Several years prior.
The setting sun turned the sea orange as Geier sat on the edge of the dock, his legs swinging below him. All around him, crew members from navy ships, fishing boats, and yachts moved throughout the port. They reminded him of ants, which seemed to roam aimlessly, each with their own purpose. The loud squawks of seagulls and pelicans filled the air as they hovered around the harbor, looking for fish or any scrap of food they could find.
Behind him, he heard small footsteps on the old wooden planks. He leaned his head back, seeing Kiari walking towards him with Addilynn skipping beside him. Addilynn was a shorter girl, with dark tan skin and blonde hair. They had been living in the harbor town of KernEcho Bay for the past few weeks, and they had both decided to dress the part. Addilynn wore a brown dress with a white blouse. The arms of the blouse plumed outwards, giving it a 'royal' look. All the females in the area wore something similar. She had a small black leather pouch that hung down from her shoulder.
It was the first time that Geier had seen Kiari wear anything but his usual outfit. He looked deeply uncomfortable as he walked down the pier. He wore a dark brown leather jacket with coattails to his ankles, black, oversized waterproof boots, and leather gloves.
"Marlin and Kurt have found the perfect ship. Once it gets a little darker, it's gonna be ours," Kiari said.
A slight frown crossed Geier's face, "Who owns the ship?"
"Not sure. From the look of the ship, it looks like it was built for trafficking. So, don't worry."
"Alright, but I don't think they like me very much. Are you sure it'll be okay if I come along?" He held out his arm, and moments later, a fat grey pelican landed on it.
Addilynn laughed, "Oh, don't mind them. Marlin hates just about everyone but Kurt. And Kurt probably won't even remember you." She hopped over to Geier; her buckled leather shoes made a squishing sound as she did so, scratching the pelican's head and fishing out a loaf of bread she had in her satchel, tearing off a piece and giving it to the bird. Within seconds, every other bird in the area seemed to zero in on their location and circle them, looking for a free handout.
Geier was fourteen years old. He had met Kiari a little over a year prior on an island not far from this harbor. The once beautiful island society had long since been degraded. "I never thought I'd see the outside world," Geier thought. "No one who lived there ever thought about leaving. Any sort of talk on that subject was seen as socially taboo. But Kiari, he probably saved my life in a way. Not from an immediate death, but a slow miserable one that would take over fifty years. I keep thinking and wondering, 'why was I the one that got to leave?' It may have been fate."
When Addilynn first ran into Geier, they didn't even speak the same language. She would mime out words and use drawings to describe the outside world. In return, he would find food. She told him she was waiting for a boy and that he and his friends could take them away. Someplace safe. In the meantime, she read a lot. She seemed to read one book, in particular. Geier became curious. He spent almost all the money he had on a translation dictionary. He used it to read through the book alongside her, as well as to learn her language.
The book was an adventure story about a man who lived in a desert colony. A place called the Outback. Addilynn had told Geier that the book was very important to her. They would read the book for hours on end every day. It would take over ten minutes just to read one side of a page, as he would have to constantly reference the dictionary, but she was always patient with him. They were able to finish the book; by the last few chapters, he didn't even open the dictionary once.
When the boy she was waiting on returned, he introduced himself as Kiari, a twenty-year-old. Behind him stood Marlin and Kurt-Adam. Kiari instantly treated Geier as if they were friends—no, family.
On the dock, Geier's eye caught something several yards behind Addilynn. He squinted, seeing a large group of people passing on the paved path behind them. Some had shirts tied around their head as a mask.
'But the thing is,' he thought, 'I hate having to do this. Even if they do deserve it in some way…it just doesn't feel good. I can't leave. I owe them my life pretty much.'
"Wow! All these people! Why's the market so packed?"
"Don't get too loud, Geier," Kiari warned, pulling his hat low as he walked over to the side of a merchant's tent, peering from around the corner, looking at the group of men as they meandered through the long street. "Stay by me and don't get lost, okay? Even though you're older at this point, you still don't wanna be lost in a place like this. Especially once it gets dark."
"Oh, yeah, you're right."
There were hundreds of merchants lined up on the street, with thousands of customers roaming the area. It was hectic this time of the day since everyone wanted to get their shopping done prior to it becoming nighttime. There was a local saying that every child of KernEcho Bay had heard from their mothers hundreds of times: Nothing good happens after ten o'clock.
