Chapter 3
HEARSAY
Part 1 - Zoolie's indolence
The enigmatic ceiling in the lofts of the chamber hung over a riverless waterbed. The air was silent, only being broken by the chatter of four figures tinkering their passage through the winding tunnel.
"Where in Kuunda's Kingdom is this jitatan exit? We've been walking forever." The broad-muscled man who was bringing up the rear of the group expressed in weariness.
"Hopefully not that much longer, Ioz. Niddler didn't reach the end when he was scouting. Be fortunate we aren't coming across any monsters." The woman's melody in the traveling bundle confirmed, only dimly lit by an uncanny radiance of green that filled the nearby area. "Good thing it works like a lamp." She dispensed a merry laugh and smile at the tall pirate, who was grumbling.
"We'd go faster if one of us wasn't walking so slow!" The insinuatory note of a spastic avian-primate yammered through the bare passageway.
"Why don't you carry it for a while, monkeybird!" The buccaneer hollered back in irritation.
"Break it up, you two. It will be easier to go out this way than the way we came in, like Avagon said. The end isn't far. We'll reach it faster if we don't stop." The younger male conversed assuredly as he trudged with momentum, leading onward.
"Maybe it would be a good idea to try out that new trick of yours instead, Ren." Ioz driveled with displeasure. His arms were sore from handling the profound orb.
"I'll pass." Ren flatly trammeled Ioz's hint. He sighed and rolled his eyes to the gemstone in the arms of the tough travelmate. His dreary mind fixated on the previous collection of the 9th Treasure, something that felt like a surreal dream. Ever since he had been lumbering on through this starless wasteland, he never truly believed he possessed part of the Treasure within him. However, he certainly did not want to put his invincibility to the test, definitely not when it wasn't necessary.
"Don't we wish all the Treasures were this easy to find. Now, when do we eat?" Niddler skittered through the distended silence, letting out a sarcastic quip. He posed with the fuzzy part of his shut fists on his haunches, needlessly complaining.
"It's only going to get harder, Niddler." The prince intelligibly added as he continued through the ever-snaking path, scanning athwart the idleness for any sign of clearing. He did not feel very fatigued himself, but his crew was and they were starting to wear on his mood. He was not sure how much time had elapsed since they started roving without any sign of the channel wanning or changing at all, but he agreed with Ioz's correct declaration. It did feel like forever.
"Did you have to say that?" The vocal avian whined once more, sharpness minced in his pitch.
"Ay jitata! Shut your beak monkeybird, you're not even doing any work!" The grumpy wrangler from the Tayhoj isles kicked out a leg at the nearby and noisy mess of feathers that were illuminated by the emerald sphere. Niddler angrily chattered and jet up to perch upon Ren's shoulders.
"Ioz, stop it!" Ren ordered pointedly, swiveling abaft to meet his moody shiphand.
"Tell that to the jitatan monkeybi-" Ioz argued, intent to say Niddler started the whole thing.
"I don't care. Give the Treasure to me, I'll carry it." Just as the prince twisted to mediate to his exasperated friends, a source of tropical white peeked through the gravel.
"Scot tunga! Look, Ren! I see a light!" Tula cried out as she pointed at the source of the brilliance, which seemed to be sprouting from a pithy crevice. She sprung forward.
"Ay chungo chipungo! Finally!" Ioz buoyantly vented, carefully placing the Treasure at his heel as he and the teen boy dashed to the spilling glimmer about a length away. He surveyed the source of the shine and discovered it to be a fragile crack in the enclosure. Taking his sword, he lifted up and thunked it against the splintering wall, which broke the fold in a startling roar. The monkeybird, who had flown down to guard the Treasure, chimed a bewildered squawk. The split now emerged, but nigh big enough.
"I can finish this up." Tula slowly avowed as she knelt down and evoked her trance, she closed her eyes and braced her temples. Gradually, the breaches in the mineral barrier began to open to a fuller one. She supported her hands on her thighs, head lowered in attempt to catch her breath.
"Good job, Tula!" Ren rushed back, praising gleefully and conferring the ecomancer a gracious smile. He grabbed the Treasure, picking it up. He gingerly channeled his way through the aperture in the cave, paying mind not to trip with his wares.
"Thanks woman!" Ioz brusquely muttered, too irritable to care for manners as he plowed toward the demolished flint. The fluffy primate-bird scooped up Tula and toted her through the jagged and rocky exit, dropping her gently on the pile of ocean-smooth stones outside. "Ah, to be out in the salty air again!" Ioz reveled. "If I were in those jitatan caves any longer I would've forgotten what it smelled like." He savored the breeze, the air was a sweet and fresh taste of the sea. It appeared to be about midmorning, close to noontime. "Where's the ship?" He directed to Ren with befuddlement as he wheeled around, not spying the reddened vehicle.
"You were right Ioz, this is hard to carry any distance." The young lead concurred, in agreement with his peer. He found the large bead to be awkward. It did not wear him out to carry it, nor did it give him any trouble other than causing an implementation to his speed. "Avagon said it would be somewhere near the exit." Ren dutifully advanced to his fellow crewman. Gandering at the waterways, he recognized the area but his wandering eyes did not meet anything of interest. "I know Niddler and I docked here!" Ren contested. He did not understand why he could not find the Wraith where it was, he was able to view the island hanging back from a long pathway. In the visible distance, a flashy disturbance protruded through what he could see of the skyline. It could be none other than the ship. "There! It's that way." Ren announced too soon when he gathered his pace for the vessel. He lagged on foot with the vast Treasure.
"It's as heavy as a jitatan chain-ball. Ay chunga! What's that on the horizon? There's something moving, by the Wraith!" Ioz frantically slammed out, his peaceful demeanor rapidly going into a dire state of frenzy. "Quick!" His eyes spread with alarm as Ren saw it too. The panicked helmsman sprinted in the direction of the Wraith, the banking verge of the island.
"Noy jitat! That's dark water! We need to get the Treasure to it! Hurry Niddler!" Ren's agitated words screamed to his companion across from him, who was jammed by a pillar of quarry behind him. The monkeybird had only begun to enjoy a state of rest.
Oh no, Niddler envisioned. This couldn't be happening to him now. "I'm coming!" Niddler called out, he halted instantaneously. Then he jumped up from off the ground, flapping his wings to get a headstart. He glided down to ferry Ren, who latched on to the Treasure with a pair of arms. He flew as hastily as his wings would permit but he was dragging more than normal due to the extra baggage. He began to pant from weariness when he fluttered with all his might, aware of the severity of the circumstance. He was able to reach the impeccable muck in time, salvageable moments before it pulled the stern of the fire hull down with it. Ren slid the artifact into a black density of ocean-born gunk, deftly enabling hands out of the hazard as it reached out with lashes. The soulless substance then foamed into purple gook and dissipated. Ioz and Tula arduously plodded ahead to catch up, squeezing for breath. Niddler flapped his grand wings and hovered to the solid terrain for a repose, close to falling from his airborne situate.
