Chapter 17: Pirate Ship
Fargus's ship sails along smoothly. At last, they spot the fog-shrouded isle on the horizon. Eliwood's father is on the isle, as is the Dragon's Gate. As they draw closer to the isle, Eliwood no longer fears that his father might be one of the conspirators.
As the moment of truth draws near, Eliwood prays that his father is safe. Hector prays that this attack on the Dragon's Gate silences the rebellion and avoids a war. Lyn prays for the strength to face the challenges of the Dread Isle. Cecil prays for clarity of the mind so he may guide his friends to battle. And Kozo prays for...I'm not reading this. There is no way in hell that I am reading this.
Eliwood leaned over the bow of the ship, resting his arms on the rail, and his head in his arms. He sighed. Heavy foot steps approached, catching the red haired noble's attention.
Fargus gave a smirk. "You don't get seasick, do you, laddie?" he asked gruffly.
Eliwood shook his head. "No sir" he answered polietly. "I'm fine." He then looked down, blinking. "Erm...when did your legs suddenly grow back?"
"They didn't" Fargus pointed out, popping off one of his legs. "These are just my walking legs." He popped it back into place.
"So...what was with the peg legs when we first met?"
"For show, really."
"Erm...pardon my changing the subject, but why did you allow us passage?" Eliwood asked.
"Well, it's a bit of a lengthly explanation. You don't mind, do you?"
"Not at all."
"Alright. Laddie, pirates are a strange breed. We can't resist a challenge. Something appears on the horizon, and we immediately set sail. Some dreams we conquer, others we abandon. ...I've grown old. I haven't had a good challenge in many a year. Then you mooncalves appear seeking passage to the Dread Isle. I was impressed with your courage. I think you may be the ones to survive the Dread Isle."
Eliwood had his head tilted back, snoring peacefully.
Fargus growled. "Hey! Wake up!"
Eliwood jolted. "Oh! Sorry...just uh...the calming rocking of the ship and the whole length of your speech kinda made me..."
"Ack, never mind...We're near the Dread Isle. I'll weigh the anchor, and..."
"Oh, you don't need to trouble yourself" Eliwood said with a joking smile. "I took care of that. It's 2 tons and 48 pounds."
Fargus gave Eliwood a glare.
"I was just trying to say something piratey..."
"Unless it's not stupid, your speaking privillages have been revoked."
"Oh man..."
"Hey! I said revoked!"
Eliwood opened his mouth to say "sorry", but timidly closed his trap.
"Anyway, we'll weigh anchor here, and and give you some rowing boats. Light some signal fire when you wish to return."
"Thank you" Eliwood said, before slamming his hands over his mouth.
"Don't worry, that was a smart thing for you to have said."
"Ahoy! Everyone!" Dart rushed in. "We spotted a dingy of port starboard bow."
"Off the what?" Eliwood asked.
"I don't know. I still haven't figured it out..."
"And you call yourself a pirate."
"We got it aboard!" Lyn informed, over the shoulders of a few other pirates. "It's a girl that I think should be a familiar face!"
Kozo, Eliwood and Hector all approached. Kozo stared blankly at the girl they had pulled aboard. "Ninian..." he breathed out. "Get your hands off her. I'll take care of this."
Lyn glared up at Kozo. "You tried to kidnap her last year! Why should we trust her in your care?"
"Because I'm the only male present who's not interested in her gully hole." Kozo gave a cruel smirk. "If anyone, I think you would be the one we shouldn't trust her with."
Fire erupted in Lyn's eyes. "What are you suggesting!" she snapped.
Ninian suddenly stirred in Kozo's arms. The shaman grinned. "She's waking up!" he informed. Eliwood knealt down next to them.
The dancer opened her eyes, and stared blankly at the two.
Lyn beamed widely. "Ninian! You're okay!"
Eliwood breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm so glad..."
Hector raised an eyebrow. "You know her?"
Eliwood nodded. "She's how Lyn and I met a year ago. I rescued her from a group of bandits."
"Whom were lead by you" Lyn said, glaring at Kozo meanly.
