Chapter 2) The Pirates of Galder
Kris POV
After two years, our journey begins, at last. Two years of studying has led to this moment. Talys was fun and peaceful, but it was never really 'home'. Now, though, we were finally ready to take it back.
We make our way to Galder Harbor, the mainland port closest to Talys. According to Jagan, it's never been a rich town, but that also means it hasn't had much trouble. However, rumors hint that the town had a distinct pirate trouble, and we were going to have to deal with it.
I'm not looking forward to it, but I promised Marth. He was stuck with me and my barbed tongue until the end.
Why did blood look even worse in water? I had no idea, but I was more than ready to lose my lunch at the sight. It didn't help that there were also some bodies, bobbing like apples in a barrel.
As soon as we landed, we'd been ambushed. One pirate, Darros, helped us out of the trap, and joined up with us, and Caeda apparently recruited a hunter they'd hired by being kind. I thought his name was Castor, but all I really knew was that he was paired up with Norne while Gorin and I provided covering fire for Cain and Abel as we secured the docks.
That was when we had a different problem: getting into the city proper. We were lucky in that the docks were far enough from the town proper to have really noticed the battle, assuming the rest of the pirates were sober enough to care. So, Marth suggested a 'brilliant' idea of skirting the edges of the town, splitting into groups, and pretending to be travelers. Darros and Castor helped us escape successfully since no one knew they'd defected over to us.
I personally wondered why we didn't just leave, but Marth was insistent. We were liberating Galder. Thus, Abel, Cain, and I walked down the road, heavily cloaked to hide our armor and weapons, to somehow distract the guards long enough for everyone else to get into position. It would be a miracle if this worked.
"Hold it right there," a pirate drawled as we tried to enter the town proper. The swaying way he walked hinted he was already half-drunk. "Toll."
"Toll?" Abel repeated. He kept his voice perfectly innocent. "What toll?"
"You need to pay a toll to enter. That's the rule!" The pirate shrugged. "And if you don't have it, well, I get to have your life."
"My mother would be rather mad if I spent my life so carelessly," Cain deadpanned. I barely checked the urge to laugh. "Not a wrath I want to face."
"Now, now, your mother is a nice lady," Abel joked. He had a sly little grin on his face. "But, sir, can you make a bit of an exception? The three of us ran with little more than the clothes on our back."
"Ran?" the pirate repeated. His eyes narrowed slightly, and gestured to some of his friends to gather around us menacingly. "From what?"
"Why, they're eloping, of course!" Abel said the words so lightly that I thought I misheard. Then I realized Cain had choked on a protest. "Now, now, there's no need to be shy, bosom friend. We're far away from your lady's violently overprotective father."
"Violently over protective?" The pirates now looked curious. "What happened?"
"Well, that is quite the tale." And, so, Abel launched into a work of complete fiction, painting me as the daughter of a priest, to be given to the church, but who fell in love with a 'simple farmer', played by Cain. According to Abel's story, Cain and I courted in secret and planned to wed, but then 'my' father discovered our plans and locked us in a shed, dousing it in oil before setting it aflame. Then Abel, playing the part of Cain's best friend even in a lie, managed a miraculous rescue, mostly because the two were supposed to be drinking, and the three of us had been on the run ever since.
The most incredibly stupid thing about the story was that the pirates were drunk enough to eat it up. They were sobbing halfway through, and a few even came over to pat Cain and me on the back reassuringly. That Cain and I leaned into each other to hide our embarrassment and our incredulous laughter.
Abel, however, kept up the story with equal parts humor and seriousness. "So, you see, we do not have the money really for your toll, but it would be horrible if they died after all of this," Abel said, his tone just a little shy of over-the-top melodramatic. "Might we enter? Perhaps we can work here for a time to earn the money?"
"W-well…" the first pirate began. He sniffed audibly, and rubbed roughly at his eyes. "I guess we can… but you gotta do work."
"Thank you so much for your kindness!" Abel grinned and clapped him over the shoulder. "Here, why don't I pour you your next drink?" He casually entered the town, the pirates clustered around him. "Perhaps you'd like the story of how they met?"
The pirates enthusiastically cheered, and I gave Cain my best 'What the hell just happened?' look. Cain just shrugged, looking slightly exasperated, but the fact that he was only slightly exasperated told me Abel had done this sort of shit before.
Trying to figure out what all just happened, I followed Cain as we meandered towards the tavern. Things were still technically going to plan, but I had expected fighting by now. Instead, Abel was distracting the guards with stupid stories, using Cain and me as living props. It got to the point that the pirates were actually trying to get Cain to drink with them.
"C'mon, lad!" one boomed, nearly sloshing his drink over me as he tried to pass another mug to Cain. "Beer makes a man lusty, after all!"
"Beer makes a man sleepy in my case," Cain retorted, shaking his head. For all we knew, the drinks were spiked with something deadlier than alcohol; that was why Abel also didn't accept any drinks either. "I have no intention of going to bed early tonight."
"Suppose not." The pirate leered at me. "Pretty catch."
"Pretty deadly. I've seen her knock out people before."
