Unsurprisingly, Nolani had no greater insights into the contents of the letter than he did, and could only agree on its strangeness. She hadn’t heard of the Dragon’s Den, and neither had Captain Prior when he returned shortly after. As enticing as the promise of a new adventure was, it didn’t take long before being swept up in the festival preparations pushed the letter out of his mind altogether.
A few hours later, Kalei had stepped out the back to take a break from the kitchen’s heat, leaning onto the edge of the inn’s small well and letting the slightly cooler late-afternoon air refresh him from the time spent working. From this vantage point near the highest level of the town, the inn’s yard provided a beautiful view of the verdant cliffside beyond the town’s eastern edge for him to gaze at. The sun was hanging low in the sky by now, casting the shadows of some of the larger buildings in town onto the treeline, and tinting the light with the beginnings of a sunset orange.
Wait. The beginnings of sunset?
Kalei jerked bolt upright and cursed, darting back inside at a run and almost startling Nolani into dropping one of the pies she was taking out of their oven. “Mother’s ice, Lei, what are you rushing for?” she exclaimed.
“I’m sorry!” Kalei was practically jogging on the spot as he stopped to apologise. “I just remembered I was meeting someone before the festival! And I’m almost late! Sorry, can you bring everything down without my help?”
Nolani let out a sigh that was equal parts fond and exasperated. “Of course we can, don’t worry about that. Go on, go, get ready before you let helping us make you late. Silly boy.”
“Thank you!” He called over his shoulder, already scrambling up the stairs. Back in his room, he shed his by-now well-worn and sweat soaked work clothes and used a swirl of water from his belt to clean himself up as best he could, before pulling on one of his nicer outfits out from the closet. He hadn’t had many occasions to wear the colourful silks since setting out, but a festival was as good as an excuse as any.
Within a few minutes of hasty preparation, he was on his way down the stairs and slipping out the back past Nolani and Captain Prior again. “I’ll see you guys down at the festival, bye! Good luck with everything that’s left to do!”
“Have fun now!” he heard Nolani call after him, the laughter that followed quickly lost to the wind as he set off at a run, vaulting over the back wall and down the slope beyond it without so much as slowing for the sheer terrain. He wore a broad grin as he went, the wind rushing through his hair as he swept through the town’s outskirts, startling the few festival-goers whose paths he crossed, to whom he offered hurried apologies yelled over his shoulder.
Kalei’s dash took him not towards the waterfront, where the festival would just be beginning to stir in preparation for the feast an hour after sundown, but off to where the town’s buildings gave way to mostly-unconquered wooded hillside. He slowed his pace as he moved from the level stone streets to the uneven, angular forest floor, and the canopy closed loosely overhead, but only by just enough to weave through the trees and over the rocky formations without risk of dirtying his clothes.
He didn’t delve deeply into the treeline – his destination wasn’t far beyond the town’s borders, and well before he reached it, the unmarred forest gave way in places to the remnants of an ancient stone road. Now little more than scattered glimpses of half-buried stonework in the hillside, the thicker foliage nonetheless had yet to swallow it entirely, allowing it to continue to mark a path of less resistance through the trees.
The broken road led on to old stone stairs that wound back and forth up a steeper section of hillside, and here - nearing the meeting point - Kalei slowed to a less urgent pace, letting his breathing steady as he made his way up at a jaunt, finally cresting the climb just as the sunset began in earnest on the western horizon.
The ancient steps led up to a plateau of worked stone, long overgrown and riddled with cracks where the plantlife had begun to reclaim it, but far more clear in its purpose than the other scattered half-ruins in the area. It was an old shrine to some forgotten - or at least unrecognisable - deity, the cracked altar and weathered statues laid out as you would expect for a place of worship, the former raised slightly off of the ground on a dais at the ruin’s head. High walls had once closed the shrine in and shielded it from the elements, but they were long-crumbled down to barely more than a skeletal foundation, peppered here and there with dips and arches that were recognisable as once-windows, now simply oddities in the wall’s shaping. The only other feature of note, and the only evidence of regular visitation, was a faded old rug laid out on a mossy patch of stone to one side of the shrine.
Just a few feet beyond the altar, the stone dropped away abruptly, into a sheer drop down the hillside into the canopy below. It jutted out over the forest proudly, and Kalei couldn’t help but think it had earned that pride by merit of having held steady over however many years it had been since its destruction in the fall of the old world, and whatever force had wracked the land then. Now, its deity lost or forgotten, it served little purpose other than to offer a beautiful vantage point from which to look out over Cirdan’s Haven and the waters of Haven Bay.
The townsfolk knew about it, but it was very rare for anyone to visit. Which, combined with its beauty, was why Kalei and his waiting companion had made it their place of choice to find time alone over the past weeks.
Speaking of whom, perched on the remnants of the wall with one leg tucked up under his chin as he took in the view, Elio was halfway silhouetted by the sunset’s glow, the light painting his tousled brown hair with shades of copper and auburn. The loose-fitting white shirt he wore was decorated with twinned lines of colourful floral embroidery down its front, where its neckline parted in a low v. The traditional style was common locally for celebratory occasions, and though Kalei preferred to wear the attire of his own home for such events, he could appreciate its appeal. Particularly given who was wearing it.
