Return of the Emblem Chapter Five: The Retrieval

[Phoenix]

Raquel

"The people Weyland hired to ferry us across the channel." Raquel answered with a sigh. "I was hoping they would get here before us but I guess they got held up or something."

[Zsword]

Hypnotized...

Shadrak continued to walk slowly towards the river.the only motion being his step.

Paranoid.

Zel stopped by Veronika still scanning. "I don't think so, he's seem to... anti-fun for swimming..." he said, his voice still very rigid. "I wonder if he has something planned... it seems so... calculated..."

[Snowy_One]

"Indeed that seems odd." said Robin in acknowledgment. "I do not mean to project, but if I said I would have a ferry here, I would. Why are we going to Kigan anyways? Not that I mind, anything to get out of Ursium, but why?"

[Acacia Sgt]

As John approached the water's edge, he noticed Shadrak was also making his way there, but kept heading towards Gil still. The wyvern had already reached the edge and was already drinking. 'Let's see,' He thought on the way. 'I don't know how much time there would be left to make a proper search, though I'd guess that they wouldn't be traveling in complete darkness for when it's night. Assuming that by then they still haven't come close it may actually be easier to find them since they'd have some light with them. Though, by then I wouldn't be so sure about the mercenaries.' He shook his head. 'We better still be on time.'

[Phoenix]

Camp

"We're on a mission for Weyland. Specifically, we're trying to find out what happened to a group of mercs he hired to capture and bring back a female fallen. We don't know what happened to them but if they're alive we need to help them out. If not then, we're going back, as soon as humanly possible." Raquel replied to Robin.

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika shrugged. "If he starts drowning, someone will get him I guess," she said to Zel, before her mind wandered away from Shadrak and to the mission at hand. She didn't really know what to expect on the other side of the channel-would they come across a battle or just corpses?

[GoD]

During the entire voyage to Kigen, Chelsea remained silent, not speaking to anyone. If anyone did approach her, she would either respond with nodding, or just plain ignore the person who addressed the troubador.

During one of their rest stops, she noticed Ucollas acting funny, seeing him going into a lake. After debating whether she should sit and watch, or go see what the hell was wrong with the shaman, she choose the later and began walking behind the shaman, trying to catch up. As she did, she whistled, hoping that this action would get Ucollas' attention.

[Snowy_One]

"A fallen?" a look of outright surprise came across Robin's face. Though not terribly religious herself, she knew a bit about the fallen. Doubtless mixed with local myth and legend, even she knew that, but she knew that such beings were not to be messed with.

"Raquel, are you sure of this? It sounds as if they have given you a suicide mission. The fallen are not beings to be messed with. I would not be surprised to find out that her guard lowered their guard for no less than a second then she killed them all."

[Phoenix]

Restraint

"I suspected that too until I learned more about what had happened before they stopped reporting in. Apparently the fallen they captured is really young and had a lot of other fallen guarding her." she explained. "They told Weyland that they managed to kill the ones guarding her and then restrained her with a magic seal. I'm more worried that maybe some others tracked them down before they made it to the border."

Scouting

As she headed east, things began to get darker and darker, and visibility was about to go right out the window. She began to consider heading back since if she couldn't see the ship anywhere in the area, they probably wouldn't get there until morning. That's when she finally spotted it however, a very tall object out on the river. It was time for a closer look, and she steered Ringo over toward the ship.

Westward Bound

The ship Gabbie had spotted in the distance was a large galleon with maroon colored sails. There were plenty of crewmen on deck, including the Captain and his first mate. The two of them were having a little discussion by the wheel while the first mate steered the ship.

"You ... think we're getting any closer, Captain?" the man driving said, sounding both tired and discouraged.

"We're close." the Captain replied.

"Urgh, why did our navigator have to abandon us? That scumbag."

"Just drop it."

Then, from directly above them, a woman descended. As she landed, her crimson wings blasted the deck with a gust of wind and got their attention. "Captain, there's a wyvern rider out there."

"Oh gods, did we get turned around and head back into Neviskotia?" said the man driving.

"Doesn't the group we're picking up have wyvern riders in it? Fira, go see who she is." the Captain ordered.

"Okay." she replied before taking off.

She flew a good distance out to meet Gabbie. Much to the lancer's surprise, she was dealing with a winged humanoid. Try as she did, she couldn't find a tail on the woman, but that didn't put her suspicions to rest. Fira had some cloth wrapped around her waist, so a tail wasn't impossible to disguise. She kept her lance at the ready.

