Melodramatic Showmanship

“Well, we screwed that up.” Grimm corresponded the bad news.

“Sorry. “Laurena felt responsible for the misconduct, she didn’t understand how this world worked and while Zill got what was coming to him, Grimm should not.

He waved it off with a gesture of his hand. “Its not your fault. I’ll figure out a way.”

“We’ll figure out a way.” She beamed a smile his way in an attempt to raise his spirits. “After all, I got us into this.”

He pushed her gently towards the ship. “Get some rest. I’ll wake you up in the morning.”

She returned his playful nudge before grabbing onto a side rail of the ship and hopping up on its deck in one motion. It wasn’t a large ship, but it was outfitted with long term travel, having an under haul that consisted of a captains room and storage facility. In Grimm’s luck he’d been relegated to using the storage hull as a place to sleep in. Rice bags proving to make surprisingly comfortable pillows and sheepskin served as old blankets.

The night was serene far up in the skies. Every star seemed to shimmer a calling. A calling they waited for millennia to hear echoed back. Perhaps the stars got tired for them to return their calling and decided to send one of their own.

*****

The ting and tangs of her voice reverberated tapping each wall with an added acapella. Oh’s and Ah’s hovered in the air to a wailing bawl. A make-shift nightgown crawled along her bare feet. Thread shook from the tattered ends of the dress with a heavy pale of weight. The dress helped explain the odd cutout in the cloth of the ships mast.

Luckily Grimm had not gone to bed that night. He spent the night preparing for the ships departure. An anchor was lodged against the sands of the shallow lake, enough to not slip off into the islands end, careening off the waterfall. He had no luck getting the engines to start. They refused to purr and buzz as they had in their time of trouble. A catalyst was missing.

Laurena’s voice pierced through the deck reverberating his eardrum. It was a sound of distress. He rushed around the bend of the ship to see her scampering from the lower deck. Her hands crossed over her chest in a startled shiver.

“Grimm.” No words exhale from her but her finger fidgets in the air pointing in the direction she came from.

“Are you okay? What did you see?”

A hunched figure was walking up the stairs. He was bushy, furrowed and completely nude. He possessed Sandro’s trademark hair, even below the belt. The drapes matched the carpet in this case.

“Good morning.” Sandro said wiping the dew from one eye.

“Its morning–Sandro?” Grimm asked slightly confused.

“Grimm.”

“What are you doing N-“

“What am I doing here? I’ve reconsidered the rescue.”

“But-“

“-I packed all my belongings and rushed her. Luckily you two hadn’t left.”

Laurena pitched in. “You forgot to put on any-“

“-Thank me later! Time is of the essence if this rescue is to go as planned.”

Grimm cuts in. “Stop. Put on some clothes first. Then we’ll talk.”

“Clothes?” Sandro glanced down at himself. “Oh. Yes. Right. Oh.”

His confusion was returned with headshakes. Sandro slipped back into the cabinet seemingly with intent to put clothes on.

“Grimm?” Lauren’s voice is riddled.

“I know. I know.” Grimm moves back towards the higher level, settling down in a crouched position against the ships console.

“I am not doubting you. It’s just, he’s so—“ She pauses as if selectively rummaging through her mental thesaurus. “—senile.”

“He can be. But there’s a reason he chose to come. He saw something.”

Laurena twirled the blond strands of her hair, intermingling them together. A single handed attempt at braiding her hair. “So now what?”

Sandro’s voice booms in a quick and emotional pace. “We save that no-good boy.”

“And how do you suppose we do that?” She seemed more interested in the strands of her hair than anything else. It was already tangled. A few days wash would do that, but she seemed determined to make the bedhead look work for her.

“Tomorrow is Crimsons surprise visit to the market. He’ll be getting his beauty sleep and I’m sure many of his pirates are expected to be on quiet behavior.”

“If it’s a surprise visit. How do you know?”

His eyes locked on Laurena, they were stern and calculated, momentarily foregoing his eccentric behavior. “I know.”

Sandro’s tone of voice was not one of question or uncertainty. It sounded as a scientific factuality. Grimm did not argue it. Instead he nodded in tandem to Sandro’s statement.

“Old man Sandro. If you suggest we go now. We go now.” He extended his vote of confidence towards him.

Laurena shakes her head, not realizing what Sandro really was. At the time it didn’t seem important to ask. She had no intention of being with them for long.

“Tell me Old man.” Her gaze fixed upon him. “What made you decide to come with us? You seemed very suffocated by Zill’s name.”

He cringed. “Quit mentioning his name. He’s just a little bugger.”

“That doesn’t explain anything.”

“Can’t an old man wish to see the world on an airship? For the very first time? Would you take that joy from these old bones, would you?

“We didn’t tell you about us having an airship. Did you Grimm?” Her eyes seer towards Grimm.

“No. no..er..I didn’t. He’s just.”

“Can’t wise man guess?” Sandro’s rant becomes explosive, hand motions, followed by gyrations of his body. “Perhaps even let a wise man touch?”

Laurena blocks the way of the console. “Okay. We aren’t going anywhere till I know.”

“Can’t a senior citizen believe in a dream?”

“Old…”

“What about the dream to revel in the beauty of youth before moving on with life.”

“…Fine. I give up.” She leans over the helm placing a hand on the ships wooden wheel. She delivers a few frustrated smacks at it, sending it spinning, the buttons that lay on each of its spokes glimmering in color followed by the electric outlets clicking to her touch and once again the ship had come to life.

Chapter 6- Melodramatic showmanship

A raindrop perched on the arch of his nose, itching its way to the ground. The air was thick with a staunch disposition as the clouds cleared their way, leaving the fading night sky shimmering with sparse patches of rain.  A figure was hanging close to an edge of an cloudy void. Behind him stood a legion of men who watched his every step.

“You got a choice. I dare not outright kill you.” Crimson’s dulcet voice hangs on the dewdrops in the air.

“Does cowardice stop you?” Zill spoke firm, his body forced up right, hands behind his back were cuffed together in thick ropes. He didn’t face Crimson. Instead he overlooked the horizon of the sky.

“Respect Zill. That’s what stops me. Something that you long ago forgot.”

Zill chuckled. “If I had respect I wouldn’t be here at all.” He closed his eyes, lowering his head in meditated thought on his actions.

