A/N: Yay for innovative chapter titles XD Whatever. I hope you'll like this chapter, and thanks again for the reviews!
Chapter 11 – Dragon
"Geez, I still can't believe you convinced him to give you a cabin.", Clair said and laughed brightly. She was sitting on the single bed in the small cabin Eve and Clair shared from now on.
"Oh, Randal, somehow they mixed it up and didn't assign a room to me! What should I do?", she mimicked Eve's voice before falling into a fit of giggles.
"Hey, cut it out. At least I got us a room so we don't have to hide.", Eve said, blushing hard. Begging that jerk for a room was something very high up on her list of absolutely embarrassing things. But it would have been hard to hide all the time until they reached Porre, so a room of their own was the best choice. Of course no room had been assigned to them, so she had to talk Randal into showing her a free room. He seemed to be glad to help and Eve just hoped he wouldn't tell anyone about it.
"Maybe he has a thing for you.", Clair said with a wicked grin. "I mean, who else would've helped you as eagerly as he did?"
"Oh stop it, that's about the worst thing I want to think of right now." Eve sighed, pushing herself off the wall she was leaning on. "We've got other things to worry about."
"You and your worrying. We've even got a cabin now, we can walk around the ship and nobody would notice we don't belong here. So it'll be a piece of cake to snoop around a bit. Just relax.", Clair reassured her as she stood up. "So, what's the plan? Where should we look around first?"
"I want to know about that dragon thing you told me about. I want to see it for real.", Eve said without thinking. She wanted to see the thing that was said to be the cause of the death of Kidd's friend. She still didn't know what to expect of it. A dragon…she had never seen one before. She was a bit scared.
"Then I'll cover the boys. Some of them might have some interesting information." Clair giggled. It wasn't that she thought of herself as overly beautiful and attractive, but the male soldiers tended to melt when she talked to them. She had always thought they were like that because there just weren't many female soldiers around, and Eve would do just as well, if she weren't so embarrassed about such things.
"Okay, then let's go. I suggest we meet here again around dinner time." Eve nodded at herself. Dinner time would be best, they couldn't go anywhere then anyway, for most of the crew would be eating and two soldiers still walking around would raise eyebrows.
"Alright, dinner time it is, then.", Clair said and waved her hand as she exited their room. Eve watched her go, wondering where she should go first. It would take a while to search through all of the lower decks, but she guessed she had no choice.
By the time Eve finally left their cabin, Clair had already found her first target. It was a soldier like her, standing on the upper deck, obviously doing nothing.
"Taking a break so early?", she called, walking up to him.
The soldier turned around rapidly, his mouth opening to form an excuse. However, as he saw it was only Clair, he visibly relaxed and smiled at her.
"Geez, don't scare me like that.", he said and chuckled. He turned back around to regard the calm ocean, lighting a cigarette. "Didn't know you were on this mission too."
"Hey, do you think I'd miss something like that? I've never been to Porre before, I'm so excited!", Clair squealed in fake excitement.
"Heh. I think it's pretty cool too. Just sailing over to Porre, fetching Viper's things and back home. I like it when it's not much work.", the soldier said.
"Yeah me too. Though it's kinda odd. Why are there so many soldiers on this ship when we're just getting Viper's stuff?", Clair asked, trying not to sound too thoughtful. She had to be careful about what to say, she didn't have the slightest idea about what Viper had told them about this mission.
"Didn't you listen to Viper?", the soldier asked, causing Clair to stiffen and look at him blankly. She knew she shouldn't have asked.
"Thought so." He nudged Clair playfully, laughing. Clair relaxed, giggling sheepishly. For a moment she had really thought he would find out about her.
"He told us that we low-rank soldiers are just going there to get his stuff, but the other high-rank soldiers will be staying there for a while. Don't know why, though. He only told them specifically. It's not our business anyway.", he explained.
"Yeah.", Clair said, looking at him intently. "Guess there are some nice sides to being a low-rank soldier, eh?" Both giggled at that and Clair could have sworn she had just seen a hint of a blush on the man's cheeks.
"Anyway, I got to go. Don't want to be caught here doing nothing. See you later.", she said with a sigh, touching his shoulder while passing him. Just before going through the door leading inside the ship, she turned around, catching the soldier still staring after her.
The soldier turned around with a start, pretending not to have watched her leave. With a wide grin on her face, Clair went through the door.
Good, he wasn't suspicious of her in the least. If anything, he was interested if she was still single or not.