"What, not like I WANTED to hurt her..." Kozo responded. "You were the one who forced us to use force."
"Lyndis! Kozo! Just...shut up, will you?" Hector snapped.
Eliwood took Ninian from Kozo's arms. "Ninian" he asked gently, "are you okay?"
Ninian stared listlessly at Eliwood.
"Ninian, tell me, what happened?"
"..." Ninian remained silent.
"Ninian...how many fingers am I holding up?"
"..." The dancer continued to stare.
"This is bad. She's not responding to anything I say."
"Not too different from ordinary life, isn't it pansy-boy?" Kozo asked cynically.
"Oh shove it" Eliwood growled.
A pirate rushed over to Dart, and gave a report. Dart turned to face Fargus. "Captain, pirates ships are approaching from the northwest, flying a flag unknown to our watchmen."
"Are they approching in a hostile manner?"
"Indeed, captain. They're trying to come around to our sides."
Fargus spat. "These are our waters. Whoever they are, they're trespassing." He turned to face Eliwood and the others. "You watch your own hides. We're too busy to baby-sit ya."
"Captain Zoldam" reported a mercenary, rushing over to the captain of the ship. He was a cold man, with a long, olive green cloak, almost covering his whole body. What was shown on his face was a pointed noise, and a fine, orange beard. "The pirates are in range. The girl is probably on board."
"Excellent" Zoldam said with almost no emotion. "Those pirates must be out of the way. Distract them, and they'll be easy pickings."
"Yes sir. Any specific way we should keep them busy?"
Zoldam gave a cutting motion with his arm. "Fire one of the cannons. They'll be so busy trying to plug the hole, they won't be able to defend themselves."
"Yes captain!" The mercenary rushed towards the other crewmen. "Alright, louts! Blast that ship, but keep the hole pluggable"
"Captain!" one of the pirates stumbled on to the deck. "The hull's been breached! We're taking on water!"
Fargus snapped around to face the sailor. "Breached?" He growled, giving a sideways glance at the enemy ship. "These scum are more dangerous than I thought."
"This is bad, captain Fargus" Dart informed. "We need all hands below deck, or we're fish food!"
"You handle it" Fargus informed. "I'm going to carve these scallywags a new stomach!"
"The water's up to the gally. Please, captain. We need you!" the pirate who gave the report begged.
Fargus gave a low growl.
Eliwood handed Ninian off to Kozo. "Take her somewhere safe." He looked up at Fargus. "Leave the fighting to us."
Hector gave a laugh, and rested his axe over his shoulder. "Fighting is something we're good at! But a sinking ship? That's more in your department. So get down there, or I will make your afterlife an undead hell."
"We'll deal with things up here" Lyn assured, drawing her sword. "Please hurry!"
"Alright" Fargus nodded. "The deck is your's. I'll be back as soon as we've plugged the breach in the hull."
"We figured that. Now move!" Eliwood demanded, his rapier drawn.
As Fargus rushed to the hull of the ship, Cecil jumped in out of nowhere. "Alright!" he cheered. "Let's get this party started!"
"Great to have you, Cece" Hector smirked. "So, what's the plan."
Cecil suddenly plugged his ears. "Not so looooooud!"
Hector blinked. "Aren't people usually hung over for only a day?" he asked.
"Oh, you don't know how smashed this guy got" Lyn shook her head.
Cecil groaned a bit, before shaking his head. "Kozo" he said, looking over at the shaman, "could you please hand me your pendant?"
"It sees through everything, remember?" Kozo pointed out. "I thought you'd just go by instinct."
"You're right...where'd you get that thing in the first place?"
"Loud mouth over there gave it to me during one of our earlier missions."
"Loud mouth?" Hector shouted. "Who are you calling a loud mouth?"
Cecil walked over to Hector. "You wouldn't happen to have a spare, would you?" he asked.
Hector, still mumbiling under his breath ("Loud mouth, huh? I'll show him loud mouth"), handed Cecil a small, crystal pendant. The tactician slid it over his neck, and was instantly treated to a bird's eye view of the stage.
