Mission Adrift - Chapter 10

Whatever had unfolded between the time Destiny had taken off after their thief and her returning, something had obviously gone wrong, or so said the disconcerting look on her face.

Solah too had come back displeased with herself and her lack of success in hunting down the recurring cloaked figure. She’d turned the third corner into a narrow lane and dead end, but the mystery person had vanished like dust before she could know what to do.

She’d returned feeling unsuccessful yet again, but Destiny had returned with an expression utmost rare to see on her: dazed. The usual satisfaction of triumph was missing, which made Solah quickly aware of the fact that the princess did not have the urn in possession. She was walking their way with an unusual lack of focus and composure, confidence amiss but still an igniting determination in her step. If the clenched jaw and fists were any indicator, she would’ve thought that she might have been a little angered. Her gaze was averted and the moment Solah looked into her crystal orbs, that’s when she saw the storm.

Oh dear, what happened…

Better to open with an obvious question, she thought rather than getting into messy emotional exchanges her friend didn’t look to be in any mood to be having right now.

“Where’s the urn?”

“With Hunter.” Destiny didn’t even make eye contact as she responded, spitting out those two words like the thought of saying it was making her ire only grow. She looked to Sansa instead who was holding a rag to her wound, her other arm wrapped over Tasha’s shoulder.

Tasha held up her free palm, a clear sign not to come closer. “She’ll be alright, we just need to get her back.”

With a quick nod, she turned and faced away from the four of them.

“Now let’s get out of here.” And she was storming away before any of them could have another say, leaving them to stand there in question before following behind.

Even as Jet and Tash helped Sansa onto the hover board and slowly trailed behind Destiny, Solah just stood there. Her eyes followed the princess hurrying away, then down the lane she’d just come through to meet them. One more glance towards her disappearing team and she finally followed. The answers to her many questions could wait for now, but Destiny was going to answer her curiosities, whether she liked it or not.

---

“Alright, princess.”

Destiny sighed, releasing her teeth from their grip on her lower lip. She had known Solah was bound to ask at some point while the two of them were alone. She’d been tending to Sansa from the moment they got back, and when she couldn’t be of more help she’d used the excuse of needing to go clean up just to avoid being confronted by Solah’s burning questions, and perhaps have a chance to process ‘what the heck that was’ herself.

And here they were, on their way to meet the one person she didn’t want to see right now, in hopes of finding the one person that she’d have to prevent Solah from incinerating on sight.

She could feel the chameleon’s gaze on her as they walked, the awkward silence now broken between them.

“What happened this morning?”

She shrugged her shoulders, like a self-reminder of sorts before trying to answer the question. “I chased the thief down, tried to fight him off and Hunter came in, shot the man and saved me. That’s why I returned empty handed and now, why we’re on our way to meet him now.”

She didn’t even have to look at Solah to feel the grin light up on the chameleon’s face.

“And?”

“And, what?” It was a poor deflection, but she didn’t care when she had no desire to be talking, let alone thinking about it.

“What’d he do that’s got you so riled up?” Solah practically laughed out, and that’s when Destiny looked up to see the amusement written in her friend’s expression. “Steal your sword? Make a sexist remark?”

The idea of making up a genius lie there and then felt tempting, but she was never really good at that. She didn’t want Solah taking it the wrong way, but was still debating in her head what the hell she thought of it herself. She was angry, that much she’d settled.

“He…” she began, only preventing the words from passing her lips when she caught sight of Hunter and who she could assume was his first mate at their rendezvous. Impeccable timing.

“Never mind.” She mumbled, trying to ignore the stare from Solah which could only mean ‘This conversation isn’t over.’

Upon noticing the girls’ presence, Hunter dropped his conversation and gave them both that charming grin he did so well. Destiny wanted nothing more than to smack it straight off his face.

“Good morning miladies.” He bowed to them in a chivalrous manner, his companion then following suit. His eyes flickered around the area before landing on Destiny. “I sense today’s a good day for spider hunting?”

Her jaw tensed and she didn’t respond, only averted her eyes and gave out a huff under her breath. Solah stepped in, nodding for them both but making sure to give the Captain a stern glare in warning.

“So where are you leading us?” Solah queried, arms folded across her vest.

He took a moment to glance at the fox beside him, who returned the knowing look. “My first mate Taegan here and I will take you to where she’s been hiding out. It’s not a far walk from here.”

The walk there had certainly not been in comfortable silence. Destiny felt tense, out of her element, and the grin tugging at the corner of Solah’s lip had not been helping at all. She wrapped her hand around the hilt of her sword now strapped to a belt at her waist, gripping tightly and averting her gaze to anything but her partner or the vexatious man in front of her.

“This way.” Hunter called out, drawing Destiny’s dwindling attention away from its travels and back to reality. She realised then they’d reached a part of the village they’d not been to before, much more sheltered and quieter. He took them through a tight alleyway, stopping in front of a rotting creaked door that lead into a very large and old building. After glancing left and right for onlookers, he pushed the door open and holding it, nodding to Taegan and letting them inside.

Barely any light permeated into the building, the darkness and tall concrete walls surrounding them making Destiny feel very cold. They narrowed down the passage till she could make out a room in the dim light. She made no hesitation to step inside quickly, finally being able to see a little more.

The room was incredibly large and the ceiling far too high and long to be as empty as it was. There was nothing but a barricaded door and ladder on the opposite wall that lead up to the second level and a broken beam laying across the room, likely collecting dust and cobwebs. It took very little to conclude the building was old, long forgotten and abandoned.

Perfect for Akura.

“The building’s abandoned, laced with old traps so beware when we head up.”

