Wooooo, speed writing!
"Oh shit..." the Prince growled, drawing his scimitars, and scanning the dark street for the Dahaka.
"What?" Nesia asked forcefully, also drawing her swords, and looking around.
"Just let me know if you happen to see a large black demon in our general area," he replied quietly. Nesia was silent for a moment.
"Please tell me you're joking," she said in a hushed tone.
The Dahaka crashed down in front of the pair, sending broken shards of cobblestones flying everywhere. The Prince grabbed Nesia's arm, and pulled her with him as he began to run back to the ship.
"I wish I was," he muttered darkly as the Dahaka roared, and came after them. Nesia wrenched her arm out of the Prince's grip, and sheathed her swords deftly before increasing her speed to run ahead the man. Luckily, since it was late, there were few people on the streets to get in their way. Any who were on the street, though, bolted once they saw the Dahaka coming.
"What now?" Nesia gasped between sharp breaths, skidding around a sharp corner.
"Back to the ship," the Prince replied raggedly. "It hats water." The captain nodded, then looked back over her shoulder at the demon. Except that it wasn't there anymore.
She slid to a stop, pulling at the Prince's elbow so he would do the same.
"This is bad, isn't it," Nesia remarked, looking around into the darkness. The Prince grunted in reply, searching for the Dahaka. There were no torches nearby, so he couldn't tell from the colours of his surroundings if it was near or not. This wasn't looking good for them.
The wall near the Prince's head exploded suddenly from the fierce impact of a dark tentacle. He rolled away from the strike instinctively, but found another tentacle coming directly towards him the moment he stood up. Nesia quickly tackled him to the ground, and the tentacle smashed into the wall yet again.
"How about we get out of here now," she said urgently, getting up off of the man quickly, and starting down the street. The Prince scrabbled to his feet quickly, and sprinted after her, somehow managing to both dodge the Dahaka's black tentacles and stay upright. Yet the beast stayed close behind him, and any mistake that he made right now would mean certain death. The Prince kept going, and could only hope desperately that they were getting closer to the harbour. It seemed to be taking too long to get there, though...
"Are we almost there?" The Prince asked Nesia, now breathing heavily. The woman looked around, and her expression grew horrified.
"Shit!" she exclaimed.
"Yes, I think I've mentioned that already," he panted, feeling his heart sink in his chest.
"I don't know how," she said breathily, "but we've managed to make a wrong turn somewhere. I think I could get us back, but I can't see a damned thing in this dark." The Prince though quickly, as they turned onto a larger street, that was lit with torches at regular intervals. Their options were running out, and there hadn't been many to begin with. There was no way that they could keep ahead of the Dahaka for much longer, and neither of them had any clue as to how close they were to the docks.
The Prince's eye caught a balcony on a house close to a hundred feet ahead of them, at the end of the street. It was about seven feet off the ground, with set of stone stairs leading up from it and onto the flat roof of the house. He grinned.
"Can you get up to that balcony?" he asked Nesia. She gauged the height, then shook her head.
"Not one that tall...why?" she replied. The Prince frowned.
"You're going to have to try," he said, as they closed the distance rapidly. Nesia opened her mouth to object, but they were at the wall.
The Prince grabbed her around the waist as he sprang up the wall, his leg muscles working extra hard to propel both of them up the vertical surface. Nesia helped as she could, but she wasn't strong enough to get all the way up, and had to rely on the Prince to get her to the top.
They were both scrambling over the ledge of the balcony in a moment, and sprinted up the stairs and onto the roof. Nesia looked around, getting her bearings from the moon, and started to run across the flat, stone roof. The Prince followed her doggedly, knowing that the Dahaka would be close behind them.
"Are you sure this is the way?" he called to Nesia, who laughed.
"Trust me," she replied flippantly. She then sprang across a gap between two sets of houses, rolled as she fell, and continued running. The Prince did the same, his breath coming in short gasps. He hadn't run this much since...well, since he had left the Island.
There was a crash from behind them from the Dahaka landing on the roof, which made the two try to run even faster, although both were close to exhaustion.
"How far now?" The Prince managed to get out, jumping to another roof after Nesia.
"We're close," she replied, gasping just as much as him. The Prince looked at the horizon, and could see the moonlight sparkling off of the ocean. The Dahaka pursued them tirelessly, clearing the spaces between houses easily.
They were so close now...he could see the docks clearly, saw the ships that sat there, motionless. He looked for the Queen Anne's Revenge, and heard a gasp from Nesia as she found it.
At least, he assumed it was her ship. There were only splintered remains where the ship had been docked. This was very, very bad.
They approached the edge of a building that bordered right on the sea. Nesia's steps started to slow as she approached it, but the Prince pushed her onwards.
"Off the edge," he gasped urgently, "and into the sea!" The woman shot off the edge, angling her body to dive cleanly into the water below. The Prince leapt off the edge after her, but felt a painful jerk in his knee as the Dahaka grabbed his with one of its tentacles. He groaned, and twisted up to the tentacle, trying to unwrap it from his knee. It ignored this, and began to draw the Prince towards it.
Then something wet struck the Prince's hand. He looked down, startled, to see it was a strip of cloth that had been soaked in water. Looking down at Nesia, he saw her hand come back with another missile. This one struck the Dahaka's tentacle. The demon screamed, at its grip on the man's knee loosened enough for him to pull it off. The Prince fell down to the water, dragging the tentacle with him.
The Prince splashed into the sea with the tentacle. The Dahaka shrieked now, and its now wet tentacles began to dissolve. It yanked its appendage back, and sprang away from the edge, disappearing into the night. There was an eerie silence for a moment, broken when the Prince came choking spluttering to the surface. Nesia helped him float, supporting him in the water until he could breathe again. Then she pushed away from him, and began to swim rapidly to the dock and the remains of her ship. The Prince followed hesitantly.
Nesia swam through the wreck, pushing aside scraps of wood and bloody bodies, looking for anyone who was alive. She found none though. The woman pulled herself up onto the dock, where the Prince sat shivering, and sat in silence. She stared down at the wreck of her ship, her face devoid of any emotion.
"What now?" she asked after a minute. "Will that...thing be coming back?"
"Not after it got injured like that," he replied, shaking his head. "It'll have to heal up before it can come back. I'd say we have about a week." They were silent again, until Nesia stood up.
"Let's get away from here then," she said coldly. "We can find an inn to sleep in, and get dried off." She turned, and stalked down the dock, and the Prince once again followed her.
Nesia lead them to a different inn, once called the Bedazzled Boar. It seemed to be less dirty than the other one, something that the Prince appreciated. The woman quickly paid for two rooms, and requested dry clothes for the both of them. Without a word to the Prince, she went upstairs to her room. closing the door sharply behind her. The man sighed, and went into his own room.
He undressed quickly inside, draping his soaking wet clothes and armor on a plain wooden desk that sat against one wall of the small room. He was in his underclothes when the innkeeper knocked sharply on the door, and offered him some fresh clothes. The Prince accepted them with a silent thanks, then closed the door again. He pulled on the breeches, placing the shirt and his belt and swords on a side table, and collapsed into the small bed. He blew out the candle that lighted the room, and sank into a fitful sleep.
Nesia, after undressing, tossed her jacket on the floor, which was followed by her wet clothes. She didn't know where her hat was; she must have lost it out on the street. When the innkeeper came to her door with new clothes, she grabbed them quickly, and shut the door in his face. Throwing on the shirt, she also put out the candle and fell into bed, exhausted.
I wouldn't expect that I would ever update another chapter this quickly ever again. I dunno if it's even any good...erm, yeah, I'm kinda tired.
Reviews, please!