~~~ Gem's POV~~~

A few hours earlier...

"Hey, have you seen Fwhip anywhere?" I asked Owen, sitting by the lake with him and Cleo, dipping my toes in. It was late, and most people were out partying, as was the habit of most pirates, even when it wasn't a holiday, but we had snuck out to the lake to relax in the peace and darkness. Fwhip was supposed to join us a while ago, but he hadn't arrived.

Cleo shook their head, and Owen said, "I saw him in the tavern with Scott before I left, but nothing since then."

I frowned. "That's not like Fwhip at all."

"Maybe he got... distracted. There are a lot of people out and about tonight- it was the Factioning today, after all." Cleo raised her eyebrows to make sure we all knew exactly what kind of distraction they meant.

The Factioning was a day once a year, where anyone who wanted to become a pirate were introduced to the island and sorted into a faction. It was usually followed by wild parties that lasted hours into the night and usually the morning too- the celebrations could last for days at a time.

Owen snorted. "Fwhip? He's probably off testing a new bomb or something with a bunch of drunk Kites-"

I shook my head and stood up, shaking my feet dry before sliding them into the combat boots, equipped with spiked toes to kick anyone who bothered me. "I'm going to go look for him. If he is off sleeping with someone or testing bombs, I am going to drag him here by the ear and dunk him in the lake, headfirst."

Owen and Cleo laughed and waved, their voices fading as I walked away, grabbing a torch from a stand and walking onto the path to the town.

The shadows danced at the edge of the torchlight, animal screeches and the rustling of plants reaching my ears. I walked quickly to the town, avoiding drunk pirates as they stumbled by, giggling and drinking from flasks as they babbled with the slurred speech of the very inebriated and soon to be very hungover.

I reached the tavern Fwhip had been in, and looking around, figured out that Fwhip was not present, due to the lack of bright red hair or bombs or bar fights or stupid life threatening dares.

Scott, however, was present, talking to a blushing blond man at one of the small side tables. I walked over to them and slid onto the bench, smiling at the blond before turning to Scott and asking, "Where the hell is Fwhip?"

"How should I know?" Scott said, his words rude but his manner cheerful. He was more than slightly drunk, but not enough to be insensible yet, thank the sun.

I rolled my eyes. "You were the last person he was seen with, and he hasn't shown up at our meeting point."

"Hi, I'm Gem," I said, turning randomly to the blond, extending my hand to the Nightingale. I could tell his faction and gender by the pins on his shirt. A simple pin of the Nightingale faction flag for his faction, and a lighter blue pin to show that he identified as male.

"Jimmy," he replied, shaking my hand. "Who's Fwhip, if that's ok to ask?"

I grinned, pulling my hand back and sitting back, crossing my legs under the table so that I could kick either of them if I needed to. "No problem at all- he's my twin brother. He was here earlier with Scott, but he's disappeared now and I'm trying to find him."

"Ohhh-" Jimmy nodded, understanding appearing on his face. "Red hair, blue eyes, black coat with a red scarf?"

I leaned forward. "Yes, that's him exactly. You've seen him?"

"I saw him follow my friend Sausage out that way," he gestured to a side door, "and neither of them came back."

Seriously? I think, annoyed. I smiled at Jimmy and elbowed Scott. "Don't drink too much, idiot." I say as a farewell, giving Jimmy a two fingered salute before getting up and walking out the door Jimmy pointed out.

It was dark, but a torch was all the light I needed to do my tracking. Being able to track was a very useful ability in my line of work. Bounty hunting was hard enough when your prey was an experienced pirate who knew how to cover their tracks. Without my skills, I'd never have gotten off the ground.

Good thing I knew my brother better than I knew myself, and I found his tracks a moment later, although he was alone.

I followed the track into the forest, which was odd. Didn't Jimmy say he left with someone? Why would he be going into the forest alone?

Looking around, I cast for more tracks, and find another one. This person was following Fwhip, and they... why did Fwhip sit down, in the middle of a random spot in the forest? Scratch what I said earlier, I will never understand men-

This person snuck up on Fwhip from behind, and they fought, and then Fwhip's tracks disappeared. The person's tracks were significantly deeper than they were before, so they carried Fwhip off somewhere.

Why couldn't I have gotten a less dumbass-y brother? Now I've got to go rescue him from whoever's abducted him.

Yaaay.

I followed the abductor's tracks, which lead to the beginning of the dock before disappearing onto the wooden docks, which I couldn't track on. I'd have to switch to good old critical thinking and maybe some vodka, because if I wasn't slightly drunk by the time I found Fwhip, I was going to throw him into the bay.

I was probably going to do that anyways, but at least I'd be able to blame it on the alcohol.

