Once Upon a Time

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5

Prologue

PROLOGUE

Drinking.

My favourite thing to do to past the time when I’m not out killing or whatever my client wants me to do. However, getting myself drunk was hard when you have nanites lingering in your bloodstream. Those microbotic robots clean my circulatory system on any unwanted toxins that litters around my body, making me immune to diseases, making me ageless... immortal. It was one of the perks I had when the humans created me before they went extinct. They were killed off by a powerful alien race called the ”Shreas”. Some of the lucky humans were converted into one of their own but the remaining ones were killed off...

I felt my grip on my mug tightened as I thought of this. They were peaceful at first when their ship landed in Antarctica. The leaders around the world welcomed them, others didn’t. As soon as they welcomed them, they quickly turned against them. It turns out the one that landed were just scouts, waiting for reinforcements to arrive once they saw the state of our planet. .

They deemed the humans savages, inconsiderate of nature, unworthy of the gifts and resources our ‘Mother Earth’ provides and calling themselves the ‘Perfect race’. I was lucky I managed to survive the ordeal by being rescued by an ‘angel’. It pains me to recall those painful memories, especially some memories about the so called ‘angel’. The memories I'm glad I have forgotten.

I had just finished my fifth glass of beer... and I’m still sober. Fuck my life. I had finally managed to snatch a few thousand credits from my client by killing his long-time business rival. It may seem like I only kill for money, but I don't. I found out that the guy was kidnapping children and turning them into slaves. Well, who knew.

Suddenly, the door opened, and a tall four-legged creature entered. It was wearing a long black cloak covering it from top to bottom, and it appears to be floating in thin air. Nobody in the bar seemed to notice the creature because they were busy watching an ogre and a troll having a drinking contest, or they chose to ignore it.

Either way I didn't give a damn.

I was about to ask the bartender for another glass of the bittersweet drink when the mysterious figure approached my table and sat down just in front of me. I tried to catch a glimpse of its face but it was blocked by the shadow of its hood. “Can I help you?” I asked, slightly annoyed because I wasn’t in a mood for a conversation.

“It’s good to see again, Mikee.” The creature spoke in a calm, soothing voice. It kind of sound familiar, then it hit me. It called me by my pet name only my close friends would know.

“Astra, Is that you?” I asked, quite surprised. ”What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in Equis?"

She giggled. “Oh, come on Mikee. We haven’t seen each other for decades and that’s the first thing you’re gonna say to me?” She pouted, which was considerably hard to see because of her hood.

I rolled my eyes. "You’re the Spirit of harmony or whatever the hell you called yourself. You have to be in Equis and maintain harmony and whatnot. Not hangout with a psycho mercenary like me. By the way, you haven't answered my question."

She sighed. “Okay, you got me I wanna hang out.” she grunted. “We haven’t seen each other for quite a long time," she moved closer to me. "And I want to talk to you about something important” she whispered the last part.

I looked around to find some of patrons leaning to our side and eavesdropping on our conversation. I stood up, Astra following suit. “Come on, let’s talk somewhere else private” I told her, she nodded.

When we got to the door, I opened it, letting her go first while I followed suit. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the same group behind us stand up. Okay, I know where this is going.

After we got out of the tavern and out to the streets, Astra pulled the hood of her cloak, revealing her face. She had a translucent turquoise coat and a darker mane billowing in a non-existent breeze. Her form resembles an equine and she was hovering, her feet...er hooves not meeting the ground..

“So,” Astra started, looking at me “Where are we going?” she asked. I paid no attention her question and started walking to my house. She followed suit, a bit annoyed I was ignoring her.

I had a feeling that group wanted something from us. My assumption was proven right when I heard the door of the bar creaked open and they step out.

While we were walking, or hovering on her account. I noticed she was panting and had a difficulty keeping up with my steps. I became bothered at this and looked her over, then I saw a wound. She had quite a deep gash on her running on lower neck down to her cloak. Astra must have notice I was eyeing her wound so she immediately pulled her cloak up, concealing it then looking away from me.

I was about to question it but then I saw an alley right ahead of us. Straining my ears, I heard several faint footsteps emanating behind us, presumably from the group following us. Right before we pass the alley, I quickly jerk Astra’s cloak to her left to signal her that we were going that way. She immediately complied, finally realizing that we're being followed.

As we entered the narrow walkway I looked around trying to find a way to lose our stalkers. Just ahead, the path on the alley splits into two, on the right heads to the center of town while the other heads to the marketplace. Of course, I'm really just guessing at this point.

I looked back to Astra to see she was in a great deal pain she slowly hovered behind me. It was obvious she can’t keep up with this game much longer. I scrapped my plan for us to run and lose them in the busy market and began on another, looking around for a place for Astra to hide while I take care of our stalkers.

Looking up I saw an open window on the second level of the apartment it was too high for me to reach, but I know Astra could just simply fly over there. I hesitantly go forward of my plan thinking someone might be inside, but since the lights are off they're probably out.

I turned to her and said. “Astra, I need you fly over there and hide.” I pointed at the window

“But, what about you? Where are you going to hide?” she asked me in a concerned tone.

“I’ll be fine, no need to worry about me.”

She narrowed her eyes, not trusting my plan. “No!” she screamed. “I won’t leave you here to fight alone, we can take those guys.”

I shook my head. “No, we can’t you’re too injured and those guys are mercenaries, they are trained to kill.”

“But—.“she was about to protest but I immediately cut her off as I heard the sound of their footsteps.

“Go! I can handle this, I probably won’t even fight them if my plan works. Just stay here, and I’ll be right back here to get you.” That seemed to calm her down a bit, but she still visibly distressed over me leaving to fend them off myself. To be honest my plan was just to run around and hope to lose them.

She hesitantly nodded and flew towards the window shaking like a leaf. I could tell from the look of her face that she was straining, and having difficulty flying. Whatever her injuries were, it might be worse than I thought. Better make this quick.

After Astra disappeared through the window I immediately jog over to the marketplace. I glanced over my back and saw the bastards that were stalking us. There were three of them, two dumb looking ogres, and a goblin with a chesire smile. The ogres were carrying some sort of a war hammer while the goblin had a bowie knife. Their eyes were locked on me and only me.

I pushed through the crowd hoping to lose them in the sea of restless shoppers. I heard the goblin yell behind me, probably at the ogres ordering them to catch me. My guess that he is probably the leader of the group. Ogres weren’t the smartest of the bunch, but they'll certainly follow orders without hesitation when money is involved, and most of the goblins around this area are rich.

Moving left and right, cautiously avoiding bumping into someone, yet fast enough to shake them off, I glanced to my back to see that the ogres were having trouble chasing me to due their large frame, while the goblin swiftly eased on the crowd like a fish, due to his small stature.

The goblin chasing me was wearing an incredibly disturbing manic grin in his face, like he was chasing his own dinner and gutting it alive. I grimaced and started running faster.

After a few moments of running, I came to a quick conclusion that losing him is practically impossible, he was too quick and clever to shake him off without having to fight him.

I sighed and look for another option. In the corner of my vision, I found another alley at the corner of the marketplace. I took a deep breath and ran towards it. I clutched my dagger hidden under my robe and leaned in at the side of the alley, right near the entrance hoping to catch the goblin by surprise, grab his neck and stab him to death before slitting his throat to make sure. Easy right?

Well, that’s not the case here. After I grab hold his neck, I immediately got slit at the forearm. I cried in pain and threw him off further in the alley. Looking at my wound I saw two deep cuts and was bleeding profusely. Damn. Bastard is crazy fast.

I glared at the goblin. “What do you want?” I growled.

He was still sporting the manic look at his face. “I just want something you have.” he chuckled before continuing. “Where is you friend, Michorean?” he asked me, awkwadly tilting his head. His voice was groggy but mixed with a cheerful tone. He knew me even though we haven’t met, either my reputation here precedes me or this bastard had been stalking me.

I took a stance. “Somewhere you don’t know.” I answered sarcastically.

The goblin's eye twitched. “Come on laddie, I just wants to meet friend, maybe befriends hers. We goblins are friendly creatures you knows, especially if it benefits ours business.” He said grinning

“And I also know, they are greedy assholes who are obsessed in getting money.”

His smile faltered and his manic grin turned into an angry snarl. He stepped forward, making me grip my dagger harder. He didn’t seemed to noticed it as he was glaring daggers at me. “I know friend is a spirit Mic—“ I didn’t let him finish. I knew some goblins captures spirits, believing that once you manage capture one and store them, they’ll have good fortune on their business, making them wealthy.

I quickly threw my dagger at him while he was speaking, aimed at his heart. His eyes widened in surprise, but managed dodge it in time, only nailing his left shoulder. The burning sensation from the cuts on my arm didn’t help my aim.

He howled in pain and clasped his shoulder, pulling the dagger out and throwing it aside. “You dead nows, assassin!” the goblin yelled at me in rage. His face returning to insanity.

With a loud roar, he charged to me with blinding speed, his knife high up in the air. I quickly sidestep and brought a knee on his side. I heard a few bones cracked on his rib, and the force made the goblin flew towards the dumpster.

I smirked as I saw him cough up blood, and brought out my spear. It was jet black with razor-sharp obsidian tip, full of magical engraving, and was currently two feet long. I can extend it up to seven feet long, but fighting this goblin in a narrow alley would make it difficult so I stay it as it was.

As soon as I brought my spear out, he began to charge at me with added frenzy, as if killing me was the only thing on his mind.

“I kill you, and take spirit,“ he growled at me while swinging his knife mindlessly. “I be blessed money and be rich.” he finished laughing maniacally.

Our weapons clashed. Slicing and dicing, he was using his knife like a sword. I blocked most of the blow using my spear, but some of his swing managed to slip through and pierced my robe, although it didn’t hit me, I was pissed. God dammit, this was my favourite robe.

I extended my spear to four feet and violently swung it. The body of the spear managed to land a blow the goblin dead in the head. He stumbled around. However, the blow didn’t faze him. In fact, he was still laughing like a maniac, muttering about how he was going to kill me.

In a flash, he picked up a rock, and threw it to me. I effortlessly deflected with my spear, but it seemed that it was only a distraction as I got thrown away when the goblin tackled me. I landed hard on my back, knocking the wind off me and losing the grip of my spear.

The deranged goblin pinned me on the ground and raised his knife with a triumphant smirk etched across his face. I need to think fast. I tried to get a hold of my spear but it out of reach.

I held my hand up in a pathetic means of defending myself. The goblin brought his knife down. I managed to block it as it pierced the palm of my hand. I gritted my teeth for the intense pain, but I discovered that the knife got stuck on my hand.

He tried tugging it back it was no use, but every time he tug brought me intense pain. I grab hold both of his hand, even the one holding the knife and kneed him on the chest. I flip him around so I was on top. At this time, I saw now that he was panicking. I wasted no time repeatedly punching his face, blow by blow his face turned purple, and his struggles weaken.

I stopped when he lost the grip of his knife, and saw that he passed out from the ass whooping I gave him. I stood up and found that the knife on my hand was still stuck like glue.

I tried jerking it free only to be rewarded by an excruciating pain. The knife appeared to be stuck between the bones of my palm. I painfully twisted it from its prison and tried to pull it once again, and to my relief it got out.

I used the knife to slit the goblins throat, and watched his life escape him. I cut strips his ragged clothes to bandage by bleeding hand, and some of the cuts I got. A while later I picked up my and spear, reducing its size so I could holster it, and then grab the corpse. “Better not let his buddies see he’s dead.” I said to no one as I threw it in the dumpster.

“Fuck.” I muttered looking at my bloodied assassin’s robe, its gray color had been replaced by crimson splotched around the clothing, mostly around the sleeves.

I removed the robe and threw it aside, seeing that walking around with bloodied clothes will attract attention. I still had a black t-shirt so I wasn’t worried walking around town bare chested.

I started walking out of the alley and looked around the crowded market to see the ogres were still trying to find me. I easily slip past them and returned to the same alley I left Astra.

I found the window I left him and yelled, “Astra come down, the coast is clear!”

No response.

“Astra!” I yelled harder, hoping this time she would hear me.

Again, I was greeted with silence.

My heart started beating faster, I was worried about what might have happened to her. I raced to the apartment and ran upstairs. I found the room of the window. I approached the door and turned to knob to find it's locked. The owner probably hadn't return yet.

I knocked at the door. “Astra, you in there?” I called for her, still there was no reply.

I tried to use my dagger as a makeshift lock pick... which failed miserably. The knob only got bent and scraped on my picking. I kicked the door in frustration, and to my bewilderment the fucking door opened. I stood there for a moment dumbfounded before entering the abode.

I began to look around the living room and not a single soul was there, only small furnitures about half as large as they usually are. I glanced at the pictures to see that this apartment belongs to dwarf.

I peeked to the kitchen to see in a state of shitstorm. The fridge is left open being overrun by rats and flies, mountains of dishes in the sink and the floor was filled with cans of energy drinks. I didn’t enter further because I was certain the Astra wouldn’t want to be near that horrid place. Don't get me started with the smell.

Down the hallway, there was a door at the end of the hall left opened. I approached it and looked inside. It was a bedroom. Beside the window, I saw an unmoving form covered in a black cloak with a billowing mane. My heart skipped a beat. I immediately knew who this creature was.

“Astra!” I rushed over to her side.

I checked to see if she was alive. Letting our a sigh of relief when I found out she was breathing, only passed out. I looked her over and my eyes widened in shock when I saw the amount of gashes littered across her body.

Spirits like Astra doesn’t bleed blood, but from what I could see she was bleeding her life force. She was slowly becoming more transparent the more it drains her.

I quickly used my dagger cutting her cloak and using it around her body, sealing the wounds temporarily. Bits of her life force still manage to since she had no blood to stop the bleeding.

After bandaging her, I reached under her and gently picked her up like a baby, being careful not to touch her wound or hurt my busted hand further as we got out of the apartment.

I beelined back to my house using the less known route away from busy streets, making sure to hide her translucent form away from prying eyes. I couldn’t risk another one of those assholes to see her, especially not in this condition.

A while later, after turning left and right on the narrow pathways and getting close calls. The sun was setting when finally reached my house. Managing to open the door while carrying Astra, I step inside my abode and rushed upstairs. I walk to my bedroom and gently laid her on my bed. I can see she was still passed out.

I kept wondering how where she got her wounds and what was the important thing she was going to tell me, but decided to press on the matter later when she wakes up.

Seeing as Astra wasn’t going to wake up soon, I got some new clothes and head to the bathroom to clean the grimy blood off of me. Opening the door seeing the pristine walls of my bathroom, I took off my clothes and went to the shower.

I took a shower and wiped myself clean from sweat and blood. I looked at the mirror and saw my long black spiky hair, my golden eyes with slit-shaped pupils, canines that are a bit longer than the humans, and a seemingly pale skin since I didn’t have much blood because of the nanites.

I removed the bandage on my hand, applying a new one and started to get dressed. This time my robe is pure black with strips of gold. After looking myself over the mirror again, I proceeded to my bedroom to check to see if she was now awake.

I saw her stirring. I sighed in relief and rushed over to her side. Sometime later her eyes slowly opened. She stared at me for a few seconds before her eyes widened, realized what is happening.

“Mikee!” she cried and wrapped her hooves around me, giving me bone crushing hug.

Let me tell you, for a spirit she was pretty damn strong. I could barely breathe in her vice grip but I let it pass and returned the hug, wrapping my arms around her as she continued crying her eyes out.

A few minutes passed she stopped, and released her hooves me. She looked at me defected. “I guess you have a few questions for me, huh?” she asked me crestfallen.

I nodded and heard our stomachs grumble.

Astra giggled and shakily jump out of the bed. “I’ll fill you in after dinner.”

We got downstairs and ate. I reheated leftovers and the dinner went in silence, only hearing the food getting chewed and swallowed. Astra’s eye glowed white and her fork levitated , using it to eat her food.

If you’re wondering how she could eat without hands.

During the meal, I noticed Astra glancing at me as if she working up courage to tell me something. I ignored it and concentrated on finishing my meal. Whatever it is, she'll tell me soon enough.

A few moments later, we finished she let out a long sigh. “Mikee, I need your help,” Damn right she need help, she looked like she had gone twelve rounds with Mike Tyson wearing spiked gloves. “I’m dying.”

I froze. “WHAT?!”

“Equis is in total disharmony, the pony tribes are splitting, the dragons are pillaging the lands, the minotaurs and the griffons are in the verge of war, and the demons of Tartarus are slowly breaking free." she took a deep breath. "Since I'm the spirit of harmony, I am getting weaker by the second of seeing my world thrown in complete disharmony.” She looked at me with pleading eyes. “Please Mikee, I need your help. You are the only one I could trust, the other gods won’t help me and I don't trust them helping me, knowing that I'm weak and I c-cant fight them off if they become rogue and take my world for themselves, and most of the natives here want to capture me. I'm on my own here.”

I placed a hand on my chin, absorbing the information being thrown at me. “What do you want me to do?”

“I need you to stop the windigos, they look like me but they have no hindlegs. I created them to protect the ponies against threat because they are too weak to defend themselves, but when the ponies started fighting they began bombarding them with snowstorms as means to protect the ponies from themselves, and now they are threatening to freeze all lands.”

I looked at her quizzically. "Wait, you have a shit load of problems and that's the only one you're gonna ask to me?"

She nodded. "That's okay." she continued. "After we get to my world...well, you know what to do."

I shrugged, not understanding what she said before lowering my head. I thought this for a moment before I let out a sigh. “Let’s get some rest, I have an answer by morning, I just need to think this over.” She nodded and weakly flew upstairs.

I Walked towards the living room feeling like shit, I met an old friend in the tavern while I was trying to get myself drunk, got chased by a group I don’t know, killed an insane goblin, and now I’m being asked to leave this planet. I chuckled. Typical day for me.

A few moments later I found myself pacing back and forth. So I’m going to leave this planet I called home for the last two hundred years, leaving Earth was hard enough… Well not that hard because Its being colonized by genocidal xenophobic aliens. But still!

Being a good friend I should have accepted it in a heartbeat, but what good would it do to me? I rubbed my temple to ease the headache I was having from my mental debate.

Glancing on my right I saw a portrait of the ‘angel’ I was talking about. I moved towards it and placed my hand on the frame. “Tyrande…” I whispered. She had a long golden hair that touches her lower back, silver eyes that soothes me every time I looked at them, and her alabaster wings shimmering in the light.

In the photo, she was holding the ‘Benevolence’, and wearing medallion on her neck. The two of which I have now. I held on these two as a token to remember her by. I let out a sad sigh. Past is past. Let it go...

She had been on Earth disguised as one of the humans when met her, we later became good friends. She was the only one I could trust in there, she was always there when I needed help. Where was I when she needed mi-- No! let it go...let it go...

Astra was the only friend I have left, and she was dying. I needed to do this, for her…And for Tyrande.

I closed my eyes, letting out another sigh before looking at the clock, it was only three o’clock in the morning. I lazily plopped down the couch and closed my eyes to get some sleep. I'm gonna have one hell of a journey tomorrow.

The morning went on. Astra flew down the stairs and saw me at the sitting on the couch. I had just woken up from my dreamless sleep.

She looked at me with hopeful eyes, waiting for me to speak. “Okay, I’ll help you.”

She exploded in glee and tackled me onto the ground, barraging my cheeks with kisses. “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you.” She said while hugging me tight like a snake. “You don’t know how much this means to me.”

“You know, I only decided to help you because you’re dying.” I said with a smug look on my face.

She giggled “Oh you.” playfully punching me on the shoulder before getting a worried look on her face “Come on, we don’t have much time.”

I nodded, rubbing my shoulder. Her hooves are hard as shit! “But first, we need to hide your form. Can’t let anybody see that you’re a spirit, or else we might get mobbed again.”

I grabbed a cloak, long enough to completely conceal every part of her body and toss it to her. She picked it up with her magic and put it on. Astra head outside, I followed not knowing where to head.

“What portal did you used to get here?” I asked.

She looked up, deep in thought. “Well, when I teleported here I got to some shrine or some sorts, it was near the castle.”

I stopped on my tracks. “Shit.”

“What’s wrong?” she looked at me confused.

“That shrine is guarded by the castle guardian. While it’s good to know he can’t guard for shit, we might not get lucky if we go there this time. Your teleportation must have triggered some wards placed there. It must be crawling with guards right about now.” I sighed “We just have to find another, hell I ain’t gonna fight a guardian and a battalion of guards”

“Well, where do you suggest we go then.” She asked, raising her voice.

I ponder around for a moment before a thought popped in my head. I looked at Astra with a grin. “Let’s head to the academy, I know someone who could help us”. I turned around heading towards the academy.

Walking towards our destination. Astra was floating beside me, she kept saying that we should turn around and fight our way to the shrine. I just facepalmed and toned her out.

Half an hour of Astra ranting about how we should have gone back and fight the guards. You know for being the spirit of harmony, she isn't very harmonic. We finally got to the academy. As we got to the campus, I immediately thought of Harry Potter when I saw hundreds of mages and wizards practicing spells, rituals and flying using their broom.

Entering the grand lobby of the academy, we walked towards the receptionist’s desk. The receptionist chick was kinda busy writing something, and didn’t seem to take notice of us. I cleared my throat, and saw the receptionist look up with a scrunched face. She gave me a look of ‘fuck off, I’m busy’ before smiling and said. “Oh, hello welcome to the Galean Academy of Cryptozoology and Magical Arts, how may I help you?” she said with a cheerful tone.

“I’m looking for Professor Scratch, do you know where he might be?”

She looked at the schedule. “He is at the Astronomy room, room B-16.”

I nodded, head to the said room. I heard the receptionist cursed at me for interrupting her writing. I swear that bitch is bipolar. What the fuck did I do to ruin her day?

“This place is huge,” I heard Astra mutter. I looked to my side to see her looking around with her mouth agape. Eyeing the huge pillars and the beautifully decorated walls and ceiling.

I snickered at her expression. “If you think this place is huge, then you haven’t seen the castle yet. It makes this place look like an apartment." I said before looking ahead. "Come on, I thought you said you were dying.”

Her cheeks flushed. “Oh..Yeah right.” She said as she look down suddenly finding the floor interesting too.

Anyway, we got lost a couple of times on the way there. We ended up asking the students for direction and they happily pointed it out. I saw some students trying to look at Astra’s face under the hood of her cloak, but they immediately back off when they saw me glaring at them.

Finally we got to the room the receptionist told us. I opened the door and see that the place was a gigantic observatory, with a blackboard and a few chairs at the side.

As soon as we go inside, I heard Astra gasp and Immediately flew around the room marvelling designs and the gadgets. I shook my head and went to find the professor.

Finding nothing here but textbooks and research papers, I heard Astra shriek upstairs where the telescope was. “Cat!” I heard her yell.

I scratched my head in confusion to why there's a cat here before letting out a laugh as I picked on who that was, I rushed upstairs to see Astra nuzzling a very irritated cat. “Madam put me down this instant!" the cat struggled to break free of Astra's grasp. "I am a well-respected professor and I want to be treated as such.” The cat scold her.

She placed the cat down and slowly back off. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t know you were the professor.” She said with a sheepish smile.

Fixing his tie, he shook his head at Astra. “As an old saying said ‘Don’t judge the book by its cover, Now, If you excuse me I ha—“ he froze as turned to see me, then his eyes narrowed. “What are you doing here, Mr. Vesper.” The professor said, his voice dripping with venom.

I rolled my eyes. He became an ass to me when he found out I was an assassin and the only reason I was hanging out with him because I want to find out where is this and that. Well, suck it!

I raised my hands up. “Hey, I just want to know if there’s any shrine that acts as a portal to worlds besides the one near the castle.”

He scowled. “Why should I tell you?" He held his head high, eyes closed. "I found out that you’re an assassin and you’re just using the knowledge I give you to kill. Besides you can’t use it, only creatures with immense magical powers can use it. Like your friend Tyrande for example.”

I shrugged. “Well, if she can use it.” I pointed at Astra. “Then I guess I won’t have to.”

His eyes popped open and he cranked his head to her. “B-but that’s impossible, only gods and guardians can use it. If she can use it, then s-she” His eyes widened further as he stammered.

Astra let out a laugh and she pulled her hood down. “Pleasure to meet you, Professor Scratch.” She said as she held a hoof. “My names Astra, the Equis’ Spirit of Harmony.”

He didn’t held his paw, he simply bowed at her. I rolled my eyes at this act and approached him. “Okay, enough of the ass kissing Scratch. We are on a tight schedule here.”

He stood up glaring at me. I assumed it was because of using his name and not his title professor that he didn’t work hard on. He turned to Astra. “The nearest shrine here is in the Deadwood Tangle, go north to Hollowville, and it is east of there.”

She nodded “Thank you, Professor.”

The professor smiled and began to walk towards the bookshelf on the corner. He jump up and grabbed a scroll with his teeth and handed it to her. “This might help you on your journey, it’s the map of Deadwood Tangle, while it’s a little bit outdated it might help you find the shrine.”

Astra nodded to the professor and handed me the scroll and I looked at it. The scroll had tears on the edges, small stains of ink littered around it, it had a musty smell on it, and it's covered with dust when I opened it. Seriously, he put this on his mouth?

I turned to Scratch. “When you said a 'little' outdated, what do you mean by little?” I asked

His eyes narrowed at me. I could tell he just wants me to shut up so he could continue talking to Astra. “About fifty to sixty years.” I just shrugged and pocketed the useless map.

I glanced at Astra to see her conversing with the professor. When I said conversing, I mean she was just constantly nodding with smile on her face, while Scratch is telling her the theories and his discoveries that will revolutionize magic. Bullshit...

I could tell by the look of her face that she doesn’t give a fuck. She looked at me with pleading eyes wanting me to end the verbal torture.

Being a good friend, and pissing off Scratch just amuses me. I went over and interrupted them. “Well, that’s enough ass kissing for today, don’t you Professor.” I said grabbed hold of Astra’s forelegs and began to go downstairs.

“Wait!” The professor stopped us.

I let out an annoyed growl before looking back at the professor, smiling. “What?”

“Do you know how dangerous it is, when someone finds out that she’s a spirit. She’ll get kidnap and sold to the goblins.”

“Yes.”

“Then how are you going to manage to sneak her out of here.”

“I don’t know, with this?” I pointed to the cloak.

He then looked at me like I was stupid. “That’s it?”

I shrugged. “Well, we have managed to get here. I don’t see what the problem is.”

He began to grit his teeth, I could tell by the look of his face the he wanted Astra to stay here a little longer.

“Well, gotta go.” We ushered out of the observatory, and out of the campus.

When we finally got out of the academy, Astra let out a sigh of relief. "Well, that professor sure is umm... Interesting."

I chuckled. "Heh, no."

We set track north towards Hollowville. Across the street, I saw a caravan of merchant dwarves. I approached them. “Where’s this headed.” I asked a burly dwarf, presumably the leader.

“Hollowville, bout fifty miles of ‘er” he replied.

I nodded.

We took the caravan, riding it costed me a hundred credits, but I didn’t complain. I wouldn’t even need it to where I was going. During the ride Astra kept on talking about how beautiful the academy was. I toned her out, not wanting to hear the place I had been thousands of times.

Sometime later, we reached Hollowville. it was inside the dense forest. In case if you didn’t notice the name, everything in there screams ‘Holloween’. The freaky lanterns, graveyards for houses, some haunted mansions. There were also ghosts, zombies that didn’t want to eat your brain, witches, and many other creatures I didn’t bother to mention.

I told Astra that she can drop her hood, since goblins has been banned from this place, and went on east. A tall figure wearing a suit, and its head replaced with a pumpkin approached us.

He chuckled as he approached me. “Michorean Vesper, first time seeing you here on a regular day. You only come here during the Hollowweek. What seems to be the cause hmm?” He asked with a booming voice. His mouth never moved as he spoke only his crooked smile.

“We’re just on our way to Deadwood Tangle, to do some business.” I answered.

“Huh, well don’t let me stop you then.” He laughed then left.

Astra looked at me confused, I just shrugged. I didn’t understand the guy much. He just seemed to laugh everytime I talked to him. Weird.

A few minutes later we reached the entrance of Deadwood Tangle, some of the locals warned us about the place, but we just carried on. It was this place or battling a guardian and a battalion of guards. This place.

We entered the forest and instantly I felt like I was being watched. I brought out the map Professor Scratch gave us and also the Benevolence, just in case some stupid creature attack us. My left hand, the one that got stabbed by the goblins, seems to be numbing for some reason. But I could still feel it hurting occasionally.

I just shrugged and looked on ahead. The forest was pitch dark, the only light we had was Astra’s orb of light spell, and let me tell you this, the map was trash! I can’t seem to make out anything on the scroll, the landmarks , the pathways anything. We were just going around the forest for the past hour and nothing close to what the map said appeared.

I was contemplating on burning the map and continuing on hoping to find the shrine blindly when I heard a voice beside me. I jumped back and pointed the Benevolence at the direction of the voice. Astra followed suit with her eye glowing white bright.

“Easy child, I mean you no harm.” The voice said.

I took a step forward and relaxed when I saw that it was only a treant. I then brought out our map for him to look. “Then, do you know where the shrine is?” I asked, giving it the map.

He took the map with its branches and examined and the worn-out scroll. A few moments the tree burst into laughter. “Child,” he started. “There can’t be a map in here. This forest is constantly changing. You can only enter the shrine granted that we let you.” He handed me back the scrolled which I promptly crumpled and threw away. Fucking shit!

I was really getting annoyed at the talking tree for calling me child and laughing at me but cooled down as he was the only one who can lead us to the shrine. “Well, will you?” I asked leaning forward.

“No.” The treant deadpanned.

My left eye twitched, and I was about to raise the Benevolence and fuck the tree up when Astra flew towards the treant. She whispered something to which the treant nodded.

I can’t make out what they were talking about so I drew closer to them. “—ow the leaf I will give you and it will guide you towards the shrine.” Was the only thing I heard when the treant gave her a leaf. She then levitated the leaf. The leaf shook like...well a leaf for a few moments before pointing on 3 o’clock.

“Thank you Grielief. May the nymphs watch over you.” She said, as she flew over the direction the leaf was pointing.

I saw the treant pointed a branch with two pointed ends at his eye, then back to me, mouthing ‘I’m watching you’. I simply gave him the finger before turning around following Astra.

Jumping on potholes, ducking on low branches, and nearly faceplanting myself when I didn’t notice a rock ahead of me I had a feeling that we were getting near to the shrine.

A few moments later, I heard Astra panting. I looked at her to see that she was profusely sweating, and trembling. She was struggling to stay afloat. She was in a similar condition when we exited the tavern, but I this time I could see that she was visibly worse.

I was about to ask a stupid question; asking if she was okay when I saw someone appear just ahead of us. It was bipedal, and it looked somewhat like a hairy human. Behind him was the shrine.

He turned to us, face flushed. “Hey man,” he said wobbling back and forth like he was drunk, or was he…”Got meat?”

I pointed the Benevolence at him, as he let out a vicious howl. Looking up in the sky, beneath the thick leaves and branches of the tree, I saw it was night time and a glimpse of a full moon.

“Damn, a warewolf.” I turned my head to Astra “Astra, you fi—“instead of seeing my translucent companion, I saw only plants and trees. Looking ahead I saw her shakily floating towards the shrine, not even taking a glance on the warewolf. She was just staring blankly at the shrine, wobbling, and panting.

The warewolf seemed to ignore her, probably because she was just a spirit and she ‘ain’t got no meat’. He took a step forward and let out a deafening roar before turning into a full blown warewolf right in front of my eyes.

He suddenly grew two feet, hundreds of pounds of muscle, its nails turned into a claw, and his nose formed into a snout in the span of five seconds. He cracked his neck and stretched his arms before lunging himself to me.

Charging at me in full spead was a bad idea, as soon as he got near me I lengthen the Benevolence to seven feet and thrust the spear to him.

His eyes widened before the spear pierced him on the chest and he let out a pained roar. I swung and threw him on a tree, denting its trunk in the process.

The motherfucker thrashed on the ground for a moment before standing up with a vicious snarl. His chest had a gaping hole and was copiously bleeding. It seemed the Benevolence just went right through him. I can still see that the warewolf was still pretty much alive and kicking, but I can see he was losing so much blood that the ground beneath him turned crimson.

Although, that didn’t seem to bother him.

He snarled at me before charging again, this time however he wasn’t as careless as before. I tried to thrust at him again, he simply sidestepped and backhanded me. I flew backwards, only dazed.

I don’t particularly call myself good at close quarter combat with speed demons like these, but I was adept at blocking blows to make up for it.

Blow by blow, I noticed the warewolf’s blows were getting weaker at each strike. His blood loss must be getting its toll on him. My plan now is to dodge and block his shots, waiting for him to get weak enough to land a fatal blow.

However before I came to that conclusion, I saw a glimpse of light from the shrine. My eyes widened and I immediately jumped out of the way when I saw a huge pillar zooming towards us.

Holy shit!

The warewolf seemed too weak to move out of the way. Before he could wobble out of the pillar's path, It hit him dead on. I even heard the crunched of his bones breaking as the massive pillar collided on him. The impact made him fly towards the trees with the pillar and ended up destroying several of them in the process.

“Damn,” I said, looking at the wreck.

I turned towards the shrine and saw Astra with her eyes glowing. She was visibly shaking. She wasn’t hovering like she was before. This time she was standing on all fours. Not good.

She smiled weakly to me before collapsing. Shit! “Astra!” I shouted running towards her.

As soon as I got to her, I held her head up. I noticed her mouth opening and closing like there was something she wanted to tell me but didn’t had enough strength to do so.

I moved in closer and soon enough I began hear her. “You’ll bring harmony in Equis back, won’t you?” she said, smiling weakly.

Bring harmony back, what the? I got confused for a moment and shrugged. “I’ll defeat the windigos just as you asked.” I said to her.

She chuckled and nodded before her eyes started glowing and raised a foreleg touching my forehead “Goodbye, Mikee…” She spoke, still smiling. No, Not again!

I froze and my heart skipped a FEW beats as soon she said that. The way she had said goodbye wasn’t like she was just leaving. It was a farewell. I began to glow when her forelegs touched me forehead. I glanced down to see a mark beneath me. It was also glowing the same as me. She must set the runes up when I was out fighting the warewolf.

Tracing the mark, it was connected to the archway that was also littered with runes and glowing. I know what will happen next. My heart started beating a hundred times faster.

Then the portal opened.

As soon as the portal opened, I felt something pulling me towards the portal. I gripped on Astra tightly, but my body suddenly became numb. My heart shattered as soon as I lost my grasp on Astra. Nooo! Fuck!

I wanted to scream but I couldn’t. My mouth didn't dare open to my command. My body was completely paralyzed, making me just a lowly spectator on the scene happening right in front of me. Tears started to form from my eyes. The only thing I could do was to watch myself get hopelessly pulled towards the portal, while Astra was just lying there, dying. The only friend I had left.

“Concordiam reducere de mundo, mox hic tuam.” She said to me with as smile as she started to vanish. I didn’t understand what she just said, but it sounded like she was happy for me.

"..."

My vision blurred as soon as I touched to portal. Looking up to Astra, I saw that as she was vanishing. This time, there were eight orbs floating around her in a circle, each started glowing brighter as Astra slowly disappear to nothingness.

Then, at an instant my body got swallowed by the portal.

Throughout the time, all I could see was white. I couldn’t move either. I felt like I was falling in a bottomless pit. At the corner of my vision, I saw the orbs from earlier beside me. There were eight of them, each with different color, red, orange, green, cyan, pink, purple, gold, and azure.

After what it feels like hours of helplessly falling around, I heard a loud thump. My body just crashed on the ground. I looked around and saw the orbs were scattering on the mountians, moving in different directions. Glancing down, I noticed my body was still glowing. The glow was probably a protective shell since I didn’t feel anything the moment when I landed. That or my body was too numb to feel anything.

I didn’t ponder on it though, the only thing on my mind was Astra. She's dead...

I just laid there on the sobbing, staring at the sky, realizing that I had lost the last friend I have.

Astra.

Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

I slowly opened my eyes and Immediately regretted it as I got blinded by sunlight. It seemed like I had cried myself to sleep. Moving my hand up to shield my eyes from the bright light, I quickly noticed that my body wasn’t numb anymore.

I closed my eyes and slowly breathe out. "Astra..."

