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.

6. Moonrise of the 13th

Chapter 5

MOONRISE OF THE 13TH

PART 1 - Dark Water's Greed

The sun receded quickly downward as an eerie silence fell over the floorboards of the Wraith. There were about fifteen pirates packed onto it's deck. Three forms stood with prominence over the captives imprisoned in a quadrate cage embedded over what did lead to the hold. The smaller of the figures conducted to speak.

"Ren is..." The peg-legged pirate veered up at a menacing anti-human, his boss. The word rolled on the tip of his fat tongue as he strove to let it go. "In...destructible!" His voice of gravel determined to groan out. Konk stared up at the brutal form with unsettled and spacious eyes as if he had truthfully come upon some impressive and horrifying revelation. From the cage four watched on fearfully, not professing a word.

"Don't waste my time, Konk." The nasty captain roared with warning, he plunked Konk up by the collar of the torn shirt and readied him to throw in annoyance. In the beginning, the Pirate Lord presumed this would be some spiel of incompetence about how Konk did something he would find to be unreasonable and would provide some paltry excuse for it. Instead, the irksome midget merely spewed dribble, but he wasn't in the mood to be audience.

"But Master! It not a lie! Konk hit Ren with weapon and Ren..." Konk despairingly rippled with a pause. "Unharmed!" His eyes transformed into wide gaping orbs, doting terrorstricken at his supervisor when making this shocking disclosure as if not fully believing it for himself. "Konk see it with own eyes!" The boor went over every fine detail, as if to validate. From the bone casket Tula gasped while Ren shuddered and swallowed a lump, he muttered a thousand curses in his mind for letting himself get hit.

Bloth narrowed his glower at the obnoxious munchkin of a subordinate and ceased as if to contemplate. "Is that so, Konk?" He glared in disbelief at the stout ignoramus who made the outrageous claim, but he inclined to deliberation. The tension on the deck mounted. "Even his skin?" His charmed voice shot through the dreary atmosphere at his target, and away from the cringing subjects of his notion. "Perhaps you would like to show me how?" Bloth laughed with peaking amusement. He leered at Ren, who tremored after hearing his mindful words. The crammed captives dithered from their imprisoning enclosure.

"Yes, yes Bloth. It all true! Me swear on twenty seas!" The pegleg nodded his head in compliance. He flapped his arms, painstakingly desperate to prove this idea as he would to honor his master.

The evil pirate exquisitely chuckled and quickly bat an eye at Ren, which made the boy's heart dreadfully skip. He turned back to Konk. "Then you better hope you're indestructible, because the next place you're going is into the maw of the Constrictus! You failed!" Bloth's emphatic cue shut him up. He angrily chucked the hoggish runt an accelerating distance into the frame of the schooner. Ren breathed a sign of relief, he was too pent up to take any humor out of the situation but he thanked Kuunda that Konk was the only witness. Unfortunately, they were out of one danger and into another. Bloth evidently had taken enough of smilge-tossing on the enemies' ship. "Take the prisoners!" The pretentious Captain roared as the minions gathered around to cart them off.

The sky gleamed of twilight as Ren's crew were tightly bound and backed against the hold of the drifting Maelstrom. Disturbing noises lingered from the pit to the back of them. The archnemesis looked on, admiring the Compass he enclosed in his hand. "It's finally mine." Over his hull of chipped skulls and bloody bones the Plundering-King boasted with a grin. His sneering at the four misfits mottled his infernal scheme as wickedness crossed his brow. He clinched the viridian Treasure under the opposing arm. Standing by his side was the mammal-headed troublemaker, intent on adding insult to injury.

"How do you feel now that you're finally getting justice, ship-snatchers!" The hooked-mutant waggled up close to fluster them as his and Bloth's men pressed the triad back. "I'm going to enjoy being able to sail My Wraith again! Steal My ship, will you? I'll show you!" Joat snickered amid a mud-slinging whinny, clicking his pincer at them. He was neighing with the rejoice of their misery, all the while stressing the true ownership of the fiery boat.

Ioz glowered but held his tongue. Tula seemed to be at a loss for words. Niddler whimpered nervously.

"Enough!" Bloth finally dictated. He circled his attention to his prey and walked in front of them, Joat backed up in a dignified reverence at his advance. Giving the three a dirty frown, he tottered over to the most unfortunate victim of his hatred. "I regret to inform you that your Wraith has no sail, you and your crew won't be going anywhere. Forget the first one, I am quite pleased, boy." Bloth teased the jolly inspection of his squirming opponent on the ground, who was splayed out by iron chains. Many a pirate howled.

"Then I don't suppose you'll be having a feast to celebrate." Ren internally lurched from his throat, attending to his qualm of not showing his fear. He needed more time, before what would happen next.

"You make a good suggestion, lad." Bloth almost was considering for a tender stroke of an instant before he resumed his barbarism. "Then again, I think I'd rather watch the Prince of Octopon Dagroned-and-Quartered. First." He chuckled as he stabbed a leer at the young captain's trunk and the separable limbs tied to each harness. Triple allies of the Questers gaped.

"Do me a favor, Son of Primus, and try to keep at least two hands on deck, I could use a better sword-hilt." Mantus's wisping breath stung at Ren in his mire, the cutthroat-crook unfolded his wrists from the insides of flowing sleeves to admire a prime cutlass and a rather large ditty of gold coin.

"15 Mantus! Says one goes in the pit! Yeah!" The cry from a lusting bandit blurted in with a sack of money.

"20! One in the pit, one off the bow!" Another lurker hooted, drooling at the heavy spoils clinched by Mantus's fist.

"We have to help him, Ioz! He'll have to endure worse than death, remember? What if it's everlasting?" Tula's speech was about to break, regrettably unable to break free from the killing looters patrolling the Constrictus pit. Her ecomancer's essence sopped for the pain her devoted confidant would have to undergo.

Ioz kicked at the heads but was suppressed by the impatient sea-men. "Even if he survives, I can't imagine what state he'll be in. If only we could think of a distraction...we're out of time." Ioz mourned for his lack of any clue, discouraged as his strength weakened.

"Bye, Ren. I can't bear to look!" Niddler closed his eyes the best he could despite both arms and wings being strangled with searing rope, he could only shed monkeybird tears and hope. He couldn't take the suspense, and creaked a green spot under his lid.

"You always knew how to make an entrance...and an exit." Bloth presided over his handiwork, Ren's subjugation more fulfilling than a ten-course dinner.

"Ay jitata, so this is my reward for saving the world?" Ren uttered morbid last words, he could not kick or even move all but his left foot, which was unlashed. His suffering only seemed to pleasure Bloth further.

"Now Mantus, show our prince real pain." Bloth puffed the sinister and intractable order to his league, a terrifying satisfaction about to rip from his inflated chin. Tula and Ioz cringed beside a now scrunch-eyed simian.

"Mak T-!" Mantus slung his blade to signal the launching. Three sets of boots bucked the ribs of the dagrons as Ren let out a premature scream of fright. Before the scales could divide into an airborne realm, a recall desisted the cruelty of the commander.

"Hold, men!" Bloth aborted the procedure with a parched-white palm. "Why do I only see three dagrons? Where is the forth?" He protested of the missing shackle on Ren's left.

"Sir! The dagrons need rest, these are the only available three!" Konk, who was overseeing the operation, waddled up to Bloth on a gimp stilt to bare the news.

"Well, that's not as fun!" Bloth complained sourly. The trio of smiles alit from the pit's ledge.

"So what do we do now, boss?" Strand sought new arrangement from atop his dagron. The two other pilots, the balding Vlor and a raider with a golden topknot, paid heed.

"Unchain him and tie him up with his friends!" Bloth dictated the setup callously, moreover he knew of another motive plaguing the wheels in his skull. The warriors submit him an Aye-Aye and followed their instructions. Ren was in not much of a better condition than before, but was still in one piece at least. The Captain paused to consider something. "This jewel is very significant." He clasped the large Treasure in one hand, focusing on Ren. "How did you acquire it, prince?" He reached out a blue claw to dig into Ren's shoulder, threatening him to speak.

"Like I would tell you, Bloth! Naja-dog!" Ren exhorted willfully, scowling indomitably at the death-staring adversary. Never would he put the Quest in danger of his own volition. Now he would need to propose a plan out of this, and he was trapped yet again. He could still see the lasting threshold surrounding the River-rune, but he could not know how it could possibly be used in his unfortunate situation.

"No quarter for this laddie! Eel-haul him and toss his wench overboard!" There was a stray cry coming from someone in the empire of cutthroats, Bloth transiently hearkened.

"I remember these two, I didn't have the chance to say Yo-ha-chakka to this one." Mantus paid heed to the sniffling sobs of the Quin sisters, who were bound and chained to the mizzen-mast. He swished his sword very close to Joiquiva's pinned hair above the garb, ogling her defiant pose in his steel tease.

Bloth composed an unstartled laugh. "I figured as much, Son of Primus." The abusive scoundrel imparted as he grasped the boy's shirt collar. "Perhaps I won't throw you to the Constrictus." He entertained a low delight, drawing his talons away from Ren. "Perhaps eel-hauling would be better suited for finishing you, instead. If you think you can survive being towed under the Maelstrom then you're as mistaken as you are ballast-headed, young prince. Yes, perhaps I'll let you meet your end in a watery grave. After I make you watch the end of your frien-" He yet again became bothered by an approaching pegleg who stood to get his attention. "What is it, Now, Konk?" He clamored in response to the aggravating grunt.

In the sky that was growing ever deeper with blue as the scarlet glow of the sun faded into abyss, a lone dagron-rider hovered unseen over the ship. "Now's my chance!" It's pilot avowed with a whisper that lost itself in the night.

"Sir!" Konk nervously started. "The Treasure glows when it's close to Ren!" The cowardly gantha-pig revealed to the fuming white-skinned giant, who was towering over him.

Bloth was about to chuck the stupid piglet into the pit, but the words found anchor in the revolting pirate's mind. He released Ren from his tight cinch, not far enough to swat him over. He pressed the Treasure out to the youthful venturer who struggled to squirm away and sure enough, it pulsated a brilliant emerald. "Ahhh." The charlatan's eye ignited with epiphany and consideration, he frowned. He whirled around to Konk and again hiked him by the apparel. "What was it you said about the Son of Primus?" He growled with severity to his mark, inquest hissing as he frantically shook him for a reply. Bloth had already forgotten the nonsensical thing the blubbering dock-pint rattled of earlier. Konk began to tattle but before he could edge out what he wanted to say, a solitary pilot flew down and hoisted him up. The lizard swooped up into the air and discarded him off the monstrosity, dropping him into the water. "What is this?!" Bloth blundered his phrase appallingly. "Torment my eyes, we're under attack!" He hollered, gawking above him at the incoming beast.

"Now!" Ioz yelled rampantly, seizing opportunity as the buccaneers were distracted. He kicked his way through to break free. Ren and Tula hurried after, absconding in the beeline of the Wraith. The dagron dove down then, threatening to pluck up the pirates on deck that were guarding the group. Niddler staggered about in the rope that bound his wings, shuffling for his shipmates.

"Why are they seaworthy?! I said Make Her Port Tack and Furl Her Mainsheet!" Joat snipped at the watchman of his crew as he witnessed the Wraith's sail still set.

"Duh, I thought you said Make Her Ready to Tack and Throw Three Sheets to the Wind, boss!" In counter the rolly-polly scalawag shrugged. Joat plowed his fleshy palm into his elongated face.