“Sorry I’m late!” He called, announcing his presence with an apologietc smile.
Elio turned to face him, his expression lighting up with a warm smile to match. “It’s alright. I haven’t been here long. Busy day as usual?”
“Even busier, actually!” Kalei let out a breath that was half-sigh, half-whistle, meandering his way closer over a pile of old rubble, arms spread out as much to trail through the wind as for balance’s sake. “Nolani’s been making a lot of dishes up for the feast, and Captain Prior had to bring in a catch, and then Bernadette needed help with her hammer, and some of the kids wanted a show…” he counted off the day’s errands on his fingers, though he wasn’t complaining – everything had been his own choice to help with, after all.
“You’re too helpful for your own good,” Elio remarked with a quiet laugh. “I don’t know how you find the energy for it all. It tires me out just working my days at the orchard.”
Kalei grinned, hopping down from the rubble pile and crossing over to lean onto the wall next to him. “I help out lots of different people in different places, but I probably only work the same amount as you do in one place overall.”
“That’s not even half-true, and you know it,” Elio reached over to tuck Kalei’s windswept hair away from his face affectionately.
“... alright, fine,” Kalei laughed, lifting his hand to lace their fingers together. “I don’t know. I have more energy than I know what to do with, so I might as well use it to help folks! Right?”
Elio just shook his head, still smiling. “Whatever makes you happy, sunshine boy. Just don’t go getting taken advantage of.”
“No way,” Kalei shook his head. “I’m pretty good at telling when someone actually needs help. It’s harder than you think to pull the wool over my eyes! It’s a no-wool-zone up here!” He grinned and lifted their hands together to rest on the side of his face level with his eyes, prompting another laugh from the other boy.
“You sure?” Elio teased. “I find it can be pretty easy sometimes to fog you up. Like this, for instance,” he declared, before leaning forwards to press a kiss to Kalei’s lips. “See?”
Feeling his face turn quickly red, and quite frustratedly proving Elio’s point, Kalei spluttered for words for a moment before letting out a flustered huff. “That- that doesn’t count, most people aren’t gonna do that!”
“That’s true, I suppose,” Elio snickered into his other hand. “It’s a good thing I don’t plan on taking advantage of you, then.”
It was Kalei’s turn to smirk a little, batting his eyelashes at the other boy. “Really?” he asked, affecting disappointment. “Not even a little?”
He was rewarded with Elio’s cheeks colouring just a touch, before his expression turned more sultry. “It’s hardly taking advantage when you sign up for it,” he murmured, lifting himself more fully off of the wall and leaning into Kalei, catching him in another kiss. “Or are you going to pretend that’s not why we’re here?” he asked after they’d parted, staying close enough that Kalei still felt the warmth of his breath as he spoke.
Now feeling hot for more reasons than just the weather, Kalei pulled the other boy close. “I’ve never been a liar, y’know…”
The back and forth of words didn’t take long to be abandoned in favour for another kind of dance, as they tangled together there on the floor of the old shrine for far from the first time. Elio was just one more reason why Kalei would have to think twice before moving on from Cirdan’s Haven. The two of them weren’t all that much more than good friends who had discovered they both enjoyed one another’s company in more than one way, but for Kalei that kind of closeness - fond and loving, but uncommitted - suited him just fine. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe in love or commitment, or even that he couldn’t see something like that happening with Elio if they both wanted it to, just that…
… well, Nolani had hit the nail on the head earlier when they’d talked. He wasn’t ready to settle down anywhere yet, let alone with anyone. He was lucky to have found a companion happy to take their friendship-come-romance one day at a time without worrying for commitments or leaping into feelings at the deep end. Kalei had made that mistake before, and still regretted it a great deal.
By the time they were laid out together upon the old rug - which they’d brought up themselves after the first time one of their visits to the old shrine had turned intimate and left them with scuffs in all kinds of undesirable places from the rough stone - the sky had darkened, leaving only a few faint remnants of the sunset to add hints of colour to the encroaching night.
Elio sighed contentedly, resting against his side and idly toying with his hair, while Kalei basked similarly in the moment of quiet closeness. But as comfortable as the moment was, they couldn’t stay there for long tonight, or they’d risk missing the start of the festival proper.
“We should probably get back moving soon,” he murmured into the other boy’s hair.
“Mmmn,” Elio murmured a discontented groan. “Must we?”
“Soon,” Kalei conceded, laughing quietly. “We have a few minutes, still.”
Elio hummed something that might have been acceptance at that, but it was a little hard to tell for lack of any words to accompany it. Kalei smiled and tilted his head back to gaze at the sky overhead. Though the sun had set, the night wasn’t black – the clear skies left the path for the bright moon and multitude of stars to grant the landscape illumination enough to see by just fine.
They lay in contented silence for a while longer, while Kalei’s thoughts wandered back to earlier - to the letter, and even before that, his talk with Nolani.
“I’ve been thinking,” he spoke softly, breaking the still silence.