The past is past, let it go. I always tell myself. She had her last request, and I'm going to do it. I'm gonna do my job and I'm not gonna fail...

Realizing that lying down here won’t solve anything, I began to stand up. I felt my legs wobbled and gave out, giving myself an embarrassing faceplant on the ground. “Fuck.” I cussed with a mouth full of dirt and wiped it off of my face. My body wasn’t numb anymore, but it seemed my legs still are.

Standing up slowly this time, I drew out the Benevolence, extended it to its maximum length and used it as a walking stick. Out there in the open I saw a bird flying, it looked at my direction and zoomed towards me.

I scratched my head in confusion, and squinted my eyes. I noted that it wasn’t a normal bird, it was an eagle with a body of… a lion? It was a griffin. Gripping the Benevolence tighter, my heart started beating faster. I can’t use my spear this time because it was the only thing that keeps me a balance.

Hastily reaching on my sleeve to draw a dagger but I dropped it as soon as I felt an excruciating pain emitting on my busted hand when I gripped the dagger. Looking ahead I saw the griffin only a few feet ahead of me.

Soon enough it collided with me. Getting the wind knocked out of me, I barely managed to brace my head as it struck the ground. I hissed in pain as I attempted to throw the griffon off of me, but with only one hand I found myself unable to.

It grabbed me by my collar and held me up close to its face, bearing an intent to kill before changing into a confused look. “Wait, you’re not a Minotaur," He said dropping me. I assumed it was a ‘he’ because his voice had a low muscular tone on it.

Reaching for the Benevolence I tried to get myself up again. “No shit," I said glaring at him.

He held a hand..er talon to help me, and I gladly took it. “I..uh—sorry about that, dude. I thought you were a minotaur. We griffons are quite….um hostile towards to minotaurs.” He said giggling. Looking at him I saw that he strips of blue on the edge of his feathers.

I recalled on what Astra said about the griffons, she said that the griffins and the minotaurs are on a verge of war. It was only a matter of time before it a side draw a first blood. But why is that? I dismissed the question because it wasn’t my damn business.

“You okay dude?” he asked me. I nodded. “Sorry again for trying to ki—“ he stopped as soon as I punched him in the beak with my good hand, knocking him to the ground.

“Apology accepted.” I said smirking, and shaking my hand on the blow. Note to self never punch a griffon in its beak, it will hurt like hell, and better not break my only good hand.

He gave me a dirty look as he stood up, before laughing “Well, I guess I deserve that.” He said smiling. “By the way, the name’s Glide Streak,” He held up a talon. “you can call me Glide, and you are?”

“Michorean Vesper.” I said, dusting myself, getting rid of the grass and dirt off my clothes.

“Nice ta meet ya Mike, we cool now right?” I nodded as we shook hands…or claw.

I looked around to the mountain I saw the orbs flew, sadly I only saw where the gold one went. A moment later I felt my legs returning from its paralyzed state, I smiled at this. The thought of being able to walk without using the Benevolence as a walking stick eases me.

Glancing at Glide, I noticed him staring at me blankly. “Dude, what’s wrong with your hand?” he said pointing at my busted hand.

I raised my eyebrow in confusion before looking at my wounded hand. I finally noticed it was shaking. Rolling up the bandages I grimaced when I saw that the wound and the surrounding areas were black. The griffon behind me recoiled in shock as he saw the damage on my hand.

My eyes widened and I rolled up my sleeve and look at the cuts that the goblin gave me were in similar state. “Shit, the knife was poisoned!” I said out loud.

Glide gasp at my outburst. “Poison?! Dude, we need to get you to a healer fast!” he exclaimed. “C’mon, follow me I’ll lead you back to my village I think I know someone that can cure you." Glide said, taking off the ground.

“Wait, isn’t it dangerous to me to follow to your village?” I asked.

“Why, is that?”

“Well, if you had mistaken me for a minotaur, surely you griffon friends will and I don’t plan on getting beat up today.

“Just stay close to me, I’ll handle it. Don’t you trust me?” he asked smirking.

“No, I don’t.” I deadpanned.

The smirk on his face faded and he huffed. “Just do it okay, I’m doing you a favor here and you just turn me down.”

I don’t really trust this guy one bit, but being poisoned means that I had no other option than to trust him, even for a little bit. If I hadn’t had any nanites on me I would surely be dead by now. I sighed. "Fine," I said, gesturing to him to lead the way. He smiled and nodded, then flew away with me trailing behind.

“So,” he started, looking back at me. “You are pretty quiet over there. What are you anyway, I haven’t seen your kind here, and what’s with the fancy clothes?”

“Why should I tell you? Hell, I don’t even know you other than your name.”

“Well, why didn’t you say so!” He said as he raising his claws up as he flied “You already know my name so I guess there is no need for that. I am a forager, I am one of the griffons in our village that gathers and hunts food us from starving. I was out hunting when I saw you standing there. I thought you were a minotaur so I rushed on you.” He laughed at the last part.

“Why are you griffons and minotaurs fighting anyway, is it about land, beliefs, or you simply hated each other?”

He gave out a laugh. “You are only right about the first part, we are fighting about lands. You see minotaurs are a warrior race they thrive on conquering lands of their resources, eventually when they exhausted the land they move on conquering the next one. We griffons are similar, but we treat the land with respect. Eventually we clashed, we claimed this and that, the minotaurs said it was theirs. One this leads to the another and here we are.

"Sadly, the said lands was the village my family used to live. One night while the village was sleeping, the they attacked us, killing everygriffon in sight and burned the village down. I managed to escape, but my parents didn’t. Those minotaurs are cold, heartless, they only care about their land, nothing more.” he said tearing up.

I looked at him with pity, but my views about the minotaurs didn’t change. I’m not someone who immediately assumes something before hearing the other one’s side. Heck, he might be lying about the whole thing and stab me on the back when I’m off guard. You might think I was just being paranoid, but being paranoid help save my life countless of times. I was even wondering about why did he told me about his family in the first place.

Wiping the tears off his eyes, he looked at me. “So, what about you, what are you anyways?

I began to think about this. What hell am I going to say to him, that I’m just a clone, a science experiment… a lab rat? “A mercenary.” I said, looking forward, I saw that we were nearing the village.

“A mercenary?” he repeated, with a raised eyebrow. I nodded.

He shrugged and looked ahead. “Oh, hey we’re here!” He said, as we entered the village.

Looking around me I saw the griffon villagers stopped on their tracks as they saw me, some slowly backed away and the others shift into fighting stance.

I gripped the Benevolence tighter, ready to strike anyone that dare to attack me. On the outside, I wore a hardened gaze, to let them know I wasn’t gonna back away if they attacked, but inside I was freaking out. The thought of a whole town of beating me up rustled my jimmies. I hope they take it easy on a disabled person.

Glide Immediately flew in front of me franctically waving his ar- er, talons. “Guys, guys, chill, he is with me and relax he’s not a minotaur. Just a deformed monkey.” He said as he tried to calm the griffon villagers down. They looked at me, and I casually waved at them smiling, trying to be friendly.

I sighed in relief when they shrugged and returned to what they were doing before. Looking at Glide, I glared at him for calling me a ‘deformed monkey’, but stopped as soon as I saw a griffon walking towards us.

The griffon looked older than Glide, he was wearing some sort of a headdress. I’m guessing he was probably the village elder. Stopping in front of us, he looked at Glide, he sighed and rubbed his temple.

“Glide Streak,” he started, shaking his head. “Please tell me you didn’t befriend our food again.”

“Um, no Dust, sir. He’s not really food. I brought him here so the doctors can heal him. Because you see” he pointed to my hand. “he is poisoned.”

The griffon named 'Dust' nodded and turned to me. “So, who might you be, stranger?”

“Michorean Vesper, and you are?”

“Dust Wing, I am the village elder, and may I ask where did you get your wound from?” he eyed my suspiciously.

I shrugged. “I got it from a fight.” He raised an eyebrow “and before you ask, no I’m not here to harm your village. I am just here to get my poison problem fix, then I'll be on my way.”

Dust Wing eyed me suspiciously before nodding. “Very well, we shall head to the healer, but heed my warning Michorean, if I see you harm the village in any way, then I’ll make sure you don’t leave here alive.” He said to me coldly.

I nodded, not affected by his threat and followed him to the healer’s hut. We arrived at the hut shortly. Thanking the elder as he left, I entered the hut, Glide not following, he said something about getting banned here for accidentally breaking the healers potions, and not paying.

Looking around the hut I saw bottles and herbs that I didn’t recognize. I saw the healer on the back walking towards me. I told him that I was poisoned on a fight and held out my hand for him to see, he grimaced when he saw the state of my hand and began to look for an antidote.

Minutes later he returned with a flask in his claw, the healer told me to raised my hand, I obliged and he poured some liquid on the wound. As he poured the liquid on my hand, I became confused as I felt nothing. “This poison is more powerful than I expected,” the healer said, as he examined my hand, still the same as before.

The healer shook his head dejectedly after he examined my hand and go as far as poking the spot where the blade went through, I began to worry about his expression and the feeling on my hand. “It appears that even if I managed to heal your hand, you will probably never regain the movement, or the sense of touch ever again.” He explained.

That hit me hard, the feeling of never being able to move my right hand struck me. “C-can’t you think of anything?” I stuttered.

He shook his head. “No I’m sorry, but I think I can still cure the poison in your body.” He paused. “Then again, I think the unicorn ponies can heal your hand with their healing magic, but I’m not too sure about that.”

Relief washed over me, when he said that there was a chance to save my hand. Finding the unicorns wouldn’t be so hard. Wouldn’t it?

He pulled another bottle, I couldn’t read what it said. “Drink this,” the healer gave me the bottle. “If this cannot help you, then there is nothing I can do.”

I drank the bottle, almost choking on the bitter taste. As I drank the black spots on my hand starts to recede. I smiled at this and emptied the bottle.

“The potion appears to be working. You are not in danger of dying anymore.” The healer then stitched up my hand, feeling nothing as the needle pierced my palm. Okay, this is gonna be awkward to deal with.

As the healer finished stitching, he left me as he tend to another griffon that just came here sporting a broken wing. I glanced at my left hand and shook it. It looked awfully like dead meat and bones. I couldn’t feel anything beginning on my upper forearm.

I left the hut and saw Glide waiting at the door. He looked at me and smiled... which is weird since he had a beak and all. “You good now, Miko ‘ol pal?” he asked me.

“Yeah a little bit, the healer managed to cure the poison, unfortunately he couldn’t save my hand, It’s paralyzed now.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“Well don’t be, he said that the unicorn’s might be able to heal it, which reminds me, do you know where the unicorns live?”

“Well, from what I heard, they are pretty far from here. I think they are across the ocean. But we can’t be sure since everygriffon who sailed there didn’t return. Rumor says that there are evil spirits that freeze their boat and eat them alive.”

Guess they are the windigos then. If they are powerful as I think they are, then I need to find a way around them.

“Do you know any other way I can pass the ocean without getting killed by the windigos?”

“Heh, windigos… I like that name. Anyway you can’t seriously be thinking on crossing the ocean. Its suicide!” He exclaimed. “It’s just a hand, dude. It can’t be worth more than your life.”

“That’s why I’m thinking another way of crossing.” And that I need to kill those sons of bitches, but who needs to know that.

He sighed. “There is no way I can stop you in this, can I?”

I grinned and shook my head. “Nope.”

“Well, then I guess we need to ask Dust Wing. I think he is old enough to know this land front and back.” With a nod, we head to the hut of the elder.

“Where did you get that awesome spear by the way?” Glide asked pointing to the Benevolence.

“It belongs to a friend, I kept it as a token to remember her by when she died, same to this medallion.” I winced as I recalled the painful memory.

“Oh, but wait didn’t I saw that like ten feet long a while ago?” he asked, while I was waving on the griffon villagers, trying to be friendly so they won’t stab me in the back while I’m not looking.

“Technically it was seven feet, but yes it was longer a while ago," I told him. ”It’s one of the powers of the spear.” It was the only power I could use, since I’m not a Valkyrie like Tyrande; And the only reason I could use the power because she gave me some control of the spear.

“Whoa, dude do you think I could borrow it?”

“No, not a chance. If I see you lay a hand on it, I’ll skin you alive.” We stopped at the elder’s hut, it was on top of the tree so we ha—or I mean I had to climb it, since Glide could just fly. That cheating bastard.

It wasn’t hard since they were nice enough to had a ladder for non-griffons, but climbing the ladder took time since I had to climb it with using only one hand.

Woe is me...

“Jeez okay dude, no need to for a death threat. I just want to see this thing on action, you know.” He said to me as I climbed on top of the tree where the elder’s hut was.

I rolled my and entered the hut, I saw Dust Wing talking to what I think one of his advisors. He turned his gaze on us and quickly dismissed his advisors.

“Glide Streak,” he turned to look at me “and Michorean, what brings you to the hut? Oh and it is nice to hear that you’re behaving on your visit. I guess we don’t need to run you out of village after all.” He said in a mocking tone.

Yeah, funny...“I just came by to ask some questions, and what’s with the change of attitude? Finally realizing that I’m one of the good guys, eh.”

“Not really, the locals deemed you friendly enough when you were waving your hand around town like a drunken diamond dog, and I see you are not that bad.” Dust Wing chuckled. “So, what is your question?”

Glide patted my shoulder, to which I shoved off. “Mik’o here was thinking if there was any other way to cross the ocean.” Glide butted in.

He looked at me quizzically. “Why is that? You do know that the sea right now is a very dangerous place, especially with those spirits lurking around near the pony lands.” The elder said stroking his beard.

I raised my paralyzed hand. “I need someone to fix this, and the unicorns probably can, so I’m going.”

Dust Wing snickered and shook his head. “Even though I admire your determination, there is no other way around the ocean. If you really wish to go there, then you must fend them off. I heard that once they sink your ship it’s over for you.” I kept a straight face but I was slightly bothered by that thought, but that doesn’t gonna stop me.

“Do you know where the nearest port is around here?” I asked.

The elder gave me an approving look. “Brave warrior we have here, I wish more my griffons would be as courageous as you.” He chuckled. “Tell you what, I'll tell you later. In the meantime, Why don’t you join us for supper?”

I nodded since I wasn’t gonna turn down free food, and I haven’t eaten since I got here.

Dust Wind smiled and clasp is talons. “Excellent,” he turned to look at Glide. “why don’t you show Michorean here around town while we set up the feast.” Glide nodded.

An hour later, I found myself alone, sitting on a stump, eating, watching griffons feast at the table. A couple were dancing by the bonfire in some tribal song. It kinda reminds me of South American tribes before they were wiped out. Taking a bite out of the limb on what I assumed was a deer, I looked around to find a female griffon gazing at me.

She smiled when she saw me looked at her direction, and waved at me. Being bored eating alone, I waved back and gestured to her to come sit with me. She beamed and quickly flew to the stump next to me.

“So you’re the hornless minotaur everyone’s talking about.” She said, sitting beside me.

I took another bite and swallowed. “Not really a minotaur, but I guess you can call me that.”

She smiled and moved closer to me. “So, what are you then?”

I shrugged “To be honest, I don’t really know.” I took a bite, finishing the meat and casually throwing it behind. “So, why is a gorgeous griffin hanging around with a hornless minotaur?” I asked, changing the topic.

She blushed. “Well, I just want to get out that griffon over there.” She said pointing to Glide, who was staring blankly at her. I swear I could see hearts on his pupils.

I grinned. “Looks like someone is having a bad night picking up chicks.” I muttered to myself. “Well. You’re welcome to stay then, besides It’s nice to have someone to talk to, and I believe I haven’t got your name.”

She smiled. “Thank you, and my name is Hayde, I’m the Village’s Oracle, and I assume your name is Michorean correct?”

I grinned and nodded. “Sounds like I’m pretty popular around here.”

“Actually, I just heard you from Glide, he told me that he saved your life from a manticore, and flew you to the village as fast as lightning when you got stabbed by its tail.” I shrugged not knowing what a manticore was. “I am curious, is that true, A big strong warrior like you got beat by a manticore?”

I frowned. Really, what is he nine? That kid is hopeless. “As a matter of fact, the ‘flew me to the village’ is somewhat true, but not the manticore part, heck I don’t know what a manticore even is.”

“Hmm, why would he lie to me?” she pouted.

“If I had to guess, I’d say it sounds like has a crush on you.”

She sighed. “I feel sorry for him then, he’s cute and funny and all, but I don’t think he’s just a type of griffon I want on a relationship.” Ouch. “But enough on him, have you been in a relationship, Michorean?”

“I had, but that’s a long time ago. I’m not gonna lie; I haven’t move on from that.”

“Oh, what happened?”

“Let’s just say that she passed away, and it’s partially my fault. I don’t think that I’ll even love someone again.” I answered. Why the hell do I keep getting ask about this topic? Fuck that. I sound like an emo.

She gave me a sympathepic pat on the back. “Come on let’s get a drink, let’s continue this conversation at the table.” She said as she grabbed my arm and flew towards the table.

As I sat on table. Hayde left my side as she grabbed us something to drink. Looking around I saw Glide walking towards me giving me a dirty eye.

“Dude, not cool. She’s mine! I’ve been trying to get her for years and you just stole her from me?!”

I raised my hand up. “Whoa, relax I was just talking to her, I’m not trying to steal her from you,” I said. “I may be an asshole, but I am not a cockblocker.”

Glide sighed dejectedly, looked down for several second before turning back to me. “Mik’o, ” he started, “do you know how to get Hayde to like me?” What the hell?

I looked at him like he was stupid. “How old are you?”

“Um, seventeen.” He replied.

I shrugged. So that’s why. “Well, to answer your question, I really don’t know, I just met her a while ago, I haven’t got to know her that well, and I’m not a griffon. But if you want to get women to like you, just follow the golden rule, this is the easiest thing to do." A dramatic pause. "Be yourself, as simple as that.”

His face scrunched. “I already know about that!" he whined. "Everygriffon I asked said that to me, but give me something to work on here, please.” He pleaded.

“Okay, okay, sheesh.” I groaned. “Well first things first; Don’t lie.” He flinched. “Yeah, I heard about your little stunt, but chicks don’t like that, what are you twelve? Okay, Now that’s over with; Just talk to her, ask her about anything and hopefully you’ll find something in common.“ Now I know what you all are thinking. What makes you think you know all about women? You’re not Dr. Phil. Well, I got an answer for that… Fuck you.

“I’ve tried talking to her, but she doesn’t seem to be interested when I’m talking about me."

“Don’t just talk about yourself, don’t be selfish, compliment her, talk about her day, show her that you are interested in her and not just yourself. Women like to talk about what they do too. And another thing; Be confident. Sometimes you see really hot chicks going out on fugly ass dudes. You know why? The main thing they have is confidence. Don’t doubt yourself, but don’t become too cocky. And from what I could see, Hayde likes confident dudes.”

“Thanks dude, you’re the best.” He smiled holding up a fist.

“No, problem” I said as we bump fist.

He stood up. “Well, I gotta go enjoy the feast, see ya.” He flew away and I waved him on.

There was suddenly a claw on my shoulder. I looked up and saw Hayde holding two mugs. “So, what did loverboy want?” she said as she sat down.

“Just some advice on women.” I answered.

“Did you tell him that I’m not Interested?” she gave me the other mug.

“Thanks.” I said grabbing the mug. “Not really, I’ll just let you be the one to tell him, besides It’s not my problem.”

She sighed, and rubbed her temple. “I was hoping that you’d tell him so he’ll leave my hide alone.”

I chuckled and took a swig. “I’m not gonna be the bearer of bad news, and he’s not going to believe me even if I said that, probably. By the way, why are you so keen on getting rid of him, the kid is not that bad?” I asked, taking another swig.

She smiled slyly. “That’s because I’m not Interested in him.” She said, giving me a sultry gaze. “I’m interested on you.” Before I could respond, my vision started to blur, I turned to look at Hayde, giving me a half -lidded gaze, and a seductive smile.

I grinned at my mug. “Oh, I get it,” I snickered knowing what will happen next. “Well, shit.” I said as I took another swig.

That was the last thing I remembered that night before waking up in a bedroom I didn’t recognize with a pounding headache. I was laying on a bed, on my right I saw a lump. Looking closer I saw that it was Hayde. I looked at my body and saw that I was naked. I also saw that there were stains on the bed sheets and the room smelled like sweat and sex.

“Damn, guess we had sex.” I muttered in a calm manner.

However, inside I was pissed at her for drugging me, but more pissed at myself for being careless and easily getting drugged. I was confused for a moment on why the drug easily took effect on me, but I guessed that the nanites in my system was just recovering from the poison.

With a groan, I hopped out of the bed and began looking for my clothes to save whatever dignity I had left.

I found my clothes beside the bed and put them on. I noticed that there were covered with feathers’’. What the hell did I do last night?

I heard Hayde stirring for a moment before slowly opening her eyes. “Good morning, Mikee, slept well?” she said to me lovingly.

Village Oracle my ASS!

I glared at her. I was determined to know everything that happened last night. “What the hell happened last night? And why the hell did you drugged me?”

“We just had fun no big deal, after you the drunk the mug, you insisted that we make out infront of Glide just to piss him for making false gossips about you.” She giggled.

“Did we?” she nodded. “Fuck, and all the talk about being confident and all that shit just went down the drain.”

She giggled. “Oh, don’t be mad, I’m sure he’ll get over it. He was mad at first but he just flew off without a word. I'm just glad that's over with. Besides, that’s not the only thing we did last night.” She gave me a wink as she stood up and look herself over the mirror. Whore.

I just shook my head and prepared to leave the room, I glanced around and saw a painting of Hayde when she was young, and to his right was a large griffon. He just looks like a younger version of Dust Wing...Wait, a thought suddenly clicked to me.

I nervously turned my gaze to Hayde. "H-hayde." I stuttered.

"Hmm?" She hummed, not looking back from the mirror.

"Are you related to Dust Wing?” I said pointing at the picture.

She nodded. “Well yes, I’m his daughter and I’m also the Oracle of this village.”

Shit. “Did anyone saw us together last night, besides Glide?”

“Actually almost everyone saw us when we made out. I don’t see what the problem is.” It's your fucking father, dumbass!

“The problem is I don’t remember a fucking thing from last night, and if your father find out that I slept with you, he’ll throw a fit and probably claw my balls off!”

And speak of the devil, after I said that I heard someone entered the hut and the voice that made my heart beat a hundred times faster.

“Daughter! Daughter! Are you awake?!” I heard the voice said, and it seemed angry.

Oh, shit!

Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

Oh, shit!

I looked around desperately finding a place to hide. Hiding under the bed was the most obvious thing someone in my place would do, so it was scratched. Looking out of the window on the other hand, it was the only place I could easily get out of this place and away from the rampaging father.

Picking up the Benevolence and holstering it, I turned to look at Hayde. “I’m out, you’re on your own here.” She gulped at that. I rushed to the window and jumped, hoping I would escape unnoticed.

What I didn’t know was Hayde’s hut was inconveniently placed on top of a tree.

“Shit!”

I managed to grab hold of a branch, stopping my fall. My arm was screaming at me, having only one arm to support my weight was taking its toll on me but the fear of falling only make me grip the branch tighter but I think it was worth it. No one is stupid enough to jump out of the window without having a set of wing so there is no chance that Dust Wing would look out of the window….right?

“WHERE IS HE?!” yelled a voice inside the hut, presumably Dust Wing. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I’m fucked.

Not waiting to find out what he would do to me once he spots me dangling on a branch, I began to think of a way to get down from here. But that soon ended once I heard a cracking sound.

I turned my attention to the branch I was holding on to see that it was slowly splitting apart. I frantically looked around for another branch, but all the other branches were out of reach. I was slowly beginning to think that this world hates me, and was fucking me twenty four-seven.

Before long, the branch gave up and sends me plummeting to the ground. I screamed for my life as fall towards the ground, barely managing to get my legs parallel to the ground to soften the fall. The last thing I saw was the grass being dangerously close to my face before hearing a loud thump. Then all I saw was darkness.

I didn’t know how long I was out, or if I was even alive for that matter. But soon enough I began to hear voices around me, there seemed to be a conversation happening next to me. The smell where I was at was the scent of piss, sweat, and shit. Yep, I’m alive and I guess I was lying in a dungeon of sorts.

With my eyes still closed and my nose scrunched, I strained my ears to listen to the conversation around me.

“I am telling you Winsor, the guards have been more active lately. Something must be up and I’m not talking about the escape, their numbers have doubled since last week. I heard something about doubling the gems or burning alive.” I heard one of them said.

“Relax Yuric, there must have been more slaves coming in. Like the lass over here. And the burning alive I think is the new punishment they’ll give if one of us escapes.” The other one replied I assumed was Winsor. This guy has a pirate accent...

“Do you think he’s dead? He’s been like that for a while now.”

“Nay, ah assure ye the lad be quite alive. But he needs to wake up before the dogs get here. Goddesses know what happens to useless slaves.”

“Why do you think he’s here in the first place? From the looks of it, I don’t think he’s a thief or he’s from around here. In fact, I have never seen his kind before at all.”

There was a slight rustling noise. I'm guessing he shrugged. “I overheard from the griffons that threw him here is that he mated with the tribal elder’s daughter.” He chuckled. “I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I like this lass already.”

I decided to make myself known after that. I was lying face down on the floor. Lifting my head up, I felt there is some kind of cloth wrapped around it.

Damn, that must have been quite a fall.

“Ahh, It seems that the lass has finally awaken.” I heard Winsor said.

I looked around to find that I’m in a cell of some sorts. The black walls, the foul smell and the Iron bars were a dead give away. In my right there were two humanoid rats, one was dressed like a pirate and was talking to me.

“Ahoy! Welcome to the waking world, matey. I hope yer good now. Ye got quite a beatin when ye got thrown here. The name’s Winsor.” Winsor greeted me with a pirate accent, he was wearing a tricorne further confirming me that he is infact a pirate. He was even dressed like Captain Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean.

“Uh yeah I’m okay, I think.” I responded, rubbing my bandaged temple “So, where am I?” I asked. The other rat that was not dressed like a pirate spoke up to me, I assumed he was Yuric.

“We are in the slave’s pen or den, I don’t really know what it’s called.” Yuric answered. “Everyrat who gets thrown here will either be sold as a slave or work in the mines until they are sold as a slave.” Welp, there goes my bright future.

“Aye, Yuric and I have been here for weeks working in the mines. I took the liberty to bandage yer head there. Ye were sporting quite a bruise there lad, I advice not moving around much.” He said with a hint of concern.

I looked at myself to find that I was stripped from my robe. It was good to know that they only stripped my robe. God knows what I’ll do if I wake up here butt naked. Cuffing my side I noticed that the Benevolence wasn’t in the sheath, same with my daggers but thankfully the medallion is still with me, safely hidden under my shirt.

I checked my body for any cuts and bruises, thankfully there was none besides the one from my head. I was wondering why Dust Wing took it easy on me and didn’t clawed my balls off for banging his daughter. Only throwing me here to become a slave. But the thoughts soon vanished when I felt a sharp pain emanating on my ass.

My eyes widened and I froze. “No…” I muttered.

Winsor raised an eyebrow looking at me confused. “What be the problem, lass?” he asked.

“Nothing!” I quickly replied. That bitch! He’ll pay for this! “And the name is Michorean, not lass.”

The pirate didn’t sound like he was convinced at my answer, but shrugged. “Aye, if ye need anything just ask me or good ol’ Yuric here.” He patted Yuric’s head, but got his hand swatted away by the annoyed rat. “We are all brothers in chains now. Yer pain is our pain. We help each other survive in this wretched place.” He gestured to the black walls of our cellblock.

I sighed and shifted my sitting position, trying to make myself more comfortable. “Why did you guys got thrown here on the first place?”

Winsor smiled at my question. “Yuric here is a thief. I for one is similar to him, but I steal on the high seas.”

I tilted my head. “So, you’re a pirate then.”

“Aye, but I haven’t been in the seas for a while now, since those pesky spirits started to appear in the ocean. We’ve been docked for months.”

So they started terrorizing the ocean months ago. I kept that in mind in case I need it. “Well, any of you guys have a plan to escape this place?” I asked.

Winsor shook his head. “Nay, this place is sealed shut, and the guards have been doubled since the last slave had tried to escape." He paused. "Poor lad didn’t even made out, he got captured and got beheaded.” He grimaced and shook his head. “Don’t do anything stupid Mike, we’ll only escape when opportunity comes.”

I nodded and heard a metal clanging and the sound of footsteps. I saw Yuric sighed. “I guess it’s time to dig.” He groaned and stood up. The rats were quite small, only stood four feet tall, barely reaching by chest.

“Aye,” Winsor responded, turning to look at me. “The dogs will take us to the mines to dig for gemstones and remember lad, try to look like yer working or you’ll comeback with whip marks all over yer back.”

A dog opened the cell and let us out. “Time to dig slaves, you go or I force you to go.” He said with a rusty voice, his paws on his whip, massaging it. His butchering of the English language reminded me of the goblins. It disgusts me.

We worked in the mine for hours with the other slaves, digging countless of gemstones, and getting countless of whips from the guard dogs. The guards will whip your ass at the slightest sound of grunt or complain they heard from you, so the mine was completely silent except for the sound of our pikes striking the stones and the whips of those bitches use. It’s funny cause they’re dogs too.

I giggled at my own pun, and ended up getting whipped hard on the back. “Ouch! Shit! The fuck is your problem bitch, I’m working here!” I glared at the dog.

“Quiet slave, keep working or I’ll whip you again, harder!” the guards said, waving his whip in emphasis.

“How the hell do you expect me to work, if you keep whipping me on the back, you dumb bitch!” I retorted and earned another painful whipping from the guard dog.

Suddenly, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I look to see Yuric pointing at the dog and shaking his head. I grunted and went back on digging, thankfully the dog didn’t whip me again when he heard me grunted. I would have flip a shit there.

The cart I had was nearing full of valuable gemstones, It amazed me that this world is rich with this kind of resources. If I could bring all we dug here back to Galea, I’ll be the richest man alive there, except for the royalty of course. Bunch of tyrant bastards.

Minutes later I had filled my cart and the dogs happily ended my shift. I waved Winsor and Yuric goodbye who were still busy digging. They waved backed to me as the dog guard led me to back my cell. Before he left, he gave me something to eat, it was their own version of what they called ‘lunch’…

“The fuck is this shit?” I asked the guard dog, looking at my ‘meal’ in disgust. It consists of hay, some rotting flowers, and some kind of yellowish goo. If it didn’t smell like a banana, I would have thought they were serving me their own piss.

“That’s the only food we have, slave. You don’t eat, you starve, I don’t care.” He answered.

I groaned and poke the disgusting yellow goo. The more I poke it, the more it seemed like a mashed banana. I wondered why the hell would they mash a banana in the first place, but who cares I aint gonna eat it.

Sometime later I heard someone shouting not far from my cell. From the sound of it, the voice was from a young female.

“You meanies! Let me go!” the voice cried.

“Shut up pony, you slave now. Now get to the cell.” The guard opened the door. I saw a pegasus pony being dragged and got thrown in.

The pony tried to escape, but the door closed before she got near it and banged the door. “That’s it! I won’t throw you any parties, you meanies!” she shouted at the door. Then the pony buried her face in her hooves and began to cry, while just sat there watching.

Minutes later she stopped crying and I heard her stomach grumbled. Looking at my tray. it was untouched. I knew better than to eat hays and flowers. I wasn’t even hungry anyway. I gently pushed the tray towards the weeping pony.

She lifted her head and looked at me with her bloodshot eyes. The pegasus had a white coat, light yellow mane, violet eyes and on her flank I saw a mark of five violet balloons. I assumed it was some kind of a tattoo or something.

She looked at the tray then back to me. I nodded. Seeing her smile lightly, she began to dig in. Mere seconds later, all of the contents of the tray are eaten, not a single bit of ‘food’ remained.

The blonde maned pony then looked at me. Any indication of tears and sadness were all gone. Instead it was replaced by glee, and a cheerful smile. She rushed forward to me and tackled me into a hug.

“Oh thank you, thank you. I haven’t eaten anything for days. When I was out flying on the mountain, those nasty diamond dogs popped out and captured me. They said I was gonna be a slave for the rest of my life.” She griped, still giving me a hug.

“Uh yeah, no problem. Now, can you get off me?” I didn’t wait for her to pull herself out of me, instead I was the one who pulled her out of grasp. I wasn’t comfortable on being hugged by someone I don’t know. There’s a chance I might get stab in the back. As cute as this pony is, I will never know.

“Oh, I haven’t told you my name yet. I am Surprise from the Pegasus tribe. What’s yours?” she asked as she hopped around me.

“Uh, Michorean.” I answered, still confused at the pegasus’ bouncy behaviour. “Wait, you said you’re from the Pegasus tribe right?” she nodded. “Then how did you managed to cross the ocean?”

“I was born there, but I grew up traveling around the world as a party pony. I crossed the ocean when I was but a little filly.”

“How?” I gestured for her to continue.

“With a boat duh, you silly filly.” She giggled.

I rolled my eyes. The windigos probably haven’t been terrorizing the sea back then. At that, my thoughts went the Benevolence. That spear was missing by the time I woke up in here; I don’t think I’ll ever forgive myself if anything bad happens to it.

My thoughts were soon interrupted by the sound of our cell door opening. Winsor and Yuric entered panting, covered in sweat, both looking physically exhausted.

“Look whose our new ‘sister in arms’.” I pointed at Surprise, who in turn enthusiastically waved at the tired rats.

Winsor lied down, not bothering to look at us. “As much as I like to greet yer new friend there. Yuric and I need rest from those scallywags, they made us work double time.” Winsor weakly responded.

“Ehh, it’s not that bad.” I waved a hand over.

He turned to look at me sternly. “That’s because yer the new one here lass.Those dogs took it easy on yer.” He hissed.

“Well good for me.” I rolled my eyes. “And by the way this is Surprise, our new umm, cellmate per se.”

“Aye, pleasure to meet yer Miss Surprise.” Winsor said tipping his tricorne.

Surprise beamed at the sight of his hat. “Are you a pirate? That’s so awesome! Do you have a pirate ship? How did you get here, I thought pirates were at the sea?”

Winsor gave a hearty laugh. “Aye Miss Surprise, I am a pirate, and the reason I’m not out sailing because they are evil spirits lurking in the sea. We were forced to dock and ye see Miss Surprise, pirates are wanted rats in these parts, bounty hunters took adventage of this and captured me.”

“Why were you wanted? What’s wrong about being a pirate?” Surprise asked innocently.

“There’s more on being a pirate than saying arrghh and being in a pirate ship looking for gold and lost treasures.” Yuric answered. “They also attack or hijack merchant vessels and steal their cargo. Pirates also raids villages, taking what they could before burning then down.”

Surprise looked at Winsor in shock. “Aye, I’m afraid what Yuric here said was true. We pirates have a horrible way of life. But I don’t for one second regret what I have done because I have fed me family at that cost.”

I dismissed their conversation and laid down to get some sleep. Winsor sounds like an interesting guy, Surprise was quite a bouncy pony with boundless of energy, and Yuric was your typical, mysterious thief, kinda like me. They were actually enjoyable to listen conversing, but I just don’t seem to care at this moment. The only thing I care about now is finding a way to escape this place. Closing my eyes I slowly let myself drift to sleep.

Barely two hours had passed since I slept, I was woken up from my dreamless slumber by the sounds of cries and cheer occurring just outside our cell. I tried to stand up, but I found myself unable to. I felt something small, soft and furry clasping on my torso.

Looking at the intrusion, I saw Surprise clutching on me fast asleep. Her gentle snores and occasional murmurs showed that she is oblivious of what was happening. On the corner of my vision, I saw Yuric stirred in his sleep.

“What’s happening outside?” he wearily asked, rubbing his tired eyes.

Standing up while Surprise was still clinging on me, I looked through the small window on our cell door. There I saw was a bunch of slaves running around the dungeon, some even carrying weapons belonged from the guards. “I don’t know, but from the looks of it, there’s an escape going on and our guard seems to be missing. in fact, I don’t see any of the guards. Come on, we need to get out of here, this might be our only chance of escape.” I turned to look at him. “Go wake Winsor up, while I try to open this door.” He nodded and went to slap the pirate’s face repeatedly causing him to jolt awake.

