Ride the Winds!
- Thread starter Azure Sage
- Start date
It's finally time for Ride the Winds! to return! Hope that little break has left you guys hungry to see what kind of adventures Lana gets into next. 
This is now the start of volume 2, as well as the start of the 4th story arc! We're in the second half of the story now, so get ready for another ride!
Lana had accomplished a great deal since leaving home. She had been captured by monster pirates and escaped on her own with nothing to her name. She had sailed from one side of the Great Sea to the other and survived days adrift on a wreck with no supplies. She had fought her way through a monster-infested island and defended a Great Spirit from a pirate raid, after only just learning how to fight. All of this she achieved in only sixteen days. She could be considered a highly accomplished seafarer by this point, to anyone who knew of her exploits. She was now confident that she could solve her way through any trial she encountered on the seas. Yes, perfectly confident.
But going out of her way to infiltrate and steal from a pirate stronghold? That was different.
“Why in the world would I ever do that to myself?” Lana questioned the mysterious talking boat before her. “I don’t have a death wish! I just want to sail across the sea and find my motherland far to the north! I never signed up for any of this craziness, and now that I can finally defend myself, I’m ready to get back on track. I don’t want to willingly jump right into the moblin’s den like that!”
“I understand your concerns, Lana, I really do, but I don’t have anyone else I can turn to.” the King of Red Lions reasoned. “You have proven yourself to be extremely reliable and resourceful. I have no doubt you can do this.”
“Your flattery isn’t going to help! I don’t want to go looking for danger! I just want to continue my journey. Besides, those pirates have already captured and imprisoned me once before, and I just found out they’re still trying to get me. I can’t go through that again. Please don’t ask me to do something like that.”
“I assure you I wouldn’t ask if this weren’t important. I sympathize with your story, but I really have no one else who can help me. I am just a boat. I cannot infiltrate a fort and retrieve stolen treasure. I would do it myself if I could. I need you, Lana.”
Lana sighed. He was awfully intent for a boat. She really did not want to do this, but his desperate pleas were starting to intrigue her. She had no idea what this treasure was or why it was so important to him.
“What exactly did they take, anyway? They’ve probably stolen loads of treasure before, so why is this time such a big deal?” she asked.
“This time they’ve stolen from the Fairy Queen, the mother to all fairies and another keeper of important artifacts in preparation for the Legendary Hero’s return.”
- The Legendary Hero again, huh? Why does this boat care so much about that?
“What did they steal from this Fairy Queen, then?” she asked.
“Powerful tools, known as the iron boots and power bracelets. They are intended to be used by the Hero to conquer trials and help them restore order to the seas. If they are in the hands of pirates, they won’t make it into the Hero’s hands one day. That’s a serious problem.”
“Boots and bracelets? Seriously?” Lana couldn’t believe her ears.
“Don’t judge them based on their names. Once you see them, you will understand why they are considered treasured artifacts. At any rate, I am very concerned about why they were taken. First them, and now the Deku Tree’s artifact was targeted, as well. This is boding ill for the future. I am very uneasy. Will you please reconsider your position? All of the Great Sea will one day be in peril, and if you don’t help me recover those tools, the Hero might not be able to save it.”
The sincerity in the King of Red Lions’ voice at last began to move Lana. If the Great Sea were in peril, that would also endanger her family back home on Greatfish Isle. She couldn't leave for her motherland in good conscience knowing that she could have done something to make the seas safer for them.
Still, diving headfirst into a pirate fortress was not a wise idea, especially with no backup. Even though she’d fought them off and stood up to the pirates that had turned her adventure into a disaster, she did not want to go looking for another fight with them. She’d just as soon never see them again. The fact that they were actively looking for her made the prospect of going back there even worse. She had no idea what they would do to her if they were to recapture her, and she did not want to find out.
Technically the case could be made that she had dived into danger by going to the Forbidden Woods, but the only reason she did that was to hold up her end of her deal with Orca. She had never intentionally sought out peril, and she didn’t want to start. She wanted to tell the King of Red Lions no, that she was done risking her neck for something other than her desired goal, but she couldn't get the words out. His desperate plea continued to echo in her mind, and the more it did, the more Lana felt that she couldn’t do nothing.
Then, as she thought this through, something new occurred to her. The pirates had already stolen from the Fairy Queen and the Deku Tree. What if they targeted another Great Spirit? What if Jabun, the deity from Greatfish Isle, was one of the Great Spirits? What if he held an artifact that was worth stealing? The supposed danger to her family would be much more immediate than she first thought.
- Man... How am I supposed to say no to that?
She didn’t know what stealing back treasure would accomplish, or if that would even do anything to prevent them from potentially attacking her home. Yet, she could no longer stop herself. She couldn’t sit still and do nothing after hearing all of this. She had to do something, anything. She had a fire in her heart that drove her to seek her roots, but she also had a warmth in her heart that couldn’t turn a blind eye to those in need.
- I must be really crazy for doing this... I need to sort out my priorities one of these days.
“... Alright, fine. I’ll do it. It’s really important, and it’s probably for the best that I do something about it.” Lana said. “But, as soon as I finish with this, I want to get on with my journey. So once I steal back that treasure for you, I want you to take me to a town so I can get my own boat. Deal?”
“Deal. Thank you so much, Lana. This is an enormous help, truly. It’s an odd feeling to be assisted by someone you once saved on a whim, hahah...” he said wistfully.
“It’s just as weird for me...” she said.
So, her next course was set. She couldn’t believe she was actually going through with this, but she was going to the Forsaken Fortress nonetheless. She still had no idea what the King of Red Lions was, or why he cared so much about the Great Sea’s fate, but she could tell he was a good and sincere, uh... boat.
- I don’t want to impose on him by asking him personal questions like that, so I’ll just go with the flow for now. Weirder stuff has happened to me already...
She had to let out another sigh. She rolled her shoulders and thought about how to approach this new voyage. She knew how to sail to the fort; that was the easy part. She still had the sea chart memorized in her head, and she had already planned a course for it. The problem was in getting there, and getting inside. She didn’t have a boat, and she was just one girl. She had no idea what she would do once she got there.
- I guess it’ll be more productive to think about how I’m getting there first...
“I don’t suppose you could sail me to the fort?” Lana asked.
“I could, but it would be incredibly slow-going. I have no sail, as you can see. It’s not exactly easy for me to get to places.” he said.
“Good point...”
This was a real puzzler. Maybe she could ask the koroks to build her a boat, since they were good at crafting things. That would still not solve the problem of not having a sail, though. They could craft her some oars, but rowing a boat all the way to the fort would be murder on her arms, and it would take days. It might be easier if she could just find a sail for the King of Red Lions somewhere, or so she thought.
- But where am I supposed to find a sail for him? The only cloth in this place is in the clothes I’m wearing. There’s nothing here but a bunch of leaves...
She stood there before the talking boat, mulling over her options. And then a bolt of inspiration struck her. There was indeed nothing there but leaves, yet those very leaves could generate wind. She was given just such a gift from the Deku Tree himself. A gift that was still wrapped around her as a shawl.
“I wonder... Could my deku leaf be used as a sail?” Lana said.
The King of Red Lions gawked at her in silence for a brief moment. “... Lana, that is ingenious.” he said.
On the King of Red Lions’ deck, a small compartment sprang open, giving Lana a start. It was immediately behind the bow, and from within came a collapsible mast. It rose up and then unfolded, all on its own.
“How did you do that?” Lana asked, amazed.
“An old boat like me has many secrets. Now then, come give it a try!” he said.
Lana nodded, starting to feel a little excited. She leapt from the shores of the Forest Haven and landed shakily on the King of Red Lions’ deck. She then removed the deku leaf from her shoulders and unfurled it as wide as she could. For a moment, she wondered how she would attach it to the mast, and as if in response, small vines started growing from the spines on the edges of the leaf. They curled around the mast’s rings tightly and securely, and sure enough, it caught the wind.
“Wow! That’s some leaf!” Lana said in awe.
“That is the power of magic. As this gift was given to you personally, that power is now at your command. That is why it responded to your intentions.” the boat explained.
- This is amazing! With this, sailing to the Forsaken Fortress will be a breeze! ... Though I guess I shouldn’t be happy about that.
Lana shook her head to clear her mind as she used the steering gear to turn into the wind. She settled down on a small bench and tried to steel her nerves for the voyage ahead. Her foot then bumped into something on the deck she hadn’t noticed before.
“Huh? What’s this? ... Some kind of bag?” she said, lifting it up to examine it.
“Ah yes, a korok dropped that off last night. I believe his name was Peeks.” the boat explained. “He said it was a gift of supplies for you for your next voyage. Forest nuts and fruits, as well as a canteen of the Haven’s water.”
“That was sweet of him.” Lana said, smiling.
- And helpful. I just realized I didn’t have supplies of my own until I saw this... I guess I got too used to sailing without them...
Lana felt grateful for Peeks’ foresight and generosity. She had been helped by many kinds of people since she left home, but now it was going to be her turn to do the helping. She didn’t know how to feel about that, so she gazed out to the sea beyond the King of Red Lions’ bow.
It was crystal clear and bright. The clouds danced around the sun in the air. Reflections of light off the water’s surface dazzled her eyes. The wind was gentle and played with her hair the way she liked. Somehow, this felt different from before. Maybe this time everything would finally work out. Maybe this time she would accomplish her quest without a disaster.
At least, she hoped so.
Lana sailed along comfortably. The sea breeze was steady and southeasterly, keeping her going in exactly the right direction. There had been no monster attacks or sudden changes in the weather. Everything was blissfully calm. That was just the way she liked it. She felt as if she could finally relax for a bit.
As she took out some fruits to snack on, she eyed the back of the lion’s head. The boat had been awfully quiet the entire time. Lana wasn’t one to mind the quiet, but she couldn’t help but feel suspicious of this talking boat she was sailing on. She felt like she could trust his motives, at the very least, but she didn’t like how little she knew about him.
She had been forced to accept magical existences like ghost ships and koroks and fairies, but a talking boat was still feeling far-fetched. Was he enchanted with magic? Was the boat possessed by a ghost? Was it just a talking boat with nothing more to it than that? Not knowing made her uneasy, but she didn’t feel like she could ask questions like that. She didn’t think she should, either. It wasn’t really her business. Her parents taught her to be mindful of which sea she was fishing in, to turn a phrase.
And so, she sat on the deck, just as quiet as he was. She finished her snack and enjoyed a few refreshing sips of water before standing up to watch the horizon. The boat swayed a bit as she rose to her feet, and she stretched her arms and legs. She thought maybe she should get in some exercise, but there wasn’t enough room on the boat’s deck. It was even smaller than her father’s fishing dinghy.
With nothing but these thoughts to entertain her, Lana expected to feel bored or lonely. She was surprised at how content she felt in that moment. She closed her eyes, and she felt as though she were fishing back home again. The quiet was soothing, as was the soft sound of the wind and waves. She enjoyed the company of her parents and friends, but on the sea, when it was just her, she found that she truly loved that sense of solitude. She felt completely at home.
- This must be what it really means to voyage.
As she opened her eyes, she wished this feeling would never end. But, of course, it did. Because at that moment, another ship appeared on the horizon. A ship flying a skull and crossbones.
“Oh, you have got to be kidding me.” Lana groaned.
She shocked herself with that reaction, which was more of frustration than fear. Perhaps it was because this had ruined her good mood, or maybe she was just sick of encountering trouble on the seas. As she prepared herself to evade them, she was once again shocked by a sudden noise coming from their ship. It was the sound of a horn, blowing in three short blasts. That was a maritime signal, as Lana knew. It meant they were requesting to stop their boat next to hers.
“Why would pirates bother with maritime etiquette? Hey, King of Red Lions, what should we do?” Lana asked.
“If they are using etiquette, I don’t believe they mean us harm. I think it’s in our best interest to see what they want.” he said quietly. “I will not speak again after this. I don’t want them to know about me.”
“I understand. Then I’ll signal that I’ll follow along.”
Lana raised her arms up as high as she could to signal the OK to them, knowing they had someone in the crow’s nest watching for a response. The pirate ship began to slow its speed and furl its sails, so Lana did the same (even though her sail was a leaf). As the vessels approached each other, closer and closer, she began to recognize that particular flag. The ship became increasingly familiar, as well. As did the faces of the pirates that stood by the railing awaiting her.
“No way... It’s you guys again?” she said, gazing up.
The ship came to a full stop alongside Lana’s port side, and a girl with long ears and golden hair leapt up to stand on the railing. She smirked down at Lana with a heavy dose of arrogance.
“Well, look who it is. Can’t say I ever expected to see your sorry face again. I’m amazed that you still have the gall to sail, loser.”
“Emilia...!” Lana gasped.
She couldn't believe it. She never thought she'd run into Emilia’s Pirates again. She hadn’t seen them since she was quite literally thrown off their ship onto the shores of Windfall Island. They may have helped her out, but they were still pirates and they were known to do whatever they wanted. Lana didn’t want to be on the receiving end of their whims.
“What do you want with me? I can’t imagine you’re just here to chat.” Lana said warily.
“Oh? Maybe you have learned to be cautious, after all.” Emilia said. “Glad something I said to you sunk in, but man, you sure still look as pathetic as ever.”
“If you only stopped by to laugh at me, you might as well move along. I’m not the same loser I used to be.” Lana spat.
“Girl, your boat’s sail is a leaf. You’ve got no room to talk big.” Emilia laughed.
Her pirates joined her laughter with their own. Lana’s cheeks started to burn in humiliation. She hastily removed the deku leaf from the mast, and then thought to show off a bit to shut them up. She wrapped it back around herself, grabbed the edges, and swung her arms down. Instantly, she took off into the air, and the pirates all went silent and slack-jawed.
Lana felt a twinge of satisfaction now that even Emilia was at a loss for words. She gracefully floated down and landed on the deck of the pirate ship. She dusted off her legs and put her hands on her hips as the pirates surrounded her.
“Actually, I think I do.” she said, feeling smug.
Emilia frowned. “Hmph. So you’ve got a magic leaf. Good for you.” Her eyes examined Lana more carefully, and then narrowed. “You’ve also got a sword now, I see. And you’re even toting a Knight’s Crest on your belt. Someone’s sure gotten big for her britches.”
- Oh, I forgot I was still wearing the Crest...
Lana began to feel a bit unsure of herself. She may have made a mistake in challenging Emilia like that. She wanted to be on her way and get back to her quest. Emilia seemed to have other ideas now, unfortunately.
“So, what, you think you’re hot stuff now? I told you before that I didn’t want to see your face on the sea again. What exactly do you think you’re doing?” she questioned.
“Well...” Lana wasn’t sure how to explain what she was doing. “I’m kind of doing a favor for a friend... I’m going to steal back stolen treasure from the Forsaken Fortress.”
Emilia looked dumbstruck for half a second before she and the rest of her crew burst out laughing again. “You’re serious? For crying out loud, you really do have a death wish!”
“I didn’t ask for your opinion. I’m leaving now.” Lana said, and turned to disembark.
She wanted to leave quickly before it was too late. Alas, it already was. She was cut off by the sound of Emilia drawing her cutlass.
“I don’t think so. You’re not going anywhere.” she hissed.
Lana gulped, but she held her ground. She turned back to face Emilia, who had her sword pointed right at her. Her crew stood behind her, resting their hands on their weapons, as well. Lana wasn’t going to let herself be intimidated, and she wasn’t going to let herself be captured by pirates again. Her mind had already begun spinning with ideas on how to get away from them.
Before she could settle on a strategy, Emilia lunged forward. Lana yelped and leapt to the side, drawing her estoc in response to the attack. This only made Emilia grin, as if she were enjoying this. The two girls brandished their blades and stared each other down as the crew circled around them, starting to cheer and yell.
Not wanting Emilia to get the upper hand, it was Lana’s turn to lunge. She carefully watched Emilia’s feet as she moved, as she was taught to do by Orca. Once they started to shift, so did she. When Emilia responded with a slash, Lana was able to duck under it and dance her way behind her.
Emilia began to sink into the fact that Lana could now handle herself. Her grin vanished and she spun on her heel to counter Lana’s next strike. Their blades clashed and they each shoved their weight against the other. Before long, Emilia’s curved blade allowed her to grind its way off Lana’s and she was able to ready another slice.
Lana jumped back, evading the blow. When her heel hit the deck of the ship, she lunged forward again and swung her blade down through the air. It crashed against Emilia’s sword, knocking her back. She staggered and almost tumbled backwards.
“I’ll be damned. You weren’t bluffing, Lana.” Emilia said, relaxing her posture.
- Wait... She was just testing me? Seriously? And... she remembered my name?
Lana relaxed as well, but didn’t put her sword away. “What was that all about, huh?”
“I wanted to see for myself just how capable you’ve become. I like to know what the people working for me can do.”
“Working for you? I don’t work for you. If this is an invitation to join your crew, I’m gonna have to decline.” Lana said.
“Hah, of course not! I don’t want a lily-liver like you in my crew. But, you can still be useful to me for a bit.” she said. “As it so happens, I’m also on my way to steal back treasure from the Forsaken Fortress. And since you're doing the same, you’re going to help me.”
Lana had heard many things she couldn’t believe that day, but this might have reached a new level of unreasonable. She was too baffled to respond right away. She was beginning to see once again why Emilia’s crew had a reputation for doing whatever they wanted. And this time, they had their sights on her.
This is now the start of volume 2, as well as the start of the 4th story arc! We're in the second half of the story now, so get ready for another ride!Chapter Sixteen
A Huge Favor
A Huge Favor
Lana had accomplished a great deal since leaving home. She had been captured by monster pirates and escaped on her own with nothing to her name. She had sailed from one side of the Great Sea to the other and survived days adrift on a wreck with no supplies. She had fought her way through a monster-infested island and defended a Great Spirit from a pirate raid, after only just learning how to fight. All of this she achieved in only sixteen days. She could be considered a highly accomplished seafarer by this point, to anyone who knew of her exploits. She was now confident that she could solve her way through any trial she encountered on the seas. Yes, perfectly confident.
But going out of her way to infiltrate and steal from a pirate stronghold? That was different.
“Why in the world would I ever do that to myself?” Lana questioned the mysterious talking boat before her. “I don’t have a death wish! I just want to sail across the sea and find my motherland far to the north! I never signed up for any of this craziness, and now that I can finally defend myself, I’m ready to get back on track. I don’t want to willingly jump right into the moblin’s den like that!”
“I understand your concerns, Lana, I really do, but I don’t have anyone else I can turn to.” the King of Red Lions reasoned. “You have proven yourself to be extremely reliable and resourceful. I have no doubt you can do this.”
“Your flattery isn’t going to help! I don’t want to go looking for danger! I just want to continue my journey. Besides, those pirates have already captured and imprisoned me once before, and I just found out they’re still trying to get me. I can’t go through that again. Please don’t ask me to do something like that.”
“I assure you I wouldn’t ask if this weren’t important. I sympathize with your story, but I really have no one else who can help me. I am just a boat. I cannot infiltrate a fort and retrieve stolen treasure. I would do it myself if I could. I need you, Lana.”
Lana sighed. He was awfully intent for a boat. She really did not want to do this, but his desperate pleas were starting to intrigue her. She had no idea what this treasure was or why it was so important to him.
“What exactly did they take, anyway? They’ve probably stolen loads of treasure before, so why is this time such a big deal?” she asked.
“This time they’ve stolen from the Fairy Queen, the mother to all fairies and another keeper of important artifacts in preparation for the Legendary Hero’s return.”
- The Legendary Hero again, huh? Why does this boat care so much about that?
“What did they steal from this Fairy Queen, then?” she asked.
“Powerful tools, known as the iron boots and power bracelets. They are intended to be used by the Hero to conquer trials and help them restore order to the seas. If they are in the hands of pirates, they won’t make it into the Hero’s hands one day. That’s a serious problem.”
“Boots and bracelets? Seriously?” Lana couldn’t believe her ears.
“Don’t judge them based on their names. Once you see them, you will understand why they are considered treasured artifacts. At any rate, I am very concerned about why they were taken. First them, and now the Deku Tree’s artifact was targeted, as well. This is boding ill for the future. I am very uneasy. Will you please reconsider your position? All of the Great Sea will one day be in peril, and if you don’t help me recover those tools, the Hero might not be able to save it.”
The sincerity in the King of Red Lions’ voice at last began to move Lana. If the Great Sea were in peril, that would also endanger her family back home on Greatfish Isle. She couldn't leave for her motherland in good conscience knowing that she could have done something to make the seas safer for them.
Still, diving headfirst into a pirate fortress was not a wise idea, especially with no backup. Even though she’d fought them off and stood up to the pirates that had turned her adventure into a disaster, she did not want to go looking for another fight with them. She’d just as soon never see them again. The fact that they were actively looking for her made the prospect of going back there even worse. She had no idea what they would do to her if they were to recapture her, and she did not want to find out.
Technically the case could be made that she had dived into danger by going to the Forbidden Woods, but the only reason she did that was to hold up her end of her deal with Orca. She had never intentionally sought out peril, and she didn’t want to start. She wanted to tell the King of Red Lions no, that she was done risking her neck for something other than her desired goal, but she couldn't get the words out. His desperate plea continued to echo in her mind, and the more it did, the more Lana felt that she couldn’t do nothing.
Then, as she thought this through, something new occurred to her. The pirates had already stolen from the Fairy Queen and the Deku Tree. What if they targeted another Great Spirit? What if Jabun, the deity from Greatfish Isle, was one of the Great Spirits? What if he held an artifact that was worth stealing? The supposed danger to her family would be much more immediate than she first thought.
- Man... How am I supposed to say no to that?
She didn’t know what stealing back treasure would accomplish, or if that would even do anything to prevent them from potentially attacking her home. Yet, she could no longer stop herself. She couldn’t sit still and do nothing after hearing all of this. She had to do something, anything. She had a fire in her heart that drove her to seek her roots, but she also had a warmth in her heart that couldn’t turn a blind eye to those in need.
- I must be really crazy for doing this... I need to sort out my priorities one of these days.
“... Alright, fine. I’ll do it. It’s really important, and it’s probably for the best that I do something about it.” Lana said. “But, as soon as I finish with this, I want to get on with my journey. So once I steal back that treasure for you, I want you to take me to a town so I can get my own boat. Deal?”
“Deal. Thank you so much, Lana. This is an enormous help, truly. It’s an odd feeling to be assisted by someone you once saved on a whim, hahah...” he said wistfully.
“It’s just as weird for me...” she said.
So, her next course was set. She couldn’t believe she was actually going through with this, but she was going to the Forsaken Fortress nonetheless. She still had no idea what the King of Red Lions was, or why he cared so much about the Great Sea’s fate, but she could tell he was a good and sincere, uh... boat.
- I don’t want to impose on him by asking him personal questions like that, so I’ll just go with the flow for now. Weirder stuff has happened to me already...
She had to let out another sigh. She rolled her shoulders and thought about how to approach this new voyage. She knew how to sail to the fort; that was the easy part. She still had the sea chart memorized in her head, and she had already planned a course for it. The problem was in getting there, and getting inside. She didn’t have a boat, and she was just one girl. She had no idea what she would do once she got there.
- I guess it’ll be more productive to think about how I’m getting there first...
“I don’t suppose you could sail me to the fort?” Lana asked.
“I could, but it would be incredibly slow-going. I have no sail, as you can see. It’s not exactly easy for me to get to places.” he said.
“Good point...”
This was a real puzzler. Maybe she could ask the koroks to build her a boat, since they were good at crafting things. That would still not solve the problem of not having a sail, though. They could craft her some oars, but rowing a boat all the way to the fort would be murder on her arms, and it would take days. It might be easier if she could just find a sail for the King of Red Lions somewhere, or so she thought.
- But where am I supposed to find a sail for him? The only cloth in this place is in the clothes I’m wearing. There’s nothing here but a bunch of leaves...
