alice
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Post by alice on Jun 23, 2017 17:45:58 GMT -5
The only thing he really noticed in that moment as he stirred into consciousness, was that his whole body ached. In the seconds that followed, he remembered the past events in flashes. The storm. The call out for danger. The sudden jarring motion as the ship hit rocks. The taste of salt water as he fell into the sea. The enclosing womb like darkness and the need to breathe. And then nothing after that.
Tusan blinked salt water and sand out of his eyes as he came to. Lifting his head with a groan, one side plastered with damp sand from where he lay, the ermine took stock of where he was.
He was on a beach. Alive. As he rolled onto his back, he squinted against the harsh sun and then slowly, he rose as he sat up. His cotton shirt was plastered to his back and his arms, see through from the water. He still had his legs, his finely tailored pants still held up by his leather belt. He breathed a sigh of relief to see his rapier was still at his left side.
He let out a dismayed sigh as he saw the wreckage of his ship in the shallows offshore and, strewn about, the smashed crates and presumably deceased remains of his crew.
"Just dandy." he muttered.
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markab
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Post by markab on Jun 23, 2017 19:02:02 GMT -5
As much as he was sick of seeing the water still, after the long boat ride to Mossflower, Keta visited the seaside fairly frequently. Usually the visits were completely fruitless, too; just a big expanse of sky and sand and sea and maybe a Long Patrol hare or two wandering down the beach, not something he'd ever tried to tangle with after the first fight had pretty much sated his curiosity on hares.
Today, though, luck had been with him, because when he scaled the tallest dune he could find and stood there with a fine layer of sand coating his entire body after he'd stumbled and fallen more than twice half the coastline he could see was splintered wood and the dead, rolled up far onto the beach by tongues of salt water. He could stand it for such pickings, for now. It had genuinely been a completely dull day up to this point, after all.
There were a few more dunes to cross until he got to the edge of the beach proper and then he bounded down on all fours, skidding to a stop as soon as the sparse dune grass had vanished into sand so he could survey the scene. If there was anything alive down there it didn't seem keen to show itself; just the distant screams of seagulls that he'd never found particularly threatening and the roar of water. If anything stirred, it was likely just the currents. Surely someone would have been dragging bodies to shore, if there was yet a beast alive to do so.
The wood had washed far up onto the shore, whipped up, perhaps, by the morning's storm and wind. It had long since moved out by now, left clear blue sky and scudding clouds, and Keta picked his way around the wreckage without an ounce of caution, not noticing any of the splinters driving into his fingers and feet as he pushed bits of board away, saw the wet-sand edge of the coastline and felt the salt, with nothing to block it, start crusting onto his fur.
He didn't quite know what the ship had been bringing, besides beasts; perhaps some sort of invasion force that would bash itself to pieces on Redwall or Salamandastron. But there were broken crates scattered liberally about like it'd been transporting some sort of goods, not that he could see any of the contents just yet. He could, however, see a body in front of him; something like a weasel lying curled up a few paw-lengths from the edge of the water.
He hummed cheerfully, took the few steps to the figure and sat down beside it, crossing his legs in the rain-damp sand. It wasn't wearing anything of particular note, simple clothes; if it had owned a weapon at one point the water had clearly pulled it away when the ship had splintered to pieces.
"And what happened to you?" he murmured curiously, rolling the figure over, clawed fingers brushing against the crease of its neck to search for a pulse. There was nothing but dead stillness; it didn't look injured. More like it had drowned, presumably in the same way as the vast majority of the crew. He sat there for a bit, wondered if he cut its chest open, to the lungs, if he'd find them filled with water. There was nothing stopping him from finding out. He reached for the closest knife, spun it hilt-first into his palm until it caught on a sizable splinter that had worked its way between thumb and forefinger. He squinted at it and pulled it neatly out without a flinch.
"Just dandy." something said.
