“The point of the story is that I misheard what my mother said. I thought she had said ‘Lizard Breath’ instead of Elizabeth. In my defense, Liz could just as easily be a shortened version of Lizard as Elizabeth,” she said. “The next time I got mad at Liz, I used the same tone as my mother and called her Lizard Breath. Both Mum and Dad thought it was the funniest thing they had ever heard and used the new name whenever they wanted to tease her. I only use it now when I want her to know I’m really angry with her,” she explained.
“Your parents sound like people I would like to get to know,” Gareth commented.
Izzy looked down at the deck, her shoulders slumped. “I think they would have liked you too,” she muttered. She looked up and saw Gareth had an awkward look on his face. He had obviously noted the use of the past tense in her sentence. “My parents ran a moderate sized shipping business that they had grown from a single ship into a small fleet. They met when my father was the pilot and my mother the engineer on the same airship. They died when I was 12. A group of merchants who operated on the wrong side of the law took offense at how my parents refused to do business with them or pay them protection money. In one night, the bastards set fire to every ship on our business dock as well as our home,” she stated.
Her eyes lost focus slightly as she remembered back to that horrible night. “The fire spread so fast, we never had a chance to get out of our rooms. Smoke was coming from under my door so I opened up the secret door Father had installed between my room and Elizabeth’s to see if she was alright. Her room was already on fire and I found her trapped under a burning piece of wall that had fallen on her. Her spare blanket was on the floor so I used it to smother the flames on her body. After wrapping her up in the blanket, I somehow managed to pull her into my room and shut the secret door behind us. I opened my bedroom window and saw the grounds had been put to the torch as well. I went back to where I had left Elizabeth and held her burned face in my lap while I tried to prepare myself to die,” she told him.
“Gods,” was all Gareth managed to say. He couldn’t imagine the pain and terror Izzy had gone through when she was only 12.
“I had given up when suddenly I saw the most beautiful thing ever - the beat up bow of a freighter smashing through my wall. Ironically, it was a freighter my parents had been considering decommissioning the week before. The airship reversed its course and lowered its cargo ramp. The captain of the ship and his cargomaster ran in, scooped up me and Elizabeth, and then got us to safety,” Izzy stated.
She ran her hand affectionately along the wood railing next to where she sat. “The captain of the Glorious Dawn had run into bad weather and was several hours past due. While they were still off of the coast, Captain Dunning could see the docks ablaze. He had been friends with both my parents for many years, so he burned all of their available Aetherium ore to get to our home. Once he got there, he found the whole house on fire. He had given up hope when he suddenly saw me open my window. Dunning had always been a man of action and decided ramming the house would be the quickest way to get me out of that inferno,” she said. “Dunning and I used what was left of my parents’ money to pay for the best medical attention we could get for Elizabeth,” she added.
Gareth felt guilty for ever having any negative thoughts about the airship he was on. The fact that it was used to save Izzy’s life would forever change how he perceived the old girl. “What happened to Captain Dunning?” he inquired.
“He retired about four years ago and made Elizabeth captain. He’s living on a tropical island with a native girl he married. We stop by every now and then. Of course after our last visit, we’ll give him warning that we’re coming. It will give him a chance to put some clothes on,” she chuckled. “Okay Professor, enough about my past. I would like to hear about what we are actually doing on this voyage. It’s obviously more than just some simple archeology expedition,” she said.
“This all started when there was a disagreement over me getting tenure at the University Arcanum. To settle the matter and to prove myself, the powers that be gave me what they thought was an impossible quest. They told me to find the Lost Island of Mascal. Tralnis, Henry, and I also thought it was an impossible quest until Henry noticed something about a clay tablet that supposedly had something to do with Mascal. The tablet had markings on it a language that, that as far as I know, I’m the only one who can read. A language I don’t remember learning,” he told her.
“Huh?” Izzy said, slightly confused.
“When the fisherman found me in my lifeboat, I knew my name and how old I was but nothing else. I had no memories of life before that. To make matters worse, I spoke a language no one had ever heard before so I couldn’t even tell anyone my name. Luckily, I picked up the Trade language incredibly fast and was able to tell the orphanage workers my name after only a week,” he stated.
