Oh, hello! Please, come in and make yourself comfortable. You were probably expecting C.R. Drakeloch for the reading of this second part of the Dashraft family saga, correct? Well, I'm afraid his duties of collecting and cataloging the stories of all individuals from all realities has become a bit overtaxing as of late. So, unfortunately, he won't be the one reading the story this time. An unfortunate and unexpected revelation, I know. But guess what? This means you get to hear the second part of the story from me, his assistant Silva, instead. That's right friends! Silva, the kobold, comes to the rescue, to read to you the second portion of the exciting and thrilling chronicles which detail the events of those who live in the world of Mintara. A world previously known as Earth-890, before the humans who lived there went extinct. For, as you may or may not recall, they neglected to respond to the climactic issues at hand. And hence, everything came tumbling down around them for a time. This Earth thus became a wasteland until it managed to recover. The replacement for man, my master noted I should mention, were the descendants of those small creatures who survived this time, and who evolved to become sentient and to start civilization anew.
Ahem. In any case, we now return to the stage of Mintara, where we find the crew of Hoarfrost's Halberd once more sailing through roaring winds and crashing waves. The maw of the sea, foaming and breaking in a frenzied manner all around; it possibly could occur to some, that the ocean itself intended to keep ship, crew, and newly appointed captain Dylan Frostwood, from whatever goal it was that they intended to reach. A foreboding notion, which surely stirred the superstitious and wary minds of many a maritime soul aboard this vessel. For Dylan, who was more focused on reaching her goal than on anything else, she simply dismissed such thoughts as she surrounded herself with maps and charts. The ermine, with careful precision and great effort, used a compass to try and plot their course and to trace their movements, as the rough and uneven seas carried her vessel like a bottle in a bathtub. Back and forth, side to side...Dylan groaned and placed a paw to her mouth as she tried to keep from getting sick.
"Ugh..." the ermine groaned as she grabbed the side of her desk. "Calypso steady me...I...I need a drink..." The white furred weasel, at that moment, then reached into her desk and pulled out a bottle of freshly made rum, which her predecessor Ghulius Tiberius Gutgore, had kept locked away as part of his private stock.
Well...not like he'd be needing it anymore, she thought, as she popped the cork and then let the liquid flow forth from the body and neck of the bottle, down into her gullet like a light amber waterfall. A delicious, aged libation, which was truly just one of many things she'd inherited upon Gutgore's untimely demise.
"To think he passed choking on a fish bone," Dylan stated with a chuckle. The ermine, now feeling slightly less queasy, leaned back into her chair. Her small figure, as she reclined, then sank into her jacket where she savored the warmth of a white fur swatch, which she'd requested be stitched in to the cowl of the jack, the last time she was on shore leave.
No one knew, as far as she could tell, the true extent of events. That this was more than a fur swatch. That indeed, Gutgore had not died on a fish bone, but instead Dylan had decided to take into careful consideration the words of Hilde the badger. A former consort and accomplice of Gutgore herself, who had warned how Gutgore had a nasty habit of disposing of his accomplices when he no longer had any need of them. A situation, which Dylan had decided she would not want to find herself in. So to avoid it, she'd poisoned Gutgore's food and drink when he wasn't paying attention. The ermine afterward, simply told people over and over, that she had no clue as to what caused the sudden death of the bear. She simply repeated her concocted story, that he'd likely choked on a fish bone or some such thing, over and over to the point that she herself almost started believing it was true. Even though still, as Dylan rested back in to the fur she'd taken from Gutgore, she of course knew it was not. And she had no intention of letting anyone catch on. For as she returned to her task of tracking their course, she reminded herself that she was on top of the world for once. And nothing, nothing, was going to change that. She would make sure of it.
BOOM!
Dylan looked up from her charts, as suddenly the door to her cabin swung open, and standing there was Severus, the wolf first mate, who had carried on in his duties, from his tenure under Gutgore.
"Captain!" he exclaimed, as he stepped in from out of the rain. "Something strange is going on out there! I've never seen weather this turbulent before, even in all my time at sea! Some of the men, they want to turn back. They say they don't feel right in this place. Some of the older sailors...I've tried to calm them, but they feel off about this place. They say they've heard stories about certain places in Calypso's kingdom where you don't go. And they keep insisting, that this location that we're in...we either are drawing near to, or have already crossed the threshold, of one of those places."
