Chapter 10: Stories in the Stars
Hours would pass before Vanessa would awaken from her slumber; hours filled with unexpected perils and life threatening situations that the Red Rogues would not take part of, safely harboured as they were in Maramba. A giant red beam of blinding light shot straight into the sky from an undetermined location in the desert for most who saw it – but Vyse, Aika, and Fina, in their rush to escape, knew exactly where it was coming from.
The Red Moon Crystal gleamed brightly in its indented spot on the alter before the temple; a symbol of deception and betrayal to those who had risked their lives to gain possession of it. Bellena, the belly dancer that they had befriended in Maramba, had lied to them to gain their trust. Well, she hadn't completely lied – the story about her father dying in the war was true, but she had never said he was a Nasr soldier. No, she was of Valuan descent, and not only that, but she was part of the Valuan Armada – the fourth admiral Belleza, to be precise.
The lady Belleza was quite famous for her ability to manipulate and avoid direct confrontation to get what she wanted. Thus she had assumed the guise of a belly dancer and offered assistance to the Blue Rogues when they needed it most. She believed in the policy of "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine". And oh, how they had, however unwillingly. With their help she had just commanded the rising of the Red Gigas Recumen, and given it her first order: to engulf the hapless trio in flames.
Shit they were screwed.
The strange pillars surrounding the alter started shifting, pools of sand rippling off of them in waves as they rose. The stone around the statue heads cracked and violently shattered as the heads took on a life of their own; swivelling in any which way with eyes that glowed the fiercest gold. One of the heads caught sight of the loitering trio, and from its mouth it began to charge a huge laser.
"Run… RUN!" Vyse and the two girls pulled away from their spot, pelting across the sand as fast as they could muster. Vyse and Aika were managing okay with the arrangement, but unused to the physical exertion she was forcing herself to do, Fina was straggling behind. Her outfit was not helping either, impeding the movement of her legs. She tripped and landed flat on her face. It was only a matter of time. Both of the Blue Rogues heard Fina's startled cry and skidded to a halt, turning back to see what happened.
"Fina!" The two rushed over to her, who had slowly pushed herself from the sand. She was on her hands and knees, panting.
"I'm sorry, I tripped…" She mumbled. A hissing sound caught Vyse's ear and he turned to face it. Recumen had finished charging. Shit! Instinctually he threw his body before the two girls, not thinking that his body would likely provide little protection against something several storeys high. Fortunately his lack of thinking would not spell the death of them all – for someone unexpected had just come to play the role of their hero. An explosion sounded off against the charging head, forcing it to expel its laser away from its intended target. The laser ripped through the sand and forged a sandstorm in its wake. The trapped teenagers would not have to worry about their jeopardizing position on the desert floor for much longer, though. Their hero rode in on his dinky ship confidently.
"Captain!" Vyse exclaimed, a mixture of surprise and relief echoing from the tone of his voice. The Little Jack hovered over them, inviting them to board. Drachma had returned for them.
"Admiral Belleza, that ship is rescuing them." The Valuan solider stationed behind Belleza, a man appropriately nicknamed 'Captain Obvious' by his colleagues, reported. Not amused, Belleza ordered him to ready her ship (the Lynx) to ensure that they couldn't escape. As the soldier left to act out her command, Belleza couldn't help but smile to herself. So she would get the opportunity to see what they were made of after all.
(Insert awesome battle of the Little Jack facing off against an invincible foe that lame cannons cannot defeat and then their inevitable retreat from Recumen here)
"Nothing is working!" Vyse spoke; exasperated after the long battle of inevitable failure. Drachma further decided to affirm their dreadful predicament by stating quite matter-of-factly that they would lose if they continued to fight it straight on. Unlike the two guys, this gave Aika to ask Fina an important question.
"Hey Fina, can you think of a way to stop it?" And so the crew learned from Fina that the Gigas did not make their own decisions, and that they simply obeyed commands given by the one who awakened them. As Belleza was the culprit, they devised the only plan that made sense – attack the Valuan Admiral and force her to call off the Gigas.
And so a dogfight ensued, one that left the team on the Little Jack constantly scrambling for repair kits and casting of Sacres while the Lynx battered them relentlessly with torpedoes and cannons. A pink ship meant serious business. Vyse and Aika seriously couldn't find any openings to exploit, but Drachma had finally suggested the usage of the Harpoon Cannon. Now they just had to wait for the right moment to use it…
It took a good twenty minutes, but after Vyse smartly chose to force the Little Jack to a complete stop, Belleza was thrown off and left the Lynx vulnerable to attack. They wasted no time in impaling the sinister pinkness with their harpoon cannon. With an explosive roar, the Lynx was felled, hovering at a steady decline towards the sandy depths below.
