Author: Liz Luthor (AKA Kiwi)
Disclaimer: By now, you're all very sure that I DON'T OWN SKIES OF ARCADIA!! So why do I bother writing these, anyway? Because some people out there are just mean, and they'd sue me if I didn't. So now I'm just gonna put this space to use and get some of my ramblings out (otherwise I'd have to talk some innocent wall to death). ...Yeah... You know what? No one will ever find anything useful to do with a disclaimer!!
Author's Notes: Hi again! :D Please review, folks- you have no idea how happy it makes me to get reviews! Seriously. It's actually quite sad. I jump around in my computer chair and squeal, "I got a revieeeeww!!!" Umm, ANYWAY, please don't hesitate to tell me what you think. :) And if I screwed something up, TELL ME!
...I believe I was in shock for a moment.
The wind blew sharply and I was taken back to my dreadful reality. There was only silence, aside from the wind. There could only be silence.
The Black Pirate could sense my reaction, I'm sure. He seemed pleased. He had the eeriest yellow eyes, which now gleamed with satisfaction. I couldn't speak. A memory flashed through my mind...
"Dad, WAIT!" I screamed, trailing energetically behind my endlessly tall father. He had a big, sturdy build, and compared to him, the frame of my puny seven-year-old body seemed two-dimensional. Finally, he stopped, allowing me to fall in next to him and catch my breath.
He laughed, "Wanna ride?" and knelt down to offer me a piggyback ride.
I refused, stating bluntly between gasps of breath, "I can walk!!" He laughed again and stood up, this time walking so that I could keep up with him.
"Look, see? We're already at Dyne's house," he assured me.
"Uncle Dyne? You aren't gonna leave me alone again, are you?" I pleaded, remembering past reunions with my father's best friend.
My father shook his head. "No, not this time," he smiled. "I'm gonna leave you with Dyne's kid. I'm sure you'll get along well. And don't worry so much, we were only off talking for about an hour last time," my father reasoned.
"Yeah, but-" my retort was interrupted as Dyne answered his door. He smiled at the site of my old man and invited us in.
I looked around for my supposed playmate and found nothing but a ladder. "Dad, you lied!! Uncle Dyne doesn't have a kid!" I whined pitifully.
Then, as if on cue, a boy in a blue t-shirt and denim jeans jumped down from the upstairs area. He wasn't my age though-probably a few years older. I noticed he wore an eye patch that was far too big for him. "Hey, kid," he grinned at me. I folded my arms over my chest indignantly and informed him that I wasn't a kid. "Really? You sure look like one!" Whoever he was, he wasn't THAT much bigger than me.
"Well, how old are YOU?" I asked in return.
He gave a short laughed and replied, "Today, I'm eleven. And you?" I mumbled that I was only seven and he laughed again. "Well, that's okay! I'm sure if you're seven, you at least know how to play pirates." I brightened immediately and nodded my head. "Good! You wanna meet Aika?"
The afternoon passed quickly as I played with my new friends Vyse and Aika. I was about three years younger and a lot smaller than them, but they enjoyed having another crewmember for their game. Vyse was constantly going on and on about how we would someday sail 'beyond the sunset' and discover new lands. He had big dreams, but I looked up to him all the more. He was the most adventurous eleven-year-old I'd ever met, and his charisma drew people to him. In my eyes, he was an inspirational figure beyond inspirational figures.
I remembered, as I stood before the Black Pirates in my daze of confusion, the day my father was killed. I had been back at his base with a trusted member of his crew while he sailed off with the rest of them to get some supplies. The man I was with was teaching me to make swords, which I thought made sense because I couldn't fight for the life of me.
At the age of twelve, I waited with Gary for a week before he decided something must've happened, so we left on a small boat that was docked on the island. We didn't have to look far, though, for news of the attack on Caleb the Blue Rogue's ship had spread quickly. My father was dead and so was his entire crew, aside from Gary and myself. His ship, the Bladestream, was found floating around, unmanned and entirely emptied- aside from the corpses of my dad and his crew.
Gary and I didn't make it to my father's funeral in time, and he finally dropped me off at Nasrad with enough gold to buy myself either a small, broken down ship or a room to stay in for a couple of nights. This is when I met Raine, and I decided to stay in Nasrad with her. She had the same apartment she has now, and she let me stay with her for nearly a year as the both of us worked toward buying our own shops. I had just bought my new shop and rented the room in Ms. Marion's house a year later when I heard that Gary had committed suicide.
There was a flash of blinding purple light that brought me back from the hollow depression of my past, and I immediately snapped to attention as I saw that four of the Black Pirate's men had jumped from the ship and were on their way to assault me. I drew my sword shakily to fight back, but found that time was frozen and their expressions remained exactly the same. Why wasn't I frozen with them? Had they already killed me? Was I still locked inside my memory?
