Hearing the Dariq’s reply, Rena tried to bolt for the ship, but something stopped her. Her tail was caught on something, and it yanked her back as she tried to pull forward. Letting out a rather pained yowl, Rena glanced back and saw another grunt putting all his weight on the tip of her tail. Near him was a second attacker, quickly making his way at a safe distance to surround her. Once he was behind her, the first took his boot off her tail and they both charged.

Rena dropped to the floor, crouching just before two blades slashed at where her neck was moments before. From her lowered position she sliced with her sword, trying to immobilize them. Her blade cut through fabric, but never reached their flesh. These two were faster than the first, and worked well as a team. They gave Rena enough time to stand up before attacking once more, and she had to keep her focus on them to dodge or block their swords. “Come on, they said I have to get on the ship now.” She said as her sword locked with one of the two. “I don’t want to play with you anymore.” Just as the second was charging her again, Rena dropped down once more. This time she used her thick tail, and spun in a quick circle. Her tail wrapped around the legs of her attackers and knocked their feet out from under them. Standing back up she slashed their knees, knowing it would keep them down, and jogged towards the ship.

Both of them squatted behind the broken-down remains of a box half-filled with apricots. Elani glanced the wrong way and saw a bullet pierce the tough skin around one, knocking the tough nut inside of it loose, leaving both out the other side in a tiny shower of orange goo. Not the best sight to see in the middle of a firefight. The captain fellow was screaming and barking out orders, which were, surprisingly, being followed. She'd expecting this crew to be as a hard to control as a herd of cats, but even the caxeri girl was running forwards and slashing with the best of them, with most of the crew working as one slick, oiled, machine. And here she was, crouching down with nothing to do but think. Elani pulled the strap of her bag from around her shoulders and dumped the thing unceremoniously on the floor, before rummaging around underneath the spare clothes and extra set of silverware, and the six-litre jug of preserving alcohol, to a small wooden box at the very bottom. She pulled it out, and fumbled with the catch.

Inside were what she liked to call her tools of the trade, vague mementos of the life she used to lead barely a day ago. They held sentimental value, as most things did when you used them for the better part of two decades. Most of it would be useless right now, apart from the bandages and maybe a few of the foreceps, if you threw them. But right now the best thing she could do was keep her head down and clean up the bodies after all the commotion, tend to the dead as best she could, and leave the living to someone more comfortable dealing in bodies.

The pleasant smile on Simnia's face grew strained. Not that important? The engines of an airship would be left to one man? The captain was only now seeing the ship for the first time? Some form of job security? Find some other kind of work? Her mouth twitched, and she struggled to remain pleasant. Work comes before the slave! Every illiterate mongrel child understood this concept. And if an engineer had told her before a long haul that he'd never set eyes on a train engine before, she'd throw herself off a cliff and save him the trouble. She had a vision of that ship falling into the mountains in a ball of white fire, and she forced herself calm.

"Well. I'm sure if Dariq were open to having an assistant --" There was a commotion, and someone bellowing in an altogether inconsiderate tone, and Simnia turned to give the raucous dwarf the stink eye, because how dare he interrupt people when they were in the middle of negotiating important business! But much to her frustration the captain rose to meet his heckler, thus abandoning what might have been one of the first productive conversations of Simnia's life.

But what followed was a tumult of disaster.

There was shouting. There were demands. A blade flashed in the sunlight. A shot rang out like thunder and Simnia squeaked like a kitten as loosened brain matter glistened in the spaces in the crowd. Instinctively she spun around, scanning the ship for the source of the shot, wondering whether it was aimed at her head next, while a roar and thrash went to war all around her.

Where was the little human?

"Anisa!" Simnia breathed hurriedly, and she slapped her signed contract on the table, and dodged Aria's blade, and jumped when a rifle shot whizzed by her ear, and she may or may not have stepped on someone's tail, and everything smelled coppery and musky like blood and new sweat, and her ears rang and her mouth was dry, and she hopped over the bodies and muttered obscenities to herself, and her eyes were wide and worried while she scanned the slashing and murdering. In the corner of her eye, tethering lines were flying severed in the wind. The ship was turning, the gangplank precarious. Someone moved behind the remains of her old faithful apricot crate, and she never thought she would be so happy to see it.

