Uncle Naro and Key looked from the teenaged girl and elf then to Liam and his crew before looking back at the two. Before they could ask anything, the Elf male shouted, “Why are you here? Are you here to take Miss Omira?” He took a step in front of the teenage girl in a protective manner as he shot off, “Mighty bold of you all to board this ship and try that. I will have you know that the people here on this ship are well trained and will not take kindly to you…”
“Whoa dude. Chill,” Liam cut him off as he placed both hands up to show they had no malicious intent. “We aren’t here for any of that. In fact we didn’t even know you where you two had gone. Let alone know you were on this ship.”
“Lies!” The elf man argued. “You must have known where we were since it didn’t take you long to find us again…” A look like he had figured something out had appeared on his face as he accused, “I see. You were really in cahoots with those brutes earlier. That’s why you were able to defeat them so easily. It makes sense now. You wanted to create a sense of safety pretending to save us earlier so you could get closer to Miss Omira and when our guard was down you would take her…” He suddenly gasped dramatically as he looked aghast and finished, “No! Worse! Your aim is to kill her! Fret not Miss Omira. I, Sebastean, shall protect you!”
“I’m sorry sir, but I think you have a grave misunderstanding,” Mercer started to say. His voice was both calm and collective. “We really aren’t here to…”
“Silence!” Sebastean interrupted. “Even now you are using some sort of magic to calm us…Your voice! You must be using some sort of Bard type magic aren’t you?!” The Elf slightly turned his head to look at the teenaged girl as he instructed, “Quick! Cover your ears Miss Omira! You won’t fall prey to his smooth silky voice if you can’t hear it.”
“But I…,” Mercer tried again, cheeks slightly pink.
“Don’t stare at him either Miss Omira! His silky voice laced with Bard Magic will also make you believe that he is devilishly handsome. What with that slender build, curly blond hair, and mesmerizing emerald eyes…Gah, I am falling prey to his wicked ways!”
Liam was about to back up his friend in arguing back, but stopped as he saw something he didn’t think he would ever see. Mercer was so stunned he couldn’t say anything, and he was blushing. What is this? he thought as he stared at Mercer’s body language. Liam was a bit confused as he read that Mercer was surprised and enjoyed the comments, even though he was being accused of something he wasn’t doing. This is…this is…hard to really read.
Liam then heard Roman whisper to Gimmel, “If he blushes any harder you might think he likes being called handsome by that Elf male.”
Blair and Ariyana suddenly appeared behind him and one after the other swiftly smacked the back of his head, making him complain loudly. He quickly snapped his mouth shut after getting some death glares from the two women.
Avery looked at Omira and asked, “Is he always this dramatic?”
Omira gave her an apologetic look as Key asked the teenaged girl, “You guys know each other?”
Sebastean was about to reply until Omira elbowed him in the ribs and answered, “They stopped the group of Lizard-folks that were chasing us earlier. We weren’t too sure who they were and ran out when we could.”
Uncle Naro looked at Liam and asked, “Is that true?”
Liam nodded as he replied, “Its why we were late. We had snared one of them and turned them in.”
Key and Uncle Naro nodded their heads in understanding. Everything Liam was talking about earlier was replaying in their minds. Key gave Liam a look of approval as Uncle Naro gave him a thumbs up. Liam gave them both a confused look, not understanding why they were doing that. His confusion then went back to the two as he asked, “So why are you guys here?”
“That’s none of your business. Please remove these people now,” Sebastean stated with a hand rubbing the area Omira had hit earlier.
Ignoring his words and attitude, Key answered, “Her father hired us to ferry her to a certain place.”
“Miss Keysilia…,” Sebastean started to argue. He was instantly cut off as Key glared at him and said, “Do not call me by my full name Mr. Wobbleknees. That is only reserved for those who I respect and even, so they do not call me by that name. You shall address me as Key or Captain while on my ship or you can leave.”
Sebastean looked flabbergasted as he stared at her. “You will kick us off the ship even after Miss…”
“You,” Key corrected, confusing the man.
“I beg your pardon?” Sebastean questioned.
