Sunny

by MaDovahVhenan

X --Art by Apivo

Art by PhantomDaVinci


Their plan was plain and simple.

1. A shipment of apparel was coming in from the Molten Scar. It was to cross the Sea of a Thousand Currents and unload on the shores of the Light domain at midnight.
2. A caravan would collect the delivery and transport it to an undisclosed location, where the couriers would then account for and distribute the items to marketplaces flight-wide.

Through a couple of bribed mouths and easy coin, Sunny had tracked down the route, every member of the entourage (none were from Water, shame on them), and most importantly the end-point: Mirrorlight Promenade.

Now, his itinerary was all too smooth. He had loaned a ship, and it was to dock at the shores of Highland Scrub. At an estimated time of 10:15:03, the cargo boat would ease into the Flats, where travel by boat would chug at a slug’s pace due to shallow waters. The couriers would not appear on the radar until 11:43:38, however they were known to circle the land around their agreed rendezvous, so Sunny did not dare tempt his fate.

The sea was the obvious choice. Between these two times (rough estimate: 10:21:27? 10:26:19? 10:34:59?), Sunny would intercept the cargo, steal the goods and speed off north towards the reef. If he were to be followed, there would be a diversion allowing him to escape on a smaller vessel with as much as he could carry (and being prepared, he had brought with him a sufficient number of pockets). He’d row westward to the Wind domain and wipe his trail through a detour into the Reedcleft Ascent. Then he could circle back to the Lightning domain, maybe split his findings with his fellow beggars, and have his name wrought in conquest and gold.

That was the idea, but security hadn’t seemed to get it. Everything had gone accordingly up until all civil gaiety was abandoned in favor of flying towards him, his treasure and his boat. Hastily, the Skydancer feels for the ship’s loose floorboard, reaching in for his self-made arsenal: blowdarts and stun rays and light bombs. Half of this he unleashes, simultaneously grabbing for the stolen bounty and chucking them (and himself) into the getaway boat.

His sails go up- the night is warm and the winds dance harder as he steers west. This, he excels in: the boat cuts skillfully across the waves. His hands are masters of the ropes and the rigging. He does not worry enough to focus his eyes ahead, because though he has no mighty sea vessel to call his own, he is a captain, a pirate. He can hop from one mast to another and still familiarize himself with every aspect, as if he had been sea-worthy from the start. (He was not). He tilts his head back to see the abandoned ship powdered in clouds of light, specks twisting in the winds and falling to the sea like mirror shards of exploded stars. His pursuers chase him, and he laughs.

It was no odd thing to find a thrill in beauty, if that were not an odd thing to say.

The winds are harsh, but he, in a sense, was harsher. With one swift move, the goods are in his arms, across his neck, burlap sacks of silk and jewels and polished armor. He takes to the forest of Reeds by instinct, like the call of a primordially sacred lifeline easing him to his roots. Sunny does not actually know where he was going besides forward- that was, until, by some strange urge to fly up was he then grabbed by her.

For a split-second, he thinks she is a fairy. Her limbs are white like moonlight and her wings are incandescent. She, on the other hand, thinks he is quite an unkempt mess. His eye is scarred, his hands draped in unappealing accessories. She quite likes it. She quite likes him. These thoughts come in a flash.

“Leaf,” she calls out to him- they fly quickly. She has eased some of his sacks into her own arms, and he is too tongue-tied to object. “Is my name. You were right to think they’d lose you in the Ascent, but where are you headed now?” She inspects the contents of his sack. “This is a good steal, if that is your thing.” (She thinks him twice as interesting now).

“Yes.” He beholds her name in a whisper. “Are you…a princess?”

Her laugh is careless as they soar eastward to the sea, where she promises none will find them and he agrees. “I can be anything if I wanted to.”
by nemodave (176958)