Return of the Emblem Chapter Eight: Affairs of the World

[Phoenix]

The Dark Utka Falls

"N-not ... yet. W-we're not finished, yet. Still one last card to play ... heh ... heheh ..." And with those last words, Oleg fell silent. Shadrak raised an eyebrow, and then turned to Nadya with his usual gaze, a mix of curiosity and agitation.

"Nothing's ever simple, is it? What in Truth's name was he hinting at just now?"

One of the sailors that was keeping an eye on the progressing violence was questioned by Nika and he could only shake his head in response at first. "We've taken the main deck, but we're still fighting for every inch of the ship that's left. They're too spread out to coordinate a counterattack, so it's mostly clean up at this point, but we haven't found the eggs, yet." he replied.

With Oleg dead and the rest of the work falling to the Leverager's crewmen, Gabbie felt it was time to withdraw back to the allied ship and check on Connor. Looking back toward the Leverager, she didn't see Ringo anywhere. That wasn't to say she had no idea where he might have been, though. An all out firefight had broken out, so the wyvern would have quickly gone somewhere where he was least likely to get shot. She guessed he was clinging to the port side of the Leverager which would put him almost completely out of sight from where anyone on either ship was standing. She shrugged figuring she would just retrieve him later and began a casual stroll back toward the Leverager, sighing a bit along the way.

Meanwhile Raquel carefully wandered the main deck looking for Reign. The sailors of the Utka had mostly fallen back below decks despite the fact that it would mean putting their backs to the wall and being completely cornered. The deck was littered with bodies, so she also had to watch her step as she searched. It was horrible to think he might be among the corpses somewhere in plain sight right now. She had to look, and at the same time she couldn't bring herself to do it. She wanted to find him hiding behind something somewhere nearby, not bled out on the deck or floating lifelessly in the water. Soon the desperation to find him overwhelmed her and she began calling out frantically. "REIGN!!! REEEEEIGN, WHERE ARE YOUUUU?!!!"

That voice. It was her alright. Reign was still barely clinging to the iron hooks holding him to the Utka, and with the ship dead in the water, there was no drag to help keep him closer to the surface of the water. Add to that his exhaustion from being down there for so long, and he had pretty much had about all he could take. The Ursian military never trained their people to act like barnacles. Reign tried to reach up as high as he could to grab something ... anything he could get a decent grip on, but all he got was his fingers sliding on the wood, and himself falling completely under the water. Dammit to hell! She's right there for gods' sake! he mentally cursed the situation as he kicked as hard as he could. He only had one chance left. He couldn't get off a signal flare so he had to get their attention with yelling. If he couldn't make his voice overshadow all of the noise on the deck, he was history. As soon as he came up for one last breathe of air he yelled at the top of his lungs shouting "DRAGON EGG OVERBOARD!!!" and then disappeared beneath the waves leaving just the usual amount of ripples behind. The plan was desperate, but simple; the entire mission revolved around saving the dragon eggs, so he was bound to get more attention by claiming one had fallen overboard than by saying 'man overboard', since there were plenty of people in the water already(virtually all dead) and were expected to know how to swim. Now if someone could just try to be a big damn hero, jump in and find him ... he might not drown. Despite the plan, he kept trying to gather enough strength to make it back to the surface again, but it wasn't going so well.

Raquel caught his shout, and so did over a dozen other sailors. They came running, some gathering near Gytha who also happened to be on the starboard side. "Where?!" one of them asked Gytha. "Did someone already go in after it? Who said that?!" he added, noticing the ripples Reign left.

"That sounded like Reign." Raquel noted worriedly, leaning over the rails to look for signs of him.

The Leverager Recovers

Gabbie hadn't made it halfway across the makeshift bridge when she heard Raquel cry out for Reign and then someone yell about dragon eggs. She looked back dubiously. "Dragon eggs would sink straight to the bottom ... not much toime." she noted aloud, though few would actually hear it with her low volume and all of the background noise and fighting. She thought about diving in herself, but ... there were like fifteen people already looking. It seemed pointless since they could surely reach it faster than she could. She battled with herself mentally over what to do.

The captain was too far away to hear about what was happening, and could only see a fraction of his men shift to the starboard side of the Utka. He would have to deal with it later, though, since things aboard his own ship had him preoccupied. "Don't sell yourself short. You all did well ... and with numbers I would only pit against a sloop on any other day." Bogdan assured her with a half serious half joking comment. "You can go get your lance, now if you want. The deck is ours, and the Utka is mine for the moment. I cannot possibly sink her without retrieving all of the eggs first ... and I have not made my decision yet." And lastly he caught her final comment. "Which sailor?"

