Silver Moon: Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Ally

The unwanted morning light shone down on the deck of the Everlast illuminating it fully. The main mast towered above Rhyken as he groggily opened his eyes, he hadn’t moved from where he lay down to sleep the night before but a thick woollen blanket had been wrapped around him. He turned his head to the side to see an arm’s length away Willow lay sleeping. He looked across the deck to see Jak and Aubrey propped up against the Captain’s cabin wall, Aubrey’s crimson colour hair stood out against the dull oak of ship. Khan was standing next to the helm and Rhyken could tell he was grinning as he watched the clouds waft by. Both Jak and Khan were still wearing their hoods up to hide their ears, humans didn’t like elf’s that much since he think they abandoned them during Lucien’s uprising. Rhyken grunted and lurched forward and looked back at Willow who slowly opened her eyes at the sound.

"Morning," She mumbled sitting up.

He smiled slightly "Morning…how much further until we reach Palidin?"

She slowly got to her feet and looked over the edge of the ship, her green eyes surveying the landscape below.

"Less than an hour," she said stretching her aching limbs. She looked at him warily and bit her bottom lip. Rhyken noticed it was a habit of hers when something was troubling her.

"What is it?" his silver eyes twinkling in the morning sunlight.

She looked at him hesitantly, "Well...I’ve heard of elves doing magic but when I asked Jak he told me the Daeiklyn rarely possess magic but you’re not even an elf or a mage yet you completely materialized a wall of water in less than a second and not only water you conjured a flame rose only high mages can do that," Willow eyed him suspiciously.

He tilted his head; he hadn’t of expected that he’d need to use magic in front of anyone, "my mother was a water mage and my father was a fire mage, though the flame rose is the only thing made of fire I can summon," He lied.

"So did your mother and father teach you how to use magic?" Willow asked, her eyes shining brightly like a child’s.

He looked at her and smiled sadly, "Just a bit." Trying to drop the subject he looked away over the edge of the railing and watched the earth below slowly drift past.

Willow took the hint to drop the subject and understood that he wasn’t ready to reveal that part of his life to her just yet. She walked across the deck and made her way to the helm the pirates she passed hollered a greeting to their captain.

"Rhyken" A voice jolted into Rhyken’s head. He wheeled around and saw Aubrey looking at him calmly; he was wearing the black pants he wore the day before but this time he had a white long sleeved cotton shirt on with a velvet red jacket over it.

"Aubrey you’re looking better" Rhyken said amazed at how fast he had recovered. Mages had self healing abilities because of the magic that ran through their veins but to recover to that decree in a matter of hours meant that Aubrey was a very powerful mage.

Jak appeared behind Aubrey and looked at Rhyken for a minute before asking, "What are we going to do in Palidin, we should have just gone back to Malvenguard to consult the elders."

Rhyken shook his head Jak was always impatient.

"Malvenguard?" Aubrey asked both of them.

"Malvenguard is the name of our village inside the cursed forest," Rhyken informed the red haired boy but a nearby pirate heard this and looked at them with a frightened look.

"You mean your people live inside that death ridden place? That means your-"

He was cut off as Jak pulled off his hood revealing his elongated ears. The pirate’s face went livid and shouted pointing at him like he saw the scariest thing in the world. At the commotion more pirates gathered around them most fascinated and terrified by the sight of the purple haired elf. Willow moved into the circle of the pirates when she appeared the frightened man turned to her and shouted, "It’s a demon captain! A bringer of death!"

He fell to his knees and clawed at her shoes. Rhyken frowned at what the man said. Superstitious men would call the Daeiklyn the bringers of death even though it was true they did bring death but only to those who were evil enough to deserve it.

"That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard," Khan said sitting above the circle of pirates on the railing of the quarterdeck. He had pushed his hood back revealing his mess of gold hair and long ears.

"There’s another one! They brought that those mages to kill us all!" The whole ship was sent into an uproar most of the pirates reached for their swords.

Out of nowhere a man twice the size of Jak with broad shoulders and a very dark tan shouted over the uproar, his voice boomed loudly as he spoke, "If they were here to kill us we’d be dead a thousand times over already. It seems we’ve found us some pretty dangerous allies in our fight against the bastard Lucien."

The whole ship growled in agreement but remained suspicious of the four newcomers. The frightened pirate was still pale as he got off his feet. He told the rest of them they were all mad for trusting the innocent looks of the demon and disappeared below deck. Soon the crowd dispersed and the pirates returned to their remedial work. Only two people remained besides Jak, Khan, Aubrey and Rhyken. The two who remained were Willow and the giant pirate that calmed the other pirates down. Willow was standing there looking less than impressed by the behavior of her crew and the tall sun kissed pirate was smiling broadly.

"Everyone this is my first matey Dirk Stanley," Willow said sighing loudly and motioned for the big man to step forward. His steps felt as if they shook the deck.

"It’s a pleasure to meet you all. You an elf too?" He said with a wide smile turning to Rhyken.

Rhyken shook his head, "Do I look like one?" he said with a grin.