"Oh?"
The ermine smirked as she seemed to casually dismiss these warnings, before looking down at her charts. "Good," she replied. "That probably means we're close then. I was wondering if all those rumors about this place were true or not. About strange phenomenon, and about unfortunate things happening to those who dare to approach..." Dylan looked up to Severus with a wild, almost devil-may-care grin, that frightened him more than a little. "Tell the boys," she exclaimed. "It doesn't matter what they may want or think. I'm the captain. I'm in charge, and I say full sails ahead. Understood?"
"Understood."
Severus nodded slightly before he turned and started out the door. He then paused, just before he was about to make it back on deck, and turned back around to ask, "Tell me at least this, why are you so willing to risk everything, even your crew's lives, just to reach an island? I mean, so far, all we've heard is that we should trust you. That we should trust you. What if there's nothing there? What if this whole thing is a folly, and it turns out you risked everyone's lives and wasted their time for nothing more than a fool's pursuit? What then?"
"Dylan?"
Dylan smiled but did not look up from her charts. "Mmmm..." she murmured quietly. Almost as if she'd anticipated what came next, as the watchman in the crow's nest suddenly called out, "Ho! Land ho, off the port bow!" The ermine, in regard to this call, then slowly pushed upward from behind her desk.
"Still...doubtful, Severus?" she whispered as she led the way out the door. Calling to the crew, "Alright you lazy layabouts! This is it! The moment we've been anticipating! You think it's been rough? If my predictions are right, in a few moments, it's going to be rough like you've never seen! Watchman! Eyes open on those waves! We're about to navigate a sea of jagged rocks as messy as a cabin boy who hasn't quite got his sea legs!"
"And you all up in the sails!" the ermine cried out. "Don't think you get to hang around like a gaggle of monkeys, just yet! These winds are going to be hard and unpredictable, even more so than they are now, so be ready to change sails at a half-second's notice, understood!?"
"Aye captain!" All parties called out in response, as they began to work their jobs, while the otter behind the wheel steered the ship toward port and toward the island in the distance. The Hoarfrost's Halberd, as it drew nearer and nearer to this island, then did indeed, just as Dylan had predicted, find itself caught in greater and greater resistance from wind, torrential rain, and massive battering waves. The sensation, which all this time had been prevalent amongst the crew, that even nature itself, did not want them near this place, again grew in all except Dylan. As she clearly either did not believe in such things. Or did, and was ignoring the strange tidings surrounding this place, simply because she was laser focused on retrieving whatever dark treasure it was that this island held. A treasure, which first mate Severus Slayne, then began to wonder about the worth of. Whether perhaps, given the current state of things; the way the wind and rain and all the elements of nature seemed to be fiercely set against them in a most unnatural way, that quite possibly, it was better to leave whatever was on the isle in an undisturbed state.
The wolf growled softly and approached Dylan with his concerns, as the ship was sailed by the rest of the crew, through this supernatural storm.
"Dylan!" The wolf yelled over the howling winds and torrential rains. "I know you're the captain, and excuse me if this is out of line, but I must speak my mind! What you're having us do! This storm we've sailed into...this is madness! Even if we reach an island in the eye of this, have you ever considered the possibility, that there is a reason why nature is fighting so hard, to keep us from our goal? That maybe whatever was lost on this island needs to stay lost?"
Dylan turned toward Severus and issued him what could only be described as a death glare, as he suggested they abandon this expedition.
"What you call madness, dear Severus," she hollered back over the winds and the rains, "I call having the courage to seek that which no one else dares to! Do you know why there are only a few great legends in this world? Why in any world, legends are such a rare and great thing? Because the people who become legends defy convention! They do not let frightening rumors or possible consequences scare them away from great reward! They do not adhere to status quo as others do. For they are not satisfied living in the borders of a world defined to them by others. If nature intends to deny me my prize, then I will defy nature!" the ermine cried out. A flash of lightning, showing a fearsome, almost mad look in her eyes, derived likely from the fact that she had sought this place for five years. The weasel, after all that time hunting and scrounging for the route to her destination, was not about to give up now. Not after all that time and effort which she had put in.
Dylan smirked, as the ship finally broke through into the eye of the storm. "In any case," she declared. "There's our destination."
