Chapter 4:
Voyage of the Ruthless

Morning has come and the sun has risen above the clouds, as the Moon Phoenix continues to fly the group to Xadia. The group are asleep, except for Calla, who woke up a while ago and started meditating. She has her hand out with her pointing fingers and thumbs touching each other to make a circle.

Raylis soon wakes up and noticed Calla's back is facing him when he turned to see if she's okay since her former friends' betrayal. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"Meditating upon the meaning of sky." Calla said.

"Ugh! That's more boring than any answer I would have guessed."

"I'm trying to connect to the Arcanium like Lujann said, so I can use sky magic again."

"Didn't he also say you have to be born with the Arcano-whatever to do magic?"

"Not necessarily, he said you had to connect to the Primal and that magical creatures are born with a connection. So I don't see why I can't make my own connection?" Calla reasoned.

"By sitting weird and humming?"

"Right. Seems reasonable?"

Raylis sighs. Suddenly, Phoe-Phoe is struggling, as if experiencing some turbulence.

"Is it just me or are we losing altitude?" Raylis asked, noticing that they seem to be going lower.

"What? No way. I'm extremely attuned to slight changes in the air flow-AAAAAAAHHH!"

Phoe-Phoe, feeling exhausted, drops from the sky. The sudden change in speed caused Ezra to bang her head on Phoe-Phoe's neck, hurting her nose, but she screamed along with the rest of the group and Bait turning green. The group cling onto the Moon Phoenix as he makes a rough landing on the ground, and slide near the edge of a cliff. The friction caused Ezra and Zym to fall over, but fortunately Raylis grabbed Ezra's leg and Zym's tail.

"It's nice having both hands again." Raylis said.

A still-green Bait sighs as she changes back to yellow.

Meanwhile, at the Border between the human kingdoms and Xadia, the soldiers of Katolis are patrolling the Breach.

Their general Amayus is watching their human outpost at the Xadian part of the Border with his binoculars. There's been no activity from there, which greatly concerns him.

He hand signals to his lieutenant Fern about this. "General Amayus, we've searched everywhere and there's been no sign of the elves." Fern answered. "I think it's safe to conclude that the outpost on the Xadian side remains secret."

Amayus ponders this for a moment, when suddenly Fern spotted something. "There, look! The signal!" Amayus looks with his binoculars again, and indeed saw the smoke signal. "The outpost is secure." But Amayus looks on with suspicions, despite the outpost sending clear signals that it is secure.

Amayus signals Fern to gather a small force to inspect the outpost.

"Yes, General. I'll ready a party." She complied.

Back at Castle Katolis...

Vira continues to observe the she-elf mage, who finally acknowledged Vira.

"Who are you?" Vira repeated her previous question. Vira noticed the elf was looking at her staff, and then she walked out of the library.

"What is it? Where are you going?" Vira demanded.

After nearly fallen over the cliff into the water, the groups climbed out of the Moon Phoenix's back.

Ezra started petting his head to express her gratitude for the flight. "Phoe-Phoe is okay. He's just tired. He gets his power from the Moon Nexus. The further away we go, the harder it is to carry everyone." she explained.

"Wow, Ez, I can't believe you could understand all of that." Calla said impressed.

"You did such a good job getting us so far, thank you." Ezra said, before Phoe-Phoe flies away, returning to the Moon Nexus.

"So, what do we do now?" Ezra questions.

"Well, Xadia's that way." Raylis points out to a vast bay. "Across miles and miles of the fluid I both need to survive and hate more than anything in the world."

"You know what? We'll just walk around it somehow. With our legs." Calla suggested.

"No. Thanks for the offer, but that would take too long. We need to get that former egg, now adorable baby dragon home to Xadia as soon as possible. We got to straight across." Raylis said.

Luckily, they come upon a nearby seaport. The group are hiding behind some large crates near the docks to avoid anyone seeing Raylis.

"Well, we need a boat." Ezra said. "And a captain who knows how to make it go."

"Right. Specifically, a captain who doesn't hate elves." Calla added.

"Ain't no problem. I can just disguise myself as a human again." Raylis said. He puts on his familiar cloak, and start speaking with the accent again. "Hello again, fella humans. Human fellas."

"Oh! You're gonna love this, Zym!" Ezra said ecstatically. "I'm a huge fan of human Ray."

"Let's go judge and criticize things other humans do, and then do the exact same thing ourselves." Ray said.

"That's funny, because it's true." Ezra laughed. "Do another."

"Sure thing, little missy. I am excited to rapidly eat a plate of unwholesome food in an excessive portion size."