"Excuse me, are you traveling with a mercenary named Raquel Valcyn by any chance?"

"... uh ... wait, first thing's first. Are you a dark avian or a fallen?" Gabbie asked back.

"I ... can't really answer that, I'm sorry. But I don't mean you any harm. I'm a crewman of the Al-Lyrae. It's the same ship that's been sent to get you over to Kigen."

"Can't answer? Whatever. I've heard enough. Well, the party's about five moiles west of here, so do ya moind hurryin' up?"

"We can do that. Just go and tell them that we're on our way. We'll be there in about twenty minutes." she said before turning to fly back down to the ship.

"Twenty minutes?! How fast is that ship?!"

Al-Lyrae

When Fira returned she landed in the same spot as before. "So, was she one of them?" the captain asked.

"She was. They aren't far from here. I told her we would be there in twenty minutes."

"We're only twenty minutes out?"

"No but we could be." she hinted.

"Heh. Right, hop to it." he replied with a smile.

"Here ya go, goddess." said the first mate as he chucked a glowing object right over his shoulder into her hands. Once she caught it, she nodded and took off again, to the back of the ship.

"ALL HANDS, BRACE FOR THE FIRE BOOST!!!" the captain called out over the deck.

Fira for the most part, simply kept to a specific altitude while following along. She remained there while she gathered energy. It took her a couple of minutes concentrating before she was ready, but when she was, she unleashed a massive burst of fire. The explosive attack was wider than the ship it was aimed at, and about three quarters as tall. As it struck the ship, the entire thing was forced forward as if it had been struck by a massive wave. The ship's speed more than doubled as Fira sustained the blast. Once the ship had been given enough of a boost, she stopped and then began flying after the ship.

She landed on board again and handed the item she had received earlier back to him. She was panting now and leaned up against the captain, who placed his hand on her shoulder and chuckled. "Tired already? Hahahah!"

"Pushing the ship would be easier if I didn't have to worry about tearing the sails every time I did it."

"I'm just glad this even works. Military grade runes wouldn't have protect the ship from a fire attack like that, so if we had been using some of those we'd be blown to steaming bits. Hey, Captain, great idea. Let's sell some of these to the military. We'll make a killing."

"Which military? You know I like to steer clear of that Ursian and Neviskotian war crap. Besides, either side would want thousands and I'm not going to press Fira into that kind of work."

"Yeah, you're right." he conceded with a sigh.

The Lancer Returns

Gabbie landed near the shore not far from where Shadrak and Chelsea were approaching the water. She hopped down from Ringo and started heading up toward the camp. "What's with him?" she asked no one in particular when she noticed Shadrak. "Anyway, I found the boat. They said they'd be here in about twenty minutes. So that means we got about fifteen left to wait. I'd suggest grabbin' your stuff regardless."

As she said this, the waters at the shore began to recede a noticeable amount, where before they had been relatively calm. Gabbie looked back at the sound just in time to see this and then they waters returned and a small wave passed, followed by a gust of warm wind. "What the hell was that ...?"

[Zsword]

Zel

Zel sighed with relief at Wolfy's news. "That's good to hear! The less we stay in one place in 'their' territory the better." He said, genuinely sounding relieved, his stance loosening and his scanning becoming much more fluid.

Shadrak

Shadrak stopped and let Chelsea catch up. Still looking out toward the river that they weren't far from. "You know where we are, right.?" He asked plainly.

[-Cynthia-]

Connor

"The wagon's staying on this side of the channel right? I've almost made a breakthrough

Nadya

Nadya gave Luca a quick check over. "Be ready to run all right? I'm sure this mission is worth a lot of gold, but it's not worth dying over. You remember what to do when the mulos arrive..." she said rather worriedly, patting his head.

Callisto

After receiving the notice from Noelle, Callisto felt a swelling of pride. She, of all people, was chosen to carry out this mission to serve Wrath himself. Glorious!

She dismissed her calvary unit for the evening and headed towards the city of Ursentius. The trooper's first instinct was to go talk with Alastor, but since he was probably being detained she decided to head towards the garrison for information instead. Leaving her trusty steed Justice in the hands of the hostlers for the time being she greeted the first soldier she saw.

"Well met good sir! 'Tis a fine day to be doing the work of the righteous, is it not? I wish to speak to the commander here, Captain Callisto has business with them," she said, giving him a bright smile.