"Any longer and we would have had to swim." Expelled an overextended Ioz as he sheltered his sword, which he adhered to in preparation for any inkling of danger. Straightly by his side was the enchantress, who decisively had achieved enough excitement to decimate any previous indolence.
"Who is that steering the Wraith?" Ren spotted a stranger loosening the riggings on the wheel, who was seeking bolt out as he noticed the prince's yells. The athletic captain's arms scaled the anchor, in attempt to impede the hijacker from setting sail.
"The name is Nimbo." Nimbo welcomed Ren with a scowl underneath a red seastar-patch and the raise of his mace, he splashed on to the boy's quarrel. He drew a strung longbow as he swaggered forward and loaded a starfished arrow from his quiver, his marksmanship excelled although his target was not a body. Ren wobbled and maneuvered his half-blade. Instead, the thief flew above to the hold and gathered a plentiful net. He then took off to soar among the clouds.
"There goes our food supply." Tula straightly observed with a sigh, the green-bristled man faded into the horizon.
"Hey! Come back!" Niddler screeched to desist but he could not catch up by air, the speedy archer was gone fast as the hover in Nimbo's feet whooshed loose.
"It's gone now." Ren hurried his eyes to watch for any new travails, but at last digressed to his steady condition. He hopped aboard deck, moving progressively with Treasure in arms. He secured it in a small compartment nearing the stern of the ship, then resumed at the wheel.
"Let's hope that was the last of it." Tula sluggishly wished as she clambered up to the planking from the fringe, a worn Ioz traced.
"Great. Now we can push off and leave this jitatan island. You coming monkeybird?" Ioz heaved onto the barge and shouted to Niddler's viewpoint, he reclined against the mast to recover his airflow. With diligence Niddler arrested from flying and pad for the vessel. The monkeybird levitated and ascended upward as the craft trailed away from the cagey shoal. He flopped his feathers down as he soon came to a placement against the barrier of the maindeck.
"Phew. I don't remember the last time I've flown so much." Niddler numbly prattled, beat like his fellows. Perhaps he was tried even more so because he did not enter the River back in the caverns, he started to regret denying the privilege.
Ren fooled with the Compass, exploring as it infused with a beam. "Look, it's pointing North, just like Avagon said! She said I would find out more North of here, but I wonder if she knew whether it would be my next destination." He enthusiastically cranked the wheel as he began trilling and thinking about all the questions to the answers he wanted to know.
"Ren, I don't know about you, but I feel like chunga-lungan shipwreck." Ioz muttered as he leaned against the mast, his lids were half-closed when he bluntly made his position known.
"For once Ioz is right, Ren. I think we need to take a break before we find any more Treasures." Tula extensively recoiled, her lateral against the cabin. She appeared as if she would fall asleep in the time it would take the colleague to respond.
"And my wings feel like they're going to fall off!" Niddler hummed weakly, sinking with a tired caw.
Ren considered everything he encountered and concluded he did not feel very curbed by the excursion. "I guess maybe when I took that Treasure, it gave me more stamina than before." Ren pondered truthfully, arising to the unlucky grasp.
"Great, and you better follow the old woman's advice and not show it. We need to go to another port where we can take a break." Ioz smoothly recommended, receding the mast he loitered by and walking toward Ren. "How about Janda-town? I think a nice night of entertainment at Zoolie's might be just what I need to get my seafaring spirit back! Maybe we'll even win some more restocking funds, and maybe a little extra for the run?" The pirate winked as he greedily suggested the solution. He collected a sly smile and a chuckle. He pulled the wheel from Ren, who then caved.
"I guess you're right, Ioz. We should take a break." Ren statically agreed, he seemed listless as he consented. He feared maybe he had made a mistake. He needed to gather the Treasures of Rule before his enemies could get their hands on them, now he felt like this journey was going to be longer than he had ever imagined. He still had not found out as much as he wanted to know. He couldn't sleep, he was not even tired. He desired to push on. Perhaps he should have forfeited and returned to collect the 9th Treasure. He plastered down to the jetty and peered over the continual sea. The turquoise waves would peak and decline in a ceaseless cycle, as they always had, but now this natural movement was ever impossibly slow for him. During the duration of his Quest, he never remembered experiencing anything contiguous to boredom. This day, the wind's supple pelt of the Wraith's tacking cloth over the grand mast would capture his excitement. Seeing nothing else for him to do in the immediate, he promenade to the newly found Treasure and sat to meditate as Tula and Niddler rested in the cabin while Ioz steered them ahead to Janda-town. He bumbled at a noise.
"Ren! I wasn't supposed to eat this, was I?" Niddler tripped over to Ren, disarranged in form and behavior.
"No, Niddl-what?! Amazing!" The prince scolded as he jerked to his feet, but was instantly walloped back to his seating. He soothed his forehead, pushing away the sand-colored hair. He was now looking upon a magnificent shape.
"Niddler, you're not supposed to be eating out of the emergency-supplyhold! Those are necessities only! What under the great moons of Merr-" Ioz critically rebuked the transgressing rascal, until he witnessed what would become of his flying contact.
"I thought it was something good to eat, we're low on food! Huh?" Niddler belted an enormous squawk. Astoundingly, he had raised at least double his previous stature. The jumbo monkeybird could have taken up a quarter of the Wraith with his afresh wingspan.
"Chungo lungo." Ren only uttered, astounded as he stepped minimal paces away. He gaped up at the marvelous phenomenon.
"Is everything in order? I heard shouting. Niddler where did you-" Tula reemerged from her chamber, fluently jogging in pursuit. She laid eyes on Niddler. "Niddler? What on Merr happened to you?" She blundered over the gigantic avian standing before her. On to the bridge and down to the maindeck she staggered.
"I don't know!" Niddler crowed uncomfortably. "Something in that bottle must have done it, but I honestly didn't mean to! I just wanted some food!" Niddler exposed his anxiety as he hunched below to prospect his shrunken friends. He fluffed his swelling wings, almost bludgeoning Ren to the wood tier once more. "Sorry Ren!" He earnestly apologized, a shame now drizzling over his measly disposition.
"No hard feelings, I'm just surprised. I've never heard of anything like this happening before, there's nothing on Merr I know of that makes you into a giant if you consume it. I wonder if it can be reversed." Ren didn't phrase words very well, speechlessly finding himself awed by the sudden transformation.
"That's not the only problem we have everyone! Look!" Tula outcried as her fluid arm set on an approaching boater in the water, a bitty dinghy but one significant.
