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.

7. Call me Ioz

Chapter 6

CALL ME IOZ

PART 1 - Defiance of the Sword

Silence hung in the dark dome of the chamber of the 10th Treasure of Rule, not even the sound of soft breaths could be rummaged from a channeling echo.

"Guardian! I choose Tula!" The voice of the terrific prince powered throughout the chamber. What then waited was a great pause of the whole astral-realm. Ren watched down at the lambency below, wondering if he had made the right decision.

Below him a thick stump appeared, which seemed to have a mass emanating from inside of it. It glistened, surrounded by a compact cluster of the vines analogous to the ones stringing him up. The wearisome break of motion tapped through the void again.

"Who is this, Tula?" The Guardian's inquest rung out over the chamber.

"I am Tula!" Tula's courageous voice hesitantly came forward, slightly audible in the vacant dome. The light from the floor started to show. "Your Guardianship..." She carried with slowness and quieting reserve. Only a few moments passed before a stem flowed down to the rooted bottom of the hollow enclosure, taking Tula with it. It set her on the glowing surface close to the tree as the vines untangled themselves from around her. Freed, she scanned around. She searched for her friends but failed to see them through the continual shade.

"Remember, if you are unable to recover the Treasure, you and your company will be trapped within this dome...forever..." The Guardian's sousing sign faded out, as if it disappeared completely.

Tula observed the tree stump. She sensed there was something from within, but it could not be reached. She concentrated her energy, bonding with the twiggy vines on her hands as they moved away. She refrained to take in an awaited breath, tired from the long excursion. She could now see the roots without the vegetation, fully exposed. She pushed herself with resolve when she knelt down with deep application of her mind. She visualized the stub splitting open from the center. Revealing a core and overflowing with energy, she felt it. All it needed to do is flay. She envisioned it parting, opening. She could feel herself starting to fold, the edges of the stump splayed out farther away from an object. She saw what appeared to be a spiral, a violet-colored helix. She panted, needing to crack her eyes. Her ears sung. The chamber hued with a dead calm as she came to, and poised with the rest of her verve. Within the peeled base, she detached a shimmering coil of a crystalline miracle. "It's here!" Tula relinquished, she balanced her breath and shouted upward with the remaining drops of stamina she kept.

"You did it, Tula!" Praised a joyful sound reaching Tula's ears from above, but she couldn't tell from whom or where it hailed. She stood too low to the ground. The crinkling noise filled the space and then three lit sprouts cascaded down, stretching through the invisible shadows to the radiant floor. Ren and Ioz arrived on feet with Niddler, the rigid vines released them.

"Farewell, Son of Primus. My life is short as the Treasure of the Wise now becomes yours." The Guardian evoked his final words as his voice faded out into a pearly abyss. The room filled with a blinding light of white which then became a forest, resonating much of the same as the one before. The stump root containing the Treasure evaporated into thin air.

"I guess the tree was part of the Guardian of Kyanna's village, he was only here to guard the Treasure." Ren observed with a smile as he hugged Tula, putting an arm around her, to which she smiled back. He made the right decision.

"It's beautiful. Isn't it, Ren?" The ecomancer joyfully extolled in a warm expression as she lay the Treasure over her palms, it impressed and felt about as big as both of her hands. The two of them studied the vibrant gem of purple, it began to pulsate when Ren touched it.

"I guess it's reacting to the Treasure within me." Ren mused in a curious manner, he acutely shaped a smirk.

"It's a real beauty. Now, we can go." Ioz muttered tiredly while stretching his arm, which seemed to be sore from being leashed with soggy ivy.

"We don't know where the way out is, we're far away from where the leviathan was." Niddler reasonably added to the difficulty. He bobbed his head forward to converse, gathering around the trio.

"I doubt we could go back that way at all, monkeybird." Ioz seriously vocalized as he pondered, trying to come up with a solution.

"Well I can't just fly all of you there, it would take too long!" Niddler prattled in response, he too baffled over what to do. He assumed he was expected to contribute a resolve to the dilemma, which he drew a blank at. "Not to mention...wing-cramp." The thought of aching wings made him cringe.

"Maybe we don't have to, Niddler, maybe there's another way back." Ren figured cumbrously, he lost his momentum with the effort to conjure an idea. "The leviathan couldn't have taken us that far inland from the Wraith. It felt like a longer ride because we weren't used to going that fast." He analytically inferred, trying to logicalize a better plan to go back.

"It sounds like a good idea, Ren, but how do you suggest we go about it?" Tula queried, tacking her critique to the debate. Ren needed to have more behind this notion than a simple observation. Their skipper often concocted good strategies, but it would not be uncommon for him to slip up. She passed the 10th Treasure to him and he pocketed it in his vest.

"Ouch! Chungo lungo, that was lucky...I don't think my fancy investment will protect against poison-nettles." Ioz plucked his arm from a batch of prickly stingers branching from the woodland, he swiped the sleeve of his coat of many colors over the wound.

"I wish you would stop wearing that and taking it with you everywhere, you know it's going to get you in a bind sooner or later and you of all people should know Zoolie as a reliable source for word on trouble." Tula discouraged the helmsman's stubborness to take the rainbow garment off.

"Why leave it on the Wraith, Tula, when someone could steal it? With a coat that makes me look this good to the bar-maidens, I have to wear it." Ioz rapt with pride, seeing all was fit in his docking-plans.

"Well, I think it looks ridiculous and any bar-maid will know you're showing your true colors. Just ask Niddler, you look like you dance on a Pandaawa night-barge!" Tula returned with a tensed suggestion while Ioz ground his teeth and curled his knuckles. Niddler shook his head, not getting into this flack.

"If I'm right, we should be able to follow the river back to the shore." The prince scanned his surroundings, hazily familiarizing himself. "I think I know this area. I've heard of it before. There's a delta that goes all the way to the sea." He tapered off, perplexed when he considered his next action.

"Then by Kuunda I hope you're right, Ren. We need to take a break soon or we'll be leviathan-bait ourselves when we get lost out here. I don't want to think about what will happen when Bloth catches us roasting on a skewer in the middle of nowhere-and his return isn't exactly a question of if, my friend." In concern of the situation Ioz mitigated through the mess.

"Ioz has a point, how will we make it down the river when we don't even have a boat?" With a driving clarity, Tula alerted on another limitation added. The four ruminated on their quandary.

Ren tread toward a nearby tree with draping vines, trying to decide what to do. He gave the stalk a good once-over. It would take forever to build something to ferry them back, that would not be an option. They could float on a log but that would not be very functional carrying the Treasure a far distance. He had leaned forward to gain a closer perspective at bark on a tree when a sprig moved to face where the 10th Treasure of Rule had been placed. "Huh?" Ren exclaimed with surprise. He snatched the Treasure out of his tunic and propped it to the vine, the plant receded. "I've got it!" He cheered with a wondrous excitement, finding answer to his bind.

"Got what Ren?" Ioz questioned as he lumbered over to his captain with bizarre enticement, a nosy Tula and monkeybird following.

Ren pushed the Treasure at the moving stem. "It looks like the Treasure can control the vines, what if it can influence other things too? If it can, we can use it to bend the trees to take us back!" The blond lad ecstatically promoted the new plan aloud, gleaning with a skillful resolve to his muddle.

Tula stared at the jewel in bewilderment. She watched as another of the wringing vines dislodged upon sweeping it with the Treasure. "By the seas of Merr, Ren. It must have ecomantic properties!" She awed when she brushed the bauble close to a consecutive tree and it slid to the side. "I wouldn't be able to carry us all with my powers alone, but it sure looks like this Treasure can!" The ecomancer lauded with wonder and admiration.

"Not afraid of being shown up by a Treasure, are we Tula?" Ioz crassly remarked as he peered at the attractive magic-user, who was palming the Treasure.

"Not everyone is self-conceited like you are, Ioz. Personally, I'm a bit relieved." Tula shot him an irritated hint and shifted her green specks to a glare.

"Spare me the compliments, woman. I just want a safe way to haul our swag." Ioz smugly blathered, dispensing a stare back.

"You'll get it, you gantha-washing bilge-hatch! Ren, if Ioz wants to be manly, then he can do so on his own." Tula hissed, crossing her arms with a huff and shunning the strapping navigator.

"That's enough, you two." Ren intervened quickly and moderately between his sparring partners. "If we can climb up this tree and I can use the Treasure to propel us all forward, we should be able to get to the shore. There we'll be able to stop for a rest, only a little longer. By then we'll hopefully be able to find some way to help the Imbibers as well." The young prince ascertained with a phrase, latching onto the starting tree to climb it. After stowing the Treasure away, he began to scale his way up. Tula shimmied after.

"We're traveling by tree. Now they tell me." Niddler satirically jabbered. He threshed his wings and joined the two at the top.

"How am I supposed to get up?" With a fussy growl Ioz demanded a concluding answer to Ren's hunch as he clenched the 9th Treasure of Rule in his embrace. No sooner did he ask than a bungling vine reached down and raised him up. "What's next on this crazy quest?!" He babbled, uproarious and stammered.