[Acacia Sgt]

Gil had finished drinking, and had now turned around to head back when he noticed John had followed him to the shore anyway.

''Finished?'' John asked when he reached the edge as well. ''Well now, we have to get going, we're going to attempt to find the boat and...'' He stopped once he noticed Gabbie had returned, and was walking back to the wagon. 'Has she found them already...?' He wondered, but was interrupted again by the movement in both wind and water. 'Huh? What was that? The ship...?' John thought, then went to climb on Gil. ''Come on Gil.'' He ordered as the wyvern began to rise.

[Mercakete]

Throughout the traverse to Ursium's edge, Ranyin had proven to be significantly helpful, sharing his food with Bert when the group wasn't sharing meals from the same stewpot. And so Norbert had been able to keep up on his training, practicing his flying and arial combat with his two available axes: his iron axe and his poleaxe. He tried his hand at hunting, too, but as usual, when he did manage to catch something, it was a bloody pulp of smashed organs and bones or chopped up incorrectly so that the wrong fluids flowed into the wrong flesh and thusly not exactly ediable.

Gytha had remained quiet, but was getting over her longing for the sea. ... Until she heard the delightful news that they'd be aboard a ship. Then she wouldn't shut up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Fifteen minutes?! HAHAHARRR!! Praise Leviathan! We'll be aboard a ship again in fifteen minutes, Maw!" Gytha cheered, picking up the cat in a surprise attack and dancing around in jubilation. Maw wasn't nearly as thrilled and began sputtering hisses and loud yowls in protest, even clawing and biting at Gytha's arms and hands, not that the mariner minded or even noticed.

Norbert wasn't nearly as excited as Gytha. In fact, he was a bit nervous. I've never been outside of Ursium... His eyes wandered northward, thinking about his old stomping grounds and the mountains he grew up in. "... This will be different," he half-muttered, half-sighed to himself.

Edit: "Clawing" is spelled with a "c."

Edited July 8, 2011 by Mercakete

[Phoenix]

Amon

Well Gytha's behavior was ... surprisingly ... surprising, if he could word it that way. He should have seen that burst of joy coming, and yet he didn't. It might have been because Gytha had only just started reacting to it. The party in general should have known they would be taking a ship since they started the mission, but he supposed she was one of the ones that wasn't paying much attention. Well, everyone knew now, that was for sure ....

Raquel

When Connor asked about the wagon, Raquel wasn't sure herself just yet. It would take less time to leave the wagon on this side of the channel, but who would stay behind to guard it? She was almost missing Wolfgang's people right about now. If the ship had enough room and a ramp, she would gladly consider loading it up onto the ship temporarily. Then guarding it would be less of an issue ... somewhat. She would need to meet the captain first to determine if it was possible, and even if it was, she needed to make sure the crew was trustworthy enough to not try and take anything. She sighed, being a merchant was making her paranoid as all hell.

"I don't know yet, Connor. I'll make a decision after I talk with the captain." she replied.

Luca

Mulos? Uh oh, the young stallion thought to himself. Why were they going anywhere near those? Did they have something really really REALLY important to claim for themselves? He supposed it wouldn't be too bad though. They weren't in a particularly fast herd. Luca knew that all he had to do to keep himself and Nadya alive was not to be the fastest runner. All he had to do was outpace the slowest runners, and since most of them were on foot, that would be easy. He didn't really feel sorry for the slow people either since they probably should have gotten horses ... and that one human shouldn't have lost his to begin with.

Soldier

As always, things were rather boring around here. The soldier stood idly by while his life slipped away. Then a woman came up to him and that alone would have brightened his day if he didn't immediately realize that she wasn't there to talk to keep him company.

"Not sure my job's all that glorious." the soldier muttered before going on to realize who the woman was asking for. "The Major General you mean? It's kind of hard to tell where she is sometimes." Could be one of five places. Sometimes the command center, other times the armory or the shooting range. She might also be in the barracks giving those weird heart to heart talks with the grunts. Or ... maybe one of the watch towers? Hmm, no that would be at night. I'd say the shooting range but I haven't heard any gunfire in awhile and she doesn't use bows. "Hmm, try the command center, or the barracks. She'll be in one of them, I'm sure." he came back out of his thoughts with a reply.

Edited July 8, 2011 by Phoenix

[Ether]

Xavier wasn't quite sure what to do in this situation. He supposed all he could do at the moment was wait for the ship carrying them across to arrive.

The gust of warm wind caught his attention. "I wonder what that was?" he pondered aloud.

