With the rising sun at our backs we marched across the white sands of the beach. Kaina took us in a western direction as she tried to lead us after the pirates who had taken the villagers. To our right was the ocean while to our left the intimidating jungle loomed over us.

Taryn and I had managed to gain some clothing and deal with our continual nudity. I managed to find a blouse that fit my top, along with a short dress that I had split along the side for added mobility. Boots that were a size too large were all I could find, but protecting my feet was more important than being picky on footwear.

Taryn had opted to steal a large shirt that loosely fit him, along with pants and a belt. He managed to find shoes that were in his size. Without any weapons to be found in the town I had instead broken a thick chair and taken one of the legs. To me a club was always a better option over my bare hands.

In the southern distance we could make out the noise of a large animal letting loose a blood curdling screech. It was a noise that made Kaina pause in her steps, her bow aimed at the tree line with an arrow already notched and ready. For a few moments she stayed like that, battle ready for anything, and then she relaxed and put her arrow back into the quiver.

“Snapjaw,” Kaina informed us as she motioned toward her mouth, then pulled her hand away from her face. “Big mouth big noise.”

“So that’s what you call those,” I hurried my steps in order to walk beside Kaina. “We had a bit of a fight with one, and a few other things. I think one was called a tangleworm?”

Kaina responded to that name with a very visible shudder. “Worm ugly,” Kaina said in a serious tone. “Bad food.”

We crossed over a simple bridge that spanned the river west of the town. The design was a bit dubious, but Kaina strode over the narrow path with such confidence that I could only follow suit.

“Why’d you think it was pirates?” Taryn asked from my blindspot after we had left the bridge far behind.

“It’s the only thing that makes sense,” I half-turned my head, peering at him with my one eye. “There are no cannibals on this continent, and the natives get along great with the town. No Plague, so it can’t be that...which leaves only pirates.”

“This might be our chance at some revenge,” Taryn fingered the handle of his sword, as though anxious to use it.

“Why do you think that? The main mast won’t be there,” I jokied, as I remembered the fact that he had been taken out by falling lumber during our first pirate encounter.

It was a joke that gained me a scowl from Taryn. He grew quiet after that, his curiosity sated for the moment, but his fingers never strayed far from the sword. It was an act that made me wonder how often he communed with his dad.

For hours we walked along the beach until the heat of the sun became too much. After that we retreated to the edge of the jungle, our trek slowed significantly due to the trees and vines. As we walked Kaina pointed out marks, footprints and spoor that helped to identify the creatures of the continent.

At one point she paused in her march to collect a few flowers that grew in the shade of a large black tree. The flowers that she picked ended up being placed into a pouch, and without a word to either of us she continued to march along.

I glanced at Taryn but he had a mystified look on his face, even as he glanced down at his sword. My instincts told me he had tried talking to his dad, but when he shrugged his shoulders to me at my quizzical expression I knew he’d learned nothing.

Hours slipped by after that, and as the sun started to sag toward the western horizon Kaina brought us to a stop. She used a tree near the fringe of the jungle as cover, one hand lifted up to warn us for a reason only she knew at the time.

Curious I stepped up close to Kaina, while Taryn stayed behind the both of us. For some odd reason he had shadowed us the entire time, never once walking in front or abreast of us. I had my suspicions why, but if he didn’t want to share why I had no need nor urge to press for an answer.

Instead I invested my attention to what Kaina had found so interesting. At some point during our walk through the jungle the northern beachline had sloped upward and now a large western-facing cliff could be seen. A small hole was in the cliff wall, large enough for people to walk through without a problem, and two men stood near the entrance.

Lean and weathered, neither of the two men had stubble and filthy clothing. They stood in the sunlight with visible sweat on their faces, and both looked significantly unhappy to be on guard duty.

Kaina started to pull out an arrow from her quiver before I put a hand on her wrist. I gave a shake of my head and motioned back toward the jungle. With quiet steps we retreated away from the edge of the jungle so we could discuss our plan. Though we could have gone through with Kaina’s idea of hitting them from afar with arrows they probably could’ve called out to their allies inside the cave.

♪ ♫ ♬ ♫ ♪

In the distant west the sun had reached the edge of the horizon, shadows growing long behind Taryn and I. We stood on the edge of a cliff, the breeze a light and reassuring puff of cool air that rolled off of the ocean. It was hard not to smile when I looked at Taryn and flashed him an okay sign. “Let's do this!”

We leapt off of the cliff.

From a light breeze of air to a gust of wind that roared past my ears, the downward descent from such a high height was definitely new to me. To my side Taryn also hurtled downward, his feet aimed down toward the ground.