"Aika, signal Belleza's ship! Tell them we will attack if they don't call off that Gigas." Vyse ordered, and with a fist pump and a cheer Aika complied. Drachma was uncertain that Belleza would actually go along with their demands, but Vyse reassured him that Belleza would not needlessly sacrifice the lives of her crew. It appeared that Vyse was correct in his assumption, for the four next saw something that filled them with delight – Recumen was sinking into the sands below. The Lynx made an emergency landing, and during that time the Blue Rogues collected the Red Moon Crystal.
"You may have won this battle, but you are far from winning the war. There are five Crystals left. The Valuan Armada never makes the same mistake twice. You shall not defeat us again." Belleza stood with her arms crossed, flaming red hair glimmering in the sun.
"And we won't make the mistake of underestimating you again either. We'll get those Crystals." Vyse retorted. As if to emphasize his coy confidence, he then asked Fina in front of their enemy, "Where do we head to next?"
"Southwest of Nasr, beyond the South Ocean… There is a continent under the Green Moon." Fina replied simply. Vyse took a step back, his mouth agape.
"Really? There is a continent on the other side of the South Ocean?" Vyse felt like he had grown up in an enclosed bubble, with the amount of discoveries and new knowledge he was acquiring on this adventure. Fina looked happy to be able to reveal this to him.
"Yes. The Green Crystal should be there."
"Ha, that's the continent of Ixa'taka. Our soldiers are already there." Belleza hoped to pop the inflating balloon of Vyse's ego. "Besides, the South Ocean has a strong headwind. You'll never make it across with that tiny ship of yours."
"No need to worry about that." Drachma stepped up to the plate. "We'll be taking your engine. We'll get through there easy, lulz." As quick as he came, he left, leaving the trio to deal with Belleza's prompt surprise.
"What? Then how am I going to get back?" This was not amusing.
"We all decided that you should go back on foot. You trick us… we take your engine… I think we're even now." A grin plastered itself across Aika's face. "What was that saying again? 'Only those who have walked through the desert can truly know its size.'"
"You want me to… walk?" It took a moment to process in her head. "… Heh. Well… I guess I don't have much of a choice." Belleza shrugged. She never realized that she truly would learn the size of the desert… no time like the present, as they say.
The Little Jack started its new engine, and with a satisfied roar lifted up and sailed away, leaving Belleza to stand alone and stare thoughtfully at its departure.
"Ah… now that was a strange dream." Vanessa grumbled, stretching her arms as she slowly regained consciousness. Her head felt slightly lightheaded and her stomach still clenched in pain as it had prior to her nap, but it wasn't bothering her as much now. Vanessa blinked drowsily, sitting up and looking around her room. As her eyes lazily wandered over to the porthole, it finally struck her what time it was. "Dusk? I slept all day?" Well, she certainly had never done that before. Having no real explanation for it, Vanessa came to the only 'reasonable' conclusion that her guilt for sleeping with Gilder (and Skye) plus her morning ailments had caused her to nap for much longer than intended. She would have thought that one of them would have woken her up by now, though. Weird.
She decided that she'd prepare them a meal for the evening (neither Skye nor Theora knew how to properly cook, so she could safely assume that they hadn't eaten dinner yet) and then inquire as to what she had missed. She supposed the day must have been relatively uneventful if they couldn't have even felt bothered to retrieve her. Perhaps they'd have a salad tonight. It was always good to have a healthy balance between meats and greens during the week.
The two other members of the crew never clued into Vanessa's moving about until she cheerfully called for them both to join her for dinner. They filed in together, and at the sight of her they exchanged a quick look of wariness – what, was there something on her face? This whole day was turning out bizarre.
"Had a good sleep in?" Theora asked, breaking the awkward silence that had befallen the room upon their entrance. With the tongs she grabbed a sustainable amount of the salad (sneaking in a few extra pieces of avocado when the other two weren't looking) and poured some ranch dressing on it.
"Yeah, I guess…" Vanessa thought about it, scrunching up her face. "Had the oddest dream, though."
"Oh?" Theora perked up with curiosity. "Do you remember what about?"
"Uh, well…" To be honest, she couldn't remember very much. She hadn't dwelled on it after waking up, and her recollection of it had become foggy relatively quickly as a result. "You both were in it… as was I. I was playing the violin. I was really good at it, actually." Vanessa looked pleased while she handed Skye a serving of the salad, starting now to prepare her own plate. "I can't really remember what else, but it was very… green. Oh, and there was a fountain." She took the bottle of ranch dressing and dumped some on her own plate. "Pretty pointless dream, but it was nice. Couldn't understand a word the two of you were saying, though. Have you two been learning a dialect I don't know of while I slept?" She teased, knowing full well that the two would not spend any more time than absolutely necessary together.