"This is amazing, Tula. We can go anywhere with this Treasure in hand!" Ren laughed with jubilation, he flew from treetops above the level undergrowth with the spiral secured in his hand. The branches vaulted like a catapult, the green leaves of the foliage and the vines acting as a protective barrier against the long decline of the forest floor. Dazzling plants and flowers littered the skies and canopies. Many things could be surveyed from the alpine vantage-point. The ecomancer and pirate pursued close behind, the crowns of the stalks shooting them like slingshots. "We should be to shore in no time." He celebrated as he staunchly clapped a branch on the subsequent tree. Tula frolicked gleefully as she soared from the high tufts.

"Speak for yourself! You have the light Treasure!" The gliding Ioz gruffly complained as he crashed into a thicket of brush, stumbling to confine the orb that was wrapped firmly in his arms. "Scot pango." He let out under thwarted breath as he clasped on to the dense ball.

Niddler hovered above. "Sure, let's just hope nothing else in this crazy forest ambushes us." The sunset monkeybird whinnied out with a nervous air in his throat.

"Ahhhh!" The youthful man's voice screamed as the others around him heard. Twigs vibrated from where his form previously laid, heads snapped around.

"Ren!" Tula and Ioz synchronically called out for their fallen friend.

"I had to open my beak..." Niddler ironically whined.

Ren had hit his head when he fell, he stirred to press a hand on the top of his scalp to collect himself. He envisioned he made a mistake, somehow. When he stretched to collect the dropped Treasure, he discovered to his horror, it had vanished. "Noy jitat!" He roused as he perceived a noise through the rustling trees. The silhouette ran, he witnessed someone making off with the Treasure! "Come back!" Ren furiously strove after the contention and tore for the mysterious character through the woods. Ioz and Tula slid down after him, Niddler had come in for a landing.

"Ren, stop! Wait up!" Tula hollered out in a frenzy as she rushed to catch up with the buoyant aristocrat. The evasive figure drew farther away from the trio. Niddler lagged behind.

Ren forcibly needed to stop and gather his breath. His arms were hanging down in midair, he no longer saw the shady and very-fast fiend. "No..." He painfully shuddered out. The bunch sprinted up to him.

"Where are you going?" Ioz yelled out to his buddy with flurried exhaustion.

"They have the Treasure!" Ren hollered out, infuriated as he heaved.

"What?!" Ioz replied with a doubletake. This Quest had become very cumbersome. Ren didn't say who has the Treasure. Bloth, he guessed. He did not dismount in time to see who took it. He backed up to scout around for any escape possibilities the enemy could have utilized. He spun around once, venturing to get a clear view of his surroundings. "Chungo lungo!" He ruefully rapt. Something bumped him. He reeled away in shock to review the offender. "Scorrion! You chunga-lungan naja-dog! What are you doing here, thief?!" He blustered with astoundment before the brutish and bulky redhead, as on the side of a troop of pirates behind.

"I was about to ask you the very same thing, Ioz!" Scorrion's growled pitch abraded, the outlaw sprung in reverse at seeing his old rival in the same place.

"What have you been up to, shardfish? Stealing more maps, hmmm?" Ioz sorely grizzled an insinuation, though only half-heartedly.

"Don't tell me you're still storming about that now, denbar-scud." Under a crinkled brow Scorrion gnarled back, but only partially irritated.

"No, Scorrion, I've found better things to do." Ioz chuckled in a pretentious bombast.

"Is that so, scurvy-crook? Well so have I!" Scorrion retorted back with impressiveness. Ioz flung him a conceited glance, about to open his mouth. This went on until Ren interrupted, sensing this would continue.

"Ioz, we need to find where the Treasure went." Ren approached his diverted shipmate with imperativeness, pulling him away by the arm. The tough sailor tried to protest. Ren focused on Scorrion. "Did you by any chance, happen to see someone run past here?" He stabbed at the chance the disputing buccaneers may know something.

"Run past here? Hah. I saw no one, what I did see were those low-down cheats who stole our Squall's figurehead-gem. Don't know what the thieves want with it but it's ours and we want it back!" Scorrion blasted in a searing tirade. He behaved as though he wanted to slash something to pieces with his sword, which he waved through the air.

"Heh! Scorrion you're mad over a jitatan bowsprit-jewel? Now who's the greedy wharf-scud?" Ioz clamored with a boisterous banter at the fire-crested swashbuckler. Scorrion grunted.

"Wait!" Tula interrupted via a shuffle between, coming to an idea. "Who do you think stole from you, Scorrion?" She asked in correlation, striving to gather information. "Could it be possibly the same person who stole the Treasure from us?" The empath sought, she felt a sense about the stranger who had dashed away. Ren switched his regard to her, listening to her intuitive suggestion.

"I know jitatan well who stole from us! It's the Captain of the Monsoon, Taneuka!" Scorrion roared outloud, foul in ire.

"Taneuka?! Noy jitat! The Taneuka? The jitatan Lady-Pirate Taneuka?!" Ioz almost floored from recognition. He had not heard such a name for as long as he could remember.

"Of course her, ya know 'er scoundrel?" Scorrion noisily snorted, gawking at his old adversary in a less-than-sore interest.

"I know her, Scorrion." Ioz responded, appearing to be aloof at the mention of only the woman's name, the name recalling so many vastly-forgotten memories. "I've had such a crazy history with that ji-ta-tan-female." The robust bandit muttered aloud, distracted and lost in folly.

"Crazy history?" Scorrion batted an eyebrow and oddly remarked at the peculiar comment from his peer.

"He means he used to have-" Tula bit her lip and began to say something smart before she was abruptly impeded by Ren's forthcoming dynamism.

"Anyway. If you know her, Ioz. Then perhaps you can be of help to both of us? We must recover the Treasure! The Quest!" Ren stalked over to his daydreaming friend, directing by an insistence. He furrowed his eyebrow at Ioz, who did not seem to be paying any reverence to him.

Ioz noticed Ren hovering around him and became startled from his fanciful state. "Oh! Right Ren. Uhh, well I haven't talked to her in a long time...and I don't need to talk to the chunga-lunga sea-witch." Ioz babbled on, shifting his eyes away from Ren's immediate stare that forced itself vehemently in his face.

"Right." Ren conceived a wily smirk and turned face to Scorrion and his crew, in preparation to speak.

"Looks like Ioz and Scorrion will be partnering up again, this should be interesting." Tula glanced over with a witty smile at Ioz, cleverly revealing of connections to come.

The location the two crews were stationed was one abreast a mass of water, the delta poured out into seas beyond.

"We'll take you guys with us, s'long as you help us find our gem. You guys can get your Treasure back." Scorrion reluctantly agreed to the union of hands for the purpose of tracking down the Monsoon and it's captain, Taneuka. "Our ship is docked not far from this jitatan brackish-slew, come on if ye got legs." Scorrion beckoned for the four of them to follow.

"I don't like this at all, woman!" Ioz fought rigidly in protest. "Taneuka is a crazy sea-devil! The last time I talked to her she nearly tossed me into a barrel of darva-worms! She's a hard-hearted witch, and she puts her crew in danger for a Quest to slay a white leviathan because she thinks it stole her father's heirloom!" Ioz unkindly ranted and raved, not budging until his crewmates were practically dragging him. "I'll team up with Scorrion, but not with the jitatan woman!" He complained as his beady eyes of black darted to his ex-enemy, who seemed to be almost as amused by Ioz's reaction as his friends were.

"Come on, Ioz. She can't be all that bad, she probably feels as shy about seeing you again as you do with her." Tula smiled and attempted to nudge the stubborn wayfaring-companion of her's out of his obstinacy.

"I tell you, Tula, the woman is mad! Ji-ta-tan insane!" Ioz shouted, throwing a fit. He fixed to his place on the shore.

"What's the matter Ioz, did she find a pirate more handsome than you?" Scorrion teased, entertained from against the sandbar as he loaded supplies upon the Squall with his adjacent crew.

"Shut your blubbering-jitatan mouth, Scorrion! The only reason I'm not beating you into a sand-blasting shipwreck is because it would ruin my serene demeanor!" Ioz threatened from a standstill, shaking his fist at the mocking foe and then grumbling. Scorrion nearly burst out into a spilling guffaw.

"Ioz..." Ren began to trill. He looked Ioz right in the eyes and grinned. "If you don't come with us, you'll be all alone here." He sharply prodded the sore crewman. Tula couldn't keep from laughing.

"So?" Ioz snappily returned. He jolted his vision away, avoiding linear confrontation with the young prince.

"I think Ioz has a case of the old seawoman-troubles! If you don't come along, you can't show your man-mate how macho you are!" Tula added on with a giggle, digging the man's embarrassment further. Ioz stood gritting his teeth, seemingly ready to holler out again.

"Well Tula, I think we should let Ioz make his own decisions. After all, maybe he'd prefer to ride to the ship by sand instead." Ren quipped as he motioned to Tula and then rolled his gaze back at the unyielding buccaneer. "Of course we could always have Niddler carry him, after all, he has helped us a lot with keeping the 9th Treasure safe. Unless of course, he'd prefer to stay here and spar with a lighthousekeeper he can't possibly defeat." Ren charmingly sung, crowding right in the face and asserting his meaning. Ioz perused his gander away and then finally focused his glint at the taunting royal. Ioz growled an unpleasant breath, relenting in turn.