"Well, that's just great" Cecil groaned. "The enemy has two ships coming from both sides. One side is brimming with Shamans, while the other is coursing with swordsmen and archers."
"Well, Cece, what do you suggest we do?" Kozo asked sneedly.
"Fargus is going to need all his hands below deck, so we might as well get all our hands above deck" Cecil explained. "We'll just have to make sure that no one goes after enemies they can't handle. We won't send Oswin after the shamans, Florina after the archers, and so on and so forth."
Cecil looked over at Lyn and Eliwood. "Get everyone here, but our horsemen and Priscilla will have to go on foot."
"What about Florina?" Kozo asked. "On her pegasus, she's an open target."
"But unlike everyone else, without her pegasus, she'll be pulverized" Cecil explained.
"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that" Lyn said cooly, cracking her knuckles. "Anyone tries to hurt her, I'll pound them to oblivion."
Cecil looked over at Lyn, eyebrow raised. "You've been very protective of Florina lately...is there something I should know about?"
"What? She's my friend. I don't want anyone in this group to be killed" Lyn explained. "I mean, if someone was about to kill one of you, wouldn't you jump in to save..."
"No" both tacticians answered together.
Soon, everyone was gathered, and taking battle positions. Sain was pouting, and sitting crosslegged near the mast. "This sucks" he said childishly. "Without my horse, how am I supposed to impress the girls?"
Kozo came in from the side, and gave Sain a big 'ol hug. "You've already impressed me, Sainy" he said innocently.
"Yes...but you're not a girl."
"But I AM interested in you! That's a change!"
"A change for the worse, but yes, it is a change..."
Eliwood had his rapier in his right hand, had another in his left, and had a dagger between his death. He turned to address the team. "Snmpf grfp db FRBMX!" he shouted through clenched teeth.
His little speech earned him the eyes of everyone in the immediate area, although eyes of confusion. The response he got was also wasn't what he was shooting for. An answer of "What?"
"Alright guys" Cecil said, wearing earmuffs, "let's get 'em!"
Guy was the first one to act. He immediately grabbed a nearby rope, got on the rim of the deck, and kicked off. Giving a Sacean war cry, Guy swung over the heads of the enemy pirates. His scream of battle turned into a regular scream when he let go, and was flying over the opposite end of the ship, where he hit the water with a large splash.
"...We should probably take some slack out of the rope..." Cecil examined.
One of the enemy pirates took hold of a rope, and swung towards the team, bellowing his lungs out.
Bartre picked up a nearby, well placed rock. "I wonder if I can skip this baby..." With that, the fighter wound up, and let the stone fly. It smacked the enemy swordsman square in the forehead, causing him to lose grip on the rope, and plummeting into the water.
Dorcas smiled. "Nice thinking, Bartre."
"Looks like it doesn't skip far..."
"...You know what? Never mind."
Zoldam got onto the deck. "Lower the planks. Full charge."
Several wooden boards were placed, connecting the two ships. A gang of swordsmen and archers charged in from the planks.
Hector grinned evilly. "NOW things are getting interesting..."
I got out my map and chose a place I wanted to go to ...Packed up my stuff, set out for adventure.
I know that your lucky color is that cool shade of blue ...Won't mind painting myself blue for you.
Yoshimo glared up at the sound booth. Ryuu blushed, and gave an "oops"
The music cut short, and was replaced by the fight theme from Pirates of the Caribbean. "That's more like it" Hector grumbled, before raising his axe, and giving his charge. The swordsmen unfortuneate enough to be in his way were cut down to size.
Erk shifted his hands around in a mystical manner, before snapping his eyes open. "Fire!" he shouted, throwing a ball of flame at an enemy archer. The bowman was incinerated.
Marcus swung his sword, letting out a grunt. He turned around, kicking an enemy swordsman in the side of the head. The paladin smirked. "Just because I'm old and without my horse doesn't mean I still can't kick your ass"
Meanwhile, over on the enemy ship...
