Return of the Emblem Chapter Eight: Affairs of the World

[Snowy_One]

"Here. Towel." said Robin, extending the towel to Gytha as she kept her words short and simple.

[Mercakete]

Gytha looked up from cleaning her sword. Robin was handing her some sort of sash apparently for use as a towel. "... Ye should r'turn that," she informed before she returned to cleaning her sword. She really didn't want to deal with Robin at the moment.

[Snowy_One]

"Fine." said Robin, turning around and heading back to the sailor who had given her the towel. "She does not want the towel." she said as she offered it back to him.

[Mercakete]

Gytha paused as Robin accepted her answer and complied. It was confusing. She thought for sure she'd try to push her to accept the sash for whatever reason. "Hm." Maybe she's turnin' around. Gytha decided, feeling a little less defensive regarding Robin.

[ReformBlade]

With their battle ended, Aneda and Davod backed off with the rest of them...

Aneda couldn't help but go look for Faatina after seeing her go down like that. Concern coursed through her as she brought her Pegasus around to the backside of the Dauntless. She hadn't payed much attention aside from trying to ascertain how OK Faatina was. "Hey uh... you doing alright Faatina? Shit got rough out there..." Aneda couldn't help but feel guilty, even if it wasn't her fault at all.

Davod, however, tried to go find his teammates amidst the commotion. He saw Robin handing a towel over to some man, so he decided to catch up to her. "Not bad out there... I'd say... Whew! Man, fighting... REALLY takes the wind out of me... Time out..." He was bent over trying to catch his breath, a bit of sweat dripping down his face. "But yeah, I gotta say, you followed up fairly well for... no practice with me... I think we can make this work, yeah?"

[Snowy_One]

"I must admit, it was great being able to end a fight not being in some form of critical condition. I am used to working alone, but I am finally starting to get the hang of this team fighting. My role has not changed though. Singular, accurate, shots to the enemy. I only got two arrows off though." she said with a sigh. "Still, thank you for defending me." she extended her hand in thanks. "Where are you from?"

[Phoenix]

Raquel

Raquel looked down for a moment, and then back to Bert after he asked her about Reign. "He took a big risk to slow the Utka down so we could catch up to them. He almost drowned a minute ago, but I think he'll be alright." she replied. She then tilted her head slightly when she looked down at him. "He's asleep, already ..." she noted, realizing that she was going to be stuck on the Utka for awhile yet.

Bogdan

Faatina was back, and she looked much better. "No need to thank me. You people nearly eliminated our casualties getting to Oleg so quickly and that's more than I can repay." Bogdan replied.

Towel Boy and Sash Boy

The girl didn't take long to return and she handed them the sash back. The sailor promptly put it back on, and he tied it more securely this time so his fellow crewman couldn't just effortlessly remove it a second time. "Thank you." he said to Robin before turning to head for the captain. The 'towel boy' turned to leave the second the sash was returned. Business concluded.

[Ether]

Captain Bogdan replied with sincere appreciation. They had done a rather quick job of the Ukta's crew, or so she could gather.

"Glad to see the decision to take us on wasn't regretted." Faatina replied, as Aneda cam wheeling around atop her pegasus and inquired towards her health.

"I should be fine. the burns are all healed up, and I can move around again without too much trouble." Faatina replied with a grin.

"Although, I certainly don't plan on dying again any time soon." She muttered, somewhat flustered at the ordeal.

'Stupid, stupid! How could I have let that happen... I should have taken him out, I should have dodged, I should have... I guess it's too late for should have's...'

[Mercakete]

"... Hm." There wasn't a whole lot to say to that. He thought about asking her if she could mend his armor, but now wasn't the time. "He someone you know?" Norbert asked more quietly. Probably was a stupid gesture with all the fighting going on, but it was only polite.

Edited April 21, 2012 by Mercakete

[Phoenix]

Faces of The Past

Raquel nodded in reply. "Reign's one of my friends from back in school. I never thought I'd see him again, especially not way out here."

