Just as the rumors had dictated, the pathway leading up to the entrance of the Caves of Maiya was littered with monsters. They were the same types that Tressa had seen outside of Rippletide when she was forced to fight off beasts that strayed into town. Her aim with a bow was much better than she expected, and Tressa wasn't bad with a spear either. Her wind magic did a nice job of knocking the flying beasts off their course, and each time that a beast was defeated, Tressa found herself beaming with joy at the sight of victory. Cyrus and Ophilia continued to watch her fondly from nearby throughout this whole process, and Tressa found herself beaming at their clear silent praise.
The job of carrying the wine to the entrance of the caves involved a lot of shuffling around. After a short distance, they would swap around just who was carrying the wine in its hefty container. Ophilia wasn't as muscular as Tressa by a long shot, and after a while, even Cyrus began to struggle. He wasn't even all that strong if Tressa was being honest, but he did have the advantage of height to make it at least a little easier to heft the barrel from place to place.
As it turned out, Cyrus was notably good when it came to seeing what the enemies were weak to as far as combat was concerned. He could give a brief glance at the beasts, and from there, all it took was a short slash of a weapon or flourish of magic for everything to be resolved. Tressa couldn't help but wonder just how long he had spent studying to make sure that he was good at something so strange, but she figured that it was something that she could inquire about later on.
"I truly hope that we don't run into any of the pirates in battle after we get there," Ophilia said after she let out a sigh. She had just managed to defeat yet another one of the beasts, and her eyes were laced with concern that anyone could see with just one glance in her direction.
"If we do see them, then we'll just have to fight our way through!" Tressa declared firmly. She wasn't exactly looking forward to the idea of fighting against the pirates given how ruthless and powerful they had already proven themselves to be, but that wasn't going to stop her from trying. Plus, part of her was desperate to get revenge on the pirates from the humiliation that she had endured earlier that morning.
"Your plan should make it much easier for us to power through fighting against the pirates," Cyrus pointed out. "If they all drink the laced wine, then it should be easy for us to sneak in and out as long as we're quiet enough to keep from waking them once more. It would likely take quite a bit to rouse them if they're under the influence of sleepweed in the first place, so we have the advantage here."
"Those pirates are going to see this as a way of apologizing for me acting the way that I did earlier today, but they're not going to know that this is exactly what I want them to think," Tressa said to herself with a prideful smile and a snicker. "I can make sure that they think what I want them to. All it's going to take is a little bit of a performance, and I can do that without any issues. If I say that I was sent here to make up for what happened this morning or something... Well, I think that the pieces should all fall right into place, and that'll be that!"
"Your confidence is incredible," Ophilia told Tressa, her eyes gleaming with admiration. "I don't think that I ever would have been able to do something like this. I wouldn't have had the idea in the first place, and beyond that... You have to be pretty driven to not only follow through with it but have such confidence that it will succeed. I don't think that I would ever be able to do something like this."
Tressa shrugged at her words as she and Cyrus continued walking with the barrel. "I think that you're not giving yourself enough credit. You're able to do all sorts of things that I couldn't dream of doing right now. I mean, your skills with light magic are amazing, and I don't know if I have the patience for that right now," she confessed. "I'm happy that you're here. I'm sure that I can use all the help that I can get."
"Thank you," Ophilia whispered, taking a smaller step than usual so that she fell behind Tressa and Cyrus. She looked away so that Tressa wouldn't see that color had come to rise in her cheeks. Ophilia played absentmindedly with her hair with the hand that wasn't clutching the Lanthorn that was still hiding underneath her outer cloak.
Nobody said anything after that since the entrance to the cave came into view. Tressa grinned to herself before forcing her expression to be corrected back to neutrality with a hint of confidence. Cyrus' looked just as passive as always, making it seem as if he was more focused on his own thought process rather than the task ahead of him. It was a nice way of hiding how he actually felt given the circumstances, and Tressa was relieved that he was at least somewhat decent at masking his emotions. Ophilia, on the other hand, was still staring down at the ground, too flustered from Tressa's compliment to bother looking up at the cave's entrance.
