A mere couple of hours pass before Locke and Lilanei – who had both fallen peacefully asleep in front of the campfire – are awakened abruptly by a very familiar sound. As they quickly wake themselves up and glance around in a hurry, they realize the baby bat that had escaped from earlier has returned – this time with another adult bat in tow. The bats now flap angrily about the campsite before the baby bat incidentally sets fire to their tent with its flaming body.
"It's that pesky bat again!" Locke cries, reaching for his crossbow. "Argh! The tent's on fire!"
Lilanei now cries as she reaches for her staff on her back and exclaims, "And after all the work I put into it! Let's destroy the beast!"
"You mean beasts!" Locke points out, noticing the other bat, before Lil simply hushes him and rushes to fight the bats.
As the two rush towards the bats, the adult fire bat screeches angrily before attempting to swoop down on Locke's previously burned forehead; however Locke ducks down under the bat, who flies over his head not even singing a hair. Locke turns and holding the crossbow in his hands, aims it at the adult bat, and fires off a bolt, which collides directly into the bat's center back. Glaring across the campfire at the baby bat, which surely followed them and disturbed their sleep, Lilanei then brandishes her staff and points the orb at its end towards the creature. Soon, the orb begins to emit a purple glow. Immediately, a large frigid bolt of purple magic launches from the glowing orb and collides head on with the baby bat, which turns it into a block of ice. As the bat drops to the ground, it shatters into thousands of small pieces.
As before, the adult bat swoops down and towards Locke's head – now greatly enraged that the infant bat has been slain. As the Bat swoops towards Locke, the rouge drops down to the floor with the Bat once again flying overhead. Locke returns to his feet and aims the crossbow at the bat once more, before he shoots off another bolt which collides with the creature. This time the bolt strikes the bat in the upper part of its left wing, with blood spurting from the new wound. This wound also causes the bat to now be unsteady in its flight as it has a hole in its wing.
Noticing the bat now flies erratically in the air, Lil dashes forth and attempts to slam the blunt end of her quarterstaff down onto the bat's head. Despite its dazed state, however, the creature immediately dives down towards the ground as Lil's staff strikes nothing but air. Dizzily, the bat continues to fly low as it launches towards Lil's legs. Nonetheless, Lil merely dives to her left as the creature swoops past. Locke at this point quickly takes aim at the bat and fires off another bolt, which just grazes the bat on its leg. With a cry, Lilanei immediately spins around to face the bat, and with her staff thrust high in the air, she slams it down forcefully atop the creature. As the staff makes contact with its small head, the bat emits a shrill shriek as its body collides harshly with the ground below. Weakly, the bat flails its wings as it struggles to regain its strength. From his position, Locke then fires off another round from his crossbow, sending another bolt flying into and striking the bat in the center of its chest.
The fire bat, weakly crying due to its injuries, simply flails on the ground as the flames which flow from its body begin to slowly die down. Seeing this, Lilanei attempts to give the bat a swift kick with her boot; however at the last second, the bat spasms wildly and flutters away from her kick as it lands a few feet away on the ground once again. After it lands, it begins to flap its wings more and more before attempting one more last-ditch swoop at Locke's legs. Nevertheless, Locke leaps over the bat and turns around, aiming his crossbow at the weak creature one more time. He fires off one more bolt which fatally connects with the fire bat as the bolt lands in the back of the its skull, killing it instantly.
As Lil watches the bat die, she utters a great sigh before saying, "So much for a good rest. . . I suppose we should get out of here before any more of its friends come along."
"Good idea," Locke replies. "Let's hit the trail."
Gathering up the remainder of their possessions, the pair set off once again down the mountain trail. It is not very long though before they finally reach the end as they come across a large grassy clearing. This clearing extends far into the horizon, where our Heroes are pleased to note the rooftops of a small town which lies nearby.
"A town!" Lilanei cries happily. "Maybe we can get some real food and real beds!""
"Only one way to find out," Locke happily announces. "I'll race you there!"
However, Locke pauses suddenly when he notices a shadow engulfs them and their surroundings before swooping of swiftly.
"What was that?" Locke asks with a frown as he looks up into the air.
