Return of the Emblem Chapter Eight: Affairs of the World

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

"Threaten to dock their pay if they don't behave. If they're here for some reason other than pay, then tell them you may have to release them if they continue hindering our group. That probably won't affect anyone hired by Weyland, but they don't seem to be the ones causing problems. I don't want to lose fighting power either...but there are more mercenaries in Sardius," she said, shrugging. Reign appeared only half conscious so she decided to just ignore him for the moment.

Connor

"I can probably patch together spare armor pieces to give you some more protection sure," Connor offered, cocking his head at Gabbie a little. "I don't see how your current outfit is teasing anyone though," he said in a puzzled tone, examining what Gabbie was wearing more closely.

[Acacia Sgt]

Aha, success.

<So they made it.> John thought as they passed by. <Hm? Not just eggs? And that guy carried by the captain... oh, I see...>

Amazing, so those are the eggs? Sophia thought. And those... oh, they're so cute. It's quite sad most will probably end up joining the war once they grow up. Feels like we just saved them from slavery for nothing. That was quite a sad thought.

Well, it seems things were over, for now at any rate.

[Phoenix]

Raquel

"You know that's ... a lot less harsh than I was expecting. I thought you were going somewhere else with that, honestly." Raquel replied with a surprised look. This was actually something she could agree to and not feel guilty about. She already threatened Bert with something similar regarding his maces once, and anyone who wasn't reasonable enough to fall in line after such a 'light' ultimatum wasn't trustworthy enough to rely on anyway, right? "I think I can actually handle that without any ... guilt."

"Raquel!" Shadrak interrupted the conversation and stopped at about the same distance Veronika had chosen. "It's time for us to head back over to the Leverager. The captain captured the eggs and three dragons."

"What?! There were three dr-... babies, right?"

Shadrak shook his head. "... more like ... toddlers. Nestlings? I don't know what the term is. They're still bigger than people overall is the point."

Gabbie

"Err." Well good going, bringing THAT up. "Well ... it makes them think I'm an easy target. Hardly any armor on, little skin coverage ... uhhh ... no leggings. People would be all over me if I didn't have a weapon, you know?" Now hopefully he doesn't catch onto what I meant, stops looking at me like that, and we forget this ever came up.

[Mercakete]

"Um."

Norbert paused. Apparently Raquel had something to add. So, idly taking Rizen's reigns, he gave her his attention, quietly listening. When she thanked him, a mixed reaction of surprise and confusion formed. He hadn't thought what he'd said was all that important. Important enough to be said, sure, but important enough for thanks? Well, it was somewhat explained with the next statement. She appreciated it. Norbert's reactions lessened after that. Instead, he just listened. And then, at the end of it, she thanked him again, which caused him to smile, though he himself didn't notice the change in his expression. Veronika was heading over by that time. There wasn't much more to say anyway. "No problem." Then, he led Rizen away and left the two women to their conversation.

So, Norbert began pondering what to do about the tear in the shoulder of his tunic and the rend in his armor. He didn't want to replace his armor but he didn't want to go around with that rend. It just screamed "hit me here." Well, a short time passed and then the captain from the ship they came on came out from under the deck of the ship they were on with a guy stung over his shoulder. And then came a procession of guys carrying giant eggs and some guys herding dragons. " ... What? ... ... What?" I thought we were rescuing eggs, not those scaly monsters! Even though those eggs have scaly monsters in them... Blast it. We're all going to die. Darn dragon-infatuated pirates and their lack of reason and their freakish obsession with those magic-spitting lizard-bats.

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

Once her sword was clean, Gytha sheathed it and basically milled about until she saw Captain Bogdan and some of his crew carrying and guiding various ages of dragons while the captain himself had someone slung over his shoulder. Figuring it meant they were supposed to go back to the Leverager now, she began heading that way herself.

Edited April 22, 2012 by Mercakete

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

"Hmm, I thought the captain was only expecting eggs. Sounds like they're going to have their hands full- I'd offer to help but I don't know much about handling young dragons myself," she said, ealking back towards the Leverager.

