Post by Shinku on Aug 10, 2015 21:05:55 GMT -5
Now that the sermon was declared over, the villagers were lining up in front of the doors to go home. Most were leaving in small groups heavily engaged in conversation while others preferred to stay alone with their thoughts. Still sitting on his chair with the hands tied behind his back, Dan had nothing else to do but watch them on their way out. Soon he would be alone with the priest and probably some leftover villagers that belonged to the closest circle of the church or probably just provided the needed muscles to guard him. Would they try to convert him? The priest did hint something like that during the sermon, but had to stop early because of the weather that was growing worse really fast now.
It seemed very unlikely. There was just no way that they mistook him for anything else than what he was. They or at least their priest should know why a bounty hunter was here and that there was no chance of converting him to their cause. As emotional as the preaching has been, it wouldn’t work on people from outside this island. People who knew the world and its ongoings were harder to convince to join a new faith and more likely than not, the invocation for converting was probably no more than a show for their followers so that the authority could point at his dead body later as an example of what would happen to the non-believers.
Better not let it come to that, but acting right now while he was still only guessing, not having any clear picture of their true intention and most of all while there were still so many innocent bystanders around… that seemed a bit extreme. Dan wasn’t in such a bad situation, so he could relax and allow himself to wait a bit longer. At least he could wait. Relaxing was a bit hard while you were tied up and surrounded by potential enemies.
Just as expected, the priest turned to him as the audience dwindled, though it didn’t escape Dan’s notice that the man was flashing glances back to the shady figure in the corner. The man in the shadows hadn’t moved at all through the speech and if he was sending any signals now, then they were too subtle for anyone who wasn’t an insider. Whatever the case was, the priest obviously decided that it was time to deal with the intruder or at least, with the one that looked more harmless out of the two. After the fight in front of the main building, most villagers seemed to want to avoid the man with the gas mask and Dan could not fault them for that. Though considering Elias’ strength, the pirate should have at least one man or two who were strong enough to deal with the “disturbance”. Maybe the man had decided that it was too early for drastic moves yet or maybe he wasn’t around. The only reason to suspect the man in the corner to be “False Priest” Elias, was that he was acting strange and hid his face but there were a number of reasons why some other guy would do the same.
In any case, the short grown man wasn’t anywhere closer to his goal.
“Now to you, stranger.” The priest addressed him. “I have a few questions for you that I’d like to have answers for. For one I’d like to know w-“
“I’M HERE, I’M HERE AND JUST IN TIME FOR THE BORE SPEECH! YAY!”a very loud and happy voice disrupted whatever question the priest had wanted to ask. It wasn’t coming from the front door but from a side entrance that Dan hadn’t noticed at all until now because it was hidden behind a very lavishly decorated curtain. The priest turned around as if stung by an adder.
“The speech is over, Lili you’re late! AND WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WEARING?!”
The priest’s voice had become louder and sharper in midsentence, nearly cracking once his eyes felt on the girl and Dan could understand the priest’s dismay though he didn’t completely shared it. The newly arrived girl was indeed dressed very inappropriate for entering a room used for worshipping. Her hair was bubblegum pink, tied to a short side tail and riddled with colorful hairpins, her eyes shone bright green and her piece of clothing was either a candy-striped mini dress or a longshirt in combination with a pair of hotpants for Dan couldn’t spot the pants at all. And he wasn’t the only one it seemed.
“This is seriously inappropriate! Outrageous! We were to hold a sermon here, you can’t just show up in such clothes! I can not even see your pants! It completely looks like you aren’t wearing any!!”
“Dat’s cause I don’t.” The girl informed him happily, completely unfazed by the other man shouting at her.
There was a violent cough coming from the man, who by now had Dan’s sympathy. God knew that it wasn’t easy with the kids nowadays, even though the girl looked like she was already about sixteen, maybe seventeen. In other words, she was at the sort of age where kids weren’t inclined to listen to you at all.
“Just what’s gotten into you to wear such improper attire? Go change at once!”
“Eh, why? No way! I ain’t gonna change!” She stared him down with her bright green eyes before throwing herself in a pose and shouted proudly:
"I REFUSE! I’m a PIRATE! There’s NO sense in being a pirate, if you can’t walk around pantsless!"
She said that all with so much conviction that Dan had to respect her for that, wherever he agreed with her or not.
“SHUSH! Be quiet stupid girl! What sort of rubbish are you saying?”
“Actually I do like wearing skirts more than pants anyway, but a friend of mine said that, I mean, I heard her say it, the part about not wearing pants if you don’t feel like and it sounded really cool. So I wanted to try it out myself.” She went on, without even listening to him. As if anything that had to be said was said, she turned away from the priest and waved at the man in the corner.
“Oh my…”