brave_kreyu | OOM All Skate Skellig Dream Magic Weirdness -Part Nine

"That was my thought," he says (in regards to the 'convenience' of the one holding the debt). "I just did not know where it was, and if it would be feasible to travel that distance while we are tasked with guarding the Lair."

It eases his mind just a little to know that at least one soul from aboard this ship will be spared (not counting the captives), and will make their upcoming task somewhat less painful.

He considers something else. "Would we take him with us? Or how would that work?" He knows they can fly...

"He should be able to seek the hospitality of those in the nearby village the same as the others we free. I don't know that we could take him with us, as I would need to use my dragon shape."

She tilts her head. "I MIGHT be able to contact someone who could go with him, keep him safe as they make the trip to his home."

"He is most concerned for the safety of his sister," he says. "She is being held in the case that he were to abandon his debt and simply try to run. He fears harm would come to her. Though I do not know of how news of this..."

Skellig motions at the ship.

"Would beat us to Mycenae, if we were to make haste." He rubs gently at his temple, sighs. "I'm sorry," he whispers. "I know this complicates things even greater, I just...I could not help it." And he sounds truly sorry, perhaps even a little...guilty?

Kreyu gently preens the feathers of his wings with her beak "No need to be sorry, my love," she tells him. "I would feel terrible for having killed someone trapped here by circumstances. And even those less innocent deserve a chance to change."

"A way will be found, there are many means we might yet use."

Nodding, he glances at his wing where she is preening, then reaches up and gently touches the side of her beak with his fingertips - he wants to make sure that the burns are still gone, not that he thinks they might have reappeared, but that fire was...odd. Unnatural, in some senses, even though it was not magic.

"Would it make sense to have one of us fly ahead to scout the dock? Or shall we just see what it looks like when we arrive?"

She is still well, but she leans her head into his hand, wanting the contact.

"I think we should wait and see, just in case."

"The thought of one of us being lost because we were not together chills my very bones."

As they get closer, Skellig will see that the dock is mostly intact, though it clearly has had the worst of a few storms! A stone house, empty, sits well back from the dock. The ivy hides its actual state of disrepair, which might be useful for their purposes.

Those on board the ship are busying themselves with preparations for arrival, now that the eventual landing point for their ship has been identified; Skellig takes a moment to point out landmarks that they should be aiming for. What seems 'familiar' to him is simply due to his enhanced vision giving him the opportunity to see what details they cannot make out so clearly until they get closer.

After their course is confirmed, he returns to Kreyu's side.

"The energy of the Captain is still unsettled," he mutters, voice low. "I do not think he will grow hostile until realization sets in, but we should not...linger with our plan."

(Speaking of which...what exactly is the plan?)

"Best to have them get our purchase on land as fast as possible," she tells him. "You can always blame me, insisting I want to have a look at them on proper ground, make sure they can move well."

"A wise angle to play."

And as the ship nears the dock and final preparations are made for tying up, Skellig shakes off any lingering nerves and puts back on the 'persona' of 'filthy rich, more than slightly eccentric' as he moves from Kreyu's side.

"If these slaves are to be worked in the fields we intend to sow upon, my wife insists on seeing them move upon solid ground. We will find other uses for those who might be less adept to farm work; we will require attendants in the gardens, perhaps even a few might be suitable for work in the house itself."

From his tone, he's highly suggesting that the Captain not argue with him...

The Captain isn't thrilled, Skellig can tell, but he doesn't dare protest the demands of Skellig's wife.

He barks orders at the young man they are planning on helping to go and fetch the slaves, most convenient!

Kreyu shakes out her feathers, motions for Skellig to join her as the ship ties up to the dock.

It feels good to be standing on solid ground again.

It takes him a few steps to get his 'land legs' back beneath him but he adjusts fairly quickly, watches at the young man goes beneath the deck to gather up the slaves.

"They are nervous," Skellig says, folding his arms across his chest and puffing up his feathers, doing his best to look 'fearsome' without coming across as overly threatening (that is not the look he intends for the slaves, though he knows he needs to play the part) at the same time. "Below the decks."