"Elani!" Simnia stopped short of having her nose cut off by an enthusiastic sword, and she sprinted into the corner and extended a hand. "The ship's about to move, we have to go. Has Anisa gone, have you seen her?" She never should have taken her eyes off the girl.

Anisa was utterly horrified about the fighting going on around her. When the first shot was fired, brain matter had spattered all over her. It was a nightmare come true for the girl- the fighting going on around her. She had never experienced something like it, but she had nightmares about things such as this. To avoid blades, she fell to the ground and began to crawl along- making her way onto the ship. She desperately looked for a hiding place and ended up in a supply closet- where she burst into tears. She rocked back and forth, this all had been a bad idea. All the other women were so much more fierce and talented when compared to her- she felt as if she wasn’t good for much, and like she stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the others who were supposed to go on the expedition with her.

'I really should have gotten one of these newer firearms, probably would have made all this a lot easier..' Maithien thought to himself as he aimed his gun at one of the assailants, missing entirely. "Oh for..." He muttered annoyed under his breath. At least he wasn't in this fight on his own, he had a few other people he could rely on whose skills in combat were slightly more advanced than his. Especially that Katewyn lady currently on board his ship firing away at Bohg's men. 'Wait a minute... What's that in her hand.. Is that a-' The flash of light he saw, and the screams he heard a minute later confirmed his suspicions.. A flair gun. 'Is she mad? She could burn the dock down! Maybe even my ship!' Maithien felt a pang of remorse for the man that Katewyn shot, being set on fire and then falling to your death was one horrific way to go. But now was not the time to focus on that.

The rest of the crew needed to get on board. The cat woman was making her way there. Maithien didn't know where that Aria girl, the one with the knife that liked to wink, was. Elani was currently sitting behind a crate of apricots an- 'THAT WAS THE SMELL! Apricots!' His mind thought excitedly, happy with itself for unraveling the mystery. 'Not the time.' Maithien shook his head, focusing back on the battle. Elani had dumped her luggage all over the floor in front of her. Honestly? Now was the best time to do some unpacking? That dwarven mechanic was talking to her now also.

"You two!" Maithien yelled, pointing his finger at them for emphasis. "Quit lazing around and get on that ship unless you want to get left here!"

It hadn't occurred to Katewyn that she had killed more then seven people now. She was comfortable enough with killing humans, but this? Was this supposed to pass as a battle? It was a slaughter. The men weren't exactly weak, but they had no defense from her gun and watchful eye. She had yet to face an equal, a hunter versus hunted.

The captain was now yelling to people to board the ship. In her position, she could have covered their retreat. . . Alas, Katewyn wasn't in the mood. She abruptly halted her firing , and put her rifle back on her shoulder. Then, with a look around, proceeded to walk below deck.

The heat and the lights and the pop-pop-pop noise of a pellets zinging around here were starting to get to Elani, and it was somewhat of a relief to see a familliar face, even though she'd never even seen her from so close down as this. The dwarf yelled something and pointed at the ship, where somebody was hacking at the cables tethering it to the docks with a sabre or something, she didn't know the technical term. Looked like they were cutting their losses and running, literally. What a time to develop a sense of humor. "Mmhr?" She mumbled back, her mouth feeling strangely unfamiliar. She'd clenched her jaw shut ever since the first bullet met it's gruesome mark, some way of dealing with the stress of it all. "Who's 'Nissa.-"

"You two!" Somebody screeched, close by. "Quit lazing around and get on that ship unless you want to get left here!"

