Rouge XX

The sounds were distant, but carried clearly over the sound of the waves and the babble of the people in the marketplace. All of their heads twisted toward it, and the two women went pale.

“Mum,” Vesta hissed, gathering up a small chest from behind the counter. “Let’s go. Da and the boys’ll be waiting for us.”

Rouge looked around, noting that all of the other locals were behaving just like the two women. All around them, shops were being closed, sometimes right in the middle of a bargaining session, and the vendors were grabbing anything that was easy to carry. The fish-flinging family had stopped, and each of them were gathering their goods into powerful arms. Everyone moved in great haste, except for a few elderly people, and a young man with a twisted foot, who sat at ease on his stool as the rest of the locals scurried around.

“What’s going on?” Rouge asked, but so one would answer, not even Vesta. The young woman just gave Rouge a frightened, apologetic glance, and hurried away beneath her father’s protective eye.

Silus fell from Rouge’s shoulder, her wings opening to catch the air as she swirled into graceful flight. ::I’ll go find out.::

Rouge nodded. “It sounds like it’s coming from the harbor. See if the Star is all right, too.”

::Will do!:: the bat squeaked, and then she was off. Rouge’s eyes lingered on her, but she didn’t give voice to the concern that beat against her breastbone.

Vexxx walked over to an old man and woman, who were deep in conversation. They were so ancient that their eyes were nearly lost in wrinkles, but they seemed alert enough as the lightning mage said, “What’s going on?”

They exchanged looks, but didn’t answer. Surprisingly, it was the boy with the twisted limb that spoke up.

“It’s the Gurangalongians. They’ve come looking for tribute for their god.”

Rouge and Vexxx moved closer to him. “Tribute?” Rouge asked.

He nodded, slapping his leg, the misshapen foot jumping against the scrubby grass on which it rested. “They only take the most perfect specimens to offer to their fickle god. They say that if he’s dissatisfied, he’ll destroy their whole island. We never know exactly when they’ll come, but once or twice a year, they raid one of the surrounding islands, since of course they don’t want to throw their own children into the volcano.”

Rouge’s eyes widened. “Have they always done this?”

He shook his head. “Just since the pirates stopped coming. They used to buy pretty men and women who’d been captured from ships the pirates took, but now they have to do their own dirty work.”

The old woman spoke up, though her husband seemed to be urging her to silence. “They used to do it before that, too,” she said, “though young Donnell won’t remember. They only made a deal with th’ pirates when we gathered together an’ fought back. Showed ‘em we weren’t gonna let ‘em take us any more. That was when I was young. This generation is just soft.”

The old man laid his hand on hers, and she scowled at him. “You know I’m right! Someone’s got to do something about it, and it won’t be these kids today!”

Quest: “Gurangalongabingbong” available.

You have discovered that a tribe from a nearby island is abducting people from Farewell Island and sacrificing them to their volcano god. Stop them, and/or rescue the missing islanders.

Success: The safe return of everyone taken from Farewell Island. +20 Reputation with all citizens of Farewell Island. Variable XP. Gifts from those rescued.

Partial Success: Drive off the Gurangalongians. The safe return of only some of those taken from Farewell Island. Variable rewards, depending on percentage rescued.

Failure: The Gurangalongians escape with their victims, and succeed in sacrificing them to Gurang.

Current abductees rescued: 0/4

Accept: Yes/No?

Without thinking, she accepted the quest, already calling for Codswallop. Vexxx raced along behind, though as soon as they left the wiry grass behind and their feet sank into shifting sand, she could tell he would never be able to keep up. Reaching up, Rouge grasped Wally’s saddle as soon as she was close enough, and swung herself up onto the ostrich’s back.

Glancing down at her cousin, who was brick red and panting already, she said, “You’ll have to catch up when you can.”

He snorted and looked over at the sway-backed horse tied to a palm tree nearby. “I thought you were a thief.”

Rouge hesitated. Yes, she was, technically, but mainly she was in it for all the cool, sneaky skills, and the occasional opportunity to pretend she was an internationally renowned cat burglar, stealing from the rich to give to the poor. And since ‘the poor’ was usually her, and she hadn’t been poor in a while, that meant she hadn’t been plying her trade lately. Plus, she tried not to steal from anyone who didn’t deserve it, and she didn’t know who the horse belonged to.

“Just take ‘er!” called the voice of the crotchety old woman. “If you’re goin’ to help those folks, it’s worth it. That’ll be ten gold when you bring ‘er back, though!” She cackled madly, and Rouge and Vexxx stared at each other.

“You’re paying,” Vexxx muttered, but he put his foot in the old mare’s stirrup. Instantly, the beast stepped to the side, dumping him on his skinny behind.