While Clair was immensely proud of her first victory, Eve was a nervous wreck, cautiously walking down the stairs which led to the lowest deck. She had already checked the one above, but found nothing but boxes, which hadn't been terribly interesting if it weren't for the fact that they had all been empty. Just big, empty, wooden boxes. Eve had even gone so far as to check them for any false bottoms, finding none. She found it highly disturbing. However, the ominous dragon hadn't been there, so here she was, all alone on the lowest, and darkest deck. There had been many lights on the one above, but down here, Eve could hardly see anything. Only a handful of lights made her able to see her hand in front of her eyes.
Her steps were slow, careful. The last thing she needed was to trip and sprain her ankle or something similar. This deck wasn't divided into various small rooms like the one above, so if it had been a little bit brighter, she could have seen everything from the front to the back of the whole deck. Unfortunately, it wasn't, so Eve could only make out a few boxes around her. She went towards one, breaking it open with her sword. There were weapons inside, but no ordinary ones. She would have expected swords and cannon balls, but the box was full of guns.
She had once heard that the Porre army used guns, which were far more effective, but also more expensive, than swords.
"What in the world…?", she whispered unbelievingly. Could it be that all these boxes were full of these guns? What did Viper want to do with them in Porre?
Eve was intimidated just by being around of so many guns, so she closed the box again and went deeper into the room. She squinted hard, trying to see what was in the back of the deck. It looked like a huge box.
Eve walked towards it quickly, not caring about possible injuries anymore. She needed to know what it was that was back there…it was so big, possibly a huge cannon, or something else entirely. Eve wouldn't put it past Viper to have secretly invented a new kind of weapon, more powerful than all those before. The thought made her shudder.
However, it only took her a few steps more until she realized what was in front of her. What had seemed like a box at first she identified as a cage, and two sparkling yellow eyes greeted her from within.
Eve shouted in surprise, quickly walking back. It was really here. The dragon, about whom she had all but forgotten for the moment was directly in front of her, staring at her intently.
She could even hear his breathing, she didn't know why she hadn't noticed it before. It was rhythmic, and slow. Eve tried to tell herself that this was a good sign, that it showed that the dragon wasn't excited…to attack her.
Eve shook her head, coming closer again. It was silly jerking back like that, after all he was in a huge metal cage. The bars were far enough apart for a human to slip through, but definitely too narrow for this thing.
The dragon still watched her, scrutinizing her. But upon closer inspection, Eve found that the dragons' eyes seemed pained, broken. And that scared her even more than an angry look would have. Because the eyes in front of her didn't seem like ones from a mere animal, the seemed intelligent. Maybe not on the same level as humans, but intelligent nonetheless. She couldn't believe that she stood here in front of this monster, almost pitying it because its eyes were so full of feelings. She wanted to turn around, to leave, but she was so drawn to its eyes, that she found that she couldn't.
It wasn't that she didn't fear this dragon before her anymore, she was scared to death. Its big head…those impressive fangs it showed occasionally, the mighty body, which wasn't as big as she would have expected from a dragon, but still too big for her if she would ever have to deal with this thing.
Just as she was about to look around the area a bit more, she heard voices coming down the wooden stairs. Eve panicked, looking around anxiously. She couldn't turn around. They, whoever they were, would see her. The boxes were too far in their direction also. And in front of her, there was nothing aside from that huge cage.
The cage was directly in front of the back wall, which destroyed her initial plan to try to hide behind the dragons' cage.
The voices came closer, obviously arguing. One of them was Viper. Eve's heart stopped. Why was he on the ship? He never took part in missions, always managing them from the manor. What in the world did he come here for!
Things were looking really bad now. The only person she had to prevent from seeing her was directly heading into her direction. She could have come up with some excuse if they had just been some ordinary soldiers. But Viper knew she didn't belong here, knew she was too curious, and probably knew how to get rid of her really fast.
As quickly and quietly as possible she walked to the back of the room, standing right beside the cage. She hoped against all hope that they wouldn't see her, that it would be too dark. But she knew it wouldn't happen. They were steadily coming closer. Eve just wanted to stand up to run over to the side wall to eventually sneak past them when something firm gripped her and pulled her through the bars into the cage. Eve would have screamed if it weren't for the fact that her mouth was firmly shut by the same thing which held the rest of her body as well, making her unable to move. After a few seconds however, the movement stopped and as she looked around she found herself inside the cage, the dragon's tail holding her in place.
Thoughts of being eaten alive, or stamped to death ran through her mind, making her dizzy. But as she looked forward, she found that the dragon wasn't even looking at her.
"Here we are.", a rough female voice uttered, startling Eve. She looked ahead, but couldn't see anything aside from the dragon.
"It looks well enough. I have gotten information about those girls, so we'll use it again soon. This time it should work." Viper laughed wickedly, but stopped abruptly. Eve guessed it was because the other voice wasn't laughing along with him.
