Destiny's Call: The tales of a foreigner in a familiar land

by Zenith Starwalker

Chapter 8: A Catharsis, a Climax, and an Extraordinary Excursion

So there we stood at the apex of the Crystal Citadel, peering down the ledge in the direction of the train station after a facsimile of the embodiment of the goodwill of the kingdom’s inhabitants downstairs conveniently showed us the way we had to go next. A train about to make its final boarding call leading in that direction was sounding its whistle at regular intervals. If we were going to make it aboard on time, we’d have to take the express elevator down. Seeing as they didn’t have those however, that left one other alternative…

My companion and I glanced at each other; her expression was that of coy innocence while mine was an unenthusiastic frown, having already anticipated her idea in advance.

“No… no freakin’ way” I automatically responded.

“Got a better plan?” She rhetorically asked, smirking in victory when she knew that I didn’t.

“Do I look like a pack mule to you?” I griped, completely at unease with was going to happen next.

“Quit whining. Don’t you want to be ridden?” She grinned lasciviously.

Ignoring her crude conduct, I sighed in exasperation before closing my eyes and summoning my wings. Their now comforting presence sitting on my shoulders once again. The strong breeze at this elevation made them flitter and ripple in the wind, sending a strange sensation coursing through my brain. Shaking off the slight daze, I gesticulated towards myself with open arms to Daring; something she took no hesitation in pestering me for.

“Why Zenith, how forward of you!” She held a hand to her chest in mock shock and swayed seductively.

‘Guess Piercy hit the nail on the head with his imitation’ I humorously observed.

“Please don’t make this worse than it already is for me” I quietly remonstrated.

“Don’t you worry, I’ll be gentle” She sensually said, making me groan in vexation.

‘I’m not sure which is more infuriating, her being a total grouch or a coquette!’

She stalked towards me in a manner I found almost predatory before latching onto me in a secure embrace. Her soft chest pressing against mine in a supple fashion caused mental proximity alarms to perpetually ring in my mind, registering on my face as a twitch of the right eye.

‘Dude focus; you don’t wanna wind up as a striking impression of strawberry jelly smushed against the sidewalk’ I sighed for the umpteenth time that day.

Before making the dive off the ledge, an absolutely diabolical idea arose in my thoughts; resulting in a near manic grin appearing on my face. ‘Might as well have some fun with this’ I deviously schemed.

“Well, here goes nothing” I casually spoke as I ventured off the ledge backwards with my passenger in tow.

Even though it was probably a foolish thing of me to do, I kept my wings folded until halfway down the provisional base jump. My very close companion was screaming colorful invectives the whole way once she realized what I was (or more specifically wasn’t) doing. It may have been a cheap and slightly immature move, but I thought the payback was well worth it. When I noticed the ground approaching a little too fast for my own comfort, I flared my wings out and diminished our velocity like a makeshift parachute. We touched down batman style just in front of the citadel, with some passerby’s standing in awe of our dynamic downfall.

Daring loosened her death grip on me before giving me a baleful glare that could have turn a cockatrice to stone, but my indifference was so thick it just bounced off.

“What the heck was that for!? You could have gotten us killed!” She shouted, practically foaming at the mouth in raw vehemence.

I shrugged apathetically, “Hey, you don’t get to complain when you pick Zenith airlines as your premier choice of travel” I sarcastically chirped, receiving another harsh slug in the arm from Daring.

‘Ow… the look on her face was totally worth it though, *mental high five!*’

The strident scream of a train whistle once more reminded us that we had a tight schedule to keep. I nodded with my head in its direction to my irate partner, with Daring begrudgingly dropping our little altercation in favor of catching the train before it left the station. We darted towards the station as fast as our legs could take us, rushing our way past the peregrinating people pandering to their verisimilitude of a quaint and carefree existence. Unfortunately, our way to the station took us through one of the market areas. Even though it was later in the afternoon, there were still crowds of people perusing the local wares. I juked around them as best as I could, but I couldn’t manage to avoid one cabbage grocer wheeling his cart right into my path. Thinking quickly, I used my wings to add some power to my jump and pulled a quick somersault over it.

‘Wow… parkour is so much easier with wings!’ I thought with gleeful satisfaction.

My wingless partner tailing me however was not so lucky. She pretty much bowled over the poor man and his cart, sending the heads rolling down the street.

“MY CABBAGES! NOOO!!!” He wailed, his inventory suddenly depleted.

“My bad! Send the bill to the institute!” She called back, either purposefully neglecting to mention which institute or forgetting altogether.

We were making good time; the train depot was just coming into view. The sooty exhaust from the iron horse’s smokestack lightly billowing in the breeze. It was your typical 19th century setup, the locomotive and a tender or coal car latched to the engine along with a total of eight passenger coaches and cargo cars; sadly there was no caboose to be found. I was going to swiftly storm the ticket counter for our admission when I heard screams of distress coming from the train; multitudes of people appeared to be fleeing from the cars in droves as though it was in the process of being hijacked…

‘Wait….oh crap’

The train gears suddenly ground against the rails, a noisy scraping sound being the only indicator that it was suddenly departing, other than a battered conductor being unceremoniously tossed out of the driver’s cab by an unseen assailant.

“C’mon, we can’t let it get away!” Daring shouted to me as she vaulted the gap between the platform and the rearmost rail car as the train left the station. I quickly followed suit before I was left behind to deal with the fallout back at the station. I landed stiffly on the metal grating, causing it to reverberate loudly as it withstood the brunt of my weight. My partner had already flung open the door to the freight car and had progressed inside without me.

I was certainly no stranger to excitement by now, but I had no idea what I was going up against here. My money (which clinked noisily in my pouch the entire time) was on the probability that the rival that Daring said had beaten her to the codex back in Marabia was now in control of the rapidly accelerating train. Based on how the culprits managed to dispatch Cadence’s guards back in the repository, I’d safely say that they were definitely dangerous.

As the train eventually surpassed the climate barrier and into the windy wintery wasteland, I cautiously entered the rail car and after my courageous companion. Inside it looked like your typical Hollywood style freight coach; boxes of various materials were stacked on top of another in a somewhat haphazard alignment of rows.

‘Oh God, I hope there isn’t a shooting section. At least the train is civilian free, I hope’ I nervously thought, knowing this world’s penchant for exploiting clichés.

Thankfully it was not to be, I’m deathly allergic to bullets and collateral damage anyway. Instead, I came across a scuffle by the time I reached the fourth rail car. Daring was facing off against two large and muscular brigands wearing the animal skins of a black panther and a tiger respectively. They were wielding claw like weapons attached to their hands like knuckle dusters with a sharp attitude. Because of the close quarters, Daring didn’t have enough room to use her whip; instead she used vaguely Aikido like tactics to redirect her opponent’s own attack momentum against them while weaving and ducking around them like an expert. A third thug, this one wearing a Lynx skin noticed me and approached with lethal intent in his eyes. He drew his weapons, a pair of warrior’s spirt-esque claws that seemed to be dripping with some kind of liquid before striking them together and setting them alight while giving me a blood thirsty grin.

“You gotta be kidding me” was my disbelieving statement, both at the violation of physics and his morbid showmanship in doing so.