Getting back on track, Gareth said, “A small part of me wants to complete this quest so I can rub the pompous assholes’ noses in it before I tell them I won’t ever teach for them again for as long as I live. The rest of me is hoping I can find out more about where I came from… and what I am.”
Izzy frowned and asked, “What do you mean what you are?”
Gareth took in a deep breath to center himself. He liked Izzy and knew the only way things could possibly work out between them was if she knew the secret he hid. “I always thought I was some sort mutant, a person with a genetic abnormality. But now I’m not so sure,” he said.
Looking him up and down, Izzy tried to see what he was talking about. From what she could see, he looked like a regular human to her. Her gaze paused a little below his belt and she blushed when she caught herself hoping everything down there worked normally. “Alright, out with it. Where you born with a center mouth like an Ur, or seven toes on each foot? What I can see looks like grade ‘A’ human stock to me,” she stated.
“Do you remember the statues in the altar room?” he inquired, seemingly at random. Izzy nodded her head yes. “It’s more than just a mysterious language that ties me to this puzzle now,” he said as he used his hand to brush back sandy blonde hair from his pointed ears.
Izzy stood up from her seat on the canon and stepped closer to Gareth. “Other than the ears, anything else different from us run of the mill humans?” she asked teasingly.
“Not that Tralnis and I could find. My insides might be different, but without cutting me open, we’ll never know,” he answered.
Her thoughts went back to when she was looking him over. “Good,” she said. Raising her hand, she traced the edge of his pointed ear with her finger. “For what it’s worth, I think your ears are rather attractive, Professor,” she whispered. She shifted her hand to weave her fingers through the hair at the base of his neck. Using that hand, she gently pulled his face towards hers. Their lips were just about to meet when Tralnis cleared his throat. Izzy and Gareth each took an embarrassed step back from each other.
“Sorry to interrupt you two, but I thought you might want to know that the Captain and I have come to an agreement. I had to turn over half of our share of the figurines to get her to see things our way,” he said.
Izzy’s brows creased in momentary confusion. “That doesn’t sound like Lizard Breath. She would normally have fought you well into the morning,” she pointed out.
A wry grin slid across Tralnis’ face. “There’s the distinct possibility that I might have played dirty. I reminded her that if Gareth and I go, Henry leaves with us. I don’t think she was willing to give up his cooking quite yet,” Tralnis replied.
Izzy shuddered at the thought of going back to Egite’s cooking. Tralnis didn’t mention that he also thought the Captain gave in because she knew just as well as he did that Pilot and Sheldon would side with Izzy if it came to a vote. “We’ll be stopping at St. Mareen to sell the loot and pick up supplies. Or at least you lot will. I plan on kissing the ground as soon we land and getting piss drunk after so much time over the water,” he informed them.
Chapter 14
Tralnis and Gareth held each other up as they laughed themselves silly at the top of the Glorious Dawn’s cargo ramp. Tralnis wiped a tear from his eye, and gave Izzy a pleading look. “I’m sorry, could you repeat that please. I haven’t had that good of laugh in a long time,” he requested.
Izzy tried to hide her smirk, but failed miserably. “Elizabeth is sending me into town to sell the figurines,” she replied, knowingly leaving out the bit Tralnis had found so funny.
Tralnis nodded his head expectantly. “Go on lass, tell us again why she can’t come into town with us,” he prodded.
“Captain Morgana is on probation with the St. Mareen authorities for drunk and disorderly conduct after she performed an impromptu burlesque show in the middle of the town square. The local magistrate was impressed with the unique moves she was able to perform with her mechanical arm while dancing around a light pole, but found her guilty anyway. He gave her a suspended sentence, but warned her that if she was arrested again, she would have to serve the entire time of her suspended sentence, or pay a fine greater than value of the Glorious Dawn and everything within her,” Izzy repeated.