When we neared the ground I did a flip, bringing my right foot straight into the top of the pirates head. The impact was, for lack of a better descriptor, disgusting to feel. I immediately regretted my choice in how to take out the two pirates at the same time. With legs numb from the strong impact with the ground I removed myself from the remains of the pirate I’d landed on.

While Taryn calmly stepped off of his pile of meat, I gingerly shook the brain matter off of my boot. “If I ever recommend doing that again stop me,” I told him.

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“Why? It was kind of fun,” Taryn brushed past me toward the cave entrance, his body flattening against the side of the cliff as he peered within.

Kaina emerged from the jungle a few seconds later, but her wide eyes and apprehension to approach us told me volumes of how she felt. I tried to give her a reassuring smile, but I knew what it was like to encounter someone so unreal. Between my father, mother, Taryn and his adoptive mother I’d run into many who were outside of the norm.

“It’s clear,” Taryn quietly informed us.

Kaina hesitated to step in close to us, an act that I chose to pretend didn’t impact my feelings at all. I knew that I was different now due to Taryn saving me from Nixi, yet the fact that it generated fear in others still nagged at me. With a sigh I turned toward the cave and walked in, motioning for the others to follow.

The stone tunnel was crude and looked ot have been hand dug, the marks on the walls too rough and messy to have been caused by the wind or waves. I wondered why they would’ve chosen to dig a cave out, but that was answered moments later when we reached the end of the tunnel.

While the tunnel had been manmade the massive cavern we arrived at was not. There was no conceivable way that man could have dug out a cave so large, and on top of that it was a rocky ceiling that hung over water.

“A cave cove?” I almost laughed at the reality of what we saw, but at the same time the presence of two boats that were loaded with burly, dirty pirates sent a slight chill down my spine.

The three of us hunkered down near some stalagmites nearby the entrance of the cave, while we looked around. Most of the cave was empty except for crates that they had absconded with from the town. Along the right side of the cave crude cages had been created from wooden sticks, and within them were the kidnapped people. Women, children, young and old, for the most part they had taken everyone except for the men.

What happened next staggered me, as my mind was almost whiplashed by the rage that blasted into it. A splitting headache flared up immediately while all I could do was squint for a few seconds, trying to form some sort of mental block through concentration. Meanwhile the source of my problems had already burst into action, his impetuous nature once more bared to the world.

There had been a pirate who, a bit off from us and to the side, had a child near him. I had heard of these types of situations before but I had thankfully evaded witnessing them. It was, simply put, not a good sight to behold.

However I used the term had when it pertained to the pirate because his body was already smashed against the ceiling of the cave. Taryn had grabbed the man and thrown him with all of his power straight into the ceiling, and it was up there that he stuck into the rock for quite a while.

“What the Gods!” cried out one of the other pirates nearby the cages.

“Here we go,” I muttered, before I motioned toward Kaina. “Try to help the people in the cages, Taryn and I can handle the pirates.”

Before she could respond I had already headed out to support Taryn. A group of pirates had gathered near him, each one armed with a sword, club or even a hook. One of the group turned in time to see me as I marched toward them, but before he could respond I had already punched him in the jaw.

To my right one of the pirates reacted to my presence, so I grabbed ahold of his left wrist with my own left hand. A quick jab of my right elbow into his side caused a couple ribs to break, and while he cried out and dropped his sword I decided to borrow it. While rising back up from grabbing the sword, I slashed vertically along the side of the pirate.

Taryn had scooped up the frightened and traumatized child into his arms. He had no need for his hands to fight off the pirates, his kicks instead more than enough to throw the grown men dozens of feet. The sword that held his dad had been tucked into his belt temporarily.

After we had dismantled half of the group of pirates the rest scattered, as most of them dashed for the ships. On board the vessels more thugs had gathered, but what caught my immediate attention was a pair of them who wore armor.

“Take the kid over to Kaina!” I told Taryn, my eyes focused on the armored men. “I’m going to need your help.”

It was a comment that I knew he had never expected, but he didn’t know what I knew. The two pirates walked down the gangplank, obvious smirks on their faces. There was an air of confidence about them even though they had watched their friends get crushed.

I shifted the sword to my left hand even as I straightened my back. With my right hand I saluted them, arm going horizontal across my chest. The two of them almost laughed at that, before they too did the same toward me.

“Never saw you before, you must be a new recruit?” the black haired legionnaire on the left inquired.

“I’m Liliana Rose,” I informed them. “Through connections my family had me train with the Legion for a while.”

The blond legionnaire on the right whistled at that, motioning toward me while he glanced at his friend. “That’s Vandross’ kid!” he informed him. “You sure we want to do this?”

