Legend of Captains Thod and Riva ((Chapter 2 and 3))
The thud of planks and hammers filled the room as Selinder opened the door and disappeared through it. The heavy oak door clapped shut behind him and the room was silent again.
"Please, take a seat and what be your name?" Thod barked pointing at a chair intricately made from white aspen.
"It's Riva." She said as she sat in the chair.
"Well Riva, what shall we do with you and the other slaves? I can take all of you to the nearest port but I must add that I'd enjoy your presence aboard my ship." he woofed pouring some apple cider for the both of hem.
Clint shifted uncomfortably as he looked at the captain.
Would it be wise to have a female aboard a ship? Clint asked through his telepathy. He didn't realize that Riva had the same ability so she heard him, though she didn't understand what was happening.
"Who said that?" she asked, her voice quavering a bit in fear.
Thod and Clint both looked at her before looking at each other. The looks on both their faces would have been quite humorous if she wasn't a bit scared. He couldn't blame her for being frightened. After all she had most likely been beaten, humiliated and the Gods and Goddesses only know what else.
"You heard Clint inside your head?" he asked, leaning foreword in his chair.
She nodded her head as a blush came unbidden to her face. "What's going on?" she asked in a quavering voice.
"It's a magical ability known as Mindspeach, or Telepathy. It's a very rare gift to have. With yours and the Captain's permission I'd like to tutor you. It takes a it to get used too." Clint said taking a seat next to them.
"If you think that's best than you have my permission, Clint. Please excuse me, Riva, but my crew needs and extra hand." He said getting to his feet. "Show her to her new quarters and make sure she has as much privacy as needed." Thod said before slipping through the door.
"I didn't hear anything then." She told Clint, staring at the door as it banged shut.
"The Captain has other ways of talking to his crew other than Mindspeech. Now let's start your lesson." he said, getting to his feet. The cheetah stood behind her and placed the tips of his index fingers on her temple.
"You probably won't know what I'm talking about if I tried to describe what your about to experience, So keep still and pay attention." He said authoritivly.
Riva felt as if she was thrown into warm water as her mind did a twist and went inwards. A wall of shimmering blue-green light circled around a glistening ball of silvery light, as their conscious's looked into a chamber in her mind.
"Curious, you're a Battle and Healing Mage." he said as he drew a small piece of the wall through the ball to connect with the other side of the wall. Her body Twitched as the magic bean flowing through her veins, like an electric current.
"That wall of blue-green light is your magic and the ball of silvery light is your life force. Pay close attention now this is a tricky part, despite how easy it looks." Clint's voice said in her mind.
The wall branched off into four separate lines before they formed into two different cylindrical walls. The blue on the outside and the green on the inside.
"The blue is used when your fighting with magic the green, of course, is for healing. Just switch the walls around when you need to use one or the other. Make sure that they are connected through your life force or you won't be able to use either until you reestablish the connection." He said.
"Can I try now?" she asked, before he could answer she switched the walls around making sure to keep the connection. She then surprised him by forming two, thin green bars of energy and wrapped them around her wrists where the shackles had cut into her skin.
"You need to be more careful. Using magic isn't simple or easy it requires strength, discipline and energy. Try again after you've slept and eaten." Clint said as they returned abruptly.
"It worked though." She said in excitement before frowning at Clint's sigh.
"Yes it did but you need discipline if you are to stay inside yourself. Some injuries can't be healed the same way." he said taking couple books from a satchel he had tied around his waist.
"You'll need to study these if you want to progress. I looked around in your mind to make sure you could read, don't worry I didn't look in on anything private." he said taking a guess as she started to speak.
They left the room after a few hours and she was taken over to Thod's flagship, the SeaGryphon, where she was ushered into a cozy room between Thod and Clint's.
For the next three weeks she trained under Clint's tutelage until she learned everything she could about healing. Riva sat in the forepeak in front of the foresail, watching as the line of land grew larger in the distance.
Thod's boots hardly mad a sound on the planks as he walked up to the forecastle. As he got closer he could hear someone singing and by the feminine voice he guessed it was Riva.
"Ancient spirits, come and take my hand. Show me, how to find my way. Please guide me..." Riva broke off her singing, as she heard the thud of someone's boots on the bottom step.
"You didn't have to stop." Thod barked as he came around the white sail cloth. He pulled up a pile of ropes and sat a respectful distance away.