The ermine nodded to an island in the distance. "Ourobouros Island," she said. "A lost isle, for most of Mintara's history, the last time anyone set foot here, was shortly after the fall of Musteladonia."
"Oh?"
Severus, who expressed a mixed look of concern and interest at this fact, stroked his chin. "And who," he asked, "if I may be so bold to inquire, was it that lived here, that makes it of such keen interest to you? I mean I know you've always been a keen student of history captain, but this..."
"This seems a little more personal?"
Dylan chuckled. "A keen observation, Severus," she murmured, as the ship sailed into a small inlet. "Yes. You're right. This is a personal matter for me. Mainly, because the people who lived here were the ermines. They were my people, if you will. And they left something that is in my eyes, my birthright. A powerful artifact, that until recently, I thought was just a legend. That is, until Donovan made that discovery, that Aloysius St. Abbot was a marten. That changed everything."
"It did? How?"
Dylan chuckled, as the gangplank was unloaded, and as she led the way down it and off the ship and onto the shore. "Oh," the ermine stated softly in response to the question asked by Severus, who continued to follow behind her, up the shore of the beach. "I'm glad you asked. You see, in my research, I discovered that the legend of Balan giving Aloysius St. Abbot the gauntlets for safekeeping, did not originate in Mintara. No. surprisingly, histories show that stories of the gauntlets are much older. They date back to the time of Musteladonia, and to when just after the fall of Musteladonia, there existed a great holy faction war between two races. The martens of Jutfaang who revered Balan, and the ermines of Ourobouros who revered...another."
"Another?"
Severus continued to follow Dylan, with several other members of the crew behind them, as they now left the beach and transitioned to a hilly lowland region, where the sedimentary bones of an ancient city rose to meet the sky. Their alabaster whitewash, long since worn away, these towering pillars and crumbling broken arches, only added an extra accent of uncertainty to this already ominous city. Its most peculiar feature, being the way it seemed to spiral out from the town center, as if it were a giant serpent that was coiled up and asleep in the center of the island. Just waiting for someone to poke or prod it out of dormancy.
Severus shivered. He tried to focus back on Dylan's words, as a way to put these thoughts out of his mind. She was still answering his question regarding how the ermines had revered another, saying, "Yes. After the fall of Musteladonia, my people came to believe that the idea of 'Balan's chosen,' was something contrived by those in power, to satisfy and justify their treatment of those in the lower classes, such as themselves. My research shows, that the ermines forsake Balan because of this. Instead, they turned to 'another,' just as I said. And he gifted them with a pair of gauntlets, just as Balan had done for the martens. Only the difference in these gauntlets, is they are far more powerful, than any being of peace and creation could ever devise."
Severus stopped short. "I'm starting to see why the ocean tried to keep us from coming here..." he murmured quietly. "These gauntlets...they should stay where they are, if they're anything like you say. I don't care how powerful they are. If they were forged in reverence to a being that is in opposition to the three, I want nothing to do with them, hear me? Nothing!"
Dylan smirked. "Suit yourself," she whispered. The ermine, while watching how Severus turned and began to march back to shore, then spoke words that were old and unintelligible. Words, which seemed to be of a darker place. Which seemed to have a cold, unnatural etymology to them, and whose power chilled the air as they were invoked; it was for obvious reasons, a kind of thing which made Severus take pause as he reached the shore where the rowboat they arrived in was still neatly moored.
"Hello?" called the wolf, as he heard from beyond the walls of a thick fog that encroached the soft hiss, of what sounded like a serpent. A sound which then was soon joined, by another and then another. An apparent army of serpents, which the wolf surmised had likely been summoned to bring about his demise, when Dylan had spoken those dark, arcane words.
Calypso...if that was the case, he figured the fog he was trapped in, likely wasn't a random, natural occurrence either.
What to do, what to do...ugh. The wolf found himself getting frustrated as he heard the hissing of the snakes get louder. He knew his time was growing short, and that soon he would be out of time entirely, as the venomous serpents would be upon them. That they would kill him with their collective venom, and they would likely devour him. A fate he did not prosper in the least.
Severus gulped, as he looked around and saw the first silhouettes of the serpents begin to appear amidst the fog. He saw they had him surrounded on all sides. That he was now entrenched to where he could not even get to the rowboat safely.