Keta's head snapped around, ears flicking forwards as he got steadily to his feet and wound his way around the nearest giant chunk of broken wood. As soon as he'd past it it was very clear who'd spoken, possibly the only thing on the beach besides him that was still alive -- an ermine, clad in perhaps the finest clothes he'd seen since he'd left his band, looking very much bewildered and waterlogged and still bearing a sword at its side.
He gave the broken hull a pat and treated the ermine to a faint, toothy smile. "This your first visit to Mossflower?"
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alice
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Post by alice on Jun 23, 2017 21:43:27 GMT -5
Tusan didn't hear the other possibly because his ears were waterlogged, or because he just wasn't that aware as he may have thought previously. Now, having been stranded in the middle of a beach in the middle of somewhere, the former crossed his mind briefly.
Regardless, he jumped a little at the new voice, not having expected it - although it was more like he sat up quickly and his long spine stiffened, which only caused him pain. He would have winced, but he didn't want to show it, so the corner of his eye twitched as he fixed his gaze on the very large weasel-looking beast who had found him.
He wasn't sure what to make of the other. He had never seen such a creature as this one. He greatly resembled an overgrown stoat, although his fur was much darker.
After Tusan sized him up, squinting a little cautiously in his direction, he brushed a paw over his face, wiping as much sand caked into his fur as possible. "Yes, actually. This was not my intended destination." he said, with a tone of bitterness and a refined accent. "As you can well see." he added as an after thought.
Tusan decided enough lazing around was enough. Especially with the arrival of this unknown beast, he needed to get up and take stock of his full situation. He would need to collect the dead and salvage what he could. The ermine pulled himself up to his footpaws, slowly due to the aching pain and also because he was trying to hide it. If you showed weakness, normally other beasts took advantage of that. He knew he would have anyways.
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markab
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Post by markab on Jun 23, 2017 22:52:48 GMT -5
The ermine, apparently startled to hear his voice, stiffened the moment he started speaking and, for several seconds, didn't respond, instead squinting at Keta as though trying to puzzle out just what it was he was seeing. Presumably he was just surprised to see someone alive, with the impressive wreck of his ship spiraling out behind him; the dead were visible even here, broken bodies dotted in a wide swath both ways down the coast like the splintered bones of the ship had bled its crew long before it met the shore.
He'd watched the lightning from the woods, of course; it was hard to sleep with all the noise and patchy light. But it was hard to get a good view of something behind a canopy of trees; it must have been an impressive sight out on the open ocean to not even need a cliffside's help.
They stared each other down for a few seconds more, and Keta was almost wondering if he was about to just drop dead himself when he finally spoke.
"Yes, actually. This was not my intended destination. As you can well see."
The accent was bizarre. He must have been from far across the sea to speak like that; Keta's band had accents not so different from every other rat or ferret or stoat he'd run into in Mossflower Woods and he'd never heard anything like it off a woodlander either. Keta cocked an eyebrow as the ermine rose slowly to his feet and steadied himself.
Even at his full height, now standing and dripping water everywhere, the ermine was about half his size, and despite the very genuine fact that Keta was nothing less than a scavenger who'd killed more than a few beasts just to pull them apart and see how they worked, an undrowned ermine was something he'd put knives to before.
"It's never intended, but more than a few crews have washed up around here," he said instead. "If it's Redwall you were after, this was probably the better outcome."
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alice
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Post by alice on Jun 23, 2017 23:21:24 GMT -5
Tusan flexed his paws, making sure they were all still in working order before he half-walked, half-stumbled his way over to a broken open crate. He checked the contents only to find it already empty, the cargo likely spilled out into the sea before it came to rest here up on the beach.
The ermine sighed and looked back at the other in confusion. "Redwall? What is Redwall? We were headed to the Northern coasts." he responded, beady eyes glancing at the other as he tried to comprehend his words.
"What do you mean, 'a better outcome'? I've always understood Mossflower to be a rather... simple country with backwards folk. Not worth my time- although there are others in my country who try to put together endeavors. However, unsuccessful." he remarked, heading off to another crate, leaning his head inside to check.