“Aarrghh! What be the commotion about, disrupting me shut eye?” asked the visibly cranky pirate.

I left Yuric to explain the situation to Winsor while I find a way to open the metal door. It was quite hard since there was a four foot sleeping pegasus clinging on me. “Hey, wake up.” I patted her back, only hearing her mumble something incoherently before going back to sleep. I grunted and frustration and grasp her wing.

Her eyes immediately popped open, she gasped and pushed herself away from me. “Whaaaaa…h-huh?” she looked around in confusion before her eyes fixed on me.

“Good you’re awake.”

“What was that for?!” she hissed, her face flushed bright pink. Huh, those wings of her must be sensitive.

“You were making me like your own teddy bear, I had to do something. Besides I need to open the door and I can’t do that if you’re clinging on me.” I answered. Her blush deepened and she looked away trying to hide it.

Examining the door, I noticed that the screw on the hinges were loose, most of it was rusty and a bit worn out. “A good hit might bring this door down, but how?” I muttered.

“Oh! I know! Pick me, pick me!” Surprise said, jumping and waving her hooves around.

“Yes?”

“Maybe if all four of us tackle it together, maybe it might just be enough to break the door. Right?” she explained, not sounding sure.

I rubbed my chin thinking about it for a moment. “Hmm, it might just work, great idea Surprise.”

She mocked saluted. “No problem Michoroonie.”

I ignored the sudden nickname and turned to look at the rats. “You got that?” they nodded. We positioned ourselves so that we could bash the door together.

To my surprise the door actually broke down with little to no resistance at all. Glancing around left and right, the whole place was completely devoid of guards. Their weapons that had not been stolen by the slaves were left scattered. They must have been in a hurry to get out of here.

Looking at the other cellsblocks, some of the slaves had managed to escape theirs and was trying to help others open theirs cells.

Glancing around the halls, I said. “Let’s head to the armory, if something managed to scare away the entire guards here, I doubt I’ll go outside unarmed.”

Winsor nodded. “Aye, we be like a landlubber in the middle of the ocean if those doggies returned. I know this place front and back, I’ll be leading the way mateys.” Winsor spoke as he moved forward.

We walk towards the armory, it wasn’t far from our cell. It only took us five minutes to get there. It might have been sooner if it wasn’t crowded by escaping slaves on the way there, but I guess traffic is universal.

Inside the armory, there were different types of swords, armor, shields and whips scattered around the place. It was like it got hit by a hurricane, a hurricane of looting slaves on that matter. Thankfully they didn’t steal much, not that I care by the way.

On the racks of weapons, there was a group of slaves arming themselves, a minotaur, two griffons and a rat. Winsor approached the minotaur like he knows him. “Phalanx, do yer know what happened to the guards? It seems that those scallywags fled for no reason.” He asked the burly minotaur.

He shook his head. “I’m afraid not Winsor, even my other cellmates are confused by this. They asked us to place all the gemstones we dug in a large pile just by the entrance. I got a bad feeling about this old friend, we must get out of this wretched place fast.” He picked a large axe from the rack and started swinging, testing it out.

We Immediately approach the racks and armed ourselves. Winsor pulled out a cutlass, Yuric grabbed a set of knives and daggers while I only chose a short sword. I would’ve gotten a spear, but with my left hand paralyzed that would seemed to be a bad idea. The Benevolence had a light feeling when I grip it, so there I hadn't had any problem for that.

Looking at my blonde maned friend, I saw that she was trying to grab a Morningstar with her teeth. I shook my head and move towards her. “You know you can’t use that right? You have nothing to grip that.” I said as I grabbed the club from her.

She pouted. “But look at it. It’s big and it has those spikes covering it. I can hit somepony and WHAM!” she swung her hooves for emphasis.

“The problem is you don’t have anything to grab it and can you even fight?” To be honest I didn’t care even if she used the Morningstar, she probably can’t even lift it off the ground, but I got a nagging feeling that once she tries to swing it with her teeth, bad things might happen, especially to anyone near her, and that’s us.

She shook her head, still sporting that smile on her face.

I sighed and grabbed a helmet and placed it on her head. “There you got something, happy? It’s a bit large but it will do.”

“But, I want the spiky thing! This is unfair.” She whined.

“C’est la vie.” I turned around and began looking for an armor. I grinned as I heard her snort in frustration.

In the corner of the armory, I saw a familiar black robe hanging between the sets of leather armor. Moving towards it I saw that it was my assassin’s robe. It got me thinking, if this was here then the Benevolence might be here as well.

Putting it on, I began to rummage the armory in search of the Valkyrian spear. Racks after racks, I searched every single corner of the place and still there wasn’t any sign of it. Looking around, I noticed that I was the only one on the armory. They probably had gone ahead, while I was raptured at my search.

Glancing around one last time, I exited the place. I saw the group right outside, one of the griffons is missing. As soon as they saw me, we head right to what we believe to be the exit. I asked what happened to the griffon, Phalanx told me that he sent him to scout in search for exits.

Minutes later we saw the griffon flying towards us with an ecstatic smile on his face. He stopped right infront of the minotaur. “Phalanx, we need to hurry. The pile of gemstones the dogs left is being looted by the other slaves, there are no sign of the guards it’s like they just abandoned their posts. If we hurry, we might just get there in time to grab some.”

The minotaur grinned. “Lead the way Steelbeak.” He motioned and turned to look at us. “Looks like our suffering has come to an end, my friends. Long have we suffered months, digging valuable rocks for the dogs, but know it’s time for us to take reward ourselves.” He said with glee, beating his chest.

That got me thinking, from what I have seen the dogs are obsessed with those gems, going as far as to kidnap slaves and forcing them to work on the mines to dig. So, why would they just dump it out in the open?

We followed the griffon, through the sets of corridors and before long, we found ourselves just by the entrance of the dungeon. The ceiling was high and was supported by hulking pillars. I noticed that there are some cracks in them and was covered in dust. For some reason this place was too majestic for those dumb dogs to build. And I'm not being racist.

Right ahead of us, the pile of gemstones we had dug was being looted by slaves, grabbing whatever they can, and some even using an armor to scoop up the gems. Soon enough I saw Phalanx and his cellmates joined in the looting.

I got a nagging feeling watching the scene ahead of me, something tells me that the dogs didn’t left a huge pile of gemstones out in the open and left for us to loot it. Looking around the entrance again, being more observant, I saw that there are faint scratch and scorch marks etched on the walls and pillars, even the ceiling was in similar state.

I saw Winsor on my side began move towards the pile but I raised an arm to stop him. “What be the problem lass?” he asked me sounding confused. “We need to get some of those booties before they are all gone.” He tried to move forward, but I stopped him again.

“I have a feeling that we shouldn’t be in here.” He raised an eyebrow. “The dogs must not have fled and left a huge pile of gemstones here at the entrance without purpose. That just doesn’t make sense.”

He looked at the pile, then back to me. “So, what are ye implying then? That this is a trap for the slaves that come here to steal their gems?”

I rubbed my chin, looking at the pile. “Something like that or that pile of gemstone are for someone or something else. I suggest that we get out of here before something happens.”

The pirate gave out a laugh. “Yer bein too paranoid lass, but okay I’ll play yer game. I don’t need that much bits anyway.”

I looked at Yuric and Surprise to see that they’re just behind us. They didn’t seem to care for the precious rocks. Surprise was playing with her helmet, shaking her head back and forth while Yuric was just standing there looking around intensively.

I led us past the pile and towards the exit. While I was walking I heard a sound of something flapping, it sounded like a wing. I looked around for the source of the noise. It was too slow for a griffon, and there weren’t anyone near us. Whatever that’s out there, it must be something big.

I saw a pillar on the side and motioned for us to hide there. No one protested after they saw the serious look on my face. After minutes of hiding there, the sound of flapping gradually increased in volume.

Hiding beside the pillar, silently watching the slaves go apeshit on the gems and trying to figure what the sound of flapping was, Surprise was the one who broke the silence.

“What are we waiting for? Are we playing hide and go seek? What is that flapping?” she asked popping to my field of vision.

I place a hand to cover her mouth. “Shushh, be quiet for a moment Surprise. There’s something big out there coming here. I can’t seem to make it up.” Glancing at Winsor. “Any clues on what it is? “

He shook his head. “Nay, I’m drawing blank ‘ere.”

I turned to Yuric, “How about you?” I asked. He was staring blankly at the pile like he was in some sort of a trance.

“So that what they were talking about.” He mumbled.

“Umm, Who?” I asked, not sure what he had just said.

“While I was digging in the mines yesterday, I heard the guards talk about some large creature destroying this place if there weren’t any gems placed here. I kept it to myself because I wasn’t sure of what I heard or that was just rumor.” He explained.

Suddenly there was a loud ear screeching roar followed by something large landing just outside of here. Surprise jumped and clutched on my leg like a cat. She buried her face on my leg, shaking heavily with a terrified expression etched on her.

A large dragon entered destroying the large door in the process and approached the large pile of gem that was being looted. From the looks of it, he seems pissed because as soon he saw them he growled, smoke coming out of his snout as he snarled at the shocked slaves. He opened his mouth let out a large breath of fire, burning alive everyone on and near the gems. Their cries of pain and anguish were the only thing I heard from them before becoming silent a few seconds later.

We watched in silence as the dragon pushed the bodies of the slaves out of the pile with a flick of his arms. I didn’t feel sorry for them, they should’ve escape when they had a chance, instead they chose wallow in their greed.

I slowly stood up, making sure I was still hidden from the rampaging dragon. I need to find a way for us to escape without being seen. It didn’t help when I saw the dragon’s eyes darting back and forth, probably looking for anything that tries to come near him and the gems.

Sometime later it began eating the gems, devouring large chunks of jewels on one bite. It appeared to be distracted so escaping here unnoticed won’t be a problem, but while I was watching the dragon eat, there was one thing in the pile that caught my attention. There was something black sticking out of it, and it kinda looked familiar. I squinted my eyes to see it better, focusing on the object and there I saw the familiar spear I was having trouble searching.

There was a sudden relief washed over my body when I saw the Benevolence was fine and unharmed, but a tinge of fear on me, that it might get eaten by the dragon along with the gems if I didn’t remove it in time.

I removed trembling pegasus off my leg and gently set her down. “You guys go ahead, I’ll distract the dragon.” I said to them.

Winsor suddenly looked visibly shocked. “What yer talkin about distracting the dragon lass? That thing burned them to crisp within seconds and yer talking about distractin it? Do you even know what that thing is?” he whispered a bit loudly.

“It’s big, It breathes fire and I’m gonna probably kill it if it eats my spear. I have something important to me in the pile of gems, and I’m not gonna let the dragon eat it.” I answered coldly. “If you don’t want to go that’s fine with me, but if you want change your mind I suggest changing it now.”

Winsor and Surprise seemed hesitant to leave while I saw Yuric nodded and turned to leave. The more I think about it, the more I assumed that he didn’t give two shits about me. I like it. I know I can take care of myself, I’ve fought worse creatures before and I doubt that I’ll even do something stupid enough to get me killed…probably.

Winsor shrugged. “Well its yer funeral, good luck lass and I suggest you not to get burned alive, it’s not a good way to die.”

“Well then, thank you for the support Winsor, I’ll have that in mind” I responded sarcastically. “Now wait for me to distract the dragon, and remember don’t get seen. If the dragon comes at you then I hope you’re strong enough to fight it cause I’m not gonna chase it off you, I aint your babysitter you know. Any questions?”

“You’ll catch on to us, right?” Surprise asked with a concerned look on her face. I could tell she wouldn’t let me leave if I said ‘no’. I got confused at this, we just met yesterday and now she’s concerned for me. It’s probably her nature or something.

I nodded which brought a smile to her face. I brought myself low to the ground and sneakily move towards the pile, trying not to avoid as much noise as possible. As I got near I saw the Benevolence sticking out on the side near me but not within arms reach.

I crept low to the ground, moving around the burnt bodies of the slaves. Suddenly in my corner of my vision, I saw something moving behind the pillars. Phalanx and the remaining slaves were raising their weapons, preparing to attack the dragon.

I drastically waved at them, signalling them to stop. I haven’t got the Benevolence, and getting it with a rampaging dragon will make it harder to reach.

They seemed to ignore me and went to reveal themselves and charge at the hulking monster. “Charge!” Phalanx roared, bringing his axe high up in the air. “Let us slay this beast that steal our wealth, our very reward from our suffering in the mines! The beast that burned our fellow friends alive!” he brought out his axe and charged at the dragon with full speed, the other slaves following behind him.

“Goddammit!” I stood up and bolted towards the spear.

Phalanx swung his axe hard at the dragon, but he only managed to scratch its hard scales. The dragon let out a loud roar and flapped his wings, sending a gush of wind throwing everyone out of their place.

I managed to grab hold of the Benevolence before the gush of wind knocked me out of my feet. Looking at the dragon, it appears to be fighting Phalanx. It seemed that it only annoys the dragon further from every hit the minotaur launched at him.

The group of greedy slaves were failing miserably, some even tried to escape but got caught by the dragons tail. “Fools, you think that you can hurt me with your pathetic weapons?” he roared.

The minotaur grinned. “If you thought that I’ll waste my time just to fight you, then you must be mistaken, beast.” He countered.

While the Phalanx was fighting the dragon, I noticed that his rat and griffon friends were busy snatching away the gems. I didn’t know if they’re thinking that they’ll be able to steal from the dragon and get away with it because as soon as the dragon noticed it narrowed his eyes and let out a low growl signalling that he had enough.

He suddenly launched his head towards Phalanx. The minotaur’s eyes widened, he barely even managed to move an inch before the dragon bit him down with force , devouring the minotaur from waist up. I even heard the sound of bones breaking on my position.

The minotaur howled in pain and trashed on the dragons mouth, trying to free himself from the prison, but the dragon wasn’t done yet. With the minotaur still on his jaws, I watched as he inhaled and let out a breath of fire. His friend watched in shock as Phalanx was slowly roasted alive in the jaws of the dragon before they fled with the gems still with them.

The dragon suddenly chomp down on the minoaur, severing the body in half before launching his body in the air to chase the fleeing slaves. I grimaced as half of the body fall towards the ground.

Not wanting to be caught on the crossfire I ran to the side and pressed my body against the wall. Looking at the enraged dragon, he was currently chasing a griffon with a small load of gems in its talon in the ceiling, shooting balls of fire to the fleeing bird.

I should probably thank them for distracting the dragon for me. Their greed got the best of them, I managed to recover the Benevolence with their help. Confronting the dragon with only one hand functioning was a death sentence for me so I was grateful.

Creeping low on the side of the walls and the pillars I finally reached the exit. The huge double doors were destroyed by the dragon upon his entry so opening won’t be necessary.

No shit, Sherlock.

Outside I notice that it was night time, from the position of the moon I calculated that it was midnight or sometime close to that. It was dark but having slitted eyes made me able to see in the dark better but not as good as the other predators like the cats.

Just ahead of me was a forest, I quickly ran towards the it hoping I could hide myself from the dragon on the cluster of trees. I was hoping that those griffons would last longer so could distance myself from the dragon.

Looking back at the building, I found out that it was actually an old abandoned temple on the base of the mountain. The dogs only converting it into a slave’s den. There are faint lights and pillars of smoke coming off from the entrance. The dragon must have been roasting the remaining slaves by now.

Focusing on the path ahead, I began to move deeper in the forest hoping that I could find Winsor and the others. It had been only fifteen minutes since I last saw the so I was not concerned that they had gone far ahead.

After minutes of trekking in the forest, it suddenly became silent like the forest suddenly muted itself. I looked around for any signs of predators. From what I have encountered predators don’t hunt outside of their usual preys unless they’re desperate enough to hunt something they don’t know or they crossed its territory.

I surveyed my surrounding finding nothing but trees, vines, and bushes. It seemed like there are no animals resided in this area so the idea that I crossed its territory was scratched.

Immediately I heard a faint sound of something flapping similar from before. I recognize that sound at an instant, it was the dragon. Hearing a loud thump behind, I instantly withdrew the Benevolence and pointed it at the large creature.

“The fuck do you want? I didn’t steal any of your precious gems.” I asked, glaring at the dragon. The heap of gems were safely wrapped around his tail.

His eyes were locked on the Benevolence. “Oh, but you did steal something from me.” He said, bits of blood and feathers sticking out of his teeth guessing it’s from the griffons. The dragon licked his teeth and relaxed a bit. ”Tell you what, I’m a bit full and tired from killing those slaves, so how about you hand me over the spear and I’ll let you live, deal?” he suggested, from the sound of it he looked like he meant it but there’s no way in hell I’m gonna hand him over the Benevolence.

With clusters of trees me and webs of vines surrounding me, I could easily take advantage of my small frame and the dragons size in escaping him. It even help that he told me that he was a bit tired from the massacre, which is big mistake for him.

I began to weigh my options. The only thing I have to think now is how to distract the dragon. Prolonging the conversation might help. “Before I give this to you, I have a question that’s been bugging me lately.” I stated.

He raised an eyebrow. “So be it. What is your question?”

“Why is it that there are a pile of gems waiting for you in the entrance of the temple?”

The dragon chuckled which sound more of a grumble. “The dogs and I had an agreement that I will not destroy or kill them and their precious slave den if they give me the right amount of gems I want. Which reminds me, have you seen them? The gems they gave me were a little less on what they usually gave me.”

“They already fled before you got there.”

He snorted. “I should have known those cowards won’t complete their end of the deal someday.” He turned to look at me and stretched his claws towards me. “Now, let me have it.”

I grinned. “Here you go.” Extending the Benevolence to its full length, I thrust it forward and pierced his hand, the blade went through it completely. I smirked at this, If that didn’t happen I might as well be dead by now.

The dragon roared in pain and recoiled his hand. Seeing this as an opportunity to escape, I dashed towards the trees, quickly ducking on the vines being careful not to get entangled.

I didn’t run in a straight line instead I zigzagged my way through the mass undergrove hoping to lose the dragon. Thankfully, with all the trees covering me the dragon might not able to see me if he was to fly.

Suddenly there was a deafening roar. I looked back and saw the dragon was clawing his way towards me, destroying the trees on his path. I could tell that the trees were slowing him down, but it was not enough.

“You welp! You will pay for this and I’ll make sure I burn you alive nice and slow.” He growled, smoke emanating from his mouth as he said it. I could see there was a hole in his hand and was bleeding heavily.

Ignoring his threat, I looked ahead found a mass of tangled vines. I grinned and ran towards it. I gracefully maneuver myself through the vines with ease, only burning a few seconds on the mass of tangles before sprinting again to the trees.

I quickly glanced back and saw the dragon somehow got stuck on the mass of tangled vines. He roared in frustration as he tried to cut it with his claws, and even trying to burn it down.

With the dragon busy freeing himself from the vines, I began to look around for a place to hide. I found a large tree with branches and leaves that could easily keep me hidden.

I climbed it and hid myself innermost part of the tree, well cloaked behind the bundles of leaves and began to slow my breathing. With the help of the night shrouding me in darkness, I could tell I was pretty hard to spot. It even helps that the robe I currently wearing was black in color.

To make it sure I wouldn’t be seen, I quickly gathered some leaves and covered me with it, making me impossible to be seen even with the help of the dragon’s slitted eyes.

Minutes later I began started loud footsteps. Barely seeing through the thick leaves, I saw the dragon was desperately looking for me. I was certain that if I stayed here for a while longer, maybe he’ll just fly off. Besides he even got the gems he wanted and he had a gaping hole in his hand.

Finding my position uncomfortable, I shifted and immediately regretted my decision when I heard the leaves that covered me rustled a bit.

The dragons head instantly snapped towards the tree I was hiding and started approach it. Peeking inside the tree, I held my breath and didn’t dare to move a single muscle. It seemed that he was looking a bit longer than usual but I was sure from what I had done there’s no way he can see me, even with the help of his great vision without leaning towards me.

Before long, his head moved to the other side of the tree, hoping to find me. Seeing this as an opportunity to bail myself out of this situation, I slowly grabbed a twig, being careful not to have my movements noticed and I flicked it far off the tree.

The sound of the twig hitting the ground was enough for the dragon to move his head out of the tree I was in and go to the source of the sound, surveying the area in an attempt to find me.

This time however, I can see he was getting more frustrated. He practically burned down a tree when he found out I wasn’t there.

Suddenly there was a loud crack of thunder, followed by a rain. With the dragon getting poured in the rain, he appeared to have given up on the search for me and flew up in the sky with his gems in his tail in tow.

With the leaves of the trees preventing from getting soaked, I relaxed and waited for the rain to die down. I began to think of a way to cross the ocean without getting killed by windigos, but my first problem is ‘how am I gonna get a ship to cross it?’

I was thinking of Winsor that he may have a ship because he’s a pirate, but not all pirates have ships. I’m being stereotypical… Meh. I’ll just ask him when I see them.

Once the rain died down, I drop down the tree and went to find Winsor and the others. With the dragon and the rain distracted me I thought that they would have gone far off. But it wasn’t the case here because it was just barely half an hour after I started to trek, I saw a faint light coming from a clearing.

Thinking that it was probably them I move towards it but with caution because if there was a chance that it wasn’t them, then going to be some trouble. I was some kind of weird animal to them and showing up at night on their camp is a bad idea. They’ll probably think that I’m some kind of predator.

Creeping low towards the nearest bush, I peek at the campsite and see two familiar rats and a white pegasus. It appeared that Winsor and Surprise were sleeping at different sides of the camp, under the trees, while Yuric was up sitting on a log and watching the bonfire.

Relieved that it was infact them, I got out of the bush and walked towards the camp. My boots creating a crunching sound as I stepped on the moist.

Without even looking, Yuric suddenly threw a dagger towards me from out of his pocket.

My reflexes suddenly kicked in, I jumped to my left and dodge the incoming projectile, hitting the tree beside me where I stood just half a second ago.

Looking up his went wide as he noticed that it was me. “Whoa, sorry Mike I didn’t think it was you.”

“It’s okay I didn’t die or anything, forget about it.” He flinched as he saw me grabbed his dagger from the tree. “Catch.” I threw him the dagger and he caught the handle and put it back in his pocket. I was certain that it’s not a good idea to put a knife on your pocket but ehh, not my problem.

I walked towards to where he was sitting and sat beside him. We just sat there in silence, I watched the fire dance around the sticks and branches, the sounds of cracks emanating every few seconds.

Silence filled the campsite until Yuric spoke up. “You know, the pegasus pony couldn’t stop worrying about you.” He began.

“You mean Surprise?” I pointed out.

“Uh yeah, she couldn’t stop worrying that you might had gotten ate by the dragon.”

“Well good thing I have someone concerned for me, I guess.” I shrugged. “I don’t even understand why she’s concerned over me, heck we just met yesterday.”

“I think it’s because she’s a pony, and her cutiemark is balloons.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Uhh, cutiemark?”

“It’s the ponies special talents of sorts or something, I really don’t know I didn’t care enough to ask.”

“Hmm, what is it have to do with balloons?” he shrugged and let out a yawn.

“Why don’t you get some shut eye, I’ll cover you on your shift.” I suggested.

He chuckled. “Yeah thanks, I’m a bit worn out over what has happened over the past few weeks.” Bitch please, you’re not the one that got chased by a dragon.

I saw him left and I turned to look at the bonfire. Seeing the orange and yellow light waving around and flickering, it calmed me when I look at it. It’s like watching the static on the T.V. Damn I need to get a life.

The sun was beginning to rise, I was still sitting on the log and the fire has long been, only ashes and charcoals remaining. I already removed the bandage that covered my forehead since it will only distract me and the bruise on my head was all gone just a slight bump remaining. One of these days, Dust Wing is gonna pay.

I heard a loud gasp, then suddenly I was hugged by something soft and covered in white. I looked at surprise to see she was grinning ear to ear.

“You’ve catch on us, just like you promised!” he hugged me tighter.

“I didn’t made a promise.” I set her down. Damn, this pony is annoying.

“Well you’ve still catch on us and you helped us escape the mean dragon, you know what this means?” I kinda noticed that it was a rhetorical question, but fuck it.

“It means that I can now go and fix this damn hand.” I said wiggling it.

She shook her head before drawing in huge amount of air. “A PARTY!” she cheered.

Surprise hopped around the campsite madly before she stop and froze. “Oh, wait… I don’t have my party wagon with me. Those mean old diamond dogs took it.” Her ears drooped.

I rolled my eyes and walked towards her. I kneeled and petted her curly mane. “Hey, it’s alright maybe we’ll find those diamond dogs that took you wagon along the way.” I said softly.

“Really.” She asked, looking at me with a small smile on her face.

I shrugged. “Meh, I don’t know, I wouldn’t count on it.”

“Well, just in case we find my party wagon I’ll throw you the biggest, bestest party ever!” Well, I hope that we never find it.

“Yea you go do that.” I stood up and washed my face in the nearest puddle, washing off the dirt and grime that I got working on the mines.

“Ahh good to see ya laddie, nice to see ya didn’t get torched by the dragon.” I heard a voice with a pirate accent.

I looked up to see Winsor standing beside me with a smile on his face. “Oh really, what makes you say that?” I replied sarcastically.

He chuckled. “Just kidding lass and I assume that you beat that dragon good.”

“Not really, I just sort of ran away like a bitch when the dragon chased me.” I said getting a laugh from the pirate. “Which reminds me, your pal Phalanx just got bit in half and burned alive by the dragon, same with his buddies.”

Winsor sighed. “That minotaur was always the greedy one. I have always known that his greed will be the end of him someday, but I didn’t expect that it was gonna be from a dragon.” He shook his head. “But enough of that, have ye seen Yuric? I haven’t seen him when I woke up. I’ve tasked him to watch the camp for us while we’re sleepin."

I shrugged. “I dunno, I offered to watch the camp last night and he took it. That was the last I saw him, I assumed he was going to sleep. Don’t worry about him. Besides he can take care of himself, he’s a big boy.”

“And a big boy I am.” I heard Yuric said behind me. Turning around I saw that he was carrying some berries and a couple of fruits I didn’t recognize. “Thanks covering for me Mike, I had time to find these fruits and berries.”

“Good job, lass.” Winsor smiled.

“Thanks. I would have hunted for some meat but I wasn’t able find anything besides this.” he gestured his gatherings.

I saw Surprise flinched a bit when he heard the word ‘meat’

I glared at Yuric. “Nice job scaring the herbivore dumbass. Maybe next time you’ll think twice before saying it.” It was kind of ironic that I was the one who said it but I wouldn’t let go of this opportunity.

“Heh, sorry.” He smiled sheepishly

We all gathered around as Yuric set the food down. I realized that it wasn’t enough for the four of us so I didn’t bother to eat anything and the paranoid part of me was saying that the fruits I didn’t recognize were poisonous.

“Why aren’t you eating Michoroonie? You don’t like blackberries?” Surprise asked me, still munching on an apple. She then picked up some berries for me. “Here, how about some wild strawberries?” I shook my head. “Apple?” I shook my head again.

“No thanks, I’m perfectly fine, Surprise, I’m not even hungry.”

“I wouldn’t be sure about that lass, I haven’t seen you eat since you got thrown in the den.” Winsor pointed out.

“In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not normal.”

Winsor chuckled. “Aye, Yer kinda like a hornless minotaur, lass.”

“I’ll admit I kinda liked being called one of the feared warrior race in this planet but after I saw your friend Phalanx, ehh. It’s like being called a greedy bastard now. But yes I’m not normal, I barely need to eat to survive.”

“Why is that?” Surprise asked, devouring an apple with one bite.

“Because that how I was created.”

Surprise and Winsor gasp at my statement, while Yuric continued eating nonchalantly.

“What ye mean that how yer created? Ye mean ye weren’t born?”

“Yes. I’m a clone of an extinct species called ‘humans’. That means I’m an exact copy of my creator. The reason that I don’t need much food and sleep to survive because he put some bits and shits on me.” I answered casually.

Winsor laughed, placing a hand on my shoulder. “Yer getting more interesting Mike. First ye fought a dragon and then you tell us that yer a clone thingy.” He chuckled. “Any more surprises that ye have in store for us? Next thing we’ll now is that yer thousands of years old.”

I just stared at him blankly. He noticed this and stopped laughing. “Really?”

“Actually I’m two hundred fifty-seven years old.”

They stared at me wide eyed before Winsor let out a laugh again. “We’ll I’ll be, yer immortal. It’s like ye have the fountain of youth in yer, I’d give anything to live forever.”

“I wouldn’t count on that. Being Immortal is both a blessing and a curse. While it’s good to live forever, you might slowly lose your insanity along the way. You’ll see everyone you know die of old age while you’ll just continue on living. I might look like I’m normal but inside there is only one thing that keeps me from snapping and turning completely insane and before you ask, I wouldn’t talk about it, end of discussion.” I said to the sternly.

He eyed me for a second before shrugging. “Hmm, yer right about that Mike, I’ll gladly die with me family than see them become old and pass away.” I smiled at this. “But if I find the fountain of youth, then I’ll make sure that they get some of it so we’ll live forever as a family.” That wasn’t the point I was trying to tell him but who cares it’s his life anyways.

I noticed that they were done eating so I stood up. “We’ll it looks like you mortals are done. Now come on, we’re burning daylight. I’d like to leave this forest as soon as possible.”

“Aye, I think we should move east. This part of the forest looks familiar to me. My missus is probably wondering where I am.”

I shrugged. “Then east it is.”

We trekked on the forest for hours, my robe got constantly stuck on the low branches so I decided to remove it and tied them on my waist. Surprise and the rats didn’t have much problem moving on the jungle since they are like four feet tall while I constantly need to duck every time there’s a low branch or a mass of vines in my way.

Easily enough, for them, we finally made it out of the forest. Ahead of us was the path that leads to a fork. “Ahh I know this place, that fork leads to me home.” He stretched his arms. “I think I’m done traveling the seas for now and hunting buried treasures. I’ll spend more time with my kids and missus.” He turned to look at me. “Why don’t you give us a visit, I’m sure my wife would be jolly when he learned that you helped me escape the slave’s den and from the dragon.”

I shook my head. “No thanks. I think being sold as a slave already delayed me enough time. Maybe I’ll visit some other time when I finally fixed my hand.”

He sighed. “Aye, I understand. Being a slave and encountering a dragon took its toll on us. But if ye need anything lass, just come by my house. It’s just straight ahead on this path right here. Remember we’re pals for life,” he gazed at the white peguaus. “same for ye Miss Surprise.” She smiled and happily nodded.

I noticed that Yuric wasn’t on our side anymore. I looked ahead to see the rat already walking forward. I knew that something was up on him the moment I noticed that he was being in a hurry when we trekked in the forest.

I looked at Winsor. “What’s got him in a hurry?”

Winsor grinned. “He’s always the mysterious one. Life of a thief, I guess.” He snickered before he froze. “Wait.” He hastily reached towards his pocket and his eyed widened, mouth agape. “That no good scurvy-infested thief, he stole my ring!” he bawled.

I grinned. Yuric must have heard Winsor because I looked ahead to see him running. So that’s why he was awfully close to him when they were eating breakfast. I thought that he was gay or something.

Winsor sighed and looked down crestfallen. “Arghh, my reunion with me missus might be not be so good after all.”

“Meh, just explain to her what happened and maybe she’ll take it easy on you.” I reassured him.

He waved a hand dismissively. “Nay, me missus isn’t the one for words. I doubt that she’ll take it easy on me.” He chuckled. “Well, I think it’s time to get over this inevitable shout fest. Until next time me hearties.”

With that he left. I turned my gaze on Surprise, she must have put on her helmet a while ago because I noticed her playing it again, shaking her head back and forth, rattling the loose helmet. “Well, how about you?” I asked her.

She looked at me quizzically. “What about me?”

“Aren’t gonna go and do your party things or go to your home? We’re out of the forest now.”

She shook her head which caused her helmet to rattle back and forth. “No, I’m a travelling party mare, silly. Those diamond dogs took my party wagon so I don’t have a place to live anymore.” She said wearing a cheerful smile.

“Well, your awfully seem happy. You just lost your home and your still in high spirits. Are you sure you’re okay mentally?” I was starting to think Surprise was traumatized from the whole kidnapping and force to slavery incident, but I can’t be sure.

She knocked her head with her hoof. “Of course I’m okay, nothing wrong with the good ol’ noggin. I’m just happy that even with all of this, I’m spending this time with my bestest best friend.”

I sighed. “Let me guess, it’s me isn’t it.”

She giggled. “Of course you silly filly, who else could it be instead of you?”

“Umm I don’t know, someone you know and have met for quite some time. We just met like two days ago, how could we possibly be ‘bestest best friends’.” I said, making quotation marks.

She stood on her hind legs and knocked my head with her hoof.”Uhh hello, you gave up your only food for me when I got thrown in our cell. I thought that was pretty nice of you passing you food up to one you don’t know.”

I grabbed her hoof that was knocking on me and gently pushed her down. “I wasn’t even hungry back then and just so you know, I don’t eat flowers.”

“Still, that was pretty nice of you and you even saved us from the dragon! I can’t name anyone who would risk their life for me.” I should probably tell her that I just went to recover the Benevolence…Nah. “Others just avoid me, saying that I was a just crazy and annoying pony who needs friends.”

“I wonder why?” I responded sarcastically.

“I know right! I don’t know why they would say that to me. I have many friends.” Surprise fused as she waved her hooves in the air.

“Oh Really?” I asked in a bored tone, not caring in the conversation a slightest.

She looked away for a split second before turning back to me. “Yes.” I rolled my eyes. Why I’m not surprised. Heck that’s even her na—. Wait! Is she lying? I looked at her wide-eyed.

I was about to press on that but decided not to. I should probably stop being a dick for once, it might get me last longer without a knife sticking out of my back. “So, are you sure you’re coming with me?” I asked.

She nodded eagerly. “One hundred and twenty percent sure.”

“You do realize that traveling with me might get you killed, right?” She nodded. I grinned as I remembered what Winsor said to me before confronting the dragon. “Well, it’s your funeral.”

With that, we set track on our journey, going on the other side of the fork. We walked on silence for a moment before Surprise spoke up. “You know I won’t get killed.”

“Hmm?” I raised an eyebrow.

“I know I won’t get killed, not that my bestest best friend protecting me.” She beamed.

“If you think that I’ll babysit you along the way, then I suggest that you turn around right now."

She pouted. “Why not, I’ll help you make sure that you don’t do anything stupid.”

“What? Everything I do is carefully planned and calculated.” I lied. “Name one time I did something stupid.”

She grinned sheepishly. “Oh I don’t know, like the time you almost fought the diamond guard dogs in the mines for whipping on your back.”

“Okay I’ll admit that was pretty stupid, but I bet on you that rarely happens.” Actually I wanted to bust the dog’s ass for whipping me, but fighting an entire mine full of dogs is a no no. I may be an insane asshole, but I wasn’t suicidal.

“And I’ll make sure that rarely becomes a never, oh best pal of mine.”

I slowly shook my head and continued walking, thinking that I had enough of that discussion. I wasn’t probably gonna win anyway. “Yeah yeah, you go do that.” She grinned. “And by the way, you can call me your bestest best friend all you want but for me, we're still just acquaintances.”

She sighed and looked down. “I understand.” I smiled at this, maybe she’s not so annoying after all. That was I thought until she looked at me beaming. “I’ll make you understand that its fun when we hang out together so one day you’ll agree to be my bestest best friend, you’ll see!” Why didn’t that made me feel better?

We continued walking towards our destination, that is if we even had a destination. I stopped dead on my tracks as I remembered that I forgot to ask where the port was, heck I even forgot to ask if Winsor had a ship so it’ll make this trip easier. Why can’t be this trip be easier?

Surprise must have noticed I stopped walking and flew towards me. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?” she asked with a concerned tone.

I groaned and rubbed my temple. “Ughh, I forgot to ask Winsor if he has any pirate ship we could sail and even where the port was on that matter.” I facepalmed. “Damn, why am I forgetful today?”

“Maybe it’s because bruise on your head.” She said as she pointed at the bruise on my forehead when I had fallen down the tree.

Rubbing the spot it seemed fine, it wasn’t hurting or anything, just a slight bump. “I don’t know… maybe.. I hope not.” I really hope that I don't become like Dory from Finding Nemo, the thought of it scares me.