Both their heads turned, towards the wildly flailing man with the white goatee and the neatly parted graying hair. Despite that, he struck an oddly imposing figure in the chaos around them, a rallying point they could follow for now without getting them shot,for now. Elani's trembling hands grasped the strap of her bag tightly, and she made a motion to push herself upright, but a poorly-timed blast from a hand cannon struck an ear in that exact moment, and she winced, grasping at her head in shock and confused pain for a second. No blood, though.lucky, She looked up, around at her and over to the ship. At least they wouldn't have to jump there, just a stand up in the hail of fire and hop across. All they were risking was a thirty-thousand foot drop, it was nothing. The fall didn't kill you, after all, it was the sudden stop at the end. A fact that mister Shot-In-The-Face-By-A-Catherine-Wheel would be in all too good a position to think about. She stood up,hefted her bags in one motion across, and flung herself over too, rolling on the hard wooden flooring and up against a cabin wall, Elani made no effort to get up after this. Anything more and she'd just draw attention to herself, here was a good place where she could have a nice little cry.

Rena saw a girl, Anisa, duck for cover in a storage shed or supply closet or something else very unsafe and stopped in her tracks. Letting out a sigh she turned on her heels and started running to the closet, ducking under bullets or flying swords. Keeping her own sword slashing around her, kept the enemies at bay until she reached the closet. Just as she flung the doors open a shot rang out, and something loud flew past her head. Ren felt something warm dripping down her face almost instantly, and reached up a clawed hand to touch her ear. Her fingers came back bright red and caused her to gasp. Wincing she wasted no time in grabbing the girl by the scruff of her neck and picking her up to her feet, all the while spewing a stream of profanity.

“Go now! Onto the ship, I’ll cover you.” And with that,Rena pressed Anisa against her own back. As Anisa walked forward, Rena stepped back, keeping the scared girl guarded at all times. Or at least as guarded as she could with blood constantly dripping into one eye. Her sword locked with another for a moment, but Rena was in no mood for this nonsense anymore. With a wild slash, she sent the enemies blade flying through the air and over the dock. They kept along this way until they made it to the ship, but Rena wasn’t even relieved, her head throbbed.

Who's 'Nissa? Who's 'Nissa? Simnia stiffened and glared. The nerve! The blatant, narcissistic disregard for fellow innocent lives! Of all the cowardly, selfish, purely elven --

The captain shouted at them, and Simnia glowered at him from the depths of her livid heart. When she turned to the damnable elf again -- intending to carry her aboard if necessity called for it -- Elani was gone. She later caught a glimpse of the elf leaping gracefully (as elves are wont to do, the showoffs) across the gap and into the ship, without so much as a backward glance. "Elves!" Simnia threw up her hands in exasperation, convinced that she would never trust an elf as far as she could throw it.

And then she saw that she was alone with the bandits.

Well, almost alone. Everyone had scurried into the ship -- and even the friendly shots had stopped firing -- except for a single feisty redhead, who with her sword was the last woman standing, the last defense and the only one besides the captain who held off the mongrels so the others could escape. If the ship left without her, she'd die a hero's death. But Simnia was still mad.

The dwarf picked up an apricot, tested its weight in her palm, and then with a mighty fling of her arm she let it fly. The apricot slammed into Aria's opponent's jaw, and Simnia had already prepared another apricot missile.

"Get to the ship, Strawberry!" she hollered at Aria, just as another apricot smacked into the bandit's eye. She held them off a little longer with a barrage of fruit, to give Aria and the captain time to make a run for it -- but the moment they backed away, Simnia chucked one last apricot into the fray and bolted for the ship.

Aria halted as she heard the orders to retreat. She tried making her way back to the ship, but her current opponent was rather serious about stopping her. Letting out an aggravated sigh, she spun out of his grasp, and prepared to fight. Just as she was about to deliver a blow to his ribs, something hit him in the face, exploding all over in a pinkish orange mush. Aria blinked, surprised. Was that an... apricot?! Turning her head, she looked over at Simnia. The dwarf was holding up more of the fruit, aiming and throwing it at the men.

