Sand Through The Fingers [ADVENTURE]

He was a silent man given to observation, her companion. A good player of strategic games, she imagined – someone who could hold in opinion and reaction until the hand was called to bear. She liked him already for that, and was just as silent about it. Kara wasn’t sure he would actually play games, however, for she had yet to see any spark of playfulness about him – not in his walk, not a glint in his eyes, and definitely no off-base remarks.

The short answer he gave her was learned at the core, reasonably stating accepted facts. For there to be a requirement for acceptance at all, however, hinted at morals-driven character. Despite herself, Kara slightly smiled, something that passed about as quickly as it happened. She moved closer to him, spreading an arm out to indicate direction towards a path only she could see in the forest, for all shrubs and trees stood on dirt equally trodden. “Last time I was here, I spent a while to find solid ground.” A boat was being lowered into the hot waters as they spoke.

Kara turned her gaze to him, plain and simple and holding no secrets. “These slavers have built a stone campsite near the core of the island. Should we not be interrupted by local wildlife, we could be upon them without having to strain. The bigger problem will be getting into the base.” She spoke in a gentle clear tone, taking care not to make noise just as she’d instructed of others. This practice she would maintain as they advanced on their quest.

The clothes she wore were light as for summer, a black and gold top with short sleeves and slender travel pants that reached all the way down into a pair of steel toe boots. Her long pale hair she began to arrange into a low bun, tying it with a silky black ribbon. Her eyelids lowered a fraction as she regarded Emile with a little more personality behind the watchful stare than before, but that was all, the questions that would normally follow such observation sinking before making port.

Rounding him, she began towards the rope that would lead them down into the boat by way of which they would reach the island, leaving the main ship to wait for them. “Could you please tell me what skills I can rely on from you most, should we reach battle? I’m more adept at keeping adversaries occupied, thus I can provide opportunities for allies.”

Kara reached the rope and tugged, making sure it was well-fastened to the ship so that it would hold to their weight.

Okay, so at least he boasted the ego that was common of men. That or he was uncommonly skilled and not like to be modest about it. Either way, it sounded good to her, though a revision of strategy might be in order. For all her lack of sympathy towards slavers, Kara wasn’t especially fond of taking life. She much preferred for the torturing scum to rot in chains and have many years to sit in misery with their deeds.

Perhaps that was worse.

He stepped off the ship first, grasping the rope to climb down into the waiting boat. When he looked up to her, he’d find her gazing down with a serene yet cool expression on her face, arms crossed on the wooden perch as she waited for him to finish his descent. Only when she met the frigid wind in his stare, something in her gaze softened subtly, and she was left to wonder with a loose strand of her hair flowing downward. But the answers she sought could wait, possibly forever.

Slipping down the rope to join him in the boat, they were once more at a place to exchange words. So far, she was comfortable with the mountain he kept between them, accepting it as a fact of life. It would stay there for as long as he wished. Kara would not try to chip at it, and all of his frost would billow one-sided.

“Possibly,” she semi-agreed, not actually certain about the level of loyalty shared between scoundrels such as these. If they were tight enough, perhaps they would fight for vengeance. But what were the odds of such cold-hearted men and women caring for one another? “If you rely mostly on your pistol, it might be that my knockout techniques would spare more lives. I do agree that dealing with the leader first would be prudent.” With the rest to be limp fodder for them to bind and feed to the bowels of the ship for transport to Marineford.

They arrived to shore and Kara stepped out, testing the hardened surface of the island with the tip of her boot. Casting a gaze behind, she extended a hand, palm upward, for Emile to take should he like the added balance when leaving a small vessel now empty of stabilizing weight. It would be a pretty unfortunate boiling for any foot slipping into the heated water lapping at the shoreline.

Whether he used it or not, her next step would be to pay very careful attention to the forest floor and also some trees she’d marked. She spoke quietly, in that eerie gentle tone of hers, eyes up ahead. “Keep watch for the treetops. I’ve seen reptilian creatures lurk on the branches.”

The moment they ventured into the forest, she entered mission mode, a state that brooked little distraction and resisted flights of frivolity. Keeping in mind what he’d said, she hoped they would be better at collaborating in the moment than they were elaborating a strategy. “Let’s observe first and decide what to do after. Regardless, I am inclined to take on the leader.” If they could manage such a separation of combatants.

Not a long way into the forest and the heat was setting in, the stuffy atmosphere causing her to pull at the collar of her blouse. It was a good hideout, she had to give them that. Who in their right mind would make camp to stay a while on this isle? She was looking out to some movement in the branches that turned out to be just a breeze though the leaves when something unexpected happened.

Emile uttered a sentence that bordered on sounding like making small talk.

Briefly glancing over, Kara gave a wave of the hand. “No. She could have but I didn’t ask. If she trusted you to be on her crew, I trust you to finalize this quest by my side. Whatever your story and particularities, it is not for someone else to reveal.” Eyes back to the trees and low to the ground, she made sure they were still true to the path.

“What did you expect her to tell me?”

Unfortunately, he replied exactly as she had expected. Withholding the sigh, she internally shrugged. It had been worth a shot. Getting the tight-lipped man to voluntarily provide more than surface data about himself would not be an easy task. “It only took us a few moments to have that exchange,” she returned, one hand touching a low hanging branch to place it out of her way. “I would have come as prepared as I could be regardless of your potential.” Truth be told, she had a hard time relying on others. As such, she always had contingency plans for dealing with anything entirely on her own. Back to a more gentle tone from the factual one she had slipped into, she did reveal. “But I’m glad that you’re here, and I will owe you for the assistance.”

