|
|
Post by jericho on May 30, 2012 21:45:37 GMT -6
Jericho could not remember the last time he had been in so much pain. He had long since become used to the physical issues he had, such as his limp and achy bones, as well as his hearing and other senses that were not as sharp as they once not had been. The latter wasn't as noticeable, but it was still irritating to have to deal with. His knees had been hurt badly in the last fight he had been in with the Navy, and while he didn't want to admit it- it hurt a lot more than it should have. It was becoming quite a task to even walk a distance without wanting to sit down or stop. Add in the amount of times he had shifted into his dragon form recently, and you've got a man who shouldn't even be able to stand up. The doctor had said to take it easy for a few days and let his body recover. She had even insisted that he let Aleksandr take control for a few days so the ancient dragon could rest. At the time, that had not exactly been an option. Admiral Katharine Shale had been captured at the time, and he had had to make sure that she remained safe from the eager to please crew members, who were looking to look on anybody's good side. Normally, Jericho would have let them done as they please, being as that said admiral was in the Navy. But it was because that it was that said admiral that he hadn't. And anyone who knew of Jericho Romanov's intense hatred of anything Navy would have left them speechless, seeing the pirate captain protect one of it's highest ranking members like that.
It just had to have been her that he had to run into. The famous Admiral Shale- or better known to Kate as some and the infamous pirate captain Jericho Romanov went way back. Back when the Navy had actually been in it's first few stages of life and when the good admiral had been a cadet, and Romanov merely a hired thug, just starting out in the world of piracy. They had been an item once, one that had been young and thrilling, due to the forbidden love aspect that young people ate up with a spoon. The romance itself had not lasted long, but the feelings between the two had been a strong enough surge to last most a lifetime. Or for the ancient Russian, several millenia. Just seeing the golem again mustered up old emotions the dragon hadn't even sure he still had anymore. He figured he had lost whatever interest he had had in the opposite sex after the love of his life, Tanya, had died. He felt that he owed it to her to keep her safe from his vindictive crew, as it had been them who had captured her in the first place. Romanov had also felt a strong desire to at least make her aware that he at least felt guilty for the way the things had ended between them all those years ago, even if it hadn't been his fault.
Kate's mentor you see, had found out about his pupil's love affair with the young criminal Romanov, and instead of asking her to quit, had instead confronted the two. After instigating a fight, Romanov and the captain fought, where the Navy captain was indeed slain by the young pirate. The Navy officers called it murder and soon began plastering his face everywhere, claiming that he was a wanted murderer, a known pirate and various other crimes he may or may not have actually committed. This all happened within a very short period of time, and had never gotten to apologize to Kate, who apparently didn't hold much of a grudge. This event is what had jumpstarted his career into piracy, and crimes after these continued to build and build, until Romanov became as legendary as he has. He has had yet to be captured by the Navy, and by god, he wasn't going to start now.
Only a day or so after Kate had been dropped off, Romanov and his crew had stopped off in a small port town in a hidden dock to stock up and refuel. Jericho had been out by himself, wanting to take a breather off the ship, where he had been ambushed by Navy officers. While still in no fighting condition, he had shifted due to the uneven disadvantages and wiped out most of the ambush party. He had unfortunately, been shot a few times and was already bleeding. And with the recent wounds, others were beginning to open up as well. Jericho had taken to the skies, though he was closer to the ground than he normally would have been. He couldn't risk going too high, in fear of crashing due to blood loss. Soon, this became a reality- as Jericho's vision was becoming hazy and his body began to feel as heavy as it truly was. His head felt like it weighed four tons, and his wings were tired of flapping. The next thing he knew, he was soaring towards the ground and shifting in midair. He hadn't even known he could do that. Especially this quickly and in this condition. The rest of the fall was gone for him, as it went black.
A few moments later, his heavy eyelids opened and his golden eyes took in light, unused to the shady light of a dense forest. Romanov sat up gingerly, his entire being throbbed worse than anything he had ever experienced before. His clothes were battered and torn, the only thing left almost unscathed being his cane, which concealed his sword inside. Romanov began the process of attempting to stand up, dragging his old body out of the massive crater his body had created from impact, near a tree. He then attempted to pull himself up with his cane and used the tree as support. Only after two times of nearly falling, he managed to get into a pained standing position, though he soon leaned on the tree almost entirely. Jericho grunted softly in pain, his dirty fingernails scraping into the rich bark of the tree. He muttered a curse in Russian and looked down at his battered body. His entire stomach had a large, black and blue bruise, one of his arms was broken he was sure and he was almost positive he probably had a concussion. Not to mention with the drawback of his shifting ability, even he was close to passing out from pain. And he was an old Russian- they knew pain. With the sound of his huffing, he almost didn't hear the sound of rustling in the bushes behind him. Jericho gripped the tree, his back facing the assumed Navy officer behind him. He cringed at another surge of pain, though remained as silent as possible. If it was a Navy officer, he needed to make sure he didn't sound like he was in distress.
words: 1178 $$ added
notes: .____. jerry muse esploded.