Rouge turned away, covering her laughter with a cough as she tapped her heels to Wally’s sides. The ostrich took off, his clawed feet throwing clouds of sand behind them with every stride. Vexxx’s curses faded into the distance as Rouge spoke over party chat. ::Vexxx, I’ll see you there. Silus, there are raiders here to take people back to sacrifice them to their god.::

The bat sounded breathless as she responded, ::I know! I got one of them with [Pestilential Bite], and I leveled up! They took Scar, though. He and Bonny were here doing something with the cargo, while everybody else was still on the Star. They managed to surprise Bonny and knock her out, though they just left her there. They took a couple of kids and another lady, too, and now they’re getting back in their boats.::

Rouge leaned forward, calling out to Wally, “If you can get me there before that ship leaves, there are two cinnamon rolls in it for you, buddy!”

Wally squawked understanding, and the next thing she knew, they were hurtling away from the earth, propelled by the force of his powerful legs. Running in the sand was hard and slow, so Wally clearly decided to play to his strengths. The bird used his [Jump] skill to leap onto the curved trunk of a nearby palm tree. With a few strides, he reached the top, and just as the tree began to bend beneath his weight, the bird jumped to another tree. From there, he settled into a familiar rhythm, jumping from tree to tree just as he usually leaped across the roofs of Refuge.

Rouge grinned, then barely managed to duck as a palm frond whipped over her head. Okay, this wasn’t quite like building bouncing, but it was close enough. From her newly heightened perspective, she could see the harbor coming into view. People were running around, while a few buildings burned, and two long, elaborately carved boats pushed out into the water.

::I’m almost there, Silus,:: Rouge sent. ::Is there any way you can keep at least one of those boats from taking off?::

::Sure!:: Silus piped, and a moment later, one of the wide boats visibly wobbled as the man pushing it away from the beach began jumping around, swatting at something in the air.

Party member Silus (NPC) has dropped below 95% health!

The notification Rouge had set in case the bat was injured while she was away went off, and she stiffened, staring intently toward the beach and the flailing man. He continued gyrating madly, however, and no more notifications popped up, so he must have just gotten in a lucky swing. At last, he staggered and went down.

Silus whooped. ::I got a level in [Drain]! And I got one of the earlier ones with [Disease Vector], so he should be contagious. He’s in the other boat, I think.::

Sure enough, the first boat, which had been slicing through the waves toward a sort of jumbo-sized catamaran, began to list to the wide. A man leaned over the side, then slipped out and into the water as several other men stood up from their oars.

::Um, Silus,:: Rouge sent as Wally leaped down from a tree, his two-toed feet throwing up plumes of sand behind them once again. ::Can that disease make the captives sick, too? Or is it specific to your enemies?::

There was a long pause. ::Oh,:: the bat said, sounding subdued, ::I didn’t really think about that. I don’t know. It’s not very strong yet, though, so it won’t kill anybody. Probably.::

As Wally’s feet dug into the boardwalks built over the sand, Rouge summoned her Mambele, throwing it at the man Silus had been harassing.

You have dealt 372 points of damage to Fanatic.

Nice! Now that she was close enough, Rouge narrowed her eyes, examining each of the attackers. They were each labeled as Fanatics, though there were a few with specializations. The important thing was that none of them was over level eighty, with a few in the mid-sixties. She massively out-leveled them, in much the same way they out-leveled the average islander.

Baring her teeth, Rouge summoned her weapon back to her hand, throwing it over and over at the Fanatics, who quickly went from aggressive to fleeing with their tails between their legs. Not literally, because they all seemed to be standard humans, which was actually kind of squicky because she preferred her monsters to look like monsters. Still, they’d started it, and there was no way she was letting them get away with throwing innocent people into a volcano.

Unfortunately, the boat that had already left had time to make its way to the mothership while Rouge was stuck on the beach. Rouge was just putting the last of the Fanatics out of her misery when a lightning bolt blasted out of the clear blue sky and destroyed the vessel still half-beached near her. Pieces of painted wood flew, and a few splinters struck Rouge, taking a few points off her health; the first damage she’d taken.

Whirling, she stared at Vexxx, who stood, arms wide as a tiny tempest circled over his head, and winds whipped his red robe around his body, revealing the long purple shorts he wore beneath it. More bolts arced out of the cloud, striking the water between him and the catamaran, but the large vessel itself seemed to be out of his range.

Someone aboard the catamaran pulled in the surprisingly small anchor, and it turned so its sails filled with wind. The edges of the small storm Vexxx had summoned actually seemed to be helping them, giving them more of a breeze than they might have found otherwise. Without hesitation, the vessel turned in a wide curve, exiting the lagoon, and leaving Rouge staring helplessly after it. If she hadn’t wasted Codswallop’s [Avian Flight] earlier, she could have caught them in a minute, but as it was, she’d have to wait for the locals to regroup enough to give chase.

