I Must Be Crazy

Lissy, Hadrian and Crispin got the first portal on the right. The door had lots of fancy little metal embellishments, which they completely ignored as they went through.
“Hey,” Lissy exclaimed on the other side, looking down at herself. “My clothes have changed!” Instead of the skirt and T-shirt she had been wearing before, she now sported a calf-length pale yellow dress and brown leather ankle boots. Crispin’s white lab coat had turned into a long wool cloak - brown instead of white - and underneath he wore a waistcoat. Hadrian’s suit hard barely changed, apart from the addition of a short silk cape about his shoulders.
“Fascinating,” he said, plucking at it in an interested way. “Clearly the portal has some kind of magic to ensure that we fit in amongst the populace and don’t stick out like sore thumbs.”
Crispin swirled his cloak sadly. “I miss my coat already.”
“I’m sure you’ll get it back.” Spotting a sheet of paper nailed to a nearby wall, Hadrian pulled it off and began to read. “It’s addressed to us, what fun.”
“What’s it say, what’s it say?” Lissy asked excitedly, jumping up and down.
“It’s titled ‘The Jewel of Comrades’,” Hadrian said. “‘The Jewel of Comrades is a bit of a strange case. Rather than existing in a set location and being owned by a single person or institution, this Jewel appears and disappears with alarming regularity. Luckily for you, the magic of this portal is designed to relocate you to wherever the Jewel is, thus removing the most difficult part of retrieving it. The magic also ensures that, once you pass through the portal carrying the jewel, it will no longer be able to change location by itself.’”
“Is it all like that?” demanded Crispin. “Isn’t there anything about where this Jewel actually is?”
Hadrian glanced down at the rest of the sheet of paper. “There’s a pirate ship nearby. It’s above the crows nest, hidden at the tip of the flag pole on the mast.”
“We have to go onto a pirate ship?” Crispin said, blinking. “That sounds… dangerous.”
“It does, rather,” Hadrian said doubtfully. “But we’d better get it done quickly, or the jewel might move somewhere else.” He held out his hand to Lissy. “Stick close to me, little one, okay?”

The port town they found themselves in was quite small, with only one ship in the harbour. Sure enough this ship was flying the skull and crossbones flag openly and quite proudly; clearly there was little policing going on. The townspeople also seemed quite calm, as though they often had pirate ships coming in to dock.
“Fascinating!” Hadrian said for what seemed to be about the fiftieth time. “It’s a caravel - the ship, I mean. Easy to sail with only a few people. Perhaps the pirates are lacking crew members?”
“Aww, pirates with no friends,” said Crispin. “That’s quite sad. You always picture pirates surrounded by lots of friends getting pissed in bars, don’t you?”
“No mention of pillaging and plundering, I notice.”
“Isn’t that Vikings?”
“I thought it was both.” Hadrian peered in the window of a building as they passed. “This must be the inn. There aren’t very many people in it.”
“So we have to go all the way up there?” Lissy was peering up at the mast of the ship. “It’s… up high.”
“Don’t you like heights, Lissy?” the vampire asked anxiously. The little girl hunched her shoulders.
“I don’t know. I’ve never been up that high.”
“Hmm. Well, maybe you can stay on the ground with Crispin.”
“Who says Crispin is staying on the ground?” the scientist snapped, annoyed. “Crispin likes heights, thank you very much. He was going to pretend he was King Kong while he was climbing the mast.”
“Well, that’s very normal, isn’t it? You’re staying on the ground with Lissy if that’s what I tell you to do!”
“Who put you in charge of this group? Just because you’re a big strong vampire you think you can throw your weight around and be in charge of everything!”
“Will you shut your big fat mouth!” hissed Hadrian, glancing around fearfully. “Vampires are probably not well-liked here, and possibly don’t even exist! Discussing them at the top of your voice is not a good plan!”
