"Pink portal? Huh... Might have to bring that with the Admiral..." Tommy muttered. "Whatever the case, a portal brought you here. You're not the first victim, though. I've went through this too. Simply put, you've been taken from your world via a portal and spat out at a random location, which in this case is here."
While the station was made for wagons in mind, it had a dock for ships as well, though it was somewhat hard considering the desert nature of the world. Thankfully, during construction of the station, the South Sea Trading Company made sure to include a connecting portal from Western World to its sister world Pirate’s East, so that ships can easily dock in one plane but do business in the other.
As such, the Jolly Roger managed to dock just fine. Didn’t help that captaining the ship was a feared pirate, after all. Though that didn’t stop Morgan from stowing away. He held a letter close to him before he hid it away in his robes. He hid behind the crates, waiting for the right moment to rush out and get off the ship before anyone noticed.
However, he might have mistimed his escape. Just as he got up, he heard someone singing to himself as he was going over to the crates. Morgan panicked as he pulled out a green book. Flipping through the pages quickly, he opened up a window and flew out, a gust of green wind propelling him. The pirate stopped to look at the crates, scratching his head as to what happened.
“Smee! Get back here! The captain wants ya!” One of the other pirates said as Smee headed back.
As Morgan landed on the station, he wandered about. Where does he go from here? He only smuggled onto the Roger because he had no idea where the recipient of the letter would be. As he looked around, an attendant found the kid.
“Are you lost?” She asked.
“Huh? No. Of course not! I know exactly where I’m going!” He said. Then he paused for a moment. “Where is here?” As he pondered that, the attendant noticed something.
“Look out!” She pushed Morgan out of the way as a snake with blood red eyes struck her. As it bit her, it merged into her body. Her arm became black with red lines cracking from her skin. She screamed and panicked as her arm changed to that of a tiger’s claw. She turned around. Morgan could see the tears in her eyes and her whimpers as she tried to mouth the words: I’m Sorry.
But her voice, now guttural, spoke something else:
“Sink… Sink… Sink…” As she came closer to the boy, Morgan tried to pull out a book, any book. He could nearly feel her claw dig into his skin had it not been for a sudden gunshot. The woman fell over as the darkness seeped out of her arm. Morgan turned around and saw a man with short blonde hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a white, fancy, Victorian-style outfit with a beret that had two silver, four-pointed stars on them. He held muskets that, like the arm, were black and red, but contrasting the arm’s jagged and cracked nature, the red lines were more straight and interwoven
“That was close… But at least you’re safe now, right?” He said to Morgan. Morgan nodded.
“Y-yeah. Is she?” Morgan asked, but the man quickly shook his head.
“No. I merely shot her in the arm. Don’t worry, my bullets are made from a special fibre.” As he said that, the wound on her arm began to sprout ribbons that had the exact black/red line pattern. They wrapped around her arm to make an improvised band aid on her arm. However, once the wound had been healed, the ribbon broke away and any bullet hole she would have had would be gone. The woman awoke and breathed in a sigh of relief.
“W-what was that?” Morgan asked.
“Asmodeus. A type of Shadowfax. Have you ever travelled via Black Portals before?” He asked.
“N-no. I haven’t. I haven’t even come here via portals.” Morgan said.
“Ah, that can explain it then. Shadowfaxes are demons that dwell within a dark nexus called the Abyss. Travellers of the Abyss would know them very well. The increased number of these buggers means that someone from that Abyss is coming. And telling from these winds, I know exactly who it is…” He held up a card. It wasn’t an ordinary playing card, as it was somewhat longer. Another gust of wind blew as he held the blank card in front of the winds. Slowly, a picture faded onto the card. It was a woman, her eyes closed and arms crossed, as her body covered itself with large wings. On the bottom were two letters on a golden banner: “THE WINDY”. “… As I feared.” He muttered.
“Huh? What’s going on?” Morgan said. The man looked to him as he took out a cup of tea and held it.
“I’ve been chasing this Devil for a long time. And it’s about time I got payback. Stick with me kid and you’ll be safe.” He said.
“Wh-who are you?” Morgan asked. With that question, the man took off his uniform. In its place was a simple black tuxedo, though the beret was still on his hat.
“My name is Thomas McKnight, and I’m a Hunter.”