“That’s rare,” Elio mumbled, a lilt of mischief to his voice that crescendoed into a squeak as Kalei jabbed him lightly in the ribs. “Sorry, sorry, okay. What have you been thinking?” The other boy shifted to drape himself half atop of Kalei, resting his chin on his chest and looking up to meet his gaze.
Kalei hesitated before he went on, debating once more whether he might want to consider staying at Cirdan’s Haven long-term. But as soon as he’d had the thought, he knew the answer. It was a lovely town, but Nolani was right. It was too quiet. Parts of him, he realised, had already begun to grow restless with it - which was probably half of the reason why he’d been spending as much time as he had doing all kinds of errands for the locals to keep himself busy. He’d stayed still for too long, and his wandering spirit had begun to crave a change.
“I might not be staying here for all that much longer,” he finished quietly, looking down to gauge Elio’s reaction. As much as their romance might have been casual, he wasn’t quite naive enough to think that the other boy wouldn’t be sad to see him go - just as he would be sad to leave him behind.
And, indeed, after a moment of surprise, Elio’s face did drop a little. “So soon?”
Kalei gave a tentative nod. “I don’t mean right away, but… sometime soon. Maybe in the next week or two. I … only really realised today, that I’ve been thinking about it. Where to go next.”
Elio was quiet for a few seconds, then sighed, turning his face to the side and resting on Kalei’s chest. “I knew you would be going eventually, but I thought it would be further away. I’ll miss you. Nobody in town is as fun as you, or as kind.”
“That’s not true,” Kalei nudged him gently. “Well… maybe the fun part,” he admitted playfully, earning a smile. “But there’s tons of kind people here. It’s a real nice place! I’m just…”
“A free spirit,” Elio finished for him, smiling again. “I know. You said as much when I was first getting to know you, so…” he sighed. “I knew you wouldn’t be around forever. I’ll still miss this, though.”
“There’s plenty of other nice, handsome guys in town that I’d bet will be aaall over you before a year’s out,” Kalei remarked with a grin. “Especially now that I’ve taught you all my sexy wisdoms.”
That got a snort of laughter. “Right, those. Of course, how could I forget? Wisdoms like ‘don’t chafe your ass on ancient flagstones, or-”
“Okay, okay, we don’t have to talk about the wisdoms!” Kalei interrupted him before he could bring up anything else embarrassing. “Just, you know, you have them now. But uh, really… thanks for understanding.”
“It would be pretty difficult not to understand you, Lei,” Elio looked back up at him with a fond smile. “You wear the way you feel like a badge. It’s one of the things I like about you.” The other boy yawned, then pushed himself up into a sitting position and stretched. “Come on, then,” he ran a hand through his hair and started gathering his clothes back up. “If you’re going soon, then that’s all the more reason to make some more good memories with you tonight.”
Kalei beamed at him, hopping up to his feet and quickly pulling him in for another quick kiss before he could react. “And that’s one of the reasons why I like you,” he noted after pulling away. “You’re all about making the best of the present, and not letting the past drag you down, or the future make you scared! Not many people can do that, you know? So that makes you pretty amazing, in my books.”
“Aw, come on, you’re being sappy now…” Elio mumbled, but his smile was all-but radiant. They shared one more warm moment of closeness there before they each set about getting ready to head back into town.
Kalei had just pulled the last of his clothes on, and was fixing his hair back up with a tie, when something caught his attention off of the shore. If he hadn’t been gazing out at the bay with the firm intent of imprinting its late-night vista on his memory, he might have missed it; it was scarcely more than a sleek shadow on the water at this distance.
A ship; one that hung no lantern to mark its passage, nor any flag to announce its affiliation. And - though it was even harder to make out the colours from here - he was fairly sure that its sails were black.
Pirates.
“Oh, no,” Kalei gripped the edge of the shrine’s wall, dread building in his stomach. With all the lights on the shore, the townsfolk wouldn’t see the ship out in the dark until it was practically on top of the town. And if no alarm had been sounded already, then any sentries on duty had either missed it, or been otherwise disposed of.
“What is it?” Elio came up alongside him, noting the shift in his expression and following his gaze out into the bay. “Is something there?”
“Look. Moving down near Keeper’s Rock.” Kalei pointed.
It took him a moment, but when Elio’s face paled, he knew that he’d seen it to. “Oh, Mother take me, is that? It is, isn’t it?”
“They must be friends of the ones I caught,” Kalei started toward the steps as he spoke. If he was fast, he might be able to get there in time. Might. “Here to break them out, or for revenge, or– for nothing good!”
“My family’s down there!” Elio was hurrying after him. “I have to-”
“I’ll handle it!” Kalei glanced back at him and shook his head. “You– you should go to the baron’s keep, at the top of town! Fetch his guards, let them know what’s happening!”
“I–” Elio stammered briefly, then nodded. “Right! I’ll do it. You– you’ll be safe, won’t you?”
Kalei flashed him a reassuring smile. “I’ll do you one better than safe– I’ll win. You be careful too, the slopes are hard to cross quickly in the dark. Don’t run until you’re back on even ground.”
“You mean like you’re going to?” Elio gave him a nervous frown.
“... well, yeah, but I can run up walls, El,” Kalei shook his head. “Don’t worry about me. Hurry, but hurry safely!”