Connor

"Oh, so you're not wearing much armor to lull your enemies into a false sense of security? That makes sense," Connor said, satisfied by the explanation. "Just give me the armor pieces when you're ready for me to get started then I guess."

[GoD]

Unfortunately Chelsea could not do much in the way of help, for she stumbled and fell to the ground, with a loud thud. "Ooooow.... Or I could stay and watch the rest. That kinda works."- and so she did. Then Nadya FINALLY decided to help and at least closed the large wound. It would not allow her to fight, but at least she could walk and collect her staff.

Once she did collect said item, she waited out the battle.

The battle was short lived, because once the captain fell to the combined force of Nadya and Shadrak (to which she shouted "WOOOT, THAT'S MY BOY") the rest of the enemy force scattered. A dark Mage who was in close proximity to the troubadour, was trying to flee the battle. Chelsea smirked and uttered an incantation. Suddenly a small, inorganic hand caught the man by one of his feet, which made him trip and fall to the floor with a loud thud. Chelsea grinned triumphantly as she saw that the man did not move, obviously unconscious. Taking a few minutes to survey the situation she slowly made her way to Raquel's location. She was surprised to find Raquel with some other man and judging by the look on her face , she knew him. Well, well, small world. She decided to tend to her own wounds as the group talked amongst themselves. At one point the troubadour decided to interject:

"Well that's all fine and dandy, except for the fact that.... you pay us? Seriously?" then turning to Shadrak:

"Aww, are you kidding!? I wanted to see the eggs and the babies!!"- Chelsea pouted.

[Acacia Sgt]

Looks like it was time to head back to the Leverager. Sophia began walking back towards it. Hopefully things will go fine while we are still with these people. She thought. The incident with Zel came back mind. At least it as only him. If someone else had sided with him...

''Come Gil, we're done here.'' John said, and began likewise walking back towards the ship. Gil just grunted before taking off and following them through the air. Curiously, his gaze fell upon the eggs and the dragons as he flew across.

[Phoenix]

Utka

"The eggs didn't hatch or anything like that. They must have already had those three dragons." Shadrak deduced. "Come on, Chelsea. We should head back over to the Leverager. No matter what they do with the Dark Utka, they won't need us aboard it." With that he turned to head back over to the Leverager expecting Chelsea to follow along. That seemed to just leave Raquel and Reign, and the both of them were quickly approached by some of the friendly sailors.

"Miss Raquel. Your people are already heading back. We can take care of this guy." one of them offered.

Raquel didn't reply to him and instead took the moment to try and wake Reign up. She only started by moving his head back and forth a few times with one hand and patting his shoulder with the other. "Reign ... Reign wake up." He moaned once and then fell silent again. "Reign, it's time to get up. Please ..."

"... are the eggs alright?"

"Yeah."

"Casualties?"

"Only a handful ... and none of my people, thankfully-err- ... I'm sorry." Raquel quickly apologized to the sailors. They both shrugged. After that, Reign pulled himself up and sat down leaning so far forward that his hair obscured his face almost entirely from where Raquel was sitting. "Are you going to be alright?"

"Yyyeah ..." And with that, he slowly stood up, being careful not to strain himself. He was sore all over. Raquel quickly got up as well and along with the two sailors tried to make sure he didn't fall over.

"Let's head back, now." the other sailor suggested, looking over to the center of the main deck. The area was getting busier and busier as crewmen worked to bring over the food and supplies meant for the dragons. Others were gathering up repair equipment. Sinking the Utka was out of the question, so starting on the minimal repairs required to get the ship to port was a must and they had no time to waste.

Leverager

"Ohhh you won't be workin' on it all by yourself. There are a few extra things I want to have done to it, so consider it a group project of sorts~" Gabbie clarified. It wasn't clear if that meant she would be involved more directly or if someone else was.