Kozo tossed his lure into the water. "Let's see if the cuties are biting..." he said happily. He soon felt a tugging on his line. He reeled it in, pulling Guy out of the water, soaked to the bone. The myrmidon looked disgruntled, and spat out a stream of water from his mouth, soon spitting out a fish as well.
A frog leapt out of Guy's shirt, and landed next to Kozo. "Ribbit" it croaked, before hopping up and down, making the sound of a somewhat rusty spring.
There was some bubbles coming to the surface of the water, causing both the swordsman and the shaman to look down. The water parted as a large, blue cat with black stripes leapt out of the water. "Froggy!" it shouted happily, landing on deck.
The frog jumpped back into the water. "Wait for me, Froggy!" the cat shouted, before jumping back in, making a big splash, making Guy wetter than before, and even getting some water on Kozo's robes.
"Good luck if anyone gets THAT joke..." Guy grumbled.
Kozo grinned. "You know, you look damn hot when you're completely soaked..."
"..." Guy took hold of the hook on his back, and yanked it up, tearing it away from his shirt. He splashed back into the water.
"Never can take a compliment..." Kozo shook his head.
The battle raged on. Once again, Erk passed out as Priscilla and Serra fought over who'd heal him. Once again, Matthew was more busy robbing the opponent's blind instead of stabbing them with his sword. And fora first, Lucius sat curled up in a ball near the mast.
Raven rolled his eyes, and grabbed the monk's hand, pulling him to his feet, and dragging him into the battle. "Come on, Lucius. We need to fight!"
"B..but Lord Raven...you know I abhore violence..." Lucius stammered.
An enemy mercenary charged in, and swung his sword. Raven pulled Lucius out of the way, but not before the sword clipped off a lock of Lucius's hair.
"Are you okay, Lucius?" Raven asked.
"I'm fine. He only got my ha" Lucius froze, as he felt the back of his head. "My hair...he cut my hair...unevenly..." His eyes went blank.
Sain noticed all this going on, and walked over to the monk. "Um? Lucius? Yoo-hoo. Earth to Lucius." Sain waved his hand over Lucius's face.
Lucius turned to face the mercenary. "EAT PRETTY, BITCH!" He threw his hands forward, before a blast of pure light magic engulfed the swordsman. Although it didn't stop there.
"Oh no..." Zoldam muttered, as the spell screamed towards him and his ship. "Abandon shi..."
There was a large explosion, as a huge, mushroom cloud of water erupted where the ship once floated. Florina quickly pulled out an umberlla, and clicked it open, remaining perfectly dry while everyone else got soaked.
Cecil stared at the place where the ship used to be, mouth gaping. "And someone hasn't labeled him as a weapon of mass destruction yet WHY?"
At this time, Fargus, Dart, and the other pirates came up on deck. "We plugged the hole!" Fargus declared. "Now then, who wants to di" He looked around. The enemy was dead, and the ships were gone. "Where's everybody gone?" he asked.
"Well, we were having a very enthralling, eye catching sea battle here" Cecil explained, "but SOMEONE had to blow up the enemy in an anti-climatic show of power."
Raven looked up at Cecil. "Come now, he just suffered a major loss."
"For God's sake, he just got a hair cut."
"my hair..." Lucius whimpered.
At this time, Kozo and Guy had just returned to the ship, both drenched. Kozo seemed fine, but Guy had passed out. Kozo brought him on deck.
"It's no good" Matthew shook his head. "He looks like he lost a lot of air."
"He needs mouth to mouth!" Kozo declared, before moving in to give Guy his air.
As his lips approached the myrmidon's, Guy's hand snapped up, and blocked the shaman's advance. "Stop! I'm fine!"
Kozo beamed. "You're okay!" He gave Guy a tight hug. "I was so worried!"
"Um..yeah, I'm sure we all were. Now could you get off me? ...Please"
A while later, the young dancer stepped onto the deck. Lyn looked over, and started waving her arms. "Ah! Ninian! Don't come out here! There's still blood everywhere!"
"Huh?" Ninian asked, looking up blankly at Lyn, and taking a few steps forward. She slipped on a trail of blood, and started to fall backwards. Eliwood caught her, his hands falling just under her breasts. Eliwood blushed.
