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#Post#: 1529--------------------------------------------------
Pirates
DIR By: Inkglitched
Date: February 20, 2026, 9:24 am
---------------------------------------------------------
The smell of the fresh sea air always put a pep in the otherwise
cranky pirates step as Ulrich helped to get crates loaded up and
organized for the coming trip onto the high seas. He honestly
didn't give two shits over where this boat was taking him, but
there was bound to be adventure around the next vend.
"Oi, Lady fingers, need a hand?" A rather round pirate asked
Ulrich getting a glare before a wicked smirk came to his lips as
he let go of the rope he had been holding, causing the board he
was hoisting up to slam down on the man's fingers getting a cry
of pain and lots of teasing from all within earshot. Those who
knew the blonde knew he didn't take kindly to being made fun of
for his rather feminine looks.
——
Shu was busy as usual gauging the currents, and telling his
captain where to avoid storms. “I would avoid the southwest.
It’ll be a rough one for sure.” He said before the sound of pain
from a bigger pirate right after a slam. He sighed as he shook
his head at the pirate. He then noticed a smaller one.. and
rather delicate looking with a smirk. His brows raised a
bit,”take care of that Shu will you?” He heard as he sighed.”I’m
not the first mate you know.” He told him before hearing.”ya
under orders, do it or you won’t like what happens next.” Shu
turned to flip the captain off when his back turned. He walked
over asking what was going on.
“This ..this woman smashed my fingers.” Shu looked at the man
and looked back.”maybe you shouldn’t of hit on her mate- you’d
still have fingers.” He said and sighed.”get along I don’t want
to be the one to tell the cap’n and ya know how he be.” He told
the veterans.
“I apologize..” he started to look at Ulrich. He paused.”for my
mates horrible attitude.. play nice for now… please?” He asked
as his hands were on his hips. He felt he made a bad call, but
he sure wasn’t gonna give this pirate an opening on his hands.
——
Ulrich could only see read when the man not only very whinnily,
much like Ulrich imagined toddlers to be, told what looked to be
the first mate what happened, the man called him a woman. It
was enough to make his murderous side come out. Before he could
cause more hard to the man who was assuming he was a woman, he
was pulled back by his more reasonable side. Murdering people
would make him have to find a new ship to board and he did not
feel like going through that trouble.
"Keep your bloody apology, next fucker who calls me a woman is
ganna get a first class trip to meet Davie himself!" He
practically snarled in a deep growling voice that was about as
far from feminine as one could get. The look of shock on those
around him's face made Ulrich sigh in frustration, though the
look of fear he had managed to instill was satisfying enough for
now.
——
Shu blinked and naturally looked around at first as if he felt
someone was messing with him. Even behind ulrich. He could feel
a murderous haze and said in a rather small voice.”apologies on
my part.. “ he said and mumbled how the captain was an
ass.”think I’m good I would like to keep my life- ma’ - I mean
sir! Sir!!” He said fixing it.
All his flags were going up and was about ready to flee the crew
again until he heard the order from the captain to get on the
ship once they got the last of it up.
He sighed feeling the telltale burn on his shoulder.”you be my
matey now..” he said as a blue bird landed on his shoulder. It
whistled a bit and said in its voice.”rawww hey hot stuff…
rawwww” Shu made a small sheepish look.
“This is my dumb bird- Gale. Repeats everything he’s heard.” He
said leaving out the fact it was just him.
He turned.”I’ll give you a hand with the rest- we ship out…
boy.” He said before heading up letting a breath out.
——
Ulrich's glare relaxed slightly at the man's repeated apology
and even correcting himself mid sentence. Any residual anger
fully leaving him when a massive bird landed on the strangers
shoulder, saying quite strange things, even saying something
about someone being hot. It got a raised eyebrow from the blonde
pirate.
Given his absolute loathing for animals, Ulrich did take several
paces back away from the man. "Ulrich." He said, following after
the sailor at a reasonable distance. He did *not* want to be
anywhere near birds. They liked to bite him due to his smell
matching that of octopuses.
——
“Shu… you’ll meet the crew.. one fair warning isn’t what he
seems- saw him taking down a man twice his size once.” He said
to Ulrich. He noticed how he was following behind him.”come on
gale don’t bite yanno.” He said as he felt the bird shift.”Uriah
is one man you don’t wanna cross.. he also goes by blue.” He
told him as his bird started up again.”rawww sweet blue kissy
kiss rawwww”
“Shut it bird or I’ll make a pie out of you.” He said as Gale
flew off.
——
Ulrich made zero effort to bridge any distance he had created
between himself and Shu, "right, well... I don't exactly do
animals..." He said as he listened to his new shipmate warn him
about particular people. He couldn't help the scoff to himself
at the man claiming one crew mate could take out people twice
his size. Seeing as almost everyone Ulrich fought had that kind
of size advantage on him he didn't find it particularly
impressive, but he didn't need to voice that out loud.
He only allowed himself closer to Shu when the bird finally flew
off. He made short work of the remaining things that needed to
be loaded. "I don't tend to go out of my way to cross people so
long as they stay out of my way." Ulrich said with quite a bit
of humor coating his words.
——
Shu chuckled.”everyone says that mate.. most try to bring down
the biggest baddest crew member- and that’s not me.” He said
with a lopsided smile.”but I am a navigator.. currents are more
my thing anyway.” He said with a small wink. “What got ya to
join this crew anyway?” He said as he got his stuff done and
taking time to get to know the new face.
——
"Ya could say the sea is in my blood. Don't feel right if my
boots aren't under the rocking of a ship. Chose this ship
because I haven't been kicked off yet." Ukrich said with a laugh
to himself. "Lot of people seem to under the impression I am
weak or frail and they find out the hard way. Captains doesn't
usually like my hard way. One day I'll have a ship of my own,
but for *some* reason people don't particularly like giving ship
away for free." Ulrich explained as he leaned against a barrel
as he spoke.
It wasn't often he just talked to anyone, not since his
childhood friend and brother disappeared. "It is good to know
this ship will be unlikely to get lost like the last ship I went
out with." He added.
——
“Ah don’t worry bout the idiots.. that’s why I mentioned blue..
he has a way of showing that size doesn’t really matter.” He
said with a chuckle and sat on top of the barrel some.”oh? Got
lost? Where were they going?” He asked.
——
"Ever actually found out where it was supposed to go. Got eneded
up here after the ship ran aground several miles west of here."
Ulrich explained. "I don't typically ask too many question so
long as I get paid." He added, watching as the ship began to
come to life with activity as the crew began to scurry about and
get ready to set sail.
Ulrich was soon recruited to climb into the sails when some
ropes got stuck, his lean, small frame being perfect to squeeze
into the spaces that the rope had been caught. Ulrich wound up
in the crows nest when the ship finally found open water. He
watched for a long moment as the coastline gave way to more and
more blue waves.
After a long while to himself, he saw that blasted bird flying
about and decided to make himself scarce and went into the mess
hall where the crew was making marry and drinking their weight
in booze. It wasn't long before Ulrich was sat at a table,
chucking booze while anialiating every person who challenged him
to an arm wrestle.
It was becoming somewhat of a spektical as Ulrich seem
unbeatable even with enough booze in his system to knock down
post sea dogs.
——
Once Blue had finished his tasks on the deck, and up on the
masts he headed down to the mess hall to see what his favorite
short mate Shu was up to. He'd kind of taken a liking to the
guy, and liked flirting and harassing the man a bit when he got
the chance. Nothing had happened yet, though he got the feeling
that Shu was very much wanting it to.
He joined the other mates, drinking but making sure to not go
overboard. Blue preferred to keep his wits sharp. Especially
with the Captain being a shapeshifter with mind control
abilities. Not that many of the crew knew this.
He brushed up against Shu, nudging the man with a grin as they
watched the other men armwrestling the white haired new comer.
"He's very impressive," BLue commented, widening his legs so one
brushed against Shu's leg.
"Hey blue, you should get in on this!" Boris, one of the losers
said spying him. "Teach the little la-man a thing or two,"
Blue raised an eyebrow and turned his gaze on the man, his blue
eye flashed as it took in the man slowly, picking up on a very
strange aura. "No thanks. I'm happy letting the newbie win and
show you all up," He replied with a chuckle and finished off his
ale.
——
Unlike the rest, Shu was downing his rum. The man was on his way
to not feel a thing. And there was a reason. He had a good time
watching ulrich arm wrestle the guys and winning. Course he took
bets and was getting money as he went to feel a brush from blue.
“Sure is- he’s making me money.” He said with a laugh. He then
felt the leg of blue to brush against his blushing. Course he
felt a bit giddy to drink a little to chuckle. He noticed how
blue’s eye flashed wondering what was up- but damn it looked
hot.
“Mm probably best I think.” He said as he drank.”boys not bad at
all.” He said with a smirk. He planned on giving ulrich a cut
given he was doing so well.
——
Ulrich made a show of boldly holding his arm up while drinking
from his mug while his opponent trying their best to move his
arm at all. "Come on mate, ya can't be *this* weak! I'm a stones
toss from being flat out, come on now," Ulrich taunted before
harshly slaming the guys hand against the table getting first a
pained sound from his latest victim before the place erupted in
merry cheers.
It was after this that it seemed no one else was willing to take
him on, so instead card games began to pop up and Ulrich took
this as his cue to make himself scarce. He knew he would be
feeling all that booze full force before long and he didn't want
to be in the loud mess hall when that happened.
He easily slipped out as the mess hall began to break out into
drunken song. The fresh sea air hit was nice and sobering, he
soon found a nice quiet place to watch the sun set over the edge
of the endless water. They were far out enough now that you
couldn't even tell what direction the land was. He wondered how
well his new friend Shu would be able to point out the nearest
land.
——
Blue chuckled a bit, not in the least bit surprised that Shu was
using the opportunity to make some money. "Good to hear," He
replied glancing over and seeing the other's pink face.
Blue kept what he'd seen to himself, not wanting to bring out
Shu's paranoid side. The last thing he needed was to track the
man down again if he got the gumption to run off. Sometimes that
got a bit tiresome, but it was one of his unofficial jobs..that
he was forced to do. If shu's navigation skills weren't in such
high demand, the Captain would have just cut his losses.
Blue wasn't all that surprised by the new comer winning, and got
up, brushing against Shu again. "I'll be uptop when you're done
collecting." He told him. "You can join me if you'd From his
position, he wasn't visible to anyone coming up, which proved to
be helpful to Ulrich a few moments later. His head turned
hearing heavy footsteps and spied one of the men that had arm
wrestled with the younger man approaching, ill intent showing on
his face.
"Ulrich watch out!" Blue called out, launching himself towards
the other crewman. "Gordo, stand down!" He yelled, only to get a
hit to the face and go flying a few feet. He groaned and
scrambled to his feet a bit slowly. "Stop being a sore loser!
Stand down!" He yelled, his eyes flashing, the blue one getting
brighter, lunging back at the man.
THis time, he used the kinetic energy he'd absorbed to hit the
man; making the idiot crumple with a pained cry. "Stay the fuck
down you asshole," He growled.
——
Shu had come up after getting his winnings to witness blue
dealing with gordo. He got between ulrich and blue to give a
bit more separation from the what looked like an altercation. He
then dumped a bag of money in ulrich’s hands. He let off a
breath to turn in the direction of blue and gordo to say in a
cool tone.”be wise and stay down .” He told him.”or I can get
the cap involved Gordo.” He added with a hint of a threat. He
knew it come at a price but if it meant keeping hands off
certain members Shu would do it in a heartbeat. And right now he
cared not just for blue but the new crew member. He didn’t seem
so bad- felt they would get along .
#Post#: 1530--------------------------------------------------
Re: Pirates
DIR By: Inkglitched
Date: February 20, 2026, 9:42 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Everything moved too quickly for Ulrich's drunken mind to
entirely understand before everything was already over. First he
head his name being yelled out by a man he had yet to meet, it
was always *fantastic* when strangers knew your name. It seem
like it could for once he a good thing when he saw the man the
guy was trying to stop. The scuffle was quickly but it was more
than enough for Ulrich to see the powerful magic this guy had
access too.
Then, as if poping out of thin air like a prairiedog, She
appeared with a bag full of coins being dumped into his
unsuspecting hands before turning to threaten Ulrich's attacker.
"What the fuck?" Was all he could muster at everything that just
took place. "I am way too drunk for this kind of shit, why am I
getting paid? And where did you learn to do that? Its not like
any magic i have seen..." Ulrich asked the pair, had be been
more sober he probably would have left out the comment about
knowing it was magic. He didn't need people knowing the cards he
had to play.
—-
Blue shot Gordo another dark glare as the man started moving,
then stopped when Shu showed up giving his own advice and
threat.
"Go ahead and try something, give me the excuse I need to toss
your ass overboard. I've got enough energy stored to go another
three rounds," Blue growled flexing his fists.
Gordo slumped, deciding to stay down and not willing to get a
real ass whooping from Blue. He knew what his crew mate was
capable of.
Blue turned hearing Ulrich's questions and raised an eyebrow at
the man's mention of magic. Hmm...there was something about this
one that made him wonder.
"It's hard to explain it so people can understand it. I got hit
by lightning and it gave me weird abilities. I can see auras and
for some reason store up kinetic energy inside me. It kind of
doubles or tripled in strength when I release it in a blow. It
comes in handy in a fight though."
Blue was sure he'd have to explain it again, with how drunk
Ulrich appeared. "As for the money, Shu over here was betting on
you and made bank. He's the fair type, so is sharing his win,"
——
Shu blinked a few times.”fair type HA! I got a good bank this
time so you deserve at least half.. don’t make much it’s all
mine.” He said. He felt an arm and looked over. Then he
remembered.. his ears turned a bit red but first.”come on mate..
I’ll watch your back till ya sober up.” He said with a smile
before hearing footsteps as the good natured smile fell.
“Cap’n!” He straightened up again.”Shu wanted to go over things
one more time in my cabin tonight.. understood.” Shu
grumbled.”again? We been over it about five times before we
left! Have you no…” a flag went up, as well as a thought formed
in his mind as his face twisted a little unhappily.
”yes .. captain…” he said his face shifting to the side a
little.”sorry blue.. seems tonight I’m busy.. mind keeping an
eye on ulrich till he gets his mind straight?” He asked in a
tone that sounded like he was just done.
——
Even in Ulrich's drunken state, he could *smell* something off
about that interatiom. The shift in Shu's demener was enough for
him to draw some unpleasant conclusions. This captain was
definitely the one he was looking for.
"My mind is perfectly straight!" Ukrich protested before
dissolving into a laugh. Sure he wasn't actually that drunk at
the moment, but no one needed to know that. When he was alone
with Blue he finally turned his attention to the handsome man.
"Sooooo that's not normal.... no captain goes over travel plans
like that...." Ulrich said outloud, mostly to himself before a
wicked grin came to his lips. "Come on, I have an idea..." He
said, giving away his somewhat sober state as he headed in the
direction the pair had just wandered off to.
It wasn't hard locating the captions quarters. The sounds he
could hear from inside making his stomach turn. He lit a
cigarette, holding it between his lips and he climbed up one of
the masts. He found a post that would likely slam into the cabin
if he cut it. Easily, he pressed the lit ember against the rope
and watched it put away before violently singly down and taking
out an entire wall of the room. "Fuck..." Ulrich said, realizing
that it caused way more damage than he expected and quickly went
about hiding himself once he returned to Blue.
——
Blue shook his head, smiling a bit at Shu 's protest if being
fair. He slid his arm over the shorter man's shoulders, pulling
him a bit closer. "Yeah, I know that's not true," he said in a
softer voice, getting quite close to the man.
Hearing the footsteps had him pulling away, cursing inwardly at
the timing of the Captain.
Though Blue kept his face devoid of emotions, inside he was
seething knowing exactly what the captain wanted from Shu. He
hated the man intensely, not just for being one of his families
murderers, but for forcing himself in Shu. He cared for the
younger man, and hoped to get him away from the ship after his
secret job was completed.
"Yeah, I'll do that. " He replied hiding his clenched fists
behind his back.
Blue blinked when Ulrich's manner shifted so quickly. "Yeah
you're right. He forces himself on Shu every chance he gets,"
Blue replied, letting his anger out a bit.
He wasn't sure what the guy had in mind but followed after him.
He usually avoided being so close to the captains quarters, not
wanting to hear what Shu was going through. When he realized
what Ulrich's plan was a look of horror filled his face.
Thankfully someone up top saw the falling post and shouted out a
warning, keeping Blue from revealing himself. "Captain! Get back
from the starboard wall!"
"Fuck, you could've hurt Shu!" blue said, pulling Ulrich down
out of sight as people scrambled to inspect the damaged wall and
check on the Captain.
——
Shu was in the middle of the captains whims when there was a
call to the captain, the man’s head shifted for him to back off,
dragging shu off the bed as the mast hit. “Get dressed.” He told
the man as Shu scrambled for the clothing.”should of taken you
out..” he mumbled before a boot flew out kicking him in the
side.”what was that?”
“Nothing..” grunted Shu. He came out after dressing trying to
hide from the others that were inspecting the wall, the captain
throwing his own on. Shu came out and wheeled to get to the
least populated side of the ship.
——
"Don't be a baby, I can't hurt him with that mast more than what
is going on in that room..." Ulrich shot back in a sharp
whisper, his face going quite red at being pressed so close to
Blue while they hid.
He tried not to pay attention to his bodily reactions as he
watched for any sign of Shu, grinning when he saw the man
attempt to slip away.
"Come on." He told Blue when as he slipped out of their hiding
spot and followed after Shu, not revealing himself until the
three were for sure alone.
"Are you hurt?" Ulrich asked, not even attempting to ask if the
man was okay. Clearly no one would be okay in this situation. An
uncharacteristic air of concern and worry in his words. It was a
side of him only a few select beings got to see. He couldn't
help but feel the need to protect the man.