A glance at the crew still on board. "Some of them are also worried, but more about their gold, based on the looks of this dock," he snorts, smirking a little.

"Hopefully, those below won't have reason to be nervous long."

The slaves are plainly TERRIFIED at the sight of Kreyu, but they are herded onto land whether they want to go or not!

Kreyu's heart hurts at their fear, their distress. She's trying to subtly adjust her position to put herself between these poor people and the sailors.

Taking more of a 'lead', Skellig also works to partition off the captives as they reach the end of the dock and step onto solid ground, directing them to line up and stand in some form of order - so that Kreyu, who is behind him at this point, can see them from where she remains perched, her talons gripping the wood planks.

"My love," he calls back over his shoulder, as he points. "Which of these men would you like to see move about? We will need several strong enough to break the soil, and I would dare say fell some of these trees, work to build our barns?"

He motions for the women and the few children to stand further back, nodding at the young sailor to have them stand off to the side, out of the way of the men. Their time for examination will come. And then he steps closer to the men, flaring his wings slightly. (In reality, he is protecting them, should anything come flying this direction...)

She is glad that he is taking the lead, here. "Might as well see all of them, love."

The sailors are starting to relax a little, less tense. Kreyu eyes the open space, sees a large rock outcropping that will come in handy in a moment.

She scratches a sign on the deck, a calling, sends energy into it. Skellig might feel the shift in energy, but it will be a minute or two before anything is visible to the eye.

The water around the boat starts to take on shapes vaguely like horses with fish tails as the hippocampi start to congregate around the boat.

The shift in the energy is noted, and Skellig also notices the...is that the water, changing shapes? He manages to keep his glances nonchalant, as he motions for each of the men to step forward in order, bend their knees, flex their arms.

"This one here is missing a finger," he points out idly, before making eye contact with the man, who clearly has seen his share of laboring. "It would not effect your ability to work a plow, though. You may speak."

"No, it would not," he man says quickly, with a firm shake of his head. "I am fully able to work."

"Good," Skellig nods, then calls back to Kreyu. "He would be fine. Next, come here..." as he works his way down the line.

Most of the sailors have gone ashore at their Captain's orders, which makes this easier. Once enough Hippocampi have gathered, Kreyu soars skyward, shrieks a word of command.

The ship SURGES up into the air, born aloft on a column of water to land near the rock outcrop. The wood groans, the ship leans, and it thunks against the stone, mostly upright.

Kreyu lands again on solid ground, but she conjures a tiny ball of fire in front of her beak. "I believe it is time we renegotiate terms, Captain."

The slaves all cower in fear - the women shriek in terror, some grabbing the children protectively as they cry out in fright; a few men break from their positions in the line and go to shelter the women instinctly.

Even Skellig yells in surprise, as he was not expecting that to happen, wings flaring rapidly as he moves away from the sudden upthrust of seawater and an entire ship before it comes to rest upon the rocks.

His heartbeat is now racing, and the expression on his face has to be briefly priceless, before he works to bring it under control. A few of the sailors who have the forethought to protect the captain draw small knives, but not all of them do so.

"Your trade in human lives is an abomination, but I am going to offer you a chance to make better choices," Kreyu tells them.

"These people will be free, and all of you will swear to never again engage in such work. Or you can die here, if you would prefer."

The Captain snarls, goes for the sword at his hip. Some of the others make similar moves, but most don't seem terribly keen to fight.

Under his breath, but loud enough that the captives at his back (and the young sailor who has also moved on instinct with the rest of the men to stand in a sort of half-circle in front of the women and children, protecting them from harm) can hear him, he mutters: "Stand steady and no harm will come to you."

There are another few sailors that are between Skellig and Kreyu (and the Captain) that are a bit conflicted, as their 'honor' would tell them to draw their swords, fight against these beasts, protect the cargo from thievery!