“Har. Zill. This city is thriving thanks to what’s happened. Its liberation was its saving grace.” Crimson took a few steps towards Zill. Not a single rain dropped touch his body as one of his crewman tread behind him with a large umbrella that shielded Crimson from the elements but not the holder itself.

“You only helped this city to help yourself. Why am I still alive Crimson? Do you need me?” Zill commented.

“No. I need that ship.” Crimson’s next step brings him close enough to Zill that he is with in arms reach. Crimson places a warm hand along Zill’s wet cheek. He rubs his thumb along his jawline. “I didn’t forget what you did for me.”

Zill says nothing except letting his eyes settle at his surroundings, seven of Crimson’s pirates surrounded him in an arch leaving his back confined towards the edge. They all possessed a highly uncomfortable look at the suggestiveness of this conversation.  Zill forces a quick twist of his body taking a peak at the endless drop he’d endure past the cliffside.

“I didn’t forget your treatment either.” His voice bites into the air with enmity.

“Let bygones be bygones and come join me in the winners circle.”

“Like hell I will. I don’t follow any mans lead.”

Crimson’s men take a few steps forward, their swords pressing against Zill’s back. They push him towards the cliffs edge. He couldn’t help but take a deep breath as he overlooked the gazing vacuum. “How tacky.”

“The theatrics were always my show.” Crimson extended his arm out with a flick of his wrist. “Help me and I’ll give you the life you once had.”

Zill makes one more turn away from the edge. His eyes dead-panned locked with Crimson. His fingers fidget in between the cuffs that bound him.

“Now you’re thinking clearly.”

“Of course.” Zill smiled at Crimson, they’re still locked in a familiar stare. He takes a step back, a step he did not have. Both of his legs pull out from under him as his body begins to fall through the air he mumbles final words to Crimson. “Blow me. I’d rather die.”

And with that the wind began to shutter past his ears, a roaring beast that condemned him. Zill closed his eyes. It’s been a short ride.

***

***

 

 

Glimmers of electricity beat as faint strobes of light shining through the cracks in the wooden planks. Each deck seemingly infused with metallic properties between each crevice. A reactor at its core kept it beating alive.

The wind beat through her hair, brushing it back in a wild flurry of blond and black. The giant sail eclipsing the ship flapped along in a rhythmic pace. The dawn was coming, a faint glimmer of pink on the horizon. Reflecting as a fire in her forestry eyes.

“Full speed ahead!” Sandro spoke from  the insides of a giant captains coat that dragged its tailcoats along the ground as he paced around.

“We’re at max speed.” Grimm confirmed behind the ships wheel.

Sandro didn’t respond, his eyes closed, hands waving in the air with pointed fingers as if looking for something.

“Pretty girl!”

“It’s Laurena.” She corrected him with a hiss.

“Like I said ‘pretty girl’!” He opened an eye peeking out as if seeing something. “Alright. Those sails! When I say twist you’ll begin to draw them towards me.”

He pointed at his position on the back of the ship where the tiny ship elevated once again into a miniature poop deck. His foot steps reverberated against the wooden grain of its surface. His eyes were shut again.

“Grimm. You’ll have to help her once she starts tugging, she won’t be strong enough to do it alone!”

“Hey! I can handle it all on my own!” Laurena rebuttals offended by him.

“Move move!” Sandro became distracted by his own thoughts. “ten degrees starboard!”

The ship titled in an upheaval, cargo swaying over to the edges of the ship. Laurena fumbled trying to hang onto the sails.

It was time.

“More angle!” Sandro commanded Grimm. Then he pointed his fingers at Laurena. “Girl! Pull the sails halfway back!”

“It’s—“ She thought better of it. “—nevermind.”

Laurena tucked with all her might to draw the wooden hinge of the sails. Sandro was right, it was far too heavy for her. She wondered how this elderly man borderline senile was able to command such strong direction at this time. Till this point he’d displayed a negative sense of comprehension and motor skills.

The ship drove awkwardly, swaying side to side. It displayed the groups lack of expertise in piloting an airship of any size. It didn’t seem to matter to Sandro’s plan. As he was tucking at the giant overcoat he wore, its ends running around him.

He came around towards Laurena, giving her a helping hand.

“It’s coming. Brace yourself.”

“What am I bracing myself for?” Just as the words came out, a heavy weight rushed against her arms. The sails as they swung back formed a temporary blanket and in them he came collapsing as a loud thud.

“We got him.” Grimm smiled, leaving the ships helm.

Laurena looked puzzled.

Got him?

Meaning this was their plan? She looked into the ships sail that had collapsed under a humans weight. Zill was crumbled inside, his head lobbed to one side, eyes closed shut. He looked peaceful and innocent.

She laughed to herself on that notion.

 

NaNoWriMo – The Man Time Forgot

Chapter 5 – The Man Time Forgot

 

A fish head pierced through the sky, slightly obstructing the sun for anyone who happened to be walking past it. It dangled with lifeless eyes, it wobbled once, then twice and seized to move. “Five dinar fish!”

“Five dinar!” A burly mans vice boomed through the crowd only to be quickly lost among all the marketers. Other voices echoed, some faint, soft, outspoken or merely nauseating. Old world Persian carpets lined all the halls, rickety wooden booths lined every wall, marketers behind each one, each selling a product you never knew you wanted.

Bright lights shimmered in the building, rotating within the ceilings reflecting upon vases, fresh produce, vanity mirrors and a dozen of other worldly goods. The hallways were littered with individuals, dressed in light garments in the heated enclosed environment.

Grimm sliced through the crowd, his broad shoulders making a path for Laurena to follow. He moved in a straight shot while Laurena fumbled behind, her eyes shifting from each vendor, taking every sight as if it was her first.

“This isn’t what I had in mind when you said an empire.” With a blink of her eye, she envisioned slaves turning cogged wheels, fire torches that lit up dark alleyways and dungeons, but this was a town, domesticated with trade.

“Crimson has a love for fashion, incase you somehow couldn’t tell. He set up trade routes to this city and in consequence other trade programs begun.” Grimm’s eyes shifted, piercing from one area to another. He was focused on the empty obelisks that were within the building, as if expecting something to be there.

“That’s kinda funny.”

“Just a bit.”

“So how is shopping out going to help us?” She pauses at one of the smaller wooden stands, only its content shining in the form of small wooden carving of creatures. “Oh! These are adorable.” She exclaimed.

