Endless Adventure

Honor Among Thieves - K. L. Kramarich (part 2)

The warm gentle rays from the morning sun crept their way into the cave. I lazily reached out to wake up Freya, but her spot was empty. A tapping on the bottom of my boot saved me from panicking.

“Time to wake up, sleepy head,” Freya teased. She sat on a rock braiding her long hair. Guess who was holding up a mirror for her? Yep, my trusty side-kick, the golden eagle Luck. “The morning is almost gone. We best be moving soon if you want to find that goose egg.”

Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I groggily replied, “please, don’t mention food without offering some first.”

Luck flapped his wings and pineapple fell from the magic light portal and landed hard on my abdomen.

“Oof!,” I grunted. My body ached, reminding me of yesterday’s ordeal. I begrudgingly sat up. “So how am I to eat this? I have no knife,” I complained.

“With this,” Freya answered, tossing me a cutlass within its leather-covered scabbard. “You do know how to use one, right?”

“I’ve always been a fast learner,” I bragged, swishing the sword around getting a feel for the blade.

“Good. Eat your fruit and let’s get going,” she commanded as she moved closer to the entrance to leave. “Oh, I forgot to ask you last night. What’s with the ink on your right palm?”

“Oh, that,” I shushed her inquiry away. “That’s nothing of importance right now.”

A couple of hours later, the humidity and heat from the rising sun added to my misery. Freya, always ten steps ahead, refused to stop. Luck flew above keeping a close eye out for any trouble. I have no clue on where she is leading us, but I soon find out. She ducks into a large hollowed out tree and motions me to follow. Minutes later, a large downpour let loose from the dark thick clouds, soaking the ground. Inside the hollow trunk, Freya had set up a neat hideaway for herself. Shelves with books, scrolls, bowls, etc. nestled into the bark walls. A large storage trunk held other items of importance. It doubled as a small table. On top of it was spread a newer map of the mountainous island we were on.

“Get your map out and let’s compare,” she commanded.

“But the map isn’t any good without the bauble,” I quickly reminded her.

“You mean this bauble?” she inquired, reaching into her knapsack and pulling out the item in question.

“Freya!” I scolded her, rubbing my hand over my face in frustration. “I left…I traded that to get to you!” I let out a hard sigh. “If they find out it’s gone…I don’t even want to go there.” I stood by the entrance, looking out at the drenched landscape. I watched the rain create pools of water in the divots left in the ground.

Time for a little back story. Many years ago, Freya’s uncle was once a respectable guard to the Duke. She lived a decent life back then. Even with being an orphan herself, her uncle took decent care of her. She learned how to read and write. Also being an orphan myself, but without any family, I used to hide under an old cart that would be left outside of her window. She took pity on me and would sneak me some food. During those times, she would teach me how to read and write.

But sometime throughout the years, the Duke and his guards began to take from the bounty that was the King’s portion. One day, the King found out what was going on underneath his nose. He quickly removed the Duke from his title and all of his possessions. His guards were still loyal to him and continued to stick with him. Freya’s life was turned upside down after that. I did my best to protect her from her drunk uncle, but all I got was roughed up. Freya, my only friend until Luck came along, would patch me back up. The Duke’s old guards call themselves “The Duke’s Marauders”. Fitting since now they’ve taken up piracy.

Ever since the King posted the reward for the “Diamond Crescent”, The Duke Marauders and I have been in a cat and mouse game to find all the clues to this infamous treasure trove. So, I had one important piece to the puzzle–the bauble. But, they had Freya locked up. She did help me find it in the first place. I forfeited it to get Freya out of her prison. But not without getting the usual roughed up by them.

“Relax, I know how to handle them. I left them a fake one,” she explained, placing the bauble on the makeshift table. “Have you figured out how it works?”

“Yeah, there’s a code to unlock it,” I replied.

“Well, get your ass over here and unlock it,” she said.

“Fine,” I grumbled. I stomped over to the trunk and grabbed the bauble. “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, down, down, up, left, down, down, right, up, down, up, up, right,” I muttered, remembering the special sequence. Too bad that code couldn’t grant me invincibility.

The bauble’s compass rose spun around frantically, until it suddenly stopped. The arrows magically pulled apart to reveal a magnifying glass hidden within it.Step one completed. Step two would activate the glass. Greek letters appeared on the metal frame holding the glass in place. I pushed the corresponding letters to spell out “epithymitos thisavros” (desired treasure). The glass shimmered and shook until it released itself from the frame. It didn’t pop itself out completely, but it could be moved ninety degrees. The bauble has become a pendulum. I pulled out the map I pickpocketed from the ugly old sea captain while on the bridge, and placed it over top of Freya’s map. Her map and my map magically fused together. The pendulum swung to and fro recreating Freya’s map, but also adding important additional details–like hidden booby traps. That’ll come in handy! After it completed drawing the map, it drew the correct pathway to where the “Diamond Crescent” lay hidden. It circled frantically over the spot–

“Mount Phebus,” Freya and I said in unison.

“Of course it would be there,” I grumbled. Mount Phebus is the highest peak on the entire mountainous island. But Phebus is another name given to Selene’s brother Helios. So, it makes it the obvious choice. “C’mon, we best get going,” I said, throwing the bauble’s chain around my neck and shoving the map carefully into my shirt. Freya, opening the trunk, replenished her stock of whatever she kept in her knapsack. Luck, meanwhile, took advantage of the pools of water and bathed himself. “C’mon, Luck. We don’t have all day,” I chided my magical feathered friend.

