The Adventures of Theobolt Lorre: The Poly-Islands

Chapter One

The return to Marresh was bittersweet: Theo hadn't been back for a long time having spent months in the neighbouring continent of Delos and he missed his friends and his home. But he also didn't want to come back; he wanted to be out on the ocean or running through a palace from guards because he stole a priceless artifact. He loved the adrenaline and the heart pumping sword fights he would find himself in. He loved the jewels he found and he loved seeing the different countries on the continent. And meeting new and interesting people. He also enjoyed the fact that women clung to him at every port and then he could sail away and never have to see them again. He smiled as the Amore came closer to port. He could see the looming statue of the young God Mahir standing over the God-City of Marresh. Theo's hometown was one of many god cities in the world. No one knew how many there truly were, but the God cities were the only ones who had thousand foot statues of the God who built the city standing guard. Theo had learned the stories from his childhood: the gods had come from the heavens and built cities that they would live in while on earth. But when wars started and buildings were destroyed the written history of these Gods were also destroyed. Everything would be burnt and the only history left would be what was passed down from generation to generation from storytelling. The histories was one of first things to be destroyed when a city was sacked. Theo only knew that Marresh was one because he lived here.

Mahir had built this city on the coast of Orissa behind massive sand dunes. In later years, the sand dunes would guard Marresh but would also be used to distinguish the god city from the overflow cities. From the stories he was told the gods used the cities to house them while they lived on earth checking on the humans who lived among them. The cities were also used to keep the jewels and treasures the gods would make or bring down with them. They were highly prized collectibles and they were the ones Theo was searching for throughout Delos and Orissa.

As much as he enjoyed the adrenaline rush of stealing jewels and sword fights that didn't really mean anything, he had grown bored of the pirating life. Yes, there was lots of money in it and that's what he wanted. But it was also the same thing over and over again. Go into the city, find the place the jewel or treasure was in and kill some people to get it. Then he would bring it back to the highest bidder. It usually ended up being the Warlords who lived in the deadlands of Orissa. The Warlords always bought his jewels. But he didn't care where the jewel ended up or the history of it. He just wanted the money from it. He had become legendary in the pirating world like his father, Finn, but it wasn't enough for him. He still had many questions about his life and his mother, who he didn't know. He was struggling with the fact that he didn't know who he was.

Theo walked swiftly off the docks and passed all of the merchants yelling at one another about the days stock. He took his leather jacket off and placed it over his arm as it was too hot now in Orissa to the thick jacket. It was also too hot to wear any clothes, but apparently, you couldn't walk out of your house naked. Theo had tried and he was arrested for it. Alcohol may have had something to do with his choice that day. He smirked at the memory. Theo strutted up the stairs off the docks and onto the streets which were full of people going about their own business. People yelling to tell the shoppers what they had in their shops and small kids running around stealing food without the merchants seeing. The buildings had almost no walls as it was too hot to keep them enclosed and pubs and restaurants and stores were joined together with barely any storefronts. People in Marresh knew exactly what store was in which building and went where they pleased. Most of the stores had been in the same buildings for generations passed down from one member of the family to the next. Theo didn't want to walk through the markets as they were always busy and chose to walk along the coast where there was no one. The roads were bumpy and just compounded dirt from centuries of people walking over them. He followed the dirt roads back to the palace his father kept in Marresh. The estate his father built was on the coast and they were lucky enough to have the ocean breeze flow throughout the house. It was where his Legion of Misfits, a group of orphaned or rebellious kids who his father had taken in and shown how to take care of themselves. Finn then used them to carry out missions that he never told Theo about.