Joat stormed after them, also hightailing anent the Wraith. "You won't get My ship again! Kreld-eater!" He crossly scorned. Ioz hustled to get loose and hold the chrome-hooked slayer off with a sword, closely ducking to block the claw from squashing his face. The reptile again rustled down and scooped up Joat, ascending and sending him tumbling back down to the mantle, which he landed on with a painful thud. His claw clacked as he wailed, sore in anger.

"Release the dagrons! Take down that beast! Go after those dingamourds!" The Pirate Lord clattered as he pointed to the crew of the Wraith, who were now scattering toward the vessel to escape.

"Wait!" Ren shouted with insistence. "The Treasure! Bloth still has it!" He stinted as he stared at the repellent form of the warlike Captain from across the berm.

"I can't fly!" Niddler dramatically screeched, waddling around on clumsy feet with tethered wings. The strands promptly fell from a hairy and feathered body as Ioz drew his cutter back. He stretched elatedly and cawed, touching the sky and narrowly skipping an arrow. Tula, who had managed to untie herself, sliced at Ren's bonds with her knife and freed the leader of the group.

"I need to get the Treasure! Get Joiquiva and Lus-nayi! Go to the Wraith, I'll make my way there!" Ren drastically impacted his order, he glided his hands out as they became available. He speedily sidestepped an oncoming cast of thugs, scrunching to the knee and somersaulting out of the way. He struck with his own weapon from behind the man's in an agile maneuver, tripping him to the floor. He aimed for where Bloth settled, ready to fight. Twain rivals of fatal vie exchanged a mutual glare.

Tula ricocheted off an attacking sword from her cutlass. "We have to help Ren!" The sable beauty screamed as she tried to bust her way through.

"There's too many of them! Unfortunately we have to do what he says!" Ioz hollered abound as he dodged a clout. Pirates lined the leviathan-spined walls before him. Four crooks wielding weapons hied for Ioz, rushing for him in a single-file formation. He dashed to meet them head on, charging through in a furious sprint. When Ioz's blade took them out, he heard the sound of four consecutive splashes as the men hit the water below.

On slinking legs the eager second-in-command surrounded the twins for later plans. Joiquiva could not even lift a kick to fight the thin nails from testing the flex of her arm and that of her fragile sister, every moment their scared hearts beat was making his ominous evening. "You'll pay for this, Ioz!" Mantus swore his wrath in a stabbing snarl as he sickled his blade.

"No time!" Ioz grasped two shrieking ladies from their binds and heaved them over the shoulder as he moved. He snatched Tula's hand and they vaulted to the ship, ever involuntarily. Clusters of hooligans were blocking the rows behind them.

"I'll get you!" Joat resentfully forebode from the deck of the Maelstrom. He shook his fist with a burning temper as he tried to pick himself up but was quickly pummeled down by a dipping dagron.

Bloth seethed, he menacingly clipped out his sword at advancing Ren. His cold eye shot upon the brave boy who trailed forward with a puny half-steel. He hatefully raised his glaring metal, ready to make mincemeat out the valiant fighter who aspired for the Treasure. The beast from above lifted the protesting Bloth up and off the deck. The Treasure had rolled as the Compass dropped to the platform.

Ren initiated a dash for the Compass. He leapt and tripped, but he obtained the artifact and bound it around his neck. "Niddler!" He screamed to his friend who darted close behind.

"Got it!" Niddler screeched, flying in serpentine as the Treasure fled. The gigantic orb diverged and bowled down a troop of outlaws that were bobbling for it and Ren. It ran away down the deck until it had settled in a location against the mainmast and ceased to move. The monkeybird descended after it, flapping his wings, but became impinged by a sword.

From Ren's distant vantage, the motion of Niddler through the air was laggard. The monkeybird had almost possessed the bauble, which was far from him but he could see the slow wing beats in the breeze. He could also see the energy dome protecting the circumference of the orb. The Treasure was indeed causing a time lapse with whoever prolonged under it's shield. "Natchut! Niddler, get the Treasure! Now we must fight!" The royal torpedoed for the gem. The stray rube on the terrace slugged at him. Ren emerged from the ground and charged for the lowly man, in attempt to heave his weight to buffet the attacker over. With another slash, the grungy kniver had knocked him to the floor. "No!" Ren pushed himself forward to fight off the pirate and again became cornered. Terrified, he screamed out as he watched the scene of Joat barreling toward him with a hooked and angry claw.

"Ren!" Tula wailed from the otherside of the leviathan fossil. She tried to reach him, but her and Ioz were obstructed by the bloodthirsty cutthroats aching to have their heads.

Niddler divebombed Joat and grazed him in the face after scampering to the wind, he provided enough of a distraction to him and the troublemaker. He wasn't able to break long enough to claim the Treasure that had come to a stop. The delay encompassing the border of the Treasure was enough to dash through while the unprepared looters merely lumbered for the same locate and pelted each other down. Niddler snatched up the sphere with strong primate-toes, relocating the hindrance to Ren's space. Within the circle of the time-forcefield, Ren saw faraway enemies scattering quicker. He observed Tula and Ioz pouncing at heightened flurry for the Wraith. He attempted to use this to his advantage when Joat revived, but what he did not realize was that Joat's speed was relative to his and Niddler's when they were all inside the Treasure's zone. The fast-thinking lad slid by an alloy bludgeon, faced with the same formidable aggressor. On the floor he sank gravely as the degenerate charged. This time, he succeeded in tripping the maneuver. Niddler remounted in a gale to launch for the estranged jewel once again.

"Noy jitat!" The Captain uttered a curse he rarely vocalized. "By the blood of the twin moons! Let me go!" He growled with unending wrath at the invading pilot, he attempted to rip at the beast's leg but he had floundered his blade. With a detestable smile, he plied the auxiliary cutlass he carried with him and started to slash at the scaly skin. He prodded at the lizard's ankle but did not make much of a mark against the resistant hide. The dagron then released him back to the ship, making him fall a plentiful length below to the pier. He fell on Joat, who had been striving to move once more. "Throw a net on that jitatan monkeybird!" He exuded outrage as he screamed from his seat upon the stricken sea-mule.

Ren watched as Niddler was almost ensnared by a web on the return flight to the tethered Wraith, he rushed forward. He may only have one chance at this. "Bloth, over here!" Ren provoked the scowling warlord. Niddler was about to take a tumble. The Treasure slipped out of grasp and rolled toward the Captain's hungry vision.

"Noy borga!" Konk was swimming back to the Maelstrom when the reptile swooped over his head like a catapult shot. He dove under to duck in the water. There were more dagrons filling the sky, all from Bloth's craft. In hot pursuit, they chased the solo dagron.

Ioz and Tula jumped, climbing aboard the Wraith as Joat's vengeful crew stampeded. "Where's Ren? I can't see...Ay jitata! No! Ioz, let's go after him!" After a fazed hurtle, Tula silently rued the scene playing out, one she was helpless to prevent. Bloth achieved an absolute gain on the Treasure. She couldn't let go without doing something to help Ren, even if it meant using up too much of her vitality.

"Wait until he call us, Tula! I think he has something cooked up, and we have to hold off these sea-weasels until he gets here!" Ioz set his temerity on the ransackers at hand. He knew that while Ren was often a foolish and inexperienced prankster, he was also a silent genius in times such as this. "Come on, you eel-skinned barnacle-rats! I know you can't get enough of us and the fastest Fore-to-Aft in the Twenty Seas, she's yours if you can take 'her!" He teased the hardluck sailors of Joat, who were bearing down.

"It's mine! At last!" Bloth relished the prize hoisted in his uplifted clutches. "You fail, Ren!" He bellowed victoriously as he gladdened his sight above at the now dull Treasure, but the very thing his implacable heart craved to control.

Ren rapidly flew from the Pirate Lord and the Treasure on spry legs, as much as his soles were able to carry him. His destination was that outside barrier, two more steps that he needed to slam his feet to. He made it. "Ioz! Tula! It's a free for all! Ready, Niddler?" The ambitious regal made his announcement after grappling for the first projectile in vision, a catapult straw. He chucked the rod at the ox-bellied oaf. The wood pinged a lofty shoulder at an accelerated motion from outside the emerald dome of idleness, where time dragged endlessly. Though neither of them knew what he could see, he would signal the first throw at Bloth's penchant for pompousness. Niddler levitated a precise gap overhead.

"Now!" Ioz gave the call as Joat's minions poured onto the Wraith's floor. He clipped a knuckle on one bandit and with a snapping batter of a loose panel, annexed a dragonbow. He pierced the darts at Bloth on the Maelstrom from their sky-manacled craft, garnering velocity as Tula conjoined an ecomantic wind with the bolt. The barrage sprung like lightning at an advancement for the slowed Captain and the dividing dome. Three more shots fired and as the bully toppled stunted to the planking, Niddler scooped the sinking weight and dumped it into Ren's stumbling grasp. Ren caved the Treasure with protective arms as the monkeybird hiked off with him toward the Wraith. He soared his way toward the vessel aboard Niddler, who swerved as many nets and solid objects were tossed in his direction by violent prattle among the gruesome ship. Skirting close enough to the ground with the Treasure, the Maelstrom pirates could not boast any advantage while within the hoop of the time-forcefield. The prince slumped down just as Tula clung to the rope that escalated the Wraith above the water.

"Send out Grimrot." Bloth directed dire orders to a crony, who was only available under the high-moon.

"Kreld-eaters! I'll throw you to the Constrictus from here!" The shrewdly-annoying blister expelled from the deck behind Tula, threatening to toss her from her position.

"Not happening, tramp! Back to your own ship with you, scandalous-swine!" Ioz expelled as he swung down from a rope in an airborne-kick to bung Strand off the bulwark of the Wraith and back on to his home of the dingy Maelstrom, with a little push from Tula, as well as Ren and the monkeybird. The howl of the four-armed brute echoed, Ren slid to sever the cord the pest had used to skirmish up.

"Hold on to those sails!" Tula forewarned, she hastily severed the shackling rope and the Wraith plummeted an ample distance to the surrounding ocean. The only thing left to see as the ship plunged into the depths were Joat's blood-hungry men shouting and wringing their fists.

Ren took the wheel, rapidly leading away from the Maelstrom. "Who was helping us to get away, could it be?" He resolved, his darting pupils fixed on the dagron being hunting by the flock of Bloth's trained beasts. He gandered to the water jetting out behind them and with tribulation, saw that the structure of dark water had proceeded to form between the Wraith and the Maelstrom.

"Ren steer us out of here!" Ioz quickly ordered back, not liking the look of the creeping flow. Just then, the lonely dagron zoomed past them and Ren saw the pilot. Surely enough, it was a likeness.

"Ren!" The dame yelled to him from the skies. "Make for clear water, I'll keep them at bay!" Jazhea scaled the heights of the clouds, many airborne trackers following in her trail. "There's another thing!" She hurriedly cried out. "Bloth has something troubling! I saw something shining with him, but I don't-" Jazhea tried to forge with words before she had been engaged to veer with fright, a vocal train severed completely. Her shriek could be heard from remote.

"Has something shining?" Ren whispered with perturbed breath. "Jazhea wait!" He predicted from the wheel, being unable to do anything. He had been forced to steer away, but he needed to go back. He watched the dagron in the air rise up over the deck of the megalith, it spun in the center. It was then he saw it. He made out the form of another dagron-rider above him, brandishing an eel-prod. The gaunt and haggard face, the penetrating frosty eyes bore into him-he was chasing the potential sister of Octopon. He gave Ren a threatening sneer, it was Mantus! "Look out!" Ren screamed to her, but it already was too late.

