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[color=lightblue]”Oh, come on, I thought I was done hiding,”[/color] Luna complained as she inspected the cloak she now wore. [color=lightblue]”Do I really have to wear this thing?”[/color]

“Afraid so,” Rufus replied as he pulled Luna’s hood over her head. “The rest of us should be fine. The only person the Navy got a good look at besides you was Marcus. Not many half-Minks, let alone people with white hair, so you’ll stand out like a sore thumb.”

“Now, remember,” Galen said as he approached the two, “don’t do anything reckless until we’ve stocked up on supplies and gathered some information. It’ll make things harder on us if a fight breaks out before then.”

[color=lightblue]”Aye, aye,”[/color] Luna said drily, giving Galen a half-hearted salute before she turned to follow Rufus down the gangplank and onto the dock.

The port was in a state of disrepair. The wood the dock was made of was broken in places and weak in others. Rufus let out a surprised yelp as a plank gave out under his foot and Luna had to stifle a laugh as she helped him up. “This place has seen better days,” Rufus muttered as he brushed himself off. He looked around and came to a realization. “Wait…where is everyone?”

Luna looked around and saw that, aside from a few dock workers, a couple of whom were talking to Galen, there was virtually no one around. The stone warehouses and port authority sported broken windows, cracked facades, and even missing doors here and there. The ground was uneven with weeds growing between cracks in the stone. [color=lightblue]”Guess this is what happens when your town’s being run by pirates,”[/color] Luna muttered, feeling a mixture of anger and sadness for this piece of her ancestral territory. [color=lightblue]”People leave and things go to shit.”[/color]

“Hey, is that smoke?” one of the dockworkers asked. Luna looked over her shoulder to see a burly man talking with his friend, the two of them looking to the sky.

Luna followed their gaze and saw the source of the stench of smoke she picked up earlier, a tower of black smoke reaching far into the sky. “Yep, that it is,” the other worker said. “I heard that the Aurelius family couldn’t make this week’s payment. Guess that’s their vineyard burning. It’s a damn shame, I heard they just had a baby, too.”

The first worker scoffed and muttered, “What’re they thinking? If they burn down all the vineyards that can’t keep up with their ridiculous terms, they’re not gonna have enough wine to drink, let alone sell.”

“Hey.” Luna turned her head to see that Rufus had already walked a few paces ahead. He nodded down the main thoroughfare, silently beckoning his captain to follow. Luna relaxed her clenched fists and breathed out as she followed after her vice captain. Rufus placed his hand on her shoulder as they walked and he quietly told her, “Keep your head. Remember what Galen said, don’t do anything rash until we know more.”

[color=lightblue]”No promises,”[/color] Luna grumbled. After a moment, she added, [color=lightblue]”Let’s find a bar. I need a drink and we can start asking around.”[/color]

“You’re the boss, Captain.”