Seal of the Seas

The voice rang through the air like a sudden chilly wind, to Smaz. He knew very well that it was Aera who voiced the reply, and he knew how dangerous she was. Marco’s head didn’t get very far as he attempted to turn around to see the person, who the voice belonged to, behind him. A blade immediately came to his neck.

“Move another inch, and you’re dead meat, Captain Riches.” Aera’s voice was terribly cold and violent, evidently not amused from Smaz’s previous mistake in killing the king.

“I cannot believe you followed me here, whilst escaping that horde, outside.” Smaz coolly said, watching the blade of Aera’s carefully. Aera sneered.

“You make light of me. I am a hired assassin – the world’s best, according to record, and you think I would not hunt you down?” Aera gave a sly chuckle to herself.

"An assassin," Smaz steadily retorted, "that instead of stealthily killing us, would rather make her presence known."

"There's a good reason for that." Aera snorted.

“Get yer blade off o’ me, ya hag!” Marco struggled as the blade seemingly came closer to his fur.

“A hag, AM I?” Aera growled as she said this, and lifted her right knee up in front of her body and to Marco’s back. Immediately after, with swift speed, she grabbed his head with her free hand and jerked it back to bring his body with it. It is obvious that the pain from the impact of the knee rolling at such force into Marco’s back was intense and sharp, as well as the force emanating from his head as Aera’s claw-like pawed hand crushed against it.

“ARRRRRRRRRRRGHHHH!” Marco yelled. It was at this point most people turned around in the Inn, and many voices quelled into silence.

“Leave him out of this!” Smaz demanded, standing up. His chair tipped back and made a sharp sound as it hit the ground on its back. Smaz growled. “I believe you want ME, not HIM. Although I seriously am wondering your values in the matter, since the King is dead, and YOU will not receive any pay from it.” Smaz scowled.

Of course, this was all a big mistake. Many voices had silenced to listen to the situation happening, and with Smaz accidentally blurting out the information that the King was dead, in this somewhat outside-world forgetting Inn, he had might as well had walked in and asked to have someone’s child. The uproar would have been the same if he mentioned it was to kill him, or worse, sexual actions. Sickening.

“Whaaaaat? The King is dead?!” Cried out a male from the far side of the room, his voice already drowned in alcoholic beverages.

“Ah.” Smaz didn’t know what to say. It was an accident to have mentioned it. “He died on a lumpy lemon.”

“Precisely. Your loyal knight, here, slaughtered the King mercilessly after he hired me to assassinate Smaz, here. The King knew he was out to kill him and resume the throne for himself after killing his daughter, too, and so got me in to deal with him.” Aera’s voice was solid cold, once again, although secretly inside she was laughing at the turn of fortune. Her aim was to lure everyone into the ploy that Smaz was a traitor. “Your ‘lumpy lemon’ is this fool before you.”

“You murderer!” A woman shouted.

“Treason!” A man called out in anger.

“Massage me!” A stranger called out, falling to the floor, drunk.

“No, no – you have it wrong. I accidentally killed the King through-” Smaz was interrupted, bitterly.

“He’s not denying it! I can’t believe we trusted you through all these years… and for THIS?!” The innkeeper shouted in pure outrage. “You must receive the same treatment and be slaughtered!”

“Oh snap.” Marco commented at this point.

It didn’t take long for the people of the Inn to all start out with their concealed weapons and their anger, dashing towards Smaz in anger. Smaz’s face turned serious as he turned to face to residents of the Inn. He didn’t particularly want to hurt them, but with them in the way of him, and a lie in the way of the truth, he had to temporarily get them off of his back, at least.

Smaz’s hand went swiftly down to the hilt of his sword when he suddenly stopped and remembered that these were innocent citizens. Averting his hand, he grabbed the chair leg of the fallen wooden chair, and snapped it off just as one of the males, with a lizard-esque face formation jumped directly at him with a pair of daggers. Smaz immediately raised the chair leg and the daggers caught the leg, embedding themselves into it.

“Now it’s time for us to get going, my little treasure…” Aera sniggered to Marco in a quiet voice.

“I ain’ goin’ anywhere, you slimy ol’ sea witch!” Marco angrily growled.

“Ohoho, yes you are, my little shaggéd sea dog, for I need you to escape this madness on your pirate ship. I overheard every word you uttered and with that ship, you shall take me to the great fortune I so deserve, that I missed out on from the King.” Aera explained, edging the struggling Marco to the Inn door.