"I know it's not the original purpose of the dragon to get these girls. But so far it has proved itself effective. After we are through with them, we can use it the way we intended to.", Viper said. This time, an eerie chuckle escaped the woman's lips.
"But can't you do something about the way it looks? It doesn't look too aggressive to me." Viper sounded sceptical and for a moment Eve thought he would try kicking the dragon just to test its reaction.
"No.", the woman's answer was short and firm. A no-nonsense person it seemed, and Eve racked her brain to remember where she had heard that particular voice before. She didn't come up with an immediate result, though.
"Well, I guess it'll be aggressive enough when actually put into a fight.", Viper said and laughed awkwardly. His voice seemed impressed by the woman, he sounded like he didn't want to argue with her too much.
The woman didn't say another word and left abruptly, with Viper awkwardly running after her. Under different circumstances, it would have made Eve laugh. But now, that they were gone, she was reminded of her current position. She was caught by a dragon, and didn't expect much from its plans with her.
Eve squeezed her eyes shut, hoping the dragon would end it soon and not overly painful for her. She felt being moved around, but still didn't dare to open her eyes. The last thing she wanted to see was the ugly jaw of something which was going to eat her.
In the next moment however, she felt the hard ground underneath and opened her eyes. She was outside of the cage and in one piece as well. Eve searched to meet the eyes of the dragon. They were the same as before, with an air of indifference, nothing that could make her think that the dragon hadn't just helped her to hide from Viper and that woman. No trace of something that would drive her to commit suicide. Nothing.
Eve shook off these thoughts and stood up, trying to focus on what she had to do. To quickly and safely get back to her cabin was high on the list.
As she passed the cage, she took one last look at the dragon.
"Thanks…I guess.", Eve whispered hesitantly, feeling shy and stupid at the same time. There was no way he would understand her, but she was glad that she had thanked him. Despite knowing that Viper was on this ship and what trouble it could cause her, she felt just a bit happier than before. Though she didn't know why.
As she made her way back to the stairs, she almost stumbled over a wooden board, which leaned against one of the boxes. She was tempted to kick the board out of the way before she realized that she had been the one who had put it there. It was beside the box she had opened. After everything that had happened just now and after everything she had heard from Viper, she grabbed one of the guns and the two bags that came with it: one filled with lead bullets and one filled with black powder. Then gun itself was heavy enough, Eve thought as she strapped it onto her back, but she had gotten the impression that these bags were necessary to make the gun work. She just hoped Clair knew about these things, or otherwise she could only use it to knock someone out.
She walked back up the stairs, careful not to make any noise. The way back to her cabin would be harder, now that she knew Viper was around, and now that she was carrying a stolen gun.
However, as she reached the top of the stairs nobody was around. Eve guessed it had to be dinner time already, which was just perfect. She quickly slipped around various corners, avoiding the few guards who still stood around, and soon reached the cabin. After closing the door behind her, she exhaled deeply, feeling a huge part of her nervousness vanish.
"Hey, what took you?", Clair asked, looking up from the bed she was lying on.
"You don't want to know."
Their small ship sped over the ocean quite nicely. The wind was strong, but this time, it was in their favour, pushing the ship onward instead of trying to stop it. Harle sat in front of the ship, enjoying the fresh air and the occasional splash of water into her face. Kidd stood behind her, in front of the steering wheel, with a confident smile on her face.
Every once in a while, Harle turned her head to look at her, smiling at how much Kidd looked like a proud captain. Just the typical hat was missing, but that wouldn't be so hard to get. Harle chuckled at the thought.
Laying back, she looked at the sky above her. It was bright blue, with only a few white clouds preventing it from perfection. The clouds passed by and Harle wondered which one was moving faster, their ship or the clouds above. A few birds flew by as well, but Harle couldn't name them. It didn't matter, anyway. Nothing mattered right now. Except one thing, maybe.
"When will we reach Porre, mon amour?", she asked, a devilish smile on her face.
Kidd frowned at her but then burst into laughter. "Brat!", she called back. "Ya just asked ten minutes ago."
Harle giggled and cast her eyes over the ocean again. She still couldn't see Porre, but it was to be expected. After all, they just left Guldove this morning and now the sun was just barely beginning to set. It would take them at least one or two days more. Not that she minded. She enjoyed travelling like this, at least as long as the weather was this nice.
Harle averted her eyes, looking to the side. To her surprise, she saw a rather small sea serpent jumping over the waves. Harle quickly stood up and ran over to the rail to take a closer look.
The sea serpent was actually pretty quick. It continuously leapt over a wave, dove into the water, then leapt over the next wave. Harle watched it for a while, impressed that it could keep up with the speed of the ship seemingly effortlessly, even though it was merely one metre long and very slim.