“Okay…” Elio nodded. Right before he was about to take off in a run, Kalei felt the other boy catch his wrist. “Wait, before you go,” he leaned in and gave him a quick-but-fierce parting kiss, accompanying it with a nervous smile once he’d pulled back. “For luck.”
“Luckier for it already,” Kalei replied, flashing a grin in return and squeezing Elio’s hand for a final few seconds, before he let it fall and turned his attention forwards.
Alright, Lei. Time to do what you do best.
He gathered his focus, steadied his breathing, and - eyes set on the dockside, where the festival carried on in blissful ignorance of the danger approaching through the water - coiled himself like a spring. Holding that tension for just long enough for the night’s breeze to lick through his hair, he drew on that same freedom of motion - the speed of the wind - to resonate with his form.
Fly free.
He sprung. Just like earlier, as he rushed to reach his and Elio’s hideaway before he was late, he let his body flow into motion guided more by instinct than conscious thought. Unlike earlier, though, now he drew on the spiritual powers he harboured - that he’d learned to wield back home - to augment his instincts with feats of movement otherwise impossible.
He hopped down the steep stone stairs up to the shrine a flight at a time, bypassing their switchbacks and all-but gliding down the sloping descent to drop gracefully into the treeline below in just a few short moments. From there he sprinted through the trees, skimming over the uneven terrain unhindered. Each obstacle in his path only served as a launch point to gather more momentum.
When he broke from the treeline and back out into the streets of Cirdan’s Haven, he swerved sharply, directing his dash straight down towards the docks. The streets were empty this high in the town, its residents all gathered near the water for the feast. Unarmed, and unsuspecting.
Faster, damn it!
Even fast as he was, even skipping swathes of slope and jumping down from the streets of one tier to the rooftops of the next, it took time to cross the length of a town - time in which the pirates drew closer. They could already be at the docks, and he wouldn’t know. Tonight was supposed to have been for making happy memories, and he was not going to let whoever these people were turn it into a tragedy.
Finally, he reached the edge of the final tier above the docks, where he could get a good view of the festival and the bay beyond. The long tables for the town-wide feast had been set up all down the dockside, and hanging lights and decorations were scattered all over the streets. He spotted stalls for festival games and trinket sales, a large cooking fire to warm the dishes that the townsfolk had brought to share with their neighbours, and smiling faces everywhere he turned.
Disaster hadn’t yet struck, but he wasn’t a moment to soon. A short way down the dock from where he was, he spotted the beginnings of a disturbance, as a few people were moving from their seats at the table to point and look out at the end of one of the district’s longer piers. And there, coming to a halt on the dockside, was the ship. It hadn’t even come to a complete standstill before Kalei saw a few of its more eager crew begin to disembark, jumping onto the pier and starting towards where the townsfolk were beginning to realise these new arrivals were anything but friendly.
Kalei hissed a curse, and once more he leaped down from his overlook to thud onto a rooftop below, rolling to soften his fall and straight back up into motion. He skimmed over the rooftops, feet barely grazing the tiles as he shot toward the burgeoning conflict. People were beginning to scatter, but confusion was still rife. Not everyone realised what was happening, and they wouldn’t, not until the raiders were too close to escape!
No!
He wouldn’t let that happen. Drawing on more of the source, Kalei gathered the wind about himself, a burgeoning windstorm that swallowed him for a moment before flowing as he commanded it. Back, to send him onwards with its roar.
He pushed, and a blast of wind erupted behind him loudly enough to be heard over the chatter and music below, and dozens of gawping faces looked up to watch as he sailed like an arrow over their heads, shooting across to where the small, five-strong gang of eager raiders was just reaching the end of the docks. An equally small group of locals there had taken up dinner knives, oars and anything else they could find in readiness to hold them at bay while others fled.
Kalei landed into a skidding slide between the two groups just moments before they met, kicking up a small cloud of dust and startling the men at the front of the pirates’ haphazard charge enough for them to stumble to a momentary halt.
Letting out a long breath, Kalei straightened and let the source he’d gathered flow away from him. Not entirely, but enough that he could release his tension and drop back into a more familiar, loose and flexible stance. He stretched his legs out, then his arms, then turned to face the raiders.
“Phew! Almost didn’t make it here to greet you guys!” His sunny greeting only served to throw them off even further, and they exchanged a few uncertain looks amongst themselves. Kalei nodded behind them to the ship, where more of the crew had begun to lower the boarding ramp so they could join their overeager vanguard. “I don’t suppose I can convince you all to just turn around and go away, can I? That’d be a lot easier – for you, I mean! I promise.”
“Who is this kid?” one of them muttered.
“A dead man,” another replied, irritated.
“Think this is the one that took down One Ear’s lot?”
“Don’t be stupid, he’s a kid. And that rumor’s not worth the air it’s spoken with, anyway,” one of the men, slightly older and more confident in his stance, spat on the floor in front of Kalei. “You’ve made a poor choice getting in our way, kid. Our captain’s not too keen on this town locking up his old pal. So we’re here to teach a lesson in respectin’ who owns the seas.”