"Mak Toi!" The abrading command sounded from far off. Ren heard an ear-shattering woman's cry.

The plagued lizard wrapped with suffocating nets and wilted to the floor of the huge ship. "No!" Ren belted as he felt internal anguish engulfing him. "Noy jit..." He could not finish his uttered curse, succumbing halfway. Eyes of ocean-disc descended as he steered the Wraith en route of bright waters.

"Ay jitata! Ren, what was that?" Tula sympathetically hurried out. She ran to Ren in concern for her melancholy companion.

"Let me introduce myself, I am rotten to the bone!" The tide surfed over the bow and dispensed a skinless skeleton to greet the voyage with an insidious crackle. With his disintegrating innards, a pungent wasteland stained the very carious pierage he walked.

"He's rotting the Wraith-get him off!" Ioz charged for a section where the foul mildew was breaking off plank from the vessel as it decomposed to wretched wood.

"Hey, that's mine!" Niddler rumpled his feathers when he fumed above the wind. Fruit festered and spoiled black, the disgusting stench from the searing juice could be inhaled by great Kuunda above.

"Think if that minga-melon were you, monkeybird!" Ioz bristled by with a shooing defiance of timber and blade thrown down on the leeching decay, Niddler gulped on one final stare at the rotten food.

"Grimrot!" Tula purged a gasp from her dismay. "He's a Fugisapien, he'll turn to dust in the sun but unfortunately it's nighttime!" She bounced backwards long as her legs would allow. The resourceful enchantress lobbed aside a metal fishing-hook to fend off the danger, it rusted and severed to pieces as Grimrot's spore festered over.

"It is useless to resist, all that my deconstructed body contacts dies and decays! Should I mummify you...or just pulverize your core and let my maggots cut your meat off the rack?" The shrieking cackle from the elongated jaw of dripping carapace peeling from the skull paused the crew in their tracks. Everything Grimrot touched curdled like a liquid disease, his glowing bones raised and launched a finger into the helm. The dart crumbled half the wheel to dry powder.

"Can't we...talk this over? I know an old friend of mine you might like to live with...and a ship you may want to go back to!" Niddler crawled in horrific anticipation as the monster's breath hung painfully close. The natty claws were trickling over Ren and smothering Tula. Ioz recoiled at the cretin's mercy, glare of the dim evening's sun was by chance strewn across his sword and deflected on the macabre dybbuk like a dewdrop beaming of daybreak.

"Not light! You win this time, but when I return I will clean your carcasses!" Grimrot panicked at the hint of heat and sprung among the ocean, swimming from reach. Ren sighed as the Quest's heart beat easy once more.

"I couldn't save her..." Ren solemnly regret. He peered down with grief, eyes downcast. "Jazhea." He softly respired. "She may have been the only link to my family left, but Bloth has her now." He spun back with sorrow to view the thick slime, which now converged in more and greater sections of sea to the rear of the Wraith. The Maelstrom began to drive out in the opposite direction of the rise in the black impurity.

"Ay chunga, Ren!" Ioz scoured at the sea behind him, tugging on a rope and correcting the jib. He finished up to pace to his rueful friend and even with his rough-and-tumble spirit, he felt strong sympathy for the prince. "I'm sorry, Ren. By Kuunda, I swear we'll avenge her." In mourning, he rested his arm over the saddened boy's shoulders. Ren wasn't responsive and deeply unsettled. "Next time we fight Bloth we'll hit him extra hard, I promise buddy." Ioz tried to lift the youth's spirits. The rugged seafarer's aggressive manner of dealing with his losses wasn't all that consoling but Ren's mood now sufficed, intense and focused as well as pained.

"We did do all we could, Ren, but it was her sacrifice. We could have been in real danger if it hadn't been for her." Tula joined on, words somber. She felt as if what she said began to spur Ren out of his state. Ren was an energetic friend who cared deeply for those afflicted by trouble, but sometimes he needed a word of kindness himself. The growing leader could find himself in a catastrophe sooner than a baby goija would run from a leviathan, but she always found herself confiding and believing in him.

Ren grasped his Compass with ambition as it flashed aglow. It pointed in the direction they were headed, North. "We'll follow the Compass and find the 10th Treasure. There's no stopping now. We have to go onward, we'll stop Bloth and all his evil." Ren emphasized his oath at last, both solemn and adamant. "We'll end this plague of the dark water for good." He craned his neck behind him for the sealing detestation on the surface of the ocean, he lipped the words of the one element entirely at fault for all destruction.

Throughout the darkened nights abound, the Wraith sailed to frontiers far yonder. Land began to creep onto the horizon as two glorious quarter-lit moons hung overhead. Something appeared like jetsam, surfacing from the water's crest.

"It won't be far, now." Tula whispered empathetically, she eyed through a looking-glass and spotted something. She dropped the piece down from her view. "I sense something strange about this land." She advised the two sailors on the ship, glancing at them as she expressed her intuition. They had almost breezed in to shore.

"Ioz, why did you save us from those other pirate-men?" Joiquiva faintly objected with a mutter as she sprawled by Lus-nayi's drowsy chest, baggy eyes over gauzy cheeks did not hide her disgust and distrust.

"I need a way to stomach my food, don't I?" Ioz bent over the wheel to set the siblings straight. The light of the moon and daughter of joy glared at the impatient helmsman then rolled back to a sleep, this one free of nightmares.

"You're right, Tula. You know I haven't seen any dark water this way at all. I wonder if it's because of the Treasure, we know now it's taking longer to arrive because it slows any ship carrying-" Ren had been about to scull the Wraith onto the beach when he whirled his head in a split-second toward a loud and piercing noise. It sounded like a scream. "Ioz, take the wheel!" The startled aristocrat immediately urged. He rushed to portside, seeing the source of the racket. Someone was drowning! He hastily dove into the tide off the partition of the Wraith.

"Noy jitat, what now." Ioz expressed in a profusely-tired gripe, unhesitatingly spinning the wheel apace as Tula yanked a quick fix to a rope. "We'll have to go after him." He took the bow close to the shoreline, following Ren's bobbing form in the waves. Niddler fluttered down to the survey railing as Ren swam forward to face another entity in the water.

"I think someone else is out there!" Niddler cawed from portside as he saw Ren, who now pulled the singular figure and paddled in expectation of the coastline. He flapped his feathers as he was anxious to fly but he held back, waiting for a sign.

Ren paddled as he carried the life in his arm, pushing for the shore through the turbulent current. It seemed as if he would loose his embrace, even on the raiment his arms were starting to tire, but he managed to make it just far enough. He didn't procure the opportunity to peek at who he saved, although he could tell the frame was small and not cumbrous for him to carry. He broke down on the sandbar with the other person, coughing to squeeze the water out of his throat. He swam and refrained in shallow water, resting presently. His friends were anchored about land and racing to him. He felt Ioz's strong arm pull him up. "You're okay, now." Ren maintained as he coughed out, beside the individual. He loosened his catch on the sparse person's waist. He gave the stranger a glimpse of surprise. Ren's eyes adjusted on a child.

The unescorted youth bowed his head, not saying a word. Tula leaned over to get a good study of him, she placed a hand on his head. "Can you speak?" The ecomancer guardedly tried to ask him. In a dissected moment, more lifeforms came from out of the bordering edge of the night. Before the four voyagers could react, they were surrounded. Spears pointed at their throats. "Chungo lungo." Tula squelched out, taken aback as much as the rest of her assortment. The chieftain in the meridian of the group of shadowy characters clumped forward and began to exhibit the arriving mishap.

"What brings you here, travelers?" The profile, now in front, stepped out from the circumference of the legion. She appeared to be an old woman. Her presence showed flowing hair of silver that reached her knees and was tied in an obscure topknot. She stood tall and frail, bearing a ruddy flush. She seemed something like Avagon, but her eyes were ingrained with a rooted orange. She featured much like the other people who were gathered around her, all of them wore a seemingly-sturdy armor of silver-violet. She passed her gaze to Ren, inviting him to speak.

Ren was surprised the woman spoke in a dialect he could understand, as she was so diverse, but he bowed his head. "I am Ren, Son of Primus, Prince of Octopon. I come in peace. We are here on a Quest to seek the Thirteen Treasures of Rule to save Octopon and Merr from the dark water. We would be honored if you pardon our intrusion." To be familiarized he obediently found his rationale, kneeling before the ancient gatekeeper.

"I know who you are, Son of Primus. Who are the ones with you?" With cynicism the chief mistress inquired further, almost brushing the prince away as if he were trivial. The pikes were taken away as the loyal team assumed more dignified poses.

"Oh!" Ren reacted in a manner of difference. He was caught off-guard by the woman's interest in his friends, unexpected for those who called him by his title. "These are my friends and fellow shiphands." He stood and gave his crew the honors. He held out his arm to Ioz, starting himself out. "This is Ioz, he's our chief-navigator." Then he beckoned to Tula, who was next to him. "This is Tula, she helps us with trimming and dynamics." Niddler plodded near, who he finally motioned to. "And this is Niddler, monkeybird." He finished his address of cordiality, smiling and docile. Niddler let out a squawk.

"Ren's monkeybird manager." Niddler corrected and tagged on to Ren's introductory with a dignified air. "Pleased to meet you." He shyly welcomed, retreating from his mock superiority.

"This is Lus-nayi and Joiquiva, they're the newest additions to our crew and they've been helping us with sail-repair." Ren decisively included the chary twins as they entwined in a diffident snuggle of each other.

"...And fine cuisine!" Niddler savored the gourmet remembrance of taste when he smacked his insatiable beak. The orphans shrunk in their porcelin faces because the main ingredient was air.

"It's an honor." Tula sincerely greeted the lady of the clan, beaming and nodding her head respectfully.

"I could have introduced myself, Ren." Ioz prematurely muttered, eyes shifting toward the bronze regent with irritation creeping into his respite.

"Silence!" The chancellor of the mysterious people demanded. "I asked for the Son of Primus to speak, not you!" She castigated the three.

"Oh isn't this nice. Jitatan rudderless-old-woman. Just peachy." Ioz impolitely grumbled. He was sunken of breath as he supposed no one could hear, but Ren did and was then inspired to shoot a warning stare at him.

"We would like to speak with your chief-navigator. Please provide us with all your charts and maps, a history of your plotted routes." When the authority enacted her directives, every number of man and woman bearing lances and knives subdued the circle to cooperate.

"What about the aerial division, instead? I'll offer my expert flying-advice...it's very exclusive-but you could pay me with a sample from the local menu?" Niddler stammered with spastic dread, posturing as if he were a daimond-tail.

"By my sword, line up and I'll show you how I shorten that status-list down to size." The ambulatory lineage broached as Ioz shouldered his sword from the hilt, prepared to fight it over. Ren resolved to just do it. "Fine, we're Northwest by North 333.7 points off-course our destination in Octopon, 87 leagues latitude and 26 leagues longitude of the Kalindasean ocean. Our nautical status is beached, like a sand-mule. What's it to you?" The ragtag pessimist bungled with a scrolled parchment stretched between his fingers. Ioz revealed the many transcribed chases-at-sea as he also dropped the stellar ephemeris and the ocean log.

"What is it you plan to do with this information?" Tula begged to learn.

"Come this way. Your captain is indeed Primus's Son." The plated overseer was ultimately assured.

"You needed all this...just to-!" Ioz sputtered at this audacity, sacking sand-caked articles among a ditty-bag.

