((A/N: Yes, I did skip two days in the post title. Took me two days to write this one, and one of the others. Back on track now, though. XD))
The ferry ride seemed to take forever. After just missing the ninjas as the rowed away, they had no choice but the sit and wait for two hours until the ferry was ready to leave on its first trip of the morning. Although the ferry wasn’t extremely crowded, they were still forced to find places to sit on the bare wood of the deck - all the benches and other varied seating places were occupied. Tomlyn pulled out a book and began to read. Renee curled up and took a nap. And Kiri… Kiri cleaned her guns. Which was what she did when she was bored and had nothing else to do. Starting with her pistols, then moving to her shotgun, she pulled each gun out of its holster and laid it in her lap. First she buffed the outside with a rag, cleaning away fingerprints and dust and grime from the road. Then she proceeded to take it apart, laying each piece gently on the deck. They each received a thorough wipe down as well, then she rubbed them down with the special oil she carried in a small bottle in her pack. She checked her bullets and cartridges as well, making sure they were organized and neat in their box, each separated into its designated compartment.
Unfortunately, that only took her about an hour, since it was something she was good at - having had extensive practice. That left her another hour and a half with nothing to do but stare out at the water, or at the other passengers. Kiri did not cope well with boredom, so she began digging through her pack. Towards the bottom she found a pad of paper and a set of pencils that she’d picked up somewhere, she forgot exactly where. Not that it mattered, they’d serve her purpose. Flipping to a clean sheet of paper, she began to sketch. While she had no particular talent in drawing, it occupied her mind well enough trying to sketch various items and people around her. The one thing she was really good at drawing was - of course - guns, which she drew several of.
Finally, just when she was running out of things to sketch, the ferry rocked slightly as it was tugged up against the dock by its ropes. Kiri quickly packed away her sketchbook and stood. Renee was - fortunately - awake, and standing with Tomlyn waiting for her. Together they disembarked and made for the beach.
“Alright, the trail is probably still warm, we can’t be too far behind. The ferry moved faster than any rowboat could. See if you can pick up anything!” Kiri said to Tomlyn. He seemed skeptical, but went to it with a will, walking up and down the beach on both sides of the docks. Surprisingly enough, within the first ten minutes he found the rowboat, tucked into a small cove just out of sight of the docks. From there it was a simple matter of following the footsteps and drag marks in the sand, then the trail of sand left in the street after that. It was a small blessing that they’d apparently stayed to the side streets, as it meant there had been relatively little other traffic to disrupt the signs of the ninja’s passage that Tomlyn was following.
“The ninjas don’t leave much of a trail, but there is someone else… They were being followed.” Tomlyn stopped and held up a feather - tinted an unmistakable shade of brown.
“Kida…” Kiri muttered. She might have known those two wouldn’t be far. And she hated being behind them. “Well, keep going!” she snapped at Tomlyn.
The trail was easier to follow now that they knew to look for signs of Kida and Destiny’s passage as well. They wound through the back alleys of Lumo Bay until they came to a large building with one thick wooden door in the front. It looked like some sort of warehouse. Deciding to go for the frontal approach first, Kiri tried the front door. Amazingly enough, it swung open easily, revealing the dark, dusty, and depressingly empty space behind. Slowly, the three entered, their footsteps making muffled thumps on the dirt floor that echoed off the building’s metal-sided walls. There were very fresh footprints leading away from the door into one corner, where there was a single solitary stack of boxes, then back. A short ways in, though, there was a patch of ground with a scuffle of footprints that even Tomlyn could make little sense of. The only thing really clear were the two pairs leading out from one wall and then back.
Kiri followed them to the place in the wall where they stopped, kneeling down and inspecting it carefully. She noted with some apprehension that the dirt in that area seemed recently disturbed. There was no way they could have dug a hole big enough to fit under in the few hours lead they had. That meant magic must have been involved, and Kiri didn’t have any defense against magic like this. It’s not that it required a strong spell, just a creative and deft mind in using it. With a quick, decisive movement she stood and turned to the others. “They’re likely long gone by now. I say we split up, fan out across the city and gather what information we can. We’ll set up a rendezvous point and meet back there in a few hours.”
“Sounds good to me. Where should we meet?” Tomlyn asked.
In lieu of an answer, Kiri simply walked out of the building and looked around. There were quite a ways from the dock, more than halfway through, but east of the city proper. They needed a place a bit further west and closer to the south edge of town, so she started heading that direction at a jog, glancing behind her to make sure the other two were following - which they were. Despite the lack of clues at the warehouse, Kiri refused to let herself be disheartened. She had Derek to save, and a job to complete, after all. Nothing would get in her way.