“Its not shopping. Its someone here.” Grimm stopped near her. “We should move.”

“Is this supposed to be a cat?”

He takes a quick glance at it. “No. I think it’s a white tiger.”

“So it’s a cat.”

“I guess.”

A voice shrills from behind the wooden caravan. “All hand-made! Great oaks!”

“There are no oak trees on this island.” Grimm took a close look at the wooden puppets noticing the figure to the voice behind the counter. “Wait.”

“How much?” Laurena asks picking up a few more. “Is there a deal if I buy enough?”

“Wait.” Grimm mumbles again.

“Okay, how about this one too!” Laurena has a collection of animals now in her hand, held up towards the elderly man whose face was furrowed in bushy eyebrows, hair peeking out from his ears, and mountains of wrinkles that curled over the curvature of his face. His smile defied the toll gravity had taken on his face, creating an emphasis on the blistering set of white teeth that formed his smile.

“Sir.” Grimm inquires. “Sir?”

“Do you know him.” Laurena glances back and forth between the old man and Grimm.

“Yes. Yes. Do I know you?” The old man impositions with what must’ve been small beady eyes that lingered underneath a forest of snowy trees above his eyes.

“It’s me. Grimm.”

“Nope. Can’t say I’ve heard of you, but nice to meet ya young man.” The old man lingers a stick out towards Grimm expecting him to shake it.

“Old Sandro. Its me, Grimm, how did you forget?” Grimm strives to take his acknowledgement in vain.

“Sandro? Nobody called me that since I was—“ He begins to grab the figurines from Laurena. “—well, since I was, well it doesn’t matter. Time to close shop.”

Laurena’s face turns upside down. “But—“

“Fine. How’s this for a reminder.” Grimm’s voice is relentless in its aspiration. He speaks one last word, in a clear slow tone. “Zill.”

“Where?!?” The old man frets, his head twisting from side to side as if on a pivot. He pokes his cane at the top of his stand and in one click shutters come closing down. He then dashes out from behind his booth, moving his way through the market place.

His speed is astounding, his short body seemingly misleading of his prowess, especially when fear has been stricken in him.

Grimm wastes no time taking up the chase. He plows through the crowds, twisting around bodies, attempting to keep up with the old man.

Laurena hangs behind him trying to keep up with the action, letting out a final sigh that she isn’t getting her wooden cat before the day’s end. “Does names Zill always cause this kind of reaction?”

Grimm chuckles. “Ya. He knows how to make himself memorable.”

“No kiddin’.” They both continued to run after the oldman, who they might’ve lost long ago, his small figure would’ve blended in the crowd, shorter than most of the women that were in the market. The crowds began to push back, slowly Grimm down even farther. A moment like this would’ve worked perfectly if Zill was around, while he was far from Grimm’s strength he was quick and agile. His youth had taught his hands to work almost as fast as his tongue.

“Lets split up!” Laurena finally remarked, realizing that the old man was not going to get caught by them individually. He had a strong layout of the building and compared to both of them they were running blind.

“You sure?”

“Positive.” She swings a left at the next open hallway, taking a few hops past a crowded stand and she disappears out of Grimm’s view.

Grimm’s lungs did not have the capacity to keep up and after ten minutes, he was near the point of exhaustion. He’d cornered him three times but each time, he’d managed to slip. Either under his legs, around him or by hopping above him. Old people were not designed to move that fast.

“Got him!” He heard a shout from one side of the market, coming from a staircase that led to the housing quarters. Grimm rushed towards her, using the wall to beak his sprint, in order to move up the limestone stairs.

Laurena’s hands were working to pull her shirt down over her waist. Across from her was the old man, mouth wide open, eyes gone wide finally visible amongst the forest of hair on his face. His tongue lobbed to one side like a half chewed popsicle.

Grimm stood at the entrance. “Did you just?”

“Did I just catch him? Of course.” She dropped a glance towards Grimm with a sharp smile then turned back towards the old man.

“Right.” He thinks twice of pursuing this conversation. “Sandro. I need your help.”

“Is he here? Is he?” Sandro shoots glances around the room. He crouches as if awaiting an ambush.

“Old Sandro. He isn’t here. That’s what I came to talk you about.”

“About him?”

“Yes about Zill. Crimson has him captive.”

“So go get him out, you don’t need me for that.”

“But we do.” Laurena interjects. “Crimson is expecting us.”

“I’d be expecting you too.” Sandro salvates at the thought of a nubile young woman.

“That wasn’t what–”

“—Don’t mind him.” Grimm moves over closer to Sandro. “I miss you Sandro, it’s been too long, and you’ve done a lot for us in the past. I feel terrible that I come asking again, but Zill needs our help. Crimson isn’t going to be kind to him.”

“Kind to who?” Sandro’s memory worked much like a sieve. Forgetful and incoherent.

Laurena once again repeats her question. “Are you sure that’s who we’re looking for?”

Grimm ignores her. He places a hand on Sandro’s frail shoulder. “Sandro. I need to know how to get in there.”

Sandro doesn’t respond, seemingly frozen in place. Then in one quick motion he hustles Grimm’s hand away from him. A panicked look crosses his face.

“Who-o have you been near?” Sandro’s voice is raised, losing its elderly humorous panic.

“Just her the past few days.” Grimm points towards Laurena.

Sandro moves closer to Laurena, his cane poking at her midriff. “You’ve changed everything.”

“What?” Laurena asks confused by Sandro’s behavior. “Hey, stop that!” She grabs onto the tip of the cane pushing it away from her.

“Will you help us?” Grimm nods, as if understanding Sandro’s behavior.

“No. Begone, nothing but trouble will follow you.” Sandro paces to the corner wall of the room, taking a seat in the chair. “In my old age, I ain’t got time for trouble.”

“But—“

“—Just go.” Sandro barks at Grimm.

Grimm nods, motioning to Laurena to follow his lead.

They walk defeated back to the ship, which rested half crash-landed in a shallow lake on the coast of the island. The beauty of airships was well they were well equipped to traverse space and waterways, at least, that was their logic. Neither of them were ever pilots in a past life, and learning to not crash the ship to smithereens was a miracle within itself.

NaNoWriMo- Turning The Tables 2

*****

“Okay. Let me get this straight.” His hands move frantically in the air as if trying to file the story together.

“Okay.” She responds. Her body sits with crossed legs on the wooden hull of the ship.