"I have heard many things of you, Ren. Your own father once visited our shores many moons ago, you are noble like he was. You have saved this child as I have seen." The terra scour of her ancestral glory explicated while speaking to Ren with less hostility than she did to his friends. "How were you able to do this?" Her bemused analysis was fluent as she raised a brow.

"Your greatness, I saw him in the water from the ship. I hurried to save him. He was drowning!" Ren courageously professed. He bowed to the superior with humility, and addressed her with respect.

"Ah, I see." The tribal leader remarked as she curved her eyes and pondered this fact for a moment. "Because of your noble act, this boy's contribution...will be yours." The foreign guide finished with diction. Ren goggled up at her curiously. The other villagers with her let out gasps and shouts of stupefaction, they strayed to each other in gossip.

"Contribution?" The arched prince wondered, eyeballing her with puzzlement.

"We are the inhabitants of this sandbar, the ancient and wise Leviathan Worshipers. We live in harmony with the leviathans that rule the seas. We protect and rule this northern land using our vast knowledge of the dark water." The overseer of many years sternly began to explain. "You may have noticed this land bares a protective barrier against the dark water. This is due to our wise youth, the Imbibers who keep it at bay." Her words ended midway, allowing the flaxen-haired regality a response.

"Imbibers? Ren, I've heard of these people before! They drink dark water! Isn't that right? I thought they were just a legend..." Tula spelled her perplexed fright in awe, imploring the versed lady to verify. Ren bolted his companion a muddled glance, not having known of this before now.

The structured woman seemed annoyed or staggered at her interruption, but she answered the ecomancer anyway. "That is correct, girl. Certain children of our tribe choose to learn to control the dark water from youth. However, what many do not know is that this skill grants them extensive and powerful knowledge. They can see things on Merr that would take many years to learn by human efforts, if at all. This is the protective power that we need to keep this land safe. You see, as a people who live near the nests and caves of vanquished leviathans, we have access to the gifts these creatures bring us. Scale of the Leviathan. When contained with the dark water and consumed, it gives the Imbibers protection against the plague, and the ability to shield our village. Needless to say, this power may be only harnessed for a very short time." The silver-haired matriarch construed, an edge in her mien.

"Are you sure? I've never heard of something like that before. I only know of one time when someone tried to drink dark water, and it didn't end well for them." Tula inconspicuously asserted her doubts, not liking the ping of pure pain that was washing over her.

The chieftess beckoned to a shore behind her as she paced toward it. It exposed the filling of petrified statues, endless and likened to humans. "These are the monuments of the Imbibers that have sacrificed themselves to save us. Once the dark water has overtaken them, they become as rocks...in suspended animation." The tribe-head described with doleful accuracy, she fixed her scour to the many stone figures upon the seascape.

"I didn't know such a thing were possible..." Tula halted an unescaped gasp as she adversely deflected in the direction of the elder's attention, her mouth ajar. Niddler leaked a barely audible whine of a squawk.

"By the two moons..." Ioz shuddered out, nearly shouting with an uproarious apprehension. "That's a curse from the Eight Wonders of Fezwa!" His credulous vision deceived him, he trembled.

Ren's eyes grew vast, restlessly horrified. "Why do you let them do this? Tell me, there must be a way to free them?" Ren searched the conductor with unease. It reminded him of Cray, she tried to drink the dark water to restore her youth...not without the awful consequences of melting her away from the inside.

"There is no way to free them that we know. There is only the legend that states when the dark water is vanished from Merr, they will move again. The unfortunate gift is only granted to those young enough. We do not let them do this, Imbibers volunteer themselves to protect the land they love, to delay the flow of the dark water. To take the role of an Imbiber is a great honor here, one very much strove for. It is a mark left on Merr for all to see...my Only's name was Zuuyha." The gray harbinger finished as she gazed at a prominent fixture of the rows, his height high as her mere stomach. She drew off her trawl, leaving the prince and his journeyers to take it all in.

"Wait, I have an idea! What about the Treasure, Ioz come here-" Ren began to concoct a plan, signaling to the columns of the unliving. Ioz instantly nodded with wide eyes and pitched forward, the thought was curtailed.

"It's useless, I'm afraid. Having encountered King Primus himself when he was on his Quest, he too tried to free them with every gem he had obtained byfar. To no avail, our Brave Ones await. We know nothing of why the powers of the Treasures ceased to have an impact, but we would appreciate any attempt to salvage this world." The chieftess stopped the notion in it's tracks, diverging away. "We will help you, Ren. The boy you saved is an Imbiber, but since you have come, he will impart you knowledge in your Quest instead of protecting us. Ask him any question and he will give you answer." She stated, peering at the boy next to Ren, who had been standing with the crowd of his people.

"How can you, how can you do this? You're going about it all wrong, what kind of ruler saves their own and then has them drink dark water..." Ren droned under a woe of morbidity, he almost did not want to believe what he heard. He did not know what to do, this whole situation was wrong. He didn't understand how these people could swallow that horrendous evil with an attempt to stop it, volunteering or not. It made no sense to him and he wanted to scream. No matter what he decided, someone would suffer. "No, I can't allow someone else to sacrifice himself for my Quest! I refuse to think that the dark water can do any good at all! I've seen first hand what it's done..." Ren fumed as his eyes darkened, he would have reached a fury if he hadn't been interrupted.

"Ren." The lad by the noble's standing dropped to a bow and began to whisper to him. "This is my charge to take. I already have the dark water within me. Tell me what it is you want to know and I will give you what you seek. Your Quest is the most important." The child advised Ren, watching the facial twist above him. In his eyes were pools that resembled black waves.

Ren stilled at a loss. Indeed there were so many questions he wanted to know the answer to. He wanted to know about his father, his mother and his family. He wanted to know about the other Treasures and the dark water, but he couldn't. "I can't." In dim frustration the prince indicated.

"Ask him, Ren. Otherwise it is in vain." The ancient leader urged with the persuading ultimatum, she somberly watched on. Many other youthful inhabitants were clustered around, motivating Ren with wishing eyes.

The youngster did not wait for an answer. He tried to touch Ren on the arm but he let out a yelp as his fizzing skin started to boil inside when it made contact with the prince. "You have a Treasure of Rule within you, but it's not complete. I can't...contact because of the dark water residing in me." His voids of dark met Ren's pure, he appeared to be straining or struggling to consummate his words. "Do not abandon the Compass of Rule, it is too part of a Treasure you will yet find but you will need to break the Seal. Do not abandon your father's sword. The next Treasure will not be easy to obtain and you will find it deeper in on this land. Return to where your father fell. You are safe now from your enemies, but you won't be. Do Not Abandon the Truth, even to them. There will come a time when it will be your only weapon. I'm betraying The Dark Dweller...it will...Beware of The Surge!" His sight became wild and he fought more and forcibly against an enemy Ren could not see, then his body started to solidify. In less than a dispel, the Dark Water overtook him and he was transformed into a calloused stone of the blackness depths.

"Ugh!" Ren jerked back after the tiny villager was encased as rock, alarmed and frightened. Despite the fact the outburst had scared him, he remembered every word. Though, he likely would not want to.

"Soosa, you have honored us, brave one. I hope that your words will help to stop this destruction of our great planet." The dignitary witnessed and dropped meekly to the perpetual boy. Her gestures were hard to read, but she was austere.

"What did he mean by deeper in on this land?" Ren inquired of the tribal woman, still quite thrown into a shock by the event.

"I imagine that can be taken literally, Ren. He was communicating with the dark water however, so his words may have been quick-set. Unfortunately, we have no clue as to the precise whereabouts of the Treasures." The head warrior advised, opening fortified orange-eyes as she browsed above. She pulled herself up from her bow and stood to address the youthful adventurer. "We can help you voyage to the center of the land. I have a sense Central is what Soosa was speaking of." She motioned to her defenders, who nodded with obedience. "However, it is strongly suggested that you rest here for a night. The journey to the heart of our district is a long one." She stated with a durable gesture of hospitality. Ren pondered the quandary.

"Is the Wraith secure, Ioz?" Ren spun around to ask his senior shipman.

"Is she secure? Of course she's steady. I tied her right over there! I even laid down salt to keep the bilge-slugs away..." The cranky Ioz flustered as if Ren insinuated his pirate's integrity, he pointed to the location the dusky craft had been tethered. Ren shot a glance to the direction of his sign.

"Right. We'll stay here then, and set out in the morning." Ren revolved to the foreign leader with an affirmative nod, he accepted. "Treasure or no Treasure, we're going to do something about this." He declared, a certain kind of determination coursing through words. "You are welcome to come with us, Joiquiva and Lus-nayi, but you know we do seek the Treasures of Rule above all else. If we do find the Guyfoo Capsule, it will be secondary." Ren invited the duo, a double-set of arms long as legs guarded their shallow chests. The feathered bobbles of their hair twitched but they did not like what he said and departed with the women of the Leviathan Worshipers.

"Follow." The ancient attendant mildly ordered the young man and his shipmates. "This is our central stone. This orange leviathan skull is covered with a magical enchantment which protects us from outsider attack." When the tribal mother led through a passage of nappy trees and religious sacraments, she stopped Ren in front of a peculiar bone-obelisk.

"How strange, I don't remember ever seeing an orange leviathan." The disparaging prince stood uneasy when his mouth was halted from dismantling his bizarre message of bewilderment with Soosa's nagging warning. In her foresight, he stopped himself from touching the liquid-coated keystone.

"They are exclusive to our shores. Very rare, but they are a blessing from Kuunda above." The chieftess praised the pedestal with admiration as she strut to perform an introductory ceremony inside the ring of keepers. "Ren...if you would, there may be possibly one small favor your crew can do for us...there is a flying spirit stealing food from our village. Arrows rain from his teeth and he disappears before any can see his face, and we would be most grateful if you could find any fault on him. His name is...Nimbo." Then when she raised her bone scepter, coral eyes sought the lad's attention. Ren jolted.

PART 2 - The Number Five Emotions

Two moons shone brilliant over a dismal villa. Out of a scaleplate-covered hut, a caroming silhouette joined two more. The trio scooted for the seaside.

"Ren, we really need to get some sleep. I know the old woman's sandbar is a charm to be around, but we still have a Treasure to find first thing in the morning, remember? I don't think Kyanna would appreciate us snooping around her graveyard. They're been here for seventeen years, I don't imagine why they would move now." The burlier one related, slowly moving as his arms bulged from the hiking shadow. He shivered when the starlight air blew, though it was warm.

"Ioz, we're not leaving until we do everything we can to redeem the Imbibers. We can't just walk away from helping them. It won't take long to try. After that, we'll rest and see Kyanna and her people tomorrow." The gentler of the bundle tipped-toed through paths of leaves, whispering as stars twinkled and faintly illuminated obscure parts of the point. Ever since his run-in with the child, Soosa, he had noticed the time-forcefield surrounding the 9th Treasure of Rule had vanished with the delay. Whatever Soosa had done, he was positive the encounter was teeming with dark water in the very presence. However, what he did not understand was why Soosa statically converted to stone and did not meet a demise by the liquefied obsidian that consumed him.

"Longer than seventeen years, actually. I think Ioz just doesn't want to carry around our token of gratitude anymore, in which case, I'll take it off his hands." Tula offered to relieve the pirate of the stifling emerald. The aura from this area of Merr was drowning her effectiveness for a long as the Wraith's crew had arrived. She nor Ren and Ioz seemed to be in the best of temperaments.