Then I realized that I had a traveling companion on my side all along. I looked at her with hope. “You’re a traveller right?” I asked her.

She nodded. “Uhuh, I’ve been traveling for most of my life.” She proclaimed with pride.

I leaned in closer, my hope that I didn’t fuck up slowly rising. “So you know where the port is, right?”

She put her hoof to her chin and looked upwards to think for a moment before returning to me smiling. “Nope.”

That wasn’t the answer I was hoping to hear. I collapsed on the ground and sighed in defeat. “Fuck my life.”

Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

"The Traveling Party Mare"

There we are walking along the path to what I hope the way towards the port. I toned out Surprise some time ago and focused on the path ahead of me. She was constantly babbling about some shit I didn’t care about, still I was grateful she decided to come with me and liven things up in this boring trek.

I still couldn’t believe that she was a ‘traveling party mare’ and yet she didn’t know which way to the port but I guess beggars can’t be choosers. If I follow this path maybe I’ll find a village and ask the locals for directions or if we are lucky enough this path might be the right way to the port, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up.

Suddenly I felt a slight breeze of wind on my side. I glanced to it and saw Surprise flying and looking at me with a cheerful grin on her face. Sometimes I wonder if she ever frown.

Must be once in a blue moon.

“What, do you need something?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Nope, but I found the place we are looking for.” She flew high up in the air and pointed at the direction. “There it is... I think. There are ships and houses and there’s the market and the dock and ooh, there is the ocean.” She beamed.

I smiled. “Good job Surprise,” I sighed in relief. “Good thing you can fly or we would have a hard time finding it.” Sometimes, I forget that she’s a Pegasus. I was about to set track but stopped at that thought. I looked at Surprise, annoyed. “Wait, why didn’t you did that before?”

She grinned sheepishly and tittered. “I guess I forgot, come on I’ll lead the way.” Before I could respond she flew away with blinding speed. I was a bit surprised that the little wings of hers could propel her that fast or even managed to carry her weight for that matter but I guess, well ponies.

She slowed down for a second and I managed to catch up on her. She looked at me. “I can’t wait to finally to get to the pony lands and see other ponies. I haven’t seen anypony in like forever. I don’t even remember what they looked like anymore.” She put a hoof on her chin.

I just shrugged, I can’t respond to that. I didn’t know what ponies looked like either. From what I have heard there are two types of ponies, the unicorns and the pegasus but I think there might be more of them. I’m still guessing since there are ponies, maybe there also might be horses around here….but I digress.

After minutes of following the hyperactive pegasus, we finally reach the port. There were many ships of different sizes that are docked, mostly pirate ships. Finding one isn’t going to be a problem but convincing the captain of the ships to cross the ocean might be. I can hijack one but I doubt I can maintain the ship with only the two of us and I didn’t know jack shit about maintaining ships, so that’s plan B.

Looking up to the sky, it is now nearing dusk. I need to find us a place to sleep like an inn and fast. I doubt I would want to spend the night on the streets littering with pirates and thieves. Getting mugged here was likely to happen and I didn’t want Surprise to get hurt in the middle of things.

Looking at Surprise I could tell that she was visibly exhausted from our journey, but she was still wearing the smile I have grown accounted for.

“Hey,” she looked at me. “Come on let’s go to the inn. I’m tired from all of this and I haven’t slept in two days."

She cocked her head. “But how are we gonna get a room, we don’t have any bits?”

I looked around and found a generous pouch if bits laying exposed on the side of a thing with black stripe on its bod—wait is that a zebra? I shrugged my thoughts, talking animals might be common in this world. Stealing the bits from it was gonna be easier than I thought it would be. The zebra was a bit distracted talking to a shopkeeper. I grinned. “Leave that up to me.”

We casually move towards the target. I was walking at a normal pace and looking around ala ignorant tourist, while Surprise followed me looking confused. I pulled the hood of my robe up in my head. My appearance might cause someone to look at me, I wasn’t gonna risk it, especially not right now.

The zebra appeared to be buying something from the shopkeeper. I snickered. Good luck paying for that, kid. I walk by him and professionally swiped the pouch of bits off of him. The zebra didn’t flinch or even felt it. He remained oblivious of his stolen bits while continued to talk to the shopkeeper.

I grinned. The pouch was loosely tied to his backpack….er horsepack so he should have seen it coming. Well, someone gotta teach lessons to these young ones.

I looked around and find that no one saw me except my faithful companion beside me. Looking at Surprise I saw that she was glaring at me. “Why did you do that for?!" she flew to me eyelevel and poked my chest. “Why did you steal from poor Mr. Zebra there? We could have just ask him some bits!” She scolded me like a child.

Oh, boy...

I rolled my eyes. “Sure let’s ask someone we don’t know for money.” I scoffed. “Sorry but I don’t beg for shit and I doubt he’ll even give us some bits anyway.”

“We could’ve just asked my friends here for some bits.”

I raised my eyebrow. “Well why didn’t you?” I continued. “And I thought you didn’t know where or what this place is?” I asked suspiciously.

Her eyes darted back and forth. “U-uhhh I f-forgot, yes that’s it. I forgot that’s all.” There’s that lie again. ”Come on, let’s go find the inn.” She suddenly bolted ahead before coming back to me a few moments later. “Uhh can you lead the way?” she tittered.

I rolled my eyes and set tracked. Besides, this place being the home of hundreds of jobless pirates finding an inn and a pub wouldn’t be that of a problem at all. I just need to ignore my aching body.

With the way things have gone through on my first week on this planet, getting knocked out on the fall, whipped hard at the back by the dogs while working on the mines, chased by a hulking dragon, and not being able to eat or drink for days was getting its toll on my ‘artificial body’. Not to mention I had been poisoned by a powerful venom before getting here…and raped by griffons, don’t forget that.

I was right, finding the inn wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. After minutes of walking around the port, I saw a four story house with a sign that said ‘Come on Inn’. Wow, that’s not really a bad name. I smiled and entered the establishment.

We entered and I paid the sluggish looking rat innkeeper for our rooms about a week long. It might be difficult for us to find a ship or highjack one if we’re desperate since I was pretty sure the captains of the ships wouldn’t set sail when the windigos are lurking in the ocean.

The room cost us fifty bits. I didn’t know if it was overpriced since I have no clue how money works here. I could tell the generous pouch I had lighten up a bit but altogether it was still full.

The innkeeper led us upstairs into our room. It was a bit small and dusty. It conveniently had two beds so I didn’t have to worry about sharing beds with Surprise. There was a rusty broken down door that leads to the bathroom. Like the rest of the room, this one didn’t escape from dusts and there were a couple of tiles that were either broken or missing throughout the floor. It had a toilet that was missing a flush handle and a shower that appeared to be rusted shut. And don’t get me started with me smell. It feels like I’ll get a chronic bronchitis at the moment I entered it. So far I rated this room to be…shitty.

I was starting to think that fifty bits was a bit much for this shitty room, but who the hell cares. I only bought for the bed and a place to stay while I’m here. Besides the money I had were stolen anyway.

I walked over to the bed and set down the short sword and a couple of daggers I got from the armory by the nightstand. I should probably buy myself a backpack to carry all of this but it could wait for tomorrow. All in my mind right now is lie on the bed and sleep like a log.

I heard wings flapping right beside me. “So why did bought the room for a week, Michoroonie? I thought we’re gonna cross the ocean?” Surprise asked as she laid on her bed, stretching like a cat.

I walk over to the cabinets to check if there are some things useful that’s left in there. “We’re gonna have to stay here for a while and find for someone to help us cross it.” I said, opening the cabinets and drawers one by one. “From the way things happening now, I think we’ll have a hard time finding one. Though no need to worry about that. We have more than enough money to extend our rent here. I’ll even look at some things I could buy while I’m out finding it.”

She frowned. “But that’s not ours!” Surprise said. “We should return it to Mr. Zebra. Besides we already have a room here for a week.”

“Like hell I won’t. We need this bits in case we need to stay here a bit longer.” Opening the drawing on the nightstand beside my bed, there was a small empty coin pouch inside. “Oh, and here is your half.” I said, grabbing a handful of bits to the pouch. “I don’t care what you buy with it, it’s yours. Do whatever you want with that except give it to the zebra we’ve stolen to. You’ll only be mistaken as the thief. ” I handed her the pouch.

“But—.“ I cut her off.

“Nope. Do not do it. Now if you excuse me I’m going to sleep like a log.” I placed the Benevolence just on top of the nightstand within arms reach. In the event someone stupid enough to try and bust in our room.

She sighed and nodded. “Okay…”

I smiled triumphantly and ruffled her curly mane. “Good.”

With that I laid on the bed and tried to get some sleep. It was a bit small for me. My shin was out laying suspended on the foot of the bed but it’ll do. It was a nice change from sleeping on the floor of the cell after all. With the help of the soft bed, I quickly found myself asleep. Like every time whenever I go to sleep, I didn’t dream of anything. Which is good.

But before I completely lose consciousness I heard Surprise whispered ‘goodnight’.

Morning came by quickly. I was woken up by the sun shining directly on my face. This cheap ass room doesn’t even have curtains.

Who would’ve guessed...

I got out of the bed and stretched like a cat, popping a few bones on my back. Surprise was already awake and out doing whatever she does. Seeing this place is full of pirates and thieves I should probably check if she’s alright, but the again she is a traveller so there was no need for me to do that. I already told her I wasn’t gonna babysit her and I need to find a ship to take us across the ocean.

Grabbing the Benevolence, I exited the inn. I left my sword and daggers at the room. I wasn’t going to need it. I’m not out looking for a fight and the extra weight will just bother me.

I set forth to the docks. Being more observant than yesterday, this place has griffons, minotaurs, rats, and dogs. Grabbing the hood of my robe, I hastily pulled it up covering my face. Even though if those dogs weren’t the same as the ones on the den, I wasn’t gonna risk it.

I can’t help it. I’m a paranoid son of a bitch.

With my hood up and my hand on stuffed in my pockets. I could easily be mistaken for a minotaur or even a dog if I walked hunched.

I took the fastest route to the docks. I can already smell the salty air and the ancient infinity of the sea as I slowly got near the docks. It was filled with ships of shapes and sizes. I could see a couple of minotaurs and griffins putting crates and barrels into the ships. I set forward to the nearest ship I saw.

Just below the ship, on the docks. There was a rat motioning a couple of griffins where to put the crates and barrels they were carrying. I approached him. He seemed to notice me coming and turned to look at me. His face went slack and his eyes widened at the sight of me before regaining his composure.

“What ye want, laddie? Can’t ye see we’re busy at the moment?” He asked, eyeing me with curiosity and slight annoyance.

”I just want to talk to the captain about business. Mind if I see him?”

He waved a hand. “Nay, but I’m afraid tah say he’s not here. The old seadog hasn’t return here for two weeks since he went out to the pubs in town one night.” He continued, “Can’t say I’m a bit worried fer him but the old man and I had gone enough time for me to doubt he’ll not comeback. I’m sure he’s just out there doin business or even picking up a couple crew fer the ship. So if ye want business you can talk to me fer now. The name is Ratatouille, the ship’s First Mate and cook. A darn good cook that is.” He held out a hand.

I shook his hand. “Michorean Vesper.”

He smiled. “So, what do ye need?”

I looked at the ship’s crew placing crates and barrels into the ship. “I can’t help but think are you planning to set sail? Because I’m planning to go somewhere and I need a ship to cross it.”

He chuckled. “Darn right. We’re planning on leaving after we’re done restocking and as soon as captain returns. Good to know ye trust us pirates than those merchant ship in terms of traveling safely at the high seas. No one attacks fellow pirates at the seas. Well except for the ones who are not part of our alliance but I guess we can hold them off with you and the crew.”

“Actually I have someone coming with me. She’s a pony is that cool?”

He nodded. “Aye, we don’t mind. The ship is full of other races too, we don’t mind a bit if she’s a pony, dragon or other scallywags I don’t know.” He thought for a moment. “Well, except for diamond dogs. Those good fer nothing furbags are nothin but trouble to us.”

I smiled at that. “Well if that’s the case, I guess you don’t have a problem for me then?” I reached for my hood and pulled it down, revealing my face.

“Of course we don’t. Yer a minotaur aren’t y—whaa?” He stared at me with wide eyes with his mouth agape. He stared at me for a few seconds before chuckling. “Hehe, well that’s a surprise. But mind if I ask where ye headed?”

“To the pony lands.” I answered. “I was thinking on talking to your captain on helping us cross the ocean in exchange for something.”

That seemed to catch him off guard. He did a double take and looked at me in disbelief. “Wait, I don’t know if I heard it right but did ye say ye want to cross the ocean?” I nodded. He sighed and shook his head disapprovingly. “Well, sorry to burst yer bubble there, Mr. Vesper but we’re not doing anything close that involves crossing the ocean. No ship has ever returned from their voyage on there. I think I know me Captain well enough that he’ll decline to whatever offer ye make to him.”

I let out a defeated sigh. “Well, I guess it didn’t hurt to try but I think I can persuade some other ships with a stupid or greedy captain on my offer.”

He chuckled. “Well good luck on that Mr. Vesper.” He patted my shoulder. I kind of like the tone of that name... Mr. Vesper. “And sorry fer my curiosity but what’s that offer you we’re giving to the captain?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know, whatever he wants. I’m a Mercenary, an assassin. I think we can work for something on that, given that you are pirates.” I answered. “If asks for something he wants to get from someone then I can steal it or if he asks for someone he wants dead then I’ll kill it, no witnesses or anything but given the right reasons of course.”

He raised an eyebrow and tilted his head. “Umm, right reasons?”

“Well yeah. I’m not gonna steal or kill someone just because asked for it. You better have a damn good reason for it or else I’ll have to decline no matter what you give or how much you pay me. I do that so no one would get the wrong message that I just work for money. I won’t allow allow myself to become a tool for someone.”

“Hmm, that’s sounds reasonable and wise of ya.” He smiled. “Well it was nice talking with yer but I think it’s best I get going then. I can’t trust me crew on placing those crates on the ship. Until then, Mr. Vesper.” With a nod, he left and returned to guiding and helping his fellow crewmates on the barrels and crates they were stocking on the ship.

Looking at the sea, I saw a figure floating far off the open sea. I squinted my eyes to see it better but still couldn’t make up the floating object. It kinda looked like a ship but I was not sure. Some parts seemed to be missing on it.

Suddenly, the bells from the ships around the port began to clang. The dock was quickly filled by the sound bells clanging from the ships. It was a bit deafening. I placed my hands to my ears to block the sounds, only removing it once the bells stopped.

Then I noticed the crews from different ships seized whatever they were doing and hastily to board their vessel and began lowering the flags, as if they were trying to move their ship out of the way, trying to create a path or something. I can hear the sounds of their cheers from my spot.

I heard someone approach me. Turning around I saw it was the rat from earlier, Ratatouille. “Hey, what’s happening and what’s that thing floating there?” I asked.

“I’m not sure, but me crew says that Rusted Feather, the griffon pirate ship that took sail about a month ago. They were supposed to cross the ocean.”

“Do you have a spyglass or something?”

He shook his head. “Nay but I think me captain has one. I suppose he won’t mind me borrowing it.” He called a random rat to fetch the spyglass.

About a minute later he returned with it and gave it to Ratatouille. After a few seconds he look through the spyglass, he chuckled. “Well it looks like it is the Rusted Feather but those lasses appeared to have been hit by a storm or something.” He cheered. “Well how about that, those feathered scallywags must be the first one to cross the sea. We might take ya on yer offer after all.” He turned to look at me and held the spyglass to me. “Take a look, Mr. Vesper.”

I grab hold of spyglass and peek through the tiny opening in it. In it I saw a ship or what I think what’s left of it. Most of the deck was completely ripped clean off, the flags was ripped into two and was slightly shredded on the sides. There was some kind of ice protruding on the sides of the ship and there was no sign of life or activity coming from it. From the looks of state of the ship, it was a kind of a miracle that the thing managed to stay afloat with that kind of damage.

Giving back the spyglass, Ratatouille led me to his ship. “What’s the name of it?” I motioned to the ship.

“Mickey.” Of course it is…

It was a bit small compared to the other ships docked here but he told me that it was one of the fastest and most manueverable ship. Overall it was kind of a decent ship. The designs weren’t half bad either, infact it could have been easily mistaken for a ship from the Navy. Well, if they have one in this world that is.

As we entered the deck the crews of the ship were cheering, celebrating. I guess being a pirate they were glad on the thought of sailing on the high seas again.

We waited for the ship to move closer. The whole port began cheering louder as the ship came near. Some of the other ships on the dock moved, making a path for the Rusted Feather.

Moments later the whole port suddenly became silent when they saw state of the ship. Just like I saw from the spyglass most off the deck was destroyed. It looked like it collapsed. If it indeed was hit by a storm, then that must be one hell of it. Parts of the ship appeared to be covered with melting ice. There were gaping holes from the bow and like the rest of the ship, it had ice inside it.

The ship was completely void of life or any activity for that matter. I tried to figure where were the griffon pirates that board the ship. The thought that they flew away was a bit impossible since griffons weren’t strong enough to fly through the ocean…or were they? I shrugged that thought, the other was they were attacked and they simply got eaten.

The crews of the Mickey and even the other ships on the port simply stared wide-eyed at the Rusted Feather as it lifelessly floated towards the dock.

‘”W-where are the crews of the ship?” one of the rats beside me stammered.

“Maybe the spirits of the ocean took them.” The other one nervously answered.

“What, how can you honestly believe that tale?” A minotaur walked to them. “There’s no such thing as spirits in the ocean. I think they were simply just blown away by a storm.”

“Oh really, how can you explain the ice covering the ship?” he replied. Hmm, that is a good question. “That’s got to be the work of the spirits and I think it ate them.”

I turned away from their argument and once again looked at the destroyed vessel. It was still moving and it was now floating dangerously towards the dock.

I nudge Ratatouille who was still in shock, staring blankly at the Rusted Feather. That seemed to get him off his trance. He shook his head and turned to look at me. “What is it Mr. Vesper, Is there be a problem?”

“That.” I pointed at the ‘runaway ship’.

Ratatouille looked at it for a moment before nodding, realizing what the situation was. He turned to his crewmates. “Bring out the ballista!” he commanded. “We gotta sink the ship before it wrecks the dock.”

“Aye aye.” The crew simultaneously responded.

Ratatouille may not be the captain of the ship but the crew followed his command without a moment of hesitation. That’s the sign how he’s well respected around here.

“You.” He pointed at a lone griffon. “Tell the other ships to shoot at the Rusted Feather. We can’t let it crash on the other boats and the dock.” The griffon nodded and flew off.

A few seconds later, the crew came out pushing a huge ass ballista and placed it at the side of the ship facing the Rusted feather. I would have asked if they have a cannon but I guess black powder aren’t popular around here.

Loading and aiming it at the ship. The bolt heads that they were using seemed to be designed to sink a ship. It had a wide tip that was made to punch big holes on a ship.

Before they could fire, one of the ship from the port already shot its ballista to the Rusted Feather. Rocking the whole ship and making a huge gaping hole at the side. I saw the griffon that Ratatouille sent was flying quickly from ship to ship, informing the captains about Ratatouille’s plan.

“Fire!” Rataouille roared.

Their huge ass ballista fired, sending the projectile to the rusted feather at high speed and hitting squarely in the middle. The shot was enough to split the entire ship to two.

Let me tell you, this ship ‘Mickey’ might be smaller than the rest of the pirate ships here at the port but it can surely pack a punch.

The rest of the ships from the dock continued to fire their ballistae at it, completely obliterating the ship. Wood and splinters were flying everywhere. It was a good thing that we were a bit far from the kill zone.

The ship sank before it even reached the dock. Some parts of the ship like the crow’s nest were left exposed from the shallow waters though.

The griffon from earlier landed beside us and saluted. Ratatouille who in turn nodded and motioned for him to return to his post. After the griffon left he sighed. “Well, it looks like the high seas became more dangerous than ever. I don’t know any of the ships here that’ll get ye across the ocean, certainly not after that.” He pointed at the wreckage.

I rolled my eyes. “That doesn’t faze me a bit. I still need to get to the pony land one way or another.”

“Why are ye keen on getting there anyway, Mr. Vesper. What got ye interested on going there?” he continued. “There’s nothing interesting on ponies from what I could think of, well except that the horned ones can do freaky magic but other than that nothing.”

“I heard the horned ones can fix this.” I held up my hand. “It’s completely paralyzed by a powerful poison from the knife that stabbed me. I can still save it but I need a unicorn to do it and there is only one way to get there and it’s crossing the ocean.” I shrugged. “That sucks but I can’t do anything about it.”

He stared at my hand blankly. “So, ye going to risk yer life crossing the ocean that most of the ones who tried to cross it died or were lost just so you can fix yer busted hand?”

I shrugged. “That just sums it up. Plus, I need both of my hands to finish my job here.” In fact, it could be a bonus if I learned what I can about the windigos while I’m out there. That thought made me smile a bit but there is one thing I haven’t thought about. How the hell am I gonna cross the ocean with all those windigos if I ever found a ship? Fuck it, I’ll just wing it. I’m already confident that I’m gonna cross it alive……but what about Surprise?

At the corner of my vision I saw Ratatouille smile. “Well, can’t argue if that’s for yer job. A rat’s gotta what a rat’s gotta do as what me Captain Winsor said.” So that old bastard actually owns a ship. How lucky of me. “But I’m sorry to say that I can’t help ye on yer journey Mr. Vesper, I’m just a first mate and I’m sure our captain wouldn’t want to sail on the open ocean with all that’s going on there.” Oh I’m sure he will.

I grinned. “Don’t worry about it. I'm sure I can find a way to get there somehow.”

“It was nice meetin yer Mr. Vesper. You can come to me anytime if ye need something.”

With a nod I left but not before glancing back at the wreckage one last time. Besides from the planks and pieces of the ship floating around there was something off in the wreckage but I can’t put a finger in it.

Suddenly one by one the remains of what I believe the Rusted Feather’s crew emerged from the water. I grimaced at the state of the bodies. It seemed that nothing from the water came out whole, the remains were just popping out pieces of limbs and body parts. Like the bodies were chopped.

Interestingly enough, not all of the remains that emerged from the wreckage belonged to griffons. I saw some glimpse of body parts of a rat and a minotaur as well. Some of the bodies appeared to be encased in ice.

From what I see here, the windigos might have some power or control over ice. And from what their names suggests, they might also have control over the wind as well. An icestorm…er snowstorm, maybe?

I decided to investigate further. It might do me good if I gathered all the information of what I can before leaving. It even helped that this revelation got me a bit curious.

Circling the dock, I spotted a dinghy with a rat beside it which I assumed was the owner. I walked towards him and tapped his shoulder. He eyed me looking annoyed. “What do you want?” he asked sounding he was doing all he can to keep his food on his stomach.

“I like you to take me to the middle of the wreckage.” The coxswain rat looked at me like I was crazy. He was about to decline before I revealed to him my generous pouch of money or bits as to what they called them. I tapped it, letting him hear the sweet sound of the bits ticking.

The rat eyed the pouch like it was the cure for cancer. He licked his lips before looking at me and nodding. “Aight, but make it quick. I got some other things to do.” No you’re not.

With that out of the way, I sat on his dinghy while the rat rows. Getting to the middle of the wreckage took time since the rat had to circle around, avoiding the debris. It didn’t help that the rat was doing all he could not to look directly at the pieces of remains floating around us, relying to me for directions.

What a pussy…

When we got to the middle of the wreckage, the amount of bodies appeared to be concentrated in here. I motioned to my coxswain to stop. “Okay we’re here, you can stop now you pussy.” I grumbled. “You look like you haven’t seen the dead.”

“I have, mate, but not pieces of it. It’s disgusting!” he looked up, averting his gaze to the mass of corpses beside him. “Just tell me when you’re done and I’ll get us out of here. And be sure to make it quick.”

“Well suck it up, I’m the one’s deciding if I make it quick or not. Don’t forget I’m the one paying you.“ He grunted but continued to look up.

I picked up a severed griffon leg floating near me. Inspecting the cut, it wasn’t perfect enough to be considered chopped. It was more likely it had been completely ripped apart from the body.

Throwing it away, I picked the nearest piece of body part I could find. It was another severed griffon leg, a hindleg…or was it a foreleg? I didn’t really know, I don’t give a shit. This time however it was partially encased in ice. Like the one I threw away, this leg also appeared to be ripped apart from the body.

Looking at the mass of pieces of griffon, rats and minotaur remains in the wreckage around me. I estimated the total crew of the Rusted Feather must be between thirty to forty pirates, considering that the Rusted Feather was one of the biggest ship here on the port.

Judging by the amount of pieces of severed body part, how the hell did they find time to rip them all apart limb from limb. I need a second opinion.

I looked at my coxswain who was still looking upwards. “Hey rat.” I called to him.

He looked at me, eyes straight not bothering to glance at anything. “What, are you done yet?” he asked.

I shook my head. “Nope, not yet.” I held up the severed griffon leg. “Do you know what this is?”

“It’s a leg of a griffon.” He responed with a scrunched face, fighting the urge to gag and vomit.

“No shit it’s a griffon’s leg. This part is what I was asking.” I pointed to the severed part. “It must have not been sliced because the flesh must have indicated it. I need to know your opinion in this.”

He eyed it for a second. “Well, it looked like it exploded or something.” Hmm exploded? I might put it as one of the possibilities, but how did it exploded? “That’s all I could tell and why did you even asked me, I don’t know anything about that. Go ask a doctor or some sorts.”

Suddenly the severed limb I was holding let out a foul stench of decay, making my stomach turn a little bit. I was a bit used at the stench since I’m an assassin and I kill for a living so it didn’t disturbed me but the rat beside me didn’t take it well. He gagged and turned around vomiting, letting his lunch loose to the sea beside us.

I sighed. “Okay, you can take us back now.” I waved him off and he shakily nodded, fazed from his show earlier and rowed us towards the dock.

I was glad I learned something from the wreckage, even if it’s a little bit. They seem to have a knack of ripping their victims limb from limb and encasing them with ice…..Wait ice? Shattering their bodies maybe? I could have learned about them more but unfortunately the only one beside me was a dumbass rat.

The trip back to the dock was a bit longer since his vomiting shook him up. I would have help him row the dinghy but then I realized I would have to pay him when we got back.

Well, better make him earn his money then.

When we reached the dock, I hopped out of the dingy. I reached to my pouch, pulling out two silver bits and tossing it to the coxswain rat.

The rat caught it and eyed the bits for a moment before glaring at me. “What, this is it?” He said, sounding disappointed and angry at the same time. “After all I’ve been through you only give me twenty bits?” he fussed.

“After all you’ve been through?” I rolled my eyes “Bitch please, you only rowed a boat. What more do you want?”

“I thought you’re gonna give me your pouch there if I take you there.”

“Hell no, I only tapped it. I didn’t said I was going to give it to you.” I turned around and began to leave. “Well, it was nice doing business with you.”

He snorted. “Oh you’ll regret this. I’m gonna tell Big Daddy on you.” With that he bolted away but not without leaving me with a face that said ‘What the fuck?’.

I shrugged it off and went ahead towards to the marketplace. He might be just be one of the insane ones. While I was walking, I saw a rat posting a some kind of a wanted poster beside a house. I moved towards it and saw a familiar rat drawn on it. It was a crudely drawn face of Yuric. There was also a note that reads:

WANTED

Yuric

Dead or Alive

By order of Queen Myridia the queen of the rats. For stealing her highness’ royal crown and her prized majestic necklace that was given to her from her mother the late Queen Maya, the former queen of the rats. The said rat is also alleged for multiple counts of rape, theft and murder and is considered highly dangerous.

Reward: 5000 bits

Will be paid by her highness herself for his apprehension in addition, you will be gifted anything on your heart’s desire and the royal guard will also provide you security for all of your family.

____________________________________________________________________

If the said rat you captured is alive, her highness will double or triple your reward money depending on the condition of the thief since her highness shall be the one deciding which form of torture this rat will face.

I chuckled as I read this. It seemed that he’s popular around here. Well shit, I wonder what would Winsor think if he saw this…

After reading the wanted poster, I set track to the marketplace to buy some supplies. I bought a sturdy leather backpack for my things and some fruits like apples. Most of it was for Surprise. I didn't eed much food to survive anyway and I heard the food inside the pirate ships suck ass and it’ll get you scurvy. I bought it in case she spent her money on some stupid thing.

In fact, where is she anyway. I haven’t seen her since I woke up this morning. Before I got too deep in thought, I shrugged it off. Like she said, she’s a traveling party mare so I wouldn’t have to worry about her being alone.

After shopping at the marketplace, I returned to the inn and set the things I bought in the room beside my bed before heading back outside. Since the inn doesn’t have a clock, I didn’t know what time it was but judging by the position of the sun it was late afternoon.

Since there was nothing interesting to do that I could think of. I wandered around the port. I need to think of something productive to do for the next few days while I wait for Winsor to return to his ship. I figured when he said he’s done traveling the seas for now means like a few days of rest and I doubt that old rat would abandon his crewmates like that.

While I was wondering around a familiar white pegasus carrying what appeared to be balloons at the town square. She seemed to be in distress as the townspeople…er rat, griffon, minota—whatever. They appeared to be avoiding her for some reason.

I decided to pry a little bit to know what was going on. Surprise flew towards a rat merchant and it sounds like she was bugging him for something. I strained my ear to hear what she was saying. “Hey I’m Surprise, can we be friends? I can throw you the bestest superlific party.” She handed out her balloons to the rat.

“No.” the rat merchant violently pushed away her balloons, some even popped. “Listen winged pony, if you don’t want to buy then leave my stall. I’m here for business not friends.”

Surprise frowned and muttered ‘pegasus’ before flying over to a walking griffon, blocking its path. “Hey, my name is Surprise, can we be friends? I can throw you the biggest most bestest terrific party!”

The griffon groaned. “No we can’t be friends but it would be nice if you move out of the way.” Surprise frowned but obliged. “That’s better. I can’t get to the pub with some pony blocking me now can’t we.”

Surprise beamed a little at that. “Ooh ooh, how about we hang out in there. I can buy you the drinks, it’s on me.”

The griffon looked more annoyed at the proposal and shook his head. “No thanks pony, I’ll pass. I don’t want to hang out with you, you’re too annoying and who wants to be friends with ponies anyway? Now buzz off!” Wow, that’s racist.

Surprise didn’t say anything, she simply flew away and landed on a bench far from me burying her face with her hooves.

I stood from my spot and approached the weeping pegasus. I sat beside her and patted her back. “Hey, are you alright?” I asked, thinking how to comfort the usually bubbly pony. I understood what surprise was feeling right now. She was lying to herself and to others that she had friends when she hasn’t had any.

She gasped and looked up to me with tear filled eyes. “Michoroonie!” Why she used her pet name for me at this point of time. I will never know.

“What’s wrong?”

“N-nothing, I was just napping.” She turned around and wiped her tears off her eyes.

“Uhuh, okay.” I nodded, not really believing what she said a bit. “So what’s really the problem?” I know I shouldn’t pry at her personal life since she didn’t pry mine but something tells me that she needed this.

Surprise looked at me, tears threatening to fall once more. “I… I lied.” She turned her eyes off me. “I really don’t have friends whatsoever. I lied to you.”

“Yeah, I kinda found out about that a while ago.”

“So, does this mean we’re not umm… acquaintances anymore?” she whispered shakily.

I shook my head. “No, I wouldn’t hold that against you.” she looked at me confused. “I know what it’s like to be alone without anyone to listen or to talk to. I’ve been there, I wouldn’t let that happen to you.” She smiled a bit. “Just be sure not to lie to me anymore.” I suddenly remembered what Astra said to me at some point in time. “Remember, losing a friend’s trust is the fastest way to lose a friend.”

She nodded. “I’ll remember that. So, friends?

I held out my hand. “Friends.”

She simply ignored my hand and tackled into a hug, tears falling down her face. I held her back and let her cry her eyes out. I was happy for her that she finally had a friend even if it’s me and she finally stopped lying to herself.

My mind was about to question how did Surprise became a ‘party mare’ when she doesn’t have any friends but I immediately pushed it out of my thoughts. The only thing in my mind was comforting this weeping pegasus in front of me. I was also happy at myself that I finally found a friend and someone I could trust. I never really had one ever since Astra died.

A few minutes later Surprise stopped crying and pulled back, wiping some fresh tears off her face. “Now that we’re friends now, how about I’ll give you a gift.”

I waved a hand. “Nah, that won’t be necessary and I don’t really like gifts much.”

“Ooh but I promise that you’ll love this.” She asserted. “Why don’t you go back to the inn and wait while I go get you a surprise. I guarantee that it’ll surprise you or my name isn’t Surprise.”

I shrugged. “Well, I guess I can’t hold you on that.” She grinned. “Just make sure you’ll be back safe. This place is crawling with thieves and pirates.”

“Don’t worry, this isn’t the first time I wandered this kind of places alone. Besides, who would hurt a poor defenseless pegasus.” I could think of several reasons. “I’ll be back in our room just after dark with my surprise.”

After that, she bolted towards in the direction of the marketplace. The sun was already beginning to set so she wouldn’t be out long. I returned to the inn and went into our room. With nothing to do for the next few hours while I wait, I would have showered to clean the dirt and grime off me but then again. The bathroom is a fucking cesspool!

I decided a quick nap would be nice while I wait for Surprise to return. Removing my robe and placing it at the nightstand beside me. I laid on the bed and quickly fell asleep.

It seemed that my quick nap got a bit longer than what I was expecting. I woke up with Surprise still hasn’t returned. Looking out of the window, I was guessing it might be around midnight or some time near it. Surprise must have returned hours ago.

Worried that something bad might have happened to her, I slipped on my robe and grabbed the Benevolence and a few daggers with me.

Thoughts began to circle in my head as I exited the inn and scurried over to the marketplace, the last place I saw her go. Was she lost or kidnapped?

The trip to the market was rather quick. Since it was the middle of the night, there was no sign of anyone. All the stalls are closed and left empty.

I began search for the white coated pegasus looking for any sign of a struggle if she might have been kidnapped. I circled around the place for what feels like hours but to no avail. I haven’t found a single clue to what happened to her or where she might be.

My search for Surprise eventually lead me to the town square. Looking around, I saw that the rat merchant from earlier was still there. He must close his shop late. I wonder if he has any clues to where Surprise might be.

I approached his stall. “Hey, have you seen a white pegasus with a curly blonde mane around here?” I asked.

His eyes lightened as he seemed to know what happened to her. “Oh yeah, I think Surprise was her name.” I nodded. “I don’t know what a pegasus is, but yeah I have seen her some time ago. That pony finally decided to buy something from my shop.”

I raised an eyebrow. “What did she buy from you?”

“Well, actually she didn’t buy anything except she asked me to engrave some words to her ring.” He said. “Though, she hasn’t yet claimed her ring from me.”

“When was the last time you saw her?”

He put a finger on his chin. “Hmm, I think it was a couple of hours ago.” That’s bad. “She was heading towards the pub with rat beside her.” Okay, that’s really bad.

I nodded. “Thanks.” I tossed out a couple of bits for him as a tip.

The rat smiled and pocketed it. I was about to leave but then the merchant stopped me. “Wait stranger,” the rat said. “You seem to know the pony, yes?”

“Yeah, you can say that.”

He nodded and grabbed something underneath his stall. He brought out a small pouch and tossed it to me. I managed to catch it and shot a confused look to him.

“What’s this?” I asked, shaking the pouch. It was light and it doesn’t seem like bits inside it.

“It’s the ring the pony asked engraved.” He replied. “I’m about to close up to get some shut eye but unfortunately your friend hasn’t come back yet. Since you know this pony then I hope you’re the one that can give it to her so it wouldn’t be my problem anymore. Besides I wouldn’t worry about the payment, she already paid for it. Well gotta go.” He began packing up his things and left his stall.

The more and more I think about it, the more and more it looked like she got kidnapped. She ordered to engrave something from her ring and it wouldn’t make sense that she didn’t cameback to it and that doesn’t include that she said she would return to the inn just after dark.

Setting track to the pub, I got a bit curious as to what ring she bought. I opened it and looked inside. There were two silver rings inside it, one was as big as an orange while the other one looked like a perfect fit for my finger but for the most part they looked the same just the difference was the size.