"Wrathdamn Druids ..."

The fighting for the lower decks became more intense as the spacing between combatants grew smaller and smaller. Eventually the crewmen had to stop sending guys in to give the others room to maneuver. The Utka was all but theirs ... but there was one last obstacle in the way.

As a sailor turned the corner, he was tackled by something big and scaly. "Fuuuuuuuuu-" His screams were accompanied by snarling and tearing cloth. "Get'em off! Get'em off!" he pleaded to the others nearby.

"Oh dammit! It's a baby!" one of the sailors yelled.

"Can't be! It's the size of a wrathdamn bear! Get it off of him! K-kill it if ya have to!" another sailor yelled.

They quickly began beating on the young crazed dragon with the blunt of their swords. Nice job; they managed to get the dragon off of the man before it mauled him to death, but they also provoked it into sending thunder spells into the both of them. They fell back as they were electrocuted and the dragon backed off and moved into the shadows. The men quickly recovered and hauled their injured comrade away from the scene.

The report they had to give was an alarming one. "Dragon ... there's a dragon down there. Completely wild." the sailor panted as he explained to the ones near the staircase to the main deck.

"Hatchlings?"

"No ... few years ... knows thunder magic. Almost lost a man. I called it off. We can't go any deeper without some counter magic." he explained.

"Did they smuggle a young dragon or did they have it all along? How are they controlling it?"

"... if they're 'controlling' a dragon ... then we already know how." the sailor angrily replied.

"... ... wrathdamn druids. I'll inform the captain at once."

[Mercakete]

The pegasus rider was sitting by now. "I see," that was all Norbert responded with initially, but then a thought occurred to him, "You were saying you wanted more people helping you, right? Why not ask some of your old friends? Even if they can't fight, they can probably help out in other ways, like keeping an ear open and warning you if someplace isn't safe. And... Remember how I told you I had some things I wanted to talk to you about? Might as well do that now if you don't have anything to do except be -- Reign, was it? --'s pillow." Though the way Norbert said it initially sounded a bit sharp, a small smile formed a moment after the little jab, indicating he was only teasing.

[Phoenix]

Raquel and Reign

"Oh he can fight ... that's why I was looking for him before we found the Leverager. He can do more than that, really. I wanted to ask him then; he could be a great addition since ... well ..." she paused for just a second to try and make sure she had the facts right. Her memories of him weren't recent, after all ... and she had to make sure she said this a certain way. "Reign graduated from an Ursian military academy in Ursentius. He's had officers training, and took some power courses. He also doesn't really hate dragons or he wouldn't have risked his life just to give us a chance to save them, so we can trust him."

Bert's pillow comment got Raquel's body shifting reflexively, but it was only just enough movement to be easily spotted. Reign's head didn't fall from her legs and it apparently wasn't enough to wake him, either. Her actual reply was a harmless glare. "Well, what did you want to talk about?"

Offer One Hand, Arm the Other

Word finally reached Bogdan's ears. "There's a dragon below decks. We think a druid might be aboard."

"Is that why they would not surrender?" Bogdan wondered aloud. Bogdan was silent after that for a few moments. He was thinking and thinking until finally. "Filat has the deck. I'm coming aboard to deal with this personally."

"Are you sure, Captain?" the messenger asked. Bogdan simply nodded and began reloading his pistol.

"Has to be me. Someone else might lose the dragon." he explained. "You, Raquel's people, stay here and help the crew if they require it, but I will handle this." he added before crossing over to the Utka and heading below decks. Once he was down there, he was brought to the place where one of his men had been mauled. There wasn't as much blood as Bogdan was used to seeing in a scenario like this, but his man had survived, after all, so it wasn't shocking in the least. The dragon was sitting off in the corner and glaring at him. Not the group in general or in his general direction ... him. Bogdan returned a somewhat sympathetic gaze. "Making you hostile and probably as a shield, as well. Unforgivable."

