The fling of the Captain’s coin turned heads as it soared towards the shabby ceiling. Metal clanged when it bounced off against the single rusty chandelier in the room and a gentle twitch flickered the tiny flames of two decrepit candles. Old liquor-shot eyes lost track of the spinning gold piece while young black circled eyes were glued to every turn. The barkeeper stopped drying a mug with his dirty cloth and instead swiped the sweat off his temples.

The Captain snatched the falling coin out of the air and slammed his hand on the creaky round table. An uncanny silence breezed over the bay bar.

“Sure you wanna risk it, ay?” The Captain’s voice croaked of rum.

With a stretch of my arms, I folded my hands. The Cracks of my bones blended in with the creaks of the wooden prosthesis. The cracks of my bones blended in with the creaks of my wooden prosthesis.

“Do you know what lets you overcome a fear?” I adjusted my hat with a finger push and eyed him with my non-eyepatch-covered eye.

He swirled the last, with saliva mixed, drops in his fourth rum bottle of the night. The itch to punch the drying drool on his mouth’s corner clean followed me since the discussion had started.

“Hercu, even if you get out of here alive,” he scoffed. “One of your ‘wisdoms’ will get you killed someday.”

I crooked a brow.

“Ay, tell us already, lad.” His face drew long shadows in the dim light.

“A bigger fear,” I said curtly and groped over the piston mechanisms in my wooden arm. The remaining Jade Mint in the tank wouldn’t last long.

The room grew quiet with drunken confusion. Some gasped like they got the idea, then froze and yielded. The man sitting on the table next to us made a fist. His sickly green tinted eyes slowly gazed from his fist to his other hand. He narrowed his eyes to sharp slits due to pure focus on grabbing his fist. Eyes widened and jaw dropped, the realization struck him. Then he went back to smoking.

“He sort of got it, didn’t he? Well, yeah let's just forget that the only one in a room full of drunkards that checked what I said was a Mint smoking addict. And I really considered changing my mind about severing threads to this—bunch . . .”

With reinforced resolve, I grabbed my faithful cutlass under the table and nodded my eye on the table. “Your coin, ay.”

The Captain sucked the liquid out the bottle and threw it behind him. One of the new children, a scrawny one, clumsily caught it. It sucked, the children related too well with my past self for my liking. It got me into many fights with the elderly crew members, though still better than having a guilty conscience.

“It pains to lose such an asset to the crew, but I keep my word.” He lifted his wrinkly hand and revealed the coin. The unblemished gold surface glistened in the light of the dancing candle light on our table.

A bright smirk cracked on his old lips. “That’s your head, Hercu.” He held his palm open as if to receive something he just bought.

My prepared sigh left me maybe a tad too dramatic. It wasn’t the first 50-50 I lost—I checked my grappling hook—and it wouldn’t be the last.

The whole bar burst up in laughter and emptied mugs hit the tables. Others still gulped their liquor down, spilling half the content on their filthy shirts.

“We’ll miss you, Hercu.” The grandfather figure of the crew quipped and bumped his mug into his neighbor's.

One of the trembling children, Lisa, grabbed my wooden arm. “What’ll happen to us if you’re gone?” Her eyes darted to one of the older scumbags in a corner. My heart twinged at the thought of how that greasy rat always licked his lips at the sight of the girl.

“How about one last duel before you jump off the plank?” Birney bellowed with sarcasm as he noticed my stare.

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I leaned closer and whispered to the girl. “Get out, maybe the turmoil is enough.”

She pulled the other children away but a foot made her trip and a pair of hands grabbed the other ones in a thigh grip. The Captain teasingly narrowed his gaze on me, my knuckles turning pale at the force my hand grasped my mug.

I clicked my tongue. “I pick you up on the offer, Birney.” I raised my mug high, took a long sip and moaned out in bliss.

“The moment we part ways.”

I slammed the mug hard on the table’s candle while I pushed myself up from my seat and swiftly threw my cutlass at the Captain’s face. His eyes flashed a faint green. He caught The pointright in front of his nose. With both hands, I spun on the unstable table and kicked my feet against his hand, ramming the blade into his skull. He slumped to the ground as my chair slid across the floor.