I grab hold the two rings and stared at it. Let me say you this, it was kind of beautiful. The design of the ring was simple but it looks better that way.

I found the engraving the rat was talking about inside the hoop. I leaned forward to read what it was. As I read the words wrote on it, my heart dropped. Those words suddenly fueled my search of Surprise. Now, I wouldn’t forgive myself if anything happens to her. Hoping to whoever took her didn’t lay a single scratch on her or I will make him surely regret it. I will kill him slowly and painfully…

I slipped on the ring that was for me and began to walk towards the pub with renewed vigor. The engraved words written on the ring was:

‘Bestest Best Friends’.

Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

“Lost Pegasus”

Walking along the path to the pub in the dead of night, the only sounds I hear was the sounds my footsteps and the gentle clanging of the daggers inside my robe. The streets were pretty much deserted except for some dark alleys, where the thieves pretty much live in. I was glancing left and right to try and spot the pub I was looking for. I don’t know this place very well, but my hunches told me that the pub was somewhere around here.

It was proven right as I saw a sign right across the street that points to the direction of the ‘Barrels of Rum’ pub. Hastily heading to that direction, I immediately spotted it. Like the name suggested, the design of the pub was modeled after a barrel, it was kind of like an oversized barrel with doors and windows. Okay…

Unfortunately for me, it was closed but that wouldn’t stop me from breaking in there. Looking at the sky, it was nearing dawn. I estimated I have about half an hour before the sun rises up. The pub wasn’t gonna open until night falls but I can’t let anyone see me exit here. I need to search this place quickly and leave before the townspeople wake up.

I swiftly grabbed the lock pick I bought from the market place and carefully picked the door. I stopped for a second glanced around to see if there was someone watching me. None.

I continued along expertly picking it and then moments later, I heard the sweet sound of the door unlocking. It was a nice change to finally have lock picks once again rather than trying to pick the door open with daggers.

Entering the pub and slowly closing the door behind me. I immediately looked around for any sign of the blonde pegasus. My eyes slitted eyes quickly adjusted to the dark. There was nothing here but tables and chairs placed unevenly around the room. There was a door at the back but I assumed it heads to the back alley of the pub.

Becoming aware that there is nothing in here, I decided to proceed to the stairs that leads to the second level of the pub.

While I was climbing the stairs I saw a single strand of light yellow hair on the corner of the fourth step of the staircase. The color of the hair was strikingly similar to Surprise’s mane. It makes much sense that it’s from her since the minotaur, dogs, and rats didn’t have hair or fur that match the color.

I picked it up and quickly crept my way upstairs. Like the first floor of the establishment, there was nothing interesting here I could find other than several half empty mugs on top of the tables. Note to self: steal some shit before leaving.

Searching around table by table, there weren’t any clues to where Surprise might be. I know she had been here since I found a strand of her mane at the staircase but nothing to tell me where she was taken.

I began checking for trapdoors, gently knocking and stomping on the walls and floors. So far I haven’t found any but I haven’t tried to check the first floor so there still might be one.

I noticed it was slowly getting brighter around the room. Looking out of the window, it was dawn and the sun is rising. There were a few locals already out and about.

Immediately halting my search, I dashed towards the exit. I’ll return to the pub later at night to find more clues and ask the ones the drink here if they saw her. Even with my time cut short I was a bit happy that I found a clue here.

As I got to the first floor I approached the backdoor right beside the stairs. It might be safer for me if I exit through the back alley where no one can see me leave the pub.

Opening it and stepping outside and to my surprise, there was only a dead end in front of me. Looking around the alley, there was nothing but trashes littered around and a dumpster at the side. With no way to get out of here the only way exit on the pub is through the front door. Man, talk about the fire hazard.

I went inside again and make my way to the entrance. However before I leave the pub I glanced at the window to make sure no one was passing by when I walk out.

When I deemed it safe enough I hastily exit the pub, pulling my hood up and casually walk towards the inn I was staying. I dropped the pouch containing Surprise’s ring at the nightstand before lying down on the bed and collecting my thoughts.

I waited until it was near noon the time, when stalls in the marketplace opens up. There’s something I want to buy there in case I see the kidnappers. As the time comes, I pushed myself out of the bed and grab my things before heading down towards the market.

While walking I stopped for a moment. Wait, I forgot to steal some shit. I grunted and continued on walking.

In there, I searched a stall for plants and potions. Near the center of it, I saw one with a zebra owning it. Thankfully for me, it wasn’t the same one I stole the bits from. Not that I care or anything.

I bought some kind of potion from him; it was kind of like ammonia but instead of waking me up, this one would keep me up. The zebra merchant proclaimed that this potion greatly helps warriors in battle. It gives them a slight advantage on their enemies. If I breathed in the potion then no matter how grave the wounds I suffer, I wouldn’t get unconscious or knocked out. What he doesn’t know, I wasn’t planning on using this on myself instead I was planning on using it on someone.

Before leaving the stall, I bought a couple of ropes and a jar of fire ants. The zebra merchant asked me what do I need those for, but I replied that ‘it was for an experiment’. He shrugged and went back waiting for customers.

I spent the last hour wandering through town and asking the locals if they had seen Surprise last night. My question goes down to ‘Have you seen a winged white pony with blonde mane late last night?’ since every time I used the word ‘pegasus’, they basically asked what that was. Seriously, what’s wrong with these people?

I limit the ones I asked to the ones that didn’t look and act suspicious. I can’t take a chance that I might ask one of the kidnappers that question and risking of them knowing a six foot tall hairless monkey asking about their hostage.

While I was walking on the road to the town square I saw a glimpse cloaked rat eyeing me from the top of the clock tower. Despite the fact that he was well hidden on one of the pillars, he was still clearly visible on my trained eye despite I didn’t look straight in his direction. What he didn’t know is I’m an assassin. Spying or stalking someone is like second nature to me.

I continued to walk and remained to act oblivious of my stalker. I saw a small weapon shop and walk towards it. As I slowly approach the shop, I saw the rat from the tower disappear.

About a minute later before I entered the shop, I briefly glanced on my back and saw the stalker walking towards my direction. He wouldn’t see me glancing at him from the slightly crowded streets with the hood of my robe blocking my face. He was clearly following me and looking from the tower seemed wasn’t enough to him. BIG mistake!

I entered the shop and acted like a typical customer, browsing swords and bows. A few moments later my rat stalker entered the shop and cast me a brief look before turning in to the weapons, lifting some sword and acted like he was checking them out.

To avoid suspicion on me and to continue my oblivious, ignorant everyday shopper act. I bought a parazonium dagger, trying it out with a couple of thrust and swings before paying and leaving the shop. I could tell the pouch I had was lighter than when I first stole it but it worth it.

I spotted an armor shop and move towards it. I could tell the rat waited a couple of minutes before leaving and following me. Cliché ways of stalking, what a surprise…

The moment I entered the shop I immediately bolted to an open window and jumped outside, ignoring the stares from the customers and the shopkeeper inside. Landing at a small alley outside, I looked at the crowded street to find the rat.

I found him walking, his eyes trained at the shop I entered, believing I was inside. Picking up a rock, I threw it at a random walking griffon across the street. It hit him dead on the head, knocking him out causing the ones passing by to gasp and the rat to look.

With a distraction on the way, I quickly glided in the crowded streets, getting myself low to the ground and snatched the stalking rat from his back. I spun him around locking up his arm, cuffing a hand to his mouth and dragging him to an alley. That took me less than a second; he never had a chance to react. His small frame even made the job brief and easy for me.

Thankfully for me no one had seen me dragging the rat to an alley. The distraction I created made them look and scamper to the out cold griffon.

“Mummhhph mmumph!” The rat struggled to break free of my grasp.

“Shhh shhhh.” I cuffed my hand harder on his mouth to make him stop, my nails digging enough to break some skin in his cheeks. “I’ll just ask you a few questions and I’ll be on my way. So let’s get this over with.” I whispered to him as I dragged him further into the alley.

There was a door out back that looked like it hadn’t been opened for years. Before opening it, I placed an ear to hear if anyone is inside…Nothing. Perfect.

With my good hand cuffed on his mouth and my paralyzed one was locked on his arms, I had no choice but to kick to door open. Looking at the hinges the door seemed to open inwards so I wouldn’t have a hard time breaking it down.

On my second kick, the door opened. I dragged the struggling rat with me inside. The look inside appears to be an abandoned meat shop. Thank god, there weren’t any rotting meat.

With no one to hear his screams and wails, I removed the hand cuffing his mouth and replaced it by putting a dagger in his throat. The rat struggled to break free even further as he felt the cold blade pressing on his windpipe.

“What do you want?” he hissed, his voice slightly cracking.

“Like I said earlier, I’m just going to ask you a few questions and then we’re done here. For the first one; why are you following me?”

“Fat chance monkey. No matter what you do, you wouldn’t get any of us to talk and I would rather die than to tell you.” Hmm…us? He didn’t seem to know that he unwillingly said that he didn’t work alone. What a dumbass. I could even tell that he’s bluffing when he said he’d rather die than to tell me.

“Oh really?” I slowly traced a dagger to his throat letting out small streams of blood, causing him cry in pain. It wasn’t enough to kill him but enough to get my point across.

“Okay s-stop!” I did. “I would tell you everything right now but why? You’ll just kill me when you get your answers.”

“You don’t have a choice on this” I continued. “But okay tell you what, after you answer my questions then we’ll have a coin toss to see if you get to live your life. What do you say?”

He was silent for a moment before nodding. “I was following you because I was planning on kidnapping you.” I raised an eyebrow. “You see I work for a group. If I kidnap someone I’ll get bits double if the one we kidnap is a strange creature like you. Then we sell them to the diamond dogs to work for the as a slave. Easy money.”

“So a group of kidnappers huh… Have any of you captured a white pegasus with blonde mane?”

He was about to nod but he realized there was a dagger pressed in his throat. “Y-yeah she came in our hideout last night knocked out, being carried towards the holding cell.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Where is this hideout you’re talking about?” I asked coldly.

The rat shivered a bit when he heard the tone of my voice “A-at the back of the Barrels of Rum, the pub near the town square. There’s an opening at the back of the dumpster. That’s the entrance we use on our hideout.”

I nodded. “Okay, you’ve satisfied my curiosity.” I reached out to my pouch of bits. “Now for the coin toss.” I heard him gulp.

What I didn’t realized when I proposed for a coin toss is that I can’t open my pouch grab a coin since my good hand was pressing a knife on the rat’s throat and using my paralyzed hand wouldn’t make sense. No shit. And letting him go would be a bad idea since I know he’ll just try to escape.

I grinned. “Well shit. Looks like we’ll have a slight change of plans…” I said, my voice getting darker.

I felt the rat shook lightly at that. “What do you mea--.”

Before he finished, I slit his throat and let him go, pushing him down to the ground. The rat’s body harshly met the cold hard floor as he gurgled incoherent words and choke from his blood. I didn’t slit his throat hard to kill him instantly but enough to cut open his windpipe, making him slowly and painfully die in suffocation.

I grabbed a bit from the pouch and turned to the dying rat. “I wonder, if we played the game then could have you won?” I asked him even though he couldn’t respond, just gurgling incoherent words. Since his windpipe is cut open and all.

I looked over the bit. “Okay I’m head, the one with the ten bits sign at top and your is tails, the one with the crown at the center.” I tossed it in the air and let it hit the ground. It bounced and spun around a little bit before settling down….head.

I chuckled. “Well, it looks like it’s just your bad day after all.” I spun around to the door and left the rat bathing in his own blood. It was just a matter of time before he dies of suffocation anyway.

I left the alley and casually walked around town like nothing happened. I would have barge in their hideout and take Surprise but I need to scout and confirm first if he was indeed telling the truth about the location.

While I was walking on a road near the dock, I spotted a familiar rat wearing pirate clothing and a tricorne on its head on the path ahead not far from me. He turned to look at me and we stared at each other for a few seconds before he waved a hand and yelled. “Miko old pal, good to see yer.” He took a few steps to get closer to me. “How ye been? I never thought I’d see ye in this place.”

“Yeah yeah, it’s good to see you too and I’d like hear your bullshit pirate tales but now is not the time.” I whispered bullshit and he didn’t seemed to have heard it.

He tilted is head. “What the problem lass, and where’s Miss Surprise?”

“That’s the problem. She was kidnap last night by a group called…eh who cares, they’re planning on selling her to the dogs for slavery. Have you ever heard of the group like that?”

He eyes narrowed as I explained. “Aye, they be the same reason I was the Tartarus hole slave’s den for weeks.”

He took towards the docks. “Come with me on me ship lass, I’ll explain on the way.”

As I follow Winsor I noticed he was now wearing some sort of an eye patch on his left eye. His eye seemed fine the last time I saw him. Was it some sorts of a pirate captain’s fashion style or something?

Winsor’s head turned to look at me. “The group name is Silver Shackles. They be responsible for all the kidnapping happening round the port. Only a few know their group. They work at night so no one will witness when they kidnap somerat. Even if somerat saw them they be too afraid to tell the anyrat about it.”

“Looks like the town guards are doing quite shitty on their jobs.” I commented.

He chuckled. “Ye really think a town full of pirates and thieves will have town guards?” He laughed. “If ye ever see one, they be just workin for the bits.”

That seemed to make sense. Who would work as a guard on a town littered with these bastards anyway. “So how did you managed to get captured by them. I killed one of their group earlier and they weren’t that skilled or dangerous to me.”

“Are ye sure it’s one of them?” I nodded. “How, I can’t see a single scratch on ye.”

I shrugged. “I have my own ways.”

“Well to answer yer question, I was quite drunk when I fought them. They seem to get a kick on kidnapping pirates because of the reward money they’re getting.” He crossed his arms. “But to tell ye the truth, I would have defeated the three that we’re coming to me if I ain’t drunk.”

“I’m calling bullshit on that but since you’re my one way ticket out of here…eh I’ll let it slide.”

He looked confused. “What ticket?”

“I’ll tell you later.” I answered as I looked ahead of the road.

He shrugged as we continued our walk in silence and minutes later we stopped in front of his ship. “We’re here.”

Winsor turned to me with a big grin. “Let me welcome you aboard to me ship. The gal’s name is--.”

“Mickey.” I cut him off. “Yeah, I’ve been here.”

He sighed. “Well, there goes the surprise.”

We boarded the ship. In time we saw Ratatouille sitting on a crate thinking deeply. The moment his eyes drifted towards us his eyes suddenly widened and stared at us dumbfounded, mostly at Winsor.

He immediately stood up and saluted. “Captain!” he moved closer to us. “It’s good to see yer. Where have ye been? the crew and I we’re beginning to get worried.”

As soon as he said that, the crews from the ship suddenly turned to our direction and some even poke their heads out of the window.

“Aye mateys, I’m back from being kidnapped.” Ratatouille and some of the crew gasped. “While I appreciate yer concern we have a bit of a problem here.”

“Umm yer been kidnapped, but how did ye manage to escape Captain?”

“I’ll tell yer that story some other time but now, they be a problem that concerns us. They be a group called Silver Shackles that centers on capturing us pirates and either turning us in for the reward money or selling us to the dogs for slavery.”

Ratatouille’s eyes narrowed upon hearing that and slowly nodded. “So that’s why we been hearing some of our fellow pirates have been gone missing.”

“Aye and apparently my friend Miss Surprise have also been captured by the scallywags.”

Ratatouille scratched his head in confusion. “Umm Captain, who’s Miss Surprise?”

Winsor smiled. “Just the most gleeful pony yer ever meet. Sadly though I don’t know where those bandits are staying. I was knocked out when they brought me there. So I’m blind here.”

I step up. “Eh, I know where they are.” That got their attention to me. “One of their rat I killed earlier told me it’s at the back alley of the Barrels of Rum’, although I can’t tell if he was telling the truth or not.”

Winsor nodded. “Aye, I’ll send one of me crew to scout for it and can ye tell where did ye leave the body of the dead rat?”

“It’s at the back of some kind of meat shop, the one in front of the armor shop and near the town square.”

“Aye, hopefully his clothes will make a great disguise for one of me crew if they scout there.” He turned to Ratatouille. “Lass yer in charge for that one. Pick one of our crew that most resembles the dead rat.”

He saluted. “Aye aye, Captain.” He said. “But what about our fellow pirates, should we warn them about the group?”

He swayed his hand, dismissing it. “Nay lass if the word about them gets around, they might move out of their hideout or they’ll be ready to expect us when we attack. We’ll make sure we limit the ones who know.” He grinned. “And I know just the right pirate for the job.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Who?”

There we are, inside the captain’s cabin of the biggest ship on the port. I was sitting there chillin’ beside Winsor as he explained the situation to the captain of the ship. I was quite impressed at the ship we were in. It was three times the size of Winsor’s ship Mickey and it was littered with ballistas and at the ship’s sides and even some motherfucking big ass trebuchet at the middle. The whole ship just screams ‘Don’t fuck with me or I’ll sink yo ass’.

The interior of the ship was incredible either mind you as we’re currently on the expensive looking captain’s cabin, it’s almost like it was designed for royalty. It was filled by priceless pieces decorations and some portrait of the ship’s Captain. Although as impressive and big as this ship is there was one thing wrong in it. Winsor told me the ship’s name is Gondola... What the fuck?

“So we have a rag tag group that abducts our fellow pirates right here at the port.” The captain said. She was a sexy fox woman wearing blue pirate attire with a matching tricorne on her head, similar to Winsor’s black attire and tricorne except there were no holes and loose stitches littered around her clothing. Her voice was smooth, sounding a bit seductive. I would have guessed if she was a temptress either. “I guess that explains why some of my ship’s crew suddenly went missing a few days ago. It’s good to know I’m the first one you told me about this Winsor and you bet they’ll certainly pay for what they did. I’ll help you bring this a stop, even though I don’t like working with you.”

Winsor smiled. ”That’s great to hear Captain Quinn.”

“Oh don’t get giddy over it.” She said. “So what’s the plan old rat?”

Winsor turned to me as if he already knows that I already have a plan laid out for him. And I have!

I nodded. “Okay, bring me a map of the port and I’ll explain to you my plan.”

Quinn looked at me. “Oh and who are you,” she smiled seductively. “I’m guessing you’re one of those rare creatures like me huh?” she asked biting her lip.

I would have played along with her but now isn’t the time for it. “I concentrate on the problem here, now is not that time for that. I’ll ask your questions later...well maybe. Now the map would you please kindly.” She nodded and brought it out, laying it on her table.

She grinned and turned to Winsor as I scrolled over the map. “Now that’s leadership. Serious and eager to get down to business, not the kind of traits you have.” She mocked eyeing Winsor.

“What are ye talking about Quinn?” Winsor argued. “I’m a great leader. Ye can even ask me crew all about it.”

“Well if you say so…” She turned to me. “Sorry umm--.”

“Michorean.”

“Yes sorry Michorean, I was just joking around. I’m not really that kind of fox, if that’s what you’re thinking.” She grinned sheepishly.

“Yeah, I know. Now listen, Winsor’s crew will be infiltrating their hideout, preferably the one that wears the disguise and another one just to keep it safe. While they’re inside confirming if the Surprise and the captured pirates are in fact there, we’ll be out hiding in the shadows waiting for the infiltrator’s signal. It’s nothing too complicated really, just a wave in our direction will do.”

Winsor spoke up. “Where we’ll be hiding lass?”

“Any of the dark alleys will do but for me I prefer us wait on the roof of the houses just in near the pub just so we’ll be well hidden and we can quickly move out.” I explained, tracing my finger on the map. “Once we get the signal, at that we’ll bust right in the pub. Then after we get in you’ll know what to do.”

Winsor tiled his head as if he was waiting for me to finish. “Wait, that’s it? After we get in ‘you’ll know what to do’, what kind of plan is that?”

“What, if you’re expecting me to be some sort of general carefully planning it all to you one by one, then you’re dead wrong.” I leaned back in my seat. “I’m an assassin. I don’t actually plan it all in advance, I just sort of wing myself out of the situations I’m in. I always expect the unexpected.”

Quinn stood up. “Well I better relay the plan on my crew. Although I’ll add something on the plan to them other than ‘you’ll know what to do’.”

I waved a hand. “Eh, go ahead. The only thing I’m in for is getting Surprise out and to do something to them.”

After she left I turned to Winsor. “I’ve been wondering.” I started. “What’s with the eye patch you’re wearing? Your eye seemed fine last time I saw you.”

He placed his hand over it and lifted his eye patch for me to see a…big ass black eye.

“The hell happened to that?”

He gave a short suppressed laugh. “Hehe, well you see when me missus found out that me ring got stolen…she wasn’t very happy about it.”

“So, she beat the shit out of you.” He nodded. “Well, shit.”

Later at night, just an hour after sunset, I found myself at the roof of one of the houses just in front of the Barrels of Rum. We got into our position a bit early so no one would see us climbing roofs and shit. Beside me was Winsor who was busy shining his cutlass for some reason. Meanwhile I was checking over my daggers and the short sword I got from the armory have which found out was named a cinquedea.

“Yer sure ye don’t want a sword lass? I got a spare cutlass here.” Winsor suggested.

I shook my head. “Nah I’m good, I don’t really know how to use swords much. I prefer dagger and spears. It’s just that I don’t know much about sword fighting other than to swing it like an extension of my arm.” I shrugged. “I never really got a chance to learn how to use one since I got the Benevolence with me.”

“Hmm, how about I teach ye lass. If I say so myself, I’m one of the best pirates when it comes to sword fighting you’ll ever find.”

“There goes that ego of yours again Winsor.” Quinn appeared behind us, Winsor in turn snorted.

“I’m merely stating the facts Quinn. Nothing wrong that.”

She shook her head and turned to me. “I’m quite surprised that you don’t know how to wield a sword. I could have sworn you’re a sword type.”

“Well you’re wrong about that.” I said. “But I gotta say, I might take your offer on teacher me sword fighting Winsor. Any new skill would be a plus for me but let’s do that some other time. We’ve got some killing to do.”

Winsor grinned. “I’ll take yer word then, but know this it’ll not be easy as you thought it will be.”

“I didn’t think it will be. I always expect the worst but I think it’s nothing I can’t handle.” I continued. “Whatever you’re planning I’ve been through a lot worse than that.” I said as I turned to the road below me.

The infiltrators already the pub half an hour ago so it’ll be only a few moments before they signal us.

“The infiltrators had been in there awfully long.” Winsor commented. “Ye think they’ve been caught?

Quinn laughed at the rat’s comments. “That’s unlikely. If they’ve been caught then we would’ve have seen a commotion down there.” She said. “But judging it’s your crew I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“You’re a bit of a bitch aren’t you?” I turned my head to Quinn. “You just love to shit on everyone.”

She giggled. “Not really. Just to my fellow pirate captains. I’m a bit competitive to them so I’ll have a good reputation to them. Nobody loves a softie.” She explained. “And by the way why did you call me a bitch?” she looked over herself.

“I think you can tell that I’m far from looking like a female dog. I’m a fox, one of the rarest creatures of Equis. There are only about a thousand of us, how can you get wrong to that?”

I facepalmed. “Nah, that’s not really what I meant. When I said bitch, it means you’re…well an asshole.” She glared at me. “That’s enough grammar lessons for today, it seems there’s our signal.” I pointed to Ratatouille waving at us. He appeared to be wearing the clothes of the rat I killed earlier. Guess he plays the part well.

Winsor stood up. “Well, it’s show time!” he grabbed the rope we placed earlier and repelled down letting out a battle cry. Well, there goes our surprise attack…

I followed suit while Quinn just jumped down the house since she is a fox or part fox...eh I don’t know.

As I entered the pub, ignoring the screaming innocent patrons trying to get out of the fight, I beelined to the back of the pub I was in earlier today. When I got there, I saw the dumpster already pushed aside, revealing the entrance of the hideout. The entrance appeared to be a flight of stairs going down. I saw a couple shadows climbing it.

At an instant, I drew a dagger from my sleeve and threw it just in time for a rat to emerge and hit him squarely on the neck. He stumbled down bleeding profusely, grasping his neck in a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding. He wouldn’t last long.

“Good throw there lass.” I heard Winsor from behind me commented. He drew his cutlass and charge towards the nearest bandit. “Now watch this!” I didn’t.

I quickly dashed down the stairs to find where they put the prisoners. The place seemed to have three tunnels that I didn’t know where they headed. So far there is no resistance.

Winsor emerged from the stairs behind me. “Ye see that laddie.” No I didn’t. “That’s how ye fight with a sword.”

I rolled my eyes. “Where are the infiltrators?” I asked. “They’re the only ones that have been here. They’re our map in this place.”

“Right here!” Ratatouille and the other infiltrator step inside. Ratatouille pointed to the tunnels and started explaining. “The center tunnel leads to the cages of the prisoners while the other ones are connected to the houses of the other bandits. They have a leader that be named Big Daddy. The big lass is the one in charge on who’s to kidnap who. Me best bet is that he’s somewhere deep in the hideout, I can’t be sure though. That’s about it.”

I nodded. “Okay then, Winsor.” I called for him. “Take the tunnel in the middle and break free Surprise and the pirates. And remember kill everyone, no prisoners. If you bring one, then I’ll kill them off myself.” I turned to Ratatouille. “You and your group make sure no one escapes here.” He saluted.

Quinn winced as I said that. “That seems to be a bit umm...overkill.”

“Yeah, I’m a bit of a crazy, sadistic bastard when you kidnap someone from me.” I smiled. “Now while Winsor breaks free the prisoners we’ll be taking the other tunnels hunting down the rest of the bandits and hopefully the Big Daddy guy.”

She grinned at me coyly. “I thought you said you don’t plan it all.”

“I didn’t, I’m just winging it right now. As I said expect the unexpected. I thought when we first enter here we’ll be fighting their resistance right away.”

“Umm…those we’re just the guards.” Ratatouille pointed out. “Whiskey and I killed off the patrols in this area so they won’t know we’re coming. I can tell they’re not really organized but they should probably know by now that somerat’s raiding their hideout judging by yer rather loud entrance.”

Quinn quickly glared at Winsor who in turn found the ceiling suddenly interesting. “Okay, Quinn.” She turned to me. “Since some of the tunnel leads to the houses on top so we’ll likely be going door to door, I need you to group you’re crew to as many as you think we can safely fight the bandits off. Some of us are expected to split up depending on the number of houses this tunnel’s connected.

She nodded and started to group us. Winsor and his crew had already gone to the middle tunnel to let the prisoners out. Quinn named each group Dawn, Sunrise and some shit like that and assigned a leader to it. The group will then have its new name and leader if it splits up like civil, nautical and astronomical. It was kind of brilliant if you ask me.

After sometime she finished and I found myself part of some of her group. “Wait. Why did you put me in a group?” I asked, scratching my head. “I prefer to work alone. I tend to use anyone beside me as a meat shield.”

“Don’t worry it’s all part of my plan.” Quinn explained. “You’ll find out why later.”

I shrugged. “Well, who’s the unlucky group I’m with?”

She grinned. “That would be mine.”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” I said. “Now let’s go.”

Our group ran towards the tunnel to the right. A few seconds later, the tunnel seemed to shift into somewhat like a hallway of some sorts.

Quinn motioned for us to slow down. The hallway we’re in seemed to be littered with huge portrait depicting gory paintings, ranging from a griffon being brutally rape to a rat getting decapitated. It was rather umm…disturbing, more of the fact that the large paintings were coincidently placed at the side of this hallway. This whole area just seems to scream…

“Something is wrong here.” I heard Quinn mused, rattling me from my internal monologue there. “It has been fifteen minutes since we entered their hideout, still no resistance from them. I know the infiltrators killed the patrols but they can’t be that deaf considering the noise we created when we got here.”

“That’s because there is.” Quinn stopped and looked at me, confused.

“What?”

“We’re in a trap, stupid.” I replied grabbing hold of the Benevolence.

Just as I said that, the giant portraits on our sides opened like doors and a swarm of bandits came rushing out, charging to our group with a deafening battle cry.

At an instant, I extended the Benevolence to its full length and quickly swung in a wide arc. The swing managed to hit all of the incoming bandits and even some of our group. But hey, I don’t give a shit.

Quinn took a step back from my evading my swing, drawing her dual swords in the process before charging at the bandits.

Meanwhile I dodged and block the swings of the bandits around me. It was kind of hard to fight with one hand mind you but I won’t see me complain, I’ll just find another way to use my paralyzed hand.

Most of the bandits quickly surround me as they saw I was the one dealing the most damage to them wielding the Benevolence. A lone griffon bandit was the first one to charge and flew to me with blinding speed gripping a cutlass in his talons, intending to slice and dice me. I wasn’t having any of it. I threw the motherfucking Benevolence like a javelin right at his face. The griffon froze from the sudden, unexpected attack.

He didn’t have time to dodge the spear in time as the Benevolence cleanly tore through his skull with ease and exit through his rear, leaving a gaping hole to him from top to bottom. Well, shit!

The other bandits stared wide-eyed at their dead comrade before charging to me all at once, but this time however with slight hesitation and fear. Some of them even stayed behind and tried to lift the Benevolence. I grinned a little at that. I know they wouldn’t be able to fight with it. For them it’s just a super heavy piece of dull metal pole.

I threw a couple of daggers on the charging bandits, some managed to hit them but some got blocked. With a group of bandits charging at me, I did what I had to do. I ran away from them like a bitch while throwing daggers at my back. It was with reason, of course.

Two of the charging bandits went down for the count as one got hit at the heart while the other one was hit at the knee. When I ran out of daggers to throw, the bandits charging me went something from ten to two, a gruff looking diamond dog and a lean looking griffon. With the battle even out I instantly spun around and drew a cinquedea I had with me and charged at them.

Now when I said I suck at using swords, I really mean it. Somewhat… But luckily the weapon I had was a short sword, so it had some kind of resemblance of a dagger. It was light enough for me to quickly block the blows from the sword of the dog and griffon. As much as I suck at using swords, I did land quite a few good hits on them as I nearly chopped the griffon’s wings off. Maybe all I need is a little practice after all.

But with this weapon I’m holding, I can only do so much. The fight was pretty much one sided. Heck why didn’t I throw the short sword instead of the last dagger I had anyway? I wormed my way out of the two bandits and made a break towards my daggers. I may somewhat suck at sword fighting but I can surely dodge their swings and blows with ease.

I plucked my dagger right off the chest of a dead bandit. I quickly turned around just in time for me to duck the dog’s axe swinging right in front of my face. If that swing happened half a second earlier then my neck would be cut open by now.

With now a trusty dagger at hand, I can now safely end this fight. The dog tried to swing his axe again but this time I was ready for it. I managed to grip the haft of his axe stopping the swing from hitting me before landing a swift, powerful kick right at his nuts. And I swear I heard some cracking in there. The dog lost his grip on his axe and grab hold of his aching balls.

In the corner of my vision I saw the griffon rushing at me with his sword thrust forward to stab me. I took a hold of the dog in front of me, turning him to block the blow for me, making him my meat shield. The bandit dog let out a blood curdling scream as he got stab by his fellow bandit, the blade going right through his body.

I shifted the body a little to get the sword stuck between the bones. It proved to be successful as the griffon struggled to pull his sword out, tugging it with reckless abandon. When he finally noticed the sword isn’t coming out he quickly back off and attempted to flee from me. His eyes trained to me, bringing his talons up as the last means of defense.

Unfortunately for him, he was too focused on me that he didn’t notice one of my group member was sneaking from his back. My group mate stabbed the griffon from his back, the blade cleanly tearing through his chest. He roared in pain for a second before going down the floor limp.

“Thanks.” I said to the rat.

He silently nodded to me before running back out to fight. The battle went on for a few more minutes before we managed to kill off all of the bandits. I smiled a bit as everyone took my order and didn’t let any of them live or escape alive.

I went back to where I left the Benevolence and saw an interesting sight of Quinn having a hard time trying to lift the Benevolence off the ground.

She snorted. “How can you even lift thing?”

I moved towards the Benevolence and casually pick it up. “Like this.”

Her jaw dropped. “B-but how?”

“It wasn’t given to you wasn’t it? That’s why.”

“Well who gave it to you then?”

“Just someone you don’t know.” I answered. “Now come on, I just saw some doors and hatches just ahead. Let’s check them out.”

She sighed and nodded to her crew who then began to split up, checking every doors and hatches. The group had gotten significantly smaller since the ambush but there were still plenty of us, I think. I counted twelve, well shit.

I picked up all my daggers that were scattered from the battle and went to the farthest hatch on the hallway. As I was getting there, I heard the sounds of fight going on a couple of doors beside me. I assumed it was Quinn’s crew killing of the hiding bandits. Good job.

Looking at the hatch, I saw it was bigger and a bit more decorative than the other ones. I had no doubt this was the hatch to the house of Big Daddy or what his name. It was a bit stupid for them to put a hatch that’s quite noticeable it belong to their leader at the first glance if you ask me, but I guess they didn’t expect anyone to be this far in their hideout.

“Quinn!” I called for her.

“What?” she screamed. She was fighting a minotaur bandit that busted from a door. “I’m kind of busy right now.” She jumped back as the minotaur took a swing, smacking the ground with his huge battle axe.

It took a dagger out and aimed it to the minotaur for a second before throwing it with a vicious overhand motion. The minotaur flinched as the dagger hit its hand, making him lose the grip of his battle axe. That distraction seemed enough for Quinn as she spun and swung her swords in an opposite direction of each other right to the neck of the minotaur, decapitating its head.

“Good now bring some of your crews here; I found the hatch to Big Daddy’s house.”

She brought two griffons and a rat with her but right after ordering her remaining crew to sweep the area for hiding bandits. “Thanks for the assist there, that mangy bull was getting a move on me.” She said, panting looking tired from all the battles.

“No problem, but we’re not done yet. We still need to kill Big Daddy. Come on let’s climb the hatch.” I pointed to the rat. “You, you’re going first.”

He nodded and started climbing the hatch, followed by me, Quinn, and lastly the griffon since he can fly and all. As the rat opened the hatch and the moment he pokes his head out, an arrow suddenly shot through his eye killing him instantly. I managed to move out of the way as his body dropped to the ground like a ragdoll.

“…Shit. I knew they were expecting us, but damn they got archers.” I turned to the griffon. “Toss the body through the hatch.”

He looked at me confused.

“No questions just do it!”

He did. He flew to the ground retrieving the body before flying up and tossing the body through the hatch. The moment it went through the hatch, I quickly climbed up and jumped out towards the body. I grabbed it and turned it around just in time to shield myself from a barrage of arrows coming to me.

Thankfully none went through the body. Looking around I’m appeared to be in a huge lobby, probably from a mansion. Using the body as a makeshift shield, I quickly dive in the back of a counter, putting my back against it.

“Don’t come out yet!” I yelled to the hatch. I got a response but I didn’t understand what they said, so I’m assuming it is ‘okay’ or ‘got it’.

I weighed my options. Those arrows seemed to be shot at a five o’clock direction. “So, it probably takes about half a second to load a bow and a whole second to aim and shoot it. Give and take on the distance of a target, but seeing this is just a lobby they might not be far off.” I mused.

Suddenly, a large butcher knife appeared on my field of vision. I luckily dodge it in time as it struck the wall, carving the wall of the counter where my head was just half a second ago but not before leaving a light gash on my cheek.

I reached my hand up, over the counter and grabbed what feels to be the assailants head and violently tossed him to the wall, leaving a small dent from the impact. I saw the attacker was a rat and it seemed a bit fazed from the crash. Before he can collect himself, I quickly rushed to him and hacked his throat, killing him instantly.

With two corpses at my disposal, I immediately thought of a way for Quinn and the griffon to get here. Grabbing one body at one hand and using the clothes lock my other arm for me to carry it. I carried them close to myself and went to the hatch, getting barrage by arrows once more.

“Okay you can get out but stay close to me.” I some metal tapping before seeing Quinn emerge below.

“It’s about time, my hands are aching holding on to the ladder.” She said, drawing out her dual swords.

“Quit bitching, we got archers in here.” Suddenly I felt the arrows stop hitting my meat shield. I took a quick peek by the body and saw the rat archers gesturing something to each other. They were on the second floor just above the staircase. They nodded to each other and began split up, one of them are going to our side while to other one was going in the opposite side in an attempt to flank us. It was a bit clever but risky.

And it just gave us a window of opening when they stopped shooting arrows towards us. I immediately drop my meat shields and shouted. “Move!” we scrambled out.