‘Where’s Bruce Lee when you need him? He’s dealt with claw wielding murderous psychopaths before!’ I wishfully thought.

My opponent did not grace me with an answer, instead opting to charge me and make a few swipes at my neck. I backpedaled out of the way and withdrew my Tantō from its substitute sheath in my belt loops, holding it in a reverse grip and silently grateful for my plan ahead ideology. My aggressor paused momentarily to eye my blade before giving me a distasteful and greedy sneer.

“That knife will make a fine trophy; I shall enjoy looting it from your soon to be mutilated corpse” He boldly boasted.

“Yeah? Come and take it dickweed” I defiantly replied, standing my ground.

(Cue the dramatic music!)

I looked calm on the outside, but on the inside I was an anxious wreck. I had no combat training! I could actually die here! But I didn’t really have much of a choice; if I tried to run away he’d get a free swing at my backside, my wings were of no use in the cramped cargo compartments, and this degenerate was just asking for an ass kicking. Plus I couldn’t just leave Daring to face these scumbags by herself, call it foolish male pride but I had developed a protective complex for women in peril; even if they aggravate the hell out of me. I swore I saw the emblem on my knife briefly light up as I thought that. The man opposite of me snarled at my riposte and slashed at me repeatedly; there was no tactical pattern to his attacks at all. This man just really wanted to tear me a new one based on how furious his strikes were. I evaded as best as I could manage, nearly receiving a few close shaves for my efforts. It may have been my imagination or the adrenaline that was no doubt coursing through my veins, but his onslaught of swipes and slashes were getting slower and easier to avoid. Perhaps he was getting weary? Regardless I used the extra breathing room to mentally recite some advice.

‘Okay Zenith think! The flight book mentioned something that Valkyrian’s had as an advantage in a fight! What was the passage? “Strength is the brute’s weapon, poison is the thief’s weapon, and speed is the Skyborn’s weapon” I have to outmaneuver him!’

That was easier said than done, the tight quarter’s left little room for mistake. It certainly didn’t help that the sudden switchbacks that the train was climbing made me nearly lose balance several times; although to be fair it threw my mutual enemy off balance as well, preventing him from landing a critical hit on me on many occasions. I may have had a good height advantage over my opponent, which meant I could outreach him and hopefully land a few hits myself. But he was crafty little bugger, constantly closing the distance I attempted to put between us to negate that handicap. I spotted an opening just as he tried a heavy handed downward strike, landing it and getting his right claw stuck on a crate behind me. I used that opportune moment to insert my blade between the bindings holding the savage weapon to his hand and wrenched it away from him. Giving him a nasty looking gash in the process that he held while howling in pain and fury. By now, our little dance had taken us back a whole rail car; so the disarmed and still inflamed weapon had landed amongst an opened case of inconveniently placed dynamite rods and lit their alarmingly short fuses.

“Oh shit!” I scrambled away as fast as I could, sloppily sheathing my weapon in the process. My opponent was too distracted by his injury to notice why I was fleeing with as much haste as I could muster.

I retreated for all but five seconds into the succeeding freight car before a monstrously loud blast accompanied by a shockwave enveloped the previous rail car and the unfortunate soul still inside. The explosion knocked me off my feet and sent me flying forward several feet into one of the passenger cars. I had time to see the shocked faces of Daring and her aggressors locked in a stalemate before I collided headfirst with the backrest of one of the velveteen lined passenger benches and knew no more.

⁂

I awoke to a splitting headache and the sound of various objects detaching from their place and falling past me into the snowy abyss below. I slowly shifted around in the seat I had somehow stayed affixed to on the floor panels and examined myself.

‘Ugh, it feels like someone took a sledgehammer to my face. Wait… falling objects?’ I took in my current situation, I was covered in scrapes and bruises but favorably was no worse for wear overall. Couldn’t say the same about my contemporary position though, it was a real mess.

Apparently the detonating TNT sheared apart the rail car and derailed the rest of the train. Because it had just reached the top of the mountainous embankment, the other rail cars tumbled around in such a way that the one I was currently in was perched precariously many hundreds of feet over a steep cliff.

‘Is this what Nathan Drake had to deal with? He was completely right, this totally blows. At least I ain’t been shot on top of it, god I despise cliffhangers’ I internally lamented.

I was about to search for my companion and see if she was alright before the sound of creaking materials alerted me to movement below where I was seated. I held a hand to my backside, sighing in relief when I felt the reassuring smooth crimson wood handle of the Tantō still secured to my person. I gripped the handle securely in case one of those cat crazy crooks was still around. Groaning in discomfort and more than a little bit of soreness, I shifted around in my seat to get a good look at what was occurring below. Auspiciously, it was just Daring climbing up whatever she could find a handhold on in the rail car hanging below. However, her good fortune was about to be shaken quite severely and quite literally. The coupler connecting this car and the one Daring was clambering up, began to loosen with a sickly grinding noise before slowly disengaging itself from the lock. Daring saw this and frantically began to jump climb before leaping across the gap between the two recently disjoined rail cars to grab onto the metal slab interposed between the box shaped metal draft gear coupler of the passenger coach I was inhabiting at the moment.

“Hey sleeping beauty! A little help here?” She tried to hide the fear in her voice with sarcasm but there was a noticeable tremor, can’t say I blamed her. That tends to happen to people just one imminent slip away from plummeting to their doom.

“Hang on Dee Dee! Be with you in a sec!” I shouted down to her, before analyzing the way down. There were plenty of things I could use to climb down, the seat benches that weren’t unbolted from the floor looked secure enough for me to shimmy myself down to Daring. The curtain bars looked like a good secondary in case the bench idea didn’t work. With that in mind I enacted my barely thought out plan, slowly but surely hopping down from one seat bench to the other as I neared my dangling partner.

“Zenith! I’m starting to slip!” Her voice was in full panic now.

I just about reached her when she lost her hold and began to freefall.

‘Shit!’ I mentally cursed, without second thought for my own safety I dove after her.

She assumed a flat form which increased her wind resistance and decreased her terminal velocity, whether or not she did that on purpose was lost to me since she was busy screaming her lungs out. I assumed an aerodynamic bullet shape and nosedived after her; I rapidly closed the distance between the two of us and grabbed her. I was very glad she wasn’t frantic enough to be flailing about or this would have been obscenely difficult. With her securely in my embrace I reoriented us perpendicular to the speedily approaching ground and pumped my wings for all they were worth. Thankfully, the airbrakes on Zenith airlines worked wonders and slowed our descent to a halt. Daring was hugging me with such intense strength as to put a grizzly bear to shame.

“Uhm… Dee Dee? I kind of need to breathe here” I managed to wheeze out.

She loosened her vice like clamp on me and liberated my airway passages so they could be put back into operation.
Something I liberally took advantage of, Daring was also huffing exorbitantly from the ordeal herself.

“You saved me…” She eked out between gasps of Oxygen.

“Of course I did” I curtly replied, “I wouldn’t leave the great Daring Do hanging would I?” I couldn’t resist making the pun; she however didn’t notice or was too grateful to care about my facetious attitude to us nearly dying several times.

“Thanks” She softly said, “I guess I owe you one huh?” She chuckled.