“That’s funny,” Kalei flashed him a lopsided grin. “Cause that’s why I’m here, too. And uh, it’s not you. That’s the first lesson.”
“Enough of this,” the man drew a chipped cutlass from its sheathe and stalked forwards. “Once I’ve put the funny man in the ground, we make for the pris-”
Kalei didn’t let him finish his sentence before he’d darted forwards, ducking under the man’s responding hasty swing of his blade and slamming his palm into his chest. The man choked as the wind was pushed out of his lungs, and he was hurled back several feet, landing hard on the ground with a wheezing groan.
The moment of stunned confusion it took each of the others to process what had just happened was all Kalei needed to seize the upper hand. A quick sidestep brought him to the second man, whose wrist he caught in the beginnings of an attempt to drive a dagger towards him and twisted, pulling his arm back behind him at a painful angle before driving his other hand in a swift chop to the back of the pirate’s neck that had him drop limp. Before he hit the floor, Kalei spun with him and planted a foot in his back to launch him into the path of the third man, tripping him over mid-charge and giving Kalei a window to face the other two that were still standing.
He wove fluidly to the side of one’s rapier thrust, catching his arm and swinging it up to parry the downswing of the other’s scimitar. The rapier snapped in half at the impact, while Kalei pulled its wielder around with him like a dance partner, pushing off of him to lend momentum to a swift roundhouse kick into the scimitar-wielder’s head, knocking him down and out for the count.
The same momentum was enough to twist the rapier-wielder’s arm painfully out of its socket, and he let out a pained shout, dropping the remnants of his blade while Kalei let his arm go and swerved to the side of a desperate punch of the pirate’s off-hand before a quick elbow to the face took him down as well.
And that left… Lei wheeled around just in time to drop to the floor and avoid a wild sweep from the axe of the man who he’d barreled over with one of his comrades a few moments ago. He pushed himself forwards, taking advantage of the man’s poor stance – too wide – to slide straight between his legs, and with a deft spin on the ground he was able to swing one foot upwards and deliver a shattering kick to his groin.
The man let out a high-pitched squeak that trailed out into a wheeze, dropped the axe, and then dropped to the floor in a curled-up ball himself. He was out of commission.
By this time, the first man had pulled himself back to his feet, still gasping the air back into his lungs, but Kalei had no intention of waiting around for him to fully recover. He dropped into a charge, and before the pirate could ready a defense, he had delivered a quick series of precise blows across his torso, finishing with a solid punch to the jaw that spun him off of his feet to land hard again in the dirt. This time, he didn’t stir.
A chance to breathe would have been more than welcome at this point, but he was in no such luck. Those five had just been the undisciplined, eager ones. He wagered there must be at least another dozen or two now piling off of the ship toward the shore. Not ideal odds. Not insurmountable, but not good.
The townsfolk - those that hadn’t already scattered - lingered nearby, watching with wide eyes as he took on the raiders. Some had found weapons and seemed poised to help him, but he could tell they didn’t know how to use them. And even if they had, why did there have to be bloodshed on what was meant to be a night of celebration?
No, he would handle this! He would stop the raid before it began, and let the festival continue. It could be his final service to this town that had welcomed him so readily, even before he’d done anything to help them, before he left it behind to serve his wanderlust.
If I’m going soon, that’s all the reason to make sure the last days are filled with nothing but happy memories.
“Yenai,” he whispered, the Goddess’ name falling from his lips with the weight of one unspoken for months of silence. “I might not be the greatest messenger you’ve ever had, but please, lend me just enough strength to deal with these murderers before they spill any more blood into your waters.”
He didn’t know whether the prayer would do anything, but if there was a chance, then there couldn’t be any harm in trying. Right? He hoped so.
Freshly resolved, he started forwards; if he was going to meet these people anywhere, he was best off doing it on the pier, where there wasn’t room enough for them to press their numbers against him.
A click from above, on the deck of the ship, alerted him to a more immediate danger before he closed the gap with the rest of the pirates. His eyes flicked toward it just in time to see one of the pirates - dressed in a fancy-looking long coat - pulling the trigger on a crossbow pointed straight at him. The next instant, time seemed almost to slow down to a crawl.
The trickle of source still resonating within him snapped tight like a bowstring of its own, pure instinct taking command of his muscles and tugging his arm up to snatch the crossbow bolt out of the air, where it vibrated fiercely in his fist a few inches from his head.
Several of the pirates stopped to stare.
Even Kalei was surprised for a split second. It wasn’t the first time he’d caught an arrow, but every other time - in training - he’d had warning. And the arrow’d had a padded end.
He guessed the training had paid off.
Narrowing his eyes, he snapped the bolt in his grip and let it drop. The world flooded back into motion, and so did he, ducking down to snatch up a coil of rope from the dockside - a spare mooring line, complete with a tied loop for fastening about a piling. Once more letting his instincts and the source guide him, he twirled the rope around his head like a lasso once, then a second time, then let it fly - sailing through the air to where the crossbowman was cranking a second shot. The looped rope landed perfectly around his neck, and in the same instant that he looked up in shock, Kalei pulled it tight.
With a panicked cry, the man tumbled from the ship’s edge and into the water, disappearing with a splash along with his weapon.