But at the same time...they do not wish to die here, upon this rocky shoreline.

Skellig flexes his hand (feeling for his talons, hidden as they are yet still ready if needed) and his wings, carefully observing the body language of all of the men. He will strike if needed, step in if she seems to struggle...but he suspects she may be able to handle herself.

The Captain snarls and points his blade at her. "I'm going to mount your HEAD on the bow of my ship you feathered whore! Then I'm going to put that beast fucker in chains and sell him with the rest of the cargo."

He's trying to make her so angry that she acts without tactics, leaves an opening that he can exploit. It works, in a manner of speaking. The sound that comes out of Kreyu's throat is a roar of monstrous rage and her form BLURS as she lunges forward into an amalgam of her eagle and draconic forms. Scales, feathers, teeth, talons, wings, smoke and gold intermingled as she tries to tear the Captain asunder.

Only two of the other sailors are brave enough to try and attack the creature ripping their Captain apart and they don't seem to be having much of an effect.

His initial instinct is to lunge forward and do the same thing to the Captain that Kreyu is currently in the midst of - tear him limb from limb, shred his skin from his muscles, pull muscle from bone, reduce him into a finely ground pile of viscera on the shoreline for the birds to pick at later. But she is doing a very fine job of that herself, and he also knows that while she would not harm him intentionally, there might be a chance off-hand that her attacks could go astray and land on him by mistake.

So instead, he launches himself off of his feet and dives at one of the two who have chosen to attempt to attack Kreyu; he hits the first one square in the side of the ribcage (a half-second too late to completely block the strike of his club against Kreyu's shoulder, a glancing blow that causes her to growl in frustration - or perhaps that is just another sound she is making as she works on the Captain) and drives his talons between the ribs, reaching to pierce lungs, arteries, heart, anything he can hit during this tackle as they land on the dirt.

Edited 2024-08-23 23:20 (UTC)

Kreyu is too preoccupied finishing off the Captain to notice the blow much, she finally stops tearing at the body, casts her gaze on the fighter on her right who hastily backs away.

Skellig's talons dig deep, he could rip the man's heart out if he was inclined to! (Though that would be excessive and spectacularly messy.)

Briefly, a flash of Dark energy surges up within his chest and he is oh so tempted to make a bloody spectacle of this sailor, a messy statement that leaves absolutely no doubt as to his level of seriousness - but just as suddenly as it courses through his body, it is replaced with something else. An opposing surge, Light and mercy and everything that he KNOWS he stands for.

So rather than ripping out the sailor's heart, he simply severs the organ in two, followed by the spinal cord (no pain is felt, death is instant) as he draws his talons back, eases the man's body to the ground beneath him.

(He does not simply drop him to the dirt.)

With one hand (not the one that was just buried in the chest) he reaches up and closes the sailor's eyes; he is listening to Kreyu with his ears, doesn't need to turn to look at her to see that she is fine.

Mercy, after the first Dark flush of rage is passed. Yes, there should be mercy, even for these.

"Retrieve your personal belongings from the ship, then get you gone," she tells them. "Make better choices, for we did not HAVE to show you mercy today."

Some sailors do not even bother trying to retrieve their belongings, they simply run down the dirt road toward the village. The rest move hastily toward the ship, keen to get their things and get OUT of here as quickly as possible.

"I didn't give you my name," the young man says into silence. "Xenophon. I am, I am Xenophon."

"Xenophon," Skellig bows his head (not out of reverence, simply in greeting) but does not introduce himself - not yet. "Well met."

(He will let Kreyu introduce herself first, if they are to do so - he isn't completely sure if that is the best idea in this instance or situation.)

"I spoke to my wife of your plight, and that of your sister. We think we may have an idea of sorts, to settle your situation...we would discuss it with you. Do you have things to gather, from the ship? Supplies, for those who were captive?"

(The slaves are all still huddled in a group, terrified of everything that is going on right now. These are the...people...that have paid for them? Stolen them? What is their status, other than to obey those with wings?)

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