Chronicles of Octopon

by ridt

Ren and his comrades must face dangers while in pursuit of the Thirteen Treasures of Rule and fighting arch nemesis Bloth across the twenty seas. However, they will soon discover the secrets of their circumstance, which are closely interlocked to reveal a darker and deeper truth.

5. The Dagron's Tail

THE DAGRON'S TAIL

PART 1 - The River's Deceit

Moonlight shone over the shores of Janda, on the patio of a lessened but bustling tavern stayed three men and one woman. All engrossed in fervent conversation.

"I swear on the two moons, that's the first time I've ever seen that lady, Ren!" The coral-bearded barman went on in an obvious confoundment and ignorance of the situation. "Had I known I wouldn't have kicked her out, but do you believe her? If she's been to any tavern in Janda-town then she hasn't been to mine, I never forget a face." He confirmed as he peered through the window, as did the rest of the group.

"I can see a resemblance." Ioz accordingly blurted out. He diverted to and fro the waif and Ren, comparing them. "Is she really Ren's sister?" Ioz uncertainly debated, keeping his fronting concealed from the table across from him.

"By Kuunda, I don't know what to believe. That familiar garment..." The adolescent soundly formulated as he prospected the barefooted femme from where she sat, watching her feast on a complimentary meal. Formidable features on the stranger were scratched from strife and without brawn. Rather, she was entirely vulnerable in a warrior's dress of peacock hue. The white-trimmed ruffle around the knees modestly curved on her stocky legs. She waggled her head to admire them and smiled sweetly, swinishly tearing off a bite from her plate. "Even if she isn't, she's from Octopon." He faintly murmured and switched his gaze to Ioz.

"So we're basing opinions of her on her clothes? I think I've seen less mess and scars on some clam-barges." Ioz tentatively allot his impression of Ren's eavesdropping technique. In that instant, she began feeling around the table.

"No. I've never seen her before from what I can remember, but she knows things about me that only a few people in the twenty seas could tell. Bloth doesn't know the exact location I was raised for seventeen years, or substantial details about our culture. She chants the same lore and legends from Jenna's overtures of my childhood, and I just know I've seen that ensemble before." Ren adeptly asserted his hunch, eyes following a gust of wind blowing a trifle of palm-leaves on the crazy roads beneath his bench.

"Well she sure seems to be hungry. She eats like she hasn't seen a square meal in ages. She's probably in trouble, Ioz. Don't you think someone of her stature would have a surplus of income to fall back on? Unless she squandered it...Not to mention, any long-term moonlighter from Janda-town I've seen could not hide in a monkeybird-berth and still have room for Niddler. So how is she on her own? Something is...different." Tula observed obscurely-leeward the company of chirping crickets, peeking at the distant guest from astern a beam in the tavern. The vagabond was now faking several men in the establishment with gestures of reluctance. The man at the bar, Maars, watched the cantankerous newcomer like a razorbeak.

"What do you think, Tula?" The jet-tinged fortune-hunter respectfully invited an opinion.

"I'm sensing sorrow from her. Pain, and sadness." The ecomancer sincerely commented, scoping the poring-parlor as the unfamiliar woman turned back to eating without a care.

"Did Ren say no one believed her? Bloth is searching for him, right? So wouldn't someone've questioned her claim?" Zoolie thoughtfully whispered as he accompanied the discussion. "Oh Ioz, I have that fifty drabul you need, but you better pay me back next time you're here, you hear me? No jitatan flood-checks." With a serious intrude he glowered at the frivolous companion at his angle, a bag of coins clinked. Ioz rigidly nodded.

"I thank you much, man, for the loan of gold and this coat of many colors as a souvenir." The haughty pirate admired the fancy and expensive raiment of Zoolie's.

"You can have it, Ioz. I just want to get rid of it. Sell it all you want, but I wouldn't put it on." The buoyant manager heartily advised.

"Ioz and Niddler look a-like!" Tula marveled at the twins made by rainbow stripes on the antique garb.

"You look sharp, mate, but as your best chum, I warn ya...it's cursed." Zoolie tipped Ioz with his concern but the gold-seeker fortune-hunter shrugged and batted a hand, his closest ale-mate never did know how to take heed.

"I'll sell it when I get to Octopon, I want to look nice now. Attracts the ladys, eh?" Ioz grinned wide with a sprightly whim. He wrapped the fold around his shoulders and tied the front sash about his waist.

They were interrupted by a monkeybird, who waddled up while holding an orb that appeared almost as immense as his haunch and tail. "Are you all done bar-watching now or are you going to relieve me of this?" Niddler indignantly bossed, plopping the copious mineral on the sky-lined deck.

Ioz ignored the mess of feathers who squawked to catch attention from anyone. "That may be true but Mer's men know who Ren is now, I wouldn't doubt she could be coming across as trying to swindle coin out of his name. If I were anyone, I wouldn't believe it for a pretty kreuger." Ioz wisely added, forming speculation on the alehouse-mans's theory. "She's unharmed, any seafaring man or other knows Janda-town's streets are no place for a lost traveler to walk alone." He posed a revision to his prior resolve, an acute qualm simmered under his logic.

"That is a good point." Ren reasonably construed in his response to Ioz, the unlikely citizen was otherwise unsullied. Niddler impatiently squawked.

"I'll go over and have a little chat with her, and keep that gold where I can see it." Ioz initiated discreetly and edged away from the moonlit bench. "Give it here, monkeybird." He regained the Treasure as the venturing four lumbered over to the table where the jade-clad vixen lounged.

When the bevy returned, the silk-wrapped rascal was chatting up some man in the bar who had become interested in her. He offered to play a bet with her, which she affirmed she would accept when she happened upon some gold. He tried to make a counter-proposal, but uncomfortably backed away when he witnessed the group plodding en route to her. She caused a disarranged brow from the crew when the frightened heckler tossed her a full sachet of gold at the flip of her tunic's shoulder.

"Hello, Jazhea. That's your name, is it?" Ioz procured a welcome with a leery inflection, sitting down opposite from the spotty woman. His squint shaped on a simple embellishment about her high neckline.

"Yes, pirate, it is." Jazhea concurred with a vibrant smile, to the contrast of her tough actions.

"Nice to meet you, Jazhea. I'm Tula." Tula generously but hesitantly extended her hand. Jazhea grinned and tipped her unfamiliar tricorne, which also accommodated what seemed to be a Ferrix-feather.

"Let me take over, Ioz." With candor Ren swiftly exhorted on with his interview, he accepted his cue and rested on the seat across from the drifter at his shoulderline. "You didn't answer before, what brought you to Janda-town." The charming regent intently sought from the counter nook.

"As I've said before, to seek fortune. Well I suppose, what I would wish for is revenge on those maggots who ruined our home. If it were only possible to find fair retribution for-" Jazhea gallantly began, but her language was immediately aborted.

"Bloth's destruction of Octopon. When did you arrive here?" Ren narrowed his eyes at the stranger who claimed to be his sister and fellow heir.

"Whoa, did my Ol' seafaring ears hear what I think they heard? Did you just say you're trying to get revenge on Bloth? Now you've only had one drink little bitty-lady so I know you aren't spilling gantha-wash. Don't mind me saying this, but you're a tad delusional, miss. Bloth is Lord of the baddest scum of the twenty seas and you don't tangle with any of those men! The Maelstrom is home to the lowest bunch to ever raise the jolly-roger! Don't let me hear this kind of jabber in my tavern again or-" Zoolie earnestly barged in, standing from his locate. Few glances flew, the newcomer scowled coldly in return.

"Zoolie, we don't crew for the keel-scraping man anymore. That is a very brash proclamation, Jazhea, but I'm sure someone respectable as the Princess of Octopon would not be folly enough to slit her honorable throat, especially when The Least of his pirates is as tall as she is." Ioz surprisingly twisted around, expressing a disapproving nod at the barkeeper.

"I know! I have nothing to lose though, please listen! I only will for an ear to hear me." Jazhea additionally begged from a tender face.

"Here we go...go on." Ioz entertained the woman of time further, who politely palmed her sign for a chance opportunity. He swigged another sip of his grog. "Let's give her a chance to explain herself." He gulped the foam of a warm brew. He wearily deduced her statement.

"I wasn't ever aware I was sibling to anyone around Janda-town. When I left Meridol, four years ago, I was the only child of the Royal Family. It's a dreadful tragedy to hear that our father has passed, considering the conditions of such a specific jurisdiction he left for his best heir." Jazhea sat and clarified, nonchalantly pausing to finish the last bites of her meal. She savored a taste of the ale and an unladylike grimace then resumed over her scant cheeks, by all means made unnoticeable between heavy locks of gossamer.

"Your neck..." Zoolie let out a worrisome mumble and resumed his perch.