For whatever the reason, the question was left hanging. Vanessa had asked it as an intentional hook to spark Skye to join the conversation, but she remained silent, sat by the table and eating the food before her rather absentmindedly.
"Did I miss something?" Vanessa was beginning to feel uneasy. They weren't acting natural. "Skye?"
"What?" Skye's attention focused in on Vanessa, a questioning look on her face.
"Are you… all right? It's not usual for you to space out like this." Genuine concern laced those words. Skye straightened up, glasses resting on the bridge of her nose.
"I'm… okay, haven't been feeling that well myself." She lied. It was a good enough opportunity for a cover story right there; especially after she and Theora had agreed only not too long before to not tell Vanessa what had happened earlier today if she didn't remember it. Vanessa's innocence and shoddy recollection of her dream confirmed that she remembered nothing, so it was not worth stressing her out about it. "Theora, the palace of the Nasultan called. They want their front arch back."
"Hmm?" Theora raised a brow, mouth still full. She swallowed quickly, a quizzical expression on her face. "I didn't steal an arch, it was the chalice; they should know that." Skye glanced over to Vanessa, who gave a knowing look in return.
"Theora, she's commenting on your posture." The pre-teen was completely slouched in her chair; an odd moment where she wasn't trying to be the perfect citizen. Theora went rigid as a board immediately, as if to deflect the observation that had already been made.
"Like she's one to talk…" Theora muttered, glowering at Skye. The trio shared a laugh, the awkwardness between them finally broken. Now things could return to normal. They shared an amiable discussion on whatever topics came to their minds, poking good fun at each other and at one point coming up with rather disturbing dares that none of them followed through with.
"Wow… it looks rather pretty out there, tonight." Vanessa commented, noticing the clear skies from the kitchen porthole. The stars shone brilliantly, while the desert lands below were beautifully illuminated by the light of the red moon. "Might have to camp out on the deck and do some stargazing. Anybody want to join in?"
"Oh me! You know how much I love stargazing." Theora jumped up from her chair in excitement. They both stared expectantly at Skye. Blue eyes locked with hazel.
"… Will there be s'mores?" Her tone was soft; serious. Vanessa held the gaze, her face platonic.
"There will be s'mores."
"Ah what the heck, I'll join in. I know you two would get bored shitless without me, so I'm only providing a selfless service to the two of ya." Skye winked. "To further my appropriately kind gesture, I'll get some blankets. Be back soon." And the blonde did just that, inconspicuously timing her departure so that she wouldn't have to wash dishes for a second time that day. Figures.
They all reconvened on the deck shortly afterward, bringing with them what they believed to be the necessities for this night time outing: the aforementioned makings for s'mores and the blankets that Skye actually retrieved after all. Nights over the desert were really cold in contrast to the overbearingly hot days, so it was thoughtful that she brought two for each of them. She took the most notably fluffy ones for herself, but as she had got them in the first place, no one (Theora) could complain. Vanessa had brought with her a small portable heater that they could use to heat the marshmallows. They were set.
"Mmm… delicious." Skye ate a s'more, not caring that her marshmallow had proved sticky and residue now remained on her fingers. She licked them off, content as she wrapped up in her comfortably warm blankets.
"We totally eat too much junk." Vanessa sighed, seeming to possess no guilt as she consumed one of her own s'mores. "I made the salad with the intention of a healthy dinner for the three of us."
"Well, you didn't think of dessert this time!" Theora teased. "Skye was totally onto something when she mentioned s'mores, these taste amazing."
"No worries, miss. We'll just work any excess off tomorrow. I'm sure there will be monsters to fight or idiots to bombard or something like that, there usually is." Skye then turned to Theora. "Since she doesn't usually participate in that, we can make her run laps. Fifty around the edges of the deck sound good?"
"Hey!" Theora cried out. Vanessa chuckled. "That's not nice." Skye playfully punched her in the shoulder.
"I'm just teasing, geez. Don't take everything so personally." Skye's eyes were warm as she looked at Theora; a rare occurrence that the younger girl took note of. Theora wasn't quite sure what it was about this day, but it had changed them. Skye now seemed a lot more appreciative with how things were. She must have been shaken by today's events more than Theora had realized. Theora looked over at the subject of the day's worries, finding her marvelling over the constellations above them. It truly was a gorgeous night.
"I wish I knew the names of some of these constellations…" Vanessa murmured; her gaze soft as she stared at the bright dotted lights above them. "It feels like there's a storytelling luxury to be found there, but I don't know the first thing about them."
