19 Chapter 18 - Alora

Archer peered over the railing of the ship, stupidly smiling as the melody surrounded it. The song had an appeal to it, a feeling of longing that seemed to drive his heart towards whatever was expressing such an entrancing hymn. It befuddled Archers mind and made him want to embrace the source and relieve the sadness that may be at the source of the music.

The couple more splashes sounded over the railing behind the prince on the other side of the boat. Turning towards the source of the noise, the prince staggered to where those splashes now were. "Why does she take everyone except for me?"

As though the cold water made the men come to their senses, their cries could be heard from the water. No one paid heed to their words however and the last noises that they released was gurgling and gagging as they choked on water. Even this was faint compared to the music the resonated through the pores of every man on the ship. Staring off of the starboard side of the ship now, Archer could catch the glimpse of water rippling, a finned tail breaking the water surface tension in the process.

Reaching over the railing, Archer's foot slipping out from under him and he fell over. Never allowing his eyes to leave the water's surface, the brief moment before his face connected with the surface the prince could see his reflection contort and change into a blue face with bright yellow eyes, their centers of them narrowed at him, looking like that of a predator. Archer felt a cold embrace as he came to his senses briefly, unsure as to if it was the water or hands, he soon blacked out before he could figure it out.

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A heavy thud shuddered the ground as his eyes opened. The lacerations on his back were now scars from when he had tried to make his escape a couple weeks ago. Looking up from his makeshift bed of grass, the two wolves in charge of watching him had also been sleeping. They were also jolted awake, surprised by the feel of the earth rattling beneath their feet. Their encampment wasn't big, it was large enough to house a small party, but no more. There were only a handful of wolves, a couple of centaurs and a water nymph. The nymph usually lingering near the water that was flowing several yards from the camp and the wolves were always either fighting or sleeping. Occasionally one would saunter to their prisoner and commence to torturing him, the same way it has been for the last 800 years.

Looking at the source of the impact, the setting sun glinting off the scales of the mighty red dragon caused Archer to shield his eyes. The wolves that had been sleeping immediately sat up, alert.

"Bring him to me." The voice boomed through camp and a wolf grabbed the chain that was around Archers and half dragged him to the winged beast. Being thrown at the feet of the monster, Archer stared at it. In his mind, all he could express was awe, but physically his body did not follow suit. He stood up, puffing his chest out and staring at the beast.

"Do you enjoy it "king"?" The dragon sneered, leaning a golden eye down close to him.

Archer could tell that he wasn't in control of his body for some reason and decided to see how this played out. He began to notice the similarities between this beast and the one he saw before his tower was blown up in Draconvale.

Ignoring the dragons comment just now, Archer said, "What will you have of me? Obviously you wouldn't have me here without reason."

"I have no need of you Thuvren, except to gloat. The 800 years I've spent cooped with you have been far too long. You don't seem to know what death means and now that we are here, you get to watch firsthand as I reclaim what you and your "friends" died to save." The dragon squatted down, eyeing the nymph that had begun to make its way into the shimmering water. The centaurs had positioned themselves on either side of the dragon, staring into nothing with the same level of discipline that their race always showed.

"My offer to you still stands.." The dragon said to Archer. Curiosity shot through Archer as these words hit his ears. "Offer?" he kept thinking to himself.

"I have thought hard about it and I gotta say I'm not a fan of remaining yours or your hellspawns plaything."

"What is there to think about? Do you need a reminder of what you can expect for my eternity?" The dragon growled deep within his throat, his eyes narrowing towards Archer.

"No.. nononono.. please no."

The dragon picked his clawed hand up and grabbed him around his torso, bring him to eye level. Pressure began to contort Archer insides as he began to cry out in pain. There was crunching and snapping as a chuckle emanated through Archers skull and every went hazy.

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Archer took a breath, or he thought it was a breath. Recalling his last memory, he opened his eyes. There was wood underneath his head. Confused, he sat up and looked around to notice he was in the crews quarters. Grabbing the side of his head he noticed he had wads of cloth shoved inside his ears. He stood up and wobbled across the room when a hand stopped him, lifting his hands up with a surge of adrenaline that coursed through him, he turned to face the person.

"HAVEN?!" His mouth dropped open and he felt a ball of angry well up from within his stomach. She was leaning over, heaving hard as though she had exerted herself extensively. She almost fell over as the ship his a wave, causing it to lurch a bit. She had a cloak on that appeared to be matted with blood. Her hair was dripping wet as though she had just jumped into the ocean.