“Well then stop trying to boss me around! I’ll do whatever I want, I’m a big boy now, I can look after mys-”
“Hey, hey, calm down now, everyone!” a cheerful voice said from the door of the inn. The two men whirled to face the door, just as a girl appeared, grinning. She was quite short, and had hair the colour of wheat which stuck out from a turquoise bandanna. Her eyes were wide and a deep blue-green. “This is no place for fighting, honestly,” she scolded them lightly. “Honestly, you’re as bad as my friends.” She smiled down at Lissy. “Are they annoying you?” The little girl nodded, and ran to her. Laughing, the older girl went down on one knee to hug her.
“Sorry, who are you?” Crispin said, although he had relaxed a little. The girl grinned at him.
“Oh, sorry, haven’t I said? No, wait, I guess I probably haven’t, since I’ve only said a few sentences to you. I’m Audax, it’s great to meet you all!”
“I’m Lissy,” the little girl told her. “And that’s Mr Hadrian and Crispin.”
Audax glanced from Crispin to Hadrian, and smirked. “I think I can guess which is which. You’re not from around here?”
“No,” Hadrian said guardedly.
“That’s fair, neither am I, nor my friends. I guess it’s only the townspeople who are from around here, haha.” She stood up and tucked a strand of hair back under her bandanna. Hadrian noticed with slight confusion that hair only seemed to poke out from under the bandanna on one side.
“Are your friends in the inn?” Crispin asked. She nodded.
“I noticed you were looking at that ship? The one flying the skull and crossbones?”
Lissy nodded. “We were! It’s a nice ship.”
Grinning, the girl nodded. “It is a nice ship. Look, you can see on the hull it says its name - the Courageous Companion. That’s a great name for a ship, don’t you think? All anyone ever really wants from a ship is for it to be friendly and brave.”
“Can ships be friendly and brave?” asked Lissy with some doubt. Audax laughed.
“Of course they can! Wouldn’t you call a small ship sailing through a storm brave?”
“Actually, I’d call it pretty stupid,” said a black-haired boy who’d just come to the door as well. “Audax, do you really have to speak to everyone you come across?”
“Nothing wrong with being friendly, Jas,” said a blonde boy, who was hot on his heels. Hadrian blinked, and narrowed his eyes at him; the boy, noticing him, returned the look with similar intensity. Audax looked from one to the other.
“I hate to interrupt your staring match, but - “
“He’s a vampire,” the blonde boy told her quietly, and Hadrian inhaled sharply, turning his gaze to the girl. She blinked, then grinned.
“Hey! Really? I thought you were just weird. But hey, a vampire… that explains things.”
“Like what things? What things does it explain?” Hadrian demanded.
“Paranoid,” muttered Crispin.
“You give off vampire vibes,” Audax said. “Don’t worry about it, I’m just weird like that.” Grinning, she tapped her head. “Anyway, these are the friends I mentioned who are always arguing - Jasper, the inky one, and Eamonn, the blonde. Say hi, mates.”
“Hey, hey,” murmured Jasper. “If we’re all done, I’m going back to where I left my dinner. I wasn’t finished it and someone’s probably stolen it by now.” He disappeared back into the inn. Eamonn made a face and came forward to stand next to Audax.
“Don’t worry about him, he’s pretty grumpy,” he said. “Especially involving food. And vampires.”
“Although he’s gotten a lot better with that,” said Audax with a nod. “Long story, you really don’t need to know.”
“You’re a vampire, though,” Hadrian said to Eamonn bluntly. The boy nodded.
“You could say I’m a special case, as far as he’s concerned. Not that he likes me, but that’s… complicated.” He glanced at Audax. “I think he likes me more than many vampires. We’ve known each other long enough now to be over the awkwardness, at least.”
“Translation: no-one expects them to speak to each other,” muttered Audax. She clapped her hands suddenly and smiled brightly again. “But enough of our problems! What about you?”
“Us?” Crispin said, caught off-guard. The girl nodded.
“Of course! Everyone’s got problems, you must have yours. You were arguing, anyway.” She focused intently on the scientist. “Do you not like vampires either?”
