Serious: The Aurora Pirates Part 5: True Strength

James lounged on the deck of his ship. He closed his eyes and allowed the sun to warm his face. James smiled. It was a great day at sea. Ever since they had left that last island behind it had been raining for three days straight. This was the first day that it hadn't rained and the ship had dried up nicely.

Across the deck from James was the baby dragon they had adopted. It was currently bouncing around the side of the ship, dangerously close to the edge. "POP!" it squeaked, trying to get Jake's attention. (The dragon had been calling Jake 'pop' ever since James had teased Jake, calling him the dragon's papa, due to their similar sharp teeth.) The dragon was now in full use of its legs. Its wings, however, were a different matter. Every once in a while it spread its wings, but usually it would close them soon after.

Jakes comment when he saw his new "kids" behaviour was something along the lines of "Hrmglph!", combined with a mild panic attack as he dashed forward and got the little dragon away from the edge of the ship.
he didn't know if dragons could swim, but he didn't intend to find out.
"Don't you scare me like that, sweety! What if you had fallen down!"
Somewhere behind him, Henry grimaced.

The dragon squeaked some incoherent noises before saying, "Scare! Sweety! Down!" He flashed Jake a grin and his tail wagged furiously.

James looked on, chuckling at their antics, before he jumped to his feet. "Hey, Kaori! Want to spar a little to ease off the boredom?"

Jake squeed with delight.
"Aaaw, you're just the cutest thing! Did you hear that Henry? He talked! Isn't he just so precious?"
Henry crossed his arms. he obviously didn't like the.... reptile, or whatever dragons were.
"Yes. Cute."

When the dragon heard Jake's delight, he grinned his toothy smile again. "Thing! Henry! Precious! Cute!" he had no earthly idea what any of these sounds meant, but he was perfectly happy to copy all the one's he could remember. The dragon began wiggling in Jake's arms and sprang up on the fishman's head. Then, with a cry of "The! Talked!" he leaped back onto the side of the ship. Unfortunately, the ship was still a little wet from all the rain they had been having and the dragon slipped, falling headlong towards the water below. "POP!" he screamed as he hit the water with a splash and vanished from sight.

"You guys are really loud," Heiki yawned, finally showing her face to the crew. Ever since she got back from the island, she had locked herself below deck, working on something (not sleeping). The girl just saw the dragon fall into the water and thought about saving it except she remembered that she couldn't swim.

Ayame exited her cabin then, a sleepy look still fresh on her expression from her afternoon nap - she'd been awoken by that damn dragon - again! And besides, she hissed, who the hell kept dragons-?!

Apparently, her captain did. She padded over to his side, and huffed. "I still dint think that takig that lizard along was a good idea," she mumbled quietly, pursin her lips.

The day was still warm. Perhaps she'd go back inside for another nap.

"EEEK! Sweetie!"
To hear a huge fishman scream "Eeek" was something one would never forget. It was just... ridiculous.
"Don't worry, pops is coming!"
With those words, he jumped after the young dragon.
Henry ran to the side of the ship and stared down.
"what a psycho..."

Pyriss yawned as she came out of her cabin. She looked out at the horizon, taking that first step on her once injured leg. She steps with careful coordination, and realizes that her foot was finally rejuvenated. The bones and muscles in her legs, finally healed, no longer constricted by the afflictions of pain. Pyriss smiled as she gazed at the sun only to be confused when Jake dived into the ocean. She wanted to finally take over her duties, after three days. She went into her room and grabbed her compass. She also grabbed her journal, writing about her experience on Camille Island.

"No, not now." Kaori told James. He was amused at this... dragon's antics. He wanted to look at it further. He walked down to where Jake had jumped, largely disregarding Henry. Henry had clearly become disillusioned to life here, but he was honestly taking being kidnapped by a band of roving pirates rather well. He looked down into the sea. He wondered if the dragon could swim.

Heiki noticed Pyriss walking out of her cabin. "Oh hey, how's your leg doing? Sorry I haven't been able to take care of you all too well for the past couple of days," she laughed. "I've been working on something." The girl patted the sword on her back that didn't look any different from a few days ago. She walked over to her boat on deck and sat in it. 'Wow, it's been a while since I've been in my little room,' she thought to herself, referring to the cramped boat as her "room."

(Just to let you know, Ugitzu has informed me that she has some work to do for school and will not be able to post until next Friday. I too have some studying to do, although mine is for a test tomorrow, but I should be able to deal with the story anyway.)

"Ahhh, that's alright!" James grinned. "I just need to stretch." He headed to the front of the ship and drew both of his swords. Then he began swinging them around, loosening himself up for training.

Meanwhile, the dragon hit the water and found himself sinking quickly. He struggled in the water and shot forward. Startled, he stopped paddling his legs, but still found himself speeding along. He turned and shot back to the ship. After a few seconds, he began to slow back down, so he kicked out again and once more he shot forward like a bullet. The dragon squeaked with pleasure. Suddenly, the surface of the water burst and the dragon spun around to see Jake in the water next to him.