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markab
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Post by markab on Jun 23, 2017 23:47:17 GMT -5
Keta didn't bother to move as the ermine stumbled forward, watching him make his awkward way to a broken crate. The way he moved made Keta suspect that, indeed, he'd done something to himself -- or had something done to him trying to swim to shore. Just a little off, like his sparring partners used to have when Keta sent them off with bruises or cuts torn into their legs, trying not to jostle the wounds further from whatever discomfort it was that he'd caused.
"Redwall? What is Redwall? We were headed to the Northern coasts."
Oh. He canted his head, but he supposed he shouldn't have been surprised; his band hadn't been interested, and he hadn't heard hide nor hair about it until months after he'd disembarked. But he'd gotten enough secondhand, though running into it could have been a surprise. It had been for him, and curious as he was he hadn't been particularly keen to stick around. Even he could recognize when he was outmatched.
Watching the ermine rustle around in the nearest crate, abandoning his attempt once it was clear that there was nothing there but splintered wood, it made a bit more sense. Even if he'd never seen an ermine try to...trade? Sell? Instead of just demanding whatever it was they wanted.
"Big building. It's in the middle of the woods. All woodlanders. Not sure what anyone wants with it."
"What do you mean, 'a better outcome'? I've always understood Mossflower to be a rather... simple country with backwards folk. Not worth my time- although there are others in my country who try to put together endeavors. However, unsuccessful."
Keta shrugged, gesturing pointedly at the mess the ship had left in its wake even though the ermine was by all appearances too absorbed in another crate to pay attention. "It looks like you're going to be here for a while. You'll hear the stories. Hordes falling to pieces at its gates. But a wreck can just be a simple accident. The sea isn't a warlord's fault. Being driven off by a horde of woodlanders waving pots and pans is."
But all the crates -- he was a little curious now. Edging forward perhaps a bit closer than would be considered polite, he peered down at the box the ermine's head had half-disappeared into. "What are you trying to do? Walk it all the way to the Northern coasts yourself?"
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alice
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Post by alice on Jun 24, 2017 10:50:01 GMT -5
Tusan pulled his head out of the crate, the look on his face suggesting he had found nothing of importance. He glanced up at the other, noting that he was following him, but was making no foul plays. Simply conversation.
"Ah, the abbey. I do recall it's name now. There are rumors about it, even in the far South. I took to be just that: rumors. After all, what proper hoarde is scared of a few mice, hm?" he jested, giving the other a toothy smile. In his naivity, Tusan had no real clue what being a warlord really took. His family had given up that life for trade when they settled in the land they had invaded, and had not looked back since then. In his blood was a warlord, but it had been diluted (or refined depending on your outlook) into a politician.
"No, I plan to take stock of my inventory, if there is anything left of it, and sell it to yonder abbey, if they have any need of it." The ermine stopped while he talked to check on the body of a rat. Greensward employed rats mainly as bodyguards or extra hands. Things that were easily disposable because they came in plenty, although a few had found themselves a niche as merchants. Tusan personally found them to be dull-witted and fakely charismatic, like they tried but something was always off-putting about it.
He knelt down in the sand, searching through the other's posessions, which were not a lot, coming up with a lockpick. He frowned and offered it to the other. "Care for a pick? It is not useful to me." he asked, turning back to the rat whether or not the other decided to take it.
His face was impassive. If he had someone to impress, he would have feinted a sympathetic glance, but somehow he figured the other wasn't the emotional type so there was no point in pretending he cared. "Then I will make my way back south." he concluded, standing slowly back up, hiding a grimace on his face.
He turned to look back at the other. "Excuse me if I did not introduce myself earlier. Tusan Skarborough of Greensward." he said, proffering a paw to shake.
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markab
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Post by markab on Jun 24, 2017 11:45:19 GMT -5
The ermine came up from the crate with nothing to show and glanced up at Keta, now towering over his shoulder. Keta peered around him into the box which was, indeed, empty. Not that he'd have been interested to find anything of value there.
"Ah, the abbey. I do recall it's name now. There are rumors about it, even in the far South. I took to be just that: rumors. After all, what proper hoarde is scared of a few mice, hm?"