“I can’ give ye any treasure when I don’ know the location o’ any, you dumb bat!”

“You seem to fail to realise I know what that pearl item is, that you are holding in your possession. With it, you shall bring me great fortune!” Aera laughed cynically.

“What do ye mean?” Marco asked, bewildered.

“You really have lost a lot of your decent mind through excessive ale-drinking. That pearl is a ‘Seal Piece’ to the great oceans. It will unlock the seal to the greatest fortune imaginable! With your ship, and with that piece… I’ll use your navigation to get to the place.” Aera kicked the Inn door open, with Marco still in front of her, a blade to his throat and his arms constricted by her arms.

“How do yer know this?!” Marco was clearly in the inquisitive mood, despite the situation.

“Imbecile! The King knew this and stated that Smaz was to steal the only map of the seal shrine for him, from the Emperor. The King wanted even more riches, the fool. That is why he wanted Smaz dead – he knew too much. Of course, he didn’t directly tell me… I listened in during my own eavesdropping devices. I am not just a good assassin. I am a good STEALTH assassin.” Aera heartily explained to Marco, pulling him out of the doorway.

“Jus’ one thing…” Marco stated, closing his eyes.

“Hmmm? What now, you rugged fleabag?” Aera asked, in a clearly irritated tone.

“THIS!” Marco shouted and whammed his organic paw into Aera’s stomach, to wind her.
As the paw connected, Marco heard a crunch as his paw clicked in several places. Aera simply stood there, snickering at Marco’s foolishness. It obviously didn’t work and Aera was built to be used to such blows. “Oh snap. Well…. THIS!” Marco shouted again.

This time, he whammed his metal fist upwards to stop the bind on his arms, which worked magnificently, and then threw his metal arm backwards into her stomach. With that force and weight, Aera fell, crumpled in pain, clearly winded from the blow. THAT was something she WASN’T used to receiving.

“Smaz, let’s get outta here!” Marco called to the knight, fighting desperately in the Inn.

“I would… but darn it – get these people AWAY from me!” shouted a rather desperate Smaz.

“Cover yer nose.” Marco simply said, raising a small, long, pistol from his belt, putting it in front of his only working eye.

Smaz did so as he defended against a large horde of angry people, once more. Immediately preceding this, came the shot from Marco’s pistol, which didn’t shoot a bullet, but a smoking bomb of some sort, into the Inn. Smoke bellowed everywhere, not particularly thick, but letting out a rather vile smelling gas. It only took several seconds before the people started falling down like flies.

Opening his eyes, from blocking the smoke, Smaz saw that everyone was on the ground around him. He was afraid they were dead, for a moment, until he heard the snoring of a man near him.

“Let’s get outta here – I don’ wanna linger near this lyin’ ol’ hag anymore!” Marco called out. Aera was writhing in pain, but was starting to get slowly back up from the blow.

“Get here, you foolish Kyote!” roared Aera as she made a mad grab at the pirate, but just as she did, a large boot whacked her in the back of the head, knocking her clean out.

As the boot landed, Smaz came down with it in a rather stylish landing from the long-jump he had made from his position to here. He nodded to Marco and off they went.

**********

“So that is why the King wanted me dead.” Smaz commented dryly after Marco had explained everything, that Aera had said, to Smaz during the run to the docks. “I figured there was something a bit more to this all.”

“Yer, and with this Seal Piece, I can ge’ all the treasures in the world!” Marco smiled as their feet ran neared the docks, ahead.

Smaz looked down towards the cobbled ground. It wasn’t particularly what he wanted, but he had to escape from this land for now, to get away from the large amount of murderous people after his soul for an accidental crime. Marco seemed like a really nice guy, however, and he was bound to have some fun with the pirate during this small travel. If Marco agreed.

They turned a corner and immediately turned back as a huge mob of angry citizens raced towards the pair.

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!” Marco screamed out.

“Why are you running, anyway? You are not in this with me.” Smaz asked, curiously.

“You helped me out, and now I help you out. An eye for an eye.” It was rather ironic in the term of words chosen, but Smaz didn’t laugh, for the situation was far too serious for that right now. Not that he could laugh, anyway. “So I ‘elp you escape on mah ship fer a small while. I’ll be searching out this ol’ seal thin’, to see if it is true. At least I get meself a companion for the journey, too. Yer don’t realise how lonely it is until you are mutinied byyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!” Marco carried on the last syllable for far longer than necessary as another large crowd appeared in front of the duo.

