05-12-2017, 12:31 PM
Cinnabar Island was nearing, Gary manned the vessel and was navigating them to their destination. Over their course they’d had adventures, picked up a few friends, one a mini Charizard, the other, Zack could only consider some sort of Shadow Lion, it wasn’t tangible, yet, if it attacked, Zack was sure it would convert from an apparition to something very physical and with ease shred his very tangible muscle.
Outside the porthole was gray with blue overtones, Zack assumed it was dark outside and night had fallen, they’d be arriving and it was hard to say if Clowney would have a medical center for her, surely in his large building he’d have a place for her to rest, in his experience, most primes got a little better with time if the injury wasn’t fatal. They’d treated her wound, now, they would just have to see. Transporting her in the dark would be tricky, if worst came to worst, Zack would resort to carrying her honeymoon style, or the lion could help. It couldn’t be healthy for her to lay in this freezing saline water any longer.
Now was a time better than any.
Hesitantly, Zack slipped one hand under her knees, the next, her back. He watched her bone-colored face as he lifted her, searching for any signs of intrinsic pain, but it was apparent that she’d passed out, for she was limp, even to the touch. Her feet dangled and Zack’s knees pressed off the rust-prone ground, her body slipped out of the grease and blood tainted water and her heavy hair swung, a drenched wall slick with sable and silver. The lion, though an imminent threat, had receded to the back of his mind. The colossal, ever-essential forefront: Keeping her alive.
“I sent word to Jad’s port that she’s injured, hopefully he’ll send a medical team or something,” Gary said over the com, “Prepare to dock, I’m coming up there, kid, and we’ll get her up the vertical ladder one way or another.”
Zack rolled his eyes when he’d been demeaned by Gary and called a ‘kid’ but it dawned on him that the smallest thing would hold them back. He couldn’t climb a ladder while still holding her in his arms, there was nearly no way, and he could risk dropping her, she was pretty slippery, and her blood-dripping wounds didn’t help the cause. Shoot. This was going to be tricky, what a ridiculous, small task, to hold her back from medical care and Zack doubted Gary would take kindly to him cutting a hole in the side of the vessel they needed to sail in later, so lucky, were they, that Omnillium repairs damages, and then some.
The Buster Sword had many, many uses, but today, it was used most recently to fillet a giant sea monster, next, it would be used to cut a hole in the side of a steel ship, hopefully as easy as a can opener.
Meanwhile, Zack had barely gotten to a dense stand and the lion had snarled it’s darkened teeth, warning with the ferocity of his eyes that blazed demonically. Yet, it let him pass.
Caira, meanwhile, had fallen into a dark and desolate slumber, vaguely, she could feel the nudges, pulls, and prods to her body, each as though beckoning her awake while her consciousness continued to drift. The sound of dense, screeching metal grinded together and sparks flew behind the darkness of her eyelids. She was veering close to opening her eyes, like a ship nearing a lighthouse before it crashed into the cove.
Her eyes gently blinked open, pupils wavering and becoming tiny to the light beaming down from above, there was someone looming over her, a head over a set of shoulders. A flash of instinct of the descending threat caused her fist to form and slam into the gentleman’s face. Jad cupped his face and winced at the blow, “Come on, is that anyway to treat someone who just helped you with your wounds?”
Caira blinked a few times and her eyes adjusted to the blurs of movement. On top of her, lay freshly clean sheets and clothes she didn’t remember changing into. Surrounding her, beeping monitors and wires in a very sterile looking room with a view of the island’s finest shrubbery. “Oops, sorry! I didn’t mean to hit you but rather, guess I thought you were someone.. Or something else.”
“Oh yeah?” Jad offered a friendly smile through his throbbing cheek, “So, wanna find the star?”
His smile grew and she reciprocated then worry wiped it away like a cloth over a smooth surface, “W-wear’s Zack? And Gary? Are they okay?! I was attacked by a huge.. Creature.”
“Ya mon, Zack ended up killing it with that big sword of his, to my knowledge. They’re both safe, and the thing that did this to you is gone. The Vasty Deeps can get pretty dangerous, even for primes. You’re lucky you survived with the wounds you’ve sustained,” Clowney informed her.
“So.. Zack?” her eyebrows raised with expecation.
