Chapter 12 See? I Knew We'd Get Off the Ship
Meanwhile, the others hardly noticed Sir Blaydelot's absence. They were too shocked by what was happening at the blacksmith's.
For one, the man was having trouble doing the mold for the lock. Every time he tried, he claimed the shape had changed since last he checked. But strangest of all was when Barleyo suddenly straightened, tossed his white hair, and said lowly, "Let's go. This is a waste of time." And he marched out without a single weak limp or stagger. Boggle-eyed, everyone followed.
Wiping his hands, the blacksmith muttered, "The working class is so underappreciated. Not only are we underrepresented in fairy tales, you don't even allow me to do my job." And it was unfortunate Put'oh was gone; otherwise, a new dream and series of speeches would have been born.
"Are you sure you want to wander around in chains?" Tanner asked, still wide-eyed. The albino-like (after all, he didn't have red eyes except when some demonic plan crept into his head, but that hadn't happened yet) young man had become a fast friend of the others.
"What?" Completely startled, Barleyo's voice was back to its usual pitch. But he put a hand behind his head and smiled. "It's no trouble. I am already getting back my strength."
Indeed he was. And the reason was he actually got to eat. Well, no, he didn't. Uh huh, Mr. Egomaniac, having been so long without food, tasted it again and couldn't get enough of it. Barleyo was back up to a sustainable body mass, but it was in danger of continually growing. But the young man could not figure out why…he never remembered eating much of anything. It was Egomaniac and his sudden flare for food that attested to what even the others thought as poor eating habits. No need for knives…Egomaniac, wearing the guise of Barleyo forever more, ripped and tore into bloody meat, scorned vegetables, and scarfed anything that was remotely good tasting and therefore unhealthy.
That was what was happening at the inn that night. Even the others had paused in their eating contest to stare agape at him once. But then, the food was left untouched for more than two seconds, and Axel, Tanner, and even the Earl de Vlin had to continue with their frenzy.
Coolly waiting for them to finish, Sir Blaydelot tapped a booted foot. Little Kun was just openly staring in awe. He wished he could do something like that—pile down three pounds of food in three minutes. Maybe he would grow a little taller if he could eat more.
It was a fortunate thing that Blaydelot now carried all the money. Otherwise, it would have all been spent right then on purchasing more food. As it was, the food ran out because they could only afford so much, and depressed, Axel wanted to trudge up to bed.
"I don't think so. We're going somewhere else."
Tanner's head whipped toward the knight from where the minstrel was massaging an extended gut. The movement was quite a feat for someone so full. "What? I thought we were staying at the inn!"
"You thought wrong. We have a place to be, and I don't dare waste anymore time. Do you remember what we are trying to accomplish?"
The Sir Prince Axel gave a regal nod. "Of course; it is my honor-bound duty to save the kidnapped princess and return her to her family where I will receive my reward." His face lit up. "Maybe they'll return my knighthood to me and enable me to go on quests again!"
Wow. Axel could remember the quest given to him, but he couldn't remember abandoning Barleyo to drown in the sea, and the latter had happened more recently? Don't look at me; I am just the recorder. I do not tamper with the characters' actions, choices, and attitudes!
"Good. So you'll remember we are searching for her. I have no idea of her trail right now. But I know someone who will. We have to go see him, and it won't be easy." Blaydelot kept secret some of his true feelings for wanting to see the young man. There was no reason to overtax these people's poor, feeble minds.
Still, Egomaniac, used to keeping back parts of the truth and plotting a lot on his own could see a plan devising in the young knight's brown eyes. As of yet, the parasitic disease restrained his ever-learning-to-control-abilities and just observed through his kin host's eyes.
So, on the trail in the forest, the group continued over the path which was conveniently massed in utter darkness to disable the group from reading the signs and losing courage. Make no doubt, the signs could have been lit up with neon glow just to ensure no one would bother him at any time, but the sorcerer did not want to bother his resources or time for the thought involved in that. As it was, few people harassed him during the day. The town by the sea had grown quite used to him being there. Or rather, they had grown quite used to their members going out there and never returning. Or returning less than how they had left. So visitors at night were not much of a problem.
Blaydelot refused to answer any questions about what the plan was and where they were going. Instead, he kept what the others thought was moodily silent and needlessly mysterious. Of course, the three bosom companions swiftly had a long list of complaints, and the only thing that kept Kun and Barleyo from joining their remarks was dealing with another person within them. The former was aware of his and talking to him, but the latter had no idea why he felt so peculiar—almost like he was outside his body while he was in it.
It was just Egomaniac testing his control, but as he never bothered to explain that to the young man, his kin hurriedly believed there was something the matter with himself. His missing memories, his odd displacement feeling—actually, it was more like "that groggy disconnected feeling," but because of Put'oh's furious fight against allowing commercial drug use to the commons (it would just make bacteria grow more resistant and produce a super-germ), there was no one to publicly use the term for Barleyo to describe the feeling as such—and his constant wondering of what had happened to his already-dead kin just made him confused. The others had never thought to tell him about the pirate captain and what had happened. And the only time they had been discussing it was when he had been recuperating in the bedroom of the ship.
Now that there have been several long paragraphs in a row, it is time for a little dialogue.
"Are we there yet?" Axel grumbled.
Not having any idea how long this road would go on for, Blaydelot ignored him.
Whispering, de Vlin said, "Have you considered the implication? The knight has us in a precarious situation!"
"Yeah, he might be planning on doing away with us to get the reward that's for you, Axel."
"No way! That's mine by rights!" It never fazed him that he was fighting for a privilege that had not even yet been described to him.
So, from that moment on, despite their loud voices and Blaydelot's smirk as he listened (they couldn't see it in the dark and because it was under his helm), Axel vowed to be watching the knight secretly. After all, Sir Blaydelot was already a suspect, somehow in his muddled mind, for taking away his knighthood. It wasn't fair the monarchs had chosen him to be the knight and leave Axel to be the prince.
