time. His tawny eyes looked somewhat displeased. She was trying to reach for her ax with her left hand but couldn't quite get it. He noticed this then grabbed her hand and pinned it to the wall with his right knee. He used his now free hand to stroke a lock of her hair.
"Now that's a shame you are just a girl. A girl in a woman's body. But I don't think fifteen is that young nor do I think a little kiss would ruin your innocence. How 'bout we pretend you're as old as you look, for if you do feel uncomfortable. But I doubt that," she closed her eyes tight, pursed her lip together, and turned her face to the side. He grabbed her chin anyway and turned her face towards him. She opened her eyes. "Heh, am I frightening you, doll?"He was bringing his face closer, and then something stopped him. They both turned their heads to the red-head he was talking to earlier. She noticed that he looked younger than the one who was pinning her "What Joshua? I'm in the middle of something."
"That's enough Caellach. Leave the girl alone now."
"Ha. I'm almost done."
"No, Caellach."
"You know what, how about you flip your coin thing and let's see if I can finish what I've started. I call heads." He looked back at Blair with an evil grin plastered on his face. The red-head nodded once and looked at Blair. He tossed the coin into the air, turned his crimson eyes on it. The coin flipped once… twice… the third time it landed in his hand. He looked back at Blair and smirked. She felt her heart stop. No. Out of all the times I could have lost at something…
"Aw… Sorry Caellach. It's tails. C'mon we need to leave anyway." She felt a wave of relief flood through her.
He narrowed his eyes back at Blair and whispered. "Maybe next time, sweetheart. And at that next time, leave your hair down and wear your skirt shorter," he brushed his hand against her knee before let go of her disdainfully. He walked up to the red-head. "Sometimes I wish you weren't a seventeen-year-old with morals Joshua. Couldn't you see I was having some fun?" He headed out of the inn.
The red-head turned toward Blair, who was breathing hard. "If you didn't… he would've…" she looked at her boots and cleared her throat, trying to get back to sound mean, but failed because she was too shaken. "T-thanks…"
"No problem. And I should be sorry actually."
"Why? That creep did it, not you."
"Yeah, but I should have stepped in sooner. I should have known he'd get like that, with the way you threw that drink in his face. Anyway, I should probably get going, before Caellach does another stupid thing, and decides to mess with someone who can actually reach their axe." He gave her a wink and put a couple of coins on the counter before following out like the first one.
Joshua, hmm…Yeah, you should be sorry. My heart stopped and I could've died right there. She stared at the direction even after he left. She dropped her gaze and looked at the rest of the people.
From the looks of it, nobody seemed to have noticed what had happened. She wanted to punch every one of them, but decided that she didn't want to get involve with anyone else.
"Blair?" Looking up, she saw a familiar face. It was the crew member who told her father that they were going to be left if he didn't hurry from the six months ago. I should've stalled longer, and then maybe I wouldn't have to be here.
"You look pale. Something happened?" she shook her head no. "Okay, well, we need to get a move on. I trust that you know what you're getting yourself into. This, I'm assuming, is close to like war. Thomas said you were skilled with the ax, said you were better than some of the people who has been doing it for lots of years and you only done this for six months. That's impressive but I don't know what it'll mean for you in the field. Let's get a move on. The employer's going to get impatient. I'll tell you about what the mission is on our way over there."
Raid the bandits who have been terrorizing the villages north of Jehanna and take their main base; that was their mission. They were outstripped three to one, the odds of winning seemed visibly impossible, but with the help of Lady Luck and strategic minds of all the members, they succeeded. But the toll of achieving that assignment was the lives of more members. But despite those losses, they showed interested employers that they would get the job done.
1 Year After
She still felt somewhat new to the mercenary work, killing for money, but she got over it quick. Money was money, and that was her only way of getting it. She also thankful that they had to travel a lot; she felt like she was covering plenty of ground, but not enough to learn about what happened to her father. But after an incident, she was soon going to do way more than what she thought was possible.