Keta returned his toothy smile with one of his own. "That's the spirit that gets you killed," he said cheerfully, patting the blade at his hip with his still-bleeding hand. "Not scared until it's looking you in the face, right? Not as admirable when you're dead. But I get it, sure, think you can win until you're missing too many limbs to swing back."
The ermine was already back on his feet, and Keta followed, winding around the wood-strewn sand to the body of a rat higher up on the sand. He knelt down to examine it; Keta looked over the corpse but otherwise didn't bother. Wondered if it had just drowned, or if it had gotten too cold to keep fighting the water and let it in instead. His fingers itched. He'd scavenged shipwrecks before, naturally, but usually they were older; couldn't get much out of a decomposing body being picked clean by bird and wind and wave.
He had yet to find a reliable method of figuring out whether it caused 'pain'. It killed, but anything could do that. He'd heard it said that if you got too cold you'd just sleep and never wake up, which sounded innocuous in comparison to the way beasts screamed when they got cut with the edge of a blade. He'd inhaled water before and it had been a little uncomfortable while he coughed it back out, but that was hardly a comparison.
He blinked out of his thoughts to see a thin piece of wood with a metal hook at the tip offered up to him.
"Care for a pick? It is not useful to me."
"Pick?" He took it, and squinted at it. He'd never really seen anything of its like before, but it had promise as a tool, for the finer details; daggers and knives never got quite thin enough. "Hm."
He ran the pad of a finger against the point of the tip, and tucked it to his belt to join his array of blades, still a little distracted, as the ermine straightened up and offered a paw.
"Excuse me if I did not introduce myself earlier. Tusan Skarborough of Greensward."
Keta stared at it for a few moments. Not an alien behavior, just. Strange. He'd probably left it a bit too long, but held out his bloody paw to shake. "Keta." Then, by all appearances apropos of nothing, "You almost drowned. Is that...painful?"
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alice
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Post by alice on Jun 24, 2017 22:27:08 GMT -5
Tusan gave him a look that said he wasn't sure what to make of the others comments. After a moment of silence, still grinning, he just waved him off with one paw. "But come now. Serious. A group of mice best seasoned hoards? I mean... that's just a fairy tale. In Greensward, mice are best left to jobs like infirmary healers and seamstresses. Tame, domestic chores." he said back, taking one look at the other's bloodied paw and gracefully retracting his own before they even shook, subtly rejecting the other's paw by talking over his action by sounding more jovial.
He was taken aback by the seemingly random question. He squinted at the other beast, trying to decide whether or not the other was truly mad, but he recovered quickly. "Well I wouldn't know. I blacked out for most of it. But from what I do remember, the drowning part was rather more like being forced to hold your breath until you can't any longer. There is a burning in your lungs that is not quite like burning in fire. It's more extremely discomforting than anything." he tried to explain, pausing before adding, "Why do you ask?"
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markab
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Post by markab on Jun 24, 2017 22:50:19 GMT -5
The look the ermine gave Keta told him at once nothing he said was being taken seriously.
"But come now. Serious. A group of mice best seasoned hoards? I mean... that's just a fairy tale. In Greensward, mice are best left to jobs like infirmary healers and seamstresses. Tame, domestic chores."
Keta actually laughed at that one. Hadn't even meant to, either. "In Mossflower you won't find an ermine wearing anything as fancy as that." He looked...Tusan...pointedly up and down, taking in the extravagant and unnecessary silk clothes. "Don't think I've ever seen an ermine doing anything but playing footsoldier to someone stronger." Curious. "What are you supposed to be?"
"Well I wouldn't know. I blacked out for most of it. But from what I do remember, the drowning part was rather more like being forced to hold your breath until you can't any longer. There is a burning in your lungs that is not quite like burning in fire. It's more extremely discomforting than anything. Why do you ask?"