Once Raquel, Reign, and the two sailors helping him around made it back onto the Leverager, Bogdan approached, having apparently disposed of the druid for the moment. "Raquel," he greeted. "The Dark Utka is mine and with little life lost on our side. Three dozen Utka crewmen captured along with three younglings we didn't even know would be aboard. It is a good day, indeed."

"I'm just glad we didn't lose anyone ..." Raquel replied gloomily.

"Keep your head up. It's good for morale."

"... I'll try." She took a deep breath and then instead of just raising her head up, she looked up into the sky. Still very few clouds in the sky. "I guess it is a good day ... all things considered."

"Precisely. Now if you will excuse me for a moment. <LISTEN UP, MEN!!!"> Bogdan prepared to address everyone within earshot. <"THE DARK UTKA IS OURS, NOW!!! I HEREBY NAME FILAT AS HER CAPTAIN!!!">

<"M-me?!"> Filat spoke up in shock. He quickly ran up to Bogdan and said <"P-please, there must be someone more qualified than me, sir.">

<"Not yet, there isn't."> Bogdan replied. <"I know you're worried, but don't be. I have my reasons, Filat.">

<"Great ... more nepotism sockings coming my way."> Filat muttered. Bogdan simply handed him one of his pistols.

<"Hahahah. Socking the captain of the Dark Utka?"> Bogdan began shaking his head while laughing. <"No I don't think so. Take who you need to crew the ship until we get to Tremere. Once we're there, we'll start hiring more men.">

<"The Utka boys we already captured are enough to crew the ship but ... true, I don't want to run the risk of being overrun by them. I'll take just enough men to maintain order and get us to Tremere, sir. Though, I doubt things will go so smoothly for us.">

<"Yes, yes, now hurry up. We've a lot of work to do."> After that, Filat headed toward the gathering sailors and Bogdan turned back to Raquel. "Filat is now the captain of the Dark Utka. Nothing formal; we need to get those sails repaired and get moving. If you do not have any objections, I want to move your Ursian 'friend' over to the Utka's brig for the time being. The last thing the men need is him screaming at the top of his lungs about monsters and such."

"That kind of makes sense, but why not just keep the eggs and the dragons on the Utka to begin with?"

"I am not the Captain of the Utka. I am the captain of the Leverager. I want them under my own feet for the time being. That is the only reason I need. If you want to send a man or two over to the Utka to keep an eye on him, by all means. We are all heading to the same port in the end."

"I'll think about it, but go ahead and move him over, I guess." Raquel conceded.

Edited April 23, 2012 by Phoenix

[Acacia Sgt]

Well, they were back on the Leverager. Soon the captain was back and had made an announcement out loud about regarding the Utka. <So they are keeping the ship after all huh.> John thought. <Well, makes sense. Highly likely this weren't the only ones smuggling dragon eggs. At least with two ships they'll have an easier job.>

With not much to do, he decided to head over. Might as well find what was the next course of action other than finishing the journey to the next port after all.

[Ether]

"You're right. Sorry Aneda... I was just beating myself up over it, I should have been more careful." Faatina replied, seeing that the pegasus rider seemed to be rather severely distraught over the situation. Pulling Aneda into a quick, somewhat loose hug, Faatina gave the other woman a calming pat on the back.

"Hey, hey. It's not your fault, alright? I charged in first... if you're trying to make me feel bad for doing something stupid, it's working you know." Faatina continued with a light chuckle, hoping to cheer her teammate up.

[Mercakete]

Well, seeing as it looked like returning to the Leverager was what they were all supposed to be doing, Norbert flew back on Rizen. Basically everyone was there by then and the captain was booming out in what Norbert guessed was Neviskotian to the sailors. One in particular reacted to whatever it was the captain had said and they had a short chat before the sailor was handed a pistol and the captain began a quieter, short conversation with Raquel. Not knowing what all to make of this since he couldn't make out any of it (due to low volume and distant proximity and not knowing the language respectively) so he just went back to thinking about his wardrobe malfunction and thinking on how to fix it.