"Konk! Where is Bloth?" Ren flew on flitting boots from his mounted perspective, he issued a biting word at the aggravating debacle. With a glare, he readied. His scowl set on the peg-legged minion.
"Piglet is going to be disappointed because we're not sticking around! Let's have that sail up!" Ioz yelled the call for a chase, Tula and Ren assumed the defensive.
The slacking scout-vessel declined into the beyond after the minor course change taken by the Wraith, then it waxed closer. Konk's skeletal mini-ship snaked in a miserable pathway, ultimately touching the berm.
"We're carrying too much." Ioz told by misfortune, a distressed expectation pronged at the monkeybird. Konk was already preparing to board.
"Just peachy!" Niddler wouldn't waste time in this spot, but he did believe he could make the situation worse. He jumbled to the starboard, feeling as if his inborn glider was too chunky for his body. "Take your ship out to sea, pig-face!" He chanted for the cantankerous villain. Swatting forward, he bit Konk on the extent of a grubby hand. His stupendous jaw that could have lopped would surely cause a surrender. The cunning midget yowled, and minced his tawny stare at the monkeybird who had chomped him.
"Uh oh, monkeybird must have eat Surge in bottle." The rotund raider could be seen splashing from the ledge after the endangering trespass. However, the tricky one had hooked an attachment onto the railing abaft. Another massive abnormality was now equipped to fight. Konk charged at the resisting troupe, intent on laying siege to the auburn craft.
"Scot pango! By the two moons, Konk is inflated like Niddler! Protect the Treasure!" Ioz peeked on, dumbstruck and drastic. He bolted from his fortification with the flash of a shining armament.
"Don't worry Ioz, I've got this one!" The oversized Niddler returned. He wrestled with the man who boasted but a few feathers on his height. With a grunt, the noteworthy Konk shoved for victory, set on pushing Niddler on his back. Niddler headbutt the conspicuous foe. "You think just because you're not a piglet anymore, you can intimidate us?" With another caw, Niddler stretched to a majestic flight from crest to flank. He was dazzled to learn he could draft his own weight when he shuffled the portable ex-runt into the air and issued a removal, ejecting Konk into the tide antecedent to the diminutive skiff.
"Barnacle-blasted monkeybird! I be back for you and Treasure!" Konk grumblingly swore as he remounted his dory and hied away.
"Not too shabby, Niddler. Whatever was in that bottle was a blessing to us, but now we have to worry about that gelatinous gantha-pig coming back." For once, Ioz praised the pair of wings as he situated at his station and swerved back on route. He observed the rainbow avian who at half-mast, currently matched his shoulder.
"I don't think anyone has asked my say in this!" Niddler murmured, fussing as he neared Tula. By chance, the distant feathers on his back wiped against her arm. The monkeybird touched a spark, then his vision became blurred. The proportion he previously carried himself began to diminish. He felt dizzy, at last metamorphosing to a normalized mass. "I'm back! Tula, what did you do?" He puzzled as he footed to face the startled ecomancer. His state was corrected.
"I don't know, Niddler. I guess my control of nature gave you a boost, like it did with the wingless monkeybirds on Mobo Island. Only in the opposite direction..." Tula hypothesized over her influence. Her ecomantic powers had worked before, but that was by accident when she reversed the effects of the Stecca fog, the peculiar mist stunting wing growth of the resident monkeybirds there. There her touch had transferred by hugging Zena, the new Queen. Visibly, the same happened with Niddler's disfigurement.
"Niddler, we weren't supposed to consume what that woman from Kalinda gave us! It was important, don't you remember?" Ren galloped forward to bestow the extraordinary reminder. His plumed buddy appeared melancholy.
"What was important, Ren?" Tula wondered before either skipper could reciprocate.
"There was a woman in Kalinda who gave us the bottle Niddler ate out of." Ren serenely offered to the confusion. "She said I would find out what it does when I researched it but that I shouldn't use it and was to keep it under containment because it could spread like a sickness, so I put it away. I didn't understand what else she wanted...her language was very, Broken." He muddled over facts.
"Broken?" Tula examined his word.
"Yes. She said it wasn't from her Home, but she made it absolutely clear we shouldn't ever try to eat it. Unfortunately, I didn't think that Niddler would forget about it or bother with it." Ren's reproaching echo rooted on Niddler, his eyes veered to the volatile monkeybird. "I guess I should have put it somewhere else." He chided his own haste.
"I keep saying sorry, why is everyone mad at me! That weird lady just wanted our attention, you know you don't just walk into the town of thieves with bobbed hair and all those adornments. She was probably lying about her alias, but I thought she was crazy!" The warm monkeybird groaned.
"It is peculiar that my ecomancy vanished it's effects." The sable-locked beauty perpetuated. She panned her senses to the almost static wash of the undertow.
"It was still difficult to tell who she was, Niddler. You know you can't wear other people's clothes in Kalinda without being spotted. Unlike one monkeybird I know." Ren wittingly jested with a receptive flyer. "Although, this is the only instance I can remember of something like this happening. I haven't seen anyone like her before, she was surely a woman but she almost reminded me of...Mantus." He improbably deliberated, a recurring judgment somehow finding way into his awareness.
"Mantus?" Tula communed and precisely repeated Ren's comparison. "Are you sure this woman was on our side?" She discredited his reliance on intrigue, sensing trouble.
"That I don't know for sure, but she said her name was Say, from one of Father's captains. This real mystery is what that piglet was doing out here in the middle of the ocean, Bloth isn't anywhere to be seen." Ren unambiguously claimed.
"Land ho! Bentaar is the biggest port-isle between Kalinda and Janda-town! Maybe is this is where that hog sneaked out from and I don't blame him, Bentaarians really know how to party!" Ioz merrily coasted for the bank on the forefront. He rubbernecked at the above fruit-bearing trees, Niddler took flight with a sloppy tongue as the navigator crashed into the shoreline and earned an argument from Tula. Ioz speedily threw down a ladder, but no sooner did he lay his footprint on the hot turf had two twigs pierced the fabric on his hips.
"You're not marring us again, pirates!" Duet shrieks shook and batted the flowered branches until Ioz lost his vise on the rope and planted face-first into sand.
"Chungo lungo!" Ioz scorned as he removed a speck from his eyes. He fleetly revived a drowsy head and gandered at his afraid attackers. "Niddler!" Busting about in a hasty rage, he accused the shrugging flyer.
"This monkeybird will protect us from wicked pirates!" One teen loudly huddled to the avian, another girl who was quiet embraced Niddler as well. Four arms lightly wrapped around a feathery mantle.
"I'd love to! Just, first...would you mind making me a second helping of that Bentaar-Pear cake?" With a hankering coo, Niddler salivated to his dreams.
