The Pirate Queen

Deelah barred her teeth and lunged, her raven black hair swaying and following her motions. Raz dodged and rolled, meeting her attack from below. Instead of pressuring her lower, the Pirate Queen stepped back and swung her rapier in a curve, from her back to the ground and up to Raz's blade. This forced her to stand on her feet.

Well, Deelah liked it better when her prey could run.

She dashed straight towards the sergeant, aiming for her shoulder. Raz spun on her heel, attacking the Pirate Queen's side. Deelah avoided it by a hair. Their blades clashed once more. When the Pirate Queen swung, the sergeant blocked. When Raz attacked, Deelah made her countermove.

Maia walked over to the boys. She flapped her hand, signaling them to drop their stances, "It's okay. It's only Deelah."

"Only Deelah?!" Cleon exclaimed, his voice using a high pitch, "She is Captain's right hand, his second-in-command. How could you relax when he sent her to bring us back?"

"Pfft." Maia snorted and placed a hand on her hip, "I'd be worried if it was Scrooge who came here."

The sound of his name made Cleon shiver. No one punished a disobedient group like Scrooge. He wouldn't even hear an explanation. What was wrong, was wrong. No matter what the reason may be—which was a bit contradicting to the fact that they were pirates, criminals to the eyes of most people.

"Who is Scrooge?" Tylen asked.

"He's a sergeant like Raz. They both rank below Deelah." Maia answered him.

"He's a snooty, glasses-wearing, pain in the ass." The blue haired pirate interrupted, "He's scarier than our Captain. Even if it's supposed to be the Captain's call to decide, once Scrooge spouts about what is the right thing to do for discipline, no one can argue against him."

The Prince raised his eyebrows. It seemed like this Scrooge was quite the character. If he was in the same position as Raz, did it mean he also had the same level of skills? He stared at the duel. Neither party had the intention to back down. The Pirate Queen kept up her pace with a smirk on her lips. Her eyes gleamed with excitement. Raz, on the other hand, kept her cool. Her face remained impassive.

"Will they take long?" He turned to the other pirates. Cleon crossed his arms over his chest, a deep scowl in between his eyebrows. He didn't seem to hear Tylen.

"Not really. I think Deelah just missed Raz." Maia smiled.

At her words, the duel concluded in a draw. The Pirate Queen stretched out her arms backwards, her rapier still on hand, "That was good exercise. None of our crew is as worthy as an opponent as you."

Raz snorted, sheathing her blade, "What about the Captain and Scrooge?"

"Scrooge is a snooty, glasses-wearing, pain in the ass." Deelah scoffed, repeating the words she heard earlier. She couldn't agree more, "And Captain Croc is a killjoy. He always rejects."

She put away her rapier, placing a hand on her hip and pointing a finger at the sergeant. Her chocolate brown eyes blazed like volcanic lava, "You are very… very… VERY lucky that I was able to persuade Captain Croc to let me go and fetch you. Scrooge already had one foot out of the office before I interfered. He would have dragged all of your asses back in a snap."

"Why did you even accept this mission?" Deelah continued, throwing a hand in the air, "You know very well that missions of this grade should go through the Captain. Guess what? He didn't approve it."

"That would be my fault." The Prince interjected. He took a step forward. The Pirate Queen shifted her gaze in his direction. He flinched. If what Cleon and Maia said had been true, he couldn't imagine how much worse Scrooge could be.

"And who is this cupcake?" Deelah glared at him.

"He's the client." Raz replied curtly.

The Pirate Queen walked up to Tylen, assessing him from his shoes up to his head. She licked her lips. The Crown Prince could be comparable to a kid. She didn't see him as someone suitable to call for a mission.

She saw him visibly gulp and said, "Don't worry. Unless you're Bon Win, I'm not interested."

"Who?"

"A famous guy in Celios." Maia muttered to the Prince.

Tylen nodded his head slowly. Then, he began to tell his story, repeating most from what he mentioned from when he approached the pirates in a dark alley.

Deelah held up a hand, a disbelief look on her face, "Let me get this straight. You want your fiancée who had zero training to rise from the dead and take her place as your rightful Queen?"

"She's not dead," Tylen clarified, "As far as we believe."

He added the last one as a second thought. He knew not everyone agreed to his line of thinking. The three pirates had mentioned the same thing before.

"What kind of logic is that? It sounds like a person that doesn't want to be found." The Pirate Queen ridiculed him, "What plans do you even have right now?"

"We figured the first step would be to visit the tower the Ariene often went to. It's in this forest. It was the closest place she could run to." Tylen explained. His heart racing, a bead of sweat trickled down the nape of his neck.

Deelah crossed her arms over her chest, "There are like three towers near the Sol Palace. Each one is at an equal distance from it. Do you even have a hint which one could it be?"

