Avice hadn't been paying much attention and was spooked at the loud boom of fireworks. She had lost her balance, nearly falling into the water, but caught herself. Suddenly out of breath from her heart jumping out of her chest, she sat down. The sitting turned to laying as she spoke. "I almost just died." She then paused, "Woah." She was saying this mostly because she had never seen fireworks.
Jack snorted at Avice's miniature adventure, and then craned his neck back to look at the display above him. "It's quite amazing," he said softly. "They really go all out for this event." (Do you guys think we should go on, and assume we found Sierra?)
(Okee Dokee! If you want anything to have happened during the Time skip, write it in parenthesis. For me: Natalia: Her wound healed, for the most part, and she is walking around. Jack: He hasn't done much. Hung around with Avice, and saw the picture of his mother. Jade: Stowed a small mouse on board. Ellia: Tried to teach a waltz to the crew.) ~Time Skip!~ Norlure was a rather dirty town. With a population dominated by introverted, male hunters, there was very little government influence here. Window shutters remained shut, and the log cabins that housed the majority of the town were surrounded by large amounts of space. Apparently, the people here valued their privacy. Natalia and her crew walked cautiously through the streets, and Natalia was struck by how quiet it was here. She didn't hunt, but she knew it required focus and patience, and silence. Traits like that result in a fairly uneventful town. It was raining rather hard, and she couldn't help but compare it to the sunny, joyful Urela. Sure, that town was rather loud, but at least it had some personality. Besides, Natalia didn't respect cynicism, and this town seemed to radiate hostility and skepticism. "Good thing that Norlure isn't a large town," she said, pulling her hood off her head, a few dark locks shaking loose from the bun she had assembled a few hours prior. She might cut it off one of these days; it seemed more trouble than it was worth. "With this sort of civilization, we'll be lucky to meet even one person without breaking down a few doors."
Avice watched carefully, though managed to keep a laid-back expression. "Did we even catch the guy's name?" She asked, her eyes scanning around. It was obvious she wasn't very trusting towards this place. It was normal to feel like an outsider to a town, but here she felt like an unwanted animal that lurked because it had nowhere else to go. "I don't like it here..." she mumbled to herself.
"I don't much like it either," admitted Natalia, who had overheard Avice's comment. She had her hand on her blade under her coat, and she looked around, her posture alert. "We're looking for a man named Rhys Plinx." She turned suddenly when she heard sticks breaking coming from the woods. A large man walked in from the forest, dragging a deer carcass. There were furs under his belt, and a large dagger too. Natalia approached him, and cleared her throat to announce her presence. The man looked up in surprise, and stopped, holding his deer, and breathing hard. Natalia supposed that deer carcasses would be a fairly heavy livelihood. "Excuse me sir," she said politely, "but do you know where I could find a man by the name of Rhys Plinx?" The man snorted, and shook his head in mirth. "Why would ya want to find tha' worm?" he asked, his speech almost cockney-like. When no one answered, he shrugged, and gesture to a building with stairs leading down into the ground. A sign hung from the roof, an inscription on it that was mostly faded, but could still be made out. "Norlure Penitentiary" "He's in tha' prison for stealing. He'll be released in a couple'a weeks, and then this town will go back'ta hell." He nodded at the group and without a goodbye or a acknowledgement, he hurried away, dragging his deer with him.
Jared trailed behind them, his headache worse then ever. "Thank god this place is quiet..." He murmured to himself. "Too... much... alcohol..." He leant on a nearby tree and slowly slid down it, his head flopped over. "Wake me up... never"
"You alright?" Jade asked Jared, offering him a hand as the group was entering the prison. "C'mon - we're going in. When we get back on the ship, we can get you some pain killers, alright?"