"What's going on? Why is it already Ioz is scaring women off, and we just arrived." Tula flung off the bow before Ren by a ratty halyard, but when she aligned her shoes next to Ioz's stooping shape she was confronted with narrow glares from twin girls of age before her height.
"Don't come near us, you just want to sell us to your pirate men! We don't have anything you want, now go away!" The taller of the couple screeched and picked up a stone to hurl at the ecomancer.
"But we're not pirates!" Ren insisted as he unwittingly bore down with an awkward sole. The duo only shuddered and screamed as he stepped near, their black coiffures flopped behind shaking leaves of an emerald hedge to hide from sight.
"Isn't that the truth, I haven't felt like a real pirate since I crewed for jitatan Bloth." The brunet twosome all but ducked and ran totally at Ioz's muttering, they loaded a bendable sapling with a sack of clammit-powder.
"Ioz, you're not helping." Tula grunted warningly at her curt chum, she crossed over to brave the bony damsels' decided belief of dissolving blaring noises in the air would scare away any fearsome foe. "I know you fear us but you have nothing to be afraid of, these men are my friends and they wouldn't hurt a fly. I wouldn't either. Please, trust us and let us help you. We mean you no harm, really." She knelt down, delicately waiting for the pair to calm.
"You trust me right? I'm with them!" Niddler cawed as he broached on Tula's hair, spreading his wings in a flashy display. He hopped off to throw a few minga-melons aboard.
"Zago?!" The red-eyed youth raised one of her curious burgundy-eyelids and the brow on her conical face, she halted activity at the confused team.
"Lus-nayi cannot speak Merrian-Common, Quiin-Draconik only. Older sister and I are refugees from Qui-Qua...we lived in Kalinda before our haikspe-our parents were slaughtered by a cold-blooded band of pirates. Those pirates hurt my sister when they broke into our home to steal from us, and they were led by someone from our own tribe with quills bearded-black as coal. I hunched out of the way as they made her kneel. I hid because I knew the same thing would happen to me if I interfered..." The languid speaker sat down to spell a spurned tale, when peering at her tender half she switched dialog as if she were translating.
"I'm sorry such an awful thing became of you, as the Son of King Primus you won't find a single trace of anything plundered on the Wraith under my watch." Ren promised his vigilant greeters, giving Ioz a shuffle of the wink. "If you are in need of transport, we will carry you where you need to go." He volunteered to reach a hand at the differing sets of yellow eyes and crimson irises belonging to twain orphans, of which were abundantly spheroid and silently scanned the gentle lad.
"Sister scurried to fetch our mother's wedding-band when she could have fled because it would have been our only means of survival. I watched it all as they drained her blood. She tried to crawl on her elbows from the binds, but then they kicked her until she couldn't move. They burned down our hut after they had stolen everything of value. The fire would have taken shus-sister, if I hadn't pulled her out. This is how it happened...I was watching outside." The blossomed ladies clung closely as the linguist's golden glance resonated among her older sister's native tongue.
Within the tropical port a sector of insectoid civilians clustered to a halt, the boarders of two outsider ships in the harbor brought gloom this day.
"On Toishok's Deatiny none of your women or little beach-leeches will meet a painful end and all of you may even go free-If...you follow orders! Bring me your gold and everything with a higher trade-value than a Bentaar-pear!" The demanding pirate gnarled a nefarious oath to a sitting circle of townsmen, his polished Sword impending as he patrolled the ring of living bodies.
"What is more valuable than a Bentaar-pear, to you? Do you want our kelp-straw used for feeding our dolphecikhens, our young men's labor? Our livelihood is more valuable than what our people use in one day!" One of the older chiefs bowed in submission, pleading for a more specific task. Through his trembling he feared for his sons and granddaughters.
"Sir. I don't think this is all of it, we've moored the boats in the harbor but the maidens of this isle hide much jewelry in the homes!" One raider rabbled pettily as he emerged with a trunk of expensive materials, heaving it among an accumulating pile of riches surrounding the laborers.
"Noy borga! If Bloth were here this would be already done without question! I am not a pushover to this smool-brained batch of rudder-slime!" The quartermaster palmed his olive forehead with an annoyed huff. His usual coolness resumed as he prowled around the vassals to inspect the hoard of possessions. Sleek feet stopped light of his periwinkle garb, a streaming mass of ebony hair hid a calm patience about to boil over. "Take the Krelikhan-fang to one of their cabins...so they get the message. Start with the crewmen on the dolphecikhen fleets then go to the youngest, and the first one of these mangy maggots who make a sound or try to escape will die." One brutal change of approach succeeded in the artful superior's turn of eyes, his icy glare menacing at the aghast villagers.
"Stop! We surrender, Mantus!" The drooping beard from the head of the village folded as he threw up his arms, not wanting any trouble. "But we don't know where she is, not the unfortunate woman...the Daughter of a Leader you seek!" He besought the temperate swordsman to understand, and called the fellow watchmen to tell the skeleton crew the locations of their jewelry.
"What about the ladys? I have two daughters!" The concerned father in the hole ached on the band of rambunctious troublemakers advancing to his door when Mantus dispatched orders to sabotage every square alley and pier.
"It's them, or our live." The chieftain wore a stone heart.
Lus-nayi scanned the scene from the window when she listened to a scream in the hall, her motionless stare swelled before she could crawl outside their house.
"Tell me you have room for one more. I'll have two smool-floras for the price of one." The door to a humble shack burst to the dirt bottom as the devastating horde crashed through. The shouts of invaders chased a lean ringleader's keen whistle, he curled his fingers around the vitreous sword-hilt. "We want your riches, not your lives. Don't get in our way and no one else will have to pay for it. That means you, soft wenches." Joiquiva quaked at an endangering swear from the home-blood, at the hand of a slash he slunk around the corner they were confined. With his sharp blade and the size of the thugs in his pack his menace could easily become her doom. Joiquiva huddled with Lus-nayi in shock, still like a stepping-rock they remained as the killer ordered his hooligans to ravage every shred of gold from the dignified foundation. Joiquiva and Lus-nayi embraced each other.
"Mother's ring, we'll never survive without it." Though Lus-nayi's brave spirit dreaded what may come of her from the pirates, the girl clothed in crimson embodied the essential maturity to know the taskmaster could not violate Qui-Qua Code of Tradition and slaughter another of his tribe...even if she did snoop. Joiquiva denied Lus-nayi's stealth abilities but this time she reluctantly cast her positive sister free to rummage in a threshed basket while she scampered away. Smiles bestowed Lus-nayi's burgundy lips when she clipped the ruby on to her nose and signaled to her sister's departing sleeve of amber.