There were a few jagged spikes sticking up from the ground on either side of the cave, a far cry from the rest of the area that was covered in light gray stones, sand, strips of thin grass, and rippling blue waves. A single torch was positioned off to one side of the cave's entrance, and a lone pirate man could be found outside the cave. He was watching Tressa, Cyrus, and Ophilia with an intense gaze that could easily be classified as a glare, but Tressa refused to allow herself to be deterred by his attempts at intimidation. She had come this far, so she wasn't about to back down.
The pirate continued to stare in confusion as Tressa and Cyrus eased the barrel onto the ground. Tressa leaned over so that her elbow was positioned against the lid of the container, and Cyrus took a small step back so that she could take the reins on this conversation. "Ahoy there, me hearty!" Tressa declared, using the typical pirate's tone that she had heard throughout the morning.
As soon as she spoke, the pirate's expression twisted into a full-blown snarl of angry recognition, and Tressa recognized him as the other pirate that had split up the argument between Mikk and Makk earlier that day. "Not you again! You lookin' for trouble, brat?!" the pirate exclaimed in anger, practically resisting the urge to spit in her direction.
Tressa shook her head as she looked down at the ground with falsified remorse. "No, sir! I came to apologize on behalf of my town. We should've known that we didn't stand a chance against you swashbucklers," she explained. She took a step back and pushed the wine closer to the pirate. "This is for you. I hope you can forgive us."
The pirate's previous anger was immediately forgotten as he took a step forward. His hands fell upon either side of the barrel as he examined it in full. All of his rage had dissipated in the blink of an eye, leaving behind only joy and a wide grin. "Wine!" the pirate exclaimed. He effortlessly hurled the barrel up into his grasp, showing just how much taller he was than Tressa without even needing to try. "The captains will be happy to see this!" The pirate laughed as he retreated into the cave, and the darkness swallowed him a moment later.
Tressa waited until he was out of view before she began to snicker to herself. She turned around to see that Cyrus and Ophilia had both come to smile as well, and the latter had finally managed to break through her moment of embarrassment. "Bottoms up!" Tressa exclaimed to them as she mimed toasting with an invisible mug of mead. Cyrus and Ophilia began to laugh along with her.
After a few moments of simply giggling along with Tressa, Ophilia made her own pantomimed glass, and Cyrus followed suit as a way of joining the joke. With a swift shared motion, the three of them hit their hands together in the miming gesture, and when they were finished, Tressa, Cyrus, and Ophilia all had smiles as bright as the morning sun on their faces. Everything was going perfectly according to plan, and the pirates were none the wiser to their machinations.
Deep within the heart of the Caves of Maiya, about eight of the pirates from Mikk and Makk's group were gathered together. Chests were knocked askew, their lids on the verge of falling off from the wear and tear they had received during the process of theft. Gold piled up in the corners of the space, punctuated further by magnificent gems that gleamed in the low light provided by the overhead chandelier. It had been stolen from a ship long ago, and Mikk and Makk displayed their beautiful prize loud and proud for everyone to see, a sign that all merchants were going to only leave behind Mikk and Makk's domain after all of their valuables had been stolen for the sake of the gang.
Mikk was laughing as he examined the rainbow wine that he had stolen from Tressa. The fish sat on the floor nearby, nothing interesting in comparison to the splendid drink as far as the pirates were concerned. "Those landlubbers didn't even put up a fight!" Mikk declared in between his roaring cackles. He held up the wine as a sign of their victory, and the pirates all grinned in immense glee along with him.
Makk nodded in response. "Prolly don't even know how! From the looks of it, their crusty barnacle of a town don't get many pirates," he commented, and the rest of the pirates seemed to agree with such a sentiment. They had been lucky to find even a few things of value in Rippletide as far as they were concerned because of how sleepy and slow the town was. If that was the best that the innermost towns of Orsterra had to offer, then they were better off taking to the seas once again and roaming until they found a place of more overt value.
"'The strong take while the weak quake!'" Mikk shouted. He thrust his arm into the air, and his grin was nothing short of completely malicious as he soaked up the atmosphere and the stares of his companion in every deliciously disgusting way that he knew how.