The rat archers saw this and instantly aimed their bows towards us, but before they could fire, I quickly threw my each of daggers at the two of them, making halt their shot and hide on a nearest cover. I ran towards the rat on the left while Quinn and the griffon rushed the one on the right. The griffon threw my meat shield he was carrying towards the archer knocking him down.

Quinn then proceeded to fucking jump to the second level without the need of a staircase and began to chase the archer down. Meanwhile I used a chandelier to quickly get to my archer. Grabbing hold of the rope supporting it, I cut it bringing it down while shooting me up towards the ceiling.

Up in the air I immediately saw the rat archer hiding behind a statue. I rapidly throw all of my daggers at him, while going down. Landing beside him, I hurriedly walk towards the bleeding archer. He succeeded in dodging the first two daggers I threw at him but the last two ones managed to hit him on the shoulders and the stomach, he was bleeding to death from the looks of it.

The rat was flat out shaking in fear the moment I neared him. “P-please don’t kill me!” he covered himself with his hand in desperation.

His face seemed familiar to me and also his voice. “Wait, you’re the pussy coxswain rat from the port yesterday.” I shrugged. Now I know what he meant when he said he’ll get Big Daddy. I brought his face close to mine. “Now, where’s the Big Daddy you’re talking about?”

“H-he in his panic room, there’s a trap door behind his portrait. The room is heavily guarded.” He said, his voice cracking. “That’s all I know, I promise.” Another trap door, really?

I nodded and brought a hand and an arm to his neck.

He tried to move out my grasp but was too weak to do so. “W-what are y-ou doing to me?!”

In a swift execution, I snapped his neck, making a rather noticeable crack sound. His eyes closed and his body instantly becomes limp. Before I leave his body I pulled out two daggers that were embedded on him. Well, I got to have some of this in case there’s an emergency.

I stood up and walk over to Quinn who was pulling her sword that was stabbed at the back of a dead rat archer with the griffon beside her grinning. “Well, you seem to be having a blast.” I said to the smiling griffon.

“Indeed I am. I haven’t felt like this kind of rush in my life it’s like I drank a whole keg of rum but still sober.”

“Well that’s good.” I shrugged. “I don’t know what you mean by that but we’ve got another one, possibly the last one.” I looked at Quinn. “I found out the big guy is hiding at his panic room. He’s stupid enough not to move out of here and trust his hiding spot. He didn’t think that one of his henchmen was gonna sing for his life though.”

“How did you find out where he’s hiding?” Quinn asked.

I just pointed to the dead rat behind me.

We got to his room in record time, there are a couple of bandits we encountered on the way but we quickly got rid of them. We entered the room and just as I thought, it was empty. On the right side of the room, there’s a huge portrait of what I think is Big Daddy. The name kind of suits him. Even though that’s a pimp name. Big Daddy is a fat diamond dog wearing a high class tunic, with a smile that says ‘I’m rich and powerful’. Well, let’s see about that.

We approached the portrait and began checking it out. “It’s locked but the whole thing seems to be hollow.” Quinn inquired. “One good hit and this might break into pieces.”

I nodded and approached an office desk and began to lift it.

Quinn and the griffon looked at me confused. Quinn took a step towards me. “Michorean, what are you doing?”

“Don’t ask just help me throw this shit through the trap door.” She grinned knowing where this was going. No pun intended. “They might be expecting us but they wouldn’t expect their fucking office desk crashing towards them.”

“A bit bold if you ask me, but clever. Let’s do this.”

“Okay just remember once we throw this, then we immediately bust right in there and slit throats, got it?”

Quinn and the griffon nodded. We threw the office desk at the portrait. Just as planned, we got right in as the desk crashed through the painting. The smoke and the splinters from the crash kind of help us as I saw a couple of archers knocked out covered with splinters.

I pulled out the Benevolence and began to butcher everyone in front of me. Our sudden, unexpected entrance left them fazed, surprised and confused, easily taking them down. I shortened the Benevolence for it to be effective in these tight spaces. The panic room just appears to look like a private library, books and shelves surrounding our sides.

Suddenly I heard a rather loud snort behind me, quite sounding like it belonged to a bull. I spun around to see a pair of minotaurs ready to swing their huge axes to me. I successfully dodge their attack that would’ve split me into two, jumping out towards them. Unfortunately for me, one of the minotaur quickly recovered and backhanded me with huge force, sending me flying to the other side of the room and hitting one of the bookshelves, making a pile of books land on top of me.

“Quinn, the minotaurs!” I shouted under the pile of books.

The fox captain quickly noticed my distress and charged at the two of them. One of them saw her charging and quickly swings his axe to her. She saw this and ducked, bringing herself to the ground sliding her body on the floor. She brought out her dual swords and swung it at the calves of each of the minotaur maiming both of their legs.

At the same time, I wouldn’t take this fight sitting down. I immediately stood up and run towards the minotaurs. With their calves sliced, they have a trouble getting up so Quinn easily killed one of them with a swift strike on the chest.

While approaching them, I got hit at the back by something. The impact knocked me to the ground, faceplanting myself to the floor. “Michorean!” Quinn shouted behind me.

Painfully pulling out the thing that hit me on the back, I saw it was an arrow. Shit, there’s still an archer on the loose.

Suddenly I heard the string of the bow firing. I quickly rolled over dodging the arrow and stood up, looking for the shooter. I saw him right beside our griffon teammate that was clashing swords with a rat. I would’ve thrown my dagger to the archer but he hid himself behind the clashing rat and griffin.

“Griffon, the archer!” he shifted his head towards the archer, hiding on the bookshelves.

I saw the rat battling him grinned and was about to take advantage of the situation. But that ain’t happening.

Right before he made a move, his throat suddenly catches the dagger I thrown at him, knocking him dead to the ground.

With the rat dead the griffon flew towards the archer. He shot an arrow to the charging griffon but he easily dodged it with a simple spin in the air. The archer didn’t had time to run or reload his bolt as the griffon collides to him, thrusting his sword to the archer’s chest and sends him flying to the bookshelves.

Glancing around the room we’re in. I saw Quinn killed the remaining minotaur and was currently wiping the blood off her swords. I chuckled at the sight of the minotaur she had just killed. He was completely cut in half, the body and the legs seperated. Don’t mess with the sexy pirate fox.

Quinn sheathed her swords and looked around the bloodied panic room. “Wait, where’s Big Daddy? Is he supposed to be here?”

A small whimper came out from back of the panic room. I approached it and saw the fat bastard hiding at the back of a chair, shaking like a leaf. “Well, look who we have here.” I walk towards the chair and tossed it out of him, making him crouch to the ground more. “What, fat bitch can’t fight?”

He whimpered a bit more at the tone of my voice. “P-please, whatever you want I can give it to you. Is it money, bitches, powe—“

“I don’t want any of that shit.” I spat. “I just want to see you die.” I brought out the rope I bought earlier on my backpack and tied him to the chair he was hiding. I turned to Quinn and the griffon behind me. “I think it’s best for you to leave. This might get ugly…nah this’ll get ugly. I’ll meet you outside of the pub a bit, I’ll make this quick.” I turned back to Big Daddy. “Well quick for me, but not to you.”

They stared at me wide-eyed before leaving the room silently, knowing where this was going. I ripped out a piece of cloth from a dead minotaur and reached out to my backpack bringing out the tunic I bought earlier. I generously soaked the cloth with the liquid and brought it towards Big Daddy.

He started struggling from his chair. “What are you going to do wi—hmmpumphmm“ I gagged him with the cloth.

“Don’t worry that’s not poison.” I grinned. “It’ll just help you stay awake from this torture session.” I brought out a dagger. “Now for the fun part, this would’ve been normally done slowly but since their waiting for me…eh I’ll just shut the fuck up.”

I tore open his stomach, revealing his guts. He let out a blood curdling scream and his breathing became ragged but sadly for him, no matter how painful this was he couldn’t pass out from it.

I pulled up the sleeves of my robe to avoid the blood from staining it. Not that it was stained enough but to keep it from getting more blood to it. I placed my hand inside of him and grab hold of his intestines, pulling a part of them out to get some sort of opening.

“Ruwrnmumphhumm!” I heard his muffled screams, his body jerking back and forth in an attempt to get my hand off his insides.

When I deemed the hole big enough, I pulled my hand out of him and pulled out the jar of fire ants. Opening it, I violently stuffed it inside his guts. If the internal bleeding wouldn’t kill him, then the fire ants will do.

I wiped my blood soaked hand on his tunic. “Aaand that’s that. I told you it’ll be quick.” I turn around and head to the exit. “Well, enjoy the fire ants eating you alive inside out.” I chuckled as I leave him on his own devices, hearing his muffled screams as I leave the manor.

“Well, what took ye so long lass?” Winsor asked as he approached me.

We were currently outside of the pub collecting ourselves. “I just did a few things along the way here.” I replied. “Quite understandable given that we fought a fucking army getting to this Big Daddy. What did you fought?”

He snickered. “Just some scallywags guarding the prison, quite few if ye ask me. We finished busting the prisoners out an hour ago and waited for ye and Quinn here.”

I glanced at the freed pirates. Quinn was helping her crew get rid of their shackles on them but still, no sign of the white pony. “Winsor, where’s Surprise?”

“Riiight here!” suddenly I felt a pair of hooves wrapped around the back of my waist, giving me a bone crushing hug. Looking at Surprise, it seems nothing wrong happened to her except for splotches of dirt and grime covering her coat, but overall she still wearing that smile on her face.

The whole kidnapping didn’t appear to traumatize her, but as expected since she just got enslaved by the diamond dogs a couple of days ago so this wouldn’t be a problem to her at all.

“Hey, are you alright?” I patted her head.

“Yup!” she answered still hugging me.

“Can you get off me?”

“Nope!”

I placed a hand on my chin and tried to think of something. “Oh, hey I got your ring.” I grabbed the pouch from my backpack.

“Really?!” She beamed and pulled herself off me, grabbing the pouch with her wings and opened it. “I thought I lost it I—wait where’s your ring?”

“I already put it on.” I showed her my finger.

She beamed even further and hastily placed it on her hooves. So that’s why it’s the size of an orange. Well, no shit!

“Michorean!” Quinn stepped forward, wearing a smile. “You’ve help me free my crew and help get rid of the bandits. I-I don’t how to thank you, but I’m in your debt.” She was about to bow her head to me but instead she quickly wrapped me in a hug. It lasted about a couple of seconds before she pulled herself off me.

“Umm, no problem. To be honest I only did it because they got Surprise.” I shrugged.

Winsor snickered. “My my, is the famous Captain Quinn getting soft?” he mocked.

I saw Quinn blushed and looked away. “It was just a way for me giving gratitude.” She snorted. “An old fleabag like you wouldn’t understand.”

“Hehehe, whatever ye say.” He left us, giggling on the way.

Surprise’s ears perked up. “Whoa, Michoroonie did you hear that she’s a queen,” she looked at Quinn and yelled. ”you’re a queen?” she suddenly looked like in thought. “Wait, but a queen of what exactly?”

Quinn chuckled and shook her head. “No I’m not a queen of anything. It’s Quinn not queen, Q-U-I-N-N. My Quinn is short for Quinnley. I hope that cleared that up.”

Surprise vigorously nodded. “Uhuh, so you’re saying you’re not really a queen.”

Quinn shook her head smiling and turned to me. “I’m gonna go to look over crew now. If you need anything, just ask.” I nodded. “It was nice meeting you Miss Surprise.”

“It was nice meeting you too, Quinnie!” Quinn froze for a second before continuing on walking.

With that she left, leaving me with Surprise. I nudged her and she looked at me. “Come on; let’s go back to our room. We’ve got enough of shits for today.”

Later next day I found myself at the Mickey, inside the captain’s quarters talking to a rather confused pirate rat. “Yer want to cross the ocean, are ye crazy?” he paced around the room. “And ye want to use me ship?”

“Yeah, that’s what I just said. I need to get to the pony lands, and I think you owe me when I helped you bust your ass from the den distracting a motherfucking dragon for you.”

“Ye volunteered for it…”

“It doesn’t make any difference to me whatsoever. I still save your ass.”

He was silent for a moment, before he let out a slow sigh. “Alright lass, I’ll take ye through the ocean.” Wait what, that’s it? I thought I need another half hour of convincing him or something. “But me crew will be the one to decide if they want to come or not. I won’t be able ta sleep at night knowing me crew died at my own hands.”

“Well, it sounds reasonable go ahead.”

We went to the deck of the ship where we find Winsor’s crew doing…eh pirates stuff. Well, mostly talking and drinking some rum they’re holding.

Suddenly, Surprise came into my field of vision and grab hold of my cheek. “Are you okay, did something happen?” she asked, checking over my head. She’s been like ever since she saw the arrow wound I had on my back last night when we got in our room. She became concerned and a bit disturbingly protective to me. “Did Winsor hurt you? I’ll give him a piece of my mind.”

I stopped her. “I’m fine. He didn’t do anything to me. We just talked and stop being so damn protective to me. Who are you, my creator?”

“You’ve got a hole in your upper back,” she waved her hooves around. “A hole!” she yelled at me. “How is that fine?”

“It’s just an arrow wound.” I shrugged. “I’ve taken worse shots before, don’t worry about it.” I continued. “Oh yeah, and good news we got a ride to the pony lands. You’ll see your fellow ponies again.”

She smiled. “That’s great.” She said before looking at me like a mother scolding her child. “But you need to be more careful, I’m the one that’ll keep you from doing something stupid and I’m gonna do a great job. Got it?”

I waved a hand. “Yeah yeah…”

Looking around, I saw Winsor at the center of the deck. “Aye gather around me mateys, I got news that be telling.” The crew stopped whatever they’re doing and walked towards the captain.

“What be the news Captain, are we finally going set sail and leave the port?” Ratatouille asked stepping forward.

Winsor nodded. “Aye,” the crew cheered. “But we’re gonna set sail to the pony lands across the high seas.” They stopped and froze. “If any of yer don’t want to be part of this journey I understand, ye can stay here in the port to wait for us. Keep in mind that we’ll be the twentieth ship that’ll try and to cross the high seas and there’s a possibility that we’ll never come back.”

The crew went deep in thought, some muttering to each other. About a minute pass, most of the crew shook their heads and left the ship. The only remaining ones are Ratatouille and eight crews, the infiltrator rat from last night, four griffons, two minotaur, and one rat.

Ratatouille spoke up. “There might be a few of us Captain, but we nine remain loyal to yer.” They simultaneously saluted.

Winsor smiled. “That be good ta her me trusty first mate. Maybe twenty is our lucky number, and we might be able ta cross it.” He giggled.

“So, when do we expect to leave here?” I asked Winsor, looking over the ship.

“Soon lass, just give us a few days to ready the ship in tip top shape. Going to the pony land might take us about a month.” He answered. “That’s the fastest any ship can get there, and this is the fastest ship in the sea so yer in luck.”

“That’s good. We need to get set too and buy the some things we might need, like food. I’ve heard about the type of food you pirates prepare while traveling. And I ain’t gonna let Surprise and I eat that shit.”

He chuckled. “How wrong you are lass.” He shook his head. “We’re different than those other dirty ‘ol ships, we have someone they don’t. We have Ratatouille, the best cook there is.”

“If you say so…but still, I’m gonna buy some food for Surprise and I. In case it turns out you’re bullshitting me.”

“It’s your call lass, I won’t mind. Just don’t knock it till ya try it.”

While walking around town, buying some stuff for our journey like food, water, a new sword for my training with Winsor… and some shit ton of daggers. Hey, I only recovered two of my eight daggers from the raid.

“I still don’t get why you love daggers, Michorean.” I heard a voice say behind me. It was Quinn’s.

I picked up the dagger I just bought and tucked in under one of my sleeves before turning to her. “Well this is my favorite you know, for throwing shit to people.”

“Why not buy yourself a proper throwing knife if you’re just looking to throw them. Those daggers aren’t made for that kind of use you know.”

“Yeah I know, but I got used to it. Plus I also use my daggers as a weapon to slit throats, so that’s a plus to me.”

She giggled and shook her head. “I’ll never understand you.”

“You don’t have to, and you won’t. I always do things that are unexpected, so trying to will just give you a headache.” We were currently walking out of the marketplace and to the town square. “What brings you here, out of your ship anyway?”

“Oh, just for some breath of fresh air. I got bored just sitting around my ship, so decided to go for a walk through town and then I found you.” She glanced at my new sword attached to my waist. “And by the way, it’s nice that you’re finally getting Winsor to teach you to use swords.”

“When I get an opportunity, I take it. I kill for a living so any new skill I learn is a bonus.”

“Mind if I test it?” she pointed at my new sword.

I unsheathed it and handed it to her. “Nah, go ahead.” She took it and gave it a few graceful swings. “Hmm… I’m wondering, who’s better at using swords, you or Winsor?” I’m kinda guessing it’s Quinn, but since I haven’t seen Winsor fight I’ll give him the benefit of a doubt.

She giggled, giving it a last swing before handing the sword back to me. “I’m not really bragging or anything, but I can honestly say I got a slight edge over the old rat. Every day I work my skills to perfection while Winsor just hangs in a pub getting drunk off his rear, and also I managed to beat him on a spar a few months ago when he challenge me. ” She answered. “Hey, how about we get your sword in a test run and spar a bit. Maybe teach you a quick lesson while I’m at it.”

I shrugged. “Meh why not, I’ll get it a shot.”

We went to a clearing just outside the port. I sat my backpack and my row of daggers down by the base of a tree and proceeded to get ready to spar. I still kept the Benevolence with me by the way. In case she tries something sneaky to me.

She pulled out one of her dual swords and assumes in an en garde position. I unsheathed my sword and went to my position.

Quinn proceeded to eye me from top to bottom. “Hmm…excellent stance, the feet is evenly spread, the balance is great…but you seem to hold your sword like a dagger. Swords are longer and heavier, that’s not how you hold it. Try holding it with both hands, see what you can do.”

“I can’t.”

“Huh, why not?”

“My left hand is paralyzed.” I waved for her to see it.

“What, ho—nevermind.” She brought readied her sword. “Let’s dance.”

She swiftly took a step forward lunged her sword into me. I immediately reacted and parried it. She quickly spun around and brought her sword towards my neck. I let out a small gasp and ducked, narrowly missing the blade that would’ve beheaded me. Quinn seemed to use it as a distraction and thrust her sword to me. Shit! I narrowly avoided it again with a quick spin before back flipping out of range. We continued clashing swords before she gave a last hard swing to me, making me almost lose the grip of my sword and took a step back.

“Your defense is great, excellent even. But you need to be more aggressive, in fact I think you didn’t even take a swing to me.” She commented.

I regained my bearings and assumed my stance again. “I’m quite patient to wait for an opening.” I answered. “And are you sure we should be fighting with real blades. One wrong swing and one of us could get killed.” Mostly me.

She giggled. “Don’t worry about it, we’ll be fine. Trust me.” She assumes an en garde position. “Now let’s see your footwork. If your stance is right then you shouldn’t have a hard time keeping your balance.”

I nodded. Then at an instant she lunge her sword to me. This time however, she was more mobile on her attacks. I took Quinn’s advice to be more aggressive and took a few steps towards her, thrusting my sword to her. She looked a bit shocked at my newfound aggression but regained herself almost immediately. With a quick spin she fends off my every attack with ease, almost like she had no trouble blocking every last one of it. Her movements were fluid and coordinated, graceful even like she was dancing to a song. She took the ‘let’s dance’ seriously.

I noticed we were circling each other like dogs. We’re now on the same exact opposite of our initial position five times already. She pause a bit as we clashed swords together, still moving at an opposite direction, circling each other. “That’s it. Every step dictates how you are going to attack or defend yourself. Take one wrong move and your opponent might take advantage of this.”

Okay… I mentally grinned; if that’s even possible and faked my footwork to look like it could get me off balance. Quinn took notice of my feet and lunged herself to me moving forward. I quickly regained of my footing and spun around to her side, dodging her thrusts. She let out a small gasp as I brought a foot down to her side, making her stumble a bit. She made a giant leap backwards creating some space for us before assuming her en garde stance.

I can’t put a finger on it but this time I noticed her stance is a bit different than the last time. Her sword was tilted a bit downward. I saw a small smirk on her face for a second before returning to a stoic expression. She took a quick few steps forward and lunge her sword to me. This time however I can feel her swings are twice as hard and fast, making my grip of the blade loosened. Holy shit!

She was now incorporating a few jabs and kicks towards me, determined to make me lose my balance. With a powerful thrust, our blades met. She began to twirl her sword around making me lose mine. At the instant I lost the grip on my sword, her sword is immediately trained on my neck.

I froze. My hand just above the Benevolence in case she tried to do something further. Oh, the paranoia…

She eyed me with a stoic expression before grinning and taking her sword off me. “That was the best spar I’ve ever had.” She moved over and picked up my sword, handing it to me. “I can tell you can immediately adapt to the things being handed to you, a sign of an experienced fighter if I might say. Well that’s all I can teach you, for now.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem Michorean, it was my pleasure.” She pulled her other sword out. “Say, how about we spar one last time. I want to see how you fight with that spear of yours.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Wait, didn’t you already see. I fought beside you on the bandit’s hideout remember?”

“It…was different. I want to know how it’s like to fight you. That’s the reason why I joined you in my group the first place.” Ohh…

I sighed. She doesn’t know what she’s up against. “Well if you say so…” I sheathed my sword and drew out the Benevolence.

She grinned and charged into me. We clashed weapons at each other. I could tell she was more comfortable and deadly at using duals swords, but with the Benevolence she’s on my territory now.

Every time she tried to get a swing on me, I just blocked it with the Benevolence and immediately extending it. She was having a hard time dodging my attacks and breaking down my defense with the Benevolence constantly changing in length with every swing and thrust.

I took advantage of the power of the spear repeatedly changing the length of the Benevolence every second, giving Quinn a hard time. Whenever she got near, I shorten it and wait for her to come close before lengthening it as a surprise.

The fox pirate quickly jumped high in the air backwards, narrowly missing the tip of the spear. She landed at the side of the clearing. I grinned as I sew a tree just behind her. Gotcha.

I shortened the Benevolence and threw it up in the air. She looked confused at my move but she proceeded herself to charge to me. However with my only working hand free of the spear, I immediately reached for my dagger and threw it to her.

The dagger caught her clothing’s sleeve and threw her arm to the tree, pinning it. And before she could even react, I caught the Benevolence in the air and lengthened it so it’s right in front of her face.

“Gotcha” I said smugly, shortening my spear and holstering it.

I pulled out the dagger pinning her arm and help her up. “Now I realized what you meant by you do things unpredictably.” She said with a smile on her face. ”On the other hand, you cheated. You threw the dagger to my arm.”

“Well, you said you want to fight me and that how I fight.”

She sighed. “I still had fun by the way. You’re the first one that managed to defeat me in a spar.” She looked up and saw that it was nearing sunset. “Well, I need go back to my ship, my crew needs me.” She turned back to me, smiling. “We need to do this some other time. And I guarantee that I’m going win next time we fight.”

“Well, that’s your opinion. Thanks for the lesson by the way.”

“No problem, see ya Michorean.”

After she left, I picked up my backpack and daggers to where I left them. I slung the bag around my shoulders and set track to the inn. While walking towards the inn my mind went towards my paralyzed hand. Raising the hand up, I stared it for a moment before sighing. “Soon…” Soon I’ll be able to fix this hand and finish what Astra ask me to do. Stop the windigos.

Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

“Memories Left Forgotten”

“Do you see clearly?”

I looked around to the supposedly pitch dark room, glancing from left to right. I can make out the just about everything around the room, from the stacks of crates beside me down to the stacks of sheet at top of the table on the corner of the room, although the images were quite a bit fuzzy. “Yeah, I can see clearly but not as clear as before but enough to make out everything around here.” I turned to the voice. “Are you sure it’s pitch black here or you’re just shitting me?”

”Of course, why would I test this experiment to begin with if it’s on, Michorean?” the voice replied.

I heard a flick of a switch and then suddenly light flooded the room. Looking at my right, I saw a human who looked exactly like me but he was wearing a lob coat and appeared to taking notes on a clip board he’s holding. “Michorean…” I snickered at my goofy name. “Are you sure that’s what you’re naming me. You just combined your first name and your last name, Michael Orion .You know for a geek like you, you should’ve thought of something better when you created me.”

He was still busy writing on his clipboard, muttering to himself every now and then. Without looking up, he replied and said. “Firstly, you call me Alpha understand?” I didn’t answer or nod. I just rolled my eyes making him sigh and shook his head. “Second, I chose Michorean Vesper as your name because as you already said, it’s a combination of my name and Vesper is the name of this project.”

“Vesper, what is that? And why not Gemini? That would make much more sense.”

He grumbled something and looked up to me. “Vesper means prayer, and you’re the first human clone ever created. Connect the dots and you’ll know what I mean. Besides, my last name is already some constellation like the one you’re suggesting. No need to further our connections together, considering your rebellious attitude.” He flipped a page on his clipboard. “But enough of your identity crisis, you’ve already had that last week. Now, you’re night vision on your slitted eyes are working I presume?”

“Yeah, they’re working fine. I can see in the dark, although things are quite fuzzy.”

He suddenly appeared in thought for a moment, glancing towards to ceiling before turning back to me. “When I turned on the lights, did you get blinded or react negatively at all?”

I shook my head. “No, not really.”

He smiled. “That’s understandable.” He turned to his clipboard and continued to write. “Your eyes’ night vision may not be perfect but it is as good as the cats and owls. Your eye not reacting negatively on bright lights should give you an edge in combat. You can still be blinded but that’s unlikely.”

I shrugged. “Why would I need all of this stuff anyway?”

Michael stopped writing and looked up to me. “That’s classified, for now.” He raised his clipboard and began to read. “So, we’ve gotten your nanites, the canines, endurance, reflexes and your metabolism, making you independent for food and water for weeks without the need of both.”

I winced as I relieved all the things injected to me for the past weeks. “Again, why would I need this stuff anyway?” I said with a hint of annoyance.

“And again, it’s classified. I can tell you after our experiments but not right now.” He flipped another page on his clipboard. “For the next test, problem solvi--.”

“Oh, come on. Another fucking test, are you fucking kidding me?” I grunted. “You said I’ll get to visit the surface the moment we’re done here.”

“But we’re not. We still have a couple more tests to do. We need to know fully your capabilities are before I introduce you to the general. You’re the only being alive capable of having nanites in your bloodstream without them acting haywire inside you. It was essentially created for you. Once the general sees you…” He chuckled. “I don’t know how he would react.”

I crossed my arms. “So, I’m created to be like a…”I snapped my fingers and thought for a moment. “Super soldier of the army or something like that.”

He waved a hand, dismissing it. “No, not exactly. When ‘Project Vesper’ started you were only designed to be the first human clone ever to be created, that’s it. But the way things happening right now, I can see why the general suddenly became interested in you. Your potential and capabilities are off the charts. He believes he can make you into something more. Besides, those alien bastards can’t be trusted, even how peaceful they continue to ‘act’. You’re new task right after we complete this tests and meet the general is to defend the president at all cost. That’s why I’m injecting you this things and giving you test and experiments. But! That’s if the general determines you worthy. So don’t be cocky. ”

“So… that’s the classified stuff you said earlier.”

He nodded. “I wasn’t supposed to tell you that until after the general takes a look on you, but I don’t see what the big deal is. I know you’re not going to blurt it out to the public given tha--.” He was interrupted by the sound of his phone ringing. Reaching to his pocket, he pulled out his phone and looked at the screen before sighing. “One moment, it’s my wife.” He turned around and started pacing while he talks.

I rolled my eyes and turned to his clipboard he left just on top of the table beside me. Picking up the clipboard, I began to read its contents not caring if Michael sees me rummaging his papers. The stuff written in here were pretty much the one I already know of. It consists of the results of the various tests we conducted for the past weeks, ranging the amount of weight I could carry to my speed and reaction time. Below it are my combat capabilities. It said here that I was excellent when it comes to hand to hand combat but it also said that I was lacking on the defensive department and I have a tendency to be out of control sometimes almost killing my sparring partner.

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “Yeah right.” I continued to read the contents. I was also said here that my weapons of choice are daggers, even though rifles ar--.” I was interrupted when Michael raised his voice.

“Of course dear, I’ll be able to attend our daughter’s wedding. In fact, I’m driving there right now.” I heard Michael said, lying to his wife of course. Turning around, I saw him nodding on his phone while pacing in the room. The moment I looked at him, he stopped and turned his head to face me. He gazed at me for a few second before his mouth shifted to a knowing grin. ‘What is he up to?’ “No dear, I’m not remotely busy at the moment. I promise I’ll come in time. I’ll be there in say—“ He raised his hand to look at his watch. “half an hour, just before the ceremony starts.” He listened and nodded to his phone again before answering. “Okay dear, I love you to and tell Micah good luck.” He hangs up and turned towards me with a shit eating grin. “Well, it looks like you’ll be getting to visit the surface sooner than I thought.” He declared smiling

I raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean? What’s with the sudden change of heart and that fuck face you’re wearing?”

“You’ll get to visit the surface in under one condition.” He started. “You have to attend my daughter’s graduation ceremony disguised as me. Seeing as you’re nearly an exact copy of me except for your eyes and canines you’ll have no problem blending in. Just avoid talking to my wife and daughter and you’ll be fine.” He said as a matter of factly.

‘What the fuck is he talking about?’ “Why the hell do you need me to do that?!” I glared at him. “Why don’t you go to your daughter’s wedding yourself? I may be your clone but she’s not my fucking daughter and it’s a fucking wedding why wouldn’t you go?”

He sighed and shook his head. “I wish I could but I can’t. I need to stay here to set the tests and experiments while you’re out. The Shreas might change their mind of being peaceful towards us at any given moment, so we need you ready as soon as possible.” He shrugged. “I don’t get why you’re being upset and all. You’re finally going to see the surface, plus my wife and daughter could see somewhat me attending the graduation. So everybody wins.”

“Yeah I win. Not your family though.” He didn’t respond to that. “But if that’s your case, then I won’t stop you, ‘Alpha’.” I mockingly bowed and turned to leave. “Father of the year material right there…”

“Why do you even care?” he scoffed. “You don’t have any family. You don’t know what it feels like.”

I stopped dead on my tracks, my hands closing into a fist. I took a deep breath to calm myself a bit before turning around to face him…still pissed. “That’s fucking it, Mike!” I screamed. “I don’t have anyone. No wife, no kids, no shit! Why are you even thinking of putting me in your place on your daughter’s once in a lifetime event?” I stared at high in disgust. “What, Are you high?!” He didn’t respond. I sighed and grabbed a box of contact lens on a nearby table to hide my slitted golden eyes. “You know what, I’m going to the wedding anyway. Not because I want to see the surface, but because I don’t want to see your daughter heartbroken on the absence of her ‘father’ in her most important day of her life.”

Well, there goes my good mood for the day.

With that, I stormed out of the testing room and walked towards my room to suit up a tuxedo.

After I got dressed and made myself decent enough for the wedding. I glanced at the mirror one last time before stepping out of my room and seeing a familiar face of a smiling human, waiting beside the door. “Oh, umm agent…” I rocked my brain, trying to remember his name. “…Davis. What do you want?”

His smile dropped and he sighed. “I’ll say it again. It’s pronounced Dah-Vis, sir.” I rolled my eyes. “Anyway sir, I’ve been informed that you’ll be visiting the surface. I’m tasked to lead you the way.”

I smiled. “Well, let’s get going then.” He nodded and we set track to the elevator that would bring us to the surface. While we’re walking to the hallways, I noticed something different in the facility… “Is it just me or is it a bit more crowded than usual here?” I asked, looking around the crowded halls.

Davis glanced around and nodded. “We’re having a bit of trouble dealing with the Shreas barging into the planet. They said peace but we don’t have any exchange whatsoever. We have a feeling that they have another motive.” ‘What is he a robot? I can’t get small talks out of him.’

We reached the elevator and we stepped in. I couldn’t hide my excitement of finally getting to see the surface for the first time since I was created, but deep down I was still pissed at Michael for deliberately choosing his work over his daughter’s wedding. Nothing bad is really happening right now, why shouldn’t he go?

“Are you okay, sir? You look a bit troubled.” I heard Davis asked me in concern.

I turned to him and nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just get me to the surface. I have a lot in my mind right now. Mainly on my Alpha.” I waved him over as the elevator door opened. The trip to the surface mainly last around fifteen to twenty minutes so there are chairs and television placed around in order to accommodate the long trip up.

Lazily plopping down the nearest chair, I turned towards the television in front of me. It was displaying the news happening around the world, mainly about the aliens visiting Earth. I didn’t really pay it much attention at all. It’s the same news over and over again. I heard someone sitting on a chair beside me, probably Davis. He looked at the screen for a moment before turned towards me. “What’s wrong with Mr. Orion? You know sir. He’s just doing all sorts of experiments on you because you have an important task later on.”

“No. That’s not it.” I leaned back on my seat. “I just don’t feel right on attending his daughter’s wedding disguised as him.” I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. “Let’s just shut up for a moment. I don’t want to talk about it. I’m bummed enough as it is.”

With my eyes closed, I don’t know if he nodded but I think he did. He just kept quiet the whole tri… Wait why is the elevator shaking?

I opened my eyes to see the elevator was indeed shaking lightly. “Do you feel that?” I asked Davis. I turned to him to see his gaze glued towards the television.

He suddenly gasped. “Dear god…” ‘What?’

Confused, I turned towards to what he was watching, but before could get a look at it, the elevator shakes violently, nearly throwing me off my seat. I managed grab hold of my chair and shouted. “What the fuck is happening?”

“Shreas!” he screamed, holding on his chair for his dear life.

“What?!” He pointed towards the television.

I blinked and turned towards it. The newsroom was in total chaos. There seemed to be a huge earthquake happening in there and the reporters from earlier appeared to be missing. I could only see a few words were left written below the screen before the signal completely went out.

BREAKING NEWS: EARTH UNDER ATTACK

As the signal went out, there were still a couple of things written below but I didn’t have time to read them. Besides, I already know what’s happening. ‘Those alien bastards!’

All of the sudden, in the violent trembling of the elevator, I heard a loud snap just above us. Suddenly we were forced up as the elevator rocked and fell a few feet downwards.

“Shit!” I managed to grab hold of my chair as the elevator lurched down.

“Sir!” I turned to look at Davis to see him now firmly seated on his chair trying to get my attention. “There are seatbelts just below the seat.” He gestured below. ”You need hurry sir. I don’t think the elevator can hold on much longer!”

The moment he said that, I tried to seat myself on the chair from the constant quavering of the elevator. I managed to do that and reached below just as Davis said. I found the seatbelts safely tucked. I was about to put them on but suddenly a couple of steel cable snapped above that sends us plummeting a few feet below…but that’s not going to stop me.

I noticed that my vision was suddenly getting brighter every second, but I didn’t ponder on it. With one last push I successfully slid the seatbelt on with a satisfying click before hearing the final steel cables above us snap, sending us and the elevator plunging down to the ground.

The sudden feeling of weightlessness from the falling elevator, my vision was suddenly engulfed by white…

My eyes sprung open and my body jolted awake. My chest heaved rapidly with heavy panting. At an instant, I instinctively reached for the Benevolence and frantically looked around for any sign of danger. I didn’t know where I was for the time being until became aware of the familiar wooden walls around me, the smell of salt and rum fills the air, and the uncomfortable rope hummock I’m currently lying on to. Oh right, I’m in the Mickey…

I sighed and leaned back down to my hummock. I closed my eyes as I began to calm myself, slowing down my rugged breathing. With each breath I take, I finally slowed my heart rate down to normal. But as much as I want to relax, I just can’t seem to get my dream out of my mind. Opening my eyes, I sat up and placed a hand on my forehead, massaging my temple.

“What. The. Fuck.” I muttered between breathing.

I haven’t had a dream for decades. Every time I sleep, all I could see were just nothing but a black void, nothing but a dreamless slumber. But why do I have one now? Come to think of it, that wasn’t a normal dream either. It was a memory of my past two hundred years ago. It was from Earth, my birth planet, the same time as the Shreas attacked…Why?

Those memories were left forgotten and should be forgotten for the right reasons. My mind is not safe on relieving dark pasts, not when I’m in borderline insanity. I was quite happy in not having dreams whenever I slept thank you very much. But what seemed to trigger it?