"Kyanna's women left us alone because of the flying spirit!" Joiquiva and Lus-nayi ambled over the ferns, scampering to catch up with Ren and Tula just as Ioz reeled. They hesitated when they saw Scorrion, Ren met them half-way.

"Flying spirit...Nimbo." Ren decided the name of the character the Wraith's league was designated to catch at Kyanna's request. The orphans had positively deduced their journey was safer travelling with the crew than alone, and quietly found solace ducking under Niddler's wingspan.

"Those thorns must have been poison-nettles! I can barely see...Ren! Tula! You'll have to go on without me..." Ioz was immediately dumbstruck by a severe illness, wooziness spun in his yowling stomach and diziness confused his eyes. He grasped his heart through the colorful coat, his clammy hands flinched. Ren and Tula stopped, overcome with woe for his affliction.

"Poison-nettle remedy!" Seeing him fall, the twins hastily beat around a nearby bush and arose with two pale leaves. Four pairs of able hands melded the medicine into a thick paste and brewed it into a delicious drink. When the two bowed to pray Ioz carefully sipped it and put it at arm's length. He groaned, then he gulped the entire flask. His pupils perked as if nothing had caused him sick.

"Ioz won't say it but I will, thanks girls." Tula commended the duo, presenting them both a much-needed hug.

"If we join you can you find the Guyfoo Capsule for us, so we can bring our parents back to life...and restore Lus-nayi's value in our village?" Joiquiva created a seat in the turf and offered Tula's favor.

"The Treasures of Rule are better than the Guyfoo Capsule, we'll show you!" Tula promised to accompany, to the sisters' glee. "We just need to get it back from Captain Taneuka, Ioz's old girlfriend, so we can continue our Quest...we would have already except that stick-in-the-mud Ioz doesn't want to see her so while he stays here and pities himself we're going aboard Scorrion's ship, before he shoves off without us. So, I guess our encouragement won't even do the tric-" She verbalized her aggravation at the stickling shipmate.

"Fine!" The somber thief huffed. "But as soon as we get the Treasure, we go!" Ioz demanded, pouting and crossing his arms. He at last trudged his feet from the spot he had fused them to.

"That's more like it, so glad you came around, Ioz. It would be really lonely without you." Ren smiled at him, continuing to thrum in tone as he led his grouchy pal to the gangplank.

"Ren, you should be so lucky I consider you my own brethren, otherwise you can be assured I would take you up on that offer. Ay chunga." Ioz grudgingly trekked off with Ren in the direction of Scorrion's ship, mumbling curses to himself when he picked up his sword.

The Squall roved through the prodigious field of seas in search of the ship called the Monsoon, which would promise to contain the treasures of two merged crews.

"Well, Scorrion. Looks like she's no where to be seen." Ioz uttered plainly from lounging around on the deck, Scorrion and the fairly-plentiful crew had been drifting for far too long. He found nothing interesting to do.

"That's because you're so impatient, you lily-livered sore-eyes!" Scorrion barked out, flustered from the consistent explorer. He steered on, mist began to flood about the area.

"Or you're getting us lost, you ill-sea-fated rascal!" Ioz sat up and began a cynical retort. "Great! Now we'll really be lost! Noy jitat!" He harshly swore at the surrounding fog.

"Ok, everyone. I think we've tossed enough words back and forth. Who would like to tell some old pirate's tales? Come on, there must be someone! How about the Ghost of Khaddar Bay?" Tula cheered peacefully, playing the referee. She stood over the middle of the ship, trying to cast some light on to the situation and calm the troubled seas. Having a fight break out would be bad.

"Here's one for you, Tula! This jitatan mist is going to swallow us up in a spring-tide!" Ioz griped aloud, he attempted to swat away the covering fog that was concealing his vision.

"Not if I have anything to say about it! Full speed!" Scorrion bellowed out as he swung away with sails catching the wind. The fog ever slightly began to settle out.

"Tula! That's not the only problem we have! Dark water on the port bow!" Niddler hurriedly squawked out from the air, two orphans shrieking at the engulfed trunk encased in the bobbing crest of the spate underneath. He had flown away from the surveying railing of the ship to report the news.

"Say what?!" Scorrion exclaimed, awestruck.

"Noy jitat!" Ren cursed and scampered to the edge of the hull and saw the blackened substance creeping up the side. "Niddler, the Treasure!" He wildly called to the flying companion hovering above him. "Ioz, you'll have to go out! You're closest to the Treasure! We can't wait too long or it will destroy the ship!" His gaze fell pleadingly on Ioz as he roused him to action. "Tula, help me help Scorrion's crew with the tacking!" The sand-maned regent commanded the order as he dashed away to help Tula and the rest of the shiphands fight to keep the sail hoisted.

"Noy jitat. We're back to using this clunky thing, as if there were ever a worse time for this." Ioz subdued his grumble, having long given up the suggestion anything would go smoothly from this point onward. With weariness, he heaved the Treasure into his grasp. "Hurry up Niddler! Before we go by the board!" He directed as the brightly-feathered monkeybird dove down to take him up. Ioz dexterously approached the dark water with the Treasure. It lashed out viciously at Scorrion's craft of wailing men but recoiled and fled when it touched the heavy sphere, screaming away from the bastion. The flood balanced out and the covetous goo receded. Unfortunately, Niddler slipped while trying to retain the weight of Ioz and they splashed into the drenching tide. "Watch it, monkeybird!" He growled as he spit out unwelcome brine.

"Man overboard!" Scorrion sounded the alarm, albeit unwillingly.

"Sorry!" Niddler crowed meekly. "At least there are more hands now!" He cawed, trying to add a positive spin to the situation. He returned with the roguish sailor to touch down on the deck before any ropes needed to go tidal.

"Aye, and you don't know how much I'm anticipating the moment when it's just us again, Niddler." Ioz commented, rather sedately. The sea straightened out and clear water resumed a natural ebb and flow.

"With all the flying and carrying you're doing, you're going be a handsome monkeybird soon!" Tula rushed over to pet the athletic avian with a pleasant encouragement.

"That almost makes it worth it!" Niddler faced forward and squawked. Smoldering a shy blush, he stretched his wing muscles.

"Ship approaching! Starboard!" Swar's voice screamed from the pier. He enclosed a looking glass to his eye and pointed at the windward-sweeping vessel.

"Fifteen links, dead ahead! There she is! Avast!" Scorrion shouted out in excitement from the helm. "We'll pull 'er in close!" Scorrion clamored, he performed a hard turn in foresight of the ship. He pulled aside until the Squall became level with the small galleon.

"You! What do you want?" The groan of a rough but shrill-pitched male called out from across the waves where the hulls met alongside.

"What's rightfully mine!" Scorrion severely charged.

"Our Treasure, Uley!" Ioz amassed in the fracas.

"Get lost, shoddy losers! Our gold doesn't belong to you...especially you, topknot-man!...And how do you know my name?! Go away before we ram you!" The scratchy and high-tuned man powered from the hostile terrace.

"Then we'll take your mast down, smool-rats!" Scorrion turbulently voiced in preparation for a big fight at sea, he fiercely chucked his blade. Scorrion occupied more men in his crew, including those of the Wraith. The Monsoon exceeded in size, however.

"That's enough, Uley. I want to know what these windbags want." The tide-bound salts stood aside, still, when they heard a woman's regard pour from out of the dregs of the warship. The smooth and durable figure tapped way from the steering mechanism and out to the observation jetty on the platform, where she could clearly be seen. The sunset-blond with fair skin bore eyes at the strangers' ship.

"Ay chunga!" Ioz startlingly met his gaze upon the explorer's captain, she hadn't changed a bit since he saw her last.

"Ioz?!" Captain Taneuka almost fainted when her sapphire glimpse cast on the dusk-imbued pirate on the floater, she called out the name of her old-squeeze in trepidation.

PART 2 - The Moonsail Festival

The cloudy skies of Merr at sea had conformed in the midday sun when two frigates joined together in union. Crews from three skiffs flocked into one grand brigade, the heavy Squall drifted in the wind.

"We were hoping you would grant us back what your crew stole from us." Ren genially modulated to the reasonable woman, who seemed to be considering with wiggling eyes continuously peeking at the muscular sailor with spanning locks of black. She seemed to be bashfully avoiding. Ioz hugged a nullity with arms crossed, and whirled his head in many directions.

"Oh, forgive me, young lad. I may not be able to do this. However, I did not order my crew to steal from you in particular. I sent them out for some much needed-supplies on our only rescue dory, but I did not expect them to return with anything at all. You see, we need all the help we can get." The ringlet-hemmed captain dolefully explained. "Normally I would be willing to favor you, but our ship and crew have endured much torment from other privateer ships. Our distress signals have been unreceived or ignored and we have become lost at sea. We have more than enough gold to make repairs, if we could only come upon land. Easement from this cruel circumstance may come if only we could drag our way there." Taneuka diplomatically clarified, reluctant to oblige. Her name was feared by many sailors. She was ruthless when need be, but she was not a savage. She took favor on the young man who was speaking to her, but she could not prevent her attention from fluttering away.

