Author's Notes: I know it took a long time, but I had some difficulties with this chapter and had to rewrite some parts a few times, but here it is. Again, thanks a lot for the reviews I got, especially to Writers' Blade, who always makes me happy with his regular and kind reviews. If you like my story, be sure to review and I'll try to hurry a bit more with the next chapter.
Chapter 4 – Weakness
She had run away. By letting go of that cliff, she had run away. She hadn't want to…it was just…she didn't have much choice. At least she tried to tell herself that, clinging tightly to the cliff, with the wind pulling at her mercilessly.
She didn't know why she had even bothered to try and save herself. It was all too late now, anyway. She had run away. Kidd was gone, and therefore, everything she longed for in this cruel world, where she wasn't granted to live a happy life.
Still, she had desperately tried to stop the fall by striking Jack's throwing knife into the sturdy surface of the cliff. And it worked, even though not as well as she had expected. Instead of halting her fall, it just slowed it down by a bit. She had had to use her left hand and her feet to finally stop the fall with tremendous efforts. But looking down now, she saw that she was still about thirty metres high, a height she wasn't likely to survive if she were to let go of the cliff, willingly or otherwise.
However, she couldn't just stand here forever. Her hands, raw and bleeding, were already getting weaker and she wasn't sure if she could keep herself from falling much longer. She looked down onto the ocean. There still wasn't a single sign of the ship. Or maybe she just couldn't see it because of the darkness. It would still take at least two hours until daybreak, a time she couldn't even afford to think of at the moment.
Tears welled up in her eyes, and she didn't even try to blink them away. Why didn't she just let go? She would die anyway, so why not end this now? Still, somewhere in the back of her mind, she refused to let herself die so easily. Because in that corner of her mind, there was still hope that Kidd was alive.
She looked down again. There just had to be something she could do. There was a small beach directly under her. It wasn't much, merely a few square metres of sand, which looked actually more like little stones, now that she looked closely.
Everything else below her was water, though she didn't know just how deep. If it was deep, Harle had the chance to survive. But then again, there were some ugly rocks sticking out of the water, which could break her back effortlessly.
Harle couldn't believe she was thinking that much, while her hands still ached, pleading Harle to let go already. She was just choosing between two different ways to die, and it almost made her laugh.
However, she wanted at least to try everything before she died. She didn't want to give her life away that easily, now that she had a choice. With that, she pushed herself off the wall as hard as she could. She didn't know if this would really save her, but then again, she didn't actually care that much. She had already been prepared to die and she still was now.
In the air, she turned around so that she could see the ground, and spread her arms and legs wide in a feeble attempt to slow down her fall.
It didn't slow down, but time passed slowly for her nonetheless. It was as if she was taking every single detail of her surroundings in. Every wave, every rock on the ground under her, every twinkle of moonlight on the surface of the ocean. She felt as if she saw everything, in those few seconds she spent in the air. Those few seconds which could mean the rest of her life.
Despite the situation a small smile appeared on her lips. She was already above the ocean, which increased her chances of surviving by a bit. However, her hand trembled as she took a Gravity Ball element out of her pocket. Crossing her arms, she cast it onto a rock directly under her, crushing it into a thousand pieces. At least one lethal obstacle less.
She entered the water headfirst. It was colder and harsher than she had expected. But then again, she must have been naïve to think that it wouldn't hurt. The water was deep too, though Harle wasn't able to figure out any directions, swirling through the water without control.
Before her eyes, she saw one of her bells twinkle. It must have been ripped off her clothes from the impact and now floated through the water aimlessly. Harle reached out to grab it, but found that she could hardly move her arms. So she just watched it flow further and further away from her, until she lost sight of the shining bell. It was the last thing she saw before she lost consciousness.
Darkness. Utter darkness was all that greeted her when she slowly opened her eyes, almost shutting them again as she started to feel the pain running through her entire body. Nothing. She lay there, trying to ignore the pain and patiently waiting for her eyes to get accustomed to the darkness. It didn't happen. Even after what seemed like an eternity to wait, she still couldn't make out anything in this darkness.
Hardly frustrated, she tried to move, but found that she couldn't, partly because of the ropes fettered around her wrists and ankles, but also because with every movement, she felt as if her body would break apart. Her shoulder burned like hell and she soon knew better and stopped her weak attempts to free herself. Her breathing was heavy and sweat started to trickle down her face. If she tried any more, she would surely pass out again. Not that this was necessarily a bad thing, it would at least make her unbearable pain go away, if only for a while.