She stood there before the talking boat, mulling over her options. And then a bolt of inspiration struck her. There was indeed nothing there but leaves, yet those very leaves could generate wind. She was given just such a gift from the Deku Tree himself. A gift that was still wrapped around her as a shawl.
“I wonder... Could my deku leaf be used as a sail?” Lana said.
The King of Red Lions gawked at her in silence for a brief moment. “... Lana, that is ingenious.” he said.
On the King of Red Lions’ deck, a small compartment sprang open, giving Lana a start. It was immediately behind the bow, and from within came a collapsible mast. It rose up and then unfolded, all on its own.
“How did you do that?” Lana asked, amazed.
“An old boat like me has many secrets. Now then, come give it a try!” he said.
Lana nodded, starting to feel a little excited. She leapt from the shores of the Forest Haven and landed shakily on the King of Red Lions’ deck. She then removed the deku leaf from her shoulders and unfurled it as wide as she could. For a moment, she wondered how she would attach it to the mast, and as if in response, small vines started growing from the spines on the edges of the leaf. They curled around the mast’s rings tightly and securely, and sure enough, it caught the wind.
“Wow! That’s some leaf!” Lana said in awe.
“That is the power of magic. As this gift was given to you personally, that power is now at your command. That is why it responded to your intentions.” the boat explained.
- This is amazing! With this, sailing to the Forsaken Fortress will be a breeze! ... Though I guess I shouldn’t be happy about that.
Lana shook her head to clear her mind as she used the steering gear to turn into the wind. She settled down on a small bench and tried to steel her nerves for the voyage ahead. Her foot then bumped into something on the deck she hadn’t noticed before.
“Huh? What’s this? ... Some kind of bag?” she said, lifting it up to examine it.
“Ah yes, a korok dropped that off last night. I believe his name was Peeks.” the boat explained. “He said it was a gift of supplies for you for your next voyage. Forest nuts and fruits, as well as a canteen of the Haven’s water.”
“That was sweet of him.” Lana said, smiling.
- And helpful. I just realized I didn’t have supplies of my own until I saw this... I guess I got too used to sailing without them...
Lana felt grateful for Peeks’ foresight and generosity. She had been helped by many kinds of people since she left home, but now it was going to be her turn to do the helping. She didn’t know how to feel about that, so she gazed out to the sea beyond the King of Red Lions’ bow.
It was crystal clear and bright. The clouds danced around the sun in the air. Reflections of light off the water’s surface dazzled her eyes. The wind was gentle and played with her hair the way she liked. Somehow, this felt different from before. Maybe this time everything would finally work out. Maybe this time she would accomplish her quest without a disaster.
At least, she hoped so.
* * *
Lana sailed along comfortably. The sea breeze was steady and southeasterly, keeping her going in exactly the right direction. There had been no monster attacks or sudden changes in the weather. Everything was blissfully calm. That was just the way she liked it. She felt as if she could finally relax for a bit.
As she took out some fruits to snack on, she eyed the back of the lion’s head. The boat had been awfully quiet the entire time. Lana wasn’t one to mind the quiet, but she couldn’t help but feel suspicious of this talking boat she was sailing on. She felt like she could trust his motives, at the very least, but she didn’t like how little she knew about him.
She had been forced to accept magical existences like ghost ships and koroks and fairies, but a talking boat was still feeling far-fetched. Was he enchanted with magic? Was the boat possessed by a ghost? Was it just a talking boat with nothing more to it than that? Not knowing made her uneasy, but she didn’t feel like she could ask questions like that. She didn’t think she should, either. It wasn’t really her business. Her parents taught her to be mindful of which sea she was fishing in, to turn a phrase.
And so, she sat on the deck, just as quiet as he was. She finished her snack and enjoyed a few refreshing sips of water before standing up to watch the horizon. The boat swayed a bit as she rose to her feet, and she stretched her arms and legs. She thought maybe she should get in some exercise, but there wasn’t enough room on the boat’s deck. It was even smaller than her father’s fishing dinghy.
With nothing but these thoughts to entertain her, Lana expected to feel bored or lonely. She was surprised at how content she felt in that moment. She closed her eyes, and she felt as though she were fishing back home again. The quiet was soothing, as was the soft sound of the wind and waves. She enjoyed the company of her parents and friends, but on the sea, when it was just her, she found that she truly loved that sense of solitude. She felt completely at home.
- This must be what it really means to voyage.
As she opened her eyes, she wished this feeling would never end. But, of course, it did. Because at that moment, another ship appeared on the horizon. A ship flying a skull and crossbones.
“Oh, you have got to be kidding me.” Lana groaned.
She shocked herself with that reaction, which was more of frustration than fear. Perhaps it was because this had ruined her good mood, or maybe she was just sick of encountering trouble on the seas. As she prepared herself to evade them, she was once again shocked by a sudden noise coming from their ship. It was the sound of a horn, blowing in three short blasts. That was a maritime signal, as Lana knew. It meant they were requesting to stop their boat next to hers.
“Why would pirates bother with maritime etiquette? Hey, King of Red Lions, what should we do?” Lana asked.
“If they are using etiquette, I don’t believe they mean us harm. I think it’s in our best interest to see what they want.” he said quietly. “I will not speak again after this. I don’t want them to know about me.”
“I understand. Then I’ll signal that I’ll follow along.”
Lana raised her arms up as high as she could to signal the OK to them, knowing they had someone in the crow’s nest watching for a response. The pirate ship began to slow its speed and furl its sails, so Lana did the same (even though her sail was a leaf). As the vessels approached each other, closer and closer, she began to recognize that particular flag. The ship became increasingly familiar, as well. As did the faces of the pirates that stood by the railing awaiting her.
“No way... It’s you guys again?” she said, gazing up.
The ship came to a full stop alongside Lana’s port side, and a girl with long ears and golden hair leapt up to stand on the railing. She smirked down at Lana with a heavy dose of arrogance.
“Well, look who it is. Can’t say I ever expected to see your sorry face again. I’m amazed that you still have the gall to sail, loser.”
“Emilia...!” Lana gasped.
She couldn't believe it. She never thought she'd run into Emilia’s Pirates again. She hadn’t seen them since she was quite literally thrown off their ship onto the shores of Windfall Island. They may have helped her out, but they were still pirates and they were known to do whatever they wanted. Lana didn’t want to be on the receiving end of their whims.
“What do you want with me? I can’t imagine you’re just here to chat.” Lana said warily.
“Oh? Maybe you have learned to be cautious, after all.” Emilia said. “Glad something I said to you sunk in, but man, you sure still look as pathetic as ever.”
“If you only stopped by to laugh at me, you might as well move along. I’m not the same loser I used to be.” Lana spat.
“Girl, your boat’s sail is a leaf. You’ve got no room to talk big.” Emilia laughed.
Her pirates joined her laughter with their own. Lana’s cheeks started to burn in humiliation. She hastily removed the deku leaf from the mast, and then thought to show off a bit to shut them up. She wrapped it back around herself, grabbed the edges, and swung her arms down. Instantly, she took off into the air, and the pirates all went silent and slack-jawed.
Lana felt a twinge of satisfaction now that even Emilia was at a loss for words. She gracefully floated down and landed on the deck of the pirate ship. She dusted off her legs and put her hands on her hips as the pirates surrounded her.
“Actually, I think I do.” she said, feeling smug.
Emilia frowned. “Hmph. So you’ve got a magic leaf. Good for you.” Her eyes examined Lana more carefully, and then narrowed. “You’ve also got a sword now, I see. And you’re even toting a Knight’s Crest on your belt. Someone’s sure gotten big for her britches.”
- Oh, I forgot I was still wearing the Crest...
Lana began to feel a bit unsure of herself. She may have made a mistake in challenging Emilia like that. She wanted to be on her way and get back to her quest. Emilia seemed to have other ideas now, unfortunately.
“So, what, you think you’re hot stuff now? I told you before that I didn’t want to see your face on the sea again. What exactly do you think you’re doing?” she questioned.
“Well...” Lana wasn’t sure how to explain what she was doing. “I’m kind of doing a favor for a friend... I’m going to steal back stolen treasure from the Forsaken Fortress.”
Emilia looked dumbstruck for half a second before she and the rest of her crew burst out laughing again. “You’re serious? For crying out loud, you really do have a death wish!”
“I didn’t ask for your opinion. I’m leaving now.” Lana said, and turned to disembark.
She wanted to leave quickly before it was too late. Alas, it already was. She was cut off by the sound of Emilia drawing her cutlass.
“I don’t think so. You’re not going anywhere.” she hissed.
Lana gulped, but she held her ground. She turned back to face Emilia, who had her sword pointed right at her. Her crew stood behind her, resting their hands on their weapons, as well. Lana wasn’t going to let herself be intimidated, and she wasn’t going to let herself be captured by pirates again. Her mind had already begun spinning with ideas on how to get away from them.
Before she could settle on a strategy, Emilia lunged forward. Lana yelped and leapt to the side, drawing her estoc in response to the attack. This only made Emilia grin, as if she were enjoying this. The two girls brandished their blades and stared each other down as the crew circled around them, starting to cheer and yell.
Not wanting Emilia to get the upper hand, it was Lana’s turn to lunge. She carefully watched Emilia’s feet as she moved, as she was taught to do by Orca. Once they started to shift, so did she. When Emilia responded with a slash, Lana was able to duck under it and dance her way behind her.
Emilia began to sink into the fact that Lana could now handle herself. Her grin vanished and she spun on her heel to counter Lana’s next strike. Their blades clashed and they each shoved their weight against the other. Before long, Emilia’s curved blade allowed her to grind its way off Lana’s and she was able to ready another slice.
Lana jumped back, evading the blow. When her heel hit the deck of the ship, she lunged forward again and swung her blade down through the air. It crashed against Emilia’s sword, knocking her back. She staggered and almost tumbled backwards.
“I’ll be damned. You weren’t bluffing, Lana.” Emilia said, relaxing her posture.
- Wait... She was just testing me? Seriously? And... she remembered my name?
Lana relaxed as well, but didn’t put her sword away. “What was that all about, huh?”
“I wanted to see for myself just how capable you’ve become. I like to know what the people working for me can do.”
“Working for you? I don’t work for you. If this is an invitation to join your crew, I’m gonna have to decline.” Lana said.
“Hah, of course not! I don’t want a lily-liver like you in my crew. But, you can still be useful to me for a bit.” she said. “As it so happens, I’m also on my way to steal back treasure from the Forsaken Fortress. And since you're doing the same, you’re going to help me.”
Lana had heard many things she couldn’t believe that day, but this might have reached a new level of unreasonable. She was too baffled to respond right away. She was beginning to see once again why Emilia’s crew had a reputation for doing whatever they wanted. And this time, they had their sights on her.
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Its time for the next chapter! This was fun to write. The next one is a chapter I've been waiting to write for quite a while. Look forward to that one, as well. In the meantime, I hope you all enjoy this one!
“What?! Captain, you can’t be serious!” one of the crew exclaimed upon this bizarre news.
Lana recalled him being the first mate, Renazo. She felt a little comforted to see that he and the other pirates were just as perturbed as she was.
“Of course I’m serious. It only makes sense that we help each other, since we’re after the same thing.” Emilia said. “Besides, she owes us for rescuing her. Serving as our bait is a great way to repay that debt, don’t you think?”
“What? You never said I owed you anything!” Lana said.
“I’m a pirate, what did you expect?” she grinned.
“Well, I’m not gonna be your bait!” Lana protested. “I’ll admit I could use a little help with this, but I’m not letting you walk all over me. We’re in this equally, or not at all.”
“Putting your foot down, eh? Good for you. But also too bad for you, ‘cause you don’t get a choice.”
Emilia smiled as she said this, but her eyes gleamed with a ferocity that told her resistance was futile. Lana was frustrated by how unreasonable she was being. She wondered why she ever thought Emilia might have a nice side to her somewhere. Nevertheless, she decided she was not going to back down. She had told herself before that she was done letting people talk down to her, and she wasn’t going to let that change because of Emilia.
“No. You aren’t the boss of me. I’m not going to be your bait. If you want my help, you need to treat me as an equal. That’s final.” she demanded.
She tried her best to glare when she spoke, but she wasn’t sure how convincing she was being. Emilia’s smile turned into a frown, and she studied Lana quietly for a few moments. The crew seemed anxious, almost expecting another fight to break out. At last, she shrugged her shoulders.
“Geez, you really have grown up a bit. I’m impressed, I can admit it. Alright, have it your way. We’re equals.” she said.
Her crew almost fell on their backs from the shock of seeing Emilia concede to someone else. That only made Lana feel more on edge. Could she really trust that Emilia meant what she said? Her reputation notwithstanding, she couldn’t recall her ever lying to her when they first met. That didn’t mean she wouldn’t lie, though.
- She is the one who told me to be cautious... I’m not letting my guard down around her for a second.
Emilia reached out her hand. “Guess we’re partners for a bit, Lana.” she said.
Lana hesitated. “I guess we are, but I’m not so sure I should be shaking your hand.”
“Hahahaha! You really have learned your lesson! You’re a riot.” Emilia laughed.
Lana sighed, and the whole crew sighed with her. This was certainly going to be an odd partnership. What in the world was Emilia thinking? Lana once again recognized how little she knew about her. She thought maybe this could be a chance to learn more about the whimsical pirate captain. They were close to the same age, and for the moment, they had a mutual understanding. Perhaps something good could come of this.
“So, what kind of treasure are you trying to steal from them? Did they steal from you first, or something?” Lana asked.
“That’s it exactly. Those dastards snuck on board our ship while we were partying the night away in Windfall and made off with one of my prized possessions. A pair of gossip stones. They were passed down in my family like that painting I showed you before. They let people communicate across long distances. Pretty neat, huh?” she explained.
Lana frowned, despite her curiosity in the stones’ function. “So basically, you brought it on yourselves. Why do you guys keep messing with Windfall?”
Emilia’s attitude vanished. She became weirdly quiet, like there was something deep coming to the surface in her mind. It was so sudden that it made Lana gulp.
“What do you know about it? I’m a pirate, I can do whatever I want.” she rasped.
“So you say... I know Windfall’s folks aren’t the nicest people you’ll meet, but still...” she said.
Emilia perked up. “And what does that mean? What do you know? What did they say to you?” she questioned.
- This is starting to freak me out. I really need to keep my mouth shut sometimes.
“Well, none of them would help me and I almost starved because of it. One guy did help me, and he became my friend, and he told me a story about a guy who washed up when he was a kid, and this guy did end up starving to death for the same reason.”
Emilia’s mouth hung open a little, which made Lana feel suspicious. Something was going on in her eyes, something that seemed like she’d just found an answer. The bad kind of answer. She got the feeling that Emilia knew something about Windfall that she was keeping locked inside. She felt as thought she had just gotten a small glimpse into the girl beneath the pirate mask, but at the same time she still didn’t understand a thing about her.
“Is something on your mind?” Lana asked, regretting that she did immediately.
“It’s not your business. Get off my ship. Go back to your own. We’re setting out for the fort right now.” she spat.
Lana didn’t feel the need to stand up to her this time. Even she could tell this wasn’t her usual behavior. That was made clear by the way her crew silently got the ship underway. Lana simply nodded and leapt off their ship, landing neatly back on the deck of the King of Red Lions. After reattaching the deku leaf to the mast, she and the pirates were off to the Forsaken Fortress.
- I really don’t know what to expect from Emilia... I don’t know what I want to learn about her, or what good it will do to learn it, but this still doesn’t feel like something I should leave alone...
Night had come and gone when Lana and the pirates reached the Forsaken Fortress. It was early in the morning, and the waves were still and calm. There was too much light for them to safely approach the fort, so both parties agreed to wait out the daylight and sneak in once it was dark again. They hid their ships behind the outcropping of rocks south of the fort.
Lana spent that day on the deck of Emilia’s ship. She invited herself back aboard, and no one told her to leave, so she hung out and spoke with the crew. She told them stories of her adventures (without mentioning her talking boat companion as he requested), and though many of them laughed at her troubles, they all listened intently and enjoyed hearing about her exploits. She listened to some of theirs, as well, and found them awfully entertaining. She was surprised that she was able to get along with them, for the most part.
Emilia didn’t show herself until the sun began to set. She had stayed locked up in her cabin all day. When she finally came back out, she seemed to be her usual self. She even smirked when she saw that Lana had come aboard. There was no trace of whatever had been eating away at her the previous day, which only made Lana more curious.
- I really want to ask her if she’s alright, but I probably shouldn’t say anything this time.
Deciding to keep her questions inside, Lana spent the rest of the evening psyching herself up for the coming infiltration. She never imagined she’d have a second tryst in the fortress after she was brought there against her will by the Forsaken Pirates. She went through great pains to escape it, and going back willingly for any reason felt like a very bad idea. Alas, she had to commit herself to it, for the sake of the King of Red Lions and the Great Sea. It felt weird for her to think that way, like this was some great noble sacrifice she was making, but she didn’t know how else to see it other than simply a bad decision.
- I have to do everything I can to make sure I don’t end up regretting this. And... to stay alive.
At last, as the moon peeked over the horizon, Emilia called out to Lana. “Hey, get over here! We need to talk.” she said.
The two girls joined each other’s company by the railing of the ship, in the shadow of the rocks. It was time to discuss their strategy for infiltrating the fort. Lana’s heart started pounding, but she powered through the anxiety and tried her best to do what she needed to. There was no turning back now.
“You ready for this?” she asked.
“As ready as I can be. How are we going in?” Lana asked.
“I’m going to have the boys send us over in a barrel. That’s how we usually do things. Simple, but effective.” she said.
Lana’s mind spun trying to imagine what that meant, but she kept her focus. “I think we should go in separately. It reduces the chances of being caught.” she suggested.
“Oh yeah? How do you plan on getting in, then?” she asked.
“I want to use my deku leaf to fly in. I can land on the roof out of sight and slip in through one of the windows.”
“Sounds solid enough. Alright, you do that.” Emilia consented.
- Glad she agreed. That should prevent her from trying to use me as a shield if something goes wrong...
“Once we’re both inside, we’ll move separately.” Emilia continued. “We should meet back on the roof of that room over there in half an hour, if we can, to share what we’ve found. Deal?”
She had pointed to the roof of the harbor Lana had escaped from before. Lana nodded in agreement, and Emilia grinned and slapped her shoulder playfully.
“Alright! This is gonna work. Now, no time like the present! Get going!” she said, full of enthusiasm. “Hey, Renazo! Get my barrel ready!”
“See you in there, then.” Lana said.
Lana leapt onto the railing and found her eyes meeting with the King of Red Lions down below. She gave him a small nod, and he returned it. The urge of caution and safe return was plain on that wooden face. She took a deep breath, steeled her nerves, and took off into the air.
The night breeze hit her with a chill. She clutched the edges of her deku leaf mantle as she floated toward the fort, high above the water. Seeing its full visage again sent even more chills down her spine and brought unpleasant memories to the surface. Her throat stung with acid and her heart raced at the thought of being held prisoner again. She had to continually remind herself that she’d be okay, because she wasn't sure if she believed it. Nevertheless, she continued floating toward the structure, quietly and smoothly.
She was careful not to get too high. She gently touched down on the roof of the harbor room, and stretched her arms. At that moment, the sound of a catapult caught her attention, and she turned back to see a barrel hurtling over her head and over the fort’s wall. In the height of its arc through the air, Emilia leapt out of it, diving headfirst into the waters below. The barrel then sailed completely over the fort, landing in the ocean somewhere on the other side.
Lana’s mouth hung open in astonishment. She couldn’t believe Emilia entered the fort through such a reckless method. The fact that she was able to safely jump from the barrel at such a height and at such a speed and still land safely in the moat beneath her, all while remaining undetected by the monsters, was... well, astonishing.
- Pirates are seriously crazy...
Shaking off a sigh, Lana regained her composure and focused on what she needed to do. She watched Emilia climb out of the moat and slip into the shadows out of sight. She would go her own way. It was up to Lana to find what she was looking for.
She knew there would have to be some kind of treasure vault in the fortress. Where else would the pirates keep their stolen treasure? The most efficient thing to do would be to systematically check each room, but that was dangerous for obvious reasons. She’d have to be extremely careful.
- Maybe if I can just look in through the windows, I’ll be safe.
She knew the harbor below her housed no treasure, so she decided to head to her left. Not for any particular reason, but that was what her instincts suggested. She carefully crept across the roof of the fort, being careful to listen to any monsterese chatter. It wasn’t long until she heard some, so she ducked down and crawled to the edge of the roof.
Below, she could see the pathway in the wall between the separate rooms. It was an open-air bridge. She heard what sounded like a handful of monsters chatting away on it. She was hesitant to walk across it, for fear of them hearing her footsteps. So, she held still and waited until it sounded as though they had gone away.
Cautiously, she lowered her feet down onto the roof of the bridge, her eyes darting around to the outside of the fort within. She saw some bokoblins walking across the courtyard, and felt compelled to pick up the pace. However, she knew sudden movements were more likely to catch their glances, so she held herself together and continued walking slowly.
Once she had made it to the roof of the next room, she crawled to the edge and peered over. There were windows down below, so she did as she had done during her last visit and began to scale the wall down to look through them. Fortunately for her, no blaring alarm startled her into letting go of the wall this time.
Lana deftly maneuvered herself into the window and peered into the room. It appeared to be the pirates’ mess hall, as there was an enormous cauldron on one side of the room. Bokoblins and moblins were taking turns filling their bowls with some kind of brown slop from it, and then returning to their seats at two large tables covered in bottles of alcohol. There was a lot of laughter and singing (at least, it seemed like singing) and merriment in the room.
- If so many of them are in here, that should make searching the fort a little easier.
As she began climbing back up the wall, she began to think. There were still an awful lot of monsters in this fortress. At the Forest Haven, she and the koroks killed around thirty of them. There were still more than that in the fort at this moment. How many monsters were there in the Forsaken Pirates altogether? How many more were on the Great Sea, pillaging other islands while she snuck around their base? It was an unsettling train of thought, yet there was little she could do about it.
Returning to the roof, Lana shook her head to clear her mind. Thinking about pirates that weren’t in front of her wasn’t going to help her accomplish her quest. Her mind was better spent in the moment. She continued to the left, crossing over another bridge between the rooms in the fortress. She repeated what she had done last time, climbing down the face of the wall to peek into a window.
This room seemed to hold some of the barracks. There were bunk beds stacked to five mattresses high all over the room. There seemed to be many more shoved in there than there were pirates currently occupying the fort, in all likelihood. Lana wondered if she could figure out a rough estimate of how many members of the Forsaken crew there were by counting the number of beds, but there were better uses of her time. This wasn’t the treasure vault, so she had to move on.
Once again returning to the roof, Lana was ready to continue onto the next room. However, she suddenly found herself at an impasse. The next room was three times bigger than the others at each point of the fort. It seemed to be a tower unto itself. She hadn’t really noticed how big it was until that point. She had been a bit preoccupied, after all.
The tower was rather imposing. She wondered how she hadn’t noticed it so clearly before when she was there last time. Perhaps that was where the boss of the Forsaken Pirates resided. Lana had heard he was looking to recapture her, whoever he was. She didn’t know much about this boss, only that he existed. He was completely shrouded in mystery otherwise. Even Emilia hadn’t mentioned anything about him. She really did not want to risk running into him, but an important building like that likely housed the treasure vault. She had no choice; she had to search it.
She doubled down on the nerve-steeling and resolved herself to this decision, however bad of one it might have been. She crossed the next bridge and found herself staring straight up the wall to an incredible height. She considered herself lucky that she hadn’t needed to cross this monstrosity to get to the harbor when she made her escape before. There seemed to be stairs winding around it, but there was no way she’d be taking those. She would crawl in through a window and make her way to the basement of the tower.
A suitable window wasn’t far off. Lana sidled across a small ledge and reached it with no trouble. Inside, she found a hallway dimly lit by torchlight. She expected to see guards inside, but there weren’t any at this spot, apparently. Lana squeezed herself through the window and quietly stepped into the hall.
