04-11-2017, 04:12 PM
Soft whines and the sound of jangling sled-ties were all Jade could hear as they emerged from the caverns. The world seemed to be muffled by a blanket of white, errant gusts of wind circling them like a pack of hungry wolves and leaving invisible prints in the snow. She shivered against a chill and tugged her coat tighter against her middle, feeling rudely exposed after spending so long in the draftless passages below the ground.
There was a short grunt and heated scuffling as Selena shoved the remaining dwarvish assassin before her, her head angled downward as she kept his trudging, booted feet in check. She had already assumed the coolly blank demeanor of a prison warden, narrowed eyes shifting about and focusing with the utmost severity on the dwarf whenever he seemed to stray from the path she had laid out for him.
Their captive protested this. Loudly.
“If you’re gonna kill me, get it over with now! There isn’t any point in arresting me, neither; your laws haven’t got any say here!” their prisoner was saying, shaking his head and gnashing his teeth expressively. He jumped whenever Selena’s long knife grazed the shirt over his ribs, a fiery glare scorching out from under his hedgerow eyebrows.
“He’s right, you know!” Jade said. She was crouched with one knee bent in the wet snow, hands hard at work tying up the front of Rebecca’s coat into a shoelace tie, bunny ear-loops and all! Standing, she dusted her hands of imaginary dust and turned to look at the others with what she hoped was a very intelligent look. “You can’t really commit a crime against a government while outside of their territory, so it would only be a revenge killing, which is so not cool…”
By the looks everyone was giving her, Jade guessed that had been exactly what they planned to do! And, hey, it was kinda presumptuous for her to try and intercede on this complete stranger’s behalf anyway, even if he was a dirty, rotten, no-good friend murderer.
Deciding to humor the young Witch, Brandon frowned. “How do you figure that, Miss Harley?”
“Well, it’s pretty easy to explain,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders, and then glanced at the fiery-haired dwarf. Her guiding compass of morals rankled at his every breath, so it was no easy task for her to try and inject any kindness into the look she gave him. “You don’t answer to anyone, do you? You and your buddies were operating on your own terms?”
The dwarf eyed her distrustfully, but nodded. Jade heaved an inward sigh of relief, turning back to the others with a bright smile planted squarely on her face. Fantastic! “There you have it!”
At this, everyone looked at her like she was nuts. The dark-skinned astronomer mumbled something under his breath that she couldn’t quite make out, so Jade leaned forward to hear, one fuzzy white ear cocked in his direction. “Uhmmmm, what was that? I can’t hear you when you’re mumbling things, bucko.”
Brandon exhaled inaudibly, the expression on his face seeming strained. “That doesn’t prove his innocence in any way, shape, or form, Jade. Really, all that told us was that he was being completely monstrous without being told to do it by anyone. What’s your point?”
Twirling a strand of hair around her finger, Jade sighed theatrically and tilted her chin back to stare up at the sky. “I dunno… I guess I just figured there could be other options besides straight up murdering the guy!”
“What do you expect us to do, then? We cannot let him go free. The loss of life here today was caused by a plot he had a hand in,” Selena ground out, hands fisted tightly at her sides. “It would be foolish and disrespectful to the great sacrifice made by our friend!”
Smith nodded in agreement, his eyes sliding toward their captive and glinting like chips of bluish-silver ice. “We should dispose of him now. The Omniverse will be better for it, and there is no sense in weighing down our dogs with a dwarf already doomed to die.”
“I doubt his death will improve much of anything,” Amber grumbled. The faunus had already witnessed enough bloodshed to last a lifetime here— anything more was just a drop in the ocean of awfulness. Still, she hated his guts for having a role in Roland’s death.
But, Jade was not to be dissuaded from the argument.
“I’ll tell you what, I’ll deliver him to Dwarveholm or someplace. They can decide what to do with him, I’m sure this isn’t the only occasion where he’s been implicated in something dastardly like this! Even if it is a pretty lawless verse… Plus, I can keep an eye on him. Bec, too. He won’t cause anyone any trouble ever again.” She beamed proudly, crossing her arms over her chest with an accomplished air.
“No. Absolutely not. You are only a child, you cannot deliver criminals to justice,” Captain Tell said, shaking his head with a decisiveness that made Jade’s stomach sink down to her toes. She puffed out her cheeks in annoyance, stamping one sparkly, red-slippered foot on the frozen ground.
“Excuse me! You’ve seen what I’m capable of throughout this entire adventure. I’m sure I can handle a guy who’s unarmed and shackled. Promise.”
Raising one slender eyebrow, Selena gave her an impressed look. “She does have a point, you know.”