With a couple of firm knock on my forehead in an attempt to push to any of the lingering thoughts out of my mind, I took a deep breath and sluggishly stood up from the hummock, slipping on my robe and boots in the process and started my journey to the deck.

After finally making my way up towards the deck, I saw the view of the open ocean. There was nothing but seawater as far as eye could see. We’re currently in the middle of the ocean, on the way to the pony lands. We left the port about a week ago. The goodbyes were quick and brief, since Captain Quinn was the only one I really know. I got a warm hug from her and even a peck in the cheek as gratitude for helping her save her crew even though I said it was fine. I could tell she was a bit sad to see me go, but if she really is then she didn’t really showed it in order to maintain her reputation.

If I didn’t know any better, that fox had a soft spot on me.

Anyway, after remembering the last days in the port, I noticed that everyone on board was currently gathered around on the other side of the ship staring blankly and muttering towards each other.

“What’s going on here?” I approached the group.

Winsor poked his head out. “Have ye seen it lass” he walked towards me. ”There be black mist hovered above us ten minutes ago.”

I looked confused. “Black mist?”

“Aye,” he led me to the railing and pointed out the sea. “It be went over there, lass. I can’t put me paw on it, but about the black mist over there is bad news. The way the cloud be moving looks like it’s alive.”

Straining my eyes, I did in fact see a black bellowing mist far out the sea moving west at the edge. It might be just a coincidence that I had a dream or a memory for that matter, the same time that mist past the ship. The idea seemed to be far-fetched but I wouldn’t cross it out completely. However, is that probably a windigo maybe? Nah, it’s black!

“Probably nothing, it’s gone anyway so forget about it.” I said staring on the open ocean.

Winsor shrugged. “I guess yer right lass. What harm would it do? It’s just a black cloud.” Yeah…Just a black cloud.

He went silent for a moment before tapping my sword’s sheath. “Aye, lass.” I turned to look at him. “Remember the offer I gave yer to teach ye swordfigthing?” I nodded. “Whattaya say?”

“Well okay, I guess it’s the best I learn now since it’s going to take a month to cross the sea, why not.”

Winsor beamed at my answer. “That’s great ta know,” he pushed me towards the middle of the deck. “Ye wont regret learning from the best of the best. Let’s get started right now.” Yeah, the best of the best…right.

As we got to the center, Winsor handed me a wooden sword. Grabbing it, I looked at in confused. “What is this for?”

Winsor looked at me like I was stupid. “That’s a training sword laddie. It’s to keep us from killing each other.” He replied, swinging his own wooden sword, testing it. “Now before we start the lesson lass,” he smirked. “I want yer to call me ‘master’ for the time being while I train yer. Understood?”

I blinked. “…eat shit.”

The smile of his face vanished and he sighed. “I knew you would say that.” Then why did you ask me in the first place, dumbass. He raised his sword and assumes a stance. “Now, why should we spar first lass. I’d like ta know how good ye are before I judge yer.”

I nodded, raising my wooden sword and assuming my own stance. The quick lesson of Quinn suddenly popped out in mind. Be aggressive and observe the footwork.

After a minute pass with nothing happening. I took the first swing, knowing full well Winsor isn’t going to start it at the given time. My swing got blocked with ease. Winsor then reared back, thrusting his sword to me which I promptly dodged and took a step back creating distance.

“Well, looks like ye got it in yer lass. Just a bit—YAAAGHH!” he charged towards me with his sword high up in the air.

I froze and recoiled a bit at his sudden…er expected attack, but regained my composure just in time to shield his blows. Unlike Quinn, Winsor wasn’t holding back in the spar. Although, he could have gotten me with his surprise attack if he didn’t yell before charging. Even now, he still hasn’t learned.

The fight was one sided as far as I could tell. The two of us standing in one place, trading feints, thrust and parries with lightning speed…well not really, it’s just him. I just stood my ground and blocked all of his blows. The only thing keeping me from losing right now is that I can dodge and block every swing he’s given to me. That’s it. Every time I tried to thrust my sword to him, he swiftly parried it before swinging to me with renewed vigor. I know he’s not as good as Quinn or mobile for that matter. But, damn the old rat can swing.

A smart change of approach was all I need to turn this spar around. I need to do something unexpected to even this fight. The rat might be a veteran when it comes to a sword fights, but my experienced mind has a few tricks under my sleeve…and a trick I have.

Which is cheating.

I jump back out of range from the ass whooping Winsor was giving me. I didn’t know if throwing your sword to your opponent is part of the rules…but what the hell he’s a pirate, they don’t have rules, I think. I flicked the sword up and hold it like I would if I’m about to throw a dagger. My action seemed to confuse him just enough to lower his wooden sword, giving me the opening I need.

With a viscous overhand motion, threw my sword towards the rat in an attempt to end the fight…just for it to fly across him, pathetically missing him by a few inches to the left. Damn!

Winsor froze as the wooden sword sailed across, barely missing him. He looked back and stared at it wide-eyed before turning to me with a grin and charging to me, sword raised up. Shit!

I raised my arms up, blocking the blow of the wooden sword from hitting my head. “Okay, okay I lose. Fuck!”

He stopped the beating he was giving me and took a step back snickering. The hits weren’t exactly painful given that it’s just a wooden stick that looked like a sword, but I could tell the hits will probably give me bruises. “Yer should have known better than to throw yer weapon, lass.”

“Yeah, I get it. I was trying something new and unexpected and it backfired. A habit I have handling daggers and spears, I guess.” I shrugged. “I could have hit you though.” All I need is a little practice.

He frowned. ”Nay lass, swords aren’t made for that.” Try me. “Yer problem is ye treat yer weapon like a dagger when you find yerself in the losing end. Don’t make a habit on throwing yer sword lass.”

All I need is a little practice…Yeah.

“Yer should have known better than try something new on a fight.” Winsor continued.

“Well, you’re wrong about that.” I started. “From all my years of fighting, when you clearly no match on a fight, then all you need is a change of plan and do something unexpected to them.”

He chuckled. “Nay lass, we don’t actual—.” He was suddenly interrupted by a white pegasus tackling him to the ground.

“Why are you hurting Michoroonie?!” Surprise yelled at the rat, voice filling with rage.

Winsor froze at the sight of enraged Surprise. He hadn’t seen Surprise this mad before, In fact I haven’t seen Surprise this mad before. “Umm..I…I… Miss Surprise, the lass and I were just sparring. No one is actually getting hurt.”

I took a step forward approaching them. “He’s right Surprise. We’re just having a spar no big deal.” I continued, “Although, he could have stopped swinging his stick when he already hit me once to win the spar, not until I start sporting several bruises on my arms.” I swear I’m not being a pussy here. That scene was more annoying than painful, believe me.

This made Surprise glare at the pirate captain, which in turn made him glare towards me.

I shrugged and went to pull the enraged pegasus out of Winsor. “If I ever catch you hurt Michoroonie again, then I won’t throw you a party. Understand?” Surprise hissed. Wow…threatening.

“Aye,”

Later that night, I found myself beside the captain eating on the ship’s deck. Apples, rum, and most importantly meat were placed around on the long table. My doubts on eating pirate foods soon disappeared once I took a bite. Winsor wasn’t kidding around when he said Ratatouille can cook and damn, he can cook indeed.

Normally, I wouldn’t attend on this kind of feast especially with the dirty ass foods of the pirates, you know full of salts and stuff. I wasn’t even a bit hungry when Winsor invited me…well, more like forced me to join. The rat captain said that it was tradition that in the night of the first week travel, they would gather around the deck and eat like there’s no tomorrow. I would have said fuck it but instantly change my mind when I heard that they’ll have meat. Fuck yeah!

Just in the opposite of my position, Surprise was mauling off all the food she could see around her, except the meat of course. Surprisingly, Surprise wasn’t fazed or grossed out by the slabs of meat beside her. The perks of living and travelling most of her life on the land full of meat eaters, I guess.

“Mister Vesper.” I heard a voice behind me. Ratatouille?

“Hmm?” I turned around and it was in fact the chef of the night.

He held out a mug. “Care to join us in our drinking game?” he pointed towards a group behind him. There was the rat from the raid…umm I think his name is Whiskey or something, and three griffons. Ratatouille remained stoic, casting his eyes on me completely devoid of emotion, waiting for an answer. What is he up to?

I shrugged. “What the hell, why not.”

I saw a small grin on his face and motioned for me to follow him to the group. They were probably thinking I was some lightweight. What they didn’t know that it was practically nearly impossible for me to get drunk.

Well, jokes on them.

“So,” I sat down next to them. “What’s the game we’re playing?”

“Just a simple wee bee dice game lass, didn’t really think of a name that be fit this one.” Ratatouille answered as he places two dices at the top of the table. “Each one of us will have a turn rolling the dice. The one that gets lowest has the lowest has ta drink a whole mug of rum and answer one question to whoever wins on spinning the bottle.”

I grinned, a plan instantly formulating on my mind. “That sounds interesting. What are the stakes?”

“Yer secrets are,” with a snap of Ratatouille’s fingers, a barrel of what I think is rum rolled next to our table. “Sometimes when we get drunk, we start spewing secrets on our tongue. Better be careful with that. And that’s the specialty of me rum right here.” Oh, I’m sure I will.

“So, who’ll be the first one to start?”

The rat from the raid...umm Whiskey snatched the dice and said. “Me.” He shook the dice in his hands for a few second before throwing them.

Five and four.

The rat grinned as Ratatouille grabbed the dice on the table, signaling it was his turn to roll. The other guys from the group didn’t join us in the game, satisfied on just watching us three play our game.

“My turn.” Ratatouille said. He didn’t even shake the dice. He just casually threw it to the table.

Six and six.

Well, these bastards are unnaturally lucky aren’t they? With a deep breath, I reached out and plucked the two dices at the center of the table. I started shaking my hand. Okay, I just need a number not lower than five and four. No big deal.

With a gentle flick of my hand, the dices bounced and rolled on the table, eventually stopping and landing on…

One and one.

I blinked. Fuck, I suck.

I gulped down a mug just in time for Ratatouille to ask me a question since he won the spin the bottle. How does that even work with just the two of them?

“Okay Mr. Vesper. What are you most afraid of?”

I began to think of an answer. I knew better than to tell them the truth…but there’s no rule in here about lying. Oh what to do what to do?

I lied.

The night went on rather swimmingly per se. At first, I wondered how I keep getting one and ones on my dice roll but then after a few turns, I noticed I just suck at throwing dices. Jokes on them though, they didn’t noticed I was lying through my teeth the whole time they questioned me. Of course they didn’t notice this. I kept my very good poker face on. Hundreds of years of practice didn’t let me down.

Eventually, after a couple of more rounds, I found myself getting a hang of throwing the dice, finally ending my losing streak and winning a couple of rounds for myself. I should have known it was just like throwing a dagger.

When the barrel we have had gone empty. I was greeted by the sight of two, hammered pirate rats. Even though I think I was the one that drunk half of the barrel of rum because of my early game antics, I was just feeling tipsy at the moment, far from being drunk.

Feeling accomplished, I managed to squeeze a few secrets out of them. Ratatouille was a former captain of the ship…well I didn’t really understand the name he said, he just slurred it out. He was relieved from his position when he lost a duel from one of his crews on the ship. That’s all that is to know about him. I’m a bit amazed on his ability to control himself despite being drunk off his as. Heck, he can even lie too, but he was a bit bad on since I can easily see through him, either he was just really drunk or bad at lying altogether. Whiskey on the other hand was not quite as subtle as Ratatouille. The drunken pirate whispered to me that he was a homosexual and he has feelings for our pirate chef. Oh the things I can blackmail him.

“Whishkeyy!” Ratatouille slurred as he shakily stood up, almost toppling over in the process. “Pull out…a..anootthher…barrel. We be ains’t done…yet!” He ordered.

What the poor, drunken chef didn’t realized was that his friend had passed out about ten minutes ago.

“I think ye had enough, First Mate.” Winsor stepped forward. “Yer drunk off yer rear there, and don’t forget that we still have three weeks of travel. So spare the rums.”

Ratatouille tilted his head, unamused at the Captain’s intervention. “Yer mishhtaken there…Cap’n…I ain’t drunk.” He slurred. “I’m be jushht a bit…tipsh--.” He passed out and landed on the floor with a loud rather thump.

…Well, then I guess I win.

Winsor sighed, massaging his temples, “He always gets like this.” He turned to me. “Remember lass, never join in me first mate’s drinking game. It’ll do more harm to us than good. The rat is a bit competitive in game like this. Anyway, how are ya ain’t drunk anyway? I think ye drunk like twenty mugs o’ rum.”

I shrugged. “I’m a freak. What can I do?”

“Just don’t be joining anymore of drinking games lass, we ain’t got enough rums to get yer drunk.”

I waved a hand. “Don’t worry, I don’t plan to. It’ll take me like five barrels for me to get drunk, I think.”

He nodded. Letting out a yawn, he turned towards to the rest of the crew. “Night’s over me hearties, let be get some shut eye. And if I ever catch ye gizzards taking out a barrel then I’ll throw ye landlubbers overboard.”

The crew…or what’s left of them that wasn’t hammered or passed out saluted. With that, Winsor lazily walked over to his quarters.

“Some party huh?” I heard Surprise said beside me. “What does rum taste like?”

I turned to her, quirking an eyebrow. “Wait, why don’t you know? You didn’t drink?”

She giggled. “Nope, I don’t drink at all. I don’t really like alcohol that much.” Good girl.

“Well to tell you the truth, it didn’t taste that delicious. Alcohol is not as good when you can’t get drunk from it. I just joined in the fun since I’m bored as shit.”

She gasped. “How can you get bored at a party?”

“I don’t know. I don’t really care about it.” I shrugged. “I’m just here because I heard they have meat.”

“Mchoroonie,” she sighed. “Sometimes, have fun with little things. Now that I think about it, how about talk to someone other than me or Winsor. Sometimes you just lean on the deck and stare at the ocean all day. Have fun even a little bit, you can’t just go and mope around all day.”

“I’m not, and where can I have this fun you’re saying on this ship?” I continued. “There’s nothing here but dirty old pirates and rum.”

She let out a huge smile. “You just asked the right mare for the job.” She grabbed my hand with her hooves and pulled me forward. “Come on, times a wastin’.”

“Ugh, Surprise?” I stopped her. “You know it’s like about midnight right? Why don’t you go to sleep and we’ll continue this fun tomorrow. Besides, I don’t think we’ll find fun in the deck full of this.” I gestured over to the deck of passed out, drunken pirates.

Her ears flatten, disappointed of the delay. “Oh okay, I guess it can wait. I’ll wake you up early then, so we get started on my fun tour first thing in the morning.” Oh right, we’re roommates.

“That won’t be necessary, I’m not gonna sleep tonight. I’m not a bit tired.”

“Okie dokie, Michoroonie!”

With that, she flew away towards our cabin. I wondered how she could get some sleep with that kind of energy she’s having even dead at night, but what the heck. It’s not my problem.

Walking towards the bow of the ship, I leaned forward to the railing and stared at the open ocean in front of me. The night was cold and calm. Times like these keeps my mind relaxed and prevents me from snapping and going insane. Being immortal has it pros and cons. While it’s good to live forever, keeping your mind sane and intact especially from the experiences I had encountered during my two hundred year life was quite tasking.

My thoughts suddenly shifted from the dream—no memory I had earlier today. What is the reason it suddenly popped up? I didn’t have any dreams every time I sleep before. That black cloud has got something do to with this. Since it wasn’t around anymore that could mean I could go back to sleep, but still I wouldn’t risk of dreaming again.

I took a deep breath of the cold night air, draining my mind devoid of anymore thoughts. I came here to relax and I will relax. Thinking any more of those problems would just probably stress me further.

I bowed my head down and closed my eyes, listening to flapping of the huge sails above me, catching the cold night breeze, propelling the ship forward. I waited until sunrise to come.

“And here’s the crow’s nest being watched by Tealow. Hi Tealow!” she waved at the griffon on top of the crow’s nest, which in turn the griffon flat out ignores her. That made my pegasus companion raise an eyebrow. “Hmm…I think she can’t hear me, I’ll introduce you to her later.” She’s a chick?

“That’s nice, but I thought you said we’ll have fun not give me a tour of the ship.”

“But, this is fun!” What?!

“If you count walking around all day meeting dirty old pirates fun, then I think you should get your brain checked. There’s nothing fun about this.”

“But there is! You get the joy of meeting new ponies. Perhaps, make new friends.”

“Friends? I ain’t got no time for that.” I sneered. “And I’m sure I don’t want to be friends with pirates, well except for Winsor and Quinn that is.”

Surprise frowned. “Michoroonie,” she started. “If you can’t say something nice, then don’t say anything at all.”

“But, what if the thing I’m saying will help her in the future?”

“Don’t be silly, Michoroonie. Then I guess it is okay to tell. You’re helping her after all.”

“You know, that contradicts what you said earlier, right?”

“And that’s the beauty of it!”

I stopped and shot a confused look at her. “…What?” I shook my head. “You know what, forget about it. Let’s continue on your fun tour or whatever it’s called.” I said. Surprise was just smiling all the time. “But I have just one question for you, how do you stay happy with all that’s going?” she giggled. “Like that.”

“I just think or do something I like, something that makes me happy. That’s all is to it.”

“Which is?”

“Hanging out with my bestest best friend.”

You know what. I might learn a thing or two from her all along.

“That’s nice. So, are there any more of your new friends you want to introduce to me?”

“Ooh! I know, I’ll introduce you to two minotaurs, Perseverance and Vitality.” What kind of names is that?

“Well then, go ahead. In fact I think there they are.” I pointed to the upper deck where the two minotaur stood, talking to one another.

She beamed and pulled my hand to follow her. “I bet you’re gonna like them.”

“A minotaur?” I rolled my eyes. “Probably not, so don’t get your hopes up.”

“Why not.”

“Last time I saw one, he’s a greedy suicidal bastard. Though, I can give them a benefit of the doubt, but I can’t see us getting along. However, that’s just my two cents.” I answered as we stepped inside the upper deck.

“Greetings Surprise the pegasus and um…whoever you are.” One of them greeted us.

“Vitality, Perseverance, I’d like you to meet my bestest best friend, Michorean.” Surprise continued. “And don’t anyone of you dare call him Michoroonie. I’m the only one who can say that.”

The burly minotaur paused, but shrugged a few seconds after.

“He sure is odd looking, right Perseverance?” The other minotaur said, eyeing me.

“Didn’t know I was a mirror.”

In the corner of my vision, I can see Surprise giving me a stern look. The minotaur chuckled. “No. I didn’t mean it like that, you just kind of look like us but without the horns and less muscles, if you know where I’m getting at. How about this, let’s start over.” He stood proudly. “The name’s Vitality, the toughest minotaur to walk the lands. And this here is--.”

“No! let me introduce myself.” He shoved the burly minotaur to the side. “Perseverance, the most persistent son of a bull you’ll ever meet.”

“Let me guess, your brothers aren’t you?”

They nodded.

“Okay, then I’ll be on my way.” I turned around to leave but Surprise stopped me, tugging my sleeve with her mouth.

“Nooo! Don’t leave.” She pouted. “We haven’t gotten to the fun part yet.”

I crossed my arms. “I think that classifies what you think is fun.”

“Well, what do you think is fun?”

“Umm…I don’t know, how about something other than talking all day. In case if you haven’t noticed, I’m not really that social. I don’t do small talk, I talk about something serious.”

“That’s the problem with you Michoroonie! You’re always serious and grumpy grump grump. Have fun every once in a while. “

“Don’t waste your breath on him Surprise. He’s not worth it.” Vitality butted in, earning a slap behind his head from Perseverance.

Surprise turned to glare at him while I took a step forward menacingly. “Interesting face you got there. It would be a shame if I fuck it up.”

“Hah! You wouldn’t even get a scratch on me even if you try.”

“Well, that’s your opinon.”

At an instant, Surprise flew between the two of us. “Whoa, whoa time out guys. No need to fight.” She turned to me. “I think it is best if we skeedaddle here.”

Surprise then pulled me down towards the lower deck.

“You should have been friendlier to them, Michoroonie.” Surprise said as she released me.

“What? Friendlier? The fuck are you getting at?” I scoffed. “I’m trying my best here. It’s not my fault they’re a bunch of racist assholes, in fact, they should be lucky they’re not dead right now.”

“See! That’s where I’m getting at. You keep easily get angry at small things.”

“What, you think I’m angry?” I snickered, “Annoyed yes, but not angry. I know how to keep my emotions in check thank you very much. If I was angry then they should’ve have been wallowing in their own bloo--.” I stopped myself when I realized who I was talking to. “You know what, forget it.” I sighed. “I still don’t think how this would help me.”

“Trust me Michoroonie, this will help you.”

“Yeah, right like that wi--.” She gave me another look. “All right, all right I give.” I sighed. “So, what’s next on your fun tour?”

She placed a hoof on her chin. “How about we go meet Tealow? I think she should be done on watch by now.”

I shrugged. “Fine by me, you’re the boss here. Just make sure she ain’t racist then we’ll all be okay.”

She smiled. “Don’t worry, she’s nothing like that. Ohh! And here she comes.”

Just like that, the said griffon landed beside surprise. “Hiya Surprise…and Mr. Vesper.” She greeted with a cheerful tone. She has bits of teal colored feathers covering her upper body. Maybe that’s where they got the name Tealow. That’s just a quick guess though.

I raised an eyebrow. “You know me?”

“Of, course I do. I’m the watcher of this ship. It’s kind of my job. I even heard you lead the raid that freed Captain Quinn’s crew why wouldn’t I?” You know I’m starting to like this fellow…you know, not being racist and all that. “And friendly advice, stay out of Whiskey and the three other griffons.”

“Why, is something wrong?”

She looked both sides before continuing. “Maybe, but I’m not sure. What I know is that they’re planning something big and it’s not good. Plus, from the looks of it, I think they’re targeting you.”

Surprise gasped and I rolled my eyes. “They’re just probably pissed that I beat them in their drinking game. I didn’t even get drunk from their game, just a bit tipsy at best. Maybe they thought I cheated…eh I don’t know, I don’t care as long as they don’t try something to me.”

Surprise’s ears perked up. “Wow, I didn’t know they are a bunch of meanies. So, that’s why they’ve been avoiding me…” she mused. “I thought they just didn’t like me, but know I’m glad that happened.”

“If they didn’t like you, then they’re assholes…or they just don’t like you, but either way they’re still an ass.” I continued. “Oh and Tealow, thanks for the tip by the way.”

She nodded. “No problem, that’s what fellow pirates are for.”

“I’m not a pirate, I’m a mercenary or an assassin if you might prefer.”

She shrugged. “Assassin, pirate, they are all the same.” No, they’re not. “Well, it was nice meeting you two, but I gotta get some shut eye.” She let out a long yawn. “I haven’t slept all night. And remember my warning you two.”

“Will do,” I answered. With a mighty flap of her wing, she flew off towards the lower deck. “Well then, best I get going then.”

“Wait! Where do you think you’re going?” Surprise stopped me.

“What, we’re not done yet?” I sighed. “I was going to go do my thing.”

She tilted her head, brows furrowed. “Like what? Standing around all day watching the sea?”

“Yeah, something like that…”

She huffed. “Well, I’m not gonna have it. Why do you keep insisting yourself to be alone? Why don’t hang out with me, you’re my bestest friend. Don’t you like me?”

“Of course I do, you’re the only friend I have left. Why did you even ask me that? I’m just not in the mood right now. You’ve gotten yourself acquainted to the pirates here right? Why don’t you hang out with them for the time being?”

“I don’t know, but something in my gut says that I can’t trust them.” Hmm…where are you getting at? “I don’t know what or why, but the feeling is stuck with me whenever I get near them, like they are going to hurt me any second.” I could see tears welling in her eyes as she said that.

I knelt down and patted her back. “Hey, Surprise it’s okay. As long as I’m around, I will kill anyone who even tries to put a hurt on you.” I said softly, comforting the weeping pegasus. “You know what; go ahead let’s continue on your fun tour.”

She nodded.

There’s something definitely wrong in Surprise, I can tell you that. As much as I know her, there was something troubling her deep inside. She hides it by being happy, but clearly failed as seen by that near breakdown there. I didn’t pry or asked her about it though. I know it’s best to leave it alone, it might trigger unwanted memories. Sometimes, memories are best left forgotten.

We continued the fun tour without any disturbances. She taught me how to tie a knot, swing on ropes on the masts, and other stuff she classified as fun. If you’re thinking how the hell she taught me…Well, she used her wings. Kind of creative right? For her sake, I didn’t let Surprise catch me not being interested in her tirade. I even put on a fake laugh and smile at one moment.

The days went on as usual, with Winsor teaching me swords half of the day and hanging out with Surprise after that, even with Tealow every once in a while. I seemed to notice that Ratatouille has been avoiding me for some reason. I didn’t ponder on it though, his cooking is the shit! Although, I can’t shake this feeling that the food I’m eating was kind of bad for me on some reason. It seems to give me slight stomach cramps every time after my meal. It wasn’t too disturbing. As a matter of fact, I didn’t even felt a single thing. Maybe it’s just the pirate food…meh.

However, on the start of our third week of sailing, I suddenly felt the temperature drop. It wasn’t too cold or anything, but enough to be noticeable.

“Ship ahoy!” I heard Tealow shouted from the crow’s nest.

“What?!” Winsor yelled, confused as he lowered his training sword and turned towards the crow’s nest. “Did yer say ship? That’s impossible!”

We were currently sparring as Tealow interrupted us. I would have landed a cheap shot on Winsor since he was currently distracted, but it is best I decided to play good for now. There were important matters at hand.

“Aye Captain! It’s heading to our side.”

After hearing that, Winsor and I and even a few of the pirates that were currently on the deck rushed towards to the bow to get a good look of the ship ahead of us. It sounds like Tealow was right, but from the looks of it I can safely say that no one on board is alive on that thing. The state of the ship was much like the Rusted Feather when it came to the dock except that the deck is still intact.

“Well, it’s a grost ship.” I muttered as I turned to look at Winsor whose eyes were glued ahead. “Why don’t we board it? From the looks of it, I can say it wouldn’t collapse on us when we step foot inside.

“What?! Are ye crazy lass? What could we possibly get in the damned ship? And believe me that things gonna collapse ye bet on it.”

I gave an unamused look. “Look, how many times have you said that and it turns out I’m right?” he respond to that. “Yeah, that’s what I thought and hey, it might give us an idea on what were gonna fight.”

“…I still think it’s gonna collapse on us.”

“Look, as long as we don’t step in the ship all at once, then we won’t be in danger of dying.” I shrugged. “Beside I think I’m the only one going in there.”

“Yer right about that, cuz’ I aint stepping one foot on that Tartarus hole.” That’s the second time I he mentioned that, and I think I remember Astra mentioning about something like the Tartarus is slowly opening and breaking free or something like that. From what I could think of, it might be some sort of underworld. But then again, I can’t be sure about it. I’ll ask him about that later.

“We be going there too, Captain.” Ratatouille spoke, as his posse as I like to call them, him, Whiskey, and three griffons step forward. “We be going there see if there’s any survivors, even check if anything is worth getting there.” Something on my mind clicked when he said that. There was a lie somewhere in there. I don’t know where, but it warrants my attention.

I remained to act oblivious about it though.

Winsor shrugged. “Fine by me First Mate.” He said. “Is there anyrat else that be going?”

“…I am.” We heard a soft, croaked whisper behind us…Wait Surprise?

“Why in blazes do yer want to go there, Miss Surprise?” Winsor asked with his eyes wide, clearly surprised.

“I-I just need to see something?” she stuttered. There was no doubt something about that ghost ship was bothering her. Her voice was soft and weak which made our eyebrows rise.

Winsor was about to protest but I cut him off. “Don’t worry. I’ll keep an eye on her. If she wants to come, then why should we stop her?” I whispered to the rat. “Now, when do we expect to board the ship?”

The rat captain sighed and looks at the floating ship ahead of us, calculating the distance. “About fifteen minutes, give or take. Wait on the deck lass; we’ll board the ship at the side. I’ll get some planks to cross it.”

Exactly fifteen minutes in, we found ourselves on the deck, about to cross the ghost ship. The Mickey shot some kind of harpoon, immobilizing it. However, before we could cross it, I turned around and set a last minute reminder. “Okay, listen up. So, to make sure the ship’s deck won’t collapse on us, Surprise and I will go first.”

They nodded.

We boarded the ship rather slowly. I could see Surprise’s head moving back and forth, her eyes fixated like she was examining every nook and cranny of the ship. But she seems to ignore what’s in front of her. There are fucking pieces of limbs scattered around the deck, holy shit!

Fortunately for us, the cold air appeared to be covering up the rotting smell emanating from the corpses. That or I have just gotten used to the smell, either way I was fortunate.

It was kind of similar to the ones on the Rusted Feather, except all or most of the ones here are encased in ice. The whole ship seems to be emanating some sort of a cold feeling. I could feel a slight breeze of cold wind every minute since I got here. It was kind of expected when most of the ship was covered with ice and snow.

Placing a hand on the wooden pole, it was freezing cold. The brown color of the wood has been replaced with a slight bluish color, with bits of icicles protruding at the side. The sail of the ship weren’t frozen solid, but it was kind of wet from what I could see. The ship’s sail was a skull of a rat with a single cutlass embedded on it.

This whole ship is freezing cold, I could tell you that. Hell, I even saw my breath at one moment.

A gasp from my side interrupted me from my observation. Looking at Surprise, she was breathing heavily and her lips were slightly trembling as she gazed around the ship.

“Hey, are you okay?” I asked, concerned at my pegasus companion.

She ignored my question and head towards to the captain’s cabin. Before I followed her, I gave a few test stomps on the floorboards of the deck before waving towards Ratatouille’s posse, signaling them it’s safe for them to cross. The floor seemed to be sturdy enough not to collapse on our combined weights.

As I entered the chilly cabin, I saw Surprise with her eyes watering and her head gazing every corner of the cabin, like she was frantically looking for something. I knew better than to bother her with a question at this moment. She was breathing heavily, glancing around from time to time and weakly whispering something incoherently. She was relieving something, maybe a memory or some sorts. There was one thing on my mind that I was questioning… What’s so special about this ship anyway?

“N-now…I remember.” Surprise mused, tears running down from her face.

I was about to question what she meant, but she flew out with droplets of tears trailing her. I could have gone after her, but my curiosity on this ship grew even further on that. I know Winsor wouldn’t let us stay here long so I had to make a choice whether to stay or not.

The curiosity won.

I felt bad for myself for leaving Surprise like that, but I have to do what I came here to do. She’ll benefit from this anyway. The more I learn about Windigos, the more I feel safer confronting them.

I saw Ratatouille enter the cabin, albeit slowly. “What be gotten into her, Mr. Vesper?” he asked as he stared blankly into me. The tone of his voice even, no emotion present whatsoever.

That made my hand slide towards the Benevolence for good reasons. Ratatouille has been acting strange lately. But despite that, I remained to act oblivious of his actions. Act being the keyword.

“I don’t know. So, what have you found so far?” I asked, changing the subject.

He eyed me for a moment before he sighed. “Nothing so far but ice and scattered limbs.” He said as he glanced at the cabin. “Mind if we look here?”

I waved a hand. “Nah, go ahead. I’m done here anyway.”

I got out of there as soon as his posse entered and examined the captain’s cabin. Whenever they get close, I get an odd feeling towards to the group. I don’t know why, but my hunches never proven me wrong before. There was nothing there but frozen chairs and parchments anyway, so why bother?

I decided to continue on the pirate’s quarters below. Swiftly gliding myself from the scattered remnants of the ship’s crews while also being careful not to slip and bust my ass from the icy floorboards.

Climbing down the stairs to the quarters, my eyes widened as I entered. There were dozens of bodies frozen solid. They were completely intact except the one on the back that looked like the body was severed in half. I counted about eight of them save for the one on the back. There were five rats and two griffons all encased in thick ice.

I didn’t know anything about cryogenics, but I think they’re still alive in there, just frozen solid. Well that’s what I’m hoping to. They could shed some light about the Windigos.

I approached the frozen rat closest to me and gently picked it up. Rats are quite light and small so I would have no trouble carrying them back to the ship. Climbing the stairs back up to the main deck, I saw Ratatouille and his posse, rummaging something from the cabin I entered earlier.

One of the griffons that glanced toward my direction jaw dropped as he saw me carrying a frozen rat on my arms and flew over me. “What is that? Wait, is that a rat? Where did you find him?”

“On the quarters.” I answered, my arms straining from carrying the rat but not from the weight but from the iciness of the one I’m holding. “Tell Ratatouille to stop whatever the hell he’s doing there and go get the remaining survivors down below. The frozen crews are more important than stealing shit from the cabin.”

I saw his eyes narrowed at my order for a second before hesitantly saluting and flying to the cabin.

Crossing the makeshift plank bridge was a bit hard for me, given that I have to carry an eighty pound frozen rat on a three feet wide bridge across. The danger of the plank breaking from the combined weight of me and the frozen pirate was not unlikely. Thankfully, that didn’t happen. Well, good for me.

Finally boarding the Mickey, I immediately went to find Winsor and tell him what I had just found. Not seeing the rat anywhere on the bow of the ship where he usually is or even the stern for that matter. I figured he was in his cabin, doing his captainy things and all of that shit.

Placing the frozen rat beside the door just in front of Winsor’s cabin, I entered his cabin, finding the groggy captain on his desk looking all over his parchments, massaging his temples while reading.

I let out a small cough, causing him to look up. I smirked. ”Well, it looks like I’m right again. There are survivors in there.” I continued. “Though they’re frozen solid, they could still be a help to us with the small crew we’re having.”

“What?! Are ye serious?” I kept a straight face and he let out a small laugh. “Well, blow me down. Survivors were the last thing on my mind on that ship. Given the ship the ghost ship be frozen blue.”

“Yeah, I kinda noticed that. The ones on the deck are kind of shattered to pieces yet the ones below are intact and alive.” I shrugged. “Not that I’m complaining or anything.”

Winsor stood up and quirked an eyebrow. “Yer said ‘they’. Are ye saying there are more of the frozen scallywags?”

I nodded as I lead him outside of the cabin where the frozen rat stood. “Here is one of them. There are seven of them left in the quarters below the main deck, four rats and three griffons, if I’m correct.”

Winsor examined, bemused. “The lass looks like he be frozen on the spot.” He placed his rat ear to the frozen pirate. “Is it alive lass? I don’t hear any heartbeat comin...”

I shrugged. “I don’t really know what happens when you get frozen solid, but it doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t hurt us to try to get them here. And by the way, I think you won’t hear any beat from him because of the thick ice encasing him, Sherlock.”

He looked at me confused. ”Who’s Sherlock, lass?”

I sighed and facepalmed. “Just someone you don’t know, forget it.” He shrugged. “Have your crew get the remaining survivors while I’ll go check on Surprise.”

“Why? What happened to her?”

“I’m not sure, she’s not hurt physically or anything, but she’s going through some deep stuff right about now.”

“Well, look after her for us lass, aight? She boosts morale on this ship whenever she’s around. I wouldn’t imagine her being hurt.”

“Will do, now call your crew and get your ass to the ship.”

He smirked and lifted an eyebrow. “Ye do know I’m the one in charge of the ship here lass, right?”

“Yeah, I don’t give a shit though.”

Winsor wholeheartedly chuckled and gave me a mock salute. “Aye, will do lass.”

With that, we parted ways as Winsor rounded up the remaining crew and crossed to the ghost ship. I on the other hand set track to our cabin to comfort my pegasus friend. Winsor was kind enough to give us our own cabin other than letting us sleep on the dirty hummocks on the ship’s quarters. If you ask me, I’m getting tired of this comforting stuff that’s happening quite often between Surprise and I. But of course, anything for a friend…right?

As I neared our cabin, I can someone whimpering and sobbing through the wooden door of our cabin.

Checking the door, it wasn’t locked. I decided to politely knock and wait for her permission for me to come in. If she doesn’t want to be bothered, then I won’t disturb her.

“…W-who’s there?” I heard her answer behind the door, in between sobs.

“It’s me.”

“…Come in.”