Her heart was jumping into her throat, and it took a lot of concentration to keep her breathing under control. She expected to see moblins come barreling down the hall at her any second, but nothing of the sort happened. She didn’t know which way to go in order to reach the basement of the tower, so she went right first.
The hall seemed to curve around the perimeter of the tower, and sure enough, she found staggered steps leading into a downward curve. She felt fortunate that she was going the right way, but that quickly dissipated and was replaced by terror. She heard footsteps heading her way from further down the hall.
As her mind spun with terrible thoughts, her eyes scanned the hall for any place to hide. She discovered rafters on the ceiling, and so, taking her chances, she dashed up the wall and leapt up. She was able to grab on and pull herself up into the darkness of the ceiling, and there she waited with bated breath.
Sure enough, a moblin carrying a torch appeared in the hall. He was listlessly stalking the corridor, as if he'd been on watch duty all night and had enough of it. He yawned, directing his face with closed eyes right at Lana. Her blood painfully froze as she waited for him to open his eyes and spot her. And yet, he didn’t. He lowered his head back down before his eyes ever opened again.
She had to hold in a sigh of relief. She waited until the moblin guard had disappeared down the hall before she lowered herself back down to the floor and continued on. She successfully evaded detection in her first encounter, but she didn’t want to chance a second one.
As Lana made her way further down the spiraling hallway, she passed by several rooms behind tightly closed doors. She resisted the urge to peek inside them in case any monsters were on the other side. She hoped that one of them didn’t belong to the treasure vault. Further down the hall, however, the path opened out to a wider room. She stopped before she entered it, clinging to the wall like glue.
Just as she expected, she could hear some monsters futzing around in that room. She listened to their movements, and it sounded as though they were pacing back and forth, as if they were guarding something. That got Lana’s hopes up, so she climbed back into the rafters and slowly inched along them until she could see around the corner.
She had been right; there were two moblins standing guard in front of a door. Torches illuminated the room, and the pair of brutes toted large spears. They looked bored out of their feeble minds, which meant they weren’t paying much attention to their surroundings. This was the most promising location for the treasure vault. Lana thought this just had to be it.
Still, she’d never get a chance to check as long as these two moblins were there, even with their terrible attention spans. She thought about dropping down from the rafters to catch them by surprise, and then she thought that idea was suicidal at best. Was there anything she could do to make them leave, or otherwise knock them both out at once?
Getting them to leave was probably the best approach. If she knocked them out, they’d raise the alarm when they awoke, and Lana couldn’t guarantee she and Emilia would safely make it back out before then. Likewise, if she killed them, it was possible their bodies could be discovered before her business was done. Unfortunately, she couldn’t think of a way to make them leave without putting them on alert. In which case, her best option was to return to their decided rendezvous point and discuss their options together.
Deciding on that course of action, Lana began to inch backwards in the rafters and find her way back outside of the tower. And in doing so, she noticed something she quickly wished she’d noticed sooner. That particular wooden beam was thoroughly rotted. And when she shifted her weight onto it, it snapped.
- NO! No, please, no!
Alas, down she fell, landing on the floor in full view of the moblin guards with a loud thunk. The two pirates looked at her dead-on in shock. They didn’t know how to react at first, but Lana sure did. She quickly rose to her feet in a torrential storm of internal screaming and terror. She didn’t waste any time on cursing her misstep. She’d been seen. She had to get out as fast as she could, while she still could.
As soon as she’d taken off back up the hallway, the moblins behind her began shouting as loud as they could in monsterese. The chase was on, and soon the whole fort would be in on it, too. Lana thought she’d be safe if she could just get outside, where she could disappear into the night sky with her deku leaf. That was all she could think about as her feet hammered the stone floor.
Before she could reach any windows, one of the doors in the hall swung open in front of her. She almost ran straight into it. From the other side loomed a large moblin, who was likely drawn out by all the shouting. Lana wasted no time to draw her sword and attack. The pirate was caught completely off-guard as her sword stabbed through his side. She quickly slashed through him and continued on past him, hearing him fall down in a heap behind her.
This event was followed by more shouting from the pursuing moblins at her heels. It wasn’t long before another pair of moblins had appeared ahead of her in the hall, their spears brandished and waiting.
- Damn it! I really do have the worst luck on the Great Sea!
Lana cursed herself as she dashed forward. She had to break through, or she’d be done for. One of the moblins thrusted his spear toward her, and she used her sword to parry it and keep closing in on them. It was the other moblin’s turn to trust now, and this one grazed her side. Clenching her teeth through the pain, she dipped below the shafts of their spears and cut through one of them, successfully slipping between them.
However, the one she didn’t cut expertly jabbed his spear backwards. The pommel hit Lana dead on in the back of her head. Her ears rang with pain as she tumbled to the floor, dropping her sword. It clattered noisily to the ground at the feet of even more moblins, who had just arrived on the scene.
Lana’s head felt like it was splitting apart. Her vision was growing darker by the moment. She was falling unconscious. Not that it mattered anymore, of course. She was surrounded and disarmed. There was absolutely nothing more she could do. Because of one unfortunate slip-up, her fears were made real. She was captured by the Forsaken Pirates once again.
Before the lights fully went out, all Lana could think about was how agreeing to go on this quest was probably the very worst decision she’d ever made.
Chapter Seventeen
The Very Height of Bad Decisions
The Very Height of Bad Decisions
“What?! Captain, you can’t be serious!” one of the crew exclaimed upon this bizarre news.
Lana recalled him being the first mate, Renazo. She felt a little comforted to see that he and the other pirates were just as perturbed as she was.
“Of course I’m serious. It only makes sense that we help each other, since we’re after the same thing.” Emilia said. “Besides, she owes us for rescuing her. Serving as our bait is a great way to repay that debt, don’t you think?”
“What? You never said I owed you anything!” Lana said.
“I’m a pirate, what did you expect?” she grinned.
“Well, I’m not gonna be your bait!” Lana protested. “I’ll admit I could use a little help with this, but I’m not letting you walk all over me. We’re in this equally, or not at all.”
“Putting your foot down, eh? Good for you. But also too bad for you, ‘cause you don’t get a choice.”
Emilia smiled as she said this, but her eyes gleamed with a ferocity that told her resistance was futile. Lana was frustrated by how unreasonable she was being. She wondered why she ever thought Emilia might have a nice side to her somewhere. Nevertheless, she decided she was not going to back down. She had told herself before that she was done letting people talk down to her, and she wasn’t going to let that change because of Emilia.
“No. You aren’t the boss of me. I’m not going to be your bait. If you want my help, you need to treat me as an equal. That’s final.” she demanded.
She tried her best to glare when she spoke, but she wasn’t sure how convincing she was being. Emilia’s smile turned into a frown, and she studied Lana quietly for a few moments. The crew seemed anxious, almost expecting another fight to break out. At last, she shrugged her shoulders.
“Geez, you really have grown up a bit. I’m impressed, I can admit it. Alright, have it your way. We’re equals.” she said.
Her crew almost fell on their backs from the shock of seeing Emilia concede to someone else. That only made Lana feel more on edge. Could she really trust that Emilia meant what she said? Her reputation notwithstanding, she couldn’t recall her ever lying to her when they first met. That didn’t mean she wouldn’t lie, though.
- She is the one who told me to be cautious... I’m not letting my guard down around her for a second.
Emilia reached out her hand. “Guess we’re partners for a bit, Lana.” she said.
Lana hesitated. “I guess we are, but I’m not so sure I should be shaking your hand.”
“Hahahaha! You really have learned your lesson! You’re a riot.” Emilia laughed.
Lana sighed, and the whole crew sighed with her. This was certainly going to be an odd partnership. What in the world was Emilia thinking? Lana once again recognized how little she knew about her. She thought maybe this could be a chance to learn more about the whimsical pirate captain. They were close to the same age, and for the moment, they had a mutual understanding. Perhaps something good could come of this.
“So, what kind of treasure are you trying to steal from them? Did they steal from you first, or something?” Lana asked.
“That’s it exactly. Those dastards snuck on board our ship while we were partying the night away in Windfall and made off with one of my prized possessions. A pair of gossip stones. They were passed down in my family like that painting I showed you before. They let people communicate across long distances. Pretty neat, huh?” she explained.
Lana frowned, despite her curiosity in the stones’ function. “So basically, you brought it on yourselves. Why do you guys keep messing with Windfall?”
Emilia’s attitude vanished. She became weirdly quiet, like there was something deep coming to the surface in her mind. It was so sudden that it made Lana gulp.
“What do you know about it? I’m a pirate, I can do whatever I want.” she rasped.
“So you say... I know Windfall’s folks aren’t the nicest people you’ll meet, but still...” she said.
Emilia perked up. “And what does that mean? What do you know? What did they say to you?” she questioned.
- This is starting to freak me out. I really need to keep my mouth shut sometimes.
“Well, none of them would help me and I almost starved because of it. One guy did help me, and he became my friend, and he told me a story about a guy who washed up when he was a kid, and this guy did end up starving to death for the same reason.”
Emilia’s mouth hung open a little, which made Lana feel suspicious. Something was going on in her eyes, something that seemed like she’d just found an answer. The bad kind of answer. She got the feeling that Emilia knew something about Windfall that she was keeping locked inside. She felt as thought she had just gotten a small glimpse into the girl beneath the pirate mask, but at the same time she still didn’t understand a thing about her.
“Is something on your mind?” Lana asked, regretting that she did immediately.
“It’s not your business. Get off my ship. Go back to your own. We’re setting out for the fort right now.” she spat.
Lana didn’t feel the need to stand up to her this time. Even she could tell this wasn’t her usual behavior. That was made clear by the way her crew silently got the ship underway. Lana simply nodded and leapt off their ship, landing neatly back on the deck of the King of Red Lions. After reattaching the deku leaf to the mast, she and the pirates were off to the Forsaken Fortress.
- I really don’t know what to expect from Emilia... I don’t know what I want to learn about her, or what good it will do to learn it, but this still doesn’t feel like something I should leave alone...
* * *
Night had come and gone when Lana and the pirates reached the Forsaken Fortress. It was early in the morning, and the waves were still and calm. There was too much light for them to safely approach the fort, so both parties agreed to wait out the daylight and sneak in once it was dark again. They hid their ships behind the outcropping of rocks south of the fort.
Lana spent that day on the deck of Emilia’s ship. She invited herself back aboard, and no one told her to leave, so she hung out and spoke with the crew. She told them stories of her adventures (without mentioning her talking boat companion as he requested), and though many of them laughed at her troubles, they all listened intently and enjoyed hearing about her exploits. She listened to some of theirs, as well, and found them awfully entertaining. She was surprised that she was able to get along with them, for the most part.
Emilia didn’t show herself until the sun began to set. She had stayed locked up in her cabin all day. When she finally came back out, she seemed to be her usual self. She even smirked when she saw that Lana had come aboard. There was no trace of whatever had been eating away at her the previous day, which only made Lana more curious.
- I really want to ask her if she’s alright, but I probably shouldn’t say anything this time.
Deciding to keep her questions inside, Lana spent the rest of the evening psyching herself up for the coming infiltration. She never imagined she’d have a second tryst in the fortress after she was brought there against her will by the Forsaken Pirates. She went through great pains to escape it, and going back willingly for any reason felt like a very bad idea. Alas, she had to commit herself to it, for the sake of the King of Red Lions and the Great Sea. It felt weird for her to think that way, like this was some great noble sacrifice she was making, but she didn’t know how else to see it other than simply a bad decision.
- I have to do everything I can to make sure I don’t end up regretting this. And... to stay alive.
At last, as the moon peeked over the horizon, Emilia called out to Lana. “Hey, get over here! We need to talk.” she said.
The two girls joined each other’s company by the railing of the ship, in the shadow of the rocks. It was time to discuss their strategy for infiltrating the fort. Lana’s heart started pounding, but she powered through the anxiety and tried her best to do what she needed to. There was no turning back now.
“You ready for this?” she asked.
“As ready as I can be. How are we going in?” Lana asked.
“I’m going to have the boys send us over in a barrel. That’s how we usually do things. Simple, but effective.” she said.
Lana’s mind spun trying to imagine what that meant, but she kept her focus. “I think we should go in separately. It reduces the chances of being caught.” she suggested.
“Oh yeah? How do you plan on getting in, then?” she asked.
“I want to use my deku leaf to fly in. I can land on the roof out of sight and slip in through one of the windows.”
“Sounds solid enough. Alright, you do that.” Emilia consented.
- Glad she agreed. That should prevent her from trying to use me as a shield if something goes wrong...
“Once we’re both inside, we’ll move separately.” Emilia continued. “We should meet back on the roof of that room over there in half an hour, if we can, to share what we’ve found. Deal?”
She had pointed to the roof of the harbor Lana had escaped from before. Lana nodded in agreement, and Emilia grinned and slapped her shoulder playfully.
“Alright! This is gonna work. Now, no time like the present! Get going!” she said, full of enthusiasm. “Hey, Renazo! Get my barrel ready!”
“See you in there, then.” Lana said.
Lana leapt onto the railing and found her eyes meeting with the King of Red Lions down below. She gave him a small nod, and he returned it. The urge of caution and safe return was plain on that wooden face. She took a deep breath, steeled her nerves, and took off into the air.
The night breeze hit her with a chill. She clutched the edges of her deku leaf mantle as she floated toward the fort, high above the water. Seeing its full visage again sent even more chills down her spine and brought unpleasant memories to the surface. Her throat stung with acid and her heart raced at the thought of being held prisoner again. She had to continually remind herself that she’d be okay, because she wasn't sure if she believed it. Nevertheless, she continued floating toward the structure, quietly and smoothly.
She was careful not to get too high. She gently touched down on the roof of the harbor room, and stretched her arms. At that moment, the sound of a catapult caught her attention, and she turned back to see a barrel hurtling over her head and over the fort’s wall. In the height of its arc through the air, Emilia leapt out of it, diving headfirst into the waters below. The barrel then sailed completely over the fort, landing in the ocean somewhere on the other side.
Lana’s mouth hung open in astonishment. She couldn’t believe Emilia entered the fort through such a reckless method. The fact that she was able to safely jump from the barrel at such a height and at such a speed and still land safely in the moat beneath her, all while remaining undetected by the monsters, was... well, astonishing.
- Pirates are seriously crazy...
Shaking off a sigh, Lana regained her composure and focused on what she needed to do. She watched Emilia climb out of the moat and slip into the shadows out of sight. She would go her own way. It was up to Lana to find what she was looking for.
She knew there would have to be some kind of treasure vault in the fortress. Where else would the pirates keep their stolen treasure? The most efficient thing to do would be to systematically check each room, but that was dangerous for obvious reasons. She’d have to be extremely careful.
- Maybe if I can just look in through the windows, I’ll be safe.
She knew the harbor below her housed no treasure, so she decided to head to her left. Not for any particular reason, but that was what her instincts suggested. She carefully crept across the roof of the fort, being careful to listen to any monsterese chatter. It wasn’t long until she heard some, so she ducked down and crawled to the edge of the roof.
Below, she could see the pathway in the wall between the separate rooms. It was an open-air bridge. She heard what sounded like a handful of monsters chatting away on it. She was hesitant to walk across it, for fear of them hearing her footsteps. So, she held still and waited until it sounded as though they had gone away.
Cautiously, she lowered her feet down onto the roof of the bridge, her eyes darting around to the outside of the fort within. She saw some bokoblins walking across the courtyard, and felt compelled to pick up the pace. However, she knew sudden movements were more likely to catch their glances, so she held herself together and continued walking slowly.
Once she had made it to the roof of the next room, she crawled to the edge and peered over. There were windows down below, so she did as she had done during her last visit and began to scale the wall down to look through them. Fortunately for her, no blaring alarm startled her into letting go of the wall this time.
Lana deftly maneuvered herself into the window and peered into the room. It appeared to be the pirates’ mess hall, as there was an enormous cauldron on one side of the room. Bokoblins and moblins were taking turns filling their bowls with some kind of brown slop from it, and then returning to their seats at two large tables covered in bottles of alcohol. There was a lot of laughter and singing (at least, it seemed like singing) and merriment in the room.
- If so many of them are in here, that should make searching the fort a little easier.
As she began climbing back up the wall, she began to think. There were still an awful lot of monsters in this fortress. At the Forest Haven, she and the koroks killed around thirty of them. There were still more than that in the fort at this moment. How many monsters were there in the Forsaken Pirates altogether? How many more were on the Great Sea, pillaging other islands while she snuck around their base? It was an unsettling train of thought, yet there was little she could do about it.
Returning to the roof, Lana shook her head to clear her mind. Thinking about pirates that weren’t in front of her wasn’t going to help her accomplish her quest. Her mind was better spent in the moment. She continued to the left, crossing over another bridge between the rooms in the fortress. She repeated what she had done last time, climbing down the face of the wall to peek into a window.
This room seemed to hold some of the barracks. There were bunk beds stacked to five mattresses high all over the room. There seemed to be many more shoved in there than there were pirates currently occupying the fort, in all likelihood. Lana wondered if she could figure out a rough estimate of how many members of the Forsaken crew there were by counting the number of beds, but there were better uses of her time. This wasn’t the treasure vault, so she had to move on.
Once again returning to the roof, Lana was ready to continue onto the next room. However, she suddenly found herself at an impasse. The next room was three times bigger than the others at each point of the fort. It seemed to be a tower unto itself. She hadn’t really noticed how big it was until that point. She had been a bit preoccupied, after all.
The tower was rather imposing. She wondered how she hadn’t noticed it so clearly before when she was there last time. Perhaps that was where the boss of the Forsaken Pirates resided. Lana had heard he was looking to recapture her, whoever he was. She didn’t know much about this boss, only that he existed. He was completely shrouded in mystery otherwise. Even Emilia hadn’t mentioned anything about him. She really did not want to risk running into him, but an important building like that likely housed the treasure vault. She had no choice; she had to search it.
She doubled down on the nerve-steeling and resolved herself to this decision, however bad of one it might have been. She crossed the next bridge and found herself staring straight up the wall to an incredible height. She considered herself lucky that she hadn’t needed to cross this monstrosity to get to the harbor when she made her escape before. There seemed to be stairs winding around it, but there was no way she’d be taking those. She would crawl in through a window and make her way to the basement of the tower.
A suitable window wasn’t far off. Lana sidled across a small ledge and reached it with no trouble. Inside, she found a hallway dimly lit by torchlight. She expected to see guards inside, but there weren’t any at this spot, apparently. Lana squeezed herself through the window and quietly stepped into the hall.
Her heart was jumping into her throat, and it took a lot of concentration to keep her breathing under control. She expected to see moblins come barreling down the hall at her any second, but nothing of the sort happened. She didn’t know which way to go in order to reach the basement of the tower, so she went right first.
The hall seemed to curve around the perimeter of the tower, and sure enough, she found staggered steps leading into a downward curve. She felt fortunate that she was going the right way, but that quickly dissipated and was replaced by terror. She heard footsteps heading her way from further down the hall.
As her mind spun with terrible thoughts, her eyes scanned the hall for any place to hide. She discovered rafters on the ceiling, and so, taking her chances, she dashed up the wall and leapt up. She was able to grab on and pull herself up into the darkness of the ceiling, and there she waited with bated breath.
Sure enough, a moblin carrying a torch appeared in the hall. He was listlessly stalking the corridor, as if he'd been on watch duty all night and had enough of it. He yawned, directing his face with closed eyes right at Lana. Her blood painfully froze as she waited for him to open his eyes and spot her. And yet, he didn’t. He lowered his head back down before his eyes ever opened again.
She had to hold in a sigh of relief. She waited until the moblin guard had disappeared down the hall before she lowered herself back down to the floor and continued on. She successfully evaded detection in her first encounter, but she didn’t want to chance a second one.
As Lana made her way further down the spiraling hallway, she passed by several rooms behind tightly closed doors. She resisted the urge to peek inside them in case any monsters were on the other side. She hoped that one of them didn’t belong to the treasure vault. Further down the hall, however, the path opened out to a wider room. She stopped before she entered it, clinging to the wall like glue.
Just as she expected, she could hear some monsters futzing around in that room. She listened to their movements, and it sounded as though they were pacing back and forth, as if they were guarding something. That got Lana’s hopes up, so she climbed back into the rafters and slowly inched along them until she could see around the corner.
She had been right; there were two moblins standing guard in front of a door. Torches illuminated the room, and the pair of brutes toted large spears. They looked bored out of their feeble minds, which meant they weren’t paying much attention to their surroundings. This was the most promising location for the treasure vault. Lana thought this just had to be it.
Still, she’d never get a chance to check as long as these two moblins were there, even with their terrible attention spans. She thought about dropping down from the rafters to catch them by surprise, and then she thought that idea was suicidal at best. Was there anything she could do to make them leave, or otherwise knock them both out at once?
Getting them to leave was probably the best approach. If she knocked them out, they’d raise the alarm when they awoke, and Lana couldn’t guarantee she and Emilia would safely make it back out before then. Likewise, if she killed them, it was possible their bodies could be discovered before her business was done. Unfortunately, she couldn’t think of a way to make them leave without putting them on alert. In which case, her best option was to return to their decided rendezvous point and discuss their options together.
Deciding on that course of action, Lana began to inch backwards in the rafters and find her way back outside of the tower. And in doing so, she noticed something she quickly wished she’d noticed sooner. That particular wooden beam was thoroughly rotted. And when she shifted her weight onto it, it snapped.
- NO! No, please, no!
Alas, down she fell, landing on the floor in full view of the moblin guards with a loud thunk. The two pirates looked at her dead-on in shock. They didn’t know how to react at first, but Lana sure did. She quickly rose to her feet in a torrential storm of internal screaming and terror. She didn’t waste any time on cursing her misstep. She’d been seen. She had to get out as fast as she could, while she still could.
As soon as she’d taken off back up the hallway, the moblins behind her began shouting as loud as they could in monsterese. The chase was on, and soon the whole fort would be in on it, too. Lana thought she’d be safe if she could just get outside, where she could disappear into the night sky with her deku leaf. That was all she could think about as her feet hammered the stone floor.
Before she could reach any windows, one of the doors in the hall swung open in front of her. She almost ran straight into it. From the other side loomed a large moblin, who was likely drawn out by all the shouting. Lana wasted no time to draw her sword and attack. The pirate was caught completely off-guard as her sword stabbed through his side. She quickly slashed through him and continued on past him, hearing him fall down in a heap behind her.
This event was followed by more shouting from the pursuing moblins at her heels. It wasn’t long before another pair of moblins had appeared ahead of her in the hall, their spears brandished and waiting.
- Damn it! I really do have the worst luck on the Great Sea!
Lana cursed herself as she dashed forward. She had to break through, or she’d be done for. One of the moblins thrusted his spear toward her, and she used her sword to parry it and keep closing in on them. It was the other moblin’s turn to trust now, and this one grazed her side. Clenching her teeth through the pain, she dipped below the shafts of their spears and cut through one of them, successfully slipping between them.
However, the one she didn’t cut expertly jabbed his spear backwards. The pommel hit Lana dead on in the back of her head. Her ears rang with pain as she tumbled to the floor, dropping her sword. It clattered noisily to the ground at the feet of even more moblins, who had just arrived on the scene.
Lana’s head felt like it was splitting apart. Her vision was growing darker by the moment. She was falling unconscious. Not that it mattered anymore, of course. She was surrounded and disarmed. There was absolutely nothing more she could do. Because of one unfortunate slip-up, her fears were made real. She was captured by the Forsaken Pirates once again.
Before the lights fully went out, all Lana could think about was how agreeing to go on this quest was probably the very worst decision she’d ever made.
No, Lana! She was doing so well too...
I bet Amelia going to help rescue her, let's see if I'm right...
I bet Amelia going to help rescue her, let's see if I'm right...
