-=+Chapter Five+=-
I dipped the pen in my ink jar for no doubt the hundredth time, the once full jar now running low. Hours had been spent here, as it was approaching morning. I didn't want to stop writing, nor did my body let me. This seemed to happened every time- I'd sit down to catch up on journal entries and I'd be at it for hours on end. This time, however, it was taking even longer. Despite being here for only a few days, these islanders had given me a lot to recount. Setting down my pen, I clipped my latest entry into the brown journal, and thumbed through the other one's I'd written over the night to see if there were any details forgotten.
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Captain's log #132
Ianerea has burned to the ground. As much as I had wanted to fight for my town, my Lady Ianite bid me not to. The goddess said I was needed, that I had to take my crew and find her champion, who resided on some lost island of champions. Her voice and message to me was clear, but she left me with so many questions. With only a single direction, how was I to find some island, much less one inhabited and protected by the gods and their highest warriors? If we did find it, how would I know who her champion was, if he or she was even there at all? Was my getting along with him or her mandatory? There's no possible way I could even feign friendliness to a champion who did not return to notion, be they important or not. I just hope they're decent.
...
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The account went on, but I skipped over the rest of the page. It went on to report weather conditions, and tussles between the crewmates. Drowsiness tugged on my eyes already, and reading boresome information wouldn't help my case of staying awake.
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Captain's log #139
Though seemingly growing weaker, Ianite continues to visit me every once in a full moon during my dreams. She means to comfort me, to remove some of the stress placed on my shoulders, but her efforts are futile. I merely want to know what her champion looks like, in hopes of not having to wander countless islands in search of him. All my Lady was able to tell me was that her champion was, in fact, a boy. He came too late during her decline of abilities for her to know what he looks like. She's left him little traces of her presence- she's shown me a few. Signs in a broken cage, armour, and words of her through her brother Mianite. Once, when he first declared his belief in her, she was able to hear his voice through the power spurt he gave her. I had listened intently as she played the sound of his voice for me, but when I awoke I was dismayed to realize that it had vanished from my memory. Other than that, my goddess has no knowledge of her champion.
Luckily, I didn't have to wait much longer. After weeks on the sea, we stumbled on what seems to be the Island of Champions, as Ianite had called it. Even before our boots had hit the sand, the four supposed champions had come to greet us. Dianite's champion had been obvious. Though he was rather welcoming and excited at our arrival, Thomas- though the others only call him Tom- had the devilish smirk, glare, and silver tongue of his predecessors.
The one by the name of Tucker, or Jericho, wasn't hard to identify as Mianite's main champion. He was quick to defend his comrade, preparing to slaughter us at the threat we posed. I'm wary of trusting him; he seems too impressionable. His devotion runs too deep, to the point of disregarding his morals and what he believes to be right, just to appease his god. He seems like he'd be unable to stand against his god, perhaps even being a danger to his friends if Mianite declared a desire for their blood. It worries me.
Mianite's second champion, slightly lower in rank, is quite different. Sonja, also the only girl on the island, is much different from her boyfriend and fellow Mianitee champion. She serves her god religiously, but if the scenario arose I do think that she'd hold her own morals above the words of her god. It's become rapidly apparent that she values her friends more, and will do no harm to them of her own accord.
The final one, Jordan, quickly proved to be the wild card of the group. At first, I had assumed that he was a Mianitee. He wielded a weapon, but his stance and stature gave off no threat, and not a single feature of his was as sharp as those of a Dianitee. What changed my mind was how he acted when I drew a blade against his friend. While the Mianitees were quick to enact what they hold as justice, the black-haired one put himself in the way of my blade to prevent conflict. That was when I had realized he was the one I had been looking for. That, and when he grabbed my blade I saw his champion mark- which was distinctly Ianite's with her name in curlicued gold script over purple scales.
This group intrigues me, especially the latter of the four. Though I have yet to see more of their characters, the only threat I see to our plan is the Dianitee, Tom. Mianite's second champion seems trustworthy, but I worry about her boyfriend. If I was in control of the whole situation, I'd have taken Ianite's champion and gone off to wherever our Lady needed us. But alas, it seems as though I have to wait.