As I entered the cabin, I immediately saw her lying face down on her bed, crying. The mare that was all fun and joy now lying on her tear soaked bed, weeping like there’s no tomorrow.

What happened?

That was the one question running through my mind as I saw this scene happening right in front of me. What could she possibly have seen in the ship that made her act this way? It wouldn’t have been the dead bodies that littered the ship because she appeared to have ignored it. I’m coming up blank in this one.

After about a minute she stops sobbing. She lifted her head and whispered, “Why?” She turned to look at me. “Why?” Her eyes bloodshot as tears flowed down on her cheek.

“Why what?” I asked. I was beyond confused at this moment, but concerned as well.

“I try to tell everypony to smile and have fun…but why can’t I do that for myself? I’m a wreck…Why would they believe me if…” She didn’t finish as she buried herself again in the pillows of the bed.

I walked towards her bed and sat down next to her. “Hey, the one knows better is the one who had experienced it and that’s you, don’t ever let anyone tell otherwise.”

“…”

Okay you know what; I suck at this kind of things.

As much as I didn’t want to ask her what it was because if she doesn’t want tell me then it’s fine, it wasn’t my goddamn business anyway and she didn’t snoop into my personal life. Why should I?

But I can’t shake this feeling that she somehow needs this, like weeks ago at the port’s town square. It seems like what happened there was somehow connected to this…

Okay…

I sighed. “You know I’m not the one to pry but, what did you see in there?”

“…You do know how I got here…from the pony lands, do you?”

“Yeah, you said you grew up in the pony lands and you crossed the sea when you were a filly.”

She nodded and took a deep shuddered breath as she starts her story, “I was only a filly, just a few years old when my parents decided to leave the pony lands and travel across the continent…’to see new sights and live a new life’ as they said. We boarded a merchant ship and my dad paid all or most of our remaining bits get them sail us across the ocean.

“One night, we were halfway across when suddenly a group of pirates attacked our ship. I didn’t remember what they looked like, but I knew what their flag looked like. When I saw that ship earlier when was in the deck, it reminded me of the one when I was a filly. But as soon as I saw the flag, I…I never forgot the skull with a thin sword drawn in it.”

Wait, it was the same exact ship?!

“I c-can’t remember what happened when the pirates attacked us. The memory is too hazy for me to remember, but the next thing I know was we were standing at the center of a cabin with my mom draping her wing on me, trying to protect me from those nasty old pirates…A-and my dad nowhere to be found.”

She looked down as a single tear rolled down to her cheek…

_____________________________________________________________________________

Sixteen years ago.

The night was gradually getting late as the sun set many hours ago. Out in the middle of the ocean, there is a large ship, with massive masts and a skull of a rat with a cutlass drawn on its huge sails. Most of the ship’s crews were out on the deck, singing, dancing, and drowning themselves with rum, celebrating their success on ‘catching a fish’ that night.

Inside the grand cabin of the ship stood a little pegasus filly with bright curly yellow mane, her eyes casting to the priceless ornaments at the large cabin, completely oblivious of what was happening around her.

“Mom,” the filly nudge the pegasus mare who was draping her wings on her. “Why are the mice bringing us here?”

A rat wearing a tricorne snapped his head towards the filly at the mention of ‘mice’. “I suggest ye shut child fer now, Miss.” The rat said straddling his cutlass on his hips, making the filly whimper. “Ye don’t want anyrat hurting yer child now, do you?” he said as he turned back to the rat pirate in front of him.

The filly bowed her head, tears threatening to fall down her face. She had been woken up in the middle of the night by the sounds of metal clashing with one another and the loud screams and roars coming from the upper deck of the merchant ship they were in.

Her mother then wrapped her wings around her shielding her vision and trotted somewhere else with her in clinging on her mother’s chest. She did not see anything, only hearing the disturbing sounds of screams of pain and anguish. Only thinking of happy thoughts, she did not dare open her eyes until her mother told so sometime later, finding herself in a large cabin. There was a line beside her, everyone wearing shackles on their feet and talons. She was tired, terrified, and now there’s a mean mouse threatening to hurt her.

“Be quite for now, Surprise dear. It’s going to be alright.” The mother whispered softly, comforting the filly.

“B-But where’s daddy?” she asked, her lips quivering.

The mother draped her wing closer and nuzzled Surprise. “He’s….He is on a better place now…”

Suddenly a rat pirate from outside entered the cabin, reeking with the stench of rum. He casually walked to the center of the cabin and whispered something at the rat wearing a tricorne, presumably the captain of the ship.

“That’s it?!” the captain yelled. “Are ye sure ye got all of it?”

“Absolutely Captain, we checked every nook and cranny on the merchant ship, but that’s all we could find.”

The captain sighed and massaged his temples before turning to the line of prisoners, wearing a fake smile. “Well, we gotta be just make do with all the landlubbers we got ‘ere.” He then approached the line of prisoners and walked menacingly, his hands folded on his back as he eyed the prisoners on line one by one as he addressed them, “Since we got an um…rather short supply of bits on yer little ship there, I’m going to have to happily take yer belongings. Personal or not I don’t care how valuable the booties you have, I just want everything ye carry. Nothing personal though, mateys, it’s just business.”

He stopped at a griffon prisoner and brought his face closer, making the griffon shiver. “Do ye want to know what happens if ye don’t follow me orders?” the griffon slowly nodded as he trembled under the piercing gaze of the captain. “Ye don’t want to know what happens if ye don’t follow me orders.”

The captain giggled. “Now go git you rear and give to me First Mate all yer things. Now, don’t be afraid of him. His name is Johhratt.” He motioned to the rat at the back, who in turn gave the prisoners a wave. “Everyrat, say hi.” He said soft and gentle, like he was talking a bunch of children.

He paused and placed a hand on his rat ears, waiting for them to greet his First Mate, but he only received weird looks. After a few moments, he let out a sigh and said. “So…do I have ta repeat myself what happens if ye don’t follow me orders?” he glared at every prisoner in line. “SAY HI!” he screamed as he gave a hard stomp at the floorboards.

“Hi Johhratt.” Every prisoner simultaneously greeted.

The captain smiled and nodded. “Good, now move yer rear.”

At an instant, all of the prisoners in line reached towards their pocket and pulled everything they got and gave it to Johhratt who stood at the back with a smile on his furry face.

Surprise felt her mother tense at that time. Looking up, she finds her mother distraught, breathing heavily and casting her eyes back and forth. Confused, yet scared, she asked. “Mom, what are we going to give to the mice?”

“I…I don’t know, sweetie. We don’t have anything.”

“B-but the mean mouse said they’re gonna do something to us.”

“I know sweetie, but I won’t let that happen.”

“Oh and what do we have here?” They froze when they heard the familiar voice that brings chill towards their spine.

The Captain approached them with a bemused look on his face, but with a slight hint of frustration, “Too cool to move? Or maybe, ye got something I want. What it be Miss?”

Surprise felt her mother shudder at the mere presence of the mean captain. “I-I’m sorry Mr. Rat, but we d-don’t have anything to give you?” The rat raised an eyebrow. “I-I mean we don’t have anything, nothing at all.”

The captain sighed and shook his head disapprovingly. “Well, they be got to be something ye have.” He said. “Do ye want ta know how hard it is ta capture merchant ship in the middle of the high seas Miss?” She shook her head. “You don’t want ta know how hard that was…”

“Well, what could we possibly give you Mr. Rat?”

The rat captain chuckled and waved a hand. “Oh, you can call me Tallouie. Mr. Rat is my non-existing father.” They looked at him confused, but slightly more disturbed at that. “Besides, I know what I’m gonna be doing ta you, Miss. I’m asking about yer filly there.”

That made Surprise held her breath. “What do you want from her?!” Her mother pulled her away from the pirate. “She’s just a little filly!”

The captain in turn giggled and shook his head “That’s why I’m going ta make her the entertainment.” They again looked at him confused. “She’s gonna be walking the plank.”

“No…NO!” Her mother gripped her tight.

Surprise’s heart started beating faster. She didn’t know what walking on the plank was. It was just walking on a wood, what could possibly be bad about that? But seeing how her mother acted, it wouldn’t probably what she was thinking.

“Are you sure about this Captain?” Johhratt approached Tallouie. “She’s just a filly after all.”

“Aye, we can’t do nothing about her, and feeding her would just cost us bits. Those wee diamond dogs don’t accept child as slaves anyway, so why should we care?” He shrugged. “Take her to the plank.”

Johhratt stood proudly and saluted. “Aye, Captain!”

The pirate was about to get him when her mother covered her in her wings and pulled her out of the way. “No, I’m not leaving her! I won’t let you!”

This made Johhratt look back to Tallouie, who in turn laughed at the display. “Well okay, why would I burst yer bubble?” He turned to Johhratt. “Make them walk in the plank.”

Johhratt nodded. Pulling out his cutlass, he pointed it straight towards them. “Are you gonna move or not.”

Not wanting to get stabbed, Surprise and her mother trotted outside of the cabin and began to head towards to the plank being placed at the side of the ship for them. The drunken pirates outside casted a confused look towards them for a second before grinning. Lifting their mug of rum and began cheering as the pair of ponies approached the plank.

Surprise turned towards her mother. “M-mom, what are they going to do us?” she asked, fear clearly evident in her voice.

“They are just going to take us on a swim, dearie. Just hold mommy tight, then we can fly out of here as soon as when we get out of range.” She whispered, her eyes trailing a couple of archers lined up if she was to escape by flying.

“Out of range?”

Her mother ignores her question as she stepped on the thin wobbly plank with Surprise clinging on her tightly. “Remember Surprise dearie, just hold me tight an—UHGHT!”

Surprise gasped and her eyes widened as blood suddenly pooled on her mother’s mouth. She felt her mother tremble her body slowly gets limp. While clinging tight on her mother, she glanced behind her back to see a sword sticking out of her back, Tallouie holding it with a mocking grin. “We don’t want yer mommy flying, now do we?”

Pulling out his cutlass, Surprise let out a gasp as the pirate delivered swift kick on her mother’s back, knocking them out to the sea.

“MOM!” Surprise screamed at her mother, trying to get her to open her wings as they fall to the ocean. She couldn’t fly yet, and carrying her mother would be impossible. She didn’t know how to swim either, so her heart started beating a thousand times faster as the neared the sea.

Sadly, no matter how loud she screamed, her mother didn’t respond in any kind nor acknowledge her.

Hitting the water with a big splash, the cheer force of the fall violently threw her limp mother away, knocking Surprise out of her mother’s grasp. As Surprise slowly sank in the ocean, she instantly felt the salt water crawling into her snout, sending Surprise to a violent coughing spree underwater.

This caused her to violently thrash underwater. Squinting her eyes, she saw a speck of light towards her right. She flailed towards the light realizing it was the surface, but her constant thrashing, thinking it was the correct way to swim, but her attempts only made her sank further.

Depriving of oxygen, she felt herself getting light headed, stopping her thrashing underwater as she count the seconds she had left to live. Tears would be falling from her eyes right now if she wasn’t underwater. However, Surprise seizing her constant thrashing and relaxing her body turned out to be a blessing in disguise. With her body relaxed, this made her float towards the surface.

Emerging from underwater, Surprise let out another coughing spree, this time getting the water out of her lungs. A piece of driftwood suddenly catches her eye floating just a few feet in front of her. Using her petite wings, she propels and latches herself to the floating log, gripping tightly as it was the only thing that would keep her from drowning.

“…Mom?” she croaked as she looked in all directions in a desperate attempt find her mother.

Tears pooled in her eyes as she glanced around finding nothing but the faint visage of the pirate ship she was were sailing away in one direction, and the vast ocean stretching for hundreds of miles.

She sniffed. “…Mom…”

Still, there was no sign of her.

For what seemed like hours in the dead of night, Surprise called for her mother. Her voice gradually getting weaker and weaker each time she calls. Stuck in the freezing ocean at night, clinging on a floating driftwood that’ll take her in whichever direction it floats. She could feel that sleep was starting to get a hold of her, her eyelids drooping every once in a while.

Shivering from the cold night winds, she struggled to stay awake but it was to no avail…

________________________________________________________________________________

Surprise looked down, taking a deep shuddering breath as she continues her tale. “Before I passed out…something saved me…I didn’t know what is was…b-but it was some kind of a large blue…no teal floating pony wrapping her forelegs around me…picking me up from the driftwood.” Astra?

“When I woke up…I found myself in an orphanage.” She sighed. “That pony saved me…and that’s all it’s to it.” With that she slumped down to her bed and buried her face in the pillows.

“…So, does telling this helped you?” I asked after a minute of silence.

No response.

I quirked an eyebrow and went to check on her. I found out she was asleep. The story must have taken its toll on her. I decided to leave her be, but before I left the cabin, I took off my robe and wrapped it around her.

“Get some sleep. You deserve it.” Surprise accepted the robe gingerly, wrapping herself around it. I saw her cracked a small smile before I turned to leave the cabin.

I wouldn’t also have slept with her in my hummock but I wasn’t tired, and I damn well don’t want to have a dream. It only happened once, but I think it might happen again.

Walking around the ship in the dead of night, I decided to go towards to the rum cellar and borrow a couple of barrels. I got nothing to do anyway, so why don’t I drink? Even though, I wouldn’t get drunk in that, it was a good way to past the time. Climbing down to the quarters below the deck, I set track to what I believe the way towards my destination.

Nearing the cellar, the ship was completely devoid of any sound, save for my boots topping on the hard floorboards and the gentle creaking of the wood as the ship rocked back and forth at the tides. The night was the same silent and eerie night of the pirate ship that I have gotten familiar with in these past few weeks of sailing. That was until I heard a sound of someone talking, probably to someone. For all of the nights I’ve been walking in this ship at night, I was certain no one is still awake at this point…Well save for Tealow, but she’s in the crow’s nest and the sound was coming from the corridor to my left.

“…sio…food….still alive.” I heard bits of pieces they said, but I couldn’t make out what they were talking. The sound was too incoherent to understand.

It was quite understandable that I may just probably wrong about everyone sleeping this time of night out since I haven’t been in this part of the ship. I was about to turn around and continue to walk towards the rum cellar I was finding and shrug the conversation, it wasn’t my damn business anyway. Walking away, I was on my way to continue my search when I heard one of them mentioned my name…

“….maybe…..on Michorean…o…” I froze, narrowing my eyes and straining my ears in hope to follow the sound.

I’m not the one to snoop on other people’s conversation, except when I’m on a job. But when my name is suddenly becomes part of that, my paranoia starts kicking in.

Following the dark corridor, the voices grew louder as I slowly crept deeper towards the sound. Finally, after a few seconds of walking, I found a door that appeared to be where the voices are.

I saw stacks empty barrels in the dimly lighted corridor just beside me, positioned right in front of the door. I grinned as I hid myself at the back of the barrels. These pirates doesn’t have as eyesight as good as me, so I won’t have to worry about them seeing me.

The door of their room was slightly cracked open, giving me of who was talking insi…

Oh, it’s Ratatouille and his posse.

There they are, Ratatouille, Whiskey, and three griffons that I didn’t bother knowing their names all grouped up. They were casually seated in various places like on top of the table, a desk, the backrest of the chair, on the floor, and wherever the hell they want. I could see Ratatouille leaning on a table who wearing a sour look.

He was frustrated at something, but I didn’t what it was. Well, let’s try to find out.

I strained my ears, leaning forward to try and listen to what they were saying.

“I can’t believe it!” Whiskey threw his arms up. “It’s been a week since you start serving that hornless minotaur food with poison and he’s still alive and kicking. Are you even sure you’re serving him poison, because I’m sure as Tartarus it’s not.” Those assholes!

So that’s why I’ve been having stomach cramps every time I finished eating. Jokes on them though, they didn’t know I’m highly tolerant to all kinds of venoms.

Ratatouille looked up to Whiskey. He gazed at him coldly and said, “Shut yer yapping, Whiskey. Mind ye that Mr. Vesper is out and about in the deck. That lass never sleeps, so kindly tone yer voice down fer the sake of our safety…Well, mostly yers if I decide ta skin ye alive fer talking to me like that.” I saw Whiskey gulped as Ratatouille stood straight and started to pace, while looking at him. “But to tell ye the truth I AM slipping poison ta his food, though not that much so he wouldn’t notice it.” He sighed. “Well, that plan isn’t working out, now is it?”

One of the griffons butted in. “Well, why don’t we just kill him, Rats. We’re gonna be taking over this ship anyway.” Oh, a mutiny.

“I know matey,” Ratatouille waved him off. “But there be some slight um…complications on our plans.” The entire group raised an eyebrow as Ratatouille pulled out a tricorne. “Do you laddies remember the ship we were just in a couple of hours ago?”

“Yeah, what about it Rats?” Another griffon who was hanging on the ceiling asked.

“Well, I used ta be the Captain of that ship.” He said as he placed the ruined tricorne to his head, his posse staring at him mouth agape.

At an instant I quietly let out a snort and narrowed my eyes as I continued to listen.

“Don’t bother asking, mateys. I ain’t going ta tell ye. It’s a long story.” He placed a hand on his chin. “Although, there’s something about that Surprise pony seems familiar ta me.” He shrugged. “I guess that’s what a simple nightmare does ta ye.”

Whiskey perked up. “A nightmare?” he stood up from the table he was sitting. “I had a nightmare too, the night the black cloud hovered us.”

“Uh-huh, that be good Whiskey, but let’s be getting back ta the topic now, aye?”

“…Aye.” He let out a loud snort and looked away.

Ratatouille grinned and clasped his hand together. “Now, let’s get down to business and plan our mutiny. The ship’s map would ye please.”

With a snap of his fingers, a griffon instantly brought a map on the table and laid it down, unfolding it for everyone to see.

“But what about the Michorean thing, Rats? What should we do about him?”

“Oh, yer right.” He looked around trying to think of something. After a few minutes he shrugged and said. “Eh…We’ll worry about Mr. Vesper later. For now, let’s focus on capturing this ship.”

With that, they went on planning their mutiny. It turns out, they were supposed to attack this night, but then again they were interrupted by Ratatouille’s old ship. Now, they were planning on making that ship’s survivors join them. They were currently on the tables of the mess hall passed out as his posse melted off the ice from them several hours ago. Thankfully, nothing bad happened to them, they were just sleeping soundly.

If the survivors refused to join them, then they’ll have no choice but to kill them. Ratatouille pointed out that he doesn’t recognize any of them anyway.

The rest of they’ve discuss was nothing but what’ll they are gonna do once they’ve captured the ship. I didn’t listen to what they said. They weren’t going to succeed anyway. Not on my watch…

As their meeting concluded, each one of the member leave the meeting room one by one. The third one to leave was whiskey. He was carrying a lantern at one of his hand. As he passed by, I instantly realized that while my eyes have impressive vision in the dark, they were slightly reflective to light that passes them. Making my golden eyes visible to whoever glanced towards stack of barrels I was hiding.

As soon as I realized this, I hastily closed my eyes and prayed to every living god out there for no one to have witness the glow my golden eyes as the torchlight passed right in front of me.

But the prayers soon ended when I heard someone slowly drew his cutlass, hearing the sword sliding from the sheath. “Well well well, what do we have here?” I heard Ratatouille said in a mocking tone.

…Well, shit.

Knowing that I’m caught, I opened my eyes to see Ratatouille walking menacingly towards me, swinging his cutlass in a circular manner. He then raised a hand and said, “Stop fer a minute me mateys, we got a spy on our tail.” He looked at my direction. “Now, what do we have on barrel number one?” He reared back his cutlass, preparing to stab the barrels just ahead of me.

I wasn’t having any of it.

I brought my foot down on the barrels sending them flying towards Ratatouille and his group. Most of the barrels hit them squarely, except for Ratatouille who nimbly jump out of the path. The impact sends them tumbling like bowling pins, knocking them on to their asses.

With a distraction on the way, I stood up and looked around for an exit. Unfortunately, due to my luck, there was none I could find. The only exit here was through the corridor I entered earlier, but it was blocked by Ratatouille’s posse, who were now slowly getting up and tossing the barrels out of them.

Getting slowly surrounded by advancing pirates, I need to think of something fast. It was highly unlikely that I would beat them in the narrow corridor with a spear. Even though I can switch the length of the Benevolence, previous battles already concluded that. Using my daggers to fight five pirates at once is going to be hard with only one hand, no matter how skilled I was with it. Although, what about the sword…

As the pirates were only several feet away from me, I tried blurting out whatever the first thing that comes into my mind. “Umm…Parley?” I asked, not even sure what it was.

At an instant, the advancing pirates stopped and look at me confused.

“Parley?” one of the griffons laughed at my face. “Parley? There ain’t gonna be no parley around here you filthy yellowbelly.”

The griffon was about to charge when Ratatouille held up a hand to stop him. He turned to me with a glare and said, “A parley?” he started. “Well, let’s hear what yer proposing Mr. Vesper, I think we have time. But ye have ta hurry, I ain’t as patient as before.”

“Okay…umm…How about this. Instead fighting like animals here, how about we have a short truce, and you and me battle to the death? Whoever wins… gets to live, obviously?” I know I fucked up right there.

He let out an amused grin. “That’s not how parley works, Mr. Vesper.” He said. “But fine, I get yer point. Ye want a duel to the death then yer goin ta have it. Ye will not be using anything besides yer sword. That means yer magic spear ye have. Anything but that, then we’ll end this little armistice and skin year filthy rear alive.” I could see deception written all over in his ugly face.

I know in hell someone is going to stab me in the back in the middle of the battle. Despite that, I have no choice but to accept that or risk fighting five pirate at once.

I nodded, pulling out the Benevolence and thrusting it to the wooden wall of the ship, embedding it. I pulled out my sword and took a deep breath as I tried to remember all I have learned for the past few weeks on sword fighting.

I’ll try to make the fight as short as possible. I only need to make a ruckus loud enough for Winsor and the other to wake up then they’ll be rushing down here. I just have to hope that they weren’t heavy sleepers though.

Assuming a stance, I looked straight ahead to see Ratatouille circling me with a cold gaze, not even bothering to raise his cutlass in case I lunge at him.

“Let’s see how much you learned from the old rat. En…garde.”

As he said the, he quickly lunged himself to me, swinging viscious swings one after the other. I mentally grinned at this. At this rate, the sounds of clashing swords will be enough to wake everyone up inside the ship.

I parried all of his swings a bit before spinning around attempting to slice his neck open. But Ratatouille immediately saw it and duck, dodging my swing, only knocking his worn out tricorne out of his head.

He then gave a few thrust towards me, which I easily blocked before jumping out of range. “Well, call me a cur, yer better than I thought.” He took slow steps on his side, eyeing me for an opening. “But I think ye still need more practice to beat me…Well a lot of practice.”

Ratatouille rears up and lunged himself to me. As we clashed swords, he was now using his tail to trip me whenever we neared each other. He grinned as one of my feet stumbled on his tail and I started losing my balance. He then positioned himself to thrust sword to me, preparing to end this rather one sided fight. Weeks of training with Winsor wasn’t enough to even the fight, despite honestly becoming a better swordsman from the last couple of weeks, I know I still couldn’t match with them on a normal fight.

Even though I was losing my balance, I managed to expertly block his thrust and spun around in hope to avoid more of his viscous swigs. However, I didn’t see his next move as he placed a swift but hard kick to my chest that sent me flying towards the stacks of barrels full of rum by the corner of the corridor.

Hitting the barrels and the floor hard, the sheer force knocked the wind out of me. Dazed from the crash, I couldn’t help but grin at the loud noise we were making. If that didn’t wake Winsor up, than I don’t know what will, and speak of the devil there he is. I saw the old rat groggily walking to the corridor where Ratatouille’s posse stood.

“What be happening here ye filthy gizzards!” Fuck yea, it’s about time!

This caused everyone freeze and turned to look at the pirate captain in surprise, casting their eyes off me. Big mistake!

Not going to waste a perfectly good distraction. As soon as they turned their heads, I quickly drop my sword and immediately barrage them with all the daggers I was carrying. While chucking daggers blindly in all directions wasn’t such a good idea to accurately hit them. But it did, I managed to hits two griffons squarely on the chest while the last dagger nailed Ratatouille on his shoulder, making him stumble back towards Winsor.

Winsor’s eyes narrowed as he saw his First Mate stumbling towards him. He angrily brought his cutlass out and yelled, “What in blue blazes be the meaning of this, Michorean?!”

I jumped over to the Benevolence and pulled it out of the wall before pointing it at the direction of Ratatouille who was pulling out the dagger embedded on his shoulder. I simply said, “They’re planning a mutiny.”

Winsor’s eyes widened in shock and turned to Ratatouille. “What? Is that true First Mate?” Holy shit, why the hell would you question him?! Just kill the motherfucker!

Just as this shit wouldn’t get any worse, Ratatouille took advantage of his confusion and jumped backwards latching on his back. He then brought his cutlass to Winsor’s neck as he struggled at his grasp and said, “Nighty night, Cap’n.”

With that, he proceeded to slit his throat before lazily kicking him to the ground. “We don’t want yer old hide alive, now would we?”

At the sight of this, I instantly charge towards them with fury, but was blocked by the two griffons that I have thrown a dagger to. Both of my daggers sticking out of their chest, but that didn’t seem to faze them a bit. Damn, they are tough as shit.

“You two,” Ratatouille pointed to the griffons blocking me. “Would ye kindly kill Mr. Vesper while the rest of us go umm… ‘ship hunting.’” He chuckled as he turned to leave, Whiskey and some other griffon trailing him, also giggling as they left.

Turning my gaze ahead, the two griffons lunged themselves towards me. I swiftly rolled out of the way, and thrust the side of the nearest griffon, piercing his body through and through.

His partner meanwhile barely dodges the incoming spear and flew away in shock out of the Benevolence reach. I then brought my foot down and slid the Benevolence out of the body of the dead griffon.

By now, I could hear the sounds of clashing happening above us, on the ship’s deck. I need to end this fight now, or who know what might happen to Surprise if she gets caught. I also need to check on Winsor…Oh, shit! I need to end this now!

I could see that this time, after seeing me fight with the Benevolence for the first time he now looked cautious, and approached me warily. These pirates have only seen me fight with a sword, so I might have taken this griffon by surprise when I dropped his partner with ease.

The griffon reached down on the floor and picked up my sword before he flew launched himself to me, swinging all the way. Since my spear’s length was short that time around, the griffon was probably thinking he can now take me out in combat with two swords at his grasp.

He didn’t know my spear magically extends though.

With a swift thrust, I downed the charging griffon dead on the floor with a considerably large hole in his heart. He thrashed, chocking and crying in pain and clutching the hole on his chest for a moment before suddenly becoming limp as his blood pooled around his body.

Now that’s done, I quickly rush towards to Winsor’s body. I let out a sigh of relief that he was still alive, and even awake for that matter, though barely. The cut in his throat wasn’t enough to kill him. The slice on his throat didn’t cut open his windpipe; it only lacerated his neck, making him bleed all over. I guess that swords aren’t good at slitting people’s throats.

I picked up a dagger I threw earlier lying on my side and used it to cut his sleeve. I used it to wrap on his neck to prevent him from bleeding out.

“Hey, you good to go?” I said, lightly tapping him awake.

“Aye, lass.” He croaked as he tried to get up. “Just help me up, and then I’ll be good to go.”

I nodded and pulled him up, wrapping his arms around my neck. Before we turned to leave, I stood up and grabbed all the daggers I threw and hid it on me. Never leave without my trusty daggers…

We then hastily proceeded to the deck of the ship where all the fight has been happening. Climbing up to the deck, I heard the sounds of war cries as I step forward to the deck with an injured captain in tow.

Just as I look around, I saw Vitality approaching me with a huge cutlass in his hand, giving me a glare.

“Whose side are you on? Answer me, NOW!” He reared his cutlass, preparing to attack.

“Well, I am carrying your injured captain. I think you can guess whose side I’m in…dumbass.” I said calmly. “Now, take your captain guard him so I can end this shit.”

He grabs hold of the groggy captain, putting a hand on his shoulder to balance him before snorting at me.

“This is ridiculous! There’s a mutiny happening here and you’re making me a babysitter?”

“Arghh! I don’t need any of yer help mateys, I can handle me self.” Winsor answered.

“You can’t even stand up, Winsor. Sleep on it.” I said as I left them.

Glancing up, I saw Tealow fighting a griffon in the sky. I took out a dagger and threw it. Though seeing as the griffon was flying far out the ship, I wasn’t expecting it to hit him, just for it to distract him enough for Tealow give her killing blow.

But it did.

The dagger nailed the griffon right at his wings. He flopped to the ocean and landed with a big splash. With that huge fall, I assume that the dive will leave him unconscious and drown in the sea. Yeah, let’s leave it that.

Tealow turned to me direction in surprise. I simply gave a wave. She flew towards me, landing in front of me with a loud thud.

Before she could say anything, I interrupted her and said, “I know, there’s a mutiny, your captain is safe, no problem. Now enough with that, I want you to guard Surprise. She’s locked up in our cabin. I don’t want anything happen to her.”

She nodded and I looked around. Before she could take off and leave, I stopped her. “Wait, where have you seen Ratatouille?” I glanced around. I only saw Whiskey expertly fighting off Perseverance and some rat, but no sign of that bastard.

“I saw him earlier heading to the mess hall, before his buddies attacked us.”

“Shit! Well, thanks.”

I quickly dashed, hoping he haven’t killed or convinced them to join his mutiny. I was determined not to lose our only guide on the Windigos. They experienced them first hand so they might know something about them. Come to think of it, the air seems cold…ridiculously freezing this night.

Hmm…

Before I could even get close to the mess hall, the door suddenly opened. Ratatouille stepped out with the survivors, all seven of them. Fucking shi—wait, seven? Where’s the other one?

Winsor gave me a grin as soon as he saw me. “Guess who’s side they be joining, Mr. Vesper?” He gestured to the survivors behind him…who looked completely lost.

I was about to answer him sarcastically when I suddenly felt a cold gush of wind…too cold to consider it a cold night time sea breeze. Wait…

“They’re here…” one of the prisoners said.

“Who ye be talking about matey?”

“The frozen spirits.” He answered. “We need to turn this ship around!”

“Frozen spirits? That be a myth matey, yer mad from sleeping in yer crystal prison.”

“He’s right you know. From what I learned the Windigos attack in this deep in the ocean.” I said, causing Ratatouille to instantly turn his head to me. “How about let’s stop this shit for now or we’ll end up to pieces like the rest of the pirates that come here.

He looked at me confused, but still cautious. “Windigos?” He laughed. “Yer naming them now? I don’t know what yer talking about. I’ll go end yer to save ye from yer misery.” He drew out his cutlass and turned to his the survivors. “Now me new crew, let be commission the mutiny!”

He went to charge me. I took a stance and drew the Benevolence. Ratatouille never got five feet ahead when suddenly a sword embedded his back. Wondering who that was, I glanced at his back to see that it was one of the survivors.

Ratatouille dropped on the ground rolling in pain, screaming every pirate insult he could think off. Which was a shit ton of it.

I relaxed a bit. “Good, we don’t need none of that shit right now.”

I took a step forward when the group suddenly drew all their weapons, making me jump back and point the Benevolence to them.

“Seriously, you want to do this now?! We’re gonna die here!” I yelled, getting really annoyed.

They looked at me confused. “Uhh, we weren’t really going to attack you…” One of them replied.

I calmed. “Oh… We’ll then.”

I looked around to find all the fighting had stopped. Ratatouille was still rolling on the floor in pain, the griffon that landed on the sea was nowhere to be seen, and I saw Whiskey’s body with a pike embedded on his chest.

I approached the group of survivors. A griffon turned his head and approached me halfway. I presumed he or she was the leader right now. “So, what do you know about the um… frozen spirits? They’ve attack your ship before didn’t they?”

“Indeed.” It’s a chick! “They’re fearsome spirits, a force to be reckoned with. We need to turn this ship around right now!”

I shook my head. “Hell no! We’ve been this far and I ain’t turning around.” The griffon glared at me for that.

Perseverance came to my side and said, “Are you sure that’s a wise decision, Michorean? We’re really on a tight spot here. We just barely stopped a mutiny minutes ago.”

“Of course, why wouldn’t I?” Okay, I can think of a list of reasons for that…but meh. “You joined this, already knowing the consequences. Are you gonna wuss out or not?”

“Wuss out?! My name isn’t Perseverance for nothing. Let’s take those bastards back to Tartarus.”

“ENOUGH!” the griffon chick screamed, drawing out her cutlass with her group following her.

Perseverance and I instantly retaliated, jumping back drawing our weapons in the process.

Okay, so it’s a standoff then. Seven against two…this is bad.

The griffon chick stood her ground and yelled, “What you’re doing is suicide! Turn this ship around or we’ll turn it ourselves.”

“We’ll see about that you feathered bitch.” I’m really starting to regret my decision bringing them here.

She huffed and slowly approach a griffon from her left, her eyes still locked on us. “Razorwing, go to the helm and steer the ship for me.”

I aimed the Benevolence at the said griffon. With a cold, threatening voice I said, “I dare you to do that, and see what happens.”

This caused Razorwing to gulp and hesitate. He looked back at the griffon chick wondering what to do.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Don’t look at me, Move!”

I could see he was still hesitating, but was about to fly. I immediately readied my dagger, preparing to throw at him when suddenly an unfamiliar voice came between our sides.

“Off killing our crew again, Gleade?” An old voice spoke.

We looked to our sides to see the rat I first rescued earlier, walking with a frown on his face.

“Severance!” the griffon chick…er Gleade yelled, flying over to the rat. “We thought you were dead. Where have you been?”

“I woke up in the Captain’s cabin,” He gestured at his back. “And which I remind you First Mate, what’s all this ruckus your causing is about?”

“These minotaurs won’t turn this ship around, and now we’re heading straight for those spirits. We’re gonna die Captain!” So he’s the one that replaced Ratatouille as the captain on the ghost ship. I got to talk to him about that later.

Which remind me, that bastard is still alive lying on the side, passed out, barely breathing. Well, he’s gonna die sooner or later.

Severance sighed. “Stop this nonsense, Gleade.” She huffed and looked away. Severance continued. “Our fellow pirates just save our lives. The last thing we should repay them is taking over their ship. Now crew, at ease!”

I looked around, finding that the group was slowly pulling back, sheathing their weapons.

“Now are we fucking done here?” I asked, my eyes still trained on them.

“Quite.” Severance answered.

I sighed and relaxed. “Good.” I turned to Perseverance and whispered, “Don’t keep your guard down. They might be bluffing.”

He nods and snorts at them. With that warning done, I approached Severance. He seemed to notice me coming as he turns around with a nod, waiting for me to speak. “So, what do you know about those spirits? We’re heading there straight and we’re not turning around.”

Severance sighed. “I know. But before we could talk, may I ask you your name?”

“Michorean Vesper.”

He nodded. “To tell you the truth we don’t know much about them. One thing we know is that there are signs of them coming.” I raised an eyebrow as he continues. “First; the air becomes considerably colder like the one we’re experiencing now. Then, cold gushes of wind rocks the ship. The last sign when they come near is when snow starts to fall.”

“Well, seeing it’s just that were just in the first, we still got time right?”

“Yes, but not that much, I’m guessing we only have just about an hour or less.”

I weighed my options. What could we possibly do with only an hour to prepare. From the looks of it, the windigos barrages snowstorms to freeze us to death. We need to get a huge fire going, but what to burn?

Glancing up, I grinned as a plan formulated in my mind.

“Take down the sails!”

Severance nodded, “Wise choice there, Michorean. The strong winds will jus—.”

“No no, not that’s not what I meant.” He looked at me confused. “What I’m trying to say is we need to rip off the sails. Go order your crew to do that while we go get the rums. We’ll burn the sails.”

He shrugged and went to his crew. I turned to Perseverance by my side. “Aye crystal clear, though Vitality might not like wasting his barrels of rum.”

“Well, it sucks to be him. We need those to burn the sails or we’ll freeze to death. Now come on, enough talking we don’t have much time.”

With that we rushed towards the rum cellar. I didn’t even know if we still have an hour left. The air got significantly freezing than what it was half an hour ago. Hell, I could even see my own breath right about now.

We got to the cellar in record time. We reached out to the barrels and grabbed what we could, Perseverance being a minotaur managed to grab a shit load of it and rushed towards the deck. Just in time for the first snow to fall.

Shit!