She heard a groan and looked toward the sound, seeing that several people were lying in the sand nearby. From their clothes, they looked like a mix of locals and Fanatics, but one was clearly different, and Rouge recognized her as she sat up, gingerly touching a bleeding lump on the back of her head.

“Blast it,” Bonny growled, accepting Rouge’s hand. Rouge pulled the quartermaster to her feet, and the other woman immediately began staggering toward the boat the Star used to ferry goods from ship to shore. Luckily, the Fanatics had landed at the other end of the beach, because they had set fire or put holes into all the nearby vessels, most of which were larger than the Star’s little boat.

Rouge jogged after her, only pausing to whistle for Wally and wait for Silus as the bat landed on Rouge’s shoulder and immediately began preening her fur with her little wing-thumbs. “What happened?”

Bonny shook her head, motioning for Rouge and Vexxx to climb into the boat as she began pushing it away from the beach. “It was a stupid mistake. I was busy haggling with a potential client over price, and the next thing I knew, Scar was shouting and something smacked me upside the head.” The boat wobbled as the sand released it, and Bonny gave it a final shove before swinging herself into it with practiced ease, though not without a wince or six.

From the shore, Wally warbled in distress. The bird really was too large for the boat, and as far as she knew, he couldn’t swim. He waded out up to his knees, neck stretched toward her, flapping his wings as his feathers grew wetter and wetter.

“You stay there, Wall! I’ll be back soon, I promise! Just go into the,” she waved at the palm trees, wondering if they still counted as a ‘forest’, “tree-area, and I’ll come find you when we get back!” For a moment, it looked as if she was about to find out if ostriches could swim, and she waved him away. “We can’t get you up onto the ship, even if you can get out there, buddy. Just hold on.”

This seemed to get through, and Codswallop finally stopped pushing deeper into the water. Raising his head, he bugled the loudest call she’d ever heard him make. The booming sound echoed out over the lagoon like a cannon shot, and she sniffed against tears the game wouldn’t allow to fall.

“He’ll be all right,” Bonny said gruffly. “This is a safe place. Or at least, it always was before. An’ we don’t have time t’get him aboard.”

Rouge nodded, and grabbed the oar Bonny tossed toward her. Vexxx got one, too, but he fumbled it, nearly dropping it into the sea. Rouge looked over at him as she mimicked Bonny’s movements, pushing them away from the shore as the waves tried to push them in. The tide must be going the wrong way, because it was difficult to keep the small boat going the right direction, and it would have been nice to have another person rowing.

She glanced over at Vexxx, who had finally managed to dip his oar into the water, only to have a wave nearly knock it from his grasp. ::You need to put points into something besides Intelligence, Vexxx.::
He glared at her, gasping for air as he replied, ::I’ve
 been
 told.. I have to,:: he gritted his teeth, rowing as hard as he could, ::get some more levels, first.::

The rest of the short trip was made in silence except for the slap of the waves against the wood of the boat and oars, and Vexxx’s harsh breathing. When they pulled up beside the Star, Horatio threw down some ropes, which Bonny attached to some metal loops in the sides of the boat. Clanking came from above, and the boat lifted from the water, creaking as it came.

Jean’s face was the first Rouge saw as she climbed out of the boat. The captain looked furious, and her face was pale beneath the soft fuzz. “Where’s Scar?”

Bonny glared. “They took him. You musta seen him.”

Jean’s fingers clutched at the railing. “They had the prisoners down low, so they wouldn’t be in the way. I couldn’t
 I thought he might be
” Her voice shifted to a wail. “Why would they take him? They don’t take anyone who’s not perfect!”

Sighing, Bonny motioned to Horatio and Grace, who were watching the tableau. Horatio looked worried and a little frightened, but he scurried away, loosening ropes and pulling at others, even as the expressionless Grace pulled up the anchor.

“It’s the hair,” Bonny said, pulling hard at a rope Horatio placed in her hands. “If he’d just keep it short, people could see the scar, but with it down like that, you can’t even tell it’s there unless he looks right at you. The Gurangalongians probably didn’t even see it.” Her lips pressed together. “An’ I hope it stays that way, at least until they reach land. I don’t want to know what they’ll do if they realize he’s damaged goods.”

Rouge looked between them, surprised. “You know about the Gural.. Gurang
 the Fanatics?”

Captain Jean gave her a distracted glance. “Of course. Father sold people to them for years. It’s where Scar would have gone as soon as he’d been healed. The only reason he wasn’t killed or sold before we reached Port Carnival was because of his injuries. Father knew they’d scar, and the Gurangalongians wouldn’t take him with that kind of damage, so we were taking him to find a priest. Now,” she pointed toward the quarterdeck, “get out of the way, so I can go rescue my husband.”

Rouge and Vexxx got.