They continued to walk through the market, following the group from a distance. Kiari had to pull Geier away from the large animal pen filled with Sea-Chickens—five of them, all squawking and hopping around inside their wire enclosure.
They continued to follow them. As time went on, the streets became less and less busy; the sky became darker, and the street lamps began to shine.
Kiari leaned in and whispered into Geier's ear, "Alright, so I'm gonna come up with something real quick. I'm gonna go out in front a bit and get them to follow me. You keep following them, stay at the same distance we're at now. Don't lose them, and for God's sake, don't get distracted."
"Yeah, yeah," Geier nodded.
Kiari gave him a fist bump and silently sprinted ahead with tremendous speed. No one seemed to register him as he weaved between people and around market huts.
Up a ways ahead, Geier spotted Kiari sitting cross-legged in one of the abandoned vendor spaces. As the group walked past, he beckoned them over with a slow and smooth hand motion.
"Hey there, fellas," he said when they got close. "There was something that I came across a bit ago that I know you guys want to see."
"Okay," one of them said; he had a deep accent. He was tall and dark with golden rings on most of his fingers with golden earrings. There was a large dark pink gem around his neck attached to a gold chain.
"You look like men with an exotic taste. A taste in most things."
The man thought for a moment, "It would depend on what you have."
"I have lots! Animals, women, weapons…Too much to tell you, but I can show you! It's not far."
A hungry smile crossed the man's lips, "Fine, show us."
Kiari got to his feet and began walking deeper into the town.
'Since it's only Kiari, they probably don't think much of it. They think they can kill him if he tries anything.'
He led them around, purposefully taking the long route. The sky had turned black by the time they made it to their destination.
He ushered them inside a basement of a tall concrete building. Geier sat outside the door, covering his ears with his hands, and squeezed his eyes shut as hard as he could. He still heard the explosions that came next.
Kiari, Marlin, and Kurt-Adam walked out of the basement door several minutes later. Kurt-Adam used a small stick to clean the blood caked under his nails. Kiari's hands were covered in grey soot. It was as if he had been crawling around in a chimney for the past hour. He held up the gem necklace. He was careful to keep the gold clean, his eyes glinting just as much as the rock. Kiari reached down to shake Geier, letting him know everything was done. Behind him, Marlin rolled his eyes and gave him a look of disdain.
"What do you wanna call our new ship?" Kiari asked.
"Hmm, I don't know. Something to do with dinosaurs maybe," Geier said.
Kurt-Adam yawned and rubbed his stomach, "I'm just hungry, honestly."
"Yeah, me too. Maybe the ship will have something," Kiari said.
Geier stood on the vessel's railing; the warm night sea air blew in from the ocean, his hair waving wildly in the wind. He held his hands out to balance himself briefly before hopping from the railing to the pier deck. Marlin had left several minutes earlier, and Geier, overly curious, wanted to see what he could've been doing at this time of night. He rarely went anywhere without Kurt-Adam, but the hairy man had fallen asleep an hour prior, slumped in a chair on the front deck, a large, almost empty bottle in his hands.
Geier ran as silently as he could down the street, listening intently to the surrounding sounds, specifically for the walking patterns of Marlin.
To his right, a group of four men—clearly locals from the way they were dressed, walked down the street in the opposite direction. As they spotted him running, their loud conversation instantly stopped. Geier noticed them staring as he ran past. One held up their hand, beckoning him over.
Geier skidded to a stop and walked across the street toward the group. One of them stuck his foot out in front of Geier as he got closer, causing him to step on it, leaving a dark stain on the tan boots.
The man was about a foot taller than him; even though it was almost too dark to see, Geier felt his shadow loom over him.
"Dude, look what you did…ruined my new shoes," he gestured down at his foot. He looked down at Geier, quickly grabbing him by the shoulder, forcing him down so he was directly staring at it. "What're you gonna do to fix this, huh?" He asked, practically shouting.
"You did this on purpose!" Geier said, trying to struggle free of the man's grip. "You put your foot out!"
The man looked at his friends, "did I do that?" he asked. They all shook their heads with a collective "nope." He looked back down at Geier, an uncontrollable grin coming across his face, "they were all watching. Y'ain't see me do a damn thing. That's three witnesses right there."
"I'm sorry, okay?"