The dragon let out a loud hiss that sent everyone but Bogdan staggering backward. Bogdan knelt down to one knee and began searching through his coat for something, causing the dragon to cock its head curiously. Bogdan feigned surprise and said "Oh ... curious, are you?" The dragon tilted its head the other way this time and leaned a little closer, though the two were still nowhere near each other, yet. That was better for Bogdan, though, and in one swift motion he removed his hand from his inner coat and threw a small object over at the dragon. It didn't seem like the best idea to rile the thing up, but that was what the man was counting on. The dragon snapped at the small container and crushed it in his jaws releasing a fine mist into his mouth. It wavered and then collapsed one second later. Out cold. Bogdan sighed. "Are there any others? If not, let us find the one responsible for this. More importantly, let us find the eggs. Send a team down to bring back the dragon." he instructed.

[ReformBlade]

Taking the extended hand, he tore it off and drank the blood shook it and smiled. "It's not a problem. It's what teams are for, right? As for where I'm from... Ah um... I know I'm from the Kigen region. Beyond that I've no clue..." Huh... You really don't remember? May be better that way... "Huh?" Nothing, nothing, just... pay attention to her, not me! "Right... but yeah, I'm from Kigen, where do you hail from, Miss?"

Aneda sighed and shook her head. "No one plans on dying unless they're suicidal or planning to be a martyr, you know? Still... You fought well, Faatina, and you should be very proud of that! Look at all the punishment we took and dished out, that's going above and beyond the call of duty in my book! We just need to... need to work on looking out for each other more often! We nailed down offense without a hitch, lets work on our defenses next time around, ok? Right now you should just rest up. Heroes need rest after all~!"

Edited April 21, 2012 by RainbowKitty

[Acacia Sgt]

As they flew around, John noticed the captain of the Leverager heading over to the Utka and then inside. <Hm, did something happened?> He wondered. ''Come Gil, let's go back down.'' He said, and so they landed on the deck of the Utka, and John dismounted.

<Well, I guess this will still take a while. At least we managed to do this.>

[Mercakete]

Norbert chuckled quietly at Raquel's glare before replying. "Well, first, I meant any other friends you might have. If Reign decides to come with us, though, it sounds like he'll be a big help," he started before moving on to the main point, "Now, what I wanted to talk about... Actually, it's about you." A brief pause later, he continued. "I wanted to let you know what I thought when you told us to attack those blasted sand-rats in that desert. At first I thought you were crazy and going to get yourself killed. I thought you might be delusional and I thought you'd break after what Lilith did to you. But you know... You actually came out from that stronger. You stood up to your enemies and led the charge. That impressed me. And earlier today I realized something, too."

He paused to consider how to phrase it. "You see, I don't get along with a lot of-- er, no that phrasing is't right... I don't agree with a lot of leaders. Actually, I usually wind up openly speaking out against a lot of leaders and get into some trouble that way, but I guess you already knew that. Anyway, the point is that back when we were trying to get the Dauntless on board and you told me to make sure everyone was ready for your announcement, that might've been the first time I didn't mind following a leader's instruction. I mean, sure I don't think we should be helping these dragons...but I still...trust you, I guess. I don't know. I'm not as upset about all this as I would be normally, I think. But...I guess that's what I wanted to say. You're doing better than I thought you would so...you'll be alright. Watch yourself on the battlefield, though. Even if you're tougher than I thought we're around to fight for you, so don't get yourself killed or anything."

Well, that was probably as good as that was going to get. "Well...I guess that's it. Except..." Norbert grimaced and waved it off. "Nah, nevermind. Just worry about Reign for now. I'll get back to you on it later." He decided he didn't want to ask her about clothing repair right now; she had enough to deal with. So, he stood up, mind already working on wondering if Ranyin could stitch leather or not.