“Laurena. What did you do?” He’s speaking above the chugging howls of the ships engine.

“Well.” She rubs a finger along her pointed chin. “It all went so fast, but it started with us getting away–”

Zill slashed a dull blade at the pirates, one by one he carved them off the ship. Crimsons men falling back into the floating pier, or taking a dip into the world below.

A hand swiped along his forehead, clearing the built up moisture along his brows. He leans forward on the rear of the ship, one leg forward. “Not so tough now, are ya?”

Then a whisper enters his ear, a gentle voice. “Now its time to return the favor. Time to sell you.”

Laurena’s slender fingers push against his back, and with a little giggle she pushes him off the ship, leaving Zill tumbling on the peer.

“—and that was that!”

“He sells you to the most flamboyantly feared pirates on this island. We rescue you, then you throw him to the most flamboyantly feared pirates on this island?” He brings his hands down in a dramatic gesture, fingers extended out.

She taps a finger along her chin. “Yep. That’s it. That sounds a lot better than my recollection.” Her smile is unreasonably large shaking the sentiment of forced sweetness behind it.

“We are going to break him out.”

“Grimm.” Her tone shifts from innocent to stern. “Do we have to?”

He shakes his head. “Yes. I made him come get you, now we have to go get him.” A hand ruffles through his bleach blond hair, yanking on it in uncertain frustration. “I mean one time was a charm, but a second time?”

“See? We don’t want to risk getting caught again.”

“We?” Grimm gives her an informal grin. “I’ve yet to be caught. I’ve left that to you two.”

She sighs. “Touché.”

Grimm looks away from her with a sense of exhaustion. It’d be over 36 hours since Zill’s capture and they’d still formed no solution let alone a cohesive agreement to save him.

The sky dimmed on the horizon far below them, a rare sight in the skies above. Especially in the sector of islands they inhabited. They resided in the shadows of islands that blockaded the suns descent between soil and sheer girth.

Living in the skies was always mans dream, but upon the continents of Elysian it was a proven fact that any given dream cannot hold up to the facts of reality. Many of the continents had become nothing but shells, dumping grounds to support the larger ones and after the Qualm incident all airships besides military ones have been band and much of the technology is reclusive.

He looked back towards Laurena; when quieted down and she was caught in her own thoughts there was a sense of forlorn melancholy that drew itself around her. She did not belong in the humility of these islands that much was evident to him. Even in her tattered clothes, that dulled along the fading rosy rays of the sun there still stood a bearing of peculiarity.

Grimm’s eyes lock back onto the skies, where the clouds were always thicker. The ship creaked in its bearing adjusting its bearing for the changing wind currents, which always were stronger at such high elevations of these islands. He patts the ship’s side. You’re a good girl, showing me a world I’ve never seen.

Laurena moves along to his side, leaning on the ships railing overseeing the sights. “Is it always so beautiful out here?”

“Only when you’re this free.”

“This free?”

He smiles. “Nevermind.” There was no point in troubling her in their matters.

“How do you plan to get him back? This won’t be as easy as it was with me, that pirate will be waiting this time.”

“I know.” He sighs figuring that even the first time he’s free in the skies, he’d still be burdend with the world’s problems. “Crimsons not your average thug. He has a strong hold on this area.”

“So he’s bad, huh?”

Grimm’s eyes pause upon the vanished horizon, only a dark light from the stern of the ship giving them light. “Sometimes. Ya.” He points towards an island that glowed with a faint light. “See that?”

Laurena leaned forward on the railing, her body stretching over the vast nothingness. The islands all hovered with an odd similarity, green shades at the top that faded to a rustic brown of Earth at their bottom much like mint covered chocolate patties. One island in particular stood out, little sprinkles shone along its edges and in its center.

“That’s Crimsons Empire.” He points to one lighted dot that rose above the others. “That’s where we’re going.”

NaNoWriMo- Turning The Tables

Grimm’s eyeball peeked through the cracks that illuminated the faint light through them. His knuckles tapped against the wall with a hollow resonance then he finally spoke.

“Two choices: You tell them about this heartless or we make a suicide move.” Grimm was still studying the wall again with a distance.

“You’ve convinced them the Heartless is real.” Zill chuckled to himself. “Maybe you aren’t so bad after all.”

She turned towards Grimm who was busy inspecting the wall as the pirates inched towards them. “Any ideas Grimm?”

“We can break through it.” Grimm finally declared.

“No. No!” Crimson blared. “That wall is worth more than your life boy!” Grimm and Zill both gave him an awkward look at the mention of boy, as they both were merely a few years younger than him and his half-arsed pirate accent.

Grimm shrugged, yanking his shoulders back and in one motion slamming himself into the wall. A giant block of it shook out of place, coming rocketing down to the floor. The whole wall begun to shake with a nervous tick, each block beginning to shift out of its place.

The ground let way into open skies, as these islands hovered above the world below, showing nothing but the oceans and land masses that still remained tattered from the great years war.

“Crap.” They all shouted as Laurena, Grimm and Zill fell into the air, until their fall was halted after a mere few feet.

Their fall was broken on top of an unseen object. They crashed in a bundle, tumbling over bricks, each bruised, nicked and covered in a heavy coating of dust. Laurena opened one eye surveying the scene. They hadn’t fallen to their deaths but instead they settled with in what seemed to be an invisible object that was only visible due ot the dust from that was dropping from above, it slowly showed a faint outline almost a wireframe of dust filled in the crevices and the bricks which fell at uneven levels.

Below them the ocean was still visible, though across from them lingered a pad hanging from an industrial sized set of stairs, laced in metal trim. The Pirates steps were echoing up the stairs as they rushed down to capture them using the proper vantage point.

“Not again…” Laurena said with a huff of her cheeks.

A sound of machinery churned under them, the sounds of gears slowly turning, a surge of electricity shaping through the air following specific lines familiar to airships, the mist of dust that had landed on the invisible hull seemed to reaffirm that notion. The sound of gears reached a high pitch, as the flow of electricity flowed through wired lines, with each one the electricity buzzed through wooden panels began to appear, trimmed along metal joints and ends.

A deck had begun to form under them having always been there, merely waiting for the electric impulses to make it visible to the human eye. The electric impulses fizzling out over the air revealing more of the ships haul, displaying a mid-size mast rising above a control panel.