“Consider it on the house, I’m just glad that’s over with” I chuckled along with her before peering up, my pupils shrinking at what I saw.

“Spoke too soon” Was all I managed before the incoming passenger car engulfed us in its maw like a hungry beast pouncing upon its unsuspecting prey. Miraculously, we harmlessly passed through its corridor and out the other side as the dilapidated corpse of a rail car slammed into the hard ground below and impacted the Earth with a near deafening rumble. Of course, that didn’t stop us both from screaming out in fright (Mine was manly of course!) at the sudden encapsulation. Afterwards, Daring and I both looked at each other before breaking out into a mix of nervous and relieved laughter.

‘Good thing the doors were open on both sides, otherwise we’d have been flattened!’ I shook myself out of my astonished reverie.

“Well, before anything else tries to promptly kill us; let’s make for high ground shall we?” I suggested to my companion.

“Sounds like the best idea I’ve heard yet today” She sighed in exhaustion.

“Stick around, I’m full of good ideas” I optimistically stated, intentionally twisting Isaac Clarke’s quote in the aspiration of achieving positive fortune. Although I knew better than to get my hopes up, the universe has rarely been generous to me lately it seems.

I lifted us both up the Cliffside until we both had semi solid snowy ground beneath our feet. The tangled mess of wreckage from the train derailment was scattered all over the snow drifts leading from the rail line. Fires that managed to catch the wooden roofs of the rail coaches were slowly consuming them and turning them into burnt tinder. An array of materials from the cargo cars were dispersed all over the crash site, Daring promptly picked up whatever she could scrounge to replace the gear she lost earlier in the pile up, including a modest messenger pouch and perishables in the form of power bars and heavily dented water canteens. She even added a couple sticks of dynamite leftover from some of the undetonated explosive crates to our inventory.

I meanwhile was wondering why they’d have dynamite on the train to begin with, but I’d learned to quickly dismiss the odd things that this world constantly brought to my attention. Instead I concerned myself with whether or not we were alone in the ram shackled ruins of what passed for a train. I conducted a quick sweep of the area with my hand constantly on my knife handle, but I found no one else besides us. I rejoined Daring who was warming herself by one of the shambled piles of wreckage that was currently acting as a campfire and sat beside her, instantly yelping in pain and grumbling to myself as I realized that I had plopped down on a jagged piece of debris. I tossed the offending object as far as I could over the Cliffside as comeuppance for its heinous act. Then I turned my attention to the pensive looking woman next to me.

“Hey, what happened to those two cat skin wearing lackeys you were tussling with?” I asked curiously.

“After that violent explosion jumbled the whole train of the rails, they were both defenestrated out the windows. I got lucky, only fell into an open lavatory room the rail car below” She replied.

“Gross” I grimaced at the unsavory thought.

“Nah, I came out clean. It was out of order” She smirked, “Can’t say the same about Scratch and Growl”

“Wait… you knew those guys?” I asked; since they didn’t look terribly familiar to me.

“Yeah, they were some of the top goons working for my arch rival. A small mercenary group called the Wild Cats” She explained.

“You never did reveal who this rival of yours was” I hinted for a full account.

She took in a deep breath before speaking, “He calls himself Ahuizotl, power hungry rogue aristocrat from some region with a name equally difficult to pronounce and very far removed from here” Before I could ask for more information she stood and dusted herself off.

“We should get moving soon, before a snowstorm covers up those tracks” She started off in the direction of an uneven set of three tracks pointing in the direction of the mountain range. I relinquished my inquiries and followed her professional lead as usual.

We walked for several hours, the light slowly dimming until it was early nightfall. The tracks eventually reached into an outcropping in the slope of one of the mountains. We climbed that outcropping to find that it reached into a small rocky cave. Realizing that the tracks stopped there, we opted to settle down for the night. Even though we had our Valkryian resistance to the natural elements, the ground was still frigid and uncomfortably cold. I saw Daring reach into one of her vest pockets and pull out what looked like dried grass.

“What is that?” I asked, curious at how it would help.

“It’s called brushfire grass, even a tiny amount can burn for hours on end. It’s found in the savanna regions of Zstarasia and Aridia. As you can probably guess, brushfires can be a serious problem there.” She demonstrated by pulling out a match and setting fire to the small crumpled pile of grass. Despite its miniscule amount, it didn’t curl up or crispate in the slightest and warmed the surrounding air to more tolerable levels.

I sat down criss cross style close by to the fireside, slowly mesmerized by the flickering of the flames; which burned with a curious yellow tinge. My invaluable companion sat next to me and removed her iconic pith helmet and ran a hand down her gray scaled locks of hair; something I noticed was a lot more beat up and worn looking up close. I decided to question her about it to pass the time.

“I’m guessing that ol’ thing has a sentimental value attached to it huh?” I said with sarcasm free sincerity.

“More than you know. This ol’ thing… belonged to my grandfather and ultimate role model, the famous explorer and safari man Tally Ho. Ever since I was a little girl; I aspired to be more like my Grandpappy. Fierce, fearless, audacious and valorous… just like him” She smiled a melancholy smile, reliving some of the cherished memories.

“What happened to him?” I asked, interested in knowing more.

“One day he went on one of his expeditions, some kind of secretive relic recovery excursion … and never came back, this helmet is all I have left to remember him by” She cradled it like it was a precious child while stroking the olivine band that encompassed the weathered head wear.

“Oh, I’m sorry for bringing that up Daring. I shouldn’t have aske..” I was going to finish my apologies but she cut me off with a wave of her hand.

“No, it’s quite alright. I’ve had plenty of time to adjust to that fact. After all, one lesson Grandpappy instilled in me was to ‘keep a stiff upper lip Daring my girl and you’ll go far!’” She imitated in her best Englishman accent. Eliciting a small chuckle from me, despite the despondent atmosphere of our conversation.

“He sounds like he was a cool guy. That kind of enterprising charisma must run in the family” I complimented her to which she shrugged.

“Wouldn’t know, I never got to fully acquaint myself with my parents” She spoke with indifference gained from a lifetime of introspection.

“What happened to them?” I asked, almost apprehensive of the answer.

“They died when I was an infant; my grandpappy was the only family I had” She sadly stated, confirming my worried suspicions.

“So when he never returned…” I began.

“I had to be put in an orphanage until I was of the age where I could strike it out on my own” She finished for me, “The Las Valkyras local government kept his assets preserved for me until I was legally old enough to claim them. My grandpappy may not have been a terribly rich man, but he sure left me a lot of presents to forge my own reputation with” She finished with a mirthless chortle.

Wanting to change the topic to something a little less of a tender spot I continued down that line to see where it led.

“So how did you get your big start? How did you become the famous Daring Do, adventuress extraordinaire?” I inquired with enthusiasm in my voice.

“One of my grandpappy’s old friends, a Professor Stratigraphy got me interested in paleology and eventually petitioned the Concordia Institute of Archaeology to give me a chance to join them. They issued me a challenge, bring them a priceless foreign relic and they would admit me into their ranks. So I consolidated my newly acquired assets, trained intensively, and set out to make a name for myself”

“Which relic did you bring them?” I asked, fully enraptured in her tale.

“A little something called the Sapphire Statue” She smirked at me. Even though I had no idea what its significance was, I nodded and acted impressed for her sake.