“You, Mr. Wobbleknees, are not my priority. I was tasked to ferry Miss Omira not you so please remember that I will kick you off the ship without a moment’s hesitation if you act in a manner that I feel is not up to my standards,” Key announced. “As I have told you when I made my assessment of you there is something about you that I do not like. I cannot figure out what it is for some damn reason, but my gut has never been wrong. The only reason why you are even allowed to board my ship is because Miss Omira has requested it and since it is her father that I have been employed by for this I will give her this much.”
“But what about…,” Sebastean started back up again as he pointed to Liam and the others.
“They are my guests and are coming aboard with us due to a request from one of my closest allies and friends who I trust more than I can throw you and believe me Mr. Wobbleknees, I can toss you pretty damn far,” Key said. Her posture turned into one that demanded respect and understanding. Her facial features hardened showing her seriousness, and her clipped sharp words promising the threat that she was underlying them with.
Sebastean stared at Keys. Liam could see several different emotions pass over his face as the man continued to stare. After some time had passed he turned around and huffed before saying, “Fine. Come along Miss Omira. We shall wait in the room provided for us.”
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“I…I think I’ll join you later,” Omira responded, sounding a bit meek. Sebastean turned his gaze on her making her hastily add, “I have some things I wish to speak about with Miss Key.”
Sebastean studied her for a brief moment before finally saying, “Very well. However, please remember Miss Omira…While Mr. Narat did employ Miss Keysi…” He let out a cough before correcting himself, “Miss Key to ferry you. I have been appointed as your Barrier. Please do not be too far from where I can see you.”
Liam watched as Sebastean spoke to Omira. As he watched the man he noticed some differences to how he was a few minutes ago as well as back in the forest. The differences wasn’t only in his attitude, but also in his eyes and body position. It was like he was a completely different person. Those differences quickly disappeared as his tense muscles loosened and gave off that weak look he had before he disappeared down the stairs. However, Liam still saw something in his eyes.
“Dude is like a hurricane,” Roman whispered to Gimmel who nodded his head in agreement. Gimmel looked at Liam who had looked back at him. They nodded their heads with understanding. There was something weird about the man and they didn’t like it.
“I’m sorry for Sebastean’s attitude,” Omira apologized as she bowed her head to everyone. “He’s under a lot of stress and I think it’s starting to show. He’s normally a relaxed carefree kind of guy. I think the traveling and the attacks has him on edge.”
Liam eyed the teenage girl as she spoke. She didn’t seem to be speaking any lies, which made Liam wonder some more. While it was one thing for stress to pile up and make a person act differently, it was another to change your body language enough to try and make people believe it. He wasn’t entirely sure, but everything about him felt like an act. However, since he didn’t really know the guy there was a chance this was all true. That didn’t mean they wouldn’t keep an eye out.
“The attacks? What attacks?” Key questioned before shouting out to her crew, “We’re setting off. Get to work.”
“Yes ma’am!” Her crew responded before setting off to their tasks.
Omira looked uncomfortable as she looked around. Uncle Naro noticed this and suggested, “The area up there seems to be free and away from the others. Why don’t we all head up there and talk some more about what’s going on.”
Omira didn’t respond for a few seconds before letting out a sigh and saying, “Alright.”
Everyone made their way up the stairs to the area Uncle Naro had suggested. From their they could feel the breeze more easily and could see the port city they were just in starting to grow smaller. Liam watched as bird creatures flew around and fish jumped around in the water.
“You should be fine to talk about your worries and troubles up here,” Uncle Naro started as they all made it up there. “The wind should be able to block out most of what you say from anyone down below. Please tell us what happened on your travels.”
Omira remained silent for a few minutes. Liam could see she was struggling to figure out what to say. He wasn’t sure if there were things she felt she shouldn’t say or if she didn’t know where to start, but before she could begin everyone heard a noise that made them turn to face the direction it came from.
It was a familiar noise to Liam. One he tied to a game he was steadily becoming very familiar with each time he or any of them stepped through a portal. It was the sound of someone upchucking. No…not one, but two people. It was the sound of Artem and Roman hanging over the rail of the ship, upchucking into the water.