Wooden panels glistened with metal bracings around their edges; they all creaked with a sign of weight that had long been absent. The wood arced to a pointy tip, generators set on the side like mild wings waiting for liftoff. And finally the rear of the ship was pressed against the staircase deck, which the pirates had begun to fill out, some surprised at the sight of the air ship caught in the loading bay.

Zill was the first to jump up, grabbing Laurena from around the waist, “Be careful.”

“What?” Laurena said surprise in her tone, more at his touch than his request.

Ignition had zero response the first, second, but it gargled on the third jerk. Grimm came around to Zill. “Can it run?”

“Ignition is rusty, we finally found something Crimson didn’t keep in top shape.” Zill continued to tinker with it, kicking a panel that was under it revealing a few gears, tan in color, dyed in black dried oil. “Perfect.”

Laurena came pushing him aside. “Keep the pirates busy!”

Zill turned his head slowly away from the gears to see a pirate jumping on board, sword drawn charging at them. Zill charged at the pirate, who had a sword drawn lunging for Zill barely skimming his outer garments, instead Zill let his weigh do the work of knocking the pirate back, coming in shoulder first lunging the pirate off the ship, by means of tossing him aside, leaving him hanging by his hands against the side of the ship.

He wasted no time grabbing the pirate’s sword, giving a final glance at the pirate who hung on the side of the ship. “Don’t go anywhere.”

Zill tumbled the sword in the air, turning his glance at the other pirates who now had drawn out their swords as well. He did a few tumbles in his hand attempting to scare them off with a sleight of hand. No luck.

“Any ideas?” Grimm moved up towards Laurena who just looked at the panel with a slight haze to her. She runs her tiny fingers along the panel, once again mimicking the motions Zill had done in attempts to get the airship moving.

She took in a deep breath. “Step back.”

Laurena mumbled words under her lips, fingers elevating off the panel a bit, out of the corner of her eyes she sees Grimm move to help Zill, in specific tying the one fallen pirate with a length of rope he found huddled around the curtailed mast.

She closed her eyes, alone for a moment of concentration. The gears begin to turn with a loud whir, the fusion of steam and electrical engines beginning to pick up at her beckoning. Slowly the mast releases, the sail doubling in height and thrice in width.

The deck spreads open, layering out from under itself, like wings it extended. Layers set one atop another for convenient stowaway, the ship reminiscent of technology shortly after the days the world parted. Slowly the airship peeled away from the deck, in a steady motion. No hands touched the panels or moved the sails, for the ship just seemed to will itself.

Upon the rear of the ship Zill raised one leg bending it along the rear planks, resting his leg on the edge of the ship. He overlooked the other oncoming pirates. He stuck his tongue out at them knowing in a few moments they’d have no way to board their ship.

Chapter 4 – Turning the Tables

His slim wrists were losing blood flow due to being tightened in old onyx shackles. Trapped within an inky dark room, a dim luster shined from the hollows in the brick wall that acted as an insignificant backdrop to the fires that burnt around his pupils. The shackles came slamming down on the wet moldy ground, dirtying themselves up in a moist fungus, his eyes only resonated an unsaid madness.

Zill’s clothes were tattered, blood smeared against them. Much of it being his own. His blade was as sharp as his tongue, and Laurena was sharper in wit than either his blade or tongue.

He closed his eyes listening to his surroundings taking in a deep breath in an attempt to make heads or tails of his situation. “Damn tramp.” He finally let out a sound deep from within his bowels.

His sides hurt even as he spoke. Crimson’s men had done a number on him and rightfully so. You don’t enter a bandits lair, threaten him, steal his prisoner, then steal an airship and expected to be let go scot-free.

“Tramp? No. She’s an angel.” A voice spoke to him from the corner of the room. Lively eyes peered through the darkness in the cell.

“Quit your nonsense.” Zill’s spirit bolstered regardless.

“Oh. Come on Zill. We go a long way back.” The eyes peer forward lighting up, the contours of a wry face appearing behind them. “The idea of a Heartless, a way to encompass the world in ones own palm. She is the angel who will guide me to it.”

Zill laughs a hackled laugh that followed with a trace of blood spilling along his lip. “You have to be kidding me. What next fairy tales of finding your prince charming?”

“Oh, the jokes on my sexuality. I really missed you.” Crimson laughs along Zill, his own laugh echoing clearly, unrestrained by a punctured chest. He takes a riotous step towards Zill, a clamped fist flying into his face. “Really really missed you. But once we capture her. She’ll be invaluable to us.”

“You won’t capture her. She’s gone.”

“Oh. We believe she’ll return for you.”

“I sold her as a pet to you. She has no reason to.”

“She might harbor resentment towards you, after all, she did give you to us. But your friend, Grimm was it? He’ll come back for you, or at least he should if he knew what you’d done for him.”

Zill’s head dips, blood dripping from a pre-existing gash. He says nothing. Crimson doesn’t respond either, taking a few steps towards the cell’s door. Its shuttered frame opens by one of his crewman.

Crimson takes a final look at Zill. “Oh. Zill, enjoy the accommodations while you’re here. It’s been far too long.”

Zill looks up his eyes sear with an encompassed aspiration, even in the dark chamber they manage to shine with a radiance of desire.

NaNoWriMo – Luck of the Draw – Day 3

Chapter 3 – Luck of the Draw

 

A dim room that shook ever so slightly, vibrations unsettling dust from the rickety wooden ceiling. Each dust particle picked up pigmentation from the faded lights in the room taking on a simple shine of a snowy glow. Two sets of eyes peered through cracks in the ventilation shaft.

“Now what?” Zill asked rubbing his neck.

“We get her out.” Grimm said with devout determination.

“Brilliant.” They focused their eyes below once again, the fallen star tied in one corner, sitting at the side of a man who wore silver tights covered under red boot and red velour shirt that did nothing to hide the flamboyancy of their assortment. They glistened between a silvery black in the dimly lit room.

He was whispering to the fallen star but his words weren’t audible past the cankering of the men that surrounded him on both sides forming a wide spread circle. Dice fell in between the crowd, a few tumbles forced the inertia out of them, settling on a single dot on both of their faces.

“No.” One sharply dressed pirate moaned. “I wanted to mate this harlot first!” The mascara around his eyes winced and contorted with his disapproval.

The other gave a sharp smile through perfect teeth, their only deformity being that they were gold plated to a perfect shine. “She’d be mine first!”