[Ether]

"I would, but I still can't really move." Faatina replied weakly, moving her cloak to show Captain Bogdan her arm, the skin and flesh still badly burned from the heat of the magic blast.

"That Sage was way too dangerous... I was so damn close too, I got my lance in his gullet, but it got caught on a rib and I couldn't thrust it deep enough to stop him from casting... I don't know who finished the job, I was out the instant he hit me..." Faatina replied with a mutter, appreciating the cool side of the Dauntless.

"The sailor who healed me. Someone brought be back onto the Leverager and got me medical attention... seems that blast killed me for a minute... he managed to start my heart back up..." Faatina replied with a sigh, she couldn't believe she had managed to screw up so badly... had her lance been only and inch to the left, she would have struck clean through and torn through the man's spine in a single blow.

"He's on the Ukta now... I can't see him from here... he might be fighting below the deck." Faatina finished, feeling the soothing healing magic of another medic who had stayed behind. She still looked pretty badly burned even though she wasn't in too much pain anymore, and the healing seemed to be a slow process.

Edited April 20, 2012 by Ether

[Mercakete]

When Reign called out, Gytha looked down and saw him disappear below the water. Hey, isn't that th' guy from b'fore? Raquel's friend? Now's not th' time fer a swi-- Oh, maybe he went down t' get that egg he called out about. the mariner thought. Hmm.. Didn't look too good, actualla... ... By Leviathan he's drownin'! Around that time, people gathered, mostly asking about the supposed egg that'd fallen but Raquel mentioned that the shout had sounded like Reign. By then she'd already dropped her sword onto the deck. "Someone drop a boat! That wasn't an egg that went under just now!" she hastily informed as she undid her belt, allowed it and all that'd been hanging off of it to fall to the deck. Immediately afterwards, Gytha grab the guardrail, swung her legs under her atop it and dove into the water below.

After she broke the surface, the momentum from the dive plunged her a little more than deep enough into the water to collide with Reign. Immediately after that, she wrapped her arms around his torso, turned about face and swim up to the surface again, swiftly bringing both of them into the air again. "Ye a'right?" she asked him as she held him above water and treading as best as she could with her arms full, "Do me a favor n' move yer arms like this n' kick yer legs below ye if ye can." She leg go of him for a moment with one arm to show him briefly how to tread water. It was hard keeping both of them up on her own.

[Acacia Sgt]

There suddenly was a shout, something about a fallen dragon egg. <What?> John thought, looking over. ''Come Gil, we have work to do.'' He said before climbing back. Gil grunted and took off, flying over where the people had started to gather.

Nothing on sight. <I guess it's too late now.> He thought. But then all of a sudden Gytha shouted and then jumped off.

<Huh, so it wasn't an egg?> And sure enough, Gytha soon surfaced with someone else. And proceeded to descend towards the two.

Edited April 20, 2012 by Acacia Sgt

[Phoenix]

Leverager

"Hm, not bad. I'll need to have a word with him about that once this is all over. Do not be so hard on yourself, though." Bogdan replied. When Gabbie made it back across, their eyes met for a moment. Soon Gabbie just came over to the two of them and said it.

"Someone said somethin' about a dragon egg goin' overboard."

"What? Impossible. They couldn't be that stupid. Someone probably just saw something that looked like an egg." Bogdan reasoned.

"Whatever you say. I'm just the messenger." Gabbie concluded before going around to the back of the Dauntless. "Connooooor? You alroight in here?"

Dark Utka

There weren't any boats ready and with the deck littered with corpses, debris, and ashes from the burnt masts, preparing one was going to take way longer than the crewman thought 'timely'. Some broke off to try to get a boat ready anyway, but the rests quickly devised a plan of their own and picked up a rope. Raquel was left looking down at Gytha and Reign and hoping the latter would be alright. She flat out assumed Gytha was more or less a dolphin in the water so wasn't worried about the mariner's safety, just yet. The sailors quickly took the rope and tied it into a noose. It was meant to be a harness and was much larger than the noose you'd make to hang a man, but one of them still couldn't help but say "I thought we were trying to save a man, not hang'em, hahahahah."