I wandered the docks for a bit, looking for anything that looked suspicious, but I didn't find anything.

After a bit, drinking from a bottle and wandering around, I noticed a dark haired Kestrel man strolling down the docks, grinning to himself. Normally I avoided Kestrels like the plague, but I knew this particular Kestrel.

The brunet was Fwhip's stalker, the man who had taken to following him and sometimes me when he got confused. He didn't get confused much after I kneed him between the legs, unfortunately. I would've liked to do that a few more times.

I stood still as the idiot walked by me, completely unaware of my presence. To be fair, I was standing in a shadow next to some crates, but he was less than ten feet away and he didn't notice.

As soon as he passed by, I began to follow him. He made a beeline for the edge of the town, heading towards the Kestrel base. I had to be careful. There weren't any rules against people from other factions visiting the bases, but it was better to avoid other faction's areas unless you had an invitation.

As I walked I tied my hair back in a simple knot, getting it out of my face in case I needed to fight. I snuck past a group of Kestrels intermixed with some Kites talking and drinking. They waved to the stalker, who waved back with a grin.

I followed him to one of the central buildings, where he went around the back. When I turned the corner, he was gone. I looked around, crouching into a defensive position in case he was trying to ambush me.

Then I looked up, and flung my hands up in exasperation, silently yelling at the asshole. He was climbing the wall, and as I watched, he disappeared through a window.

Sighing, I looked for handholds, and began to follow him up the wall. Once I reached the window, I looked over the edge to make sure the room was empty, which it wasn't, so I stayed hanging right by the window.

He was moving around the room, putting things in his pockets and grabbing a hat from by the door as he walked out of the room.

As soon as he was gone I jumped through the window, landing with a nearly silent thud on the carpeted floor. The room was overly decorated in gold, the walls inlaid with patterns and gold leaf decorating every frame and furniture in the room. A massive canopy bed sat in the corner, mahogany wood with golden sheets. Could this man make his faction any more clear?

I carefully looked out the door to make sure no one was in the hallway, and then put on my jacket to hide my Heron badge in case I was caught. Strolling out into the hallway, I tried to put a haughty look on my face, as if I was too important to do something so menial as thinking.

I passed a door where conversation echoed from behind it, then went back as I recognized both of the voices. One was of the man I had been following, and the other belonged to none other than Joey Graceffa, an arrogant, self-obsessed, idiot with a very misplaced sense of importance.

I carefully pressed myself against the door, listening as the two discussed a plan to gather people and set sail after some secret treasure. It sounded interesting, but it had nothing to do with Fwhip. Maybe the stalker wasn't involved in his disappearance?

I darted around the corner as I heard footsteps coming for the door, hiding as one of them left the room and wandered back down the hallway. Looking down, I saw the stalker leaving again. I followed him as he left the same way he came in, and ghosted him to the edge of the town before I stopped, letting him walk away to whatever he was doing.

Nothing. I was certain the man had something to do with Fwhip not being found anywhere, but I had followed him for the best part of an hour and gotten nothing.

I stood there for a moment, staring after the Kestrel as he walked in the direction of the quest board, and beyond it, the Heron base. Following him more would be a waste of time.

"Hey, Gemini!" I heard a shout from behind me and saw a friend of mine, a Kite dressed elegantly in red and black.

"Kuervo, hi!" I responded, smiling. "How's things?"

"Very good, Gemini." It answered cheerfully. A/N krowfang uses it/its pronouns as of the time of writing "I have had a wonderful time all night. So many shiny people," Kuervo giggled, sounding very drunk.

"Are you alright? Maybe you need some sleep." I said, slightly concerned as it took a step and wobbled, still laughing.

"No, no, no, I need to find Acho." The Kite said, grinning at me. "Do you know where he went?"

I shook my head, and said, "I haven't seen him in a while. Do you by any chance know where Fwhip is?"

Kuervo blinked, and shook its head a bit, probably to clear it. "Fwhip? No, no Fwhips anywhere, but I did see someone getting kidnapped!" Kuervo seemed very excited about this fact.

"Someone getting kidnapped?" I asked, stepping closer with urgency. "Did you see where they were going?"

It nodded, head bobbing, which apparently amused the Kite, because it started giggling again, not answering my question. I grabbed its shoulder and shook it a bit, and repeated, "Did you see where they went, Kuervo?"

Kuervo laughed more, rocking back and forth on its feet. Trying to get information from drunk people was a real pain.

"Kuervo." I briefly thought about punching it to clear its head, but decided not to take the risk. Kites could be a nasty bunch when they got angry, and most of them were vicious fighters with severe anger issues.

