8… A Siren Doesn't Belong Among Pirates
After a long conversation between Scarlett and I about my quest, I couldn't help but imagine her singing 'We got Scurvy' by P!nk. It seemed like she always had at least two men following her, and she was a pirate. I really wanted to ask if she knew the song, and imagined she would reply with 'We need a lemon tree'. Sometimes I thought she was actually humming the song. Anyway, she did apologize and had asked me to tell them that, but I suggested that I just built up trust with them, and then bring them to her. She agreed, to my utter surprize.
I added her into my echo under 'C. S.' so no one would know who it really was until I knew who my friends and foes were. I didn't trust anyone, except Patty, in the whole city of Sanctuary. I didn't know if I could trust Scarlett either, but the pirates needed help. They wanted to stop living in an old cave crammed with a hundred people. "I want to help because after Patty, my sister, left… I just know what it's like to be alone." Scarlett gave me a hug. "Thank you! You don't know what it means that someone cares for people like us."
She ushered me away from the door and down a flight of stairs. "So we've got an access for you so you can safely enter and exit the unsafe zones around Wurmwater. Some of the things you need are there." She strapped a chain around my neck. A little microchip was safely sewn inside a small charm in the shape of a ship.
"Be careful, alright. I really want to make up for my previous deceptions. If you died because I sent you off alone, that would put my whole crew in danger. Please, don't let me have to make a decision I can't afford to again. Too many lives were lost the first time I made a mistake." I nodded.
She assigned me a few 'protectors' from her crew, and they came along with me. They were armed, and Scarlett had warned them that if anything happened to me, it would be their heads going to the sandworms. She tapped a few buttons on my echo screen, and a new map replaced my old one. I changed my task to finding the artifacts. The men were very protective, and a few were actually cute. As soon as the word 'Cute' crossed my mind, I gagged.
I followed the map Scarlett had loaded on the echo, and found myself in an unsafe zone searching for a medallion. It supposedly looked like a star and was blue. I dug through the sand and spotted something shiny. I pulled it from the ground, and the light shown off it, like it was a real star on a moonless night. I brushed the grains off it and placed it into my bag. I checked off the medallion from my echo list. The pirates warned me that not all the finds would be so easy to obtain.
Next, I found myself back in Oasis. I urged the men to stay behind for this one, and they understood why. I left them and walked through town alone. I found that the thing I needed was in a building. I tugged at the door, but it wouldn't budge. I tried charging it, melting it, and so forth, but it wasn't even heating up. I slid down the door and sat with my back against it for a while, thinking.
If I could find a window… no, too much noise. A sewer? Gross, absolutely no. The only possible answer hit me in the face two ways. First of all, I was stupid for not thinking of it earlier, and second, I was disgusted. Shade knew all about this town. He lived here alone! I casually walked over to him. "Hey. Do you happen to have the keys to that house over there?" He shook his head. "That's Natalie's house. She hates me, but I'm sure she'd let you in." He pointed to a roof of another house. "She's up there."
As I climbed the ladder, I realized that this Natalie would definitely be dead. "Hello there! Need somethin'?" I jumped. It was Shade pretending to do a female voice, which was really creepy. "Uh, I need your keys, please. There's something I need desperately for a friend in there. Please?" I felt awkward talking to a corpse so pitifully. "Of course! They're over on that stand." I grabbed the keys and thanked 'Natalie' again.
I returned to the door and unlocked it. I ran inside and brushed through the belongings of the dead woman. I came upon a picture or two, and I felt really bad for her family. She looked so happy. I found the book I was looking for stuffed in a drawer. It looked vaguely familiar. I pulled the book off of my back. It was by the same author, and on almost the same subject. Mine was a Merciful Nurse. This one was a Legendary Siren. What kind of things does Scarlett do with Siren books? I wondered. I replaced my book and put Captain's in my bag.
I returned to the men, and they sighed in relief. I was checking off my echo without paying attention to where I was walking, and ended up in the arms of one of the pirates. He smiled down at me, and I pulled away. I curved around him and continued towards the next point on my high tech wristband. Remember, I'm a social rock.
I followed the small diamond to my next search site. It pointed to a spot, but it kept moving. I would walk above it but I found nothing. Then the ground shook. After that last riding experience, I knew I should move. I jumped out of the way just before a Queen Sandworm dug its way out of the sand. I saw what I needed imbedded in its skull. It was a carved piece of Eridium. Crap. I couldn't touch it. Now I felt really stupid for not bringing a gun.
"Uh, guys! I can't touch it!" I picked up a rock, but it wasn't going to protect me at all. The pirate I had run into tossed me his gun. I caught it and threw the rock right at its head. It hit it in the side of the face, and it growled. The sparks confused it enough that I got a few good shots in. One hit it in the face, the other two hit in the abdomen. The sparks cleared, and it charged me. I shot it in the face, it reared, and I switched hands. The gun charged, and the queen got close enough that could of touched its head with the nozzle. I felt the stone pulling at me, but I held fast. I shot at the sandworms heart, and it blew through the skin and flesh like a knife through butter.
It flopped down at my feet, and the stone pulled at me more. I looked away, and one of the pirates pulled the stone from the skull. I opened the bag, and he dropped it in. "Thank you. I wasn't expecting all of these Siren based treasures, I guess." I looked down at the bag and he returned to my group of followers. I checked off the stone from my shopping list, and looked at the group.
"Wait, why does she need all of this stuff?" One played with his hair, another looked away, and the last picked sand off his shirt with his fingers. "Are you kidding?" They looked at me. Maybe I wasn't supposed to know that. "No, that can't be." I waved my hand at them. I turned and saw them relax. I smiled. Good, they think i'll have forgotten before we find the last item. I wonder what it'll be?
I was happy to find it wasn't Eridium based. It ended up being something from this rogue in the middle of Wurmwater. Her name was Sandpants McGee.
Her pants had sand clinging to them, but the rest of her body was completely clean. Her shirt was pristine white. She wore no shoes and her arms were bare. Her hair was brown and straight. Her skin was tanned. Other than her nails, which were cracked and dirty, and her pants, I would have thought she was some sort of dancer.
She spoke as if she had almost no understanding of english, and the pirates had to translate. The only thing she really knew in english was how to yell "I am Sannnnndpaaaaaantssssss!" at the top of her lungs. She spoke in gibberish, and it was fun to hear her go on in awkward noises, and no words except one sentence. She asked who had sent me, and I answered. She nodded. She went into her house with no further conversation. She came out with a bag of something in her hand. She dropped it at my feet and returned to her house. She locked the door, and told us to leave. So that's exactly what we did.
The bag was light, and it felt hard. I brought both bags back to Scarlett, and she thanked me. She waved for me to follow. "Come on, then. I wanna show you what this is for." I walked after her. "Sandpants is excitable, isn't she? I thought she was hilarious." Scarlett smiled. "She is, though. I love her to death. Literally, sometimes I want her dead, others I want her next to me all the time." I looked at my feet. "I wasn't made for the life of a pirate."