"An' that's the way the world works," Makk agreed with a nod. It had been their favorite slogan for as long as they could remember, and both of the pirates would hold tightly to the words until the day that they died. After all, how else was the world meant to function? Those on top took until there was nothing left. How else would someone find their place in the universe?
The pirates in the cave began to laugh, all crying out with agreement before Makk went on. "Words to live by, courtesy of Captain Leon Bastralle, scourge of the seas!" he announced. The mysterious Leon Bastralle was known far and wide for his reign of terror when it came to sailing and plundering, and every pirate worth their salt had heard his name. He was an ideal to live by, someone that both Mikk and Makk had admired ever since they encountered the man for the first time years prior.
"Aye. We set out to follow in his footsteps and ain't looked back since," Mikk agreed, practically glowing at the reminder of Leon Bastralle's words that he had provided to the rest of his party. "There ain't no better life than just takin' what ye wants."
"Cap'n! Cap'n!"
Before Mikk or Makk could continue, the pirate that had been guarding the entrance to the cave ran into view. He was carrying the hefty barrel of wine that Tressa had provided under one arm, showing off the full extent of his strength effortlessly. Mikk and Makk looked at one another instinctively, trying to figure out who was being called the captain.
When they couldn't find an answer, Mikk gave his partner in crime a ferocious glare before taking a step forward. "I told you! There ain't enough room for two captains around here!" he announced, crossing his arms with a snarl.
"Right!" Makk agreed as he lumbered a step forward as well. His arms crossed over his chest in an attempted display of intimidating power towards the lankier pirate at his side. "Like I said, yer just the first mate!"
Mikk sunk into a combative stance, and Makk did the same thing. They were both reaching for their blades as the other pirates in the area stepped back, more than used to this bickering among their two leaders. It seemed like there was scarcely a day that went by where this didn't escalate into some type of argument, always about the same subject and with the same objections fired back and forth.
"Set your squabblin' aside, Captains! We got more wine here!" the pirate newcomer declared. He hefted the barrel onto the ground, and it made a resounding sloshing sound due to the liquid inside. He pulled the lid off, giving everyone the chance to stare into the pool of wine if they so chose.
"Did ye say wine?!" Mikk and Makk declared in unison as they looked down into the barrel. It was practically filled to the brim, and the two were struggling to keep from salivating at the sight of the alcoholic drink.
The pirate nodded. "That kid came by and said her town was sorry for what it done," he explained. "She forked over this wine afterward. It's a gift!" He reached for a nearby chalice that was perched among the golden rewards of the pirates' past acts of plunder before approaching the wine barrel once more.
The pirates in the caves began to cheer loudly, thrusting their fists into the sky with glee. Mikk laughed to himself, unable to contain his glee. "Those landlubbers are fast learners... Or they're too yellow-bellied to put up a fight!" he announced.
Makk reached for a mug of his own before raising it into the air. "A toast to the landlubbers!" he declared obnoxiously. The pirates all came to close in around him at those words, understanding that it was their turn to have at the alcohol.
Mikk retrieved a mug as well. "To the limp-legged jellyfish of Rippletide!" he decreed. "Cheers, mateys!" He clinked his cup against Makk's mug, and their previous argument regarding who was the captain was forgotten in full, little more than a distant memory in favor of the delicate smell of wine with an unnoticed tint of sleepweed.
"To the piratin' life!" Makk went on. The rest of the pirates joined in, and their laughter could be heard echoing all throughout the Caves of Maiya until nothing could be heard but their endless cackling.
Outside of the Caves of Maiya, Tressa was still waiting with Cyrus and Ophilia. The sounds from the pirates' den had grown loud with their roaring laughter before falling silent, a sign that the influenced wine was finally starting to sink its teeth into their bloodstreams. None of the three had dared to move for quite some time, waiting for any signal, no matter how small, that they were ready to proceed.
Tressa grinned when she figured that the proper amount of time had passed. She knew that it took sleepweed about ten minutes to take effect in full, and the pirates hadn't done anything to make noise in about fifteen, a sign that they were ready to charge into the caves. She looked over to Ophilia and Cyrus to make sure that they were ready, and she was met with gentle smiles from both of them, a marker of their determination and resolve.