However, she couldn't allow herself to do that. She didn't even know where she was, although she could guess she was on a ship, judging by the unsteady movements of the place. The wooden walls and floors creaked without pause, but despite that, there was hardly any sound to be heard. She had to be at the bottom of the ship then, beneath the surface of the water, where the fierce clashing of the waves against the sides of the ship was subdued.
She tried to get to her dagger with her tied hands, but soon gave up. It wasn't where it used to be, and even if it were, Kidd felt like her shoulder would snap if she tried to reach it, with her wrists tied tightly behind her back.
Kidd closed her eyes and tried to remember where she left her dagger, when a gruesome image appeared before her eyes, reminding her exactly where her precious dagger had been left. She tried to get the picture out of her mind, which wasn't that easy, since all she could think of right know was her dagger and how much she needed it. Still, she felt a wave of guilt crash down on her.
Though she was a pirate, she hadn't killed many people in her lifetime, and even when she did, it was always to save her own life. Even so, she felt dirty for doing it. The evil one hadn't been that soldier, it was the one who had send him. The soldier had merely been standing on the wrong side. If there even was such a thing like right and wrong.
Kidd shook her head and decided not to ponder about it any longer. She had to find a way out of that place, though she knew the odds weren't exactly favourable for her. She was on a ship after all, there probably wasn't much she could do to escape. Still, she hoped the ship was at least somewhere near the shore. Once she'd freed herself, she would just have to trust her swimming skills.
However, she was thinking too far ahead of herself. She was still lying here on the floor, hardly able to move without pain.
With some effort, she managed to sit up, her feet pushing her backwards until she leaned against the wall, trying to catch her breath. With her mouth, she tried to reach her left shoulder. It didn't work at first, but after some re-positioning, she reached her vest and tugged it down as far as she could with her teeth. She couldn't take it off completely because of her tied wrists, but it was enough to enable her to reach inside her pockets. Rummaging around, she searched for a Fireball element on her element grid, one of the two she knew she had with her. She just had red or green elements in her pocket, the red ones being offensive spells and the green ones for healing. Kidd always told herself she didn't need any fancy status improving elements, so she didn't bother to think much about the elements she took with her. She had just taken a handful of red and green ones and put them on her element grid, and that had been it, as always.
Kidd sighed. There was no way she could differentiate between the elements without being able to see them. She didn't care if she accidentally cast a Heal element (on the contrary, it might be even useful if it weren't for the waste of stamina), but she really didn't like the thought of unleashing a Volcano element instead of a comparably harmless Fireball one.
She hit her head against the wall in frustration. She could kill herself for not remembering where she had put the elements on the grid. Maybe Harle had been right when she always scolded her for being so disorderly. Harle…Kidd wondered what had happened to the most precious person in her life. Harle wasn't a weak person, but the soldiers could have outnumbered her easily. Tears started to form in her eyes, but she refused to let them gain free reign over her. Now was not the time for crying. Besides, Harle was not here with her, so there was still a chance that she had escaped. At least she had to endure with telling herself that for now. She couldn't afford to break down at a time like this.
Impatiently, she took one of the elements from her grid and put it between her tied hands, hoping she got the right one. After a few seconds of hesitation, she cast it, hoping it would go as planned.
Mere split seconds after activating, she could feel the heat between her hands, quickly rising to an unbearable level. Once she felt the rope burning away, the pulled as hard as she could, ripping the rope completely in the process. As quickly as she could, she stood up, running hastily to the opposite end of the room, far away from the fire, which has grown considerably big for the small room she was in.
Thanks to the fire, she could now see that the small room she was in, was completely empty. But also thanks to the fire, she didn't have much time left to get out of the room as well. Kidd started for the door, but found it had no handle, which left her only one way. Using force. Kidd walked as far as possible away from the door, which were two metres at best, considering she couldn't go where the fire had already spread. Reminding herself to use her left instead of her normally preferred right shoulder, she dashed towards the wooden door and hit it shortly after with full force.
It didn't budge. Kidd tried again, pushing even harder now, but only got the same result, just like she did the numerous attempts afterwards. By then, the heat had already risen to a truly uncomfortable level and Kidd didn't know what to do.
She could try to break the door with a more powerful element, but with the fire already taking up most of the room, it would be fatal if it didn't work instantly. Kidd didn't now just how much longer she would be able to bear this heat.
Taking her most powerful Volcano element into her hand, she regarded it, trying to stay as calm as possible under such circumstances, to not jump to conclusions which could mean the end of her life.
Her hands shook from fear and tiredness as she cast the Volcano element, hoping with all her heart that it would work.
