Avast Me Hearties

[Caira Ayryn]

“Do you think… It’s here?” Caira said in a soft voice as they crept through the forest.

 
It was Zack and Caira in the lead, because their deaths weren’t final, and then following them were several of the suits, Zack had begged them to take off their revealing and eye-catching white lab coats but they were reluctant, this fact alone could very well ruin their whole operation. It was hard to predict the cost that would become of it. Zack’s mind kept going back to their worst nightmares, those suits becoming drenched in crimson. Caira’s black attire becoming silver, as it had.
 
“It’s hard to say, we’ve been looking for so long, it would be kind of a relief though, wouldn’t it?” Zack responded with another question.
 
“Maybe it being here on this island would be too much to hope for.” She agreed dismally. It was good that Jad and Gary had stayed back to man the ship. Caira had added some extra security precautions too, in case their ship got infiltrated while the primes were away, but Gary and Jad had some tricks up their sleeves too, they hadn’t survived this long with bounties out for them by being just any old secondary.
 
“Why is your blood silver?” he asked, still, their voices were a murmur as this was a stealth mission, they slipped through the tropical woods of the night. There was little moon to light their way, not that Caira needed it, Zack was less clumsy, however he did often enough stumble on an invisible root, which made Caira giggle.
 
“The same reason I haven’t told you my first name, Zack Fair. I’m not proud of my past. It’s as simple as that.” Caira said, ripping off the bandage and feeling the sting with a wince as he paused his step with pensive judgement, his eyes falling on the back of her head and then back on the bandage over her injury. The Camelot knight felt bad, sure, but Zack deserved to know. She’d nearly died. He might be next, at the thought of that, part of her she had been repressing squirmed. He didn’t deserve death, not when he’d somehow been dragged into this.
 
Zack remained silent. There wasn’t much to say to that. He’d thought he’d had some idea of who she was, but now she’d admitting even the name she used wasn’t entirely hers. His pace did catch up to her, but now, they were walking silent. If she wanted to, she’d explain, if not, Zack would remain quiet. It might be imposing too much to ask her to offer her story, especially when she seemed to feel shame from it.
 
“I’ve been exiled, forgotten,” she began, “And I’ve been responsible for not doing anything when everything was on the line. Civilizations. I wanted to escape, rather than stand up to the evil. Now I’m here, and helpless to right my wrong, so I’m on one hell of a redemption kick. Maybe you can tell,” she admitted, sighing, she didn’t usually swear but it felt like a relief, and something Zack would be somewhat receptive to.
 
The ex-Soldier nodded. “So you bleed silver because of these?” he laughed, she’d gotten quite serious considering his question was just based on the tone of her blood.
 
“O-oh,” she exhaled, “Well, I’m not human?”
 
“That’s not that weird considering where we both are, and the little creature following behind us, and -assumably he- can breathe fire!” Zack exclaimed, still quiet, but this comment alone brought Caira out of her darkness, she laughed again as though brought to new life. Zack may not have been a mage, but his sense of humor was remarkably magic.
 
Caira stopped mid-step and froze, she used her strength to tear Zack down into the ground where they both crouched, the charizard following behind them bumped into both their backs. “Do you see something?” he whispered.
 
“Shh!” she hissed, fear was shaking her hand, which hadn’t released from Zack’s arm.
 
The male prime got real quiet, real quick, looking forward and trying to see what her eyes were. But when he came up blank, for the darkness was tangible and much too thick for him to see past a few feet in front of them, he looked to Caira, trying to read her expression, and saw that she was looking not forward but up.
 
Zack’s hand steadily crept to the hilt of his giant blade, however Caira’s eyes were wobbling as though lavender flowers tossed about by the wind, something was very very wrong. There was a sense of fear she hadn’t even exuded when she’d been dueling with death. So what could have gotten her so frightened.
 
No, they can’t be here too, she thought helplessly. The scientists weren’t far behind them, and they likely hadn’t realized Caira had signaled a stop. Finally, Caira’s fearful gaze fell on Zack. Their eyes locked, there was almost an inaudible goodbye in her face.
 