I sure got this one out fast. You can thank my excitement for that. I've been looking forward to this part of the story for a while. I hope you guys enjoy reading about what you learn here as much as I did writing about it!
Lana’s head swam and throbbed as her consciousness returned. Besides the pain assailing the back of her head, she felt stiff and constricted. When she tried to squirm a bit, she found that she was tied to a chair tightly by ropes.
When that knowledge sunk in, she started to panic. She remembered what had happened to her. She was sneaking around the tower in the Forsaken Fortress when a support beam gave out under her. She was then spotted and quickly captured, and thus here she was. But where was here?
This was not the same cell as last time. It didn’t even look much like a cell. There were many bookshelves lining the walls, and before her sat a wooden desk and a large leather chair turned away from her. It looked like a musty library. She didn’t understand why they didn’t throw her back in the prison this time.
That didn’t abate her panic, naturally. Her head was spinning with terror. She was beginning to relive the horrible existential dread that suffocated her the last time she was a prisoner. She couldn’t stop wondering what they would do with her. If she wasn’t in the cell this time, maybe they were finally ready to do what they didn’t get a chance to do last time. She really did not want to learn what that was.
Her heart thudded against her chest as she tried to see a way out. She examined her person, and realized her sword had been taken from her. That made sense, of course, but it wasn’t the only thing missing. She was surprised to see that her deku leaf was also taken. Why? How would they have known what it could do?
As she began to squirm more furiously, the shaft of a spear was suddenly placed on her shoulder. Lana froze up and turned her head as best she could to look behind her. To her despair, four burly moblin guards were standing at attention. The only door out of this room she could see was on the other side of that wall of muscle.
One of them smirked and then said something in monsterese.
“Ah, good. Thank you.”
A voice Lana did not recognize responded to it, from the other side of that chair by the desk. Sharp chills wormed down her spine when she heard it. The chair slowly swiveled around and revealed the owner of the voice, the one she could only assume as the enigmatic boss of the Forsaken Pirates.
It wasn’t what she was expecting. She assumed it would be another monster, but hearing that voice, she thought it had to be a human. In those few moments before she saw the face, she wondered why a human would be the one leading a group of monster pirates. And then, her confusion only doubled when the boss finally revealed himself to her.
“You must be Lana. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”
The words spoken sounded more human than anything Lana had ever heard, yet the mouth that spoke them was moblin. The supposed boss was a monster that could speak hylian, the common language of the Great Sea. She had never seen a monster speak anything other than monsterese before. His sickly sweet voice was unsettling.
“I do apologize for the accommodations. I hope they aren’t too uncomfortable, but your reputation necessitated these measures.”
He spoke as if he were conversing with an honored guest. He stepped out from behind the desk, and in doing so, filled Lana with even more confusion. Moblins had hooves on their feet, and so their gait was a little unique. Yet, the boss walked perfectly upright like any human she’d ever seen. His brownish moblin skin was also much lighter, crossing from tan into almost pink. He was larger than any of the other moblins she’d seen thus far, as well, and covered in tattoos that looked like human bones all over his body. He was an imposing sight.
He knelt down in front of Lana, examining her face. His eyes were beady and piercing, and looking into them made Lana’s head feel fuzzy. She felt as though he was looking right through her. This walking contradiction in front of her might have been the scariest thing she’d encountered yet, and she’d only just met him.
“Who... are you?” she finally managed to ask.
“How rude of me. Allow me to introduce myself.” he said, standing back up to his full height. “My name is Jasper. I am the King of the Forsaken Pirates.”
“King?” Lana asked.
“Yes, that’s what I’ve chosen to call myself.” he explained. “After all, what better title for a man who has gathered such a vast number of subjects under his rule?”
“... Man?”
Jasper’s lips curled into a sneer. “Yes. A man is how I see myself. You are looking at the most intelligent moblin on the Great Sea. I believe I’ve crossed the boundary between man and monster. Do you disagree?”
Lana had to take a moment to consider this. If she closed her eyes, his silky voice would make her picture a handsome rich man who lived the best life in Windfall. Considering his appearance and all the books covering the room’s walls, his claim to intelligence was without question. He definitely didn’t carry himself like any other moblin.
“I think you see my point.” he said, satisfied by Lana's expression. “Who better to be the King of all monsters than me? I rule over them, and they follow me without hesitation. They show me the proper respect because they know their lives are better with me leading them. What would you call someone like that besides King?”
King. That’s what the boss of the Forsaken Pirates really was. Jasper meant every word he said, and the moblins standing guard behind Lana appeared to be smitten with his swagger. He was disturbingly charismatic and confident. His very presence was overwhelming. She wanted to get out of that horrible presence as fast as possible. She just didn’t know how yet.
- If he hasn’t hurt me yet, he must need me for something. I can’t imagine what that would be, but my only option is to keep him talking until I can figure out how to escape.
“So if you’re a king, why lead your subjects as pirates? What’s the point?” she asked.
“Ah, a fair question. I can understand your confusion over my chosen profession. I suppose as my honored guest, you have a right to know. And once I tell you, you’ll understand your purpose here.”
He said this with a smile that made Lana’s heartbeat stagger. This moblin, this man, this king, was able to inflict such fear with a single expression. He was truly and utterly terrifying.
“It’s honestly very simple. I want everything.” he said.
“You want everything? That’s it?” Lana said.
“Well, to be more precise, I want everything the humans have. There’s a reason I look the way I do. I did awful things to my body to gain this more human-like shape. I read book after book until my head began to burst in order to acquire this intelligence. I practiced the hylian tongue until my jaw felt as though it would melt. All of this was to attain what the humans had that I lacked.”
“... Why would you do all of that to yourself?” she said, stunned.
“If you want the answer to that, you need only ask yourself how you view us monsters. The people of the Great Sea detest our kind. We’re seen as nothing more than pests to be exterminated. I’ll admit, our viscous behavior and bloodlust earned us that reputation. I don’t believe it is undeserving, either. And I’m not going to argue for any change to this treatment. I honestly don’t care to make us equal to humans. That’s not what I’m after.”
“Then what are you after?”
“I already told you. I want everything, everything the humans have ever claimed as their own. You can imagine how these feelings began to take root in me. I was already born smarter than most other moblins. Where my kin would charge in like mad dogs, I would stay back and observe the conditions of the battle, for example. That was how I even noticed any of this. And as time went on, I began to think I could make something of myself like the humans do. And that is how I arrived at where I am now.”
“So that’s why you steal from others? That’s why you had your pirates attack the Forest Haven?” she asked.
“Indeed. I am well aware that the Great Spirits are the custodians of important relics for the time of the Legendary Hero’s eventual return. But I don’t care about that one bit. The fact is, those relics exist, therefore I want to possess them. Nothing else matters to me.”
- That’s why he did it? It really was greed, after all? Then the same must be true for the things he stole from the Fairy Queen...
“So what, then? You’re just going to horde everything you can get your hands on in this fort, all for yourself?” she asked.
“Yes, that is the general idea. And I won’t stop until I have everything there is to have in the world. And I will not allow anyone to take back from me what I’ve attained.”
The tone in his voice changed from butter to poison. Lana felt herself shiver as his icy eyes looked over her.
“Which brings me to you. You were apprehended near my treasure vault. Imagine my surprise when the very girl I demanded be reacquired shows up in my fort on her own. I definitely didn’t see that one coming. Kudos to you for the unexpected. However, I do not appreciate when others try to make off with my treasures. I will have you answer for that later, but for now, I just want you to tell me something. What exactly were you trying to take from me, Lana?”
She could feel there was no sense in lying to him. That penetrating gaze told her he’d see through any cover story she could come up with.
- I have to tell him the truth. It’s the only way I can keep this conversation going safely.
“I was asked to recover some treasure you stole. I was doing it as a favor to someone who once saved my life.” she said.
He studied her for a few moments. Lana wondered if she should have been more specific, but before long, he appeared satisfied with that answer.
“Interesting. Honestly, I’m amazed you decided to go through with this. To think you’d be brave enough to return to this place after your untimely escape, especially after encountering my forces at the Forest Haven. Perhaps you got a big head after your splendid victory against them. Oh yes, I heard all about what you did in that battle. That’s why your accommodations are so.... uncomfortable.”
So the moblin guards standing behind her with spears aimed at her neck were because of this reputation. She realized that must have been how they knew what her deku leaf was, and why they took it from her. Lana felt very overestimated. Maybe if she could escape this situation, she’d feel more deserving of her reputation.
“I must say, you’ve given me a fair bit of trouble these past few weeks.” Jasper continued. “When my crew discovered you on the sea seventeen days ago, they brought you straight here. Unfortunately, I was out at the time. I received word that they had you, and so I rushed right back, only to discover that you had escaped in record time. The meddlesome Emilia gave me quite a headache that day.”
Lana began to feel a concerning sense of dread. Why was Jasper talking as though she were some magnificent treasure? What in the world did he want with her? He’d said his story would reveal her purpose in being there, but she still wasn’t seeing it. She couldn’t imagine what value pirates had seen in a random girl on the sea that day.
She hesitated, but she finally asked the question. “What... What do you want with me?”
Jasper smiled again, and it filled Lana’s heart with a stinging terror unlike any she’d ever felt before. Whatever his reasons were, they were obviously not good.
“You really don’t understand yet? You truly have no idea of your value, Lana?” he said, as if he couldn’t believe his ears.
“What value? I’m just a girl. What could you possibly want with me?” At last, her fear turned to frustration. She wanted answers. She demanded answers. “Why did your pirates capture me that day? Why did they bring me here? Why did I have to be put through that hell? Why did you ruin my voyage? What did I ever do to you?! What do you want with me?!”
Lana stopped yelling to catch her breath. She glared at Jasper, her desperate desire to know the truth overpowering the fear inside her. He smiled down at her, seemingly amused by the outburst. For a minute, the only thing heard in the room was Lana’s panting.
Finally, Jasper’s lips turned up once more. And his words pierced her heart like a dagger.
“I’m talking about the huarere.”
Lana stopped breathing when she heard that word. Her skin clammed up and felt as cold as ice. The huarere. The symbol her father had painted on her boat’s sail. The good luck charm from her motherland. Why did Jasper know that word?
“You look hopelessly confused. You truly didn’t know, then? How unfortunate.” Jasper said. “I suppose I will just have to tell you. If I’m lucky, it will jog a memory in you.”
Lana’s frustration had vanished. Once again, she was left with nothing but fear. She was well and truly frightened. If Jasper knew what a huarere was, that would mean she was targeted by the Forsaken Pirates that day on purpose. It was not, as she always thought, a terrible misfortune that ruined her day of departure. It was completely deliberate. The implications of that were far beyond terrifying.
“You see, you are not the first person to come to the Great Sea from your cold, faraway homeland. Over twenty years ago, one man appeared in these waters on a boat with a huarere painted on its sail. I had never seen a symbol like that before, and so my curiosity led me to capture him. After a fair amount of torture, I was able to make him reveal many things about his homeland. The name of the huarere and its purpose as a fair weather charm were among those things. But truly the most interesting thing he told me was that his people possessed a powerful magic spell.
“This spell, as he told it, offers the caster absolute protection from danger. He called it the zam spell, and its function was to call forth magic armor to cover the body. Doesn’t that sound like something a King deserves to have? I’ve wanted it for myself ever since. Unfortunately, that man took his own life while imprisoned here, so I was never able to get the location of your homeland out of him. So instead, I’ve been forced to teach all my pirates about the huarere, and I’ve ordered them to capture anyone they see sailing with that symbol. And so, here you are. The very first one who has appeared since.”
All of this information was difficult for Lana to take in. She sat before Jasper in total shock. To think her motherland housed such a secret, and to think these pirates knew about it and targeted her because of it. Did her Papa and Mama know about the zam spell? They never said a word to her about it if they did. She had no idea what to believe.
Her head was now splitting from this knowledge rather than from the pain. Her eyes glossed over as she tried to make sense of all this. All because her father painted the huarere on the sail, she was captured and her voyage was ruined. If he hadn’t done that, the pirates might’ve ignored her. She may have even been able to find her homeland by now.
She bit down on her own tongue. How could she possibly think this was her dear Papa’s fault? There was no way he could have known about this. She berated herself for thinking that way even for a moment. Her parents were not at fault. Jasper’s greed was to blame.
That greed led him to have his pirates attack the Forest Haven. That greed led to Lana’s initial capture. It led to the King of Red Lions having to seek her aid. It led to Emilia’s troubles and it was the cause of Lana’s disastrous voyage. Everything led back to Jasper and his greed. Everything was his fault.
This realization became a new sense of purpose for Lana. She didn’t know anything about the zam spell, but it was possible her parents did. And they were going to be Jasper’s next target if he didn’t get what he wanted from her. Now, rather than the hypothetical chance of the pirates attacking Greatfish Isle over Jabun, who may or may not exist, there was certain and immediate danger to her family.
- I am not about to stand by as this beast’s greed destroys everything I love. I will not let him have his way. I swear it, no matter how impossible this is, I’m going to get out of here and I will never let him catch me again.
This renewed fervor manifested itself as an escape plan. She had been sitting in that chair for quite a while, and she had come to realize it was just as degraded as the rest of the wood in the fort. She knew what she had to do. She just needed the perfect chance. And her luck began to turn, as that chance shortly presented itself.
Jasper leaned in toward her face. His eyes began piercing her again as he spoke. “Well, Lana? What do you have to say about this?”
Lana looked up at him, meeting his gaze with a burning sense of determination. “I say... You’ll never get what you want ever again.”
For a moment, Jasper seemed surprised. That very moment, where his surprise began shifting into a devilish grin, was the exact one Lana was waiting for. She used her feet planted on the stone floor to vault herself backwards, her legs swinging up to smash right into Jasper’s chin.
As the pirate king staggered back in both shock and pain, the chair fell to the ground hard, and the wood shattered to pieces. Despite still being tangled in ropes, Lana was able to somersault backwards, rolling between the legs of the moblin guards behind her, who were stunned still by the sight. Lana leapt to her feet and barreled into the door, ramming it open with her shoulder. She ignored the pain and sprinted down the hall as fast as she could.
She could hear Jasper begin to shout from the room she left behind. “WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? AFTER HER!”
Her heart was beating as fast as her feet were moving. She frantically scratched at the ropes, trying to untangle herself as she dashed down the hall. She didn’t have her sword or her deku leaf, so the only thing she could use to defend herself was the rope. She had an idea of where her belongings might be, and she was headed straight there.
At last, the rope came loose. Lana was able to free her arms and pull the rope together as she ran. Just then, two moblins appeared in the hall, blocking her way. They seemed determined to stop her, as they could hear Jasper’s furious shouting from there. They didn’t look like they wanted to be the ones to blame if she got away. Unfortunately for them, she was not about to be stopped.
Lana unleashed the rope on them, throwing it in their faces and tangling it around their spears as they approached her. Sliding between them, she yanked hard on the ropes, disarming them and pulling the brutes down. Their spears clanged loudly against the stone floor, and Lana didn’t waste the chance to grab one before leaving the moblins behind in a tangled mess.
Now she had a weapon again, albeit temporarily. She didn’t know how to use a spear, but it was better than nothing. It served her well as she ran into another moblin further down the hall. Lana thrusted forward, her weapon clashing with the moblin’s. The sound of wood and blade smacking against each other rung out through the corridor. Lana twirled her body around as her spear’s shaft grinded against the moblin’s, and before long she was in his space. She elbowed his gut, ducked behind him, and smacked the side of his head with the shaft.
The pirate slumped against the wall in a daze from Lana's fast assault. She wondered how she had so much difficulty dealing with the moblin in the Forest Haven when these ones were so easy to get past. Maybe that was why that particular moblin was the leader of an assault team and these ones were just guards in the fort.
Unfortunately, her luck didn't last. She could only get so far down the tower before she was caught in a wedge between six moblins, three in front of her and three behind her. She was stuck there in the hall, wondering what to do next. The brutes were like walls themselves, preventing her from advancing any further as they closed in from both sides. There was no window she could escape through, and she couldn’t attack without leaving herself wide open.
- Come on, this can’t be it! Think! Just a little farther to the treasure vault, and then I can get my stuff back. Come on, I can do this! There’s no such thing as impossible anymore! I won’t give up!
She wracked her brain, searching for a strategy she could use to get through them. And then one of the moblins in front of her cried out in pain and fell to the floor in a bloody heap. Everyone stopped to look at what had caused this, and Lana was surprised to see a familiar face standing behind the fallen pirate, wielding blood-stained daggers.
“I’ll be damned. Here I am coming to the rescue, and you beat me to the punch yet again. You are seriously amazing, Lana.” she grinned.
“Emilia!” Lana had never been more relieved to see her face.
The moblins in front turned on her, and Lana took that chance to attack the ones at her rear. She turned on her heel into a horizontal slash with her spear, and she cut through two of them at once. The one she missed advanced on her, thrusting hard with his own spear. Lana stepped to the side, bringing her weapon around and stabbing it through his gut. The blood splattering the floor made her wince, but she forced the unpleasantness down and turned back to Emilia.
The pirate captain was just finishing with the last of her own moblins. She jumped over her enemy’s spear, kicked off the wall, and stabbed her knives right into the brute’s neck. Letting it fall to her feet before her, she looked satisfied by the outcome of this fight.
“Nice work. You handle yourself well.” she said.
“Thanks. But we need to move fast. Jasper, the boss of the Forsaken Pirates, is probably right on our trail.” she explained.
“You don’t say. I’ve never met the guy before. Let’s get going before he shows up.”
“Right. We’ve got some treasure to steal.”
The girls nodded at each other. This excursion into the fort hadn’t gone as planned, but it wasn’t over yet. There was still much that had to be done. Neither of them were leaving without taking back what didn’t belong to the self-proclaimed Pirate King.
Chapter Eighteen
The Moblin That Speaks Like A Man
The Moblin That Speaks Like A Man
Lana’s head swam and throbbed as her consciousness returned. Besides the pain assailing the back of her head, she felt stiff and constricted. When she tried to squirm a bit, she found that she was tied to a chair tightly by ropes.
When that knowledge sunk in, she started to panic. She remembered what had happened to her. She was sneaking around the tower in the Forsaken Fortress when a support beam gave out under her. She was then spotted and quickly captured, and thus here she was. But where was here?
This was not the same cell as last time. It didn’t even look much like a cell. There were many bookshelves lining the walls, and before her sat a wooden desk and a large leather chair turned away from her. It looked like a musty library. She didn’t understand why they didn’t throw her back in the prison this time.
That didn’t abate her panic, naturally. Her head was spinning with terror. She was beginning to relive the horrible existential dread that suffocated her the last time she was a prisoner. She couldn’t stop wondering what they would do with her. If she wasn’t in the cell this time, maybe they were finally ready to do what they didn’t get a chance to do last time. She really did not want to learn what that was.
Her heart thudded against her chest as she tried to see a way out. She examined her person, and realized her sword had been taken from her. That made sense, of course, but it wasn’t the only thing missing. She was surprised to see that her deku leaf was also taken. Why? How would they have known what it could do?
As she began to squirm more furiously, the shaft of a spear was suddenly placed on her shoulder. Lana froze up and turned her head as best she could to look behind her. To her despair, four burly moblin guards were standing at attention. The only door out of this room she could see was on the other side of that wall of muscle.
One of them smirked and then said something in monsterese.
“Ah, good. Thank you.”
A voice Lana did not recognize responded to it, from the other side of that chair by the desk. Sharp chills wormed down her spine when she heard it. The chair slowly swiveled around and revealed the owner of the voice, the one she could only assume as the enigmatic boss of the Forsaken Pirates.
It wasn’t what she was expecting. She assumed it would be another monster, but hearing that voice, she thought it had to be a human. In those few moments before she saw the face, she wondered why a human would be the one leading a group of monster pirates. And then, her confusion only doubled when the boss finally revealed himself to her.
“You must be Lana. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”
The words spoken sounded more human than anything Lana had ever heard, yet the mouth that spoke them was moblin. The supposed boss was a monster that could speak hylian, the common language of the Great Sea. She had never seen a monster speak anything other than monsterese before. His sickly sweet voice was unsettling.
“I do apologize for the accommodations. I hope they aren’t too uncomfortable, but your reputation necessitated these measures.”
He spoke as if he were conversing with an honored guest. He stepped out from behind the desk, and in doing so, filled Lana with even more confusion. Moblins had hooves on their feet, and so their gait was a little unique. Yet, the boss walked perfectly upright like any human she’d ever seen. His brownish moblin skin was also much lighter, crossing from tan into almost pink. He was larger than any of the other moblins she’d seen thus far, as well, and covered in tattoos that looked like human bones all over his body. He was an imposing sight.
He knelt down in front of Lana, examining her face. His eyes were beady and piercing, and looking into them made Lana’s head feel fuzzy. She felt as though he was looking right through her. This walking contradiction in front of her might have been the scariest thing she’d encountered yet, and she’d only just met him.
“Who... are you?” she finally managed to ask.
“How rude of me. Allow me to introduce myself.” he said, standing back up to his full height. “My name is Jasper. I am the King of the Forsaken Pirates.”
“King?” Lana asked.
“Yes, that’s what I’ve chosen to call myself.” he explained. “After all, what better title for a man who has gathered such a vast number of subjects under his rule?”
“... Man?”
Jasper’s lips curled into a sneer. “Yes. A man is how I see myself. You are looking at the most intelligent moblin on the Great Sea. I believe I’ve crossed the boundary between man and monster. Do you disagree?”
Lana had to take a moment to consider this. If she closed her eyes, his silky voice would make her picture a handsome rich man who lived the best life in Windfall. Considering his appearance and all the books covering the room’s walls, his claim to intelligence was without question. He definitely didn’t carry himself like any other moblin.
“I think you see my point.” he said, satisfied by Lana's expression. “Who better to be the King of all monsters than me? I rule over them, and they follow me without hesitation. They show me the proper respect because they know their lives are better with me leading them. What would you call someone like that besides King?”
King. That’s what the boss of the Forsaken Pirates really was. Jasper meant every word he said, and the moblins standing guard behind Lana appeared to be smitten with his swagger. He was disturbingly charismatic and confident. His very presence was overwhelming. She wanted to get out of that horrible presence as fast as possible. She just didn’t know how yet.
- If he hasn’t hurt me yet, he must need me for something. I can’t imagine what that would be, but my only option is to keep him talking until I can figure out how to escape.
“So if you’re a king, why lead your subjects as pirates? What’s the point?” she asked.
“Ah, a fair question. I can understand your confusion over my chosen profession. I suppose as my honored guest, you have a right to know. And once I tell you, you’ll understand your purpose here.”
He said this with a smile that made Lana’s heartbeat stagger. This moblin, this man, this king, was able to inflict such fear with a single expression. He was truly and utterly terrifying.
“It’s honestly very simple. I want everything.” he said.
“You want everything? That’s it?” Lana said.
“Well, to be more precise, I want everything the humans have. There’s a reason I look the way I do. I did awful things to my body to gain this more human-like shape. I read book after book until my head began to burst in order to acquire this intelligence. I practiced the hylian tongue until my jaw felt as though it would melt. All of this was to attain what the humans had that I lacked.”
“... Why would you do all of that to yourself?” she said, stunned.
“If you want the answer to that, you need only ask yourself how you view us monsters. The people of the Great Sea detest our kind. We’re seen as nothing more than pests to be exterminated. I’ll admit, our viscous behavior and bloodlust earned us that reputation. I don’t believe it is undeserving, either. And I’m not going to argue for any change to this treatment. I honestly don’t care to make us equal to humans. That’s not what I’m after.”
“Then what are you after?”
“I already told you. I want everything, everything the humans have ever claimed as their own. You can imagine how these feelings began to take root in me. I was already born smarter than most other moblins. Where my kin would charge in like mad dogs, I would stay back and observe the conditions of the battle, for example. That was how I even noticed any of this. And as time went on, I began to think I could make something of myself like the humans do. And that is how I arrived at where I am now.”