"It's too late for that, woman. I'm fine! Don't think I can handle myself?" Ioz grudgingly replied, a bit insensitive while lugging the not-very-portable Treasure.

"Suit yourself." Tula puffed her casual opinion. "Ren, I haven't ever seen a village like this before. Leviathans are all over, so I wonder why Kyanna stays here. Teron would have stayed among Andorus's dying groves, but he was of the Supreme Ecomancers." She puzzled outloud, surmising her former-mentor's judgment was exact. They stomped forward through ridging jungle-brush, at last merging with the high shore. It was then when they were stopped.

"Perhaps I can answer that question for you, wayfarers." The aberrant sound rung of an unexpected source. This was a male voice. The party lashed to face the intrusion. Amazingly, it did not match the form that appeared in the ebb of ambiguity.

"Salamantha?!" The companions stumbled, but generally ready for battle. In purview could be seen a icon of auburn and brimming robes of the destructive ecowitch. Parallel stood a comparable clone, in front of the two strangers was a twiggy man of about Ren's age. Nearing the ground squirmed an odd deformity, which could not be lucidly perceived.

"I'm afraid not. I do know a great deal about ecomancers though. First let's lower our weapons and talk like smart men, Son of Primus." Salamantha's voice changed into that of the previous fellow. When the effeminate character stepped forward it was revealed that his tresses were not claret but actually a rosy blond, and his skin was fair. Tula and Ren subverted their stance. "Very good. My name is Iskjar. I was formerly one of the aides of your father, King Primus. When I knew you were here, myself and our people desired to meet you. By the way, Ioz, we must offer our sincerest gratitude for the salt you planted on our brush. Those purple bilge-leeches can be very nasty. Please tell us if there is anything we may do in your honor." He fervently approached in a wrapping cape of sage, ushering a hand to the two accomplices.

"Just tell us who they are." Ioz reversed with iffy heels, will dabbled with interest.

"This is my dual-brother, Kyn. My grandson, Xilk. My partner would be here with us as well, but she happens to be out for our tribe's festivity preparations, so forgive her absence." He gracefully inducted, crowding his kin to the light. "As for your question, the Clan of Leviathan believe there is something here. Should they leave, the world may fall into ruin. Occasionally, there is a pulsing from sands underneath their villages...an enigmatic substance that courses from seas up North and reverses all of their afflictions. This is their Holy Land, if you will. Not of the dark wat-" Iskjar imposed on with profuse detail, Ren anxiously jut in.

"Whoa, now hold on!" Ren imbued a shorter fuse than his natural acumen, seemingly madder than most had seen him, in reveal of the dark water's ruin. He inwardly clutched for his gallantry. "You were of my Father's counsel, the Seven Captains? Kyanna of this village said there was nothing that could be done to help the Imbibers at all." He asserted his concept while watching the fluke encounter of three with care.

"Right. Pardon me, your Highness. Unfortunately, she is right. Most of these monuments have been here for the time your friend described, and longer. Our people would not know how much is true. You see, we have only migrated here from our original home. The Kree do not like to leave our place of birth, but in recent years our true home has become cursed. We have settled here but we do not commune with the Leviathan Worshipers, we majorly remain in our own tribes. If they have offered you assistance, you would be wise to take it. The Treasure is somewhere here, I can't say I remember where. It has been such a long time since my difficult escape from the Fogweed of Aymara, and my hiding of the 5th Treasure given out by your father." Iskjar unluckily disclosed, he then hefted a zany mutant that refused to settle. "There, there." He nurtured the riotous thing.

"That must mean some of the Treasures we've found so far were already hidden, Ren." Tula focused on the prince and admitted. Ren spoke of what Avagon had told him. Iskjar was soundly another one of Primus's Seven Fleet-Captains who hid the corresponding Treasures of Rule during the time Avagon and the King were taken by Bloth in the Aymara seas. "Iskjar, did you know of a Treasure on Arakna?" She sprucely wondered, then digressed. "Think about this, Ren. Maybe what we found there can help them." She suggested with a flashing hint. Ren nodded.

"Iskjar, we believe we may have found a solution. We visited Arakna island previously and uncovered a mystical River there, we believe it's a Treasure..." Ren summarized his tentative concern. "It made me invulnerable after I claimed it." He cautiously proceeded. Iskjar drew a brow.

"Is that so? Are you certain what you have come upon was a Treasure of Rule and not a Leviathan's nest? The people here believe in the perdurable capabilities of a Leviathan's scale." Iskjar refuted, an unprolonged detail crossed his assurance. Ren sought Ioz's approving sign. The thrill-seeker nodded.

"We're sure. Perhaps you'll tell us more?" Ioz became hasty at the new lack of points in the foreigner's fable, his gruff implication nudged for response.

"Yes, Iskjar. Avagon told us we would find out more when we journeyed up North." Tula readily appended, courteously searching for likewise.

"Avagon escaped from Nloth? This is news to me. Was Teron also rescued?" Iskjar's stunned perplexity showed within his azure gaze.

"Nloth will capture our homes and give our people to his pirates! Like last time, grandfather Iskjar?" The younger native, Xilk, called out from behind the greeting leader.

"Nloth? You must mean Bloth, Captain of the Maelstrom?" Ren decided on Iskjar's misspeak in a guess.

"I rescued my mentor, Teron, from Bloth...sometime after he had hidden one of the Treasures. I only wish he knew more about what happened to Andorus when the ecomancers began to disappear, he told me weeks had passed since Andorus was plagued...but really it was thirteen years." The Andorian beauty hampered her dolor, her mourning was full within her nature for all that became of her own island's people.

"Correct. Our tribe calls him Nloth and no, he won't, Xilk...Not this time." Iskjar chided his excited grandson. "You won't find much up North, only the remains of our home. Despite our island being ravaged by enemy forces, we remained there far longer than we should have. We harmoniously shared the same isle of the wealthy Quin nation." He offered with an agreeable grin. "Oh, ecomancer!" Iskjar called Tula forward, his incisors dazzled with his summon. "I noticed you do not rely on Andorian soil, you have drawn the powers of the Viva Tree within yourself?" He apprised with a pervading awe. "What is your name?" He asked.

"It's Tula. I've only been inside the Viva Tree once, but I discovered my ecomantic capabilities by accident. Wait, how did you know?" The sable-haired lass marveled.

"I know, because while ecomancers live many years on Andorian soil, there is none here available. I can't imagine you would have the capacity to carry an entire bed of your native ground this far inland by your scant packings as well. I don't suppose anyone has told you how our race evolved?" The cream-toned visitor awaited an exchange with the nature-binder.

"Well, no." Tula reflectively replied, she did not often think about where her people came from when the life-giving Viva Tree had given the Andorians all that was needed.

"Everything is born from either the Viva Tree or the Spirit of Merr, blessed by Kuunda. Both are the roots of our world, from eons ago. Our legend states that the Kree are descended from the ecomancers, who are evolved from the Viva Tree. Lesser tribes like the Quin from the nation of Qui-Qua became as a people when our race intermingled with Water-Dragons and such as this, all is entwined with the four true Elements of Merr. The natives of this land believe leviathans are children of the Spirit of Merr, like some believe the city of Octopon was originally born from as well. The element of Kuunda's sea and the Healing, the natural wonders of Ecomancy are also derived from the original Mother and Father forces. The Moonsail Festival that many Octopian men and women celebrate is a time of rejoice, a tribute to the merging of elements." Iskjar humbly relayed, he lowered the staff he hauled. The eccentric lifeform in his cradling grasp then rested once more.

"I know about the origins of the Moonsail Festival, but I didn't know those from other isles believed too." Ren respired, in line with the general unforeseen ambiance of the conversation.

"What I say is the fundamentally-accredited tale. There are some who believe forms of life may have evolved from the dark water as well, though I would not buy in to much of these rumors. The same men and women who believe in the dark water also believe in the missing element, a source of trouble for many a follower of Kuunda for eras." The speaking Kree outlined boldly. Ren stewed.

"Prince of Octopon." The youngest of the abroad troupe bowed and requested a gesture of good grace. "Please, take this. I'm not sure what good it will do you, but you will have better for it than in my possession." Xilk displayed to Ren a small orange-jeweled ring as he yielded his hand. "It will only remind me of something I wanted to happen." He expressed a cloud of remorse. The moonlight flashed off the whipped shape of his platinum-blond coiffure, his mane was crested not unlike a bird's headpiece.

Ren scanned the cloudy gem. It was not a Treasure, rather he perused it with a repellent vibe and did not wish to touch it. "I'm sorry, I think you should keep it." Ren averted the distinctive item but Xilk already began to comply and drew it away.

"Xilk, you would do well to bury your memories." Iskjar serenely recommended whereas Xilk did not grant any strong regard. He turned back to Tula. "I am no ecomancer, Tula, but I am familiar with the workings of this world. I can give you a few spiritual-pointers if you wish to become more powerful in your influence of nature, like you will need to in the Quest you have embarked on. True, is it?" It was Tula Iskjar stalled with eloquence, he watched for an opinion.

"Of course." Tula acknowledged him right away. "But I only use my talents for the good of everyone else." She provided after.

"A great purpose, and exactly what I wish to show you." When the former aide finished he lifted the uncommon creation, one that now whimpered of distress. "Tula, if you wish to have endurance, first learn control. When you can defend yourself and curb the inclination to loose yourself, you will be victorious." The knowledgeable elder decidedly assumed. He pressed the creature to Tula. "She is called a Baurabor. They are automatically attuned with nature and thus with ecomancers. She will reveal your destiny." He presented the daring sorceress with the pet, which she timidly accepted.

"By the sea lords, I've never seen anything like her before. Such a cute one she is at that! How can she help me?" Tula laughed as she cuddled the likeness of a puppy spirit. From the head and paws it sprouted tufts like treetops. The tail was comprised of one extensive vine.

"Baurabors are not from the Eastern Octopian region, though they thrive just as well. They're certainly not as rare as a memorat of course, but they are a cave travail to find. Often only leaders of villages carry them." Iskjar denoted with a smile. The hound whinnied and kissed the ecomancer's cheek. "She surely feels a bond with you, that magical bond will unfold your journey." He concurred with the emotive feeler.

"I can see why, Tula has an alluring affection. The magic she compels is wonderful." Xilk optimistically praised, seeming also very charmed by the sanguine enchantress. The sprightly newcomer beamed.

"She sure is popular tonight, I'd guess being able to move flowers is all it takes for a woman to get supporters." The raven-toned pirate huffed, shuffling uncomfortably.

"At least I can move them, Ioz. I don't spend all my time bickering like a kreld-scudding darva-rat." Tula sorely sighed. "He isn't always like this, but he's been a real grotto-brain lately." Tula apologized for her cohand's manners.

"Like a denbar sea-slug, woman! We're still out here passing time with wasteful niceties while we could be resting for tomorrow. I don't believe in magic." Ioz rattled off with a raucous zephyr, shunning away with the burden still in arms.

"You don't like his words, do you?" Iskjar instantaneously sensed.

"Is it that obvious?" Tula reluctantly hushed, blushing with embarrassment and cementing her glare away from the unkind swashbuckler-bandit.

"Well, you would not be a stranger on many parts of Merr." Iskjar wisely empathized. "Regrettably, the festivities in our own community will be taking place during the moons' zenith. We must bid you farewell-" He was about to make his departure, Xilk instead came forward.

"Grandfather, there are things I would like to teach Tula about our land, and I may learn as well. If you say so, it would be an opportunity to show Ren and Tula our culture's generosity. May I please go with them?" Xilk unexpectedly sprung in, at the boggle of both the crew and the citizens.

