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Port District
“Omar al-Rashid?”
The man looked up, peering at Milo through his own veil of stringy black stresses hanging before his face. He was working quickly, trying to tie down his cargo and minimize loss as he dared to make a hasty escape. Somewhere inside him, he felt he should recognize this man in some capacity.
Omar was not the only one; the entire harbor, as well as the streets leading up to it, had been whipped into a veritable panic – the sporadic eclipse of the massive dragon silhouette passing to and fro over the city had provoked the neurosis in everyone.
Milo remained resolute in his purpose, however – It was in these trying times that the people who typically slipped through the cracks really disappeared into Hell. His gaze passed from Omar only for a second to track the dragon, but as soon as they had left, they were back again – his unsettling gaze leveled at the trader and shipper, his face neutral, but serious. Milo knew he had his man. Omar knew it, too.
“I have some questions about a delivery made from Ragash to Vel Anir…”
Within the space of the ellipses, Milo inspected a parchment with a symbol upon it, raising it to compare with the one upon Omar’s vessel. They matched. “About two months ago.” He put the paper away.
“Oh no…!,” Omar began, shaking his head vehemently. “No, no!” Apparently, Omar had made the paladin, recognizing him as a member of the Brotherhood-in-rags. “I do not have the time!” He was moving more frantically now, trying to continue the process of making his materials sea-ready, but he was clearly too flustered to focus. He knew what delivery Milo was talking about. It did not help ease the stress of the current situation.
The trader tore on his hair and stamped upon the deck, finally pointing out in the general direction of the encroaching beast. “CAN YOU NOT SEE?
LOOK! LOOOOK!” He shook his pointing finger at it, for emphasis.
Milo indulged the man and took another look. The dragon, indeed, was still menacing.
It was not that Ser Vox was unafraid. It is just that “Cowardice” does not a hero make.
Milo’s eyes locked with Omar’s, his face wrenched into a scowl now. He stated firmly, his voice cutting through Omar’s shouted urgency.
“Your delivery was short two peo-“ He remembered the nature of his work. Almost begrudgingly, he spat,
“—units from the manifest.”
His brow fell, dicing the bullshit in half like it were a guillotine.
“Her parents are beside themselves without their precious cargo.” There was bitter sarcasm in his tone.
“Where –”
Peripheral vision had barely detected the falling black mass before the shriek ripped through the port sector. Milo whipped his head in the direction, the orc dockhand struggling to free itself to no avail, devoured and drowned in mass of eyeball-flavored Jello.
Omar swore in another tongue, his fear of history finally trumping his fear of Milo, his manners. He began pulling up his anchor, ready to abandon what remained on the pier. He shouted over his shoulder, not willing to give the paladin anymore time and attention that was required. “What happened in Ragash happened, Brother -- It is done. Don’t let –”
Milo silenced him.
“Where are your peppers?! Your curries, your salts?!”
“What –”
“It’s a clutch of eyeballs, you moron!”
“Tha – That!” Omar pointed, chasing his finger to the back of his vessel as it began to pull away from the pier. Milo followed the line of sight, grabbing a barrel and spinning it around to reveal its marking:
“Creeper curry.”
Amidst chaos and screaming, Milo heard the faintest phonemes of someone channeling “Eretejvan Tide.”
Closing his hands tightly around the rim, he pulled the barrel partially down the pier, pivoted his body, and with all his might, chucked the creeper chili curry at the eyeball slime. The barrel tumbled in graceless arc through the air, clipping its bottom on a crate that yanked it from the sky, and spit its midsection in half upon the edge on the other side. The powder broke loose, spilling out at the eyeball slime in a cloud of pink-orange dust.
He wasted no time, rushing back and turning the next barrel:
“Allirian Sea Salt.”
With an
“UNGrh!,” he repeated the taxing process, dusting his hands off and turning back to get another…
…just in time to feel the turbulence of the dragon’s approach. To stumble as the waves rocked the pier. To look up in horror to find Omar’s vessel had been launched, sent careening at the harbor wall.
Ser Vox would witness Omar’s desperate scream as his ship turned upside, letting him fall from its decks just so against the wake barrier.
As the pier gave out from underneath him, Milo would see Omar ground into smeared paste as his ship fell down upon him, dragging him against the wall.
Focraig'Diin Kara Orin Duago Trothar