Dialogue, my reviewers tell me, so I put in more dialogue. Hope it's enough for you all. Sorry that it's a short chapter. I'm switching point-of-views and wanted to end it there.
Define obsession: You're in college and yet you buy the junior novelization for references for a fanfic. *sweatdrop*
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Biases aside, the inn—though quaint—couldn't compare to the Benbow. Similarly, the main floor was an eating area, but the light of the dusty oil lamps couldn't reach the corners of the room. Along one wall stretched a long bar, where most of the light was focused. The further from the bar, the less reputable the customers looked (now that was somewhat ironic). The diners here looked like your average port rabble, unlike the Benbow's main clientele of mostly native families.
Jim didn't want to start trouble, so he headed for the bar, away from the shadows of the room. Immediately something caught his attention that he had missed in his initial scan of the area: there was a girl sitting there. She was singing.
He couldn't imagine how he had failed to see her. She had forgone a chair and was sitting on the bar itself, a fact that the male bartender didn't seem to mind. Her wings and the three short spiral horns on her forehead tipped her off as a Gossamarian. The overly large shirt and tattered, baggy pants revealed that she wasn't having the greatest financial security at the moment. Highlights in her wings and blonde hair caught the lamplight as she manipulated some musical instrument in her lap, producing a variety of tones as she sang softly about the beauty of the etherium.
Morph wondered why his friend was just standing around in the middle of the room when there were such good food smells everywhere. He shaped himself into a hand to wave back in forth in front of the human's face, burbling inquisitively, but was ignored. Morph sighed in disappointment. He hoped dinner wasn't too far away.
Jim wasn't staring. He wasn't. He was listening to the lyrics of the song.
Black, blue broken by beauty
Stars and moons move gracefully
Like crystals on crushed velvet
They dance the dance of eternity
It's hard to get it
If you're not out in it
But there's so much more to life than you and me
It's an etherium melody
It only took him a few minutes to realize that standing in the middle of the room and watching the singer could perhaps be interpreted as staring by less knowledgeable people. Feeling his cheeks warm, he hurriedly grabbed a stool at the bar close to the door.
Morph squeaked happily as he ordered dinner for two from a sullen but polite busboy that slipped up to be of service. After the attendant left Morph twirled into an image of a younger Jim wearing what the busboy had on. The tiny mimic stuck his hands in his pockets and kicked the imaginary ground listlessly in the perfect imitation of a teenage sulk.
Grinning crookedly, Jim poked him until he returned to his less solid state. "No, I wasn't like that when I was younger," he informed the blob. Said blob only continued to look smug.
That smugness was replaced with a pout when Jim's attention returned to the female singer at the other end of the bar. Even the arrival of their meals couldn't interest him. Morph stole the bacon from his plate to get even, as well as inhaling everything on his own.
A few scattered appendages around the room applauded as the song came to an end, proving the girl had at least some other listeners. On the tabletop beside her sat a metal drinking cup, which clinked as two coins were tossed in for her efforts.
"Thank you for your patronage." The Gossamarian spoke in a voice slightly deeper than her singing voice. She slid her instrument into a satchel hanging at her side. "Allow me to conclude the night's entertainment with my extensive knowledge of legends and tales from around the universe. Any requests?"
At once a young green lizard sitting nearby waved a paw in the air. "Tell about Treasure Planet!" he squawked in an outrageously grating voice.
Some people laughed. The winged girl grinned, her green eyes dancing. "Treasure Planet? Come on, that's old news, little one. A century ago it wouldn't even do to mention such a thing openly in a strange bar like this one." Her tone dropped, as if sharing a secret, yet Jim could still clearly hear her on the other end of the bar. "Old Captain Flint could show up anywhere—anytime. The very mention of his name was bad luck for folk like you and me. Oh ho, but for others, for real spacers with guts and brains and heart, that old pirate's wealth was too good an opportunity to pass up. Why, even years after Flint and his crew disappeared, people were still sure his treasure was around. Hidden on the fabled Treasure Planet for anyone to find. Imagine it, the loot of a thousand—"
"Everyone know that!" the lizard interrupted. Gleaming yellow eyes with huge black pupils dominated his face. "Tell us the other story about Treasure Planet!"
"Oooohhhh. That one. All right, all right." Her voice was laced with good humor. Clearly she was enjoying herself. "Well, you might have heard that there was one spacer with the guts and the brains and the heart to seek out Treasure Planet. He knew it was his destiny to find the legendary hoard since his birth. He prepared for it his whole life. He had no fear. His name . . . it was Jim Hawkins."
"Oh no," a certain young male groaned quietly, suddenly very interested in his food.
The girl was immersed in her tale and gave no indication that she noticed. "A couple years ago Hawkins heard tell that a band of pirates had a true map to Treasure Planet. He knew this was his chance! Without hesitating a moment he snuck aboard the pirates' ship while it was docked at a spaceport to steal the map. Not that he was a bad guy, mind you. The pirates stole it first. Anyway, Hawkins was no pirate. He never took from anybody who didn't deserve it, and he always helped someone in distress. He was going to use Flint's trove to help all the races of the Empire!"
"Oh brother," muttered Jim under his breath.
"With nothing but his wits about him, he hid himself on the pirates' ship and began his search. But before he could find it the ship set sail into the etherium, and now Hawkins had nowhere to run. He could not escape. But did this deter him?"
"No way!" piped up the lizard. Jim was beginning to think he was some sort of sidekick or mascot for the girl.
She grinned at the little character. "Right on. He wasn't daunted at all. He broke into the captain's stateroom and stole the map, then made for one of the ship's longboats. Along the way he found a hold with people tied up inside. It was the true captain and some of her crew! The pirates hadn't killed them when they stole the ship in case they needed hostages, you see. Suddenly a loud alarm rang through the ship. Hawkins knew they'd been discovered. He told the captain to take her people and prepare a longboat.