"Why Xilk? You know you have your studies to partake of..." Iskjar deliberated silently. "I suppose it will be fine, so long as it is with the Son of Primus of course." He necessitated his meaning.

"It's fine with me, Tula?" Ren granted his reserved approval, motioning to the partner at the side.

"We'd be honored." Tula acceded with a shimmering smile. Perhaps she may learn something new, and maybe be able to pull Ioz out of his mood. Though, she wouldn't count on it.

"Then you will meet them at dawn before they embark, but when they do, don't impose." Iskjar blessed the apprentice with a positive eye. "Kyn will go with you, also." He laid down the rule. Xilk seemed very upbeat. "Unfortunately this is the last time I will be seeing you, for my leadership is needed elsewhere. Remember my words, Tula. May you succeed in your Quest Ren, for all our sake's." Iskjar signaled in allegiance, along with the assemblage of his family. They too delighted and wished regards before tracing away on a contrary avenue.

"We wish well to you, Iskjar! May your people have Kuunda's blessing and protection." Ren hollered back. Overall, he was pleased Iskjar's jargon was understandable. Ioz continued to grumble, once more provoking the assertive empath into verbal barrage. "Knock it off, we don't have time for petty things like this!" The imperial sailor forewarned.

"Says the one who dragged us out here in the middle of the night. At least you should have gotten Niddler up from sleeping off all that fruit." Ioz mumbled, he stomped wearily onward with Ren and Tula as the moons advanced to high sky. Only a glimmer of a green stone could be seen and crooning of a tiny scamp listened to.

PART 3 - Discovery

Tula recollected the events of the night, she quietly poked back into her allotted den after departing from Ren and Ioz. Her new companion seemed spastic still, despite it being so late. "What's wrong girl? What are you trying to say?" The ecomancer curiously attempted to tap from the bouncing familiar. Finally, she laid down for bed. Baurabor settled soon after her easement. No sooner had Tula begun to rest had she heard a startling calamity outside. She jolted up and hastened out of her room.

Outside of the rainforest erected a courtyard, one with enclosed walls all around. Ren was holding his ground against a monster of an opponent, a recognizable glutton. Tula suddenly was fixed in place, watching a battle taking place over inland dark water.

"Yes, say your dying words, Son of Primus. It looks like you have helped me whether you wanted to or not, inane boy." The heartless pirate captain smiled as he put away the newly-reconstructed Treasure of Rule. "Say goodbye, Ren!" He brandished his carving edge, planning to lance Ren into the conquering water of silence underfoot.

"I'll do the honors!" Mantus lashed a blade for Ren with an eradicating roar.

Ren surprised himself by jostling his nemesis to let him go, but he was still abandoned. Backing torturous dark water with two enemies surrounding him. No Treasure and no weapon had he holstered. Finished. Closing his eyes, he braced himself for the final blow and the end, not wanting to look. Mantus's scimitar flew at him, severing the air as he managed a drop down. The insectoid duelist hopped away and out of sight.

With a ginormous ripple of the Pirate Lord's sweeping blade, Ren was forced to skip. The unarmed royal receded a gradually-accelerating distance at Bloth's advance. "Ren!" The gracing sound rung from the muddy sky. The prince bestowed a gander up and spied brilliant feathers, a blazing weapon dropped right near him from above.

"Noy jitat!" Bloth cursed.

"I'll have your back next time, Ioz! By Daven's beard I swear!" Ren called back through constricted breath to the sky. Tripping a killing sway of the adverse cutlass, Ren grasped the glowing Sword of Primus and secured it in his trembling hands.

"We'll see about that." Bloth angrily growled. He charged forward with the steel razor, aiming to slaughter.

When Bloth attacked, Ren was not thrown back by his swing. The Sword Of Primus could have added to his strength superbly, as Bloth could slash at Ren but was unable to knock the young man over or bash the weapon out of his hands. Even more raw dynamism was behind Ren's sweep than that of Ioz's fully-armed blow. At long last, the mortal enemies were equally matched. "Give up the Treasure now, Bloth! Surrender and we'll finish this!" Ren screamed out a warcry as the rivals locked blades, circling each other like korba-cats in a fight. The breeze filled with the clatter of the burning flecks from the dueling match. Ren flipped about to the fringe of the destructive Captain's periphery, commencing to almost nail a perfect disarmament with a shock from sidelong.

"If you can take it from me!" Bloth roared out, bounding for Ren's throat. The battle that would be a fight to the death escalated as Bloth muscled Ren toward the dismal stream, perspiring with another shove. The unimpeachable foes impounded in a perfect stalemate, until Ren gained the upper-hand. The shove expelled from far beyond. Bloth was off balance from his standing, with a claw vised around the young man's ankle. Tula found herself able to move, only to see both Bloth, and Ren, sinking in dark water. The apostate stalked forward, facing Tula while barring the Treasure of Rule within a quad-fingered palm.

"Nothing awaits us here except the stark abyss of the Dark Water, woman. Cooperate, or I'll make you join Ren in his agony. With this Sword, these hands now wield the skill of a true King." Mantus stomped out of the carnage, the abusive blademaster demanded the ecomancer fall to her knees with an incise that promised a bloodcurdling death to any opposition. His greasy mane licked the obscene wind in pursuit when she tried to run, tinges of blue barred her pink guise.

Tula found herself expending the last of her energy to rend herself from the rancid claws. Ren had lost his life, and so had Bloth. She imagined she secured a glimpse of Ioz and Niddler debarking on the ground before fading away into oblivion at the total exhaustion of her essence. The glimpse of a moderate-bowed ship in waters beyond and an unsightly beast floated down. Her vision set on, but omit a glowing statue and then a spirit with hair of rose. The scandalizing defrauder twisted around with a venin glower, becoming as no more when Kerroptus and Morpho reached the boundary of dirt. The face of the Dark Dweller arose, liquefying over Ioz and Mantus. Tula could no longer sense any more screams when her light flickered out.

The first heat from a soft ray was felt in a hutch comprised entirely of bone and indomitable hide. The peaceful gust rushed over black locks, from an outside source. Tula's sore eyes creaked, she found herself calling for her missing friend. The window of the leviathan-donned lodging was ajar and Baurabor was nowhere to be seen.

The very next morning Ren congregated with Ioz and Niddler, walking down the seaside.

"Tula should be here soon. It's peculiar that she's running behind, she seemed as enthused about this meeting as you are, Xilk." Ren faithfully reassured the boy of same age.

"It's ok, Ren. I can wait, but if she doesn't show up I can write her some notes to look over later. I know you've taken time out to see us, it would be wrong not to repay you with something." Xilk mildly provided compensation. His frontage shone with a twinge of disappointment.

"Notes? What is this, flight-school? I don't believe I dragged myself away from a mountain of gold at the break of dawn for this." Ioz fussed from a cross-legged station on the ground, gurgling from a canteen. He threw in his last drabul into the game circle and retched a hand of dice, but even his dreams were not as valuable as real coin.

"Be patient, Ioz. She'll be here." The determined essence did not leave Ren's purpose.

"Chance bids pay two-to-one. No second bets, better luck next time." Ioz fairly walked away with both of the salaries from Joiquiva and Lus-nayi they had earned from assisting the waitresses at Zoolie's gamehouse. Luckily for the gambling swashbuckler, Ren and Tula weren't involved to castigate him as usual for it. Ioz searched their wreckage with his greedy pupils. He didn't reconsider at their disappointed faces but he remembered Joiquiva and Lus-nayi's home was invaded. Lus-nayi had been attacked and broken, by the very pirate-cheat he was not like. "Well...I could always sell that tiara. Put it in and we'll play all or nothing, for keeps?" Pointing at Joiquiva's headband he offered the gold he had won from both orphans for another game and during his replay he made a careless mistake which cost him everything, even the last drizzle of coldness from his heart.

"You cheated to lose, didn't you? Rematch." The shy woman of Qui-Qua refused to be dishonest, Joiquiva pressed the gold toward the real victor. Ioz was a foreigner from a different isle, a pirate at that. Yet, he wasn't like the pirates Joiquiva and Lus-nayi knew.

"Pass that fake gold off on me, eh? Try it on the landlubbing monkeybird." Ioz blustered as he shrugged off but quaintly ended the bargain with Joiquiva and her older twin, who sat in silence. Joiquiva bit a piece, and almost broke her molars.

"If you need guidance, Ren, perhaps your company would like a look at the Divining Fruit. It won't make predictions for you, but it may grant you a perspective. It is very fickle with replies but I think it will work on you." Kyn generously offered a bizarre rind with a moving face to the reluctant nobleman. Niddler pattered to the front, hearing about fruit.

"Can I eat it?" Niddler poked the talking gourd, waiting for permission. With gusto he beak-smacked greedily, hoping the chow wouldn't be tart.

"If it's edible, that means you can eat it." Suddenly, the face on the husk inverted itself and showed a pool of water that said a result.

"What if it's not?" Niddler pawed the round with a peeking eye and a skeptical criticism.

"Then you can't." The Divining Fruit replied.

"How come?" Niddler groped the waterface, whining sadly.

"Niddler, don't play with it." Ren sighed as he dragged the eager monkeybird away. "Sorry, Kyn." He apologetically handed back the squash to the elder Kree.

"It's quite alright." Kyn casually pardoned the happenstance.

"Sorry I'm late!" The hasty cry rejuvenated the gathering. Tula raced down the nearby turf, arriving with disordered breath. "I'm ready to begin!" She stressed with an open optimism. "Oh and...you left this last night." She offered to Kyn an apparently-magical weapon.

"Oh, this is grandfather Iskjar's Soul Scythe. Thank you, I'll return it to him." Kyn bowed his head gratefully though his words were shaking with predicament.

"What's wrong, Xilk?" Tula was befuddled by the puzzling stare she was being given.

"Nothing! You look, different...from when I saw you last night, but it must be the light." Xilk shyly mouthed as he observed his guest, pasted on his cheeks was a blush.

"Oh! I didn't know what kind of training I would be doing, so I took some provisions." Tula motioned to the makeshift tote she carried that was comprised of her waistsash, she had tied it in a mismatched shape from what she usually wore.

"Concentrate, Xilk." Kyn cautioned.

"Right. First, I need everyone to back up." Xilk revolved to situate himself in front of the trio. He then lifted a scythe in his palms to the high wind and twice spiraled around. "By the Trust of Myelkah and Toishuok, the Lifeblood of the North, I wield your vitality to earn the Love of your Creation!" In an exploding tempest, he conjured a luxurious burst of water through the air. The glorious blue expanded like a disc over the heads of the awing spectators, and widely into the forest.

"Noy jitat! What are you trying to do, get us killed?! Why you..." Ioz hollered after bristling into a flustered clash with the tutoring lad.

"He probably intends to teach me what he just showed us." Tula begged to differ.

"Actually, no. Unfortunately, you can't learn this. Since we're drawing on the power of the Protectors of the North to perform this magic, it can only be taught to those who have blood from our isle." Xilk shrewdly corrected. "That wasn't what I wanted to show you, this is." He raised his sickle with a profession of steel. Inside the jungle could be heard a soft tapping and a loud clobbering, the noises were looming nearer until both could be seen. The pair of winged cats bounded out of the bracken. The first was giant but demure in scale to the second, which seemed to be a doubled, if not a tripled duplicate of the original. "These magnificent beasts are called korba-cats, and today we're going to be learning to ride one of these creatures." He grinned with a smug announcement as he patted the larger of the duo on the mane of showy onyx.