"He's right, I'd eat a jelly tart the size of a dog." Ezra said.

"Won't it be great to encounter other humans, and talk about which roads and pathways will take us somewhere slightly faster than other roads and pathways?"

"It is so true. We do love going slightly faster."

"Hey, sometimes getting somewhere slightly faster is important." Calla said impatiently. "Like, right now. Ezra and I will find a sea captain. You stay here and work on growing a fifth finger."

"You've got it, my smooth-skulled lady friend." Ray said.

Ezra laughs her head off. "Stop it, you're killing me!"

"Me too." Calla muttered as she grabs Ezra.

Back at the former cell of Moonshadow Elf assassin, Vira saw the she-elf return to the library with an ornate box. She opens it and takes out several items: a rock, a purple cloth handkerchief, a stool bend, a mashing bowl, a chalice, and a knife. Then the elf gestures at these items, making Vira realizes what the elf is asking.

"You want me to find these items?" Vira asked. "I can do that."

The she-elf respond with a smirk.

Back at the seaport, Raylis is still sitting by the crates with Bait and Zym, completely bored. He was playing with Zym's wings when the two princesses return.

"We found a perfect captain!" Ezra said.

Calla grabs Raylis' hand, and Ezra grabs Bait and Zym jumps back into Ezra's backpack.

Raylis makes sure his hood remains completely covered as they head to the ship that the sisters found.

"Uh, don't worry, that's not gonna be a problem with this lady." Calla assured Raylis.

"What, is she an open-minded human who can really see the good in elves?" Raylis asked sarcastically.

"Hmm. I'm not sure she can see the good in anyone, really. But that's part of what makes her uniquely qualified." Calla said as they walked to one of the docks where this person appears to be looking out at sea. "We're back!" Calla announced.

The woman in front of them is slightly shorter and appears to be middle-aged. She's wearing a pirate hat, a blue overcoat, brown pants that reaches mid-calf, and a mustard-yellow sash around her waist, She has a red parrot on her right shoulder. Raylis noticed that she's not wearing any shoes, apparently prefers going barefoot, except for the wraps around her feet. She then turns around, and to Raylis' surprise (and worry), she's wearing a blindfold.

Villadia takes them to her ship, The Ruthless, suggesting that they wait a few days since a storm is approaching. But since they need to hurry, Villadia insists that they depart now and hopefully race the storm or get caught by the storm in the middle of the bay and likely get killed. Unfortunately, Villadia realizes the storm has reached them.

"Greetings! The name's Captain Villadia. The 'D' is silent." The blind captain introduced herself.

"There's a 'D'?" Raylis asked.

"Arr!" Villadia uttered.

"Wait, there's a silent 'R'?"

"Narr."

"Oh, okay, so it's just the silent D' then."

"Aye!"

"Ah, so there's a-"

Raylis was cut-off by Calla clearing her throat. "This is our regular human friend, Ray."

"Spelled like it sounds." Raylis said.

"And his cute, unusual dogs, Zym and Bait." Calla gestures at the dragonling and glow toad, respectively.

"Ahoy, Ray. Ahoy, doggos. And this is me first mate, Berta!" Villadia gestures at her parrot.

"I'm a parrot." Berta stating the obvious.

"Me ship's this way." Villadia walked passed the group, and takes them to her ship. That's right besides them. A small unassuming sail ship. "Welcome to me water home, The Ruthless! Named after me dear husband, Rolf the Ruthless. Who sadly..." Villadia sniffles as she walks up the gangplank, "don't enjoy sailing."

"So, you said if the wind's on our side, we could make it across the bay pretty quickly?" Calla asked.

"Aye! 'Course, there's a storm coming." Villadia said.

"A storm? That could be interesting." Calla said to herself.

"So, we have to delay departing for a few days." Villadia said as she walked back down the gangplank.

"Uh, we're on a tight schedule. Isn't there anything we can do?" Raylis asked hopefully.

"Hmm, I suppose if we leave right now, we could race across the bay and beat the storm." Villadia said.

"Yes. Let's do that." Calla said eagerly.

"No problem. Unless the storm catches us mid-bay, and kills us all." Villadia chuckles as she walked back up, leaving the group silent.

So they all come aboard The Ruthless and sail out into sea. Ezra, Raylis, Bait and Zym see a a pod of dolphins are swimming past them and flipping up in the air.

"Whoo!" Ezra hollered upon seeing the dolphins.

Calla sits on the steps besides the ship's wheel being stirred by the blind she-captain.

"Ye might be wondering what happened to me eyes." Villadia asked.