"It should be just about time. Alright, let's go!" Tressa declared. Cyrus and Ophilia nodded in response, and Tressa turned on her heel before retreating into the deepest recesses of the Caves of Maiya.
The three were completely silent as they started walking, and the light of the outside world began to fade away the deeper that they got into the caverns. Ophilia raised the Lanthorn from her place at the start of the group's formation, lighting the way effortlessly with a luminescent white glow. Tressa was directly behind her while Cyrus took up the rear, his staff at the ready in case they were ambushed from behind.
A torch was lit not far from the entrance, and the gentle firelight showed off an unconscious figure slumped over on the ground. Tressa could see upon closer examination that it was a pirate, and she grinned to herself as she glanced over to Cyrus and Ophilia. The pirate's quiet snoring filled her ears. "Well, that was easy," she told them in a voice that was just barely above a whisper. She scoffed and shook her head. "Ha! That's what they get for underestimating me!"
"It should be easy for us to get to the back end of the caves to get the stolen goods back now," Ophilia whispered, though she was much quieter than Tressa had been due to her general nature being different. She pointed nearby to the path that would lead them deeper into the caves, and Cyrus nodded his agreement. Ophilia began to walk down the designated road with the other two directly behind her.
The Caves of Maiya were dark and wet, and there were small pools of liquid all over the ground. Jagged peaks of damp stone rose up from the ground. On the bottom side of the cave, a small stream of water could be seen, though it was hardly the bright blue hue that the Central Sea was. Instead, it was dark and muddled due to the life that thrived within the cave. There were no animals, so all of the creatures aside from the pirates lived underwater instead. Tressa couldn't help but wonder if perhaps the natural beasts of the region had been chased out by Mikk, Makk, and the rest of the pirates.
There were many other pirates in the area, though none of them did anything to move or stop the trio of travelers. Tressa found herself grinning when she looked down to see that there were small bags of gold hanging from the waistbands of the pirates. She reached down and pulled a few leaves from each pirate that she passed, and she thought of it as moral and physical compensation for the grief that Rippletide had received as of late. Neither Ophilia nor Cyrus seemed to mind in the slightest, and Tressa assumed that if she could ask them, they would agree that it was simply the retribution of the universe that gave her the chance to snag the money that the pirates had stolen from innocent people simply trying to survive.
Not a word was uttered the entire way to the back end of the caves. It was for the best given that any noise that crossed over into the territory of being too noisy was going to stir a pirate from their slumber. Even if the sleepweed had them deep in the land of dreams, it would be possible to wake them if the group wasn't careful, especially if the pirate in question hadn't had enough to drink from the barrel. There were at least two dozen pirates in the cave, and that meant that the herb was being stretched pretty thin between the countless plunderers.
The glow of the chandelier made it clear that they had arrived at the back of the area. Tressa stepped carefully up the jagged stairs to the main segment of the pirates' hideaway, doing what she could to not make too much noise. Cyrus and Ophilia followed in her footsteps with Ophilia hooking the Lanthorn around her waistband with some clever improvising. She was going to have to find an easier way to carry it without using her hands in the future, but that was hardly her primary concern at the moment.
The riches of the area made Tressa's jaw drop, and she had to resist the urge to stare at all of the priceless gems that the pirates had stolen over the course of their past journeys. She focused her gaze onto the barrel waiting nearby, and she recognized it as the same container that she had used to transport the wine. When she peered over the rim to see how much was left, she was pleasantly surprised to see that the container was empty. That certainly explained why there hadn't been any resistance to her attempt at intrusion. None of the pirates were awake to even try fighting back.
Mikk and Makk were slumped over nearby, and Tressa grinned in their direction. She hoped that there was treasure in their dreams, because they sure as hell weren't going to be waking up to anything precious if she had anything to say about it. She walked to the back of the space with Ophilia and Cyrus before leaning down to start picking up the items that she recognized from Rippletide. This would make the pirates think twice about stealing from her town again.
