Post by Blushing z0ro on Jun 7, 2022 7:55:52 GMT -5
LEONARD LECLERC & ANGELO SORES
ACT I SCENE V-From the Depths to the Top!
The Black Lion Rises! -
Angelo sat on the edge of one of the high cliffs that overlook the impossibly deep valleys of Aria. The fact they had managed to make it all the way there was nothing short of miraculous. It had been weeks since that stormy day on Dauntaun, images of what transpired still haunted the martial artist.
The sudden stormfront, the desperation they all felt as they fished out their captain’s mangled body. How Leonard had survived such wounds was as much a mystery as what exactly transpired on Dauntaun. Once wished out of the water, body sprawled on the deck under the pelting rain, the only words the pirate captain muttered repeatedly still echoed in Angelo’s ears.
“I… didn’t lose…” Endlessly repeated until eventually the swordsman finally fell unconscious. How desperate they were then, Raquel and Angelo had taken a few hits but nothing major, Leonard however required urgent medical attention which the crew had no way to give.
It was a stroke of pure luck Angelo remembered something from a decade ago, his master had suffered from a back injury, something involving a group of bears and couldn;t get any of the doctors on Karate Island to help, so she had made her way to the island of Aria to meet with someone she had heard was capable of fixing any injuries. It was a gamble, but there had been no other options to the pirate crew.
It had taken three days of sailing to get to Aria, Angelo desperately trying to communicate with Brandon on where they needed to go and struggling just as much to understand the little guy’s responses. The First Mate had not yet realised how much they had been relying on Brandon and Leonard’s seeming ability to communicate with the penguin, to get anywhere.
Still eventually they made it, stumbling into a fishing port, Angelo carrying the ever weaker swordsman on his back, the latter’s body bandaged up almost completely, the only thing the crew could do for their leader.
Burstin through a port office door and asking, demanding, no more like begging, to know where a famous physician lived on this island. Nowhere close, the man they searched for lived halfway up the mountains near the centre of the island, away from most people, but closer to the few remote people that lived there and the least access to medical care.
Normally the crew would have had no chance of making it before the swordsman expired, if not for one eventual stroke of luck.
A young woman present in the fishing village to get supplies, one Yue, the very daughter of the man they had been looking for. By the girl’s own admission she did not have her father’s skills, but it was enough to keep Leonard alive, through the desert trek and the mountain hike up to the remote village, to finally get him to Doctor Zhen.
The Doctor had been none too happy to help out pirates but refused to let someone die on his watch, Yue on the other hand so far had proven fascinated by the stories of adventures on the sea.
Still there was little for the crew to do while waiting for Leonard to recover, this place sure remote.
“You sure stare out into space a lot, Angelo-san.”
A voice interrupted Angelo’s pondering, and the martial artist turned his head to look at the source. One young woman in her mid to late teens, with bright pink hair in a bob cut wearing a white blouse with brown shorts and hiking boots stood a few feet away from him, a basket of herbs at her arm.
“Not much else to do. I’d train more but Doctor Zhen stops me after four hours.” Anglo replied to Yue who began to frown.
“Of course he does, you’ll injure yourself if you overdo it! If you’re bored you could help around the village or give me a hand gathering healing herbs!”
The blond man just absentmindedly looked at the girl. She sure had character. However the young man, after leaning back a bit more to look past her towards a boulder near the path that led to the Doctor’s house, made his counterpoint.
“Pretty sure you already had help.”
Following those words a tiny, almost inaudible yelp came from behind the rock. And eventually a tiny child’s face peered from the side of it before hiding right back again.
Yue looked affectionately at the boulder. “I really wonder what’s up with Ruri. She’s quite social normally, but she’s just been staring at the house and refused to get closer since you guys got here. It must be your scary face, Angelo-san!”
“Eh!? My face isn’t scary!!!” the martial artist angrily replied whilst making a scary face, prompting laughter from Yue.
“Hahaha! See! Scary!”~~~Somewhere Dark~~~
Leonard fought and fought, every second a struggle. He couldn’t afford to lose, it was not just his life on the line, it was his friends’ as well. The world was only darkness, but the enemies were real, marines of all shapes and sizes, pirates as well. A short animal headed man with a weak sword, heavy man with hammers, a powerhouse but manageable, a strange man, faster than eyes could see that fire spike-like nails at him; but scariest of them all was the giant, not a true giant, but a man that loomed over Leonard like a mountain and sent down crashing winds at him.
It felt like days, the young man kept on running and fighting, but the enemies kept on coming and eventually the giant always seemed to catch up, and then it would start all over again, never giving the young man a chance to rest, still he had to keep on going, he could not afford to lose, he would not lose! And so one so forth.
How long did this hell loop go one, there was no way to know, but at least there, there had been no pain, only the fear and anger. Eventually the darkness began to fade, but with the light came the pain, and Leonard’s body began to feel tighter, and heavier, it was harder to fight. Then finally, there was only light.
Leonard’s eyes opened slowly, his vision was blurred and took a few seconds to adjust. Everything was steady, so he was not on the Freedom but on land. He did not feel any shackles so it was unlikely he had been captured. The ceiling was polished white plaster with no real style to it and the wall to his left was smooth stone, whatever else was in the room laid beyond the swordsman’s vision as his body would not move, a mixture of lack of strength and thick bandages restricting him.
Eventually it was through a parched throat and dry mouth that Leonard managed to utter some words.
“Where are… my friends?”
The sound of a chair and a few steps, a tall silhouette peered down at the ebdridden leonard who could not yet fully make sense of what he was seeing, his vision still blurred. Only the outline of a man and the smell of a lit cigarette.
“Welcome back to the land of the living kid.”Angelo: 00b4ecZhen: ffffff
Yue: f500ff