Chapter 10: The Gilded Lady
By the time the Bloodsail fleet had caught up with the Goblin merchant ship, the Gilded Lady, the first rays of sunlight had begun to burst from the horizon, turning the sky a murky red color. Arrien heard a sailor mutter that blood was going to be spilled today... and quite a bit of it. Another sailor near him commented that most of it would be Goblin blood, and at this, they shared an uproarious laugh, which unnerved the young mage quite a bit. Beside her at the rail on the poop deck was Tilanne, the Night Elf casually leaning against the ship, her eyes darting around at the various crew people cautiously. Arrien studied her quite curiously, very interested in what she might learn from this stranger.
"It's not polite to stare," Tilanne said suddenly, turning to smile at Arrien, "if you have a question, just ask."
"I suppose I was just wondering why you were so keen to help the sailors when they were so crude and rough with you," the mage asked, tilting her head to the side, her eyes still studying the claw marks on the Night Elf's face.
"First off, I had no loyalty to those goblins... they did me no favors, in fact, I find the little creatures detestable in general. Not that many of your shipmates are any better," she scowled at a drunken sailor that was eyeing her in most inappropriate ways, "but I did what was necessary to survive... such is nature's way."
"I meant to ask you about the runes on your tunic," Arrien said, "I'm a practitioner of magic, yet none of them are familiar to me."
"Arcane magic, I presume?" Tilanne said the word 'arcane' as if it left a foul taste in her mouth, "my people abandoned those practices long ago. We favor the use of natural magic."
"Natural magic? I... I'm afraid I don't follow. I mean, what magic does is generally unnatural isn't it?" the red-haired mage glanced back out to the Gilded Lady, which was now almost in range. The Goblin ship was much smaller than theirs, and from what she could tell, far less armed and crewed. There wouldn't be much of a fight. The seamen around her were all preparing gangplanks and ropes to use to board the enemy vessel. Arrien was more than ready to fry a few of the little green men if need be, as well.
"I suppose 'magic' isn't the correct word," the Night Elf said, tapping a slender finger on her chin in thought, "I am what is called a druid... I ask things of nature that it normally wouldn't do except for one very much in tune with it. I can cause roots in the ground to grow at a much faster rate and use them to ensnare my enemy, or call down the force of the light of the moon into a concentrated, forceful beam of moonfire... summon swarms of insects to attack my foes... things of that like. Of course, much of my training was not from my own people... they can be a bit too haughty for my tastes... much of my teachings came from my time living with the Tauren druid nomads."
"Tauren?" This race, like much of what the purple elf was saying to her, was completely foreign, and as Tilanne opened her mouth to respond, a shout came from behind her. It was then that she realized they were side-by-side with the Gilded Lady now. Odd, tiny little green men with sharp pointed ears covered the deck of the other ship, most of them wielding shining guns of all varieties.
"Board 'em, men! Take no prisoners, but try to spare the ship herself!" Belnast was shouting from midship. Arrien turned to Tilanne, but found that the druid was gone, a large, deep purple panther stood in her place, growling ferally as it bounded to one of the gangplanks and boarded the Goblin ship, tearing one of the green skinned men to shreds before he even had an opportunity to finish loading his gun. The panther turned around and looked back at Arrien, it was then that she noted the claw marks over the cat's eyes and the intelligent silvery glow behind said orbs.
"That.. is an interesting trick," Arrien found herself remarking aloud before she let out a battle cry, leaping to balance herself on the ship's rail, wrapping one leg in a rope before starting to conjure fireballs and blast the Goblins to the Nether with them. She smiled with some satisfaction at the explosion caused by one of her flames that hit a Goblin with an exceptionally large rifle. The Devil Shark's boarding party had made rather quick work of the Goblin sailors, though some of the Goblins proved to be just as good with a cutlass as they were with firearms. Arrien saw out of the corner of her eye that a Goblin was taking aim squarely at her head with his rifle and decided to try out a new trick she had recently learned from Giles. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, thinking about the location of the Goblin and when she reopened them, there was a great deal of smoke around her, and directly in front of her was a very confused looking Goblin who had just squeezed his trigger, firing at empty air. The mage lightly tapped the Goblin on the shoulder and he whirled about, trying to bring his weapon to bear. Arrien leapt back, conjuring a quick fireball and aiming it squarely at the Goblin's rifle. There was a decent-sized explosion that made Arrien nearly squeal with delight as the Goblin went flying, slamming against the wall and getting knocked unconcious with an odd grunt.
From around the corner, she saw a Goblin running for his life, screaming in an oddly shrill voice, and threw himself overboard into the sea. Moments later, a large purple panther bounded after him, sliding to a stop on the deck, slick with water mixed with Goblin blood. The panther looked up at Arrien, eyes gleaming with mischief as Tilanne the jungle cat pounced off to harass another group of shocked Goblins. The mage grinned, thoroughly enjoying a battle against something more than a bunch of savage fishmen. She turned and saw a keg of gunpowder beside her. Her eyes grew large and lit up like a child during Winter's Veil.
It should be noted here that the last thing that a small group of Goblins saw was a rolling barrel marked in bold red stencil "EXPLOSIVES - DO NOT KEEP NEAR OPEN FLAME" and a storm of fire shaped vaguely like a dragon. It should also be noted that in the following weeks after the capture of the Gilded Lady, the Bloodsails were forced to do extensive maintenance on the deck and hull near where the Goblins stood because of what was described as a "mage-related incident."
The battle with the Gilded Lady was over almost as soon as it had begun, with the victory overwhelmingly belonging to the Bloodsail Buccaneers. As much as she hated to admit it... Arrien did indeed enjoy the entire combat element of piracy, and the violence (especially of the explosive kind) came completely naturally to her. Although, in the back of her mind, Giles's voice continually scolded her and reminded her that soon enough she'd find herself facing raids that weren't against decently armed Goblins, but against helpless civilians. This problem of conscience, however, did not spoil her fun of laughing every time she passed the gaping hole left in the Gilded Lady, and, following the repairs, the char marks that the sailors couldn't fully clean off.