Jad nodded, understandably, “He’s likely resting, you had a long journey to get my papers with the coordinates, he was tired too, and worried about whether you’d make it,” his eyes drifted away and then back to hers.
She blinked and nodded, “Alright,” she oriented her thoughts, “Well hey… Are you coming with us?”
“What kind of researcher do you think I am? Of course I’m coming, I want to see it too, you know,” his grin broadened and revealed his extravagantly white teeth. He winked.
Of course, this was his discovery anyway, why wouldn’t he want to see it, and find out what it was capable of?
“Right then, we should set out, shouldn’t we?” Caira sat up abruptly, and started to stand up before feeling the pull of the plugs embedded in her skin and especially the sudden stabbing in her sensitive abdomen.
“Er… You sustained some injuries, like I said, and you’re lucky to be alive, but you’re ready for adventure aren’t you? Well, we can depart tomorrow morning if you’ve healed up by then,” Jad said in a professional tone, examining some of the wounds that were apparent when she stood up.
“Can’t we go any sooner? I can heal on the way,” she suggested.
“They’re my coordinates, I choose when we leave, plus the weather’ll be bad tonight,” Jad smirked, amused as he claimed his victory, “But you will be healing on the boat too so take it easy. As for your… Body, you know your blood is silver, and it is made out of a very peculiar compound, right?”
“I mean, I’m not exactly from here,” she smiled back, meeting his rather apt sass levels.
“Yes, but if you don’t mind, I’d like to do some tests, the compound interests me. Would you mind telling me of your origins?” Jad’s question filled the room like water absorbed by a sponge, heavy and full. “Also, Gary mentioned that your name is Caira?”
The door opened, causing Caira’s held-breath to release, Gary strode in the door, “There you are girlie, glad to see you have a little more color to ya.”
Caira never had ‘much’ color to her silver-toned skin, but she was certainly looking better than before, passed out and half dead on the ground of the sub. “Good to see you too,” she said in her polite way and looked back to Jad, “Er, first name, anyway.”
“So you’ve got this giant lion that disappears when the sun rises, what’s that about?” Gary said with a smile, but there was an underlying seriousness that tainted his smile. Lines and wrinkles that warned of dangerous thoughts, and the threats of danger coming from the little piece of lore they’d encountered.
“So the man of shadows is curious of my shadow lion, right?” Caira sighed, she didn’t like to tell those around her of the cards in her deck. It was dangerous. Trusting someone was dangerous. Just look at her parents, her village…
“You’re pretty much spot-on there missy,” Jad and Gary’s eyes stuck on her, like a fly on honey. She couldn’t squeeze free.
“I acquired the allegiance of the lion in the Endless Dunes,” her eyes swept from Jad’s cool, pensive persona to Gary’s tense, contemplative stance. “They’re rare creatures, and the lion took a liking to me. There was another and they are territorial, spirit creatures or something, there were two and this one protected me and won.” She shrugged and looked at Gary, awaiting further questions. “During the day he seems to stay in the necklace.”
Gary smiled, he’d made a correct assumption a while back, now, he could bask in it. Satisfaction’s essence. To be proved right.
Jad was a man of science, not the mystics of magic, though it was hard to deny in this world, the parallels of them both. “So do you mind my doing some tests?”
“Actually I do, I’m not a creature, though I may well be considered not quite human in this realm, I don’t see the good it would do, but, tell you what, if we find the fallen star, maybe I’ll let you scan me with one of your machines,” she bartered, “Sound good?”
“Hahaha sounds like a plan, you know, your little Pokemon is waiting for you too,” Jad smiled.
“Oh you mean that little dragon I found?” Caira smiled excitedly.
“Yup, that’s the one. Feeling well enough to stand?” Clowney offered her a hand and took a look at her wounds, “I’ll take your IV out and we’ll get you down there. Are you hungry?”
Food. She hadn’t thought about sustenance for a long time, not that her form really needed it. She nodded for their sake and after a few motions was free and out of the door! Just outside was the ex-SOLDIER Zack Fair, asleep with his chin nearly on his shoulder, crumpled in an uncomfortable looking chair. His black hair was messy and saggy, distinctly, Caira saw the devotion of Zack Fair. Friend and teammate in their mission and adversity.
