Untold Tales

Kindred Spirits

"Way to give my Friends the royal treatment, Princess." Said Zarya as she stormed through the foyer of the stronghold.

"Way to throw a party on my balcony without telling me." Arkayna retorted, clearly annoyed at the rebellious teen.

"I'll bet if my friends were a bunch of tiara wearing, fake-o celebrities, you wouldn't have kicked 'em out."

"To be fair, there is a big difference between a celebrity and a pirate." Em said.

"Yeah, pirates steal stuff!" Piper pointed out, with a small hint of jealousy in her tone.

"Seriously? You're gonna hate on my old friends too?" Zarya couldn't believe that Piper of all people was against her on this.

"Look," Malveron started, hoping to reach some sort of compromise. "We don't want to tell you who you can or can't hang out with—"

"Good, because it's nobody's business! Ugh, I can't be around you guys right now."

Without a moment of hesitation, Zarya stormed out of the foyer and down the hall. Arkayna groaned in frustration. Clearly, she was not amused by this gesture, she could not believe what a child Zarya was acting like. Before the princess could say much else, she heard a deep, male voice coming from down the stairs.

"What in Gygax's name is going down here?" It was none other than Zorlon. Apparently, he had heard the girls bickering.

"Why not ask little miss trouble maker? I'm sure she can tell you." Arkayna said, sarcasm and frustration practically flooding her tone.

"Okay, translation?" Zorlon turned to Em when he asked.

"Well, here's the thing. Zarya invited sky pirates to party on the balcony."

"Sky Pirates?"

"Yeah." Piper said. "Apparently she was friends with them. Especially this one girl named Kitty who, by the way, is totally lame."

"Piper Willowbrook, are you jealous?" Em inquired.

"Jealous!? Who's jealous!? I'm not jealous! You're the one who's jealous!"

Piper was squinting her eyes by this point, as she stared a terrified Em in the face.

"Piper's not entirely wrong." Arkayna supported. "She and her crew were just shooting canon balls, breaking things, and playing loud music. Almost as if they owned the place. They're a total punks."

"Are they really?" Zorlon said as he stroked his beard. "Or are you merely labeling them as such because they happen to be sky pirates?"

Everyone looked surprised. Surely a man as disciplined and strict as Zorlon would not tolerate dirty pirates. So why did it seem like we was defending them?

"Zorlon, come on, they're sky pirates." Arkayna started. "They're filthy."

"And Loud!" Piper added, shouting with her hands gestured to amplify her voice.

"And dreamy... uh, I mean rude." Em said. Apparently she developed a crush on Kitty's younger brother, Kasey.

"And stinky." Malveron finished, as he gestured his hands as if to drive noxious fumes from his nose.

"So are ogres." Zorlon replied with a small chuckle. "Yet, even they're not all bad once you spend time with them." He then crossed his arms in disappointment. "Point of the matter is that you should never judge a book by its cover. Or, in this case, by its title. If you read the pages thoroughly, you find something important, something that your teammate discovered long ago."