Jak panted heavily as he came to a skipping halt atop the warehouse roof, overlooking the harbour in one direction and the rise of the city to the other. His legs felt like jello after all that running and stumbling through portal after portal, pure relief flooded through his body when he wasn’t suddenly whisked back into the chaos by another one. Right now…? He just wanted to stay here, laying on the ground, letting his legs and feet finally rest.

“Life on the line…? What the Abyss was he talking about?” Jak muttered quietly with narrowed eyes, hissing audibly as he pushed himself back to his feet nonetheless. “Does he everyone know more about those dreimal verfluchten Dämonen?”

Damnit, he wanted answers already! The aching burn of his face scars made him wince. It was burn that had nothing to do with physical wounds, only pale, well healed scarring remained, but instead it was a burn that he could feel in his very essence.

He had been so preoccupied with running for his life that he hadn’t taken notice of this pain until now. Immediately he was reminded of the Demon’s claws, the visions he had seen. And as he looked back towards Dampfstadt, the chaos was everywhere to see, portals continued to open even relatively nearby if at slowing rate.

“Verdammte Scheiße!” Jak cursed loudly with wet glistening, glaring eyes, punching the roof top hard ignoring the pain, and turned stumbling around to find a way down and to the docks. His heart ached. He wanted to find Jenny, Mina…! But going back into the city… a shudder ran down Jak’s back as the thought of the portals snatching him up again pulsed horrifying prominently inside his mind.

Everything had gone so incredibly wrong over just a few days. Jak didn’t even register it as hot tears ran down his face, dripping down onto the ground. With gritted teeth the wolf cat dragged himself down the emergency stairs at the side into the alleyways.

It was just too much. All these rapid gut punches had left him numb to the pain only to now finally break through. His thoughts where whirling chaotically, repeating everything again and again before his inner eye, leaving his conscious mind preoccupied. And so he simply followed the words he had been told, stumbling through the alleyways while ignoring the busy chaos of the crowded harbour. The dockworkers were overwhelmed with the people fleeing to one of the only nearby places seemingly left untouched by the portal chaos.

The world appeared muffled, muted, to the wolf cat.

Then focus returned as Jak reached docks and he quickly shook his head free from the cobwebs. His gaze was sharp with a single-minded focus, to get into one of those red marked crate and rest. Here the dockworkers were still able to focus more on their work, but the chaos had left them a bit short-handed.

Peeking out of his hiding spot behind a number of stacked barrels, one filled with unused fishing tools, within a small alley he immediately noted the red marked chests scattered throughout the many unmarked ones. It was a simple line of red that wrapped around these crate. The dockworker didn’t seem to pay them any more attention than any other crate. But all of these here were clearly about to be shipped off. And he didn’t have much more time.

Of the red marks, only a single one was still viable for him to reach, hidden between a stack of pallets holding barrels while the others stood open in full view of everyone.

“…man, I can’t…” A voice echoed past Jak’s hiding spot.

“Yeah, things are crazy.” Replied a second, the last two dockworkers that had been in his way vanished around the corner.

Not wasting a moment longer, Jak rushed over to the crate and pried the lid open. It opened surprisingly smoothly and once inside, the lid locked back into place tightly after he pulled it down hard. Four additional locks were attacked under the lid, allowing Jak to further seal the crate tight. They had clearly been constructed for people to use.

Even the stored goods were comfortable to rest on! Whatever was being transported with these red crates had been wrapped up in cloth.

With bated breath Jak pressed himself down against the cloth, feeling some of the hard items below press uncomfortably into his back, and waited. The sounds of the dockworkers echoed around him. Any moment he expected someone to notice something off with the crate, to check up on it and find him. It was a fear he was well used to from sneaking around Dampfstadt and easily ignored it.

“Everything’s clear…!” A voice echoed muffled outside and a second later Jak felt a jolt as his crate was pulled upwards alongside many others. A gentle sway soon moved his body before it rocked to a halt within the belly of the ship. There was much shouting and talking, interrupted sometimes by laughter, as the crates were pushed to their spots within ship and then the sounds turned muffled. Nobody had found him. Nobody knew he was there.