[-Cynthia-]

Nadya

Nadya's search for the dragon eggs had been fruitless so far, though she had made a nice haul from the smuggler's other belongings. The Leverager crew seemed to be heading the search for the dragon eggs, causing Nadya to abandon her mission for now. At least I have another dragon to sell...

Veronika

The captain and his crew appeared to be dealing with the dragon egg situation, so she decided to check in on Raquel. When she found her and someone appeared to be taking a nap on her.

"Isn't that your friend from before? This doesn't seem like a time for sleeping- and why is he wet?" she asked Raquel.

Connor

"Oh right, forgot this was a rescue mission," he answered Gabbie with some disappointment. "Maybe Uncle should start investing in more anti-dragon tech after all this is over- I don't think Ursium even knows about Skotians getting shipments from way down here. Of course anti-dragon weaponry is always in high demand anyway," he added thoughtfully.

Edited April 21, 2012 by -Cynthia-

[Phoenix]

Sleeper

Of all the people in the group to tell her that they trusted her. Aside from the conflict before setting out on the Leverager, she hadn't given her recent actions a whole lot of thought. Until leaving Sanctuary, she'd stood back and battled her own guilt while everyone else battled the enemies in front of them. Putting an end to that seemed like the best course of action, and she planned to keep on fighting on the front. She didn't expect to earn Bert's respect for it, though, so it was a pleasant surprise. He had something else to add but seemed to change his mind, advising her instead to focus on Reign. Easy enough, but she couldn't let the conversation end without getting another word in. "Um." Not the right word. "Thank you, Bert. It means a lot hearing you say that. All of it. When Zel turned on me, I just ... never had so much doubt in myself before that. 'How could I not see that coming?' and 'How could I let this happen?' just kept running through my head over and over again. I'm just glad to know I'm not ... the worst leader there's ever been, at least. So ... thanks."

Veronika soon arrived and asked about the sleeping mage on her lap. Raquel returned little more than a concerned smile at first. "He didn't leave Tremere with us. He went with the Dark Utka, hanging onto the side of the ship. He wanted to make sure we caught up to them in time, so he waited and then sent up fire spells to burn the sails and slow the ship to a crawl. He was in the water so long and exhausted himself with the spell casting. I'm really not sure how long I'm going to be stuck down here ..." she explained, her smile fading somewhere in that explanation.

Weeper

Something was wrong; one of the men they brought back up from below decks was badly mauled. The claw and bite marks of a dragon weren't all that distinct, but it was extremely unlikely that they had a bear down there waiting to maul people. Shadrak had to investigate ... using the broadest possible definition of the word 'had'. Arriving at the edge of the group that encircled the injured sailor, Shadrak began the long and arduous task of politely muscling his way toward the center. By the time he arrived, the medic had patched up most of the man's wounds with light magic, but there was still blood all over his clothes. Time for words. "What did that to him?"

"Dragon. There's at least one of'em down there. Not newborns, either. Too big ... but not adults, either, obviously."

"It hurts ... uuuurgh." the man complained. His arm was still thoroughly ripped up.

"You'll be alright, just hold still." the medic told him before looking back to Shadrak. "Can this wait? I still have work to do. If you want details, ask someone else. He isn't the only one who saw that dragon."

Shadrak immediately turned to leave and worked his way out of the crowd once again. He thought about telling Raquel about the issue but saw her tending to a soaking wet nomad and Veronika and Bert already appeared to be pestering her about things anyway. Best to just keep an eye on things in case the situation got any worse.

Creeper

The immediate threat of the young thunder dragon had been dealt with, but Bogdan had to move on and get to the bottom of this. He had to find the eggs and anyone connected to the young dragon they'd fought. He would eventually find both in the ship stores. As he and around ten of his men entered the area, they could see everything, including the man they were looking for. He was wearing dark heavy robes and sitting on a barrel, stroking the head of another young dragon that was lying beside him. It kept its head raised so he wouldn't have to bend down to reach. Another young dragon, younger and smaller, was sitting upright and staring at Bogdan and his men. He was off to the right side of the storage area. Off behind them were the dragon eggs. There were six in total, and they were large, fifteen inches tall on average. They were all in one crate, separated by some kind of molded material and cushioned with straw. Bogdan only gazed at the eggs long enough to confirm that they were indeed dragon eggs. After that, the seated man had his full attention.