In other circumstances, Ulrich may have even hugged the guy, but
he had a feeling Blue would be far more worried and want that
opertunity. Ulrich leaned on the side of the ship as he lit a
fresh cigarette, taking a deep soothing breath of nicotine.
——
Blue's eyes narrowed a bit, but knew that Ulrich was right. He
released his hold of the younger man, realizing how tightly he'd
held him. He let out a long sigh.
"He's really the only person I care about, sorry, I got
worried,"
He followed after ulrich, having seen Shu slip away as well. He
moved to the other side of Shu looking him over closely for
signs of wounds.
At least until the captains quarters were fixed, Shu would get a
bit of reprieve from the captain's attention. Not that it would
be that long.
"Come here," he said softly and drew Shu into his arms, hugging
him close. After a moment he let him go.
Then he glanced over at Ulrich, realizing he might have an ally
in the newcomer.
"There's a few things you should know about the Captain. At some
point he's likely to get you alone and try the same shit he's
done with me and Shu and pretty much everyone on his ship. If
you have any sort of talent he finds useful, or magically
inclined he'll brand you with his mark.
He's able to jump into the bodies of animals to survive until he
finds another body. This is his sixth body since I got on this
ship."
Blue paused for a moment to look at Shu. "It's likely he's some
sort of demon. Killing him, is hard but needs to be done. Most
of the others don't care what work he gets as long as they get
their share. "
He shared the type of work the captain preferred the most,
selling slaves and child trafficking for a dhampir on the
mainland.
——
“Just my pride.” Half joked Shu when he heard ulrich. He felt
the concerned hands of blue and blushed a bit.”no worries the
cap pulled me off the bed.” He told him honestly.”needs me to
much too let me die.” He said with a flash of a grin. He didn’t
like showing how affected he was.
He saw the smoke and sighed a bit.”think all I need to do is
drink… a lot.” He said quietly.
He felt the man draw him in for a hug and buried his head a
little in his shoulder.
“Y..yeah.. recently saved a bunch of kids from suffering like I
did.. this is a wrap up really..” he said with a small look. His
mind flashed a bit at a memory.”but yeah.. try to keep on the
downlow.. if the cap comes for you- I’ll step in.” He said
quietly. He sure as hell wasn’t going to let someone else
suffer.
——
Ulrich listened to the pair, it was rather adorable watching
Blue comfort the smaller man. A look of curiosity in his eyes
at Blue's mention of a dhampir. So that was the contact he need
to find. He was still didn't trust the two to know what he
really was or that he was looking for a half dragon.
A sneer escaped Ulrich and a nearly lethal glare came to his
eyes. "He can certainly try his hand at trying me. You will find
out what a properly broken nose feels like if you put yourself
in the way of that man for my sake.... I'm not a child or a
frail woman like many seem to think, can handle myself... i
didnt crash a mast through the captains quarters for you to
throw yourself at his feet for me..." Ulrich nearly hissed out
the words.
"As horrible as the situation is, this means I am on the right
track... I am searching for my brother... and I heard rumors of
the captain... and that he might have him... clearly I didn't
find him on the ship... but his contact on land may be able to
aid me...." Ulrich said trailing off as he thought. It was made
far from easy with the booze in his system.
"I'll go grab some booze and hunt yall down. If yall arnt still
here..." Ulrich said, his voice losing that threatening tone and
give way to a caring one.
"We will get ya right," he added before and wandered off into
the mess hall, acting shocked when someone told him about the
mast incident. Once he managed to get ahold of a whole keg,
Ulrich hoisted it over on his shoulder and went looking for the
pair. He paused for a brief moment when he saw just how angry
the captain was. He couldn't help the smirk on his lip.
——
Blue held back what he really wanted to say, and bit his tongue.
He knew Shu was trying to not show how he really felt. One day
perhaps they'd end this stupid facade and actually tell each
other how they really felt.
That brief moment of holding the man close would have to be
enough until they dealt properly with the Captain.
Of course he was not happy one bit when Shu mentioned stepping
in to distract the Captain for Ulrich. He blinked, a bit
surprised by the venom in Ulrich's threat of a broken nose and
telling Shu he could take care of the Captain himself.
After seeing the other's strange aura, he didn't doubt that
Ulrich could do what he was saying.
"Sounds like we should work together," Blue said thoughtfully.
While he wanted to say more, he couldn't risk it.
"All right, you do that,"
Once Ulrich had left, Blue let out a long sigh and glanced
around. "Sounds like we may have another ally, might help us get
this all finished sooner. I want to be honest, I like you a lot.
I want to be with you, but for now I can't take things all the
way. But when we're finally free of this situation, I plan on
giving you everything you've ever wanted."
——
Shu just went quiet as the small man let it out and rubbed the
back of his head a little.
He listened a bit and made a small frown. He remembered Caspian
and Aryll. If they hadn’t gotten away Caspian would of been used
just like his sister.
He watched him go and went to lean against the side of the
ship.
“Liked you the moment you popped up blue.. you didn’t use me..
you even took the time to help me at my worst.” Shu said
quietly. “Sucks you can’t.. if we manage to get free just make
me make this a distant memory..” he said his face holding a far
away look.”then maybe.. find a ship of me own.. or find someone
kind enough to use me for what I’m really built for… “ though he
never said it out loud- he never did cut it out for land. He
enjoyed the sea.. even before the hell he was introduced to at
13. His hand went to his face wondering how his sisters were
doing. It was funny how he would let the past slip in in the
most odd moments.
——
Ulrich managed to go unnoticed in all the chaos he had created.
It pleased him to no end that he had upset the captain so
completely. It was easy to track down the pair once again seeing
as they hadn't moved from where he had left them. "OH good,
didn't catch you two snoggin," Ulrich jested as he set the keg
down on top of the nearest crate, pulling the cork at the top
before tiling the heavy keg and filling up a three mugs, handing
then off to his new compainions.
"Chug that and I'll fill another one for ya, cant have you
thinking things," Ulrich teased with a wink as the man before he
began to sip on his booze. He knew he could be quite
unpersonable most of the time, so be made an effort to have that
not be the case when Shu was in such a fragile state. He didn't
even know the guy well and he could see it.
——
Blue couldn't help but smile a bit, hearing Shu say that he'd
liked him from the first time they'd met. A part of him wanted
to explain, tell him that he was more than a pirate, and that he
wasn't supposed to let himself get distracted from his mission.
He leaned in closer, wanting to at least give the man a kiss.
"While it's not a given, I feel like we will live through this.
Or if not, I will find you in the next life. We will have our
chance together," He said softly.
Blue moved his hand under Shu's jaw, intending to lift the man's
face so he could kiss him when Ulrich rejoined them, noisily
setting a keg of beer near them. He sighed and pulled away,
giving Shu an apologetic look as he took the mug Ulrich brought
over.
"Nope, cause you interrupted the moment," Blue mumbled into the
mug before drinking all of its' contents in one gulp. "Actually,
I need to keep a clear head. I will take one more though," He
added and moved to fill his mug again.
——
Shu listened as he heard the man’s words to blush a bit- he felt
the pull in after the feel of his hand their lips so close… and
then ulrich made his announcement as he groaned a little in
frustration.
He got the cup and filled it to take a long drink.”you may not
but imma drink till I’m gone.” He said and sighed.”maybe things
will be a bit more easy tomorrow.” He said to chuckle and drink
more.
“So ulrich.. what do you do for fun besides arm wrestle?” He
asked with a grin.
#Post#: 1531--------------------------------------------------
Re: Pirates
DIR By: Inkglitched
Date: February 20, 2026, 9:47 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Ulrich snorted with laughter finding out he had in fact
interrupted their moment. "Oops, maybe next time mate," Ulrich
teased as he drank with the pair. He felt a heavy eye roll come
across his eyes as it seemed that this Blue guy was going to be
the wet blanket of the night.
"Ohhhh I like you," Ulrich said with a fresh laugh. "Drink til
we can't tell the difference between the sky and tha blue beauty
we glide across!" He cheered with his mug raised before downing
it.
Between Ulrich and Shu, the keg didn't last very long. Ulrich
was laid out on the ground, too drunk to actually walk now. "Dis
ya knews da flygs hrtast?" He grumbled out in speech too slured
to understand before finally passing out for the night.
——
Blue shrugged, not minding in the least bit that Shu felt like
drinking until he couldn't think anymore. After everything he'd
gone through, he didn't blame the man. He knew though that if
the two of matched each other in drinking, they'd need someone
to make sure they got safely into their bunks. So..he didn't
mind staying the rational one of the group.
He rolled his shoulders a bit at Ulrich's teasing. "It's fine,
really." He replied and sipped his second drink slower.
Blue kept a watchful eye over the two; though no one came in
search of them. It seemed they were occupied following the
Captain's urgent orders to fix his cabin so he could get back to
work.
Hearing Ulrich's slurred speech had him chuckling a bit. Blue
ran a hand though his hair, wondering how he was supposed to
carry the both of them down to their bunks.
The sound of soft bare feet walking nearby caught his attention
and he waved at the druid healer, Justus. The man was a bit odd,
often coming out from his private closet of a room at strange
times of the day or night. "Hey Justus..mind giving me a hand? I
can get Shu, but I don't want to leave the new guy up here
alone. He's already..pissed off some of the crew by winning the
arm wrestling games,"
Justus blinked his eerily bright emerald green eyes and looked
down at the passed out mumbling white haired pirate. "I can
help, " He agreed in a soft voice. He moved to squat in front of
Ulrich and picked him up in his arms easily and then followed
Blue down into the hold. "I could just take him to my room, that
way I can keep an eye on him."
Blue nodded, shifting Shu over his shoulder to get down the
stairs a bit easier. "Probably a good idea. though he might
freak out when he wakes up."
——
Shu was already singing a little obviously gone by then. “Oi
easy blue, “ he slurred.”I love you blue.. “ he slurred more as
it started to head to territory of Shu started his flirty
talk.”got a nice ass you know.., enjoying the..” he hiccups,
“view.” It would turn back to him singing with a slur an
incoherent song.
——
Ulrich was essentially dead weight as he was carried away from
the deck, entirely unaware of anything around him. He awoke in a
proper bed the following morning with a terrible hang over and
no idea where he was.
He got the oddest sensation that someone was starting at him. He
let his eyes slowly open, taking in the room, but more
importantly, the owner of the room staring at him with the most
intense green eyes he had ever seen.
Ulrich's immediately screamed and fell out of the bed in his
panic, a pained noise leaving him and made no attempt to get up
off the floor.
——
Blue couldn't help but chuckle hearing Shu's slurred singing. It
was rather hilarious to him how much more the man flirted when
he was drunk. He wondered if the man would remember any of it
though.
"Thank you, you've got a great ass yourself, handsome," Blue
purred back and patted the man's butt before lowering Shu onto
his lumpy mattress. "Now try to rest. I'm getting a bucket in
case you need it." He told the man and then moved to pull off
Shu's boots, setting them on the floor. After he'd retrieved the
bucket, he made sure the other was comfortable before he climbed
into his own bed.
-----------------
Justus had napped a bit during the night, but spent most of it
working on making potions and healing poultices. He was
something of a night owl, and because the Captain needed him; he
was allowed his eccentricities.
He hadn't been able to take his eyes off the man in his bed,
even during his work he'd stop to look at him intensely..trying
to figure out why the man felt so different.
Justus was in the middle of his meditation, cross legged and
half floating off the floor, intently musing over the man when
he woke and saw him. The resulting scream and panic that had his
guest fall to the floor made him wince.
He got out of his pose, stepping to the floor and moved to check
the man over gently touching him. "Are you all right? Did you
hurt yourself? I apologize for causing you such a fright."
Justus said in a soft voice. It had an a sort of airy tone to
it.
——
Gale perched on blues shoulder as it listened to its masters
antics. Shu felt the pat to his ass and grinned a bit drunkly.”
Yes g-got a nice ass me-self..” he chuckled.”should be ya takin
it…” he said not really fighting the carrying.
He felt himself laid on the bed, his head shifting at the
swimming motion - well more so than the waves on the ocean.
“I need no bucket!!” Started Shu to shoot his head up at the man
taking his boots off.”mmm stripping me already? Take me away!”
He slurred before feeling the telltale swim-“never mind- I need
the bucket.”
After some fussing Shu laid there as he listened to blue getting
in bed.”yanno- ya should come over here n’ keep me.. ah… me.. “
he mumbled before his eyes drifted.”warm..”
He finally passed out, Gale, having gotten on its perch.
“Rawww.. kissy kissy…rawww.”
A mumble came out incomprehensible though it was meant to tell
Gale to shut up.
——
Ulrich's head lifted up from the floor quickly feeling something
touching him and realizing it was the green eyed man fussing
over him. "If I get taken out from fallen out a bed, I deserve
it." The cranky hung over pirate snarked, sitting up on the
floor and shilding his eyes from the invading morning light from
the window.
"Who are you?" He asked after a moment. "I mean, I can call you
whatever, you just might not like it." He grumbled as he got to
his feet, using the bed to help steady himself.
——
Blue chuckled in amusement at Shu's drunken flirting. It was
more rather cute how the man got bolder when he was drunk and
said things he normally wouldn't outloud.
"One day, that will happen," He promised the drunk man,
wondering just how much of the exchange Shu would remember the
next morning. Of course..with Gale hearing everything, the bird
would probably squawk about it to anyone that would listen.
Blue knew better, having taken care of Shu drunk before. He
shook his head a bit, hearing the man change his mind a few
moments later. He had half settled in his own bed when he heard
Shu mumbling about joining him in bed and keeping him warm.
He quite longingly considered it, then let out a long sigh. He
really had to keep his distance. If the Captain thought they
were getting too close..who knew what could happen. It was more
than likely he'd be sent off on some task far away..and his
chance of getting rid of the man would be taken from him.
Hearing Gale's squawking and Shu's mumbled words had him laugh
again. He really couldn't help but hope for a good outcome. He'd
kind of already fallen for the brash cocky Shu. There was no
doubt about that.
He rested a bit, waking when he heard others coming to sleep
themselves. He was too on edge to really sleep the night
through. He finally slid out his bed and headed up to the upper
deck to relieve himself and deal with his daily tasks.
---------------
Justus cocked his head to the side, his eyebrows furrowing a
bit, confused by the other's sentiment about being taken out
from falling on the floor. "Well..you did hit the floor a bit on
the hard side. I guess because I startled you," He said
thoughtfully and pulled back.
Noticing the man's reaction to the light he moved to draw a
curtain over the bright sunlight, just enough so it wasn't
blinding his guest.
Justus chuckled a bit at the other's question and then grumbled
comment about calling him whatever. "What would you call me? The
only thing I find offensive is derogatory names.
Fairy..Fag..stuff like that."
He watched as the white haired man steadied himself, holding
back his comment on how beautiful the other was. That could very
well be taken badly by the guy. "I'm Justus, and...I think
you're one of the new crew guys..Ulrich right?" He asked
recalling what Blue had told him.
——
Shu slept in a bit harder than most, course some of it was
waking up to puke. He rubbed his head slowly to slide up to
hear.”rawww stripping me rawwww “ he smacked his face.”stop
repeating my drunken talk.” He told Gale as he shifted for his
boots. His head pounded but he figured it would get better as
the day went. He came out to hear the captain already yelling
for him.”wonderful what now.” He said as he made his way up.”yes
ohhh captain.” He asked as he was given an eyeglass. He stared
at the man as he rolled his shoulders and looked in. His eye
went a bit wide as he spied the red hair he knew so well of two
kids.”fuck nope no sir I’d leave that boat alone!” He said as
negatives poured right away.
“Why not?” Ask the captain.”pair of twins fetch for quite a bit
and I’d think you and the shifter could snag them.. probably the
long dark haired one too.”he started.”I wouldn’t I recognize the
short haired one- killed a full grown man that one when that
dhampires last hideout went down. Better turn the boat I’m
telling ya.” He argued back.
——
Ulrich was grateful when the light was blocked by his host.
"What's wrong with fariys? You have a bad run in?" Ulrich asked
with a raised eyebrow. He thankfully didn't have to put any
thoughts as to what to call him as the man soon provided his
name before and somehow already knowing his name. He hadn't even
slept around on this ship, or killed anyone, why was his name on
everyone's tounge?
"That's me name," he confirmed deciding he didn't care how the
guy knew his name. It required less thinking on his part.
"Where.... am i...." He asked when he realized that he didn't
even know what part of the ship he was on or even if he *was* on
the same ship. They wernt at a port to the likelihood of that
was pretty low.
——
"There are fairies yes. And there's people who are judgmental
bigots that call you `Fairy` because you prefer being with men,"
Justus explained, emphasizing the word in a derogatory tone like
he'd heard before. It was a bit apparent that Ulrich probably
hadn't heard it used that way before.
"I heard you are a great arm wrestler, everyone's been talking
about it," He explained, so the man didn't think it too weird
that he knew his name.
"You're in my private room, it's probably the safest place you
could be right now. Especially after that guy tried to attack
you last night. Blue asked me to keep an eye on you for now.
You're welcome to stay for as long as you need. I don't mind
sharing."
Justus went to pour a cup of water for the man and hand it over
along with a plate with fruit and bread on it. "You should drink
some water, eat something too."
——
-----
The morning had gone by quickly, Blue picking up information
from the other pirates as they worked around the ship. He
couldn't help but grimace when he heard that the Captain had
figured out that Ulrich had been behind the mast destroying his
cabin wall and had one of his men looking for him. He'd have to
slip away when he could to warn Ulrich and ask Justus to keep
the man safe in his cabin for awhile. At least until the
Captain's focus turned to other things.
It was close to midday when he spied the other ship, and alerted
the Captain about it. The man was soon bellowing for Shu to come
do his job. Blue waited to hear Shu's verdict, though he knew
that the Captain would do whatever the hell he wanted either
way.
This was proven when their captain disregarded Shu's
recommendation. Blue felt more than a little wary when Shu
argued, telling the man that one of the red head twins had
killed a grown man.
