Castaways: Origins

Chapter 15 ~ Cinder

"All right, buccaneers! I got an order from Prism this morning. We need to locate our Castaways and check up on who is who," Cinder said while walking from one side of the deck to the other. "I have a checklist that should be right over here..." she spoke, but looked very confused. Great, she lost it.

"Perhaps you're looking for this?" Neron responded, while holding up a piece of paper. The pirate took it out of their hand, thanking them and mumbling about how she totally knew they had it.

"So, we have three people we can seek out without too much trouble. A young, blonde werewolf and two young dragon warriors in training. We can get into the dragon warrior camp easily, but can ye get us into the werewolf camp, lightning bolt?" Cinder said, while staring at the werewolf. Thunder seemed uneasy but nodded, determined to help out his friends. Cinder smiled, showing off her big golden tooth.

"All right, just on one condition," Thunder started, and Cinder raised an eyebrow. "That we go to the dragon warrior camp first... Old salt." This caught Cinder off guard, but she quickly beamed a smile.

"Yer learning pirate talk so that ye can communicate with me?" Cinder asked, smiling happily.

"Actually, we've been learning pirate talk for a while now," Neron said, while looking over to the werewolf. "It's quite fun."

Cinder immediately dragged the pair into a hug, lifting them up from the ground and turning around happily. After that, the pirate walked over to the steering wheel and screamed 'All aboard!', a saying the merperson and the werewolf were pretty used to. The ship sailed from shore, and after a few minutes, they were on the ocean. It would be two hours until they arrived at the camp. The wind was fortunate, and so they would be a lot quicker.

The pirate suddenly heard a voice. A voice she was unfamiliar with. She ignored it for now, maybe it was the wind, or Thunder with another voice crack. All was fine until she heard the voice again, and this time she turned around to see who -or what- was making that noise.

"Thunder, Neron? Are ye hearing that voice?" Cinder shouted, not turning around and keeping her eyes on the sea.

"No?" Neron responded. "Cinder, are you okay?" They said, and approached the dragon. Neron's expression changed very quickly when they looked at Cinder's face. "Cinder, your eyes are completely blacked out, are you hallucinating?"

"I don't know, kid. I feel fine, I'm just hearing voices from out of nowhere. How do ye fix this problem?" The dragon asked, but it was more of a rhetorical question. Nobody really knew what to do in this situation. Neron seemed to be thinking.

"Cinder... What are the voices telling you?"

"That we should stay away from the werewolf camp. That we should stay away from Sol in general, buccaneer. She's a bad person." The dragon responded, and her eyes returned to normal. "Whew, that sure was a weird one. Land ahoy! We're almost on shore," she continued like nothing had happened.

Neron raised an eyebrow, worrying about the dragon. But they had no time to ponder now, since the trio had a mission to complete. Cinder seemed rightfully hesitant about entering the camp, because she had to face the elder she left behind years ago. She let Neron take the wheel as they were about to touch the land, so that Cinder and the werewolf could make preparations such as readying the anchor and giving the merperson directions. The trio worked together perfectly.

Cinder pulled out a map and Thunder pulled out a compass, combining the two to find their way to the dragon warrior camp. It led the trio to a place between volcanoes, which didn't surprise Cinder at all. She had been there before, living there most of her life. However, she wasn't really sure about whether the spot she had in her head was correct.

"So, crew. Let's walk over to these landlubbers and check on the young lad and lass. How old would they be now, 6 years old?" Cinder asked, questioning the wizard's intentions. "Why would he want us to check up on 6 year olds?"

"If I'm correct," Neron started, "He wanted us to check up on them because Prism wanted to know if the kids were actually there, and not just some dream he had." Cinder nodded. That made sense.

"And that's why we check two races, so that we can be extra sure!" Thunder exclaimed, catching up on the situation. Neron nodded as well, signalling that the werewolf was correct. The trio now walked forward, and the camp was in sight.

Cinder really didn't want to go there, but she did not have much of a choice. Everyone there knew about her condition, and they all could see how bad it had gotten. Maybe she should patch up her eye like a stereotypical pirate and act like everything went away? No, that would be lying. Geez, Aviary is a bad influence.

"Should we just... walk in?" Thunder asked, and Neron shook their head, like it was a bad idea. Cinder didn't really bother, and just wanted to get this over with, thus storming into the camp unannounced and walking up to the head of the camp.

"Listen here, scallywag. I want ye to confirm to me and me crew if these kids with this description exist or not," the dragon spoke a bit too loudly, grabbing the attention of everyone in the field at the moment. Neron seemed to be really uncomfortable, due to them 'not being on the same side', so Thunder walked out of the camp with them, but kept an eye on Cinder, making sure that things didn't escalate.

"Why would you--" The eyes of the elder opened widely in shock. "Cinder? Is that you?" He asked, and laughed loudly, publicly humiliating the untrained dragon. "Your curse has gotten far worse! Just look at your eye!" He now stood up, grabbing the attention of everyone. "Look over here, people. This is how you turn out when you're too lazy to get your dragon warrior title!"

Cinder didn't feel anything over this action, because she was used to it. She was used to being shamed. She was used to being the example for bad behavior, rebelling. She was used to being an outcast, a castaway.

Cinder decided to take advantage of the situation, and looked around. On the sidelines, she saw two kids matching Prism's description. A boy and a girl, watching the uproar that was going on. Cinder immediately knew it was them, because she felt a connection. She knew these kids were going to be her successors. Now that that was confirmed, she had one tiny thing to deal with.

"Look pal, that's all good. But can yer warriors do this?" Cinder shouted, and took two steps back. She grinned at the elder before her bones switched places, her body grew and she turned into a dragon. There were 'ooo's and 'aaa's from the crowd. The boy and girl watched in admiration as well.

"Well, old man, I need to get back to me ship and the Briney deep. But most of all, I need to get back to me family, me actual family. Not the lie you landlubbers have been selling this dragon for years," Cinder stated while turning back. She turned around and waved, while mumbling to herself how good that went. The crowd was whispering about her attire, and how pretty her golden hoop earrings were. They desperately wanted to know where she got them.

However, the dragon cracked a smile when she heard the little girl talk to her friend about when she grows up, she wants to be able to become a dragon as well. She seemed like a feisty gal, even for this young age. They were definitely her successors.

When she returned, her friends clapped, and talked about how perfectly she handled this. Together, they walked to the shore, and sailed off to their last destination.