The black haired one rubbed at the back of his neck before he gave a nod of his head. “Look, we really don’t want to fight you,” he admitted. “I mean if we kill you your father is going to hunt us down, not to mention the ice queen. Oh man...yah, we’re definitely asking for a big bonus.”

“Your greed,” I gave a small laugh at that, before I let out a long breath of air and shifted my stance into a combat ready one. With a great deal of focus I tapped into that part of my soul where Taryn’s splinter could be found, and the sense of power flowed once more through my body. “I’ll make sure the Legion informs your families of why you ruined their reputation.”

Blackie lifted his gauntlets up in front of him, assuming a stance reserved for boxing. No more words passed between the three of us, instead a tension continued to mount as none of us made the first move.

It had been a tactical choice on my part, as I could feel his presence as he drew closer. Before Blondie even knew what had happened Taryn had rushed in close and swung a quick punch aimed at his side. To a normal person it would’ve been enough to crush their innards and leave them permanently crippled.

Blondie on the other hand took the blow with a grunt, as he tumbled to the ground due to the force of the impact. When he stood back up he cracked his neck, then beckoned toward Taryn with his left hand. From his waist he pulled out a short sword that was commonly used in the Legion.

Temporarily distracted by Taryn’s attack, Blackie had looked away from me. It was during that moment I sprung into action, as I delivered a quick straight kick toward the left knee. Much like with his friend, Blackie was unable to dodge the attack and instead took it at full force.

My foot tingled from the impact with the armor, and as I pulled my foot back I could only frown. His response was to punch at my head, a quick jab that I was able to easily avoid with a sway of my upper body. The next punch came in quick succession, followed by a hail of punches that started to grow too numerous to count.

Some of the punches I managed to avoid through pure avoidance, but a few of them required me to actually use my free hand to knock them to the side. With each one I looked for an opening, but the speed at which his hands moved was already near the upper limit of what I could perceive. It was at a speed that easily exceeded what I’d ever seen before from anyone else.

A sudden pause in the punches arrived as Blackie started to run out of breath, and it was then that I struck again. I swung the stolen sword toward Blackie’s waist, aiming to slice him right in half. He managed to drop his arm down in time to block the sword, the blade catching in the armor.

Blood trickled out from the incision I’d managed to make in the suit of metal. “Definitely the ice bitches kid,” Blackie growled as he ripped his arm away from my sword.

His words were more than enough to get a rise out of me, and when he punched at me once more I accepted the blow right to my face. It was a strike that would have normally shattered someone's skull, but due to Taryn’s influence on my body I knew it would at most bruise me.

He stood there shocked at the fact that I hadn’t even tried to avoid the punch. It was another opening I abused as I grabbed hold of his wrist with my left hand. The metal groaned beneath the tight grip, almost buckling against the pressure. The sword was lifted up high, and then with every ounce of power that I had I brought it down like a guillotine onto the extended shoulder.

The weapon cut straight through the armor with enough force to penetrate deep into his flesh, only the bones located in his shoulder stopping it. A scream of pain came from the legionnaire as he fell to his one knee before me, his wrist still gripped in my hand. With no more strength in his arm he could not resist me as I quite calmly snapped his arm in half.

“Never sully the name of the Rose family,” was my cold response to the grown man before I kicked him square in the face.

His back hit the ground, nose broken, with obviously excessive force. The special legionnaire armor that he wore made a metallic cracking noise, most likely a fracture in it developing. Taryn and Blondie even paused in their fight to look at us, and it was at the sight of his defeated friend that made the legionnaire hold up his hands.

“Hey, I didn’t want to fight you guys in the first place!” he exclaimed, almost as though pleading for his life. “I mean, we’re not even the leaders or anything. The guy in charge hired us and said it’d be an easy job!”

He backed away from the both of us as he talked, not once taking his eyes away from the monsters in front of him. “The guy in charge?” I wondered aloud, as I casually tossed the chipped sword away. “Maybe I can work something out with my family if you tell us everything.”

There would be no other response from Blondie, as his head fell to the ground. A few seconds later the arms and torso fell as well, each one sheared off flawlessly. Without a word to Taryn I had already moved back away from the fresh corpse, eyes widened as I looked up the gangplank of the main ship at the newest figure.

A man stood there, arms crossed over his chest. He wore a black long coat, under which he wore a brown shirt and dark brown pants. With each step down the gangplank a jingle could be heard from the fragments of a chain that hung from a collar on his neck. Beneath a large black hat messy dark hair that needed to be cut splayed out randomly in a mess. A long scar ran down his left cheek and trailed all the way to his collar. When he spoke his voice was loud in volume, but deep and slightly slurred.

“Looks to me like you two ruined some good merchandise.”