Lilanei looks around curiously before she asks, "What was what? I don't see—"
As Lilanei speaks, the shadow once again engulfs them before they hear the very loud flapping of wings as a massive bird-like creature begins to land in front of them – carrying on its back, a portly and tall man. With a massive thud, the creature, which they realize now is a massive Griffon, lands on the ground before them as the man leaps from its back.
"Not so fast, ye landlubbers!"
"Huh," Locke says. "And who might ye be?"
With a deep laugh, the man exclaims, "Didn't ya hear me before, boy, when I said ye best be rememberin' me name? I be the infamous and great, Captain Belamros the Scoundrel! Pleased to be makin' yer acquaintance!"
"Ah, Belamros," Locke sniffs. "So you're the slime who had the passengers of the Mighty Blue captured. I'm surprised you had the spine to stand in front of me like this, considering you needed your goons to take me down, blind me, and knock me out. . . By the way, you must be pretty sore after finding all your prisoners gone, and your freakish pet dead. What was her name, Lil? Michelle?"
The Captain emits another deep chuckle before saying, "Yar! Ye be meanin' Martel, don't ye? I 'spose I might be mad at ye, weren't she such a scornful wench! I tired of that banshee long ago, yar! Yet, it ain't excused what ya done to me crew! So I be afraid I ain't gonna let ya pass this trail alive!"
"Ha!" Locke laughs. "Is that a challenge, Captain?"
The Captain now shrugs as he begins to unsheathe his short sword, which he points directly at our Heroes as he exclaims, "It's just business, me boy! No offense to ye, despite how much of a cocky whelp ye be, arr."
"I'm not cocky," Locke sniffs. "I just know I can show you who your Lord is, Belamros. You aren't much of a Captain without a crew, now are. . . ye?"
The Captain grins as he responds, "Ye be right! But I can find me a crew fast enough. . . But I'm afraid it won't be as easy for ye and yer scrawny wench to get past me!"
"Nobody calls my wench scrawny!" Locke shouts. "Put up your dukes, and I'll stick that short sword of yours so far up your—"
"Locke!" Lil interrupts as the Captain has now motioned to his Griffon, who swoops into the air and flies away.
Facing our Heroes, the Captain chuckles, "If ye weren't such a whelp, you'd make a good pirate, me boy. Time to die, me hearty, yo-ho!"
Without hesitation, Captain Belamros rushes forward as his large, heavy steps cause the dirt below him to fly up into the air. He dashes directly for Locke as he swings his short sword forward in an attack; however the agile rogue simply jumps back, allowing his sword to swoosh past his chest.
"Ye need be a better shot than that, dead eye, yargh!" Locke laughs mockingly.
As the Captain is distracted by his missed attack, Lilanei dashes for his left side as she swings her staff forwards in an attack for his torso. However, the Captain sees the Half-Elf dash at him from the corner of his eye as he swings his short sword to his left and swiftly deflects the blow of the staff. Still distracted, now due to Lil attacking him, Locke takes this time to once more aim his crossbow, this time at Belamros' portly belly, before he fires off the last remaining bolt of his magazine which flies into the Captain's great girth of a gut. Despite the successful aim, instead of impaling itself into the Captain, the bolt bounces off his belly and drops to the floor; however the shot leaves a welt on the Captain's stomach under his clothing.
Chuckling at the poor attempt of an attack, Belamros simply shoves Lilanei back with his sword, before then swinging the blade towards Locke's neck, as Locke ducks the swing and once again fully rises onto his feet.
"Yargh! Come on, Dead-Eye! Hit me!" Locke chuckles.
Lilanei stumbles backwards quite a few feet before she regains her footing, growling over at the Captain. Thrusting her hands forwards, she begins to concentrate deeply as the small beginnings of a fireball form to Belamros' left. This ball grows and grows in size before becoming the size of a large watermelon. As it rages, its flames lick out and lash at the pirate Captain, who “yarghs!” in agony. Now stepping back, Locke reaches for his final magazine of bolts which he clips into the crossbow, reloading it as he once again prepares to take aim at the Captain. As the fireball continues to lash out at the Captain, he grimaces in pain before stepping away from the ball as his hands reach into his heavy belt, where he produces a small dagger. Immediately, he aims the dagger for Locke and tosses it – the dagger hitting Locke in the lower arm, where it sticks into him through his flesh. As Belamros attacks Locke, Lilanei growls and directs the ball of fire behind the Captain as she focuses and attempts to have the flames strike out at him once more. Despite her deep focus, the flame does not respond however. Instead it rolls in mid air and remains still behind the Captain.
