"We’ve got to escape into a crowd," Gennady said, about to dash into a group of passersby.
I grabbed his hand, and yanked him back; I shook my head.
"No."
"What? But—"
I cut him off by shouting at the top of my lungs.
"Help, guards! Help!"
"What are you doing?" The Dwarf cocked a brow, but I ignored him.
Immediately, at my screaming, a handful of individuals stopped what they were doing and started for me.
"What’s going on?" a man asked.
"Get the guards! Please."
A susurration ran through the crowd and the message quickly found its way to a small patrol of guards. They pushed their way through gathering bystanders as I quickly ran up to them.
"You have to help me," I begged in a pleading voice. I looked up at them with my eyes, and gave them my best puppy-dog eyes. "That group of men— they attacked my dad! And they’re trying to attack me now!" I spoke hurriedly.
"Calm down, little Miss. What’s going on?" the patrol leader asked. "Explain slowly."
I took a deep breath, and sniffed. "My dad brought me to his ship, The Lightbringer’s Vessel, like he usually does once a week. But then that group of bad men came and got mad at us. They attacked dad’s friends, and threw him off the ship. Now they’re chasing after me. Please, you’ve got to stop them and help my dad!"
I buried my head in my hands, pretending to sob as I did; the guards exchanged a look, and the patrol leader spoke reassuringly.
"We’ll speak to them and try to resolve this, ok?" he said. "Just wait right here."
"Ok," I said softly.
Then the group of guards walked past me, and intercepted the angry sailors right as they reached the end of the wooden wharf. I immediately shot a look to Gennady, and he nodded.
We ran.
We made a dash out of the dockside area of the city as the guards distracted the angry sailors; we did not duck into any side streets, choosing to stay in the main roads despite the fact that we could get caught. I doubted it would happen, plus I did not want to get into any more trouble in some dark alleyway.
The Dwarf and I finally reached our inn, and it was only in our room did we breathe a sigh of relief.
"That couldn’t have gone any worse," I commented.
"Yep."
"I mean, that was the first crew we talked to. And now we’re probably blacklisted by every ship on the harbor."
"We definitely are."
I glanced down at my companion who was still trying to catch his breath; he did not have the best stamina, probably due to his bodyweight and his age. He was in his 60’s, which was considered middle aged for a Dwarf.
"What happened there?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "You were so calm one second, and the next…"
Gennady shook his head. "Nobody insults a Dwarf’s craft," he said, straightening. "You may think us to be short, ugly, and maybe even too hairy— that makes no sense to me, but apparently Elves hate facial hair.
"However, you never denigrate their tinkering abilities. Especially not mine. I was one of the best, if not the best, in all of Taw. I would never take such offense lightly. Sorry, lass, I know it made things much more complicated, but I had to defend my honor."
I eyed the Dwarf for a moment, realizing that the sailors genuinely hurt the man with their comments. I rested a hand on his shoulder.
"Ignore them," I said. "They’re just idiots."
"I know," he snorted, and I smiled.
I added, "Plus, you may be short and excessively hairy, but I don’t think you’re ugly."
"Now you’re just patronizing me."
"‘Course," I imitated him and grinned.
Gennady laughed and slapped me across the back. "Lass, you really are a fun one." He paused, before quickly continuing. "And an interesting one too! I can’t believe you fake cried to get some guards and bystanders to help us! I’m glad I decided to stick with ya."
I shrugged. "You’d be surprised how often children lie to get what they want." Even though I’m not a kid, I thought.
"Well, good thinking anyways," he said, laughing again.
"So," I started, finally deciding to discuss the elephant in the room, "what happens now?"
Gennady grabbed a chair and slumped over onto it, wiping sweat off his forehead. "What do you mean?" he asked. "And before you respond, it’s a rhetorical question."
"Right." I clamped my mouth shut.
He continued, "We already had a plan if going to the harbor failed, didn’t we? Plan B if no ship was willing to take us."
"Ah," I said, not surprised, but let down that he did not have some sort of super secret plan he didn’t tell me; instead, it was just the backup illegal plan we had in mind. "Hire some smugglers."
Chapter 23: Saved and Spent
Water, earth, fire, fire, air, earth, fire, air.
Earth, air, fire, air, fire, water, earth.
Water, fire, air, water.
I glanced down at the final combination of symbols; it was not a common sight to see water paired with fire, since the two were supposed to be diametrically opposed in their real elemental forms. But this was simply a representation— the symbols were named as such because they roughly resembled the elements, however they were not the direct equivalence of said elements.
The theory behind these symbols was a result of complex observations, with its origins stemming from the Great Hero Xander himself. There were basic fundamental rules to creating working runes to draw the power out of a mana crystal— such as how increasingly complex polygons