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

Gytha couldn't understand the announcement, but she could figure out what was going on just by watching it. As Filat walked away from Bogdan, she hurried over to confirm her strong suspicions. "Haharr!! Captain Bogdan just gave ye th' Dark Utka, didn't he?"

[ReformBlade]

"No! No I'm not trying to... Urgh!" The hug calmed her a bit, but she was still flustered by the situation, emphasized by her blushing. "Look, you already seem to have gotten my message, so... Yeah... If you wanna practice or... I dunno, just wanna chat or somethiiing, I'm available~!" She put on a happy face to assure her friend she was fine now. "Lord knows I've got nothin else ta do anyway..." coughing a little, Aneda's attention was right on Faatina, looking her in the eyes. "Lets get to know each other... kay?"

Davod tilted his head slightly. "Ohka, huh? That's in... Neviskotia, right. Man, it's hard to remember these things these days... Anyway, you're a hunter, eh? What's the biggest game you've caught if you don't mind me asking?"

Edited April 23, 2012 by RainbowKitty

[Ether]

"Well, I didn't really have anything planned after this, haha. Sure, let's get to know eachother then, Aneda." Faatina replied, returning the other woman's smile.

Aneda was blushing. Was being hugged so suddenly uncomfortable for her? Not wanting her to feel odd, Faatina released her light grip on Aneda, and instead grabbed the pegasus rider's hand.

"C'mon, we can talk closer to the water. The ocean is really pretty, don't you think?"

[Snowy_One]

Robin bent her head down for a moment as she thought. She had taken down many large animals before in her past, but... The one he wanted to hear the most, she knew it well. "I took down a grizzly bear as my best kill, rather, my worst kill. Last year I was up in the mountains during the late autumn hunting deer for the family. I shot and wounded a buck, but it took a while to go down from blood loss and exhaustion. I tracked it for a full day before it went down. As the sun was setting I realized I could not get back to Ohka in time so I found a nearby cave to spend the night. It is a bad idea to use an unknown cave at the best of times, but it seemed small and I walked all about the edges. I then set up camp, cleaned my clothes with some water, and set them to dry over a small fire I had made while I cooked some of the venison I had caught. The scent woke a bear in a back corner of the cave that was behind an odd looping of rock that I thought was clear. I had only my knife on me at the time as my bow was leaning against the back wall. By the time I heard it he was too close already. I was there, in my undergarb, armed with only my knife. I could feel myself shaking in fear as it stood up. I then looked over to the cooking pot and realized the hot food could blind him, so I picked it up and threw the pot at him. It worked well and the bear was blinded by the stew. I quickly darted in and stabbed at him with my knife. I must have gotten lucky as I hit either a key vein, or his heart, and he died before he could swing again. Here. Look."

She bent down and removed one of her shoes. Upon closer inspection it was clear that it was not deer hide. Instead, faint marks where claws had once been as well as the thick interior lining of bear fur told it's true origin. "They look normal at first to most people. Most people do not ever see bear hide, or look inside of my shoes."

[Mercakete]

Well, the only other person to find was none other than Ranyin. It took a bit of searching, but Norbert spotted him without too much trouble. "Hey, Ranyin. How do you feel? You didn't look so good during the fight," Norbert asked as he came up to the Kigenese mage.

[Rothene]

"Oh, hello Bert," Ranyin greeted. "Ah, the fight? well, practicing new forms of magic tends to be very demanding. But it's nothing really serious. Thanks for your concern."

[Mercakete]

"I see," he was somewhat visibly relieved that Ranyin wasn't sick or something. Was that normal for mages, though? Couldn't be healthy. "Well, that's good to hear." For a moment, he paused. Something felt like it'd dried on his cheek. He scratched at it, inspected his fingernail and found that it was blood. Then he remembered that lance strike that'd made him see stars for a bit. I guess I was scratched... Oh yeah, I remember now. Man, how hard was I hit? Deciding not to dwell on it, he simply began rubbing the dry blood off of his cheek as he continued his conversation with Ranyin.