"Over zere, Kidd, un sea serpent!", she shouted laughingly over to her friend.
"A what!" Kidd's response was one of shock rather than interest, which surprised Harle. "Where is it?"
"Zere!", Harle called and leaned over the rail with an outstretched arm, pointing at the serpent. She giggled at how cute it looked.
Kidd's eyes quickly followed Harle's arm, almost frightened over what she was about to see. She could still remember her last encounter with this kind vividly. And she wasn't exactly keen on a rematch. They had won the last time, but more out of luck than skill. And who knew how powerful this one would be?
However, as Kidd's gaze reached the point Harle was indicating, she saw nothing.
"Where is it? I can't see it.", she asked, but right after the last word left her lips, she saw it. And it made her laugh. "Geez, could've told me it was a bloody baby. Ya scared me."
Harle turned her face to Kidd, her right hand pushing the whirling strands of hair behind her ear. "Oh, iz it? Moi didn't know. Are ze odder's bigger?"
Kidd laughed even harder now. "Hell, yeah. Should've seen the one Eve and I had ta deal with."
Eve. Kidd had told her about this soldier, with whom she had managed to escape from that island. Every time she talked of Eve, Kidd had this smile on her lips, and Harle just couldn't help feeling a bit jealous. She trusted Kidd, but when she talked about how she had spent these few days, it sounded like fun, whereas Harle didn't want to think about what she had been through then.
Shaking off these unpleasant thoughts, she curiously regarded the baby serpent again. She extended her arm towards it, half waving and half hoping it would come a little closer to her. "Do serpent babies alwayz swim seule?", she asked, marvelling at the independence this would ask of the babies. It had to be hard too, being alone from this early on.
"Nah, of course not, they're always close ta their-", Kidd started to explain but choked on her words as she realized what this meant. "Look out, Harle!", she shouted, startling Harle.
"Pourquoi?", was all Harle managed to ask before she saw the huge jaw of another sea serpent right under her outstretched arm. With a scream she withdrew her arm right before the serpent reached it. Instead, it shot up even higher, frightening Harle, who stumbled backwards and tripped. If it could jump that high out of the water, it wouldn't be a problem for it to get right onto the deck.
"Kidd!", she shouted, her voice full of fear.
Kidd stared at the huge serpent just as it was about to dive into the water again. "Damn! We gotta do somethin'! It's too fast ta escape it!"
Harle stood up and flung a few cards at the serpent, but they weren't strong enough to penetrate the layer of scales and just fell off.
And just as the serpent landed on their deck, Harle realized that this had been a really bad idea. Because now it was angry.
The serpent snapped at her, but Harle managed to dodge it. She quickly took out her Gravity Ball element, casting it towards the fiery perpetrator.
The blow hit the serpent square into the face, hurling it off the ship. Harle quickly ran after it, staring as it hit the water with a splash. Harle hadn't thought it would be this easy. Her innate colour usually didn't work very well against most enemies, seeing how only few had a white innate.
Harle was just about to think that she had won, when the head of the beast emerged from the water, apparently unhurt. It picked up speed quickly, seemingly trying to get on board again. Harle didn't waste time with any more useless elements. Instead, she ran over to Kidd.
"Hit it while it'z still in ze water!", she called as she took hold of the steering wheel. She should have done this much earlier, Kidd's elements were so much more effective against water-elemental beasts, or at least she hoped so.
Kidd just nodded and dashed towards the end of the ship, readying her FirePillar element. At first she had wanted to use her strongest element, Volcano. But it was too large-scale and she had to hit this enemy directly.
The sea serpent was just about to jump out of the water again as Kidd cast the element. A huge pillar of fire surrounded its head, making it howl in pain as it fell back into the water. By the time it emerged again, the wind had already put a decent distance between the serpent and the ship, much to Kidd's relief. She watched it for a while, and smiled as she saw that the serpent now headed into a different direction.
"Kidd! Look!", Harle suddenly shouted, startling Kidd. With a feeling of dread, she turned her head towards Harle.
"What now?", she asked anxiously, but her jaw dropped open when she saw what was in front of them. Walking toward Harle, she shook her head unbelievingly.
It was their ship. She'd recognize it anywhere and the sail painted with the letters "RD" made it unmistakable.
"What the hell?", Kidd gasped in surprise. "Ya seein' this too?"
Harle didn't answer, but hugged Kidd fiercely, laughing brightly.
"Whoa!", Kidd shouted and gripped the steering wheel which threatened to run loose. "What are they doin' here? And why are they so bloody slow? Even our nutshell is faster."
Indeed, the small ship was quickly coming closer to the Radical Dreamers' ship, which, while not lying still, hardly moved onward.