“I have nothing in particular against them, no! He’s just a bossy-boots!” he exclaimed, pointing accusingly at Hadrian, who rolled his eyes.
“We’re looking for a jewel,” he told her quietly. The two leaned in, apparently interested. “The problem is, it’s on that pirate ship, and, well…” He gestured to Lissy. “Might get hurt, you know? Not really an option, that.”
Audax nodded solemnly. Eamonn blinked at her. “But-”
“Yeah, I see what you mean,” she interrupted. “Tell me about this jewel, though, it sounds interesting. Did the pirates steal it, or what?”
“It’s called the Jewel of Comrades. I don’t think they stole it, it just… appears,” Hadrian said. “I’m not sure I should be telling you, this, though.”
“We might be able to help you, though.”
“Really?”
“Of course.” She winked mischievously. “You see, the ship is ours.”

“This is the first time I’ve ever been on a pirate ship!” Lissy said excitedly as Hadrian helped her to climb the rope ladder.
“Me too, isn’t it exciting?” he replied with a smile. “You’d better remember this, it’s not everyday you get to do something like this.”
“It’s in the crows nest, you say?” Audax called down to them. She had already climbed nimbly up into the rigging, on her way to the top of the mast.
“Hidden on top of the mast, I think it said.”
“Complicated place to put it… to think, we didn’t even know it was there! Some pirates we are, haha!”
“We’re pretty awful pirates anyway, Dax, we’re lost most of the time and you rescue basically anyone you ever find who needs help,” said Eamonn. “Not that it’s a bad thing, of course, but still.”
“Pirates, treasure-hunters, attention-seekers… it’s all the same! It’s an expression of freedom more than anything else!” Audax had reached the crows nest and was just shinning up the flagpole. “I see no jewels - oh, wait, here we go! Well, who’d have thought that.”
“Is it shiny?” Lissy called happily from below. “I like shiny things.”
“It’s pretty and shiny, yeah! Like diamonds, or cut glass, or something. What does it have to do with comrades, Mr Hadrian?”
“Um - just Hadrian, please - I think it said on the sheet that it appears where there are good comrades.”
“Aww,” said Audax fondly. “Makes me so proud.” She made her way back down and hopped down onto the deck. Hadrian received the Jewel of Comrades gratefully.
“Thank you so much, Audax!” Lissy hugged her around the waist. “We thought it was going to be much harder than that.”
“Oh, all depends on who you know, I guess,” grinned the pirate girl. “Why do you need it, anyway?”
“Long story,” said Crispin dryly. “You have no idea. It’s like… the long story of long stories.”
She laughed. “I’m sure we could compete… we’ve got some pretty long stories.”
“Oh, we have stories,” agreed Eamonn. “Some are actually quite interesting, others involve Jasper and are therefore mostly uninteresting and made up of arguments.”
“I know someone like that,” Hadrian said gloomily.
“So do I,” said Crispin. “He’s called Hadrian. But only when you’re around Zar, to be fair.”
“See! It’s her!”
“You’re not going to start arguing again, are you? Is the crystal going to be used for good or evil?” demanded Audax.
“We’re going to use it to help stop a demon who is being mean!” said Lissy. Eamonn blinked, and groaned.
“Demons… oh, you poor people.”
“You have some experience of demons?” Hadrian asked him, surprised. The boy nodded.
“My, uh… my brother ran off with a demon.”
“Ran off? Like… eloped?”
“Not quite, but along those lines, yes. It was not good.”
“Eamonn still hasn’t forgiven him,” said Audax, patting him on the head. “You need some help with that?”
“Getting rid of the demon?”
“Yeah. ‘Cos I’m sure I could oblige. None of us, but I have contacts, and a friend of mine has been looking for work.”
“Well, I suppose I can’t refuse an offer of help,” Hadrian said with a smile. “We’ll get back to you.”

As promised, the crystal didn’t disappear once they’d gone through the portal.