At this point, Locke points his crossbow back at the Captain and cries, "Hey Captain, get the eye patch ready!"
With that, Locke squeezes the trigger of his crossbow and with a "twang!" a bolt flies from the crossbow with its flight path leading to the Captain's face. Locke fires off another bolt, followed by one more, as all three bolts fly and collide with the Captain's forehead – each one sending pulsating pain through the Captain's head as he cries out in shock while his vision now becomes blurred and impaired from the blows to his head and the intense agony he now undergoes. Reaching into his belt for another dagger, the pirate Captain now growls viciously as he struggles to see Locke in front of him. With a stumble, the Captain moves forwards and thrusts a dagger into the air – the dagger flying directly in the opposite direction of Locke after the Captain stumbles around and instead faces Lilanei. The dagger flies swiftly through the air and with a swoosh pierces Lilanei's thigh sharply as she cries out in pain.
Stumbling back as the pain from the dagger shoots up her leg, Lilanei reaches for its handle before giving it a painful tug – pulling the blade from her flesh and tossing it to her side as she gasps. Locke meanwhile keeps his aim with his crossbow at the Captain; however he lowers it slightly before he pulls the trigger of his crossbow, sending another bolt flying through the air before it collides with Captain's large belly. This time the bolt doesn't bounce off his stomach; instead it actually pierces the Captain's attire and pierces into his skin, causing blood to spurt out of his belly as the bolt lodges into his stomach.
The Captain now emits a low and vicious snarl as not only the flames behind him continue to lick at his body, but as Locke's bolt causes his torso to pulse with throbbing pain. Anger rising, the Captain points his short sword forwards and makes a straight dash, and before Locke can react, the Captain thrusts his arm forwards, forcing his blade to plunge deeply into Locke's ribs on the right side of his body. Locke screams out in pain before the Captain twists the blade slightly, and with a laugh, the Captain withdraws his blade, blood seeping from Locke's wound while blood also trickles down the Captain's blade. Crying out in fear for Locke's life, Lilanei manipulates the fireball so that it disappears from behind the Captain as she dashes forwards with her staff in hand. Dashing up directly behind the Captain, Lil thrusts the staff viciously down onto his shoulder, the weapon colliding his body with a loud “crack!”
As Lilanei's staff collides with the Captain's shoulder, Locke takes this time to once again aim his crossbow at the Captain and going with a 1-2-like strike, Locke fires another bolt from his crossbow which flies and pierces the Captain's shoulder – the very same shoulder Lilanei had just struck. Clutching his injuries in pain, the Captain begins to back off towards his left, collapsing onto his knees just ten feet from our Heroes.
As he breathes heavily from pain and exhaustion, he looks on to Locke and Lilanei and with a weak chuckle, exclaims, "Yar! What's this, then? Bested by a human and his scrawny little wench?" The Captain pauses as he coughs with a deep chesty choke, before he continues, "I spent the best years of me life on this sorry continent, fightin' me way to the top. Captain Belamros the Scoundrel! And now the scoundrel be bested by a couple a-whelps!"
"Damn right!" Locke cries triumphantly. "You're nothing but a sorry washed up excuse of an old man still playing pirates. If you walk away now, we'll let you live."
The man's pained face curls slightly in a grin as he laughs deeply and exclaims, "Ye think I wanted this life, eh? Ye may act big, and be as heroic as ye like – but it ain't changed the fact that there be more than good n' evil in this world!"
"What do you mean by that?" Locke asks.
The Captain laughs and says, "If ye think the Scoundrel's be the bad guys, then ye got another thing comin'!"
"Ha!" Locke laughs. "You scoundrels mean nothing to me. We've faced tougher adversaries in the past. Much tougher than you, Belamros."