The man in silver tights settled back into his black velvet chair decored with silver trim along wooden arms.

He rested his glances, which burrowed deep towards the dice. “She still be mine till I grow weary of her.” His smile is bearish in nature, revealing a pearly set of teeth, one in silver with a carving of a jolly roger upon it. His lips peeked a plump color along his tan skin, eyes smeared with mascara forming elongated eye lashes that parted along to the side of his face.

The Falling Stars finally spoke her voice resonated within the room heard over the words of the men and their lord. “I told you!” She pleaded.

“She still doesn’t shut up when she’s captive.” Zill remarked sarcastically.

Grimm pointed out to him. “She was sold into slavery, not captured.”

“Semantics.”

“By you.”

“Still semantics.”

Her voice shouted again echoing through the rafters. “You can be the strongest pirate if you have the Heartless.”

“The Heartless?” Grimm repeated.

Zill smirked. “It’s a rumor, she’s gotta be desperate to convince them to let her go based on an old fairytale.”

“She sounds convincing.”

The man clad in silver and red spoke, his voice stringing along itself melodically. “I am already the greatest pirate, who needs the Heartless!”

He threw a fist in the air, his men cheered to his burly voice and poise posture. “Not just the greatest but also the handsomest of pirates!”

His man all chimed. “You were sold by that puny punk!”

Zill growled punching one of the wooden pillars that supported the rafters. “Who the hell does he think he is? Best pretty pirate? Puny punk? I’ll show them!”

Grimm put his hand on Zills shoulder to calm him down although his physical strength was no match for Zill’s building fury. Zill gave another punch to the rafter.

“Prick.” As the word leaves his lips. The rafters give their own disgruntled groan as they begin to  make a final call deciding to crumble around Zill and Grimm. Next thing they notice they are on the floor, tossed around in a heap of crumbled rafters surrounded by the pirates gang

Grimm fell a second later behind Zill, crashing in another echo as he face planted. The falling star watched them with awe at their reckless abandon.

Zill doesn’t notice her glances, his eyes fixed on the pirate in silver stockings. “Who’s a prick?”

The pirate leader looked at him with a peculiar eye. “So you did sell this girl to the little smuggler.”

“Crimson.” Zill said under his breath, his behavior seemingly apologetic, till he raised his glance once again, eyes fixed towards the head pirate. “Feel free to womanize whatever I sell to you. But to call yourself great, what a metro sexuality of confusion you are.”

“Its the deadliest handsomest pirate you prudent fool! Or to you it should be Scar Crimson!” Crimson brings a fist slamming against his velvet chair.

The chair rickets under his weight. “Have you never heard of the saying if looks could kill?”

“Yours could kill on many accounts Scarlet, but beauty not being one of them.” Zill retorts.

“The name is Scar Crimson!”

“Scarlet princess works just the same, isn’t that right Scarlet’s men, or do you guys go by the title of bitches these days?”

The all growl and howl at Crimson to off his head at his insults.

Crimson grabs the Falling Star by her hair drawing his dagger around her neck. “You keep talking and I’ll kill your slave Laurena!”

Grimm lifts his head off the ground, joining Zill in recourse. “Who?”

“Me you dumb dolts!” The Falling Star finally joins the conversation, her cheeks turning a flurried red. “I’m Laurena, just how stupid are you two?”

Crimson loosens his grip on her, a bit taken back by her temper. “And how stupid are you? Who the hell is going to become the best pirate by having a great wardrobe and outstanding makeup skills?”

“Ar…” He said a bit baffled, as a few chuckles rose among his men, cuing him to regain his composure. “ARGH! Get them! Kill them all for assaulting the pride of captain!”

“Guess now we have to rescue her to rescue ourselves, huh?” Zill said regretfully.

 

Grimm nodded. His knuckles turned white as they cracked with a dazzlingly loud sound. It left a smile on his lips, one that only expanded as he continued to pound one face after another of already toothless pirates as one came after another in an arc till it made a cut between the circumference of pirates and Laurena.

Zill came leaping forward avoiding a few of the pirates, till he came landing legs spread on top of the arms of the velvet chair.

He grabs at the ascot wrapped around Crimsons neck. “If anyone’s becoming a fearsome pirate first, its me. If there is a heartless…”

His grasp was strong enough to draw Crimson close to his face, his nose almost touching Crimson’s powdered nose, a dark glare in Zill’s eyes of determined infatuation. ”Understand?”

“Zill.” Grimm was busily prying the chains off the Fallen Star. “This isn’t the time.”

In return Zill bares his teeth at Crimson one more time. “Prick.” He jumps off the chair grabbing Laurena by her hand, pressing her to follow him.

“Lead the way Grimm.”

Grimm nods dashing out towards the one corridor that linked the abandoned warehouse the Pirates used to an old airfield encampment. “Zill.”

“What?”

“Did you really have to threaten the strongest mobster in this area?”

Zill shrugs leaving Laurena to answer for him. “He has the uncanny talent to always worsen any given situation.”

“Shut up.” Zill tosses Laurena upon his back, her arms wrapped around his neck and legs wrapped around his waist. “Just hold on.”

A stampede of feet rushed behind them the sound of live metal being drawn from sheaths and a few guns firing towards their way.

“Idiots, don’t be shootin’ the girl!” Crimsons voice reverberates through the halls.

“Thank God I have her on my shoulders.” Zill announces.

“So honorable.” Laurena says sarcastically, her head barely hovering taller than his, her butt having a tiny bounce as Zill continues charging forward behind Grimm. Till finally Grimm halts in his tracks.

“Shit.” Grimm states. He stares at the wall in front of him, it shined with red bricks with a dull glow peering through each bricks cornerstones.

The stampede of feet stops behind them, Crimson walking through his pack. “I’ve reconsidered my offer harlot, I want the Heartless artifact!”

Grimm’s eyeball peeked through the cracks that illuminated the faint light through them. His knuckles tapped against the wall with a hollow resonance.

NaNoWriMo – Three Rules – Day 2

Chapter 2 – Three Rules

 

“Three rules.”

Zill was busy tossing a soccer ball, it shuffled from one kneecap to the other, at every fifth bounce, managing to rise high enough to block the sun in the bounce’s apex.

“One; you can’t lock her up.”

“Two; you can’t take advantage of her sexually.”

“And three. You can’t sell her.” Grimm extended a finger for each of the rules he recited.