"You're going to teach us with the child, right?" Ioz rebounded as he threw out his arms, utterly petrified and set on running far away.

"Which one is the child?!" Ren shocked into a numbed stun, immensely terrified.

"Are you serious, Ren?! The one that distinctly Doesn't look like it could carry us along with Bloth and his main men into town!" Ioz retorted with an emphasized comeback. The felines sat on their haunches.

"I imagine they like monkeybirds...a little too much!" Niddler gulped as his green pupils shrunk. He fluttered to Tula's ankles.

"Yes, Xilk, please tell us. Will we be piloting the mother or the child?" Tula was jittery, but mostly suppressed her nerve. She was not as frightened as the men were.

"The child?" Xilk genuinely laughed. "Nothing of the like, that's her mate, and we will not be riding her today. As a matter of fact, only male korba-cats are used for transport, they are more energetic travelmates. Kyn?" Xilk stroked the beasts of lion likeness, seeking his assistant. The female's mouth jarred to let loose a ferocious roar, revealing her abdomen-length tusks as she found herself blockaded with a hooped energy-cage from Kyn's summon. "I'll take you all one at a time, and...Tula goes first!" The radiant-haired practitioner decided as he invited the ecomancer to come forward. Ioz scoured. Ren cheered. Tula shrugged.

"Hmph, well that's just as well. If he messes up on the woman then we'll have the better go." The harsh buccaneer sulked. Ioz crossed his arms, drumming his fingers and leading his mindfulness to other daydreams.

"Give it what you've got, Tula!" Ren applauded from the sandy floor. Tula complimented with a smile and a wave before launching into aerial frontiers on the fringed feline.

"It's nice to finally have your formal company, Tula, I can't tell you how impressed I was when I found out you don't need Andorian soil to subsist on, you're so much different than any other ecomancer I've seen." Xilk praised his passenger, seeming very much to be enjoying himself. Tula gave him a distracted glimpse, and he cleared his throat. "Anyway, riding a korba-cat. This is probably a lot easier for you, since you are an ecomancer after all. Korba-cats are one of the gentlest creatures on Merr, though they are fearless and will fight to the death when angered, they are shy creatures who will flee if mistreated. Encouraging them to fly involves establishing trust, when you are able to do so it is easy to direct them wherever you wish to go. Here, have a go." He passed Tula the reigns and she skirted around a treetop, easily clipping past any resistance the current of the wind was giving her. "So tell me, did Baurabor help you?" While he conversed easily, he wondered what kind of vision the augur could have given her.

"Well actually, she ran away." Tula unwillingly confided.

"Yes, that often happens." Xilk motionlessly acquainted in his worry. "Try going higher, I can't show you everything while we're here but if you go farther West from around that ample stone, you can see part of our village." He inspired her to drive on, so she cruised with continual speed over the blotched jungle. Tula soared above the skyline, where the dusky and natural beauty of the region could be noticed, shielded by impenetrable trees. Verging on the locate of constructed hammock-hutches, she could watch the curls of watery life flooding into the cascading fountains. She spotted a few of the residents waving to her. Journeying deeper into the domain, the ecomancer could see the beginning of a river loop, downstream appeared to trace to a murkier contour. Twisted formations and thorny sedge arose from the rooted heel.

"Xilk, what is that part of your village called?" Tula signed with an outstretched arm to the uncanny plain underneath the midnight feathers. Spawning quietly away from the trail of Xilk's wispy hair was a mountaintop of morning-infused ivory.

"That?" Xilk pondered as he gandered toward the terrain of Tula's point. "We don't call that anything. It's not in our dominion, or Kyanna's." He truthfully assessed, not at all forming any kind of recognition. "We should go back now, if you want me to give your friends lessons before you have to go." He pleasingly reminded his study of their limited time. Tula agreed and swirled the animal away from a difficult draft to land on the flat bank.

"You're next, Ren." Tula transferred her turn to the nearest man as she disembarked. Ren nodded and joined Xilk at the mount for a somewhat-lacking exercise. Tula caved to a closeby tree to break for a snack, innermost musings unfortunately returning.

"Some cultures have customs that aren't broken even in the event of danger or death. The Kree for example, we stay by our people in the event of a disaster. For instance, if a fire takes one of our own, we do not flee until it is put out, and in the event it is not extinguished, we all stay where we are." Kyn educated neighboring Ioz and Niddler as Ren skated through the clouds.

"Why? Doesn't it make more sense to save some even if you can't save all?" Niddler fantastically denounced the ancestor's logic.

"Why should the rest of us run if one of us wasn't able to?" Kyn debated astutely.

"Sounds like a good plan to go extinct to me." Ioz flatly disagreed.

"Actually, it makes perfect sense to us. Since we always build our homes near some source of water and there is always one skilled wielder of the gods, there is no reason to evacuate from our land or our sisters and brothers. It's much easier to excuse mistakes if you know your life is not on the line. By the way, no Kree native has ever died from a fire." With a savvy expression, Kyn followed his words. "I don't think Iskjar has told you this, but this is how he obtained his leadership after Primus's era. Another overseer from our people, the gifted diviner called Sheelia of the Supreme Kree, because she was born with a doubled spirit was also one of Primus's Seven Captains and trusted aides. When she fled from the wreckage of the King's Quest she had sparsely obtained any time to flee before Bloth was upon both her and Iskjar. Iskjar, instead of running, stayed by her side. So that he could flee and guide our village, Sheelia gave all her life to him in a last request of the Five gods we Kree call a Soul Song, only her's was even more powerful, a Devotion Song. In the process Sheelia rusted her life but Iskjar then was the recipient of twice as many Soul Storms and he would be able to use the new blessing to create his escape in the defeat of Bloth's men." Ioz ceased his argument and Niddler pad to the front to welcome the descending captain of their ship.

"Your turn." Ren buffed Ioz on the shoulder as he sing-songed past.

"I'll go this time, Xilk." Kyn courteously took over to reassign Xilk. Xilk was plastered with a grin as he set off for Tula's ground.

"So, Tula, do you know about what makes our grounds legendary besides korba-cats?" Xilk gamboled to the sinewy trunk Tula was slumped against, showing his perky virtuosity. His endeavor shook her head. "I hope the answer you were thinking of was Jeega-reeds!" He presented Tula with a clean swamp-reed blooming of pink Octo-petals.

Tula plucked one of the flowers and smelled it. "It's like a dew-field." The young enchantress appraised the familiar and heavenly aroma.

"They grow on Andorus and all around the twenty seas but more so at our old home before the dark water took it over, not to be confused with the white Saqtie-Stars that put you to sleep. They're supposed to enhance our inclination to acquire things, but that's just a sailor's tale. They just look nice when we use them for the Dance of Lumora during the Last Equinox." Xilk sat beside the lady of his time and recounted with inspiration.

"Dance? Lumora?" Tula pried an inquisitive query at her animated friend, who was chatting away without a daub of inhibition.

"Our ceremony of dancing and sharing gifts when the sun is at peak declination. Here, I'll show you." Xilk reached a gossamer clasp onto the ecomancer and pulled her up, he then spun once and hopped. He swayed, and clapped. He skipped for two steps and swayed again, touching a stem to the side of one heel, then the one on the other foot. "Try it!" With a entertaining felicity he energized his guest.

"I think I have this well enough, it's not perfect but we have a Quest to return to. Kyanna won't wait long and Ren and Tula-Noy jitat!" Ioz almost flipped off of a korba-cat when he settled to shore with Kyn. The four of them were moving their hooves, monkeybird included. "We're wasting time with bilge-blasted dancing?! We have to go to Kyanna! Niddler, you should have been watching the Treasure! Ay jitata!" He immediately scolded as soon as he touched the soil.

"You know you can join us, Ioz!" Tula laughed as she swung her hips and straggled her arms, thoroughly delighting in the hiatus.

"Never! This is all your fault!" Ioz was more hassled than before when he snapped accusingly at Xilk. He drew his eyes away from Tula and tried to regain himself. "Let's go!" He gruffly demanded. Tula giggled at his maroon cheeks.

"Oh come on, Ioz, where's your sense of adventure?" Ren sportively heckled the vilifying swashbuckler. He turned to Tula. "We should really be going now, Kyanna won't wait until the next moonrise. Let's go get him." In another moment he ceased his actions and began to trail ahead, Tula chased him in sequence.

"Hey, I was just getting the hang of it!" Niddler groaned as he tripped over his clunky feet and plopped down on his rump, the stem of the Octo-petal he cradled floating to arrange on his crown.

"I still have respect for my Favorite, Ioz. You can drown your despair." With an irritated whisper, Xilk glowered as he crossed the sightline of the rough Tayhojian. He flashed the fiery gemstone riveted to the Rite-ring on the smooth opposite of his hand.

"Why do you think your sea-flora is of any concern to me? Drop anchor with the woman over the brush for all I care, Tula only slows us down." With a wrinkle of his swarthy lids Ioz snorted as he resumed his uninterested patrol of the convenient sundial. He was very mesmerized by the trickling of drips from the central spring, moreso than any preoccupations with the greed of his vast-monetary wishes.

"Right, and I like that fountain too." Xilk assumed his outlook of dry humor and gathered with the others catching up.

"We wish you well, Ren. If you're ever in need of help, we'd be delighted to see you again!" Kyn bowed ceremoniously as he saw the explorers to their separation. The sun was levitating over the crux of the horizon.

"Bye, Tula! Write me if you can!" Displaying his own goodbye, Xilk enthusiastically parted with the waving allurer.

The cluster trudged through snaking aisles outside habitation until meeting their awaited appointment. They followed the tribe until they came to a spacious and broad-reaching canyon, where a mass of water floated.

"Ay Shakka leviathan! Ay lookka leviathan! Leviathans of nature, befriend! Leviathans of sea, ascend! A song of days, we spend night's head in your rhythm until time descends! On your bounty of excess we depend, so defend us all in our beds so we send your praises to eras born yet again! Emerge from the bend, else our song never ends!" The prime devotee trumpeted this repeating mantra until the bordering atmosphere of brush was alive with complaints. She created a noise from her hands, she yelled from her throat. Out of the water, a leviathan came.

"Noy jitat!" Ioz vigorously blurted. The quartet jumped, ignited in the instant.

"Be calm. She won't hurt you, so long as you are wearing this." Kyanna of the Leviathan-worshiping people and three beside her handed them all solid robes that resembled the gear the natives wore. Mighty and protective, like that of a leviathan. Strong, but heavy. Solely by the direction of the elderly chieftain, they filed up to mount the gargantuan beast with Ren holding the Treasure. The scales were troublesomely large and difficult to maintain upon, Ren nearly slipped and dove off the girth of the majestic creature. They settled as the serpent remained still. "Are you ready to go?" The Leader of the leviathan-believers steadily asked.

"Yes." Ren nodded in agreement, finding fortitude.

"Splendid." Kyanna uttered a special word and before the crew knew what had happened, they rocketed off. Up and down through the water they went like a fireball launched through the air. They pressed to barely hang on, hauling excited curses until the gigantic water-queen stopped at the apex of a wide stretch of land. Evidently, they were in the middle of a lush forest with untold foliage and rivers. The four heedfully alighted, with Ren taking the lead.

"I guess we're here." Ren casually slid off the leviathan's back as he swaggered, attempting to get his footing on the hard ground, which became demanding. He sheltered the Compass in his hand and it pointed into the forest. "We got here quick enough." Ren shakily estimated, still jittery from the trip. He tried to orient himself with the land.