"Well, I didn't want to be rude." Calla said.

"I got blinded by an explosion."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Calla uttered sympathetically. "Were you caught in the middle of a sea battle?"

"Don't know. I was playing with fireworks, even though me mother tells me not to."

"I see..." Calla said awkwardly.

A seagull squawks, getting Calla's attention as she looks up at the sail through the wind gusts. She realized the wind is blowing at them, yet somehow they're sailing against it.

"Hey, wait. How are we going that way when the wind is blowing us in that direction?" Calla asked as she points at the opposite direction where they're going.

"Oh, that's how you sail, me lass." Villadia said.

"The wind doesn't push us where we want to go?"

"The sail is more like a wing, flying through the wind, pulling the boat against the water currents below us. It's like shooting a willow melon seed from between your fingers. You squeeze in on both sides, but the seed shoot straight out." Villadia explained, as she had an actual willow seed which she squeezed out of its shell and landed on Calla's nose.

"I think I get it." Calla said, as she feed the seed to Berta.

The ship suddenly shook hard, causing Calla to lose her balance, forcing her to hold onto the railing. And Villadia's hat to be blown by the wind, but Berta flies to get it back and put the hat back on her owner's head.

"After you're in the elements long enough, you get a feel for where the wind is and how it's about to change. It's like a connection, deep in me bones." Villadia said.

"Hold on, you feel a connection to the wind?" Calla asked. "How did you get that?"

"What, just because I'm blind and have narcolepsy you thought I wouldn't have sailing sense?!" Villadia asked, seemingly offended.

"No! No, no, no. That's not what I meant, I- Wait, narcolepsy?"

Villadia snores, but still standing in front of the wheel.

"Wake up!" Berta pecks at Villadia's head. "Wake up! Wake up! Wake up-"

Villadia suddenly wakes up and bonks Berta on the head. "What happened? The last thing I remember, I was talking about narcolepsy and then falling asleep."

"Yeah. That's about right." Calla remarked.

Suddenly they heard thunder. Right ahead of them is an approaching storm. While Zym initially whimpered, she got excited as if sensing her element.

"Storm's a comin'." Villadia said. "Seems as if we won't beat it after all." She chuckles.

"Maybe this is my chance." Calla said, hoping that the storm will help her connect with the Sky arcanum.

"A chance to die." Berta said.

"I was gonna say my chance to learn." Calla explained.

"To learn how to drown."

"Do you have to be so negative?"

"Do humans always have to sugarcoat their impending doom?" Berta squawked.

Vira returns with the items the elf asked for. The elf gestures Vira to imitate her actions by first knitting some kind of rune on the purple handkerchief. Then she holds it up to see her work.

"I've never seen this rune before." Vira said, as it's completely unfamiliar to her.

The elf casts as spell on the rune which caused it to glow, and did the same with the rune on Vira's handkerchief. She then places her handkerchief on a stone before breaking it in half; Vira did the same using her pestle.

The elf uses her pestle to smash the contents in one of the stone halves and pour them into the chalice filled with water. Vira pours the stone's contents into her cup, causing the water to turn purple with purple smoke rising.

The elf then raise the chalice up in a gesture of toast to Vira.

"You expect me to drink it?" she asked hesitantly.

The elf answers her question by drinking her chalice. Vira complies. "It's surprisingly not bad." she remarked.

Lastly, the elf takes the dagger and tasks Vira to slash her palm and drip her blood on the chalice to finish the ritual.

Vira grabs her knife... but that's where she draws the line. "Why should I trust you? I don't even know who... I don't even know what you are? I need time to think!" she said as she jabs the dagger on the table and leaves the room.

The Ruthless is now in the middle of the storm. Raylis, Ezra, Bait and Zym stand in front of the captain's cabin to get away from the rain.

Ezra then noticed Raylis is getting greener. "You're turning different colors. Is that your Moonshadow form?"

"No. This is my rare glow toad impersonation." He said. Then makes a grumpy face at Bait. She feels offended.

"Storm's too strong! Best we moor on the lee side of the island, and wait till it calms." Villadia shouted as she points out at sea. Berta flies up to her owner's arm and moves it so Villadia would point to a nearby island. "Berta, to the bow!"

The parrot flies to the front of the ship. "Aye, aye!" She helps Villadia guides the ship toward the island amidst large waves and deadly sea stacks. "Port, port! Current fast! Drop the sail!" Villadia pulls down the front sail.

The ship is about to head towards deadly sea stacks. "Starboard! Starboard!" Berta warned as she flies off. Villadia return to the wheel and just barely avoided the rocks. "Port! Port!"