Ren considered this. He scoured toward his right-side and his expression formed a half-smirk amid a thought. "Why can you not reach land?" The golden-haired youth asked in detail of the fit lady-pirate. "If you are lost, maybe we can be of help to you." Ren optimally suggested. He needed to help her, she also still possessed the Treasure. He awaited her response.

"Give back our jewel, now!" Scorrion yelled cantankerously, not in the mood for settling things in a civil manner. He protested as Tula and the rest of his crew were required in holding him back to let Ren barter.

"It's useless, Ren. She's as solid as an Octarian Ox." Ioz batted an iris of deep onyx to indicate, he set his sights on the woman of his affections. He composed fragile eye-contact.

Ren gave Ioz a heavy inspection, he tried to penetrate the austere aura. "Ioz, I think you might be of help to us if you would only talk to her." The adolescent edged pensive eyes of blue at the man next to him, Ioz did not meet with him. Taneuka appeared to be flustered or embarrassed at Ioz's statement, but she withheld emotion.

"The dark water is too insidious for our ship to move through. We have been stranded out at sea for weeks now, meeting storm after storm." Taneuka mournfully loomed in point. She motioned above her to a partially-torn sail. "Kuunda has been unforgiving with us, as you can see from our sail, we're not in shape for venturing. Soon, we will not be seaworthy at all. Should our ill-fortune persist." The lady-captain tensely went on. She normally would not gossip to strangers about the weaknesses of her position, but she felt like she could trust this boy. Ren, he had introduced himself as. Son of King Primus of Octopon, he preposterously proclaimed. Taneuka did not believe he confessed the truth to her, but she did not really care about one's own self-conceited notions. She knew of bigger things to worry about, and he had Ioz with him, besides.

"Dark water?" Ren questioned the pretty superior notably, and then his initiative changed to one of sense. "Taneuka, we can help you! We have with us one of the Thirteen Treasures of Rule! If we keep it with us, we can drive the dark water away from your ship!" Ren declared presumptuously at the relentless captain, who now looked doubtful.

"What? That's impossible. The Thirteen Treasures of Rule are a myth! They don't exist!" Captain Taneuka floored, she almost felt anger rising within her. Not only did this boy speak incomprehensible things about being the Prince of Octopon, but he also said he touted some mystical gem to repel dark water.

She would put an end to this lunacy at once. She had been ready to issue the order to her crew to throw these liars out. Whether Ioz had been with them or not made no difference to her when it was jettison for the remainder of these clowns, she could not put up with this reckless endangerment forged on falsehoods. She slowly began to unsheathe her blade.

"It's true, Taneuka. Don't do anything foolish, you always were an impulsive soak-head. If you throw Ren out, this wind-blown shack won't last another moonrise." Ioz at last lipped, to the shock of everyone aboard the ragged galleon. Ren's stun focused frightfully on the cutlass the captain had begun to draw, he did not even see it, and would not have. Ioz poised from leaning against the mast, his fingers had stopped drumming on his entwined arms as he prompted his severe upbraid.

What? Taneuka didn't think Ioz stuttered. Ioz didn't lie. To her. If Ioz said something was so, it was so. "Ioz!" Taneuka nearly screamed with disbelief. "How do you say such a thing?" She shuddered out. Foremost, she was awed he opened his mouth. To say, this? The Captain of the Monsoon had heard many tales, most of them lore. She wouldn't believe it if she had been given a memorat's notes.

"By the way, he's true as the twenty seas the Prince of Octopon, too." Ioz supplemented pompously, as if he had read her thoughts. He quite possibly could have. Taneuka's eyes flickered with astonishment, she shelved her sword.

"Right!" Ren grinned, primed and fluently-crafty in words. "Let's get this ship a new sail!" He directed about to the mass around him.

Time elapsed to a tidy degree. Both the crews of the Wraith and of the Squall had at last harmoniously joined forces to patch the sail of the Monsoon. Fortunately, Scorrion's crew kept a lot of borca-paste on-hand.

"Niddler! Are you done up there yet? Noy jitat, watch where you're shoving that thing!" Ioz attentively shouted, dodging a bucket of stinky mire the monkeybird carelessly swabbed in his face.

"Sorry, Ioz!" Niddler squawked, demurely apologetic. "I'm done with my end!" The red-feathered bird chirped out.

"Good. You, Scorrion?" Ioz affirmed and shifted his eased glare to the tough scalawag on the other end of the mast. Soon, they would be finished.

"Got it, Ioz. Ay jitata!" The broad man grizzled. For an interval he almost fell as he uttered a curse, but he righted himself. He climbed down with Ioz and the rest of the seafarers who had climbed aloft to the boom. Lus-nayi and Joiquiva finished the weaving of hems then the braiding of the foot to the clew on the topsail. The pace through the sea-crest increased substantially.

"We can't thank you enough Ren, Captain of the Wraith, and crew. Your help will at least get us to port from here. There must be something we can do to repay you." Taneuka courteously addressed the reputable prince and his companions. Her heart-shaped ensemble of curls blew in the air as she beamed up at the now-repaired sails of her once-mighty ship. Her gaze of bright azure trimmed upon Scorrion, who cleaved out his hand and had become testy. She composedly handed him her fee of the stolen jewel from the Squall's figurehead. He then conducted to flee on his own clipper, roaming off with his scurrilous league. She and Ioz interacted very scantly.

"If you would, Taneuka, we did come to get our Treasure back." Ren petitioned sheepishly with Niddler by his side, who behaved in a nosy order.

"Oh! You must mean this!" The Captain of the Monsoon signaled to an object her first-mate carried and handed Ren a glistening spiral of lilac hue. "I don't know what purpose it will serve you, but it's not any use to us and it will most likely suffice you a lot better anyway." Taneuka smiled with a kindly grin when conversing with Ren.

"Thank you very much, Taneuka." Ren beamed once more and gracefully thanked the lady-pirate.

"No problem. It's been a distant era since I have heard anything about the Treasures of Rule myself. I originally knew about them from my mother, before our falling out. You see, she was a noblelady from Octopon and hopelessly afflicted with an unrequited crush on King Primus. Though I never believed I would meet his son personally, I am quite glad I have." Taneuka offered with some receptivity. She believed this would be the last thing she would tell.

"Taneuka, do you mean that my father and-" Ren stuttered in a fleeting moment.

"It can only be!" Tula gasped within her claim.

"Your mother's name was Cray?" Ren wondered with an expression agape. Taneuka appeared dumbfounded and Ioz equally so, however the loner did not disturb.

"Yes, it is. How do you know her name? Her and Primus ended long before I could remember." Captain Taneuka sobered as she concluded her divulgence, she desired to know more.

"We ran into her at some point during the Quest we've embarked on. I didn't think my father liked Cray any more than another friend." Ren uplifted his confusion, still stunted by the news.

"He didn't." Taneuka suddenly refuted such significance. "I'm no princess, I have no idea of my background. My father only left me a relic, a Margar statue after mother and I moved to Kalinda. Such began my hunt for the white leviathan that stole it from me. Enough of this though, it's not my preference to speak of such embittering subjects. How was my mother when you saw her?" The she-boater was conjured by humanitarian concern.

Ren delayed with an answer. "She did something to try to relive her past." Finally, the sympathetic royalty transferred his empathy into words. Taneuka not only seemed to instantly connect, but to pine as well.

"That doesn't surprise me. Growing up with her wasn't what led me to the sea, running from home did. Sailing was a nice escape back then, but I guess you could say I'm questing for something myself now, something that can't be reproduced. Ioz would know the mourning I speak of." Taneuka had been perceptively grief-stricken when she carried her scrutiny toward the teammates. She briefly lapsed an eye to the silent-but-watching crewmate of her history. "Ren, I owe you tremendously. A great deal you have done for me in my time of need, is there anything I may help you with?" Taneuka implored with a lightened demeanor.

"It's been an honor Taneuka, but we need to find our way back and to our ship. There are more people we have to save, right now our goal is to help the Imbibers, and everyone ruined by the dark water." Ren sensibly prompted their objective.

"Find a good home for Joiquiva and Lus-nayi, too." Tula laughed as she hugged the gandering Quiin twins.

"We'll find them the right home, Tula. One where they will be honored for their spirit and stow from Bloth's pirates." Ren would keep faithful in every vow he made to Tula and to trust her judgement, as he had spoken so once before. This bout the devoted Andorian was more partial on protecting the latest additions to the ragtag misfits, even more than Ren would be.

"Wait, Ren." Tula chimed in. "We don't know where we are, we're as lost out to sea as they are. Ever since we lost the 10th Treasure to Taneuka's men." The pertinent shipmates of the Wraith fastened sight at Tula's note as she unraveled the correct difficulty in their plan.

"That's right..." Ren solemnly muttered, he lost himself in analysis until the captain interrupted his devices.

"Is that so, travelers? If you tell us where you wish to go, we may take you there. Though we may be lost in the realm of port, we have circled too many times alongside the landstrip you may be privy to. It is the least we can do to repay you for your troubles." Captain Taneuka smiled, polite in inquest. Ioz stared at her, she kept her eyes at him.

