12.30.07
8: The Long Day
It took all of Jace’s skills of communication and persuasion to convey to his aging master that there was in fact a whole mass of people following up the path behind him, eager for meat, drink and gossip.
In the end, he managed, and between the two of them they had the rough establishment ready just ahead of the crowd, with sleeping sailors roused from the tables, joints of meat spitted and set over the fire, and the high quality spiced rum, fortified wine, and aged whiskey that Prit reserved for his mates was switched out for the economically produced but dearly priced grog he sold to all comers.
Jace did his best to keep his ears open as he served the throng, which was so large that it spilled out from beneath the canopy. It was hard for him to pick out any one conversation as he darted and dashed and dived through momentary openings in the sea of people, but he didn’t need to focus on one conversation when every conversation was on the same topic… though with precious little agreement.
Was she a princess? Of course. Of course not.
Where had she come from? Fell from the Skylands. Found in a brothel.
She was an untouched virgin. She was infected with every disease known to man and had a whole litter of feathered babies on the way.
Whoever bought her would find a whole army of her people swooping down on top of their head as retribution. She was an outcast, a pariah sold into bondage by her own people for some hideous crime or simply for being an embarrassment to somebody in power.
The most distressing possibility Jace heard—and this was advocated solely by a beady-eyed, floppy-eared sot with tiger striped fur—was that the governor’s interest in the exotic woman was actually culinary, as “everybody” knew that the flesh of Skylanders was addictively tasty.
That didn’t seem very likely to the young man, but he took the mention of the governor’s interest as a reminder. One way or another, the girl would soon be beyond his power to help, whether the governor completed the purchase or the slavers fled in their ship.
From that moment, Jace struggled to pace himself. He still had most of the afternoon and evening ahead of him, and he would need to be alert and awake when the tavern closed and Prit retired to the cave to collapse. He would make his move that very night… sneak down to the harbor, find out which ship belonged to Montaldo and Striggs, and slip aboard.
After that? He hadn’t thought that far ahead. He could swim away from the ship under water. Could the princess? Probably not. But she was feathered, and supposedly from the Skylands. Perhaps once free of her fetters she would prove able to fly, as some of those folk were rumored to.
Jace wasn’t overly worried, in either case. He knew that she wasn’t meant to be a slave, and therefore, fate would favor him in his attempt to rescue her. That was all there was to it.
He just had to do his part, and the most difficult part of that would be keeping himself awake.
It was going to be a very long day.
Alderin said,
December 31, 2007 at 1:14 am
Teehee, “first”, lol.
As usual, my only real problem with the story thus far is that it has only come this far. My dyslexic eyes initially read “following up the path” as “flowing up the path”, and somehow that feels better to me, but that could be just me.
*HUGS*
Mr. Mustard said,
December 31, 2007 at 10:52 am
Wait, is Jace an otter or something?
Gudy said,
December 31, 2007 at 4:22 pm
I’d think that Jace is an otter in much the same way that the “princess” is a bird. In other words, not really, although he may share the odd characteristic or two in both appearance and capabilities.
lwo said,
January 1, 2008 at 12:39 am
fate would favor him in his attempt to rescue her.
Cue ominous organ music.
Worse than crack, or even the old Dickens serials, you’ve gone a slightly different way with this. This is ever so reminiscent of the old ‘daily’ radio plays. Short, sweet, to the point, and honking brilliant!. I often listen to some of those old serials, and dang if I’m not worried for the Cisco Kid, or the Lone Ranger, or The Whistler!
Pirates, furries, beautiful princesses, slaves, unjust abduction, meddling governers, a Quest, and a quiet simple country boy who shall become our Hero. Damn. Sign me up. Different flavour than ToMU, and Void Dogs. (I’m still confused by some of the angles on Tribe, probably finding it too Urban) but this is more honking brilliance. Time to get out and flog again. Really good.
Thanks AE-URox.(cp to PU/lwo)
And it’s worth noting, old time radio serials (like some of the better 80’s cartoons that had some brilliant writing), often major authors of the time were engaged to write arcs or episodes under pseudonames. Quick easy money compared to the publishing route. (another discussion thread)
lwo said,
January 1, 2008 at 12:52 am
AE -
And as asked for with several other requestors - Navigation aids would be greatly appreciated. I used my Address Line and incremented, but one of the Charms of ToMU and Tribe and Void Dogs is the ease of navigation.
The reason this is so critical is actually your Damn Fault. One gets ansie for one’s next fix. Click and go! Alternatively, if there are business model reasons to not put them in, so be it. Still: Just happen to catch Discovery’s show on Pirates today. What can I say: I’ve met Prit. He’s no Blackbeard. (Some to learn, Some to Teach) - Great Start AE.
Alderin said,
January 2, 2008 at 6:40 am
@Iwo: If you’re as addicted as I am, the best way to ‘navigate’ to the newest blessed offerings is the Master Story Feed, which I’ve been tempted to replace my ToMU bookmark link with. She doesn’t have that particular navigational aid here because (I believe) this story is meant to be family safe, but you can grab the link from ToMU.
Fiona said,
January 10, 2008 at 7:15 am
A ha! I found another AE story!
Cindykays said,
January 14, 2008 at 2:24 am
@AE
Minor corrections:
A space before and after these hyphens will make them punctuation dashes rather than hyphenating the words they are between.
“heard–and this was advocated solely by a beady-eyed, floppy-eared sot with tiger striped fur–was”
“under water” should be one word “underwater”
And more punctuation, there should be a comma before “therefore” as well as after it in this line.
“slave, and therefore, fate would favor him in his attempt to rescue her. That was”
Getting more interesting by the installment.
~CindyKay