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Captain's log #140
Today, the day after our arrival, the champions were called in by the Priest. Inexplicably, this gave me ill feelings. The Priest claims to answer only to Mianite, but I know that he receives word from all three of the gods, even the Devil himself, making him more of a neutral party. This isn't what unsettles me. What stirred my unease was the way he looked over at me the next day, and firmly grabbed Jordan's elbow as he hauled him inside his courtyard. While I'm positive that neither my crew or I have done anything to offend the Priest or any of the gods, minus Dinaite, I especially am treated with an air of nervous unease and uncertainty. It's as though the Priest and his assistant wish to keep me away from the reason I've come here- Ianite's sole champion.
...
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Captain's log #143
Today I was given my first real reason to refrain from trusting Tom. During the morning he approached me, yelling and threatening me over some device blown up by my men. I've dealt with many threats and pur(ge)turbed men, and had no problem setting them straight. With Tom, however, I am wary. He's far different from regular men. He is wild, reckless, and to make matters worse, he is backed by the god of all chaos. It seems as though one misstep with him will send his trust sprawling, and a hell-bent champion of Dianite is not something I need to help my Lady.
The only solace from what seemed to be a horrible day was Sonja. She proved to be not only a strong ally when she disarmed Tom, but she is also looking to be a great friend, and my only since the fall of Ianerea. We walked together for quite some time, never saying much at all but bonding all the same. I respect that. It shouldn't always take words and constant talking to know someone; to know you can trust them. After a while, Sonja took me to a mutual base between the Mianitees and Jordan, and there she and I baked a cake. I've never been one for such frilly activities, but it felt like I was reclaiming a part of my childhood that I'd never partook in. So long as it was kept a secret, I wouldn't mind stealing away to bake with the young fox-women again.
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I felt my eyes droop farther, and I was unable to open them once again. I debated getting changed and slipping into my bed, but the more I thought of it the farther away it seemed, the effort growing until it was too much to bother with. Crossing my arms on my oak desk, papers and ink still strewn around me, I laid down my head and drifted to sleep.
*BANG*
I jolted awake, making it the second time I've been awoken by the sound of an explosion. But as opposed to when I was woken up on the hill, this time it sounded as though the detonation was merely centimeters from my ear. I sat up, and looked around me. All seemed fine; I was still at my desk, wrapped in my coat with my quill near my hand. What had woken me up? My eyes trailed over to the door, thinking that one of the crewmates dropped something. Instead, a strange red glow was emanating from underneath.
"What in Ianite's name is going on?" Wrapping my coat tighter around me, I threw open the door and was met with flames. Flames don't belong on a boat. A deep, menacing laugh came from above me. As I scanned the sky, my eyes landed on the one person I'd hoped to never have to deal with again. A golden mass of molten lava and stones, Furia flew above my ship, hurtling flames down to the wooden deck I was standing on. His deep red-ish brown eyes met mine, and his thin line of a mouth twisted into a grand smirk.
"Why hello, Captain. Fancy meeting you here." The smoke swirled around me, stinging my eyes and making it increasingly harder to look at him, but I knew that the second I looked away I'd lose him, and that'd be my demise. The oak floor cackled and simmered, threatening to break from beneath me and feed me to the water below.
"Furia!" I snarled, and withdrew the sword I had in the scabbard I'd grabbed on my way out. Furia, as predictable as the sun's rising, flew down towards me, materializing a deep crimson sword in his hand. I rolled to the side as he whizzed past me, my skin singing on the burning surface, still alight with flames.
"My, my, Miss Kate, it seems as though I disrupted you while changing. Deepest apologies." His tone was laced with a gleeful kind of venom, that of a psychopath. I held up my sword and felt his weight against me as he crashed into me, the flat of my blade preventing his sword from reaching me.
"Though maybe," he continued, "I'd be seeing you in such attire every morning, had you simply accepted my proposal." I narrowed my eyes.
"I denied a boy that was too bent on being Dianite's champion to know what was good for him. And you've done nothing but prove the theories and predictions I had as a young lass." I smirked, sidestepping him again. "But you still haven't become his champion, Daniel." I could see the rage flare up in his eyes, removing the traces of brown from his eyes, as well as the hints of a boy I grew up with and once knew well.
