Author's Note: Thanks so much for reading my last chapter .
Disclaimer: I don't own Kyou Kara Maou or its characters but the OC and plot are mine... xD silver lining...
Chapter 4
Sarah slowly regained consciousness. A dull pain rebounded endlessly on the side of her head. She kept her eyes closed as her other senses told her of her surroundings.
Touch told her that she was sitting, quite uncomfortably if I may add, on a cold steel floor. Moving her hands slightly, she found that her hands were bound by tight cords behind her back and the light weight by her waist said that her sword was no longer at her side. Also, she felt a strip of cloth around her head covering her eyes. If only I could reach that dagger in my boot.
Smell told of something that took her awhile to register. But after her mind clear a bit, she identified it to be salt, salt water to be exact, which could only mean that she was now aboard a ship at sea.
Taste didn't do much to help her. The only thing taste did was remind her that she was thirsty, but that at least had told her that she had been out for a significant amount of time.
Hearing was priceless even though it was the last thing that came around. She heard the swishing of the waves. She could hear heavy footsteps of one… no, two different people pacing in the small room. The voices were muffled at first but then, they too slowly cleared up.
"What should we do with her?" one said. Sarah tried matching the voice to a face and found that it was Josak's.
"We're still trying to figure that out too," said another voice. This one was gruff sounding, hinted with a little bit of irritation. She didn't need anymore clues to tell her who he was.
"Actually, I'm curious to why she hasn't woken up yet, I wonder if I hit her too hard," Josak said with a bit of concern.
"Hmm… maybe," the second voice said. "You said she knew we were on the rooftops?"
"Yup," she heard Josak say as he sat down on what Sarah assumed to be a crate. "She even teased me about you guys not being careful enough with your swords."
"She is a Simaron captain, isn't she? Why didn't she tell any of her superiors?"
Knowing Josak, Sarah knew he was shrugging even without sight.
Sarah suddenly felt uneasy as she sensed two pairs of eyes settle on her. "Further more, she volunteered to kill you; it's as if she wanted to be captured, not to mention she didn't resist to us disarming her either."
Sarah thought she would gain nothing from eavesdropping on this conversation and finally decided to end the 'I'm-still-unconscious' act. Sweeping her legs around so she was in a kneeling position, she slid her hand into her boot.
Still a little woozy from being knocked out, she slowly stumbled up onto her feet. She leaned heavily on the wall and with a grin plastered on her face she said, "You know, when I decided I'd let you and your company capture me, I expected a few things." She flipped the blade in one hand and carried on cutting through her bonds as she continued. "But being tucked away under one of your ships and bound was not one of them, Your Excellency."
She let the ropes fall lifelessly to the ground. The pain of blood quickly rushing back to her hands was enough to cause her to gasp, but she bit back the urge to do so. She reached up with one hand and removed the blindfold. She was momentarily blinded at the sudden burst of light.
"How did you—" Gwendal was halfway through his question when Sarah held up her dagger before slipping it back into its hiding place.
"You need to work on disarming people as well," Sarah said as she absently rubbed her wrists to lessen the pain. Sarah thought it kind of ironic, her being the one giving instructions to trained veterans who've been in the army for decades while she had only experienced three months.
Both Gwendal and Josak recovered quickly. "Very well," Gwendal said as he narrowed his eyes. "Explain yourself."
The first thing Sarah noticed was that both men had their hands lightly placed on the hilts of their swords. They don't really trust me, huh… Well… can't blame them, I'd be doing the same thing. Wait… if they're already this suspicious of me, I can't tell them what really happened to me or what I'm to do… Yeash! What am I suppose to do now?
"Well, the way I see it, you owe me a favor," Sarah said before she could think. Seeing the expressions on their faces, she mentally kicked herself. Why did I say that?
"Oh? In what way?" asked Gwendal skeptically.
Well, it was too late to turn back now. "I could have ratted you out anytime during the hanging, but I didn't and neither did I stop it, so logically, you owe me."
Gwendal looked at Josak who shrugged. Turning back, his voice was still edgy when he said, "What do you seek in return for this… favor?"
It might have just been Sarah, but she felt as if Gwendal and Josak were ready to pull their swords anytime now and she was in no condition to defend herself, especially not with a dagger. She took a moment to carefully consider her words. "I need to get to the Original King's Temple to talk with His Majesty Shinou."