The other commentary was very quickly dismissed on the count of him not having sufficient information on the situation to see why they were here instead of out in the open waters. It was otherwise a good point. She was about to deliver her polite retort when he briefly collided with her from behind, causing her an extra step forward. As if on cue, a lizard from high up on a branch dropped down, spreading membranous limbs that permitted it to glide. Like a minuscule dragon, it released a jet of flame from its mouth, intent on cooking the meal it expected to achieve tonight. Kara caught the flicker of the flame from the corner of her eye. Reacting on instinct, she turned to push Emile out of the way with her shoulder, her other hand reaching high to take the claymore from its sheath.

If all of this transpired as such, she would catch the flame across a portion of her arm, but not even a whimper would leave her lips.

Another lizard weighed its options and decided to join the assault, this time coming from somewhere behind Emile.

Her own sword had sliced through the air, dropping two pieces of lizard where there had been one. Kara’s futile attempt to protect an already distanced ally had left a 1st degree burn patch on her sword arm. Instead of turning to him, this time she threw her gaze to the trees in anticipation of more opportunistic reptiles, but there were none.

“This way,” she said, hastening pace towards the base. “Their ship is large enough and of such make that it’s possible for it to be well armed. I was unable to find out for sure, as there is always someone in the Crow’s Nest keeping watch and ready to sound the alarm. Since I don’t have a ship and crew of my own, it would have cost too much to buy the assistance of a captain willing to embark on that gamble as opposed to one willing just to ferry us here. I would not have placed Suzie in that position, either. Then there’s always the chance for them to have had cargo onboard. Depending on how the naval scuffle went, that too could have been damaged.”

She looked back to him then, a plain and, this time, unrevealing look in her eyes. “If at any point you feel uncomfortable with our odds of success, feel encouraged to flee.” Had she wanted a hero on this mission, she would have asked Percival. “But, like I said back on the ship – they should be celebrating on this day and dead drunk because of it. If we’re lucky, they’re already passed out and ready to be rounded up.” Why risk battle with able-bodied, sober-minded men when she could deal with inebriated, underperforming ones who stood sure they wouldn’t be invaded on their volcanic island?

Kara reached into her travel bag, to pull out and reveal the secret weapon, crafted especially for that evening from the powders she used as a doctor. It was a metallic egg made of two parts fastened tightly together with a string that wrapped all around it. “If we manage to get them to inhale this powder, it will weaken their awareness if not outright put them to sleep. But I have only one… and they need to be gathered closely together and for my aim to be true.” It went implicit that they also had to not breathe in the chemical or else suffer the same fate.

Kara raised a hand to wipe at her brow, the heat of the island beginning to get to her and make her sweat. Placing the egg back in her pack, she looked up ahead, where the face of a rectangular building was coming into view. “Problem is… I don’t know how to get in. It’s definitely a concealed door but there’s no latch that I could find. We have to wait for someone to come out.”

Kara cast her gaze to the night sky, catching sight of it through the treetops. “If my calculations are correct, someone should be coming out to relieve the one in the Crow’s Nest within the hour.”

She gave him a glance as he expressed the request, keeping her eyes on his for a long thoughtful moment. Then they dropped low and became focused on finding a place to uncomfortably wait for the target. Truth be told, Kara was no longer the perfectly strategic, risk-minimizing woman she had been some years before. These days she walked the line, some days so close to the fall she felt a flutter of peace pass through her mind.

Saying nothing, she’d let him study the walls to reach the same conclusions she had when formulating this whole plan. She put her back to a tree to wait and fan herself with some papers from her bag. It was so damnably hot on this island, it was clouding some of her judgement, making room for dark thoughts. Staring forward to where she thought she remembered the stone to have revealed a door, she listened to his suggestion with a blank expression on her face. It would have been nice if they could do that.

“Unfortunately, the exchange happens on the ship.” Part of never leaving the vessel untended, thus causing her failure to ever board it. “One man will walk out, the other waiting on the other side of the island. Hopefully, we’ll have enough time before the sober man realizes something is wrong and comes to check. Best case scenario he’ll be too afraid to leave the ship unmanned and will stay there for additional hours. Worst case scenario he comes here right away.”

Kara felt around the forest floor and picked up a rock, raising it up in the palm of her hand. “I will use this.” Small, cheap, and effective if handled to its full potential. Besides, she hoped to use the bomb on a greater number of people.

Unless spoken to again, Kara too would remain silent, fanning herself continuously and at one point having a large serving of water. She did notice Emile’s momentarily lingering gaze, but made a choice not to engage it, instead watching the door and preparing herself. It was hard not to wonder what sort of demons had trampled the man beside her into preferring silence and to abstain. Her own spirit rebelled against the mere notion.

When the time came, she got up suddenly and walked quietly to the side of the building. She ran her lithe fingers against the surprisingly cool stone only to stop abruptly when she’d found the nick she had dealt to the façade before. Back against the stone, she held the rock at the ready and listened intently. She would stay for ten minutes this way, not stirring an inch when the wall began to open up, an oval entrance revealed. A young blond man with an eyepatch walked out, taking only one step and getting to turn before the rock was bashed against the perfect spot at the back of the head, causing him to fall down and faceplant, unconscious.

Pulling out a disposable syringe from her pocket, she injected a substance into his arm and nodded over to Emile. “Ready? Let's first move this one into the bushes.”