The strength in his character shone through in little moments like this. Caira’s eyes moved to Jad and Gary as if to say, I had assumed you meant in an actual bed. Jad’s shoulders raised as if to say hey, he insisted.
Caira blinked, unsure if she should leave him be, she paused and her gaze fixed on him. As though he sensed her eyes on him. He sucked in a breath and put a hand through his shiny hair and blinked himself awake, “Oh, hey, glad you’re doing okay,” he appraised her and saw that she was standing at a slant, but still, she was in one piece.
Behind his eyelids he saw her, knocking on death’s door with her skin cold as eyes and limp limbs dangling from how he carried her. Now, she was alive and well. Standing. Sure, Primes are promised rebirth, but this wasn’t the same. Omni hadn’t cast his magic, she’d been strong enough after all.
She was alive.
He felt himself surge with happiness, he could hug her… If she wasn’t in a hospital johnny.
…
It was something akin to the last supper. Caira reunited with her pet, the little Charizard and when she pet its head, and the little guy saw that she was doing okay, it purred almost like a cat would. Smiles spread about the room like an epidemic. Gary got his turn, to meet the giant lion on better, more welcoming circumstances, then Gary turned dark and plumes of shadows spread around the air of his shoulders and they went in a private location as though old friends discussing forgotten memories.
The rest ate. A feast fit for kings was laid on the long dining table, ale and wine was passed around, and the members of Jad's team and their guests filled their plate and stuffed their bellies. The moment was complete, but there were moments that would come that no one could have prepared for.
After dinner, Jad had lead all his companions into a room and they had a conference, Clowney stood before a powerpoint, blew up a holographic topographical map and had explained their route to his calculated coordinates.
There were several red X’s on the map, but it wasn’t meant for treasure, each one, Jad pointed to and mentioned the exact reason why we couldn’t go that way, “Screaming monkeys, giant seaskins, mermaids, man, especially the mermaids.”
There were more, and then Caira noticed that their route was headed straight through one, “What about that one?”
The room full of Jad’s colleagues grew quiet, “That one, I’m afraid, is unavoidable. Plus, well, this map is only based off of statistics so not everything is in the right place, some of these creatures we hope to dodge are territorial, the others, migrate to the seasons. We’ve tried our best to predict their motions, but there is no guaranteeing anything. Well, you know the risks people, but I think we have a great chance, especially with such an amazing team.”
Clowney, genius mind and dedicated researcher, was also a good leader. He’d been professional, kept up the morale of their group and stuck to the facts. Zack’s eyes swept around the room, pleasant smiles, nods of approval, and solemn devotion shone in the eyes of his employees. He’d set a goal, now he’d finish it. One hell of a man conducted all that respect.
They left at dawn.
“So are we following the coordinates?” Caira said excitedly from the freshly repaired submarine, they were all assembled, as well as Jad’s co-researchers, most dressed in official white lab-coats with glasses that squared around the frame of their faces. It made them look sophisticated. All aboard Gary’s new and improved haunted sub!
Well, anyway, they were off, and Caira was wincingly on her feet. They had set off again and the taste of the uncharted was intoxicatingly surreal. Though she couldn’t see where they were sailing, she could hear the little pings on the radar. She knew they were going forward, there were little obstacles on the green scanner showing that they were continuously propelling forward. Going past rocks, coral reefs, and other big fish, monsters that could swim.
The pings seemed to mind their own business, Caira would go to the porthole and not be able to see any of them, she was clouded by midnight blue depths, and pondered just what scale the radar was pinging at and just how close the danger really was.
“So… Are we there yet?” She smiled, lightly as her joke fell on their ears. They’d just left a few hours ago, Gary was navigating, referencing Jad’s research and mapping techniques, they had had a discussion about the Red X that they were assuredly going to pass through, however it was said in murmurs too low to hear.
“Almost,” Gary said.
But Jad scoffed, “Not nearly as close as you think. We’ll mention it when we get closer, we have hmmm, Gary what’s our ETA if everything goes right?”
“We’re at least one hundred and fifty kilometers from our destination, but when you account for the speed of the vessel and the physical obstacles we have to go around, I’d probably give us two days before we are there. Plus, it gives you time to heal up and us time to plan for any number of things that could go wrong,” the captain informed them.