I stepped backwards to parry a blow, and my breath caught in my throat as my foot found no surface, and gravity pushed me down a hole to the waters below. My world went blue, the occasional streaks of bubbles as rubble pierced the water and drifted to a resting place on the seafloor. Kicking my legs, I surfaced, coughing up ash-covered water. A glance up revealed Furia sitting on the edge of the hole, staring down at me as if I was merely a goldfish in a bowl, and he was a pondering teenager watching a pet for comfort.
He sighed, smile fading. "It really is a shame, Kate. Times like these make me almost regret dedicating my life to making yours a living nightmare." There was a faint call in the distance, and his head snapped towards the voice. "I suppose I have to go now. Goodbye, love." In a puff of smoke Furia vanished, leaving me alone in the midst of a burning ship. I scanned around me, and huffed when I saw no way back up. I dove under the clouding water, and spotted my exit: a small hole in the side of the boat. I swam towards it, and started hammering my sword into the wood around it, slowly breaking away chunks of sodden wood. I surfaced again, taking huge gulps of air before retreating once again, and continued chipping away at the puncture in my ravaged boat. A huge piece of debris drifted down near my face, nearly pinning me down under it. I've spent nearly my whole life sailing waters; There's no way I'll allow this to be my death seabed. I'm not going to die this way.
Surface, breath, dive, chip, try not to die, repeat. I followed the cycle until I deemed the opening wide enough, and after one more gasp of air I dove down, kicking my legs furiously to escape the wreckage. The water around me became lighter, clearer, and cleaner the closer to the surface I swam. My head broke the surface, and I blinked away the water from my eyes. Shore. On that shore stood Tucker, staring at my flaming boat with a wide, open mouth. His eyes flicked to me.
"Oh gods, Capsize! Your ship!" I laughed, and started swimming towards the beach. Tucker waded in up to his knees, and extended a hand to help me up when I reached him. I pulled my coat around me, conscious not of that fact that I wore merely undergarments under the coat, but of the cool morning breeze. I stood beside Tucker and watched my boat slowly crumble under the influence of the fires, sinking deeper and deeper under the ashen waters.
"Now what're you gonna do?" Tucker's eyes were still trained on the mesmerizing display of heat, but his words were clearly directed towards me. I shrugged.
"Arr, I'll figure it out." A wave of panic swept over me as I remembered why I'd been sleeping at my desk in the first place. Oh, gods, my journals! I frantically searched the pockets of my jacket, only slightly relieved when my fingers clasped at the edges of a water-logged book. I pulled it out, and cursed under my breath. A few pages were torn, and if I didn't find a way to dry it, all would be lost. There hadn't been many accounts in it, but I doubted that I'd ever be able to recount everything that had happened up until today if I got the time to sit down and rewrite it all. Not only that, but the dozens of other books I had were still in my desk, no doubt at the bottom of the ocean by now. I sighed, and gingerly put it back in my pocket.
"I can build you a new one, y'know." I peered over at the champion, to find him off in thought. I mulled the proposition over.
"Why would ye want to?" At the edge of my vision, I could see him rub the back of his neck.
"Well, our initial meeting didn't go very well, and I want to make it up to you. That, and my girlfriend really likes you, and I don't want to be an enemy of my lover's friends."
"Alright. If ye can make me a sea-worthy ship, I'll even make ye a member of me crew." Tucker smiled, and extended his hand for a handshake. I took it and we shook hands, sealing the deal.
"Sounds like a plan." He started to leave, but turned back after a few paces. "Hey, do you have someplace to stay yet?"
I shook my head. "Not yet. My crew still be building." He motioned for me to follow him, so I did.
"Come with me. You and the other pirates can most likely stay in Jordan's tree or something. I was going to go see him, anyways." I smiled slightly, enjoying the hospitality and fearing for the life of that tree should Jordan let us stay. We walked in silence, tromping over hills and rocks. Luckily, the beach where my ship had been docked wasn't far from the magnificent tree. I was already barefoot from not having my boots on, but a long walk in general wasn't appealing after the hiking about I did with Sonja yesterday. It wasn't long before we stepped on through the small forest, planted as a prank I'd been told, that led to Sparklez's house. I'd never been to the tree itself before, only seeing it from afar or out one of Jordan's windows the day I arrived. Tucker walked straight up to the door, knocking on it loudly several times. After a few seconds, shuffling came from inside and a slightly dazed Sparklez, with sleep still present in his eyes, opened the door.
