The Spell Called Love - Empires SMP S2 AU: Nature Wives

Chapter 13: Beautiful Trouble (Katherine)

Katherine was taking the day away from Glimmer Grove seeing as she had no work left to do for her kingdom, she took the time to catch up with the other Emperors

First she went to Sausage's as she was running low on wood, she stopped by the wood hut and ran into Sausage restocking the jungle wood barrel.

"Hi Sausage!"

Sausage jumped, putting a hand to his chest and turned round to face Katherine, "Katherine you gave me a scare,"

Katherine smiled sheepishly, "Have you got any birch wood left?"

Sausage nodded, pulling a face at the mention of his less preferred wood type, and skipped over to the birch wood pile, patting a barrel, "Help yourself,"

"Thanks," Katherine said as she wandered over to the barrel, opening it and digging out some birch logs.

They descended into companiable silence before Sausage decided to ask Katherine a question:

"Have you and Shelby got together yet?"

Startled, Katherine made to look up at Sausage, only to forget for a brief second that her head was in a barrel. As a result she bashed her head on the lip of the barrel, making Katherine whince.

She withdrew her head from said barrel, rubbing the spot where she had hit her head and gave Sausage a suspicious glare, "...No..."

Sausage looked a little disappointed at this, "Hasn't she confessed to you yet...?"

"Errrr..." What has she got to confess to me?

"That’s a real bummer," said Sausage, looking genuinely put out, "Well, I guess these sorts of things take time. Enjoy your wood!"

Puzzled, Katherine waved goodbye to the defender of Sanctuary and took to the sky. Katherine shrugged to herself, it couldn't be anything major otherwise Shelby would've told her by now. Katherine concluded she wouldn't give to much thought and would make her way back home.

Along the way, she flew over the Ancient Capital, admiring the crumbling buildings and the magnificent forgotten architecture.

Pix could be seen on the ground tending to a small wheat field. As Katherine flew over, Pix looked up and gave her a wave, which she returned before carrying on her flight path.

She flew through the clouds and began to enjoy herself as she dipped and drifted through the fluffy damp clouds.

Eventually she began to come across the familiar terrain of Glimmer Grove, so she started to descend into her beloved kingdom.

She landed gracefully and wandered into her castle to put away the blocks of wood. Then, she skipped back put into the sunshine and breathed in the fresh breeze of midday.

The villagers were going about their business, the river was sloshing against the boats in the pier, the wind was laughing at the roaming sheep and cows and all was peaceful, just like Katherine preferred it.

Katherine became lost in the tranquility of Glimmer Grove that she didn't notice a ship sailing down her river.

It wasn't really sailing, it was drifting with the current as its sail was burnt to a crisp and in tatters. The sorry looking jolly roger was still flying proudly on the splintered mast and the hull of the boat looked like it had been ripped apart by a wild animal.

Katherine was bought back down to earth as a mass of villagers had started to gather on the pier where the battered boat came to port. A fisherman politely tapped her on the shoulder then pointed over at the sorry looking ship:

"It's a pirate, m'lady,"

"A pirate?" asked Katherine with a furrowed brow.

She let the fisherman lead her through the muttering crowd of farmers, leather workers and fishermen to the boat.

Katherine took in the appearance of the boat and then looked down at the single crew member on board. Katherine was even more confused at the sight of an alligator lying beaten on the deck of the boat, his clothes ripped and scorched.

"Gator?" (I think that's his name...? plz correct me if wrong) Katherine asked the alligator, rather concerned at his sudden appearance.

At the sound of his name, Gator's eyes snapped open and he jerked into a sitting position clutching his torn pirate hat to his chest with a terrified look in his eye, until his gaze fell onto Katherine's worried face and his scared expression relaxed slightly, the creature of fear still prancing in his reptilian eyes.

"She's gone absolutely nuts!" Gator snapped, making the villagers step away from the boat in fear of finding themselves in his powerful jaws. This, however, only make Katherine even more curious.

"Who's gone nuts, Gator?"

Gator's eye flashed as he made eye contact with Katherine.

"The bloody witch, who else?"

"Shelby?"

"Yeah, she's gone absolutely insane! She stormed in with some wicked corrupted power and nearly strangled me to death," Gator hissed with loathing.

Katherine bit her lip and turned to her people, "Mend the ship for Gator, then send him on his way," She turned to the horizon, narrowing her eyes, "I've got a mystery to investigate."

*

Katherine flew like the wind towards Pirate Joe's residence, not stopping once for anyone.

She got to the magnificent sea horse gate and stood looking into Eversea, dreading what she was about to get herself involved in.

The seahorses were both scarred at the bottom of their tales and the gate itself was pushed open and was drifting sadly on the water. Katherine gulped and leapt back into the air, flying through the destroyed gate to see a horrific sight.

The once beautiful heart of Eversea was now in ruins, building torn up from the ground, the wood burnt and splintered the path and stone was charred and blue slimy things covered the dock.

Katherine landed on the top of the dock and looked around at the scene, appalled by the state of Eversea.

"Joey...? Joey?!" Katherine called out to the seemingly desolate ruin, checking for the pirate's presence.

Katherine waited for a few seconds and was about to give up when she heard the faint high pitched squeal of her pirate friend:

"KATHERINE! KATHERINE, HELP!"

Katherine, now alert and desperate, tracked the voice, pin pointing a rough direction from which she had heard it.

She followed it to a beaten up storage house carefully removing a fallen plank of wood from the door, coming into the room.

It was dark and damp and smelt of wet fish, there was roof rubble strewn across the floor and claw marks of a familiar dark blue with turquoise sparkles scattered up and around the walls. Joey was tied to a fallen beam, nailed into the wall with a nasty looking nail.

He had his arms and legs tied with chords of vines and was stripped of his armour, leaving his pirate tunic exposed.

"Katherine, thank the sea gods, you need to get me out of here, Shelby's gone madder than a box of frogs."

"Shelby?" Asked Katherine as she went over to pirate Joe to begin untying him.

"Yes. Now hurry up before she come back-"

"Before who comes back, Pirate Joe...?"

Katherine scampered to her feet and spun round to face the owner of the voice.

Shelby stood in the doorway her signiature with hat perched on her head and was holding her menacing soul-eating scythe in one of her sculk corrupted hands, in the other she held a struggling broom, which sculk was slowly creeping onto.

Shelby's face was laced with sculk, as with her hands, and a small poisonous smile was playing across her lips and her turquoise eyes narrowed at her unsuspected visitor.

"Ah, Katherine, how nice of you to join us."