"Get to the ship, Strawberry!" Aria grinned. Strawberry, huh? Well, that's the kinds nickname I've ever had. She turned, sprinting over to the ship and jumping up gracefully. She grabbed onto the railing, extending her arm out to help the woman who had helped her. She grabbed Simnia's arm and pulled her up onto the ship.

"'Ello again. Thanks for the help." Aria pushed her hair out of her face. No one had ever helped her in a fight before other than her father, but he was gone. Gone. The word was cold, and it made her shiver before cursing herself. "Everyone is on board I think, everyone except... Ey! C'mon captain, let's go!" She shouted out, worried. He was her captain, and the crew couldn't go without one. He was also the only person she had ever worked for that seemed decent. If you considered her previous life an occupation. She drew another dagger, aiming it carefully. It landed in one of the men's elbow. Bulls eye! She grinned again, waiting for the rest to board.

Anisa squeaked, as the doors of the shed were thrown open. She kept her eyes closed, afraid, as she was roughly pulled up. She grabbed her luggage up quickly, and recognized the person as one within the expedition. She was surprised as she walked forward and onto the ship, as Ren was covering for her. She began to feel like even more of a fool, she couldn't even protect herself enough to get onto a ship alone. More tears began to pour out of her eyes as she boarded a ship. She choked out a,"You okay?" at Ren quietly, she sunk to the floor of the ship and brought her legs up to her face, and sobbed. It had been traumatizing for her- as if getting on a ship for the first time since- Anisa didn't even want to bring it up- wasn't bad enough. She just hoped that everyone was still alive, and rocked back and forth, biting her lip. She was pretty sure she was going to be absolutely useless unless she suddenly got bolder.

"Right! Be with you in a moment! " Maithien barked back at the dagger girl. Things were going to be a bit more difficult now, the now Bohg-less enemies didn't have many people left to focus their attention on but him. Maithien didn't dare peek out from behind his cover for fear of one of the men having their guns ready to fire. But he could hear them stomping their way towards him, ready to have their revenge. 'Weeell technically if they wanted revenge they should go to Katewyn. After all the crazy woman was the one that shot him, not me...' As fair of a point as that was Maithien thought against telling the goons that.

Luck was on Maithien's side, sort of. There was a modest amount of cover for him to duck in and out of on his way to the ship. Apparently all the supplies he had ordered hadn't made it onto the ship yet. Normally a pity but right now it was quite helpful. 'To think today started out so peacefully.' He promised himself that if he didn't get shot in this ordeal that he would sleep in tomorrow.

Letting out a terrified scream Maithien began his sprint for the ship. A few of the thugs yelled, and right after Maithien made it to the next spot of cover gunshots began to ring out once more, along with splinters of wood from the crate he was hiding behind. 'Right, one down... Get ready... Go!' Running once more, Maithien could feel the slamming of feet behind him chasing him. 'Don't think cover is possible now, run more it is.' Giving all he had Maithien sprinted for the ship before luck decide to switch sides. Running by the Apricot crate, Maithien unknowingly stepped on one of the evil fruits. He lost his balance and rolled his left foot, spraining his ankle. Of course! Maithien spewed out an unholy brew of language, lots of which he learned from Dariq, as he quickly and anxiously brought himself up from the floor.

Maithien speedily limped towards the end of the dock, placing his good foot on the edge and leaping into the air with it. Slamming himself into the railing of the ship. He clumsily climbed over, falling back first onto the ground. "I'm in!"

(( Hey, I helped in the fight. :U ))

It sounded like bloody murder above the deck. There were shouts, gunshots, and finally a female-like scream. Someone was dashing onboard, that was obvious. The "Thump thump." of heavy walking was clear, even below deck. She could even hear the loud yell of "I'm in!" That was probably the captain. Did the scream come from him? That would be funny.

Below deck had suddenly become quite boring, and Katewyn decided to see what was happening at top. She left her satchel downstairs, the heavy thing was only making her arm weary. It was full of useless things at the time - Two pistols, a knife, and a few other hunting materials. As she ascended up the stairs, a rather confusing scene met her eyes. A small girl was rocking back and forth on the deck, her face stained with tears. A panic attack? Maybe it was her first time. Hopefully she'd get used to it. Katewyn wouldn't be able to work well with a nervous girl. She'd screw up shots, and activate traps too early. Nerve and aim, that was the key. . .