"Shut it." another shot back, resisting the urge to laugh. "It's a harness ... or something. J-just throw it." With that, they threw the noose/harness end down to Gytha. "Get'em in that! At least we can keep'em above water til the boat's ready. If they can't get it then ... maybe we can haul'em up or something!" he called down to Gytha.

When John came to the rescue, the ropers felt the boat might be less needful, so they started placing their hopes on him and his wyvern being able to get the two out of there.

Gytha managed to get to Reign and get him back onto the surface, but then gave him an instruction he couldn't quite follow. He tried, but the strain of the trip coupled with what his fire manipulation spells did to him left him barely able to move. "C-can't ..." he barely managed to warn Gytha. Maybe I shouldn't have used that third spell .... This sucks.

The fighting for the Utka continued, but was mostly out of sight with the Leverager's boarding party pushing deeper into the ship. The main deck was theirs and not one more drop of blood was spilled on it in the past few minutes. Below decks however the fighting was intense and there was still screaming and gunshots going off along with the clashing of blades and bodies hitting various things. No reports back about the eggs, yet, either ....

Edited April 20, 2012 by Phoenix

[-Cynthia-]

Nadya

Nadya decided to take this golden opportunity to loot the bodies of the fallen Dark Utka members on board. Maybe I can sneak away with one of those dragon eggs here if I'm lucky...one hundred thousand gold, Mercy that's a lot. she thought to herself, taking a few less trinkets than usual as she aimed for the big prize.

Connor

"Something hit the wagon, but it's not damaged and I'm fine. We won then I guess? Hope none of our people died," he replied to Gabbie, remaining within the Dauntless for now. It still seemed...chaotic outside.

Edited April 21, 2012 by -Cynthia-

[Phoenix]

Gabbie

"Well ... we're winning. We took out the captain and the Utka crew fell into chaos. The captain's men are taken care of the rest and searching for the eggs, roight now. We deserve a break, heheh." Gabbie replied. "No one doied but ... we had a few injuries and a really close call." Gabbie explained, leaning back out and over to the side of the Leverager to spot Faatina again, and then leaning back in. "No deaths on our soide, though, thankfully."

[Mercakete]

Looked like Reign was too tired to tread water. Well, I'll just have t' try t' hold 'im up... Arg -- this is a bit difficult. And then... "I thought we were trying to save a man, not hang'em, hahahahah." WHAT?! Gytha's attention snapped up to the sailors on the Utka....and they threw something that resembled a noose far too much for comfort at them. "AYRGH!!" in a panic, Gytha dove under the water again, bringing Reign with her as she did so.

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

And then he found one. Nadya was corpse-looting or something, but she was one of the healers so Norbert wouldn't complain. "Hey," he greeted as he rode up to her and dismounted as best he could with one arm. "Could you patch up my shoulder?" it was such a casual question and get his shoulder and hand by this time were dark and sticky with blood. That axe had cut deep. I'm going to have to ask Raquel to fix this armor or something... The shoulder piece is falling off thanks to that stupid meathead.

Edited April 21, 2012 by Mercakete

[Snowy_One]

There was little for Robin to do on the ship. She hadn't come onto it for claims of wealth or a desire for objects, but rather Raquel's orders. The only thing of value she could even want would be some new stone to craft arrows from, but unless this ship happened to carry quartz or obsidian, both unlikely, there was no reason for her to head down below the deck. She started to head back just as she heard Gytha's splashing about. At first a murderous pang shot through her, somewhat wishing she would choke on it, before she quashed it. She needed to show Gytha some trust. She took a quick look around the deck but saw an unusually low amount of fabric for a ship deck. She hurried back over to their ship and approached one of the crewmen.

"Excuse me, may I have a towel or something to dry someone with?"

[-Cynthia-]

Connor

"Well if you need any supplies, feel free to take some from the wagon. Raquel stocked up pretty well, so if you need vulneraries- or explosives- you could probably take some to complete the mission," Connor offered to Gabbie.

Nadya

Bert interrupted Nadya's search for dragon eggs for the moment with a request for healing. She sighed, took out her staff and applied it to his injured shoulder. "Try not to swing with that arm for a little while," she advised him, finding no eggs in this particular smuggler's pouch, but unloading the gold into Luca's saddlebags anyway.

Veronika

Seeing no dragon eggs about, Veronika decided to return to the Leverager to regroup. Approaching Captain Bogdan, she decided to ask him the question on her mind.

