Border Crossing

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"You're late." Baralai Fairchild despised the rain, almost as much as he despised mages. He was waiting at one of the bridges that crossed the river that in turn divided the two largest kingdoms in their land. It was the same bridge where he had waited countless times. Templar or no, gold was gold, and this gold also got rid of troublesome mages.
"You want the gold or not?" A black clad man snarled as he jumped down gracefully from his equally black steed.
Baralai muttered something rather unbecoming of a Templar, then held a gloved hand out. "Gold first, then the cargo. Try anything..." He words were cut off as the mage he was transporting broke free of his restraints. It all happened so quickly that he didn't see the flash of lightning and the proud Templar was crashing into the raging river below.
Six months. It had been six months and the fallen Templar still woke in a cold sweat after dreaming of that night. The mage had rendered him immobile, though wide awake when he had plunged into the river, his heavy armour weighing him down until a pig farmer had dragged him from the river several miles away. It had taken months to get back to health and pay back the farmer for his kindness. In that time word had gotten out that Fairchild the Templar was a deserter.

Alice Gormanghast was scowling into the mirror. She hated this world she had been born into, even now as her maid pulled tightly on the laces of her dress she thought of nothing but a way to escape. Her brother's were all war heroes, famous to everyone in the kingdom for their brave deeds and triumph in defeating several of the dragons. But Alice... All she was known for was to be the prize her father handed over to the man he deemed brave enough to end the war altogether. She was the proverbial Princess in the tower, useful only for luring in prospective suitors. The young brunette didn't even realise her rose coloured lips were quirked into a slight smile 'if only they knew'. Indeed, her father would have a literal heart attack if he knew his prized daughter had secretly been learning how to shoot a bow and handle a sword. She lost herself for hours at an end in books that told of the thieves guild, and their mysterious leader who was sometimes known to have a higher moral code than the knights of their kingdom.

Alice growled loudly, spinning rough with the taller woman still clinging to her. "You deranged harpy, I don't care what happens to you!"

Bear simply smiled. "I knew all along she wasn't mine." He replied with an odd sense of serenity. "You think a magnificent creature like that was meant for a Templar?" He suddenly snorted with laughter. "But she's out of your reach now, that was always my purpose."

"I won't go back to being human!" The blond squealed. "You can't make me! Not while he keeps a mermaid on his ship!"
"A mermaid!" Garrik roared, turning on the elder man. This time he yanked out his cutlass. "Where is she? Where is Sharyn?!"

"That's what you think." Kane snapped. "All of my people are blindly devoted to me. She will never escape me. Never." 

"Hello?" The castle was overly quite and that what worried the little elf the most. She could hear nothing but the echo of her own footsteps.

Blackbeard smiled, clearly able to see the jealousy burning in Alice's cobalt eyes. "That desperate to see 'er again, are ye lad?" He mused, not phased by the sharp blade in his face.

"All of them? Even you little sister?" Bear purred. He didn't care what happened to him, only that Yena was free and that Kane would one day suffer.

The echo would reach alert ears, but Yena wasn't to know this. The hall she was in wasn't as empty as she assumed. Though she was small, her own footsteps echoed, unlike the ones that followed her.

Alice had no real reason to be jealous though she wouldn't know this. At least not for a while. "You know I am." Garrik hissed, moving closer so that blade tip all but drew blood from Blackbeard's throat. "Where is she?" 

Yena clung tightly to the ornate necklace around her throat, her eyes wide as she looked at the torturous designs on the walls around her. She knew the king of these lands was insane. She'd looked into his mind but this was worse than what she'd understood. "Hello?" She called again, hoping to find the woman he had sent her for and leave.

"Where do yer think a mermaid is, lad?" Blackbeard sneered, almost seeming to lean into the blade. "Yer probably walked right by the bathing beauty on yer way to interrupt me fun."

The echo that came back seemed almost twisted, like it wasn't quite Yena's voice that returned to her. Sharp hearing would swear that there was the whispered word 'mouse' following close behind the initial hello too.

There was that feeling again. Like he was being watched by another pair of eyes. Garrik hated it. He also hated the odd feeling he got from the silence he was receiving from his Captain. Perhaps he should have explained things a bit better than he had before. 
"Damn you, Blackbeard. Stop playing games with me. You're not going to get away with it anymore. I'm not a child that you and all the other damn creatures can play games with." Alice's first mate hissed.

Yena had heard something but hadn't understood it. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and she went still, the tips of her ears twitching. It was spring and the air was filled with ice. The cold was something she could do without.