The Captain's eyes glinted and he moved in dangerously close to
Shu. "I want those twins, a the dark haired boy. Talk back and
ye will regret it next time I get you alone,"
——
"I see, yeah, I can see why you wouldn't like that," Ulrich said
in a grumbled voice of understanding. A smirk wicked across the
pirates lips hearing the whole crew had been talking about his
arm wrestling skills.
"I'm sober now, can handle myself. Don't need no motherin..."
Ulrich snapped, at the idea that *he* needed protecting.
"Appreciate ye loaning me yer room," he said, accepting the
drink and gulping it down quickly. "I'll grab something in the
mess hall. I'm sure there is work that needs doing..." Ulrich
said as he handed back the cup.
He then left the cabin and began to head to the barracks were
and got himself cleaned up before heading up to the deck. It was
just as he was about to reach the mess hall that he was spotted.
"Oi! There ye fuckin are! Ya rat!" Hollared the man looking for
him. As the man rushed him, Ulrich pulled out his sword and held
it out at the pirates chest, the guy only stopping inches from
it.
"I really don't *enjoy* killing crew mates, please don't tempt
me...." He said in an annoyed bored tone. He hadn't expected to
be hit from behind a moment later. Ulrich dropped the blade in
his dazed state as he tried to push past it. Arms came from
behind Ulrich and trapped and held up leaving the pirate exposed
as he was given several gut punches before he slumped in his
captors arms trying to catch his breath.
"Captian has been looking for ye." The man who had be punching
him said in the kind of tone a child would use to mock their
class mate who was in trouble with the teacher. Once they had
successfully subdued Ulrich, they dragged him to where the
captain was. "CAP we finally found him!!"
——
And as the shifter was flying back- something rather odd would
be seen- obviously a person *walking on the air* “and we are so
dead.” He said as he recognized the tuning well.
——
Blue had hoped to stay where he was working, but when Ulrich was
dragged to the Captain looking like he'd been beaten badly, he
sucked in a breath. He knew what was coming before the Captain
bellowed for him.
"BLUE! I need yer services!"
This always happened. It was as if the murderous fiend knew that
this job bothered him the most and took pleasure forcing him to
do it. Blue sighed and took a moment to let his emotions and
thoughts slide into the vault in his head. "Yes Captain?" He
asked coming up, his face blank and emotionless as he glanced
over at Ulrich and then back at the Captain.
"This one needs yer special water punishment," The Captain
pronounced, with an eager evil look in his eyes.
Blue rolled up his sleeves, giving the order for ten men to
start filling buckets and to keep them coming. Then he roughly
pulled Ulrich out of the other's hands, shoved him into a chair
that had been brought out and tied him to it. He angled the
man's neck back and covered it with a thick rag that had been
brought out. Blue grabbed the first bucket from a crew man and
slowly started pouring it over Ulrich's face, making it
impossible for the man to breath.
This was repeated for a good half hour, the pirates bringing
the water buckets, sweating and looking exhausted before the
Captain grunted in a satisfied way. "That'll do. Get him to
Justus. Make sure he'll be good for working later,"
By now, Ulrich was completely passed out in the chair from the
treatment. Blue untied the man and threw the limp body over his
shoulder and headed to the healer's quarters.
"Justus, Ulrich is needing your skills," He said in a flat tone,
his mind still locking away his true self. It was something he'd
had to learn how to do to survive on the ship.
——
Usually Ulrich didn't let things get this far and would have
slipped away and was off ship before things got this bad. He
struggled and fought as best he could given he was out numbered
and dazed. His focus was brought sharply into focus staring into
blue cold eyes. A chill of true fear went down his spine as he
was shoved into the chair and tied down. He could already feel
the panic set in when the rag was placed over his face and he
realized what was happening. He struggled hard at that point but
someone had a *tight* hold of his hair keeping him in place.
He could feel his body reacting to the water, causing his gills
to form and ears to change into a more fin like shape.
Thankfully this was hidden by the rag. Small blessings.
Quickly Ulrich could feel himself unable to breathe. Not enough
air for his lugs, not enough water for his gills, he lasted
until the last few minutes struggling to get free before his
body finally gave out and he passed out, his body no longer even
attending to breath as his skin began to turn blue.
He was unaware of anything until he felt warm arms embrace him.
He then became awake of lips on his own as he felt a rush of
need to breath. He turned to his side and began coughing hard
until his breathing finally came back and his features no longer
held fishy qualities. His awareness barely laster a few very
brief moments before he passed back out, though now breathing
and not on deaths door.
——
#Post#: 1532--------------------------------------------------
Re: Pirates
DIR By: Inkglitched
Date: February 20, 2026, 9:53 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Shu watched as one kid was dropped the long dark haired one
seemed timid and the red head seemed more quiet than
anything.”you know.” Said Ezra.”you messed up badddd.” He said
as Shu sighed.”I know.. but no one listens to the navigator
other than directions.” He said quietly as he watched the little
ball of fury land in the middle of the deck of the front of the
ship.
The captain seeing the small girl acting like a large adult her
legs spread apart and her arms folded and the mouth turned down.
“Shu!“ he called as the man walked up with the two other kids in
tow, both with their hands tied in the front.”care to explain?”
He asked.
“well you wanted them sooo bad I figured I’d get the boys- that
girl cares about these boys.. and now our ship is probably gonna
suffer some damage.” He said in the long winded way as Eden
turned her head slowly.
Her eyes were masked unlike her twins who sported the brightest
blue eyes. Looking at them they looked like they belonged in the
wilds of the desert.”he’s right let them go - maybe I’ll let you
off with just a torn sail.” Said Eden before flashing a wide
smile.
The captain being how he was shifted to that of a large bird to
fly toward the young girl knocking her back before shifting back
to a human form to grab her by the neck and lifted her
up.”fighting spirit!! Not a fan…” he drew her close.”could break
ya quick.
Eden’s foot flew out hitting the man’s face breaking his nose
and it was a start of a chaotic mess.
——
Once the girl was dropped her choker with a bright turqoise in
color flashed as her body moved as if in flight, the winds
billowed around as the captain felt the launch back at the cabin
ramming through the door. “Get that little brat!” Flew out.”give
a prize to the one that teaches the brat a lesson!” Eden took
off running snagging a pirates knife her movements looking like
a dance as she took off running through the air- or so it
seemed. A giggle escaped as she tore through the sail..
Shu watching this sighed.”dammit that will take a while to fix.
The sounds of wood breaking and the cries of some of the crew
members filled the air as some were hurt.
It somehow whittled down to Eden enjoying just dodging the rest
of the exhausted members. She looked as if she was having fun,
jumping over some of the crew members to dodging attempts to
grab her.”y’all suck! And y’all are pirates!” She said as her
laughter filled the air some more.
—-
Blue arrived back on the deck right as Shu and the shifter
returned with the two boys in tow, the third landing on the deck
on her own. This was enough to make him pause, eyeing her
closely. He'd seen tuners before but never one this young with
such a strong skill. Normally they were a lot older when they
came into their gifts.
He crossed his arms over his chest, and settled back against the
doorway watching as everything unfolded. The captain flying back
and destroying his own door, brought a satisfied gleam into his
eyes. He could care less about prizes, or actually catching the
kid to keep her from destroying parts of the ship. With his
emotions shut away, he just stood there watching until he saw
the Captain's patience wearing thin,
He let out a sigh, and moved towards her. "Young one, would you
please listen for a moment? If you continue this, it's not you
who will be hurt. Your friends are captives..and the Captain
will order them hurt if you don't calm down," He told her. "You
don't want that do you?" Blue asked softly.
——
Eden paused hearing blue and her head tilted to the side. She
crossed her arms as if thinking. A typical teenage sigh left her
lips.”fine.. but you or dirty ol’ captain or any crew member
touches my boyfriend or brother in a bad way-your ship sinks.”
She said as she stepped forward.”and you can gladly take the
first wallop like your poor excuse of a captain got from my
foot!” She said her tone dropping.”and no starving us- I’ll
break out if you do.” She said with a tone dropping a little
more. She had a feeling blue wasn’t bad, but felt if she didn’t
say anything- she couldn’t guarantee those she cared about
safety.
——
Ulrich barely stired from his unconscious state for the next few
days. Woke up in Justus's arms taking in a sudden, very deep
breath as he sat up quickly holding his throat as his mind
caught but up to reality. He had to take some deep breaths
because all he could see was those cold eyes covering his face.
He had to bite into his own hand pretty hard for the pain to
reground him. The repeat of 'only you can really hurt you
Ulrich,' going through his tormented mind.
—-
Justus of course was drawn out of his room to fix up the
Captain's nose once the young girl and her companions were taken
down to the cages in the hold of the ship. Normally they'd have
been used for adult slaves or crew members that had commited
crimes. Justus felt a flash of concern for the young ones,
wishing he had more guts to try and help them.
Instead he focused on healing the broken nose and then deal with
a few of the crew members that had collapsed from heat
exhaustion. Once that had been finished, the Captain had
demanded a report on Ulrich.
"He's going to be out for a few days after the punishment he
went through. I'll keep a close eye on him, he could have brain
damage from the lack of oxygen. I'll do my best, but I can't
make any promises," He told the Captain with just a little bit
of sharpness. "I've got more potions to work on," He added,
knowing that the Captain was wanting certain ones to keep
himself alive longer.
"Fine..do what you need. If he doesn't wake, or has damage we
can always toss him overboard for the kraken,"
Justus turned his head so the Captain couldn't see the anger in
his eyes. "I'll bring you your nightly potion," He said before
leaving.
He was quite worried when the man didn't wake, and stayed close,
holding the man when he slept, and didn't leave for long. If he
did have to go, he locked the man inside. Not wanting him to get
taken by one of the Captain's goons.
Ulrich finally waking was a relief to him, even though he could
feel the other's pain coming off of him. "Let me help," He said
softly and gently moved his hands onto the other's body,
focusing his healing powers to the areas that hurt Ulrich. "I
was worried for awhile there if you'd wake or not," Justus said,
as he slowly pulled his hands off.
——
Shu had watched how the girl was and got a bit sad. Wasn’t the
first time seeing how she was but it seemed she’d gotten a bit
stronger. Once the warning was given the three were sent to the
lock up, they picked some unlucky bastard to keep an eye on the
three.
Shu sighed and grabbed blue by the collar dragging him to a
place and shoved him in a door to shut it, making sure no one
followed. He held his breath to let it out.”he never listens..“
he mumbled half drunk. During the chaos he had gone to the mess
hall to drink. Course in his stupor he didn’t really care as his
mouth covered blues. “That kid knows the dhampire herself. If
you want to know more.” He said and walked to the door.
The next few days were not as bad though the girl held true to
some of her word- someone tried to hold a days worth of food and
she broke out at least once. Of course once placated by blue she
behaved just fine.
Shu was looking at his handiwork on the sail he was fixing as he
was finishing up.”pain in the ass…” he mumbled.
——
Ulrich stiffened feeling Justus touching, trying to relax as the
guy used some kind of magic to heal the fresh bite on his hand.
"T-thank you," Ulrich said with quite a bit of aprihention in
his voice. "How long have I been alseep." He asked whe he man
claimed he had been worried about Ulrich waking up.
His stomach growled in protest at being ignored. He had to of
been out for a while to feel this level of hungry. "I think I'm
aright..." He said as he attempted to get out of the bed.
——
It was Shu's kiss that snapped Blue out of his emotionless
state. He wrapped his arms around the shorter man, and kissed
him back deeply, unleashing all his desire and passion for Shu
in that kiss. His eyes sharpened at Shu's relayed information.
"Thanks, I'll look into that," He replied.
Blue tried to maintain the peace, keeping the girl and the two
boys watched by men who would follow his directions. He was
quite pissed off when one of them was stupid enough to keep them
from getting fed. The girl, Eden was true to her promise and got
out to raid the kitchen for food. Not that he blamed her.
After dealing quite harshly with the asshole, giving him ten
lashes, he made sure to keep a better eye on the kids. Only
using men who were deathly afraid of him. Fear could be a great
motivator when used properly.
Blue was tackling one of the other sails above Shu that had been
damaged, and nodded in agreement at the other's mumbled comment.
"It could be worse, I've seen other tuners that would have
destroyed the ship in moments. It's a good thing she's young and
not yet trained," He mentioned.
With the damage to their sails, the ship had been stuck in one
place for far too long. Which meant..if the kids had people
looking for them, they were pretty much sitting ducks. This was
at the back of Blue's mind, though he hadn't brought it up to
the Captain yet.
-----
Ulrich's thank you shocked Justus for a moment. Not many thanked
him for doing the job he was expected to do. "Your welcome," He
said softly. "It's been close to three days,"
Justus let his hands slip away, and moved to give Ulrich a
steadying hand. "Try not to move too quickly," He advised and
led the man over to the small table and pulled out some of his
stashed food for the other to eat. "If you want meat, I'll have
to go get some. I don't eat it by choice," Justus added.
Having been so close for the past few days made him feel a bit
protective of Ulrich. "I don't mean to sound rude, but..are you
more than human?" He asked, hoping the other wouldn't freak out.
"I'm a druid..and I can tell you're different than everyone
else. I swear on my life I will never tell another soul,"
——
Shu sighed.”you could say that but you didn’t see the daddies I
saw. They show up I’ll jump ship.” He said with a
smile.”probably have crazy red near- least she will keep me
intact.” He said as he leaned back.
He had a feeling the girl was buying time for whoever was caring
for her. He got up and walked along the wood looking down and
making his face if not being fond of heights.”rawwww kissy
kissy… rawww “ he shot Gale a glare a little. His eyes glazed a
bit over the sea and at the ship that girl did come off of. He
snagged his eyeglass to peek and could see a bunch of people
kind of bunched around. “They hadn’t noticed us …yet.. so that’s
a bonus,” he said with a sigh.
——
"I'm fine..." Ulrich insisted, attempting to reject any help the
druid offered him, but did wind up needing his support a little.
He felt like he had been hit by a train and suffocated. He
grunted and shifted around in his new seat. Slowly munching on
the rabbit food in front of him. What he would give for a good
fish right about now.
Ulrich became *far* more alert when Justus admitted that he
didn't think Ulrich was human. The man then continued on to out
himself as a druid before swaring to keep Ulrich's secret.
"What on the big open blue are you going on about? Corse I'm
human..." Ulrich lied. Well, half lied. He was half human as far
as he was aware. It was a lie he told so often that if flowed of
the tounge just like the truth would have, smoother than the
truth in fact. He was a well practiced liar.
"I appreciate the help mate, but I need some real food. Fruit
and roots ain't ganna cut it." Ulrich said as he got back to his
feel. The more he moved around the less his body hurt. "Would
you... want to come with me? I'm... not entirely sure I'm not
going to get jumped again..." Ulrich said reluctantly.
Usually he was a very fearless man, but he wasn't suicidal. He
had vastly underestimated the captain. It was the first time he
was actually scared of someone besides his mother. Though, it
wasn't exactly the captain he was scared of.
♡♡♡♡
In the cargo hold sat a massive cage in the back corner of the
hold, partially hidin from view by crates and barrels. Inside
the cage was a large winged lion with the face and head of a
woman.
The creature, named Lakki, had been loaded onto this ship at the
last port. She hadn't been sure if she had a new master or if
she was being sold again. That didn't matter to her all that
much though. Humans were mostly the same. Greedy selfish.
Uncaring. In fact, the creatures were so uncaring that they had
neglected to feed the sphinx seeming to have forgotten she was
on board.
She didn't know how much longer she would last. She had managed
to rip into all the crates and barrels near her cage and found a
little to sustain herself since she was loaded up, but she
couldn't reach anymore.
He sat up and gave out her loudest roar, hoping someone could
hear her and maybe investigate. They couldn't turn a profit is
she was dead.
#Post#: 1533--------------------------------------------------
Re: Pirates
DIR By: Inkglitched
Date: February 20, 2026, 10:25 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Justus held his tongue, knowing that it wouldn't take long
before Ulrich realized just how weak his body was. He didn't
make a big deal of it, and stepped back to give the man some
space as he ate.
The druid didn't press Ulrich, though his intuitive sense was
telling him that there was more to the man. It was possible that
Ulrich was half human.
"Of course, I understand. You'll need more iron too. It'll help
speed up your healing," Justus said softly, reaching up to brush
his hair out of his eyes. He was a little surprised by the man's
request to go with him. At the other's explanation he moved to
grab one of his jars and filled his amulet up with more dirt.
"Sure, just let me get a few things."
He closed the amulet, and then grabbed some of his knotted
bracelets and put them on his wrists. Most would think they were
just decoration, but each knot was imbued with druid magic and
protections. "Here..put this one on. If it glows red, there's an
attack coming." He said handing one with a large white bead on
it. "Blue means friend..red means enemy. If it goes black,
well..pray to your gods,"
"Let's go get you some fish," He said and grabbed his fishing
pole from under his bed. "You can use this if you'd like.
Oh..and if there are scales or fins you don't want, I can use
them for my plant food," Justus added with a grin.
If Ulrich hadn't noticed during his first visit, the entire room
was filled with plants. It looked like a mini green house, or
more like the plants had taken over.
—-
-----
The sound of the roar, had Adan jumping and shooting a worried
look at Eden and Ezra. He hadn't thought the pirate crew were
keeping a lion in the ship. It made him wonder what the
captain's intentions for them were. Were they going to get sold
off? Or worse?
Their iron prison was just on the other side of the crates and
barrels, closer to the steep steps that went up to the second
floor of the ship. Being in the bowels of the ship was a bit
scary, especially with how dark the place was kept. Thankfully
they did have a small light, but they were trying to conserve it
as much as they could.
"That sounded like a lion," He whispered to the twins, and tried
to stand up tall enough to peer over the crates and barrels to
get a better look. "I could be wrong though. No one's been over
there. Maybe..they forgot it or something," He said sounding a
bit worried.
The sound of footsteps had him pulling back from the bars and
standing next to Eden and Ezra, wariness on his face as a pirate
stepped closer and set down a tray of bowls in front of their
cage. "Slops on kiddos," The man announced with a sigh.