"We'll be coming to port within the hour. I was wondering if you've thought any about staying aboard." he woofed. He had grown use to her presence over the past few weeks and if he was honest with himself he didn't want her to leave.
"I thought I should. Clint told me that you are one of the best users of battlecraft he's ever seen and I'll need someone to teach me that. I want to go home sometime and try to heal my mother." she said as she looked out over the shimmering green sea before her.
Thod watched as her eyes started to mist. It pained him, to his surprise, to see her so sad but at least he could help her with that.
"My crew and ship are at your service then." he barked clasping her hand briefly, before te rose to their feet.
Mooring lines where thrown to the waiting hands of different species, before the ship was pulled alongside a long concrete structure sticking out into the sea. The gangplank was lowered to the ground with a dull thud as the wood reverberated.
The slaves that didn't want to become crew for the Tarbin, renamed the PolarStar, went ashore with the crew of SeaGryphon. Some found work and others found ships willing to take them back to their homes.
Thod walked down the cobblestone streets looking for a merchant to buy supplies and weapons from. Riva, Clint, and Selinder walked a to the side and behind him.
Selinder disappeared into a tavern to look for some sailors to fill in for the recent vacancies. Thod thought he'd try an old merchant contact he had dealt with in the past.
He led them down a side alley where a lone figure stood, raising his arm. A whistling sound passed by Thod's right ear and the sound of something heavy hit the dusty trail that weaved through the housing district.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" A Jackal said as he moved foreword, his eyes on Riva. "A pretty and delicious looking Kitsune." He had a long knife in his left hand, almost the length of a short-sword. It looked like apiece of junk, but she could tell it was once an exquisite piece.
Riva didn't like the tone he used when he said delicious. She realized she didn't have any weapons and the Jackal noticed to. He lunged forward only to be sent flying backwards as a shimmering wall of black and gold light flared into existence between them.
"Here's the perfect time for a lesson." Thod woofed in her mind. "Battlecraft is used the same way as Healingcraft except that you use both. Not just one as Clint has probably told you. Go into yourself and merge the auras together. Your Healingcraft will keep you alert and energized while you plan an attack."
"When you use your Battlecraft, you shape in your mind something for either defense or offense." Your magic is only limited by your imagination and cunning." He said withdrawing from her mind.
Riva thought she was going to cry from exasperation. "The perfect time for a lesson! Honestly!" She thought before calming herself and closing her eyes. She went deep inside to those shimmering walls of her magics and blended them together.
She formed around her a bubble of green and blue. She made it slippery on the outside so it was hard to grasp and reinforced it on the inside so it wouldn't cave or puncture. She cast her mind out, seeking for what her opponent was planning to do next.
She recoiled from what she saw in the Jackal's mind. It made her burn with anger that he thought to do such an atrocity to her. Her sea-green eyes snapped open as a clap of thunder sounded in the distance. Blue and green lights danced on her white fur like the northern lights as a spear appeared into each of her waiting hands.
Thod threw his own shields up and retreated to the prone figure of Clint. It took a lot to scare him and right now, she was worse than all the monsters and beings he had faced so far. "Hell hath no fury like a woman enraged." he muttered under his breath.
Riva poured as much energy into her two Spears as she dared before throwing them at the wretched Jackal. If he was aware of what was about to happen it didn't show.
The Jackal's life flashed before his eyes as the spears came towards him. He transferred what he could to his shields before they hit. "Forgive me." Was all he said before a brilliant flash of blue light drowned everything out until it was replaced by complete darkness.
A sonorous boom rocked the houses on their foundations as a whirlwind of dust and debris whistled through the air. When the dust settled Riva was still breathing in a rather heated fashion, struggling to control her emotions.
The prone figure of the Jackal lay twisted and mangled amongst stone, mortar and wood. When the police arrived they avoided Riva altogether as healers went to the aid of the wretched being. HE was still alive they declared though barley.
No one cheered at the news, instead they frowned. He had been the culprit behind so many robberies, rapes and most of all murders. Those who had been one of his victims rejoiced when the healers declared he would be a quadriplegic for the rest of his life.
Thod had revived Clint shortly after the blast and he stared around at the damage with a new found respect for Riva. "I think we better go." Thod woofed, herding Riva and Clint past the healers and towards the end of the alley. No one stopped them and no one saw them leave, except one black cloaked figure with a glass eye.
"We'll meet one day." The cloaked figure said before melting into the shadows.