"You didn't ... kill everyone, did you? My, they were just ensuring the delivery of these precious beasts." the druid spoke up. He had a strange look on his face. There was an eerie smile, but there was still an unmistakable fear in his eyes that was accentuated by his eyebrows. Bogdan raised one of his after noticing. "What are you planning to do, I wonder?"

"He's totally out of his mind, sir." one of Bogdan's men warned.

"Are you controlling these dragons?" Bogdan finally asked.

"Well ... yes. Of course. These beautiful creatures are not truly tame, but they are on very short leashes ... leashes that are in my hands. Too young to serve on the battlefield, not too young to help insure a safe delivery to my lord, however. This is why I am here, you see." the man explained.

"The eggs and the younglings will be coming with us." Bogdan shot back, plain and simply.

"Oh dear Leverager captain, how will you take my lord's pets alive? They can only be restrained by me. You will lose men trying to subdue them."

"I figured as much. That's why we will be taking you alive as well. Only other option."

"You see, this is where we have a problem. I do not wish to be a prisoner. I would be imprisoned in the west. No no, I would die before going to prison ... ... I would most certainly kill before going to prison." As the druid said this, his dragon thralls stood up and took defensive stances, snarling at Bogdan and his men as they did so. "Please do not press the issue, Captain. I would hate for these beasts to die as much as you would, but the simple fact is, I will do what I must to ensure my survival, as well as the delivery or ... destruction ... of these eggs."

"Wrathdamn druid. Are you that far out of your mind?"

"Why of course not ... but I do value my life and freedom ... you understand, I'm certain."

"Grrr." This could be tricky.

Keeper

"Sounds loike somebody wants to set off some fireworks~ I think Weyland's 'thoroughly' distracted by the Steoinn issue." Gabbie noted. "Not to mention the investigation into the daddy napping army ... it's hard to focus on dragons when they aren't the ones tearin' up your estate. I wonder if Hammer's crafty enough to take advantage of that ..."

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

"That was brave of him...very risky though. Men often seem to take on dangerous missions without thinking about the consequences," she replied to Raquel, her eyes looking off into the distance for a brief moment before coming back to Raquel.

"Anyway, as for Zel, he seems nothing short of an insane traitor and should be removed from the group at the nearest opportunity. As for your leadership..." Veronika paused for a moment considering her words carefully. "Well I know this is difficult, but this group needs to be more organized. We could barely get aboard this ship without several fights breaking out and we were lucky to get to Sanctuary with our heads still attached" she said stiffly.

Connor

"Yeah...I'm worried about this criminal group too," he said, looking down a little. "I don't really understand why Uncle is messing around with the Fallen either- seems like there are bigger problems right now. I still think Hammer Industries might be working with this organization- maybe we should investigate them sometime. They certainly have the motive," he pointed out.

[Ether]

"I guess... I just... I messed up bad. If I had just thrusted a little bit to the left, I would have had him, he never would have gotten that spell off... if someone hadn't picked my up and brought me to the Leverager, I would have died." Faatina replied with a somber tone, looking out over the water.

[Phoenix]

Raquel and Sleeper

"I'm still not sure how to do that. We had a hard time reaching Sanctuary because we weren't really supposed to be there in the first place, and Lilith just made things worse at first with that superiority complex of hers. We didn't really have time to familiarize ourselves with the ... Sancturan customs before we got there. And the boarding incident was all my fault. We were already heading out by the time I told people what we were hired to do. I know it's no excuse for violence, but I still shouldn't have handled it that way. I got presumptuous and assumed everyone would just follow along like they always do."

