Another Way Back [Complete]

Part 4 - Delara

What happened next was highly unspectacular. Jay had gotten so used to Nadakhan's rather dramatic ways of making an appearance that it was almost disappointing when Delara just materialised out of nowhere, without any 'poof!' or other special effect.

All of a sudden, she was just standing there, right in the centre of the courtyard. From the way she scanned her surroundings, Jay assumed that she was just as surprised about this. And she was probably wondering where she was and how she had gotten there.

Although she had just returned from the dead, Delara did not look like the other ghosts they had previously encountered. Her face had the regular [LEGO-]yellow skintone and her outfit showed the same brown, orange, and dark green colours as the other Skypirates' uniforms, although in a much more elegant style accentuating her female curves. The only small detail that revealed her 'condition' was the slightly transparent body.

Jay took a close look at the Misfortune's Keep's former quartermaster. No, there was no denying that, despite their age difference by quite a few years, Delara had a striking resemblance to Nya. Or the other way around. Their faces and eyes had identical shapes and they also shared the black colour and the style of their short hair. And when he saw the shade of green in Delara's eyes, Jay finally understood why Nadakhan had changed Nya's eye colour earlier.

But the years she had spent living the tough and adventurous life of a pirate had left signs on Delara's body. A long scar ran over her left exposed arm and Jay noticed the serious, hard expression on her face.

"Delara." The Djinn whispered and floated over to her.

She turned around and her face softened immediately. "My love." She replied. "My only wish has finally come true."

When they embraced in a long and passionate kiss, Jay almost felt like intruding their private moment, so he buried his face in Nya's hair, while she snuggled into his chest.

"What happened to your arm?" Nadakhan ran his thumb [I know they don't have fingers, but I didn't want to write 'claw'] over the scar on Delara's arm.

"Soto." She replied. "After you were... gone, we - the crew and I - set out to recover the Teapot of Tyrahn from him. It took us several months, until we finally located the Destiny's Bounty and we immediately attacked. While his crew were distracted, I was able to sneak into Soto's quarters and find the teapot. Unfortunately, Soto discovered me and gave me this scar, but I still managed to escape back to the Misfortune's Keep with the teapot. We then tried to get away from them, but they wouldn't let us and so the battle went on. In the end, both ships sunk and both crews were floating on nothing but a few planks in the ocean. We were eventually spotted by the governor's fleet who came to 'rescue' us. But I knew that arrested pirates were usually banished as punishment and I didn't want to survive just so that I would have to spend the rest of my life in a different realm, without any chance of ever seeing you again, so I held on to the teapot and kept swimming away until... I drowned."

The reunited couple continued to talk quietly among themselves, completely in a world of their own.

"Do you think they would notice if we tried to get away?" Nya whispered.

"I don't know. But Nadakhan will miss you, when he wants to make his next wish..." Jay answered. "I don't want to hide from him for the rest of our lives..."

So they stayed.

At least my wish was not completely wasted. Nadakhan is happy to be back with Delara, which means that Nya should have nothing to fear from him in that way. Even though he can't let us go, because he needs her to make his wishes, maybe he'll just leave us alone otherwise...