Villadia manage to port the ship on the island's pier.

Berta then tied the ship's rope around the dock bumper and perched on it. "Nailed it. Squawk!"

"Did she just say the word 'Squawk'?" Ezra asked in confusion.

"That's right! Squawk!" she repeated.

General Amayus leads his forces to the outpost in horses. As they arrived, they supsiciously find it empty.

"I don't understand. Why would the outpost be abandoned?" Fern questioned. "They just sent the single a few-"

A lone female soldier of the outpost walks up to them, awkwardly.

"Soldier! Your signal was late. What happened? Where is everyone?" Fern demanded.

"Yes. My apologies, ma'am. The other went on patrol and I missed my cue. The next signal will happen exactly on the hour."

The lieutenant and the rest of the soldiers think the base is secure, so they lower their guard and prepare to leave. However, Amayus notices the guard appears to be nervous and sweating. He then noticed the soldier shakily pointing someone behind her. Amayus realizes the guard is being targeted in the back by an archer who realize the guard was trying to warn them, so the archer shoots their arrow. Luckily, Amayus manages to rescue the soldier from getting hit with his shield. This got his forces' attention as the Sunfire Elves emerge from their hiding places. Amayus and his forces try to escape the outpost, only to find more Sunfire Elves blocking their path. As the humans back away, they see the other elves surrounding them, trapped within the outpost. The leader with the Sunforge blade reveals himself, and he and Amayus glare at each other.

Seeing that the storm is still not letting up, there's nothing else that the crew of The Ruthless can really do.

"Well, we didn't beat the storm. We'll have to wait it out below deck." Villadia said as she heads down. Ezra, Bait, and Zym follows her.

"Hooray. We're wet and miserable and we've saved no time at all." Raylis was about to head down as well when he noticed that Calla was staring out on the island. "Hey, are you coming or what?"

"Yeah, I agree." She replied, apparently not paying attention to what everyone else was saying.

Raylis realize Calla is forming an idea. He sighs and walks up to her. "I know that face. It's the 'dumb idea' face."

A lighting bolt struck the island.

"Every time the lightning strikes, I can feel something." Calla said.

"Yeah, me too. It feels good to not be struck by lightning." Raylis said.

"No, I mean, it feels like it did when I used the Fulminis spell. Maybe, if I'm brave enough to go into it, and face the storm, that's how I'll make the connection."

"Or it'll blow you up until you're dead."

Zym came back up and started running around excitedly.

"See? Zym gets it. She can feel it, too." Calla said.

"You really wanna go out there, don't you?" Ezra asked Zym.

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no. It's one thing to stupidly risk your own stupid human life, but I am not gonna let you risk the life of the future Queen of the Dragons."

"She is a storm dragon." Ezra reminded. "She'll be safe."

Calla hands Raylis her bag and carries Zym, and the two venture into the island.

"If you die out there, I swear to the gods I'll kill you." Raylis yelled. Then he looks on with worry.

Calla and Zym climbed up to a rocky ledge where Calla can meditate. She's been at it for what seemed like half an hour, and she's not sensing anything yet.

"Okay. It's wet. The wind is blowing." As she says this, the speed of the wind increased. "It's blowing a lot! I'm cold, I'm soaked. Is your skin supposed to wrinkle up like this when you understand the Sky Arcanum?" she asked Zym. "I don't think I feel any different."

Making no progress with the Sky arcanum, Calla then looks up as the rocks go higher. "Maybe I need to get higher up." Calla and Zym climb up, but Calla slips down due to the rain. She just lies on the ledge in defeat, frustrated in her desire to practice magic again. Zym slides back down landed on top of Calla's stomach. "I don't know how I'm supposed to get this, Zym. You're a magical creature. Somehow, it's inside you. But I'm just a human. There's nothing inside me. I want this so much. When I could do magic, I finally felt like myself, and now I've lost that. I'm just trying to find my way back."

Calla spots a windmill getting repeatedly struck by lightning and believes that it is where she needs to be. "It looks like the Primal Stone. That's where we need to go."

Meanwhile, Vira is outside, still contemplating her choices when she notices a crow returning with a scroll and immediately heads to the Crow Lady's keep.

"Did a message come for me?" Vira asked the Crow Mistress as she enters.

"Yes. Four messages, in fact." The Crow Mistress informed.

"Four messages came for me and I was not informed?" Vira questioned.

"Actually, we searched the entire castle. We couldn't find you anywhere." Crow Mistress chuckles nervously. "What, are you hiding in some secret chamber somewhere?"