On one assignment, they had to go close to the coast, further east of Jehanna. They had to travel far from where they were to get to the coast. She hadn't slept or got enough rest because when she had the chance to, she used that time to look for her father, and after she had to fight right away. They accomplished the mission by nightfall and fatigue was running over Blair. They had to look for a place to stay and the only inn was by the dock. Blair couldn't keep herself up but she kept walking, sleepwalking. She ended up walking onto a ship, found the nearest empty room and crashed.
The next afternoon she woke up feeling sick, in the middle of the ocean, and was with a large crew of pirates. This came as a shock to her, so reached for her ax to fight but instead held onto her stomach and mouth and sprinted to the side of the boat. Her stomach protested to anything so she ended up with half of her body over the railing, hurling out her insides. A man placed himself besides her on the railing and began talking.
"I saw ya in that little scuffle yestaday. Pretty 'mark'ble how ya were the only female wit this," he tapped her ax. "Fact, ya were the only female. And ya guys won."
"So? What about it? It doesn't matter if-" she cut off herself to resume spewing out her insides and he just watched her. She groaned after to show that she was finished, and he began again.
"Where's ya crew ya were wit?"
She looked around the deck and saw unrecognizable faces; old ones and young ones. "I don't know…Where?" he seemed like he was playing a game. She swayed her head side-to-side, not able to focus properly.
"I don't see 'em'round hea. D'ya leave 'em?" she stopped her swaying and thought about everything that happened the night before. We finished the battle at nighttime, and we're looking for an inn, and I fell asleep in my room. She was going that over and over in her head, then she thought of something that could be why she was there.
"You guys took me from my inn!" she drew her ax from her hip and pointed it at the man, sloppily."Either you bring me back to where you got me from or I'll make you fish food."The man chuckled and stepped about ten paces back. The other men around were getting their weapons ready but he just waved them off.
"To tell ya the truth, we're surprised at why ya even hea too. But if that's what ya think, then come at meh." She was already in her ready stance, but when she lifted her foot to charge, she fell onto her hands and knees; just like how she did when she first tried the lance. He just laughed at her.
"Ha ha! Sick from the swayzin' of the boat? Ha ha ha ha! Here, someone get her a seat and bring a bucket," when they propped her on a sack and placed a bucket on her legs, the man sat on the sack next to her and began. "My name is Tank. Capt'n Tank. Ya's?"
"B-Blair." she tugged at the hem of her skirt when she noticed everybody staring at her.
"Well how's 'bout joinin' us in our workin'? Ya might as well 'cause we're not goin' back to Jehanna an' time soon. We got other work in Grado. But if ya want to go back, then ya gonna have to swim back." he handed her ax to her. She snatched it away and glared at him.
"If you want me to stay, then you're going to pay more," he looked around at the crew and nodded."Nobody touches me. And I mean nobody. I get my own space and… there are other things but I need to rest right now."
"'Kay. And ya gonna need to learn how to swim. This is the ocean, and we're surrounded by it. Ya soon gonna get used to the sickness. Ya get ya rest and afta, ya meet the crew. Ya have stuff like extra clothes and stuff?" all she could manage was a small nod. Blair couldn't stand being watched anymore so wobbled her way through the door that lead to the cabin deck and found the room that she was in, which was a large storage room that had supplies. She couldn't even function right, so she just dropped herself on the sacks that she slept on and passed out.
Over the next four years, Blair eventually got over seasickness once she was used to the rocking of the boat, and after nearly drowning from being thrown overboard by the unexpected tempests they encountered and being saved multiple times by shipmates, she learned how to swim. She knew that they wouldn't hold back on her because she was a girl, so she did the tedious errands that everybody had to do, which meant scrubbing the decks, raising the masts, polishing the weapons, and sometims even cooking. She showed the crew how tough she was when a member tried to exploit her, and Blair didn't hesitate to knock him out. She did receive a stern lecture from Captain Tank, but nobody messed with her after that. She soon picked up the teams' fight skills, and it wasn't long before she became one of the best fighters in the entire crew. Blair loved the smell and the feel of the salty breezes, the scenic sunrises and sunsets, and the vast array of wildlife she could see compared to the scorching heat and the never ending sand that she found in her homeland, Jehanna. But she was still nowhere near finding out what had happened to her father, as news about him was even harder to come by with the help of her new life as a seafarer.
