Scarlet Queen

Chapter 10- Lucas' POV

As the Sky Pirate's ship soared across the sky, I leaned over the edge. The wind smacked me in the face and brought tears to my eyes, but it felt good. The wind brought a sense of freedom.

I still felt a hum deep inside of me, a tone of joy that had long since disappeared. The fact that Ruby was still alive, that she still cared about me, was something that reawakened me in a way nothing else could.

I felt a tap on my shoulder, and turned to see Ruby standing next to me. She wasn't wearing her scarf, and her cape was fastened around her shoulders with the hood down. I was amazed to see how open she was being. She looked so different from when I originally saw her, when her hood and scarf had been pulled up so that you couldn't recognize her.

I was so lost in thought, I didn't realize that Ruby tapped me again, then again. Eventually, she just shook me. "Earth to Lucas. Wake up. I need to show you something!" I jolted out of my daze, and she smiled. She points across the landscape. "Lucas, I want you to look at the land. See how it changes," she said, then she turned and walked away, joining the other pirates at a pile of cloth. I was confused at what she was doing, but I shrugged it off and turned to watch the land.

It was a beautiful sight. The trees were covered with leaves of bright green, their branches reaching tall and proud into the sky. The hills were covered in massive swathes of green grass and wildflowers with the prettiest colors. But as the airship sped on, I noticed the land changing for the worst.

The trees weren't growing as tall, and there were less and less leaves on the trees until there were no leaves left at all. The trees reached up from the ground, like skeletal hands clawing at the sky. There wasn't any grass, either. The small amounts of grass that did grow came up shriveled and brown, and the only flowers were thistles. The hills were rocky, and mostly covered with dirt. I shuddered at the pure desolateness of it all. And then, I saw a village.

The village itself seemed to have grown out of the mud. Every building was dirt brown, and the few people I saw were wearing brown. As we got nearer, I heard laughter. I glanced to my left just in time to see a group of children running across a field, kicking at a brown ball. As the ship's shadow passed over them, the looked up and started cheering. They sprinted to a woman by a small well, pointing up at the ship and shouting. The woman, looked up, then abandoned whatever she was doing and bolted towards the village.

"Ruby?" I called, nervous about what was going to happen. She turns and gives me her 'basilisk glare', as the other pirates call it. "Sorry... Scarlet, what's going on? Are they angry at us?"

She strides across the deck and picks up the end of a rope ladder, then starts to drag it to the edge. "Why would the villagers be angry at their only source of life?" As the ship slows and then stops, hovering over the village square, villagers come and crowd the square. Ruby flings the ladder over the side, and a cheer rises up from the crowd. "Lucas, come on. We can't keep them waiting," she said, grabbing my arm and pulling me across the deck to two piles of cloth. I realize that they're satchels.

"Grab one from each pile. One has food, the other has supplies and money. Each family gets a pair," she orders, grabbing two satchels. I reach out and pick up two, surprised by their weight. Ruby jumps over the side of the ship, sliding gracefully down the ladder. I follow, carefully climbing down the bands of tough fiber.

I land next to Ruby, who's climbed on top of a wooden crate and is shouting orders to the ecstatic crowd. "Alright, everyone, make a line! Make a line! We've got plenty for everyone, no use rushin'," she says, waving her hands. Eventually, the crowd quiets down and forms a line. I start to set my bags down, but Ruby grabs my arm and steers me to the front of the pirate group. "I want ya to stand by and listen. These people will be askin' questions. I want you to listen to both those and the answers." I nod, and she moves to stand next to me, two bags in hand.

The first family that comes up is a man dressed in threadbare clothes, with two little girls clinging to his shirt. "Morning, Jeff. I got some medicine for your wife in here. Stuff for your son, too, in case he gets sick," Ruby says, handing him the first two bags. He takes them, then, with a low voice, says, "We've been askin' the king to send supplies for a long time. But he ain't sent nothing yet. There were rumors that he did send supplies, and that they're on their way..." The man's voice trailed off, and I knew he was asking for the truth of this statement.

Ruby ducks her head. "Jeff... there are no supplies. The king has been concentrating all of the supplies in the kingdom to the Capitol. He lied about sending any to here," she says softly. The man, Jeff, bows his head. When he speaks again, his voice is husky. "Well... at the very least, thanks for bringing these," he mumbles. Ruby nods, and he steps out of the way, his two little girls staring at me with wide brown eyes. As the next family moves up, I know that those little girls eyes will haunt me forever.

The questions that come are similar to Jeff's, but all are in their own variation. "Is the king coming to the village?" "What news is from the Capitol?" "I have family in Capitol Village. They said they'd send supplies. Is that true?" Ruby answers the questions as best as she can, despite the fact that none of the news is good. But no matter what she tells them, the villagers walk away with hope in their eyes.

Soon, all of the satchels were gone, and the villagers had gone home. The Sky Pirates were heading back up the ladder. I grabbed onto the rope, carefully climbing up. "Lucas, why are you so slow?" Ruby griped from beneath me. I looked down at her and immediately regretted it. I was at least 10 feet off the ground. I felt my head spin and started to lose my grip.

Suddenly, I felt Ruby grabbing my hands, holding them in place. "Wow. Just wow. You can stand on an airship hundreds of feet in the air, but you can't climb up a ladder?" She smirked. "You really have changed, brother." I grinned weakly. "Please don't remind me about the airship..." I said, my head still a little unsteady. We climb up the ladder the rest of the way, and the airship begins to rise higher.

"Ru- sorry, Scarlet, what was the point in that visit? Other than helping those villagers," I ask. Ruby turns and looks out at the village. "I wanted to show you how the king doesn't care. He wants all of the resources for himself, and doesn't care about the villages suffering, like Village Everfall." She suddenly grabs my shoulders and locks eyes with me, the intensity of her actions startling me.

"Listen to me, Lucas," she says, her voice low, her eyes burning with ferocity. "Promise me that you will stay on my side. I've lost too much to the king. I can't lose you too."

I nod. Her grip tightens. "Promise me!" she says louder. "I promise. I promise that I will stay on your side in this fight," I say. Her grip relaxes, and she steps away from me. "Good. That's what I needed to hear," she said, then she walks away to join a pirate at the wheel.

I stare after her for a few moments, then turn to go below deck. As I reach my newly given hammock, I start to wonder why Ruby seemed so frantic to get my promise. She knows I would never betray her. So why did she get my promise?

Did she need it for something bigger?