“So that’s why you steal from others? That’s why you had your pirates attack the Forest Haven?” she asked.
“Indeed. I am well aware that the Great Spirits are the custodians of important relics for the time of the Legendary Hero’s eventual return. But I don’t care about that one bit. The fact is, those relics exist, therefore I want to possess them. Nothing else matters to me.”
- That’s why he did it? It really was greed, after all? Then the same must be true for the things he stole from the Fairy Queen...
“So what, then? You’re just going to horde everything you can get your hands on in this fort, all for yourself?” she asked.
“Yes, that is the general idea. And I won’t stop until I have everything there is to have in the world. And I will not allow anyone to take back from me what I’ve attained.”
The tone in his voice changed from butter to poison. Lana felt herself shiver as his icy eyes looked over her.
“Which brings me to you. You were apprehended near my treasure vault. Imagine my surprise when the very girl I demanded be reacquired shows up in my fort on her own. I definitely didn’t see that one coming. Kudos to you for the unexpected. However, I do not appreciate when others try to make off with my treasures. I will have you answer for that later, but for now, I just want you to tell me something. What exactly were you trying to take from me, Lana?”
She could feel there was no sense in lying to him. That penetrating gaze told her he’d see through any cover story she could come up with.
- I have to tell him the truth. It’s the only way I can keep this conversation going safely.
“I was asked to recover some treasure you stole. I was doing it as a favor to someone who once saved my life.” she said.
He studied her for a few moments. Lana wondered if she should have been more specific, but before long, he appeared satisfied with that answer.
“Interesting. Honestly, I’m amazed you decided to go through with this. To think you’d be brave enough to return to this place after your untimely escape, especially after encountering my forces at the Forest Haven. Perhaps you got a big head after your splendid victory against them. Oh yes, I heard all about what you did in that battle. That’s why your accommodations are so.... uncomfortable.”
So the moblin guards standing behind her with spears aimed at her neck were because of this reputation. She realized that must have been how they knew what her deku leaf was, and why they took it from her. Lana felt very overestimated. Maybe if she could escape this situation, she’d feel more deserving of her reputation.
“I must say, you’ve given me a fair bit of trouble these past few weeks.” Jasper continued. “When my crew discovered you on the sea seventeen days ago, they brought you straight here. Unfortunately, I was out at the time. I received word that they had you, and so I rushed right back, only to discover that you had escaped in record time. The meddlesome Emilia gave me quite a headache that day.”
Lana began to feel a concerning sense of dread. Why was Jasper talking as though she were some magnificent treasure? What in the world did he want with her? He’d said his story would reveal her purpose in being there, but she still wasn’t seeing it. She couldn’t imagine what value pirates had seen in a random girl on the sea that day.
She hesitated, but she finally asked the question. “What... What do you want with me?”
Jasper smiled again, and it filled Lana’s heart with a stinging terror unlike any she’d ever felt before. Whatever his reasons were, they were obviously not good.
“You really don’t understand yet? You truly have no idea of your value, Lana?” he said, as if he couldn’t believe his ears.
“What value? I’m just a girl. What could you possibly want with me?” At last, her fear turned to frustration. She wanted answers. She demanded answers. “Why did your pirates capture me that day? Why did they bring me here? Why did I have to be put through that hell? Why did you ruin my voyage? What did I ever do to you?! What do you want with me?!”
Lana stopped yelling to catch her breath. She glared at Jasper, her desperate desire to know the truth overpowering the fear inside her. He smiled down at her, seemingly amused by the outburst. For a minute, the only thing heard in the room was Lana’s panting.
Finally, Jasper’s lips turned up once more. And his words pierced her heart like a dagger.
“I’m talking about the huarere.”
Lana stopped breathing when she heard that word. Her skin clammed up and felt as cold as ice. The huarere. The symbol her father had painted on her boat’s sail. The good luck charm from her motherland. Why did Jasper know that word?
“You look hopelessly confused. You truly didn’t know, then? How unfortunate.” Jasper said. “I suppose I will just have to tell you. If I’m lucky, it will jog a memory in you.”
Lana’s frustration had vanished. Once again, she was left with nothing but fear. She was well and truly frightened. If Jasper knew what a huarere was, that would mean she was targeted by the Forsaken Pirates that day on purpose. It was not, as she always thought, a terrible misfortune that ruined her day of departure. It was completely deliberate. The implications of that were far beyond terrifying.
“You see, you are not the first person to come to the Great Sea from your cold, faraway homeland. Over twenty years ago, one man appeared in these waters on a boat with a huarere painted on its sail. I had never seen a symbol like that before, and so my curiosity led me to capture him. After a fair amount of torture, I was able to make him reveal many things about his homeland. The name of the huarere and its purpose as a fair weather charm were among those things. But truly the most interesting thing he told me was that his people possessed a powerful magic spell.
“This spell, as he told it, offers the caster absolute protection from danger. He called it the zam spell, and its function was to call forth magic armor to cover the body. Doesn’t that sound like something a King deserves to have? I’ve wanted it for myself ever since. Unfortunately, that man took his own life while imprisoned here, so I was never able to get the location of your homeland out of him. So instead, I’ve been forced to teach all my pirates about the huarere, and I’ve ordered them to capture anyone they see sailing with that symbol. And so, here you are. The very first one who has appeared since.”
All of this information was difficult for Lana to take in. She sat before Jasper in total shock. To think her motherland housed such a secret, and to think these pirates knew about it and targeted her because of it. Did her Papa and Mama know about the zam spell? They never said a word to her about it if they did. She had no idea what to believe.
Her head was now splitting from this knowledge rather than from the pain. Her eyes glossed over as she tried to make sense of all this. All because her father painted the huarere on the sail, she was captured and her voyage was ruined. If he hadn’t done that, the pirates might’ve ignored her. She may have even been able to find her homeland by now.
She bit down on her own tongue. How could she possibly think this was her dear Papa’s fault? There was no way he could have known about this. She berated herself for thinking that way even for a moment. Her parents were not at fault. Jasper’s greed was to blame.
That greed led him to have his pirates attack the Forest Haven. That greed led to Lana’s initial capture. It led to the King of Red Lions having to seek her aid. It led to Emilia’s troubles and it was the cause of Lana’s disastrous voyage. Everything led back to Jasper and his greed. Everything was his fault.
This realization became a new sense of purpose for Lana. She didn’t know anything about the zam spell, but it was possible her parents did. And they were going to be Jasper’s next target if he didn’t get what he wanted from her. Now, rather than the hypothetical chance of the pirates attacking Greatfish Isle over Jabun, who may or may not exist, there was certain and immediate danger to her family.
- I am not about to stand by as this beast’s greed destroys everything I love. I will not let him have his way. I swear it, no matter how impossible this is, I’m going to get out of here and I will never let him catch me again.
This renewed fervor manifested itself as an escape plan. She had been sitting in that chair for quite a while, and she had come to realize it was just as degraded as the rest of the wood in the fort. She knew what she had to do. She just needed the perfect chance. And her luck began to turn, as that chance shortly presented itself.
Jasper leaned in toward her face. His eyes began piercing her again as he spoke. “Well, Lana? What do you have to say about this?”
Lana looked up at him, meeting his gaze with a burning sense of determination. “I say... You’ll never get what you want ever again.”
For a moment, Jasper seemed surprised. That very moment, where his surprise began shifting into a devilish grin, was the exact one Lana was waiting for. She used her feet planted on the stone floor to vault herself backwards, her legs swinging up to smash right into Jasper’s chin.
As the pirate king staggered back in both shock and pain, the chair fell to the ground hard, and the wood shattered to pieces. Despite still being tangled in ropes, Lana was able to somersault backwards, rolling between the legs of the moblin guards behind her, who were stunned still by the sight. Lana leapt to her feet and barreled into the door, ramming it open with her shoulder. She ignored the pain and sprinted down the hall as fast as she could.
She could hear Jasper begin to shout from the room she left behind. “WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? AFTER HER!”
Her heart was beating as fast as her feet were moving. She frantically scratched at the ropes, trying to untangle herself as she dashed down the hall. She didn’t have her sword or her deku leaf, so the only thing she could use to defend herself was the rope. She had an idea of where her belongings might be, and she was headed straight there.
At last, the rope came loose. Lana was able to free her arms and pull the rope together as she ran. Just then, two moblins appeared in the hall, blocking her way. They seemed determined to stop her, as they could hear Jasper’s furious shouting from there. They didn’t look like they wanted to be the ones to blame if she got away. Unfortunately for them, she was not about to be stopped.
Lana unleashed the rope on them, throwing it in their faces and tangling it around their spears as they approached her. Sliding between them, she yanked hard on the ropes, disarming them and pulling the brutes down. Their spears clanged loudly against the stone floor, and Lana didn’t waste the chance to grab one before leaving the moblins behind in a tangled mess.
Now she had a weapon again, albeit temporarily. She didn’t know how to use a spear, but it was better than nothing. It served her well as she ran into another moblin further down the hall. Lana thrusted forward, her weapon clashing with the moblin’s. The sound of wood and blade smacking against each other rung out through the corridor. Lana twirled her body around as her spear’s shaft grinded against the moblin’s, and before long she was in his space. She elbowed his gut, ducked behind him, and smacked the side of his head with the shaft.
The pirate slumped against the wall in a daze from Lana's fast assault. She wondered how she had so much difficulty dealing with the moblin in the Forest Haven when these ones were so easy to get past. Maybe that was why that particular moblin was the leader of an assault team and these ones were just guards in the fort.
Unfortunately, her luck didn't last. She could only get so far down the tower before she was caught in a wedge between six moblins, three in front of her and three behind her. She was stuck there in the hall, wondering what to do next. The brutes were like walls themselves, preventing her from advancing any further as they closed in from both sides. There was no window she could escape through, and she couldn’t attack without leaving herself wide open.
- Come on, this can’t be it! Think! Just a little farther to the treasure vault, and then I can get my stuff back. Come on, I can do this! There’s no such thing as impossible anymore! I won’t give up!
She wracked her brain, searching for a strategy she could use to get through them. And then one of the moblins in front of her cried out in pain and fell to the floor in a bloody heap. Everyone stopped to look at what had caused this, and Lana was surprised to see a familiar face standing behind the fallen pirate, wielding blood-stained daggers.
“I’ll be damned. Here I am coming to the rescue, and you beat me to the punch yet again. You are seriously amazing, Lana.” she grinned.
“Emilia!” Lana had never been more relieved to see her face.
The moblins in front turned on her, and Lana took that chance to attack the ones at her rear. She turned on her heel into a horizontal slash with her spear, and she cut through two of them at once. The one she missed advanced on her, thrusting hard with his own spear. Lana stepped to the side, bringing her weapon around and stabbing it through his gut. The blood splattering the floor made her wince, but she forced the unpleasantness down and turned back to Emilia.
The pirate captain was just finishing with the last of her own moblins. She jumped over her enemy’s spear, kicked off the wall, and stabbed her knives right into the brute’s neck. Letting it fall to her feet before her, she looked satisfied by the outcome of this fight.
“Nice work. You handle yourself well.” she said.
“Thanks. But we need to move fast. Jasper, the boss of the Forsaken Pirates, is probably right on our trail.” she explained.
“You don’t say. I’ve never met the guy before. Let’s get going before he shows up.”
“Right. We’ve got some treasure to steal.”
The girls nodded at each other. This excursion into the fort hadn’t gone as planned, but it wasn’t over yet. There was still much that had to be done. Neither of them were leaving without taking back what didn’t belong to the self-proclaimed Pirate King.
Way to go Lana! Called it, Emelia was going to save her
Great writing as usual!
Great writing as usual!
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Merry Christmas to my readers! I have a present for you all... the next chapter! It's been over 5 months since the last one. Sorry about that. I really ran out of steam there, and I was only able to get this one down because of a random whim. Hopefully I don't let another gap like that happen between chapters again...
At any rate, this chapter closes off the fourth arc. I hope you enjoy reading it! Lana's got many more adventures on her plate after this.
Feet hammered stone as Lana and Emilia dashed down the stairs in the Forsaken Fortress’s tower. The thundering sound of moblin hooves closed in on the pair as they raced to get to the treasure vault. Lana presumed the equipment that had been taken from her upon her capture had been brought there, and that was also likely where the iron boots and power bracelets she needed to recover were being stored. However, Jasper’s security would not make this easy for them.
Two more moblins appeared to block their path. Lana was beginning to wonder how many of those brutes Jasper had to spare. Emilia wasted no time, bending forward and kicking off from the ground. She leapt onto the wall, springing off of it and soaring above one of their heads. By the time her feet touched down behind them, the beast’s neck split open with a spray of blood.
Lana grimaced and readied her spear. She used the remaining moblin’s shock to her advantage, catching it off-guard by slamming her spear into its chest. It crumpled against the wall in a dazed heap.
“You gotta finish the job, or it’ll just make it harder on us later!” Emilia called back as the two began running again.
“Sorry, I don’t like killing if I can avoid it! Besides, once we get down there, we’re gonna be cornered either way!”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got a plan for that.” Emilia said, flashing a devious grin.
Soon, the two finally passed by a window. Emilia reached into a pouch and pulled out a flare. With great form, she threw it outside, and it erupted into a bright red flash of light.
“Whoa!” Lana gasped.
“Heh. In a minute, Jasper will be too busy to deal with us. Let’s go!”
The pair took off running again, leaving Lana questioning what that was all about. True to Emilia’s word, after just a few minutes, sounds of cannonfire and an uproar of monsterese filled the air. The entire fortress shook from the blasts, causing Lana to stagger.
As they passed another window, she looked out to see Emilia’s pirate ship approaching, firing their front cannons at the fort’s walls. That brief passing moment filled Lana will hope and encouragement, and each step she took toward the treasure vault felt renewed with purpose.
- Leave it to Emilia to make a move this bold. There’s absolutely no way Jasper could ignore a direct assault like that. He’ll have to lead his pirates to defend. And while he’s doing that...
At last, Lana and Emilia arrived at the treasure vault. There were four moblins stationed there now, as opposed to just the two when Lana was there earlier. Jasper was quite paranoid about his precious loot. There was no choice but to fight their way in.
“Make sure you actually kill them this time!” Emilia said as she brandished her daggers.
Lana frowned, but still nodded. The four moblins charged them all at once, spears held in position. They moved like a cohesive barricade, ready to mow down the two intruders. Lana and Emilia dashed off in opposite directions, both aiming for the walls.
Lana tried to replicate the wall jump she’d seen Emilia do earlier. However, the spear’s weight threw her off-balance. She did indeed dodge the mad charge, but she stumbled in the air. One of them was already turning on her. If she were to fall over, she was certain she’d get run through.
Thinking fast, Lana twisted her body and slammed the pommel of the spear on the ground as hard as she could. She was able to use the force she’d just generated to vault herself away from danger. Landing on her feet, she was able to gather herself and meet the moblin’s spear head-on.
The shafts of their weapons clashed together. Lana pushed with all her might, forcing the moblin to stagger. She ducked under its arm and spun, smacking its abdomen with her spear. As it tumbled over into another moblin, Lana quickly stabbed her spear through the two of them, skewering their bodies together.
The sounds of flesh and bone crunching was followed by splattering blood on the stone floor. Lana had to suppress a gag and turned away from the sight, leaving the spear wedged into them. Emilia had just finished killing off the two moblins on her side, as well. One of their heads rolled at her feet, and Lana found it harder than ever to choke back on her disgust.
“Yeesh, you look awful over there. Really can’t handle gore, huh?” Emilia sighed.
“I prefer to view that as a strength.” Lana said, turning up her nose.
“Heh, whatever you say, miss goody-goody.”
At last, they were free to raid the vault. The door was simple wood with an iron lock. Emilia had no trouble kicking it down. When she did, the two were greeted by more riches than Lana had ever seen in her life. Even Emilia whistled in awe, which lent itself to the sheer quantity of the hoard.
The room was large and concave, and covered from one end to the other in gold. Makeshift wooden tables displayed priceless relics, ranging from crowns to emblems to statuettes to weapons. The collection didn’t just stop at treasure, either; all kinds of eccentricities and curios were set up prominently, as well. Exotic flowers, armor from foreign lands, and even silverware had their own places. There were also stairs set into the back wall leading further down, possibly to a basement that housed even more riches.
- Man, when Jasper said he wanted everything, he wasn’t exaggerating.
Lana shook her head to break out of her amazement stupor. She had some things to find. She was captured very recently, so she was certain her gear would have been tossed in close to the entrance. Her eyes scanned the room, and to her great relief, she spotted her sheathed estoc and her deku leaf on a table in the far right corner.
“Oh, thank goodness! My stuff!” Lana said as she skipped on over.
“Good, good. Now I just need to figure out where they put my damn gossip stones.” Emilia said, frantically tossing extravagant necklaces and gold chalices aside in her search.
“I’ve got some other stuff to find, too.” Lana said, reequipping all her gear.
The cannonfire could still be heard, and the fortress was still shaking every now and then from cannon blasts. No other moblins or even bokoblins were storming the vault, so Lana assumed Emilia’s crew was keeping Jasper plenty busy. That still didn’t mean they could take their time, of course. She had to find the Fairy Queen’s artifacts, and fast.
- I’m not even sure what they look like. I get the feeling they’re gonna be a “you’ll know it when you see it” kind of thing, but still... I wish I had a little more to go on.
Lana waded through piles of gold coins and pushed aside tables of jewelry as she searched the room. She grabbed a sturdy-looking leather satchel with an intricate pattern sewn onto the side so she could store them when she found them. She was trying to let her intuition act as her guide, but everything around her looked so fancy and important that it was making her head spin.
And then, as she passed by a wooden chest at the back of the room, something made her hair stand up on end. She stopped in her tracks and let her senses take full control. Something close by felt incredibly powerful. It was the same kind of feeling that her deku leaf gave off. Perhaps there was a magical artifact in that chest.
Lana stooped over and pried it open. Inside were a bunch of dusty sea charts with strange markings, and after digging through them, that magical presence got even stronger. Her fingers touched something deep inside, and she felt a spark trace its way all through her body.
- This has to be it.
Lana cleared the charts away as much as she could, and finally saw them clearly. Sitting at the bottom of the chest were a pair of leather boots plated with iron armor and a pair of golden bracelets. She felt it was a little anticlimactic that they looked so ordinary, especially after all the trouble she’d gone through. Nevertheless, they were unmistakably the source of that magical presence.
“Yes, here they are! And they’re not damaged. Phew.”
Emilia’s sudden voice caused Lana to jump. She turned her head to see the pirate captain excitedly clutching a pair of blue stones. It seemed that they had both found everything they’d come looking for. Lana quickly snatched up the boots and bracelets and slipped them into the satchel she’d taken, and then joined Emilia at the vault’s door.
“Alright, you got everything, Lana?” she asked.
“Yeah. We’re good to go now.”
“Great. We’re gonna have to fight our way out. Let’s raise some hell and get out of this dump!”
The girls nodded at each other and began to sprint back up the stairs. They were still not meeting any resistance, which made Lana feel anxious. Jasper was extremely possessive of the treasures he stole, so the fact that he hadn’t sent even a single bokoblin their way was very suspicious.
Lana’s muscles tensed up as they made a run for the door that led out to the courtyard. She focused on her breathing, keeping it calm and under control. Her eyes were scanning the path ahead for any signs of movement. She was on full guard, expecting them to trip some kind of trap at any moment.
Emilia was the first to touch the door. Just as she started to push it open, the outside air brought a strong whiff of burning oil with it. The air flow became fiercely disturbed, and Lana’s senses screamed at her.
“Emilia, wait!” she shouted.
Lana grabbed her companion by the shoulder and pulled back as hard as she could. Just as she did, the wooden door burst into flames, shattering into burning shrapnel. The girls dove back, landing on the stone floor face-first, covering the backs of their heads with their arms.
Hot lumps of wood showered them, and they quickly rolled around and patted down any burning spots before the flames spread to their hair and clothes. Thick smoke filled the air above their heads, pouring into the corridor and out into the night.
The air flow was disturbed yet again. Lana quickly turned back to where the door had been, and discovered a moblin ready to drive a spear into her chest. Gritting her teeth, she used her leg muscles to push her body forward, twisting just barely out of the spear’s path. In that same motion, she drew her sword and swung it upward as hard as she could.
The tip of her estoc sliced clean through the moblin’s arm, separating it from its body. A shower of blood decorated the walls as the brute howled in pain. Lana was finally able to get to her feet, and she put the moblin out of its misery with a quick jab to the heart.
“Holy hell... That was nuts. Good work, Lana.” Emilia said, dumbfounded.
“You okay?”
“A little crispy, that’s all. Jeez, how’d you even see that coming?”
“I’ve always been really good about noticing slight changes in the air. When people move, it disturbs the air around them, which then flows around me, and I can kind of feel that.” she explained.
“Damn. I don’t really get it, but damn.” Emilia shrugged. “Quick, let’s regroup with my boys before we get attacked again.”
Lana nodded, and together they finally left the insides of the tower and dashed out into the courtyard. What they found there was a chaotic battle between Emilia’s Pirates, who had managed to make landfall by breaking through one of the outer walls, and the Forsaken Pirates, who were desperately trying to defend their home turf.
A horde of bokoblins and a handful of moblins had encircled Emilia’s crew, keeping them from advancing as well as from retreating. It appeared that the moblins were giving commands to the bokoblins, instructing them on where to move to keep the crew on their toes. Lana didn’t think they were smart enough to do that on their own, but she did know one of them was.
Just as she thought that, the air above her head was violently disrupted.
‘MOVE!” Lana shouted as she dove out of the way.
Emilia followed suit and leapt aside, and hardly a second later, a massive hammer shaped like a skull shattered the ground where they had just been standing. A dust cloud swirled into the air around the wielder of the hammer, draped in steel armor. He lifted the massive hammer with one arm, and held a massive shield with the other arm.
“Once I come to own something, it will always be mine.” Jasper’s voice rasped from within the suit of armor. “And I will not allow anyone to leave this fort with my possessions alive!”
Those words sent a chill down Lana’s spine. Emilia had to swallow some nerves of her own. Jasper was already incredibly tall, but the armor he wore only served to expand his form. He looked imposing and unapproachable. With one step forward, the ground cracked beneath his feet. Just the thought of attacking him was suffocating.
- Can we do this? There’s no way we can escape without fighting him. But that hammer is massive, and that armor looks impenetrable. Is there anything... Anything at all?
As Lana wracked her brain for answers, Jasper lunged directly at her. He swung his hammer below the belt in a sweeping motion. Lana leapt up over it and swung her sword at him. It merely slid right off his armor, barely leaving a scratch. As soon as her feet touched back down, she had to leap backward to avoid another swipe.
“Wait! Don’t you need me alive to find what you’re looking for?” Lana cried out in an attempt to stall the fight.
“I’m only going to crush your legs so you can’t run. You don’t need legs to talk.”
His answer filled Lana with terror all the way down to her bones. Her heart rate increased as she jumped back again to avoid another low swing from Jasper’s hammer. He had his back to Emilia, but she was rooted to the spot, trying to think of something to do to turn the tables.
- Come on, think! Every fighter has a weak point somewhere! What did I train for if not for this? Come on!
After another skillful dodge, something finally clicked in Lana’s memory. She recalled her brief training with Orca on Outset Island. When she selected her estoc, Orca had said it was a long and thin blade that was lightweight but ideal for stabbing moves. Its tip was designed to pierce through armor and shields.
Adrenaline kick-started Lana’s mood anew. A trembling smile wormed its way to her face. She knew exactly how to win now. When Jasper swung his hammer at her again, she leapt over it and readied herself to stab down through the air. Jasper held up his shield between himself and Lana.
Focusing as much strength into her arm as she could spare, she thrusted down hard. The tip of her estoc made contact with the steel shield. In that first split second, she could feel the metal rend and warp under the tip. In the next second, positive feedback shot through her arm and her sword punctured a hole straight through the shield. The blade slid in all the way down to the hilt.