"Hey..wait..is there a lion down here? We heard something roar,"
Adan mentioned.
The pirate's face went white and he moved away to go around the
boxes and the crates to the other cage. They heard a scream of
horror and the man was shooting out of the hold running as fast
as he could.
Adan felt a shiver of fear go through him at the grown up's
reaction and shot a worried look at the twins. He didn't even
want to think about what the man might have seen.
-----
Shu had finally finished sewing up the slashed up sail, though
he wasn't sure it would hold too well. They'd probably have to
get some new ones at their next stop. He sighed and took a
moment to stretch out and rubbed his neck. The sound of screams
and someone being slapped down below caught his attention.
"What the hell is going on now?" He sighed and made his way down
the rope ladder as quickly as he could.
By the time he got to the gathered men, he could see the fear
and mutiny in their faces. "Do I have to ask what's going on or
is someone going to tell me?" He asked.
"Gray's dead. I found him by the Sphynx's cage..she'd ripped him
apart! This is all your fault! He didn't want to deal with the
creature, none of us did!"
"Excuse me? I gave you specific directions in how to deal with
her. If he deviated from it, it's his own damn fault," Blue
snapped back, his blue eye flashing a bright white he was so
angry. "And further more, I didn't decide to transport a Sphynx,
so I'm not to blame for anything,"
Blue whirled away, his hands clenching into fists as he cursed
under his breath, more than a little fed up with everything that
kept being put on his shoulders. It wasn't like the damn Captain
would deal with the situation though. No..he expected Blue to
deal with all the shitty tasks.
He stormed down to the mess hall, grabbed a huge hunk of lamb
hock and made his way down to where the Sphynx was being held.
He paused by the kids' prison, and composed himself, letting his
anger ebb away before he approached the creature.
"I'm sorry for not getting someone smarter to work with you," He
told the sphynx, holding the raw meat out in front of him in
offering. Blue waited for her to grab it and then stepped back
to look over the dead man's body.
Eden and Ezra were busy playing rock paper sizzors passing the
time. Eden didn’t like being caged up, and it was starting to
show by this time. The girl was high energy so Ezra was trying
his best to try to get her to keep a lid on it. The both
flinched a bit as Eden got the most curious.”lion!! I wanna
see!!” She said and broke in a smile.
Her smile flashed off at the sight of the pirate and a flat
look. “Thanks ass!” Eden said before grabbing a bowl as Adan
mentioned it to see the man go white. Now she really wanted to
see the animal! Of course when they saw blue and him looking
exasperated left Eden to decide to break out again. Course this
time not so noisily. She knew he carried keys and snagged it
reaching through the bars,being the man looked distracted. She
watched him walk far enough to unlock it.”come on! Let’s check
it out.. better than staying in here!” Said Eden grabbing Adan’s
hand to drag him out and the twin sighing as he followed them
out figuring it was better than being alone.
Of course the girl got them to follow at a distance till they
got to the cage as the twins eyes went wide.they heard of a
sphinx but never really seen one.”woah…” slid out of Eden as
Ezra slapped his hand over her mouth.
—-
Shu saw the man head down from his side as he went to do the
same. He saw how the man looked and the words. Course he never
went down there- given he heard about how the sphinx was- and
given how he sucked at riddles, didn’t want to die.
Ulrich raised an eyebrow at the knotted braclet that had been
given to him. The druid explaining how it worked. "Huh, nifty,"
he said, leaning against the wall as he waited for the man to be
ready, seemingly playing with dirt before grabbing fishing
supplies even though he didnt eat meat. This guy was a weird
plant parent of some sort considering the room felt like a
forest in many respects.
"They out of food in the mess hall?" Ulrich asked in confusion.
Surely they hadn't run out of food that quickly.
♡♡♡
The sphinx turned her head quickly when she heard footsteps
coming towards her, unfortunately, the cowerd saw the body of
the human that had been meant to feed her but had been starving
her instead, and ran. It had been during the last commotion on
the ship that had caused it to rock and sway unusually that her
caretaker had returned, drunk, and wanting to touch her. Well
more than touch, but she decided to turn it to her advantage and
asked him a riddle.
The man reached his hand towards her as he answered incorrectly
and she pounced. Taking his arm into her mouth and ripping it
off before slashing his throat. She had eaten as much as she
could and his corpse was sprawled out the flesh ripped from the
bone as far as she could reach while the rest rotted away.
Her fur stood on end when she once again heard food steps and
blue eye appeared before her with an offering of raw meat and an
apology, of sorts in her opinion. The creature treated her like
an animal to be *worked* with. He could have probably used any
wording and it would have illisited the same hissing reaction of
distrust.
She heard more food steps coming, much quieter ones. As if
smaller or sneaking... or both. Lakki slowly approached the bars
of her cage, her face twisted in a warning snarl as she quickly
ripped the bucket out of his hands before backing away and
playing it down.
Before she could even inspect to meat, she heard a sounds she
hadn't heard in a very long A child's wonder at her
magnificence. "I see you scum or worse than I though." She
growled at Blue as her piercing hazel eyes glared at him.
Launching herself at the cage, making it make a horrible
clanging clashing noise. It worked quite well to scare nearly
any mortal she had done it to.
She then moved to sit in a quite dignified way before finally
spotting one of the children. She stretched out her paw and
beckoned the child closer as she gestured it. "Child, come
closer." She called in a cooing soothing voice. The kind of
voice your mother would have to comfort you.
——
Justus cocked his head to the side, taking in Ulrich's confusion
at his grabbing his fishing pole. "I..oh, you said food. Sorry,
I heard wrong. Must have let my mind wander to my next task," He
said and laughed at his absent minded moment. "I do that
sometimes."
He leaned the pole up against the wall, and a vine moved to wrap
around it. "Thanks Vera," He said and patted the vine before
going to open the door and peered out cautiously before leading
Ulrich out and down to the mess hall a secret back way. "This
comes out into the food storage room," He told Ulrich in a low
whisper. "If you want to avoid others, I can show you all the
secret ways," He offered.
Once they were in the store room, he peered out at the cook who
was grumbling as he worked on lunch for the captain. "Probably
better to just raid the storage," He told Ulrich ducking back
and helped the man find what he wanted.
"Honestly I think this ship is cursed," Justus confided as they
headed back to his room. "I just hope I can get off it before
it's shot out of the water."
----------
Everything that he'd had to do and let happen since he'd gone
undercover to get close to the Captain was becoming too much for
Blue to stomach. He had to come up with a plan and fast to deal
with the real monster of the ship. Though the Sphynx was
frightening, he didn't react to her hissing or warning snarl. He
too had heard the child's soft comment and pulled off his shirt
to cover the rotting corpse so the kids wouldn't see it.
Realizing he had a moment alone with the kids since no one would
come down there, he took in a breath. The Sphynx's growl and
angry display was enough to make him step back.
Hearing the Sphinx's soft voice, Adan peered out from behind the
boxes where he and the others were watching. It took him a
moment to come out and approach the magnificent creature. The
young boy couldn't help but stare up at her with wonder in his
expression. He turned to glare at Blue, his brows furrowing.
"How could you imprison a sphynx? They're revered creatures!"
Adan spoke up, looking quite indignant. He moved to stand a bit
closer to the cage, wondering what the sphinx had wanted to say
to him.
Blue blinked. "Yeah, I know kid. It wasn't my idea to imprison
her or you three. Actually..I'm trying to to take the captain
out. He's the monster..he's holding a lot of the crew captive.
He's a shapeshifter and soul jumper. Not a fun combination.
Thankfully he's not marked me."
He reached up to take the wax out of his ears, shooting another
look at the Sphynx. "I know I'm not perfect, and you and they
are in a bad position right now. That's going to change. If I
have to die trying to save them, so be it. I will try and get
you out of here. It wasn't my choice to take this job to sell
people or kids. I came to end the Captain's life. He's a
monster, murderer and horrible being. He destroyed my
family..and I won't let him do it to anyone else."
—-
Adan listened to the man explaining about the Captain and
frowned again. While he wanted to trust this guy, he wasn't sure
if it was a good idea or not. He glanced back at the Sphinx,
wondering what she thought. After all..she was a prisoner like
they were. And..a Sphinx could tell when a person was telling a
lie or the truth.
"What's your name?" Adan asked her, and moved to sit in front of
the cage. No offense to the pirate, but he was far more
interested in the ancient being at the moment. "And..can you
tell if he's lying like the lore says?"
——
Eden got between blue and Adan out of habit. The girl had an
obvious look of protection- despite her eyes being hidden. She
looked irritated and nodded in agreement with Adan. Ezra on the
other hand was hella curious and got close to the bars.
The two listened to blue as he spoke and he looked over at Eden
who went super quiet at first. “No different from the dhampire
in the desert.” She said quietly. Her mind was on what happened
there for the little time she spent. The constant reminder
forever burned on her shoulder - of course it looked as if
someone burned it again to obscure the symbol.
“Now I know she’s here. If she’s touched I’ll let her out.” Said
Eden with a wicked smile. She had a feeling the cat had to deal
with dirty men.
She watched Adan sit and ask her name as she looked over at the
female. Well least she didn’t feel like the only girl anymore!
——
☆☆☆
Ulrich's face took on a feature of amusement ditzy the green
eyed man was. Getting the opportunity to arching watch the man
rather than attempting to rush out made him really appreciate
the man's rugid beauty. His eyebrows show up in further
amusement that the plants seemed to react to him, it wasn't all
that surprising seeing as Druids usually had a kinship with
nature.
He had seen enough crazy magic in his life that this was kind of
mild. Entertaining even when the guy spoke to his pet plants.
Ulrich made a mental note to not fuck up any trees while around
the man. He had heard stories of how powerful these protectors
of the forest you be.
Ulrich followed Justus silently, focusing on silence and
sneaking. A massive smirk came to his lips at Justus explaining
that he knew all the secret passages of the ship. "I'm ganna
have to take you up on that offer, easier I can run from trouble
the better." He said with delight in his voice. A pretty
uncommon emotion for the usual angry man.
The trip to and from their food heist was pretty uneventful
until they began making their way back and the Druid mentioned
thinking the ship was cursed. It caught Ulrich off guard.
"What makes you think it's cursed?" He asked with a half laugh
in his throat as he spoke, cleaning doubting the guys claim.
☆☆☆
♡♡♡
A pleased kind smile crossed Lakki's face, smoothing out her
features and showing just how lovely she truly looked as the
cubs aproched her cage. Her smile grew hearing the child's
outrage over her imprisonment.
Her smile quickly dropped when her eyes returned to glaring at
Blue eye. Her gaze sharpening as he spoke. An angry
disapproving growl escaping her when he finished. "A heart
clouded by vengeance sees only destruction of the innocent. How
many have been tainted by your compliance?" She snarled before
she was quickly focused on the children again when the little
boy spoke to her.
Her smile returned, warm and loving as she stood up and
approached the bars once more. The picture of serenity, despite
her malnourished frame, chains wrapped around her body in many
uncomfortable ways to hold her wings down. Many feathers broken
or missing as the chains cut into her with each movement. The
sound of metal dragging on the bottom of the cage from the
shackles on her back two legs punctuating Lakki's every step.
She laid down in front of Adan so she was eye level with him.
Gazing into the the boys silvery eyes near shimmering with
hidden magic. "I am called Lakki little one. What may I call
you?" She purred softly. She gave a thoughtful expression the
the boy's question before answering. "Some can, I can only see
the purity of the heart. Doing evil things doesn't make you
evil, but it does stain the heart darker and darker until all
that is left is black." She explained ominously.
"Are you ready for your riddle?" She asked as her voice went
back to a sweet purr. When he said he was, she began.
"What is stronger than steel but can’t handle the sun?" Lakki
asked slowly. Wanting to make sure he understood. She could see
the purity of his souls and could see what lay ahead of him. Her
tail swished back and forth behind her as she waited for an
answer.
♡♡♡
"I'll gladly share everything I know," Justus replied, his
cheeks flushing ever so slightly at Ulrich's delighted response.
He knew better than create attachments, but he had the feeling
that he couldn't avoid it this time.
There was something about Ulrich that drew him in, like a moth
to a flame.
Justus came to an abrupt halt and turned to stare at Ulrich, a
dark haunted look in his eyes. "You know, some druids can see
ghosts. I'm one of them. It's cursed, covered in the blood of
all the people and children who died here. It's only a matter of
time before it goes down. The gods have marked it, and the crew
that blindly follow the Captain."
Justus shivered and turned to stare at something behind Ulrich.
"We need to move now," he said in a fearful voice.
Justus grabbed Ulrich's arm and quickly guided him through a
different route. They ended up climbing up a ladder , pushed a
hatch open and came out into his room.
"Sometimes the ghosts attack, and they can't discern the
difference between people. They just go for the closest person,"
he explained as he caught his breath. "Let me get you another
bracelet,"
He dug through his drawer until he'd brought up one that had
bone beads on it. "Don't lose this. If you go out on your own,
this should keep the ghosts away," he said as he tied it onto
Ulrich's wrist.
——
Blue watched how the sphynx reacted and interacted with the
kids. Her response to him was quite convicting and there wasn't
much he could say. She was right. People had been hurt because
of him. He wasn't an innocent kid anymore. The least he could do
was to keep these three from going through the same thing.
Realizing the kids were safe with Lakki, he turned to deal with
the dead body while their attention was occupied.
Blue could talk all he wanted about doing something or he could
act and show his intentions. The only way they'd trust him was
by acting and getting them all off the ship. He wouldn't have
much time, especially now that the sails were fixed.
"Stay down here, the other crew are going to avoid coming down
here," he told the kids before he left with the remains that
he'd moved into an old crate. "Keep the key," he told Eden,
knowing she'd snagged it from him before.
He glanced at the sphinx and then added. "Help her, get the
chains off, but be careful. They did those pretty tight. I can
bring the druid healer down to fix your wings in a little while.
If you can wait."
-----
Adan hated seeing how terrible the sphynx had been treated, but
was too mesmerized by her gaze to look away.
"I'm Adan," he replied wisely leaving off his full name and
title. He still wasn't sure if he could trust Blue and didn't
want the pirate telling anyone who he was.
Adan nodded solemnly at her reply. It made a great deal of sense
to him. "All right. I understand it better now."
Adan brightened at the sphynx 's question. "Yes! I love
riddles."
It took him a few moments of thought before he grinned brightly
and answered. "It's ice. Cause if water freezes around steel
it'll break. And it melts in the sun! Give me a harder one!"
Hearing Blue suddenly speak had him and the others turning and
looking a bit shocked. He was leaving them out of their cell?
And telling Eden to keep the key?
And then telling them to help the sphynx get out of her chains.
Even offering
To bring a healer to help her.
Adam was suddenly very confused. "Why are you doing all of this
now?"
"Because Lakki is right. And I'm not going to wait another
minute to help you. It might get chaotic, and even dangerous,
but you're all getting off today," Blue replied and shot a look
at the sphynx. "I'll be back as soon as I can,"
——
“Stay down here like hell!” Eden mumbled. She gave the key to
Adan.”you and Ezra get her free and wait for healy guy. If he
rings true go for a life boat.” Eden said as she headed in the
same direction.
Ezra turned .” What are you gonna do?” He said as he looked back
at his red headed twin.”gonna distract, you all be careful.”
She said before walking off.
She could hear the sounds of the crew as she went into her sneak
mode. She slowly crawled in places- finding routes unlike
others. As she neared she could hear male voices speaking her
head slowly peeking up to see a man, and what looked like a
woman. Eden’s brown rose till she heard him speak again. She
slowly moved to her behind where the door was propped till she
noticed one of them beginning to turn to take off for another
spot of the room- the hatch being pushed to slam closed.
She quickly scrambled for another spot to find another exit and
managed to get her way on deck.
As she went she looked around to slip a knife from the belt of
another pirate. Of course Eden managed to slip up and run into
Shu.”what are you doing out?” He asked Eden.”blues getting us
off the ship- I like you so find a lifeboat I’m sinking this
ship!” She said as her choker flashed and a wide grin came
up.”those on might not survive.” Her swooping movements began
before she tore the sail *again*.”I just fixed that!” He cried
as Gale flew off.
“Rawww gotta survive… rawww get off the ship.” Shu made a face.
It was then he felt a flag go up as he looked at the girl
landing. He watched her untie her mask, her eyes clearly
matching the cerulean blues of her twins.. the only thing seemed
that it was lively and bright.
They began to flood, pool to that of red as Eden’s normal
posture went to a different form. The knife in her hand rotating
in a way as if ready to kill. The smile that looked mischievous
smirk into something else- something more sinister.”down with
the ship and meet your end!” Said the cold tone of the young
girl.
——
Captain seeing this shift being what he was pissed about the
sail. He shouted for blue as anyone would- but what he didn’t
expect next was a fury of wind blowing past, or seeing his body
apart from his head- his soul fled immediately for a body as the
carnage and the demise of the ship began.
Shu witnessing what happened- color left his face completely as
he said.”not gonna say it twice! I’m not gonna die today.” He
said as he ran to find a boat on the unaffected side from where
Eden was.
The girls slid her hand in a pocket for a small stone that
looked like smooth metal and slid it between her teeth. Her
movements looked hard and abrasive before she moved her hand up
causing the cannon balls to go up.
By then the captain had taken over another shifter of his
crew.”get that devil child off th’ ship it’ll bloody sink!” He
cried before he watched the entire set of cannon balls fall
toward the deck.
Some crushing some fellow crew members and others straight
through the deck. Eden dodged the attempts on her own life her
body twisting in a fluid motion of someone who was trained to
fight for her life. Her eyes shifting to purple as the two minds
worked together. Her reflexes picked up as she fought back to
buy time for what blue was going to do, once she knew they were
safe, she knew she would do something that would probably get
her killed- but least the ones she cared about was safe.