"I've only been here for two weeks. It has been difficult traveling alone, and I'm unable to stay anywhere. My journey was long and slow, so I often did not meet many. I tried to tell them my needs, but I suppose my claim is hard to be taken seriously. Kuunda has brought me here since, so I've been trying to make the best of it and so far, I've only managed to make meager coin. It was the separation from my partner on the seas that ended me in this impeccable circumstance. We were forced to go from place to place, weathering the waves and storms. Of course I would probably have more help if I were the Prince of Octopon, but unfortunately, I'm only the Princess." The abrupt interloper defined, her voice was soft and sensitive.

Ren tossed this around for a moment. He wanted to know more, he scratched his chin. "You're here on your own? You must know the seas are invaded by the dark water. Our crew is in need of funds ourselves but-" Ren mouthed a mid-sentence word when Jazhea pushed the recently obtained funds to Ren. The boy only blinked for an instant before Ioz's swear of Pango-Neeja ricocheted and the lass courteously glimmered.

"In that case, please take this. It was my payment for a favor I offered but it's the least I can do, I imagine a future King such as yourself will need it more than any tattered wharf-rat like me." Jazhea gracefully maintained herself from a submissive standpoint as Lus-nayi and Joiquiva bused their last table for the night.

"Why? I'm sorry but I can't accept this, you just told me you needed it more-" Ren protested from a bite of his tongue. Jazhea would not reclaim the heap.

"Don't be silly. Men deserve the best treatment, especially Princes and Kings. It's only fifty pieces of course, but it will be of some help to you. I must thank you for your generosity of a good word." The sinewy beggar gleaned a pleasing virtue. The shy aristocrat apologetically accepted, but he did not pay heed to Ioz's pernicious inspection of her necklace.

"Thank you, but it's really Zoolie you should be thanking for your meal. I know you've set out but, why didn't you try to go back home earlier?" The overt prince questioned her, foraging for reason to trust her tale.

"I've been looking for who I was told to find, Vaecusa, a late-aunt to you and I. I was sent to sea by late Sir Phorlock, to find out what happened to her. I lived with her for a time, but on one mysterious sun she disappeared." After a hesitant blink, Jazhea calmly abstained from being a nuisance.

"How interesting. I used to live near Vaecusa! Phorlock, I don't think..." Ren tried to prospect the name.

"Regrettably, but vague hearsay I know naught. He was in...Dealings with Octopon, during Primus's time, says Sir Phorlock, Chair of the Defenders of the Polar Axis. Such an organization once existed on the Isles of Qui-Qua, consisting of a Father-and-Daughter team among its high-ranking legion of tribesmen." Jazhea spurned the local rumor, taking her own trial to a new level.

"Organization?" Ren drew a blank. Jazhea mentioned Sir Phorlock was a deity among his people, but Qui-Qua was not a place he had read about.

"He visited Octopon in the company of his consort, Vaecusa, before preventing the Polar uprising on the merchanting nation of Kalinda, where I lived the fruit of my years under his guardianship." Jazhea delicately unfolded after a swaying of flickering eyes. The confused spectators rolled shoulders, staring unwillingly.

"So, you know more than these rumors you've been told?" Tula hinted at something more, unconsciously lowering her perspective of the opposite lass.

"Oh, yes. However, perhaps we should keep such conversations light. You know, weird things tend to happen since the tragedy of the Moonsail Festival. The loss of Sir Phorlock was not something of any consequence to me, of course. My life was just fine, even after Vaecusa was forced to defect proportionately high North of our ravaged city, Octopon, for elsewhere in its Meridol district. I have not seen such memories with my own eyes, but I think it's very much a mood-killer to-" From the wandering patron could be heard a peculiar sound, but was immediately covered by lips. After the grating noise, she seemed to keep an air of grace.

"What tragedy?" This phrase lit Ren's purport, he would need to know everything about the incidence on Octopon's shores. He couldn't leave it alone, but Jazhea stubbornly sighed.

"Well, I've merely been informed to fill in the blanks, and because I was young at the time before I begun my search, my mind blocks out more of the distressing details." Jazhea did not wish to continue.

"Please." If Jazhea was Daughter of the House of Primus, Ren needed an end.

"The Palace of Scholars, a place declared a safehouse five-years prior harbored our relatives during the Day of Fire. It was the day before the Five-Hundredth Moonsail Festival, twelve years ago. It was planned to hold the festivities in the Great Harbor of Octopon, and it was ruined by Bloth's invasion. Only under the guidance of Sir Phorlock, Vaecusa, her youngest child, and I endured as the firebombs passed, we painfully lost the remaining nobility to survive. Unfortunately finding home is a leviathan's toss when knowing but of a gantha-wash street, gathering enough wealth to be a degree of help to protect and restore my Meridol residence of present-day is rather hard when you're only a bar-stool with a tale of the Kalindasean Nomads." The manner of the homeless lass was stark, altered by her feeling of repeated recognition.

"If you're looking for Meridol then now you're lost, it's far above where Octopon lays." Ren sincerely consoled the woman who was misplaced.

"If she's looking for Kalinda, she's out of luck also. That isle lays on the other side of Mer." Ioz scoffed to Ren, but was quickly shushed by his brashness.

"Technically East from Janda-town, if you sail off the map. I might be a monkeybird, but Mer isn't flat." Niddler pointed to his noggin, enjoying Ioz's growl.

Tula cleared her throat.

"Who was your partner on the sea? Aunt, did she tell you about my Father's Quest after you returned to Meridol or before Sir Phorlock brought you to the Moonsail Festival in Octopon? I didn't think anyone but my father's Captains were told about the Treasures of Rule, even you when living on Kalinda with this man my Father knew. The last time we debarked, the dark water had invaded the Palace of Scholars and the majority of Octopon's ports..." Ren earnestly brood. He hadn't heard any of his siblings mentioned, other than when Bloth said he eliminated them but he assumed such a terrible thing had taken place before he was born.

"Is that enough detail for you, Brother?" Jazhea settled the recount of her story. She now appeared perceptibly more disturbed, although her tone still carried an agreeable gentleness.

"Octopon has been partially restored, but I can't say much for where you live-" In one of Ren's encounters, he had come across a picture of his mother. The way this new guest conveyed the tragedy brought upon conclusions of happenstance for himself.

"That's a telling story, but I don't think we buy it. I need to pull you away for a moment, Ren." The shady-haired thief, Ioz, stood up and gestured for the maiden to leave, not a believer.

"Wait. There's some truth to what she's saying, how much I don't know." Ren also arose, venturesomely professing to the tall man at his margin. Living in Jenna's lighthouse had meant he did not know of his full heritage due to being the sole heir to the throne. His father was imprisoned by Bloth during the original Quest for the Treasures of Rule, his home in Octopon destroyed completely with Ren as the singular devotee responsible to save it. Still, something felt wrong in this situation and he could not be sure. He held back as if to consider something. "Even if she isn't my sister, then she's someone from home. I can be sure as the ebb of the Octopian Sea. If she comes with us, she may be able to assist us. We're headed back to Octopon on the way, we can take her there." The young aristocrat rotated to face Jazhea.

Ioz seemed floored then pushed away against the edge of table. With swelling eyes he got up and pulled Ren aside, shouting below the common noise level to him. "Ohno, Ren are you mad? We've only known her for less than a moonrise! I'd like to know why we hadn't run into such a lowly shardfish-of-a-woman before. If she knows so much why didn't she know of her brother being around when she was traveling all around the jitatan twenty seas, and much more the loss of her father? Her fee-for-a-favor trick was obvious. Sorry to tell you this, Captain, but this plan to stop for everyone who needs or asks for help is going to toss us into a jitatan monsoon." He sorely displayed his muted forewarning.

"She's survived on her own before, what if she knows something about the dark water or the Treasures from being on her venture? If I've learned anything from my Father's Quest, first impressions aren't always right." The noble boy incessantly countered, recalling Alomar's lesson. He stalwartly defended what he believed to be his audience's honesty.

"Yes, they are not always right but they are not always bilge-filth! I guarantee you she knows nothing! I may have been doubtful before but, noy jitat! Sure, let us help her go back home while she tricks us out of our gold! Are you sure she is from Octopon like you think...I've once heard a tale about a-" Ioz continually argued but was unexpectedly roused by the new helper pushing her way into Ren's sight, she had risen from her seat.

"We all know you're worried about your gold, Ioz, but I'm sensing an ecomantic-signal from her that I've never before felt." Tula hushed her status away.

"Excuse me, ahem, Ren. I think I would like to renege on our deal, if that's fine with you. I was thinking maybe...if you play a card game with me, and I win I'll take that gold back. I don't want you to regret my unconditional kindness, especially because Bloth has a hit on me for three-hundred-thousand drabul." Jazhea radiated with a buoyant gladness, she breaked to withdraw a standard deck from her margin.

"Chungo, you can't be serious." Ioz halfway suppressed a gasp.

"She's the unfortunate Daughter sought by Bloth..." Tula complacently shushed the swashbuckler.

"It's a deal!" Ren jovially approved of the idea. This way he would be giving Jazhea the fair chance she deserved, and he was more than positive she would win and Ioz wouldn't be so hasty to jump to conclusions. What was the worst that could happen?