She looked upwards and noticed the unmistakable shine of metal in the dark expanse above. She could guess from Hunter’s warning that it was likely traps in the roof, probably heavy contraptions to plummet to the floor for an inevitably painful and quick death for intruders.

When they reached the other side of the room, Hunter bypassed the door in front of them and made over to the old rusted ladder.

“This way.”

Solah rolled her eyes and scolded him with glaring eyes before climbing up. Destiny followed, trying her best to ignore intent look and smirk Hunter was currently giving her.

“How do we know that you’re not just leading us astray towards our inevitable death?” Destiny questioned as she climbed from the ladder onto the wooden panels of the second floor.

Blue eyes lit up with zest, a smile of mischief practically beaming at her.

“You don’t”

With that dry statement he sauntered over to the next door, not waiting for her to huff out an irritated reply. 

Smug bastard.

The room they were now entering was much darker and clearly there was a good reason people didn’t come here. Though dimly lit with light only protruding through one window and few holes in the roof, the room was scattered with broken crates and furniture which would make navigating through there very difficult. With the added bonus of cords and metal pieces hanging from the ceiling, Destiny caught sight of something in the distance, a silver string running across the room.

Tripwire.

“Now’s where the fun begins.” Taegan exclaimed, a mixture of amusement and unwillingness on his face as he rolled his sleeves up.

“The dungeon for the wicked.” Solah muttered, rolling her shoulders in preparation before taking the lead. They made it several metres through the mess, before the Captain was rushing in her direction.

“Wait!” He shouted, his arm quickly reaching out to grab hers, pulling her back towards him. She jerked back, her body crashing straight into him, palms pressed against his chest. She glared at him with sudden confusion and an accusing ire, like she were about to snap.

“Tripwire, darling.” He said, giving her a wink and gesturing his free hand towards the barely visible line of white behind her.

She pushed herself off him with no less of a scowl for him and he let out an exaggerated sigh in response. “Don’t try that again, Captain.”

She didn’t care for the supressed chuckle that came from him in return, but drew her attention down to the airborne silver line confirming that he hadn’t been lying, but noticed something familiar that made her curious. She kneeled down closer to inspect and much too all their surprise she lifted a hand up to it.

Hunter’s eyes blew wide. “What are you-“

But her fingertips were already plucking delicately at the thread before he could finish, causing it to vibrate at her touch, but nothing more. When she turned back to them, she wore a content smile on her face.

“Web.”

He looked carefully at the fine lining of silver she was knelt down next to, as if trying to be sure that this wasn’t some trick. Then when he raised his head and a sure grin formed on his muzzle, it was clear he believed.

“You’ve a keen eye.” He admitted, before stepping over the string of web and walking ahead, beckoning the others to continue.

The three followed his lead through the large and cluttered space, careful as to where they treaded. Destiny’s eyes landed on the captain, who she noticed was inspecting the room with keen and searching eyes. It was curious to her how he’d gone from quite calm and in his element one minute to cautiously analysing their surroundings then next and she wasn’t sure if he was looking for traps or something else.

“So, Hunter.” Solah’s voice cut Destiny’s train of thought and the awkward silence they’d somehow found themselves all in. “You wouldn’t know about her being in possession of some stones? Or an amethyst by chance?”

He seemed to be contemplating an answer for a moment as they kept moving, but shook his head. “She had a number of red gems on her person when we met, but made no mention of an amethyst.”

Solah tried not to look disappointed as they followed Hunter’s lead, but it didn’t fool Destiny. She gave her friend a reassuring smile, only to be returned with a half-hearted nod.

They had to have been nearly at the end of the floor by now and it was beginning to peak her interest as to where it was he was leading them.

Trying not to show frustration, she called out, “Is Akura here, or not?”

The sway of his head and delayed reply of “Well, maybe.” Didn’t make her feel any better about the situation they were currently in.

“I usually meet her here.” He admitted.

“And why do you need to meet up with her?” Solah questioned accusingly, itching curiosity to rival Destiny’s own.

He shook his head, but before he gave an answer he went rigid. His arm shot up, palm splayed at them as a warning. Before either girls could question what he was up to they could hear the building rumble. Once it stopped the only noise that came was Taegan drawing his sword and moving closer to the three of them.

The second rumble they could feel, like something nearby or below them was trembling and upset. Destiny didn’t dare ask what, just steadied her quiet breaths. The rumbling only got louder and the floor and walls surrounding them trembled and wailed. Within seconds clouds of black smoke shot up through the floor and the wooden panelling beneath their feet gave way.

She was falling, yelling and blind by darkness. The only thing she knew to do was to brace herself for the imminent impact and pain which came with a loud thud upon broken wood and splinters. She cringed at the sudden pain, grabbing at her hip that had taken the brunt of the force.

She tried to look around, and after some moment the blackness faded, revealing a dishevelled Taegan who had apparently broken Solah’s fall as she was scurrying off of him awkwardly and looking around frantically.

“Destiny!” Solah cried in panic, catching sight of her the princess.

Trying to calm her friend she got to her feet, however ungracefully, rubbing her sore hip. “I’m fine, it’ll heal.” She looked back over to the fox currently rubbing his head and steadying himself on two feet.

“You alright, Taegan?”

He nodded slowly as he gave the room one careful glance over. Both hands came up to his head and frustration took over his expression, forming a scowl on his youthful face.

“What in the realms was that?” Solah moaned in question.

But he didn’t seem to hear them, wrapped up in whatever was running through his mind. Destiny looked around the mess of wood and rubble and then it clicked what wasn’t right.

“Captain!” Taegan cried out, but only to be answered by his own echoes carrying through the large old building.

With a look of sheer concern and flickering anger on his face, he could only mutter one word.

“Witch.”