"So, what's your plan for obtaining the dragon eggs? Some of our group could assist you if necessary," she said to him, not bothering with pleasantries at the moment.

[Acacia Sgt]

And so the duo made it almost to the water.

''Hey, are you alright?'' He asked. But all of a sudden they disparaged into the water. <Huh?> ''Come on Gil! Time to scoop them out!'' Gil grunted, and elevated back a bit, and then leaned forwards and dived right at the water.

A splash happened when his legs submerged in the water, but just as quickly as they came in, out they were with passengers on board.

Now they all made it back to the deck of the Utka, Gil descending a little before dropping them to the deck. Afterwards he regained altitude.

<That was close.> John thought.

[Mercakete]

As soon as her head was above water again, Gytha let loos a long, drawn-out cry of panic. Then, they were on the deck again. And then Gytha jumped ship again, leaving Reign aboard the Utka. She was absolutely determined to escape whatever that noose had been for.

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

Well, thanks to Nadya, Norbert's shoulder was repaired. "Yeah, yeah," he replied at the instruction not to work it too hard, "Thanks." Now what to do about this armor... Man, I just got it... Then, a yell. A loud yell. A long, drawn-out yell. Then, a couple people were dropped onto the deck by Gil. One of them looked like Gytha, the other guy Norbert had never seen before. Then, Gytha jumped overboard. What the heck was that all about?

[Acacia Sgt]

But just as suddenly did they were dropped down, Gytha jumped overboard again... and in panic?

<Here we go again...> John ordered Gil to get back over the water and repeat the maneuver, just diving as soon as they were above the water.

And so with another splash, up Gytha went once more.

''Hey!'' John called out. ''What's the big idea?''

[Mercakete]

"PUT ME DOWN!! ARRRAGHHH!! I HATE FLYIN'!! PUT ME DOOOWWWWWN!!!" Gytha shrieked as she was held firmly in the air in Gil's talons.

Norbert was pretty amused at the scene. "What?" he chuckled to himself. He'd wandered towards it to see what was going on. She hates flying, huh? Hehehehahahaaaaa This is great.

[Acacia Sgt]

<Huh, she does?> John noted. Well, that was a bit surprising.

''You won't try to jump off the ship again?'' He asked. ''Otherwise I'm not having Gil let you off.''

Edited April 21, 2012 by Acacia Sgt

[Mercakete]

"I'm not goin' t' let 'em hang me! Let me go!!" Gytha cried out, still struggling to free herself.

Huh? What'd she do? Norbert wondered curiously, partially wishing he had some something to snack on while he watched this.

Edited April 21, 2012 by Mercakete

[Acacia Sgt]

''Hang you?'' John was a little confused now. <How did she came to that conclusion?> ''What makes you think you're gonna be hanged?'' He asked.

[Mercakete]

"LET ME GOOOOO!" she cried out. Obviously she wan't going to be saying anything useful anymore.

Norbert didn't really have any new thoughts on it.

[Acacia Sgt]

<This isn't helping...> He decided in turn to address the crewmembers nearby.

''Hey! Anyone knows what this hanging business she's talking about?'' He asked them.

Edited April 21, 2012 by Acacia Sgt

[Phoenix]

Bogdan and Gabbie

"The eggs will be somewhere on the ship. We will just have to search the entire thing. Once my men locate them, they will carry them over to the Leverager for safe storage. Then the fate of the Utka comes into question ..." Bogdan replied. "Further aid shouldn't be needed, but I'll keep you in mind." he added with a shrug.

"Heheh, thanks but we don't want to risk blowin' up the eggs." Gabbie replied jokingly. I should probably get another vulnerary sometime soon. The one I picked up back during the retrieval isn't gonna last forever. Gabbie thought to herself.

Reign

When Gytha dove, Reign had been in the middle of what he thought would be an uninterrupted breath. Why was he underwater yet again? He honestly didn't know, and the water that made it into his lungs was kind of painful, but brought up a few 'not so troubling' memories. Then he was out of the water again, and barely conscious. Something had picked them both up, and he found himself laid out on the deck of the enemy ship after a short drop. He began coughing immediately came up to his hands and knees only to collapse. The coughing fit only continued as Raquel rushed to his side. She would have said something right away but Gytha went and leaped from the ship. "W-what are you do ... ing ..." well nothing else to be said on that end. She turned her attention back to Reign. "Reign, are you alright?!"