"Actually, we are trying to get back to a certain place." Ren happily sustained. He could not refuse her invitation.

The Monsoon set sail and heaved onward. The ice between the estranged old-flames finally broke.

"I see my cabin-sister's memory has been protecting you." The rogue sea-woman trilled her perusal at a jade-green memento on Ioz's shoulders. "She was never a sister but she was everything you could ever want in one, an excellent shiphand to boot. Those were the days, back before I took to the high seas for any other reason but to sail." Captain Taneuka sighed, she talked to the rugged swashbuckler at her side. "It really hasn't been the same without my other half here. She made nice company, especially after father passed." Her aura rung melancholic, as if reminiscing over days long past.

"I never knew her, closely. At the time I was too provoked by her betrayal to care. I was worried about my own skin, and the skin of my colleague. I don't remember how old she would be now. It would be a beautiful Moonsail Festival, if it wasn't for all this." Ioz conveyed in deep and reflective words. He leaned, almost sitting next to his former beau as they rode through waters thick with black and blue.

"Thirty-two." Captain Taneuka sharply rattled without need to recall. She shot the bandit next to her a harsh but troubled glance.

"Ioz, would you mind telling Niddler to keep watch on port? The dark water is starting to come closer and from the other-side now-" Ren started to blurt in. "Did I interrupt something?" Ren edged over to the bridge as he inquisitively bothered the two pirates engrossed in discussion.

"We've got it, Ren! Don't worry! I think that was the last patch from this way." Tula called out from the deck with the rest of Taneuka's crew. Accordingly, all was in check. The side skirted around with little more than an unobstructed curve. Ren lashed a head to the femme and then centered his attention on the pair speaking, he vaguely picked up what they said.

"Wait, did the two of you used to..." Ren collected a clue but did not finish it, he tried formulate what they might be discussing. "Bloth?" He wondered, shooting the guess.

"She never joined Bluelips, Ren. She's been on her own board, for as long as I've known her." Ioz stated with a lousy sigh. He peeked at his buddy who showed both curiosity and perception.

"I'm impressed, you're the first woman on the seas of Merr I've seen who has been able to lead for this long. I can tell your crewmen respect you very much, I only wish Ioz and Tula would settle their bickering." Ren felt innocently intrigued with the unlikely leader who cared for her shiphands with such harmony and teamwork, he bashfully shied when Tula paid him study.

"Toughened-hearts aren't always cold-hearts, good prince, and that was so long ago." In a nostalgic simper Taneuka enjoined with her closest outlaw. Lovely eyes sweetly fluttered upon the youngster who seemed to be showing his youthful eagerness. She sensed he picked up on her thoughts when he walked back to where his female shiphand was stationed. The two carried on in their conversation. "Like you should not have, Ioz. Like she should not have. You wanted him to go down, why did you hang around so long, even before?" She responded to what the seadog previously chatted of, an essentially reprimanding concern.

"I was waiting for the right moment, Taneuka. It didn't come like I expected it would. I also didn't think I'd still be around after it came." Ioz spoke with barren words, his expression turned to one flinty and sullen. He started to remember things he genuinely wanted to forget, feeling a pinch contention that the woman of his past would even bring the horrific topic to ear.

"Ioz, as much as I respect your opinion as an experienced sailor, you should have gotten out of that bone-dump long before that atrocity happened." Taneuka's eyes shifted to the troubled swindler with a disapproving glare, she scolded him. "Even now, your vendetta is going to get you killed, just like it did her. Don't you think he still lets him do it?" The flushed lady-pirate fiercely warned, she absorbed the hate in his stressed glower.

"Why do you need to bring that up, Taneuka? I don't know if the kreld-eater still lets him do the heinous thing, chipunga woman! Ay chunga, I don't want to know. Don't even ask me about it!" Ioz spun around, his dissent became crystal when he shot his old-fire an intense and morbid stare. "I don't want to hear it mentioned again, woman. Not with me." His tone numbed like ice when he met her, his stony gaze sunk upon the floor.

"My Lady, we'll be arriving on shore soon as sunset!" The first-mate of Captain Taneuka's crew called out with anticipation.

"Good, Uley! Let's pull her in!" Taneuka ordered as she operated a wide turn in advance of the shores where the Imbibers and the Leviathan Worshipers dwell. The water forced itself out of the cruising ship's way.

"Are they still talking?" It had not been until sometime after the Monsoon came to a landing when Ren jabbed to the woman next to him, smirking wittily as he peered over the shoulder at his dear friend and the alluring rascal with him. Ioz was showing a side the prince had not seen from him before. He just managed to catch a glimpse of the two of them closely retaining the other person. It only lasted a moment, but it had been there. Ren laid his arm on the back of the ecomancer to his side.

"Looks like it." Tula observed of the duo strongly, making only a flimsy comment. She saw the twain heads meet and then slide away, acting as if it never happened to begin with. Her thoughts turned sour, for reasons unknown. She left her place.

"I will keep my promise to Tula, if she even wants it." Ren sulked in backwind of Tula's abandonment of his caress.

Taneuka was one of the few ladies with her Merrian skin husky and arid-hued as other buccaneers had seen her, but it was only for her method of using a fickle beauty that Ioz once loved her. Her siren grace could blow his sails far yonder, but it never suited submitting himself in obedience to her temperament. The ecomancer he knew was an entirely different breed of female than cold-hearted Taneuka, but her heart was not-hardly suited for a sailor or a monarch. From the time when he and Tula had left their assumed-to-be-departed friend on Pandaawa he knew the wench was like no other, but by Kuunda's Grace, the boy lived and the Quest continued. Monkeybirds and their freedom...a penchant for self-sacrifice was how the royal fool almost lost his skin. Of course Ren was too pure to be sailing the twenty seas of Merr. The lad earned his salt in a jitatan lighthouse, not aboard a ship of wharf-boys and later greedy thugs. So many times that magic-woman Ioz had met, far after the days of Taneuka's wooing, walked past him and taunted him. It was not by her bodily charm alone but by her fondness for another less-worthy of seamanship as he. Ioz had on occasion been lustfully tempted by a solution to his position on Tula from the perspective of pirates like Mantus or Bloth and needed to shake the awful feeling in his gut like a stone, the sad thing he knew was that she sensed this very darkness inside of him.

"So, Ioz...Counting the stars again." Tula brisked nigh the lonely pirate with the sea-devil on his shoulder.

"Don't you have a raft to rinse, woman?" Ioz backtracked his heart's impurity with a leg leap until he meandered by, his umbrella topknot slacking aimlessly and would not face the directed call as if he were fearstruck. Tula was easy enough to ignore but she noticed he had slipped in anger.

"Sorry for going off on you back there...old matey." Uley waddled on crooked toes to greet Ioz by the helm. "You know, I see that girl in pink over there with ye...quite a sea-flora, so she's your ummm-" He stammered a guess but his impatient witness didn't wait.

"No, she's just here for the ride. My captain wants to make her ship-wife." When Ioz set Uley straight he tugged on the cord of Taneuka's firm shoulder and began to kneed his fingers. Before first-mate Uley left, his jealous glint was hidden beneath the tress between his faded bald-patches.

"Is it about the plague on Andorus?" Ren hinted on Tula's stress as she watched Ioz prate on days gone by, his sorrow was sealed in every word though even with her senses she could not hear him speak. Tula sighed with an awful pain in her core. Taneuka stepped over to them.

"This is the place, isn't it? Thank you so much again, Ren. And Ioz." Captain Taneuka played, shifting her gander to the dauntless mate beside her. He said his parting with a whistle reserved only for her like a wolfish sea-man. Tula felt uneasy. Ioz dangled the fish-eye pendant he often wore on the underneath of his neck as he shone her a nod, goodbyes were always hard.

"We're ready alright! Now all we have to do is get back to the Wraith and then we can take a nice long rest at port. Thank you much Taneuka, we will pray for your journey to port as well!" The nobleman wearily appraised. He channeled away in direction, ready to disembark. He became the first to touch down when he planted his feet on the sandy beach, Ioz became the last to follow.

"If you need help again, just ask! Taneuka remembers those loyal to her!" The attractive lass of sun hue returned as she drove her bateau out, waiting for horizons beyond. Ren aided Tula through the sloping silt by her hand.

"Thanks for the offer, I'll keep that in mind." Solely, Ioz murmured in a spacey tune before he settled to the tracking trail on the sodden shoal.

"Noy jitat, she was nice but I think she had something up her sleeve." Tula suspiciously commented, in a way she usually did not. She did not figure why.

PART 3 - Unlucky Moon of the Third

The deep-orange sun began to sink low as the four adventurers trudged their way along the seaboard from whence they came. The skies were cloudless and the beach remained uninhabited. Within the quartet, the blond boy stalled upon the sandbar and perused it for any sign of life.

"Are you sure this is the right place, Ren? There's no one here." Niddler pointed out as his best-buddy sloshed through the wet sand.