“Oh, banana pills.” Smaz cursed.

“Eww.” Marco scrunched up his face at the thought of the banana pills.

“Hold onto me, Marco.” Smaz’s response to the crowd was so simple, Marco didn’t even question it. He did comment on it, however, as he held onto Smaz’s waist.

“You are getting’ weirder, Smaz… I only met ye today and now ya want me to ‘old on to you like a Melissa…”

Smaz then did his infamously high and long pounce into the air, with Marco holding on… above the crowd… above the cobbled streets… and above the carnivorous crowd, below. Time seemed to slow, temporarily, much like it had done with the Emperor’s Squadrons of earlier, when he stole the box. The cool air rushed against Smaz’s scarred face, and Marco’s matted fur. The piers were clear from here, and the sunlight glistening in the water from such height.

Then they started to fall.

Down… down… down… until Smaz’s large boots made contact on the cobbled floor, again, on the other side of the crowd. There was a nice clink as the boots hit the floor and Smaz crunched in to absorb the impact.

“That was not so bad, was it?” Smaz smiled, and turned around… to find Marco wasn’t there.

He could hear a screaming sound and Smaz looked up to examine who it belonged to. It didn’t take a genius to figure it out. “Oh for goodness sakes…” Smaz sighed as Marco came flying downwards. Smaz lifted out his arms to catch Marco…. but before he could, a black blur swiftly made contact with Marco and swiped him out of the air.

“…And now… YOU’RE MINE!” Cried out the voice of Aera, once again.

“Yeah right.” Smaz said to himself, calmly as Aera landed next to him, Marco in one raised hand… her pawed hand across his neck, strangling him. With her other fist, she immediately launched a blade forward at Smaz. Knowing Aera’s movements too well, however, Smaz swiftly dodged it by bowing backwards, and then using his boot, kicked the blade from Aera’s hands and onto the floor.

“Impressive, but now you’re fate lays with this mob whilst Captain Riches, here, and I, go for the SEAL OF THE SEAS!” laughed Aera sadistically, then tripping Smaz up with fearsome speed and launching herself forward, quicker than the naked eye could follow, towards the piers.

“At least she has correct punctuation with the ‘and I’ business.” Smaz commented to himself. Without looking behind him, to see the huge crowd try and engulf him, he darted forward and towards the piers, following Aera’s trail.

**********

Sail this boat now or I’ll force it out of you!” Aera demanded a rather strangled Marco as they were on deck.

“Why don’ you kill me, instead, eh?” Marco sneered as he took the chain off of his ship’s steering wheel. Aera laughed some more.

“I need you to navigate this ship to the seal location, stupid fool.”

“I don’ know where the seal location is, stupid fool.” Marco retorted.

“You dare make a fool out of me!” Aera shouted at Marco, but then stopped as she raised her blade to Marco. He had a point. She didn’t know where it was, at all. “…Hmm. I don’t know of the seal location… but… I’m sure the King did… and with Smaz stealing that box for him… I’m pretty sure the map is in that box.”

There were running footsteps on the wooden pier next to the ship as Aera talked. She turned around to spot Smaz running, at his full speed towards the ship.

“He is too much of a burden. Set sail NOW, otherwise…” Aera produced a rather fearsome group of shredding shurikens from her belt and winked maliciously at Marco as she looked at his male area and other eye. Giving a yelp, Marco then cut a rope, causing the ship to no longer be attacked to the docklands. The flags dropped.

“CURSES!” Smaz shouted to himself as the large ship started out of the docks.

From this distance, the ship was somewhat magnificent. It was large in stature and looked not too old. It was beautiful in that the sails reflected the Sunlight perfectly with its golden sails, and the wood looked brand new in the light of the same Sun. Marco adored his ship almost as much as he adored his ale.

“See you late, Spaz!” yelled out Aera as she looked over the side of the ship. However, Smaz wasn’t in view. Confused, Aera looked around but she could not see Smaz anyway. “Where the pudding has he disappeared to?!” Aera cursed.

“I enjoy pudding!” Smaz called out from above. Aera only had time to look up before Smaz landed directly onto her head. The blow brung Aera to the floor in an instant. “Also, the pudding I disappeared in to was not any pudding at all. Although it would be very good to disappear inside a blueberry parfait.”

“Glad ye made it’ ol’ boy.” Marco smiled as the ship drifted into the sunlight.

“I am just glad to be on the journey with you to the Seal of the Seas.” Smaz winked back.