Rescue Party

WILLIAM WINTHROPE

The couple was awake late into the night, huddling together after their lovemaking. Kate had broken down quickly afterward, the emotions of the last 10 days unleashed.

She had been holding them back, trying to focus solely on finding solutions to get her mother back. She had been feeling odd over that time however, having big, uncharacteristic, outbursts. After having seen Will again and giving part of herself to him, something that should have been one of the happiest moments of her life, a crushing feeling of ineptitude weighed down her. Hence they spent hours afterwards, Kate softly crying into William’s chest and he held her tight, slowly stroking her hair and offering reassurance.

It was late morning by the time they both got out of bed to find Thomas awake already, looking quite sleep deprived as he lay slumped in one of the chairs.

“Good morning Dad,” Kate said cheerfully, clearly feeling better after working through some her emotions that bubbled up in the night.

Jerking his head around, his head still foggy, he greeted the two of them.

“Good you’re up, I was getting worried you would waste the day away in there.” He grumbled. “We should discuss what you’re going to do next. I think you two are going to have to go out on your own for now. As much as I’d like to go out and save Layla, I don’t think I’m going anywhere with my leg like this.”

“Right…” William said, trying not to pour salt on his wound, Thomas was clearly beating himself up for not being able to save his wife already. “Is Jameson still putting around town? When I left he was the only one with a pokeGirl.”

“I talked to him a couple days ago to ask him for help. He said he would tag along although I don’t know how much help he will be. He’s become a bit of a drunk since you last saw him boy.” Thomas responded before continuing on, “Eli said he’d help out too. Never like that one much but I suppose an extra body couldn’t hurt.”

William remembered Eli vaguely from his childhood years, but didn’t know much about him. He knew that Eli was only a couple years older than him and Kate, maybe 24 or 25 years old at most, and was a bit of a loner. He would often be around as the two of them were playing, just on the edge of his peripheral, acting as if he was busying himself with something else, but William always had a strange feeling that he was watching them. More than anything he remembered that cursed name Eli would call him when he was smaller than him.

“They both should be somewhere in the village square, Jameson for sure. I’d bet the house that he’s already at the tavern two pints deep.” Thomas continued on as William was stuck in his thoughts about Eli.

“Very well. Will and I will go meet with them. We should leave as soon as we can so we can catch up to those bastards as quickly as we can.” Kate said, her face set in determination.

—--

The village of Colsten could barely qualify as one. It was a small clearing at the edge of the Kingdom of Boarir, with a smattering of houses scattered around the outskirts, and a few more like Kate’s buried in the woods just outside of the clearing. Towards the center was the village square. There was a big stone fountain that had long seen better days with moss encompassing most of it, and the stream of water no longer worked, leaving just a pool of stale water behind. Surrounding the fountain were a handful of empty booths that were much nicer than the fountain itself as they were used frequently when the traders came to town and the market sprang up.

To the North of the village square there was a stretch of buildings that would be considered the shopping center of the village. There was a pantry that stocked cheap and easily stored foods to supply the villagers with basics along with a blacksmith that was passed down from generation to generation of the same family, the Blackships. Also among these buildings was a small pokeGirl outpost that didn’t get much use, but one established to serve as a touch point for explorers traveling into the wilds in between the neighboring kingdoms. Finally, the biggest building in the stretch was the tavern: The Healing Center. It acted as the only night life the village knew, as well as serving as an inn when the scarce travelers came to town, having a few spare rooms on the top floor.

After asking a few passerbyers, Kate and William confirmed that Jameson was in fact in The Healing Center. Entering the building, their eyes took a moment to adjust to the gloomy lighting in contrast to the sun now high in the sky beating down with the noon heat. There were small tables scattered along the walls and a massive, long table directly in the center. On the right was the bar, holding only a few chairs. The only person in the tavern was a lone man taking up one of these seats, head slumped down against the bar top.

He was a haggard man with a big beer belly, and an unshaven face. It would have been impossible to pick him out of a group of drunks had the place been busy. The most prominent feature about him was the dark blue snake wrapped around him.

It was easily 10 feet long, thick around as the man’s leg, with black eyes and two tiny wings sprouting from its back that were not nearly big enough to serve any purpose. A Fiorian, one of the more common members of the extremely rare Draconian family. Its forked tongue, also black as night, flicked out and its eyes snapped to the two of them. Giving the man a squeeze with her whole body to alert the man who was clearly already drunk, the snake started to emit an ethereal light.

It morphed into a tall woman with dark skin and short blue hair. Her two small wings remained on her back, and William could see scales rippling beneath her skin that would randomly take form on her skin.

The man still had not moved, and the woman kicked his chair trying once again to wake him from his stupor. Again, he didn’t stir, and the woman let out a sigh from years of seeing her Master in this state.

“It’s nice to see you again Perilla,” Kate said, smiling warmly at the woman.

“Nice to see you as well Kate,” She said, bowing her head slightly in her direction before turning towards William, “William, it’s been a long time since you have been through here. I’m glad you made it back.”

“It’s good to be back, and even better to see you and Jameson still around,” William said. “Is he alright?”

“Yes yes, he’s alright, unfortunately this is all too familiar for me. Thomas told us of your mother," Perilla said, turning towards Kate again, "It was a grim story. Jameson will be up in a few hours readying to help if there is somewhere you wish to meet?”

“We will be leaving shortly today, tell him to meet us at my house when he is ready to leave.” Kate replied, trying to keep her mind off of her mother and on the task at hand.

“We will be there.” Perilla said before the ethereal light appeared again and she shifted back into her snake-like form and wrapped around Jameson, ending their conversation.

Exiting out of the tavern, the two began their search for Eli. Their search took them all around town until they eventually found him at the edge of the clearing, slashing a two-handed sword down on a dummy tied to a tree.

Eli was a stocky man of average height, slightly shorter than William, and his muscles were put on display as he practiced without a shirt. He had curly blonde hair that reached down to his shoulders and a long tattoo of a dragon ran from the top of his back, down his torso until the tail disappeared, covered by the waistband of his pants.

“Hello Eli.” William called out, his voice carrying over the sounds of the sword hacking at the dummy.

Eli turned at the sound of his voice and sneered at William, “Hi there Pip,” He responded, calling William that annoying nickname before turning to Kate, putting on a brilliant smile before addressing her, “And hello beautiful. I assume you're here to collect me for your little rescue mission. Gonna need my help if your only other support is Pip here.” Waving dismissively at William.

William began to step forward, prepared to beat the importance of the ”little rescue mission” into him. Before he could make it a second step however, Kate grabbed his arm stopping him.

“Indeed Eli, we plan to leave as quickly as we can today. We will be meeting at my house and leave as soon as you are ready.” She returned his smile with one of her own, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes, before turning and walking off dragging William behind her, her grip on his arm starting to cut off the circulation.