CHAPTER 24 - IMPRISONMENT...

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And so it happened, the pirates forcibly took Natirra and Gaid, binding them to prevent them from swimming away or attempting to escape the ship in any way. At that moment, Natirra was separated from Monomia, Igre, and Riaca, who were taken to other ships and, probably, would never be seen again in her life. They were all separated to weaken them further and placed on ships of other pirate captains, allies of Algalunga.

The pirates took Natirra and Gaid, and on that menacing pirate ship, they brought her into the dungeons located on the lower deck. She was not aware of her exact location; her mind was confused and disoriented. In the end, she was locked in a solitary and damp cell.

And time passed.

…

Natirra stared at the floor of the room where she was supposed to remain confined all the time, and at that moment, her motivation and hope were completely gone. After a while, she examined the cell she was in, as she hadn’t given it any attention and wanted at least to understand where she was. The walls seemed to close in on her, and the ceiling seemed to lower to suffocate her. She was imprisoned by her thoughts, fears, and the uncertainty and disappointment she felt.

The cell was quite particular: a rough wooden floor, probably the base of the ship, and quite damp, considering it was close to the water, which made sense and worried her a little. The floors were not wooden, or at least, the outside was not. It was made of a hard, robust, and rough material that prevented any possible escape; it was only comparable perhaps to some metal with an appearance similar to common rock, but she knew it couldn’t be, for several reasons. Primarily, in such a humid environment, rock would also be cold, like the cell. But the walls of the cell were warm, or at least, less cold than the ambient temperature.

There was not much in the room: a small table and a chair. There wasn’t even a damned bed. What state was she in? Damn it, scandalous! She didn’t even know how to feel in that state. The cell door was also made of a material similar to the walls but with a different color, artificially assigned by the crew to distinguish it from the wall with paint. There was a small window next to that door to observe the person inside the cell. The lack of any single interesting object in the room forced Natirra to be trapped in her thoughts.

While Gaid next to her seemed to still be unconscious, she was fully awake. She often tried to fall asleep but always failed.

Natirra had a constant headache, indeed a lot of hunger and thirst, and the cell environment didn’t even allow for good air to breathe, probably causing the headache. Her mind was completely outside the cell; she thought about everything, where Monomia was now, where Igre and Riaca were, how Riaca was doing, how she could get out of this situation, and how she could save her island from the pirates who would take the other soldiers. But she could do nothing, not in that damned cell; she was weak there. And until Gaid woke up, she didn’t know what she could do; she had to wait, perhaps try to sleep.

Outside, the end of the day was approaching, but she couldn’t see it; after all, her room had no windows.

At some indefinite point, Natirra fell asleep on the damp floor of the cell, but her sleep was not continuous or too long. She woke up several times, constantly opening her eyes in the dark and rough floor of the cell. She kept dreaming and, consequently, waking up suddenly. She didn’t know where these continuous dreams came from, but it could have been a side effect of the exhaustion she experienced during these days. Those moments before falling back asleep were spent staring at the low and dark ceiling of the cell.

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Natirra’s dreams were not random; she had visions of everything that had happened to her, of everything that had led her to end up there, of her brother sailing, of the military camp, of her meeting Monomia. But all of them, that was for sure, were just dreams, a way for her mind to escape the prison she was locked in. Regret filled her every time she stopped for a second to think.

But what worried her the most was that she couldn’t convince her mind to stop racing, as if it had a life of its own. She tried to fall back asleep, but the feeling wasn’t quite there. She was just tired; that was the only reason she could sleep a little.

Suddenly, however, she heard a noise, quickly turned towards the corner of the room, and saw, in the dark, that the sleeping Gaid she had left was finally getting up. After a while, he looked around, fixing his gaze on Natirra.

The two looked at each other for a while, both trying to process the situation.

«"We discovered something big."» Gaid said, «"Gold."»

Natirra looked down. «"We shouldn’t have."»

«"No, we did well. We can sabotage it from the inside before there are catastrophic consequences on the island. I didn’t think our officials could be corrupted by the pirates, out of everyone…"»

«"..."»

«"We are close to Algalunga."»

Despite what Gaid had said, Natirra was not at all hopeful. She looked at the floor, disheartened.

«"It’s the end now. We’re going nowhere, we’re stuck, so it’s useless to do anything."» Natirra said, with an almost bitter tone, in that small night. It was as if all her hope of escaping had vanished. Every single drop of hope had been consumed by her soul. Since she had been thrown into that cold and merciless cage, and since they had been surrounded by those ships, her body had been devastated by pain and sadness.

A part of her wondered if that was the price of her hopes, of her determinations. Or was it karma for something she had done? Who knows? Gaid approached; Natirra didn’t notice immediately, but he was completely free of the ropes binding his hands. Unlike her, he approached menacingly, and Natirra watched him, confused about what he planned to do. He turned her around, and suddenly... Zap! she felt the ropes loosen, allowing her to breathe better. She finally got up, turning to Gaid, who had managed to cut her ropes with his horn.

«"You freed me?"» She realized what he had done: the horn, he had used the horn to cut the rope.

«"Consider it a thank you for caring about me with your friend, Monomia, was it?"» Hearing that name gave her a pang in her chest, thinking that perhaps, just perhaps, she might never see him again.

«"Yes, Monomia. You have a good memory."»

«"It was only a day ago, I remind you."» She felt time passing more slowly than it should, to the point where all the time before boarding the ship seemed months ago.

«"It doesn’t matter,"» she didn’t want to explain her perception of time. «"Anyway,"» Natirra began, but Gaid spoke first, cutting her off abruptly.

Gaid stood up, looking at the cell door. He stroked his horn, and after a moment of contemplation, decided on whatever he was pondering. «"Okay, no more discussions, we escape now."»

«"But it’s the middle of the night!"» Natirra exclaimed, aware that if he was escaping, she would have to too, and she couldn’t do that in the middle of the night; she was tired.

«"Pirates never sleep."» A few moments passed. «"Just kidding, they do sleep, which is why we need to take advantage of it."»

«"So... you want to escape now?"»

«"Not exactly, but at least now I’d like to get out of this cage."»

That night was different, it was uncertain. The night was dark, full of stars. The wind blew strongly from the east, over the vast grassy plain that stretched for many leagues. It was the kind of wind that made men shiver in their beds, curled up in their blankets. The sound it made as it howled through the ship was eerie and full of despair. It was a sound she had never heard before in that place. Today, even though they had to escape, the weather seemed to want to warn them of something, of something dangerous.