"I told you not to get in my way, and what did you do? Now...what did your pitiful Father call you by when he was still alive, pest-girl?" Less than by what instant her rosy eyes could see passed before Lus-nayi was grasped by the scarlet collar and bullied by the gruff voice's forced removal of her ring. Only when that spiderred fist wrapped around her slender ankle, bucking from the sole did Lus-nayi realize the meaning of the lead swordmaster's warning. Normally, he did not dole it out. This merciless rascal was very unlike other Quiin-Draconik men she knew, unsympathetic to womanly errors in judgment.
Joiquiva hushed her terse whimpers to a deadened numb whilst she endured the desecrated maiden taken away and throttled in secrecy. "Now, if the other flora will show her face she may escape with her fear intact." The lithe master of the squadron stalked out to task after he had left Lus-nayi in the wash-basin petrified.
"Bloth wants us to report before sundown, we don't have time to make a game out of the other one, Sir. Dash out of here like always?" The scorpaonrat shrugged his quarter-limbed torso and swaggered to the stained window. Coral splotches of evening-tide in the half-lidded haze bathed the coastline.
"Oh well. Neither of them will live to see another sun...even if they even want to. We won't return empty-handed. Shipping out on these grub-ghetto's ships will make for a profitable conquest indeed. The glowing moons will rise full for navigating through the lost-backwashes tonight, like this Moon-princess when she put out her Light, Lord Bloth will be pleased." The exacting one rasped with a pungent chill that shadowed his pleasant composure, after which both of the tough-ranks burbled on their remorseless hunt back to the Maelstrom.
Joiquiva foraged for the room Lus-nayi lay, listening for her weeping groans. When she untied the ropes on her sister's elbows, she forked a match of surmounted feet around her waist and carried her kin on back to a detour beneath an escalating hysteria.
'Shuskav! Ayi makro yoira toivak!
Joiquiva evoked the commitment of safety to Lus-nayi's reddened cries. Her world had been exchanged for a downpour like a dreary joke, the pride of the family she had always looked up to was tender like an ailing child.
"Bloth has been here, alright. Who knows how long ago, but it's only a matter of time before he finds out where this Quest is going." Ren perused Ioz with his survey of the stolid beaches and roadways as he tread on perforated driftwood or jar shards with every wince, as had been snatched then pelted from proper places. "Let's head out, we're not going to find anything here." He paled with heartache at charred and busted remains of the lot of the besieged homes.
"Awful." Tula could only bestow one word to the damage done to a productive precipice of natural fields and sanctuaries. Some structures still stood and were livable, but deserted. The impoverished populace of the jungle suburbs had surely evacuated for elsewhere. Ioz waggled on the dagron tracks in the sand. The sun-clad lass sauntered into Ren's vision.
"We think they were looking for someone...a Noble's daughter from here who knew something about the jewels they are bent on finding. Though we heard many screams, we did not see what happened after our house was destroyed. I couldn't flee. Sister wanted me to leave her but I couldn't do such a thing, she is my beloved Shuskav...before myself. Lus-nayi says that you are not responsible for what the pirates plundered and she asks you who you are, I am Joiquiva." Joiquiva introduced herself. Like the honey in her gaze she sat with a gawk of dim cheekbones.
"I don't know how someone can do something so terrible to you but I assure you, our intentions are noble. I am Ren, Prince of Octopon. I'm on a Quest to save Merr from the Dark Water. We're in search of the Thirteen Treasures of Rule. I think I know who was behind your trouble. And I promise, I will never let anyone hurt you if you come with us...Especially not Bloth or his crew." Ren swore his humane oath to Joiquiva. Lus-nayi inspected the warmth emerging in the prince's sincere eyes, and she trusted him.
"Really? Do you think you can help tell us where the Guyfoo Capsule is?" Joiquiva brushed back her sooty tresses, baffled by the real exclusivity of their culture to foreigners. "You've never before heard of the Guyfoo Capsule? It's a legend from ancient Qui-Qua. If you can find the Guyfoo Capsule it will grant you the very thing you need once it has matured, but if you have a secret password...perhaps you can reap the reward faster. Ren, Lus-nayi and I would do just about anything to bring our parents back. Lus-nayi says if we can find it, she knows it will grant our father and mother life again! We just need some gold to buy it from anyone who has it captured, and we'll do any work neccessary to earn enough!" She heartily squealed with hope.
"Gantha-wash, land-floras. You don't bring someone back from the dead once they're gone." Ioz rejected any shy possibility of legend magic. The twins glared in instant resentment, they shouldered astray with icy despise whenever he spoke.
"Ioz, will you stop being so insensitive? Think of all they've gone through." Tula rowed with Ioz's hedonistic coldness, she tended to the ill sisters on the floor of the Wraith.
"We don't have this variety of minga-melon on our isle. Lus-nayi would like to try it because she is very hungry." Lus-nayi sat cross-legged by her vocal twin, who conferred on her behalf.
"What is a minga-melon of a different color to you?" Niddler was resistant as he selfishly hoarded the leafy rind and pawned it in the pink's stead, but Joiquiva's slovenly quietude won him over. Lus-nayi flavored the succulent treat with her jowls, and she was in love.
"For saying this bilge is impossible makes me always the bad guy, I am. I don't see anything wrong with wanting to make a little gold off this Quest, not sail from charity to charity." Ioz disdainfully ground his temper and lolled on the secure edging of the ship. "Quiin women are dumb as naja-tails, I wouldn't risk my neck...What kind of rudderless chunga-lunga goes back to find a wedding ring?" The impatient swashbuckler frivolously complained to his lonesome. Peeking on his lap to a ditty of gold, he relented. "Well, maybe that is understandable...but to bring your parents back from the dead? That never happens." He cynically examined the dwellings of his pocket, a badge inscribed Captain Raymit.
"I wonder if Say is from the same clan." Ren eased from his set to cast off, listening to the orphans playing an odd game of Roll-the-Minga-Melon between themselves and Niddler. Sometimes they would giggle or snuggle the monkeybird, of whom they were becoming acquainted well and fully trusted besides. Lus-nayi was naturally the stranger of the duo, preferring to hide her trembling figure under the frazzled scarlet robing and soiled hair. Her counterpart was equally garbed in a glossy yellow.
"I don't think I know anyone named Say from our villages, Tikla Ren of Octopon. Mm, I'm sorry." Joiquiva sadly knelt in a show of vulnerability. "Maybe it is a blessing word, Ay, Tula? Our names have blessings, I am Joy and Lus-nayi is Light of the Moon. It's ironic though, because I can't feel joy at all and Lus-nayi is afraid of the night." She shared a friendly bond between new acquaintances.
"You mean you can't feel joy at all, not even since the day you were born?" The Andorian charmer seemed doubtful, before now she hadn't heard of anyone completely unable to experience what she and other merrlings could.