Caira’s lips grew close to the side of Zack’s face, he assumed initially that she was going to whisper in his ear, but when no sound came from her lips, he hesitated, his mind had to rationalize she’d been aiming to kiss his cheek. But that hadn’t been the case. Her voice had caught in her throat and the fear was keeping the words from coming out. Another moment passed before she could get the words out.
 
“You need to go to the group of scientists and get them to turn back. There is… A very fatal enemy in the trees,” Zack looked up, he saw what appeared to be a twinkling bunch of fireflies, but he worried about doubting her.
 
“They look like fireflies,” he said, feeling the need to tell her that she was likely safe, and likely mistaken.
 
“No… Not these.” she said vaguely. “I’ve defeated them before, however there was a cost. Please, turn back, get the secondaries out of here.”
 
But just what kind of creature could be this fatal to a prime? Plus, they looked kind of pretty twinkling up there like fake stars. Zack was sure Caira was wrong, but there was enough trust for him to agree, no secondaries would lose their lives if there was even a fraction of a risk. Zack obliged, unsure he should leave her here, unsure if after her truth coming out, that this would be the redemption story she was willing to die for.
 
The sable haired male rose to his feet and extremely quietly crept through the woods. He was almost out of sight and range when a twig snapped. Caira’s eyes widened with fear, and the creatures above were alerted to the fresh life. Now, they would suck the marrow out of their bones.
 
“RUN!” she shouted hoping that her voice would reach both Zack and the scientists who were following behind them. The little orange dragon had stuck by her side, she hadn’t realized it, but it was too late to thrust it back in Zack’s hands.
 
“Think you can do me a little favor?” she asked the little guy. The black eyes glowed with the growing intermingling of light, this island had become their worst nightmare, because the same creatures she’d encountered in the Endless Dunes had come back to haunt her. If they made contact, they would suck away all the happiness from your memories, and you’d be left with an emotionless nostalgia, not to mention you might be driven insane by this, and most people died. Primes came back, but never the same.
 
It was a psychological attack that was hard to miss. Caira released a charge of magic and commanded the Charizard to create fire, whatever he could do, it would be better than nothing. Though it was half her size, it had some raw power. It released a flamethrower into the trees which was kept alive by the tornado of her magic, it was a flame vortex that smoldered into the trees above and spread still, due to the easily flammable tropical leaves.
 
“Alright, time for us to run too!” she said as she stood up and snatched the little charizard into her arms and ran off in Zack’s direction. “O-oof!” she said as her face collided into a black wall of dense fabric. Caira lost her footing and tumbled into a fall. Zack followed, consequently.
 
“What are you doing! You were supposed to make sure they got out safe!” Caira said, leaving out the words You were supposed to get out safe, too. Zack looked at her guiltily but he’d been caught. Quickly the two primes scrambled to their feet and Zack took hold of the little dragon, going for more of a piggyback maneuver while he held his prized sword in his hands, ready to slice down the ‘fireflies’ to the death.
 
Together, they started running, “Tree in front of you Zack!” Caira shouted through a pant, he couldn’t see that well in the dark, but Caira was there for him, leading the way, mostly. “Stump!” Zack jumped through the dark, trusting her on faith alone. “Long vine dangling!” he sliced his sword through it and it fell limply to the ground.
 
They ran for their lives, Zack still wasn’t sure he was running from, but he wasn’t looking back. Caira got the chance to glance back when she keeled over and nearly collapsed from the pain in her abdomen, and the starvation of air from her lungs. She whimpered as her hand clutched her left side and felt the fresh squish of gooey blood the exertion had resplit her wound. The flinch shown in her face, but was disguised with the dark. “Oh, Zack you’re going to knee me in the face!” she warned and he barely stopped in time.
 
“They aren’t following us anymore, or do you need a break?” he said, he wasn’t panting quite as much, though the charizard had hopped off his back and started to fly through the trees, apparently not trusting the clumsiness of the male prime enough to still use him as a wagon or donkey.
 
“Uh… Both,” she struggled out and her hand clutched the soil, squeezing it into crumbs so she wouldn’t have to weep from the tear-forming pain. Her eyes squeezed tight and she gulped down the worry that she was splitting apart from the broken stitches.
 