"Oi! Guys!", Kidd shouted as loud as she could as their small boat was right beside them. "Hey! Answer already!" At the same time, Harle was already rolling up the sail to make the ship halt.
After a while, several heads popped up above them, surprise clearly written on their faces.
"Finally!", Kidd called and laughed. "Care ta get me and Harle up?", she asked as she playfully caught Harle with her hands around her hip, holding her close.
Kidd and Harle just heard incoherent babbling from above, but soon they threw the end of a rope down to the women. Kidd caught it easily and tied it onto the smaller ship before letting Harle climb up. After Harle reached the deck, Kidd quickly followed.
Up on the deck, they were greeted with at least a dozen baffled faces. Kidd already wanted to say something when the captain stepped out, looking just as surprised as the rest of the crew.
"Took ya a hell of a lotta time ta come here, mates.", the captain said harshly, but the smile on his lips gave away just how glad he was to see them.
"Yeah, sorry 'bout that. A lot happened.", Kidd said with a grin. Harle remained saying nothing at all, so she just stood behind Kidd.
"S'pose so. Well anyway, welcome on board. Tell us the whole story later, ya look bloody tired.", the captain said a little more gently after he had taken a closer look at the pair. They both seemed really exhausted.
Kidd nodded. "One question though. Why are ya sailin' so damn slowly? We'd better hurry." She looked sternly at the captain.
"Just take a look.", the captain said with a hint of anger, pointing towards the second, and biggest sail. There was a huge hole in it, and Kidd wondered why she hadn't seen it right away.
"Damn, what's that?", Kidd asked. This hole meant serious problems and Kidd already didn't want to know who or what could have torn a hole this huge into the sail. The biggest one no less. If it had just been the first or third one it wouldn't have been so much of problem, because they were much smaller.
"Ya say it. There was this giant insect I've ne'er seen before and it flew bloody fast. Tore right through it."
"Giant insect? Whaddaya talkin' 'bout?", Kidd asked, not really taking him seriously. He had to be imagining things.
"Wingapede.", Harle said while regarding the hole. It was the only thing she knew of that could have done this.
"You're right! Hadn't thought of that. But why would it destroy the sail?", Kidd asked, as if she thought Harle had all the answers.
"Ze Wingapede doez whatever ze owner of ze flute wishes.", Harle explained. Of course, she didn't think that it didn't have a free will of its own, but she couldn't think of a reason why it would do something like that. This whole thing reeked of sabotage.
"Oh yeah, the flute…", Kidd said thoughtfully. Someone had to be behind this, but who she didn't know. It didn't matter now, anyway. The question was what to do about that hole. "Bugger, we're way too slow with that kinda hole."
"Yeah, but talk 'bout fixin' it. It's too bloody big. We can't just tie it shut with rope or somethin'.", the captain said in a huff.
"Damn.", was all Kidd could say. It had been her first idea as well, but the captain was right. It wouldn't work.
"We could uze ze petite sail.", Harle said nonchalantly, causing everyone to stare at her. "It could work, non?"
"I think it's a bloody great idea.", Kidd said and laid her arm protectively around Harle's shoulders as the others just continued to stare. "We've nothin' ta lose by tryin' anyway. So let's get started."
Finally, the captain nodded. "I guess it'll take quite some time fixin' the sail, but with a proper sail we'll be faster in the long run." Harle's and Kidd's faces lit up while he said this. "Alright mates, ya heard what the ladies said, now get started!"
With an eager "Aye!" the men dashed off, starting to untie the smaller sail to get it onto the bigger ship.
"As for ya two…", the captain started, regarding the women from head to toe, "Ya better get some sleep now. We'll take care of the rest and see ta it that we'll reach Porre in no time."
Kidd smiled gratefully at the older man. "Thanks. And by the way, it was bloody clever from ya ta head for Porre. I'm sure Viper will go there too. That bastard needs ta get his ass kicked so hard he'll kiss the moons next time I see him."
The captain just laughed at that notion and watched them go inside the ship, probably directly to their cabin.
However, just as Kidd and Harle reached their cabin, Jack came around the corner, wearing a nervous look.
"G…good to see you are back. Could I talk to you for a minute, Harle?" Jack's voice sounded almost shy as he said this, and he didn't dare looking at Kidd.
"Bien sûr.", Harle said simply. With one last glance to Kidd, she turned around, following Jack. Kidd just shrugged and went inside the cabin she shared with Harle.
Meanwhile Harle reached Jack's room, and they both went inside. Harle simply sat down on his bed while Jack stood awkwardly by the door.
"You know…I'm really glad you're well. I was worried ever since you…left us.", he said, looking to the ground.
"Moi iz sorry. It waz juzt so…dificíle…wit'out Kidd.", Harle apologized genuinely.