One of the other pirates let out a startled shout. “Captain!”
Oh. That had been the captain? Well, then. That had been easy. And that just left the rest of them.
Kalei took in the small mob of armed men and women scattered along the length of the pier and the ship’s boarding ramp. There were only, what, a couple dozen? Give or take?
…yeah, he was going to need a better strategy than just trying to take them all on in a straight-up fight.
The pier groaned as the gang of raiders piled onto it and those at the front broke into a run to rush him, and Kalei felt it shift under him– in a way that was suddenly very familiar.
Of course! The pirates had picked out an empty pier for their ship to dock at, not realising that it was the very pier that he and Captain Prior had pulled into earlier and realised was too unstable to safely use for mooring.
Too unstable for mooring, and maybe – with a little nudge from him – too unstable for a gang of charging pirates.
Kalei grinned in the face of the approaching raiders, drawing once more on the source to reach out for the waves beneath them. These people were about to learn why you never tried to fight a watershaper on - or anywhere near - open water.
Answering his call, the waters of the bay kicked up rapidly into a churning, swirling current that sent shuddering vibrations along the length of the pier. The shaking was enough to unbalance the pirates and draw them to an uncertain halt.
“What’s he doing? Stop him!” One of them yelled, but it was too little too late.
With a heave, Kalei pushed with all his might, and the water surged with him. The already unsteady pilings of the pier splintered and collapsed, sparking a chain reaction with the other supports as one by one, they failed to stand up against the unnatural current and the weight of the boardwalk’s occupants. The pier collapsed, spilling the raiders into the water with a chorus of angry yells, while Kalei stepped nimbly up onto one of the two pilings nearest the shore that he had guided the currents to leave untouched.
“Get out!” he growled, sweeping his arms back to draw out five tendrils of water that lashed onto the shore to grab the prone forms of the pirates he’d already brought low, yanking them back into the bay to join their fellows. “Leave these people alone!”
Once more, he pushed his arms forwards, this time sending the water of the bay crashing forth in a single, directed wave, catching the pirates up in its surging current and pushing them back out to sea. Their ship too, now unmoored, drifted out in a slow spiral away from them as the surging tides clipped its hull.
The pirates were scattered and adrift, struggling to stay afloat against the unnatural current that had carried them out far into the bay, and many of their weapons had been abandoned to sink beneath the waves. Their threat might not be completely over, but by the time any of them could make it back to shore, they would be met not by revelling townsfolk, but by the baron’s guards - and picking them out of the water one at a time as they washed ashore would be a damn sight easier than handling a full-sized raiding party head on.
The worst of the danger had passed, and Kalei let himself relax, releasing his grip on the source and on the bay’s waters with a sigh of relief.
When he hopped back to the shore, exhausted, he was greeted by a roar of cheers and applause from the townsfolk - many of whom had watched the clash from the dockside. He was too drained to do much more than offer them a tired smile and wave, but thankfully, he didn’t have to do much more, as Nolani and Captain Prior quickly broke from the crowd and hurried over to his side.
“Kalei! Are you alright? You look pale, were you hurt?” Nolani fussed over him, scanning his body for any sign of injury.
“I’m okay,” Kalei shook his head. “Just tired. Shaping that much water, oof, it takes it outta me… you know water’s actually pretty heavy?” He rubbed at his head, then glanced over at Captain Prior with an apologetic smile. “Ah, sorry about the pier Captain Prior, I kind of… uh, it’s gone.”
“That thing was going to collapse before anyone got ‘round to fixing it anyway,” the captain shook his head, clapping him on the shoulder. “Don’t you go apologising for anything.”
“The baron’s guards are here!” Someone from the crowd called, and Kalei glanced up to see a dozen or so men in armour hustling onto the scene, only to look a little nonplussed that there was no chaos to reign in. He supposed that they probably didn’t see a lot of action, given how quiet the town usually was.
“I’ll explain things to them,” Captain Prior said, patting his arm. “Take the boy to rest, Nolani, he looks like he needs it. Get some food in him, maybe.”
“I’ll do just that. Come now, Lei, sit down over here.” Nolani ushered him away from the scene, leaving the captain to meet the guards and answer their quick barrage of questions. The onlookers gave the two of them space as they headed over to one of the now-abandoned tables and he slumped into a seat, the day’s exertions catching up to him all at once now that adrenaline was no longer driving him onwards.
The next hour or so passed in a bit of a blur. The buzz of the grateful townsfolk around him continued until Nolani was able to chase them away to give him a chance to recover, and the festivities were put on hold until the baron’s men and a selection of the town’s militia had sailed out into the bay to round up the washed-up pirates to be hauled off to the jail.
He started feeling a bit more human again after he managed to put away a bowl of stew and a mug of tea, and after a relieved Elio arrived on the scene to his own round of commendation for having brought the baron’s men to help. Once the clamour had died down and the situation was under control, the town collectively made the call to let the festival continue, and - albeit a sight later than it was supposed to - the feast went ahead as planned.