Meanwhile back below deck Ezra was helping Adan, getting the
locks off and being gentle to get the chains off. He heard the
start of things and made a face.”swear she better not overdo
it.” He said with a frown. Once he managed to get the last of
it free they waited for the healer well- long enough.”he better
come quick or we may have to jump ship soon.” He said to Adan
and the sphinx.
☆☆☆
Ulrich almost ran into Justus when he man suddenly stopped and
turned to fave him with a very creepy look in his eyes just
inches from his face. At first , Ulrich thought the man was
joking but to his horror the Druid gave a shiver as if he
believed every word. Then Justus looked behind Ulich, causing
the pirate to slowly turn his head to look behind himself seeing
nothing.
The fearful tone in Justus's voice had Ulrich near terrified out
of his skin. He made no resistance to being dragged away down
secret passages and to the man's room, in fact he was running
and once in the room stayed practically glued to the druid.
He gladly put the new bracelet on and made sure it was secure.
"I did not sign up for ghosts!" He complained before he heard
the trap door slam and he let out a scream like Davy Jones
himself was at his heels, straight up clinging to Justus like
the man was going to save him. "WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?" He half
yell, still very freaked out.
☆☆☆
♡♡♡
A kind of joy came to Lakki's eyes, like that of a proud mother,
giving a soft chiming laught at the child's eagerness to answer
another riddle after so easily getting the riddle correct.
Before she could respond to Adan again, the pirate spoke, his
words surprising. She let out an approving sound that sounded
like a mix between a purr and growl. "Bring me your healer....
action suits you wanderer.... careful steps..." She said, quite
pleased that her words had stired action in the man's heart. It
wasn't too late for him.
Lakki found great amusement in the girls want to take action,
nay, need to take action. "Trust yourself little sister," she
purred.
"Free me, then I shell foretell your future little one." Lakki
said eager to have these chains off.
♡♡♡
Justus could see his warning and talk of ghosts had terrified
Ulrich and felt terrible about it. He had only meant to prepare
the man for what he felt was coming.
He heard the trap door slam and turned, only to get distracted
by Ulrich's clinging to him tightly and screaming loudly in his
ears.
The druid wrapped his arms around the slender man, and patted
his back. "It was probably Vera. She closes doors and drawers
for me all the time," he replied.
"I'm sorry if I scared you with my talk of ghosts. With the
bracelet they'll go right past you. The spell will last a
lifetime,"
He'd just finished trying to soothe the man when they heard the
sound of yelling pirates and feet storming past them.
"Sounds like something is going on, we might want to check it
out." Justus said, his brows narrowing in concern.
-----
Blue hadn't gone far when the face of the young cabin boy James
filled his mind. He couldn't leave the young teen behind either
or get stuck on a sinking ship.
It took him a moment to think of where the boy would be and
headed there first. While he was explaining what was going on to
the teen, they heard feet storming above them and muffled yells.
"Shit, I better head up. Go tell justus he's needed to heal the
sphynx. Then get yourself off the ship. If you see the kids
maybe try and help them too. I'll try and get free to help,"
James nodded and stuffed Stripes the ship cat into his shirt.
"Got it, I hope I see you again Blue,"
They headed up together, splitting off to go their separate
ways.
"Justus! Please open up! I got someone that needs help!" James
cried as he banged on the druid's door. The teen blinked when
it opened and saw the two men hugging in the middle of the room.
"How did the do-Oh My god!" James nearly yelled when a vine shot
out tangled around him and pulled him into the room. The door
was slammed shut behind him by another vine, making his jaw drop
further.
When his mind has recovered he told Justus what Blue had asked
him to.
Justus slowly eased himself out of Ulrich's grip and grabbed his
things as quickly as he could. "Of course I'll go help her, you
get as far from the ship as you can." He told the teenager and
then shot a look at Ulrich.
"You take care of yourself, do whatever you can to survive. I
have a feeling we'll see each other again,"
Justus hurried down to the hold, and was quite shocked to find
two of the young kids removing the chains on the Sphynx. They
were nearly done, though the last chain was proving difficult.
"Let me try," Justus said softly setting down his bag and
approached slowly so not to startle the sphynx.
Seeing her broken wings and the mangled feathers had his eyes
flashing in indignation.
"Healing your wings so quickly is going to be painful," he told
the sphynx and then moved in to deal with the chain. He
activated one of his strength runes and broke the chain and
lifted it away.
"You two should try to get off now while you can. There's a
fight going on, probably your sister's work," Justus said over
his shoulder as he began the healing process of the sphynx's
wings.
"Lakki, I can wait until later for that future foretelling,"
Adan said stepping back. "Look for our ship, it's got emperial
sails, and should be due southeast from here. Though by now,
probably isn't that far. Our families will be looking for us,"
While he had been wanting to hear it, he didn't want to drag
things out, especially if Eden was causing trouble. Her
distraction shouldn't go to waste.
When Blue made it to the deck, there was a great deal of damage
already done. It took all of two seconds for him to spy the
small red haired girl staring the Captain down with her eyes
having changed to red.
The captain's bellow for him had Blue start towards the man,
though his intentions were not to aid him or to stop Eden.
Unlike the other pirates, he didn't react to the Captain being
decapitated, nor did he slow down as he dropped the crate that
held the dead body, his hands moving to steal a Cutlass and a
dagger from two of the shocked crew.
The only way to keep the captain from getting away would be by
taking out those he'd branded with his mark. Blue swiftly moved,
taking out four of them before the Captain, realized what was
happening.
"Stop Blue he's killing off my..." The shifter Captain managed
to get out before Blue's blades flashed cutting through his
throat.
"Eden! Get the one with the shaved head next!" He yelled, seeing
her near one of the branded men.
He took out another one before he was slammed into the deck by
one of the Captain's favorites, a brute of a man that stood
nearly 7 feet tall and loved killing with his immense strength.
Blue groaned and rolled away when the brute tried to stomp on
his head. The entire deck shook from the force.
"Eden take out the braided man! And the hairy one!"
"Yer not going to beat me, Blue ye bastard scum!" The brute
bellowed and came after him.
"Maybe not," Blue agreed and feinted to the left then spun and
slid across the deck on the right and sliced through the man's
ankle. "But I can at least disable you,"
The brute yelled out in pain reaching for the wound.
Blue maneuvered back around, snatching a lost hatchet from the
deck and buried it into the brute's neck.
With all his would be hosts now slaughtered, the spirit of the
Captain was limited to moving into the nearest sea creature.
Which to Blue's knowledge was the crab the captain kept in his
cabin. This was where he sprinted to next.
——
#Post#: 1534--------------------------------------------------
Re: Pirates
DIR By: Inkglitched
Date: February 20, 2026, 10:29 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Shu who was making his way to the boats noticed James and the
cat banging on the door- he was about ready to scoop the boy up
to take with him when he watched the boy get yanked in- he had
to calm himself from freaking out given he knew justus wasn’t
bad. He got to the door, saw the most frazzled ulrich and
James.”come on boy let’s go, you too ulrich- to the life boats.”
He said.
Ezra who was busy trying to get the next chain off heard the
barrage of something above hitting as his eyes went wide.”I have
faith in her- “ he said and pouted.”I just worry .” He almost
jumped at the new guy coming down, his body twisting to guard
the sphinx at first. He relaxed when he realized who it was to
hear his words.
After seeing the sphinx freed from her chains, Ezra listened
before hearing another barrage of metal hitting wood.”he’s
right.. but this will be faster with two yanno!” Said Ezra as
his hand slipped in his bag, the stone itself green and smooth.
“It’ll be quick- but painful like he said- but you’ll beable to
fly again.. and you won’t run on empty!” He told Justus. He
placed the stone carefully between his teeth and began his work
healing together with the man. A green aura would spring and
spread on the sphinx wings, sounds of things getting back into
place and feeling of muscle growth would be felt- making it as
good as the day she had them before her her capture.
Ezra made a small puff out clearly a bit out of it.”that took a
lot.” He said and moved away. He still had more training to do
that he felt.”Adan, come on.. “ he said grabbing the boys hand.
~~~~~~~~~
Eden was mid fight when she heard blue shout out who to take
out. Her bodily fluidly moved as the head went from the shaven
guy.
Her little body jumped from victim to victim aiming for spots
she knew they die quick from. But what caught her off guard was
the rather large man that went for blue.
“Blue!” She said her chest rising and falling from the flurry of
activity. She was already wearing down. She fell on her butt
from the rumble of the deck and got worried at first. Her eyes
went wide as the purple vanished and cerulean took place to see
blues moves.
Course she managed to snap out of it when a hit barreled her
into the side of the now sinking ship.”got ‘er” said one.”toss
the brat overboard…”
Eden’s eyes went wide as a small panic attack set in. She
scrambled over a few broken places to take off before a hand
shot out grabbing her arm. She quickly started to tune wind to
kick the man away, using what was left of her ability. As a
result being the smaller one of the two shoved herself
overboard.
She hit the water, feeling the blow at her back. Her eyes
looking at the surface hoping at least Adan and Ezra made it
out.
—-
◇◇◇
Ulrich, as strange as he found the am, believed him when Justus
explained his intentions and held Ulrich close. The addition of
the pat to his head made him blush. He would die before he
admitted he enjoyed it. Before he could give any form of
response or even a thank you, there was the sound of yelling
outside and it felt as if the ship had began to rock roughly. He
was going to agree with the man when he suggested going to see
what was going on, but then there was a loud banging on the
door. Vera, like the plant had a mind of it's own, ripped the
door open before pulling a young boy into the room.
'There was a sphinx onboad?? What the hell the he get himself
into this mess?' Ulrich thought to himself after the teen
finished delivering his message. Justus was quick to agree to go
help the creature, turning to Ulrich and saying goodbye in a way
that deeply implied it would be a while. It gave him goosebumps.
"Yeah, sure, don't die..." Ulrich said as he suddenly felt quite
worried about the coming danger. What the guy right about the
ship being cursed?
Needless to say, when Shu was next to appear in the door way,
telling them to get to life boats, he didn't even ask why as he
darted out of the room once he was able too, not even noticing
the tangle of vines that had managed to hide itself in Ulrich's
hair. He followed after James and Shu as they headed to safety,
or that was his intentions. When they got on deck, he lost sight
of them in the chaos of the fighting.
He saw a small figure runing through the frey, no, not just
running fighting, impressively so. The being was taking out
grown men three times their size. When the figure finally
stopped moving from finally being caught, Ulrich realized it was
a child. His stomach dropped as he darted forward to try and
stop the men from throwing the kid over but he was too late.
Ulrich didn't even think about what he did next as he did a swan
dive into the water, instantaneous shifting into his aquatic mer
form.
A cloud of in followed him causing the water to go black and
keep anyone from seeing where he was taking the kid. He couldn't
go back, he was revealed, he would have to find somewhere to
bring the kid and figure out what to do from there. A kid was
definitely going to slow down finding Killian that was for sure.
He easily spotted an underwater cave and headed inside,
frantically looking for an air pocket for the kid to take a
break. 'Please don't drown' he kept thinking to himself in his
search. Relief filled him when he found an air pocket. Once he
was sure she was breathing he told her to "take a deep breath
and hold it, I'm going to get us as far from the sinking ship as
I can and get us to land. I won't hurt you." He explained and
assured. "Ready?" He asked before pulling her back under with
him and swam as fast as he could out of the tunnels before
heading in the direction of land. When he was sure the kid
couldn't old their breath any longer, he finally surfaced.
He held her securely in his arms as he swam at the surface going
as fast as he could. "Hang in there kid," he said, in an attempt
to comfort them both.
◇◇◇
♡♡♡
Lakki tried to stay as still as possible as the two cubs opened
her cell and began to take the chains off. She made no sound,
not wanting to frighten the children as they pulled chains out
of her flesh, some points whole chunks came off causing her to
bleed fairly badly. If they tried to stop she only gently
encouraged them to continue, that she would be okay.
She tensed looking in the direction of the sounds when Adan and
Ezen tensed. Relaxing only slightly when it was realized he was
the healer. "I can take it. Even if I scream... do not stop."
She told the pair as she braced herself. At first, she took it,
just like before, not making a sound, but when her wings began
to break back into the play they were mean to be, she let out a
roar of pain tangled with the agonized scream on a woman.
She collapsed on the ground when the pair were done panting as
she recovered from the intense pain she felt. As the cubs
attempted to leave, she stood and put a wing around them and
pulled them both closer, nuzzling the two boys as if they were
her own children. She laid laid down. "On my back. I can get us
all out of this place quickly." She instructed. Moving the
children in that direction with her paw as the folded her wings
to let them climb on. She was plenty large enough to carry the
trio.
♡♡♡
James could only nod, still a bit overwhelmed by the "living"
vine grabbing him so roughly. Unknown to him and the others,
Vera had spread spores from some of the other plants on the boy.
The sentient plant could sense the ships coming demise and knew
her friend Justus wouldn't be able to save her or the other
plants.
James hurried after Shu, his eyes darting around for the kids,
Blue had mentioned helping. He was more than shocked to see the
young girl fighting veteran pirates and taking them out.
Below deck Justus's gaze flicked to the young boy, surprise
showing. He nodded and went back to working, weaving his healing
with the young tuner's. It was hard work, and Justus was
trembling as he listened to the sphynx's roars of pain. If they
had more time it wouldn't be this painful for her.
Justus shook his head, and had to brace himself against the wall
as he recovered from the intense punishing healing. At least he
was still standing, without the boy's help, he'd be on the floor
next to the sphynx .
Adan had to turn his head, looking away from Lakki while she was
being healed. It was almost too much for him to witness. The
roars and scream of pain echoed strangely in his ears, bringing
an odd image into his head. For a moment he was stuck, the image
of a man holding a dying woman as another sinister man came from
behind. Ezra's voice and touch that brought him out of the
memory, making him jerk his head up. His mind instantly went to
finding Eden and making sure she was okay.
Adan felt a feathery wing brush around him and moved into the
sphynx's embrace, a feeling of relief flooding him.
"On your back?" Adan echoed looking a bit shocked but moved to
do what she'd instructed. He shot a look at the healer guy who
was staring at the stairway up to the next floor.
"You are coming with us aren't you?"
Justus inhaled slowly. "We're going to need a different way to
go," he hurried over to climb carefully onto the sphynx's
Back and pulled a bead off one of his bracelets and threw it at
the staircase. A moment later it exploded, making a huge hole
for them to go through.
The explosion from below shook the entire ship, making James get
thrown into the side of the lifeboat. This kept him from seeing
Eden getting grabbed. He did however see the pirates toss her
overboard and Ulrich diving in after her.
He ran to the side of the boat and let out a gasp of shock at
seeing Ulrich change into some sort of octopus mermaid. "Oh my
god! Shu did you see that?"
His amazement turned to freaking out when the ship started to
shake and vines started ripping through it and breaking it to
pieces.
"Shit! We better get out of here and fast!" James was a flurry
of movement, helping Shu get the lifeboat off and into the
water. "Have you seen the other kids?" He asked shooting a
worried look at Shu.
----
Blue had heard the girls shout of concern, but could only
concentrate on his fight and surviving it. Perhaps if he had,
he'd have tried to help her instead of going after the captains
pet crab.
The explosion from below forced him forwards into the cabin,
nearly knocking him into the aquarium face first.
While he wondered who had caused it, he shoved his hand into the
water to grab the crab. A sudden chilly feeling filled the room
and the crab glowed a bright eery green.
"Go to hell you ugly evil bastard!" Blue said coldly, stabbing
the crab through the head right as it's eyes went green.
The chilly feeling disappeared almost immediately and he tossed
the lifeless creature on the floor. Blue took a brief moment to
catch his breath and then ran back out.
Seeing the vines breaking up the ship had Blue carefully
stepping and jumping over them as he hurried to the life boats.
Ezra had bit his lip- but he knew that this was part of being a
healer in a pinch. Or that was how his master put it. Hearing
her pained screams had made him feel guilty- but it was the
better option than trying slow with the chaos going on.
“You alright?” He asked Justus, the boy had respect for this
one. Most would of pushed him away at his age, but being able to
work with another healer? His mind flickered briefly on the idea
of talking with him after the chaos died down.
Ezra had felt the pull in and blushed a bit embarrassed. He
heard her request and gave a bit of a blink,”okay… “ he said as
he still had Adan’s hand. He wasn’t letting go cause he knew if
anything happened to Adan, Eden would shatter. He saw the hole
and reflexively covered his face some. He climbed on after Adan
did ready to go.
Meanwhile up above Shu manage to get to a life boat. He shifted
for James and got him in before working at the ropes to get it
down. As he did so he felt the blast himself- but caught eden
hitting the water. But what was even more surprising- watching
ulrich launch for the water right after. He fought the urge to
dive in , but he noticed the red head never surfaced.”he got
her..” he said assuring himself and having faith in the man.
“Where the hell is blue and the other kids?” He asked now worry
catching in his throat.
He had no time, and ended up lowering the boat and began to row
away.”don’t worry james- he’ll make it blue always does.” He
said as he panicked himself. But he knew how blue was about
james. Man acted almost fatherly to the boy. If anything he had
to at least get james to safety.
Eden felt almost resigned to her fate to drown,till she noticed
something odd. She noticed something hitting the water not that
much longer after.
She felt arms take her as she saw the ink behind the man. She
clung holding her breath as it seemed she would have a fighting
chance after all.
Her lungs began to burn threatening to reflexively breathe in
water,before the cavern pop up. Eden coughed and took time to
take air. She looked at him with those bright eyes of hers as
she listened.”o..okay..” she said as she took a few more
breaths. She took a big one and nodded before they went under
again.
It took her back to Nomar when he saved her from herself. Tuned
right off the pier, clinging to his back as he swam to shore.
Only ulrich was holding her carefully as he was making his own
way to shore. Tears stung a little as she focused on breathing.
She taking in breaths.”thank you.” She said quietly to her
rescuer.