After about half an hour of walking through the warehouse and residential districts of Lumo Bay, they finally came to what, by Kiri’s calculations, should be almost directly south of the downtown area. Sure enough, they soon came upon a large road that had to be the main thoroughfare out of town. Lining the street were a few rest stops with hitching posts for horses, one lone gas station almost out of sight down the road, a few stores, and - wonder of wonders - an inn. After all, where there were people and travellers, there were inns, it was a fact of life. An extremely useful one for adventurers like herself.
She pointed at the inn with a smile. “That’s the place. Meet there for supper tonight, say, six o’clock? That gives us a good five hours of hunting to do. Tomlyn, you go west, Renee, you take east, and I’ll head north.” Kiri knew she’d given herself both the most interesting and likely most challenging area, but she didn’t mind. She loved a challenge. As the other two set off, she watched them go. Renee probably wouldn’t find anything. In fact, she’d probably get distracted by something shiny and might not even make it back in time. That would probably be for the best, the girl wasn’t cut out for combat of the sort they were bound to run into sooner or later. Now Tomlyn on the other hand, he might have a bit more luck. But it was downtown that she had the most hope of finding clues as to the ninjas, or Midas, or Kida and Destiny. She managed to hitch a ride on the back of a wagon headed that direction, and after a quick, bouncy ten minutes she hopped off in the middle of the shopping district.
All around her were shops of every variety, along with streeth booths and peddlers pushing their carts, hawkers on all sides calling out their wares. Apparently it was market day, as there were even gypsies and other crafstpeople displaying their work on blankets spread on the ground. And there were people everywhere. Both shoppers and sellers, the streets were simply packed. It was intimidating, especially to someone trying to find one of three specific people. Even so, she set off with a will. She spotted a couple standing to one side of the road, in a niche between two booths, leaning over what appeared to be a map and talking. Kiri made a beeline for them, shoving her way through the crowd, ignoring the shouts and curses directed her way.
“‘Scuse me, ma’am, sir, wonder if y’might be able t’help me?” she said, putting on her best charming smile and persona. She could pull it off fairly well when she tried, although it left a bad taste in her mouth to be so… cheerful. “I’m lookin’ for a few friends a’mine.” They actually looked up and listened to her, which told her she was doing the right things.
“Well sure, my dear. What do they look like?” the man asked in a condescending voice that made Kiri grit her teeth, but she continued to smile.
“Ah, well, one of ‘em is tall, dark red hair, angel - brown wings, carries a big sword… coupl’a swords, actually. Then there’s Destiny, she’s a cat, ninja, dressed in black, black hair, fur, tail, all that. Last one’s a wizard, looks human, wears a black cloak and carries a really wicked staff - got a dragon’s head on it.”
As she talked, she could see the vague, glassy look appear in their eyes. It was clear before they ever spoke that they hadn’t seen any of the three. When they did answer, it only confirmed what she already knew.
“Sorry, dear. We haven’t seen any of them. Have you tried the police?”
Kiri could only roll her eyes and leave. She spotted another loner, this time an older woman, and approached her next. After feeding her the same story and description, she was left - again - emptyhanded. Well, she had known it wouldn’t be easy. So she moved on to the next person. Then the next. And the next. With no more luck than she had with the first couple. Finally, after two hours of this, she had to take a break. She was exhausted, overheated, and parched with thirst. The day was warmer than she would have expected so late in the year, and the air was heavy with humidity from the nearby ocean. A quick glance around revealed a general store with its door standing open, the inside appearing relatively empty. It wasn’t too surprising - with all the prolifera of other interesting places to visit on market day, the general store was not going to draw much of a crowd. That was a blessing for Kiri, who immediately took the opportunity to slip into the spacious - and empty! - interior. The shopkeeper was a small middle-aged man who was hunched over a bag of rice, apparently digging through it to check the quality.
Not wanting to disturb him, Kiri contented herself with scanning the shelves. It was an easy matter to find the drinks, lined up in neat rows in their coolers. Most of them had caffeine or exorbitant amounts of sugar; she passed those over as she was trying to rehydrate, not give herself the ability to do more stupid things with insane amounts of energy. After a moment’s deliberation, she just went with a generously sized bottle of water. As she pulled it off the shelf, something caught her eye. Behind the water, shoved to the very back, was a glass bottle with a neon green liquid inside. What caught her eye was that it was glowing slightly, and had a single large lightning bolt on the label. No words, just the lightning bolt. She stooped awkwardly so she could stretch her arm to the back of the shelf, grab it, and pull it out.
She turned it over in her hands, looking for any information or ingredients. No such luck, just the lightning and the vaguely poisonous green glow. Part of her, probably the rational part, told her to put it back and just take the water. But her curiousity and recklnessness got the best of her, and she carried it over to the counter along with the water bottle. Altogether they were still dirt cheap, so she didn’t feel so bad. She did take a moment to question the shopkeeper about the strange drink, though.
