Chapter 4 A: Ragnar Banished!
At the far edge of the forest, a massive chunk had been cut down and used to make a make shift village of roughly a hundred men and women. Kirra was strapped, ankles and wrists to a pyre with thick leather straps. She groaned and swayed her body, trying to break free of her binds, the dark hair still pulled into a ponytail, frayed and matted to her face due to the heat and sweat that stuck to her head. A small gag stuck in her mouth kept her from calling out while many of the villagers remained at a distance, a look of worry, anger or confusion on all of their faces. The massive Ragnar stood with his spear over his left shoulder, glaring at the villagers. "She has betrayed us by allowing an outsider to progress towards the forbidden city of our ancestors. It is our sacred duty to keep all, including ourselves away from there to not bring the curse upon Skypiea!" Ragnar shouted, his already impressive frame flexing and bulging while he took a half step towards the crowd, forcing them back.
Ragnar's golden colored eyes scanned the crowd and his grip on his spear tightened when a voice shouted out from the tent behind him. A woman, slightly older looking than Kirra called out. "Brother! You know this isn't right. Our ancestors wouldn't want you, or any of us to die for showing mercy! Release Kirra!" Ragnar twisted to look at his sister, her hair as ghostly white as his, skin just as dark but instead of being adorned in leathers like the rest of the tribe, she wore pieces of metal she had taken from fallen foes and fashioned into her own armor. A massive dual sided ax rested over her shoulder in the same fashion of relaxed and practiced ease as Ragnar's spear. "Dakku, you know that I can't do that. As the Tribal Leader I must stand by my decisions and keep order. As my sister and the next to take leadership in the tribe, you should be learning from me and not fighting me at every turn!"
Dakku stepped up, leaving exactly enough space that she could swing her ax from its relaxed stance on her shoulder and cut anyone coming at her or standing before her down in one motion and narrowed her golden eyes. "Now, now! We shouldn't be fighting, lets just celebrate the fact that we stopped the Outsider before it was too late! Come now, brother, sister, stand down and unite. I've killed the outsider. Now let Kirra down! It's time to put all this behind us. She simply made a mistake." Jarra, with his golden colored tattoos pushed through the crowd and stood between the pair, glancing at his trapped sister then to his older sister. "I sensed a mantra used for a long moment and now you return. You were pushed to use it then?" Ragnar asked Jarra with a raised brow. "No brother, the outsider used it but I don't think he knew he could." Jarra quickly responded while flipping a blade in his right hand. Ragnar looked his brother up and down, not seeing any injuries on him but a lot of sweat, Jarra had arrived back at the village quickly considering he had a fight and the warrior seemed stronger than most of the villagers. "Brother, should I be using my Mantra on you? How did you finish the outsider so quickly if he too could use mantra and you didn't use yours in turn?" Jarra froze for a moment, he wasn't sure how to answer but Dakku stepped in. "Ragnar, you question everyone over every little thing, please lets retire for now, drink and think about how to best punish Kirra after some booze!" She hoisted a hand and at that, the entire crowd of watching villagers cheered to the idea of a party.
Standing at the edge of the village, Dakku and Jarra stood, face to face but backs facing so that one of them would see anyone coming near them at any angle. "He's going to kill her in front of everyone, we can't stop him without a fight." Dakku reasoned while cocking a hip to the side and scratching her chin. "Then allow me to draw his attention, I didn't kill the outsider and he will figure it out and try to have my head next. But the outsider was right.... He said that Ragnar was going to kill Kirra and look at things now! Unlike the rest of the village, Ragnar hasn't had a drink at all, he is planning to check my work when the village slumbers. When he arrives at the battlefield and doesn't see a body he will have my head, maybe even make you take it. Together we may be able to subdue him thought." Dakku shook her head side to side and frowned. "No, the village needs a leader, I'll do it alone. I'll banish Ragnar to the city of Gold that he loves so much, he can protect it and you will untie our sister, if the three of us show a united front, then Ragnar will lose the trust of the people."
Jarra nodded his approval of the plan and drew a blade, glancing over his shoulder to look at his sister, stilled tied up but sleeping after fighting for hours against her binds and finding she alone couldn't break or slip them. Together the siblings marched in unison towards their captive sister while the villagers of the tribe drank and sang around a large fire. In the shadow of a massive tent Ragnar watched his younger sister and brother marching towards the runt of the litter. His eyes glowed a golden yellow and scanned the would be traitors. "My mantra sees all...." He growled and burst into action, before Jarra or Dakku could make it to their sister, Ragnar was at their side, sweeping his spear like a lightning bolt and smashed the shaft of it into the chests of both tribesmen. Their breath was knocked from their lungs and they were sent soaring through the sky in unison and landed near the villagers who were still living it up. The party stopped when the duo crashed into the ground, hushed gasps of shock erupted from the group and Ragnar slowly stalked towards his family. "You mean to turn on me as well? You didn't kill him!!!? YOU WANT TO BANISH ME!? FINE!" He screamed and stopped, lifting his spear for a moment then paused. "I'll find the outsider, kill him, bring his head back on my spear and then come back and kill all three of you!" After taking a moment to center himself Ragnar drew a deep breath and dusted his hands clean. "Come sunrise your new friend is a dead man." He warned the siblings then stalked into the forest headed towards the city of Gold.