Once again, she hoisted her rifle up and began to lay down a covering fire. No one else seemed really able to do it - Was she the only marksman here? How unfortunate. The rest of Bogh's men somhow recognized her, and ran for cover. She only managed to shoot someone in the leg before they were all hiding behind barrels and crates. They were constantly showing their weapons and taking random shots, but it was still dangerous. Well. She could only hope that the ship took off soon, and no one got hit.

Rena was stuck now with the crying girl. She truly wanted to comfort her, but the throbbing in her ear wasn’t letting her focus at all. Placing a soft hand on the girls back, she patted her gently. “It’s alright. Really no big deal. Tell you what, when we get this blasted ship off the ground, I’ll teach you to fight some? Alright?” Despite the pain and her gritted teeth, Rena was trying to do a good job at calming the girl. Any other time it would have been easy for her, she was always good with kids, but not this time. As one hand rubbed Anisa’s back, the other snaked up to touch her ear.

Ren let out a gasp. Prodding at the flesh her other hand instantly darted up to her other ear to compare. Half her ear was gone! The top inch of her perfectly pointed ear had come clean off with the bullet and all that was left was the base and some blood. Rena tried to force back tears as she knelt near the girl. Startling Anisa would do no good, so Rena let out a warm smile and silently prayed that the small one would calm down.

Dariq knew what was to come "You, with the rifle, can ya get rid of the last mooring rope!" He hollered, holstering his gun and holding his blade close to the balloon, ready to cut into it the second that last rope was cut. "Everyone else... Hold on ta summat!" he yelled as a sudden gust of wind caused him to fall back halfway down the rigging. "Ay, I dinnae 'av the tim'" He muttered clambering back up as his gun smashed into the railing and bounced off down into the deep depths below. Hailing himself up he got back up to height and lifted his sword again. "Hold 'an!" he shouted as he cut a huge gash into a section of the balloon causing a sudden 'exhale' from it as it emptied most of its contents immediately, causing Dariq to loose his footing. As luck would have it he tangled his foot in the rigging and was mercy to the ship as it suddenly plummeted..

The sound of feet striking the cobbled stones of the streets were rapid but no one on the docks seemed to give a damn. Rucks was late, "I'll never make it!" he exclaimed "My chance! The fakes I could have made! I'll have nothing to do if I miss that damned airship!" He lengthened his strides from short to long, bounding like a wild animal towards the airship in question before he saw a most terrible sight. It began to plummet. He came to a speedy halt at the docks edge, before the vast expanse of the sky. It was like an ocean, only you couldn't float. Maybe that was a good thing? If he wouldn't float Rucks would be sure to hit the airship. Time grew short and he moved back and forth on his feet, shifting his weight from his toes to his heels, considering it for too long would make this a lost cause, he would have traveled all this way for nothing!

Then, he began to sprint away, one two three... five six seven... nine ten eleven! That was all the space he would need, eleven full length strides. If he screwed this up - well, he hoped that the sky would become a little more like an ocean of water if that happened. Rucks bit his lip in uncertainty, then he slapped himself lightly across the face, "Focus, no time for dillydallying! Just get to that ship!" he told himself as he began his run up, he grasped his hat and just as he reached the edge of the dock he stumbled. What would have been a most majestic entry ended up being Rucks tumbling onto that damned skyships deck, hopefully the injuries weren't too severe.