[/size][/blockquote] |
|
|
|
Post by kate on Jun 2, 2012 8:09:06 GMT -6
 It had been a very long time since Navy admiral Katherine Shale had felt so conflicted about anything, let alone a pirate.
The Navy was far from a perfect force for good. Kate knew that, and would be the first to freely admit it. No organization so large could be without faults, and she was aware of the corruption that had made its way into the center of the organization, resulting in prisoners being tortured and other such heinous things. It was despicable, not to mention severely disappointing to Kate that the Navy had fallen so far. However, it had never shaken her willingness to devote her life to serving it. The Navy was not perfect, but it was the biggest force for good in the world at the moment. And considering the fact that the world seemed to be going to hell at the moment, the last thing the Navy needed was its oldest, most venerable admiral suddenly quitting her job.
So, despite the problems the Navy had, Kate Shale had never doubted that her place was serving in it. It had been for millennia, and she didn’t expect that would change anytime soon. She was planning to use her position and influence within the Navy to fix it from within. The corruption had made it as high as the level of admiral; she couldn’t afford to leave when she was one of the few able to question said admiral’s decisions and perhaps do something to stop her. Anyone further down in the chain of command could be brought up on charges of insubordination. Kate considered it her responsibility to deal with the problem, so that no one else would have to.
But now, things had become more complicated. Few would suspect the cause was one of the most infamous pirates of all time, and even fewer would guess the amount of history between Kate and Jericho Romanov. They had known each other since long ago, when the Navy was first beginning and Jericho was first becoming a pirate. More than that, they had, for a while, been romantically involved. The thrill of forbidden romance had been quite appealing to Kate’s younger self, though she could no longer remember if she had ever expected it to go beyond a love affair into something more serious. In any case, it didn’t matter. Kate’s mentor at the time had found out about the two of them and confronted Jericho, getting himself killed in the process. Kate had blamed Jericho at the time, in the heat of the moment, but time had given her perspective on the incident. He had been attacked and had defended himself. She could hardly blame him for that, even if she still wished the whole thing could have been solved without so much bloodshed.
If she was honest with herself, it hurt to see what Jericho had become. He’d been different then, before the weight of everything that had happened to him had bowed his shoulders. They were both older, and had both gone through hardships and tragedies. They had both changed. Kate had used her job at the Navy to keep going through devastating loss that would have otherwise sent her into a tailspin; she suspected Jericho’s rampage of revenge after the loss of his wife had had the same motivation. When you were hurting that much, you had to find something to throw yourself into, or else go mad. But whereas Kate had leveled out again, she suspected Jericho was still in a tailspin. He was still tearing through anyone remotely associated with the Navy, corrupt or not, and it seemed to Kate as though he were doing so simply because he didn’t feel he had any other choice. He had tried quitting piracy before, and it hadn’t worked. Kate knew better than to think the Navy would ever leave him alone.
As much as she had tried to distance herself from what they had once been, running into him again had awakened feelings she’d thought long buried. Particularly the last time; his crew, probably thinking to garner favor with their irritable captain, had managed to gang up on Kate and drag her to his ship, attempting to torture her for information. It wasn’t the first time someone had tried something like that – Kate was a golem, and golem’s weaknesses were unfortunately widely known – but it was one of the nastiest. And, to her surprise, Jericho had defended her from his crew, even when she ended up stuck on his ship for upwards of a week. She’d tried not to start caring about him again, but… for all her gruff exterior, Kate wasn’t all that good at controlling her feelings.
So when she’d heard that Jericho had been seen going down hard in a forest near to where her ship was docked on Oleron Island, she had taken the opportunity to lead the search team. After all, falling from so high would make a sizable dent in the ground, and Kate’s masterful grasp of terramancy would make it much easier for her to find him than anyone else.
She’d located him instantly upon reaching the forest; he’d made quite a crater, though the size of it suggested he had shifted into human form before hitting the ground. That had to hurt. Even Jericho, as tough as he was, wasn’t likely to be in good form at the moment from what she had heard. Kate sent the rest of the men who had come with her off in the wrong directions on the pretense of sweeping for the crash site, saying she would have to get closer to be able to detect it. She didn’t like lying to her men, but under the circumstances, she wanted to get to Jericho alone first.