And with that last worry disappearing, Jak was finally able to relax. Everything was dark here, the light that previously filtered through the cracks was no longer there. He didn’t even put up a fight as exhaustion pulled into a deep slumber. The last thought that flitted through his tired mind was a brief feeling of familiarity… where had he heard about red marked crates again? But before he could remember, sleep had already taken hold of him.

With an echoing horn the ship pulled out of Dampfstadt’s harbour on its journey to the islands of Xaxtel and from there through the Gates to Uxuno on the other side of the continent. Not even a catastrophe like Dampfdtadt had just experienced but a stop to their work.

Slowly the Drifting Boar left behind the city of Dampfstadt as the chaos finally began to abate. Carrying Jak to the beginning of a new story in his life.

———

With a ding the elevator reached its end stop, the ear-bleeding cacophony finally yielding to blissful silence. Leora stood resolute behind the gate as it began to open. Three days had gone by since the utter catastrophe had hit Dampfstadt and there was finally enough power to bring them back up. Her heart sunk as the Central Commander greeted her, accompanied by a corps of dark armoured Special Guards.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Leading General Zepehn, you and your friends are hereby judged guilty for the crimes of conspiracy and terrorism against Ebenerz. I truly hope it wouldn’t have to come to this.” The burly dragon bear shook his head sadly, an unlit cigarette dangling from his lips.

Before Leora could even say a word in defence, she and her three companions were immediately brought down by the Special Guards.

“You were far too cautious…” The Central Commander sighed as he gazed down at Leora, the avian cat muzzled and pressed down against the floor. Her eyes glared back up, pain and betrayal shimmering clear within her eyes before glazing over as the knockout drug went to work. He turned towards the leader of the Special Guards who was waiting for his command.

“Bring them to the trains. As by order of the Erz-Mayor and the decision of the Court of Dampfstadt they are to be banished into the Erz Mines.” He stated clearly.

“Yes, sir!” Came the salute and the corpse was quick to carry the prisoners quickly to the already prepared vehicles. The Central Commander simply watched after them, exhaling heavily as he wished this wouldn’t have been necessary.

“But sadly a necessary sacrifice for the good of Ebenerz.” He sighed, wandering out of the high security basement to inform the Chief Deputy Commander of everything.

A sardonic smile played over his lips as he stepped out into the open air, not yet moving towards his ride to the Dampf Tower, and lit his cigarette. Heh, maybe he would even get a promotion for this. Especially as the Chief Deputy Commander seemed to be interested in more active field duty after his daughter had vanished.

“Ah well, there’s still a lot to do…” He finally mused with a smile and flicked the extinguished stubble away. Stepping into his car, he drove off. Construction work passing him by as the rebuilding of the city was already underway.

———

Far away, at the edge of Ebenerz’ borders to the eastern desert, was the work at an extensive archaeological dig site in full swing. Hidden away in a vast chasm, the place was teeming with Ebenerz primer Guards. Many of them had been called here from Dampfstadt by the Erz-Mayor himself.

“We’ve managed to open the third gate and there haven’t been any further problems since the initial incursion. Anything new we should be looking out for?” The dig site’s Security Commander stood to attention as he addressed Matheus Leisch, a clever looking Lynx.

“No, but congratulations on the good work.” The Erz-Mayor gave him a smile as he stood at his desk, leaning over an ancient map. He knew it by heart but gazing down at it gave him a warm, nostalgic feeling. “Please, inform all that we will be having cake this evening!”

“Will do, sir.” The Security Commander nodded brisk in reply and then left, a relaxed smile coming to his lips as he left his duty for the day behind and began to call out Matheus promise. Cheers and laughter could be heard from everywhere.

Matheus smiled as the sound echoed to his ears.

“Truly, how can someone be so true with their lies?” A voice echoed musing from the side of the room, a blue glow illuminating it softly yet didn’t seem to cast any light as well. “Perhaps it is the only way for you to feel?”

