Lost At Sea (Rough Draft)

Part 07

The two snuck away, entered a smaller less busy tavern that also cooked meals, they sat down and ordered some drinks and food before the protagonist built up the courage to finally speak up and addressed the mysterious woman, asking her what she knew about the amulet and its history. The young woman didn't respond at first until after the food and drinks were delivered, being motherly with taking the rum away, she began to summarize that her grandmother used to tell her about the stories of the amulet, she had lived there when she was only a little girl and fled that night with her family. She smiled slightly thinking back to happy childhood memories, before brushing them away and continued explaining in a serious tone that she knows how dangerous the amulet could be, the protagonist played with the said amulet under their shirt, before she also warned them that now that the amulet had a wielder, the young teen had a target on their back and would have to be extremely careful around anybody and everybody. The protagonist huffed, "so why should I trust you?" shoving the greasy food in their mouth, making her chuckle, retorting back that there were several chances for her to kill them and all she wanted to do was to protect them and the amulet, the two smiled at each other before tucking back into the food. After the meal, the young woman tossed a couple bronze coins on the bar before the two left, wandering on the island discussing details about the amulet and how beautiful the magic could be, she was taken back that the protagonist could conjure physical wings to fly off the island. They sat on the port, legs dangling off the pier when the conversation turned to who she was and she confessed that she was a trained fighter for hire and would make money beating up arrogant men, the young teen perked up at that. The protagonist eagerly asked the female fighter to train them on how to defend themselves, against the people who would come after them now that they had the amulet, which took the young woman back but she went along and agreed with the young teen but asked them whether or not they wanted to go back to their pirate crew/family. The protagonist grew quiet, concerning the woman, and thought deeply about what they should do, whatever they chose would completely change their path of life, and then they finally looked over at her and confidently stated that they would train with her. So for the night, she bought a room for the two of them to sleep in, she offered the small bed to the young teen and she would sleep on the sette, the protagonist struggled to fall asleep after laying on the ground for so many night, now on a somewhat comfortable mattress but after a couple hours they finally fell asleep, and had a vivid abstract dream about a grand castle with the same colors as the Knights from the past and then the same loud gruffy voice of the other captain from earlier in the day before waking up with a gasp. Early morning light streaming into the small room through shabby curtains was the first thing the young teen saw when they woke up, sitting up in bed, eyes wide and heart racing, they looked over at the corner where the young woman was sharpening one of her blades, she looked up to the now awake protagonist, "well good morning sleeping beauty, you ready to start your training?" They groaned, flopping back down on the bed making the fighter chuckle before sliding out of bed and ate the semi warm porridge at the small table and sipped tea before the two left the room, out of the building, and back to the abandoned room to start their training. The first thing that the young woman, Cassandra, did was to strengthen the young teen's endurance and speed, doing almost pointless exercises running around for hours and hours, then she would move onto the physical combat part of the training, hand to hand combat for a while and then they would practice with one of her daggers, they would try to disarm Cass with moves she showed them. After a long day of training, the woman would take the young teen to the port sitting on the roof of a building, she taught them how to observe and learn things about the strangers with just a glance, while munching on their small meal. This was their routine for a few weeks, Cass could see the vast improvement in their ability to defend themselves and be able to protect themselves from others who would do them harm, when the protagonist was able to disarm Cass with a small cheer, making her chuckle in response while she picked up her dagger off the ground and mimed an applause. As a congratulations, Cass took the young teen out to a tavern to celebrate with a grand meal, everything was going well until she suddenly noticed a couple shady pirates hovering at the bar across the room, glancing over at her and the young teen several times, her eyes drifted to their clothes and noticed the familiar emblem as a tattoo on one of their hands. Cassandra's eyes narrowed, her body went rigid, and thoughts going a mile a minute, the protagonist came to a stop eating the greasy, messy meal and glanced over at their friend who was acting weird, absently tugging at the bracelet cuffs on her wrists, they used their training and glanced around the tavern, and saw the two men out of place in the lively, boisterous room. Cass quickly made eye contact with the young teen subtly leaned forward to whisper in their ear to tell them to run while she could distract them, they were about to deny that plan of action but stopped when they saw how serious she was, nodded silently and allowed her to continue explaining her plan. Cass explained that she would cause a commotion to distract the two men so they could slip out of the tavern unnoticed and make a run for it, to escape the island, even without her, and don't ever look back, she comforted them by reassuring them that Cass would find them again, no matter what.