“Wow… and for your first relic retrieval too! The people at the institute must have been surprised at such resourcefulness. I mean the Sapphire Statue? That’s downright awesome right there” I laid it on thick to be extra sure. She seemed to beam with pride at my display of admiration. I once more was grateful for my acting skills and unrevealing stolid facial expression.

“More than surprised, they were downright flabbergasted. The temple I retrieved it from is nestled deep inside one of the harshest rainforests out there! Not to mention that the Temple itself is absolutely jam packed full of booby traps”

‘Tee hee, she said booby’ An immature part of my mind painstakingly pointed out.

‘Shut up Brain, this is neither the time nor the place’ I chastised myself.

“Nothing an experienced adventurer such as yourself couldn’t handle I’m sure” I stated with confidence.

“Well, not everything went as smoothly as I would have liked. I nearly bought the farm several times, what with the rolling man sized boulders, falling spike traps, magma cauldrons, poison dart launchers, quick sand pits, feral water buffalo, and last but not least, the slowly sinking stone slab of crushing defeat” She finished listing the various health hazards of said Sapphire Statue temple.

“Wow… how in the world did you get past the water buffalo?” I legitimately asked. She gave me a funny look as if she wasn’t expecting me to choose that particular obstacle out of the multitude she recounted.

“I’m dying of suspense… really” I added in my best imitation of the Sith Inquisitor’s voice. She continued to stare in confusion at me but eventually yielded to my indomitable will with a slow shake of her head.

“There was a hidden switch on one of the torch sconces, flooded the chamber with saline rich water and mud. The water buffalo calmed down after that, happy enough to wallow around in the muck” She recalled with an amused smile.

“Neat, so when did you get the idea to publish your adventures?” I asked, very interested in knowing how Daring Do became a literary household name.

“Funny story actually, it was shortly after I brought back the Sapphire Statue to the institute. One of the officials there was so taken aback by the sheer number of hindrances I had to overcome that he felt as if my maiden expedition was ‘something out of an adventure book’, I told him that if it wasn’t by that point, then it would be now. So I set out on a different kind of quest to find a publisher who was looking for a good story slash autobiography to write and sell copies of” She took a deep intake of air and clicked her tongue in a thoughtful manner.

“I imagine that once you found one, it became quite a lucrative practice” I interjected during the pause.

“Of course! But I had to find one first remember? Eventually and after being turned down by dozens of short sighted publishers, I came across an upstart like myself by the name of Hard Cover. We agreed upon a fair deal, I got half and he got half of the proceeds. My only other request was that he didn’t publish myself under another name for anonymity reasons”

“Wait, how does using your actual name keep you anonymous?” I asked, confused at first.

“Think about it, no one would suspect that Daring Do would be my actual name. They would automatically assume it to be some kind of nom de plume per se, plus I don’t have to pretend to be someone else other than myself! On top of that, I can use the income from the book series to help subsidize my successive expeditions” She exclaimed happily.

“Well, you certainly seem to have a nice little system worked out. Are you going to get this little adventure of ours turned into a novel?” I inquisitively asked.

“Most likely, although I can’t think of a decent title for the life of me” She cocked her head to the side as she mulled it over.

“How about… Daring Do and the chase for the Crystal Chalice?” I suggested.

“Huh, that’s not a bad idea. I’ll have to run it by my agent once I get back to Concordia” She said as she put her beloved helmet to the side before she removed her messenger bag and set it aside as well.

“Just be sure to give credit to where it’s due yea?” I raised my brow expectantly.

“Perish the thought that the great Zenith should be excluded from his place in the series Do!” Daring sarcastically jested.

“How true to your adventures is the series?” I inquired, ignoring her jab.

“Hard Cover edits a few things for the sake of reader anticipation, but more or less it’s exactly what I deal with on my ventures” She tentatively explained.

“Just another day in the life of Daring Do huh?” I playfully suggested to which she nodded in agreement.

“Exactly. And given how crazy my life can get sometimes, editing isn’t even really required”

“I don’t doubt it; you certainly like to live life on the edge” I shook my head in near disbelief at the debacle earlier.

“Just not literally” She chuckled softly, no doubt thinking along the same lines.

“Oh? You have a book series that disagrees with that statement” I cunningly bantered with her.

She threw a fake annoyed look my way, “You know what I mean ya’ blockhead”

The soft crackling of the bush grass fed fire was the only sound to permeate the cave for a short time; I was content to merely watch the yellowish flames flicker and dance together in a poetic display of raw natural emotion. Eventually the silence was interrupted by my companion, who gave me a cursory glance as she did so.

“So… you already have a pet name for me? Dee Dee was it?” She had a strange expression as she said that.

“Well I wouldn’t say it was a pet name so much as an efficient nickname. That… and I was a fan of the Dexter’s Laboratory series as a kid, you sometimes remind me of the main character’s sister Dee Dee” I neglected to tell her it was because she was could be both annoying as hell yet endearing at the same time.

“Is that another book series? I haven’t heard of it” She said as she wracked her mind for a reference to it.

“No, it was more of an animated play really. Besides, I highly doubt you’d recognize any of the things from home that I admire” She gave a thoughtful hum as she digested that.

“It’s just that only one other person has ever called me that, an old friend from the orphanage” She had a small nostalgic smile on her face, “I was in the middle of a free fall to my demise and that was the first thing on my mind” She let out a self-deprecating laugh, clearly appalled with herself.

“Hey, I caught you… and I wouldn’t be surprised with your initials and everything” I reasoned.

“Perhaps…and thanks again for that” She finished with a drained sounding suspire.

“Anytime Dee Dee” I replied with a small smile.

It more or less continued that way until we both grew weary. We were of one mind that Ow-who- what’s his face and his goons would also have to wait for daylight hours to continue their power mad gambit the same as us. It certainly helped that we deprived them of purloining any lighting resources or other materials during the derailment. ‘I’m positively atremble with anticipation to tell her highness all about that one’ So with that line of thinking concluded, we both settled down for a cozy doze by the fireside. Thankful for a brief respite from the taxing action and adrenaline rushes. I was about to succumb to the compelling pull of slumber when I felt something, or more specifically someone snuggle up next to me.

“Uhm…what are you doing?” I warily asked her.

“What does it look like doofus? I’m sharing body heat” She explained with an unsure tone, as if she were trying to convince herself that what was she was really doing.

“We’re Valkryians Daring, we have superior resistance to the cold. That’s a transparent excuse and you know it” I indicated to her, she continued her flimsy ruse regardless.

“Yeah well… you make for a great pillow!” She said, flustered from a mix of frustration and embarrassment all the while.

“Uh huh, you keep telling yourself that” I dubiously stated.

“Damn it! Why do you have to be so impossible!?” She deploringly protested.

“Right back at cha” I smartly retorted.

Before she started seething with relentless anger, I placated her, “I’m too tired to argue about this, you get a free night’s pass to use me as your personal teddy bear this one time only” I proffered to her.

“Pfft… fine then, jerk” She groused, shifting closer anyway. She positioned her head right over my chest, comfortable enough to get some shut eye.

“You have a nice sounding heartbeat” She mentioned offhandedly.