Still chuckling, he responds, "Ye ain't seen nothin' yet, ya brat. Ye ain't lived for as long as I have an' seen the things me n' me men have! If ya' think this place is gonna help ye advance in ya journey, then ye be sorely mistaken."
Lil now frowns and interjects, "What do you possibly mean by that?"
Now looking to the Half-Elf, the Captain smirks as he says, "Ye best be keepin' an eye on that scrawny wench. . . Cause if ye venture much further into Ibius, she'll be as good as dead fish bait."
"Shut your mouth!" Locke roars, swinging his right boot up into the Captain's jaw and kicking him onto his back.
As the Captain collides on his back side with a large thump, he merely laughs, his voice slightly choked due to the pain he's in as he cries, "Ye humans are all the same!"
"What?" Locke asks. "Then what does that make you?"
The Captain now shakes his head as his long bushy blond hair thrusts over his shoulder – revealing his tapered ears as he cries, "I be the lowly race you humans kick and kill on a daily basis, arr! If ye don't watch yerself, yer wench will be facing the point of a blade, and ye won't fair very well for bein' with her, neither!"
Locke kneels before the Captain with a concerned expression on his face, as he states, "Lilanei means everything to me, Belamros. If you tell me what we need to know, we'll walk away and let you live. So, spill it. What is it about Ibius that is so dangerous to my Lil?"
The Captain grins as he says, "Ye really are an ignorant little whelp, aren't ye?"
Locke's frown turns into a look of anger as he thrusts his head into the Captain's in a head butt; rubbing his head slightly, Locke announces, "I wont ask you again. Tell us, now!"
With his head being thrust back due to the blow, the Captain remains silent for a moment before painfully turning his head back to Locke, to which he says, "All the same, ye humans be! Ye ain't much different than that tyrant, King Bertz. Ever since the man's two timin' scarlett ventured off with that no good Cale, the country's been a right mess, ar! Mind, she was a beautiful wench. . . But when she two timed him with that Elf an' had the gumption to bare a whelp with him – well, that Bertz turned. The sorry landlubber's been on a maniacal tirade ever since, yar!”
Locke rises to his feet, "Well, that explains why most of your band of losers were Elf or Half-Elf. You're all outlaws!"
The Pirate glances over to Lil and exclaims, "Ye got a right bright one here, wench!"
Lil simply frowns as she glances to Locke and says, "So this King will kill both of us, just because I'm part Elf?"
The Pirate nods and says, "Yar, glad to see ye' be listenin'. Now if ye be so kind, wench. . . This Captain's sufferin' has been long an' hard, arr. I think it's time for me to sail directly to Davy Jones' Locker. End me sorry existence now so that I may rest in peace."
Lil's eyes widen as she shakes her hands in front of her and cries, "I could never do that!"
"And we won't," Locke says before scowling at Belamros. "We're not gonna kill you when you're prone and asking for it. Besides, you told us what we needed to know, so we're going spare you – this time. But if we meet again, then you may very well get your wish. Call this payback for putting us and the passengers of the Mighty Blue through hell. You'll continue your sorry life until you see me again, 'Captain.' Good day."
With that said, Locke grabs Lilanei's wrist and begins to walk away, Lil directly behind him – before the two reposition their hands and they interlock their fingers tightly, leaving the Captain on his backside, weak on the ground. As they march off, they notice the shadow from earlier swoop over them and pass them as the large Griffon from before lands directly beside its master. As the pair glance back, they spy Belamros, who has now weakly mounted his Griffon before he points to them and makes a phantom knife with the same finger and slashes across it across his throat in a threatening gesture.
He then cries, "Ye be makin' a big mistake, boy! I'll be seein' you again! Ye and ye scrawny wench!"
"And we look forward to it, Belamros!" Locke shouts back in defiance. "You hear me? I'll be the one to kill you, I swear it!"
With a loud laugh, the Captain nudges his Griffon, who immediately launches into the air towards the sky; as they watch the Captain fly into the horizon, Lil looks to Locke in concern and says, "So much for that next town! What if they hate Elves like he said, and they try to kill you?"
"They won't," Locke growls. "Nobody will get that close to us. We'll go to that town, and if they've got a problem with us, then I'll kill them," Locke squeezes Lil's hand a little more before saying, "I'm not letting you go like that, and I'm not ready to die yet. We'll be clever about this."