Dirk let out a loud bellow of laughter, "You don’t have the ears but your still as pretty to look at as them elves," Dirk said jestingly. Rhyken tilted his head and folded his arms across his chest like he begged to differ.

Aubrey pointed over the side of the railing; "I see Palidin" his voice rang out through all their minds.

Dirk took a step back and hit the side of his head, "By Inern, what in blastards was that?!"

Rhyken hadn’t heard the mention of the Goddess Inern in years. When he was in Malvenguard an old elf called Oren was one of her followers. She was the goddess of the Stars and Heavens and Rhyken wasn’t surprised that a hardened sky pirate like Dirk believed in the very goddess who was told to have created the sky itself.

"Aubrey communicates telepathically," Jak said staring at the big giant of a man. The man looked puzzled and scratched his bald head. Jak looked at him and rolled his eyes, "through minds" he said tapping his temple.

"Oh! Why didn’t you say that in the first place," said Dirk letting out a laugh and thudded Jak’s back playfully causing the small elf to stumble forward. Khan grabbed Jak’s arm to steady him and Jak returned his gesture with a small nod of thanks. Willow looked over the edge and confirmed what Aubrey said. She turned around and screamed in a loud commanding voice, "Right boys, let’s land this ship!"

Rhyken watched the organized chaos of the pirates as they grabbed roped, climbed masts and swung from place to place on loose ropes. The loosed the wing sails and the air slowly rushed past the sails tipping the ship into a slight descent. As Palidin came closer Rhyken could see that floating above the city were around twenty or so sky ships ranging in size. Built on giant towers were docking stations where the sky ships could land safely. The docking stations were high above the outer edge of Palidin. The Everlast creaked as it landed on one of the platforms.

Willow walked towards the rope ladder and threw it off the side, she wheeled around to look at her assembled crew who waited patiently for their orders, "Right boys because of your behaviour your to man the deck until I come back, Dirk your with me."

A load groan escaped the mouths of the pirates as Willow and Dirk swung themselves over the railing onto the large wooden platform beneath the ship. Rhyken, Jak, Khan and Aubrey followed leaping off the side of the ship onto the docking station. The docking stations were connected to a long rickety bridge that led to a brass elevator. The six crossed the bridge and when all of them squeezed into the elevator they descended into Palidin. The elevator jerked to a stop as it hit the ground Willow fell forward but Rhyken grabbed her arm and pulled her towards him. When stable she thanked him but a tinge of red danced upon her cheeks. He chuckled into his hand and walked into the mass of stone houses. All of Palidin was alive and the village seemed to be in constant motion. On every street was a tavern and boisterous laughter could be heard from within. After walking the six finally reached their destination. They looked at the building then at Willow and Dirk who looked pleased with themselves. They stood before a large olive green with a sign written in fancy writing that said ‘Tulu’s Tavern.’

"We came all this way for a tavern?" Jak exclaimed.

Khan let out a long bellow of laughter, "I don’t mind as long as they have plenty of drink and women!"

"I like the way you think lad," Dirk said grinning widely smacking the elf’s back. They both grinned and entered the tavern rather happily.

Willow giggled and took Rhyken’s arm linking it with her own, "Come on the people I want you to meet are inside the tavern," she said winking at Jak and Aubrey.

The four entered and were engulfed in the sound of chatter and laughter. The tavern was large and spacious, big wooden tables were spread across the room and a small band played high-spirited songs in the corner. On the far side of the wall was a bar with all kinds of alcohol and other drinks, behind the counter were a few waitresses but the one that stood out most was a middle aged woman. She was short but rather curvaceous with long curly strawberry blonde hair and deep hazel eyes. When the woman looked up and saw Willow she smiled broadly, "Willow!"

"Hello Aunt Tulu," Willow replied still linked arm in arm with Rhyken. A waitress walked past him and nearly tripped over in a daydream when he smiled at her. Willow nudged him and he looked at the woman walking towards them known as Tulu. A gloating smile touched the woman’s face, "Well aren’t you a handsome thing."

Rhyken looked stunned and tilted his head towards Willow who smiled at him, "Uh, nice to meet you miss."

"You don’t need to be so formal just call me Tulu cutie," she said grinning patting his cheek, "So Willow what brings you here?"

"We’re here to see Toister and Eollivye, Aunt Tulu."

The woman’s face hardened but the light that twinkled in her eyes remained. Tulu motioned for them to go down a flight of stairs that led into a dark stone basement. Aubrey went first ignoring a man handing out a torch he flicked his wrist causing the man to jump back as flames engulfed Aubrey’s right hand. Jak followed after Aubrey and then Rhyken and Willow. Khan waved for them to go without him as he was having a good time with Dirk.
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Ok... I’m putting up chapters 3 and 4 today but I’m hoping to get the next Shadow Realm chapter as well in the next few days BUT UNFORTUNETLY NEXT WEEK I HAVE EXAMS... so.. LAME T___T
Anyways wish me luck on my exams and I’ll try to get those stories written before hand :D

LOVE LOVE~!
The One and Only Jingles