"You guys are playin' again? Thought you were heading out." Zoolie swerved around with a blank raise of his cheerful brow, he would be unaffected by Ren's decision to stay but he was aware Ren didn't spend time with many social things.

"Just one game, Zoolie." The eager royal revolved with a contiguous humor. Zoolie moreover shrugged and resumed his workload.

"Treasure is treasure, I might as well get in on this." Ioz huffed and reoccupied the table, dealing himself thirteen cards.

"Well I guess this will be a chance to know each other better." Tula was reserved as she joined in, sliding in by Ioz.

"Z.M.Q.!" Suddenly a shriek from a rioter choked the ambiance.

"What?! Z.M.Q. is here?! Impossible! Z.M.Q. would never allow himself to be seen in a public tavern!" Ioz instantly hopped from his stool to peruse the clattered denizens, all focusing on Jazhea with blown-up pupils. Some were dashing for the armament cellar, and he would have done the same, should he need to be ready for the biggest fight of his life.

"Uhmm! Your turn!" Jazhea placed her first card with a blithe shout.

"You can't possibly be...Z.M.Q has a hit on you as well, Jazhea?!" Ioz gawked for a sour spell when she hurriedly concealed her right shoulder before lowering himself back to the seat, seeing nothing alarming.

"Don't touch Z.M.Q.'s property, his feared letters will sign your resignation to the bone!" One belated scream was flung. Jazhea coughed as a tear trickled off a lash.

"Who is Z.M.Q.?" From shaken nerves Tula questioned.

"A pirate. Words become screams and screams become letters when he is around. Janda-town greeting! Don't you know, woman?! Cut the kleepa, old mates!" Ioz grumbled to squelch a belated cough. Tula shifted worried eyes. "Well, Jazhea, good luck beating that." With a competitive smirk, Ioz laid down a card that she learned was fronted with a fish, a large yuugla. Jazhea instantly placed a dagron.

"This is the first time we've played together since we were here many moons ago. So, Jazhea, what was your favorite game? I was personally fond of playing pearl-skipper in the river of Randor. Father tried to teach me how to skip real stones, but I wasn't so good." Tula fluently engaged her elusive company. "I think someone's trying to bring down a moon already. No cheating for Ioz, Niddler." She poked the monkeybird, covering her hand.

"Sorry." Niddler squawked and hurried from his perspective behind Tula's shoulders.

"Umm, well, I didn't play too many games." Jazhea darted her rapidly-fluttering eyes to and fro, tensely answering her directive. "I always liked making Landshark Eyes from the tree's silk in the courtyard where we lived...so beautiful with its many inland rivers!" She gulped to urge the reply out of her throat. Tula stared at her and nodded at her fidget. Ioz established a leviathan suit next to Tula's goija of two, which was intersecting with Ren's scale of six. Jazhea shunned the leviathan, letting the bettor claim the detriment to his score.

"Well, well, so the woman has an edge in her game." Ioz jested freely, he was aware that though this was a game of chance, some strategy would be required to win the round.

"Not as much as she hopes I bet, we're still winning." Ren regrettably mused, he kept quiet but wondered if this was the right thing to be doing.

"The Black Conch!" Ioz pretended to act stunned and disgruntled by Jazhea's next move. He had been forced to lay down the second leviathan to claim the figurehead card.

"Maybe this will win me something." Jazhea chimed again. Ioz was trying to harpoon the moon. No wonder it was so easy for him to lose his gold to Zoolie, he knew nothing of what a game face was. Jazhea looked at her hand. She intended to put down the dagron-of-two instead of the leviathan-of-three, which would have prevented Ioz from obtaining a chain to win the game. Her desire was unmet, her fingers groped for the suit she wished. "Sorry, I have to take a break." Jazhea solemnly excused herself as she closed her eyes, she tried to cover them but notably failed. Ren and Tula noticed a fit from the glassy-eyes before she returned to normalcy moments later. She blinked her now active lids and proudly slammed down a dagron suit. Tula played the landshark-of-three, but Ioz slapped down a leviathan.

"Well, looks like we've won. Good game." Ioz confidently proclaimed victory, fetching the spoils from a gifting Jazhea.

"Well, I think Ioz cheated. You could have at least given the girl a fair chance. She's down on her luck after all, and like what you were doing wasn't obvious." Tula provided her unsatisfactory with her companion's penchant for competition.

"Congratulations, now you've won from me fair and square. Very good playing skills you have, I don't usually lose. Well, sometimes I do, I can't lie, but I'm more like a yuugla in a goija-pool here...If you know what I mean." Jazhea beamed of innocence, knowing she had successfully thrown the game for Ren.

"Likewise. I'm surprised. You must be a fast learner, Jazhea. Conch Hearts is a Janda-town exclusive, I didn't know how to play until Ioz taught me his favorites, and you were doing so well. Such daring comes in handy on our crew." Ren truthfully praised, still feeling somewhat aberrant about her circumstance.

"Until I lost." Jazhea airily stuck out her tongue. "It would be hard to mop down this daring slug-bait!" She pried crazy eyes at her shoe and mocked with a trite laugh. Ren and Ioz exchanged glances and stalled in granting her perplexed faces. "I mean, Zoolie does a lovely job keeping his tavern slug-free, don't you agree?" She awkwardly giggled.

"I can agree with that, woman." Ioz crossed his arms and chuckled. "Psst, Ren." He resumed his veiled scorn. "She's poor like we are. Don't we have a Quest we need to return to? If you want to risk your neck then do it on your own ship-! Taking her aboard could put us in danger. That claim of hers about trying to get back at Bloth alone is mighty hopeful too." Ioz skeptically slammed his gut feeling.

"All the more reason we can use her help, and she can use ours. You must have a very hard time risking your neck for a ship you paid for." Ren intelligently evinced.

"Ren. I don't know who she is, but I don't think there's anything reputable about that woman. There's something I don't trust about...the way she smiles, scowls. Something I remember...I don't know from where, but I don't like it. Call it pirate's intuition, these eyes can see deceit. Ask the eco-woman's opinion." Ioz whispered a harsh disagreement to the regal. He starkly dismissed the vagrant to Ren, but evened in temperament.

"I should be going! I'm sure there's more valuables I can forage for!" Jazhea tripped off into the night as she bid her unwelcome farewell. Ren watched her run off into the pitch shade of Janda-town once more, a yelp and an unfortunate fall dribbled from her shape through the window.

"Ren, your eyes and ears betray you! Tell me you won't buy into this trickery." Ioz's aghast mannerisms pleaded, the inkling of consternation threading a savvy grit. He urged Ren to withdraw his proposal.

"How do you know she's lying, Ioz? She's helpless. She needs someone, and she can't harm us! Just look! I know that we'll be taking a chance but if she truly knows something about my Father and I don't trust her, then I won't be able to learn about my past, the original Quest for the Treasures. She'll just stay with us for a little while, until we reach the lighthouse. That's long enough to know if she can give us any clues, and I'm sure Jenna will know what to do. Jazhea wouldn't just tell us everything, and then have us call her a liar." The good-natured prince argued over the disharmony of minds, keeping his volume chary.

Ren was aware Ioz often saw women differently than he did other men and could have easily assumed was the reason for the ragtag sailor's gripe but the clever leader knew better of the vulnerable guest. Her note she had wedged inside his boot, a distress signal scrawled on the underside of the Black Conch.

"That's enough of this. I need to know everything I can for this journey." Ren tactfully hushed, he whisked the unwilling Ioz out-of-the-way. "We'll take you with us to Octopon." He pivoted back to Jazhea out the door and met the abstract female's peacock-greens, confronting her. He had coaxed her back inside while he awaited her reply.

"Well, I don't really have any other destination, though I do have a means of transportation. I'll show you." Jazhea volunteered to trot ahead, unhindered as she silently debarked and led the four out of the lodge. Niddler schlepped the Treasure as the other three reclaimed their weapons and departed, saying their last emphatic goodbyes and well-wishes to Zoolie; they followed her out into port where she introduced her vessel.

"Meet Beesall! The best-smelling dagron to glide over the twenty seas! Yeeehoo!" Jazhea proudly simpered, beckoning to a twiggy dagron she had tethered to a post of the dock. It emitted a fearsome growl and she patted it on its scaly nose. From her waist she withdrew a lasso of lizard skin, into the midnight breeze it coiled. Looping it around Beesall's mane, she cartwheeled to board the mare's back as would a seacow girl.

"Noy jitat! She's keeping something rare like a dagron as a pet?! It smells like an ordinary dagron to me. Is it even hers?" Ioz raved in exasperation. "I don't like this at all, lad." He darkly uttered to the kingly descendant next to him.

"You don't have any problems stealing things for us. Remember a pirate can't survive on suspicions alone." Ren bantered in response, he gandered at his comrade with a witty smirk. Ioz was forced to relent to his captain's ambition yet again, he perceived Ren's insecurity as well. Ren approached the beast and found that it was not vicious, but well-trained.