The force pushed me back but with a rolling skid on the uneven wooden floor I got up in one motion. Not bothered to pick up my dropped hat, I threw my grappling hook at the man detaining the children. It donged against his forehead. I pulled it back, overturning tables and thus diminishing more light.

I snatched my cutlass from the Captain’s nose on the ground. “Run!” I yelled to the children and grabbed a chair to smash into the next crew member. The old crap shattered on impact. A hassle broke out. The drunken crew’s perception catching up to what just happened.

A saber cut clean through the chair’s remains and dug into my wooden arm. The power of the pistons inside the arm snapped the sword in two. Green steam puffed out of the engine.

“Hercu!” Lisa screamed under the weight of a fully grown man. Birney sat on her with a bright grin.

I spun close to my opponent and smashed an elbow at his ear. As he fell, I pulled my flintlock pistol out of my hidden holster.

“Bastard.” The explosion in the chamber rocked against my tight grip. The bullet knocked Birney’s head dead against the bench behind him.

Mugs and knives flew at me. My long coat blocked the light knives but the mugs hurt. Swords slashed at me as I meandered around the tables, chairs and bloodthirsty men. The children struggled. One got choked to death while another tried to pry the man of his friend to no avail.

I threw my hook and let it sling around the chandelier. With a hard pull it tore free and hurled against the group of men. More candles puffed out and I pulled down my eyepatch to see better in the dark. As I dashed to the children, in the corner of my eye, a man with a cigar finished loading his own flintlock pistol and aimed it at me. I leaned back so far that I lost balance and hit the ground.

Another bullet banged through the bar. The gust of wind hissed past me. But it didn’t hit wood. The grunt for air behind me, like a whisper in the hassle. Lukas’, one of the children, eyes dulled. A hole in the stomach. He fell flat. Complaints of the glaring light echoed through the bar.

A saber plunged a board plank beside my head as I watched the child twitch in his blood. Drunk-dazed eyes squinted down at me and the old geezer eventually realized that he missed me. More steam screeched out of the pistons as my cramped wooden fist shattered the saber.

I pushed up from the ground and sped over tables and drunk heads towards the men who shot. Unable to react fast enough, I smashed my cutlass at his throat. His head bounced off the wall behind him and the lit cigar dropped in my hand.

My hook flew to the bar and slung around one of the anchored bar chairs. I pressed the button. The gears whirred and pulled at the rope. I flew to the bar. In a low position, I landed on the counter.

Glass bottles and wooden mugs scattered off and showered the barkeeper that cowarded behind the counter. Men accused their crew members as they bumped another in the search for me and scuffled around. I grabbed the biggest bottle of alcohol and took a deep breath from the cigar. Embers lit up. In a swift motion, I beheaded the bottle, dropped the cigar in it and threw it in the middle of the bar.

A green fire tore free and tackled the furniture around. The flames turned to a red shade.

I jumped the last two men that attacked the children. Flashed, they didn’t see me coming before I stabbed them dead. The three still breathing children followed me to the backdoor. It banged open with a kick. And pour down drenched us wet as we scurried through the night.

—

The high dense salt air, mixed with the smell of rain, stirred my nose.

“Time to part ways, guys.” I ruffled their hair. Behind them, the rain extinguished the flames of the burning bar.

Eyes widened. “Hercu, you can’t . . . leave us.” Lisa clung onto my waist.

“Hey, don’t worry. You remember the orphanage I told you about, right? Go there and I’ll visit you. The people will care for you, tell the headmaster that I sent you.”

Because of the strong gale and shower rain, only her expression told me that she cried.

I knocked some water out of my prosthesis, the old lump had gone through a lot with me. But the salty water left it marked.

“Take this for the journey.” I gave them a silver ring. “And remember to only travel with the nuns.”

“Is this really it?” James asked. He had been the first child recruit we had on board after myself.

“Yes. Take care, Lisa, James, Darrick. ” I turned to leave. Long goodbyes hurt.

“Wait! Where are you going?” Lisa asked.

“Like I had told you . . .” I gazed at the wild sea in the distance.

“Under The Dawn Sea . . .”

“No way! You really plan to travel to the uncharted waters?!” James blurted out.

I flashed a toothy grin. “What else is there to live for if not for exploring what no one else succeeded in . . . yet,” I declared more as a statement than a question.