Gabbie

"Hmm, you think so? Well can't rule them out, I guess. Forgot to ask; how's the suit comin' along? Did you make anymore progress?"

[Acacia Sgt]

Well, whatever was happening down there, it had taken a turn for the worse, judging from what it could be seen from that man brought back out before he got surrounded.

<He sure looked in a very bad shape.> John thought. <Are they getting desperate to not loose the eggs? But those wounds...> Yeah, something was not right here.

-----

After a while Sophia had finished treating whoever she saw was injured. Hopefully that's everybody. She had thought. Well, she wasn't the only healer of the group, so whoever she missed was probably dealt by someone else.

She had considering heading back to the Leverager, but then the shout of an egg falling into the water had her remain. And then Gytha had quickly jumped right after. Fortunately it turned out not to be the case, instead it was just a man who had fallen. But then something weird happened next...

What was that all about? Was the only thing she thought after seeing Gytha jumping back to the water after being picked up, and then her picked up again and let hanging before being lowered.

Well, things had mostly normalized again...

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

"Putting all the blame on yourself doesn't do anyone any good. People in this group need to be held accountable for their actions- and you need to be willing to punish them if their actions are impeding our mission. If you can't trust the people guarding you, they're worse than no one at all," she said to Raquel, crossing her arms.

Connor

"Greaves are about finished, haven't finished the helmet yet- been busy re-stocking the Dauntless. The suit probably smells like monkey now," he added, remembering Chip's last location.

[ReformBlade]

"W-Well..." Aneda was trying to think of how else to cheer Faatina up, but with nothing to go on she struggled. "Look, you're alive right now, right? Just... learn from mistakes. We can help each other out, that's what being in a group is all about. You yourself said someone bringing you back was why you're alive, right? So just... don't shoulder everything yourself, it's not all your fault you know... I should've looked out for you more. I should've been more observant! So... yeah, let's just forget about this for now... ok?" A sad look accompanied her plea.

[Snowy_One]

"I am from Neviskotia. A town far up to the north by the name of 'Ohka' to be exact. My father is Berthold Hawkdancer, a retired wyvern lord, and has raised me there all my life as a hunter. In a way, I guess you could say I am at home in the mountains and forests just as much as I am in Ohka."

[Phoenix]

Raquel

"Is there anyone in this group who wouldn't just leave after getting 'punished'? I ... guess that's not really the main concern ..." Raquel realized. Veronika was probably fine with people leaving if it dealt with an issue once and for all. Raquel still felt under-powered even with the group's current numbers, so she was understandably reluctant. "How would that work, anyway? Punishment, I mean."

"'Disciplinary action' is a friendlier term ..." Reign muttered. Beyond that one little interjection he seemed unresponsive.

"Are you awake?" she immediately asked. No response.

Gabbie

"Sounds loike you used Chip to polish the thing ..." Gabbie replied. Maybe he just decided to sleep too close to the armor or something. "You work fast, though, whiiiich gives me an oidea ... if you're interested. See, I've got some parts and pieces I've been keeping with me for awhile, now, but they're missing bits here and there so I can't really use them. Call it a 'gauntlet without the glove'. If you could help me get them put together with some extra pieces I could use'em and stop foighting in my tease outfit." she explained. She seemed on the verge of laughter by the end of it.

Bogdan

Bogdan eventually emerged from the lower decks, and to the surprise of his men, he had the druid with him, dangling like a ragdoll over his shoulder, and obviously unconscious. Behind him were four men carrying the dragon egg crate, and behind them were several men guiding the three young dragons they had encountered out onto the main deck. Shadrak rushed over and intercepted the captain immediately and once he arrived he yelled. "What happened?!"

"I improvised. Let Raquel know that we'll be moving everything of import onto the Leverager for the time being. Tell her Ursian friends to stay away from the younglings and the eggs." Bogdan replied. After that he began heading back over to the Leverager with his egg carriers and dragon guides in tow. It was quite a sight and seemed to epitomize their victory.