Chapter 9: Flashbacks.

"Rear turret, estimate gunner position three-quarters right..." Naimee estimated the coordinates of the unscathed turret of Sleepywood. Halire fired a second crossbow bolt.

His aim was spoiled, however, as the entire ship shook violently and then listed to starboard. Neither of them could see it, but the arrow winded up striking Sleepywood's armoured hull harmlessly and ricoheting off. Given the conditions, however, it was amazing that the bolt was anywhere near its target at all.

"Where did that come from!?" Halire complained, but paled as he realized the direness of the situation. Both of the Raven's starboard engines had been struck and disabled. The panicked shouts of the engineers came from below: "We're losing power!"

Naimee had had her telescope trained on the rear turret; there was no way that it could have released a shot without her noticing. The only possibility was... she focused on the front turret and noted that it was occupied again.

"Damn. Front turret still operational-" Naimee began.

Halire cut her off. "I'll make sure it stays down this time." He began charging up his next bolt with the piercing might of iron...

Sleepywood's captain growled. "That sniper's gonna get us again eventually- load claws!" The last phrase was directed at the mages charging the cannon below. He then turned to Tess. "Strafe the deck." He signaled for the rear turret to do likewise.

Tess aimed at the stern and swept the gunsights up the length of the Raven, terminating at the bow and releasing round after round of magic claw all the while. The gunner behind chose to start at the bow and end at the stern, and the effect was death and carnage on the deck twice over. Along the way, even the mast was slashed and chipped and several flying splinters distracted Halire - he paused for a moment and readjusted his aim, the Rower glinting gold in the sun.

The human eye responds to movement. At such a great distance, Halire's motions were nil to those on board Sleepywood, but the sudden flash and disappearance of reflected sunlight amplified the effect and caught the captain's attention. "Sniper on mast. Strafe it," he ordered Tess.

She complied, firing a continuous volley of magical sharpness at the crow's nest where Halire and Naimee were. Wood splinters and metallic sparks exploded around them just as he applied pressure on the trigger. The claws came almost too late to affect his aim, but not quite late enough. A burst of energy ripped across Halire's chest just as the iron-charged arrow was in the process of physically leaving the crossbow behind, and he collapsed onto the floor with pain. Without the proper followthrough, the bolt's aim was altered ever so slightly...

Tess screamed as she saw the arrow headed straight for her; there was nothing she could do and she could not get out in time. Her eyes closed involuntarily just before it struck. There was a terrible screeching of metal against metal, and at the end of it all Tess was still self-aware.

Am I alive? Her eyes were able to open, and she took that as a good sign. She looked herself over - there were no holes in her body; she was alive.

The captain's face was a mask of shock for he could see what Tess could not. A mere three inches left of her head, the sun was shining through the hole that the iron arrow had punctured through the turret: adamantium armour, steel internal framework, and all.

A piece of steel fell onto Tess's lap; under the new sunlight streaming in, the knife-shaped metal reflected the rainbow into her living eyes and it looked remarkably like a steely throwing star...

They lounged on Florina beach hand in hand, slacking off, enjoying the sun... he got up all of a sudden and knelt in front of her. She was surprised, but when he drew out a small box she began to understand. He flipped the box's top away, and revealed beneath it a golden ring with a diamond shaped like a steely knife set in it.

"Will you marry me?"

"Yes, of course, Ant," Tess answered.

The day was June 9th, 1389. Not even two months ago.

A series of slash wounds covered Naimee's back for she had instinctively ducked and turned away when the first magic claws hit the crow's nest. One might have remarked that they resembled whip lashes... but Halire was hardly in a condition to notice and make such remarks, and the adrenalin pumping through Naimee's young body dulled the pain.

In the midst of the wreckage, she crawled over to Halire, and seeing the extent of the gash across his torso, took out a small bottle and began to administer some potion to him. He stopped her hand. "You need that," he said. She forced the healing liquid down his throat. "You can't die on me," she sobbed. He was the only close friend she had left, after all.

"Don't worry, I don't plan on going away anytime soon. We snipers have to stick together, right?" He repeated the line that he had once said before in better times, bringing the slightest trace of a smile to her cut lips.

He tried to stand, but a new spurt of blood gushed out from his wound forcing him back down. The floor of the crow's nest was a true mess; covered with wood chips, splinters, metal debris, and blood, even moving around was a hazard. She put her hands over gash to stop the blood flow, but fingers make a poor bandage. She began tearing strips of cloth off her skirt for makeshift gauze, seeing as how the clothing on her back was ripped to shreds and soaked with her own blood already.

"Striptease?" He joked even in this dire situation. She slid higher up on him to reach behind his back, unknowingly teasing him - but Halire didn't have time to enjoy that, the next moment he grunted with pain as she drew the strips of cloth tight around his chest, stopping the blood.

He picked up his Rower where he had dropped it; she had no weapon still. "Time for some payback-"

Then they were physically thrown off the crow's nest. Their fall was broken by the sails, which guided and slowed their descent, but along the way to the deck Naimee's head hit a beam and she knew nothing.

Private First Class Mitten, a.k.a. "Mitts", tensed as he prepared to board the enemy ship. The sergeant in charge growled a short order, but apart from cursory notice everyone's attention was focused on the descent of the Raven.

With two engines lost, the Raven dropped rapidly from the skies. She would inevitably crash into the sea sometime, and the boarding party would strike at that exact moment when the enemy would be most disoriented and disorganized.

As the hull of the ship kissed the waters, Mitts's stomach clenched and he suppressed a sudden urge to throw up as he saw two figures thrown off the ship's mast by the impact. There was no time to contemplate on that, though, the sergeant barked an order and the assault began.

There was no resistance, the strafing and subsequent crash assured that. In the span of a few short minutes the Raven was in the hands of the RVMP.

But the Commander of the Grosjager was nowhere to be found. Claw had found Halire on the deck, and together they had used two priceless teleport to town scrolls. Once commonly sold in stores, these were now severely regulated by the RVMP to curb terrorist transport, and ever since their black market price soared to unimaginable amounts. Naimee was left on the captured ship, still unconscious, whether that was by accident amist the chaos or by Claw's design no one except he himself would ever know.