Chapter 18 - Tortuga

Once Red had transformed back into her human self and planted both feet firmly on solid ground, she left out a huge sigh of relief.

Oh, land, she thought, I'll never leave your dry side again! She took a deep breath of manure-tainted air. "Ah, that's better," she said, looking around. "Now, where's the bar?"

Green and Blue locked up the treasure, tied up the Dragonfire to the dock, and entered the rowdy port city.

"Where are we?" Blue asked as they passed a man with a peg leg pounding on a man with an eye-patch in the middle of the street.

"Tortuga," Green answered, ignoring the fight and the drunken sailors and wenches swaying back and forth on a couple of barrels.

Blue skirted out of the way as a horse drawn cart flew by, dragging another grungy man along behind it.

"O…kay…"

Red easily found the nearest ale-house and made her way through the brawling customers to the bar. After she had taken a few swigs from her frothy mug, she noticed a rather well-kept (compared to the rest of the lot in the pub) man leaning rather uncomfortably against a pillar. He was fairly tall, had curly black hair tied loosely behind his head, and a close-cut black goatee. He was hot.

"Hi there," Red greeted. He looked at her with wide, sort of confused eyes.

"Hello," he replied airily. There was something familiar about that voice, Red noted, as well as his face.

"You look somewhat familiar," Red said. "Have I stole from you before?"

"Excuse me?" the man asked.

"I mean dole…" Red corrected. "…doled…dealed…dealt, dealt! Dealt with you before?" The man squinted at her. "Never mind," she said, taking a drink of her beer and walking away.

Once Black had found suitable clothes she made her way back to the Keep. She had a plan she wished to discuss, or rather inform, the Ranger man of. She had a personal vendetta against this great Eye guy, and there was a way, she reasoned, that she could achieve both her personal goals of revenge and suicide all in one shot.

"…so that little hairy midget friend of yours need not bother himself with the arduous journey," Black finished telling Aragorn.

"Explain this to me again," he said. "You want to what?"

"Die," Black replied.

"Why?" the Man asked.

"Because I do," Black retorted.

"And you're going to do what?"

"Throw myself into the fires of Mount Doom," she answered. "I'll take the Ring with me as I jump so that I may have revenge upon the Cyclops, and you may be rid of him and his oppression and yadda, yadda, etc."

"Don't trust her, Aragorn," Gimli grunted.

"Shut up, Dwarf," Black snapped.

Aragorn shook his head. "This is just so…"

"Brilliant?" Black offered.

"I was going to say bizarre, but…" Aragorn said. "Why do you want to help us destroy the Ring?" he asked.

"Like I said, I have a personal vendetta against the guy…spirit…whatever the hell he is. Let's just say he failed to, pay up," she said. He promised Death, she thought, but did I get it? No! Just goes to show that you can't trust any kind of wizard, anytime, anyplace.

Aragorn sighed. "Frodo and Sam have already left," he told her. "Every day they draw closer to the land of Mordor. Though exactly where they are, I cannot say."

"Figures," Black grumbled.

Blue was surprised to see so many drunken, brawling people in the pub so early in the day. Then again, Blue was surprised or at least unfamiliar with just about everything the Thieves did or were associated with.

She followed Green through the mass of bodies, letting out a little squeal of angry terror as she felt something snag her cloak. She looked down to see a scraggly, dirt-stained face smiling stupidly up at her. He was missing his front two teeth.

"Ew!" she squeaked, ripping her cloak out of his hands. She definitely did not like it there.

Green and Blue approached the only unoccupied table in the back, but the Pirate woman paused as she caught a glimpse of a bright red cloak.

"Red!"

Red started at hearing her name. She took her hand out of some oblivious drunk's pocket and looked around.

"Green!" she greeted cheerily.

"What are you doing here?" Green demanded.

"Drinking!" Red replied, holding up her mug and smiling broadly. "And stealing!" she whispered sneakily.

"Everyone could hear that, you know," Blue pointed out.

"Ah, no one's paying attention," Red countered. "They're all too busy getting drunk and disorderly."

"Just like you," Blue mumbled.

Red pushed her way through the crowd toward her fellows. Someone fell to the floor directly in front of her as someone else hit him squarely in the jaw. She stepped over him without a blink, just as the man who did the punching vaulted over the table onto the man on the floor.

"What're you guys doin?" Red asked once she reached Green and Blue.

"Cheating death," Blue muttered.

"Re-supplying," Green said. "We were running low on food and drink."

"Mmm, food," Red murmured. "I'm hungry. Do they sell food here?" She ducked to avoid a low flying chair leg as she looked around to survey for edibles.

"Dunno," Green replied, jutting her elbow into the ribs of some man who'd stumbled into her. "We're going somewhere that does, though."

"Oh, then I'll come with you," Red said, taking one last pull of her beer to drain it. "Ah!" she said, smacking her lips and throwing the mug over her shoulder. The thin, black haired man she'd hit on earlier fell to the ground. "Let's go!"

"Well then," Black sighed. "I'll just go with them." She was re-thinking her plan. She decided that she'd stick around with these war-torn bums for awhile, until she had gathered enough to find out what was happening in the 'War for Middle-earth.'

Revenge was a must. The Cyclops had betrayed her, no one betrayed her, therefore he had to pay Destroying his attempt to rule the world and ultimately his essence would be a good way to do it, and flinging herself into the Volcano, well, it might just work. How to go about doing all that, though, she'd have to figure out.

Red had gotten tired of walking, so she turned herself into a brightly colored parrot and took up residence on Green's right shoulder.

"She went back to Middle-earth!" Blue shrieked. "Why? I thought she wanted to go…somewhere else!"

"Well, yeah, eventually…" Green said. "She probably just forgot to take care of some unfinished business."

"I have unfinished business there, why could I not go back?" Blue demanded.

"Give it a year, maybe two," Green said, "if she hasn't come back then, she's probably gone and you can leave."

"Gone?" Blue said. "What do mean, 'gone?'"

"Gone like a freight train," Red the parrot squawked, "gone like yesterday…"

"Gone as in no more," Green answered. ("Gone like a soldier in the civil war, bang! bang!" sang Red.) "Dead."

"DEAD?" Blue gaped.

"Yeah," Green said.

"Gone like a '59 cadallac…"

"Wha…?" Blue stumbled.

"Gone like the good things, that ain't ever comin' back…"

"I wouldn't worry about it," Green told her. "I mean, she's been trying to kill herself for years and it's never worked. I doubt any new attempt will work either." Blue just stared at her.

"Why?" she asked.

Green shrugged. Blue wouldn't get any more out of her, at least not today.

They walked along in silence for a few moments, until a tall, tan man with dreads and a feather in his hair sashayed past them. Red whistled.

The man turned 'round, looking for the whistler, but saw only the back of Green's cape and Red's parrot head bobbing up and down.