All eyes turned to the captain. They waited with baited breath for what he would say. His face had already been overtaken by an even deeper frown than was customary for him, his slit of a mouth and coarsely wrinkled lips and cheeks giving him the impression of an aged, grouchy and, altogether, generally very displeased dryad. Dried blood still flecked his boots, his leather armor, and the warm furs cast over his shoulders. The man’s grey eyes, which always seemed dark and roiling with the departed shades of his lifetime, at last turned to Jade.
“Very well,” Tell said, and before Jade could start rejoicing (and the dwarf could start plotting his inevitable escape from the clutches of some foolish girl), stared cuttingly at the Witch of Space. “Don’t make me feel as if I’ve made a mistake putting my faith in you, Harley. If you let him escape, it’ll be your funeral.”
“Yessir!” she chirped, snapping off a goofy salute. She had already begun to corral Rebecca with her arms, pulling her along as she went to greet her new (and rather unhappy) traveling companion. Bec trotted along behind, tail raised like a flag and his irradiated-green tongue flapping.
“Before you go, kind witch,“ Brandon began, and Jade blinked owlishly from behind her glasses, spinning ‘round as he tucked something cold and heavy like a rock into her hand. “… some insurance.”
Jade stared wide-eyed at the cloth-wrapped object in her hand, then quickly tried to shove it back into the astronomer’s outstretched hand. “No! It’s yours, you guys worked so hard to find it and it’s the entire reason why you came here, why Roland died, I just can’t—“
“You can and you will, Jade Harley,” he smoothly cut her off, and Jade met his gaze straight on, her worries dispersing at the sincerity warming the brown of his eyes. “You are a friend to us. I trust you to keep this treasured artefact safe until the time comes when it is sorely needed and, when that dreaded day dawns upon us at last, deliver it to the Kingdom.”
He smiled then, a definite twinkle in his eye. “Stay safe, my young friend.”
“Remember,” Tell struck in, pointing at her with the hilt of his sword. “Your funeral.”
Jade’s eyes strayed from where the dogs pulled and tugged against their ties and left scratches in the ice, the sleds loaded up with heaps of gear and the unconscious Piers, Burgess signaling with a whistle that they were ready to depart. The giant’s camp was a blaze of orange with a thick cloud of black smoke pulsing over it, a jungle of animal carcasses and wooden stakes ringing around the bonfire without rhyme or reason. Jade imagined that she could see a tall figure seated next to the fire on a tree trunk the length of three grown men, the strong, pale shoulders and sprawled legs obfuscated by tiger stripes of red and gold fire.
She took a deep breath.
It was time to go.
There was a short grunt and heated scuffling as Selena shoved the remaining dwarvish assassin before her, her head angled downward as she kept his trudging, booted feet in check. She had already assumed the coolly blank demeanor of a prison warden, narrowed eyes shifting about and focusing with the utmost severity on the dwarf whenever he seemed to stray from the path she had laid out for him.
Their captive protested this. Loudly.
“If you’re gonna kill me, get it over with now! There isn’t any point in arresting me, neither; your laws haven’t got any say here!” their prisoner was saying, shaking his head and gnashing his teeth expressively. He jumped whenever Selena’s long knife grazed the shirt over his ribs, a fiery glare scorching out from under his hedgerow eyebrows.
“He’s right, you know!” Jade said. She was crouched with one knee bent in the wet snow, hands hard at work tying up the front of Rebecca’s coat into a shoelace tie, bunny ear-loops and all! Standing, she dusted her hands of imaginary dust and turned to look at the others with what she hoped was a very intelligent look. “You can’t really commit a crime against a government while outside of their territory, so it would only be a revenge killing, which is so not cool…”
By the looks everyone was giving her, Jade guessed that had been exactly what they planned to do! And, hey, it was kinda presumptuous for her to try and intercede on this complete stranger’s behalf anyway, even if he was a dirty, rotten, no-good friend murderer.
Deciding to humor the young Witch, Brandon frowned. “How do you figure that, Miss Harley?”
“Well, it’s pretty easy to explain,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders, and then glanced at the fiery-haired dwarf. Her guiding compass of morals rankled at his every breath, so it was no easy task for her to try and inject any kindness into the look she gave him. “You don’t answer to anyone, do you? You and your buddies were operating on your own terms?”
The dwarf eyed her distrustfully, but nodded. Jade heaved an inward sigh of relief, turning back to the others with a bright smile planted squarely on her face. Fantastic! “There you have it!”
At this, everyone looked at her like she was nuts. The dark-skinned astronomer mumbled something under his breath that she couldn’t quite make out, so Jade leaned forward to hear, one fuzzy white ear cocked in his direction. “Uhmmmm, what was that? I can’t hear you when you’re mumbling things, bucko.”