"Pop!" the dragon squeaked happily. The bad news was, when he squeaked, a stream of super heated bubbles shot towards Jake. The good news was a fish swam by just at that moment and was hit by the bubbles. It was burnt and died instantly.

"Eargh!"
Was jakes comment as he saw a fish being fried in front of him. He grabbed it. Dinner.
Only then did he notice the young dragon.
"Sweetie!"
His grin was even wider than before, and showed how extremely relieved he was to see his fosterling unharmed.
"You can swim!"

The dragon swam around Jake and then shot to the surface. His head burst out of the water and he let out the air in his lungs before he sucked in another breath and dove back down to where Jake was. The dragon spotted another fish and began chasing it. He managed to catch it by the tail and pulled it to him. Then he returned to Jake with the fish in his mouth, a triumphant look on his face.

"Aaaw, you're such a good little fishkiller, yes you are!"
True pride of his kind of adoptive kid showed in Jakes eyes as he petted the dragons head.
"But we'll have to go back on deck soon, or else the others might worry!"

The dragon shot up to the surface and squeaked loudly. James leaned over the edge of the ship and waved at him.

"Hey little buddy!" he called. "Having fun?" The dragon squeaked and James nodded. "That's what I thought," he said. He pulled back and continued his practice.

James glanced over at Heiki, who he had just now noticed, and called out, "Hey! Doctor! Whatcha been up to for the last few days?"

Heiki opened one eye when James shouted something at her. "It's a secret," she smiled. "Anyways, I'm hungryyy."

James shrugged. "You know how to cook. Besides, Kagirinai is gone. I guess we'll have to find someone to take over for him soon."

Heiki pretended to cry then stood up. "Alright, then I'll be a temporary chef until we get one," she smirked. She had no idea why she was so energetic today. Normally, Heiki would have ignored Jake and gone to sleep. Maybe it was the three days she spent working that got to her head. Who knew?

James glanced over at Heiki, surprised by her attitude. "That would be...great," he grinned at her. "Thanks!"
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Far off in the distance, a small boat, only big enough to carry five normal-sized humans, came towards the Aurora Pirate's ship. A tall, but not muscular looking, man sat on the boat. He had scruffy, unkempt dark hair and dark brown eyes. He wore a black coat over a simple white shirt. His pants were grey and he was wearing brown shoes. The man looked up and saw the Aurora Pirate's ship coming towards him.

Perhaps...it is time for a little game," he mused.

[Presentation Box]
Jack Sorrel "The Trickster King"
Captain of the Trick Pirates
Bounty: 75,000,000

James finally finished. He thrust Kazeshini one last time and fired off a blast of wind. Now that he was done warming up for the day, he was about to put away his swords when he spotted a dark spot on the deck of the ship, rushing towards him.

"Is that...a shadow?" James thought. He looked up to see something falling straight down at his head and he dove to the side. The object hit the deck of the ship. It was a bo staff, which was about twice as thick as a regular staff. The staff stayed standing on one of its ends when it landed. Then a man appeared. He landed on top of the staff, balancing perfectly on it, he and looked down at James.

"Who are you?" James asked. He no longer had any intention of putting away his swords.

"My name is Jack Sorrel," the man replied. "Now, let's play a game."

Heiki set down the bowls of mushroom beef soup she cooked. They were rather plain, but that's how she planned it to be. She walked out to let everyone know about the meal, but was surprised to find some strange man balancing on a staff. "I like games..." she mumbled to herself.

Pyriss was still writing in her diary. Pyriss was agog by the interesting agriculture and climate of Camille island and traveling on a ship she had seen a few very small islands on the way. She looked up from her book, paying her attention on the odd man who was balanced on the top of, a staff? Pyriss wasn't the weapon specialist, she had no idea what it was. She stayed silent, she was used to people attacking James ship, with the other combatants from Camille island.

( Hi everyone, I'm back. WOW did you know I had to finish a book in 1 week!)

Jack glanced at Heiki. "My proposal is this: I'll set a time limit, let's say five minutes. If all of you are still alive in five minutes, I'll leave. If not...I'll take this ship."

"I got a better idea," James replied. "Let's say you last five seconds!" He jumped up at the guy and swung Kazeshini at the man, who bent backwards, falling off his staff. James smirked, thinking he had caught his opponent off guard, but as the man fell towards the deck of the ship, he rotated his body so that he balanced himself on his hands. One of his feet lashed out, kicking the staff near its base and making it fall backwards towards himself. Then Jack pushed off the deck with his hands, landing back on his feet, grabbing his staff as he went. James landed behind Jack, but before James could move, Jack slammed his staff into the captain's back. A rush of power slammed into James's back along with the staff and James was sent flying over the edge of the ship down towards the water below.

The baby dragon squealed fearfully when it saw James falling and it dove down into the water to go get Jake. "POP! POP!" he shrieked as he neared the fishman.