Chapter Twenty

The Queen Fury

Lance and the others awoke later in the day, wondering what had happened after the small skirmish with Lloyd. They struggled to their feet, and limped back to town. Fargus had met up with them just as they were walking through the double doors of the hotel.

"Ahoy there lads and lassies," he called to them. "The Queen Fury's ready earlier than we'd s'pected. Wha the ruddy hell happen' to yeh all?"

"We were defeated," David said, clutching his stomach.

"A man by the name of Lloyd," Candice coughed.

"Wha'd ya say? Lloyd? He wouldn' hurt a fly 'less it was attack'n somethin'," Fargus said with a look of disbelief and shock.

"Well, we weren't bothering him at all," Lance said angrily. "He's the one who–" but he cut himself off. Lance wanted to say that Lloyd is a dragoon, and that he called every dragoon in Mille Seseau to the Mille Seseau shrine of the Divine Dragon. He didn't want to tell Fargus that he or the others were Dragoons, because he thought that Fargus would say that they couldn't ride on his ship. "Never mind that," Lance quickly said. "Could you probably give us a few days to rest up and heal our wounds?"

"O' course," Fargus said with a grin. "Jus' tell me when yer ready ter leave an' I'll fire up the ship!"

"Thank you," Alexis said with a yawn.

"No prob'um," Fargus answered her. Then they went back to the hotel, and rested for three days, when they finally remembered that Alexis could heal them all with Moonlight. They met in Lance's and Alexis's room, and sat down on the beds and chairs. So Alexis did, with pain, heal herself first, and then she used it on the rest of them.

"Ahh," David sighed.

"We'll need all the strength we can to first stop Zeig," Lance said heroically, "and then destroy Lloyd!"

"Very true," Jack said to them. "I've also been researching how Lloyd could move at that fast pace. He is one of another species…he's a Wingly…"

"What's that," Candice asked, with a weird look.

"It's–" but Jack was cut off.

"It's one of the very rare species that are now known to not be in existence," David interrupted. "They have unknown powers, and when fused with the power of dragons, or dragoons, they become more powerful, and practically unstoppable. Cory told me this while we were training to become powerful warriors for the Frontier's Empire." He slowly said the last part with a pain in his chest that he tried to make sure that nobody could see by standing straight and still.

"Well, let's not worry about it now," Lance said, "because now we need to find Fargus, and board the Queen Fury!"

"That's right," Cameron said, jumping up from the bedside, "Fargus said to me yesterday that his crew made so many changes, that it's now a luxury liner and they want passengers other than us! He also said that people have been riding into Mille Seseau from all over Serdio, and Tiberoa! He is making so much money now that he says that he'll finally get himself a bank account!" She started to chuckle, along with the rest of them.

"If we're ready, then let's go," Vallen said to them all, "on your orders Lord Lance," he added quickly.

"Vallen, by now you should know that nobility is worthless to me unless we can kill Zeig and restore order to this once peaceful world," Lance told him with a frustrated look. "Now come on." So they packed the very few things they had, and they were off. Vallen rode on Snapper. They walked down the deserted hallway, down the stairs, and gave their keys back to the front desk manager, and left. They started to walk to the port, when they saw a huge line full of men, women, and children of all ages. The group walked ahead of them, and found Fargus standing next to one of his crew. They were in front of a large ship that had whitish grey siding, below the color of red, and above that a thin line of a bright yellow, and even higher than that, was a sky blue color that was shaded slightly due to the fact that the sun was facing the other side of the ship. Fargus was wearing a white captain's hat, a white suit, white dress pants, and white shoes. His crew wore a black suit, black dress pants and black shoes.

"Ahoy there," Fargus said with a warm smile in his face. "Go in, we've got ya'll firs' class on A deck! Parlor Suites A1 through A4! Jus' follow the signs!" Then, the team entered the grand ship for the first time. Upon entering, the team found themselves standing in a fine polished, wooden entryway filled with people and stewards which were at one time sailors. They were in awe as they looked in every direction as fast as possible.

"Now this is what I call a vacation," David said, as he wiped the drool that he noticed coming from his mouth.

"Well," Lance said to them, "I had a little chat with Fargus before I boarded, and he said that we need to make port at Namelbridge before we get to the Death Frontier, and he said that we will only be here for about a week. So remember that now. We can't get used to staying on this ship."

"Come on, Lance," Alexis said, grabbing his arm, "we've been fighting for a long time. Don't you think that we could live it up a little?" She kissed him on the cheek.

"Well, I suppose so," he answered her, blushing. They started walking again as the crowd pushed their way forwards behind them. Vallen had dismounted Snapper, and had him tied to a leash-like rope that was used for the necks of wyverns, and dragged him through. They saw a Grand Staircase made out of the same fine polished wood as the entrance. As they made their way down, David noticed someone that he knew.

"Hey, Andrew," he called to the man. The man named Andrew walked over to where David and the others were standing. He was tall, brownish hair, pretty muscular, and was wearing a nice tux.

"What's up, Dave," he said, clapping David's hand. "Haven't seen you in, well let's see, forever man! How've you been?"

"Very well, thank you," he answered him. "You can't act the slightest bit fancy when wearing a tuxedo can you? By the way, these are my friends, Candice, Lance, Alexis, Vallen, Cameron, and Jack." David pointed to them in order as he had said this. "This is Andrew. He, Cory and I used to do some traveling around awhile back. He is skilled with the mighty axe we now know as the Fraimslaughter. It's a very powerful weapon."

"Scratch that, David," Andrew said. His smile had faded away. "I don't fight anymore. I still have my axe, though. But I got sick of fighting, death, war and stuff like that. I know that we're at war now, but I can't do it, knowing that I might take innocent lives away. I couldn't live with myself knowing that I killed someone that wasn't meant to die."

