Crimson Princess

Chapter 2: A Long Way From Home

Kari awoke, head throbbing slightly, she sat up and found herself in a dark room on a pile of straw, the whole room was lightly swaying, she quickly deduced that she was on a boat. Her pants felt loose around the waist area. That's odd. Running her hand through her hair, she found it to be a mess, another thing she'd never had to deal with, her hair had always looked perfect 'naturally' with no input from her.
Kari looked at her arms, runes covered both of them, the same runes repeated, Kari didn't know how but she recognised the runes and read them to herself, 封印する, Fūin Suru, "To Seal" she translated into common at a whisper.

She heard something on the other side of the room, a big mass arose from the floor.
"Ri" she breathed as she realised it was her childhood companion. His hands were bound by rope, Kari made her way over to him, as she stood up her pants fell down, she quickly hitched them up and held them with one hand.
"What's wrong with your pants?" Rion queried.
"I don't know, I've never had this problem before, and my hair is a mess, I think it might have something to do with these things on my arm, I've tried rubbing them but they won't come off, do you think those soldiers put them on me?"
"More than likely, now help me get this rope off and you can tie your pants up"
Kari fumbled with the knot and eventually got it loose, and proceeded to tie it around her waist.
"There now my pants are fine, but my head still hurts where I was struck with the branch, and that bastard will pay for insulting my mother" she finished through gritted teeth.
"Yes, I also felt those insults, your parents practically raised me as well, however right now we need to figure a way out, since we are on a boat, we are probably a long way from land, so swimming isn't an option, we need to wait till we get ashore"
"Hhhm, I suppose you are right" Kari sighed in defeat.
"Do you hear that?" Rion heard footsteps and voices outside their room.
".... the girl's magic has been sealed and the boy is tied up we will be fine, we just need to take them to the captain"

The door opened and there stood two soldiers, one with a key chain in the door and a sword at his hip, and the other held a crossbow limp at his side, until he noticed that Rion was unbound, he aimed it straight at him, and the sound of a sword being drawn was heard.
"Why are you unbound?" Demanded the crossbowman.
"She needed something to keep her pants up so we took the rope off."
Kari lifted her tunic to show them
"Take a good look boys this is all you're gonna get" she teased.
The crossbowman shifted his aim towards Kari, directly in the centre of her chest. "Try anything boy and the girl dies"
Rion stepped in front of Kari, the bow now aimed at his sternum. 
"I doubt your captain will be too happy with that, but I'll adhere to your request if you stop aiming that thing at us, cause if your finger slips it won't take me long to kill both of you"
"Ri, don't go provoking these men, we still need land to escape" Kari whispered to him, Rion nodded his head slightly in agreement.
"R-right" stammered the guard with the sword.
"W-well anyway Captain Ralpha requests your presence" he sheathed his sword now that he was sure the prisoners weren't going to try anything.
"Please follow me, Dygan you follow behind them keep the crossbow trained on the boy" the crossbowman inclined his head and complied.
Kari kept rubbing the ruins as subtly as she could without being noticed, they still wouldn't come off.
They eventually reached the captains cabin, the swordsman, Kilgan, knocked on the door twice.
"Enter!" Boomed Ralpha's voice from within.
"Ah Princess Hikari, and, Rion, was it?"
Both of them just glared at him.
"Ooh such hurtful stares, please have a seat, you men may go, I've got these two"
"Uh, I'd rather not Cap-"
"You will do as you're told, leave us be"
"Y-yes captain"
"Good, and besides I have Halgreave here to protect me if anything goes wrong"
He gestured behind them, revealing a man who was easily 8feet tall, muscled from head to toe, his most stand out feature however was his eyes, one a dark brown, the other a bright blue, like a sapphire.
Kari's jaw opened slightly in awe at the size of this man, Rion puffed his chest out absentmindedly.
The captain chuckled "Relax boy, he won't do anything unless I say, Halgreave here is a simpleton, his father was a man, his mother, as you may have guessed, a giantess."
Kari's ears pricked up "Did you say giantess? Giants are real?"
"Yes girl, giants, elves" he paused and looked at Kari, she subconsciously touched the tip of her left ear. Ralpha shifted his gaze to Rion.
"Lizardkiin"
Rion stiffened.
"Ri, why did he look at you when he said that?"
"Oh-ho, he hasn't told you? My my princess you're in for a treat, your friend here isn't human, I would have thought you were smart enough to work that out."
Kari scowled at him.
"It's quite easy to deduce somebody's race, just look into their eyes, what colour are his eyes, girl?"
"Golden" Kari whispered.
"Hhm, gold, yellow, whichever, it is the colour of the Lizardmen, we humans have brown eyes, the Giants; blue, and you Elves...." He trailed off waiting for Hikari to finish for him.
"Emerald" Kari muttered under her breath.
"Emerald? Interesting, you Elves are all so so proud. But enough about races on to the matter of why I've bought the two of you here"
"Wait!" Kari blurted
"What about Dwarfs?"
"Dwarfs? Ah yes, there is a myth that Dwarfs exist, alas tis naught but a legend, there is no way that anything could live under ground"
Kari looked at Rion to try gain his insight on the matter, Rion just shrugged.
Ralpha cleared his throat "Now onto the matter of why you're here on my ship, I do apologise for the havoc that was caused on your island, it was not my intent to harm you, or any of your fellows; however, you did attack first and left us with no choice, I can assure you that your father is alive an-"
"You insulted my mother, how can I know you're not lying?" Kari cut him off.
"Hmm, yes I knew you wouldn't believe me" he pulled the glove from his right hand and pointed his palm at a mirror in the corner.
"Shōjo no ie o misero" He winced in pain as the runes on his hand glowed, a second later the mirror shimmered, and showed Kari's hut.
She gasped loudly.
"What is this?" She demanded
"This? This is simple scrying magic my dear girl, surely you know what it is I said for this to happen?"
Shōjo no ie o miseru Kari repeated it to herself trying to work out the translation into common. With farrowed eyebrows she finally worked it out.
"Show me the girl's house?"
"Correct, this mirror is now showing us your house in real time, this spell is quite useful, alas it can only be used on places you've seen before"
"Where are ma and pa?"
"Relax girl, your parents are fine, I had my men heal you father before we left, and returned him to your mother, whom was left unharmed, it was not my intent to be your enemy, I sincerely apologise for the insults to your mother, I needed to know what you were capable of, and my word, your natural affinity to magic is astounding"
"Magic? What are you talking about?"
"Magic, mana, it's all commonplace in this world of ours, you elves have a natural affinity with it, being able to use it at will, us humans need these infernal runes to cast, and they burn when active, the giants have been blessed with great size, and thus vast strength, the Lizardkiin; on top of their superior speed, have the ability to transform into a bipedal lizard"
Kari's head snapped over to Rion.
"Is that true Ri?"
Rion shrugged his shoulders "I honestly don't know, I mean I have always been faster than everybody on Õkina, but I don't know about the transforming"
"Oh, you are both less advanced than I thought, we will need to catch you up before meeting the girls biological mother"
Kari straightened her back.
"My biological mother? I- I," she had never even thought about her real parents, living the simple life on Õkina was enough for her, she had been content.
"We are headed for Chīsai, the mainland, Chīsai has two kingdoms, a human kingdom in the northern part, and the Elven kingdom in the southern part, in the western regions of the continent are the marshes, where the Lizard tribes reside, there is also the Giant clans in the eastern mountain ranges, no one dare venture there for fear of being crushed to death"
"CAPTAIN!!" A shout rang through the ship.
"What is it now" Ralpha muttered to himself
"LAND AHOY!!"
"Ri, did they just say 'land'?" Kari whispered
Rion nodded his head slightly. Kari nodded back as they both silently agreed to make their escape at the first available opportunity.
"It seems that we are approaching Chīsai already, can I trust you if I remove some of those runes girl?"