Kate headed off on her own towards the crash site, the ground cool against her bare feet. It didn’t take her long to reach it; it was difficult to get lost when she could feel her destination with each step she took. When she got to the crash site, she saw Jericho. He was leaning heavily on the trunk of the tree he had crashed next to, and though his back was turned to her, she could see pain in every line of his body. She brushed past a few bushes and stopped a little ways behind him. She wasn’t dumb enough to get within striking distance of a wounded dragon who probably assumed she was an enemy. ”How badly are you hurt?” she asked, letting her voice identify her for him. His answer would determine what she did next.
Tagged: Jerry~
Words: 1106 $$ added
[/blockquote] |
|
|
|
Post by jericho on Jul 11, 2012 16:29:46 GMT -6
For once in his life, he was glad there was a Navy officer behind him. To be more specific, he was glad there was a certain admiral standing behind him. If it had been anyone else but the golem, things would've gotten a whole lot worse. At least if Kate was here, there was a slim chance that he still might be able to make his escape. Or maybe that was the complete opposite of his chances if Kate was here. Depending on her mood, she could be here by herself or she could have a small army hidden in the trees above him. Whichever option she had gone with wouldn't surprise him in the least. Romanov's fingernails dug deeper into the bark, hard enough for both the tree and his old nails to many a sickening cracking sound. But even if she was here by herself, it wouldn't be long before her comrades tracked their location and came to rescue their poor admiral again from the evil, heavily wounded pirate's wrath.
The Russian dragon's grip was beginning to waver as his fingernails broke, cracked and began to bleed. He dug them in deeper anyway, in hopes to not make himself look like he was entirely vulnerable. Yes, it was Kate. But sometimes he had to remind himself that this was a Navy officer he was speaking to, and not a close friend or ally. It was hard to overlook their shared history, especially since some of the feelings from that time seemed to have returned, minus the naive thrill that had once made their romance exciting. Jericho hissed quietly again and nodded. "Not enough to not be able to run." he replied, though his lie was more obvious than he would've cared for. It shamed him to be in such a weak state, not to be able to properly defend himself! Was he losing his touch? There had been so many battles between he, his crew and the Navy lately that he hadn't had the proper time to heal. With all of the recent and now fresh wounds mixing together, Romanov wasn't sure how he was even going to get out of here. His crew didn't know where he was and Navy officers were hot on his pursuit.
And he couldn't bring himself to shift back into his dragon form, which would be his only ticket out of this forest. The pain from shifting so many times in the past few hours, plus the injuries he had accumulated would make it impossible, even for him to shift without passing out or dying in the process. He still had work to do. He still had Ivy to look after. He couldn't bare to leave her behind, especially since it had been the one promise he could still keep to his late wife. If his dotchka were gone, maybe this all wouldn't have been such a big issue. But since she was, there was no way he could leave this world. Not yet. anyway.
If only his body didn't have the weak limitations his mind did not. Romanov was not a small man, with a broad chest and muscular body type, his legs were giving out under his weight. His knees were on fire, his bones felt as if they were about to break. The ancient Russian groped the tree again for support, but found that it was beginning to snap itself. He fell forward with the tree, just barely catching himself on his hands and knees. The locket, which he always kept in his coat pocket had slipped out and skidded across the grass and near where the tree trunk had fallen. Due to the thick haze that had sunk over him, the silver haired man couldn't seem to locate the locket and instead, sank his bloody fingertips into the earth. Jericho snarled loudly, trying to keep his body from shaking due to how cold the world seemed to have gotten so suddenly. "Are you here to arrest me, Admiral?" he spat, his tone particularly chilly at the mention of her rank. "Because if you are, you should know that I cannot let you," his added, his accent thick enough to be considered almost incomprehensible.
Having said this, Jericho slowly attempted to get up again, though it was a complete failure. He found himself back on his knees, hunched over and gripping his stomach with his unbroken arm. He hacked, positive that it was blood he had just coughed up. "....you know I can't let them take me," he said. His head shook slowly as he pulled his arm closer to his bruised gut. He cringed, his ears beginning to pick up the sounds of people yelling not too far off in the distance. Kate's men were getting close and it was apparent that he wasn't to be able to get away like he did all of the times before.
words: 819
notes: 8l it's a start.
[/size][/blockquote] |
|
|
|
Post by kate on Aug 27, 2012 8:28:36 GMT -6
Even before Jericho answered her question, Kate was already looking the ancient dragon up and down, her experience driving her to make her own assessment of his injuries. The crater his impact had made alone suggested some serious damage had been done – even a dragon could only take so much before his body would begin to give out, and their human forms were not as resilient as their larger draconic ones. With her bare feet on the ground, Kate could feel the way the dragon was shaking on his feet, barely able to remain upright even with the help of the tree he was slowly crushing to death. He was in worse shape than she had originally thought. There was no way he would be able to fight off more than a couple of Navy men at a time.