Jack walked up and down the deck in worry. He had expected Harle and Kidd to be back a lot sooner, and seeing that it wasn't very long until daybreak, he wondered what had happened to them.
"Hey Slash, lend me your glass for a bit.", he said, walking towards Slash while extending his right arm.
"Sure, but you ain't seein' anythin' in this darkness, ya know.", he said and gave it to him.
"Yeah, I know.", Jack answered briefly, occupying himself with the glass. Slash was right, he could hardly see anything aside from the places the moonlight shone upon, which was only the surface of the water, obviously.
Jack sighed and was already going to give the glass back to Slash, when a sudden twinkle caught his sight. Looking closer, he could make out a shape, though he didn't know what or who it belonged to.
"Slash, come here and take a look." Jack merely whispered, still focusing on the shape. Slash did as he was told and looked through it as well. He needed a few seconds, but then he figured out that the shape was actually a floating body.
"It can't be…this silver belt…", Slash whispered, but before he could finish, Jack leapt over the edge of the ship and landed in the water with a loud splash.
Slash wanted to shout after him, but Jack was rushing at full speed towards the floating body and there was no stopping him.
Jack swam as quickly as he could, fast and powerful strokes pushing him onward. He feared it was already too late but he wouldn't believe it until he saw it with his own eyes. Harle…what could have happened to cause Harle to float in the ocean, unconsciously…or even dead?
Swimming even harder towards the end, he didn't even care about the amounts of water he swallowed because of his uncontrolled breathing. He also tried his best to ignore the pain in his arms, which seemed to increase tenfold with each new desperate stroke he took. It was nothing compared to the urgency lying in front of him.
Still, his way seemed longer than he had thought and it took him a thousand eternities to finally reach Harle, who was sinking deeper and deeper into the ocean. He dove straight after her, not even wasting one second to regain his breath. His arms and feet pushed him deeper down into the ocean, getting weaker as the oxygen ran out. He didn't dive upwards again, though. He focused his mind solely on diving. Deeper. Finally, he managed to grip her hand in the very last second before losing sight of her. He shot upwards without wasting a second glance into the dark depths of the ocean.
The whole place was in flames. They were hot, threatening. With desperation in her eyes she watched the door crumbling under the flames far too slowly.
This all seemed so familiar. These unbearable flames, blocking her every way to escape, the smoke, which made it hard to see…she felt as if she was back at the orphanage. For a moment, she thought she saw a dead body, lying in the corner of the room, but as she looked closer, she saw that it was only a burning piece of wood.
Kidd sighed. She couldn't lose her mind now. The incident at the orphanage had been long ago, something she couldn't change anymore. Still, standing here, surrounded by the flames, she felt like a small girl again. The girl who couldn't do anything against the fire. Against the death of Lucca. The girl who could just stand in front of Harle and Lynx in shock, waiting to be saved.
Kidd shook her head fiercely. No, she wasn't that weak girl anymore! She had spent the biggest part of her life getting rid of her weaknesses, to become stronger, less vulnerable…able to live on her own.
Without thinking, she dashed towards the door, tearing it apart as she ran through it. However, her clothes caught fire in the process, which quickly began to dissolve into ashes, leaving Kidd's skin on its own to bear with the fire. But Kidd didn't care.
She ran out of the room and along the corridor, not thinking about any directions. She just had to get away from the flames, away from this whole ship.
She made a dash for the stairs, taking a bucket full of water and a broom, which stood beside the stairs, with her. She immediately poured the water over her head and body, getting rid of the flames. Then she took off the top of the broom, so that only the broomstick remained.
Armed with that broomstick, she made her way up to the deck, where, as expected, quite a few soldiers were standing. When they caught sight of Kidd, they immediately gathered, readying their swords. Unexpectedly, they didn't even seem surprised or shouted at her. They just nodded at each other in silent understanding and circled around her.
However, Kidd wasn't in the mood to play and even though she didn't like the thought, with her shoulder in its current condition, she couldn't waste much time or she would pass out.
Wielding the broomstick mostly with her left hand, she knew she didn't have all that much power, but with the opponents standing around her in a circle, there was no way she could defeat them solely with elements.
Still, she cast her Volcano element to her right, hoping to get rid of the roughly ten soldiers standing there and charged the other ten to her leftdirectly after.
She managed to swipe the first soldier off his feet, gaining his sword in the process. With a wide vertical strike, she defeated the second, and the third fell after Kidd's sword had pierced his right thigh.
Still, it was no use. There were still seven soldiers left, and her moment of surprise was long gone. Kidd took a few steps back, feeling the hard wood press against her back all too soon. It was no use. She was cornered.