However, while the three were distracted with their duties of retrieving the stolen goods, Mikk stumbled to his feet. It took him a moment to collect himself as the sleepweed wore off, and he rubbed at his temple, suddenly influenced by a massive headache from his excessive consumption of the wine from earlier. As soon as he managed to force his eyes to focus, he glared at Tressa and slipped into a defensive position. "Hey! What're you doing here?!" he shrieked loudly, his voice echoing throughout the caves.
Tressa's shoulders went tense, and she slowly turned to face him. Ophilia and Cyrus did the same, and the latter began to reach for the staff sticking out of his satchel as quickly as he could without drawing attention to himself. "M-Me?" Tressa stammered, surprised that Mikk was awake at all. He should have still been asleep, but that plan had clearly fallen through. He hadn't consumed enough of the wine for the effects of the drug to last. Either that or their expedition through the Caves of Maiya was taking longer than expected. Tressa didn't know what the explanation was, but she didn't think that she cared enough to find out when there was clearly a battle just a breath away.
Tressa straightened herself out and began to walk towards the barrel. "Er, well, I just came back to get the cask. I'll be going now..." she explained. The pirates weren't the brightest of bulbs, but she somehow doubted that they were going to believe her when she said that. It didn't stop her form holding onto hope, and she began to walk slowly around the other side of the barrel before trying to pull it into her grasp. Cyrus and Ophilia followed her lead in making slow movements that lacked aggression to pacify the pirate.
Much to Tressa's surprise, Mikk's expression softened. "Oh, that's mighty kind of ye," he said. For a long moment, Tressa and Mikk just stared at each other, though Tressa broke through the quiet when she started to pick up the barrel.
Mikk's voice interrupted her with a noisy yell, and she immediately realized that the illusion had been shattered. "Makk, ye lazy sack of bones, get up! We got ourselves an intruder!" Mikk declared, his voice shrill and agitated yet still seeking a fight.
Makk jumped to his feet upon hearing the voice, and Tressa's stomach began to sink down to her feet. "What?!" Makk cried out. He looked around frantically before he found Tressa with his gaze, and he immediately reached for his cutlass before leveling it in the direction of the trio of travelers. "Hey, I know you! Yer that brat from the town!" He paused thoughtfully before continuing. "Oh... I gets it now. Ye came to steal our loot while we was sleeping, didn't ye?"
"You don't miss a thing, do you?" Tressa questioned, recognizing that there wasn't a way for them to get out of this without a fight. Ophilia and Cyrus remained silent but ever present at her side, and Tressa could see them both reaching for their staves once again. The air seemed to come to life with the buzz of their magic preparing to burst free into the open sky.
"Ye got guts, kid, but guts alone won't get ye far in this world," Mikk told Tressa. He reached for his own blade before falling into a combative stance himself. "We don't forgive none that tries to take our hard-earned loot."
Tressa was practically fuming when she shot back a reply. "Hard-earned?! You stole all of this!" she roared angrily, remembering how weak and beaten down the older merchant had appeared that morning.
"That we did," Makk confirmed. "Which makes it ours now." He was grinning sadistically as he stared at Tressa, and something in his eyes made it clear that he thought she was simply a naive child with no knowledge of the world's workings.
"You don't understand the meaning of earning anything!" Tressa cried out next. She reached for her spear without hesitation, and the wind around her stilled as if it knew that she was going to be calling upon it shortly. "You don't understand all the love and care that went into making those products! How hard those people have to work to earn the satisfaction of their customers! And it's up to merchants like me to make sure these products find their way into the hands of those who can appreciate them! So on my honor as a merchant, I will get those goods back!"
"Yer shark bait, brat," Mikk scoffed. He pointed the sword at her, but this did little to deter Tressa. If anything, it only intensified her desire to fight them off with everything that she had.
"Don't expect us to go easy on ye. The world's a harsh place-as we're about to teach ye!" Makk declared as he lunged forward, his sword outstretched. Mikk was hot on his toes, but Tressa, Cyrus, and Ophilia weren't going to go down without a fight, and they jumped into combat as well.