[GoD]

"............That place huh? I pray to Mercy that we won't have to go there...."- Chelsea whispered and cast her eyes upon the river, so as to have something to focus on.

"So, what in the world were you doing, walking out to the water? Gonna take a swim?"- the troubadour asked, her face completely neutral.

[-Cynthia-]

Callisto

"Thank you good sir! May your watch be ever vigilant!" she said to him, before walking off to the command center. Almost immediately upon her arrival, she encountered the Major General talking with some unfamiliar figures.

"Major General Patricia Belo! I am Captain Callisto Aulus, you have doubtless heard of my calvary unit clearing the nearby lands of riffraff, yes? Who are these people you are speaking with?" she asked, walking up briskly.

Veronika

Veronika watched Gytha's...exuberance at finding out they were going to be on a ship. The mariner's enthusiasm made her chuckle a bit, relieving some of her tension. Not sure if anyone has the heart to tell her we'll only be on the boat for as long as it takes us to cross the channel. Maybe that's all she needs?

[Zsword]

Shadrak

Shadrak smiled at Chelsea. "I actually want to go there." He said, before adverting his gaze back out to the river, and past to the shore beyond. "I left something very important there. Something I need to get back."

Zel

Zel took Sliep on another patrol around their stop sight. Though his fears where lightened he was still concerned. "I hope we don't stop for to long, I know what we're close to. They may be on the other side of the country, but they are still close..." he said aloud to no one in particular...

[Phoenix]

Gabbie

"Ya ... don't usually feel a heat wave loike that unless somethin' really big blew the hell up." Gabbie said back to Xavier. "The hell, did they just kill themselves?"

At The Shore

After only another five minutes, the ship appeared off in the distance. It was getting closer rather fast. Fortunately, without the excessive force, it was beginning to slow down to normal speeds long before it reached them.

On the ship, the first mate looked out at the shore and the party gathered there and started sulking. "So we're picking up a merchant girl and her mercenaries buds?"

"Raquel Valcyn to be specific." Fira commented.

"Raquel? What?!"

"You know her?" The captain asked looking over at his first mate with crossed arms.

"Uh yeah, the girl's my suspiciously well endowed cousin. Aunt Caterena's eldest daughter. I'm not kidding about the well endowed thing, either. Her rack is about twice as big as yours, Fira. It's like the gods are picking on me."

"I didn't know you had a thing for large breasts, Rico."

"Oh, I didn't mean to say yours are small, I was just ... ... yours are perfect ... they're blessed by Mother Mercy and perfect. Absolutely perfect, Fira. Plain and simple. Raquel just stole something from her mother is all."

"I look forward to meeting this cousin of yours, then, Rico." the captain said, resisting a chuckle.

"I'm not." he said hanging his head. "If we're picking her up then Jethro gets to bitch at me for a few hours. Not good."

I didn't hear anything about a Jethro, actually. The captain thought to himself. "Is Jethro her father?"

"Yyyyep. Ex-military. Also known as a hardass. Sure he doesn't yell down your throat but I'd prefer that to his stupidly disguised lectures. Guy talks for hours if you let'em. I really hope he's asleep right now or something. Captain, can I have a bag to put over my head or something?"

"He'll probably recognize you by your silly evasion tactics anyway. Just deal with it. Family's all you've got." The captain scolded lightly.

"Urgh. All I need is the Al-Lyrae and our fiery goddess here." he said pointing at Fira with his thumb. "So, do you think we can pick them up without running aground?"

"That's up to you, Rico. You're at the wheel. Just know that any repairs we need are coming out of your cut."

"Wrathdammit."

Within a few minutes, the ship with red sails came up frighteningly close to the shore. A dozen crewmen were looking over the edge of the deck out at the party members and a few were even waving.

"Whoa ... red sails. That looks pretty." Raquel commented to herself.

Command Center

Turning to the voice at the entrance, Patricia gave an almost confused look before things clicked. Arguing with Bron wasn't good for her, clearly. "These people? Oh just some stray dogs I picked up in the city recently. Had to let one of them go because she wasn't worth training."

"Are you calling me a ... dog? Hey, I take offense to that, Miss Belo! I am not a dog that you're training!" Olga snapped.

"Sit down, and shut up."

"Yesma'am!" she quickly chirped out before taking a seat.

"Neviskotian border hoppers. Don't mind them. So you're Captain Aulus? Well met. What brings you here, exactly?"