“Gary, don’ you know you’re not supposed to say ‘could go wrong’ on missions like this? It is like a jinx, man,” Jad said cooly. Caira hadn’t heard of this tradition before and Zack was… Wait, where was Zack?
Outside the porthole was gray with blue overtones, Zack assumed it was dark outside and night had fallen, they’d be arriving and it was hard to say if Clowney would have a medical center for her, surely in his large building he’d have a place for her to rest, in his experience, most primes got a little better with time if the injury wasn’t fatal. They’d treated her wound, now, they would just have to see. Transporting her in the dark would be tricky, if worst came to worst, Zack would resort to carrying her honeymoon style, or the lion could help. It couldn’t be healthy for her to lay in this freezing saline water any longer.
Now was a time better than any.
Hesitantly, Zack slipped one hand under her knees, the next, her back. He watched her bone-colored face as he lifted her, searching for any signs of intrinsic pain, but it was apparent that she’d passed out, for she was limp, even to the touch. Her feet dangled and Zack’s knees pressed off the rust-prone ground, her body slipped out of the grease and blood tainted water and her heavy hair swung, a drenched wall slick with sable and silver. The lion, though an imminent threat, had receded to the back of his mind. The colossal, ever-essential forefront: Keeping her alive.
“I sent word to Jad’s port that she’s injured, hopefully he’ll send a medical team or something,” Gary said over the com, “Prepare to dock, I’m coming up there, kid, and we’ll get her up the vertical ladder one way or another.”
Zack rolled his eyes when he’d been demeaned by Gary and called a ‘kid’ but it dawned on him that the smallest thing would hold them back. He couldn’t climb a ladder while still holding her in his arms, there was nearly no way, and he could risk dropping her, she was pretty slippery, and her blood-dripping wounds didn’t help the cause. Shoot. This was going to be tricky, what a ridiculous, small task, to hold her back from medical care and Zack doubted Gary would take kindly to him cutting a hole in the side of the vessel they needed to sail in later, so lucky, were they, that Omnillium repairs damages, and then some.
The Buster Sword had many, many uses, but today, it was used most recently to fillet a giant sea monster, next, it would be used to cut a hole in the side of a steel ship, hopefully as easy as a can opener.
Meanwhile, Zack had barely gotten to a dense stand and the lion had snarled it’s darkened teeth, warning with the ferocity of his eyes that blazed demonically. Yet, it let him pass.
Caira, meanwhile, had fallen into a dark and desolate slumber, vaguely, she could feel the nudges, pulls, and prods to her body, each as though beckoning her awake while her consciousness continued to drift. The sound of dense, screeching metal grinded together and sparks flew behind the darkness of her eyelids. She was veering close to opening her eyes, like a ship nearing a lighthouse before it crashed into the cove.
Her eyes gently blinked open, pupils wavering and becoming tiny to the light beaming down from above, there was someone looming over her, a head over a set of shoulders. A flash of instinct of the descending threat caused her fist to form and slam into the gentleman’s face. Jad cupped his face and winced at the blow, “Come on, is that anyway to treat someone who just helped you with your wounds?”
Caira blinked a few times and her eyes adjusted to the blurs of movement. On top of her, lay freshly clean sheets and clothes she didn’t remember changing into. Surrounding her, beeping monitors and wires in a very sterile looking room with a view of the island’s finest shrubbery. “Oops, sorry! I didn’t mean to hit you but rather, guess I thought you were someone.. Or something else.”
“Oh yeah?” Jad offered a friendly smile through his throbbing cheek, “So, wanna find the star?”
His smile grew and she reciprocated then worry wiped it away like a cloth over a smooth surface, “W-wear’s Zack? And Gary? Are they okay?! I was attacked by a huge.. Creature.”
“Ya mon, Zack ended up killing it with that big sword of his, to my knowledge. They’re both safe, and the thing that did this to you is gone. The Vasty Deeps can get pretty dangerous, even for primes. You’re lucky you survived with the wounds you’ve sustained,” Clowney informed her.
“So.. Zack?” her eyebrows raised with expecation.
Jad nodded, understandably, “He’s likely resting, you had a long journey to get my papers with the coordinates, he was tired too, and worried about whether you’d make it,” his eyes drifted away and then back to hers.