The wolf drew his saber ready to fight to the end.
"Agh...AAHH!" Loud pained screams echoed through the hills moments later. Cries which were loud enough to be heard by the landing party and which were followed a short time later by swift, unbroken silence. A vacuum of sound, which filled the crew with fear at the power of Dylan. And which in turn, filled Dylan with a sense of satisfaction. As she simply smirked, before she turned to the others and asked quietly. "Now, you've seen what power I have on my home turf. Does anyone else, want to question me, or are we all good with what's ahead?"
A moment of silence, as the rest of the crew all nodded in agreement, that they were fine with following Dylan wherever she planned to lead them, and that they would not rebel, for fear that whatever had happened to poor Severus, would in turn happen to them. A consensus Dylan was most satisfied with, as she then led the landing party further into the ruined interior of this once domineering and impressive city which nature had long since begun to reclaim. The stone huts and domiciles which Dylan and the crew passed by during their trek, which the ermines would have lived in during their stint on the island, thus were but a ghost of their former glory, as the wooden roofs had long since started to rot away and many even had moss growing on them. While the structures themselves were being torn apart little by little, from vines and roots, which took advantage of even the tiniest cracks in the mortar. Plants, which like fibrous fingers, got bigger and stronger with each passing season, until finally they had the strength to start ripping apart these foundations of stone. A fact which in consequence, then left only these dilapidated ruins which Dylan and her crew witnessed, as they proceeded toward the center of the village, where there was a massive stone structure. It looked, perhaps, columnar or cylindrical in shape, was the best way to describe it. It was carved of black stone, and there seemed to be stairs leading down to a door in the middle of the structure. A feature which seemed to indicate that this above ground structure was likely only an entrance to a much larger subterranean structure or complex which Dylan seemed most eager to get at. For as this construct came into sight, she quickened her approach toward it, and removed an amulet from around her neck, which she'd been wearing since before she could even remember.
"Finally," she exclaimed, as she rushed toward the door. "The inheritance of my people, the legacy of every ermine that came before me...finally...it's mine!" she exclaimed in hushed excitement, as she pressed the amulet which looked very much like a coiled snake, against the empty slot in the door. The amulet, a few seconds after this action was taken, then uncoiled, and slithered up along a stone canal that was carved into the design of the divot, where Dylan originally placed it. The ermine watched with curiosity, as the amulet key worked its way up this canal, and into metal pipe, fixated above the slot she'd placed the serpent amulet in. She then heard many gears begin to turn and many locks being turned as the amulet worked its way through the pipe system. She could hear metal bars pull back from inside, and steam hiss, and all kinds of mechanical workings occurring, as the metal serpent fluidly continued to trigger and unlock different things. The uncoiled creature eventually came back out another metal pipe near the bottom of the divot where Dylan had originally placed it. It slid back into the divot through a second canal down there and then coiled back up. The door, as the serpent coiled up, then slid upward. The ermine and her crew, all the while watched in awe, as the intricate process of unlocking and opening the dungeon door was completed.
"My people," Dylan stated with a chuckle, as she took a torch from a sconce on the inner wall and was the first to enter. "How unrecognized and unappreciated by others, was the genius of their culture and their architecture. A race who understood how to combine technology, art, religion, spiritual symbolism and mysticism, into a single uniform design...and they are labeled as heathens, heretics and the least of weasel society, in whatever interpretation of our history, you examine," she growled, as she went deeper and deeper into the catacomb like structure. The ermine as she led her crew deeper in, muttered, "Well...no more. Finally, it's an ermine's turn to be on top. Finally, with what lays under this rock and ruin, I will be able go back to Mintara, and will be able to command a new rule over those who for so long have mocked the ermine race as being weak and the lowest of all. Starting today... an ermine will rule them all," she stated determinedly, as she led the way into a chamber at the very lowest part of the ancient temple. A room, which all along the walls, had paintings of what looked like a sort of ancient story, in which it depicted a great anthropomorphic stag carrying a great spear, entangled with a great serpent with a countless multitude of heads. The white hart, ever fighting with the black serpent. Order and Chaos, ever locked in combat for control of the universe, is what the massive relief showed, even through the ages, as it showed the war of the martens and the ermines, with the great deer above martens as their apparent guardian, thrusting his spear in the direction of the serpent, who was the patron of the ermines. Light and dark still fighting through infinity, as it showed the martens controlling the elements with what Dylan recognized from her past adventure, to be the Genesis gauntlets, given to the marten Aloysius St. Abbot for safekeeping. Gauntlets, which had created the universe, and which had been sealed away in his tomb, until it had been found five years ago, by the marten Donovan Dashraft, the prairie dog Colin Leonard, and a company of others which in itself, had included her.