“Let’s hope it remains that way” I was too burned out to say anything else.

We stayed wrapped in each other’s warmth for the rest of the night.

⁂

Strangely enough I woke from my dreamless slumber before my still dozing partner, the morning rays from the Sun illuminating the cave through the crevice we entered. The woman had a light snore that even I couldn’t help but find somewhat adorable. Calmly relieved that she didn’t take the liberty of drooling all over my faintly torn shirt, I gently and laboriously excised myself from her grasp. Even asleep, I could see the displeased expression on her face when her substitute pillow was suddenly absent; it was enough to almost make me feel guilty… almost. It soon passed none the less and I turned towards more important matters. I then used that opportunity to do some morning stretches and take stock of my own personal inventory. ‘Ipod and ear buds; check. Money bag; check. Tantō; check. Flash and smoke canisters; check and check’ Call me paranoid, but if my meeting with the Princess went south for whatever reason; I would follow suit and escape in a flash of smoke and noise, making use of my wings to fly as fast as I could to the less arctic lands of Arcania. As it happened, that graciously did not occur; I’m still flabbergasted at how easily Cadence dismissed my story of being an extra dimensional visitor, though to be fair she didn’t look like she whole heartedly believed it. However …I had a sneaking suspicion that I would still have a use for both decampment cylinders by the end of the day.

The stirring sound of someone awakening with a loud yawn roused me from my ruminations. Daring sat up from her spot on the gravely ground looking strangely bright eyed and bushy tailed. ‘Guess she’s a morning person’ I mused, not surprised in the least.

“G’Morning, how is our intrepid adventuress feeling today?” I asked with a chipper tone.

“Ready to take on the world” She chirped with equal pleasantry as she completed her own morning stretch routine.

“Ambitious, I like that. But I’d suggest starting small with Owl-who-zotle and his glorified thugs” I quipped.

“Ahuizotl” She corrected, “But that can wait, breakfast first!” She then reached for her pack, opened it, and tossed me a power bar along with one of the dented canteens; doing the same for herself.

I bit into it, almost wincing at its dryness. I chewed carefully before swallowing and stifling a shudder as it went down.
“Well… it ain’t no hot pocket, but it still beats nothing” I muttered.

“Hot pocket?” Daring asked, intrigued.

“It’s basically a pocket of bread with filler inside; meats, veggies, whatever you want. One just has to pop it into a special device known as a microwave and in forty five to sixty seconds you got a hot meal ready to eat!” I took another bite of the dreadful power bar from hell as I completed my tiny lecture on the marvels of microwave appliances and processed food.

“Wow! I can’t tell you how many times that would have worked wonders for me!” She exclaimed, clearly astonished with this small aspect of home.

“I should plan a visit someday” She murmured offhand to herself.

“You’re an adept traveler Daring, but I doubt even you can cross jump dimensions” I dubiously sniped, before realizing my mistake. ‘Crap!’

“Dimensions? Didn’t you tell me you were foreign born?” She asked, eyeing me suspiciously.

“Yeah… one hundred percent American. You won’t find it on any map here” I reluctantly explained, resigned to paying the price for this small penalty.

“American huh? I like the ring of it. Well c’mon American, let’s go” She made way into the depths of the cave, apparently unconcerned with the alien dimension clause.

‘Huh, I expected more than that. Maybe the universe is giving me a break?’ My expression became deadpan, ‘Ha! Fat chance of that happening’ I thought sardonically before jogging to catch up with my oddly permissive partner.

As we treaded further down the deepening fathoms of the cave, I was rather confused by the uncannily warm draft of air kissing our skin much like when I re-entered the climate barrier of the Krystal Kingdom with the guys.

“You know? The air is getting awfully warm for the bowels of a snow capped mountain” I observed out loud.

“In my experience, something as atypical as that means that we’re getting close to where we need to be” She replied with a strange sage like tone.

“Okay Obi-Wan, I’ll take your word for it. Have blaster will travel after all” I referenced, by this point Daring had gotten used to my analogies so she didn’t bother asking.

I instinctively knew that we were inevitably going to happen across something spectacular, but what we uncovered was something out of a journey to the center of the Earth movie. We both paused at the outlet of the tunnel to marvel at what we witnessed. An honest to God Amazon style rainforest that was absolutely flourishing inside the massive chasm underneath the mountain. Large cracks in the ‘ceiling’ allowed for a good amount of sunlight to penetrate into the impossible garden. The stone walls of the mountain acting like a provisional greenhouse; warming the surrounding air to conditions favorable to the gargantuan growths of lush evergreen trees and bushes that we were seeing, it was actually quite humid too. Even the soil was rich and loamy instead of the rocky gravel I was expecting.

I stood there next to Daring absolutely stupefied. How could such a thing even exist? Then the answer whacked me with the figurative force equal to that of a falling coconut; some serious magic was at play here. As if to further support my speculation, the faint sound of streams of water graced my ears. Large branching veins of water that varied in width coursed and inundated throughout the impossible rainforest much like the vascular system of a complex organism. Upon further inspection, the water didn’t appear to be your average run of the mill Hydrogen Dioxide. It glittered and glistened regardless of whether or not it was reflecting the scant sunlight showering the jungle in concentrated spots. I was half tempted to drink from the stream out of curiosity, but I didn’t know what effects that would have had on me; I was still very wary of mysterious magics.

I had only one thing to say to this elaborate work of entwining nature and magic.

“Surreal” I breathed with apt fascination.

“And I thought I had a gift for understatement” My partner gave me a grin, “We should keep on moving; don’t want our Chalice thief to be granted immortality right?”

“Right” I nodded, and so we began navigating the thickets of the jungle with Daring occasionally stopping us to inspect any traces of our quarry that she could find. Tracks, crushed foliage, and other tells that alluded to the position of our Chalice thieves. The metaphorical breadcrumb trail was sparse but enough to point us in a general direction; give or take a few meters.

Despite the mesmerizing allure of such an unlikely occurrence, the forest was closer to being a façade in actuality. Other than the rushing streams of probable magic infused water, it was eerily quiet. There were no birds, no animals, or even insects inhabiting the bountiful boscage of trees and shrubs. It was offsetting enough to make me feel as if we were intruding upon something sacred and sacrosanct. I dropped the thought before it started to interfere with my better judgment; visceral fear is always a hindrance in my book. Although based on the looks from my partner’s face, she felt much the same. I felt compelled to reassure her and keep us both focused on our task as we entered a long clearing.

“We’re here with good intentions Daring, it’s not like we’re interfering with anything sanctified” I reasoned.

“I know that, but our ‘mutual’ friends don’t share that principle do they?” She said with unease, “I feel as if this place is watching our every move and silently judging us, I’ve seen more than my fair share of bizarre jungles but this one is up there”

“We’ll have to be on our best behavior then won’t we?” I smirked in response.

“How is it that you can make light of every situation?” She inquired with utmost puzzlement.

“Must be my flippant personality” I laconically replied with a chuckle, getting a disbelieving scoff from her in return.

Daring looked like she was about to say something in response, but a trap net crudely consisting of vines triggered with a sudden snap and up reared us off of our feet. It wasn’t a very large net either, intentionally meant for one person. So I was practically squashed upside down against my partner in a rather compromising position I must say.