Once they reached land she didn’t quite let go. The girl was
starting to be a bit emotional before sounding like she wanted
to cry. Despite feeling ready to accept her fate, it was still
scary. But now she was separated from those she knew, and cared
about. She gave into the emotion. She clung to the man as she
feared being left alone. Faint memories of nearly dying in the
desert surfaced, and fate had dealt her another person that kept
her alive.
♡♡♡
The freshly restored sphinx was quite pleased at the lack of
protests, only slightly flinching at the sudden explosion before
the druid climbed onto her back. "Hold on tight." She advised as
her wing spread out in a stretch, eager for the skys.
She started to give then a test flap finding them sturdy and
strong. She then began to sprit at full speed at the gapping
hole as her wings flapped harder and harder until she leaped
into the air, dropping down at first as her wings caught the
air. Soon she was high in the sky circling the ship. Her keen
eyes catching sight of the man who had claimed he was going to
help. The ship was starting to fall apart and she could tell he
wasn't going to make it.
She tucked her wings and dove down at a frighteningly fast
speed, extending them out at the last moment to glide across the
desk and scooping the human up in her large paws by his arms.
She then flapped her mighty wings to take her back high into the
sky, blue dangling from her claws as she flew.
She was worried she would have to find land before she could put
him down but was pleased to spot a lifeboat. She swooped close,
dropping the pirate onto the dreck of the lifeboat before
landing on it. She could already tell she was too heavy, so, she
used a wing to knock the three off of her back onto the boat
before she was back in the air.
She circled as sh3 watched the boat waver, trying to decide of
it would sink and looking like it might. She let out an annoyed
growl as she flew over top of the boat and embedded her rear
claws into the soft wood, flapping hard as she forced the small
boat to right itself and move forward at a break neck pace. She
didn't know how long she could keep this up, but she knew if she
stopped the boat was going to sink and she knew she couldn't
carry them all to shore.
It felt like she had been going at this pace for hours until she
finally spotted a small island and pulled the damaged vessel
ashore before her claws finally released moments before losing
her balance from her exhaustion and crashed onto the beach. Her
wings a ruffled mess as they hid most of her form.
She didn't even attempt to right herself for a few long moments,
finally rolling onto her stomach and folding her wings against
herself as she tried to catch her breath.
♡♡♡
◇◇◇
A soft smile came to Ulrich's lips when the kid thanked him if a
soft, maybe even scared voice. "Don't worry about it," he found
himself saying as he headed towards what he hoped would be land.
It thankfully didn't take him too long to find an island they
could land on. Even spying a dock. That meant they would be able
to find food and whatever else they needed seeing as all they
had was the clothes on their backs.
Ulrich struggled a little to stand on his tenticals and carried
the child onto the beach and put her down under a shaded tree,
well, he tried to anyways, she had a death grip on him and he
decided it was best just to sit under the tree with her.
"It's okay, I will keep you safe, I promise." Ulrich assured as
he hugged the kid close gently stroking her short blazing red
hair. He sat there, comforting the kid for a long while, his
body turning into it's human form as he dried off. It wasn't
until he *finally* felt the kid calm down a little that he
decided they need a game plan.
"Hey kid, what do I call you? My name is Ulrich." He said
softly. "I saw a dock nearby, so I can go get us some food and
dry clothes for us." He offered gently.
◇◇◇
"I'll be fine once I regenerate some," Justus answered the red
haired boy's question once they were settled on the sphynx's
back. He braced his arms around the two boys, and tightened his
legs on the sphynx's body, taking the Sphynx's advice to heart.
He had a feeling that a ride on her might not be all that
smooth. Not that he'd complain. He was quite grateful to have a
way off the ship. The whole he'd blown into the staircase seemed
to have triggered Vera. He could see her vines rooting through
the ship and ripping it apart.
His thoughts about losing her and all of his belongings
disappeared when the Sphynx got out of her sprint and leaped
into the air.
HIs heart nearly jerked into his throat at the sudden fall and
he clung tighter to the boys and the flying sphynx squeezing his
eyes shut.
Blue was only a few feet from the life boats when he realized he
was running out of ship to travel across. There were now hug
holes and crevices in the floor. He wasn't about to give up
though, and made a leap for the last hard surface in front of
him. He was more than a little shocked when he felt paws digging
into his arms and lifting him up into the air.
"May the Gods bless you!" He cried out, not fighting, though the
claws were digging into his skin and muscles. If not for the
Sphynx he would be contending with the cold water and the
swarming killer sharks in the water below.
Blue knew that at some point she'd have to drop him, but he had
no clue that she had other passengers on her back. At least not
until he'd been dropped into the lifeboat with Shu and James and
Justus and the two boys tumbled in after him.
"Shu! James! Thank the gods. Justus you and the boys were riding
her?" He asked looking a bit surprised.
James moved to give Blue a happy hug and then let out a cry of
alarm. "THe bottom's filling with water! Crap! Help me bail," He
told the two boys, thrusting them small buckets to use, while he
used a bowl.
Justus lay stunned on the lifeboat for a few moments before he
sat up and helped with bailing the water, using his hands. "If
this wasn't dead wood, I could fix the holes," He muttered. "We
need to find land and fast."
The sphynx came to their rescue, coming back to use her wings to
move the ship faster than any ship had ever gone.
Adan dropped his bucket, letting out a shout and clung to Ezra
tightly as they sped over the ocean. The others made themselves
as small as they could, getting down so Lakki wouldn't have any
resistance as she flew them.
When the trip finally ended, their heads peaked over the edge of
the boat, taking in the sphynx's exhaustion. "That was bloody
amazing!" James exclaimed with a loud cry, startling Adan and
making him nearly jump out of his skin.
"I think..I'm going be sick now," He mumbled and pulled Ezra
along a few feet away to retch up everything he'd eaten and then
groaned, leaning his face in his hands.
Blue stepped out of the lifeboat, swaying a bit, unused to being
on land. "Looks like we may be here for awhile, we should set up
a camp of some sort," He said thoughtfully, checking the sky.
"It's going to be dark soon, He added.
Justus let out a soft groan, and looked back to where the ship
had been, a sad look on his face. "Goodbye Vera." He said
softly, "Your sacrifice won't be forgotten,"
Then he moved to where the Sphynx was laying, taking off his
shirt and laid down next to her in the sand. "I'm just going to
regenerate here for a bit. Give me like ten minutes and I can
help you build up a camp," He said as he closed his eyes.
His tattoos started glowing green, as he absorbed the energy
from the sand and earth underneath him.
Adan's hand tighted around Ezra as he looked up at Blue and the
other adults. "Did..you see what happened to Eden?" He asked.
"We need to find her,"
A good twenty feet above Ulrich and Eden, a tall foreboding man
watched them, frowning. He glanced down at the dark wolf that
joined him on the trail that led down to the dock and the beach
below.
"Looks like we have visitors Brother Wolf," The scarred tattooed
man spoke in a low voice rough from not being used.
*So we do. Shall we go greet them?* the wolf sent, giving his
friend a wide toothy grin and wagged it's tail a bit.
"Probably should. He looks like one of those pirates that have
been stealing kids. Best rescue the child before they're hurt,"
the man said and then pulled his hood over his face, and slid
his long sword underneath his cloak.
They started off, taking the shortcut towards the beach. If the
man had waited a bit longer he'd have seen the two hugging,
making it obvious that the child wasn't in danger from the
pirate.
On the far side of the same island, another group began
gathering wood for a fire and started building a shelter for the
night.
#Post#: 1535--------------------------------------------------
Re: Pirates
DIR By: Inkglitched
Date: February 20, 2026, 11:00 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Ezra nodded some and held onto Adan as the flight began. He made
a small scared face before the drop and shut his own eyes.*it’s
okay I’m not gonna die it’s suppose to be fun…*he thought to
himself. Ezra wished Eden was there at the moment, she always
seemed to get him to be a little braver about things. The
flight didn’t last long, and Ezra tumbled in the boat.
He instantly went to see if Eden was around before hear James
cry causing him to jump as well. Panic set in at the idea of
sinking.”I can’t swim.” He said and started to bail a bit.
Shu was in awe to see the sphinx carrying blue. Once he saw the
man land on the boat, he was about to kiss the man in relief
till James about yelled and jumped in for a hug first.
But before he could do what he wanted the boat took off and he
clutched at blue as they both landed in the boat, “holy shit I
don’t wanna die!” Flew out as he clutched at blue.
Ezra felt the hold of Adan, his mind slowly going from fear to
easing into feeling fun. His laughter rang out as the sound of
urging for faster came out. This was way better than being in
the air! He thought.
Once they stopped Ezra felt the pull- still refusing to let go
and turned his head as he could hear Adan getting sick.”take it
easy…” he told him.
While everything was calming down and camp was being talked
about, Ezra began to glance around. Where was Eden? Surely
around.. he thought.
The question came from Adan’s lips first and saw Shu’s
face.”a..ah.. well she’s safe.. but ulrich went and saved her.”
Saved.. she was …
“Saved!!! Saved!?! What happened!” Flew from the tiny boy. Shu
saw how Ezra was and got on a knee.”take a breath.” He told the
boy and got him to let it out.”she was tossed in the waters.. I
saw him go diving after her.. James did too. He’s a bit mouthy
and just pray your sister doesn’t call him a woman.” He said as
he saw Ezra’s face twist.”what kind of joke is that?” He said
before tears filled up.
It happened again, first the desert, then the chaos at the
dhampires hideout.. and now in open sea. He lost her again.
Tears slid down his face as he tried to not cry out loud. He bit
his bottom lip in frustration and trying to remain a bit strong.
—-
Eden heard the soothing words and comfort of ulrich. It took a
little, but she managed to calm down.. well enough despite the
gasps of air from the girl that just cried her eyes out.
She looked at the man as he introduced himself. He seemed kind
and caring.. his smile inviting and friendly. Eden blinked and
let a breath in. She let it out finally letting go of ulrich.
She slid off and tried to compose herself as she stood in a way
that she thought made her look bigger.”My names eden.” She said
trying to keep the gasping from crying to a minimum. She shifted
a little at the idea of food.”I am hungry..” she said softly.
“Just no dresses.. make it hard to move.” She said trying to
regain how she was.
“I like you- you got a nice smile.” Said eden smiling a
little.”I can help get stuff too.. not right you just do it.”
She said finally managing to maintain control of her voice.
°°°
A strange sound could be heard coming from the beach causing
Eion to look out from his hunting spot high up in a tree. His
eyes widened to the size of cantaloupe seeing a sphinx pulling a
boat before crumbling into a heap on the ground. He watched in
amazement as several seemingly human being came out of the boat,
one having a rather unpleasant reaction to being at sea it
seemed.
He wondered what kind of people they must be to befriend a
sphinx. He decided to try and get closer, hoping from branch to
branch. Unfortunately, the branch he decided to perch on, nearly
right over the giant lion monster, he heard it start to break,
causing a scream from the little elf and he fell onto the Sphinx
getting a *very* angry sound before holding him down with one
paw while the other was raised to slash, her features twisted
into a snarl.
°°°
♡♡♡
Lakki's breathing finally slowed as she regained herself.
Recovering far faster than she had expected, but still dozed in
the warm sun with Justus. That was until something fell on top
of her. It scared her so badly that she nearly disembowled the
creature that had landed on her right there. Pausing only
because of how small it was... it was no larger than the cubs.
♡♡♡
◇◇◇
A much wider smile stretched across Ulrich's features as he saw
just how spunky this kid was. She reminded him a little of a
younger him. "No dresses," he assured as he got to his feet and
stretched.
"I like you too, you got spunk," he said with a chuckle having
never had someone say such a thing to him. It was honestly crazy
to him. No one usually liked him, or even got to see his actual
smile.
"Good, people are usually nicer to kids when they steal," Ulrich
said as he smile turned to a smirk. It vanished all together
when he heard the sound of what sounded like maybe running? He
wasn't entirely sure but it was getting closer.
"We should move... I don't think we are alone, can you run?" He
asked, boxing up his own worries to try and not scare the kid.
"I can carry you on my back if you need me to but we need to
move..." He said, letting his voice drop to a near whisper.
◇◇◇
At Adan's question about Eden, Blue shot a look at Shu. He
hadn't realized the girl hadn't been with them. He was grateful
that the others were all safe, but now he was worried for the
girl.
Both her brother and Adan looked even more freaked by Shu's
saying she'd been saved.
He felt a bit relieved and surprised to hear Ulrich had jumped
in to save her.
"Shu," Blue sighed and pinched his nose at the man making the
boy start crying.
Adan was quite worried himself and could understand why Ezra was
crying. "It's going to be okay Ezra. We'll find her, I know we
will. They're probably on an island like we are. Your dad Jalal,
he knows smoke signals right? We can try and do that in the
morning." He suggested and hugged the boy tightly. "I'm sure
this Ulrich can keep her safe,"
Blue shot a look at Shu, hoping the kid was right. Ulrich was
tough, but did the pirate know how to survive on an island?
No one was expecting for a body to fall out of the trees,.though
Justus was moving a second before the branch broke.
"Lakki wait!" Justus cried out and moved in to where the small
horrified elf was laying unprotected. "He means no harm. You can
let him up," he said in a soothing voice and then slowly pulled
the young elf free.
"Best be more careful climbing in a dying tree," he told the
young elf. "You're safe with us. What brings you here? I'm
Justus, and these are my friends. We escaped a cursed pirate
ship and mad captain. Do you know where we are?"
----
Grimm watched Brother wolf run ahead, knowing he'd cut the
pirate off and herd him towards a ravine close by. It was a
tactic they normally used.
The wolf would distract the man, he'd swoop in get the child to
safety, possibly wound the pirate and then Fenrir would either
chase the man into the ravine or kill him.
*I'll come from the left, you take the right* Fenrir spoke in
his mind.
*Aye, sounds good to me,* Grimm replied, sliding down an
embankment and moved to head the pirate off.
—-
Eden watched him stand and stretch. She smiled wide at the
compliment. Her own vanished when she saw how he was and looked
around to go over and lift her arms.”carry.. I’m still worn out
from all that tuning!” She said honestly. Running was furthest
from her mind.
She clung to ulrich and glanced around , trying to keep an eye
out for whatever was coming for them.
——
Shu made a face.”I was just trying to ease the news” he said as
he watched Adan hug the boy.”y..yeah…” he said and wiped his
face a little.
Shu simply made a small sigh.”trust me she’s in good hands.. man
can take on those bigger than he is.” He said and went to find
wood to get camp set up.
Ezra’s head whipped around at the sound of a branch falling and
rushed a bit over.. he saw an elf a bit older than him.”hey he
fell from the tree, gotta make sure nothings broken before you
move them.” He said repeating his masters teachings. “Then we
ask..” he said as he looked at the boy a bit. “My names Ezra..
what is yours?” He asked.
♡♡♡
Lakki reluctantly put his raised clawed paw down onto the
ground, but it seemed he wasn't quite as willing to left the elf
up. After a little more coaxing the sphinx finally let the elf
up. Still agitated from the rude awakening, she stalked off a
good ways away before curling up away from the trees, her wings
being held over her to keep the sun off.
♡♡♡
○○○
One moment Eion's life was flashing before his eyes, and the
next he was being told he was safe by strangers. The man who had
pulled him free practically looked into the elf's soul as he
told an insane story mixed with questions.
He didn't even get a chance to answer the man, a boy with long
straight red hair like he had never seen before in his short
life, claimed the the elf shouldn't be moved and something about
checking for broken things.
The boy called himself Ezra and asked for his name. He stared at
the group like a deer in headlights for a long moment before
swallowing a little. "I... I'm Eion..... I um.... I am on my
ture walk.... this... island is known to be the island of the
wolfmen... a Grimm stalks this island.... was... was that all
the questions?" He asked, hoping that they wouldn't turn on him
if he said something they didn't like. Social was not something
he was accustomed to so how friendly some of these people were
was so strange.
○○○
◇◇◇
Once Eden was on his back, Ulrich took off in the direction of
the docks. He could hear the sound of padded feet chasing after
them drawing closer and closer. He had to grab a branch to make
a sharp turn around a corner. It was at the point that he
realized just how far the dock was. Could he really run for that
long?
His brief pause was enough for him to hear the sounds of that he
could only guess was a wolf. He couldn't help the scared sound
he made when he laid eyes on it, running in the opposite
direction he had intented to go, towards the docks, and ended up
finding himself running down a revine. This wasn't good.
Much like he feared, they were soon cornered. The only option
was to try and climb the rock wall before him, or get stuck up a
tree like an animal. His blood ran cold hearing the wolf closing
in and ended up starting to climb the rock wall, but slipped too
many times and ended up climbing the tree.
He settled on a thick branch, moving the child from his back to
hug her as he tried to figure out what he could do. "Fuck fuck
fuck fuck fuck" Ulrich muttered to himself in his panicked state
as he watched the wolf getting closer to the tree.
◇◇◇
"I know Shu, just some kids take things harder," Blue said with
a soft sigh.
After they'd seen the elf kid come falling out of the tree and
hearing his replies, blue asked James and Justus to keep an eye
on the others, and left with Shu to gather up wood and check for
signs of this Grimm creature.
He knew Lakki and Justus would keep a watchful eye on James and
the other two kids. And he felt it was about time he got a
moment alone with Shu.
"Hey Shu, come look at this," Blue said pausing and staring at a
carved mark he'd found in a tree. "I wonder what it means, if
this Grimm guy has been here for long, why would he need to mark
his way? Must be from someone else," he said thoughtfully.
Blue set his pile of wood down and then pulled Shu in for a long
deep kiss. One he was thought was long overdue. "I'm glad we
both survived and got off the ship. We can take more moments for
ourselves now. Though it would probably be best to find a way
off this island. I wonder if Justus could help make a new boat.
Or fix the old one," he mused. "We probably want to get out of
here before this Grimm finds us,"
He felt more than a little wary that they might end up being
hunted down.
------
Adan watched Lakki stalk away, feeling a bit bad for her. She
hadn't meant to scare the young elf. She'd reacted because of
what she'd gone through. She'd probably be feeling better after
she'd gotten more rest. And a meal.
