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.