"No, mother couldn't either. The Quiin Princes will reign and maidens will bow. The nature of Fairness is to make a Lord's happy home by joining together with many keepers. The men in our villages marry us to keep us safe from a painful death that will surely follow should we refuse to dance vibrntly and bring one to six baby among an Ookhaat every two years. Toishok's whisper, merciful ones." Joiquiva stood to bear Lus-nayi to the bridge and lodge inside the hovel, Tula hopped down the steps with Niddler but shyly listened in to another bout of rivalry.
"If you don't tell her at sun-up, I'm going to tell her to worry herself with a handsome sailor who can man up the more. You deserve her." Ioz snipped alone to Ren, positive the ecomantic-mage had gone.
"I love everything about Tula...but I'm not sure how long we will be on this Quest. I'm not going make a promise to her I'm not sure I can keep from breaking, if that's what she even wants. I don't know when I'll be able to restore Octopon in full, and then I'll have to assume the throne. Maybe we have been in more trouble but how does that make it any more right, what if her heart changes by then? You win this bet, it's not me you should be pressuring. I'll have no time for sailing on the Wraith when I'll be King of Octopon, except on diplomacy voyages...and it's not even ours to bet on anyway. You should ask her about it, I always thought you were really good with her, Ioz." The gentle prince whispered in the middle of a discomforted shuffle that Ioz always was able to work out of him, he leaned to the railing of the starboard as usual.
"That's why you forfeit your chips in a high-stakes gambling-match, before the dice have been thrown down. I mean it, lad. If you change your mind, you can always walk away. We've been on this Quest for how long, Ren, a year and we're still here talking about the jitatan woman. You're not going to tell me she is nothing more than a shipmate to you, you're the jitatan Prince of Octopon. If Tula decides this, we're back where we started six-fullmoons ago." Ioz walked out to the bowsprit while Ren took over his manning of the helm as big-talk dictated the eve, the gruff rambles and dirty tongue from the intense stud were lost in the setting of Merr's marvelous star.
Almond eyes of the forest saw everything was normal on the Wraith at evening time, when tensions and inclinations were most high. The nature-binder yawed from a secret watch of the men and sprung off. Tula and Niddler resumed their comfort after the recent intermission was put to bed. The buckled crew sailed all night.
The sun started to sink low on the horizon as the Wraith toddled a steady course to the land of Janda, it was not far Southwest from where it was formerly docked. Ren handled the riggings as a pink-clothed sorceress and a colorfully-infused avian strode out from the inside of the den. The young lady yawned. "It's been so long since I've been able to sleep in a bed that didn't smell like borca-paste." Tula gladdened with a cheery smile as she stretched her arms up.
The florid hybrid crinkled from the doorway, frisking his wings in the air and gingerly parading to the floor. "Ahh, so nice to have wings that work again." Niddler happily noted. He proudly settled to eye his surroundings, hands on his haunches. He then alit to the rail of the bridge, where Ioz stood. "I think I've slept up an appetite. Hey, where are all the melons that I didn't eat yesterday?" He sheepishly searched around, expecting to find some of the food that had been left there the night earlier.
"Scoot, monkeybird, or I'll throw you overboard!" Ioz shooed the hungry and pestering avian-friend, who protested with a squawk and flew back to Tula.
"Ioz, did you go to sleep at all? It sounds like you could use some." Tula addressed the dark-haired navigator with annoyance.
"What I could use is a good Janda-town hot-streak!" The thrill-seeker yielded jaunty feedback as he grinned and steered onward.
"Hmph! I think I liked it better when it was just me and Ren! At least he cares about something besides getting soaked like a sea-hog at taverns!" Niddler snappily scoffed. He nuzzled the ecomancer beside him. "Of course I missed you Tula." He simpered shyly as the sensitive woman laughed and pet his head. To this Ioz only replied with a huff. "And orphans who can make deck-scraps delicious!" He warmly lapped his chops at a small but decadent plate of minced goija. Lus-nayi politely gathered her dress to kneel. The Quin sisters managed to perfect an uncommon method of cooking without fire and often produced elegant meals out of drippings that not even naja-dogs would dry heave from their sour stomachs, delicious food consisting of air.
"We'll be there soon, Niddler." Tula consoled the scuffled monkeybird.
"Hah! At least now we have a cook. Even orphans know how to be useful, unlike this woman." Ioz furrowed his brow, enjoying a hearty chuckle. The orphans both scowled.
"It's not my problem you don't like my cooking, Ioz." Tula squelched her irritation and marched off. "We're very proud of you, Lus-nayi." She hugged the docile but proud chef, encouraging the slim girl to smile gracefully.
The maiden clothed in a spring sunstraw approached her red-eyed sibling and professed the valueable Treasure would be safer in their own arms than in harm's way. Ren didn't feel all confident, but he would be better able to assure their safety if they went along with him.
"Can we go to Qui-Qua? To eat?" Niddler pothered as he slurped a liquefied melon rind. It tasted better than one he spit out because it was tart.
"No." Ioz blurted his negative objection before the avian could finish.
"Why not?" Niddler fussed as he indulged in wharf-fare.
"It's too far North from here." The helm-bound sailor decided correctly. "I guess they're not so bad." He did admit the image of Joiquiva and Lus-nayi cuddling was a fine sample of the much-needed serenity on an ocean of insecurities. During that time the orphans laid in Ioz's viewpoint they slept too soundly to glower at him.
Ren viewed the district they were now pulling into, the bordering waterways were guarded by two towering pillars of stone. It was quite a sight to behold, whether you were on a ship or watching one haul in. He had not slept for a long time. He hoped a good evening in town might do him some good as well, or at least get his mind off his unrest. Naturally, he would leave all the gambling to Ioz. "Port is straight ahead!" Ren yelled out, Ioz led into the harbor. The three sailors and a monkeybird disembarked and hoofed their road to Zoolie's Gamehouse. There they were immediately greeted by the hearty tavernowner with the beard of fire.
"So good to see ye all again! What's with the dungeon equipment?" The tavernmaster questioned with a peaking curiosity as he beamed at the round and cumbersome Treasure.
"That...is our latest trophy!" With a keen smile in stride Ioz displayed the token, whispering into Zoolie's ear while patting the shiny jadestone of onus in Ren's arms.
"Wait..." The orange-haired proprietor leaned over to fetch a better glance. "This raffendia thing, you mean to tell me that it's a Treas-" Zoolie was about to finish as he lifted a soliciting eyebrow, hampering the right guess.
Ren shifted magnified eyes to Ioz and mouthed a phrase, Don't Say It. "Not so loud! Please! And yes, it is." Ren shouted through a silent tongue. He transposed his eyes toward the tavernkeeper, conveying seriousness in shrinking pupils.