Avery and Blair placed a hand on their foreheads as they shook them with disbelief. Gimmel grimaced as he watched them while Ariyana patted and rubbed Artem on the back. Mercer let out a sigh as Liam chuckled a bit muttering, “Upchuck Roulette strikes again.”
“Oh come on…this doesn’t coun…,” Roman protested as he spun to glare at Liam before turning back around and spewing liquid out his mouth as the ship dipped before coming back up from a wave.
“I’ve never been on a…,” Artem started to say before clamping down on his mouth fighting the bile that threatened to come up. “Ship before…I didn’t think it would be this ba…” He lost the fight as liquid exploded out from his mouth.
“There, there,” Ariyana said with a soothing voice. “It’ll pass soon enough…You just need to get used to how the waves feel.”
Key sighed as she muttered, “The big guy I figured might happen to, but the fox tailed brat…that’s a surprise.”
“I think I have something that can help alleviate their symptoms,” Uncle Naro stated as he looked through his inventory. Before he could start looking for the items, he and the others all heard a giggle.
It was soft at first and came out as a single time. Liam turned to see Omira with a hand over her mouth. He then saw her lose the struggle of holding back the rest of her giggles as her hand dropped to her side and her smile grew wide.
“I’m sorry,” Omira said between her giggles as they started to die down. “I’m sorry. I just…I just didn’t expect both the Orc and the Kitsune to throw up like that. I think I felt relieved since if you guys were out to kill or kidnap me, you wouldn’t be so easily swayed by something like sea sickness.”
Liam now understood why she seemed to be struggling. Even with Key’s proclamation, she still wasn’t sure if they were as innocent as the woman had claimed them to be. Apparently through Artem’s and Roman’s new found sea sickness, those worries and concerns were put to rest. Like the teenager had said, if they were assassins or kidnappers, they would have been fine at sea since they boarded the ship.
Uncle Naro shook his head as he let out a belly laugh of his own. He then quickly grabbed the two items out of his inventory and gave them to Artem and Roman to drink. The contents were two vials with a light blue and light green colored liquid within it. At a glance Liam was able to see specks of something floating within it, but he wasn’t able to tell what they were.
A couple minutes later Artem and Roman were drinking as much water as they could almost as if they hadn’t had water in days. Uncle Naro scolded them to slow down and not drink too much or the effects of the potion would disappear quicker, and they would start puking harder. They both stopped at that and looked pale. Uncle Naro noticed Liam staring at him so he moved his head enough so the two couldn’t see him grin and wink at Liam. Liam understood that he was teasing them.
After the two calmed down, Key looked back at Omira and asked once more, “The attacks? What do you mean by that?”
Omira looked conflicted once more. However, this time she didn’t take long to respond as she said, “A few days after leaving Alvenith, the Elven capitol, we came across a group of Lizard-folks skulking around in the forest. Sebastean and I were separated from our escort team and decided to try and run all the way to the designated port town you were in.”
“Lizard-folk?” Uncle Naro questioned as he raised a brow. “Are the Elves and the Lizard-folk not on good terms anymore?”
“I don’t know,” Omira shook her head. “I haven’t heard any news, but this group of Lizard-folk were strange. When we called out to them, instead of a friendly greeting they acted with aggression and tried to attack us. After Sebastean and I escaped a small group of them followed us until we ran into…” She had looked at Liam and waited for him to address himself.
“Liam. My name is Liam,” Liam replied.
“Liam and his group who had stepped in and stopped them from doing anything to us,” Omira finished.
“Hm…that is strange,” Uncle Naro muttered.
“Aye, it is,” Key agreed. “The Lizard-folk aren’t ones to act aggressively without provocations so for them to do that…”
“I did see something strange on them,” Omira suddenly said as she looked like she remembered something. Everyone turned their gazes on her as they waited for what she had to say. “They had some sort of mark on them…no…not really a mark. Maybe more of a strange wound. Like they were hit with a strange Rot spell, but the smell of it…” Omira made a disgusted look as she finished, “The smell that came off of their wounds smelled like decay.”