"That entirly depends on you, sir" Kari retorted.

"Ohho, feisty as ever I see. And just for that I will leave them on you and add some to the boy, sorry Rion, as well since you have removed his rope, can't have him running off now can we?"

Captain Ralpha pulled a long black coloured stick out of his desk, it would have been at least 20cm long and had runes all over it, at a quick glance Kari could make out one set; 魔法棒, mahou bou, "magic wand" she mouthed absently while translating!

Ralpha saw Kari mouthing the words, "Astounding! You can inherently read the language of magic?" He exclaimed with slight surprise.

"The language of magic?" Rion and Kari asked in sync.

"Yes children, the language of magic, the ancient tongue, the words of the elves" The captain rattled off.

The words of the Elves? Kari thought.
Rion glanced at Kari seeing her farrowed brow he started "Captain, this country we have landed on, would it not be richer in magic than our tiny little island?"
"Good question my dear lad! Alas I cannot answer it for you, three days yonder was the first time I had stepped foot on your island and being human I cannot feel magic unless I am wielding it with these runes, and or this wand" Ralpha held the wand up at eye height and Rion saw the runes but was unable to read them.
Kari snapped back to reality "So humans can't use magic? What use are you then?" She blurted out looking for a way to get the wand off the captain.
As if sensing her intention Rion shifted his feet to move closer to the man.
"What use are we? She says. Hahaha, without us 'useless humans' none of the other races would have sea and or land travel, you magic is extraordinary but also exhausting, elves can use magic to fly but only short distances before needing a rest, Lizardkiin can run for a half-day before needing a break and still fight 10 men, however this is still taxing as they will need three days rest to recover, men have used their knowledge of nature to overcome their inability to use magic"
While the captain was rattling on Rion shifted closer to him and grabbed the wand that Ralpha had, in his tirade of boosting, lay back on his desk, Rion threw the wand towards Kari she caught it and wrote 消す on he left arm, the runes on her arm vanished almost instantly. "Oh shit!" Said the captain, as Kari transferred the wand to her left hand and wrote the same tune on her right arm.
"Fear not good sir, you may have your wand back, eventually, but for the moment we want safe passage off this ship" as she finished her demands she winced as the rope around her waist grew too tight with her magic returning to hold the pants up.
"Ri!" She breathed.
Rion whirled and ran to her side to help her untie the rope again.
"Absolutely remarkable" the captain claimed unperturbed by anything that just occurred.
"Your magic is definitely of royal class my girl"
Rion rolled the rope up in a loop and tied it around itself to prevent it from loosening.
"Hope you don't mind Cap, I'll be keeping your rope, it is very well made after all"
"By all means" the captain retorted. "This is all getting much more interesting than I anticipated, you may both leave and fend for yourselves in the wilderness"
Unbeknownst to Kari and Rion Halgreave had sauntered behind them, he grabbed both their heads and cracked their skulls together rendering them unconscious once more.