‘Dude, you’ve never been closer to motor boating a girl in your life’ A prurient part of my brain took glee in pointing out.

‘I doubt she’d take kindly to that’ I strongly reminded myself.

Daring face was burning red by this point, whether in anger or embarrassment I could not tell. I couldn’t really move away from my spot without rattling her cleavage so I stayed perfectly still.

‘Not that you’re complaining of course’ The snippy side of my mind said.

‘Be that as it may, this isn’t exactly how I’d envision it’ I snarked back to myself.

“Well well well, if it isn’t the great Daring Do” A strongly accented voice proudly made itself known. Emerging from the brushwork was a large cloaked figure with a hood drawn over his face, along with two other brutish looking fellows. One of them had the black dotted skin of a leopard as a cowl while the other had the pristine white fur of a house cat?

‘I have my doubts about that one’s masculinity’ Even in dangerous situations I had a penchant for seeing the absurdity in things.

“And what’s this? An associate of yours perhaps? In such a bawdy adjoining no less! What company you keep with you, meddlesome tramp” He laughed a spiteful laugh, a grating noise most unpleasant. I haven’t even known him for a minute and already I loathed this pathetic excuse of a scumbag.

“Ahuizotl” Daring spat out his name as if it were laced with venom, “Still the same trap happy psychopathic jackass” Her recalcitrant response seemed to visibly irk him, but he seemed to shrug it off before sneering at us.

“Ever the contemptuous rebel I see, your antics on the locomotive cost me my loyal Scratch and Growl. But it matters little; your defiance will be over by the end of this day” He slithered his way over before removing his hood and fully revealed his grotesque pointy face. His sickeningly yellow eyes glaring into ours with a misplaced sense of self superiority.

“Before I kill you however, I want you to bear witness my ultimate ascent to Godhood! You shall know true despair… and then I will let you die”

As he finished his sentence, he fished a hand out of a pocket in his navy blue yellow trim robe. In his palm was some kind of green sparkling dust, which he proceeded to blow into our faces. I immediately started to feel woozy, like I worked multiple twelve hour shifts without any sleep. I fought very hard to stay awake, a lethargic glance toward my companion revealed to me that she had already succumbed to its sleep inducing effects. I felt my eyelids slowly begin to drift downwards; I only managed to keep them at slit level through sheer force of will alone.

I barely heard the antagonistic Ahuizotl bark orders to his subordinates to cut us down, we fell to the thankfully soft ground with a light thud. I counted myself fortunate that I stifled a grunt of discomfort lest I alert them to my awareness. They proceeded to pick us up and carry us over their shoulders; I didn’t even have the energy to make a snide mental comment that ‘Kitten’ as I decided to call him was rather gentle with his cargo. Daring however, was treated with the same courtesy as a sack of potatoes and was roughly manhandled by the Leopard skin wearing thug.

They carried us for either minutes or hours; it was very hard to tell the passage of time in my pseudo comatose like state. Whatever was in that dust also had hallucinogenic effects, colors warped and shifted and sounds were garbled and oddly echoed. That’s to say nothing of the messed up sights I experienced in my delirious condition.

‘D..amn… bas..tards… dru..gged… m..e..too?’ I thought with the speed of a stuttering sloth.

I did my best to remember any kind of landmark we passed in case the knowledge would come in handy later, given how much of the jungle looked the same I almost felt it a wasted effort. But my patience (not that I had a choice) was rewarded when we crossed a medium width ravine rapids using the fallen trunk of a tree, which strangely enough was still alive based on the vegetation growing on it; I noticed the most mundane things in my new state of awareness. Our kidnappers didn’t walk too much further after that, carrying us into yet another cave tunnel. This one was different though, the flow of water here sounded nearly torrential in strength. The atmosphere was lit by luminous green emerald like crystals that were bunched together into the walls and floor of the cave. There was also a deep resonating pulse in the air that reminded me of a heartbeat? I couldn’t be too sure, under the influence of the drug powder and all.

Our captors then deposited us on the cold stone floor; ‘Kitten’ did it affably while Daring was dropped unceremoniously like a pile of bricks. They proceeded to tie us together with rope bindings that felt ambiguously like Nylon. Remembering an old hostage survival trick, I kept my forearms as spaced apart as I could while they wrapped them in the rope. I tried my best to be discreet so they wouldn’t notice; regardless I had to give them credit since they still tied a mean knot. I sluggishly tested my bonds to see if my little trick paid off, turns out it did; I had enough leeway that I could move my hands around with some invaluable freedom.

“Wake our hapless guests” Ahuizotl impatiently commanded.

His lackeys then took the liberty of dousing us with absolutely chilling water from their flasks, causing the both of us gasp and sputter reflexively and in indignation. I certainly felt awake now! I was cognitively dreading whether or not they poured any of that enigmatic magical water on us. But since the sheen of water soaking our clothes and skin did not shine to an overly obnoxious degree, I could safely surmise that we weren’t. However the quality of the water spilled on us was proving to be the least of our immediate concerns. I quietly bemoaned our negative situation; we were literally tied up at the moment, our captors were doubtlessly going to try and kill us, Daring’s arch nemesis was close to his goal of immortality and fathomless power, and to top it off our current main villain had a pike nose bigger than that of Adrien Brody.

‘Okay focus on the positives boyo, they haven’t bothered to confiscate your trump cards yet. You have just enough wriggle room that you can still reach for your Tantō, Daring is awake and pissed as all hell given how furiously she’s struggling right now, if you can successfully reach your knife and cut the bonds then you can grab the stun and smoke grenades and use them to surprise your oblivious opponents . Either they’re blind or some of the worst hired muscle in the history of flunkeys’ I finished with some slight critic mentality.

“How nice of you to join me in my hour of ultimate transcendence” Ahuizotl modestly stated, “I have been waiting a long time for an opportunity like this, the taste of my inevitably rise to power made even sweeter by my most troublesome adversary being delivered into my hands for final judgment”

He hadn’t even drunk of the water yet and he was giving us the ‘All powerful’ monologue. I would’ve rolled my eyes in annoyance had I not been so busy secretly reaching for my blade. Daring compounded the problem by continuing to struggle fruitlessly, guess she wasn’t the escape artist that Houdini was.

“Daring! Stop struggling, you’re making our chances of escape even slimmer!” I harshly (yet stealthily) whispered to her.

“And just what are you doing to help!?” She harshly whispered back.

“Just sit still and let me handle this, I’ve got them right where we want them” I confidently declared. Despite mutters of resentment, Daring complied amiably and resigned herself to sit still and glare daggers at our captors.

My previous statement was true since Ahuizotl was standing on a monticule in the cave near the shimmering water’s edge a few meters away from us with his two subordinates standing to his sides paying half attention to us and the other half to their master while holding metallic crossbows in their possession. I made a small mental note that ‘Kitten’ had an almost imperceptible look of regret on his face, as though he knew what he was doing was wrong but wouldn’t apostate himself out of some kind of misplaced principle of loyalty.