Edited July 8, 2011 by Phoenix

[Acacia Sgt]

Up in the air, John could not find anything out of the ordinary, but it was soon that he finally spotted the boat in the distance. 'It sure is moving fast.' John noted. He remained airborne until the ship had finally reached them. 'Good thing we moved away in advance, though I doubt we would've been in danger anyway.' He thought. Now that the ship was here there was no reason to stay in the air any longer. ''Come on Gil, let's go back.'' He said and the wyvern comply beginning to descend back to the ground.

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

Veronika got off the wagon and looked over the boat. Reminds me of the blockade runner I used to get to Sergio, though a bit more...flashy. Not an official naval vessel, that's for sure. she thought to herself, walking towards the vessel.

Captain Callisto at the Command Center

"I can hardly blame Neviskotians for crossing borders, who wouldn't want to live in our blessed country? Other than heathens and monstrosities of course, such things do not last long against the light of righteousness," Callisto said as if this were extremely obvious. "Anyway, I wished to congratulate you on your defeat of those sub-human abominations in that "research facility." Alas, if only I could have aided you in vanquishing them, but I am sure you had other help, did you not?" she asked the Major General inquisitively.

[Mercakete]

"Ahoy!" Gytha called exuberantly from shore, still holding onto her squirming cat, "Who be th' captain o' this most welcome ship? If yer here t' transport Raquel and'er crew, send us a ramp so we can speak easier!" She certainly was in a jolly mood.

Bert's attention was grabbed by the ship with the red sails against the dark, fiery sky. It certainly was a sight to behold. Maybe I should travel a bit more. With that thought, his eyes began wandering, searching for Ranyin and Valter, figuring it'd be good to know where they were. Ranyin's so little he might get stepped on... Maybe I should let him ride Riz...

[Phoenix]

Shore

They dropped both anchors and the ship came to a full stop shortly thereafter. The crewmen then got the ramp ready while Fira flew down to meet the group. Given all the fallen talk, Amon couldn't help but try to find a tail on the woman. He didn't spot any, but like Gabbie, that thing tied around her waist, probably an old robe from the looks of things, could easily conceal one.

"Are you Raquel?" she asked the pink haired merchant.

"Uh, yes, I am. Are you one of the crew? Did they just ... design the whole ship after you or something?"

"Y-yes, actually. They even rechristened her once. Al-Lyrae isn't her original name."

I don't like this ... a bunch of sailors and a dark avian girl with the ship named differently for her and themed after her? What could possibly go wrong there? She's probably the one really in charge and just stringing everyone else along. I should still probably talk with the captain though ... not that I'm sure he's the real captain anymore. Raquel mused. "Um, when the ramp is ready, can I speak to your captain?"

"You're not boarding the ship until you do. We need to be entirely certain who we're dealing with before we take on passengers." Fira came back politely but with a hint of authority.

Taken slightly by surprise she replied "Uh-right, of course." She's not as humble as she sounds. My theory's probably spot on. Ugh.

Before too long the ramp was down and the captain, along with a handful of crewmen came ashore to meet the party. Rico was among them ...

"Raquel ..." he muttered getting her attention.

She was silent and giving a disturbed expression at first. Why? Why was he here? She had thought he was making better use of his time. Was he one of the avian brainwashed crew members?

Command Center

"It was rough, but thanks to some volunteers, and that ... one guy, we managed. And I even got through it without Remus stealing the entire show from me. Not that some extra help wouldn't have been welcome. I'm honestly a little uncomfortable about two of our most aggressive generals being away from the front lines at a time like this. The way things are looking now, the war is going to be over soon. We'll chase the Neviskotians back over the central channel, and then they'll start mooning us with that gigantic fleet of theirs." she ranted. "General Capaberra, I understand. He was at a meeting with Weyland apparently, which means some new toys are on the way, but Remus? Out of nowhere. Maybe it's just me but I don't trust that peggie general. Too whiny about casualties and unfavorable conditions."

[Mercakete]

"Are ye th' capt'n?" Gytha asked, coming into the conversation with Raquel, Rico and Fira. The question was aimed at Fira. Maw had managed to escape and was now hiding under the wagon to avoid confrontation with...anyone, really. Gytha's arms were very scratched and bitten up, but she didn't seem to notice, which was entirely because she actually didn't notice. There was a ship nearby and she hadn't been near a ship in far too long.

[Snowy_One]

<double post>

Edited July 9, 2011 by Snowy_One