I looked around frantically; I suffered the same feeling I'd had the day Gary left me in Nasrad by myself. 'Alone...' I thought, immensely troubled.
"TALIS!!" Something screamed at me. At first I thought it was just in my head, but then I turned around to discover Raine behind me. She had the same purple-ish glow around her as the Black Pirates did, and I thought she was frozen, too. 'Raine?' I thought confusedly. How had she gotten here? "Talis, COME ON!!" she shrieked. I ran over to her and realized she wasn't frozen; she was the one who had frozen them, using magic drawn from the purple Moon. We ran into her ship, which she had apparently parked just twenty feet away from the site, and flew over to mine. I stared at her blankly as we hovered over it. "...Talis. Go get your ship," she spoke to me as though I was a toddler, but I wouldn't have understood anything more complicated.
I jogged over to the edge of the deck and stepped up on the side, hesitated for a second, then jumped down on top of my ship (about fifteen feet down). My landing was less than graceful, but my mind was elsewhere and I couldn't feel the pain as my back struck the roof of the bridge. I stood quickly and climbed down into the bridge to man the helm.
"What should we do?" Aika asked. Vyse shrugged and walked forward to take the helm.
"Can you think of any place you've always wanted to go to?" Vyse asked in return. Aika shook her head patiently.
"...Not any that we haven't already visited... Oh, I know!! Why don't we go home and say hi to everyone?" her features brightened as she thought about her home and friends back on Pirate Isle.
Vyse considered this for a second, and then replied, "Great! I'll take us there. You can go ahead and get some rest." Aika nodded happily and walked back into the bunkroom.
'...Dad...' Vyse wondered how his parents were doing. 'Maybe Aika and I should move back into Pirate Isle. There's not much left for us in the skies, and we could help out a lot more if we were at home...' He shot a nervous glance at the door Aika had just left through and then discretely pulled a round black box out of his right pocket. Its soft, velvety cover was smothered by Vyse's anxious hand as he shakily opened the box and stared at the treasure inside. He was always so prepared to jump into a hopeless battle or escape from a heavily armed kingdom, but with this... This, he was scared of. 'Aika...' He took one last look at the delicately carved engagement bangle before shoving it back into his pocket and taking the wheel again.
We had flown back to Nasrad, but I wasn't ready to go home. After docking my ship, I jumped out and ran over to Raine's, the StarWing. She waited beside it as I approached.
"Raine..." I began, "We can't drop this. You heard what they're trying to do, right?" She nodded solemnly in agreement.
"...Then we'll take my ship," she noted suddenly after a moment. I almost asked why, but I figured her ship was bigger, anyway. "You need to change clothes. The trench coat isn't exactly subtle," she smiled.
I took off the cloak and replied, "I wear my normal clothes under it. I'll be fine." Raine gave a shocked expression and told me to look at my back. After trying to twist around and finding it impossible to do so, I sent her a look that said, "Physically impossible, air head." She walked up to me and peeled my shirt off, turning it around to show me a large bloodstain on the back.
"What happened?" she asked, astounded.
"...I don't know," I replied innocently. I remembered jumping onto my ship and landing on my back. I ran back over to the ship to inspect the roof of the bridge where I had fallen. "Look at this," I instructed Raine. She followed me and we looked in awe at the damage I had done with my fall. My ship was kind of a cheap one- made of wood and not too roomy- but it held together better than I could ask for. Now, the woodwork was, to say the least, very dented, and one board was sticking out with a broken edge.
Raine jumped down from the roof and went behind me to look at the injury on my back. I turned my head to the side and asked, "How does it look?"
She flinched and replied, "It's one heck of a splinter..." Unfortunately, the subconscious can only remain unknowing of such pain for so long. Now that my brain was well aware of the wound, the pain shot straight from my back and throughout my mid-section. Raine felt me tense up and immediately tried to calm me down. "Don't worry, i-it's not as bad as you think!" 'The stuttering helps,' I thought sarcastically. "Let's get back to my ship and I'll try to heal you, okay?" She clutched my bare shoulders tightly and guided me inside the StarWing, where she told me to sit on a table in one of the lodgings. My spine shrieked at me with alert when I sat down, and I started to lose consciousness. I heard Raine cry, "Moons... give me strength!!" before I passed out.
I made something up (in case you couldn't tell)- when Vyse was looking at the 'engagement bangle,' I did mean an engagement bangle. :) In MY fan fic, instead of proposing with a ring, you propose with a bangle! Got it?
Oh yeah! I can't believe I almost forgot!! PLEASE REVIEW!! It'll only take you a minute, I promise!! :D