Zill nodded. “Right, do I have to feed her?”

Grim shrugged, “We’re broke and I have to take out a girl tonight…so…”

Zill smiles at him his eyes lighting up cutting into the conversation. ”So its at my discretion.”

“No, feed her. I still have a little bit left under the mattress. So I’ll be back tonight, or if I’m lucky, tomorrow morning.”

Zill catcalled towards Grim. “You horn dog, you.”

Grim returned an uncertain grin that was mischievous then returned back to his usual gentle demeanor. “Let’s hope.

“Hoping is worthless, just do it.” Zill gave the ball one final kick, letting it fly off against the side off the house. It resounded with a strong shake of the houses weak wooden frame. It rolled down against the grass with a few weakened bounces it settled settled in front of the incline of a hill.

Zill headed back towards the door of his house as Grimm repeated again. “Three rules Zill.”

He slammed the door behind him, wondering what Grimm’s deal being so worried about a stranger.

 

Sterling silver chains screeched along the wooden ground until they came to a halt with a clank, stuck against the brittle leg of a table. The metal chains led back to a slender ankle.

She looked up at him jaw open complete in disbelief. Zill didn’t notice her, he was laid back against a stalk of hay covered under a blanket. One leg was bent towards him, his hand against its thigh, magazine folded between his fingers and thumb.

“Its illegal to do this!” She rattles her chains once again. “You’ve kidnapped me.”

He flipped the page of the magazine, paying no attention to her.

She gave a few more tugs on the chains, her ankle turning a swollen red color, a rash forming from the consistent rubbing of metal against her bare ankle. “You’re just a miserable person.” Her hand leans over the top of the table, she blindly shuffles around, barely skimming past a cutting knife, then hits a loaf of bread. She throws it his way.

It leers towards his head, about to collide head on, before his free hand make a grab for it. The loaf catches his attention. He takes a bite out of it, then finally looks her way, studying her.

He swallows his bite. “First of all, you vandalized my friends house, and of course I’m miserable, because of you I have to babysit you while Grimm is away.”

Zill extends the piece of bread in her direction. “Hey girl, throw me some cheese too.”

She growls. “I have a name, asshole.”

“Girl works just fine, unless I can call you nice legs.” He responds.

Nice legs makes another huffy noise extending her arm over to the table again, moving past a vase and a cutting board, her hand grazing the knife from the wrong end, blade edge first. “Ow…” She pulls her hand down, blood streaming down her fingers, in a thick slow glaze.

His eyes shift towards her, inspecting her hand, then they turn back towards the magazine, letting out a frustrated grunt.

In one swift motion he kicks his legs off the hay his body follows like a trapeze artist. He straightens up, stretching to one side quickly while making his way to the cupboard in the room.

As he bends over onto one knee taking her hand in his, he can’t help but notice how small her hand seems in his. He opens  up her fingers placing a bandage on her bleeding finger. “You should becareful there legs.”

She looks up at him twin emerald orbs peering and in one swift motion she grabs the vase from the table top swinging it down on Zill’s head. It crumbles into pieces over his dark reddish hairs, his face falling flat into the broken pieces of the vase, his body lumbering in followed suit.

“I told you. The names not legs.”

*****

 

 

The sun hadn’t even risen as he arrived back to Zill’s hut where he would make his residence till he was able to repair his own broken hut. He wasn’t thinking of his own house, instead he was caught on the dryness in his throat as he opened the door to Zill’s hut. The door always creaking with a forceful nudge against the Earth as it drudged open. His heart didn’t merely choke, it felt missing, a vacuum that tugged at the strings that once supported his vascular muscle.

The vacuum in his heart wasn’t enough, once the door swung wide open, a void slumped in his stomach and he was grateful. For what he saw was Zill passed out on the table, bottle in one hand, legs propped up in a spread eagle position with a girl in between.

Grimm’s face reflected shock, for Zill and the falling star girl hadn’t gotten along and now she was somehow spread between his legs. While Zill has charm with women, it was always Grimm’s more romantic sympathetic nature that appealed to them and well, falling for Zill was much like asking to be put under a guillotine.

“Zill.” No response to his own name.

“Zill.”

He shifted slightly in a drunken haze, grunting then turning before his body jarring against the naked girls body, her body turned over revealing her front to Grim. she had supple breasts and small hips that looked awkwardly proportional, not at all how he imagined.

He turned his sights away, blushing at the thought of even seeing or imagining her naked.

In his hand he clenched a blanket, bringing it over to cover the decency of them both. None of which Zill had.

As the blanket covered on her head, hiding her whole body, the sudden sense of decency seemed to jolt Zill awake. His body shot up, the girl rolling to the other side of the table slumping into her quite slumber.

“Grimm….Back so soon?” Zills eyes squinted, focusing on his fuzzy figure, a cold chill running up his back. “Its not even…” He glances at the sun preparing to rise for its morning glory. “Seven? Eight? Nine?”

In response Grimm shook his head, picking up a few things around the place. “Seven thirty.”

“Quit being such a one minute man.” The words stretch and gargle as Zill yawns loudly.

“And did you really have to sleep with her?” Grimm turns his sights on Zill again with a plate in his hand, twirling along the roll of his fingers.

Zill’s eyes were dimm, half shut still. “Why not?” He shrugged almost unsure of what the big deal was that he was sleeping with a girl, its not something new and it most definitely was not the first time, or second, or…you get the idea.

“We don’t even know her name, you know.”

“That’s never stopped me before.”

Grimm stopped in his tracks, realizing there was a new chair in Zill’s place along with a plethora of random objects. “Where did you get all this stuff? Since when did we have money for alcohol and food that isn’t consistent of loaf and cheese?”

Zill got off the table, letting the blanket completely fall off of him and the girl giving a full view to Grimm once again. She was a girl with dark brown hair and dark eyes. She was not the falling star but one of the local girls who’d fallen for Zill’s wicked disinterest and off-standish demeanor.

“That isn’t the fallen star.” Grimm said in shocked disbelief.

“I know.” Zill nodded in return. “Wait…” Zill moved towards Grimm inspecting his face. “You thought I slept with her?”

Grimm let out a sigh of relief and Zill let out a deep laugh. “You wouldn’t believe the things that little mugster Tran will buy these days…I sold her saying she’s a virgin princess.”