The prince shot a prudent stare at the creature. "If this is your only transportation, then I can see why you were having trouble. Perhaps you'll tell us later how you obtained such an uncommon beast. We can go back to my ship. It will be easier to travel that way." Ren conducted the luckless lady and her dagron back to the Wraith, the others traversing behind.

The band of adventurers loaded some supplies from town on board, ready to cast off. Niddler assisted with the packing, hefting some food crates below deck. Jazhea's dagron gnarled at him and he lobbed with a panic, spilling the goods. He took off screaming and fluttered up to the mast. "He scares me, and I'm not loading any more of this slop!" He yammered in a flurry, vocally upset.

"It won't hurt you, Niddler." Ren briskly encouraged the monkeybird. He scurried to pick up the packages Niddler had dropped and ran them for the hold to finish the job. He motioned to Jazhea. "We'll be casting off soon, if you're tired you can go into the quarters below or you can stay out here." He authorized a rest while taking various things into the cellar.

"I'm not that tired, I'll stay out here." The outsider indifferently answered him.

"Oh. Right." Ren was muddled as the water about the interesting relation, happening to glance at her with hat at bay and pressed in fingertips. The moonlight gleamed on her stark facade, giving her light braids a pretty glow. It shone off dark skin, and her features were a lot as his own handsome, but barely picturesque. She appeared unmistakably older, if only by a few years. He scampered to tug on the line from the dock to pull out.

"So I guess a room in Janda-town isn't good enough for these chunga-lungas? Where is your nearest village, wharf-rats?" Ioz crinkled a rash brow and blockaded the twiggy refugees, who ran to board soon after.

"Lus-nayi won't be accepted in our village because of what happened...and I refuse to leave her! I'll jump overboard in her place, if you want me to!" Joiquiva furled her arms out like a shield, avowing kindred loyalty to her peer in the face of death.

"You're asking orphans who were slashed by pirates to fight for their wages in Janda-town? Don't be ridiculous, Ioz, they need a proper home." In the midst of withholding her displeasure at Ioz's selfishness, Tula knelt as she tested a line. Pushing a crate to her arms, she finished the end of her workload. "How can anyone not let their own people back into their home? That is horrendous injustice." Tula stared at the Quiin natives, she could not comprehend that kind of cruelty.

"Only the Highest Order of Imperial Qui-Qua and the Clerics from the Sainthood of Toiishuk can admit outsiders." Joiquiva shamefully confessed the reality of her oath to the community order of their birthplace. Even if they were to be pardoned by the highest authority they would never be inside the realm of public admission again because of this scourge they were placed under, neither Lus-nayi or family would amount to any more than outcast class.

Lus-nayi recalled the pirate Mantus's grasp on her throat. Then she saw a diced vision when Joiquiva carried her out of the hut. They were everywhere alone but with this unimaginable crew, at present point still no one else could guess the terrors the survivors of the Bentaar raid saw and felt that day.

"Well, no one is jumping overboard. They're staying here. For, as long as they need to." Ren determined his direction as he firmly decided for the rejects' live.

"You know the ebb and flow of the tide is unfair, Tula. You off-the-wind-kooky boy, we don't have room to board permanent guests. We should just leave them but...they'll stay so as long as they make more of that Puuka-chops-prawn casserole, for me. I'm headed to bed. Niddler and Tula will stay on watch." The toughened pirate shrugged, and could not be bothered to eject the duo.

"The Wraith?" Tula responded in a snap. She was not at all surprised Ioz could not keep his momentum.

"Keep 'her in shape for me." Ioz durably issued the noble farewell, roaming for a room inside the foundation of the ship to sleep. "That's the first peaceful dagron I've ever seen, couldn't have come under Mantus's lash." He monitored the reptile with a pacified breath before he glanced distrustfully at the visitor. Then he resumed his patter, embracing his florid coat.

"I will. Tell Joiquiva and Lus-nayi the fore'peak hammocks are for them." Ren signaled and affirmatively nodded his head, he then riled the wheel. He drew out a short distance from port. Jazhea met him, leaning on a railing that guarded the upper-deck. Though the naive exiles were less trusting overall, the village tongues left whispering about the unknown princess in the last vanishing of their feathered hair as they snuck for the ladder behind the nearest bulkhead.

"Evelyn." The gilded passenger said, her breath rigid.

"Huh?" Ren puzzled, looking inquisitive.

"That was our mother's name. Or so I was told..." Jazhea droned to a feasible low, she bore into nothingness. "Evelyn Primus." Attractively, she smiled.

"Oh." Ren bent a glim downward, and then at Jazhea. It became apparent that she knew a lot for someone whom Ioz deemed unrelated to him and who, Ren himself carried reservations about. "What did you know about her? You said you didn't remember what she was like, or our brothers." The royal boy wondered, wishing to know more.

"She died for our home. Liken to our father, Primus, she gave all the strength she could against the raiders while he set out on the Quest and even before Octopon was razed. In our Octopon I learned of Vaecusa, my appointed guardian. Aunt helped our father, when he defended Octopon against the main enemies of the throne during his coronation years with the kindness of his words. Sir Phorlock assisted in raising my cousin and I, on Kalinda with her. The Ruins of Taikal were such a disappointment to not visit on such a ceremonious occasion as the Five-hundredth Moonsail Festival of Octopon, dagrons swarm to the mist in heaps because of the strange reactions from the runes and I would have loved to give my Beesall what she likes. I've only visited once." She settled with a veiled and pensive summary, ending as Ren sealed his lip to think about this.

"Our late-aunt, Vaecusa is gone, but you haven't found her? After we met I would think Jenna would have told you anything you told me if Vaecusa was taken by the sea." Ren asked to forfeit all shade, showing her a steady pry.

"Vaecusa lost her husband to The Eyes of the Fallen Captain, fiery eyes in the sky above which sink ships, but from him she knew about a Secret Scroll that our father wrote. He and father worked together. Vaecusa was a warrior true, I believed she would have lost her life in a fight. So that is how I say it, in a manner of respect. In reality I don't know any more than you do, not beyond her monetary reasons for leaving home. I saw your guardian once or twice, some yesterday before the Day of Fire on Octopon and never after. It all goes black." Jazhea confirmed to a wit, Ren bemused over her words. The plaits reminded him of a girl at the lighthouse when he was still a child, but this was eminently long ago. The pause of unfamiliarity settled through the air for an interval.

"Then you knew more about our family than I did. My entire youth was spent in the lighthouse, never knowing anything about my past." Ren mused as he evoked the wheel with a turn, although they were only drifting along the tide. "Can you bare a hand? I'm not sure what in Septopon's sea-pooch Niddler is up to now...You just pull on the rope a little tigh-" He flit weary eyes for the missing winged-advocate. To his curiosity, Jazhea not only supported his request but she seemed to know what she was doing, albeit not very well. "This is not the first time you've sailed on a real ship?" He numbed his interest.

"No." Under a crisp look Jazhea gently hauled the tall cord, granting a simple reply.

"Your necklace..." Ren blinked as he observed the jade adornment under the shining moonlight, a flat orb that was so familiar. His guest had revealed it.

"This? It's a friendship pendant given to me by my bestfriend at the time, but it's more of a memorial than anything. It protects me from all forms of danger." Jazhea described briefly the object rung on her high collar, creaking a dim smile. She swung the dull stone and the attached fan, Merrian gold-leaf. The common jewelry was translucently tarnished from several years' use. One fragment of parallel to a swimming fish's gossamer eye was embedded into the ornament, to his reaction it was melded to be nothing like the Compass of Rule or any other rare stone. It didn't look liken to anything Ren had ever seen.

"Really...a memorial for who?" Ren pondered nimbly. "Don't mind Ioz, he is always very distrustful. I know it seems like he doesn't like you, but I'm sure he'll come around when he sees you mean us no harm. He was like that with Tula at first too, until he learned she's valuable to us like I'm sure in time you...Will be." He heeded this new visitor in a closer light. Nothing at first appeared amiss with the unfeminine woman other than her clothes and a similar athleticism, but she seemed to have been through rough wear from some misplaced conflict. Bevys of vertical scabs lined her back. He noticed the disgusting scar on a mangled shoulder before she daintily twisted her tunic from notice. The icy frown she bore did not help the wouldbe appealing-charm.

"Uhuh." Jazhea concurred in a slow parting of lips. She coughed after speedily circling her head and diverting attention away. "I think I will find a bed. Goodnight, brother." She bade him goodbye, curling a delicate smile. Ren felt droll when she called him her brother, it didn't feel natural.

"Goodnight." The prince swiveled a bronzed face to watch her disappear into the hidden chamber.

Ren admired above the double-moons beaming hugely over the horizon, now an everlasting height in the sky. The Wraith rocked gently in the night, the breeze was mute as the shimmering stars cast above, and reminded him of home. Tula and Niddler must have gone to sleep thinking he and Ioz were still awake. It had been too late before he could feel the exhaustion, which overtook him as well. His head rested on the spokes of the helm under his crossed arms, a scarce instant passed before his mind crashed.