Chapter 4 B: Mashyuu and the City of Gold!
It was hard for Mashyuu to focus, the world kept changing around him, his eyes hurt and he didn't know why, worse he understood that the snake bite was making him see and hear things. He staggered for what felt like hours through the dense forest, smashing into trees that weren't there, tripping over branches that were taller than he thought, and couldn't fly long enough due how dense the forest was in some places. His pants were stuck to his legs and chaffing, boots hurting his feet and weapons getting heavy. Finally he broke the forest line and crashed into the suddenly solid ground of cobblestone. Laying face down, Mashyuu laid in the sun, letting it bake him simply in hopes that Jarra wasn't lying and he would be able to sweat out the poison.
The Skypiean Captain started to drift when he noticed a funny glint off in the distance that caught his slowly closing eyes. Exhausted, he lifted his head and started to laugh at what was before him. "Hehehehehehehehehehe! No way.. It's real." Ahead of Mashyuu was a city of gold, golden but run down buildings, a well made of gold brick, statues of pure gold and at the center of it all, a giant pyramid of gold with something at the top in a chamber. Mashyuu could see light pass through the top and something not gold stood out like a sore thumb. At the base of the Pyramid were four doors, one on each side. Heaving a sigh of relief and worry, Mashyuu crawled to the well, reache up and picked himself up off the ground then hobbled over to the pyramid.
Stepping into the doorway closest to him, Mashyuu leaned against the frame of the door and took deep breaths. However the sound of an old voice caused his attention to focus on the temple pyramid. "Boy, you are allowed here due to your father's involvement in building this place. However if you come any further into this tomb you will face the trial and either live or die. If you live you will be cursed for the rest of your life, if you die, nobody will find your body. Mashyuu's neck twisted and he saw an old man in deep purple robes, hunched over with long white hair pulled back into a ponytail. "What's at the top?" Mashyuu asked the old man. "The Power to change fate and a curse to last a lifetime." The old man responded. "That's not vague or anything.." Mashyuu grumbled and figured it was better to live with a curse than die looking for a way out, and if he could get to the top of the pyramid he might be able to find his way back to the crew.
Mashyuu swept his hand through his dark hair and it stuck in a sweep going backwards due to the sweat in it. He grumbled and headed into the temple. The old man stepped back until he was in the center of the room and shook his head. "Then you chose death." The old man stopped and waited for Mashyuu to enter the room. The Pirate glanced about and winced, he could see hundreds of small holes lining the walls and as his eyes finished the sweep of the room they landed behind the old man at Ragnar who had entered the doors behind the man. "Only one will survive, the first trial starts now. Find the stairs and escape doom." As the man spoke, Mashyuu rolled his eyes and drew his chain kama. Ragnar pointed his spear at Mashyuu and tilted his head to the side. "In hours you have cost me the trust of my family and tribe. I'll have your head!" Ragnar rushed Mashyuu and the Pirate gritted his teeth while at the same time the room started to fill with pink gas. "What is it with this land and drugs!?" Mashyuu shouted and held his breath while swinging his kama down to force Ragnar's weapon to crash to the ground. Instead of stopping Ragnar used that to throw himself forward and slammed his feet into Mashyuu's chest, sending the Pirate back against a wall and driving the held air from his lungs.
Before the gas could rise to Mashyuu's chest, he beat his wings and cleared a small path around him and started to run, eyes darting about while his left hand kept hold of the wall to see if it suddenly moved a different way. Ragnar was right behind him, inhaling the gas like it wasn't a worry and letting his mouth open to allow the gas to expel from him. This guy's freaking nuts! He's gonna get me killed if I don't find these stupid steps! Mashyuu thought and felt the wall suddenly turn right then left into a stair well which was good because at some point he started to fly and hadn't noticed. Shooting up the steps, the stairs started to rise into the second floor and Mashyuu gave Ragnar the finger.
