Two young black furred Night land wolfs were heading back home over the bridge from the Great Leaders Island. Both of them, just a year older than Hoshi and yet two years younger than Silvereye. What was special about these two wolfs were the fact that they were identical, they had the same markings of lighter black fur and dark blue eyes like their father. It would have been hard to tell them apart except for the fact, that their right ear were white marked. The marking on the ears were different on the two of them. The first of them had a sort of X mark and the other an O mark on the back side of the ear.
Both of them were silent and the worry was clear to see on their faces.
"It has been almost a year... and still no sign of anyone.." The x marked wolf said. "I hope dad is unharmed.."
"Yeah... Mother has hardly been eating since they disappeared. If something does not change soon, we may have to have the preservers protect her.." The other one answered, not looking at his brother.
"And since they disappeared, the great leader has not been able to see anything." The x marked wolf said cursing.
"As well as any other seer..." His brother answered, when suddenly both of them stopped and listened.
"The Great Leader is calling for the pirates to come to his island? Is he calling for Fritz? Has he come back?" The o marked wolf asked confused.
"But that was a private sending to Mizu... Why did we hear it?" His brother asked and looked around. He found his answer pretty soon, as he suddenly saw two young human boys sitting at a bench.
"I don't know.. but that suit on that one.. He must be one of the pirates." The x marked wolf said and looked at his brother, that nodded. The two wolfs hurried over to the two boys.
As soon as they got up to them, they could see the scar across Little Harlock's cheek.
"Excuse me.. but you are one of the Harlocks right?" The x marked wolf asked carefully. Little Harlock nodded, looking at the two wolfs in front of him.
"Then you should head to the Leader's island as soon as you can. The Great Leader is calling for Fritz." The other wolf said.
"He is? Does that mean he has seen something?" The other boy asked.
"We don't know.. I don't even know why we heard his call, but follow us. We just came from the island, we'll show you the way there." The o marked wolf said and smiled friendly.
"Thanks." Little Harlock said, as he and Riki stood up. As they started to follow the wolfs towards the bridge over to the island, Harlock noticed the markings on their ears.
"I'm sorry, I did not introduce ourselves, I am Franklin Harlock, or Little Harlock as I am also called. I am the youngest son of Captain Harlock. This is my friend Riki-ken, son of Kai Oyama and Kei Yuki." He said and pointed to himself and his friend. The two wolfs nodded as as they looked at them.
"Honored to met you. Me and my brother are the sons of Mind and Snow Tail. I wish I had a name to give you that you can say but.." The x marked wolf sighed.
"You can say we have not been around to much humans of late..." The o marked wolf said.
"You are Mind's cubs?" Riki asked surprised. The two wolfs nodded.
"Well, we need to be able to call you something... Hmmm. Those markings on your ears, they remind me of the pieces of the game Tic Tac Toe.. So how about Tic Tac?" Little Harlock said, and pointed to the x marked wolf first and then to the o marked one. The two wolfs looked at each other and nodded.
"Tic and Tac.. I like it." The o marked wolf smiled, now named Tac. Little Harlock smiled as he saw that both wolfs stood and looked at them, smiling while waging their tails. Riki laughed low for himself.
Tic smiled and bowed his head. "Thank you, Harlock. You don't know how much this means to us." Tac also bowed his head down.
"Wow, hey. No sweat, but I think we should get going to the castle... The others will be waiting." Little Harlock said, feeling a little strange with the two teenage wolfs bowing to him. The two wolfs nodded and lead on as they finally go to the other side of the bridge.
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A little while later Fritz, Mayu and the three wolfs had arrived at the courtyard of the castle. Mayu looked around surprised at the castle in front and around her. The courtyard was floored with polished brown rock. The walls of the castle were made by the same stone as the buildings in the Night land. The windows were made of the crystals she had seen the Snow land roads were made of. The roof were made by dark green marmor tiles, and she could see other decor made in the same green marmor and brown polished rock.
"It's great isn't it?" Hoshi asked next to her, smiling as she saw how dazzled Mayu was.
"The brown stones comes from the Cliff land, the green marmor from the Twilight land, the crystals from the Snow land and the moon stones comes from the Night land. This castle is part of all four lands." Hoshi said smiling up at Mayu.
Fritz stood leaned up against a wall with his arms crossed over his chest. Silvereye sat next to him as Mizu were over by the gate, talking to one of the guards.
Mizu returned quickly to Fritz and Mayu.
"No good... The Leader said that all of the Pirate leaders had to be here." He said worried.
"Meaning that we need to find Little Harlock and Riki..." Fritz said worried.
"but that will take time... We dont know where they went. They had left when we woke up. We cant go looking over all Luviji for them." Silvereye said worried.
"So what to we do now?" Mayu asked looking at Fritz. He shook his head. He was not sure what to do now. They needed to see the Great Leader as soon as they could... but where could those two have headed of to?