Emilia’s jaw dropped and Jasper let out a gasp under his helmet, while Lana’s shaky smile turned into a brave grin. After passing through the shield, her sword had lost all its momentum and weakly scratched against Jasper’s armor behind it. Lana planted her foot on the shield and pulled her sword back out as she leapt away.
As Lana backed off, Emilia finally made a move. Readying her daggers, she stayed low to the ground and advanced on Jasper’s back. She aimed for the arm that held the shield with a brand new hole in it. Jasper was shocked enough that his movements had slowed, and so Emilia took the chance to try what Lana had just done. Her blades couldn’t pierce armor plating, so instead she aimed for the joints.
Before Jasper could react, one of her daggers had worked its way through an opening in the elbow joint. He cried out in pain and dropped his shield at his feet. When Emilia withdrew her dagger, it was stained with blood, and Jasper’s arm fell limp.
That pain snapped him back into focus. He turned sharply on his heel, swinging his hammer at Emilia as hard as he could. She wasn’t able to react fast enough to dodge, but she was able to brace her blades against the impact. She was knocked off her feet and hit the nearby tower wall.
Jasper didn’t waste a second to turn right back on Lana. Even after his hammer made contact with Emilia, it hardly lost any momentum as he swung it back around to find its next mark. Lana’s sword grinded against it as she moved back, and it was almost smacked clear out of her hand. She tightened her grip on the hilt as she regained her balance.
Despite how large and heavy that hammer was, Jasper was able to effortlessly change its direction at a moment’s notice. It was already barreling right back at Lana again. She took a great leap backward to make some distance. Then, with a deep breath, Lana gathered all her strength together and charged forward.
The skull hammer was once again finding its way back to her already. This time, Lana slid directly under it. She felt the wind churn through her hair as it grazed the top of her head. Not wasting a single moment, she straightened back up and thrusted her sword forward with all her might. The tip of her estoc made contact with Jasper’s armor, and just like before, the steel in its way was split asunder in a second.
Lana successfully pierced through Jasper’s armor and into his chest. The towering moblin cried out in pain and desperately swung his hammer at Lana to get her away. She didn’t have a choice but to let go of her sword; if she hadn’t, she would’ve been pulverized. As she left her estoc lodged in Jasper’s chest, she gained a little distance to give herself room to think. She needed to get it back from him fast.
As if on cue, Emilia leapt up from behind him. Despite the pain she was undoubtedly feeling, she had a massive grin on her face. She nailed Jasper with a flying kick to the back of his head, knocking his helmet clean off. His gruesome face was fully visible now, contorted with pain and anger.
“How do you like that, you ugly son of a *****?!” Emilia screamed, sounding a little delirious.
Before she landed, she was able to swipe at him with one of her daggers. She managed to draw some blood from the back of his head before he staggered forward. He then kicked back behind himself, hitting Emilia in her gut before she even landed.
As Emilia rolled away in agony, Lana lunged forward. Jasper’s attention was on her in a second, but the sword in his chest was severely slowing him down. He clumsily swung his hammer at her, and it crashed uselessly on the ground. Lana quickly grabbed the hilt of her sword, and just like she had done with the shield, planted her foot on Jasper’s chest and pulled out as hard as she could.
When the sword came out, an outpouring of blood followed. Jasper hacked and wheezed, gasping for breath and trying to stem the tide with his hand. His beady eyes began to cloud over, and he started swaying where he stood. He seemed on the brink of passing out from the loss of blood.
Emilia regained her composure and leapt to her feet. “Come on, you maggots! Stop goofing around over there and clean house! We’re about to put the King of the Forsaken Pirates in a watery grave!”
Once she hollered those words, a rallying cry from her crew resounded through the air. Seeing that Jasper was on the verge of defeat, the moblins and bokoblins became panicked, and that made them easy to mow down. Indeed, if they kept this pace up, they might actually be able to put an end to the Forsaken Pirates then and there. Lana found herself hoping for just that.
- If we can end him here, my parents will be safe, as well as countless others. We have to take him down now while we can!
“Your days of greed and avarice are over, Jasper!”
As Lana added her voice to those of Emilia’s crew, she charged toward him once again. His head was wide open and his guard was down. She intended to see the tip of her blade pierce straight through his skull. And she was seconds away from making that happen.
And then, as she pictured how that would look, she felt that familiar pit emerge in her gut. She felt disgusted with herself for wanting to kill someone so badly. Acid bubbled around in her stomach, making her want to vomit at the thought. She knew the world would be better off without Jasper in it, and she knew killing him was the right thing to do.
And yet, that pit in her gut didn’t subside. It ate away at her mind, and it caused her to hesitate. That quick moment of hesitation was all Jasper needed.
“COME TO ME!” he shouted at the top of his lungs.
The shrill cry of a bird echoed through the night, and a looming shadow swooped down from above. Faster than Lana could react, Jasper was snatched off the ground and carried into the air.
“No!” Lana cried.
Above her head, beating the air with its wings and gripping Jasper’s shoulders with its talons, was a helmaroc. It was a monstrous bird that made nests in high places and often terrorized islands in migrating flocks. This one was fitted with armor and scarred from battles. It seemed to be under Jasper’s command.
“Savor your victory tonight, Lana! Emilia! Savor it while you can! As long as you hold onto something I’ve once possessed, I will hunt you down to the ends of the Great Sea! Mark my words, I will have your heads!”
With that, the helmaroc carried Jasper off into the night. Lana considered giving chase with her deku leaf, but she wouldn’t be able to fight in midair while holding onto it. She’d simply be knocked down by the helmaroc. There was nothing she could do. Jasper had escaped.
Watching their esteemed King flee, the Forsaken Pirates fell into utter discord. Their chain of command was completely gone, and they flailed about until Emilia’s crew had cut each of them down. It turned from a stalemate into a one-sided massacre.
Renazo, Emilia’s first mate, was the head of the assault. He proudly brandished his blood-stained cutlass and marched toward his captain.
“Look at that! We completely wiped ‘em out! This is our victory-”
“Hey.”
Emilia’s cold voice cut Renazo off. He broke out into a sweat when he saw the anger on his captain’s face. That fury, along with an intense glare, was directed at Lana.
“You hesitated. I saw that. He got away because you hesitated at the last second. That was completely your fault.” she spat.
Lana bit her lip, staring at the ground with clenched fists.
“I told you earlier. If you don’t finish the job, it’ll come back to bite you later. It’s your fault Jasper escaped, and you can be damn well sure he’s gonna come back to bite. ‘Not liking to kill is a strength’, my ass. You’re a damn fool.”
“Shut your mouth.” Lana said. “I know I messed up. I know that, okay? I know...” her voice trailed off.
Lana’s vision blurred with tears. Her fists trembled, and a knot was caught in her throat. Because she was disgusted by the act of killing, she hesitated at a crucial moment, and Jasper was able to escape. Her family was now still in danger, and she was still going to be hunted. That was, as Emilia said, her own fault.
- But still...
“I refuse to look at killing as anything other than repulsive. Call me weak-willed or foolish all you want, I am not changing that about myself.” Lana said. Emilia’s scowl deepened. “I made a mistake tonight, but my mistake was not in my disgust for death. It was in the hesitation that came from it. I know what I did wrong, and I am not going to repeat it next time.”
“Are you telling me you valued Jasper’s life?” Emilia asked.
Lana took a deep breath. “Nothing is black and white in this world. I’ve learned that lesson the hard way since I’ve been travelling. There’s good and bad people everywhere, and sometimes, killing is necessary. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it. I am who I am today because I choose to value life. That’s all there is to it.”
Emilia studied Lana’s face quietly for a moment. Before long, she found herself sighing. “I definitely wouldn’t call someone as stubborn as you weak-willed. I may think you’re a fool, but that’s not something for me to meddle in. You made this bed, so as long as you’re prepared to lie in it, I’ve got nothing more to say.”
Lana nodded. Her eyes were burning and her chest was pounding, but she tried her best to stand strong. Jasper’s escape was her mistake, and she knew she had to correct it. She knew he’d come for her once again, and when he did, she would cut him down for sure. That was the only way she could keep her family safe.
- Next time... Next time, I won’t fail. I will kill him, and I will protect them. That’s one and the same. I have to understand that.
Emilia seemed satisfied with the expression on Lana’s face, and at last turned to face her crew. She examined the results of their efforts closely. Lana turned to look, as well. The outer wall had been broken down by cannonfire, and their ship was able to invade the moat and make landfall that way. There was a massive pool of blood covering the courtyard, and the corpses of the Forsaken Pirates littered every inch of it. The sight turned Lana’s stomach.
On the other hand, Emilia smiled. “Jasper may have escaped, but he’s been thoroughly declawed. The Forsaken Pirates are no more. Let’s make this fort our turf for a little while, just to rub it in. A victory is still a victory. Drink up, boys! Tonight, we party!”
Her crew’s raucous cheering rang out through the night. Lana finally felt her body’s tension vanish. The fighting was over for now, and she accomplished her goal, too. She had successfully recovered the iron boots and power bracelets, just like the King of Red Lions asked. Now it was time to rest, and on the dawn, she would tell the mysterious boat the good news.
At any rate, this chapter closes off the fourth arc. I hope you enjoy reading it! Lana's got many more adventures on her plate after this.
Chapter Nineteen
The Surprisingly Possible Great Treasure Recovery
The Surprisingly Possible Great Treasure Recovery
Feet hammered stone as Lana and Emilia dashed down the stairs in the Forsaken Fortress’s tower. The thundering sound of moblin hooves closed in on the pair as they raced to get to the treasure vault. Lana presumed the equipment that had been taken from her upon her capture had been brought there, and that was also likely where the iron boots and power bracelets she needed to recover were being stored. However, Jasper’s security would not make this easy for them.
Two more moblins appeared to block their path. Lana was beginning to wonder how many of those brutes Jasper had to spare. Emilia wasted no time, bending forward and kicking off from the ground. She leapt onto the wall, springing off of it and soaring above one of their heads. By the time her feet touched down behind them, the beast’s neck split open with a spray of blood.
Lana grimaced and readied her spear. She used the remaining moblin’s shock to her advantage, catching it off-guard by slamming her spear into its chest. It crumpled against the wall in a dazed heap.
“You gotta finish the job, or it’ll just make it harder on us later!” Emilia called back as the two began running again.
“Sorry, I don’t like killing if I can avoid it! Besides, once we get down there, we’re gonna be cornered either way!”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got a plan for that.” Emilia said, flashing a devious grin.
Soon, the two finally passed by a window. Emilia reached into a pouch and pulled out a flare. With great form, she threw it outside, and it erupted into a bright red flash of light.
“Whoa!” Lana gasped.
“Heh. In a minute, Jasper will be too busy to deal with us. Let’s go!”
The pair took off running again, leaving Lana questioning what that was all about. True to Emilia’s word, after just a few minutes, sounds of cannonfire and an uproar of monsterese filled the air. The entire fortress shook from the blasts, causing Lana to stagger.
As they passed another window, she looked out to see Emilia’s pirate ship approaching, firing their front cannons at the fort’s walls. That brief passing moment filled Lana will hope and encouragement, and each step she took toward the treasure vault felt renewed with purpose.
- Leave it to Emilia to make a move this bold. There’s absolutely no way Jasper could ignore a direct assault like that. He’ll have to lead his pirates to defend. And while he’s doing that...
At last, Lana and Emilia arrived at the treasure vault. There were four moblins stationed there now, as opposed to just the two when Lana was there earlier. Jasper was quite paranoid about his precious loot. There was no choice but to fight their way in.
“Make sure you actually kill them this time!” Emilia said as she brandished her daggers.
Lana frowned, but still nodded. The four moblins charged them all at once, spears held in position. They moved like a cohesive barricade, ready to mow down the two intruders. Lana and Emilia dashed off in opposite directions, both aiming for the walls.
Lana tried to replicate the wall jump she’d seen Emilia do earlier. However, the spear’s weight threw her off-balance. She did indeed dodge the mad charge, but she stumbled in the air. One of them was already turning on her. If she were to fall over, she was certain she’d get run through.
Thinking fast, Lana twisted her body and slammed the pommel of the spear on the ground as hard as she could. She was able to use the force she’d just generated to vault herself away from danger. Landing on her feet, she was able to gather herself and meet the moblin’s spear head-on.
The shafts of their weapons clashed together. Lana pushed with all her might, forcing the moblin to stagger. She ducked under its arm and spun, smacking its abdomen with her spear. As it tumbled over into another moblin, Lana quickly stabbed her spear through the two of them, skewering their bodies together.
The sounds of flesh and bone crunching was followed by splattering blood on the stone floor. Lana had to suppress a gag and turned away from the sight, leaving the spear wedged into them. Emilia had just finished killing off the two moblins on her side, as well. One of their heads rolled at her feet, and Lana found it harder than ever to choke back on her disgust.
“Yeesh, you look awful over there. Really can’t handle gore, huh?” Emilia sighed.
“I prefer to view that as a strength.” Lana said, turning up her nose.
“Heh, whatever you say, miss goody-goody.”
At last, they were free to raid the vault. The door was simple wood with an iron lock. Emilia had no trouble kicking it down. When she did, the two were greeted by more riches than Lana had ever seen in her life. Even Emilia whistled in awe, which lent itself to the sheer quantity of the hoard.
The room was large and concave, and covered from one end to the other in gold. Makeshift wooden tables displayed priceless relics, ranging from crowns to emblems to statuettes to weapons. The collection didn’t just stop at treasure, either; all kinds of eccentricities and curios were set up prominently, as well. Exotic flowers, armor from foreign lands, and even silverware had their own places. There were also stairs set into the back wall leading further down, possibly to a basement that housed even more riches.
- Man, when Jasper said he wanted everything, he wasn’t exaggerating.
Lana shook her head to break out of her amazement stupor. She had some things to find. She was captured very recently, so she was certain her gear would have been tossed in close to the entrance. Her eyes scanned the room, and to her great relief, she spotted her sheathed estoc and her deku leaf on a table in the far right corner.
“Oh, thank goodness! My stuff!” Lana said as she skipped on over.
“Good, good. Now I just need to figure out where they put my damn gossip stones.” Emilia said, frantically tossing extravagant necklaces and gold chalices aside in her search.
“I’ve got some other stuff to find, too.” Lana said, reequipping all her gear.
The cannonfire could still be heard, and the fortress was still shaking every now and then from cannon blasts. No other moblins or even bokoblins were storming the vault, so Lana assumed Emilia’s crew was keeping Jasper plenty busy. That still didn’t mean they could take their time, of course. She had to find the Fairy Queen’s artifacts, and fast.
- I’m not even sure what they look like. I get the feeling they’re gonna be a “you’ll know it when you see it” kind of thing, but still... I wish I had a little more to go on.
Lana waded through piles of gold coins and pushed aside tables of jewelry as she searched the room. She grabbed a sturdy-looking leather satchel with an intricate pattern sewn onto the side so she could store them when she found them. She was trying to let her intuition act as her guide, but everything around her looked so fancy and important that it was making her head spin.
And then, as she passed by a wooden chest at the back of the room, something made her hair stand up on end. She stopped in her tracks and let her senses take full control. Something close by felt incredibly powerful. It was the same kind of feeling that her deku leaf gave off. Perhaps there was a magical artifact in that chest.
Lana stooped over and pried it open. Inside were a bunch of dusty sea charts with strange markings, and after digging through them, that magical presence got even stronger. Her fingers touched something deep inside, and she felt a spark trace its way all through her body.
- This has to be it.
Lana cleared the charts away as much as she could, and finally saw them clearly. Sitting at the bottom of the chest were a pair of leather boots plated with iron armor and a pair of golden bracelets. She felt it was a little anticlimactic that they looked so ordinary, especially after all the trouble she’d gone through. Nevertheless, they were unmistakably the source of that magical presence.
“Yes, here they are! And they’re not damaged. Phew.”
Emilia’s sudden voice caused Lana to jump. She turned her head to see the pirate captain excitedly clutching a pair of blue stones. It seemed that they had both found everything they’d come looking for. Lana quickly snatched up the boots and bracelets and slipped them into the satchel she’d taken, and then joined Emilia at the vault’s door.
“Alright, you got everything, Lana?” she asked.
“Yeah. We’re good to go now.”
“Great. We’re gonna have to fight our way out. Let’s raise some hell and get out of this dump!”
The girls nodded at each other and began to sprint back up the stairs. They were still not meeting any resistance, which made Lana feel anxious. Jasper was extremely possessive of the treasures he stole, so the fact that he hadn’t sent even a single bokoblin their way was very suspicious.
Lana’s muscles tensed up as they made a run for the door that led out to the courtyard. She focused on her breathing, keeping it calm and under control. Her eyes were scanning the path ahead for any signs of movement. She was on full guard, expecting them to trip some kind of trap at any moment.
Emilia was the first to touch the door. Just as she started to push it open, the outside air brought a strong whiff of burning oil with it. The air flow became fiercely disturbed, and Lana’s senses screamed at her.
“Emilia, wait!” she shouted.
Lana grabbed her companion by the shoulder and pulled back as hard as she could. Just as she did, the wooden door burst into flames, shattering into burning shrapnel. The girls dove back, landing on the stone floor face-first, covering the backs of their heads with their arms.
Hot lumps of wood showered them, and they quickly rolled around and patted down any burning spots before the flames spread to their hair and clothes. Thick smoke filled the air above their heads, pouring into the corridor and out into the night.
The air flow was disturbed yet again. Lana quickly turned back to where the door had been, and discovered a moblin ready to drive a spear into her chest. Gritting her teeth, she used her leg muscles to push her body forward, twisting just barely out of the spear’s path. In that same motion, she drew her sword and swung it upward as hard as she could.
The tip of her estoc sliced clean through the moblin’s arm, separating it from its body. A shower of blood decorated the walls as the brute howled in pain. Lana was finally able to get to her feet, and she put the moblin out of its misery with a quick jab to the heart.
“Holy hell... That was nuts. Good work, Lana.” Emilia said, dumbfounded.
“You okay?”
“A little crispy, that’s all. Jeez, how’d you even see that coming?”
“I’ve always been really good about noticing slight changes in the air. When people move, it disturbs the air around them, which then flows around me, and I can kind of feel that.” she explained.
“Damn. I don’t really get it, but damn.” Emilia shrugged. “Quick, let’s regroup with my boys before we get attacked again.”
Lana nodded, and together they finally left the insides of the tower and dashed out into the courtyard. What they found there was a chaotic battle between Emilia’s Pirates, who had managed to make landfall by breaking through one of the outer walls, and the Forsaken Pirates, who were desperately trying to defend their home turf.
A horde of bokoblins and a handful of moblins had encircled Emilia’s crew, keeping them from advancing as well as from retreating. It appeared that the moblins were giving commands to the bokoblins, instructing them on where to move to keep the crew on their toes. Lana didn’t think they were smart enough to do that on their own, but she did know one of them was.
Just as she thought that, the air above her head was violently disrupted.
‘MOVE!” Lana shouted as she dove out of the way.
Emilia followed suit and leapt aside, and hardly a second later, a massive hammer shaped like a skull shattered the ground where they had just been standing. A dust cloud swirled into the air around the wielder of the hammer, draped in steel armor. He lifted the massive hammer with one arm, and held a massive shield with the other arm.
“Once I come to own something, it will always be mine.” Jasper’s voice rasped from within the suit of armor. “And I will not allow anyone to leave this fort with my possessions alive!”
Those words sent a chill down Lana’s spine. Emilia had to swallow some nerves of her own. Jasper was already incredibly tall, but the armor he wore only served to expand his form. He looked imposing and unapproachable. With one step forward, the ground cracked beneath his feet. Just the thought of attacking him was suffocating.
- Can we do this? There’s no way we can escape without fighting him. But that hammer is massive, and that armor looks impenetrable. Is there anything... Anything at all?
As Lana wracked her brain for answers, Jasper lunged directly at her. He swung his hammer below the belt in a sweeping motion. Lana leapt up over it and swung her sword at him. It merely slid right off his armor, barely leaving a scratch. As soon as her feet touched back down, she had to leap backward to avoid another swipe.
“Wait! Don’t you need me alive to find what you’re looking for?” Lana cried out in an attempt to stall the fight.
“I’m only going to crush your legs so you can’t run. You don’t need legs to talk.”
His answer filled Lana with terror all the way down to her bones. Her heart rate increased as she jumped back again to avoid another low swing from Jasper’s hammer. He had his back to Emilia, but she was rooted to the spot, trying to think of something to do to turn the tables.
- Come on, think! Every fighter has a weak point somewhere! What did I train for if not for this? Come on!
After another skillful dodge, something finally clicked in Lana’s memory. She recalled her brief training with Orca on Outset Island. When she selected her estoc, Orca had said it was a long and thin blade that was lightweight but ideal for stabbing moves. Its tip was designed to pierce through armor and shields.
Adrenaline kick-started Lana’s mood anew. A trembling smile wormed its way to her face. She knew exactly how to win now. When Jasper swung his hammer at her again, she leapt over it and readied herself to stab down through the air. Jasper held up his shield between himself and Lana.
Focusing as much strength into her arm as she could spare, she thrusted down hard. The tip of her estoc made contact with the steel shield. In that first split second, she could feel the metal rend and warp under the tip. In the next second, positive feedback shot through her arm and her sword punctured a hole straight through the shield. The blade slid in all the way down to the hilt.
Emilia’s jaw dropped and Jasper let out a gasp under his helmet, while Lana’s shaky smile turned into a brave grin. After passing through the shield, her sword had lost all its momentum and weakly scratched against Jasper’s armor behind it. Lana planted her foot on the shield and pulled her sword back out as she leapt away.
As Lana backed off, Emilia finally made a move. Readying her daggers, she stayed low to the ground and advanced on Jasper’s back. She aimed for the arm that held the shield with a brand new hole in it. Jasper was shocked enough that his movements had slowed, and so Emilia took the chance to try what Lana had just done. Her blades couldn’t pierce armor plating, so instead she aimed for the joints.
Before Jasper could react, one of her daggers had worked its way through an opening in the elbow joint. He cried out in pain and dropped his shield at his feet. When Emilia withdrew her dagger, it was stained with blood, and Jasper’s arm fell limp.
That pain snapped him back into focus. He turned sharply on his heel, swinging his hammer at Emilia as hard as he could. She wasn’t able to react fast enough to dodge, but she was able to brace her blades against the impact. She was knocked off her feet and hit the nearby tower wall.
Jasper didn’t waste a second to turn right back on Lana. Even after his hammer made contact with Emilia, it hardly lost any momentum as he swung it back around to find its next mark. Lana’s sword grinded against it as she moved back, and it was almost smacked clear out of her hand. She tightened her grip on the hilt as she regained her balance.
Despite how large and heavy that hammer was, Jasper was able to effortlessly change its direction at a moment’s notice. It was already barreling right back at Lana again. She took a great leap backward to make some distance. Then, with a deep breath, Lana gathered all her strength together and charged forward.
The skull hammer was once again finding its way back to her already. This time, Lana slid directly under it. She felt the wind churn through her hair as it grazed the top of her head. Not wasting a single moment, she straightened back up and thrusted her sword forward with all her might. The tip of her estoc made contact with Jasper’s armor, and just like before, the steel in its way was split asunder in a second.
Lana successfully pierced through Jasper’s armor and into his chest. The towering moblin cried out in pain and desperately swung his hammer at Lana to get her away. She didn’t have a choice but to let go of her sword; if she hadn’t, she would’ve been pulverized. As she left her estoc lodged in Jasper’s chest, she gained a little distance to give herself room to think. She needed to get it back from him fast.
As if on cue, Emilia leapt up from behind him. Despite the pain she was undoubtedly feeling, she had a massive grin on her face. She nailed Jasper with a flying kick to the back of his head, knocking his helmet clean off. His gruesome face was fully visible now, contorted with pain and anger.
“How do you like that, you ugly son of a *****?!” Emilia screamed, sounding a little delirious.