Finally Kuervo seemed to sober up a bit, eyes clearing and focusing on mine. "The docks, Gemini. Kestrel ship." It whispered dramatically, before bursting into another round of giggles.

So the stalker did have something to do with it! I grabbed a bunch of coins from one of my hidden pockets and shoved them in Kuervo's hand. "Thank you so much, here go buy yourself some more alcohol or something, BYE-"

I took off in a sprint towards the docks. In the conversation I had eavesdropped on, the two Kestrels had planned to leave at dawn, and the sun was already more than halfway above the horizon. I would follow in my own ship if I had to, but I needed to see where they were going to be able to.

I reached the end of the dock as the ship was sailing away, just pulling away from the dock. I sped up, flipping up my hood as I ran, mask as well to protect my face. They were too far for me to make it onboard the ship. I was going to have to swim to them.

Reaching the end of the dock, I dove, letting my momentum push me under the water, quickly finding the ship's wake and using it to pull me along, swimming as fast as I could. My jump had put me very close to the ship, and I grabbed hold of the anchor as it was pulled up.

I was running out of air, bubbles streaming out of my mouth, but I didn't want to be caught by whoever was pulling up the anchor, so I grabbed onto the hull and crawled along, fighting the force of the ship's movement as it tried to pull me off. I climbed up on the other side of the ship, quietly breathing in even though I wanted to gasp for air. I wouldn't be the best bounty hunter on the Isles if I didn't know how to be quiet when stalking my victims.

There was someone leaning over the railing, and I recognized them as Joey, and I surged up in front of him, enjoying the look of startled fear on his face as he scrambled back and I landed on the deck of the ship.

Joey pulled one of his swords out and pointed it at me, but I weaved around the point and landed a kick on the back of his head, knocking him down and out of my way.

I pulled off my wet hood, dropping it on the deck as I pulled my dual daggers out, looking for my brother. I saw him on the other side of the ship, next to the stalker, who was gaping at me with a look of pure shock.

I strode across the deck with pure determination and exactly one thought in my mind, which I executed as soon as I got to him.

Reaching the two in a couple of steps, I nodded to Fwhip before grabbing a handful of the stalker's shirt, keeping him from backing away as I yanked him forward and kicked him between the legs as hard as I could.

Turning away swiftly as the man collapsed, wheezing, I faced the two other people still conscious and unhurt aboard the ship. Scott was staring at me, a look of surprise quickly fading to one of amusement, and his twin sibling Xornoth waved at me.

"Anyone else want to try me?" I asked, signing the words as well for Fwhip's benefit. Scott and Xornoth both shook their heads, Scott grinning as he crossed the deck with Xornoth following.

"Nice kick," Scott said, nodding at the stalker, who was curled up on the wooden flooring, still whimpering from the hit. "He sure isn't going to get up for a while." He signed the words, hands moving with practiced efficiency.

"Took you longer than I'd thought to find me," Fwhip signed. "If it weren't for that mess with the anchor you would've missed us entirely."

I rolled my eyes. "I followed him," I gestured to the stalker, "for an hour, and all I learned was that he was going on a trip. Didn't mention you at all. Then I found Kuervo in the town, and it took me another fifteen minutes to get anything out of it, and by then the sun was halfway risen and I had to run to make it here in time."

"What even is going on here anyways?" I asked, flicking my hands at the ship to show what I meant by here.

"Sausage and Joey found a map to hidden treasure or something, and they recruited us to help out," Scott signed. "I didn't know Fwhip was onboard until Sausage opened the sack and he jumped out with intent to murder."

Sausage must be the stalker. I began to ask another question, but then Sausage lurched to his feet, grabbing the rail to keep himself up. He was still shaky, and his face was pale, but he pointed at me and said, with wounded amusement, "That hurt."

I gave him a look of pure annoyance, and said, signing as well, "Give me one good reason I shouldn't do it again, Kestrel."

He winced. "It... would hurt a lot?" Sausage signed weakly. He had to let go of the railing to sign, and he stood unsteadily on his feet.

I looked around, ignoring his answer, and seeing the island already fading into the distance, sighed. "We're going to get half of whatever you find," I signed, pointing at myself and Fwhip. "You're the one who's dragged us both on this mission, so if we don't find anything, consider your life over."

Sausage grinned, and signed agreement, introducing himself a moment later. "I'm Sausage," he signed. "Are you related to Fwhip?"

Wonderful. I was stuck on a ship captained by an absolute idiot.

"No." I signed, pure sarcasm in my signs.

"She's my twin sister," Fwhip signed. "I told you you'd pay for taking me."

Sausage nodded mournfully. "I may never recover." He said solemnly, before breaking into a massive grin. "This is going to be so much fun.