CH - 15 [ Bear island ] part - 3

But we don't know anything about this town. It might not be safe."

"That's why I'll be with you. You'll protect me, right?" she asked, smiling.

Halcen coughed hard. He felt his body get hot and hit heart throb. "Yeah. I'll uhh… sure." He looked around to the others, Grey snickering. "Alright, let's go." He turned to hide his embarrassment and stormed off. "If you're coming, hurry up!"

And so the three set off toward the town, leaving the others to fend for themselves. Halcen was content leaving the others without his protection. Jory might have been out of the fight, but Bo and Kazuki were there, and there were seasoned vets. They would take care of anything that might come their way. Grey and Halcen may have been the stronger fighters, but he had fought the Marines, and they were quite capable. Jory, Bailu, and Loyola were safe.

Halcen, Grey, and Valentina wandered off the wooden dock and stepped into the town. From where they were standing, it looked like a ghost town. Not only were the dark luminous grey clouds hanging overhead, cutting out the daylight, but the town itself made not a peep. The dark stone walkways were torn up with weeds sticking out from them. The wooden buildings seemed old and rickety. The town hadn't been taken care of. It was quite a sad sight. Each level up seemed to be a little nicer though. They appeared to be relatively better kept, not larger or grander. Maybe it was because nobody actually lived down on the bottom streets to take care of it. So they continued up.

Eventually Halcen could feel small presences nearby. He figured they had finally gotten close enough to the center of town that people actually did business there. They strolled past the rotten buildings and finally found one Halcen thought might actually sell something. It had a sign on the top that read "Beandra's Wares." He pulled Grey and Valentina into the store, eager to get their stuff and leave.

Inside was a woman in her thirties with somewhat chubby cheeks, and long brown hair. The rest of her seemed fairly attractive, but her eyes screamed out like she was lost in a mix of confusion and boredom. There was nothing there, even for the inhabitants of this ratty ass town. Halcen could tell by the old man that just sat at the dock all day. The inside of the store was made up like any general goods store might. Halcen started rummaging through in order to find anything that they might be able to use for their repairs.

He grabbed a large black piece of canvas and some permanent paints that caught his eye.

"What are those for?" Grey asked, low.

"Well, there was one thing Anosmia was right about. We're not really a pirate crew without a flag. I figure we can make one." Halcen answered, also trying to keep his voice down. If anybody realized they were pirates, it might start trouble.

"Not a bad idea, but is this really a priority?"

"No, but we might as well do it when we have the chance."

"Fair enough."

"Halcen! Look!" Valentina squealed.

Halcen turned in shock. "What happened?" he jumped into a protective fear.

"LOOK AT THIS LITTLE CERAMIC PENGUIN! ISN'T IT SO CUTE?!"

Halcen's face went flat. "Are you kidding me? I thought something was wrong."

Valentina put on a pouty face with her gorgeous eyes and thick lips. "But Haaaaaaalceeeeeen," she whined, putting the thing up to her face. "Loooooook!"

"Alright, you can get it… just calm down."

"YAAAYY!" She beamed.

Halcen took the penguin from her, and the cloth and paint he had picked out to the woman at the counter. "Do you guys have a lumber place nearby? We need to fix up our ship."

The woman looked infinitely annoyed by the people in her shop; that someone would even talk to her was insulting. "We have a mill. But I don't think they're gonna sell to you."

"Are you?" Halcen asked, looking down at his items.

She huffed. "Might as well." She began to ring him up. He handed her some beri, grabbed the bag that she had put this stuff in.

"Oh! Do you guys have a blacksmith, weaponsmith, or anything like that? I lost my knife and I need a new one."

"No, we don't make weapons here," she nearly spat.

"What about a candy store? Or a bakery? Anything sweet?"

"We have a bakery, but it's just bread."

"Right…" Of course, nothing good can survive in a place like this. "Well, thanks." And then the three of them left the store.

Valentina rubbed her ceramic gift all over her face like a little kid with a new toy. "Thank you, Halcey!" she exclaimed. She kissed his cheek quick then ran off with her new favorite thing.

Halcen froze.

Grey began to laugh hysterically. "Well, then… Halcey… shall we?"

"Shut up, Grey."

"Whatever you say…"

And then they returned to their walk about the town. Eventually, they came to the outskirts where the wood mill was set up. It was a pretty big place. There was an entire factory sitting in the back. Up front, they had a small building just for customers to place orders. There were a few chairs they had set for people who were waiting. Valentina immediately went to sit down, playing with her penguin.

"I thought you wanted to stretch your legs," Halcen jabbed.

"Yeah, well I got tired of your stench," Valentina joked back. "I thought you took a shower."

Halcen pulled the collar of his shirt over his nose to check. "Hey! I did shower, lady!"

Grey sat back and chuckled, shaking his head. These kids.

"Well, maybe it's just you," Valentina stuck out her tongue at Halcen.

"Yeah well maybe you…"

She sat, waiting. "Me… what?"

Halcen sighed. "I got nothing."

"That's what I thought," she celebrated. Then returned her attention to her penguin. "That's right. We taught that mean old Hacey, didn't we?"

Halcen turned back to the counter, shaking his head.

Finally, there was somebody there. Another person in their thirties. He was a bit taller than Halcen with dark skin and a bald head. "Can I help you?" he asked apathetically. But it sounded like he had been waiting there for decades, and they had just now showed up.

"Yeah… uhm… we need wood… for our ship."

"You're the ones at the dock?"

Halcen nodded. "That'd be us."