Back to Present
She opened her eyes again. The crewmembers stayed in an inn, while she stayed in the ship to make sure that it wouldn't be taken. Because Grado started the war and there was also a "phantom ship" taking over the seas, Blair had been in that country for a month and she was stuck in Taizel for work.
As long as it doesn't spread to Jehanna while I'm still here, then I could care less about it. This got her thinking a while.
She got up and headed over to the inn that the members were in. Even though it was late at night, past midnight even, they were most likely up drinking or were being entertained by the 'local' girls. She adjusted her bandana before walking in. Just like how she thought, her associates were predictable. It wasn't as full as it usually was but it was just as loud. They were singing songs, clashing mugs together, laughing and talking.
A few of the girls who saw her rolled their eyes. They were jealous of Blair, because where ever she went she was the heartthrob for most of the males; she didn't care for the girls or the love struck guys, though. She continued her way to Tank who was drinking by himself but as soon as she did, two girls intercepted her way.
"Let's talk Tank! We haven't done that in a while!" They both shifted their heads to smirk at Blair and went back to their annoying high-pitched voices.
"Oh, Tank! Look how strong you've gotten! I think it's because you're the best ax-user out there!"Blair's eyebrow twitched. She wasn't one to boast, but if there was anything, it would be her skill with the ax. And the whole crew knew that, too.
They went on schmoozing his ear off, doing whatever they could to sound goody.
Ew… He's more than twenty years older than them and they're like my age. And are they purposely talking like that to get on my nerves?
She scoffed and rolled her eyes. Since they were both in her way, she pulled her ax and held it close to her face. She used her free hand to gently shove them apart. They turned their heads to glare at her but stopped once they caught sight of her weapon she was waving.
And with the same way they were talking and with a more sarcastic tone, she began. "Hya girls! UncleTank seems like he's busy, so how about we talk? Yeah, we should do that! Doesn't that seem like fun? And I can tell you all the killings I've done with this ax! Oh! And don't worry, that's how Tank got so strong!" They shared frightened glances at each other and hurried away. She chuckled to herself and tapped on Tank's shoulder. "Hey Tank? I need to talk ta ya."
"I wanted to talk wit 'em. Ha! Oh well, those annoyin' girls, " He was tipsy and she was going to use this as an advantage. "'Kay. Come sit. Want something to drink?"
"I prefer to stand. And yeah, give me one of those," he got up, and came back with another mug. She drank from the cup and felt relaxed once she felt the warm feeling in her stomach. She noticed many pairs of eyes staring at her as she took effortless gulps from it.
When they were sailing, they had lots of free time so they played drinking games; Blair found her limits the first game, which seemed like a few gallons to her, and after that she never tried passing them. If Angeles saw me now, I would be dead. Angeles didn't mind the fighting, but if there was anything that she hated, it was heavy drinking.
She continued on to what she was saying earlier. "I want to go back to Jehanna."
"We can't do that. Ya heard 'bout that 'phantom ship'? Says that once yer out there, ya neva come back."
She put her hand on the table. "Did you just hear yerself? You're the one who says nothing stops us from sailing. And you also said that you owe me a favor since I saved yer life. So I want to use that favor now."
"I said that, huh?'Kay. But, if we die, it'll be 'cause of ya."
She used a sarcastic tone to answer him back. "Okay, and I'll remember that when we're dead."
"Ha ha! So when ya want to go?" He drank some more.
"Tomorrow. I don't care when tomorrow, but it has to be tomorrow."
"Bwa ha! If that's what ya want, then we'll do it. But I don't owe ya no more favors afta this."She smiled, chugged the rest of her drink and headed out back to the ship.
Tomorrow, you be ready Jehanna, because I'll be coming home.
A/N: Review please.