Two figures basked on a dock in a foreign city as the two moons levitated overhead. Ore glinted from piles of rubble. The air brimmed with a coarse discussion.

"What brings you to Kalinda?" With a growl, the harsh voice inquired of another.

"Why, I imagine the same reason that brings you here." The second odious-entity, a puny in size compared to the prior replied in a shoddy and shrill pitch. Sleazy presentation surrounded his certain words. Few people stood behind his back, but at a broader distance away from him. He crossed his arms, unyielding in some appeal. The noisy sound of a click thumped in the desolation.

The primary negotiator waited to analyze this attraction. "Perhaps we can make a deal." The form's supplicated impression echoed through a curb in thought. "I'll allow you a ship and escort, but you must bring him back. He, and the Treasure he carries. Understood?" The sinister proposition churned over the immediate and voided draft.

"I like the cut of your sail, sir, but hey, how about a little gold for my troubles...and, incidentals? Say, about three-hundred?" The sly ruffian cunningly jostled his audience.

"I can get that much by selling the blasted boy's ship!" The first criminal returned in irritation.

"Alright, alright, two-hundred?" The shrewd con haggled on. Loud clacking pounded twice.

"You're already getting enough from me, Joat. You have the use of my ships, my men, and your right to the boy's ship upon returning him to me." The abraded oppressor gnarled back. Joat paused to devise.

"I'll need some...supplies." Joat cackled in gusto while the chrome pincer that connected to his arm clanked again. "One-hundred-fifty and I'll ask for no more." The nasal outlaw urged once more.

"Eighty." The disgruntled offer of the prior buccaneer augmented a say.

"One-hundred." Joat grinned with a prompt.

"Deal." The clamoring plunderer at last agreed with a repelling grunt. "But, I expect the boy, his crew, and all of his Treasure. I want you to bring him to my ship, I trust you to be proficient. You'll have to work for your coin." He ended his circumstantial arrangement, speaking with all the reasonableness his kind could gather.

"Agreed, Bloth." Joat fervently replied with a blustered snicker. "This will be more fun than a Janda-town carnival in springtime!" The metal-hand expelled one more baleful click. Bloth reeled back to his station as the vengeful ex-shipowner slunk off townbound with his crew. Mantus exchanged stares with an eye-level Konk, the chunky underling's ego shrunk at the reemergence of a threatening master to the gangplank of the Maelstrom.

The sun started to rise as Ren's water-imbued eyes trembled open from a sleep.

Ren literally had fallen asleep at the wheel of the ship and found himself plunked on the floor. His nape had twisted into an irritating kink, he stroked the back of his neck with a groan. He startled himself awake and scanned around for any sign of threat, he saw none. The Wraith appeared to be scattered somewhere out in the expanse of sea. He pushed up to begin steering. He then saw something of sinking goop creeping toward the port of the craft, he let out a jolted gasp. "Noy jitat! Dark water, off port'side!" Ren's blue eyes flashed wide as he swore under a wheeze. He powerfully hugged the spindle to drive the ship away. Pounding immediately ripped through the atmosphere, the sea below pulled violently with treacherous waves. Then, a colossal silver and violet-scaled beast bludgeoned through the water. It struck up into the air and crashed back down, forcefully enough to prematurely tip the Wraith. Not long after that, another enormous monster hailed from the sea. "Leviathans!" Ren desperately cried out as he deftly rushed to drive the sailing transport away from turmoil. Thankfully, the rumble had been considerable and spaced the vessel out just far enough from the foul trap. "We must have disturbed their nest. Noy jitat." He cursed in depletion, clenching his teeth and bitter at himself for sleeping on the job. Something emerging from the inside stopped his idea.

Ioz scrambled out from below. "Ren! By the two moons what was that?" Ioz bounded out of the cuddy, sword ready to maul. He saw the leviathans jumping up out of the water. "Noy jitat, Ren! Chungo lungo! Scot pango on a sea-slug's backside, where on Mer did you steer us to?! We're on a jitatan bed of leviathans!" He scorched out like he would if he were being chased by the Dark Dweller and barging Ren out of the way, he abducted the wheel. Before he could reprimand the well-known prince, the hull underwent a lurch and it flung Ren against the protective railing. In another instant, the youth was bumped off and straight into a mount of dark water. "Ren!" The pirate tumultuously screamed. Right when it happened, Tula raced to the proximity. Her eyes widened in terror, hand covering her mouth in an inescapable gasp.

"What in the eight wonders is going on? Morning brother. Hey, where are we? I hear leviathans, they're far away, right?" The new visitor had been the last to awaken with a start, she sought Ren, who she could not focus her eyes on. The eccentric guest yawed her gaze to her surroundings. She noticed they were exceedingly different from the night before as she focused on the patch of blackness that aimed to swallow Ren. It had already encased every part, save to the midriff. "Noy jitat! Brother, we've got to help him!" She lamented after a contentious intervention, dire as she dashed to the nearby helm.

Ren screamed endlessly, fighting through all he could to escape the entrapping clutches of the ghastly muck. He occupied the Compass above the water, despairingly ready to toss it. He felt a terrible tendril latch on to the hand that clutched the blue gem inside, debilitating him. He cried out with desperation. Painfully, he exerted to keep his head above which would be his, and the Quest's, only hope. "Ioz, wake Niddler, tell him to take the Compass!" He pleaded in agony to the navigator, witnessing the dip of himself into a terrified torment. His waist stayed submerged, deep in demise. He started to sink fast. Too fast.

"Noy jitat! Hold on!" In urgency Ioz yelled back to Ren. "Tula, steer it close!" Ioz issued the severe order and careered to the compartment to rouse the half-zonked monkeybird whom apparently laid outcold like a stack of Draja-fruit. "Get off your lazy feathers and get the Treasure you stupid rudderless-jitatan-monkeybird! Ren overboard! Dark water!" He rushed at Niddler to get up, not sparing any feelings and grabbing him by the scuff of the neck. The avian barely managed a huh before becoming shocked into action. "Hurry!" He stormily flurried after, beating his sword against the door. He cursed as the ship buckled again, being slammed by another sea-serpent.

"I've got it!" Niddler shrilled, chasing the rolling Treasure around on the board. He finally caught it. He soared as fast as he could assemble his motion for the trapped Ren, who was treading the midst of losing any stability that endured.

"Someone...get the Compass!" Ren panted in laden wait, he held on with the last strength left in his remaining hand and barely his head when he became overpowered by the caging ooze.

"I can help this!...I think! Steer clear! I'll try to get him out of this ballast-scum!" Jazhea's eyes flared as she mounted her dagron and flew to hover over her trapped relation. "Grab on!" She shouted below her, just as Ren's hand began to flood.

Ren did not let go of the cerulean relic. He speedily enabled a grip on to the dagron's ankle as he felt the rest of his head being smothered to the squashing mass. He could not speak and his vision had started to fade. Niddler maneuvered in without an instant to dally, lowering the weighty sphere into the pool of sludge as the royal's clamped hand began to recoil from the reptilian ankle. Ren felt his muscles stop resisting when the gook surrounding him started to part, and he limply fell into the crystal-blue sea water. Jazhea reached down a palm, which he clamped on to and pulled himself up. He flipped backward to the dagron's aft in an acrobatic feat, with the help from two pairs of wings. "Thanks, Niddler. And Jazhea." Out of breath, he barely managed to squeeze out. Ren gawked at the hardy waif who had helped him. The dagron dove down and then spun up to return to the bow.

"Thanks Jazhea, you saved these wings a lot of wear!" Niddler chirped out, happily relieved. Jazhea shone a grin at the monkeybird. In the air, Ren saw the Wraith heave and sway as more peeved leviathans rocketed up and out of the water. His eyes flashed stone, one of the beasts gaped a serpent's mouth open to make Jazhea's dagron lunch. Piercing like the wind were the orphans' shrieks from the deck of the Wraith.

PART 2 - Jazhea's Eyes

"Jazhea, leviathan from starboard!" Ren directed a tardy signal to the pilot, who was evidently flying en route to carnage.

Crashing of an altitude of coral hit the waves. Shards broke to dust and filled the blue with bubbles and foam, the leviathan slowed as it drew nearer. With a spin, Jazhea managed to steer the scaly creature out-of-the-way.

"That rock! Does it do anything?!" Jazhea retched out in the midst of an adrenaline jolt. Ren seemed stammered when he shook his head. "Well it must be speeding us up or slowing them down! I don't think we'd still be flying! I can't see-!" With a scraggy declaration she abraded her fear. Before the instant Ren and Niddler would be gulped, the driver's senses were absent. The jaw of the silver monster had paused along with it's body, no longer a peril in it's pursuit of the dagron's tail. Beesall was rolling so much that she would have knocked the passengers from her back. She landed square on the vibrant flat of the Wraith. Only a moment were they allowed to catch a breather before the pounding started again.