"Congratulations, you've made it to the second trial, evade all of the darts or survive them." The old man muttered then walked up a flight of steps and the stairs rose with him. Mashyuu winced when he saw thousands of holes in the walls again and mirrors where the holes weren't. Suddenly light shot into the room from the mostly closed stairwell and hit a mirror, that light started to bounce until Mashyuu was blinded by light. "Lance of the Heavens!" Ragnar shouted from below and gave his spear a strong thrust that shattered the floor behind Mashyuu. He jumped up and landed next to Mashyuu, eyes glowing yellowish gold. Mashyuu rubbed his eyes and glared back at Ragnar, Mashyuu's eyes glowing red. "AH! You do have Mantra! Do you even know how to turn it on and off?" Ragnar asked and spun his spear, deflecting the first dart that fired. Mashyuu whiped his chain behind him to deflect a second then the two lunged for one another. Ragnar snarled when Mashyuu jumped up and kicked Ragnar's spear down, but countered by smashing his head into Mashyuu's. Mashyuu flipped back, placed his kama to the left, and flicked his wrist, sending a dart towards Ragnar while he spun, whipping his chain about to deflect a volley of darts. Ragnar flexed: "Armor Mantra!" His body took a slight sheen and naturally deflected the darts like water from a shower on a body.
Gas started to fill the room from the floor below, Mashyuu worried he might not be able to survive the darts, Ragnar and the gas. Push on, don't let this stop you! Mashyuu Threw the weighted end of his kama out at Ragnar and snared his spear with the chain then started to fly in circles, rapidly surrounding the man with chain until Ragnar was bound up tight. Face to face, Ragnar smiled at Mashyuu and jumped as hard as he could, the force caused Mashyuu to go up with Ragnar just to hold onto his weapon. Ragnar kneed Mashyuu's ribs repeatedly, at the same time, Mashyuu unleashed his throwing dagger and slashed Ragnar's abs and stomach as deeply as he could from such a funny angle. Both fighter crashed through the floor of the third floor and hit the slanted roof then dropped apart from one another.
Rolling to his knees and holding his head, Mashyuu winced and felt blood stick to his palm. He moved his hand away from his head and felt his eyes wander up, back into his skull and settle to focus on the blood coating his hand. "Ohhh Ion's gonna be pissed." Ragnar screamed with anger, feeling blood coat his torso. He flexed and pulled his arms apart, snapping Mashyuu's chain kama in various places then tossed the kama aside as if it were paper. Mashyuu wiped his head with his 'clean' hand and grabbed his belt, yanking it to reveal the whip sword given to him. That's when he saw it. Mashyuu stood and saw at the center of the room a dias with a fruit atop it. The fruit looked like a blue pineapple with golden sparks running in waves around it. Ragnar saw it too and both rushed for the fruit.
Mashyuu took two steps and trusted his flight to be faster than Ragnar's legs. Reaching his hand out as far as he could while Ragnar used his spear, Mashyuu snatched the fruit up and caught a spear in the shoulder for his troubles, the impact caused Mashyuu's eyes to white out for a moment and sent him not soaring but spiraling wildly across the room before he hit the slant of the pyramid, bounced off it to the floor, back into the dias and out towards a corner. "What have you done!?" Ragnar roared, the pyramid stared to tremble and Mashyuu barely climbed to his feet with the fruit in hand. Mashyuu looked Ragnar dead in the eye, shrugged his good shoulder and lifted the fruit. "I don't believe in fate, or luck. So I did what any good Pirate would. I took something you wanted, now I'm gonna make sure you can't have it." Mashyuu opened his mouth and took a single bite of the fruit, gagged and swallowed the rotten tasting fruit. Blue juice ran down his chin and he twitched from the taste while the pyramid started to crumble slowly. "This entire place is gonna come down on us! We're both dead!" Ragnar screamed and charged, thrusting his spear at Mashyuu's heart. "Repel..." Mashyuu muttered, a silver spark bounced off Mashyuu's body, suddenly an invisible field pulsed away from the Pirate and sent Ragnar's spear soaring out of his grasp and away from the pair as well as part of the pyramid that was falling right for both of them. Mashyuu reached towards a small length of chain that remained on the floor and felt the metal in it call for him. "Attract." Mashyuu whispered and the chain whipped towards him and landed in his hand. Quickly Mashyuu spun around and snapped the chain around Ragnar's throat. "Repel!" Mashyuu shouted, causing the chain to pull Ragnar away from Mashyuu against the rapidly crumbling wall of the pyramid. Ragnar tripped and fell into the hole he had created, along with half the floor. Mashyuu darted for a window he saw earlier and smashed through it, sliding down the slanted pyramid and rolled to a stop at the base of the pyramid.
Laying there, Mashyuu groaned with nothing but pure pain. The old man appeared like a ghost next to Mashyuu and smiled down at the Pirate. "Mashyuu Ishi, your father always knew you'd make something of yourself. He put that there for you the day you were born and knew that you would come for it. Now find the mine he used to craft his spear and make your family proud, then he can rest in piece, thank you for bringing the pyramid down, now I can rest in peace..." The ghostly old Skypiean vanished, leaving the Pirate confused and on the brink of passing out again...
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