The Prince shook his head reluctantly, "We don't but that doesn't mean we won't be able to find out."

He almost choked from the desperation in his voice. Unlike before, they had a plan now. He didn't want to throw it away.

"Look, even if you don't help me, I will still go on." Tylen continued. His hands started to sweat. He wouldn't be able to use his full authority in this since it was a secret. If the pirates go back now, he'd have to continue on by himself. It had been his original plan but just remembering what happened since they left, he'd most likely not end up in Aurae Kingdom.

"We're already here." Raz cut in, "Might as well check it out."

The Pirate Queen cocked an eyebrow at her. They stayed silent, only their eyes conversed. The Prince had given them the choice to leave but it didn't sound that easy. They could leave him and be blamed by the monarch for the abandonment or they could not leave him and be less blamed by the monarch.

"Fine." Deelah huffed, "We'll look for the tower. If you find any clue, this mission stays. If not, I will take you all back to the ship and that includes you, Your Highness. Luckily, we have someone who knows this forest like the back of her hand."

"Let's go, cupcakes!" She announced, taking the lead, and marched deeper into the forest.

===

Night time soon enveloped the sky. The trees offered little space for the stars to peek through. They would have stopped once the sunset began but Deelah had informed them that there was a small pond ahead.

"It's better to be near a water source," she said. Her eyes zeroed in on Maia.

The redhead raised her hands in protest, "I drink my water, okay?"

The two of them took the lead while Raz and Cleon took the rear. They let the Prince stay in the middle. They huddled closed together. The group trudged through the darkness, no source of light among them. Ruffles of crushed leaves and hoots of owls flowed into their ears like orchestral music.

"Can you guys see where we're going?" Tylen thought out loud. He squinted his eyes and couldn't make out any shape in front of him. He wondered how the two females decided on the path they'd take.

A pair of glowing yellow eyes appeared before his sight. He jumped. They blinked at him. The black pupils dilated into a large round disk almost taking up the whole space of each yellow eye. Then, they crinkled at the corners, a soft laugh echoing from them.

"Surprised?" Deelah grinned, "I have cat vision. That's why."

The Prince remained baffled. He had never seen anything like it. He tried to seek any hint in them that linked to human features. He didn't find any. They were perfect—as if the Pirate Queen had gorged out a pair of cat eyes and popped them into her own sockets.

"Deelah is a shapeshifter." Raz explained with a chuckle behind him, "One of the rare talented ones too. Others can only change a part of their appearance. It's usually just one part of the body like arms or hands. They would need to train for a long time if they wanted to master another body part. Even then, they couldn't choose more than two at a time to use their powers on. There are some who could morph their whole body but they can't limit it to a body part. It was everything or nothing. Only a few had been gifted to use both kinds of powers."

"Praise me more, Raz." Deelah called out from the front.

"You'd be blushing too much if I did."

"Boo…!"

"Are we there yet?" Cleon whined. His feet ached. None of their past missions had called for him to walk this much in a day. He just had muscle cramps not too long ago. If they kept going, he'd lose one body part at a time.

"Almost, cupcake!" The Pirate Queen assured him, "I can already see the small clearing. It's not that far."

"But you have cat vision." The blue-haired pirate pointed out, "Not only my feet but my arms ache from carrying these dead rabbits."

Although the others couldn't see him, he held up the prizes of their hunt. Their bodies had begun to rot. He could smell the reek of death from their corpses. If they didn't hurry, his stomach would become upset and he'd lose his appetite.

"Here we are!" Deelah announced.

True to her words, they spotted a pond in the small clearing. The trees around it were sparse, coating the surface of both land and water with moonlight. A patch of white lilies glowed under it. A few fireflies fluttered in the air where predators couldn't reach them.

Raz moved away from the group and lifted off the pile of small branches on her shoulder. She placed them at a driest spot she could find. She arranged them in a convenient way for a bonfire.

"Cleon, skin those while I light a fire. That way we can cook them right away." She instructed, not sparing him a glance. She focused on cutting the branches that were too long.

"Nyt, where are the sleeping bags?" Maia asked the Prince, walking to a spot near Raz.

Tylen immediately set them down where she stood. There were only three of them. Since one of them had to stay up and keep watch, they didn't think about buying another. At this realization, he shifted his head towards the Pirate Queen.

She had changed her eyes back to their normal state. She smiled at his concern, "Don't worry. I can take care of myself."

Deelah seized the opportunity. Her bones cracked and her skin broke apart. Her nails grew sharper, curving up to the tip. The space between her fingers disappeared as they fattened up. Her canine teeth grew longer. The feline eyes were back but bigger than before. Her clothes had been exchanged for snowy white fur with ebony black stripes.

A large white tiger had taken her place.