Both men blinked in surprise. Whatever they expected, this definitely wasn't it. "And what business does a Simaron Captain have with the Original King?" Josak asked.
Even though Sarah understood why they were acting so suspicions of her, she couldn't help but feel a little annoyed. Keeping a tight rein on her temper, she said, "That, unfortunately, is my business."
Sliding off the crate, Josak said, "Well, unfortunately, we can't have humans going freely into Shin Makoku either, let alone the Original King's Temple. So you best just tell us."
Seeing the lack of response, Gwendal said, "There's something very important you're not telling us and until I know what it is you're hiding, I will continue to count you as a threat and an enemy. You're no Simaron captain; or rather it wasn't your intention to become one. It doesn't really matter which." Turning around, he started to walk for the exit of the cell. "It takes Big Simaron's fastest ship two months to reach Shin Makoku with favorable winds, Shin Makoku's High Speed Hydrofoil cuts the journey time by half even without favorable winds, you have that long a time to convince me not to kill you."
Sarah bit her lower lip to stop herself from saying anything that could possibly make the situation any worse than it already was. Josak spared her a second glance, and then followed Gwendal out the door. The door creaked close and there was a small but still audible click of a lock.
Sarah stood alone in the room. In fury and frustration, Sarah suddenly struck the wall behind her. Then while nursing her knuckles, she absentmindedly wondered if she knew how to pick a lock. After all, she had been picking up extraordinary skills since coming here, one more wouldn't surprise her.
Gwendal and Josak strode down the passageway. Suddenly, a loud bang erupted from the room they had just exited.
"You know, Your Excellency, we forgot to take the dagger away from her," Josak said.
"No, we didn't. Besides, I doubt she'll be causing any trouble for us, we're the fastest way to her goal," Gwendal said.
"All that about you suspecting her to be a threat, you didn't really mean it, did you, You Excellency?"
"No, but she is hiding something very important and I want to know what it is," Gwendal replied. "And I need you to rummage out every single detail you can."
Josak shrugged. "Alright, alright, I got it," he said off-handedly.
The door clicked open and Sarah looked up as Josak came in carrying a food tray and her Simaron commanders' sword. "What's this?" asked Sarah as Josak set the tray on one of the nearby crates.
"It's called 'dinner', ever heard of it?" Josak said with feigned innocence. He ignored the dark look that Sarah threw him and gave her the sword.
"Oh? Am I any less of a threat now?" Sarah said suspiciously.
"No," Josak said as he settled down on a crate opposite Sarah. "There just wasn't any other place to conveniently put it."
Sarah studied him for awhile with narrowed eyes. "I never liked you anyway," she said finally.
"Well, you weren't exactly the best captain I've ever had either," he paused as he considered. "Though you might be one of the best slave drivers I've ever seen—oww…"
As Sarah slid her sword back into its scabbard and buckled it back on, Josak absently rubbed his cranium and said, "That hurt, what did you do that for?"
"Now that we've established the fact that we don't like each other, are we done exchanging insults?" Sarah asked with fists on her hips.
"Why do you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Hit people over the head with your scabbard."
Sarah smiled sweetly and said, "It was conveniently in my hand. Plus, it's a whole lot better than hitting someone over head with the blade."
They exchanged hard looks, and then Josak said, "Fine."
Just then, a few drops of moisture fell on the sill of the small window. Josak raised an eyebrow. "That's strange…"
Sarah looked at him with keen interest. "What's so strange about the rain?"
Half rising, Josak replied, "There wasn't a single cloud in the sky when I came below." As if he was an actor on cue, a sailor on deck shouted, "All hands on deck! All hands on deck!" Josak and Sarah raced out of the room and joined the flow of sailors that were all rushing on deck.
The wind up above whipped her hair around in a frenzy. It was drizzling by the time they were clear of the stairs. Sailors ran back and forth on drenched deck, wasting not time to execute the given orders. They found Gwendal not far away, shouting orders over the howl of the wind to the first mate.
"What's going on, Your Excellency?" Josak half-shouted.
Pointing to over starboard, he shouted, "Waterspout."