"You don't know how much this cost me, do yah?" There was a long silence. Geier didn't know what to say, so he kept looking down, waiting for them to leave, not wanting to escalate things further. "It wasn't cheap," the man said, pulling him up to his feet and dragging him to the side, pushing him against a nearby small apartment building.
Geier winced as the back of his head hit the concrete wall. "How much do you need?" Even in the dark, Geier could see the man's large grin.
"Man, this kid really is gullible," he thought. "Well, let's see," he reached down, patting Geier's pockets. His hand slipped inside and pulled out a large wad of cash.
"No, you can't! Not all of it!"
"Why?"
"I was saving up. I was going to buy some friends something cool one day. They saved my life."
"Well, dude, it sounds like to me that you'll be saving up a bit longer."
Geier slowly lifted his right hand up, his sharp nails aimed at the perfect spot of the man's neck. If they were to puncture, it wouldn't kill him, but he would be almost instantly incapacitated.
"Hey! Leave him alone!" A voice came from above in one of the apartment windows.
"Oh, shut up!" One of the men said, glaring at the older fisherman yelling at them from the window.
While they were distracted, Geier sent his knee into the man's crotch, making him double over and drop the money, which scattered lightly in the wind. He ran to pick it all up but was grabbed from behind by one of the others.
"Oh, you did not just do that! You are so dead, kid!"
Reaching behind him, Geier ran his claws down the man's face, causing him to scream out in pain and drop him. He quickly backpedaled, holding his face, swearing profusely.
Geier wheeled around, facing the group. One was on the ground, holding himself, looking as if he was about to cry. The other man was standing near a neon sign on a building, using the light to look at himself in the reflection of a window, gingerly tapping the cuts on his face.
"Ugh," the man on the ground groaned as he got to his feet. He had to lean against the apartment wall as he hobbled down the street. The others looked back and forth from him to Geier before following them.
"Don't worry," the man said from above, "Those are just some hoodlums. They'll ruff ya up, but don't pay em' much mind. Just a buncha miserable non-starters."
"Thank you, sir. I'm not from around here, so I don't know the good areas."
"Yeah, I can tell. You can't be so gullible. There aren't any good areas this time of night. So you both better head on home."
"Well, I was out trying to find someone. Have you seen a tall skinny blonde guy around? Looks like he just jumped in a pool. Maybe he was around about five or so minutes ago?"
"No, sorry, haven't seen anyone. I only looked out the window just now because I heard you guys yelling."
The old man shut his window and turned off his light, leaving the street almost entirely dark except for the occasional dim street lamp and the neon signs of sketchy stores.
"What was that?" A familiar voice from a nearby alleyway.
Geier turned to see Marlin standing there, his usual straight posture and bored look. The small pattering from the water that dripped from him.
"What was what?"
Marlin pointed down the street; in the distance, the silhouettes of the group could still be seen walking away.
"I was attacked."
Marlin rolled his eyes and sighed, "Useless."
"Hey! I didn't know that they were going to jump me! Cut me some slack, jeez!"
Marlin turned to Geier; dark shadows from the flickering neon store signs danced along his face. His eyes looked dark and cold. Before Geier could process anything, Marlin had grabbed the front of his shirt and pushed him into a nearby wall. Geier instinctively reacted by shoving his fingernails into Marlin's wrist; he didn't react as he continued to grip his clothes, even tighter than before.
"Marlin, knock it off," Kiari's stern voice came from the end of the alleyway.
Marlin glared at Geier for a few more seconds before letting him go. Geier leaned against the concrete wall, fixing his shirt.
"Alright, fair enough," Marlin said, "Though, why I did that was for a pedagogical reason."
"A what?" Geier looked up, seeing Kiari standing next to him, a look of slight pity on his face.
"You know, don't mind him."
"What did I ever do to him? I honestly hate this," he said, feeling his eyes turn heavy from tears but quickly wiping them away with his arm before he thought Kiari would notice. He did notice. Geier looked down the street; the group of men had disappeared entirely at this point.
"We should get back to the ship. The Festival of Wealth in Apris is coming up in a few weeks. We're gonna sail there, offload all the cargo on the ship and sell it all. Some good pirate booty."
"Well, before we do that, I wanna talk to some people."
"Oh yeah?"
"Just a group of dudes I met a little bit ago. Not very friendly."
"Okay, I get you," a slight smile was planted on Kiari's face, "lead the way."