"I'm positive, Niddler. This is where we were at." Ren attested when he roamed out from under some trees above, closer to province. Tula followed in his footsteps. Ioz stumbled on a rock in the way, almost dropping the monstrous Treasure that he kept ending up pawned with. Ren squinted at the aisle of beach across from him that contained the unmovable Imbibers. He recollected what he witnessed and quickly blocked it out of his mind. The monkeybird seemed to pick up on what he saw, because he asked no further questions.

"Where's the Wraith?" Tula piqued with budding concern as she rearranged her almond eyes to anything that may have resembled the vessel.

Ren scouted all the way to the shoreline before dropping a curse. "Noy jitat! Someone stole it!" The flaxen-hair anxiously hollered. Frustrated and upset, his mind churned to find the shyster who stole from them.

"Chipungo, and I think I know who!" Ioz plied a hint. He bolted to the edge of the shore where Ren positioned when he spotted out of the corner of his eye, a dot in the distance. "On the horizon! They didn't get away completely! We'll get the sea-bum's rush on those scummy sea-thieves!" Ioz rattled with boiling blood as he bounded forth and then dove into the water, leaving the Treasure on the bank. He hastened to swim out to the vessel, which fortunately did not plod very fast. Tula dashed to Ren's brink, scooping up the Treasure with her.

"Niddler, come on! We can't let Joat get his boat." Ren furiously invoked, whipping around to his tufted friend and commanding him with verbatim.

"Again?" Niddler whined but flew to rest on Ren's shoulders as the prince tightly cinched an arm around Tula's waist. The trio lifted off and into the air.

The deck of the recaptured Wraith distressed in argument as a scrap was taking place on deck. The vessel was nearly dead in the water, with no one at the helm.

"Where in the twenty seas is that bilge-blasted Treasure?!" Joat clipped a fat munchkin up by a metal-clawed hand, screaming into his face. He was about to go ballistic, feeling like he wished to throw the runt-of-a-man overboard. Three ruffians clustered by him, surrounding the suspended man.

"Konk don't know! The boy took it with him!" The chunky knave who resembled a pig shouted as he swung an ill-aimed punch at the hook-hand and kicked a pegleg toward the face. Joat easily dodged.

"You!" Joat squealed with a high-pitched and eccentric response, shoving his frown into the other man's head so they were almost nose-to-nose. He glared into the dumb crook's face, about to lose his temper. Then he cooled, shaking his free fist at the porcine-mutant and dropping him crossly to the ground. "You told him! You told, Him! It would be here!" Joat brayed and ripped off the hat he wore on his head and slapped it to the ground, giving it a stomp. He fumed in a shrill whinny of anger as the half-pint below him just sat slickly on the rump.

Konk, who had fallen to the deck with a plop, glared in a baffling bewilderment at the raging darva-dog before him. "It not Konk's fault you make deal with Bloth to catch boy for Wraith and coin. Konk just tell him he here and come along because-" The hoggish pirate began to slowly justify himself until he was interrupted.

"This is My Wraith, I'm just letting you use it! The slugger's pillaging blare bombarded, impending to tear loose with a resentful clacker. Joat clomped over, but unsettled at a summon.

"Yo, boss, there's a problem!" One of the crewmen on Joat's team raced up to the brute-head, who would have ignored him had he not grabbed by the back of the shirt. He beckoned to a triad of airborne invaders, who had now alit on the becalmed ship. The raid consisting of a juvenile man with a ponytail, in convergence with a brunet woman and a flutter of red feathers, landed and were now running remorselessly toward them.

"Noy jitat!" Joat ejected from his placement, he had been about to spill over with animosity until he saw the Treasure the company carted. "The Treasure! By the moons of Merr, my ship has come in! Get them!" He directed his dispatching boatmen, letting a grin reside on his face. I'll show them their reward for making me Laughingstock of the Twenty Seas! Joat silently cackled.

It took a lot of effort from Ren to slip and fight past Joat's attacking band of thieves, but he managed to either avert them or shake them off with his blade when he spun away. He rushed for Joat, slashing against the hook-claw with all he possessed behind his edgy sword. "Give it up!" Ren unrelentingly shouted with fierce acquisition.

Joat backed up as the boy slashed away at his steely paw. He could not grip a hold on him because the nimble youth moved too precisely. "Get the Treasure!" He hollered to his men as he made a swift move to evade Ren's stylet, which caused him to miss and fall into a crouching stumble before he rebounded to his feet to attack. Joat now fled directly for the Treasure, but he was pressed to fend off Ren.

Three swabs surged at Tula, who had slowed down from carrying the burdensome swag in her arms. The scuds were about to corner her on the starboard until a tired Niddler heaved her up and lugged her to the other side of the deck, which caused the bumbling dips to knock heads. Now Ioz had reached the Wraith and focused on climbing up the hull.

"Look in the sky, a flying man!" Tula motioned to a sweeping flash of red from the draft beyond, the unwelcome guest shuffled in the nearing gust. Ren defended the stock and unsettled to fumble for the Treasure behind a landing archer.

"Nimbo, you're the flying spirit! Why are you here?!" Ren escaped a star-point arrow through a wail as the super-flyer loaded another.

"I steal meat for Bloth!" The crimson scavenger confessed his purpose immediately as he donned a second mace forged from a sea-star's casing. Though Ren warded him to the end of the bridge the challenger excelled in marksmanship. The boy fended against green-locks with his sickled knife.

"Why?" Ren was all but discombobulated at such a reason Nimbo expressed, but not making so much of a difference in his outrage. The rogue aimed with the all concentration on one side of the face adverse the eye-patch, shooting a target only in his hopeful mind's glimpse.

"To present as an offering to Z.M.Q.!" Nimbo instantly swiped the Wraith's food supply and hauled over the ledge. His last arrow harmlessly abandoned, he jumped to touch the breeze and vanished mid-air.

"Z.M.Q.? Who?" Left in the petty-thief's dust, Ren picked up the pieces as he wrought Joat for the Treasure below his elbow. The gentle clouds an altitude overhead sprinkled with Nimbo's byway.

Konk tumbled for Ren in an attempt to repeat his success with his cleaver, knowing his evil boss would grant him a grandeur reward were he able to prove the claim of the adolescent's indestructibility, which the master did not believe. The pegleg sneered. He lobbed his weapon to an accessible mitt, about to tromp after the lad. "Konk get big reward for capturing shrewd boy." The grotesque porker chuckled as he furrowed his rusty blade at the quick-dueling boy, who nearly didn't see him advance.

Ren bailed out of the way just-in-time as Konk's hatchet connected with the air to his side. Joat swung his piercing hand after seeing an opening and Ren tripped in attempt to elude, allowing a swear to escape his lips. Konk hurtled for Ren's nape with the weapon but as he swerved and before the metal collided, Niddler swished down and grabbed the mark. Ioz boarded the ship and swatting with his tipping saber, plunked over two of Joat's three visitors and swiveled with might at the third. The opposite bandit's cutlass caught with him and Ioz fought by bravado to keep his sword stable. Ioz eventually hauled back, which invited the brigand to stroke the blade at him once more. When he did, Ioz rolled his assault to the blunt side of the steel. It caught with the man, which caused a crash overboard and into the water. "Nice day for a swim, eh, Joat?" Ioz focused on Joat as his new enemy and stepped toward him, tautly arrogant and drawn in hand. He prepared to defend ownership of the Wraith. Joat dashed to run for the starboard, a sly smile plastered on his face. Konk then proceeded to block his path.

"No. Nice day for Konk to get paid. Hahahahh!" The piglet groaned out a cruel and whooping laugh as he reeled his grody trident at the defending buccaneer. Behind him, Joat's hooligans had ambled up and started to skulk forward but they were crisply taken out by Ren, who ably whacked one of the scamps off-balance. Tula dealt the last of his standing scalawags a swift kick in the back, making the aggressor tumble to the floor. They tossed them both off the deck. Ioz swung with strength at the piglet's stubby and crude chopper and it shed, flying out of his hand. "Oh no." Konk simply muttered, staring with over-inflated eyes at the hand in which his weapon had flung from and then back at Ioz. Niddler hopped on the peg-legged menace, flapping wings and clawing at the head. The avian shouted angry squawks and chatters as the shrimp battled to free himself. It was over, finally. Except for Joat.

"Where did that kreld-eater run off to?" Ren exerted with storm on his brow. He steadied with his broken blade that was extended at-the-ready and searched around for any sign of the mule-face.

No sooner did the noble speak than the claw-handed villain jump out from behind the cabin with a bow in arm. "Right here, boy." Joat delivered with an evil laugh as he fired a spiked arrow in the direction of Ioz, it conjoined with an arm. "I hope you like Dartha-Nightmare-Eel venom with your Wraith, Ioz!" He expelled a spiteful howl and then using his metal incisor, hurdled overboard and swam to the rangier of Bloth's scout-ships that had drifted out to sea. Tula muzzled a gag as Ren's face converted to one of that both dazed and furious.

"Konk getting out of here." The stunned gimp twitched his eyes, he observed that the mongrel-salt had turned tail. He stumped to the edge of the platform. Hobbling off the boundary, he hit the sea with a splash. Ren and Tula let him go.