Grimm’s eyes were losing their blue hue instead burning deep with anger, almost a sea of fire. He grabbed Zill by his shoulders. “What?

NaNoWriMo – This Story – Day 1

 

Prologue – This Story

 

This story.

 

Well this story is no different than any other story before it.

 

Its built on the premise of love. As any story is always driven by a protagonist out to achieve, prove, or change the world they’re in and of course the motive is often love, love of a parent, a girl, a friend. Or perhaps it is the lack of it that one pines for.

Either way that has always been the theme of literature and folklore, love, it surmises everything and there’s no reason to break convention.

In this story love is the singular enemy, our protagonist fights to take down the embezzlement of the heart, fighting against love. A dreamer with the soul of a pirate and the heart of none.

This story…I guess this tale is different than most before it, sure, all tales have been told before, but this is my story of The Heartless Pirates.

 

Chapter 1 – A Falling Star

Rosy blond haired fluttered past her ears, trembling in the azure sky backdrop that drifted past her, wind continued to rush along her features, forest eyes possessed with an ash-grey hue along the empyrean background. Breath held deep, her ears taking the susurrus sounds wide within, held in her lungs.

The free fall comes to a halt, the falling star coming in through the top of a straw laden hut, crashing in its mist in a smoke of hay and wooden planks. She didn’t stir, her body lay fallen now in a tender slumber and just as the star came in a quick blaze, so did she rest with an expeditious heart.

*****

 

“Come on! Don’t just sit there while I do all the work Zill!” Grims nostrils flared, his shoulders pulling back, the miniature jackhammer ceasing its drill against the black rocks of the alcove.

Zill’s body was stretched out, on a flat bed of rocks, back and head rested against a average sized boulder. Everything about the nature formed cot seemed uncomfortable, but he laid back as if it was a bed lush of feathers, a tiny sable rock twisted in his grasp along with his wrists movement. “What’s so special about these?”

“I tell you everyday. Energy; they’re essentially coals charged with electrical current.”

“Oh ya? Are they microwavable?”  Zill’s eyes squint at the rock, peering at it with the limited light that shines through the alcove.

“What kind of ques…” As Grim’s words begin to roll of his tongue, in the distance a sound booms. Then once again it booms this time in a rhythmic tone. Grim ceases his drill, eying Zill intensely.

“Its not me.” Zill had already lifted his head off the boulder, body standing at the opening of the alcove a foot along the warm muddy grounds. “Its that.”

Grim’s eyes follow Zills arm, finger extended pointing at what seems to be a shooting start descending straight down, except shooting stars never made consistent sonic sounds in harmonic tones. It was a outre star.

 

A clear separation of air and dirt, the waters ran vast, churning under an electromagnetic current, moments of calm that turned to tidal waves shooting upwards of thirty feet. Above that seagulls float at ranges far above their natural habitat following a strong air current that extends to the higher ranges of the troposphere, a place where seagulls would’ve never been seen a century ago. Along where they sailed, dirt chipped off falling down the peaks of floating islands, upside down mountain peeks with green tops, windmills, and waterfalls that fell along into the azure sky.

A rock chipped off the cliff side as a figure leapt over it, it was the divide of two islands between an invisible basin in the sky. Black pants flailed in the wind as he landed on the other end, knee digging into the ground, dirt along the stretch of his pants. A cart comes flailing from behind, running along a metal wire that connected upon two wooden poles with silver-shining tips struck into each island.

Zill was the first body, coming down in a glorious splash of mud lining his knees then Grim’s slimmer body came tumbling behind, rolling out of the cart coming into a complete standing position. His arms were pressed against his hips, narrow eyes peering over the horizon.

“Yep. That’s definitely your hut.” Zill was following his motion slightly more exaggerated, his hand was straight the flat end hovering above his eyes, as if surveying a new landscape. Nothing had shifted in their world, everything was the same except for the smoking clouds hovering over the crumbling hut.

Brick blocks that acted as support beams for the hut had begun to crumble resembling only their previous visage, whatever had hit the hut had come with an astounding force. Through the whole ordeal Grim made the same wish, for if it really was a shooting star that came in midday who was he to tempt fate and ignore the signs.

Zill seemed less interested in the fact a star had crashed through his friends hut and while unopened to superstitious thoughts, he knew that a wish was just a wish and it came at no cost; true or not.  So why not make one?

 

Gentle sunrays beat along her face, lighting her up like a shining nebula. Black hair shined silver while the blond stained streaks in her hair disappeared under the suns rays. Her skin flushed a radiant white against the suns glint. Lashes traced along her shuteyes, hiding a lurking beauty.

Their bodies hovered over her, leaned over as to not disturb the fallen star from her sleep, perplexed how the hay was enough to break her fall and most of all what to do with this surprise. Grim moved in closer inspecting her, hesitant to even lay a finger on her for fear of staining her form.

“That’s a wasted wish.” Zill said dryly.

Grim finally took his eyes off her for a moment. “What?”

“Nothing.”

“What should we do about her? Do you realize how much trouble murder will get us in?”

“We didn’t murder her.” He remarked back to grim, his eyes dully fixated on the star wrapped in a tattered top, one sleeve missing, a short tattered skirt, serving as a memento of the long dress it used to be.

“Zill.”

“Zill….Zi…” Grim uttered as he begun to notice her move, her weight shifting. A moan escapes her lips, her right arm rising slightly only to fall back down again.

Grim’s tone changed. “Miss…Are you alive?”

She raises an eyelid, her retina focusing into the light. Her hand raises cupping in between her chest, she lets out a cough, then her visions focuses in on Grimm. His body a blur of white and blues that focuses in to show his figure, dark haired and fair bodied.

Her lips moved but no words came out, blood rushing to her plum lips, words finally uttered from her, shattering her perfect image.

“If I wasn’t alive, would I move?”

Finally she grabs Zills attention, he’d been watching her movements with a silent eye, predicting what benefit and threat she was. He didn’t speak to her, instead he chose to stay out of her sights, sitting on top of a stack of hay, legs bent and spread as he studied her.

“I apologize, are you okay?” Grimm says patiently, a smile veering towards her. “You shouldn’t be scared.”

Her eyebrow twitch for a moment, “Sorry.” She went silent.

“She should be a bit scared. We could always sell her.” The grin on zill’s lips speaks volumes bout the honesty of his words; for if you can’t have your wish, might as well have something you can sell.