Alice now had the blonde woman back on the deck, bend over the side of the ship with her sword across the other woman's throat. "You'll do as Garrik asks, or I take your whore's head!" She called back through the door that lead down into Blackbeard cabin.
"Your girl's got balls, I'll her her that much." The elder man snorted, though seemed in no real hurry to save his former bed partner.

"The little mouse thought the cat was away, and here she is to steal the cheese." A deep, gravelly voice brathed into the back of Yena's hair.

"More than you have." Garrik muttered. "You only think you are crazy." He put away his cutlass, once again, turning his back on Blackbeard. "Just...tell me where Sharyn is... I know you don't care what happens to your whore."

The voice sent a strange shiver down her spine. It was as if she'd always known it and yet she didnt. She was terrified of it. She turned quickly, gripping her necklace like it was a dagger.

"She's in the hold, where animals belong, lad." Blackbeard replied, his own sky blue eyes watching Garrik as he walked away.

There was a deep rumble of laughter coming from the mountain of a man standing behind Yena as she turned to fave him. "What will a little mouse do with her pretty little necklace?" He mocked.

Garrik stopped at the door. "Now, here's what happens next. You are going with us to the elf and when she gives Alice what she wants we are going to turn on her. Don't say I never repaid you." He added, leaving Blackbeard to chase out out the barmaid on his own.

Yena fell on her bottom, the man ten times the size of Bear. "I...i...I'm looking for a handmaiden of the king's. He sent me here for her." She stammered.

"You owe me answers." Alice demanded thinly as Garrik joined her on the deck, the barmaid now scurrying away from the apparently crazy captain.

"The king? Sent you here?" The large man scoffed, though didn't help Yena back to her feet. "And where would the king be now, mouse?"

Garrik didn't feel like talking. He wanted to kill something. Anything. He stormed past Alice, his lips set in a thin line and his shoulders set. He was heading to the hold. The anger that had taken hold of him was like nothing he'd ever experienced. 
All around him, skeletons were getting to their feet. Their bodies were returning to flesh and blood. Blackbeard's crew was snarling and growling, blocking the entrance he was trying to get into. With so many of them it would be hard to get past without permission from their captain. 

"I'm not telling you that." Yena snapped, somehow finding her courage. Letting go of the necklace, she remembered that she was in possession of magic. Never mind her ability to become an enormous dragon. Why should this mountain of a man scare her? "If you don't know it's because the son of a bitch doesn't want you to."

"This is really how you want to deal with this?" Alice hissed as she followed after Garrik, her own sword still drawn. "You would rather die fighting these things than just tell me what's going on?!"

The large man chuckled, though the sound seemed to fill every inch of the massive hall they were in. "Or maybe a little mouse like you scurried him away somewhere."

"Step aside or be keel hauled! The lot of you!" Garrik roared, his own sword pointed at the largest of the men. 
Blackbeard's first mate was cracking his neck and was clearing itching for a fight. "Ain't happenin' runt. Not for not half breed freak for his crazed bitch." 

As she had done for Baralai, Yena's chin came out in defiance. "If that is so, you should be more afraid of me." She hissed. "I am a powerful mage. I can make you beg, Giant."

Alice snarled at the first mate before turning her gaze back to her own. "Half breed of what?" She breathed, her voice softening considerably. She wasn't entirely human herself, though Garrik didn't know this, but acceptance would be all too easily given.

"Go ahead." The large man simply folded his arms across his equally large chest in challenge.

The dark skinned man began to chuckle. "If he aint told you then you got a problem, babe." he purred. "It ain't my place to say.

Yena was horrifed to learn that she could not do anything at all. There was no magic happening at all.

That was enough to rile Alice's anger back up. She was facing Blackbeard's first mate again, a dark fire burning in her eyes now as she watched him. "Babe?" She echoed, a dangerous edge to her voice.

The large man laughed when he saw the realisation in Yena's eyes. "What's the matter, the little mouse not as tough as she thought?" He sneered, reaching out to grab her chin and force her to look up at im.

Garrik simply took a step back and gave a half smile. He knew the other man had crossed the line. While the standoff was happening he assessed just how bad things were about to get. 
The first mate stepped forward, his blade now drawn. "You heard me, babe." He purred. "You and your half breed runt ain't gettin' through. Now walk the pretty little ass off to the plank and jump."