Kate shook herself mentally, surprised at the line of thought she was following. It disturbed her that she wasn’t thinking of how to bring him in with the least amount of damage to him or her men, as a Navy officer ought to. Jericho’s crimes were clear; the dragon himself made no effort to deny them. He had killed thousands of Navy officers in the past, and if allowed to remain free, would undoubtedly continue to do so. Kate had been in the Navy a very long time; she ought to know better than to let her personal feelings get in the way of the greater good.
But then, was it the only option? Kate knew what had happened in Jericho’s past. She knew the Navy was not perfect (far from it), that they had hurt Jericho in ways that had sent him down this destructive path a long time ago. If he was captured, he would be executed within a couple of weeks. She had no doubt of that. What she doubted was whether the dragon truly deserved that fate, after all that he had been through.
Jericho eventually answered her, growling out something about still being able to run. Kate gave a rather unladylike snort in response. ”You should know better than to tell such an obvious lie, Jericho.” He had to know how obvious it was that he could barely remain upright. Perhaps it was that damnable draconic pride of his. Kate had never seen the point of pride for its own sake. It was too easy to let it get in the way when accepting help was the wiser choice. But Jericho’s pride would never allow him to simply ask for her help in getting out of here (help she hadn’t yet decided if she would give him). Instead, he would pretend he wasn’t hurting until it became impossible to deny.
She winced to herself as the tree gave way under Jericho’s weight, sending the pirate toppling to his hands and knees on the ground. The golem’s sharp eyes tracked a glitter of metal as it flew out of the dragon’s coat pocket, landing near the now-fallen tree trunk. She marked its location mentally, intending to pick it up when the chance to do so arose, then turned her attention back to Jericho as he spat something that could almost be construed as a challenge. Kate folded her arms, unimpressed with his posturing. ”If I decide to arrest you, Jericho, you’re in no shape to do a damn thing about it,” she shot back, matching his tone cold for cold. She could have him covered in earth and immobilized in an instant, considering how low to the ground he was at the moment. She was probably stronger than him at the moment, to boot, considering the shape he was in.
And for a moment, she leaned towards taking him in. Her duty as a Navy officer was clear in this situation. Jericho was a menace, and all evidence suggested he would not stop killing Navy men and women until one of them finally managed to kill him. She could end it, right now.
But then a pang went through her chest as she watched his attempt to rise fail miserably, the temper that had risen at the dragon’s challenge fading away. To give herself a moment to think, she walked over to where the metallic glitter from earlier had landed and scooped it up off the ground. The locket had popped open on impact with the ground; Kate’s grey gaze fell upon the two pictures inside. She recognized one as Jericho’s wife, killed many years ago in a Navy raid after the man had quit piracy to raise a family (part of the reason Kate didn’t blame him for his grudge against them). The other picture, however, was what decided it. Jericho’s daughter. Kate couldn’t bring herself to leave the woman fatherless, not after the Navy had already taken her mother.
The golem closed the locket carefully and turned as Jericho spoke again. Sliding the locket into a pocket for later, she went over to him, crouched down in front of the kneeling dragon, and looked him in the eye. ”I know.” She glanced up at the sound of the approaching men, her mouth turning down in a scowl. Kate thought quickly; she wouldn’t be able to get Jericho out of here if the others saw him, no matter how respected she was. At least, not without losing her job, and she wasn’t prepared to do that. That left hiding him.
She looked back at him. ”I’ll help you, but you have to trust me. Stay still.” Without waiting for a response (he didn’t have much of a choice, after all), she stood back up and took a couple of steps back from the man. Kate reached out through the ground beneath her bare feet with her magic, careful not to put too much power into it. She was about to try something much more delicate than her usual slamming enemies with spears of rock. Carefully, Kate shifted the ground beneath Jericho, lowering it gradually until the man knelt in a hole with a foot or so of space between his head and the level of the forest floor.
Kate moved to the edge of the hole she had made and looked down at him. ”I’m going to close it over so the others won’t see you. Once they’re gone, I’ll get you out of here.” Carefully, trying not to rain more dirt on the injured dragon than necessary, Kate moved a layer of ground to close the hole, leaving a small gap about the size of a fist for air. Then, turning, she waited for the other Navy men to arrive.
Tagged: Jerry~
Words: 1105
[/blockquote] |
|