Kidd. It was her again. Of course. Everything in the world meant nothing for her when it came to Kidd. Jack took a deep breath to calm himself. He had expected Harle to say something like this, so he shouldn't be disappointed. But he was.
"What…what had happened anyway? You seemed so different when I spoke to you after we had found you in the ocean. Then you just disappeared…it was because of Viper, wasn't it? He was the cause of all this?" Jack almost whispered while saying this, his voice full of worry.
"Zere were Viper soldierz in Marbule to attack uz, mais zey were no match pour moi. However…zey had him…", Harle choked, a few tears running down her cheeks. "It'z too hard to say. Moi iz sorry." With that, Harle stood up and headed for the door.
"Harle! Please, you can tell me.", Jack called after her, reaching out his hand.
With a look full of sadness, Harle turned around to him. "Moi tried to kill myself." As expected, Jack just stared at her speechlessly, unable to follow her as Harle left his cabin.
Outside, Harle tried to wipe away her tears, but they wouldn't stop. She hadn't wanted to think about what had happened in Marbule, much less talk about it. But Jack's eyes…he was so worried. Part of her had wanted to tell him, but she just couldn't bring herself to speak that word.
Dragon. Speaking this word in her mind was already enough to make Harle shiver with dread and she quickly hurried back to her cabin.
As she opened the door, Kidd looked at her, obviously having waited for her return. Kidd had opened her mouth to say something, but quickly shut it as she saw the tears in Harle's eyes.
Kidd jumped up and rushed over to her and Harle fell into her arms immediately.
"What's wrong?", Kidd asked hesitantly as she stroked Harle's hair.
Sobs were all she got for an answer, which increased her worrying.
"Is it because of Jack? Do I have ta beat 'im up?", Kidd asked and chuckled, hoping to increase the mood, if only a little.
To her surprise Harle stopped sobbing and just shook her head, which still leaned onto Kidd's shoulder. "He…asked moi about what had happened…in Marbule…" Her voice broke as she said this and Kidd immediately understood what she meant.
"Oh Harle…", Kidd said, holding her closer. "I can't even begin ta understand how hard this must be for ya. I'm sorry I can't do anythin' else than tryin' ta protect ya…" Kidd was at a loss. No matter how much she said to soothe Harle, she could never destroy the cause of her fears. The dread of the dragons was so deeply imprinted into her mind that Harle could never forget it. It was her whole past, the dragons were an inerasable part of her life.
"Non, non. You are here, mon amour. Wit'out toi…moi couldn't exzist.", Harle whispered. At first she hadn't wanted to acknowledge this truth, but now she knew better. She was nothing without Kidd. She wasn't angry because of that, didn't feel useless or too dependant. It was just the only way she could live anymore. She didn't regret it.
"Let's go ta bed, Harle. Ya'll see, it'll all be better tomorrow.", Kidd said gently, kissing Harle on the forehead. Harle just nodded and followed Kidd to bed.
"Hey, Eve…", Clair said lazily, a hint of a smile on her face. "You know what?"
"Yeah, I do.", Eve groaned, not even bothering to open her eyes. They both lay on the small single bed, facing different ends.
"I'm hungry.", Clair stated, receiving only a sigh from Eve as an answer. Eve was tempted to kick Clair's head, if only to make her talk about something else for a few minutes.
"Can't we just-", Clair started before being interrupted by a sharp "No" from Eve.
"Just deal with it. We'll arrive in Porre in one or two days.", Eve sighed. She turned to look out of the window, seeing that it was already daybreak. About time for breakfast, she thought, but knew better than to mention it. It was impossible for them to just attend meals, especially now that they knew Viper was on board also. They just had to hold out until they reached Porre. It couldn't be so hard. People could survive without food for weeks. However, Eve had to admit that it was becoming harder and harder to ignore the steady grumbling of her stomach.
"I'll be starved by then and you know it.", Clair huffed, trying hard to think of something else, with little success.
"Fine. Go out the door and get yourself something to eat. Just leave me out of it when you get caught.", Eve said aggravated. She hated this lying around in this room too, but as long as it was this quiet outside, it was no use. They had to wait until everyone was up and about, then it would be easier to walk around.
"Yeah, I know it's dangerous, especially with Viper around. I just can't stand lying around doing nothing when we still have so much to find out.", Clair whined.
"Yeah, it's kind of-", Eve started, but stopped dead when she heard the alarm going off, resounding throughout the ship. "What the hell?"
Clair immediately stood up, grabbing her sword and rod.
"What are you doing?", Eve shouted in surprise. "We don't even know what's going on!"
"Then it's time to find out.", Clair answered, pointing to the door. They could already hear the sound of many soldiers dashing along the corridors. "Take your gun with you."