"Anyway, you see this rend?" he asked, shifting his torso to display the cut through the shoulder of his jerkin. It was still covered in blood from when the axe had torn through it. "My tunic's cut under it, too. Could you fix them? Or is lather too hard for you?"

[Rothene]

Leather? Ranyin chuckled uncomfortably as he replied, "I'm sorry but no...I can't sew that my friend."

Thinking for a short moment, the Kigenese mage recalled the boy that had been following them for a while. He had not much use for the boy as he had no weapons or equipments to repair and he could handle mending his own robes well enough on his own.

"Well, do you know who Connor is?"

[Mercakete]

Connor? Norbert thought about it before snapping his fingers as he recalled. "Oh right, that kid that lives in the Dauntless." He pasued a moment before looking suspiciously at Ranyin. "Waiiit are you saying that kid can repair leather?" he asked. That's...a bit weird.

[Rothene]

"Well, I heard he's able to make weapons and armour better. If that was true, then repairing them should be easy," Ranyin replied shrugging. Then he added, "And I've seen our comrades seeing him with their metal shields, leather mounted armour and the sort. I believe the wyvern rider might have gotten his lance enhanced from the kid too."

[Mercakete]

Well, this was a nice little morsel of information. "He can, huh?" Norbert asked, interest piqued. More to himself, he muttered under his breath at the revelation. "No wonder Raquel keeps him around... Was kinda wondering why we were toting a kid..."

"Thanks for the tip. I'll see him about this armor, then. Maybe I can get him to improve it some... If you don't mind, I'll ask you to handle the tunic, though. I'll find a way to wash it before I have you work on it first, if you want. That can wait, though," he replied, his smile growing somewhat, "The ship isn't moving right now and the winds aren't too harsh. If you want, we can fly around a bit and get started on those observations you wanted to make about how to help Rizen's flight with your magic."

[Phoenix]

Filat

There was some work to be done picking out a large group of the Leverager's men to help crew the Utka, but it would wait a moment. Gytha wanted to know for certain that Filat was made captain. Filat sighed and then shrugged. "For the moment. This isn't the first ship we've captured, but it is the first I've been made captain of, and it is the first good candidate for ... well ... 'keeps', as the gamblers say." he explained gloomily.

[Mercakete]

"HAHARR! Congratulations! Even if ye don't stay 'er captain, it's pretta excitin' t' get a tast o' it, aye? N' if ye do well, it onla increases yer chances o' gettin' a ship o' yer own one day," Gytha encouraged, quite possibly feeling more excited about this than Filat himself, "If ye know what yer doin' don't worry about it. Ye'll do just fine. This isn't yer first voyage, aye? Ye know how t' run a ship, don't ye? N' ye have executive experience what with bein' first mate n' all. N' yer crew's goin' t' be made up o' people ye've alreada been workin' with who understand yer their authorita figure, so this should be easy, aye?"

[Phoenix]

Fil

"... well, at least someone is happy about all of this." Filat remarked. He figured he would at least say that much before trying to tackle the plethora of questions Gytha had just asked back to back to back. "I wouldn't exactly call this 'exciting'. The captain gave me a job to do and I'll do it. That's how I've been during every voyage, I suppose. I'm not worried about commanding the Utka for the time being ... it's only a little over a day from Temptress to Tremere, and even if we decide to keep her, I'll have plenty of time to get used to full command. I'm not sure why you're so excited about all of this. You barely know us."

[Mercakete]

"Harr, well, I've onla heard about ships bein' captured b'fore. Mostla sailed with marchents t' guard their wares as they traveled from one port t' another. N' I think a promotion's somethin' t' get excited about. Changes one's career, after all, even if it's onla temporary," Gytha explained, chuckling as she continued, "Doesn't matter how long I've known ye. Yer decent folk s'far n' we're shipmates so when somethin' so rare n' so good happens t' someone, I don't see a reason t' not be happy fer th' jack."