Disregarding that however, I writhed and squirmed in my bindings. Further freeing my hands so I could grasp the handle of my Tantō. With my left hand I eased the knife out of its smooth wooden scabbard, carefully running my fingers along the flat of the blade to avoid cutting myself. I twirled it in my fingers and began running it back and forth against my nylon chains. Slowly but steadily the rope began to unravel as I cut into it. I was relieved that Daring didn’t continue to keep struggling since I could accidentally cut her while trying to unleash us from our predicament. I originally wanted to blitz our detainers to buy enough time for Daring to escape untouched but I immediately recognized two things wrong with that idea, we came for the Chalice come hell or high water, and Daring was much too headstrong to retreat after coming this far. So I instantly threw that plan into the rubbish bin, I decided to let Daring in on my little plan as I grew closer to releasing us.

“Psst! Dee Dee! Want to be let in on a little secret?” You could practically hear the grin in my voice.

“About time you decided to tell me! Yes I do wanna know!” She responded.

“I’m just about free of this infernal knot, and then I’m gonna free you. Before you go rushing headlong at them, I’m going to stun them using the same trick I took the feral snow dragon down with. However, I’ll give you the means to cover our escape in the form of a smoke grenade. Okay?” I asked.

“Sounds as good as any plan I could have come up with” She said with a tone of approval.

“Good, because I’m free now” I sliced through the last threads keeping my arms bound together. To avoid rousing attention, I kept facing our opponents and their leader who was still monologuing and dedicated myself to setting Daring free.

“I originally was going to contrive something diabolical that would slowly yet surely seal your doom, but since you have an irritating tendency to subvert all attempts at killing you with some style, we’re just going to attach a weight to you and toss you both into the water. What better way to kill two pesky rats than by drowning them? Of course, the codex says that the Chalice of Sombra grants both power and immortality but as long as one is immersed in the aqua vitae they are effectively everlasting” He began to chortle darkly, “Oh wouldn’t that be fitting, an eternity of drowning without ever being able to die! This day gets better and better!”

His hideous chuckle became joyous laughter, believing his vengeance to have become that much more malicious; well not if I had anything to say about it. I felt Daring start to hyperventilate as he said that; was she aqua-phobic? Never the less, I wrapped a free hand around her arm in a comforting fashion before crooking my head towards her and gave her reassuring wink. It had the desired effect and Daring visibly perked up, I needed her to keep absolute focus if this was to succeed.

“Your death traps never were any good at holding me” Daring snidely remarked, ending Ahuizotl’s laughter and replacing his mirth with anger.

“Yes… well perhaps if you stayed in them long enough to actually die, I wouldn’t have to repeatedly formulate interesting ways to kill you would I?” He spat rhetorically, before resuming his off settling smile.

“As I said before, it matters not. I shall rise to Godhood, and you and your misfortunate companion shall fall” He pompously stated, just as I finished freeing Daring from the roping.

He then began to reach into his robe and pull out the Crystal Chalice; it was quite a beautiful thing actually, it was carved out of a rich rose color gemstone and inlaid with ovular delectable orange carnelian stones alongside with sterling silver rimming. Ahuizotl then started to silently chant something that had a menacing and evil undertone to it and the Chalice took on that familiar shadowy, almost smoke like aura and floated down to the water’s edge before proceeding to dip itself into the water and scoop out a generous portion of eternal life giving liquid. We had to act quickly lest our job become that much more difficult, the upside was that his henchmen were busy gazing in awe at the display to pay significant attention to us.

“Okay Dee Dee, here’s the smoke grenade. To activate it just pull the ‘O’ shaped ring and toss it, this thing will spew out a whole lotta smoke so it should conceal our escape well enough that we don’t get automatically pegged in the back with cross bolts. Wouldn’t want to take an arrow in your other shoulder would you?” I grinned at her jestingly; she took it in stride and grinned back.

“You never cease to surprise me in the strangest ways Zenith” She spoke with a mystified tone as she took in my canister shaped ace in the hole.

“Yeah well I’m one of kind” I wholeheartedly replied with a shrug, “Let’s just stop this madman once and for all. Oh and before I forget, I’ll need you to cover your eyes and ears and look away for a few seconds” She looked confused but followed my instructions regardless.

Ahuizotl took the Chalice and held it like a socialite would retain a highball. Before he drank of it though, he couldn’t resist gloating once last time; it would prove to be his greatest undoing.

“Any last words before I gain ultimate power and we send you down the rrriver so to speak?” He said as he swirled the water in the cup with his index finger.

‘Ugh, the way this guy rolls his R’s makes me wanna shank him in the throat… wait. That’s exactly what I’m going to do!’ I grinned ferociously.

I primed my flash bang before rolling the canister right between the power mad aristocrat and his goons. I then took my own advice and covered both my eyes and ears, waiting for the inevitable disorientating explosion of light and noise. It came alright, louder and brighter than ever since I didn’t have the luxury of cover behind a rock this time. Still, I sprang to my feet and charged forward with my Tantō in hand. I steamrolled past Ahuizotl’s hunched over dazed bodyguards who dropped their weapons to clutch their faces, before impaling him straight through his neck far cry style. Blood spurted like a leaky valve out both ends as his shrunken pupil eyes widened further in surprise before closing lifelessly, his death gurgle cut off quite literally by my blade obstructing his wind pipe. The legendary cup falling to the floor with a clatter, spilling it’s fabled contents all over the rough ground of the cave.

“How about yippee ki yay mother f*cker!?” I growled, disgusted by this power lusting abominable excuse for a man. I then took the liberty of Spartan kicking him into the pool of immortal life granting water below. His body fell with a splash before sinking to the bottom without further adieu. The patch of water his body disturbed then took on a sinister black tint, as if the body was most pestilent.

‘Looks like I just poisoned the water hole’ I drily observed.

Of course once the contamination of the water was complete, the entire cave started to rumble and shake as if it were in the process of collapsing. A fissure in the Earth opened up and in a most inconvenient fashion; the Chalice rolled its way into the abyss.

“No! We did not come this far to fail now!” Daring; who apparently recovered from the stunning effects of the flash bang, threw herself after the grievous grail. She slid over the edge before keeping one handhold on the ledge; I rushed over to pull her back up. The Chalice landed on a shelf just below Daring’s reach, if she continued to extend herself she could fall to oblivion. A portion in the back of my mind drew some parallels between this and a certain trilogy ending movie and sought to remind me of this.

“Daring!” She didn’t notice me shouting at her, only when her hand slipped and I grabbed it did she turn back, “Daring…. Let it go”

And like the words were magic, Daring reached up to grab my arm with both hands. I hoisted her up with haste since the cave was still collapsing around us. Once she was back on her feet safely, I glanced back at the Chalice. The smartest choice would have been to leave it there, but I vowed that I would fetch it for her Royal highness back in the Krystal Kingdom. The gap was quite narrow, even with my ethereal wings it would have been a tight fit and time wasn’t exactly on my side.

‘Oh what I wouldn’t give to have some kinda telekinesis right now!’ I thought regrettably.