Nolani couldn’t keep the people at bay forever, alas, and much of Kalei’s night was spent shaking people’s hands and accepting their gratitude for stopping the attack before it started, but he wasn’t too bothered by it. Every face that came to give him their thanks was another face that might have lost their life that night otherwise, and in his view, there was no better reward than seeing them all smiling.
That said, the few moments that he found the chance to slip away to enjoy the festivities without it turning into a meet-and-greet were just as enjoyable. Throwing hoops and hooking wood-carved toy fish with a model fishing line alongside Elio, Nolani and his other friends in town was a memory he wouldn’t soon forget - and all the moreso for the knowledge of what the night very easily could have turned into instead.
__________
It was just over a week later, having dallied and delayed longer than he’d intended to make sure no more trouble surfaced unexpectedly in the aftermath of the festival, that Kalei finally decided that his next morning in Cirdan’s Haven would be his last. Doing the rounds that day to say his farewells was an emotional affair, as many of the townsfolk he’d come to know weren’t quite as insightful as Nolani, or as close to him as Elio, and his departure took them very much by surprise.
He had to fend off a great many requests that he stay for this occasion or that, or just stay permanently altogether, but his resolve was firm. The world was, after all, a very big place. And there were bigger things to worry about than pirates, that maybe – just maybe – someone like him could help with, if the magical invitation he’d received was anything to go by.
The next morning, in the twilight before dawn, just three people saw him to the town’s southern gate, where the road lead further on to the mainland and toward the grand mountain rising in the distance.
“It’s a long way you’re going, Lei,” Nolani said, her smile sad, but no less warm for it. “But don’t think I’m not expecting you to write. If your guild can send out magical letters to find their way here, you’d best make sure you get them to send some our way to let us know how you’re doing.”
“Don’t worry, Nolani, I will,” Kalei grinned at her. “I’ll be sure to include all the best bits of the adventures, too.”
“Not too many details, I hope,” she murmured with a shake of her head. “I’d like to be able to sleep at night and not be kept up for worrying.” Sighing, she clasped her hands on his shoulders, then pulled him into a tight hug. “You take care, alright? Feels like it’s been a lot longer than three months since you first walked in through my door, and I’ve come to care for you a great deal.”
She leaned back and rested a hand on his cheek, smiling with teary eyes. “I told you before that me and Edric’ve always wanted kids, but on account of my past self it’s never been possible. Thank you for giving me a taste of what it’d be like to have the sweetest son in the world.”
“Nolani…” Kalei’s heart melted a little, and he darted forwards to pull her into another hug. “I’ll come back and see you again, I promise.”
He felt a firm hand come to rest on his shoulder, and glanced up to see Captain Prior’s normally stoic face cracked with a warm smile and glassy eyes of his own. “We’ll be looking forward to it, lad. It’s been an honour to have you aboard my ship these past months. I hope you find what it is you’re looking for out there.”
“Thank you, Captain,” Kalei replied, smiling up at him. When Nolani stepped back from their embrace, he gave the older man a stiff salute, and then - before he could protest - ducked in to give him a hug too. The captain softened immediately and gave him a firm squeeze in return, patting his shoulder and surreptitiously wiping his eyes.
“No, thank you, my boy. I know I speak for the whole town when I say you’re more than welcome back any time.”
The pair of them stepped back then, arm in arm, to give him a little space for his last goodbye. Elio had been lingering on the fringe of their farewell, and now met his eyes with some trepidation. “Already time, then?” He asked in a soft voice. “Funny how a week can feel like a blink when you don’t want it to end.”
“It was a good week, though, wasn’t it?” Kalei smiled, taking the other boy’s hands in his. They’d spent much of their last few days venturing out further into the woodlands and the ruins therein, making as much time for exploring and wandering in one another’s company as they could. “Plenty of happy memories?”
“Yeah. You’re right,” Elio sighed, pushing a smile onto his face. “It was.” He shook his head, stepping in to lace their fingers together and press their foreheads together. “I knew you were never going to stay. You’re like a whirlwind, Lei. Crashing into our lives and making everything all kinds of exciting for a while, but gone just as fast.”
“I… hope I didn’t break quite as many things as a whirlwind, at least?” Kalei cringed a little at the metaphor.
Elio laughed, though there was a sadness to it that he couldn’t hide. “No. You’re not that sort of whirlwind. Just the kind that people like us could never hope to keep up with. Captain Prior said it best, I think. I hope you find what you’re looking for out there. And I hope you figure out what it is, before you end up losing it.”
He leaned in to press one final, brief kiss to Kalei’s lips, then stepped back. “Goodbye, Lei,” he said, his voice a little shaky.
“You’ll see me again, El, don’t worry,” Kalei tried to reassure him with a smile. “I promised Nolani, and I mean it.”
“Then I hope the next time you come rolling through town, whirlwind, that it’s as much fun as it has been this go around,” Elio replied. “Who knows? Maybe you’ll find someone out there who’s crazy enough to stick to you like a storm chaser, too. Good luck. And take care?”
“I will.” Kalei nodded firmly. He would – he’d be back before they knew it, with a fresh boatload of adventure stories to tell. This wasn’t goodbye. It was just…
“I… guess I’ll see you all later, then,” he said, looking up with a sad smile at each of them. “Till next time.”