Gareth and Tralnis chuckled again at the thought of the uptight captain doing a drunken strip show. “Stop it you two, it isn’t that funny,” she said, and then changed her mind. “Okay, well maybe it is, but it wasn’t all her fault. The local alcoholic beverages are all brewed with Cadanious flowers to give them extra flavor,” she stated, trying to stick up for her sister.
Tralnis sobered up instantly, while Gareth just gave Izzy a blank look. Tralnis glanced over at Gareth, and saw the young man was lost. “Cadanious flowers are the main component in most major aphrodisiacs. My great-great-great-grandfather was the first to use the flowers in a mixture to treat erectile dysfunction. The great success of his potion is how we got our last name,” Doctor Granitestaff explained. “The locals must have developed a tolerance for it, since Hadronus isn’t overrun with the people of St. Mareen,” he mused before handing Gareth a smaller bag with only three of the figurines in it. “If you don’t mind, Gareth, I would appreciate it if you sold our share to whomever Izzy lines up to sell theirs. I plan on heading to the nearest pub, and conduct several experiments to determine the effectiveness of the local intoxicating beverages,” he told them.
Gareth tucked the small sack between his University jacket and his white shirt. “It would be my pleasure, just remember what happened to the Captain,” Gareth warned. Tralnis gave them a jaunty wave as he strolled down the cargo ramp in search of his strange ideal mixture of science and entertainment. Gareth offered Izzy his arm to escort her down the ramp and into the city proper. “My lady,” he said with a small bow in her direction.
Izzy slipped her arm under his. “Why thank you, Professor. Hopefully this outing will be less exciting than our first date,” she teased. Her cheeks grew warm with happiness when he didn’t object to the notion of the two of them out together on a date.
The two friends walked arm in arm through the airship port, and out into the main city of St. Mareen. Being close to a desert, the air was much drier than anything Gareth had experienced before. This drier air allowed for a much different style of building construction than he was used to. Where the citizens of the IRD tended to use either brick or wood in their homes, the city of St. Mareen was almost entirely made out clay mixed with straw. A light varnish on the outsides of the buildings protected them from the infrequent rains.
Gareth turned his focus from the buildings around him to his companion once more. “So, do you have a plan for selling the figurines?” he inquired.
Izzy gave a half-hearted nod. “Yes, well… at least a vague one,” she admitted. “St. Mareen has a large shopping plaza near the center of town. I figured we would wander around there looking for shops that sold similar items, and ask the shop owners if they were interested in buying what we had,” she told him.
Gareth came to the conclusion that while Izzy bought their cargo, there was a reason Elizabeth was the one who usually sold it. Izzy’s plan wasn’t really a good one, and he could see several flaws in it right away. Probably the biggest one he could think of was the fact that artifacts from before the Second Great Apocalypse were so rare, they wouldn’t be in a shop where just anybody could get at them. He was about to point this out, when a small form dressed in a dirty gray cloak bumped into Izzy, and knocked her down before running off down an alley across from them. Izzy got a brief glance of a wiry black beard under the cloak before the person was out of sight.
Izzy stood up with the help of Gareth’s outstretched hand. As soon as she was upright, she felt at her waist for the bag with the figurines and found it missing. “Gareth, that little thief just made off with the bag!” she snarled. “Come on,” she ordered, as she ran down the alley in hopes of catching up with the thief.
The alley opened up into a large marketplace filled with representatives of half a dozen species either buying or selling their exotic wares. Gareth saw a disturbance to his right as a pair of Roehus flared their head quills in warning. “That way!” he shouted and gave chase. When they were close to the Roehus, he called out in their native language and asked which way the “small rude person wearing dirty robes” went. They both pointed in the same direction, and Gareth set off at a fast jog.
Gareth reached an intersection in the warren of venders’ stalls, and couldn’t decide which way to go. He closed his eyes and focused on his hearing, eavesdropping on numerous conversations being held around him in several different languages. Izzy managed to catch up to him just as Gareth picked up on a snippet of conversation between a pair of Dryads. They were wondering what the strange smelling Dwarf was running from. Gareth took off in their direction. Izzy had almost caught her breath when Gareth ran off again. She rolled her eyes, and followed him as best as she could.