"Is that what you did when Cory and I lost contact with you," David said with a sad tone, "is retire your axe and think of what might have happened?"

"Yeah," Andrew shrugged. "Anyways, where is Cory? I don't see him." The team looked at each other to David, who said with a mumbled tone, "He's gone…"

"Gone where," Andrew asked worryingly. "David, you don't mean to tell me that…Cory is…dead..?" David just nodded his head.

"Andrew," David said to him, "it's going to be alright. What room do you have?" Andrew, with a pale, blank expression, pulled out a piece of paper, which looked like a ticket. It read: The Ocean Express Line, Fastest warship made into a luxury liner, First Class A5, Parlor Suite, Valid until departure time: 12-noon. "Come with us, our rooms are right next to your suite." So off they went, David trying to comfort Andrew, Lance's arm still being held by Alexis, Jack's arm around Cameron's waist, Cameron's around him, Candice walking quietly, and Vallen was still pulling Snapper around behind them. People kept giving the warriors weird looks as they passed by. They went down a crowded hallway with white walls and doors, with brass door knobs, and finally reached the stairs that led to the parlor suites on A deck. They entered separate rooms, except a few of them. Lance and Alexis were in A1, Jack and Cameron were in A2, David and Candice were in A3, Vallen and Snapper in A4, and Andrew in A5. Each room had a sitting room, four bedrooms, two bathrooms, mirrors in every room, and other fine china. The walls had the same polished wood color as the actual wood for the wallpaper, and there was a fancy design on it of many roses banded together, and their thorns hanging on to each other. All of their belongings had been brought up into the wonderful rooms. David, who had been trying to comfort Andrew, had entered his and Candice's suite, and Candice had jumped for joy.

"Aw man," David whined, slapping a hand to his forehead, "stuck with you again?"

"Isn't it romantic," Candice mumbled, now not jumping. "Hey David, could you walk with me around the boat deck? Maybe you could show me around a bit. This ship is so huge, that I keep thinking that I'll get lost, and fall overboard!"

"Fine, but after we leave port," he told her with a sigh. "Maybe we can do it some other day while we're still sailing." Then there was a knock at the door, and Lance rushed in.

"Come on you two," he said impatiently, "we are going to say our farewells to the good people of Mille Seseau! Up on deck!" And with that, he left with the door wide open. David allowed Candice to go first out the door, and then he followed. Up on the cluttered boat deck, they saw many lifeboats, people, and other baggage not yet inside the ship. The ship had four smoke stacks, and metal bars lining horizontally across the edges of the ship so people wouldn't fall off. Down on the waterline, there were three sharp, metal, spikes, three in each the front, middle, and back and on both sides of the ship, that were used as part of the warship. Now, by the time the team got to the boat deck, the ship was moving slowly out of port. They all ran to the side of the ship.

"Goodbye! I'll never forget you! We'll come back soon," everybody, including the passengers, yelled while waving.

"Come home safely! Have a nice trip! See you again sometime! Johnny, don't forget to change your underwear," many people yelled, and one mother cried to her son, who backed away slowly, and returned below decks. A few minutes later, the crowd on the port was nearly out of sight, so the team decided to go back to their cabins, while the passengers got to wherever they pleased to go. David was in Andrew's room, discussing with him how Cory had died, and all. The rock of the grand ship seemed unnoticeable to all who rode in first or second class. The third class passengers barely felt anything at all. That evening, the team went to their dining saloon, and saw diamond chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, and many round tables with fine table cloths, and a small vase of roses stood tall in the middle of every table. Fargus was sitting down at a table, motioning for them to sit with him.

"Ahoy," he said with a mighty bellow, but suddenly had a soft voice and whispered when they sat down, "sorry 'bout that, I gotta remember now that I'm a normal captain an' not a pirate no more. An' I guess I should drop me accent now. I actually can speak normally, but when I was a pirate, I thought that I could change my voice completely. My crew thought the same, but now they are speaking normally."

"Well, I kind of guessed it when you spoke to us for the first time," Lance said with a grin. "So tell us, Fargus, how does this ship work?"

"Well, to start," he took in a breath, "I had four smoke stacks put in because of the sixteen boilers down at the bottom of the ship. There is one boiler in each compartment, and there are, of course, sixteen compartments. And the spikes on the side of the ship are still there in case of impending danger. So we had watertight doors put in to close each compartment, since it's closest to the water line"

"What types of dangers are you talking about," Vallen wondered.

"Well, icebergs in cold waters, enemy ships that try to ram into the sides of this ship, and it's mainly things like that," he said in a proud voice. "If any of the compartments are breeched, then by the push of a button, the doors close, and the doors will close automatically if the built-in sensors spot anything runny going through them. They can also be manually shut, but not open. We are still trying to find out why. But not to worry, this part warship, part luxurious liner, is unsinkable. The only way to sink it, is to take it out from the inside, unless, for some reason, the spikes on the sides of the ship fall off, then the outside is somewhat vulnerable." Then, their waiter walked up to them. They all ordered, but Fargus told the waiter to bring them everything on the menu.

"Yes, sir," the waiter said to him. "If you need anything else sir…" Then he backed away into the door that led to the kitchens. It must have been at least twenty minutes before the food got there, but to them, it seemed like minutes because Fargus was telling them all about the luxury of the ship, and the three propellers. After the bountiful meal of assorted soups, meats, salads, and desserts, the team decided that it was time to turn in. They had another week, at least, before traveling to the Death Frontier to face Zeig. This was the voyage of a lifetime.