“Till next time,” Nolani repeated with a tearful nod.
And… that was that, he realised. He stood there dumbly for a few moments longer, before he was finally able to wrench himself away and start off down the road, ignoring the sting of tears in his eyes as he did.
How did this feel more like leaving home than leaving his actual home had done? That just didn’t seem fair. It was supposed to get easier, not harder.
He had to force himself not to look back, not until he reached the crest of a rise some five minutes down the road, beyond which he realised he wouldn’t be able to see the gates if he turned to look. When he did, all three of them were still there watching him go. Nolani had an arm around Elio, and Captain Prior’s hand was resting on her shoulder, and it stung all over again to see them so sad over his departure. Almost enough to make him turn right back around and declare it had all been a mistake, and he was going to stay.
But no. He couldn’t. He wasn’t going to find what he needed in that little town, as wonderful as it was. Captain Prior had been right, and so had Elio. Out there, somewhere, was something that would lead him to the answers he needed.
And between here and there, hopefully, was something that would help him figure out what exactly it was he needed answering.
Often as not, answers come not from the destination, but from the journey. That was something Elder Liko, one of his teachers back home, had told him once. Maybe she’d known even back then that he would end up like this – she always had seemed to know him better than he knew himself. So maybe he just needed to keep on journeying until he felt like he’d journeyed enough.
Gathering his resolve one final time, he swallowed, turned to face forwards once more, and stepped off of the rise, starting down the road down the far side. The next time he glanced back, nothing was there to meet his gaze but the road already travelled.
And with time, he told himself, that would hurt a little less.
____
Kalei had travelled before, and a great distance at that, but this was the first time his travels had taken him over quite so much land. Navigating the open waves on a skimmer was a lot more enjoyable, in his books, than trudging down the road for hours at a time, even if the sights and views were more varied than the expanse of blue that he was used to.
A week in, his feet were sore and his legs ached, and he was beginning to wonder if he would be better off waiting until some kind of magical maritime adventuring organisation got in touch with him instead. Who even wanted to be this far from the sea anyway? What was there worth going inland for? Mountains? They were just big rocks! And they had plenty of them closer to the water anyway!
What’s more, until now, he hadn’t understood the fascination of inlanders with sitting on top of animals like horses instead of relying on their own two feet, but after experiencing this, he most suredly recanted every joke he’d ever made about them lacking sea-legs because they didn’t even use their legs on land. He would have traded his whole bag of belongings for a horse to ride at this point, but going by the magical map from his letter, there wasn’t going to be any kind of settlement, outpost, or even an inn between here and his destination.
Who even put an inn this far in the wilderness? Who was supposed to be staying there? The trees?
Grumbling thoughts like this accompanied him throughout his march, even as he grew more used to the exertion into the second week, and learned to better pace himself throughout the day. As his path took him away from the nearby river, he grew increasingly grateful for the fact that he’d learned to hunt on land out of a desire to go on self-sufficient expeditions into some of Kanateka’s denser jungles, while most of his people never needed to ply anywhere but the waters for their food. Being able to use his watershaping to coax drinkable water out of the local plantlife was a gift from Yaien too. Literally, in this case.
By the third week, when he was drawing close to his destination, he had a newfound respect for how anyone managed to survive this far from the ocean. However, it still didn’t make sense why anyone would want to.
He made his last camp stop for the night - or what he presumed would be his last stop, at least - in the depths of a stretch of woodland that his map didn’t give a name. The next morning, he judged that he’d emerge from the woods out into the stretch of open land where he’d find the Dragon’s Den waiting on the edge of yet another forest.
That was another thing about inland. There were far too many forests. Whoever said that the ocean was boring and featureless clearly hadn’t spent that much time looking at the ten-billionth dull brown tree trunk along a hike. At least the ocean was bright, and refreshing. Most of these trees were dull and gnarled, like a sunburned old man’s elbows!
“You hear that, trees?” he grumbled to himself as he lit a fire and started fashioning a spit to cook the rabbit he’d caught earlier in the day. “Old man elbows, the lot of you.”
Talking to himself had also become a habit sometime in the second week, after not running into any more travelers since the end of week one, when he took the fork in the road that led him away from the next town and out into the aptly signposted ‘Beyonde’.
“Beyonde anywhere anyone would want to go, that is,” he grumbled.
Yaien’s depths, he needed to talk to someone soon or he was going to fall apart. If he arrived at this supposed inn tomorrow and found out it had all been a ruse and there was nothing there, he was going to walk straight back to Cirdan’s Haven and swear off of travelling for the rest of his life. He’d settle down with Elio and become a domestic housewife if he had to, just no more of this.
A quiet skittering noise drew his attention up to a nearby tree branch, then, where a squirrel had paused in its travels to peer down at his fire. “How do you manage it?” he asked the little furry thing. “Do you have squirrel friends and squirrel conversations? Or does your little squirrel brain just not get lonely?”
Predictably, the squirrel did not reply. A short few seconds later, it scampered away again, disappearing into the foliage.
“I’m… going crazy,” Kalei murmured. “It’s official.”
Tomorrow. It would be all worth it, tomorrow. He just had to keep his head on the right way around till then.