As Dolphus spoke to the man, Ari was still frozen in place. The last couple of days have taken a toll on her, she was feeling tired and lost, her thoughts scrambled in her mind. The presence of the Armada captain seemed to amplify all those hopeless feelings tenfold. For the first time in years she felt like she was truly cornered, with no possible way out…
Ari tried to take another quick glance in the eyes of her opponent. To her surprise, they were not nearly as dead as before. As he was talking to Dolphus, his eyes lit up with interest and curiosity. It was a small glimpse of genuine human emotion that she thought this man lacked. Even though for a brief moment, but he stopped looking like a monster. After all he was still human.
This realization made Ari suddenly snap out of her trance. How could she freeze up like that? How pathetic, she got scared of some Domestic Watch Captain! She really wasn’t herself after the boat crash. Didn’t hear the obvious footsteps, allowed herself to be surrounded, get caught… oh she would give everything for that nap next to a fire right now…
No, she didn’t get caught yet, there was still a chance to get out of this.
Ari listened carefully to what her companion was saying.
I guess for now I’ll have to play along with the story the boy is making up if I want to get out of this…
are you serious, this stupid kid couldn’t come up with anything better than deckhand?!
It was humiliating, but she had to let go of her ego for now. The kid embarrassed himself in front of her, so he wouldn’t be able to tell anyone about the pathetic things she was about to say. They are even now.
Shooting positions?! You have to be kidding me!
Ari hated dealing with archers. Bows were pretty much useless in the crowded and cramped city streets she was native to, so they were a rare sight. She adapted to fighting against swords, daggers, maces, even spears, but if she ever encountered an archer, it led to serious trouble and she never came out unscathed.
But this was something to worry about in the future. Right now she needed to focus on convincing that freak that she meant no harm.
Ari fully lowered her metal bet, and returned it to its place on to her belt.
“I’m sorry, chief!” She spread her arms in a wide gesture, with the palms facing the captain to show that she was completely unarmed and had no intentions to attack, “I was never in any fancy circles and don’t know the proper way to talk. At first I thought you were a group of forest bandits, trying to rob us, as if we have anything valuable to give, and tried to scare them away. I did not expect to meet the Domestic Watch in the middle of the forest, but I’m thankful that you’re doing your best to keep these lands safe!” She absolutely couldn’t stand the things that were coming out of her mouth. The last sentence was particularly disgusting, but she had to push through. The empty-eyed piece of crap was absolutely not making it out of here with both of his eyes intact after making her go through this.
As she spoke, she threw a quick glance at Dolphus and had to try her best to suppress a visceral reaction to the sight that opened before her eyes. The boy had a mortified expression on his face. It looked as if all life was pulled out of him and he was about to collapse to the ground. He clearly realised something that Ari was completely oblivious to. What part of the man’s speech got such a reaction out of him? Did he see straight through the kid’s lies? Whatever it was, Ari did not have a good feeling about it. Now she knew for certain that they were absolutely not letting them go.
It was time to act.
“I hit my head real hard on a tree branch when we were going here y’see, so my brains are all scrambled and I just can’t think straight. I am sorry that my stupid words offended you!” She let out a nervous laugh and accompanied her words with a gesture of hitting the back of her head with the palm of her right hand. Unnoticed by anyone, she pulled out one of the long iron nails keeping her ponytail together out of her hair as she lowered her arm, and hid it in her palm.
As he approached the leftovers of the boat, mako noticed a hasty trail of fairly fresh footprints originating at the miserable carcass of the small vessel, going to the midpoint between the two wrecks, then sharply turning towards the forest and disappearing between the trees. At the point of the turn, there was a sizeable imprint in the sand, as if something had been lying there for quite some time. However it was impossible to tell what that object could have been. Mako briefly stopped to investigate and noticed that the footprints were significantly larger compared to his own.
When he reached the boat… if you could even call it a boat… just a bunch of broken planks loosely attached together forming something that vaguely resembled a hull and a fallen mast with a torn white sail, he didn’t find anything of interest, except for an old toolbox filled with instruments, most of which Mako didn’t seem to recognise. It was clear that whoever owned the box, took great care of it and its contents, as all tools were in pristine condition, despite clearly having been in use for a long time. Most of the paint on the toolbox had been chipped off by time, but Mako could barely make out the words WOHLFORD & CO.
written on the side. (OOC: I hope that Mako can read. If not, I’ll edit this last part out)