HoloPirates: A Tale of Adventure

Heading to the Palace

As we made our way farther and farther up the way to the gates of the marketplace, we continued to get more and more of the weird stares. Some of the fish people leaned forward slightly, trying to get a better look at us, and I noticed that all of them wore mostly the same clothes, having a white tunic that covered their torso and extended down to half thigh. Most of them also had random assortments of jewelry, like golden bracelets, necklaces, earrings, fin-rings, or watches and chains that hung from the ropes that were tied around the waist of the tunics. A few of the people whispered and muttered to each other, obviously confused by our presence, but we just pressed on, moving through the crowd and over to Philip, who was sitting in the front seat of a cart, pulling by a giant, monstrous set of clownfish. Both of the fish, despite being out of the water, were floating in the air, very slowly waving back and forth as if they were swimming.
"Come on then!" Philip called from the drivers seat. "Let's not wait for the grass to grow."
I rolled my eyes as we picked up the pace, carefully navigating our way around all of the curious fish people, and when we got up to the cart, I unlocked the back of the cart, set the ramp down, and gestured to everyone.
"After y'all." I said.
Jansen lightly slapped my shoulder with a smile, and he climbed on, helping to hoist Noel into the cart as well, followed by Botan, who gave me a rather grim look, which I understood. Finally, there was Marine, who tapped on her sword hilt and slightly shook her head.
"Remember what I said?" I whispered, hoping that would calm her down and remind her.
She nodded, then climbed on and offered me her hand to hoist me up. I reached out and grabbed her hand, then hauled myself aboard the cart, shutting the ramp in the process.
"Alright Philip. We're ready."
"Took ya long enough." He said, then turned to the clownfish. "YA!"
He snapped the reigns, and the clownfish started waving back and forth much quicker, and the cart started forward, parting the crowd in front of us as we crossed underneath the archways with the large statues. As we entered the marketplace, I caught myself staring at all of the artifacts and jewelry that was positioned all over the stalls, having tons and tons of rings, gold necklaces, platinum buckles, pocket watches, and silver chains, all dominating my vision. I leaned down to Marine and and Jansen, and I dropped my voice to a near whisper.
"Lot of treasure."
"Tell me about it." Jansen said. "Almost as much as that treasure ship we raided one time, huh?"
"Aye that." Marine whispered. "There's so much of it."
"I wonder where they got it from." Jansen replied.
"Well, if they have the leviathans, they probably just stole most of it." I said. "If a ship sinks with a lot of treasure, they could just easily get it."
"So if we were to steal it, we'd be stealing from thieves, basically."
"Yeah, but stealing from them?" I said. "Horrible idea. They'd eat us alive."
"Exactly." She said. "So just lay low for now? Or have you forgotten your own advice? "
"Oh shut up." I said, playfully bumping my shoulder into hers.
We continued through the marketplace, all of the people parting before us to let us through. As I scanned the marketplace, I kept seeing random, shady figures in the alleys between the buildings, wearing darker clothing than the normal people in the marketplace, and it reminded me of my home, back in Los Angelos, especially around the seedier parts of town.
Philip yelled something at the people from the Drivers seat, and they parted before us, allowing us to get to the very end of the marketplace and enter into a more residential looking section of the city. I was a lot quieter than the noisy, bustling marketplace, offering a little bit more peace of mind than the marketplace, and the only people out at the moment were a bunch of kids, playing in the yards of the pearly white stone buildings, throwing balls to each other as they played some unknown game. They yelled in a language that seemed similar to what Philip spoke, and when one of the little fish boys slapped their hand on a wall of white stone, all of the boys cheered, while the girls stood around silent, crossing their arms. However, as soon as the children caught sight of us, all of them stopped the game they were playing and began to whisper amongst themselves.
"We're pretty hot stuff, huh?" I said to Philip.
"Well, we don't bring guests down here much." He replied, snapping the reigns again. "Its mostly forbidden, but you guys are..... a special case."
My unease about the place grew as he said that, and I started looking around, trying to conn my surroundings. And thankfully, so far, there was nothing that was too threatening, even as we exited the residential area and started up the hill, towards the gigantic stone palace.