A group of Cyclops working near the side of a row of buildings gave Gareth an idea. He shouted out instructions in the language of the Cyclops, and hoped they understood what he was asking. One of the 12 foot tall giants shrugged his shoulders to his friends, and bent down with his hands clasped together. Smiling like a fool, Gareth ran straight at the bent over Cyclops. When he reached him, he planted one foot in the huge cupped hands, and threw all of his weight forward. As Gareth did that, the Cyclops straightened and jerked upwards with his hands, sending Gareth flying onto the roof above them.
Gareth rolled twice and then stood up, looking at the alleyways below him. He saw his quarry not too far away, and spared a second to look back at Izzy who had wisely decided not to follow his actions. When their eyes met, Gareth gestured towards the alley he had seen the thief in. After Izzy nodded in understanding, Gareth took off running again, this time along the rooftops of the closely packed buildings.
Izzy tried to keep one eye on Gareth above her and one eye on the obstacles in her path. She stopped to give Gareth her full attention when he suddenly vanished. One moment he was running full tilt, and the next he was simply gone. Izzy was both relieved and amused when she saw Gareth stand up again. He had a pretty blue sundress wrapped around his chest and a pink brassier hanging off of his head. He quickly divested himself of the drying laundry, looked around, and started running back the way they had come. Izzy’s growl of frustration died in her throat when she saw the small gray figure dart out from a smaller side alley, and go in the direction Gareth had.
Izzy watched Gareth glance over his shoulder at the thief and continue running so he would be ahead of him. In the short time she had known Gareth, Izzy had learned he sometimes did things that no sane person would even consider. Her gut was telling her she was about to witness another one of those events. Seeing that Gareth was increasing his speed, rather than slowing down, as he approached the edge of the rooftop, Izzy put her fingers to her mouth and gave an ear splitting whistle in hopes of distracting the thief.
The thief only spared a split second to look back in the direction of the whistle
, and was very surprised to see the woman from whom he had liberated the sack from. Motion from above the thief drew their eyes upwards, and he stopped in astonishment. The sandy haired man who had been with the woman was not only above him, but he was now diving head first from a second story roof to the ground below. The thief watched as the obviously insane man tucked his shoulder in, and rolled when he struck the ground. The somersault bled off momentum and the man continued his roll so that he was in a position to stand up right away.
Izzy took advantage of the thief being distracted, and tackled him from behind. She heard a much higher pitched yelp of pain come from the Dwarf than what she would have expected. The thief was also much, much thinner than any dwarf Izzy had encountered.
“Get off me!” the high pitched voice demanded.
Gareth stepped forward, and yanked the fake beard made of horsehair from the thief’s face. Underneath the beard were the sunken cheeks of an underfed girl who looked no older than eleven years old. He grabbed a hold of the young girl’s upper arm as Izzy untangled herself from the thief.
When they were standing, Izzy snatched the bag back from the girl’s hand. “I think we need to go have a chat with your parents, child!” Izzy snarled.
“Hard to do, seeing I don’t have none!” the girl yelled back, glaring at Izzy.
Izzy recognized the hurt and anger in the little girl’s eyes from her own childhood, and took a closer look at their captive. Her robe was threadbare, and her leather sandals worn through. “What should we do with her?” she asked Gareth softly. The thief was surprised to hear the woman she had stolen from sounding like she was concerned for her.
“We’ll take her somewhere she deserves to go,” Gareth replied, trusting his instincts. He tightened his grip on her arm, and nearly dragged the girl out of the alleyway. While the girl was focused on trying to get out of Gareth’s grip, he gave Izzy a quick wink. When they approached the group of Cyclops again, one of them blinked his one eye rapidly while staring at Gareth. He shook his mighty head, muttered something under his breath, and handed over a large coin to one of his friends. Gareth said something to the Cyclops that seemed to surprise them even more than him still being in one piece. The Cyclops that had lost the bet pointed down a street to their left.
Gareth and th Lost Island Page 12