"Aye. Alright, well I suppose I can allow it in then. S'long as you don't use it as a weapon! Extra company, with ye? I'll put these two to work! Waitress, show our hungry guests some pay and some grub on us." The atmosphere furled with a whistle for waitstaff to help the orphans. "Welcome to the Party!" The smolder-maned giant gestured a gallant smile and a chuckle. He dealt Ioz a friendly slap on the back as the man moseyed inside, to which the prince simply shone a modest grin back. They left their weapons at the door, Ioz helped Ren's dagger off of the belt.
"We're going to have to find a better way to hide that thing or at least come up with a better story for it. It's a good thing we left Bloth with the jitatan spinners in the cave." Ioz sneakily hushed to Ren from the hall to the pub.
"If you have any suggestions, let me know." Ren murmured in return, making sure to keep his volume humble.
PART 2 - Upwind to the Shrouded Scale
The adventures sat down under a low-hanging window at the humdrum trimming of the tavern. Ioz was on his second or third drink by now, no one could tell. The wily bandit had actually won a bit of coin. Whether he would hang on to it, remained undetermined. Ren and Tula stayed by Niddler and Zoolie, who joined them at their table to take a break from the excitement. "So what brings my three favorite travelers here on this plenteous occasion of the two good moons?" Zoolie prompted with friendliness, speaking to the three in a joyful hospitality.
"We've been through a lot seeking our...trophy, and it was suggested we come here to rest." Ren imparted with humbleness, temporarily turning at the drabul-hungry swashbuckler from across the bar.
"Ah. I was worried about you guys, you know about the Great Wave right? Actually made me leave this jitatan place, couldn't pass up a rare occasion to see such an event." Zoolie propounded words of hearsay, chuckling soberly. "I heard it could be seen all over from this side of Merr. Scary, if you think about it." Zoolie compelled a flimsy laugh, motioning back to the calamity. Even in Janda-town, the Great Wave had filled the skies where many could see it. Although it did not last long and no one close had been able to place where it originated, it thrust most of the Western hemisphere of Merr into a standstill. He scoured at the three who did not respond, but he knew they understood. "I hear the dark water is starting to appear frequently too, more so than before. Just the other day I had a swab in here who saw a ship full of it, 'bout five points North of here he said." The tavernowner sauntered on, now constraining a troubling air of something none of the immediate had known about.
"Really?" Ren's eyes lit up in regard, he worried. If those accounts were true, everything right he was doing for Merr was absolutely backlashing. Somehow. He privately wandered back to when they departed from Arakna and he remembered what Avagon had previously said about the dark water, the only thing able to hurt him now. He steadied his nerve.
"We were caught in the Great Wave, but it didn't do any harm to the four of us." Tula conjoined in dilatory time. She did not elaborate about being captured by the Maelstrom and waking up torn apart from each other.
Zoolie's scrutiny showed skepticism. "Are ya serious? By Daven's beard, I don't believe it! That jitatan seastorm was gigantic! If that wasn't enough, it caused a downpour in Janda-town for two weeks, flooded the main streets and 'me goers were stuck here! I wouldn't have thought it were real if I didn't see it with my own seafaring eyes, nothing could have survived tha-" Zoolie slammed his mug on the table with surprise, he would have to stop himself from raising his timbre too loud. He did not believe what his friends were telling him, but he knew them to not lie. He was about to pry and try to get the truth out but something impinged his sense, telling him that he shouldn't. He carted on a happy lounge, letting his inquisitiveness go. "I hope you're steering clear of Bloth. Crazy jitatan sea-leech is on a rampage. I feel sorry for the poor people of Kalinda, it's gonna take em' months to get back on their feet." Zoolie for once pessimistically droned as he washed down a sip of his ale and perused his sea-heavy friends, who appeared as if there was too much they were inhibited by.
"And Bloth is also responsible for the raid on Lus-nayi's village because he was looking for someone's daughter...I wonder who." Tula studied the orphans' saga, she unknowingly surveyed the chatting customers.
"What about the dark water, Zoolie?" Ren tried for a rehash of the tale, even though he most likely would be fearful of the news. He wanted to know more about this.
"The dark water, laddie? Well, aside from what I told ye, I've been hearing a lot of word from gamehouse goers that it's startin' in places it didn't before. I can't say where exactly, but I would be careful if you're intending on sailing out to wherever you're headed." Zoolie included a tip to the orphans as he took another swig of his ale and focused concerned eyes on the flaxen-sparked prince, who barely touched his.
"I see. Thanks Zoolie. We'll need to be mindful of our next course." Ren graciously expressed. He spent a polite smile at the man, who returned a look that could have only been read that he should not even mention it. "We're probably going to head up North from here. We still need to visit back home, too." He cloaked the Treasure tightly in his arms, suddenly wondering whether Jenna would be alright. "That will be our next stop." He extruded a mottled intensity, then pulling himself together. He strengthened his resolve, priming to find courage for the voyage ahead.
"Excuse me, I hate to interrupt, but do you happen to have any food I can eat? I'm really quite hungry..." Niddler ruffled at last, hunger overtaking him. He had not genuinely eaten since before they left Arakna.
"Oh! How could I forget! Done!" Zoolie exclaimed as he snapped with his thumb, gesturing humorously. He spun to slant inward at the bar. "I'll have a round of our finest for our out-of-town visitors! On the house, as always!" Zoolie signaled to the waitstaff on duty, returning a pleasant composition. Food arrived quickly and the trio of hungry shipmates started chowing down.
"What is this, shardfish? I go off to play a game or two and you're already having a sailor's feast without me? Ay borga!" Ioz ultimately swaggered over to the table, goosing Zoolie a chummy elbowjab.
"Sit you down, Ioz, you barnacle-rat! I ordered a plate for you too." The warm tavernowner welcomed him to the table, literally pulling the ale-heavy wagerer into the seat next to him. Ioz took a swig of his grog in hand and started tearing into his plate, joining his friends.
"So did you get bored of the competition, Ioz?" Tula derivatively instigated.
"No. I spent all my gold." The ink-crested pirate said plainly, taking another sip of his ale. Tula edged a smug smirk. Ioz continued to scarf down a scrumptious spread of meat and dough rolls, he reposed in his chair at an arriving stock of an exquisite gourd. "That's kleepa!" He pronounced with a longing peer as the airy waitress laid the spiny juice-plant on the slab.
"Only the best, me mates!" Zoolie cheered of rapport. With the twist of his whiskers, he cleaved up a knife in preparation to cut a notch in the kleepa root. The flighty blond to the standing of the manager organized five cups over the board as Lus-nayi and Joiquiva set the table.
"Now this really is a celebration!" Ioz bellowed with an anticipating pitch. The thorny root was sliced and the nectar within trickled into every dish. The quintette appropriately aspired their glasses.