"Hey! Pansy boy!" Kozo barked.
Eliwood turned a bit more red, and moved his hands down to her torso.
"That's better." Kozo walked over to the girl. "Are you okay, Ninian?"
Ninian looked up at him. "Nini...an? Is that my name?"
"Ninian, what happened to you?" Eliwood asked.
Ninian groaned. "My head's all foggy...am I at sea?"
Lyn nodded. "We found you adrift on a small boat..."
"...Why was I on a boat?" Ninian asked.
"Beats me" Lyn shrugged.
"Ninian, can you remember anything?" Eliwood asked.
"Ninian, do you have amnesia?" Cecil inquired.
"Ninian, where's Nils? Isn't he with you?" Lyn quipped up.
"Ninian, do you wanna go on a date sometime?" Sain requested.
"Umm... umm..." Ninian stammered.
"Back off, the lot of you!" Kozo shouted, bearing his fangs. The whole group jumped back. "Jeezus, christ, guys... she just woke back up and you're on her like a bunch of starving wolverine...type...thingies..."
Fargus approached the group. "Those dogs were after the girl. Do you plan on taking her with you? The men are worried that she's...cursed..."
Eliwood looked up at Fargus, appaled. "Are you suggesting we leave her behind?" he asked.
"We can't take her with us" Hector pointed out. "We're going to the bloody Dread Isle. It's dread for a reason, you know!"
"Now hold on" Kozo interupted. "You want me with you, right?"
"No!" Matthew and Guy yelped.
"Well, we need your tactical skills, and your shamanism..." Eliwood observed.
"Then she has to come with. No exceptions" Kozo held his hands over his chest.
"Well...fine. Do as you wish."
"Besides, we can't leave them behind without protection" Lyn pointed out. "I...I think I know those men as Black Fang."
Kozo froze up. "Ah dammnit, he's frozen again!" Cecil griped.
Eliwood looked over at Canas, who approached to hear what was going on. "Hey Canas, would you mind rebooting him? He's frozen up again."
"Certainly" Canas nodded, before taking out one of his books, and smacking Kozo over the head with it.
Kozo rubbed his sore noggin, and blushed a bit. "Sorry. It's just whenever I hear that name..."
"That's something I think you need to tell us about" Cecil interuppted. "Come on, Kozo. Why is it that whenever we mention Black Fang..."
Kozo froze again. Canas smacked him over the head again.
"You do that?" Cecil finished.
"Well...I guess I should come clean. See, it brings up bad memories. I used to be a...member of the Black Fang. Sure, there were some good times, but it wasn't enough to drown out the bad times..."
Cecil stared, gaping a bit. "Well...that explains it..."
"So, heh, now you know. So, shall we continue on our way?"
"Aye" Fargus nodded. "Alright, lads! Raise the main sail! Full speed ahead!"
Cecil shook his head. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, we're acting so casual about this? I mean, you used to work for the enemy!"
"Used to, Cecil. Remember that" Kozo pointed out. "You'll need me for this. I know the inner workings of the Fang up to everything except the past year, when I left them."
"Well...it's best to know thine enemy. And you have an encylopedia on them. Alright, Kozo. Let's go"
Yoshimo beamed. "It's that time again!"
"The time where we give food to the poor?" Bartre asked.
"The time where we think you're stark-raving mad?" Chibi-Zell asked.
"Nope. It's time to find out what we should've learned from today's chapter. And to find that, we turn to the Wheel of Morality!" Yoshimo took a hold of the wheel, and gave it a spin. "Wheel of Morality, turn turn turn. Tell us the lesson that we should learn."
The wheel slowly came to a stop. "Moral number 3. And the moral of today's story is...You can dance if you want to, but if you leave your friends behind they'll come back to get you after the party's over. ...Well, that's an interesting moral..."
"But I think there's a lesson there for all of us" Chibi-Zell beamed.
"Right, so, that's all for today. Goodnight, everybody, and remember: You don't know Jack! ...Wait, wrong game..."