"How?" Ren stunted his nerve, then he noticed something only he must have alone been able to witness. Surrounding the orb of the Treasure, was a boundary of power. Not one small, but seemingly as ample as the Wraith itself. He did not feel a stranger to the concept that he could have been walking to Ad infinitum in Arakna's caves. However, he was not sure of the idea the Treasure could have been changing the time to movement for everything contained within it's zone of control or shifting the external atmosphere, perhaps even the very motions of the waves. Nor Ioz or Tula had said a word about anything he had been personally afflicted by.

"Is someone going to tell me why we're so far off-course? Why was Ren left alone last night?" Tula furiously hollered from the wheel while the deck sloped and almost careened. Niddler slid along the wood floor, all but unable to keep footing. Ren and Jazhea held to the dagron that was claw-gripping the surface.

"I made a mistake!" Ren called back guiltily, not able to go into detail by the fact that he had overestimated his fortitude.

"It was partially my fault!" Jazhea gleaned in to take some of the blame in her waking.

Ren blinked at her peculiarly.

"Well you can tell us about it later!" Tula let out, hectically leading the ship. "Full sail! We need to outrun them and head East!" She dealt to Ioz, who positioned himself up the mast and just below the crow's nest to watch out ahead.

"We're not that far off-course, and no! We need to wait it out and go North, woman!" Ioz argued with demanding pretentiousness. "Chungo lungo! We need to get out of here or we're all going to die!" He painstakingly ranted as another ocean-dweller jostled the bulwark, causing him to swear and adhere his arms to the post.

"How far off-course are we, Ioz?" Ren amplified up from the floor below.

"West of Octopon, by the wind!" The treasure-hunter shouted back from overhead. He slid down the mast with a flapping of vibrant stripes and fought motion on wobbly legs to recover the helm from Tula.

If that were true they weren't far off direction, they only needed to go to the lighthouse so he could return the Treasure for safekeeping. "Wait Ioz, we'll go East! We need to head home." Ren nimbly commanded, he hobbled off from the dagron's back and tried to vamoose his route toward the wheel. Jazhea made her path up as well, she wrestled to keep her balance on the floorboards and looped her scale rope on spar to swing from. She jumped off where the three gathered.

"We can make our way there, once we get off this jitatan swarm! Chungo-lungo! Someone needs to be at the sail, Tula! That or try to reason with these oversized-eels!" Ioz flustered to drive North in attempt to skitter away from the leviathan herd, worried it would damage the ship. Timber creaked underneath his feet as the quick vessel teetered.

"I might have to!" Tula nettled as she fumbled to arrange the quarrelsome sail into a favorable tacking. "Ay jitata!" She vehemently cursed. Ioz's suggestion then became moot as the leviathans remained in close range, but began to decelerate. The wavering extinguished only meagerly. Tula achieved a fix at full gale.

"So we're near Octopon, home..." Jazhea delicately hummed. Ren focused an attentive glance at her, she caught him in the intent of galloping to the rig to help Tula. "I haven't been there since so long ago." Her words inflected of hopefulness.

Ren paused as the waves rocked beneath the ship, he was going to say something. He considered only in his mind to recount his ventures for the Treasures and the restoration of over half of Octopon, but he stopped hesitant.

Tula and Ioz were reacting differently to him since this new skill he had been bestowed with, Ren could tell. Niddler seemed to be behaving more apprehensively. He reached Tula's vicinity and bore a hand with the tacking, brows fazing above at the boom. He viewed another vehicle over the horizon making headway at a steady speed, but it was not the Maelstrom. His skylight eyes narrowed to slits as he tried to form it out. "By the Eight Forbidden Seas, there's a ship approaching!" The Octopian lad alerted hardly, pointing to the disturbance in the distance.

"Aye, Ren?" Ioz wondered and swerved his head to the direction of Ren's sign, staggered but distressed. The frame drew tighter to the line, a smaller boat adjacent to the one spotted also became apparent.

Tula scaled the net up to the crow's nest. She arrested a looking-glass and eyed the oncoming ship. "It's Joat!" With capacious eyes she notified to the assemblage beneath. She caught sight of the man with the head of a mutant-muzzle and the mechanical hand, the vengeful seadog and scorned ex-owner of the Wraith. She then peered at the sleeker ship. "He has Konk with him! A still-tall Konk!" She wrought the unpleasant news from aloft, and shimmied down.

"Noy jitat! Is there any end to these kreld-eaters?" Ioz slapped his hand to his forehead, expressing drained grievances. There would be no hope of using the glider in this situation; the ships were far from land, and the leviathans were still at bay. After smacking his swelling head to the board as he slipped on waxing seaweed-sediments he slurred with fluster at the cleaning twins. "Have you ever worked a day in your lily-livered lives? I can't walk on this smilge-deck!" He vented at Joiquiva and Lus-nayi, who were scrubbing as hard as they could.

"Now is not the time." Ren simpered at the streaming rapids.

The idea then hit Ioz, he developed a plan. "Ren! Niddler! We're going to try to use these waves from the leviathans to our advantage. We just need a little more wind behind our sails and distance between and we can outrun them. Go out and distract them. It'll slow them down so they can't see what we're doing. Only throw the excess on the deck, not the essential supplies, go now! Quickly!" He rushed to the two as Tula tugged upon the rope to entrap the Westbound wind for swift running through the drift. "Those dartha-eels are in for one jitatan sea-maze." He muttered with a concentrating air under his breath.

"More flying? Again?" Niddler unluckily griped.

"Let's get them, Niddler!" Ren inspired with a wily smile as he seized many unneeded, random objects in his arms. The monkeybird lifted him off.

Jazhea dashed to her dagron and mounted. "There has to be something I can do!" The sportive guest hurried out before she took to the air, joining them as they hovered spot over the stern of the Wraith.

"These girls are useful!" No one had noticed the labor invested with her savvy skill but Lus-nayi had been weaving as Ioz discovered. The jib-cloth for spare she finished sewing of, and as it was raised the waterline byway zoomed by like a wildfire's blaze, swifter in fast-running than ever before.

"What are those barnacle-brains doing?! On my ship!" Joat stared into his eyeglass at the Wraith, where he observed the show of Ren and Niddler with an erratic dagron doing a fascinating sky-dance. Objects hurled in his direction, a decrepit shoe whooshed at his head and tossed his unusual hat behind him. "Noy borga! I'll shred them like a sun-bleached sail, they'll learn my waters run deep!" He immediately pulled the telescope away from his face, almost throwing it with enraged frustration. The largest of Bloth's scout-ships and the scantier one at the margin buckled and collided as a nearby leviathan leapt up and out of the water, causing a sieging vibration. Joat used his metal hand to grip on to the side of the ship as his crew braced for their fall.

"Ahhh!" Screamed Konk as he crashed to his face on the spindly boat next to Joat's vessel. "How far away is Maelstrom?" The flabbergasted piglet badgered.

"Too far away to help us!" The equine-head sorely neighed back.

The Wraith at last began to ease upon smooth tide, the leviathans appeared distracted with a new target. "Ahh, by chunga, it worked. We gave them the slip, for now." Ioz strummed as he shifted his eyes at the treacherous waters the enemies had recently fallen upon. Ren and the monkeybird floated to a landing on the floorboards of the Wraith, Jazhea dismounted.

"You're very brave, Jazhea." Ren commented at his backer's bold actions in something of bedazzled surprise, this was the second time on their way she had helped out.

"Don't thank me, it was Beesall who did all the work. Leviathans are nothing but slimy maggots you know, it's a good thing we made it out." The noble stranger lauded with a cheer as she stroked her dagron.

"I'm not sure if I agree with you on that, I used to feel the same about dagrons until I learned what it was like to have to live like one. Can you show me how on Mer you learned those moves? I've never seen anyone who flies so well on a dagron, except maybe Bloth's men. Beesall is a lot...friendlier though." Ren quizzically awed. Jazhea almost possessed a special skill in the same way that Avagon did. Being masterful with a dagron was indeed a rare talent and she would probably be perfected in dagron aeronautics, if not for her prior failure.

"Well. I was trained from an early age. Maybe I'll teach you sometime." Jazhea worded with a smug expression.

Ren gathered an aspect of something hidden, he sensed she wouldn't prolong in detail. He noticed she continued to fiddle with her memorial ornament. Ioz guided the ship to horizons beyond. Catching an assuaging deal of sea-breeze, they would likely be ahead of the game, at least for a little while.

"I thought you said Vaecusa was a warrior in our family, not a dagron-rider." Ren studied Jazhea's clueless face, affirming what she told of earlier.

"She was, and she knew great people. Some of them were with Pri-" The sporty maiden started to say before being curtailed by the Compass going off. It signaled toward a location that was arriving up ahead.

"Ah?" Ren exclaimed in a quiet stupor, surprised by the event. "The Compass, it's pointing to that land up North!" He piped aloud, pointing enthusiastically.