Jade smiled. "There, I can help you." She pulled out a canteen of water and offered it to him. The steps leading down to the prison were made of cold, hard stone, and as they descended into the main entrance, shouts and clamours got louder. The walked into a lobby filled with utter chaos. Guards of the prison clashed with prisoners, swords against daggers, shivs, and other found or made items. "It's a prison break!" shouted one of the guards. "Get out of here, civilians!" Natalia scowled, and placed a hand on her sword under her belt. She detected movement to her right, and in an instant, she brought out her weapon, and, with the clash of metal on metal, found herself face-to-face with a man with a rather boyish face, and a devilish grin. She paused for a moment, expecting a grizzled old man, but the person in from of her was rather young, perhaps in his 20's. Then, he spoke. "What are lovely people like you doing down here?" he asked. His accent was not one of Norlure, but perhaps from up North. He pushed with his blade, and Natalia and him circled wearily. "We're looking for someone," she responded indifferently, and he lunged. She twirled the metal away from herself and crew, but this person was deft and quick with his blade. She adjusted her style, and gave a quick swipe. He blocked it, and chuckled. "Really? Well, who? I may be able to help." He dodged another attack, and thrust the blade forward. Natalia batted it away, and opened her mouth to speak. But before she could respond, one of the guards pointed at the young man. "Plinx!" he yelled. "Get back in your cell!" Natalia turned back to the man. "You're Rhys Plinx?" He blinked in surprise. "Have we met?" "No, but..." She was cut off by the guards charging at Rhys. It seemed everyone else had been rounded up. Natalia groaned in annoyance, and turned her sword to the guards instead of Rhys. "We'll talk later," she promised, "but first we have to get you out of here." Jade drew her sword, and grinned. While at sea, they had raided one ship. Her sword hand was aching with anticipation.
Before Jared had time to take a sip from the canteen he turned to Natalia. "Are you joking? We only need to talk to him. Why are we busting him out of prison?" He winced due to his headache and the loud shouting. "You're being crazy right now!"
Cobiah parried a thrust from a nearby guard, and brought the fist of his free hand down on his head, knocking the guard unconscious. He scanned the ground for anything that could be useful, and found a pickaxe as well as a pistol from the unconscious body of a prisoner. He picked the items off of the body, and ran to the nearest wall, looking for a crack. "Captain! Over here!" He yelled as loud as he could amidst the chaos, and starting swinging the pick at the crack. "Keep them off me, I have a plan!"
"And why would he help us?" Natalia responded. "From the goodness of his heart? Odin barely gave us the information, Mr. Rayne, and he has deep connections with my family. I know this man's type; Mr. Plinx isn't going to help us unless he gets something in return, and the one thing he needs right now is an escape." She shifted her sword, and pushed off a guard from her dagger. She raised the hilt, and knocked another one out. "Plus, if we were to turn him back in, it'll be weeks before we will get to talk with him. Do you really want to stay in Norlure for weeks? Besides, we're barely ahead of others; the information we need will be soon sought out. We need answers now." She heard Cobiah's yell, and knocked back a few guards. There weren't many now, but they were strong and determined. Jade took the guarding position, and began slicing and dicing, moving impressively. (I was reading over the character sheets, and I was looking at Proxy's and it looks like Cobiah was edited to be open for romance! I'm sorry I didn't announce it sooner! If you are interested, go for it. )
"Jesus..." He said under his breath and narrowly avoided a downward slice from a guard. He pulled out his own sword and began fighting back.
Cobiah tossed the pistol to Natalia. "Get all the powder you can out of that! Scrape it out of the barrel if you have to!" He got back to swinging at the crack with his pick. Little by little, the crack was expanding, until it was just large enough slip a parcel of black powder into the crevasse. "We're going to breach this wall! Roll up that powder and jam it in there!"
(lol Jared's pissed.) Natalia did as she was asked with one hand, kicking away a couple parries, and attacking with the other hand. She got the parcel to Cobiah, and then joined Jade as they were fighting. Ellia joined Cobiah at the crack. Fighting wasn't really her forte, but she enjoyed chemicals, and blowing things up. "Anything I can do?" she asked. (BTW, Jack is back at the ship.)
Cobiah handed Ellia a lighter, while he squeezed the roll of powder into the crack in the wall. "I'll lay the fuse, and you light it!" Cobiah fetched some wiry fuse out of his pocket, stuck one end in the powder, and carefully unrolled the line until it was a safe distance. "Light the fuse, everyone, get back!"
Ellia tried the lighter twice, and the second time, the line caught. She ran from the explosives, getting towards the rest of the crew. Natalia and Jade waited until the last moment, and then ducked in unison, and rolled out of the way.
Cobiah dropped to the floor and covered his ears. He could feel the blast. When he got up, the whole room was covered in a fine dust, and light was shining out of the newly created hole. On the other side was a straight path to the docks... plus a sizable jump.