Eve merely looked at her with a confused expression. "I have no experience with this thing!"
"C'mon, I explained it to you last night. Just fill the barrel with gunpowder and one of those lead bullets, and pull the trigger. It's a simple flintlock mechanism.", Clair explained and shrugged.
"Then you take it.", Eve offered anxiously, already stretching out her arm to give it to her. Normally, she wasn't afraid of weapons, but this gun seemed too incontrollable to her.
"No, silly. You want me to take three weapons? I can hardly carry these two. Don't worry about the gun too much, you probably won't need it anyway. Now let's go see what this fuss outside is about." Without waiting for a response, Clair turned and opened the door. Eve quickly strapped the gun on her back and hurried after her friend.
"You think it's because of the dragon? Maybe he broke out or something?", Eve asked while running along the corridors.
"Weren't you the one telling me just yesterday that the dragon was harmless?", Clair panted. Eve didn't know an answer to that. She didn't really know what to think of the dragon at all.
Outside, it seemed as if all soldiers on the ship had assembled on the deck, and Eve and Clair could hardly get through.
"What's going on?", Eve tried to ask a fellow soldier, but they were all shouting and running, so he didn't even hear her.
"Quiet everyone!", a harsh male voice suddenly shouted and every soldier turned to regard Viper, who was standing on a small pedestal so everyone could see him. He had a stern look on his face.
"The ship of the enemy is right in front of us! It is unexpected, but we have to strike now and drown these rats right here!", Viper proclaimed. "Now go to the cannons and fetch your weapons!"
To Eve's surprise, the soldiers saluted eagerly and went to ready the weapons.
"The enemy?", Eve asked aloud and searched for Clair, who was trying to get to the rail to be able to see better. Soon Eve joined her, searching for the so-called enemy. However, she only spotted a rather old-looking ship with a painted "RD" on its sails. She had no idea who this ship belonged to.
"Clair, do you know who this is?", she asked thoughtfully. Inwardly, she wondered why the others seemed to know what to do while she didn't.
"No idea. Here, take a look. I don't know them.", Clair said as she handed Eve a glass she had just snatched from another soldier.
Eve grabbed the glass without looking at her friend, immediately taking a look. What she saw made her heart stop. She should have known. Should have at least expected it. But nothing had prepared her to see Kidd on the other ship, with an anxiously looking girl beside her. Harle. The targets Viper spoke of when she heard him down by the dragon. Did that mean…?
Eve's eyes widened as she realized the speed at which their ship was approaching the one Kidd was on. It would start any minute now. And with so many soldiers, the others didn't stand a chance.
"Clair, we have to do something! They'll attack them!", Eve cried desperately for her friend.
"What can we do? They'll kill us if we disobey!", Clair answered frantically.
"No! We can't let them die, you hear? We have to help them!", Eve shouted.
"Don't you realize we're on the wrong ship to help?", Clair yelled. As much as she hated it, she couldn't do anything without risking her life. She didn't want the others to die either, even though she didn't know them. And she knew she was on the wrong side…
"No, there has to be something we can do!" Eve refused to give up now. She still didn't know what Viper was up to, but she did know that he had no right to attack Kidd and the others. She had to stop him.
Eve turned around and dashed towards the door leading downstairs, already having something in mind. Clair followed closely, even though she had no idea where Eve was heading for.
The deck was almost devoid of people now. Most of the soldiers probably went down to arm themselves with guns and the others either stood on the rail with long ropes, ready to leap onto the other ship once it was close or went one deck below, to the cannons.
Just as Eve and Clair reached the door, they heard the first shot of the cannon, and turned around anxiously, hoping it hadn't hit.
And indeed, the first shot had missed by a few metres, but at the rate the ship was coming closer, the soldiers would soon start to jump over to the other ship.
"They'll hit next time!", Clair shouted to Eve in panic.
Eve looked back and forth between the door and the soldiers standing ready at the rail. There were approximately twenty soldiers on the deck right now, but the others would come up the stairs soon.
"We'll change plans! C'mon!", Eve yelled as she took out her sword. Clair nodded, understanding immediately.
With a roar, they dashed off towards the line of unsuspecting men. Eve attacked from the right, and Clair from the left, thus dividing the men into ten for each.
Eve leapt into the air and kicked the first of the soldiers directly into the face, causing him to stumble backwards into the men behind him, thus disabling the first three men for a few moments. Eve didn't halt, however. As soon as she reached the ground, she ran towards the next soldier in line. With one swift move of her sword, she knocked the soldier's sword out of his hand. Within the next second, she disposed of him by kicking him into his side, sending him flying over board.