With a thoughtful look the blue glowing phantom of a jackal floated there before Matheus. He had been there the whole time, unseen by anyone but Matheus himself. But there was a mocking slight to his curious gaze.

“Do you want talk again, Dagobert?” Matheus asked absentmindedly, stroking his chin as he held his gaze onto the map.

“Not with this puppet you play yourself as.” Dagobert scoffed with a glare. “I had enough of the type when Ebenerz was still in my grasp.”

“That won’t happen.” A dead, empty look akin to an endless abyss yawned from Matheus eyes as he matched his gaze with the phantom for a moment, then his hazel eyes flickered back onto the table and an amused twinkle flitted through them instead. “And please, don’t try to steal Ebenerz back before I’m done here.”

“Truly, you are an enigma.” Dagobert snorted with a small smirk and in a flicker of flames he disappeared.

The Erz-Mayor didn’t even pay his disappearance and second glance. The secrets of the Spirits within this ancient structure were of much greater importance to his plans than the ghost of an ancient tyrant.

———

Distant yet closer than Dampfstadt itself, three land ships drove at high speeds through the dunes of the Erz Mine desert near the coastline. They were on their way to the Frontier and from there to South Flortia in the east of Abyludia. Most of the passengers were Operators of Babylon that had escaped out of Ebenerz with the start of Operation Ore Extraction. Two of the land ships had slowed down to hide within the dunes while the third had already broken through the threshold leading past the hot desert into lush green meadows and dark forests.

Scrubbing away at the hallways of the ship were both Kass and Ruth, only a simple toothbrush in hand, while Saia was watching over them from the side, smug with schadenfreude. But she couldn’t feel too happy about it, the memory of being decked by a furious Vee was still fresh in her memories.

The girl had been kidnapped from her home and her friends after being told her aunt was about to be framed and banished before being punched out in the gut while her best friend still hadn’t woken up from her Arc strain induced coma. The only other person she knew around here was Myra, and that girl had been awkwardly trying to stay out of everything as she had at least some reason to trust them.

Sighing, Saia shook her head. Kass and Ruth deserved their punishment so damn much.

A few floors lower, Vee was sitting at the side of Rehn’s bed of the infirmary room. She hadn’t left her side much during those last three days, Myra had dragged her to the cafeteria to actually get something warm to eat twice which was always an awkward affair as Vee just felt incredibly out of her depth. Her normal confident and unbothered approach to uncomfortable situations simply didn’t work here.

Clenching her fist, she pushed away her plans that had been swirling around inside her head.

“Please, wake up soon, Rehn…” Vee whispered softly, looking so much more vulnerable than she had ever before. And inside her head she hoped the best for Monty, hopefully Hanak would be able to take care of him when she didn’t show up after all that chaos. For the first time in these three days an amused snirk escaped her, trying to stifle her giggle as she was sure that Monty would have found a way to get by even on his own.

Unnoticed by the chameleon weasel, Myra had halted near the door before turning away from the infirmary with a small smile as she heard the light giggle from Vee. She felt guilty how fascinating and even fun everything had been for her around the land ship… all while Vee was left alone after one horrible thing after the other had struck her life. But hopefully things were finally looking up for the chameleon weasel. And she really hoped that Rehn would wake up soon as well.

Too bad Kass was still caught in her punishment, she could have loved to learn more from her in her workshop!

And she would have loved to learn what Qilby’s plan was for them next as well. That certifiable weirdo had barely exchanged two words with her since their escape. And one those had been ‘Blub’!

———

At the same time, far, far away on the open ocean, Jak was woken up by a single word that echoed all over the ship as it ventured into the emerald waters surrounding the vast islands of Xaxtel. There was an urgency to the call that pierced through his very bones, startling him out of his slumber within mere moments. Blinking blearily inside the darkness of his crate, it took him a second too fully comprehend what was being said. And then he heard it clearly, the word that carved nervous fear right into his heart.

“Pirates!!”