They all looked over to where he pointed: a huge swirl of water was bearing them down. "We need to get away from that thing," Gwendal shouted. He spied the helmsman and shouted, "Hard to port!"
The helmsman struggled with the wheel to carry out the order. All of a sudden, the hydrofoil gave a lurch that propelled the helmsman into two fellows. Immediately, the nearest two sailors ran forward to assume control the now rapidly spinning wheel which was sending them in the wrong direction. Seeing that the two pulled no significant result, the helmsman and the two sailors who caught him ran forward to help.
With the man power of five, the ship finally responded. Suddenly, it gave a second lurch that sent Gwendal, Josak and Sarah sliding over to the side of the ship. The gods shunt them away as the lookout practically jumped out of the crow's nest shouting, "'Ware the mast!"
The spout was only a few miles off and the wind blew mercilessly. A loud cracking sound cut through the air as the mast gave way. Splinters flew in every direction as the mast came crashing towards the scurrying sailors.
Gwendal dove to the right while Josak and Sarah dove to the left. The impact of the mast sent the three of them off the side of the ship. Gwendal managed to grab a hold of the broken railing. However, Josak and Sarah weren't so lucky. Sarah braced herself as the water rushed up to embrace her.
Gwendal hung by one hand over the side of the ship. The railing, like every other part of the hydrofoil was damp and slippery. He could feel his hand slowly giving way until he hung by three fingers.
He spared a glance down towards to water. His eyes widened slightly when he saw the water was tinted red where Sarah and Josak had fallen. While he feared for the worst, something in the water caught his eye: a faint blue glow.
The glow grew brighter and brighter. The water around it started to churn rapidly and formed a whirlpool. Gwendal could feel the airstream grow steadily stronger until it was enough to lift his body.
Gwendal took the opportunity and swung his legs inside the boundary of the deck. He then crouched down low while bracing the wall of the ship to decrease the chance of being blow over the side again.
Gwendal looked in mute awe as a tower of water rose up and move on a drawn course. All the sailors on deck recognized the situation immediately and dropped to the ground.
The second spout slowly made contact with the first. Large heaps of water flew everywhere as the spouts deleted themselves. After a few tensed moments, the spouts both disappeared and the weather returned to normal.
Gwendal organized a search party but after an hour of labor, the two bodies were no where to be found.
Sarah awoke feeling wet and cold. She welcomed the warmth the fire offered her as she lay down. As her senses gradually came back to her, she tried propping herself up and immediately regretted in doing so.
Every bone in her body ached and her joints burned when she moved, causing her to groan. Hearing her own voice caused the pain to redouble and she fell back down to the rock floor. Content in just letting her body loll on the floor, she surveyed her new surroundings with her barely opened eyes.
The orange firelight cast a dim illumination on the jagged stone walls. The stone floor which she lay on was hard and sandy. She could hear the rhythmic beat of the waves on the seashore and the shuffling sound of someone walking in the sand.
Josak entered the mouth of the cave carrying a bundle of small braches. "Ah, so you're finally awake," he said as he set the bundle beside the fire.
Sarah's head rang as she slowly sat up. Holding her head with one hand, she closed her eyes. It seemed to help with the pain. "Where are we?"
Josak sat down on the floor opposite Sarah. "After being thrown into the sea, we… drifted, I guess, here."
"Huh?" Sarah asked, confused. "Why 'guess', and where is 'here'?"
"We're on a beach in Caloria, capital of Small Simaron. Which is odd 'cause it's a bit far for us to have 'drifted' here."
Sarah unconsciously rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Another beach?" she muttered bitterly under her breath. "You really like making my life a living hell, don't you, Shinou?"
"Double black," Josak said suddenly.
"Wha—?" Sarah was caught off-guard.
"You're a double black." It wasn't a question.
Before Sarah could say anything, a mirror materialized in Josak's hand. "Hello beautiful," Josak said with a grin.
As Sarah stared wide-eyed at her reflection, Josak's grin broadened as he asked, "Say, did you know that dye washes off when coming in contact with salt water?"
A/n:
Lol, I personally liked the ending best in this Chapter. Do review and comment. You can flame if if you want to... really, you can.
To Torana: Yay, thank you so so so much for you support. I hope I didn't disappoint you with this chapter.
Forever,
Val.