Yena's crimson eyes were flaming. His touch was odd, leaving feelings tearing through her that she didn't understand. The shock of electricity had her jerking back though it didn't do her any good. This giant wasnt letting go. Again she tried to use her magic but there was nothing happening. "I'm not afraid of you, Giant." She breathed. Her stomach was on fire.

Alice smiled at the other pirate, knowing Blackbeard and his crew had obviously been out here for some time, they had no idea of the things she had done. "You speak of my ass because it's been so long since a woman even glanced at you, babe." She purred. "It will be longer still when you're castrated." She added, lunging forced to slice dangerously close to the first mates privates.

The man's own crimson eyes were smiling as he looked down at Yena. He could feel all the fight building up in her along with other things. "Really? That's not how it looks, mouse." He purred, stealing a kiss from her, just to see what she would do.

The other men roared with laughter as the first mate danced backward to avoid the blade. "Now wait just a minute!" He howled. "I can't let you though. Captains orders. No one gets through. Even his son."

Yena dug her nails into his cheek, jerking her head back and fighting to escape his grasp. "Let go!" She shouted. "Youre a big ugly shem. Even your mother hates you!"

"You really think you can stop me?" Alice challenged, forcing the first mate back with another stab again. Even if Garrik hadn't been there, Alice wouldn't have been any less reckless. This was simply her way, give it her all and win... Or die at least knowing she tried.

The man threw his head back and laughed loudly. "My mother abandoned me the second she expelled me from her body, knife ear." He seemed to take great pleasure in telling Yena this. "I doubt your mother was much different." He added, understanding a little more now he had had a taste of her.

The dark skinned man stepped back and held up his hands, his back against the door. "Go get the Captain." He hissed to a small man who slipped through the crowd before Garrik could grab him. That said the large man threw his sword against Alice's. The clash was deafening.

"You know nothing." Yena snapped. "I can see why she would. You are a beast. Now let me go before I scratch you again."

Alice could be seen smiling up at her opponent through the gap in their blade. "And here I thought someone had beat me to it, and you really didn't have any balls." She purred, kicking him in the knee and clashing her sword against his own again and again.

The beast of a man tracing a finger through the blood on his cheek before licking it off as he watched Yena. "Don't act so coy, I know you like it rough, and you are no less of a beast yourself."

Garrik was already neck high in pirates. The entire crew erupted into action. The deck was alive with motion and shouting. Alice and Garrik were back to back now fighting for their lives.

Yen shook her head. "I don't know what you're talking about." She said darkly. "I've told you before I am here because your king sent me to fetch his servant. There's no sense in being a bully."

Blackbeard was watching it all unfold. He couldn't deny that his son had picked a strong woman to stand beside him, but that changed nothing. Some secrets were his to keep. He would finish the Pirate Queen off himself, and take the crown. He didn't want it, it was just to prove he could.

"The king has no favourites, least of all in servants." The man replied coolly. "All he cares about are his crown, and his sister."

Garrik wasn't about to give up no matter how exhausted he was. He had just kicked his tenth man overboard when the first mate came up behind him, attempting to hit him over the head with the button of his sword. 

"I don't know but he asked. I am trying to obey so he...he won't hurt the man I love." Yena said, trying to back away from the giant of a man.

Alice saw it happening, but as she tried to reach Garrik she became careless. One of the other pirates got a lucky hit in, able to slide his blade between the pirate Queen's ribs.

The man started to laugh. It was no more than a chuckle at first until it erupted into a mighty boom. "Who would ever love a creature?" He asked, though it almost sounded like he spoke from experience, or perhaps simply didn't believe in love.

Garrik turned his hea, looking toward BlackBerry before his world began to go black. The fighting had stopped and everything had gone quiet. Except the soft sound of singing. His cheek hit something warm. How was he to know that it was his lover's blood?

Yena turned her head as if she'd been struck. His hateful words hurt her. But he was probably right. She had enchanted Bear to love her. He'd never really done it on his own. Had he?

Alice had tried to fight on, but it was getting too much. She was losing a lot of blood and then that song... Such sweet music. She couldn't hold on any longer and fell to the deck beside her lover with a heavy thud.
Blackbeard saw it all and chuckled quietly to himself.

"So it's true." The mountain mused. "You weave you useless magic on him?" He added, simply to be cruel. Kane had told Bear his guard was a cruel man.

"Sharyn isn't going to be happy with this." The first mate said, grunting as he held onto his side. "Cap'n I think you may be making things worse this time."

"I didn't do anything." Yena muttered,  turning away in shame. "Excuse me. I have somewhere to be."