Before she landed, she was able to swipe at him with one of her daggers. She managed to draw some blood from the back of his head before he staggered forward. He then kicked back behind himself, hitting Emilia in her gut before she even landed.
As Emilia rolled away in agony, Lana lunged forward. Jasper’s attention was on her in a second, but the sword in his chest was severely slowing him down. He clumsily swung his hammer at her, and it crashed uselessly on the ground. Lana quickly grabbed the hilt of her sword, and just like she had done with the shield, planted her foot on Jasper’s chest and pulled out as hard as she could.
When the sword came out, an outpouring of blood followed. Jasper hacked and wheezed, gasping for breath and trying to stem the tide with his hand. His beady eyes began to cloud over, and he started swaying where he stood. He seemed on the brink of passing out from the loss of blood.
Emilia regained her composure and leapt to her feet. “Come on, you maggots! Stop goofing around over there and clean house! We’re about to put the King of the Forsaken Pirates in a watery grave!”
Once she hollered those words, a rallying cry from her crew resounded through the air. Seeing that Jasper was on the verge of defeat, the moblins and bokoblins became panicked, and that made them easy to mow down. Indeed, if they kept this pace up, they might actually be able to put an end to the Forsaken Pirates then and there. Lana found herself hoping for just that.
- If we can end him here, my parents will be safe, as well as countless others. We have to take him down now while we can!
“Your days of greed and avarice are over, Jasper!”
As Lana added her voice to those of Emilia’s crew, she charged toward him once again. His head was wide open and his guard was down. She intended to see the tip of her blade pierce straight through his skull. And she was seconds away from making that happen.
And then, as she pictured how that would look, she felt that familiar pit emerge in her gut. She felt disgusted with herself for wanting to kill someone so badly. Acid bubbled around in her stomach, making her want to vomit at the thought. She knew the world would be better off without Jasper in it, and she knew killing him was the right thing to do.
And yet, that pit in her gut didn’t subside. It ate away at her mind, and it caused her to hesitate. That quick moment of hesitation was all Jasper needed.
“COME TO ME!” he shouted at the top of his lungs.
The shrill cry of a bird echoed through the night, and a looming shadow swooped down from above. Faster than Lana could react, Jasper was snatched off the ground and carried into the air.
“No!” Lana cried.
Above her head, beating the air with its wings and gripping Jasper’s shoulders with its talons, was a helmaroc. It was a monstrous bird that made nests in high places and often terrorized islands in migrating flocks. This one was fitted with armor and scarred from battles. It seemed to be under Jasper’s command.
“Savor your victory tonight, Lana! Emilia! Savor it while you can! As long as you hold onto something I’ve once possessed, I will hunt you down to the ends of the Great Sea! Mark my words, I will have your heads!”
With that, the helmaroc carried Jasper off into the night. Lana considered giving chase with her deku leaf, but she wouldn’t be able to fight in midair while holding onto it. She’d simply be knocked down by the helmaroc. There was nothing she could do. Jasper had escaped.
Watching their esteemed King flee, the Forsaken Pirates fell into utter discord. Their chain of command was completely gone, and they flailed about until Emilia’s crew had cut each of them down. It turned from a stalemate into a one-sided massacre.
Renazo, Emilia’s first mate, was the head of the assault. He proudly brandished his blood-stained cutlass and marched toward his captain.
“Look at that! We completely wiped ‘em out! This is our victory-”
“Hey.”
Emilia’s cold voice cut Renazo off. He broke out into a sweat when he saw the anger on his captain’s face. That fury, along with an intense glare, was directed at Lana.
“You hesitated. I saw that. He got away because you hesitated at the last second. That was completely your fault.” she spat.
Lana bit her lip, staring at the ground with clenched fists.
“I told you earlier. If you don’t finish the job, it’ll come back to bite you later. It’s your fault Jasper escaped, and you can be damn well sure he’s gonna come back to bite. ‘Not liking to kill is a strength’, my ass. You’re a damn fool.”
“Shut your mouth.” Lana said. “I know I messed up. I know that, okay? I know...” her voice trailed off.
Lana’s vision blurred with tears. Her fists trembled, and a knot was caught in her throat. Because she was disgusted by the act of killing, she hesitated at a crucial moment, and Jasper was able to escape. Her family was now still in danger, and she was still going to be hunted. That was, as Emilia said, her own fault.
- But still...
“I refuse to look at killing as anything other than repulsive. Call me weak-willed or foolish all you want, I am not changing that about myself.” Lana said. Emilia’s scowl deepened. “I made a mistake tonight, but my mistake was not in my disgust for death. It was in the hesitation that came from it. I know what I did wrong, and I am not going to repeat it next time.”
“Are you telling me you valued Jasper’s life?” Emilia asked.
Lana took a deep breath. “Nothing is black and white in this world. I’ve learned that lesson the hard way since I’ve been travelling. There’s good and bad people everywhere, and sometimes, killing is necessary. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it. I am who I am today because I choose to value life. That’s all there is to it.”
Emilia studied Lana’s face quietly for a moment. Before long, she found herself sighing. “I definitely wouldn’t call someone as stubborn as you weak-willed. I may think you’re a fool, but that’s not something for me to meddle in. You made this bed, so as long as you’re prepared to lie in it, I’ve got nothing more to say.”
Lana nodded. Her eyes were burning and her chest was pounding, but she tried her best to stand strong. Jasper’s escape was her mistake, and she knew she had to correct it. She knew he’d come for her once again, and when he did, she would cut him down for sure. That was the only way she could keep her family safe.
- Next time... Next time, I won’t fail. I will kill him, and I will protect them. That’s one and the same. I have to understand that.
Emilia seemed satisfied with the expression on Lana’s face, and at last turned to face her crew. She examined the results of their efforts closely. Lana turned to look, as well. The outer wall had been broken down by cannonfire, and their ship was able to invade the moat and make landfall that way. There was a massive pool of blood covering the courtyard, and the corpses of the Forsaken Pirates littered every inch of it. The sight turned Lana’s stomach.
On the other hand, Emilia smiled. “Jasper may have escaped, but he’s been thoroughly declawed. The Forsaken Pirates are no more. Let’s make this fort our turf for a little while, just to rub it in. A victory is still a victory. Drink up, boys! Tonight, we party!”
Her crew’s raucous cheering rang out through the night. Lana finally felt her body’s tension vanish. The fighting was over for now, and she accomplished her goal, too. She had successfully recovered the iron boots and power bracelets, just like the King of Red Lions asked. Now it was time to rest, and on the dawn, she would tell the mysterious boat the good news.
I loved Lana in this chapter. Killing disgusts me as well, so seeing that struggle inside herself is really powerful. Especially in the time she’s in where killing isn’t all that bad to a lot of people.
Great writing as always, keep up the good work. Your action scenes are great!
Great writing as always, keep up the good work. Your action scenes are great!
Time for the next chapter! I'm glad I was able to keep up the pace with this. We're now in the 5th story arc, and now two-thirds of the way through the story! Hope you enjoy it.
The strong scent of fire and brimstone filled Lana’s nostrils. Everything her eyes could see had been set ablaze. She watched helplessly from afar as a constricting tentacle squeezed all the air from her lungs. She spotted the visage of her home on Greatfish Isle turning into smoldering ash. She watched as her dear Mama and Papa and her friend Oshus were strung up on pikes, beaten and bloody, toted around by moblins.
“I told you. Everything belongs to me.”
Jasper’s sickeningly sweet voice tickled her ears and stopped her heart from beating. She felt like taking a breath would mark the end of her life. When at last she was forced to inhale, the dark and murky haze of her vision faded away, and was replaced with clear blue skies.
Lana’s pounding head rested on a rather uncomfortable straw pillow. A raggedy quilt was haphazardly tossed over her. Her back felt the stiffness of a ship’s boards. When she finally regained awareness of her surroundings, she sat up.
“Yeesh, that had to be the worst nightmare yet...”
With a sigh, Lana shook some remaining chills out of her body. The previous night’s events ran fresh in her mind. She and Emilia had succeeded in stealing back treasures from Jasper, the King of the Forsaken Pirates. They also managed to force him into abandoning the fortress and losing everything he’d built up.
And she knew he’d be back to bite for that.
- Come on, get a grip, girl. You have things to do. Worry about one thing at a time.
Lana had spent the night partying with Emilia’s crew, who were celebrating their decisive victory over their arch nemesis. They strung her along for a few dances, and they even managed to get her to drink a little. She had regretted it almost immediately. Even the next morning, she still felt bogged down, and her stomach was doing somersaults.
Even though Emilia had fiercely chastised her for hesitating to kill Jasper, she was cooperative enough to give her some supplies, including new clothes once again. Now, Lana was sporting a lovely cerulean tunic with silver trim under her deku leaf shawl. The sleeves were split open past the elbow line, and she wore steel braces over her arms. She continued to keep those waterproof boots, but she got some gray trousers from Emilia, as well.
She’d also kept the satchel she’d taken from Jasper’s treasure vault. It was tan in color, and easily fit over her shoulder and under her shawl. The intricate pattern on it was brown, and looking at it brought to mind the silhouette of a noble bird. She found it pleasing. Inside that bag were the iron boots and power bracelets she managed to recover, as well as some food supplies she had to argue with Emilia to acquire.
With her trusty estoc strapped to her waist, as well, she’d never felt more properly outfitted for a journey. This feeling of readiness even surpassed her initial departure from home. She felt quite good about that. Now if only she could manage to hold onto all this stuff for once.
Lana had spent the night on the deck of Emilia’s ship, and as she worked through her morning exercises, she glanced around. Renazo was hanging over the railing, snoring loudly with a mug hanging from his fingertips. Similarly, a handful of other crew members were strewn about, just as conked out as he was.
- Man, pirates really do live at their own pace, huh...
Thinking as much, Lana couldn’t hold back a grimace. Just as she finished up her routine, the door to the cabins below deck swung open. Emilia made her entrance, bright and alert as if she hadn’t spent all night drinking with her crew.
“Oh, you’re awake. Sleep ok?” she asked, walking over.
“Still a little queasy, but otherwise I’m fine.”
“Hah, you’re such a lightweight.”
“I’m also fifteen. I shouldn’t have had anything at all.” Lana frowned.
“Don’t be such a straight lace. Loosen up once in a while!” Emilia laughed, slapping Lana’s shoulder. “Anyway, you’re gonna leave now, right? To deliver those things you snatched back to whoever asked you to get them?”
“I am, yeah.”
“Alright, glad I caught you, then. You should take this with you.”
Emilia shoved something against Lana’s chest, waiting for her to cup her hands beneath it. When Lana did, she dropped a small blue stone tied to a bracelet string into them.
“Wait, isn’t this that thing you were trying to steal back?”
“A gossip stone, yeah. Part of a matching set. I have one, and now you have one.” she said. “To be clear, this is just a temporary loan. You are going to be giving this back to me at some point. Got it?”
Emilia’s glare told Lana that any answer other than yes would be foolish. Not like she’d make off with it anyway, of course. She nodded.
“Good. I might have mentioned this before, but these stones have the power to communicate across long distances. If you squeeze it in your hand and speak, I’ll be alerted and I’ll be able to hear your voice. You’ll also be able to get a vague vision of what I’m doing. Naturally, it works both ways.”
“Wow. That’s pretty amazing." She recalled the other magical artifacts she'd encountered, and figured these stones were similar. "So, you’re letting me borrow this because...?”
“Because that freak Jasper is hunting both of us. If necessary, we can call for backup or let each other know if we learn anything about him. Handy, right?”
“Yeah, that sounds extremely useful.” Lana agreed.
“Right? Once we finish him off, I’ll need you to give it back. But until then, keep it close, you hear? And seriously, don’t lose it. If you do, I’ll kill you.”
“Right...”
Lana sighed, and slipped the gossip stone snugly around her left wrist. With that, she was all ready to go, and she now had a solid connection to Emilia ever after they go their separate ways. She felt a bit strange about that. Especially after the way they’d met, they hadn’t been on the best of terms. Even now, despite Lana sensing some mutual respect between the two of them, there was still a wall in the way.
She thought maybe it was because she just couldn’t morally agree with the way she lived. As a pirate, Emilia let her whims dictate her actions and the way she treated others. Lana just couldn’t reconcile that. However, that wasn’t the only thing that bothered her.
Emilia had acted strangely when Lana questioned her about Windfall. It was because she and her crew were messing with Windfall Island that the Forsaken Pirates had the chance to steal the gossip stones in the first place. Lana couldn’t help but feel there was a deliberate reason behind her repeated raids of the island. She couldn’t really explain why she thought that.
- I don’t know if I’ll ever get along with Emilia, but I can’t leave things the way they are. I have to ask her.
“Before I go, I want to talk to you about Windfall.” Lana said.
Emilia’s expression hardened instantly. “Excuse me? What, are you gonna tell me to leave them alone or something?”
“No, you probably wouldn’t listen to me, anyway. I just wanna know what’s up with you and them. Something happened, right?”
“Why the hell do you care? Is that your business?” Emilia spat.
“Well, no... It’s just...” Lana began to falter.
“Just what, huh? What’s it even matter to you?”
“I don’t really know. I don’t know why I care. To be honest, I don’t like you all that much. But still... If there’s something bothering you, I can at least hear you out.”
Emilia looked genuinely surprised to hear that. Her face went through many different expressions in the span of a few moments. Wheels were spinning in her head, and Lana wasn’t sure if they’d stop at a good place or not. Still, she felt like she’d said what she needed to. The rest was up to the walled-off pirate captain.
“... Alright, fine. I’ll tell you. But only because you kind of already know the story.” she said.
Lana stared blankly at Emilia for a few moments. She almost couldn’t believe that she was going to talk. She honestly expected to part ways with the conversation ending there. She felt a little relieved, and at the same time, very apprehensive.
- I said I was going to listen, so I will. I want to know.
Emilia continued to speak. “So you know how the other day, you told me you heard a story about a castaway starving to death on Windfall? I, uh... I think that man might have actually been my dad.”
“... Wh-what? What?!”
Lana was completely dumbstruck. Of all the things she expected to hear, that was definitely not one of them. Her head hurt trying to process the meaning of this revelation.
“Yeah. I can’t be sure, of course. But when I was a little girl, my dad fell over the side of the ship during a storm. My mom, who was the captain back then, was certain that if he survived, the currents would have carried him to Windfall. But when we got there, we weren’t able to search because the townsfolk were too scared of us and they kept badgering us to leave. Mom had to take off without ever finding him.
“So since I became the captain, I’ve been, uh... ‘visiting’ Windfall every now and then. I can still kind of remember what he looked like, and I keep wondering if I’ll find him in the faces of the crowd. Not exactly hoping, mind you. Just wondering. I dunno what finding him would accomplish. But, you know... I’ve always kinda wanted to know what happened to him.”
“Wow... I don’t really know what to say...” Lana said.
“Hey, you better not be pitying me with that look. I don’t need sad eyes from you.”
“No, no, it’s not like that. I just... I’m sorry.”
Emilia looked uncomfortable. Lana felt the same way. She didn’t know what to do in this situation. Truly, what Emilia said did make sense. She seemed about Lenzo’s age, or maybe a bit younger, so when he was a child, she would have been a child, too. The time frames lined up. She could see how Emilia came to this conclusion.
If this were the case, that would certainly explain why Emilia continually messed with Windfall Island. It didn’t exactly justify her actions, of course, but then again, the people of Windfall were still guilty of letting a man starve, and now that man might turn out to have been Emilia’s own father. It was a difficult situation. There was no right answer that Lana could come up with, nor a right thing to say.
“So... I take it you’re gonna mess with Windfall Island even more now?” she dared to ask.
“... I dunno. I’ll have to think about it.” Emilia said blankly.
“After all, you do whatever you want, whenever you want, right?” Lana joked.
Emilia finally grinned again. “Heh. Damn right I do.”
The two girls faced each other, and after sharing a moment of silent reflection between themselves, they exchanged a smile and a firm handshake.
"Oh, so you're willing to shake my hand now, huh?" Emilia said wryly.
"Just this once. Don't get used to it." Lana replied.
“Hah. See you around, Lana. And, uh... Thanks.”
“Huh? I didn’t catch that last part.” Lana asked, confused.
“I said get your ass off my ship.” Emilia said, turning sharply around.
“Alright, alright. Goodbye, now.” Lana said, sighing.
With a lackadaisical wave, Lana marched across the deck of Emilia’s ship. With their backs to each other, the two very different seafarers continued on their very different but now intertwined journeys. Lana leapt onto the railing next to the still snoring Renazo, seeing the King of Red Lions awaiting her below in the waters. Without looking back, she leapt down and landed neatly on his deck.
“Welcome back, Lana. Allow me to offer my heartfelt thanks and congratulations.” he began. “You have exceeded my expectations once again. I’m very proud of you, and very grateful to you for helping me recover those artifacts.”
“You’re welcome. I’m glad I was able to help.” Lana said. “So, this is them, right?” she asked, pulling them out of her bag to confirm it with the boat.
“Yes, that’s them exactly. I’m relieved to see they aren’t damaged.”
“Good. Now what do we do with them?”
“We return them, of course. Let us be off now, while the wind is still fair. We must sail to the Mother and Child Isles to the southeast. That is where the Fairy Queen makes her home.”
“Gotcha. Let’s do it.”
Lana knew exactly where those isles were. They were extremely close to the Forsaken Fortress, so sailing there would be a snap. It was still early morning, and she expected they’d arrive by the afternoon.
Once again, the collapsible mast rose up from a compartment behind the King of Red Lions’ head. Lana removed her deku leaf, and willed it to attach itself to the mast. Just like before, little vines extended from the leaf’s spines and hooked themselves around the mast’s rings. They were all set to go.
Lana turned the steering gear so the deku leaf sail could catch the wind. They were off in just a few minutes. She peered back over her shoulder only once, but didn’t see a single person waving goodbye from Emilia’s ship. Most of the crew were still asleep, anyway, but she thought she might see Emilia one last time.
And so, Lana and Emilia went their separate ways once again. Perhaps the two were on better terms this time around. At least, Lana found herself hoping so. Nevertheless, she had only to deliver the iron boots and power bracelets back to the Fairy Queen, and her side of her deal with the King of Red Lions would be complete. She was looking forward to finally getting back on track.
Lana and the King of Red Lions arrived at their new destination exactly when they expected to. The sun was just barely at its highest point in the sky. The trip there was short and easy. There was no trouble to speak of, for once. Lana felt relieved about that.
The Mother and Child Isles were so named because there were two of them. The child isle was very small, just a little hill sticking out of the ocean. It sat in the shadow of the mother isle, which was an enormous mountain with no vegetation whatsoever. It was so rocky and unapproachable, and the smaller isle seemed to be huddled so close next to it, that they appeared to be a mother protecting her child. That was how Lana heard it, at least.
She stood up fully and stretched her restless limbs. She removed the deku leaf from the mast, making sure her bag was secure and that she had all of her gear ready to go. It was time to meet with the Fairy Queen. The King of Red Lions had said she lived here at the isles, but Lana didn’t see anything like a fairy in sight.
“So where exactly is the Fairy Queen?” Lana asked.
“She lives inside the mother isle.” The King of Red Lions answered.
“In there? Huh. How do I get in?”
“The only way in is a crater at the very top. The outside of the mountain is extremely rough and unstable. It’s almost impossible to climb. I have no idea how Jasper managed to do it. You should have no trouble flying in with your deku leaf.” he explained.
“Alright.” Lana said, rolling her shoulders. “Okay, so I just have to give these artifacts back to her, and then you’ll take me to an inhabited island so I can get back on track with my journey. That was our deal, remember?”
“Yes, I remember. And don’t worry, I have every intention of keeping my word. I’ve imposed on you too much already.”
There was a hint of apology in his words that didn’t go unnoticed by Lana. She could tell he did feel bad about asking her to do so many dangerous things. In truth, she wasn’t happy about having to do them, but she still didn’t feel like it had been a waste of time.
“Thanks to you asking me for help, I learned a lot of important things. Now I know why the Forsaken Pirates were after me, and now I have a chance to put a stop to it and protect my family. I’m certain I’ll run into Jasper again before I’m able to leave the Great Sea. And when I do... I’ll...”
Lana balled her hands into fists to stop them from trembling. She shut her eyes tightly for a few moments, trying to suppress the revulsion building up inside her. Her next words were difficult for her to get out, but she knew she had to speak them nonetheless.
“I’ll kill him. I have to. No one will be safe if I don’t. And it’s thanks to you that I was able to understand this and have the chance to do it.” she said, trying to force a smile.
The King of Red Lions studied Lana’s face for a few quiet moments. “You are quite a strong person, Lana. Still, I must properly apologize to you. A bright young lady like you doesn’t deserve to deal with all this pain and trouble.”
Lana’s lip quivered a bit when she heard that. “Thank you.” she said quickly.
She felt a welling in her throat as she turned around. She leapt from the King of Red Lions to the child isle with ease, and then faced up at the towering mountain that was the mother isle. She could see no way to scale the exterior, just as the mysterious boat had said. She felt a bit nervous, but she began stretching for the flight, anyway.
“Oh, before you go.” the King of Red Lions called out. “I should probably warn you. The Fairy Queen can be a bit... difficult. Whatever you do, don’t upset her. You’ll probably be fine since you’re very polite and courteous, but still. Tread carefully.”
Lana gulped upon hearing the boat’s warning. She was starting to wonder if she’d survive this meeting now. Still, she had to do it. She shook off a couple more nerves and finally took flight, clutching the edges of her deku leaf and beating the air to rise higher.
The wind rushed around Lana’s ears and through her hair and clothes as she ascended high into the sky. Flying was still a new feeling for her, but she found she really enjoyed the sensation of being airborne. She loved the wind, after all, and up in the air, she was completely enveloped by it. It felt very comforting for her, almost as comforting as being on the open sea.
After a few minutes of flapping her arms to gain altitude, she was beginning to see the crater that the King of Red Lions mentioned. It was almost a perfect circle, opening up the interior of the isle like the edges of a pot. It almost seemed like it had been intentionally formed that way. It was a little eerie.
Even more eerie was the fact that the inside of that crater was exceedingly dark, with the exception of a slight glow of green light coming from deep within. The sight of it gave her the shivers. It seemed almost as otherworldly as the ghost ship. Lana found herself gulping again, feeling more nervous than ever.
- It’ll be okay. I’ll be fine. I’m just delivering the artifacts and then I can leave. It’ll be easy. There’s nothing to be afraid of.
Recalling the King of Red Lions’ warning, Lana gritted her teeth and began her descent into the mountain, collapsing her arms bit by bit. She looked straight down, and watching her legs dangling over a pit of darkness like that continued to add to her anxieties. She had to keep reminding herself that she’d be fine the entire way down.
Once she had passed through the crater, the inside of the mountain became more visible. That verdant glow, to her surprise, was given off by large mushrooms circling around walls of the cavern. The cavern floor was completely green and covered by lush grass and tall shrubs. There were even a handful of trees, and vines entangled almost everything. It reminded her of the Forest Haven.
There was also a spring in the center of the cavern, and its waters were shimmering blue and clearer than anything she’d ever seen. It was extremely tranquil, and this helped Lana relax a bit. It certainly looked scary and uninviting from the outside, but once she got in there, it wasn’t so bad.
Lana gently touched down at the foot of the spring in the middle and gazed around. There didn’t seem to be any signs of life other than the vegetation. She wondered where the Fairy Queen could be hiding. Just as she was about to call out, she suddenly felt a prickly presence behind herself. It was very magical, similar to how the deku leaf and the artifacts made her feel.
She quickly turned around, and there, floating above the spring in the center, was what appeared to be a little girl. Or at least, that was Lana’s first impression. She had the shape of a child, but her body was pure white, from her clothes down to her hair, her skin, and even her eyes.
“Hee hee hee... It appears I have a visitor.” she spoke.