Then suddenly Little Harlock and Riki came through the gate with two black wolfs by their sides.
"Twins!" Hoshi called glad as she saw them. The two wolfs smiled as they saw them and Little Harlock and the others hurried over to them.
"Perfect timing. We were almost gonna start looking for you two." Fritz said glad.
"Thank Tic and Tac here for letting us know that the Leader was calling, and showing us the way here." Riki said and pointed to the two wolfs.
"Tic Tac?" Silvereye said surprised, and looked to his cousins.
"Hm, Harlock named us." Tac said glad. Hearing this Fritz could not help but to smile.
"Well then. Now that we are all here. Let's not keep the Great Leader waiting." He said and lead the way up to the gate.
As they started to walk, Mayu hesitated and looked worried and lost. She did not look forward to meting this Leader that could see into her past. What if he saw something that would confirm what she feared the most? She jumped as she suddenly felt something nudge her hand. Looking surprised down, she looked strait at Hoshi. The young wolf smiled, her eyes were soft as silk as she looked at her, her white mark shined like a star in her black fur.
"Let's go, Mayu. Time to find our family's again. They have been gone for long enough." She smiled and nudged her arm again. Mayu smiled faintly. Again it seemed like Hoshi's mood were growing on her and made her force her fears back.
"Hm, let's go." She smiled and followed after the others, yet Fritz noticed that she held a hand to Hoshi's head as she came up to the gate.
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The inside of the castle was just as great, or maybe even greater than the outside. The widows changed the light from the sun outside and colored the room's walls in all the colors of the rainbow, and the walls seemed to take up the color and glow. The floor was made out of the green marmor, and the support beans where a mix of the green marmor and the brown rock. The room was also lighted up by some chandeliers hanging in the room. The thing about the chandeliers were the fact that there was no flame or any thing normal, giving out the light but the very stones it was made out of.
"The chandeliers are made out of glow stone from the Cliffland. The darker the room, the stronger they glow." Tic whispered to Riki, as he asked how that was possible.
They stood now in front of a small stair leading up to two great thrones. The stair was made of the brown stone, the final step in the green marmor and the throne was made in the moon stone, highly decorated in the crystals. Behind the throne four banners hung. The first was a white banner with a silver wolf that was running. Over the wolf there was a silver crystal mark. The second banner was black with a white wolf head that howled. Above the head there was a white crescent moon. The third banner was grey with a brown wolf's head and two cloud marks. Above the wolf head there was a brown cloud sown in. The fourth and final banner was brown with a black wolf standing at a cliff. The mark above the wolf was a simple black triangle.
"The markings above the wolfs are the markings Luvijian Knights wear around their paws. It shows witch land you are sworn to." Tac said low before anyone could ask.
It was then a door at the side opened and a white wolf marked with silver markings came through it. He was quickly followed by a black wolf with the same markings, only his was golden. Then another door opened on the other side and a young grey female with the same markings only green came through it. Following the marked wolfs came from the right hand side, a male wolf and the left a female wolf. What was special with these two, that took Mayu's breath away, was the strong difference between them and all the other Luvijians she had seen up til now. Both of them were white with brown, black and grey spots all over them. They reminded her of the castle as they too seemed to be made out of parts of all the four lands as well. Yet the strongest difference between the Leaders and the common Luvijian, was the way they moved and acted. There was something clearly royal, about the way they moved up to their thrones and sat down, and that not in a pompous sort of way, more like it just came natural to them. Behind the male leader followed a brown female with blue markings like the others, and behind the female leader a white male with purple markings.
"That's the Great leaders body guards, the Moon Squad." Hoshi whispered low as they took their places around the throne. The silver marked wolf by the right side of the male leader, the blue by the left side of the female leader. The purple marked wolf sat in front of the stairs, in front of the pirates, as the green marked one sat on the right side of the stairs and the gold marked one by the left.
"Welcome back, Fritz." The Great Leader said, and even his voice sounded strong, kind and great. Fritz took a hand to his chest and bowed as Silver and Mizu bowed as well.
"Let me introduce my friends, Little Harlock, Captain Harlock's youngest son and his best friend Riki-ken, also the son of Kai Oyama." Fritz said. Little Harlock and Riki followed it up by doing as Fritz did and bowed. The two wolfs on the thrones nodded.
"Good job, Tic Tac. I feared you would not understand at first." The two teen wolfs jumped as the queen said this, yet bowed quickly.
"Has your visions came back?" Tac asked carefully, surprised that the leaders already new their new names.
"Some of it." She said and then said nothing more. After a few seconds of silence. Fritz cleared his throat.