"What in the twenty seas is that?" Jazhea asked with an unnerved tremor, tipping a bewildered brow. She observed the Compass heedfully, never having seen anything like it before.

"This? This is the Compass our Father Primus left to me, to find the Thirteen Treasures he sought to stop the dark water." Ren told her conclusively. "Don't you know about our father's Quest?" He pried her with careful eyes, insinuating an ado of her ignorance.

"The Quest for the Treasures? Oh, I do. Well, that's what I was told. I've never seen anything like that before, that's the Compass of Rule?" Jazhea questioned arduously, both inquisitive and revealing in words. She scrunched her eyes at the interesting token of aquamarine.

"The Compass of Rule?" So she knew of it, Ren reflected. "Yes, he passed it on along with his journey to me, to find them to restore our home. I've already found nine of the Thirteen needed." He cordially disclosed. He felt for once that he could be open with her.

"Really? It really works? Oh, brother, I haven't seen Octopon in so long." Jazhea warily drew in air. She gazed with a static longing, her face wore an uncanny and flinty expression.

"Ren, hurry up! We need to catch this zephyr or we'll be blown off-course again!" Tula whipped Ren a lively reminder of reality, summoning him to the block-and-tackle rig. The yearning lad had made another error. Ren corrected his blunder with a minor easement. They had indeed missed the route they wished to waft for, an insignificant curb in direction couldn't cause too much damage.

"Octopon..." Ren momentarily considered. He passed to focus on Ioz, who continued forward to the newly peaking land. "How far is home?" He examined while in deep ponder.

"South. We're too far North now." Ioz avouched from his stance on the steering. "Scot pango! If this dark water doesn't let up, we won't be able to go anywhere." He let the expletives fly, twisting the ship in all angles and fighting to escape the blackened liquid that began to swarm from around the vessel. "A little help, your highness?" He shouted with an irate grumble. Ren was changing slightly.

"Then we'll go North. To the Treasure." Ren was driven when he voiced the preceding ambition. He inwardly struck himself with tense embarrassment, somehow notions of home wouldn't stop imposing on him. He jounced forward to shift on the line.

"You'll have to wait until we steer us out of here, Ren. The jitatan stuff is everywhere." Ioz tousled a different direction each time, moving apart in a narrower space at every whirl. "I've never seen so much dark water in one place in all my days of sailing the twenty seas!" He did not exaggerate, the entire watery mass laid out before him flourished with the imperfectly blotched whole of dark water.

"Ioz! Dark water!" Tula apprised from adjusting the sails, sprinting up deck in warning.

"We're already on it, Tula." Ioz reported morbidly. His mind affixed in onerous concentration.

The dark water split and lashed, moving as if it infused a capacity of it's own. "Tula, I have an idea. Come on." Ren sprung up by a renewed will, pulling the forest-eyed lass toward the edge of the deck. "Keep steering, Ioz!" He ordered back to the pilot. Ren nestled the Treasure in his arms. "Use this rope to hold me up, I'll clear it away." He flagged the unit of cord to her.

"Be careful, Ren." Tula supported him by his lashed feet, wrung around the bottommost latch and off the ship as Ren dunked the Treasure into the black force. The tendrils whipped at waxen hair as the wind blew and slashed at his form. Increasingly, the evil melted and cleared a spot for the Wraith, Tula dragged the regent back up as an undimmed area of water began to spread.

"Noy jitat." Ren cursed with agitation. "With this dark water we can't take the Treasure back." He glared at the innumerable span of the dark water surrounding them. "I believe we'll get stuck out here. We'll have to head toward the 10th Treasure of Rule, and then return this one." Ren pensively secured the Treasure in his tight wrap, surmounting to the burdensome conclusion. Jazhea peeked at him.

"It's a little too late for that, we've got company!" Tula clamored in alarm of the offending sight that was charging itself in to close range. Joat and Konk had caught up with them, wrangling through the thin patch of water that had been purified.

"Kreld-eaters! They don't give up!" Anxious and frantic, Ren blared. He grit his teeth as he scattered to the rail.

"We're not going to be able to outrun them forever at this rate. The ship is slowed! We need to toss some supplies if we don't want them on us like a dagron-feeding-frenzy!" Ioz commanded affirmatively from the helm.

"We don't have much to toss!" Ren fiercely hollered back.

"We don't have much choice!" Ioz returned after, grimly scouring the stretch toward the field of water dabbled with a catastrophe of black.

"Wait." Jazhea said at whim, lucidly immediate. "I'll go. The dagron should take some weight off your ship." She spoke up as she solemnly peered at Ren.

"We'll still have to lose them anyway! Dead astern!" Tula imperiously called out.

"What about the nets, Ren?!" Joiquiva wallowed as she helped her weak twin in skinning the fresh hull of goija-biters.

"Leave it or leave your heads in the Dark Dweller's bowels." Ioz callously spared no request. With resentment the orphans sent the Wraith's surplus of chomping fish to the depths.

"Ioz, don't give them that. Good job, Joiquiva and Lus-nayi." Ren cooled the helmsman's mettle as he applauded the sisters and ran for the observation platform. "Go? Go where?" The prince challenged his supposed sibling with impetuous daunt, not wanting to let her alone.

"Back to Octopon. It's not far from here. I need to anyway." Jazhea stiffly insisted, she looked right at him. She appeared bereaved but unshakable.

"No, I'll get us all out of here, you don't need to-" Ren resolved for an instant, they would have no choice. "Right." The prince at last ascertained. The wanderer ascended her dagron and took to the sky to fly away.

He could see her lips move as she bid him farewell from the air. Ren watched her form glide toward the otherside of the shore and then ran to yell to her.

"Jazhea! Tell Jenna I have nine!" Ren shouted out, at the end.

"You got it, Ren!" Ren heard Jazhea calling back, at least that was what his ears made out. He fleetingly followed her silhouette as it disappeared under the sinking orange sun. Now the Wraith moved faster, but the pursuers behind them were still gaining.

"We're going as fast as we can but we can't outrun them!" Tula terrifically blazoned, yanking on a sail as much as she could to mold it to conduct the wind. Moments passed before the ships were in range of close sight. Unluckily, the Wraith met a dead end, blocked by a patch of dark grime.

"Treasure or less sail!" Ioz thundered with a steely grimace from the wheel, unfeasibly managing to rip away from jeopardy in time. Disastrously, open waters stayed obstructed for too long of a time. He was too conclusive, and Ren hadn't been acting enough on the Wraith's behalf.

Joat and Konk grinned caustically from the zooming dinghies. "We've got you now, dartha-eels! You, and my ship!" Joat wrought a sly grin and snickered evilly as a seasucker launched from the plumper of the scout-ships.

"Heh, heh. Konk will get big reward for jitata boy and Treasure!" Konk verbalized with a bumbling chuckle, climbing on to the line that attached to the adventurer's skiff.

"You can keep your reward." Joat sniggered in remark. "I already have mine!" The claw-handed scamp hooked his metal limb to the wire, zipping down it like a pulley.

"Ay chunga!" Ren grimly fouled. He spelled into hysteria as he attempted to saw at the cable that plastered itself to the rail of the starboard with his terse and broken blade, but it would not budge. In a flash, the hook-armed avenger was upon them while a sneaky piglet doddered up from close behind.

Joat crawled to the end of the line and with a dexterous flip, boarded the deck of the Wraith. "It's nice to see you've kept my ship in good shape, Ioz, but I think it's about time I have a chance to use it!" The cretin-headed raider clicked his claw menacingly, seething hatred in his stare. He advanced toward Ren, who valiantly drew his sword. The pleated clasp slung down as Ren choked the blow and somersaulted to his right side. The golden-haired man then tried to strike but was ground to a rattling impasse, foiled by a secondary weapon Joat wielded with his other hand. "It's useless, boy, this ship and everything on it belongs to me!" He cackled a heinous laugh, swinging his piercing and sharp pincer at the youth again.

"Ay chungo chipungo! Not if I have anything to say about it!" The raven-haired pirate yelled out from above. Ioz swung down from the wheel, vaulting over the high barricade as he utilized his sword. He struck at the invading freak with his curved blade. Joat deflected with a solidly-crooked paw, using it to throw Ioz back with a push. "Noy jitat!" Ioz bullheadedly swore. Tensely, he dragged up from off the ground to resume his stance. Tula joined in the fray. She flogged down from a rope, drawing her knife. She kicked Joat square in the head from the halyard, causing him to slump over.

Whopping Konk had arrived then and jockeyed to strike at Tula, who dodged. "Surrender! Foolish wench!" The pig-man spewed, unaware of her prowess.

"Where is this boy's rotten Treasure?" Joat hoofed for the hold of the Wraith before he was attacked by a divebombing Niddler, who squawked and tore at his face. The avian attempted to lift him away. He fussed in irritation and flicked the monkeybird off. More fiends from both the ships were wriggling up the appendage.