“Yu stink! I don’t,” he threw his excuse at me.

“Ha, ha,” I mockingly laughed.

“Oh, come on you two!” Freya frustratedly yelled. “It’s going to take us a good three days by foot to get there.”

“You heard her, Luck. Dry yourself off and let’s get going.”

Several hours later, we found ourselves facing another deteriorated rope bridge. That’s a big nope for me. Just looking at it, the rope twangs as it breaks apart before our eyes.

“Yullen, we have no other choice but to cross it,” Freya pointed out. “If we take the path to the right, booby traps. And the one on the left, the same. Booby traps.”

She’s right–as usual.

“And how do you suppose we get across it?” I inquired. “I have neither a bull-whip or a grappling hook for us to swing across.”

“It can’t be that bad,” she griped, stepping onto the rotting planks. It creaked and groaned with her weight. What rope and wood there was left of the bridge, splintered and crashed to the bottom of the ravine. Freya jumped into my arms, shaken from the near miss.

“I’m sorry,” she softly sobbed into my chest. “I thought it was stronger than it looked.”

“Shh, you’re okay,” I whispered into her hair. “The island is filled with illusions. We’ll just have to find another way across.”

“How?” Freya pouted. “Will the ink on your hand help us now?”

“No, it’s still too early for that,” I answered honestly.

“Across Yu want. Across Yu get,” Luck hollered out flying above us.

“We can get across by way of his magical light portal,” I explained to Freya.

“But–” she stammered. “Will it hurt?”

“It won’t hurt us, but it will exhaust Luck,” I answered. “Are you sure about this, Luck?” I directed my question at my feathered friend.

“Quite sure,” he replied. “Grab hold, grab hold.”

Taking hold of each of his feet, Luck and I suddenly found ourselves far from the second broken bridge. But Freya was nowhere to be found.

“Where’s Freya?!” I hollered out frantically.

“Check the map,” the golden eagle reminded me before he passed out from exhaustion.

I did as my trusty companion suggested. The bauble showed the words “Yu are here” on the map revealing my current location. How nice of it to tell me this. I’m not too far from Mount Phebus. Alright, now we’re getting somewhere. I only needed to locate Freya. Using the bauble as a pendulum once more, it quickly showed me where Freya was located. She is on one of the ledges on Mount Phebus surrounded by her nasty uncle’s pirate band–The Duke’s Marauders! If Luck wasn’t so exhausted from teleporting us, I’d ask him to help me out again. But that’s not going to happen, my sidekick needs to rest. Using the cutlass, I quickly cut down some useful materials, creating a makeshift cradle board, making it easier to carry Luck. I’m not leaving my friend behind.

Having him securely tucked and packed on my back, I hastened to Mount Phebus. I’m trying to think of a plan to save Freya and secure the Diamond Crescent. At the base of the Mount, I find there are two paths. Checking the map again, I needed to know which one to take. The one on my right leads to the Diamond Crescent. The one on my left leads to Freya. This shouldn’t be a tough decision, right? I’ve only been after the Diamond Crescent my entire life. My future is wrapped up in it. However, my gut chooses to rescue Freya. Yeah, I know. She’ll probably chew me out for it.

The rocky path leading up to the ledge alerted everyone to my presence. A few yards back, I placed the cradle board in a safe spot. I’d be back for him later.

“Well, well, well…looky what we got here, boys,” a haggard looking female pirate taunted as more of the crew surrounded behind me.

“Hey, all I want is Freya. That’s it,” I tried to explain.

“Alls he’s wants is Freya,” the crew mocked, laughing heartily.

“Ain’t that nice,” her nasty uncle, ironically named Duke, spat. “You see, street urchin. All I want is the Diamond Crescent, and you have the know-how.”

“What makes you think that?” I genuinely asked.

“Let’s just say, a little birdy told me,” I answered looking at Freya. Eh, I can’t fault her for that. Survival is tough in these parts.

“So…if I hand over the map and the bauble, you’ll hand over Freya and we’ll all be squared?” I tried thinking up a bargaining plan.

The old guard, now a pirate, rubbed the stubble on his chin, pondering my plan. Freya shook her head “no” at my plan. Her eyes were widened from fright.

“Okay, boy,” he spat. “We have an accord.”

I took the map out from underneath my shirt and took the bauble from around my neck. Handing them over to “Uncle Duke”, he grabbed them with one hand, and sucker punched me with the other. He gave a nod to one of his men, who on purpose pushed Freya off of the ledge. Then they all quickly took off.

“Freya!!!” I yelled, trying to reach out for her. Wouldn’t you know it, Luck had caught her and brought her closer to the ledge. The first words she said when seeing me were, “Yes!”

“Yes, what?” I asked.

“I’ll marry you,” she giggled, holding onto me tight. “Is it time for the ink on your hands?”

“Actually, it is,” I said, grinning from ear to ear. I leaned in to finally kiss my girl.

“What’s it say?” Freya asked after our passionate kiss.

“The End.”

Pen names: Dreame kramarich93.stary/ Inkitt KramarichKL_93

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