As the Airship slowed in its plummet Dariq finally got free of the rigging, dropping onto the floor, realizing he was not going to be able to patch the balloon before it emptied since he got stuck, he immediately rose from the deck and made way to the man now lying on the deck, the other one who had landed on the ship with a thud. Sitting back on his heels he looked inquisitively at the man to see if he was one of them who was going to attack them. Guessing he wasn't purely because of his dress code Dariq merely shrugged out his sword and sat patiently on his heels as he waited for the man to get up now that they were no longer falling at a vast rate. "That was quite the tumble ya' 'ad there. I 'ope you wern't planning on ending any'ting since we are just startin' summat. An' ya' ain't gannin off 'till we reach a new dock lad." He said kindly. His sword held loosely in his hand just to say 'just because I amm not going to kill you doe not mean I trust you.' Smiling he stood up again and proffered his hand to the man. "In any rate, welcome aboard young laddie, we need more men aboard this vessel." he added with a chuckle.

Rucks heaved himself up, a sharp pain surged through his chest, he'd cracked a few ribs; maybe they were more than cracked. He wasn't a doctor that's for sure. He sat cross legged on the deck as he didn't dare stand up shortly after that stumble. "The next dock?" He questioned "do you really think I would jump - er, fall - such a great distance to get off at the next dock!" His eyes lit up as if he'd had some form of astonishing idea,"I'm here for the same reason you all are, treasure!" He threw his arms out as he made this statement, he looked around shortly after to see no where near as many as he expected. "I am on the right airship aren't I?" He asked, his mouth slightly ajar as he looked questioningly at the man who confronted him. It never occurred to Rucks that he should have checked the ship's name before he leaped.

At such a thought of him being in the wrong ship entirely Rucks became quite nervous, the bother of it all! He should have listened to his mother, she was always right, what was it she said? Look before you leap! Something that Rucks had always thought of as being a rather dull metaphorical statement, but now! Oh he had been blind the whole time! It was important, if you didn't look before you leapt you could end up in all sorts of situations, much like the one he was in now. Ruck's gaze returned to the general direction of the man and bit his bottom lip waiting for an answer to his previous question.

Well Dariq almost fell off the ship, that would have been unfortunate. Luckily he quickly learned how to fly upside dow-... Oh no wait, his foot got caught in the rigging it looked like. Though much less exciting than flying, Maithien was mostly just glad one of his few friends didn't plummet to his death. 'We all survied, that is a lot more than I expected. Well I at least expected one of us to die.' Maithien grinned to himself, almost resisting the urge to laugh. He had sprained his ankle on an Apricot for heaven's sake! Oh, that was certainly an interesting experience. He was brought out of this moment of humor when a loud thump came from in front of his feet.

Maithien screamed, scuttling away on his arms and legs away from the man that had just ungracefully landed on the main deck of his ship. "What in the-!" He yelled panicked. 'THESE GOONS ARE INSANE!!' All of a sudden the ship began creaking and groaning, looking up Maithien saw that one of the mooring ropes was still tied! The ship was pulling the brand new dock downwards until large chunks of wood began to fall off from the onslaught of force. 'That can't be good on the ship!'

Pushing the unknown man out of his mind for a moment. Maithien pushed himself upwards, supporting himself on his good foot. He limped his way to the side of the ship where the rope was tied, took out his sword, and began chopping on it. Trying to release the ship before either it or the docks broke apart. 'This crew can't be trusted to do anything so far!' He thought annoyed. Snap! There we go, all nice and broken! Now back to other matters. Maithien really couldn't wait until he got a chance to rest.

Maithien unholstered his gun once more and aimed it at the idiot who thought it was a good idea to skydive onto his ship. "Was that really a smart idea friend? I have to say that was really impressive, but really?"

"Well it was certainly a better idea than not jumping into the ship, after all otherwise I would have missed it," Rucks exclaimed, "someone offered a treasure hunt and that's not something I'm willing to miss!", forgetting his injury Rucks tried to stand up, another sharp pain shot through him causing him to clutch at his side and lean against a nearby barrel for support. "Now while I appreciate this warm welcome, can you put the gun down? Getting shot makes it difficult to hunt for treasure and I'm rather inclined to get to some before I buy the farm as it were,". During this transaction Rucks began to tap his fingers against his thigh, almost as if the conversation bored him, "now, am I on the correct ship?" He repeated for the third time, the question was beggining to annoy him.