"Frail little girl like her?" He scoffed, rolling his eyes. "I'll believe it when I see it!" Something thudded on the door of the tavern, making everything pause. "What's that?" Another thud echoed through the quieting tavern before the door splintered and fell, revealing Draug and Marth.
"Who the bloody heck are you?!" one pirate yelped as the remains of the door thudded to the ground. By the way everyone clustered, I'd assumed he was the boss. He certainly had more balls than brains as he stomped up to Draug and Marth without even grabbing his axe. "Well?"
"My apologies for interrupting your party," Marth replied lightly. "We're the Altean Knights. And we're here to liberate the town of Galder." He smiled. "Have a nice flight."
"Huh? WAH!" The pirate screamed as Draug easily picked him up and tossed him out of a window.
Using the sound of broken glass as our cue, Abel, Cain, and I threw off our cloaks and drew our weapons. Some part of me felt bad, considering how they'd let us in believing we were just a trio on hard times. The rest of me reminded that part that these were pirates, they'd been holding the town hostage, willingly killed people just for not being able to pay to enter, and did who knew what else. They might be weepy drunks, and they might have some sort of kindness in their hearts, but at the end of the day, they were all the sort of people I'd avoid like the plague, for fear of ending up dead or worse.
"Do I look so frail now?" I asked the pirate who'd tried to give Cain a drink. He snarled at me and tried to lunge, but tripped over his own feet. "This is why you don't get plastered before noon, jackass."
I set him on fire, and just threw myself into the fight trying not to get too blood splattered. I hated the feeling of blood on my face and in my hair. I really hated it.
Three marks later, the battle was over, and I still couldn't decide whether my gut was in knots because of all the fighting or because of the way we'd gotten in the town. I was a thief, so I knew I had looser morals than some of the knights, which made me curious just why I seemed to be the only one having difficulties with this. Then again, I wasn't in their heads. I had no doubt Marth would be crying over the lost lives at some point during the night. These pirates were rapists, thieves, and murderers if the townspeople could be believed, but they were still people.
"Thanks for coming with me, Kris," Caeda chirped, startling me from my thoughts. Her smile was bright enough that I had to blink a few times to not be blinded. "I think the townspeople are really happy!"
"Of course they are," I replied. I shifted the basket I was carrying to my other hand. "They get a pretty girl smiling at them, and a meal they didn't have to cook."
"Hee~" She flushed a little from pleasure, and it was easy to see why. She had decided that what the people needed, perhaps even more than their homes repaired and their streets cleaned from the fight, was a nice, home-cooked meal. So, she had painstakingly spent an entire mark cooking enough to serve the whole town, and even make a few sweets for the children. She went out to deliver the food, and Ogma had asked that I accompany her, since he was busy helping Marth move some of the rubble. "I'm glad. I know a lot of them were hurting. Wrys is overworked."
"Norne is helping him out."
"What we need is a few more healers, though." She frowned a little. "We got lucky in this battle, but… oh, I'm so worried." She sighed, shaking her head. "Marth is going to be in so much danger…"
"All of us are."
"Well, yes, but him more so. You saw how much the townspeople worshiped him." She was right. Learning that their savior was Prince Marth had given the townspeople hope they had not had in a long while. They were practically drunk off of it.
"Maybe I should share some amusing anecdotes from our pretty boy prince." I already had a few in mind.
"No, don't!" She shook her head, though, stopping that thought cold. "No, they… they need that hope. You've seen…" She gestured around the shattered market. Already, though, the hope Marth brought had spurred the locals to set up their shops and start selling. They might be able to only sell to themselves and us, but they were perfectly excited to sell anything. Then again, maybe the sight of 'new blood' sparked their interest. The merchants likely hadn't made any money in a long while.
"Do you want to explore the market?" I pointed to the stalls. "We've passed out all the food, and now we have convenient baskets to hold our items."
"Oh, goodness, we couldn't…" Her eyes sparkled, though. "Well, maybe a few things? I do have some pocket money."
"Why do I feel like your pocket money is the same amount as one of my successful thefts?"
"Surely I don't have that much!" She giggled, and I had no idea if that was her 'complimenting' my thieving skills or her subtly reminding me that Talys was not as rich as the other countries had been. "Let's go! I want to buy you something!"
"You really don't have to. Buy something for Marth instead."
"Kris!" She huffed, pouting slightly as she blushed, and I just laughed.
My laughter faded away, though, as we passed by a vendor setting up some apples. I loved apples, especially fried ones. They were cheap when during the tail end of autumn, and they were sweet. However, as I stared at the apples, I found my mind flashing back to the battle, when the corpses fell into the water and bobbed up and down. Just like apples in a barrel.
My stomach turned and I looked away quickly, scared of throwing up right then and there. I almost told Caeda that I needed to head back to… wherever we were actually staying for the night, but she turned to me, babbling happily, and I couldn't bring myself to say anything. She was having fun, and I didn't want to ruin that. Who knew… just how many chances we would to have fun?
I'd just distract myself by listening to the rumors of the slowly growing market crowd. A 'cleric' kept popping up in the gossips, and I was curious to learn more. That way I'd be useful and Caeda got to have fun.