This was how, she knew not only of the holy gauntlets but of the existence of their darker twins, which now hovered before her, as she reached forth and removed them from their resting place in the center of this pillar.
"Finally," Dylan whispered, as she cradled the crystal gauntlets whose hue was black like the darkest obsidian in her arms. "After five years of searching... the Talons of Omnos, the gauntlets which were gifted to my people by Balan's dark brother and which are my birthright...they're mine! Mine to use! Mine to reveal to the world, and to make all who would've called any ermine weak, bow at the power of!"
Dylan's laughter was just this side of madness, as she clutched the gauntlets close to her. "Never will I be the servant of another again with these," she whispered, as she and her crew headed for the exit of the temple. The pale light of day, cutting through the entrance and nearly blinding many of the crew, as they again reached the surface. A minor fact that Dylan ignored and took no notice of, as she continued on. Walking toward the shore without the company of her crew for a moment, muttering something to the degree of how she had plans, big plans for Mintara, now that she had the gauntlets.
"For five years, I've searched," Dylan whispered, as the crew caught up with her at the longboats. "Five years..." she muttered shaking her head, "Did I spend looking for these, hunting them, while also pulled together the intricate details of a plan I thought would never be set in motion. A plan, I'd begun to doubt would ever come true; simply, because I no longer believed in the possibility of finding these powerful gloves which I now hold in my hands."
Dylan smirked in a rather crazed and predatory fashion, as the longboat was sailed away from shore and back to the Hoarfrost's Halberd where the wheel otter, Helmut, had managed things, until the landing party's return.
Helmut approached the side of the ship, as Captain and crew were now climbing back aboard from their places in the longboat. One following another, after another, as they all climbed on board. He spoke only after it was Dylan's turn, to climb up aboard, from the longboat. The crew behind them meanwhile, began to pull up the boat, and began to work on stowing it while the two of them spoke.
"Captain," the otter addressed Dylan. "Good to see you made it back in one piece. I take it from the look on your face, that you found whatever thing it was which brought us here in the first place?"
Dylan slowly closed her eyes and nodded.
"All is finally in place," she said cryptically. "Everything I've worked toward, for the past five years. Everything I've done and which has gone unnoticed by the bureaucrats of Mintara, it's finally ready. With these as the final piece...heh. We're ready, Helmut. I promise. It's going to be beautiful. Like nothing you've ever seen."
Helmut smiled softly as the ermine patted his cheek. "Okay," he whispered, with a soft red hue, coloring his cheeks. "Whatever you say, then. You're the boss, so I trust you on this. My only question is, where to, now that we have this 'final piece of the puzzle,' as you so deftly put it?"
Dylan leaned against the railing and looked out over the horizon. "Mmm..." she murmured softly, as a cool sea breeze blew through her mid-length black hair. "We sail for Gracebrooke, Helmut. That's where we go next. I have personal, but also crucial business, to attend to there. A matter, which I will not go in depth into explaining. Because I believe it clearly would be too much for someone like you to understand the finer details of."
"Oh?"
Dylan smirked, as she turned back toward the otter. "Yes," she said. "You just concern yourself with getting us where we need to go. Let me worry about the master plan, alright?" The smug ermine, as she walked off toward her cabin, then chuckled to herself, as she caught a glimpse of Helmut who sort of shrugged off this encounter, not sure what to make of it. The otter instead of dwelling deeply on the fact, as a more philosophical or intellectual individual might do; did indeed, simply go back to his duties of giving orders to the crew. Barking for them to pull lines, hoist anchors and to unfurl sails. The otter, once all was said and done, then turned the ship into the wind, and set sail for the course given. The ship, as it surged through the high seas, then carried with it no warning of the maelstrom of chaos, that was about to come bearing down on the Mintaran people.
Balan, help them all...