“What were those things? They kept a good pace with us, I guess they weren’t regular fireflies afterall,” Zack spoke, still quietly, though their loud jog through the forest had likely alerted the other creatures of the forest to their presence.
 
“Where are the others?” Caira managed and pulled on the chaffing back of a tree to help her get to a stand.
 
“Shoot, I think we lost them when we ran.” Zack admitted.
 
“I hope… They… Made it.” Caira said, replaying the horrors through her head. “Those creatures basically suck the life out of you, whether you’re a prime or not, they have the ability to drive any man mad, steal memories, steal joy. They’re like a curse. When you die as a prime and come back, you don’t come back the same. I encountered them in the Endless Dunes and the only reason I made it out was because someone had a change of heart, and he’d already fallen victim to them before. God, that idiot…”
 
“Wow that sounds… Really bad. We don’t know that these were the same things though?” Zack said clutching to the ounce of hope that the whitecoats hadn’t fallen into their clutches. “We’re in a different verse after all.”
 
“Good point, hopefully you’re right,” Caira said with a curt nod.
 
Zack stepped closer to her, popping her personal space bubble. “Excuse me?” Caira took a step back, though she found her back against a huge slab of bark.
 
“Your stitches ripped, didn’t they?” Zack thought she might try and lie, so he placed his hand where the wound was. Feeling the gross squish! confirmed his doubts.
 
“You’re kind of in my space,” Caira warned him and side-stepped him. But he had acquired his information.
 
“We should get you back to the ship,” Zack pledged.
 
“We could be right on top of what we’ve worked so hard for,” Caira riposted.
 
Zack, recalling her reveal of her purpose here, based on the powerful motivator of redemption; he doubted he could could convince her to go back to the boat, not like this, not  when she was reliving the past. “You are wounded.” he stated sternly.
 
“You don’t know which direction the boat is in,” she said with a conclusive smile. His eyes bulged. She was right.
 
“Ayryn, don’t play this game, not with your life on the line,” maybe a part of him was reliving his past, too. It felt strange saying her half name now knowing it was a lie but he had to try. It was a request, but there was no way he could command her to do anything. She was one of the most stubborn women he’d ever met.
 
Caira’s eyes narrowed. She as no longer a weak coward. “We will go see if we can find the scientists.”
 
She then walked past him, unable to escape her demons, so she inevitably created them so she could face them. The stagnant air of the night drew on…
 
…
 
“Zack, I think I see one! Good thing they wore those coats after all!” It had been a half hour of walking aimlessly, it had lightened the mood, on some regards. She pointed to the white smudge of color in the thick branches of the forest.
 
“That’s… A unicorn… I think.” Zack said as his eyes squinted, trying to regard the shape.
 
“Is that… Like a pegasus?” Caira said curiously.
 
“Er… Actually, yes,” he admitted with a smile.
 
“What’s it… Doing?” Caira asked Zack, they could both hear some strange lapping, gurgling noises.
 
“Oh my gods…” he said, “You do not want to know.”
 
“Huh? Of course I do… What do you…” Caira trailed off, narrowing her eyes only to find that below it was a pool of glistening dark fluid, and a lump of crimson stained fabric. Patches of white showed through. The spear on the unicorn’s horn was trickling with blackish blood and it was licking and tearing at the flesh below its hooves.
 
“Ew is it.. Eating him?” the girl squeaked out.
 
Zack nodded and put his hand on her back, “Let’s go, the others will be nearby, he’s likely very dead. I don’t see his body moving.”
 
Caira struggled with the idea of leaving behind the man’s corpse, but to waste time on the dead would mean to sacrifice those who were still living.
 
“Let’s go, luckily the scientists came here armed,” Zack agreed.
 
“Armed? They only had those little… Pipsqueak things.” Caira said, she recognized them from her venture to the dunes but they were a foreign weapon to her.
 
“I think they’re canons or carbines, I can’t be sure, but it is likely they pack a punch to their enemies,” Zack spoke.
 
“I think I hear something over here, let’s go check it out…”