"Since when were you an early bird, Tucker?"
"Since Sonja decided to make friends with a literal bird that raps on my window every morning at six." Tucker passed the other champion a shovel he'd pulled from his inventory. "Sorry for not returning it earlier." I stood behind him, still utterly ignored.
"No problem." Sparklez yawned, and leaned against the doorframe.
"Well," Tucker waved his hands in a motion to the left, towards his base. "I gotta go. You two have fun." He started jogging down the hill.
"Two? What- oh!" The look of confusion on Sparklez's face shifted to shock as I stepped from my spot behind a tree. "Hey, Capsize. Why are you so wet? Aren't you cold?" He ushered me in, and closed the door behind us. Instantly, the warmth of his house seeped through my coat and warmed my chilled skin. I went and sat down on his couch.
"Woke up this morning to me boat burning down, and it ended in me taking an ill-prepared-for swim." His blue eyes widened.
"Why'd the boat burn down? What happened?" I hesitated, deciding against telling him the exact cause of the morning's peril.
"Ah, a crewmate must've left an oven on." I unbuttoned my coat and pulled my sodden book from my coat pocket, and placed it on the coffee table. "This is all that survived. Well, somewhat survived." I looked up to see Sparklez looking away, face pink as the sunset. When I realized why, I smiled. Had I been a younger lass, I'd be a darker shade of red than the fires of the Nether itself, but time with a crew of men has demolished my sense of both self-consciousness and embarrassment.
"U-um... do you want to borrow a shirt of mine or something? Until we can recover yours or make you new ones, that is." The poor lad still wouldn't look my way, and I chuckled at his embarrassment. Wrapping the coat around me once again, I stood up and nodded. Him standing up as well, I followed Sparklez up to his bedroom, and sat down on the red-sheeted bed as he dug through some dresser drawers. Eventually he pulled out a white shirt with an elbow-length sleeve and tossed it at me. Turning around to spare the lad from embarrassment again, I took off my coat and slipped on the shirt, hanging my coat on the nearby anvil to dry off. Though I didn't consider Sparklez to be that much taller than I, it surprised me by how long his shirt was on me. A shirt that went just below his hip went to my mid-thigh, barely covering my rear. It made me feel short.
"Thanks, Sparklez." I turned back to face him, meeting his eyes.
"No problem. I can show you to the guest rooms in the tree, if you'd like." I nodded, and returned the smile he gave me. I followed him back down the stairs, but stopped when I noticed a staircase leading downwards that I hadn't seen before. I cleared my throat to get his attention.
"What's down there?" He turned around.
"Hm? Oh, follow me." I followed Sparklez down the stairs to a strange room, with some sort of glass and stone wall at one end. I watched in dull curiosity as he entered a combination, and the wall at one end slid open, exposing more stairs, but stone as opposed to wood planks. I followed him down, and stopped short when we reached a small room brimming with chests.
"Welcome to my vault! It's pretty handy for purges, and has served me pretty well so far." His words were slightly muffled as he dug through one of the chests, looking for something. Scanning the small room around me, I barely noticed he tossed me something until it hit the side of my head, and laughter echoed off the walls. Picking up the object, I saw that it was an apple of gold. Nodding my thanks, I trailed behind Sparklez back up the stairs and through his house, stepping out the front door and onto a long bridge. Barefoot and in a man's shirt, I stared up at the tree.
"Wow. That's quite the place ye have here, Sparklez"
He chuckled. "I know, the wizards did an amazing job. It's absolutely wonderful." My eyes wandered from the tree to the champion beside me.
Wonderful.
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A/N - It's so long! :O Like wth!? It's also 1 a.m for me, so I gotta go to bed.
'Night! Or morning! Whatever! -Pure
(It was 1am when I first wrote it, it's not 1am now. Just in case you were wondering. Which you weren't, I'm assuming. :P )