"We almost arrived here in twenty pieces too." The candid Ioz remarked. The leviathan bawled and sniffed, then it looped around and plowed through the water of the canal as fast as it had come. "Great. Now how are we supposed to get back?" He fussed and arched a gander at it soaring away. "We have to lug this jitatan pain around." He tiredly griped, he now supported the 9th Treasure in his arms.

"We won't worry about that right now, we have to go to the next Treasure." Ren followed up as he unwrapped the protective robe, leaving it near the ravine. "There's no reason to carry this." He plainly stated, the others adopted his lead.

Niddler troubled with removing his gown. When he finally unstuck it, it adhered on his head and caused him to topple over on his flank. "Hey, wait for me!" The monkeybird cawed out finally, after having dismantled the garment. He rushed to the adventurers, who were now making headway into the jungle.

"It's up this way!" Ren anticipated the next test. He suspended the Compass in his hand as it flicked back and forth and hummed, honing in on something. The crew tracked it up to a clearing, in the way lay a cliff too profound to cross. "Looks like we'll have to find another way around." He reported with disappointment. He bore eyes at the deep crevice that almost perished below.

Tula smiled as she latched her hands to her forehead and drew her concentration. "No need for that when I can help." Tula whispered, focusing her energy as a bevy of trees from both sides of the cliff twisted to form a bridge over the great ravine, branches entwining. The party nimbly passed and wobbled to the otherside. Tula began to hypothesize about something. "Ren, what do you think Soosa meant when he said Do Not Abandon the Truth?" She consulted her companion, having a bad feeling about some idea. She worried if it had meant for Ren to tell someone about his abilities, but that didn't make any sense.

"I don't know, Tula. The whole thing is not something I want to think about. Those people drink dark water in an attempt to stop it, but they really have no control at all. I vow on my father's blood I'll help every last one of the Imbibers." Ren focused on moving ahead, his tense expression abode. He tried not to think about what had happened, but he did not have a choice. His head would not let him. Ever since the event his mood had soured, he could not let go of the conception of those who continued to expend their lives to delay the dark water.

"That's true. Supposedly, he was communicating with the dark water. Ay jitata, we can't know if it's real or not." The ecomantress answered back in response, muddling over her introspection on the Imbiber's intrigue. She did not say it, but she knew it to be true. She sensed the worst kind of evil before the boy immersed in stone.

"I don't suppose I can speculate, since I've been left out of the Ecomantic-Occult-Circle." Ioz shaped his doubts, legging over a ridge of gravel.

"Ay chungo, what a way to start an expedition." Tula dolefully sighed, not giving in to dissension. "Ioz, you should be grateful you are." She sagaciously reassured the temperamental swab.

"I am too, apparently." Niddler squawked in congruency. "Hey, wait for me!" He cawed as he sufficed to scurry ahead. The allies marched for deeper Central.

"We just have to keep on. I know we'll find a way to help them." The prince strongly persevered before his miffed comrades, not wanting to drawl on the perfectly-cemented words that were still spinning in his head. He nearly tripped as he dodged a clunking vine on the ground that started to shift from underneath his feet. "Noy jitat!" He vented a frustrated swear, slashing at some of the brush with his blade.

"Whatever the case, I don't think I'd want to visit there again if I had the chance." Ioz groused his opinion on the situation with a huff as he leapt over a bulging root that scattered in the way, he almost buckled from his posture. "Ancient and wise...drinking dark water is not very wise to me! Never heard any less convincing bilge in all the twenty seas. Chungo lungo!" The pirate grumbled as he straggled again with the Treasure, he tottered way through the rough floor of the tropical forest.

"Look! Straight ahead!" Ren spiritedly cried out, pointing at something forward of the company. Tula and Ioz ran to his aid. Niddler fluttered in front to see.

"This is where the Compass points? Another water-jewel?" The monkeybird questioned with puzzlement. He gawked at the pool of water awaiting them. It seemed to emit an unfamiliar luminosity, but different from the river previously encountered. Only the water lay in wait. It flowed purely, except for a roomy plank of wood drifting at it's center.

"No, Niddler, I think there's something else here." Ren's soft-spoken inquisitiveness murmured, he hurdled to the water's edge with enthrallment and hopped aboard the plank.

"Ren, where are you going? Wait up!" Niddler yammered, flying onto the plank and trailing the master. Tula was next to go after him, she did not mean to hit the water but she did and braved a slide as she landed. Ioz careered through the spring, revealing nothing special about it.

"Where's the jitatan glow coming from?" Ioz expressed in wonder as he searched around in the water that partially submerged him.

"Maybe from another Treasure, let's try to find it and we'll find out." Tula keenly returned. Ioz floated her a look of annoyance.

"Ioz, put the Treasure on the drift and keep it afloat, it will be easier. Everyone, help me paddle." Ren initiated the motion, tripping into the water. He clamped onto the backside of the timber and fluently kicked out with his feet. Tula and Ioz followed, splashing in after him and grabbing a moor on to the frame. Niddler sat on the plank, laying his head back.

"Bout time someone paid some respect!" The primate-bird squawked smugly in his laziness and rolled over as if trying to sunbathe.

"Cut it out, Niddler." The unamused regent flatly replied.

"This is a team effort, Niddler." Tula teased in a sing-song voice, she smartly grinned at the slothful monkeybird.

"No chance, monkeybird, time for you to pull your own weight!" The black-haired helmsman dictated, albeit coarsely. He dragged the avian in by the tail, and with a plop into the river as he started to paddle. He was not going to pull the mooching tagalong around. He posed the Treasure atop the platform and contained it with a burly arm. Niddler protested with a disturbed chatter about the sudden thrust into the liquid, which he hated, but he gave in and helped the others to shove the broad lumber.

"It's still pointing in the direction of the water." Ren curiously observed, handling the Compass with one holder on the board. The loyal comrades continued to coast for suffuse time, the inlet became swamping and dank. Leviathan bones littered the path of the riverbank.

"Chunga lunga, this place is beginning to look like the Maelstrom." Tula noticed from scanning all around her, in concern of the scattered markers.

"It shouldn't be that much farther." The young noble quickly predicted, but he forcibly jerked away before he could elaborate further. "Ahhh!" He screamed out as the river abruptly cascaded to an end, a waterfall threatened to crash them and swallow the Treasure. Outcries from four deckhands were drown out by the rushing water as they dropped into blackness below. The river started to gray over now, and lead into a cove of trees. The shipmates grew out from the water, thoroughly soaked.

"Let's hope we find it before I drop this thing." Yearned a water-washed and overworked Ioz, who barely enabled to stone-grip the orb at a dive before the fall.

"My feathers are wet!" Niddler complained with a yowl. He pursed his feathers in attempt to free the cloaking saturation.

Tula spiraled in view of the surroundings. The ground remained unlit, save for a few ivory-hued and leafy vines tipping out. Upon landing the mysterious brilliance shimmered all around the spot. The encasing fog was murky, the disc of the sun merely peaking like a sliver of paper in the sky. "This Treasure must be powerful. The glow leads into that cavern of trees and it extends even farther than that!" The toned ecomancer observed, continuously amazed.

"I think you're right, Tula." Ren agreed as he pivoted to face his friend. He bound the the Compass up to his eyeline and it pointed straight to the nest of bramble ahead of them. The area glowed eerily, but the innards were totally black. Leviathan bones protected the archway. "I guess we'll go in." Ren nonchalantly proposed, walking under the tuft of trees. The ecomancer and bandit tailed with the monkeybird, padding close behind.

From the mouth of the thorned branches that twisted under an opening, strange noises sounded. Ren and Tula surmised they could hear disturbing gurgles coming from underneath the ground they trampled. The dirt floor below was nestled with vines and radiated an enigmatic golden-white. The tap of water droplets were distant from the tips of the canopy, which now had become visible no longer. Thick tenebrosity swallowed them and shielded the vista as the group strolled farther in from the fringe of daylight. Faded remains hugged the walls and dipped down from the lofty ceiling.

"Chuno lungo!" Ioz propelled angrily as he slammed into a curled bone hanging down in front of him that his sight obscured.

"Watch out. It looks like they're everywhere." Ren was serene in inflection when he signaled to Ioz and tapped him on the shoulder.

"How long until we can find this jitatan Treasure and get out of here?" The onyx-haired buccaneer hotly grumbled.

The floor began to move from beneath them. Abducting vines sprouted up from the ground and folded around hands and feet, restraining the four adventurers. The strange sensation felt slimy, something between a plant and the grip of a sea animal. The party lifted into shroud so dark they could not see themselves. Trying to fidget away, they found they could not, the appendages gripped to them like an octopus grasping a prey. Nothing showed to be clear except for the strange and glittering pureness below their feet. Faintly could they speak or hear each other.

"Does that answer your question, Ioz?" Tula echoed across the plane, but almost did not carry loud enough to able to reach the other mens' ears. Niddler spawned an inaudible squawk and said something else, but with his monkeybird accent could not be surely understood. "Noy jitat!" She gasped but as her voice ricocheted, it sounded only above a whisper.

"Who seeks the Treasure that lies in this realm?" Shook a booming summon like the possession of a living snake invading the chamber. Deeply startled and frightened, answers were menially surprised noises from the trapped team who could not see this nonphysical watcher. The monkeybird only let out a cry much like a whimper. Silence stayed in the covered heavens.

"I am Ren, Son of Primus, Prince of Octopon. I seek the Treasure! Whoever you are, please direct your quarrel with me!" Ren nobly shouted throughout the hollow emptiness. Noises that rung like protests from Tula and Ioz flooded in the opacity.

"Ahh. I know of you, valiant Son. I am not here to quarrel. I am the Guardian of the Treasure that lies in this dome. This entire chamber is under my rule. All that is in, I may bend to my will!" The voice of the Guardian told. Only brimming breaths could have been heard within the dome, but all became idle.

Ren tumbled his mind for a pause. He was suspended in the air with only the cold and slimy cords holding him up. He could not see at all, much less where the prominence came from. "Please allow me to speak! I seek the Thirteen Treasures of Rule to save Octopon and Merr from the dark water! My Quest is of the gravest importance! I need the Treasure you guard here, if it is a Treasure of Rule!" He shouted out as loud as he could project to make sure the Guardian, and his companions, who were also hidden somewhere within the limits, could hear him.

The stall of wit sat again, and then the preserver picked up. "Son of Primus, you need not shout, I can hear your words. There is a Treasure with you already, I can feel it. Part of another, is it? I can read the Treasure and know it's desires. Your test here will be a personal one. You seek the Treasure in this realm, and I will allow you to have it. However, only one person in your group may claim the Treasure. If they fail, there will not be a second chance. This chamber will be sealed off forever, with you and your company inside." The thundering one slithered anew. It paused. "You seek the Treasure, and you were the first to answer my call. The choice is yours to decide. I have spoken the arrangement." The Guardian concluded his rules. The chamber fell quiet.

Ren analyzed this briefly. Where was the Treasure? He couldn't see it, and the Compass was unresponsive. It would be so much easier if he could be free from the vines to claim it for himself. He created a long delay of air as he lost himself in his own mind to deliberation. He would only see one chance. "Guardian!" He called at last before a wait. "I have made my decision!" With certainty the prince announced. His bold assertion could be heard throughout.

"Yes?" The inquiring Guardian filled the area.

"I choose..." Ren began as the dome furnished with baited breath.