"I... was in the bathroom." Vira lied.

"Oh, right." The Crow Mistress said. She hands Vira the messages.

Vira opens them up and gasped in shock. "The other four kingdoms have agreed to a summit of the Pentarchy." She said ecstatically.

"Wow, that sounds important."

"I will rally the kings and queens behind Katolis and finally destroy the Xadian threat!" Vira said, as she feels she is one step closer to her goal. "You are witnessing history."

"That's great! So, would you rate the service you received today as excellent?"

Vira mentally sighs. "Why do I even bother telling her at all?"

Calla reached the windmill while carrying Zym. She looks up and noticed something on top of the building attracting any lightning that comes near it.

"It's a lightning rod."

Zym grabbed onto Calla's shoulders as she climbed up a latter to the roof. Zym hops down as Calla kneels before the lightning rod, "Maybe if I..." she reaches for the rod, but stops herself. "No, I can't." Afraid she'll get hurt. "But I have to do this." She said desperately. "I have to understand the Sky Primal." She holds the rod and waits to get hit by a lightning strike. Zym whimpers worriedly. "Come on, come on!" As lightning strikes around her, she braces herself for the impact.

But after several minutes, which seemed like a very long time, she lets go. "Calla, you're being incredibly stupid! Why would you do this? You can't risk your life to learn magic. This is crazy."

Calla calms down and sigh in relief.

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning finally strikes Zym.

The Sunfire Elves engage their human combatants, where they are easily overpowered by the Sunfire Elf leader wielding the Sunforge blade who makes his way to Amayus for a rematch.

The Sunfire Elf leader swings his blade at Amayus' sword, sliced it clean in half. Forcing Amayus to face the Sunforge blade with his shield alone.

Amayus climbed up the roof of the outpost and knocked out a Sunfire Elf archer with his shield. The Sunfire Elf leader hopped onto the roof. Amayus puts his shield on his back and make a "come at me" gesture.

Grimacing, the Sunfire Elf leader runs towards a charging Amayus. He manage to get a cut at Amayus' armor.

The Sunfire Elf leader makes the same gesture at Amayus, who respond by charging at the elf and avoid his blade. Amayus manage to push the elf off the roof, causing the Sunforge blade to slip from the elf's hand, and both end up landing on a large slow-turning wheel.

The two soon got up and head for the blade which is embedded in the rim. They each grabbed the hilt. The elf tries to punch Amayus, but he dodges the elf's fist. Amayus manages to separate the Sunforge blade from the elf's reach by kicking it into a stalactite.

But the elf soon transforms his appearance that empowers him with inner fire, much to Amayus' surprise. The elf pushes Amayus off the wheel and onto the ground. But he quickly rolled away as the elf tried to stomp on him. Amayus realize he's in over his head as the elf's transformation also increased his strength that enables him to make holes at walls with just his fists. Amayus manages to evade elf leader when his hands get stuck in the wheel. Amayus seizes the moment to help his forces break through the Sunfire Elves blocking the exit, allowing everyone to escape but abandoning the outpost to the Sunfire Elves.

The elf leader was able to free himself, but furious that the humans got away.

As the humans head back to the Breach, Amayus looks back for a moment, before following his men.

The storm has finally cleared on the island. Raylis and Ezra looks around for Calla and Zym as they have not arrived back yet, making them worry. But they became happy as they spot them. Only to go back to being worried as they noticed a solemn Calla carrying a limped Zym.

They got out of the ship and ran through the docks as Calla approaches.

"Calla, what happened?" Ezra asked worried.

"We went into the heart of the storm, and Zym... she got struck by lightning." Calla answered, making them gasp. To their relief, Zym awakens, looking no worse for wear. Though she did spew out static, as she absorbed the lightning strike's energy, which allowed them both to survive. "But I think she's okay."

Calla returns Zym into her grateful sister's arms.

However, Raylis finds Calla still upset. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"I feel stupid. You were right."

"Calla..."

"I could have gotten Zym killed. I put us both in danger. And worst of all, when we were right there, in the center of the storm, I thought I wanted this badly enough, but in the end I didn't have the guts."

"Good." Raylis said, glad that she made the right decision and embraces her. Calla embraces him back in return.

Vira returns to the dungeon, where the elf expects that she has returned to finally finish the ritual. But to the elf's surprise, Vira decides to pause their interactions, at least for now, by recovering the mirror with the tarp.

Author's Note: Villadia is based on female Ben Gunn from the Alvin and the Chipmunks episode "Treasure Island".