Lil squeezes his hand back as she tilts her head to the side and asks, "What do you mean?"
"We need to find you a hood," Locke replies. "We'll conceal those beautiful ears of yours and just slip through each town we come across, if Elves or Half-Elves are outlawed. If there's any town that welcomes them, then we shall stay there a while and find out more about this Bertz and the conflict between humans and Elves. This Bertz sounds likes he needs a good boot up the backside, and we could be the ones to give it to him."
Lil smiles slightly at Locke's reassurance as she says, "Well, before we can buy a hood, we're going to need to find a town! I suppose we can continue across to that town over there. . . and just hope it welcomes us."
"I can scope it out first," Locke explains. "If it's dangerous, we'll go around it."
As the two now continue to walk across the grassy clearing together, Lilanei nods and mutters, "Alright. . . But just be careful."
"Ha!" Locke chuckles. "I wouldn't be Locke Kallidin if I was careful."
Together, our Heroes then continue their trek across the grasslands as they watch the sun shrink more and more to the west. The journey is long and it isn't until a couple of hours later that they find themselves standing outside the outskirts of the small town before them. Surrounded by a line of trees, they notice a bridge leads into the town over a small and peaceful river which flows around the town – the water's current obviously flowing to the ocean nearby.
Locke looks to Lilanei and squeezes her hand in his before he smiles to her and says, "This might be dangerous, but don't worry. I won't leave your side. Just make sure you keep your ears covered with your hair until we find how welcome Elves are here."
Smiling back, Lilanei brushes her hair from behind her ears and attempts to cover them, the tapered ends just barely being concealed by her short hair; she then says, "I don't know how well this will work. . . But I suppose we have no choice."
"Be brave," Locke says. "Let's go."
Boldly, Locke and Lilanei cross the bridge and begin to make their way into the unknown and, to them, somewhat intimidating town. As they step over the bridge and into the town, they are seemingly then ambushed by two small figures which leap out at them from the sides.
"Ah!" Locke cries, as he reaches quickly for his crossbow and pulls Lilanei behind him. "Hold!"
As Locke stares down at the small figures, he slowly realizes that they are two Halfling women; slightly perturbed by his offensive stance, they simply smile and wave their hands as one of them cries, "Relax, mon! We're just welcomin' ya to duh festival!"
". . . Festival?" Locke asks, looking at the Halflings who seem very familiar.
Nodding, the Halflings reach for a pouch on their belt before pulling out two large necklaces woven with large, pink, and soft lotus flowers; holding these necklaces up to our Heroes, one woman explains, "It's our annual Adventurer's Festival, mon! We be celebratin' our Goddess, Avandra! Avandra smiles on all adventurers, so today, mon, especially for you, our festival games, our food, and de inns are all free!"
"Hm, sounds good," Locke says with a smile before he bows his head and allows the Halfling to place the large necklace around his head.
Lilanei, now emerging from behind Locke, smiles and bows her head as the other Halfling puts the second necklace around her neck also. As she does so, she accidentally brushes Lil's hair away and reveals her Elven ears; however as Lil stands and realizes what has occurred, she also notices the Halfling merely smiles and motions for them to enter the town.
"Well, that was a good bit of luck!" Locke says as he walks into the town with Lil. "You're welcome here, and everything is free for us! We can spend the night at an inn, huh?"
Cheerfully, she quips, "Yeah! It almost seems too good to be true. . ."
"Sometimes things aren't always like that," Locke replies with a smile. "Just relax and enjoy the time here, I guess."
"Okay!" Lil finally exclaims.
Our Heroes then look ahead of them to see they are standing on a large road, leading through the town and towards another bridge at its center. On this path lies many festival games as well as carts of food which are pushed and pulled down the busy street.
"This all looks like fun," Locke says as he looks around. "Do you want to play some games?"
Excitedly, Lilanei ignores his question as she tugs on his arm and cries, "Look! Games!"
"Well, what do you wanna play?" Locke asks. "It's all for free, so you can go nuts."
Grinning, Lil suggests, "Let's do everything!"
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