Almost as though she was yelling at him, "WE DON'T HAVE TIME TO DO THIS NOW!"

She pointed up the steps that led to the deck where Archer was heading in the first place. Grimacing at the sight of her again, he walked up to the deck, not wanting to let her out of his sight again. She followed closely behind, slowly. Once they reached the top of the steps, Archer saw the men of the crew lined along the railing of the ship, gawking at the water below. Looking over at Haven, she pointed to the cloth in his ears. Remembering the song that played through his head before he blacked out, he realized what she meant.

Archer motioned for Haven to hand him her cloak and she obliged. After snagging a dagger from the holster of the nearest crew member, she striped the cloak into small bits of cloth. Giving the thief half of the wad, they went about their separate ways along each side of the ship. The first man Archer ran up to turned and swung blindly at the person trying to interrupt his stupor. Archer ducked under the blow and connected his fist with the mans gut, knocking the wind out of him and making him double over. Since he finally couldn't fight back, Archer stuffed the cloth in his ears and after a moment the guy seemed to regain his senses.

The task continued for several minutes, and despite a couple more members jumping overboard to join their "beloved," most of the crew was still alive and well. They seemed to regain their composure shortly after the song was interrupted and blocked. Master Shuien had proved difficult to overpower, but Archer thanked the gods for Shuiens lack of judgment that allowed him to restrain the man as he stuffed his ears. The captain even pulled a miniature cannon from his holster and pointed it at Archer as he tried to grab him. Luckily, whatever shot out of the end of the barrel missed when it was fired and Archer subdued him as well.

With everyone recovering on the deck, Archer caught Havens eye and motioned for her to come downstairs. She went first, and Archer noticed splotches of blood spread throughout various parts of her blue dress- A lash across her lower back, a spot on her face, even what looked like claw marks where it appeared a monster had grabbed her before in the back of her shoulders. Once they hit level ground, Archer dashed quickly around her and grabbed her by the arms, slamming her against the wall of the ship.

She grabbed his wrists, trying to pry them off. But his fist didnt budge. She sighed and slumped down slightly, she motioned for him to let her go after a moment and Archer reluctantly obliged. He stared at her with a fire in his chest that he had never experienced before. The prince had never thought he would be happy to throw somebody overboard to swim with the beasts outside, but he was seriously contemplating the idea. As she walked over to her corner of the cabin quarters, she reached under the back of the bench that she had been seated on earlier and pulled out a familiar looking crimson blade.

"SPADA!" Archer thought, dashing forward. He snatched the blade from her hand and shoved her aside somewhat roughly, causing her to have to catch herself on the side of the nearby bed or risk falling over. Archer didn't care, for all he knew, she was flaunting what she had stole before.

He looked to her and she made brief eye contact with him before breaking it and looking away, a sad look started to creep up her face. She sat on the bed and the pair of them sat in silence for what seemed like forever. After what seemed like a lifetime, she waved her hand at Archer to grab his attention. Archer looked at her and noticed she was motioning for him to remove the cloth from his ears. Doing so, the sound hitting his eardrums seemed much louder than he ever remembered them being. With his hearing intact, he stared at Haven again, furiously.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Archer asked. Despite being angry, his words came out somewhat calm but firm.

"Thats a hell of a way to thank someone for saving you life." She retorted back to him, a hard lash in her tone.

"You? Save me? What reason would you have to save me? You got what you wanted from me."

"I'm sorry about your sword. I really am. I didn't realize who you were when we met and I like to have things that interest me. Your sword at the time looked like it was nicely made. After I left, I noticed the engraving in the fuller of the sword and noticed you were part of the Morvlinsk household."

"So you keep up with politics or whatever?" Archer asked, confused on how she would be able to tell that much just based on a sword. "And how did you save my life?"

"I was sitting down here when I heard the music upstairs. When I got up to look, i noticed the effect it was having on the lot of you, so I decided to stay put to avoid possible being affected. Eventually I noticed men coming from the gun deck to climb up top for the melody and I figured that it was possibly because I was a woman. There were a couple of others down here with me that it didnt seem to affect. We began hearing splashes in the water and when I walked to the porthole over there.." she pointed the the view outside, "I saw you hit the water. I jumped out after you and pulled you to the ropes at the side of the boat and hauled you back up."

Feeling somewhat bad for the aggression he had shown her, Archer spoke up after a moment, "For that, I thank you Haven."

"My name is not Haven, your highness." She paused, seeming reluctant to speak anymore. "My name is Alora Shermast. I'm a princess of Puraloke."