"They're probably boring tales anyway." Skye shrugged, ignoring the look Theora gave her. There was a reason she called her a pipsqueak; she was always one to jump to conclusions. "We could come up with our own accounts for them. That'd be much more fun than reciting boring historical stories, I wager." Theora's face lit up at the idea while Vanessa internally questioned if she entirely agreed with what Skye had just said. It didn't really matter.
"So what would you two come up with for… that one?" Vanessa pointed to a group of stars hanging overhead in the direction of Esparanza.
"Oh! Looks like a ship." Theora spoke excitedly as she drew out her vision with a finger for reference. "I'd peg it more as a merchant vessel though, because it lacks sufficient firepower to be as awesome as the Thalia."
"And those stars?" Vanessa directed their attention to the cluster right next to the 'merchant vessel', this time looking expectantly at Skye.
"Simple. Stowaway rape victim." Theora gasped.
"Skye, that's horrible!"
"Well, look at it like this…" Skye drew out said victim with her own figure, emphasizing the circular lump near the center. "She's hunched and is awfully close to the vessel. Can't be any other explanation."
"Could have said that it was a fat merchant from Nasr or something, geez…" Theora leaned back, sighing at Skye's apparently warped imagination. She expected at the very least that Skye would conjure a monster from those stars to sink her celestial ship, but Skye had a tendency of breaking past expectations.
"That would be racist." Skye's eyes twinkled as they met with Theora's. It was obvious that she didn't care in the slightest, but she couldn't just let a potential slip like that be left alone. "Now where have you been picking up these manners, young lady? It's very rude to assume that just because the fellow might pack some assets in particular areas he's a Nasr man."
"Like you care." Theora challenged. "Besides, such comments I probably picked up from you, which means you've just insulted yourself, so there." Theora stuck out her tongue.
"Ah, my dear, you just admitted that I'm an influence to you. I must be a great role model." Skye grinned while Theora realized the blonde's point and groaned. Vanessa giggled. She always loved the playful banter between them, especially when it wasn't volatile. She had finished preparing some s'mores while the other two were distracted, and now with their eyes on her she set down the full plate before them.
"Bon appetite, as all chefs seem required to say!" Vanessa made a gesture, which was received with blank looks. "Um… dig in?"
"It would be my pleasure." Skye began devouring the ones closest to her, salivating at the taste. They needed to have these things on the menu more often. Theora successfully hoarded a few away from her usual verbal combatant, enjoying hers with a slightly more delicate air as she took longer to consume them. Vanessa ate a few before deciding to lie down on her back to give herself a broadening view of the skies above them. A content smile flickered on her face. The day may have been wasted, but the evening was turning out rather nice.
It wasn't too much longer before her gluttonous companions ate the last of the s'mores and joined her in lying down on the deck, cocooned in their blankets to preserve the heat that the cool breeze threatened to take away from them. They were each about an arm's length away from each other, Theora having taken up residence between the older duo. They continued their game from earlier, coming up with names for the constellations and stories that ranged from sane to questionable. There was one particular constellation that the young brunette took to heart during this venture, and as she came to accept the idea she decided she would share it with them.
She jabbed a finger straight up from their viewpoint, bringing their focus on a small group of stars that were somewhat distanced from others. However small, these three stars shone more brightly than those around them, and were spaced just enough from each other to form the simple shape of a triangle.
"The Triad constellation," she began, her voice echoing with strong conviction, "is one of the simplest, but most beautiful formations of all stars. Unlike their brethren, who might symbolize traveling merchants or… erm, rape victims, the triad tells a story of three individuals from different backgrounds that together forged a friendship through a common interest. They are as free as the wind, and though they sometimes might encounter rough patches from being so close for so long, their bond will forever endure. Through thick and thin, deserts or forests, it endures." Theora sat up and shifted so that she could face the two that lay beside her. "I just… wanted to thank you two for being my friends. I know I can sometimes be a pain to deal with, I'm sure –" Her eyes were on Skye as she said this, "but I wanted you both to know that I appreciate everything that we've done together. I've been able to live my dream, and it's all thanks to you two. So… yeah." Theora blushed. She had just put all of her feelings out in the open.
"Aw, Theora…" Vanessa now straightened up, positioning herself to give the girl a strong hug. "I feel the same way. Thank you for always being there."
"Yikes, stumbled into mushy territory there…" Skye mumbled to herself. However, despite her dislike of Theora's method of bleeding her heart out, it still felt… nice to be appreciated. Skye had never realized that she could actually mean something to Theora. Her eyes lingered on the constellation the younger girl had just dedicated to them, her heart warming that one of those stars represented her. They didn't care where she came from; they just accepted her for who she was. She couldn't have been more fortunate.
Her eyes flickered over to her comrades, still embracing with sentimentality. Ah, to hell with it, one hug wouldn't hurt her…
END CHAPTER 10