Her voice was playful and girlish, but it made Lana uneasy all the same. The entity in front of her was very ethereal. It was similar to being in the Deku Tree’s presence, but it seemed somehow darker than that. Her anxiety quickly returned.
“... G-greetings to you.” Lana shakily began. “My name is Lana. Would you be the Fairy Queen?”
“Why, what a polite child you are! Hee hee hee. Yes, I am the Fairy Queen. It appears you have need of me.” she said.
“I do. Do you know of the King of Red Lions? He asked me to recover the treasure that was stolen from you, and I have done so. I’ve brought it with me.”
“Yes, I can sense the artifacts in that satchel you wear. How curious...”
The Fairy Queen seemed to be scrutinizing Lana, though it was hard for her to tell. Her white eyes had no pupils, which only unnerved Lana further.
“You are not a hylian, it seems. You are not the Legendary Hero, either. How curious, indeed... The King of Red Lions is quite funny.” she continued.
“Hylian?” Lana asked, confused.
“Hylians are humans with long ears. Their blood has run quite dry these days, though I suppose it can’t be helped. I just find it funny that the King of Red Lions enlisted you, despite you being a nobody from a land far, far away from here. Funny indeed. Even more funny that you actually succeeded in spite of that.”
Humans with long ears. Lana recalled that Emilia had them, and so did Anna from Outset Island, but she didn’t think she’d met anyone else that had long ears. Hylian happened to be the name of the language spoken on the Great Sea. She hadn’t known the word hylian also referred to a type of person. She wondered if that was connected.
“Y-you can tell I’m not from around here?” Lana asked, setting the hylian stuff aside.
“Indeed. It’s very obvious, dear child. Nevertheless, I’m just rambling at this point. I haven’t had an interesting guest like you in a long time. Hee hee hee.” the Fairy Queen giggled.
“I see... Well, I’d hate to bother you any further, so if you don’t mind, I’d like to return the iron boots and power bracelets to you now.”
“My, you really are polite! But you are also quite silly. I won’t be needing those artifacts back.” she laughed.
“... Huh? You won’t?” Lana was very confused.
“What is the point in me holding onto them when they could just be stolen again? That’s not very smart, is it? No, I have a better idea. I know of the perfect places to hide them on the Great Sea. Discovering them will just have to be another trial for the Hero when he returns, I suppose. Hee hee hee.”
“... Hang on, I’m confused. What are you saying, exactly?” Lana asked.
“Come now, dear child. You can’t really be this slow. I’m saying you’re going to go hide these artifacts across the Great Sea for me!” the Fairy Queen said.
“Huh?! I’m gonna what?” Lana remarked. “Hang on, wait a minute. My deal with the King of Red Lions was just to return them to you. I have my own journey I need to get back to, and he’s going to-”
In a split second, the Fairy Queen’s face was inches from Lana’s own. She stopped breathing. She felt like speaking any further would endanger herself. The Fairy Queen’s expressionless eyes bored holes into Lana as they stared intently at her.
“Your deal with the King of Red Lions has nothing to do with this. I’m the one asking you. Don’t you know that? Don’t be so foolish, or I might just get a little angry.”
The childish demeanor had vanished from the Fairy Queen’s voice, turning Lana’s blood to ice. She could feel that there was no way to say no. The King of Red Lions’ warning echoed in her mind again, and it took Lana a great deal of effort to keep herself from falling apart. She could feel that refusing the Fairy Queen might just spell a fate worse than death. She had no choice. Her next course was now, once again, decided for her against her will.
Chapter Twenty
A Pirate’s Sorrow and a Fairy’s Malice
A Pirate’s Sorrow and a Fairy’s Malice
The strong scent of fire and brimstone filled Lana’s nostrils. Everything her eyes could see had been set ablaze. She watched helplessly from afar as a constricting tentacle squeezed all the air from her lungs. She spotted the visage of her home on Greatfish Isle turning into smoldering ash. She watched as her dear Mama and Papa and her friend Oshus were strung up on pikes, beaten and bloody, toted around by moblins.
“I told you. Everything belongs to me.”
Jasper’s sickeningly sweet voice tickled her ears and stopped her heart from beating. She felt like taking a breath would mark the end of her life. When at last she was forced to inhale, the dark and murky haze of her vision faded away, and was replaced with clear blue skies.
Lana’s pounding head rested on a rather uncomfortable straw pillow. A raggedy quilt was haphazardly tossed over her. Her back felt the stiffness of a ship’s boards. When she finally regained awareness of her surroundings, she sat up.
“Yeesh, that had to be the worst nightmare yet...”
With a sigh, Lana shook some remaining chills out of her body. The previous night’s events ran fresh in her mind. She and Emilia had succeeded in stealing back treasures from Jasper, the King of the Forsaken Pirates. They also managed to force him into abandoning the fortress and losing everything he’d built up.
And she knew he’d be back to bite for that.
- Come on, get a grip, girl. You have things to do. Worry about one thing at a time.
Lana had spent the night partying with Emilia’s crew, who were celebrating their decisive victory over their arch nemesis. They strung her along for a few dances, and they even managed to get her to drink a little. She had regretted it almost immediately. Even the next morning, she still felt bogged down, and her stomach was doing somersaults.
Even though Emilia had fiercely chastised her for hesitating to kill Jasper, she was cooperative enough to give her some supplies, including new clothes once again. Now, Lana was sporting a lovely cerulean tunic with silver trim under her deku leaf shawl. The sleeves were split open past the elbow line, and she wore steel braces over her arms. She continued to keep those waterproof boots, but she got some gray trousers from Emilia, as well.
She’d also kept the satchel she’d taken from Jasper’s treasure vault. It was tan in color, and easily fit over her shoulder and under her shawl. The intricate pattern on it was brown, and looking at it brought to mind the silhouette of a noble bird. She found it pleasing. Inside that bag were the iron boots and power bracelets she managed to recover, as well as some food supplies she had to argue with Emilia to acquire.
With her trusty estoc strapped to her waist, as well, she’d never felt more properly outfitted for a journey. This feeling of readiness even surpassed her initial departure from home. She felt quite good about that. Now if only she could manage to hold onto all this stuff for once.
Lana had spent the night on the deck of Emilia’s ship, and as she worked through her morning exercises, she glanced around. Renazo was hanging over the railing, snoring loudly with a mug hanging from his fingertips. Similarly, a handful of other crew members were strewn about, just as conked out as he was.
- Man, pirates really do live at their own pace, huh...
Thinking as much, Lana couldn’t hold back a grimace. Just as she finished up her routine, the door to the cabins below deck swung open. Emilia made her entrance, bright and alert as if she hadn’t spent all night drinking with her crew.
“Oh, you’re awake. Sleep ok?” she asked, walking over.
“Still a little queasy, but otherwise I’m fine.”
“Hah, you’re such a lightweight.”
“I’m also fifteen. I shouldn’t have had anything at all.” Lana frowned.
“Don’t be such a straight lace. Loosen up once in a while!” Emilia laughed, slapping Lana’s shoulder. “Anyway, you’re gonna leave now, right? To deliver those things you snatched back to whoever asked you to get them?”
“I am, yeah.”
“Alright, glad I caught you, then. You should take this with you.”
Emilia shoved something against Lana’s chest, waiting for her to cup her hands beneath it. When Lana did, she dropped a small blue stone tied to a bracelet string into them.
“Wait, isn’t this that thing you were trying to steal back?”
“A gossip stone, yeah. Part of a matching set. I have one, and now you have one.” she said. “To be clear, this is just a temporary loan. You are going to be giving this back to me at some point. Got it?”
Emilia’s glare told Lana that any answer other than yes would be foolish. Not like she’d make off with it anyway, of course. She nodded.
“Good. I might have mentioned this before, but these stones have the power to communicate across long distances. If you squeeze it in your hand and speak, I’ll be alerted and I’ll be able to hear your voice. You’ll also be able to get a vague vision of what I’m doing. Naturally, it works both ways.”
“Wow. That’s pretty amazing." She recalled the other magical artifacts she'd encountered, and figured these stones were similar. "So, you’re letting me borrow this because...?”
“Because that freak Jasper is hunting both of us. If necessary, we can call for backup or let each other know if we learn anything about him. Handy, right?”
“Yeah, that sounds extremely useful.” Lana agreed.
“Right? Once we finish him off, I’ll need you to give it back. But until then, keep it close, you hear? And seriously, don’t lose it. If you do, I’ll kill you.”
“Right...”
Lana sighed, and slipped the gossip stone snugly around her left wrist. With that, she was all ready to go, and she now had a solid connection to Emilia ever after they go their separate ways. She felt a bit strange about that. Especially after the way they’d met, they hadn’t been on the best of terms. Even now, despite Lana sensing some mutual respect between the two of them, there was still a wall in the way.
She thought maybe it was because she just couldn’t morally agree with the way she lived. As a pirate, Emilia let her whims dictate her actions and the way she treated others. Lana just couldn’t reconcile that. However, that wasn’t the only thing that bothered her.
Emilia had acted strangely when Lana questioned her about Windfall. It was because she and her crew were messing with Windfall Island that the Forsaken Pirates had the chance to steal the gossip stones in the first place. Lana couldn’t help but feel there was a deliberate reason behind her repeated raids of the island. She couldn’t really explain why she thought that.
- I don’t know if I’ll ever get along with Emilia, but I can’t leave things the way they are. I have to ask her.
“Before I go, I want to talk to you about Windfall.” Lana said.
Emilia’s expression hardened instantly. “Excuse me? What, are you gonna tell me to leave them alone or something?”
“No, you probably wouldn’t listen to me, anyway. I just wanna know what’s up with you and them. Something happened, right?”
“Why the hell do you care? Is that your business?” Emilia spat.
“Well, no... It’s just...” Lana began to falter.
“Just what, huh? What’s it even matter to you?”
“I don’t really know. I don’t know why I care. To be honest, I don’t like you all that much. But still... If there’s something bothering you, I can at least hear you out.”
Emilia looked genuinely surprised to hear that. Her face went through many different expressions in the span of a few moments. Wheels were spinning in her head, and Lana wasn’t sure if they’d stop at a good place or not. Still, she felt like she’d said what she needed to. The rest was up to the walled-off pirate captain.
“... Alright, fine. I’ll tell you. But only because you kind of already know the story.” she said.
Lana stared blankly at Emilia for a few moments. She almost couldn’t believe that she was going to talk. She honestly expected to part ways with the conversation ending there. She felt a little relieved, and at the same time, very apprehensive.
- I said I was going to listen, so I will. I want to know.
Emilia continued to speak. “So you know how the other day, you told me you heard a story about a castaway starving to death on Windfall? I, uh... I think that man might have actually been my dad.”
“... Wh-what? What?!”
Lana was completely dumbstruck. Of all the things she expected to hear, that was definitely not one of them. Her head hurt trying to process the meaning of this revelation.
“Yeah. I can’t be sure, of course. But when I was a little girl, my dad fell over the side of the ship during a storm. My mom, who was the captain back then, was certain that if he survived, the currents would have carried him to Windfall. But when we got there, we weren’t able to search because the townsfolk were too scared of us and they kept badgering us to leave. Mom had to take off without ever finding him.
“So since I became the captain, I’ve been, uh... ‘visiting’ Windfall every now and then. I can still kind of remember what he looked like, and I keep wondering if I’ll find him in the faces of the crowd. Not exactly hoping, mind you. Just wondering. I dunno what finding him would accomplish. But, you know... I’ve always kinda wanted to know what happened to him.”
“Wow... I don’t really know what to say...” Lana said.
“Hey, you better not be pitying me with that look. I don’t need sad eyes from you.”
“No, no, it’s not like that. I just... I’m sorry.”
Emilia looked uncomfortable. Lana felt the same way. She didn’t know what to do in this situation. Truly, what Emilia said did make sense. She seemed about Lenzo’s age, or maybe a bit younger, so when he was a child, she would have been a child, too. The time frames lined up. She could see how Emilia came to this conclusion.
If this were the case, that would certainly explain why Emilia continually messed with Windfall Island. It didn’t exactly justify her actions, of course, but then again, the people of Windfall were still guilty of letting a man starve, and now that man might turn out to have been Emilia’s own father. It was a difficult situation. There was no right answer that Lana could come up with, nor a right thing to say.
“So... I take it you’re gonna mess with Windfall Island even more now?” she dared to ask.
“... I dunno. I’ll have to think about it.” Emilia said blankly.
“After all, you do whatever you want, whenever you want, right?” Lana joked.
Emilia finally grinned again. “Heh. Damn right I do.”
The two girls faced each other, and after sharing a moment of silent reflection between themselves, they exchanged a smile and a firm handshake.
"Oh, so you're willing to shake my hand now, huh?" Emilia said wryly.
"Just this once. Don't get used to it." Lana replied.
“Hah. See you around, Lana. And, uh... Thanks.”
“Huh? I didn’t catch that last part.” Lana asked, confused.
“I said get your ass off my ship.” Emilia said, turning sharply around.
“Alright, alright. Goodbye, now.” Lana said, sighing.
With a lackadaisical wave, Lana marched across the deck of Emilia’s ship. With their backs to each other, the two very different seafarers continued on their very different but now intertwined journeys. Lana leapt onto the railing next to the still snoring Renazo, seeing the King of Red Lions awaiting her below in the waters. Without looking back, she leapt down and landed neatly on his deck.
“Welcome back, Lana. Allow me to offer my heartfelt thanks and congratulations.” he began. “You have exceeded my expectations once again. I’m very proud of you, and very grateful to you for helping me recover those artifacts.”
“You’re welcome. I’m glad I was able to help.” Lana said. “So, this is them, right?” she asked, pulling them out of her bag to confirm it with the boat.
“Yes, that’s them exactly. I’m relieved to see they aren’t damaged.”
“Good. Now what do we do with them?”
“We return them, of course. Let us be off now, while the wind is still fair. We must sail to the Mother and Child Isles to the southeast. That is where the Fairy Queen makes her home.”
“Gotcha. Let’s do it.”
Lana knew exactly where those isles were. They were extremely close to the Forsaken Fortress, so sailing there would be a snap. It was still early morning, and she expected they’d arrive by the afternoon.
Once again, the collapsible mast rose up from a compartment behind the King of Red Lions’ head. Lana removed her deku leaf, and willed it to attach itself to the mast. Just like before, little vines extended from the leaf’s spines and hooked themselves around the mast’s rings. They were all set to go.
Lana turned the steering gear so the deku leaf sail could catch the wind. They were off in just a few minutes. She peered back over her shoulder only once, but didn’t see a single person waving goodbye from Emilia’s ship. Most of the crew were still asleep, anyway, but she thought she might see Emilia one last time.
And so, Lana and Emilia went their separate ways once again. Perhaps the two were on better terms this time around. At least, Lana found herself hoping so. Nevertheless, she had only to deliver the iron boots and power bracelets back to the Fairy Queen, and her side of her deal with the King of Red Lions would be complete. She was looking forward to finally getting back on track.
* * *
Lana and the King of Red Lions arrived at their new destination exactly when they expected to. The sun was just barely at its highest point in the sky. The trip there was short and easy. There was no trouble to speak of, for once. Lana felt relieved about that.
The Mother and Child Isles were so named because there were two of them. The child isle was very small, just a little hill sticking out of the ocean. It sat in the shadow of the mother isle, which was an enormous mountain with no vegetation whatsoever. It was so rocky and unapproachable, and the smaller isle seemed to be huddled so close next to it, that they appeared to be a mother protecting her child. That was how Lana heard it, at least.
She stood up fully and stretched her restless limbs. She removed the deku leaf from the mast, making sure her bag was secure and that she had all of her gear ready to go. It was time to meet with the Fairy Queen. The King of Red Lions had said she lived here at the isles, but Lana didn’t see anything like a fairy in sight.
“So where exactly is the Fairy Queen?” Lana asked.
“She lives inside the mother isle.” The King of Red Lions answered.
“In there? Huh. How do I get in?”
“The only way in is a crater at the very top. The outside of the mountain is extremely rough and unstable. It’s almost impossible to climb. I have no idea how Jasper managed to do it. You should have no trouble flying in with your deku leaf.” he explained.
“Alright.” Lana said, rolling her shoulders. “Okay, so I just have to give these artifacts back to her, and then you’ll take me to an inhabited island so I can get back on track with my journey. That was our deal, remember?”
“Yes, I remember. And don’t worry, I have every intention of keeping my word. I’ve imposed on you too much already.”
There was a hint of apology in his words that didn’t go unnoticed by Lana. She could tell he did feel bad about asking her to do so many dangerous things. In truth, she wasn’t happy about having to do them, but she still didn’t feel like it had been a waste of time.
“Thanks to you asking me for help, I learned a lot of important things. Now I know why the Forsaken Pirates were after me, and now I have a chance to put a stop to it and protect my family. I’m certain I’ll run into Jasper again before I’m able to leave the Great Sea. And when I do... I’ll...”
Lana balled her hands into fists to stop them from trembling. She shut her eyes tightly for a few moments, trying to suppress the revulsion building up inside her. Her next words were difficult for her to get out, but she knew she had to speak them nonetheless.
“I’ll kill him. I have to. No one will be safe if I don’t. And it’s thanks to you that I was able to understand this and have the chance to do it.” she said, trying to force a smile.
The King of Red Lions studied Lana’s face for a few quiet moments. “You are quite a strong person, Lana. Still, I must properly apologize to you. A bright young lady like you doesn’t deserve to deal with all this pain and trouble.”
Lana’s lip quivered a bit when she heard that. “Thank you.” she said quickly.
She felt a welling in her throat as she turned around. She leapt from the King of Red Lions to the child isle with ease, and then faced up at the towering mountain that was the mother isle. She could see no way to scale the exterior, just as the mysterious boat had said. She felt a bit nervous, but she began stretching for the flight, anyway.
“Oh, before you go.” the King of Red Lions called out. “I should probably warn you. The Fairy Queen can be a bit... difficult. Whatever you do, don’t upset her. You’ll probably be fine since you’re very polite and courteous, but still. Tread carefully.”
Lana gulped upon hearing the boat’s warning. She was starting to wonder if she’d survive this meeting now. Still, she had to do it. She shook off a couple more nerves and finally took flight, clutching the edges of her deku leaf and beating the air to rise higher.
The wind rushed around Lana’s ears and through her hair and clothes as she ascended high into the sky. Flying was still a new feeling for her, but she found she really enjoyed the sensation of being airborne. She loved the wind, after all, and up in the air, she was completely enveloped by it. It felt very comforting for her, almost as comforting as being on the open sea.
After a few minutes of flapping her arms to gain altitude, she was beginning to see the crater that the King of Red Lions mentioned. It was almost a perfect circle, opening up the interior of the isle like the edges of a pot. It almost seemed like it had been intentionally formed that way. It was a little eerie.
Even more eerie was the fact that the inside of that crater was exceedingly dark, with the exception of a slight glow of green light coming from deep within. The sight of it gave her the shivers. It seemed almost as otherworldly as the ghost ship. Lana found herself gulping again, feeling more nervous than ever.
- It’ll be okay. I’ll be fine. I’m just delivering the artifacts and then I can leave. It’ll be easy. There’s nothing to be afraid of.
Recalling the King of Red Lions’ warning, Lana gritted her teeth and began her descent into the mountain, collapsing her arms bit by bit. She looked straight down, and watching her legs dangling over a pit of darkness like that continued to add to her anxieties. She had to keep reminding herself that she’d be fine the entire way down.
Once she had passed through the crater, the inside of the mountain became more visible. That verdant glow, to her surprise, was given off by large mushrooms circling around walls of the cavern. The cavern floor was completely green and covered by lush grass and tall shrubs. There were even a handful of trees, and vines entangled almost everything. It reminded her of the Forest Haven.
There was also a spring in the center of the cavern, and its waters were shimmering blue and clearer than anything she’d ever seen. It was extremely tranquil, and this helped Lana relax a bit. It certainly looked scary and uninviting from the outside, but once she got in there, it wasn’t so bad.
Lana gently touched down at the foot of the spring in the middle and gazed around. There didn’t seem to be any signs of life other than the vegetation. She wondered where the Fairy Queen could be hiding. Just as she was about to call out, she suddenly felt a prickly presence behind herself. It was very magical, similar to how the deku leaf and the artifacts made her feel.
She quickly turned around, and there, floating above the spring in the center, was what appeared to be a little girl. Or at least, that was Lana’s first impression. She had the shape of a child, but her body was pure white, from her clothes down to her hair, her skin, and even her eyes.
“Hee hee hee... It appears I have a visitor.” she spoke.
Her voice was playful and girlish, but it made Lana uneasy all the same. The entity in front of her was very ethereal. It was similar to being in the Deku Tree’s presence, but it seemed somehow darker than that. Her anxiety quickly returned.
“... G-greetings to you.” Lana shakily began. “My name is Lana. Would you be the Fairy Queen?”
“Why, what a polite child you are! Hee hee hee. Yes, I am the Fairy Queen. It appears you have need of me.” she said.
“I do. Do you know of the King of Red Lions? He asked me to recover the treasure that was stolen from you, and I have done so. I’ve brought it with me.”
“Yes, I can sense the artifacts in that satchel you wear. How curious...”
The Fairy Queen seemed to be scrutinizing Lana, though it was hard for her to tell. Her white eyes had no pupils, which only unnerved Lana further.
“You are not a hylian, it seems. You are not the Legendary Hero, either. How curious, indeed... The King of Red Lions is quite funny.” she continued.
“Hylian?” Lana asked, confused.
“Hylians are humans with long ears. Their blood has run quite dry these days, though I suppose it can’t be helped. I just find it funny that the King of Red Lions enlisted you, despite you being a nobody from a land far, far away from here. Funny indeed. Even more funny that you actually succeeded in spite of that.”
Humans with long ears. Lana recalled that Emilia had them, and so did Anna from Outset Island, but she didn’t think she’d met anyone else that had long ears. Hylian happened to be the name of the language spoken on the Great Sea. She hadn’t known the word hylian also referred to a type of person. She wondered if that was connected.
“Y-you can tell I’m not from around here?” Lana asked, setting the hylian stuff aside.
“Indeed. It’s very obvious, dear child. Nevertheless, I’m just rambling at this point. I haven’t had an interesting guest like you in a long time. Hee hee hee.” the Fairy Queen giggled.
“I see... Well, I’d hate to bother you any further, so if you don’t mind, I’d like to return the iron boots and power bracelets to you now.”
“My, you really are polite! But you are also quite silly. I won’t be needing those artifacts back.” she laughed.
“... Huh? You won’t?” Lana was very confused.
“What is the point in me holding onto them when they could just be stolen again? That’s not very smart, is it? No, I have a better idea. I know of the perfect places to hide them on the Great Sea. Discovering them will just have to be another trial for the Hero when he returns, I suppose. Hee hee hee.”
“... Hang on, I’m confused. What are you saying, exactly?” Lana asked.
“Come now, dear child. You can’t really be this slow. I’m saying you’re going to go hide these artifacts across the Great Sea for me!” the Fairy Queen said.
“Huh?! I’m gonna what?” Lana remarked. “Hang on, wait a minute. My deal with the King of Red Lions was just to return them to you. I have my own journey I need to get back to, and he’s going to-”
In a split second, the Fairy Queen’s face was inches from Lana’s own. She stopped breathing. She felt like speaking any further would endanger herself. The Fairy Queen’s expressionless eyes bored holes into Lana as they stared intently at her.
“Your deal with the King of Red Lions has nothing to do with this. I’m the one asking you. Don’t you know that? Don’t be so foolish, or I might just get a little angry.”
The childish demeanor had vanished from the Fairy Queen’s voice, turning Lana’s blood to ice. She could feel that there was no way to say no. The King of Red Lions’ warning echoed in her mind again, and it took Lana a great deal of effort to keep herself from falling apart. She could feel that refusing the Fairy Queen might just spell a fate worse than death. She had no choice. Her next course was now, once again, decided for her against her will.