She blinked and nodded, “Alright,” she oriented her thoughts, “Well hey… Are you coming with us?”
“What kind of researcher do you think I am? Of course I’m coming, I want to see it too, you know,” his grin broadened and revealed his extravagantly white teeth. He winked.
Of course, this was his discovery anyway, why wouldn’t he want to see it, and find out what it was capable of?
“Right then, we should set out, shouldn’t we?” Caira sat up abruptly, and started to stand up before feeling the pull of the plugs embedded in her skin and especially the sudden stabbing in her sensitive abdomen.
“Er… You sustained some injuries, like I said, and you’re lucky to be alive, but you’re ready for adventure aren’t you? Well, we can depart tomorrow morning if you’ve healed up by then,” Jad said in a professional tone, examining some of the wounds that were apparent when she stood up.
“Can’t we go any sooner? I can heal on the way,” she suggested.
“They’re my coordinates, I choose when we leave, plus the weather’ll be bad tonight,” Jad smirked, amused as he claimed his victory, “But you will be healing on the boat too so take it easy. As for your… Body, you know your blood is silver, and it is made out of a very peculiar compound, right?”
“I mean, I’m not exactly from here,” she smiled back, meeting his rather apt sass levels.
“Yes, but if you don’t mind, I’d like to do some tests, the compound interests me. Would you mind telling me of your origins?” Jad’s question filled the room like water absorbed by a sponge, heavy and full. “Also, Gary mentioned that your name is Caira?”
The door opened, causing Caira’s held-breath to release, Gary strode in the door, “There you are girlie, glad to see you have a little more color to ya.”
Caira never had ‘much’ color to her silver-toned skin, but she was certainly looking better than before, passed out and half dead on the ground of the sub. “Good to see you too,” she said in her polite way and looked back to Jad, “Er, first name, anyway.”
“So you’ve got this giant lion that disappears when the sun rises, what’s that about?” Gary said with a smile, but there was an underlying seriousness that tainted his smile. Lines and wrinkles that warned of dangerous thoughts, and the threats of danger coming from the little piece of lore they’d encountered.
“So the man of shadows is curious of my shadow lion, right?” Caira sighed, she didn’t like to tell those around her of the cards in her deck. It was dangerous. Trusting someone was dangerous. Just look at her parents, her village…
“You’re pretty much spot-on there missy,” Jad and Gary’s eyes stuck on her, like a fly on honey. She couldn’t squeeze free.
“I acquired the allegiance of the lion in the Endless Dunes,” her eyes swept from Jad’s cool, pensive persona to Gary’s tense, contemplative stance. “They’re rare creatures, and the lion took a liking to me. There was another and they are territorial, spirit creatures or something, there were two and this one protected me and won.” She shrugged and looked at Gary, awaiting further questions. “During the day he seems to stay in the necklace.”
Gary smiled, he’d made a correct assumption a while back, now, he could bask in it. Satisfaction’s essence. To be proved right.
Jad was a man of science, not the mystics of magic, though it was hard to deny in this world, the parallels of them both. “So do you mind my doing some tests?”
“Actually I do, I’m not a creature, though I may well be considered not quite human in this realm, I don’t see the good it would do, but, tell you what, if we find the fallen star, maybe I’ll let you scan me with one of your machines,” she bartered, “Sound good?”
“Hahaha sounds like a plan, you know, your little Pokemon is waiting for you too,” Jad smiled.
“Oh you mean that little dragon I found?” Caira smiled excitedly.
“Yup, that’s the one. Feeling well enough to stand?” Clowney offered her a hand and took a look at her wounds, “I’ll take your IV out and we’ll get you down there. Are you hungry?”
Food. She hadn’t thought about sustenance for a long time, not that her form really needed it. She nodded for their sake and after a few motions was free and out of the door! Just outside was the ex-SOLDIER Zack Fair, asleep with his chin nearly on his shoulder, crumpled in an uncomfortable looking chair. His black hair was messy and saggy, distinctly, Caira saw the devotion of Zack Fair. Friend and teammate in their mission and adversity.
The strength in his character shone through in little moments like this. Caira’s eyes moved to Jad and Gary as if to say, I had assumed you meant in an actual bed. Jad’s shoulders raised as if to say hey, he insisted.