"Me don't know. Konk look for it." Konk started in a grumble and waddled for anything on board that looked like a Treasure but his hands were full with Tula, and Niddler, who attacked him now as well.

His huge skewer cast, after hauling against the ecomancer. Konk neared Tula and before a stretched clack from the blush-clothed warrior, became as no prominent threat once more. "Bloth be disappointed." Under a mere spark, he compressed into a pint-size.

"Heeheh. We don't really need to find where it is!" Joat smartly epitomized, placing the emphasis on an obligation. "We're taking this ship back anyway." He snickered with a sinister neigh.

"Not on your life!" Ioz brazenly roared, clashing his brand of might. It almost made contact before Joat fended it off. "Defend the Treasure!" He scampered about in attempt to reach the fellow deckhands, drastically tolling out a cautionary order.

"Fool pirate, do you think you can stop me? Natchut!" Joat jeered, grabbing Ioz's arm by his steel nipper and slamming him down.

"Ioz!" The concerned Tula hollered, she spun toward Joat and delivered a swift kick to his face. She thrust her fighting cutlass at his torso when he got up but her wrist became ensnared. Joat snapped her up and pelted her into the mast.

"Tula!" Ren was making a dash for his jilted friend when he felt a sting, something clipped him. He reeled back around and saw that Konk's trident pierced into the flesh of his side, he was not hurt. The piglet froze, staring at him with stunned eyes and an exaggerated frown. "Noy jitat!" Ren had been knocked off his guard when he hotly swore under his breath. Joat kept his back turned. Konk tried to perform the feat again, which Ren didn't allow. "Hurry up!" He alerted his friends with a sizzling vocal. He managed to run to Tula, but by then it was too late. Knivers from Bloth's and Joat's crews had tailed and surrounded them on the mid'ship.

Tula's eyes ferociously jarred open as she came to. Ren and Ioz were wrenched away from her. She focused her energy, she could not let it end like this. She sensed her head starting to throb, Ioz noticed her and tried to give her signal before a blunt grasp overtook her.

"Not happening, wench!" The sneaky-handed Joat gnarled as he fiendishly nabbed her by her clothe, he caught on to Tula's effort and piled her with the arrested trio upon the floor.

"Niddler, can you try to fly us?" The cornered grief at the terrifying ensemble pried the desperate request from Ren's lips.

"I can't fly both of you! Or all three of you! Kreld-flanks..." Niddler regrettably chattered, bitting his mitts.

"You won't take us alive, kreld-eaters, by my father's blood!" Ioz took a defensive stand, being the first to strike out. He swerved his blade at the mob encircling him but was quickly wrestled back. Niddler screeched and tried to take to the air but became restrained as a ruffian's hand from the swarm folded around an ankle. The aggressor swung the monkeybird underneath the crowd, which made him thump his head. Joat opened the hatch of the Wraith as the teeming pirates pounded and pushed on the three of them while Niddler was adjacent.

"I doubt that, but you can think that for yourself if you want, ship-stealing darva-waste!" Joat victoriously crowed as he punted the four of them into the cargobay, which they soon learned had been replaced with a dagron-bone cage that slapped shut upon entry. The cramped enclosure trapped the victims against each other arm to side, like goija-fish in a barrel. "Now...to find that kreld-raffendian Treasure!" The hybrid-headed schemer left the adventurers in their confines and pivoted on heel to order the looters to search the ship.

"Noy jitat...if that dartha-eel captures us I swear..." Ioz began a whisper to his shipmates.

"He's going to take us back to the Maelstrom and then we'll be..." The monkeybird blubbered, he gulped as if he couldn't dispense a lump in his throat. "Constrictus-bait...!" He timidly finished, uttering a worried chatter.

"No time to think of that now, monkeybird! We have to get out of here." Under tepid breath Ioz rambled back. He shifted to try to move his arms but found his limbs were pinned down by the extent of the cage. "By Kuunda, I should have known better than to think women were anything but bad luck...still." Though he strove to conceal his frustration, he was sure Tula heard.

"Or maybe it's that cursed coat." Someone in the lock mumbled.

"Quiet Niddler! There's nothing we can do about it now." Ren hushed a silent command to his brightly colored friend beside him, he clenched his teeth in anxiety. His worries were bigger though, he felt himself sweating waves. Konk saw him, he was positively sure of it. The kreld-eater had stricken him with a serious disaster that would have literally minced him, and he remained unfazed.

"Ugh..." Tula groaned, restless in agony. "These bars, they're too barren." She distressed, she struggled to oscillate herself more room but she only used up more of her energy. She couldn't find a fix with so many of the invaders around and she only crowded out Ren and Ioz, who were trapped on either side of her.

"Clam up down there smool-rats!" Joat clapped at the cage with his metal claw, making a loud thwack on the bars. "Where is that Trinket?" He carried away from them to blab to the multitude.

"Here! Konk find it!" The piglet secured a chainball-framed stone of enormous proportion in his grubby arms as he proclaimed his bold sentiment. He frisked to the sea and saw a familiar vessel fast approaching. "Look!" He pointed out with his other arm. "It Bloth." He chuckled amid a slow-thinking sneer.

Joat drew his vision to the nearing Maelstrom and then reverted to stare back at Konk. "I know that, you fool-headed pig-brain!" He shouted at the stubby pirate below him, fists to his hips and miffed. He eyed the clunky gem the runt had hitched in possession. "That's the Treasure?" He peeked at the object with suspicion and disdain, squinting one eye with a hard reaction.

"Yes!" The gantha-pig responded with a groaned blurt. "And it glow!" He hung the Treasure right over Ren as it glittered green. He grinned with his flabby cheeks.

Only modest stretch of distance away, the skeletal ship pushed onward through the hailing waves.

"Excellent." The captain of a gigantic sea-vessel tactfully declared. He peered at the Wraith through the looking-glass he pressed up to his visual. "He has the prince's ship." He reported with an appraising expression. After observing Joat and several men on board, he lowered his eyepiece. He spun a glance to his cohort who steered the warship. "The Treasure is ours." Bloth faced his commander whom he informed of the glorious news. Mantus grinned successfully.

The Maelstrom rowed up alongside the scout-ships and the Wraith, which caused the stagnant vessels to purl from vibration as it slowed to a halt. From the cage, the captives stirred of antsy and fearful reception. Bloth and a few trusted consorts disembarked and made their way on the measly deck. Stepping onto the schooner, it bellowed under the bulk. "I have the Treasure, Bloth! Prince Ren is in the cage, as you wanted!" The sea-camel grinned from the red boat as he retained the globular Treasure in his mitts. The pirate captain gave the jewel a once-over, slightly drooping his lip as if to expel a disbelieving tirade and then he abducted the gem, holding it under one large arm. He passed to grin at the captives stowed in the hoard of the ship, frighteningly staring detestation into their eyes.

"Very good, Joat. You've done exactly as I've asked. The ship is yours." The despicable captain praised the terrorizing mercenary and pointed a cruel glare at the tender forms of his trembling targets, eying up his prey with a distorted face. Joat excruciatingly howled, he threw a clawed hand through the air in a shining celebration.

"What about my payment?" The gloating scavenger persisted.

This interrupted Bloth's gratifying thoughts and he turned to look at the naja-shaped figure. "Ah, yes." He smiled sickeningly sweet as he rewarded his lackey, drawing out a bag of gold. "One-hundred pieces, as we agreed." He tossed the bag to the chrome-clawed cutthroat without batting a finger or lash, the amputee then caught it with an artificial grip. He quickly ended his words to the metal-tramp, pleased to be done with niceties. Joat snidely snickered. Bloth then turned back to look at the sight that made him celebrate.

"I don't like the sound of this." Ren stewed outloud, scarcely verbalizing his doom below a level volume. Niddler just exhaled, stalling little noises that sounded like muted squawks. Tula was breathless and silent. Ioz only glowered, he looked like he pined to shout out a scroll worth of obscenities.

The idleness continued as Bloth bore triumphantly down on his captives. He was reveling in his victory and deciding what his next move should be. The lengthy quietude followed further before Joat nasalized his sarcasm once more. "So what fun does Bloth want done with these filthy bilge-leeches?" He asked the Pirate Lord iniquitously, sly cruelty dripping from his tone.

"Wait, Bloth! Konk have important news!" Konk interrupted before Bloth could answer. The boor desisted, waddling up on his pegleg to the to pallor behemoth. "About Ren!" He added then, gaping wide-eyed up at the disfigured humanoid. Bloth viewed him in revile at having just impeded his glory.

Bloth growled and whipped around to scowl at the asinine pegleg. "What is it, Konk?!" The gluttonous captain nearly bashed the short man over with a roar, swinging in direction to the piglet. "This better be important." He seethed. Anger flashed in his singular amber, his gaze lingered and did not lift from the prince in the cage. Konk fleered contemptuously at Ren.

"Ay jitata." Sweat bated down from the trapped prince's face as he cursed one final time.