Brandon exhaled inaudibly, the expression on his face seeming strained. “That doesn’t prove his innocence in any way, shape, or form, Jade. Really, all that told us was that he was being completely monstrous without being told to do it by anyone. What’s your point?”
Twirling a strand of hair around her finger, Jade sighed theatrically and tilted her chin back to stare up at the sky. “I dunno… I guess I just figured there could be other options besides straight up murdering the guy!”
“What do you expect us to do, then? We cannot let him go free. The loss of life here today was caused by a plot he had a hand in,” Selena ground out, hands fisted tightly at her sides. “It would be foolish and disrespectful to the great sacrifice made by our friend!”
Smith nodded in agreement, his eyes sliding toward their captive and glinting like chips of bluish-silver ice. “We should dispose of him now. The Omniverse will be better for it, and there is no sense in weighing down our dogs with a dwarf already doomed to die.”
“I doubt his death will improve much of anything,” Amber grumbled. The faunus had already witnessed enough bloodshed to last a lifetime here— anything more was just a drop in the ocean of awfulness. Still, she hated his guts for having a role in Roland’s death.
But, Jade was not to be dissuaded from the argument.
“I’ll tell you what, I’ll deliver him to Dwarveholm or someplace. They can decide what to do with him, I’m sure this isn’t the only occasion where he’s been implicated in something dastardly like this! Even if it is a pretty lawless verse… Plus, I can keep an eye on him. Bec, too. He won’t cause anyone any trouble ever again.” She beamed proudly, crossing her arms over her chest with an accomplished air.
“No. Absolutely not. You are only a child, you cannot deliver criminals to justice,” Captain Tell said, shaking his head with a decisiveness that made Jade’s stomach sink down to her toes. She puffed out her cheeks in annoyance, stamping one sparkly, red-slippered foot on the frozen ground.
“Excuse me! You’ve seen what I’m capable of throughout this entire adventure. I’m sure I can handle a guy who’s unarmed and shackled. Promise.”
Raising one slender eyebrow, Selena gave her an impressed look. “She does have a point, you know.”
All eyes turned to the captain. They waited with baited breath for what he would say. His face had already been overtaken by an even deeper frown than was customary for him, his slit of a mouth and coarsely wrinkled lips and cheeks giving him the impression of an aged, grouchy and, altogether, generally very displeased dryad. Dried blood still flecked his boots, his leather armor, and the warm furs cast over his shoulders. The man’s grey eyes, which always seemed dark and roiling with the departed shades of his lifetime, at last turned to Jade.
“Very well,” Tell said, and before Jade could start rejoicing (and the dwarf could start plotting his inevitable escape from the clutches of some foolish girl), stared cuttingly at the Witch of Space. “Don’t make me feel as if I’ve made a mistake putting my faith in you, Harley. If you let him escape, it’ll be your funeral.”
“Yessir!” she chirped, snapping off a goofy salute. She had already begun to corral Rebecca with her arms, pulling her along as she went to greet her new (and rather unhappy) traveling companion. Bec trotted along behind, tail raised like a flag and his irradiated-green tongue flapping.
“Before you go, kind witch,“ Brandon began, and Jade blinked owlishly from behind her glasses, spinning ‘round as he tucked something cold and heavy like a rock into her hand. “… some insurance.”
Jade stared wide-eyed at the cloth-wrapped object in her hand, then quickly tried to shove it back into the astronomer’s outstretched hand. “No! It’s yours, you guys worked so hard to find it and it’s the entire reason why you came here, why Roland died, I just can’t—“
“You can and you will, Jade Harley,” he smoothly cut her off, and Jade met his gaze straight on, her worries dispersing at the sincerity warming the brown of his eyes. “You are a friend to us. I trust you to keep this treasured artefact safe until the time comes when it is sorely needed and, when that dreaded day dawns upon us at last, deliver it to the Kingdom.”
He smiled then, a definite twinkle in his eye. “Stay safe, my young friend.”
“Remember,” Tell struck in, pointing at her with the hilt of his sword. “Your funeral.”
Jade’s eyes strayed from where the dogs pulled and tugged against their ties and left scratches in the ice, the sleds loaded up with heaps of gear and the unconscious Piers, Burgess signaling with a whistle that they were ready to depart. The giant’s camp was a blaze of orange with a thick cloud of black smoke pulsing over it, a jungle of animal carcasses and wooden stakes ringing around the bonfire without rhyme or reason. Jade imagined that she could see a tall figure seated next to the fire on a tree trunk the length of three grown men, the strong, pale shoulders and sprawled legs obfuscated by tiger stripes of red and gold fire.
She took a deep breath.
It was time to go.
Quote:39,864/27,000
Jade now has the Green Star Piece artefact.
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Gamzee Makara Wrote:S’aight. After all, dogs have a tendency to motherfuckin’ bite.