Keta squinted, peered down at the hand the ermine had abruptly refused to shake, and found it to be well on its way to being coated with a thin layer of blood. Another, smaller splinter than the one that had initially distracted him was slid up deep into the middle of one finger, and he picked at it idly with his claws. "It's hard to find out from a corpse?" Keta said, as though it was obvious. "I can cut them open. Maybe see water in the lungs. Why does water feel like fire?" He eyed the ermine as if he was being purposefully stubborn with his explanations.
Of course, nobody was ever going to be able to explain pain to someone who couldn't feel it. Regardless of how determined he was to understand.
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alice
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Post by alice on Jun 26, 2017 15:34:28 GMT -5
Tusan looked down at his clothes with a slight frown. Although they were slowly drying, they were still wet and clung to his frame with little movement by the weight of the saltwater. He imagined when they did dry, they were going to be slightly stiff and crusty from the salt residue, which left him with a brief feeling of dismay at thought of having to deal with that kind of discomfort.
"I understand you are probably not knowledgeable on the subject, but this is not even silk. This is fine cotton. Like I would be wearing silks on a cargo vessel." he said, spreading his paws down the front of his shirt while he looked. Except to bed, was unsaid. The other didn't need to know and it hardly mattered at the moment. His voice held a tinge of contempt that the other couldn't tell the difference. Although who was he kidding? He knew most vermin wouldn't be able to tell. The other was no different.
He gave the other an arched brow look, although not having actual brows, it was just the fur above his eyes that raised into an expression of mild surprise. Air was expelled from his lungs in a soft huff through his nose and he turned back around to stalk farther down the beach to look for any crates that looked unopened. He would pass any that looked broken, expecting the same empty nothing as the first two he looked into. "I am a merchant of the country of Greensward to the far south. It is at the very tip of the isle. We were on a supply run to the Northern coasts when my boat ran afoul of the rocks during that storm." he replied, almost tripping over a shell stuck in the sand that caused him to cut off his words. Otherwise, he told his story with genuine conviction. He was not about to tell some strange vermin character that he was a prince. It would be better to play down his importance. He had heard vermin in this part of the isle were fairly... stereotypical.
"Why don't you go into the waves over there and stick your head in and find out." he asked with a little bit of impatience at the other's insistent questions, waving his paw in the direction of the water.
He finally did find a seemingly intact crate. He jammed his rapier into the crack under the lid of the crate and applied as much pressure as he dared to try and loosen the nails holding it together. "Come on." he growled, jiggling the blade with frustration, but he didn't want to break his only weapon.
"Tell you what. I'll tell you what you want to know if you get this crate open." Tusan offered, stopping his effort to appraise the other, larger vermin.
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markab
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Post by markab on Jun 26, 2017 16:39:11 GMT -5
((keta didn't say it was silk just thought it so i'm going to ignore that bit xD))
"I am a merchant of the country of Greensward to the far south. It is at the very tip of the isle. We were on a supply run to the Northern coasts when my boat ran afoul of the rocks during that storm."
He hadn't really asked from where, but Keta nodded anyways. Not that he knew what isle Tusan was talking about. Just kept walking; it was easy enough to keep pace with the ermine when he had a far longer stride, being so much bigger. "Merchant, huh?" He huffed. "Seems more woodlander than vermin."
"Why don't you go into the waves over there and stick your head in and find out."
Keta snorted, a little irritably. "It won't make me hurt," he said, as though it was obvious. "If it did I wouldn't need to ask."
The sable slowed as the ermine continued his march down the beach. Clearly he wasn't particularly interested in helping and Keta was losing interest in him fast. There were easier beasts to find information from and maybe some other shipwreck victim would turn up sometime. Or he could just drown someone himself.
Tusan just kept moving, stopped to try and wrench a crate open with the flat of his blade and, when nothing actually happened, twisted back to look at Keta.
"Tell you what. I'll tell you what you want to know if you get this crate open."
Keta considered him for a moment. Figured even if he was lying at least he'd get to see what was so important to transport. "Deal," he said, and slung the shovel he carried from its place on his back. It was easy to shove the spade between the lid and body of the crate and push like he was trying to dig a spadeful of earth so that, within a minute or two, the nails gave way and the lid popped off.