“So… what exactly is this? Some sort’a energy drink?”
He looked the bottle over dutifully, but in the end just shrugged. “Dunno. Must have been ordered by the last guy. I just took over this here store, y’know. Probably isn’t dangerous.”
With that glowing confidence as to the drink’s quality, she left the shop. The green stuff went into her pack, the water she chugged in less than a minute, sighing happily at the cold, refreshing liquid. There really was nothing better than an ice cold bottle of water when you were thirsty. Unless it was an ice cold beer. She took a quick glance at her watch and cursed. She had just over an hour left of searching to do before she needed to head back to the rendezvous point to meet up with the others, and she was already getting worn out, even with the water. Well, there was nothing for it but to keep going, so she set off, following the same pattern as before. Find an isolated person or two, describe Destiny, Kida, and Midas, ask if they’d seen them. Unfortunately, the answers had a pattern all to themselves: they were all “no.” By the time she had to set off back towards the rendezvous inn, she was no further than she’d been when she started. She could only hope the others had found better luck.
This time, she hitched a ride with a merchant. He actually let her hop up on the driver’s bench beside him, since the main body of his wagon was full of goods. What exactly they were Kiri couldn’t tell, because they were covered with a large tarp, but she didn’t really care. They chatted idly, pausing every now and then when he had to flick the reins to keep the horses on the road or shout a command at them. It was a much quicker, more pleasant trip than the ride in to town had been, and she made it to the inn a good half hour before six.
“Thanks for th’ride!” she called to the merchant as she slid to the ground and started inside. He answered with a wave, then with a flick of the reins was off down the road again. Kiri decided this would be an excellent time for a drink, and promptly suited actions to thoughts. So when Tomlyn and Renee finally arrived, it was to find her sitting at the bar just finishing her second glass of beer.
“Ooooh!” Renee promptly said, plopping down on a stool next to her. “Are we drinking?”
“No. I was drinking while waiting for you two. Right now we’re talking. Did either of you find anything?”
Renee shook her head. “Nope. No one knew what I was talking about. I got some funny looks, too…”
“I’m afraid my news isn’t much better,” Tomlyn said. “I asked everyone I could find, but no one has seen anyone who fit the descriptions.”
Kiri heaved a sigh, feeling the beginning of a foul mood start to creep into her mind. She had put together such a wonderful crew! Renee was a bit flaky and happy-go-lucky, but she had spirit, and charisma, both of which could help in certain situations. Derek had been almost as good a shot as herself, and she had liked him as a person too. He’d been quiet, but strong, always there in the background, following her lead. And then there was Tomlyn, who she’d had her doubts about at first, but who had proved himself admirably in the capture of the ninja in the motel, and the subsequent tracking. Why was everything falling apart now?
Renee chose that moment to perk up, elbowing Kiri sharply in the ribs and pointing at something.
“Ow! What was that for?” Kiri snapped, before actually looking where the girl was pointing. She turned just in time to see Kida and Destiny walk past the far window of the inn, heading towards the outskirts of town. The stool almost fell over when she launched herself out of it, grabbing Tomlyn and pulling him with her. “Let’s go! We’ve got to follow them!”
By the time they ducked out of the inn, Kida and Destiny were a ways down the road. As she watched, Kida spread her wings and grabbed Destiny’s arms. They took a running start and then leapt up into the air, climbing slowly but steadily. “Now that’s a good idea…” she murmured, glancing over at Renee. She was an angel, after all, but there was no way she’d be strong enough to carry two people, and Kiri said as much. A strange grin came over Tomlyn’s face. He stepped back and shrugged off the long coat he was wearing, revealing strange, long slits in the back of his shirt. He took a moment to fold his coat and stuff it into his pack, then stood straight and shook his arms and shoulder out. A moment of concentration, and two silver wings burst from his shoulders. Kiri’s eyes shot wide - she’d heard of this sort of thing before, angels who could hide their wings, but had never seen it in practice before. This changed everything!
Her mind moved quickly, and she motioned to the coil of rope on Tomlyn’s belt. “Let me see that,” she ordered. He willingly handed it over, and Kiri quickly unrolled it and began tying deft knots, all the while thanking her experience in Sparta with the pirates for teaching her how to work with rope. It took less than ten minutes for her to turn the coil of rope into a passable hammock. Handing one end of the rope to each angel, she situated herself in the middle and grinned at Tomlyn.
“This ought to make carrying me much easier, and more comfortable. Let’s go! Follow that angel!”
Tomlyn and Renee, who had been watching her work with matching expressions of confusion, both grinned now as they saw her plan. Tomlyn gave a countoff, and they both jumped into the air in perfect sync.
“And one, and two, and jump!”
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