The Lorèn Project [Discontinued]

Chapter 25

The picture above is not mine, I liked the artists work so, please credit the original artist^

The ground was wet and squishy under my boots as we walked along the broken walkways carved by the people before us. The forest surrounding this city was thick and bushing with lots of animals, birds and insects. The mosquitos were horrible and were swarming me like I was some juicy steak.

I was swatting them away nonstop and I swear Levi chuckled at my suffering more than once. I swatted around my face again with a deep scowl on my face once again.

"Go away you blood sucking pests!" I yelled annoyed at the unwanted attention from the blood suckers.

"Pfft.." I heard another muffled laugh and I whipped my head around to see who did it and I could see Levi covering his mouth in a horrible attempt to hide his laugh.

I glared at him intensely as I continued to use my left hand to swat away the pests. My continuous stare left me not paying attention to my surroundings and before I knew it, there's a giant oak tree in my face.

I pull away from the tree to rub my sore nose and look over at Levi to see him laughing his ass off.

"Pfft, ha ha! I can't believe you're that dumb!" Levi bursts out after holding his laugh and it causes him to let out a loud snort. It only causes him to laugh harder and harder with his weird sounding snorts. He ends up curdling over into a crouched position, holding his stomach in a fit of laughter.

"Don't laugh at me!" I cried out as I rubbed my sore nose some more, ignoring the curious glances of everyone else. "Well, if you weren't so dumb and payed attention, you wouldn't have ran into the tree now would you?" Levi said with a dark chuckle as he stalked towards me, like a hawk circling a helpless mouse.

"I'm not done with you sweetheart. You got lucky last time. Just wait till I get my hands on you." He says in my ear with dark intent. I gulp down my saliva in fear as I try to step away towards Evan. He was standing a few feet away, minding his own business. I ran to catch up to the captain who was leading our little convoy.

The captain looked more serious than ever and he stood a lot taller than I had once seen. He seemed cold and distant as he lead us, with a dark gleam in his eyes as he scanned the area. He whipped his left arm out to the left in a motion to halt his crew.

"Evan, climb that tree and look for any nearby bandits or gangs. We need to avoid as much conflict as possible." He says strictly as he looks over the large ledge in front of us. I could look over it and see the destruction from miles. The large skyscrapers that once held tons of offices, the shops and homes that once were here all destroyed from overproduction.

I looked up to see a thick cloud of smog covering the area, you could smell the radiation in the air, mixed with a wet smell from the acid rain. Evan had climbed the tree and I could see him scanning the area with a serious expression. He looked towards the captain and made a hand signal which I'm assuming meant that things were clear.

I was enjoying the journey, the adventure with the crew, even if I didn't really get along with the people in the crew.

I was observing how everyone was going about things as they worked as I've never seen how pirates operate and it was interesting.

They stayed intimidating at all times they never smiled not even once, Levi was the only one to make jokes with half hearted smiles but there was always a dark glint in his eye. He was snagging people's wallets without them realizing it and he also made quick snags at people for not noticing.

I stayed by the captains side the entire time but I never let my gaze wander too far from Levi as I feel he'd do something unnecessary. I didn't feel comfortable around Levi, he gives me a weird vibe with his actions. His constant joking, his crooked smiles, his stupid laughs at the most inappropriate things.

He just annoys me to no end with his personality, it's just he's too easy going to be a pirate but at the same time he still gives off a creepy feeling. He can also be very intimidating with his menacing glare and his threats. He jokes around with me but then he goes from laughing to threatening me.

Is he bipolar or something, because that's what it seems like to me? Maybe he's just got a weird way of adjusting to new people?

I couldn't help but watch his shenanigans as he just never stopped, he had lots of energy.

"Come on, ya ol' man! I was kidding with ya! Tsk, don't take everything so seriously!~ your too serious like the captain." Levi says with a hearty laugh with no cares in the world as he slaps the back of the older man he was joking with. "Boy if I could get away with it, it'd slit your throat by now. Captains orders to ignore ya lad." He says with a blank, cold look as he tries to pry Levi off of him.

"Oh, captain do you hate me so much you'd tell people to ignore me? So mean!" He says as he slaps the captains back but captain merely shrugs Levi off of him, then turns to look at him. "Take your job more seriously Levi. Our lives could be a risk here. See? We're almost at the main highway to the city." He says seriously shoving a bewildered Levi to the side to point where we were.

I hadn't noticed either since I was too busy watching Levi but we'd made it to the center of the city, covered in vines and moss. I looked to the side of me and flowers were covering the vines that wrapped around an old car that was destroyed what seemed to be years ago. I noticed in the window of the car there was a small note with a small bag attached.

I looked over to see captain too busy dealing with Levi and I decided to reach over to grab it. I flipped it over in my hand to read it, it said:

"Captain Aeonis,

It's a pleasure to see you have responded to my request. Inside this bag is a small sample of the rope that was once around the hilt of your precious heirloom. Its only a small lump of hair really, but the color should convince you. We'll rendezvous at the town hall two hours from here.

We'll be expecting you

Sincerely, Your Enemy: Ron"

Who calls themselves your enemy? I shook it off and tapped on the captains shoulder to get his attention.

"Um, this is for you?" I said indirectly, stating I hadn't read a super personal note from his arch enemy.

He looks at the paper in my hand before snatching it up and gritting his teeth in anger.

"Fucking thieves! We camp for the night and leave at dawn!" He says in an pissed off tone before kicking open one of the doors on the abandoned building. "Its clear here, set up camp here. We'll leave at daybreak." He then walks off to cool down in another room away from everyone else. Everyone flinches as the door from the room next door shakes.

"Guess whatever the thieves stole means a lot to him..." Levi says insensitively before someone slaps him upside the head. "Ow! What was that for—" Another slap to the head, then he shuts up. "Its none of your business boy, shut up!"

No one mentions it again the rest of the night, and I decided I'd sleep on the couch in the room. It wasn't that clean but it was better than the dirty floor. Its been a long day...