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Post by dancingmad36 on Aug 20, 2017 8:39:39 GMT -5
The scent of fresh rot filled Franz's nostrils making him squeal with delight. "We'll be praying the Captain with more than just the usual cargo today, me thinks!" Turning to the landing party, he grinned. "Mister Longfeather!"
"Commander?" The bird replied.
"Take everyone to town and bring the Captain as many guests as you can find. The three of you," he gestured to a vole, a newt, and a rat, "will investigate this tasty tasty smell with me!"
"Understood, Commander!" They all responded. As the raiding party went towards the village, the four remained heading south along the shore, the crew beasts in the lead, with Franz squirming not far behind.
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markab
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Post by markab on Sept 11, 2017 18:37:39 GMT -5
Finally, just about giving up on getting anything interesting out of the encounter, Keta left the ermine to his scattered boxes. No use talking to someone if they weren't going to provide him entertainment, not even a good fight. The quality of vermin in Mossflower was decreasing, it seemed.
Humming tunelessly, he wandered his way back up the shore. The slick wetness of blood on his paw grew until he could feel lukewarm liquid running down the curve of his fingers, and he paused mid-step to peer at it with a critical eye. One particularly large splinter had gone deep into the pad, a few others flecked around; he hadn't bothered earlier but now -- ugh. He plucked the larger one out with a quick tug, no pain to make him hesitate, and wiggled a roll of cloth from his pack. Blood soaked into the edges as he wrapped it around the wound, and after a moments' deliberation held it together with one of the lockpick pins the ermine had offered. Well. Good for something at least. As though he needed something that wasn't a shovel to open a lock -- ridiculous. Must be a trader thing.
Boards and debris still lay scattered along the coast. He was tracking blood, too, but there was no point in fixing that until he was sure he wasn't going to give himself a new injury. Corpses and a handful more boxes washed up on shore, most of them already swarming with midday insects, now, and Keta didn't find getting up close and personal with those to be particularly interesting. There would be others drowned -- perhaps, if he got bored enough, even drownings done himself.
And, then, looking up, something else; a handful of figures little more than silhouettes from that far away. No ears to mark them as hares, and woodlanders rarely came this close to the water. They knew what hunted on it, and across its shores.
Keta wrinkled his nose. How many beasts could possibly come from the sea?
But he swung his cutlass around, resting sharp-edged on his shoulder, and started forwards. Started humming again, barely audible over the roar of the still-angry waves. Maybe these would prove to be more interesting than Tusan and his merchant vessel.
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Post by dancingmad36 on Sept 16, 2017 9:20:10 GMT -5
The trek along the shore was more difficult than the three initially thought it would be. Having been out to sea for so long, their footing was already on par with the first mates's, and on the sand, it was even more trying. Still they carried on, not showing a hint of struggle lest Fraz see it as weakness. They were the newest additions to the landing party team; Vicks the vole, Wedge the newt, and Sven the rat. For their first time, each of them expected an easy landfall and were hopeful that with the increasing amounts of wreckage floating on the water that they would still get a chance to do more than salvage goods.
After some time, Sven's ears perked up. "We're close! I can hear voices!" The to begins to pick up their pace, growing the gap between them and Franz, eager to impress him. In no time a silloette on the horizon begins to show more detail.
"What is it?" Vicks wondered out loud. "Looks like the commander's cousin," Sven replied. "Does it look as friendly?" Wedge asked, wandering into the water. "Yes, and with the same weapon" "This could be fun," "Or tragic" "That's not an option" "We must at least try" "The commander will support us"
"Let's make a friend!" They said in unison before starting towards Keta.
When they got closer, Vicks spoke up. "Good day to, sir. Are you alright?"
"You're injured? Were you part of this wreck?" Sven asked.
"Are there others with you?" Wedge chimed in.
Meanwhile, Franz grinned as he watched his beasts dart ahead. "That's right little ones. Bring me the gifts the great Kefka has brought us. The captain will surely be pleased!" He cackled as he danced serpentinely through the sands after them.
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