"Ioz!" Tula wailed with a panicked upset. She knelt down to him to stabilize, as he was closely on the ground. She flickered her blurring eyes to clear a static view.

Ioz felt sick, his head pounded and his vision continued to show specs. "That...jitatan...sea-scum." The wounded outlaw drew in enough dwindling health to choke out, breathing continued to diminish to an impairment.

"Ioz, don't try to move. We'll get you some help." Ren instructed him with a drastic urgency and a violent undertone that could have only come from wishes of ill-will intended for his chum's assaulter. He hunched down at Ioz's clammy shoulder, browsing at where the darts had implanted. "We have to get these out." The direful regent scrutinized with a traumatic worry. "Tula, get me something to wrap over it." He commanded his female comrade but when she didn't move fast enough, he slashed off a piece of fabric from his attire with his abrupt sword. Scrupulously, he tried to remove the stingers with his hand, but they wouldn't come out. Ioz kept moving. "Joiquiva, Lus-nayi!" The brave orphans compassionately answered the call at his summon.

"It's too late for me...go get that...kreld-eater." Ioz tenaciously swore, vigorously forcing his voice to do his will. He everything but collapsed on the deck, he began to hear abstruse sounds. His knees started to succumb to the weakness, his feet tapped in floundering motivation to stay upright. He staggered, and folded.

"Don't worry about him, Ioz. I promise we'll make him pay, you're too sick to move. Tula, help me get him to the cabin. He needs some water too, if it's anything like a naja-bite from the urchin-plagues of Octopon he'll be dehydrated." Ren led, beckoning to his able-bodied shipmate. His words were frank and severe. He tried to wipe away the orange toxin from the affected leak.

"It's not working!" Joiquiva grieved when she saw the paste made for the wound was being devoured by the flesh itself, she broke into a frustrated sob on her tireless legs as Lus-nayi brought more.

Niddler tentatively approached, letting out a muted squawk. "Is there anything I can do to help?" He timidly murmured with a distraught overture.

"Go away Niddler!" Ren yelled in frustration at the monkeybird who had picked the absolutely-worst possible time to say anything. He fathomed himself on the verge of losing his head. "I'm sorry, Niddler. Get some water, please." Ren flatly requested, realizing his flop.

"Sorry I asked..." Niddler sadly cawed off to do as Ren told him.

Tula assisted Ren in bracing Ioz, having not yet attempted to boost him off the ground. "Ren...I think I can help slow the poison with my ecomantic powers. It will take a lot out of me." The crewwoman melted into Ren's stare, gravely upset.

Ren begun to calm down. "We still need to get him inside." Ren stated after a terrified jolt of misery began to once again overthrow his nerve. He searched restlessly in his numb companion's eyes. "Wait...maybe, maybe the Treasure can help." The discouraged prince culled out the Treasure he managed to keep safe and circulated it over the stony-hindered colleague. It glowed as it started to transfer it's energy into the body it was coming in contact with. Ioz seemed to feel better, or at least relax. "I think it's helping." Ren's eyes perked up as the fiery emotion proceeded to leave him.

"Ren, I hate to interrupt, but we might need the Treasure for something else." Niddler meekly squeezed out as he tiptoed over to the captain. His fluffy primate-hand pointed to the dark water, already beginning to surround the ship.

"Scot pango!" Ren's expletive dreadfully hissed as he stood and quickly powered to the border of the craft. "You have to help me, Niddler." He rotated, addressing the precariously-frightened monkeybird. Ren felt slovenly, as if all the drive to fight had been about to leave him.

Tula rendered her hands over Ioz's head and leaned her front against her arms, reposing down to her knees as she accomplished her magic. "Stay with me..." Tula urged her ability, concentrating. Her zest began to fill him as his face began to regain it's former tone instead of the bleak paleness that had overtaken him. Ioz quieted and he appeared to have drifted off into a deep slumber, a slumber, but he was okay. Tula soon would lose all potency she had reserved. When she spoke, her words were lethargic. She felt and would barely manifest any might to lift her head, her limbs were sore. Her entire vitality drained, she ached.

Niddler helped to thrust the Treasure into the deadened sea, dispersing to cleanse it away. It was unfortunate that though it departed from the lone transport, only a compact patch disappeared. Dark water almost, if not entirely, concealed the seascape around them. Never before had so much of it been seen in the general area. "You'll have to clear a road for us, Niddler. I know you're tired, but we have to get Ioz to land." Ren commanded in a somber volume as he took the wheel. "We'll have to go to Jenna's, it's the nearest port from here by our status. Perhaps the only port we'll be able to find in time." He firmly dictated as he endured the spindle, but spiritlessly. Niddler could only submit a sympathetic look of hope.

Quite a while later when the sojourners had pulled into port with their stricken crewmate, nightfall cavorted in the darkened skies. Tula and Ren had transferred Ioz to the stall, Tula supported Ren with the tasks of steering as they exchanged shifts to check on his condition. They schlepped into the dock at the anterior harbor of the lighthouse. It had felt like a farflung memory since Ren had seen this place last. They greeted Jenna staidly, and bestowed her with the 9th Treasure, explaining about having to retain the 10th due to the uprise of the dark water...to which, she lifted a shocked eye to.

"I did not think it would be nearly this bad. Now I wonder if your father knew this would happen." Jenna studied the solemn adventurers as they sat in pithy room inside the lighthouse, through the windowpane dark water was in flux on the horizon. Ioz rested on a bed next to where they grounded. "Unfortunately I can't do anything for him other than slow the poison, all my medicinal herbs have been used up to treat the many ailments of the citizens of Octopon during the partial rebirth. It this were regular Dartha-Eel venin, I could help but this variety, Nightmare, is so uncommonly found and there are not as many antidotes. It's so rarely applied in combat and from what I know, beyond the composition of urchin-nettles. The potential is deadly with hysteria-inducing effects in higher amounts, I don't think many want to even touch it, and much less to use it. Because it has such a strong repel, even a Dreen will refuse to adhere to the infection." She stilled to digest her thoughts, keeping level. "Have you tried any other ports?" She pried of concern.

"This was the closest one to where we were, besides Kalinda." Ren informed the whole after a quietude, trying to push his emotions aside. He wrestled to collect his notions. "And those people are still getting back on their feet." He continued on in reflection, his voice toiled when he remembered what his friends had told him about the island. Surely, there would be no better fare.

His guardian stopped as to judge, Tula also lost herself under the circumstance. Niddler purely watched the tension, wearied in carriage. Finally, someone devised a word. "Ren, what about Miragon?" The night-tressed woman gently asked, edging on an idea. "We could go back, and get the Lo-ac flower. I have a feeling it may do us better than the chance we would take at other towns." She suggested with faith in her lucidity as the others drew attention to her.

"That is true. The flower is said to have magical healing properties, though it is all the way in Miragon. It would be a close chance to bet on and the fastest way would be over the canal. If you are able to slow the poison, it may be possible from my knowledge." Jenna collectedly offered, gandering up at them with a calm sympathy. Rain wept down from a display of alligned moons as the clouds set the heavens overcast.

"I know it works. It worked on Roulette. We'll go back to Miragon and find Roulette. I'm almost positive he's still there, and we'll find the flower. It may be Ioz's only chance." Ren at last declared intrepid words, hope began to creep into his ambiance. Ren did not have time to tell Jenna about all that had happened, though he was sure she accepted there were many things on his mind. He wanted to ask about the history of his family, but he couldn't. Not now. "Did a lone dagron-rider come here?" Ren at last posed his caregiver a question that continued to plague his mind, one he thought she may be able to give an answer to.

"A dagron-rider? I don't believe so, is it of importance?" Jenna wondered with an unusual surprise in her tone. It was not like Ren to ask things like this.

"She didn't?" Ren certainly adopted a befuddled state, Jazhea told him she would be going here before her capture. It was what he heard, or assumed he did.

"No. I'm sorry Ren, I don't know what you're talking about." His guardian relinquished in response, genuinely confused.

"Then I don't know what to think. We'll head out now, we need to get to Miragon as soon as possible. We can't afford to waste any time if Ioz is to make it through." Ren stood up with a last affirmation of resolve. He hugged Jenna as the six of them bolstered their sleeping friend back to the Wraith, holding with them the 10th Treasure of Rule.

Far off shore, waves crashed about in overcast waters beyond. The medium-sized ship tossed in the wind, the storm at sea twisted and thrashed vindictively. The cruel tempest would not let up.

"Hurry! Steady the mainstay!" The Captain of the galleon desperately strained to order her hysterical crew.

"This area has too many storms, Milady! We have to reach shore soon or we're finished for good!" The first-mate of the ship heralded, thoroughly dire.

"If only that were possible, Uley." Captain Taneuka muttered under her critical breath in such a manner no others could hear. She would hide her weakness for as long as her independence would allow. For the sake of herself, and her loyal crew. The waves clobbered against the hull. "We'll reach land, I swear on Kuunda's mighty sword we will! I will not let Her go down and none of you will either! By Daven's Mighty Blade!" The Captain of the Monsoon persisted in bold and foolish hubris. She craned to view her crew who faltered across the deck. She witnessed them doing everything they could to keep the creaking, and now cracking, main-mast from falling. They failed. She heard a terrifying rip. The topsail flopped to the floorboards below, leaving only the woven foot and clew remaining. The Monsoon careened as if it would overturn, rocking and beating against the tide. Taneuka wondered if this would be justice for all the times her penchant for hubris couldn't let her be taken down. "We can still try to catch a drift! We'll need to toss some-" Taneuka began to scheme up failing plans in her head. To her misfortune, her hopes were squashed as she was brought more horrid news.