Tressa ducked down low beneath a slash from Makk's blade before stabbing her spear in Mikk's direction. The pirate stumbled at the hit from the lance, notably losing his balance. Cyrus picked up on this immediately. "Mikk appears to have a weakness to spears, Tressa!" he exclaimed. After a moment of quick observation, he glanced to Ophilia. "He struggles with thunder magic as well. I can see it in the way that he carries himself. Makk seems to be weaker against fire magic."
Ophilia nodded, and she closed her eyes before whispering beneath her breath for flames to come to her fingertips. She unleashed a strong blast against Makk, and he immediately stumbled backwards. Cyrus raised his staff before bringing it down roughly against Makk's shoulder. Makk's balance was completely obliterated by these two attacks, and Tressa took this as her chance.
Tressa managed to pull away from Mikk enough to concentrate on the wind in the area. She forced the air around her to start moving towards her foes, and with a powerful gale of green magic, wind slammed into both of the pirates. They fell backwards, barely managing to stay on their feet. "They're weak to wind magic too!" Tressa whispered under her breath.
"Let's focus on eliminating one of them first!" Cyrus declared. His gaze fell upon Makk first, and the others seemed to immediately understand his intentions. Ophilia unleashed another strike of fire magic before Cyrus followed up with a staff hit. Tresa nocked an arrow and sent it flying, and Makk was left defenseless when the arrow knocked his blade out of his hand.
Cyrus closed his eyes before leveling his attention towards Makk. A torrent of fire spread outwards from there. "A great inferno will scorch the land!" he declared. Makk screamed as the flames hit him roughly before sizzling out of existence against the walls of the cave.
Ophilia sent a brief blast of thunder in Mikk's direction simply to keep him distracted before focusing on summoning all of the magical might that she could muster. She followed Cyrus' lead in overwhelming Makk with fire magic. If there was any strength left in Makk previously, it disappeared with Ophilia's action of aggression.
Tressa was the final member of the group to turn her attention towards Makk. "The winds of fortune are howling!" she proclaimed as she forced the wind in the area to start attacking Makk and Mikk both with everything that she had. Makk's screams echoed despite the crying of the gales, and he fell to one knee, losing all motivation to press on. He was too weak to fight back, it seemed.
Mikk rubbed at the corner of his mouth with one hand. A cut had formed there because of Tressa's attack. "We'll make ya walk the plank!" he announced, his voice an irritated shriek. He suddenly seemed to grow stronger, his resolve solidifying itself, and Tressa realized that even though Makk was out of the fight temporarily, Mikk wasn't going to make it easy for her team. The battle wasn't over yet, and victory still was not guaranteed.
"I think it's time for you to walk the plank instead!" Tressa shouted before charging in once again, her spear primed for another attack. Mikk didn't know what was coming to him, and Tressa was going to make sure that she won. Nothing was going to stop her now.
It's time to go back to the four in the morning posting schedule for this stuff. Oops?
I have to admit that I was hoping to have the entire battle in this chapter, but I think that it's fine as it is. The pacing would have been awful if I tried to cram it in at the very end, so instead, we've got the first half of the battle here. The second half will start off the next chapter, though I'm sure that was to be expected. Epic!
This chapter is really nice in my eyes since it explores the dynamic between Ophilia, Cyrus, and Tressa more. I love all three of them as characters, and their banter is lots of fun. Plus, it's a great chance to see Tressa's strong sense of justice in full swing. It's great characterization and such, so that's an added bonus.
There's one other thing that I want to mention about this story now: I'm still not sure if I'm going to be doing this or not, but there is a chance that I'll be adding relationships to this story. They would be minor enough to be unimportant to the plot, so the scenes about the pairings could be skipped without many issues, but it's something I'm thinking about. The pairings in question (assuming that I add them) will be Ophilia/Tressa, Cyrus/Olberic, Primrose/H'aanit, and Alfyn/Therion. It'll be a while before they're incorporated, but I wanted to bring it up now. Any thoughts about it would be much appreciated since I'm still undecided on the matter.
With all of that said, it's time for me to go to bed, since as usual, I'm posting this chapter very late at night. I'll see you next time for the final part of Tressa's chapter one! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Feedback is appreciated as always. Have a nice day, everyone!
-Digital