More coughing came before he actually said anything. "Just make sure the eggs are okay." he uttered weakly.

"Forget the eggs. Captain Bogdan's taking care of that! I'm more worried about you! What were you thinking pulling this stunt?!"

"Had to make sure we caught them before they made it to Tremere. Too much could have gone wrong. They might have even transferred the eggs to another ship; who knows. Had to be sure you caught up to them." another weak and barely audible response came. That made a little sense, but she still wished he had at least told her about it in advance. Of course she now realized that she never would have let him attempt something like this to begin with. Great. Nothing else to be said now, so she tried to at least get him upright. She had to settle for just letting him rest his head on her lap. It was clear that he wasn't getting back on his feet just yet so she just stayed with him for the time being.

Towel Boy

"What do I look like, girl? A ... towel boy?" the sailor shot back. He quickly reached over and yanked a loosely tied sash right off of another sailor and handed it to Robin. It was a well timed move. "Here take this."

"Hey!" the victim called out as he stopped what he was doing and came closer. He was on his way to deliver a report to the captain before looking for more wounded, but obviously having his sash taken put all plans on hold. "You know there's no stealing allowed!"

"It's not 'stealing'; it's borrowing." the towel boy reasoned. "She'll bring it back, won't she?" he asked, somewhat confirming with Robin.

Hangman's Noose

By the time John asked about the hanging issue, the men involved had finished pulling the makeshift harness back up and onto the deck. One of them began untying it immediately to avoid any further issues it might cause. "Well, it DID kind of look like a noose ..." the sailor said with a shrug. "Was to help the nomad get back onboard, though. Only people dyin' today are the Utka crew, right boys?! Hahah!" He got a small bit of affirming head nods, fist pumps, cheers, and confident laughter from the others nearby.

Edited April 21, 2012 by Phoenix

[Mercakete]

Well, that was good to know. I thought Gytha shot someone again or something. Norbert thought.

Gytha calmed down a little after that and was able to think more rationally. "Whew, that's a r'leaf. ... Now PUT ME DOWN!!!" she still didn't like being in the air, though.

Seemed like the show was over for the most part. In the same area was Raquel with the other guy John had dropped onto the deck. She sure looked concerned. Was this guy her friend or something? He didn't look so good.

[Ether]

As Captain Bogdan addressed several more questions, the healing continued. By this point, Faatina had regained her ability to move without more than a light sting, so the operation was moved to the much more suitable infirmary.

"A'ight. I think I got 'em all. How'dya feel?" The medic asked, stepping back from Faatina, and giving her more room to move.

"Everything seems alright." Faatina replied, as she performed basic movements. No pain, no encumberment, everything seemed fine.

"Good, good. 'Ere, take this salve. I don't think I missed anything, but y'never know. Best to have it incase something comes up and y'don't have a medic on hand." The sailor noted, handing her a small bottle.

"Ah, thank you." Faatina replied with a bow, before picking up her armour and strapping it back on atop her clothing. Exiting the infirmary, it seemed Captain Bogdan was still on the decks of the Leverager.

"Ah, there you are, Captain. I can't thank you enough for all your men have done for me today." She said to the man, giving a slight bow.

Edited April 21, 2012 by Ether

[Acacia Sgt]

Well, now that it was explained...

''Alright, now that you know...'' Gil moved back over the deck again, descended, and let her go. And up they went again.

<Finally she understood. Though how could she misunderstood those guys?> He was left wondering. Well, it was no use, so in the meantime to pass up time, they decided to just, fly around.

[Snowy_One]

"I have no reason to not return it after I am done with it." said Robin as she took the towel and started to head back towards the commotion to hand the towel to Gytha when she was finally back on the deck.

[Mercakete]

"Urrgh," Gytha grumbled to herself, glad to finally be back on a deck that wasn't filled with people trying to kill her. Well, first order of business: drying. That mean wringing out her hair, what of her tunic she could, her bandanna, taking off and pouring water out of her boots, wringing out her pant legs, then reapplying boots to feet and tucking her pant legs back into said boots. Then, she simply restored her belt to her waist and took a cleaning rag from her belt pouch to clean off her sword. It was still dirty from the fight, but that would be quickly remedied.

"Hey, is he alright?" Norbert asked, finally making up his mind to ask Raquel about whoever she was helping out.