Minutes passed before she landed solidly on the ground far below, crushing the bones of others who had walked the same path before her. Brushing the dust off her leather vest, she set herself to walking forwards, deep into the belly of the island. Her vision failing from the darkness, she changed her hum slightly, from a nearly silent murmur to a loud, blaring, noise. She listened intently, gradually standing to full height. With her eyes closed, she walked for several steps, stopped, and listened more.
Her heart pounded heavily as she sidestepped her way over slippery rocks, and ducked beneath stalactites, praying that her voice would not fail her for even a moment. Hearing something in the distance, deeper in the cave, she stopped humming, and began to twitch her fingers to what the tune would sound like.
She squatted down, close enough to the rock below her to feel them brushing against her thighs, and readied three throwing daggers: two from her collection of decaying blades, and one of her good ones. She threw one several feet away from where she heard the movement, and spoke softly, even calmly, “Who’s there?”
A shuffle of feet answered her at almost the same time as she quietly repositioned herself on another nearby rock. She threw another blade, this time to the right of the general area. “Who are you?” she spoke, this time with more fear showing in her voice.
Another shuffle came, with no answer. The creature had thrown away his warnings, and stepped into her trap. She threw her third blade, deep into the heart of the being before her. Frowning slightly, she drew back to full height, and stepped forward to the body through her sense of hearing.
The one problem with being a pirate, at least for her, was that she kept having to kill people, which she loathed with a passion. She drew up close to he body, and rolled it over. In a faint light, she noticed it was a man. Drawing the blade from the man’s body, she kissed the tips of her fingers, and placed them to the wound.
“This man has not wronged me,” she spoke pleadingly with the gods. With the blood upon her fingertips, she drew a circle on the man’s forehead, and a cross over his chest, extending from right shoulder to left leg, and vise versa. Kissing the center of his forehead, the middle of the circle, she whispered softly to the body, “May you be reborn anew, at peace.”
Rising up from the man, she now noticed where the glow had come from: a large, golden door. The door of her dreams.
Through the door she went, racing with the mere moments of time she still had left. There lay a small, golden ring beneath a statue of the pirate god and goddess as they embraced each other, with their arms extended towards it.
She kneeled before the statues, and once more kissed her fingers, this time before touching them to her own heart, in a show of fealty to the god and goddess. Her vision faded into nothingness as a swirl of silvery mist surrounded her.
Awaken, Naruen, daughter of mine. Tell us, why do you seek the sacred ring of Alystra? The voice of a woman filled her thoughts, and echoed inside her head.
Rising from a deep slumber, Naruen blinked away the dust that covered her eyes, whereupon she saw that she lay within the Chamber of Pirate Lords, before Alan and Jaina themselves. Standing to her full height, she was still only a doll to them, but she spoke anyway, her voice not showing even a speck of anxiety. “I seek Alystra’s ring to gain entry to the Netherworld, to bring back the man who died to save my life many years ago.”
How do we know you shall honor that which you have spoken, and not seek to dominate the world? Will you repeat the Pirate’s Code of Honor for us? Came the voice of Alan, deep, and without emotion.
“I shall not repeat the Code, for to do so is dishonor within the Code itself!”
You seek our permission granted so you may perform with the ring, as you will? Came the soft female voice once more, as if she were a baby to be caressed, and mothered.
“I seek not your permission to take the ring for myself, but rather the gift of the ring to do with as I spoke.”
And how can we trust you, daughter of the seas, when you are a Pirate, made in our own images to lie, to cheat, and to steal? How can we know that you are even capable of controlling the ring, and not the opposite?
Naruen, whose anger never moved her, now drew her twin scimitars, and rammed one through the man-god’s heart, and one through her own. Gritting her teeth, she spoke one final time to Jaina before falling to the floor. “As a blade fells an enemy, so, too, does it fell its holder. To live as all actions return to one’s self; this is the Pirate way.”
I do so hope you've enjoyed this… Please let me know, but use insightful responses! I'm not a big fan of the generic "I love/hate this" replies! Let me know what about it is good or bad!
kthxbai! <3
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