"Ugh…" Marth groaned as he leaned back in his chair. We'd just ended a meeting with everyone about just where we were going to go. The town elder had suggested we take a long, winding way around, but Marth opted, instead, to have us go straight through the mountains, bandits be damned, so that we could reach Aurelis all the sooner. "I have a headache…"
"That's because you're thinking, pretty boy," I teased half-heartedly. I felt rather drained myself and the only reason why I stayed leaning against the wall was because I knew that if I sat, I'd just fall over and go to sleep. I wasn't ready to go to bed just yet. "Exercising new muscles."
"Yeah, thinking about war and paths…" He sighed, tilting his head back and closing his eyes. "Thanks for backing me up on my idea."
"All I did was mention the rumors that Aurelis is fast falling and that a defenseless cleric went into the mountains just a few days ago." If Aurelis fell, then our journey would be that much harder. Whoever led them was skilled, and Princess Nyna was said to be there. We needed both if we were going to have a chance of succeeding in this. "You're the one who spun that information into logical reasons."
"Which I wouldn't have had if not for you."
"And it still wasn't until Ogma supported you that Jagan admitted defeat." I was surprised Ogma did, but the mention of a 'scarlet swordsman' among the bandits had definitely caught his interest. "How are you doing?"
"Aside from the headache, I-"
"Not that. The people." I waited for a reply, but all he did was groan and throw himself forward, burying his face in his arms on the table. "Bad?"
"They look at me like I can solve everything." Marth's voice was muffled. "But I can't even win an argument against an old retainer on my own."
"Don't try and do things alone."
"Anri did."
"That's what the legends say, but what do we really know?" I walked over and nudged his leg to make him look up. "Besides, how does the story go? That he didn't even think about trying until he had to protect that Artemis chick?" I crossed my arms and shrugged. "Makes me think more that Anri just wanted to save her, and the world benefited. Of course, Jagan gave me a lecture when I told him that."
"I… well…" He made a face. "He didn't… well, I guess he did succeed, but…"
"But, my point is that you already aren't like him. You're going on an impossible journey for more than one person." I made my tone lofty. "Grandfather always said that how much help you need depends directly on the scope of your goal. Anri could do it all alone if he just wanted to protect one person. But you want to protect more than one person, so there's no way you can do that alone."
"...Did you hit your head? That sounded almost wise."
"Hey!" I scowled as he managed a weak laugh. "I'm trying to be all cool."
"Well, I guess it's partly succeeding?" He laughed a little more before it faded for a worried look. "How are you, though?"
"Shouldn't you be all concerned about Caeda?"
"I am, but she's not here, you are, and I'm asking you." His eyes narrowed slightly. "So?"
"Stubborn." I sighed, feeling myself droop. "Honestly, not very well. Not really up for all this blood."
"I know what you mean." He glanced at his hands, and I wondered if he saw blood on them, just as I kept thinking I saw the ash of a fire spell on mine. "No wonder Father had me stay home that day. This is far beyond anything I could've expected."
"It's also no wonder that Jagan kept wanting to delay it." I could understand now that he had simply been trying to protect us. "But the world…"
"If we delay, Medeus wins."
"Yeah." I sighed again. "I'm sorry in advance if I'm extra caustic in the coming days." I paused as I realized something. "Actually, that's probably an apology long in coming."
"Huh?" He looked confused. "What do you mean?"
"Well…" Now I just felt ridiculous. "I like sarcasm. It helps me keep my distance. But, sarcasm can come off as bullying and mean… now, admittedly when we first met, I'd kind of wanted to be a bully because of all the trouble, but-"
"I never thought that." He smiled, cutting off my rambling. "There were times I thought you cynical, but… that is probably what I need. Especially now. People look at me worshipfully, and I fear that as this war goes on, the chances I will have to talk to those who treat me as a person, not a prince or leader, will diminish. So, please…"
"Well, I will try to be a bit nicer about it. Maybe." I smirked and he laughed, visibly relieved. "I'm keeping my nicknames for you, though. Otherwise, you might take yourself too seriously."
"And we can't have that!" His laughter faded for a shy smile. "You… were in the market with Caeda earlier, right?"
"I made notes of exactly what things she admired and didn't buy." My smirk widened as he blushed. "So, shall we sneak off?"
"We need to at least tell Jagan. But yes, let's." He grinned. "And if there's something you want, tell me, please."
"Why? I can just steal it."
"Kris!"
Records on Abel:
An eighteen year old knight of Altea
Calm and subtly teasing most of the time, well known for how much he'll fret over loved ones. Also stupidly good at telling convincing, and embarrassing, lies.
Fights with swords and lances, specializing in the latter
On the surface, he doesn't show many scars from Altea's fall, but his habit of hiding his feelings makes it much harder to tell
Author's notes: This chapter starts Caeda's trend of being able to just fly over to enemies and recruit them with a smile. She does this a LOT. The next one is perhaps the most dramatic, but the absolute funniest one is much later. The line of "My mother would be mad" comes from the OVA, though I'm not certain if Cain is the one who says that. There's other lines inspired by the OVA here as well.
Next Chapter - Interlude, Crimson Dragoon