The next six men were more difficult, as they had already surrounded her by the time she looked around. For the right half, she simply cast her ThundaStorm element, at the same time dealing with the first three soldiers who were just about to stand up. For the last three to her left, she had to rely solely on her skills with the sword. Loading the gun would be impossible now, and Eve half wished that she was as good with a rod as Clair was.
Because Clair was doing quite well with her share of soldiers. She mainly used her rod to run over or knock out the soldiers in her way, then used her sword to either disarm, or disable them without killing them. With the effective use of these two weapons, Clair was done with them in less than three minutes, while Eve was still struggling.
"You mind if I lend a hand?", Clair shouted laughingly as she disposed of the soldier closest to her by pushing him over board with a strike of her rod.
After a few more blows and parries, Clair and Eve had successfully stopped all twenty men. Which meant that as long as the others didn't come up, Kidd and her crew would be safe.
"Quickly! Block the door!", Eve shouted to her friend and Clair immediately obeyed. They both knew that blocking the door would only work for a small amount of time, but it was better than nothing.
While Clair dashed for the door, Eve jumped onto the rail, waving at the other ship which was now merely forty metres away. To her dismay, she realized that Viper's men had shot yet another cannonball at the other ship, which had apparently hit the first mast, for it was broken off.
"Hey!", she shouted as loud as she could. "You have to turn around! The others will come soon, you don't have a chance!" Eve's voice was almost pleading and Eve wanted to cry at the sheer hopelessness of this situation.
Finally, Kidd saw her from the other side, a look of complete bewilderment on her face. For a while, she just stared at Eve.
"Eve! Whaddaya doin'!", she finally shouted, unable to think of something else to say.
"You have to turn around! They'll kill you!", Eve called again, desperately.
"Ya kiddin'?", Kidd called with an unbelievably self-confident smile on her face. "Those bloody bastards ruined our mast!"
With that, she gave the rest of the crew a sign and they all started throwing their hooks over to the other ship, and Eve had to look out not be hit by one of them. A few hooks merely reached the rail while others got stuck in the sails.
As Eve looked around, she wondered if a dozen people would really be enough to win this fight. Just as she wanted to speak that thought, Kidd gave an incoherent sign to one of the few remaining people on her ship and Eve wondered why they were heading to the lower deck.
"Careful on the lower decks. Things will get ugly down there. Now find Viper!", Kidd called out to her mates, who immediately started to get to the lower deck. Fighting in a closed space was to their advantage because they were less in number anyway.
Kidd and Harle stayed on the upper deck though, thinking of what to do next.
"You can't be serious, Kidd! Do you know how many soldiers are down there? They have guns!" Eve was in utter despair as her mates just brushed past her, heading downstairs. Clair soon joined Eve, having no reason to block the door any longer.
"We just want Viper but if it comes down ta it, we'll sink this whole bloody ship with him.", Kidd said seriously. It didn't matter know what she wanted or not, it was their ship or his.
"Can't this be avoided! Think of all the people!", Eve cried, overwhelmed by the situation. She was a soldier, supposed to be used to things like this. Fighting, killing people. But never had she thought that something like this would happen.
"Just on which side are ya!", Kidd snapped irritably. Eve had just helped them by getting rid on the soldiers on board, but now she tried to stop them? With every minute they stood here arguing, their chances of winning were decreasing.
"On yours, damnit! We're just trying to figure out a way without too many casualties.", Clair answered angrily, now standing protectively in front of Eve, who just stared at her.
Just as Kidd wanted to respond, the ground beneath their feet moved and the all went back a few metres, staring as a wooden plate of approximately thirty-six square metres was pushed aside by an unknown mechanism.
Kidd walked up to the hole, looking down, but jerked back quickly as she saw something coming up.
It seemed like a cage. And as they heard Harle's deafening cry, they knew it was the dragon. The cage was lifted up high enough for the hole to close again, before it was set down.
"So…so that's why it had to be the Longinus One. Our battle ships couldn't do this.", Eve said in surprise. Now she understood. She wondered why she hadn't earlier. This dragon couldn't just be transported through the corridors, so a hole like this was needed. Even though the Longinus One wasn't a real battle ship, he had taken it just to transport the dragon, for the other ships had smaller holes with already installed weapons. It would have been too much of a bother to remove them first.
So Viper hadn't lied about what he told her. At first Eve hadn't believed that her crew couldn't save her because something urgent came up. But if it was like this…
"Don't worry about the-", Eve began, but was interrupted by Kidd's fierce roar as she dashed madly towards the dragon just as the cage opened, her dagger firmly held with two hands.
"No!", was all Eve managed to shout before she ran after her, unsheathing her sword.
All Harle could do was cry, staggering farther and farther away from the dragon, her eyes wide with shock.