Then the oddest thing happened, an aura of bright red surrounded the Chalice and floated it right into my open hand. I would have spent the next few seconds dumbstruck were it not for an alarmingly large stalactite spearing the ground right next to me. I got off my knees and made for the exit, a screen of thick gray smoke beginning to fully veil it. I sprinted through it with my prize safely stowed away and took to the air of the gargantuan forest micro biome. Hoping to spot my companion underneath all of the vegetation was a fool’s errand, so I made for one of the clearings and prayed that she’d think along the same lines. Either the universe was finally cutting me a break from all the boons it granted me or I was just plain fortunate because no sooner than I landed did Daring burst out of the brushwork and straight into me. Because of my stalwart positioning and Daring’s lighter frame, I cushioned the blow from her momentum with an embrace. She looked slightly happy to see me but she was also acting frantic.

“Something the matter?” I asked with a droll expression.

To answer my question, two cross bolts screeched past me and burrowed into the bark of a nearby tree trunk. I can’t believe I already forgot about the other two! They emerged from the bushed looking quite enraged; or at least the leopard guy did, ‘Kitten’ had an indecisive look on his face. They were reloading their crossbows on the move but it still bought us time to beat a quick retreat, there wasn’t really a path to follow but I reminded myself of the fallen tree acting as a bridge over the rapid flowing waters below as we dodged both obstacles and arrows.

As fate would have it, the sound of rushing waters graced our ears about two minutes after I joined the running of the Daring. I gesticulated towards the bridge to Daring, who caught the hint and followed my lead this time. I saw her reach into her messenger pack and pull out one of the dynamite rods she collected earlier before pulling out what looked like a primitive lighter composed of flint and steel and triggered the mechanism. Using its sparks she lit the boom stick and as we were rushing over the fallen tree, dropped it into one of the hollows with a mischievous grin on her face. Our tailing aggressors had no idea what hit them as the wood beneath their feet erupted. The blast consumed the leopard guy and sent ‘Kitten’ hurdling into the deluge below. Despite the fact that they both tried to kill us (Or at least I think so, Kitten’s shots always went wide) I hoped he was at least spared a gruesome fate for being the one genial and benign thug of the bunch.

Seeing as we were no longer being pursued, we both used that moment for a breather. I recollected everything I’ve experienced since waking today and starting snickering like it was something out of a really badly written story.

“What’s so funny? We risked life and limb and were denied the prize!” Daring asked irksomely, rather frustrated with what she perceived as a failure.

“Au contraire mon cheri” I snorted in my best stereotyping accent, “I have the prize right here” I held out the Chalice for her to see, her eyes widened in surprise and she looked at me in disbelief.

“B-but how?” She stuttered.

“My natural charm acts as a magnet for enigmatic chalices” I suggested with a wag of my brow, “That and I’d rather risk the injury than deal with dreadful paperwork” I shuddered; paperwork was the real villain here, its evil schemes to torture me have been foiled this day!

Daring threw her hands up in supreme exasperation and whined in frustration.

“You know something? I’ve given up trying to understand you. You’re about as expressive as a statue one moment, then the next you’re extremely eccentric, you’re about as capable looking as a cute puppy, yet you’re able to keep pace with me! A veteran adventurer! You’re just weird” She lamely finished as she ended her rant.

I puffed out my chest with self-admiration, “Why thank you, I pride myself on being unique” Eliciting a hopeless groan in response.

“Do you really think of me as a cute puppy?” I added as an afterthought, getting a small blush out of her.

“W-what? I never said anything of the like!” She deflected while looking away awkwardly.

‘Riiggghhtt…’

I pressed no further, not wanting to agitate her any longer. We trekked our way out of the jungle and back toward the cave we exited from hardly an hour ago. We made our trip in silence, Daring apparently was quite flustered from earlier and didn’t wish to speak on the subject at all. And I was perfectly alright with that, contented to just enjoy the silence that had descended upon this crazy morning. We drew closer to the exit of the cave out of the mountain when were heard the cocking sound of a crossbow behind us, whipping around we saw the drenched form of ‘Kitten’ unsteadily holding his weapon pointed at us. I half expected something like this to happen so I blocked Daring with an outstretched arm. Something about my gaze must have spoken volumes because the man looked even more indecisive than ever. I used that lull to speak my peace.

“Your master is vanquished and his endeavors fruitless. I know that deep down you were well aware that what he was doing was unnatural and wrong. But for whatever reason be it loyalty, contract principle, or fear of retribution he can no longer threaten anyone anymore. If you wish to start righting some of his wrongs, you can come with us back to the Kingdom. I promise that I will speak on your behalf with the highest authority there to insure that you get some leniency or maybe even amnesty under the clause that your hands were tied (so to speak)” I reasoned with him, but I was also going to remind him of the consequences should he choose otherwise.

“However…” At this my tone became colder than the void of space, “If you decide to stay the path of evil and attack us, you will fail, you will die here, and your story will have ended on a flat note with no one, save us to remember your last deeds as a human being. Make your choice” He visibly flinched at that, his already shaking hands wobbled violently before dropping the vile weapon altogether. Hitting the ground with a clattering noise. His hands fell by his sides and he looked at the floor much like a child would when they’ve been caught doing something wrong.

“I don’t want to continue doing this anymore” He spoke with a voice as light as a whisper.

“You don’t have to. What’s your name?” I can’t keep calling him Kitten after all.

“Jomar” It wasn’t what I was expecting, but it could have been stranger.

“Well Jomar, how would like to start anew?” I asked, giving as pleasant a smile as I could.

He looked me in the eyes and I could see intense alleviation in them; “It would mean everything to me” I nodded in understanding.

“Splendid! Then let’s ditch this place” I did a heel face and marched out of the cave, my companion was busy picking her jaw off of the floor. She eventually recovered and caught up to me.

“Are you crazy!? He’s one of Ahuizotl’s thugs! He could have killed us!” She admonished me.

“He had ample opportunity today, but he chose not to. Didn’t you notice this?” I enquired of her.

“Yea? Since when?” She asked dubiously.

“Since the train fiasco, since we were tied up in the cave, and since he and the other guy chased us through the jungle” I listed mechanically.

“Wasn’t he actually trying to kill us back then?” She said with doubt lacing every word. I had little doubt that her previous bad experiences with the Wild Cat mercenary group had left a biased impression of them on her.

“I pay attention to these things Daring, didn’t you see the immense conflict going on behind those eyes? He internally knew that he was in the wrong line of work but couldn’t exactly leave or his ‘friends’ would have done to him what they tried to do to us. Talk about being in between a rock and a hard place”

I glanced behind to see the former merc trudging in the snow behind us. I didn’t quite fully trust him, but if he was willing to see the error of his former ways and change for the better, then I was willing to give him that chance. I looked back at my partner and gave her a roguish smirk.

“At least you’ll have a hell of a story for your publisher!” I chuckled.

Based on the upward twitch on her lips, she could at least agree with that sentiment.

Author's Note:

I apologize profusely for the delay between chapters... so here's a whopper of a chapter and a video of me skydiving like a boss a few days ago. The North Shore view rocks!

Comments

[AficionadoAvacado]

Dude, skydiving= awesome sauce.

[Solowing32]

For some reason I feel that my vocabulary is increasing at an indubitibly fast pace, my good sir.

'Why would you jump out of a perfectly good airplane?'

[Nick Terakidan]

Were you the one with the câmera? And what's the name of the music my good sir?

[Toobert]

Daring's back story sounds a lot like that of Milo Thatch from Atlantis.

[codybob]

Avatar: the last air bender reference