Adan couldn't help but listen as the elf stuttered through a
reply, looking more than a little alarmed by being surrounded by
all of them.
Justus chuckled a bit at Ezra's sharing the proper way to assess
a falling victim.
"You wouldn't know it, but I can feel pain. If he'd been hurt
badly I would have felt it when I touched him," he said kindly.
He waited patiently for the elf to catch his breath and answer
their questions. When he got a questioning look on his face over
the mention of a True Walk, it was Adan that piped up and
explained.
"a ture walk, is like a spirit journey that young elves go on
before they become men. Much like the indigenous tribes do,"
Adan blushed a bit seeing the shocked looks on Justus, a James
and Ezra's faces. "What? I read a lot so I know this sort of
stuff," he said with a shrug.
Then he frowned thinking o er what Eion had said about the
island and there being Grimm.
"A real Grimm creature or a man that hunts monsters and evil?
There is a difference. Why'd you pick an island full of wolves
for your ture walk?" Adan couldn't help but ask.
It was James that finally intervened. "That's enough questions.
Let him relax and recover. We need to find a water source and
food. There are probably deer and small game if wolves live
here. We can't leave everything to Blue and Shu," he reasoned.
-------
The wolf came to a stop under the tree and let out a loud growl
before howling and moving to lunge against the tree trunk.
*He's up in a tree with the kid. You may have to cut the tree
down*
Grimm finally came into sight moving to stand next to the wolf
and stared up at the pair. "Looks like we have a pirate up a
tree. Thought you lot hated land," he said in his deep voice.
Seeing how the child clung to the fair faced man gave him pause.
Surely if she'd been kidnapped she wouldn't be clinging to the
pirate, would she?
Grimm sighed and put his sword away. "Stand down brother wolf."
Then he addressed the child.
"Were you taken by this pirate? Sold or kidnapped? He hasn't
hurt you has he?"
——
Shu sighed and listened to the kid a bit and got a soft look
before feeling a pull of blue. He went over and looked at
it.”not sure.. probably to not lose their way perhaps..” he said
as his hand ran over it.. the half sun mark.
Shu felt the pull in and the deep kiss. He groaned hotly in it
before they separated.”yes you still got a lot to make up for..”
he said before hearing Gale.”rawwww kissy kissy…rawwww sweet
ass.”
——
Ezra shook his head from Adan’s usual ways of giving information
out of the blue. He still had to get use to that.
Ezra who remained quiet nodded.”your right but first we need to
make sure we have partners.”said Ezra.”Adan James you two go
together.. Adan don’t leave James side please… “ he said.”I’ll
help Eion, he may need to rest but it’ll help if someone keeps
an eye.. Justus.. think you can help them find things edible
that isn’t meat?… I can’t eat that much.. “ he said and rubbed
the back of his head.
——
Eden saw the wolf herself and clutched at the running ulrich
conflicted on facing and perhaps befriending the wolf, and the
fear of being abandoned cause of ulrich’s fear. “Why are we
running! It’s just a cute doggie.” Came out as she clung to the
running man.
Eden saw how he climbed and got worried before they ended up in
a tree and felt the protective hug. She felt maybe he was afraid
of wolves.. she’d need to fix that.
She looked down to see the wolf not exactly barking and said.”I
don’t think it was gonna hurt us.”she said.”I think.”
She made an angry face at the man below hearing him talk to her
friend that way. Before seeing him address her.”so you’d know he
saved me from drowning! He’s not a bad guy.” She said and cling
to ulrich.”now go away- and gimmie your dog for scaring us.” She
said being the way she was. Her cerulean eyes were flickering in
thought of what to do to get them out of the situation.
——
°°°
New questions replaced the old ones and even one of the humans
answered one question before asking what felt like a ocean full
of more. Eion was more than a little grateful that one of them
seemed to notice how overwhelmed he was and called off the pack.
Ezra seemed to pick up on it as well, as the younger boy came up
with a task for everyone and soon he was along with the handsome
redhead. "I am okay, I was actually hunting when I found your
troup. I um.... I could help locate some food. I know of this
waterfall nearby that has all kinds of tasty mushrooms." He
offered, unsure if he was trying to impress the guy or if he
just wanted to be helpful. He had never seen a human that had
such colorful hair and eyes.
°°°
◇◇◇
"What on earth gives you the idea it doesn't want to kill me
exactly??" Ulrich asked Eden indignantly. The way the the young
child so bravely defended Ulrich impressed the pirate, though,
he couldn't exactly agree with the claim that he was a good guy.
"That is a wolf! We can not take a wolf with us!" Ulrich
protested to Eden, as he was only an older brother and not the
adult of the two.
◇◇◇
Blue wasn't quite sure, he had the feeling he'd seen it before
and it had more significance than just marking the way. Maybe
he'd ask Adan later. The kid seemed to be a plethora of old
knowledge. There was something about the young boy that made him
think he might have royal blood. The way he talked and carried
himself, was a big give away.
Blue's arms tightened a bit more around Shu, grinning back at
the other's words. He chuckled at Gale's comment from above.
"Don't worry, we'll have lots of time to do everything you
desire and then some. Just..we'll probably have to wait a bit
longer. Once we've got camp ready, and someone can watch the
kids; we can go off and have our fun," Blue leaned in again to
kiss the man deeply on the lips, savoring the feel of the man in
his arms and how he tasted.
He'd waited a long time already, so a few more hours wouldn't
hurt. Sometimes the anticipation made it feel even more amazing.
-------
Adan sighed, a bit miffed that Ezra was treating him like a
child. He'd wandered off once on his own, and he was now
constantly reminded of it. "Yeah yeah, don't worry. I"ll stick
to James like glue," Adan muttered.
James chuckled a bit, finding it a bit amusing. He was still
swaying on his feet, long used to the movement of the ship and
the water. "Maybe you can help me find my land legs," He
suggested, slinging an arm around the shorter boy's shoulders.
Justus shot a look over at the slumbering Sphynx and then nodded
at Ezra's question. "I can do that. There's probably all kinds
of roots that are edible." He said. "Also, try not to go too
far. Even if you are paired up, it's easy to get lost in a place
you don't know. Oh..hold on,"
Justus pulled off some of his bracelets and handed them around
to the boys and Eion. "Wear these, if you don't come back in an
hour, I can locate you easier,"
Once they were wearing them, Justus used his shirt to make a
makeshift bag and headed off to search for plants and roots that
might feedeveryone.
—-
Adan sighed and then led James off in a different direction,
figuring they could cover more ground if they all went a
different area to search. He was smart enough to stop every few
feet to leave a marker so they could follow it back to the
beach. "So..we'll want to avoid bright colored berries, those
are likely to be poisonous." He told James as they got further
into the forest.
-----
Grimm's eyebrows shot up when the girl spoke, saying that the
pirate had saved her and that he wasn't a bad guy. Her demand of
getting his dog, had him chuckle.
Fenrir shot him a questioning look and he spoke to him mentally.
*She thinks you're a dog and is demanding I give you to her,*
The wolf let out a bark of protest and pulled on Grimm's pants.
He couldn't help but chuckle again at the pirate's own protest
about not taking the wolf with them.
"He's actually a wolf, and he's not mine to give. He's more like
a friend and brother," Grimm told her, his tone much softer and
relaxed. "I apologize for scaring you. I've had to deal with
kidnappers and terrible men that have taken kids. Perhaps I can
assist you instead. The weather will drop quite low tonight.
You'll need shelter and food. You can stay in my cabin for the
night. Tomorrow I can help you find a way off the island and
back to your homes," He offered and motioned to the wolf to back
off, realizing the man was frightened of his friend.
Fenrir let out a soft sigh and retreated a good five feet away
from the tree.
-----
Beast's belly was rumbling again louldy as he slipped out of the
hollow hole in the old tree and headed back to the waterfall
he'd found a few days ago. It ached it was so empty. Perhaps
today his luck would change and he'd catch a fish finally.
THe small black cat with one white foot came to a stop at the
edge of the water and let out a quiet meow, his tail shivering.
Several large fish were swimming lazily around not too far from
the bank, enticing him closer.
Water was not his friend..and he hated it with a passion. But he
hadn't had luck catching any of the fast rabbits or the birds.
After he'd eaten that nest of baby birds two days ago, he'd been
bombarded by the angry parents and other birds the moment they
saw him.
After a moment, Beast moved to the log that had fallen halfway
into the water and slowly and carefully walked his way down
closer to the water. He hunched down, preparing himself to
launch on the first fish that came close enough, his body
shaking a bit.
—-
Shu felt the arms tighten around him and blushed at Gale… and
more at blue. The idea of finally having the man danced in his
mind and more at the deep kiss that lingered.
“I can’t wait… hopefully the kiddies sleep fast.” He said with a
smirk of his own. “If that’s the case let’s get things set up..
need shelter soon after all.” He said and smacked blues ass
before walking off chuckling, collecting wood for the fire if he
could find it dry.
——-
Ezra gave a firm nod at Adan. Before looking up at Justus. When
offered the bracelets he put his on and for some reason grabbed
Eion’s hand.”show me?” He asked before he walked off with the
elf. Somehow the boy drew him in a little, he seemed shy but
kind. “Thank you.. is there anywhere you live? “ he asked
curiously as they walked.
As he took in the area.. he noticed a tiny looking cat going for
a fish and blushed just a little. Much like his sister he loved
animals but with more reason. “Look it’s a cat… kinda more like
a kitten..” he said and blinked.
——-
Eden made a face at ulrich - almost a pout.”but I can train
it..” she said to ulrich before hearing the man’s voice
below.”then maybe you should of gone to sea cause all those
assholes drowned.” Said Eden with a flash of a grin. “So your
outta luck.”
She clung to ulrich a bit more. “Sweet words don’t always mean
truth.” Said Eden as she was clearly hesitant.
That was got her caught in the first place.. after getting
snagged by a shifter and dealing with the dhampire - for her
actions spoke louder than words. “What do you think ulrich?” She
asked clearly with a small scared look now.
She watched the wolf go pretty far but even then… somehow it
didn’t feel any better- to her it felt like a lure.
°°°
Eion reluctantly accepted the offered bracelet before Ezra took
his hand and pulled him towards to forest, clearly eager to see
the mentioned waterfall. "Of, of course!" He said as his dark
skin grew a little darker as he lead the big through the forest,
easily retracing his steps.
"I found a tree hollow I have been staying in, to avoid the
Grimm. I've only been on my walk for a single moon cycle so... I
haven't exactly figured out what I'm looking for yet. The
village orical explained that my walk would start on this
island... but... I didn't exactly understand much of what she
told me. Being all vague." Eion explained. He felt at ease with
Ezra's hand in his own.
When the pair finally reached the waterfall, the red head
spotted a kitten eyeing the fish in the water. "It's so cute!!!
I wonder if it is friendly?" He questioned, looking to Ezra
briefly before looking back at the little black kitten.
°°°
◇◇◇
"I don't trust the wolf, and I trust *him* even less. Probably
one of those bastards they use to recapture kids that escape!"
Ulrich said, half throwing his words as an insult at the rugid
man below them. "If we were close to water I could get us out of
here..." He complained.
◇◇◇
"With all the adrenaline they've gone through today, it's likely
they will fall asleep sooner," Blue told Shu, grinning a bit at
the other's eagerness.
"Yeah, good idea," He added and chuckled at the smack to his
ass. "Keep that up and you're the one that's going to be sore
tomorrow,"
He warned.
While Shu collected fire wood, Blue grabbed larger pieces to
build up a lean to building to keep them dry during the night.
He glanced to the sky, taking in the clouds, and frowned. It
looked like it could rain at some point. Which wasn't good.
------
The small cat's gaze flicked up at the sound of rustling leaves
and breaking sticks and it shook a bit. Was it another of the
wolves that roamed the island? Beast moved sniffing and then
went still at the sight of the two boys coming closer.
The sound of their voices reminded it of how hungry he was and
Beast glanced back down to see a fish had come closer. THe cat
swiped at it with it's paw, trying to catch the fish and the
fish dodged his paw. Beast let out a sad meow and dunked his
face down trying to get his teeth into it, only to get a face
full of water.
He let out a pitiful meow, and sat down on his haunches and
looked at the boys. He was soo hungry and frustrated that he
forgot his one rule and shifted into his human self in front of
them.
"Beast starving! Beast want fish!" The half feral 8 year old
cried and jumped into the water, trying to catch one of the fish
with his hands. The only problem was that even in human form,
the water was far too deep and he wasn't able to swim.
That became evident to Eion and Ezra when the boy began to
thrash and struggle in the water. "Water evil! Water hurt Beast!
Help!"
—-
Grimm was more than a little amused to hear the girl telling the
man that she could train Fenrir. The wolf shook his head and
spun in agitation, letting out a bark of annoyance. "She's a kid
Fenrir," He said with a laugh, amused by what the wolf had said
to him telepathically.
Her retort about the assholes drowning, made Grimm go still his
eyebrows lifting in surprise. "Well..good. Glad to hear they're
gone. They've hurt too many children."
Grimm got the feeling that the girl must have survived an
encounter with the the pirates and knew their tactics. He let
out a sigh when he heard the man's yelled insult about him
recapturing kids.
"I can tell you've both been through a lot, I'll just go. If you
go due west and follow the trail. you'll find my cabin. Take
whatever supplies and clothing you might need. Travel safely,"
Grimm said, making up his mind to just let the pair go on their
way.
However..this wasn't what happened. THe small piece of Vera that
had stowed away in Ulrich's hair suddenly moved, scraping
against his neck, and let out a hissing sound. The small
sentient part of the vine wasn't about to let them miss out on
someone that could actually help them.
—-
Ezra watched intently as the kitten missed the fish, he could
hear how sad it was and how his face got wet.”poor thing it must
be …” he started before seeing it change into a *child* Ezra
inwardly panicked he didn’t know how to swim but he could tune.
His hands shifted and flowed like water, while a gem that was
tied to his arm flashed.
The small boy was shifted up and deposited in front of him and
Eion.”water isn’t evil.. you just fell in.” He said as it
shifted back to how he flowed back and gently put his hand
out.”if your hungry come with us.. we are gonna eat back where
we go.” He looked back at the pond.”think we can fish?.. I
just.. I can’t swim.” He said quietly. “Mean.. sure I could tune
water but it doesn’t catch fish that easily.” He admitted.
——-
Eden blinked.”you can talk to wolves?” She asked. Her head
tilted at the man still being very careful and suspicious.
Her eyes narrows just a little bit at his words before she
noticed something moving in ulrich’s hair.”what’s that wriggling
in your hair?” She asked.
——
°°°
Eion was about to run in to swim and save the kitten turned
child before Ezra used some magic he had never seen before to
take the child out of the water. It seemed out of the three, he
was the only one who knew how to swim or catch fish.
"I can catch some fish. As many fish as you want!" Eion promised
before looking around for a suitable stick. "Just need to turn
this into a spear first!" He said happily before perching
himself on a large bolder, pulling out a stone blade and then
swiftly sharpening the stick to a deadly point.
The elf then went to the edge of the water spear raised above
his head as he patiently watched the fish. He watched them
silently began to school before tossing the spear with all his
strength into the water and spearing two large fish. Eion then
had to dive into the deep pool to fetch his spear.
He came back up with spear in hand, the two large catfish
flailing. "Fish!" He cheered as he swam to shore. "We cab get
some mushrooms here too and make a real tastey meal!" Eion said
once ashore again.
°°°
◇◇◇
Ulrich was about to claim something along the lines of the cabin
probably being a trap before he froze in fear. His eyes widening
when he heard Eden ask what was in his hair. The hiss sending
him over the edge, literally, as he freaked out, sliding out of
the tree as he tried to get the 'snake' off of him. He let out a
scream as he hurtled towards the ground. Great he was going to
die on land because of a stupid snake!
◇◇◇
Feeling the water moving and then lifting him up had Beast go
stiff, fear racing through him. His eyes were huge and he
skittered back away from the two boys, hiding in a clump of
weeds. He blinked as he listened, his head cocking to the side
at the gentle voices.
The strange water magic had scared him, but it helped that they
weren't trying to come too close or invading his space.
"Food?" He inched a little closer, when the other older one said
he could catch fish. "Oh yes please, fishes to fill Beasts
tummy!"
He watched curiously as the boy grabbed a stick and sharpened a
point of it. Beast moved closer to watch, delight sparking in
his eyes when the boy managed to spear two fish easily.
Beast could barely contain himself when the two fish were
brought to shore.
"Fishes!" He cried out happily and shifted into the cat again
and climbed up the wet boy to get at the speared fish. His teeth
latched into the side of the fish and started gnawing away at
it. The poor kid was just too hungry to wait on it being cooked.
-----
Grimm hadn't gone more than a foot when he heard a very loud
girlish sounding scream and twisted around. He let out a curse
seeing the white haired man falling out of the tree and rushed
forwards just in time to catch him in his arms.
The force of the man hitting his arms forced him stumbling back
a few steps before he steadied himself.
"You okay?" He asked and glanced up a bit confused by what had
made the man fall.
"What made you fall?" He asked, his voice rumbling against the
smaller man's body.
His chest felt a bit funny and his arms tightened a bit, not
really wanting to let the other go just yet. It had been almost
18 years since he'd lost his family and hadn't touched another
person since then. At least not in an affection way.
Ezra watched eion in fascination as he worked at making his
spear, once it was done, he took a look at it and seemed to
approve.
Once they got to the edge of the water. Ezra waited for eion and
saw the fish.”it would be a good meal!” He said with a smile.
But the success was short lived as the hungry boy began to eat
them.”he must be hungry to be eating it raw..” he said
thoughfully.”I could start a small fire now.. cook the other
one.. if we take that one he might cry.” He said.
He took his time making a small fire he could put out and got a
small red stone. He placed it between his teeth. While he
couldn’t do what Eden could.. least he could start a flame.