"And this is Mayu Oyama. The daughter of Tochiro Oyama and Emeraldas, the step child of Captain Harlock." He said, casting a look over to her. Mayu bowed her head, as well did Hoshi, yet she hesitated to met the leader's eyes. As she did, she was was met by the softest kindest look she had seen in a long time.
"Welcome, Mayu." The leader said kindly, before he turned his look back at Fritz.
"I know that you are anxious on learning what has happened, and where you can find your family's, but understand that there is still a strong block against our visions. Our vision is still pretty useless." He said and his eyes took a sad light to them. Little Harlock looked surprised and looked over to Fritz as to ask what now?
Fritz looked into the stair hard, as his face had grown grim yet again.
"We can not see anything when we try to find them or what happened to them." The Leader said with his head low. Mayu realized that the leaders felt so useless to their people without their visions.
"Yet it would seem that your return does indeed have something to do with all of this, Mayu." The queen said and looked strait at her. Mayu backed of frightened and once again the nightmare flashed in her mind.
"When I look at you and at your past..." She started to say, yet closed her eyes and shivered. "I see a black and red spider..." Mayu looked frightened and her hands shook.
"What.." She whispered. Fritz looked at her and felt bad for her, as he saw how scared she was.
"This spider... Could it have something to do with that old legend of the spider woman?" he asked and looked to the Leader. The wolf king looked at him and nodded.
"Solving this riddle is your job, young leader of the Pirate clan." The wolf leader smiled at the young man. It was then Fritz realized that by all rights, he was now the leader of their little band of Pirates. He nodded slowly.
"We have on another hand seen one thing." The queen wolf said and looked at them, her eyes turned warm and kind once more.
"Another piece for your puzzle, but also the clue you may be searching for.. That would be up to you to find out." The leader smiled. Fritz looked at the king, his eyes narrowed.
"There is someone that has traveled this space for ages. One that the journey is never ending for. She may know about this spider." The queen said and her smile widened as she saw how Fritz eyes opened at those words.
"Thank you." He said his eyes shining in hope. The others looked at him a bit confused.
"You should get going as soon as you can. I can feel time is starting to run out." the Leader said and looked at them all.
"Good luck, and may the Eternal one be on your side." The queen said smiling to them. Everyone bowed their heads and left the great hall of the Great leader.
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A little while later Fritz, Mayu, Little Harlock, Riki and the wolfs stood at the bridge of the Talon.
"So what now?" Riki asked looking at Fritz that were pushing a good few of buttons.
"I am trying to find out what would be the best point to met the Three-nine." he said, not looking at them.
"You mean it was Maetel the leader spoke of? The wanderer?" Little Harlock asked. Fritz nodded, as he pushed in the last buttons. The screen jumped to life and showed a red line jumping from planet to planet.
"Good.. By the looks of it we should manage to met the Three-nine at one of these planets here." He said and pointed to a group of planets.
"Would it not be easier to just stop it before that?" Riki asked.
"To stop the train, is easy enough, but it would be easier to talk to Maetel with out getting into to much trouble at a planet, and there is one planet were the military will not be looking for us."
"You mean there master?" Silvereye asked and looked at him from his shoulder. Fritz nodded and looked to one planet in particular.
"Little Harlock, Mayu, are your ships ready to go?" he asked looking at them. Mayu nodded.
"I just need to gather the crew, that's all." he smiled. Fritz nodded.
"Good do it. As soon as your crews are back and all is ready we head out." He said and took his place as the leader. Little Harlock and Riki nodded and ran out to gather the crew, closely followed by Tic and Tac as well. Irai was also out on the same mission. Fritz turned and saw how Mayu looked a little worried.
"Dont worry, Maetel will help us." He said and smiled to her. Then he realized why she looked confused.
"Maetel is your mother's twin sister. She has traveled on the three-nine for a very long time, I am sure she knows something." He said and took and hand to her shoulder. Mayu looked even more worried. She had an Aunt she did't even know about. how much did she not know about her family? she wondered. Yet the kind smile Fritz had, made her relax a bit. She nodded and smiled faintly at him.
"Don't worry Mayu, I'll protect you." Hoshi barked smiling making Mayu look down at her.
"That much I don't doubt." Fritz laughed, and smiled and Mayu. "Don't even try and talk her out of it. You will lose the argument anyway. She is not of the kind to take no for an answer." He smiled. Mayu looked down at Hoshi again and smiled.
"I could use the company." She smiled and stroked Hoshi over the head. Fritz smiled to himself and cast a look over to his own guardians.
"Hoshi, Tic and Tac all have found their master at long last, I doubt that they know it yet themselves." He muttered low to them. The others just nodded. All three of the glad that their friends would be well guarded, and yet they did not know how much they would need their help in just a short while..
Author's note.
Here is the next part as promised.
More fun coming up and very soon we will reach the end of this long tale.
Feel free to tell me how I did.
Ligthingtooth