Caira blinked, unsure if she should leave him be, she paused and her gaze fixed on him. As though he sensed her eyes on him. He sucked in a breath and put a hand through his shiny hair and blinked himself awake, “Oh, hey, glad you’re doing okay,” he appraised her and saw that she was standing at a slant, but still, she was in one piece.
Behind his eyelids he saw her, knocking on death’s door with her skin cold as eyes and limp limbs dangling from how he carried her. Now, she was alive and well. Standing. Sure, Primes are promised rebirth, but this wasn’t the same. Omni hadn’t cast his magic, she’d been strong enough after all.
She was alive.
He felt himself surge with happiness, he could hug her… If she wasn’t in a hospital johnny.
…
It was something akin to the last supper. Caira reunited with her pet, the little Charizard and when she pet its head, and the little guy saw that she was doing okay, it purred almost like a cat would. Smiles spread about the room like an epidemic. Gary got his turn, to meet the giant lion on better, more welcoming circumstances, then Gary turned dark and plumes of shadows spread around the air of his shoulders and they went in a private location as though old friends discussing forgotten memories.
The rest ate. A feast fit for kings was laid on the long dining table, ale and wine was passed around, and the members of Jad's team and their guests filled their plate and stuffed their bellies. The moment was complete, but there were moments that would come that no one could have prepared for.
After dinner, Jad had lead all his companions into a room and they had a conference, Clowney stood before a powerpoint, blew up a holographic topographical map and had explained their route to his calculated coordinates.
There were several red X’s on the map, but it wasn’t meant for treasure, each one, Jad pointed to and mentioned the exact reason why we couldn’t go that way, “Screaming monkeys, giant seaskins, mermaids, man, especially the mermaids.”
There were more, and then Caira noticed that their route was headed straight through one, “What about that one?”
The room full of Jad’s colleagues grew quiet, “That one, I’m afraid, is unavoidable. Plus, well, this map is only based off of statistics so not everything is in the right place, some of these creatures we hope to dodge are territorial, the others, migrate to the seasons. We’ve tried our best to predict their motions, but there is no guaranteeing anything. Well, you know the risks people, but I think we have a great chance, especially with such an amazing team.”
Clowney, genius mind and dedicated researcher, was also a good leader. He’d been professional, kept up the morale of their group and stuck to the facts. Zack’s eyes swept around the room, pleasant smiles, nods of approval, and solemn devotion shone in the eyes of his employees. He’d set a goal, now he’d finish it. One hell of a man conducted all that respect.
They left at dawn.
“So are we following the coordinates?” Caira said excitedly from the freshly repaired submarine, they were all assembled, as well as Jad’s co-researchers, most dressed in official white lab-coats with glasses that squared around the frame of their faces. It made them look sophisticated. All aboard Gary’s new and improved haunted sub!
Well, anyway, they were off, and Caira was wincingly on her feet. They had set off again and the taste of the uncharted was intoxicatingly surreal. Though she couldn’t see where they were sailing, she could hear the little pings on the radar. She knew they were going forward, there were little obstacles on the green scanner showing that they were continuously propelling forward. Going past rocks, coral reefs, and other big fish, monsters that could swim.
The pings seemed to mind their own business, Caira would go to the porthole and not be able to see any of them, she was clouded by midnight blue depths, and pondered just what scale the radar was pinging at and just how close the danger really was.
“So… Are we there yet?” She smiled, lightly as her joke fell on their ears. They’d just left a few hours ago, Gary was navigating, referencing Jad’s research and mapping techniques, they had had a discussion about the Red X that they were assuredly going to pass through, however it was said in murmurs too low to hear.
“Almost,” Gary said.
But Jad scoffed, “Not nearly as close as you think. We’ll mention it when we get closer, we have hmmm, Gary what’s our ETA if everything goes right?”
“We’re at least one hundred and fifty kilometers from our destination, but when you account for the speed of the vessel and the physical obstacles we have to go around, I’d probably give us two days before we are there. Plus, it gives you time to heal up and us time to plan for any number of things that could go wrong,” the captain informed them.
“Gary, don’ you know you’re not supposed to say ‘could go wrong’ on missions like this? It is like a jinx, man,” Jad said cooly. Caira hadn’t heard of this tradition before and Zack was… Wait, where was Zack?
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