" 'What about you?' gasped the panicked woman—"
("We can't repeat any of this when we get home. Amelia'll kill us both," said Jim.
"Can't repeat any of this," Morph repeated, bobbing up and down in a nod.)
The Gossamarian continued on without pause. "—Hawkins stared the captain right in the eye. 'I'm going to stop this,' he vowed, and left the hold.
"He was a master at not being seen, when he wanted to. Hawkins made his way to the thrusters' generator and then the laser cannons, disabling them all. Halfway back to the longboats . . . pirates poured from the woodwork! Hawkins was surrounded on all sides, trapped!
"A mop was leaning against the wall, and Hawkins grabbed it for use as a cutlass." She held out her arm as if she had such a weapon herself, waving her hand about. "He outmaneuvered and disarmed the whole lot. He moved like a Zandarian slug in a blog pool. He was—"
Deep, rock-crunching laughter cut her off. From the immediate wary frown on her face, Jim guessed the Gossamarian recognized the voice. He glanced around and spotted a Cerulean sitting at a table near the back. The alien's serrated fangs spread in a taunting leer. "One spacer with a mop against a whole hoard o' pirates, ya?" he mocked. Several conversations stopped, catching the sudden tension. The lizard sitting near the girl turned and bared tiny fangs at the Cerulean.
Jim was surprised that he was gripping the tabletop tightly. He didn't even know the girl, and here he was almost ready to jump up and interfere. Of course, it wasn't exactly equal. The Cerulean was over twice the size of the girl, and it was obvious from his tone that he wanted to start something.
Eyebrows furrowed, the winged female looked about to say something in anger. Then her expression melted into a simple smile. "That's right, Shingsti," she nodded, proving that she did know him. "But this wasn't just any simple spacer. This was Jim Hawkins! No band of stupid pirates were gonna stop him. He sent them all running!" The tension was gone. Her lizard fan cheered for the hero of the story.
"Anyway, that's not the biggest part of the tale by a long shot!" enthused the girl. "All of them made it to the longboats and escaped. Thanks to Hawkins, the pirates couldn't follow or shoot them out of the etherium. And with the map they did find Treasure Planet! It was a glorious planet completely covered in gold and Arcturian solar crystals and every other form of wealth you can possibly imagine! Of course, Hawkins and the crew couldn't take much of it back in their little longboat. But now that they had the map they could come back as often as they needed. It was a grand celebration they had on their little vessel, which they christened the Victory for getting them there safely.
"Just as they were about to point the bow towards home, a dark spec appeared in the etherium. It was the pirates! They had fixed the engines, trailed the Victory, and now they knew where Treasure Planet was!" A hushed gasp came from the green reptile as she paused.
The Gossamarian's face was sober now, her voice subdued. "Hawkins knew what he had to do. If pirates knew the location of Treasure Planet, they'd use the legendary wealth for evil. Hawkins realized he had to make sure no one could ever use Flint's trove like that. It was blood money, earned through the pain and suffering of others. So Hawkins went down to the planet and found among the treasures advanced technology, and he built a giant bomb. He tried to warn the pirates, but they thought he was trying to trick them. He and the crew escaped on the Victory as the loot of a thousand worlds was destroyed once and for all." She finally fell silent, her wings drooping a little like another person would slump their shoulders. "And so ends the tale of Treasure Planet." Though her voice was full of regret, even Jim from his distance could see the glint of humor in her eye. She was acting for the sake of the story.
After a respectable moment of silence the lizard broke out into applause, clapping his front paws together. No one else did, though many of the listeners were chortling or otherwise amused. They had taken the tale as a joke apparently. Shingsti stood from his table and stretched his four muscular arms over his head. "I suppose this little longboat escaped the destruction o' a' entire planet and made it all the way back to a habitable place with no problem, ya girl?" he drawled loudly, shuffling toward the door.
"Of course they did," she sniffed at his retreating back, as if the answer should be obvious. "They were the heroes, after all." That set off another ripple of low laughter. Her storytelling didn't turn out to be as profitable as her singing; no one put anything in her cup.
Perhaps discouraged enough to call it quits for the night, she jumped down from the bar and grabbed her rattling can of earnings. Jim—not staring, just curious—subtly watched as the quadruped lizard trotted up to her. "I thought it was good," he consoled her. She smiled and thanked him.
"Grabbing dinner tonight before you go home, Sarah?" asked the barkeep behind the bar.
Sarah!? Jim was stunned. A chill slipped up his spine, the kind of disturbing feeling one gets when things are falling into place just a little too smoothly. He missed her answer in his shock but evidently she declined, since she was heading for the door. Jim composed himself as the girl neared. She didn't look older than sixteen. She did look thin. Remembering some tight times back before the old Benbow Inn burned down, the young man felt a pang of sympathy. Then an idea came to him, and before he could think twice he plunged in. Just as the girl walked by he turned in his stool to face her. "S-Sarah?" It was strange calling someone by his mother's name.
Green eyes zeroed in on him and blinked. "Yeah?" She pushed a long strand of hair, blonde with darker brown streaks, behind one of her horns.
"I, um, liked your performance. Would you wanna join me for dinner?" he asked.
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I want to warn you all right now: I have some plans for future chapters that I see are appearing in other ff.net Treasure Planet fanfics. I just want to assure all you authors that I'm not stealing your ideas. These things have been stewing in my brain for a long while now. It'll probably make the fic less popular, since it won't be as interesting as if it were completely original, but I feel stronger about keeping to my already planned plot than to try to think up a totally different direction to take it in. Hope you all forgive me.