He got it started and got the second fish.”imma cook this one
okay?” He told beast.”my name is Ezra.. and that is Eion.after
we eat.. wanna come with us? Lots of food where we be.”
———
Eden felt her heart catch in her throat as she watched ulrich
scream.”wait your gonna-“ she said before seeing him fall. But
when Grimm saved him let a breath out from the tree.
“Think he has a snake in his hair.” Yelled down Eden. She
started to climb down quickly , her foot slipping a little. Her
eyes went wide as she started for the ground, but her quick
actions with some weak tuning with wind cushioned her
fall.”ulrich.. are you okay?” She asked as she tried to snap him
out of it.
#Post#: 1536--------------------------------------------------
Re: Pirates
DIR By: Inkglitched
Date: February 20, 2026, 11:05 am
---------------------------------------------------------
°°°
Eion hadn't expected for the little kid to shift and climb up
him, but it had him a giggling mess all the same. "Wait! Let me
get it off the spear!" He protested as he gently grabbed the
kitten, not making any effort to pull him off the fish, instead,
pulling the fish off and handing the still impailed fish to
Ezra.
He couldn't help holding the little kitten as he munched his raw
fish. The creature eventually giving up on moving after a good
bite to the brain from the little shifter. "He is *sooooo*
cute." He couldn't help but say. "I'll get some mushrooms." He
added before finally putting the kitten and fish down.
He then went behind the waterfall on a very narrow path
disappearing from view. Several minutes later he returned with
more mushrooms than he could comfortably carry, struggling not
to drop any as he made it back to the fire.
°°°
◇◇◇
Ulrich had closed his eyes when he thought he was about to hit
the ground. He certainly hit something firm, but it wasn't the
ground. He felt strong arms wrap around him. That deep rumbling
voice causing his eyes to open quickly as he looked at at the
man holding him.
Feeling the arms tighten made him blush and he couldn't exactly
explain why. He certainly felt safe. Well, he did until he felt
the movement in his hair again and began to freak out once more.
"Snake! There is a snake in my hair!" He panicked as he tried to
get whatever was it his hair out but unwilling to actually run
his fingers through so he was having no luck getting the
hitchhiker out.
◇◇◇
Beast's sole attention was on eating the fish, making happy
little sounds while he munched his way through the raw flesh. He
could hear the boys talking and felt him and the fish lifted and
set on the ground. He ate as much as his small belly could hold,
which was only a third of the big fish and rolled over on his
side and let out a satisfied sigh.
His kitten stomach was so full it was pudgy. Beast's eyes caught
the sight of the flames and the boy tending it and flicked
around to look for the other boy.
His mind recalled the hands that had held him and the words, the
pointy eared boy had said. He relaxed a bit when the boy came
back and his tail swished as he eyed the armful of mushrooms.
One did fall from Eion's arms and Beast moved to pounce on it
and began lazily batting it around.
After a few moments he grew sleepy and moved closer to the boys
and the fire to curl up for a nap.
-----
Grimm heard the girl's yell of there being a snake and then the
guy panicked. "Let me check," he said and set the man in his
feet and ran his hands through the pirate's short hair. He
pulled out what looked like a tropical vine and blinked, looking
a bit confused.
"Haven't seen these vines in the island before. They're more
from jungles, if I am remembering correctly,"
Grimm scratched his head and then nearly dropped the vine when
it started to move on its own.
"What the hell?!" He exclaimed and then got wide eyed when the
vine latched around his hand and starting sliding up his arm.
"It's almost like it's a living vine.. odd,"
He watched as it moved up to his shoulder and then shivered when
it went up his neck and rested near his ear, attaching to his
own hair.
"Okay, that's kind of freaky." Grimm said, though made no move
to pull the vine out.
It rather shocked him when he heard a voice speaking to him in
his mind.
"Ummm..I guess her name is Vera. And she latched onto you to
survive. She apologizes for scaring you," Grimm relayed.
——
Ezra chuckled lightly.”he is adorable.. good thing Eden isn’t
around. She wouldn’t let him go.” He said as he cooked.
When eion came back he got a hand on some of the mushrooms and
used a stick to cook some of those too. He looked over at the
shifter looking fat but happy.
“This is kind of nice.. though .. kind of weird without my twin
and dad.” He said as he sighed leaning back.
His eyes shifted up seeing clouds.. it meant rain.”mm.. probably
eat and head back before it drops..” he said thoughtfully as the
smell of rain was apparent in the air.
He waited as the mushrooms finished and took some off to hand
some to Eion.”your nature walk.. how long do you have to
travel?” He asked before taking a solid bite of a mushroom.
————
Eden seeing the vine felt a faint memory.. and not a good one.
She folded her arms a bit.”yeah.. their everywhere.. fun to
swing on..” said Eden quietly. Some of her short life was with a
man who claimed to be their father… an unkind one.
She loved the desert despite how hot it was. Though she loved
traveling as Jalal often took them places..
She snapped out of her thoughts as she looked up at the
man.”thank you for saving ulrich.. guess your not bad guy..” she
said with a animated movement of her head. She touched her face
finally realizing- she had lost her mask. She pouted a little at
her lost treasure. It meant a lot to her given Jalal had made it
for her.
“Ulrich.. your okay- and wolf guy won’t don’t anything- he talks
to wolves.” She said trying to bring ulrich out of his freak
out.
———
Shu was finishing up the shelter. He sighed at how shoddy it
looked. Despite it at least they’d have a roof over their heads.
He looked around noticing some of the kids were still out and
about.”maybe we should round the kiddies.. it’s starting to
build that storm.” Said Shu.”shouldn’t see bad winds though-
might be a downpour.” He surmised. He looked at blue running his
eyes over.”I can find the other ones- I’m sure your worried
about James.” He told the man thoughtfully.
——-
Meanwhile… in a part of the forest a man, with long auburn hair
walked. His eyes covered by a mask obscuring his eye color. He
was dressed in long robes and upon his head a symbol shown.
A horizon mark one of his kingdom and after tribe adorned his
head.. his posture that of someone who was raised as a prince.
He made another mark on the tree- adamant that one would be
found as his visions had told him.. but given how his works the
many visions cascaded into more.. ever shifting and changing.
How he worried for Adan, but most of all his adopted
children-Eden and Ezra.. seeing the boys kidnapped and Eden
running off as she was. He knew what she could be destined to
be.. but if cut short their world would be plunged into true
darkness. He needed to find them- as a group was meant to take
down a great evil that grown ever larger in the desert.
He sighed and continued his walk.. his magic giving a strange
ripple about. He felt it .. faintly… three children. Adan.. one
of earth… and the twins.
His head turned thoughtfully.. not knowing location.. but
clearly both were far.. and seperated.
“I must find them..” he murmured as he smelled the threat of
rain. His head going up as he felt what seemed was the first
raindrop.
°°°
A grin crossed Eion's face seeing the little kitten was nice and
plump when he returned, the fish mostly eaten by the little guy.
He took a seat next to Ezra, keeping an eye on their surrounding
and their furry little friend. Who he couldn't help but pull
into his lap when the little guy came to lay by them.
"Being away from family can be hard, but it is good to have your
own independence." The elf commented before nodding in agreement
of heading back as soon as they were done with the cooking food.
"My walk will last until I find what I'm looking for.... just...
don't know what I'm looking for yet." Eion said with a chuckle.
"Even talking to the seer didn't enlighten me more than coming
to this island." He said with a sigh.
"The kitten is so coming with us," he added and he took some of
the cooked food and took a night big bite.
°°°
◇◇◇
Ulrich continued to fidget and jerk around every time he felt a
new movement in his hair, *finally* calming down when the vine
was pulled out of his hair. His eyes going quite wide seeing the
vine in his hair.
He was quite confused at first be the vine until it started
talking to the Wildman and told him it was Vera and she was
sorry. "VERA! Why would you scare me like that!!! Why are you
with me? Shouldn't you be with your cute druid buddy?" Ulrich
questioned looking less than amused at being used as a rescue
bus.
"Suppose I will have to find the guy so you can gi back to
him..." He said with a annoyed sigh. "Short stack, go ahead and
come down, it's safe enough..." He told Eden as he looked up at
her.
◇◇◇
Beast made a soft purring sound when he was moved and settled in
the warm lap, curling up tighter. His paws moved to cover his
face as he slept on.
He slept on while the boys ate and talked, finally uncurling and
stretching out sleepily when the raindrops woke him. He let out
a loud meow and climbed up onto the elf boy's shoulder and
rubbed his face against the other's cheek.
He was more than ready for them to go, wanting a warm dry place
to sleep, but not feeling strong enough to shift to his human
body.
_-----------_
Grimm glanced up at the young girl, catching on that she was
lost in a memory from the past. He made a thoughtful sound as
the vine kept talking, making his ear tickle. It was a sensation
he hadn't felt in a long time.
"I am sorry I frightened you child," Grimm apologized to her yet
again. "No I'm not. I hunt down the bad ones," he added and then
looked at the handsome younger man, a rare smile tugging at his
mouth at the girl's telling the pirate that he wouldn't do
anything to him.
It was a bit amusing to hear Ulrich talking to the vine like it
was normal to do.
"Vera says she didn't mean to scare you, she was trying to
survive. The salt water killed her bigger parts. She senses the
druid, but can't reach him. And she says yes, she'd be very
happy if you'd help her," Grimm relayed.
"I can have the wolves scout over the island for the druid and
report back to me later. Let's get you two dried off and warm.
The weather's going to turn soon and we'll be getting a big
storm tonight," Grimm added, looking up at the gathering dark
clouds. "Come, my cabin isn't that far off," he said and waited
for the girl to climb down before leading them off.
------
Blue dumped another pile of branches near the makeshift shelter
and glanced around at Shu's comment. "Yeah we should get them
back before the storm starts. It probably will be a downpour,"
he agreed with a sigh. "Good idea," he added, heading off in the
direction James and Adan had gone earlier in search of food. He
was relieved to run into them a few moments later on their way
back.
"Storm is blowing in, so best get to the shelter we got up. Find
anything good?"
James grinned and nodded. "Adan and I found a huge bush of wild
blackberries and a patch of root vegetables. Oh and a few
apples. That should help some. There are rabbits, but man they
are fast!"
The trio headed back to the camp where they got the food stored
away.
"Is Ezra not back yet?" Adan asked glancing around looking a bit
worried.
-----
Justus was the next to turn up, the shirt he'd turned into a bag
completely filled with leafy greens and other edible vegetables
he'd found in the forest he'd disappeared into. He got hit on
the forehead by a huge raindrop and looked up at the clouds and
then at the shelter nearby. "Let me see if I can add a bit
more,"
He sat the food down and sank his feet into the ground, calling
to nearby branches and vines. They started moving and attaching
to the shelter, adding more protection to keep the water out.
When he'd finished, the shelter looked far bigger and had four
complete walls.
"How do we get inside though?" Adan asked.
Justus reached out to touch the wall closest and the vines moved
to create an opening. "Like that, they'll respond to anyone's
touch. Just be gentle."
Ezra got a soft look as he watched Eion pull beast in his lap.
“It is.. It’s just- I’ve lost my sister twice and I feel bad for
it..even if she’s older by a few minutes.” He said to cross his
legs. “So you walk to find something- but you don’t know what to
find?” He asked.”Adan would find that confusing.” He said to
chuckle.
Then he heard it- the thunder.”we better move then. The shelter
should be up and I’m sure beast won’t like the water.” He said
finishing the last bite. He slid off and held his hand out
reflexively, it was a constant thing with him. He blushed
realizing.”ah sorry… habit.” Said Ezra to flush a bit.
——
Eden heard Ulrich giving the okay and slowly climbed down. Her
hands slipped around the end as she fell on her butt. Her eyes
flickering at the men before getting up and dusting her butt off
a little. “Okay..” she said clearly still unsure about the
stranger.”speaks to plants and animals..” she mumbled amused.
Once she got down she pointed at the large stranger.”And I am
not scared!” She said putting on a front.”you should be scared
of me!” She said. Her eyes looking unsure as she spat it out.
She hated the fact she lost her eye covering at this point- and
for once began to wish she had Jalal.
Once they got to the man’s shelter and got some towels, did
Eden look at Ulrich.. and finally spoke what was on her
mind.”you know … you remind me a lot of someone- his name was
Killian..“ she said softly before working at drying her hair.
She could still see the man pushing her out of the way of the
shadow that swallowed him up.
———
Shu chuckled.”we can always set traps up in the morning.” He
said. He was looking around a bit before hearing Adan.”not
yet..if they don’t pop up soon- I’ll search for the boys
myself.” He told Adan. The man was use to the rain and knew how
to handle it just fine. It wouldn’t be much longer till the trio
would be back- with an addition in the arms of one of the boys.
"You will find her, im sure of it...." he reassured with a soft
smile. "Yes, its for each walker to find their path, whatever it
might be to hopefuly return to the village one day, but it can
take years and years and years...." the elf said, feeling a
little homesick in that moment.
Soon the boys were getting ready to leave as the rain began to
fall on them. A blush crossed Eion's cheeks seeing Ezra blush
and appologize but took the boy's offered hand. "Don't
apologize, I don't mind," he said a little shyly.
Eion chucked feeling the kitten rub against his cheek and
couldn't help but pet him as they made their way back to the
beach where he had found the group originally, his eyes wearily
looking for the sphinx that had attacked him previously. She was
still fast asleep on the sand where he had last seen her.
---
Grumpy as Ulrich was, he finally stopped fussing, "whatever....
guess we can go to your cabin." He said gruffly. "You.... can
but me down you know..." the pirate commented, snickering a
little at how Eden tried to present herself as fearless.
Once back on his feet, Ulrich followed after Grimm with the
young redhead that the blonde felt quite responsible for having
saved her. He felt like it was his job to keep her alive.
It didn't take long for them to get to the cabin, drying off and
warming out. It was right when Ulruch was starting to feel more
relaxed that Eden said something that put him back on high
alert. "Did.... did you say Killian?" He questioned with a
deadly serious look in his eyes.
"Where and when did you meet him... Killian is my brother, I
have been long for him for a long time now...." Ulrich explained
earnestly.
——
Beast clung to Eoin's shoulder, his claws digging into the boy's
shirt. The hand petting him, kept him purring and calm even
though the dripping rain was bothersome.
The smells of the other people filled Beast's kitten nose and he
tensed up, letting out a little hiss. It took longer to pick up
the cat like smell, which had his tail go rigid and his fur
stick out, hissing even louder. It was pretty evident that Beast
was scared.
----
Grimm stepped back a bit more, wincing when Eden slipped and
fell on her butt on the ground. At least she didn't seem to have
been hurt by the fall.
He kept a straight face as she confronted him, saying he should
be afraid of her. "I'd have to say I'm feeling quite cautious of
you at the moment," there was something about this young girl
that made him believe there was more to her than was normal.
Grimm was pleased that his offer was accepted and set Ulrich
down on his feet and headed off through the forest, using only a
path he knew from memory. Once they were in the cabin, he gave
them towels and clothes to change into, and started up a fire
that would help heat up his two guests.
While they cleaned up, Grimm started cutting up vegetables and
added in some smoked fish to a pot to make a stew for dinner.
While he heard their conversation, he didn't interrupt. The
small piece of vine he placed into a cup of earth and added some
water per Vera's request.
"I'll be right back, just going to send a few wolves to look
for the druid and your other friends," he told the two, pulling
a rain slicker on before stepping outside.
He said as back inside ten minutes later and went to stir the
stew hanging over the fire. "Would you two want some tea or
coffee?" Grimm asked.
--------
James looked pleased at Shu's mention of setting up traps and
carried what he'd gathered into the shelter, tucking it into a
corner.
Adan relaxed a bit when Shu promised to look for the other boys.
Maybe he worried too much, but after having lost Eden, he didn't
want to lose Ezra too.
He got an extremely relieved look when Eoin and Ezra came into
sight and passed off what he'd gathered to head over to them.
His eyes widened a bit seeing the small hissing cat clinging to
Eoin's shoulder. "You found a cat?" He asked in surprise.
Justus and Blue were both staring at the small cat with odd
expressions on their faces. Blue's scarred eye flashed brightly,
and he could sense that the cat was much more. Justus smiled a
bit, opening the shelter for everyone to get inside.
"Best get in now, the storms about to get much worse. Lakki!
Come on! You don't want to get soaked through!" Justus called
out to the sleeping sphinx.
Hopefully they'd be able to calm the shifter kitten enough to
not freak out inside the shelter.
—-
Eden blinked a bit hearing Ulrich and seeing how serious he
looked.“Yes.” She said simply to shake her head after using the
towel a little to push her hair back at the next question.
Eden seemed quiet and guilt filled her face a little. “In the
desert.. there was a building there that housed many that were
being sold off as slaves..” said Eden her voice going a bit
small. “He saved me from being snatched again only to be
recaptured.. last I remember hearing anything was talk of going
to a base by the sea near mermaids cove.” Said Eden. “We are
looking for them too.. the ones that didn’t get away.. “ Eden
said honestly.
She softly clutched her towel.”he tried to protect me, felt I
gained friends.. tre probably would beable to tell you more- he
was there much longer.” She said.
She heard the man offer coffee or tea to just grin.”I’m not
allowed to have coffee.” She said to sit down enjoying the smell
of the stew, and the warmth of the cabin.
——
Shu saw Ezra with the other boy, and seemed to have an addition.
“More like a beast shifter.” Said Ezra to Adan.”he’s a little
scared.” He said to pet beast gently to help calm it.
Once inside did Ezra dry off a little. His eyes turned to the
rain when he heard Shu speaking to Adan.”I saw a mark on a tree
earlier during our work.. it looked like a sunrise or sunset I
guess..” he said as the boy lit up.”did it have lines or no?” He
asked as shu blinked.”well I did say the sun so it had lines.”
Ezra seemed almost half ready to rush back outside but kept
contained.”dads here..” he said. “Means he’s looking for us..”
he seemed more than happy to say.
*****************************************************
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