"A toast to friends! Drink till your bellies are full!" Zoolie erupted with a billowing laugh, clacking his drink to the opposite chalices. He gulped his treat and dotted eyes at Ioz's gaze, which had mingled with the humming maiden who was clearing the messy hull. "Aye, she's available Ioz." Zoolie tossed his manfriend a blunt hint. The peppy girl giggled.
"Ugh, to think what he would do if he wasn't with us." Tula allot a disgusted gander, briskly darting her concealed pupils at the wall with a scoff. She sighed as she enabled a stare over at Ren as he seemed to be gawking quite indifferently at her, but not the helpmate.
"'Er name's Luucee the tavern wench, or so the regulars call her." Zoolie whispered a cue. "Best server I've ever known. Really is surprising she 'hasn't taken the ceremony, if ya know what I'm gettin' at." He shied away, leaving Ioz to flirting. The bouncy figure pointed a wink to the influenced hero before prancing off.
"Aye, you pudgy denbar-rat! You have an eye of the sun, Zoolie, but you remind me of how much I love it here. What happens in Janda-town is Misplaced in Janda-town! I'll bet...I'd take you up on that offer mate, but this Quest doesn't allow for much down-time. I have other winds to watch for." Ioz chuckled after raising his spirit to a gleam and another tip of brew.
"I thought that was, What Happens In Janda-town Gets Eaten In Janda-town!" Niddler gaped straight ahead from his slouch, shakily replacing the beverage on the table with a belch.
"Janda-town is a pirate's playground! Down the hatch!" Ioz elatedly floated away with the hoist of his cup. Tula bore ice in the corner, feeling quite estranged.
The five friends chatted for a length of time about foolishness or what came to mind, Ioz had been informed of the situation and things remained quiet as they conversed into the evening. drew late into moonrise as different crowds appeared throughout the night.
"Whenever you guys plan to head out just let me know, and if you need anything or an extra hand to bare, don't hesitate to ask." Zoolie felicitously beamed, unmistakably honest. They knew he had bailed them out before and he would not think twice to again.
"Thanks, Zoolie. We will." Ren articulated gratefully, humbly finishing up what he strove to eat of of his meal. He glimpsed at Tula who had nearly completed hers and Niddler, who accomplished an ending long ago and was evidently hungering still.
"Are there any more of those fruity goija-sticks left? That squid-getti was heavenly." The monkeybird shyly requested, he licked his chops and peeked up hopefully at the tavernowner with green and welcoming monkeybird-eyes.
"Friad not, my friend." The gamehouse-owner glanced at him sympathetically, showing him a quick but disappointing reply.
"Awww." Saddened, Niddler whimpered and veered down.
"Try this, monkeybird." Ioz partially whispered to Niddler, passing a glass of kleepa-ale to which the avian raised an eyebrow at, and downed half. Niddler then fell off his chair with a squawk, Ren looked at him.
"I think we should be heading out, Zoolie. Thank you much for the-" Ren had been about to stand and say his departure when he witnessed something going on within the tavern. Zoolie saw it too and speedily got up.
"Noy borga! Give me back my gold, you kreld-eating...cheater!" Screaming detestation accelerated from a patron. Expansive braids crimped about the frame of her face swung when she flipped off of a table. She ducked down after gritting with an aggressive furor and picked up the seat that she was about to chuck at a barechested brute across from her.
"Fair's fair, wench! You played and I won!" The angry gorger growled. He almost flipped the table over on her which with quick reflexes, the vitriolic denizen made to dodge.
"Hey, hey! Hey! Whoa!" Zoolie waded over through stomping boots, standing between them both. "If you've got a tussle, take it outside, both of you. This is my Gamehouse, and I won't let you ruin it with your rough-and-tumble-sultry-spirited affairs!" He relented his spiel, marking at the dual rogues with a gaze to intimidate. The rough lass was giving him trouble and tried to break back through the bar so he lifted her up by a clinging collar, to which she fought him to let go. The estranged chump quickly grabbed his weapon from a scabbard in the storeroom and trounced off through the front door. Zoolie set the scrawny woman on the ground, persisting in the grasp of her neckband. "And as for you, Miss, as much as I like nice lady's as company, fighting will get ye a ticket to the door!" He sighed from disappointment as he ushered her to the exit, all the while she rallied in frenzy.
"Wait! You have no idea who I am! I'm the Daughter of Someone heroically Important!" The rowdy dame furiously shouted as she was about to be ejected from the medley-inn.
"So is my auntie Soosoo, but if she fights in 'me Gamehouse, she'll be kicked out too!" The disturbed pub-master admonished, at last pushing her out the doorway despite her boisterous protests. "Aye, wharf-rats, will say anything to pull one over on yhe'." Zoolie relieved a sweaty brow as he concluded his eviction of the troublemaker and swayed to return to the table.
"Wait, Zoolie, what did she say? Something's not right." Ren arose from his chair and raced toward the door. He bustled into the weapons' closet, retrieving his curt blade and exited out the front before anyone could stop him.
"Chungo-lungo, where in the twenty seas does he think he's going? You stay here, monkeybird!" Ioz gunned for the trek as he jumped up from the bench to follow the youthful lad. Tula and Zoolie tailed thereafter.
"What about the Treas-" Niddler snatched onto the emerald orb with his velvet palms, shielding with wings as he rent himself mid-sentence. "Ure?" He pursed as he watched his friends bound through the unlatched door.
The darkened streets of Janda-town were visually empty. Many pedestrians stayed in homes or in barrooms, wide streets opened up to form many byways among the seaside villa. Only the lights of distant inns or taverns, and natural moonlight blanketed the scene.
The stable prince dashed after the strange one's form in the twin moon-lit night. "Stop! Wait!" With a wheeze, Ren labored to reach the fleeing goal. Her taut figure rushed and then halted, meeting him around.
"That kreld-eater kicked me out because that filthy pirate stole from me! No one believes me! If only they did, I wouldn't be in so much trouble! Rumors are one thing, but Janda-towns' folks are verily presumptuous in mortality calls!" The ly's prohibited vocal dissented to Ren, his shadow easing above hers.
"Believe you? Believe you about what?" The anxious Ren invoked of her. Her features were hidden in the dark, though they were inconsistently illuminated by a glossy zenith.
"I'm a Daughter of a Reputable King, and everyone says I'm lying! No one believes I am who I say I am!" The bitter challenger despondently proclaimed.
"What great King? Who are you?" Ren eyed her with an expression of one concocting puzzlement. His mind made a total backflip when he received her answer. He could only ask her to repeat herself, he did not think he heard her correctly. Locks of sepia graced her visage as she spun about. Dual irises of peacock brightly pried.
"Princess Jazhea, of Octopon. Daughter of King Primus." The woman's voice spoke softly.