Author's Preface
Year 765 Hippocampus Rush
The reckless plan is to ride the carriage back to the orphanage and get them all out of Renuo.
The plan isn’t relayed right away. When she asks Ranko to get the last two keldios, he gave her a strange look.
"We are going to take the carriage!"
The fear colors his tattooed face, "But we will stand out with that-"
"My child." The Vicar pats the boy on his back, smiling. By the grace of the Gods, he caught at what Rhea is implying. "This will help us leave the town safely."
"Leaving Renuo? I-" The boy's shoulders shake.
"You have to go." Rhea felt terrible rushing them. There will be more loyalists will surely come back to the mansion. Rhea takes over one Keldio steed, guiding the complacent beast out the open double door. She never likes handling these tamed creatures, suspecting they will turn on them in breaths. Bringing the beast over to the carriage took away the first task. The rest she had no idea where to start.
"Ah....does anybody know how to work this thing?" Rhea points to the carriage. It is big with a canopy covering the back side. It's run by two steeds at a time, but Rhea had the knowledge of a jungle person. She won’t know the first thing about stirrups and straps.
"Oh! I got it." She must thank Vicar Jal for having the background knowledge.
It took him sixty breaths to get the straps on the steeds. Rhea watches for the enemy or Connor while her weapon is drawn as a precaution. Ranko climb in the back of the carriage, sulking. This sulking of his drove her to fill the silence with her own logic.
"My mama once said that a home is not just a building or place. It must have great meaning to be a home. A home for the heart is what she would call it." Rhea rambles, keeping close the carriage flap to make sure that he heard her words.
"Did...that ever work for ya?" Ranko scoffs through the sniffling. A question that hit so hard, she stops her perimeter surveillance to look up at the sky. They have been fighting for some time if Manuk's throne is sinking closer to the horizon. Rhea is looking for something in the clouds. No matter how hard she tried to search every day she will never be able to see the Trail: where the souls go. The Trail is a milky starry expanse filled with souls, often either being in suspense forever, or when the great mana god chooses it. Manuk will take a soul and gift it a new body and life. Souls are recycled, her father would claim in his crazy re-saying that Chemuk perfected the aging body, but Manuk has not found a way to shorten the lifespan of a soul. If that theory is correct, then a version of her parents are up there somewhere.
"Unlike you, I am still looking. You have Vicar and Grace." She lowers her gaze from the skies, noticing from the corner of her eye Vicar is walking around the carriage.
"Rhea. We are ready."
Rhea turns back towards the mansion. Not seeing Connor anywhere yet. What is taking you so long?
The sounds of footsteps, many footsteps and a lot of hollering made her right ear twitch. She turns to see a few goons heading straight their way. There is no turning back.
"You two go! Tell Grace and the children that if the Gods ordain it, our paths will cross again."
"Rhea!? Wait!" Vicar Jal pins her down by the arm.
She nervously glances between the Vicar and the goons in the distance. These goons haven't notice them yet, but they move around with a lot of purpose. She suspects that the cowards that ran away earlier actually brought more of them back here. A growing danger, she wants to help Connor out of this no matter what got in her way.
"I am sorry for being so scared of you. All this time, you have been such a kind soul to us, and I should have never looked at you that way...If you can forgive this old fool. Please…come with us."
The ultimatum, damning one just to keep her own comfort with a pseudo family. It sounds so tempting if she is that kind of person.
No, I cannot damn this pirate. The worst thing he had ever done is put his nose in their business and boss her around. That is not how she was raised to be.
"I forgive you, but I cannot go with you. Please go back and leave this town. I will be fine." She grins, pulling her hand out of his grip.
He smiles right back at her, with tears streaking down his wrinkles. "Of course, child...be careful."
"Ya crazy or something!?" Ranko pokes his head out of the carriage gaping at Rhea.
She flashes a bigger reckless smile his way. "I am. Look at the rooftop. There are things that might help your journey. Chathalic-whrenris ."
She turns her heel and uses the outdoor clutter to sneak away. The huntress then hugs close to the building wall, tightening the string of her bow. When the Vicar stirs the Keldios to gallop, the goons take notice.
"EH! THEY'RE ESCAPING!" A few of them points to shoot. She counts three with their backs perfectly face her. That’s how many arrows she strung up. She shot one after another, then the last one flew. All three embeds deep in their lower backs.
"It's the jungle bitch!? Get hur!?"
This is when she runs. There are twelve of them, which is five more too many for her to fight without injury. The cut on her lip still throbs to remind her of the last time she was so reckless. Mana fuels the muscles in her calves, and she sprints from where she hides, heading right around the crowd. Following the walls of the buildings to stay close in case Connor comes out. It is a comedic scene of her running around the building with a bunch of hooligans chasing after her thinking they can catch up. It takes a long time before they smarten up to send a few goons towards the other direction. She can tell when four of them appear around the bend and took aim at her with their pistols.
Berushk! Rhea jumps through an open window to avoid the death balls.
The running continues, noticing that she is in some random storage closet. Her body crashes into some headless and limbless mannequins that don armor. Scattering anything loose from the armor at every corner of this room. The noise of her grand leap can be heard for miles. She scrambles back to her feet, seeing a few decent-looking swords and daggers. Even quivers are hanging on the walls which are filled with arrows. Like a bona fide thief, she snatches handfuls of arrows and adds them to her quiver. Then she went to grab two daggers resting on a random table. Both of those daggers find a home in her leg straps. By then, a man crawls through the window struggling all the way. Not many have the flexibility of someone like Rhea.
"EH!? There yar are ya sneaky little bitch!?"
Time to go. " Chathalic-whrenris vishka !" Rhea can have shot at him but this time she chose to keep running. She rips the door open and shuts it, using mana again to warm her fingertips hot till the handle melts. It melts the metal which locks the door in place. Unless these idiot smash through the door they will be stuck in there for a little while. Rhea flicks the heat away from her fingers, bounding as far away as she can from the storage room.
"WHA!?THE BITCH LOCKED US IN!?"
The sound of banging and screaming lost its volume the further away she ran. She finds herself back in the main corridor, the carcasses of goons still lying at the same spots. Her legs slow her to a stop, her lungs craving for oxygen.
"Rhea?"
The huntress whips her head towards the voice and finds the very man she is trying to aid just standing there on the steps. Not a drop of blood stains his clothes, he looks as clean as possible even if he is a pirate. He is not perplexed, nor is it gratitude that surfaces on his face. It is pure annoyance with a dash of intolerance, already slipping another critique out of those lips of his. "Why aren't you with Vicar and Ranko?"
Thank you, Rhea, for-you know-being selfless to help my pretty bratty face from getting one too many holes.
"T-they left. The rest of the gang are here...I could not just leave you behin-" CRASH!!! BANG! "COME NOW!" Rhea paces in place, waiting for him to move. If she didn’t wait, she might accidentally outrun him.
"By the Gods. Fine. Get us out of here." Connor leap from the last flight of steps.
"FOLLOW!" They rush towards the main door; the fools never suspect them of using the front door. It is barren as a desert wasteland out here. Rhea is glad for her quick thinking, but now she had to get Connor out to safety. The thundering boots and hollering from the inside of the mansion stirs the captain.
"Take me to the harbor! Quick!"
Why ?