"Capt' Taneuka! The orlop is filling with water! We can't contain it!" Tragically, one of the hands on Captain Taneuka's crew cried out.

Taneuka fought her natural responses, holding them back. Of course she would go down with the the Monsoon if it came to that, but she refused to let that inkling even touch her mind. She would not issue the order to abandon ship. She arched her head up at the enclosing sky, the towering enormity swallowed her and everyone with her. The waft of the asphyxiating and vulgar odor filled her nostrils. No more flouting. "By my kin's stolen Margar statue. No..." Taneuka shuddered one final protest before she would be overcome. Her eyes met only with bones. She saw black.

"Welcome aboard, dear. You're in good fortune that I happen to be feeling generous today. Hand over your gold and I might just let you live." The voice of the hefty captain of the Maelstrom greeted Captain Taneuka in the chamber enclosed by the maw. The she-captain goggled about with awe and dread, her and her crew were surrounded and situated on a stone stoop with marauders abound. The groaning wooden-carrier to the rear had not been tacked and drifted freely in the murky basin that was inside the oppressing ship. Rope lashed the hands of she and her deckhands, which were held in front of them. Them. Taneuka trembled with torment.

"We don't want any trouble, Captain Bloth." Captain Taneuka gravely upheld, the dank air around her smothered. She felt nervous fortitude swaying to a spasm within her.

"You've heard about me, have you?" Bloth chuckled a sporting laugh.

"Only intimately." Taneuka grimly muttered. Her blue eyes darted within the confines of the bony device.

"Ah, very well. Then you know I am a man of...business." Bloth's shrewd demeanor played coldly when he addressed the soon-to-be subject of his pillage.

"So we can make a bargain if you let us go?" Taneuka stood her ground in her defiant words, brawling with frailty for as long as capable. "You can't be happy to see us..." She chided on, the Pirate Lord's legion drafted her greatly outnumbered. She saw about fifty cutthroat bandits where he stood alone, not including ones at his disposal that lurked around every corner and stairway. Compared to her ten would not be good odds. The lank form at his right-hand side lingered in imposing on her a deploring, yet rousing, stare that made her blood curdle.

"Oh, but I am!" The evil Pirate Lord curled with a cloying air of pleasantry. "And perhaps we can make some sort of arrangement..." His emphasis tapered off in a congenial assessment. "You hand over your gold, I'll set you free, but if you don't or you comply inadequately, well, then I don't think I can be so accommodating, my sweet. Gold. And your hats, too." He laid out his terms out barbarously on the table.

"How much do you need? We will need some form of...aid when we hit the high seas. I suppose with eleven of us, quite a meal is to be had for your...beast." Taneuka humbly stalled, a heavy hole began to grow in the pit of her binding stomach. Worse yet, she imagined she had began to show her heart. She heard disastrous howls and jeers uproar from the army behind Bloth. With anxiety the bound lady-pirate with hair of blond sunset cast her glare down to her boots.

"How much do you think? Hand it all over!" Captain Bloth barked in callous demand. "Unless...you'd rather I feed you to my Constrictus!" He threatened then, but stopped. He pondered something and returned with a punishing gaze. "Would that punishment suit you, Sweetie? Or maybe, I'll let my second-in-command dispose of you..." He mulled over in consideration as lips of broad ice formed a distressing smile. "And your crew." He proposed in a detailed afterthought, tagged on at the very end of his proposition. Taneuka's encompassing glance flew and anchored upon the leggy and rotting figure grinning at her. Mantus spouted his blade, drawn in preparation.

"Do what he says!" Taneuka instantly shuddered out, puffy eyes jolted in terror.

"But Captain Taneuka, if we hand over our gold we'll be in trouble like sea-bums in a monsoon ourselves when we get outta here!" Taneuka's first-mate, Uley, made known his objection. The Monsoon was in horrific shape and even and if they were released, without live they would have no chance of recovery in the twenty seas.

"Bloth is a man of his word, now do it! Pronto!" Uncompromisingly, Taneuka boomed. Her heart did a back-flip.

"But, Lady!" uey vivaciously contended.

"Now! That's an official order!" Taneuka's sharp words were inexorable, ultimate severity laced her tone.

Many men of Taneuka's frigate came forward carrying two heavy trunks brimming with gold. Looters from Bloth's crew strode over to collect it.

"That's it. Two-thousand pieces. It's all there in stub and polish." Taneuka dejectedly murmured. She fumbled with her yoked hands, which were cut free as the opposing pirate-horde pushed her back to her vessel with pointed swords. She swooped her hat off her head on her abscond as the others alighted to the stairs. "We would have only fought a battle we could not win. He's what is Amiss-oh, and not a normal kind. He reeks of it." To Uley she stolidly respired.

"Begone with them! Close the intakes!" The cutthroat tyrant comman directed to his crew as the crank wound. Bloth himself threw down the switch to open the hatch with one arm. The splintering Monsoon dispersed soon after as bilge-water from the Maelstrom's sewage came gushing out. "They won't last long on that rickety bucket." Bloth commented while he rounded to glance at his commander, who seemed disappointed and yet pleased with the grand spoil. The sour and crooked-toothed jaw reformed into a smirk when Mantus's master tossed him a turgid portion of the pickings. "The rest of this should pay for some much-needed upgrades. Eh, Mantus?" The Pirate Lord expressed after shooting a knowing grin. He picked up the soft-feathered hat and placed it on his head. "Too small!" His final revelation grumbled before he digressed, the red-plumed hat soused and sinking in the spoliation of the Maelstrom's sludge.

On a massive ship floating due West of a shore known as the Beach of Doom, an eerie silence broke with only two voices in the dark.

"I thought we had made a deal. Why did you fail me?" Growled a malevolent inquirer to another entity being suspended at arm's length and over a profound cavity, exclusively concealed with shadow.

"Aye, he's a goner. Bloth never likes the Third-Moonrise." Some spectators gabbled within a rangy circle.

"I didn't! I took out that kreld-eating-smool-brained sea-scum, Ioz, right where he was vulnerable! He'll be belly up in less than a moonrise I swear by the seas of Mer!" The skinny lifeform pleaded, swallowing a lump in his throat as he dangled over the disgusting pit opened below him. He energetically tried to bargain with the source of the conviction. The horrible smell of death and some other stench that could not be named clambered out from the gurgling stew. Only disturbing noises from underneath shattered the enduring quiet.

"You will stop your ramblings, fool!" The mouth of the gravelly agitator shouted, he hulked a monumental degree over the secondary fellow. The slim character fell silent. "Joat, now I didn't ask you to simply kill them. I asked you to return the boy and his Treasure to me. We had agreed on a deal." The lordly reproach traveled on, talking as if his words were simple and very reasonable, certainly capable of being understood by the most sensible of men.

"I know that Bloth!" The lean body choked out with a panicked whimper. "Please give me some more time. I promise I'll get them and bring them all back. I'll get the Treasure, just give me a second chance!" The mule-headed Joat begged as he squirmed inside the big man's fist, being unable to escape the locked clutch or even swing himself anywhere.

Bloth chuckled a bold laugh. "I've already given you a second chance, Joat. You've failed me on both occasions. Unfortunately for you, it would be a waste to keep you...afloat again." Bloth roughly growled as he leered upon the vermin with a sick amusement. He lowered his hand, making the hook-claw dip further into the void.

"I'm sorry! It was a foolish mistake! I was a smool-brained darva-rat, but it won't happen again! One more chance I beg of you, Lord Bloth! Oh Supreme-Cruel-One, please just let me go!" The metal-handed swab groveled to the ogre, he gaped in horror at the chasm below him and the merciless captain before him with absolute fear. His eyes poked momentarily on a nearby seadog, seeking any counsel or solace in the possibility of forgiveness but Konk's inflated face shook horizontally. Then he dropped, deep into the abyss of the dark well. Above the hole could be heard a mash of horrible sounds and high-pitched screams.

Konk bore down into the black shaft. He listened to the revenge-hungry martyr that had unwillingly taken his place. He looked not in sadness, but in queer wonder. For the first time, there was a prolonged moment of silence that hung over the deck of the Maelstrom as the crewmen heard the mule-man squeal about something other than losing his ship for the very first time since he had been aboard. It was not until several moments later that the bloodthirsty boss drew back his unclenched hand, pausing only to pore down with smile and fleeting interest before he turned to walk away.

In a dark corner hidden portside of the deck of the same skeletal ship, a figure neared. Dull shadows cast over the hood of the cloak, which reached down to elevate a scroll from his foot. "This is where the Son of Primus has gone." The tinging voice filled the air. The coated figure met his strange eyes with a map scribbled with illegible writing. He curled one arm to ponder.