After we had procured one of the skiffs from the Maelstrom’s hull, we glided over the ocean toward the nearby island of Sarcus. Within twenty minutes, we had landed on the shoreline.

The ten of us disembarked from the skiff. Among the ten of us, only two, Van Drake and a middle aged sailor, had had any experience with these types of jobs. Van Drake called for us to gather up so that we could hear his instructions. Naturally I stood a bit further away from the rest of the members, as, despite Van Drake’s best efforts at pacifying the situation, there was still lingering animosity between the rookies and myself.

“Today we’ll be transporting locally produced medical supplies back to the town of Xylphas. Although it’s a pretty mundane job the pay is pretty good. Do your part and you’ll earn yourself around $50 each," Van Drake announced with a low, booming voice.

There were members of the group that complained about the pay, retorting “You say $50 dollars is a lot? Bah, that’ll only be enough to pay for my equipment to be repaired.” However, my eyes shined when he told us we would be getting $50 worth of pay. To put it in perspective, I typically lived off of around $3 a day at best before I joined the crew. To me, $50 could give me a months worth of meals!

There are 5 different locations where our group members will have to go pick up medical supplies from. Thus, we were grouped into pairs and soon headed out to our designated pick up locations. In order to reduce the likelihood of a scuffle erupting, I was paired up with Van Drake.

The location we were assigned to was an old warehouse on the far side of the island. Deep in the middle of the woods, the warehouse was isolated from the rest of the town. Passing through the unkept thickets and bushes was a pain, even more so considering that we would need to do this multiple times.

“You having a hard time newbie," Van Drake questioned.

“N-no, I’m fine," I stammered while replying to the unexpected question

At my stuttering, old man Van Drake gave me a warm smile. However, it was soon replaced with a look of worry. He was genuinely concerned out my emotional state, and pressed on in his inquiry.

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Anxiously, he asked, “How are you holding up?"

“What do you mean by that? Everything’s fine," I replied as calmly as possible, yet he had noticed my discomfort while answering the question.

“Don’t lie to me boy, you know what I mean. Ostracized on your first day. Spit at, insulted, and beaten by the crew members who would have typically been your friends if the situation had been different. That’s got to have some affect on you," he said, sounding more like a considerate old friend than someone who was my superior.

I stayed silent for a bit, reflecting on the words that Van Drake had said and taking a moment to formualte my reply.

“...I won’t lie and say it’s been easy. I’m used to it. I’ve had to live my entire life as an outcast, and have been treated much worse so than this. To me, this is child’s play," I replied with a somber tone.

Van Drake stared at me, trying to figure out if the words that I had spoken were the truth. Then, he said,

“Those aren’t that types of things you should be getting used to. You’ve already told me your backstory before, so I know what hardship you went through. However, remember that you are now a part of the Maelstrom’s crew. Remember the words that the captain gave to all you newbies the day we set off from that hometown of yours," he said, his words redirecting the flow of my thoughts.

My mind slowly reminices about the moment before the crew set off from my hometown. The middleaged captain had given a grand speech to welcome us to the crew. However, one part of that speech had left a particular mark on me, and Van Drake knew it.

“We are family, through and through. Rely on your brothers and sisters that are beside you when you find yourself in trouble. For those of us who take on this path, very few of us live to a ripe old age. Thus, live your life to the fullest and, more importantly, make sure that those around you can live a day longer in this terrifying, yet beauitful world," the Captain had proclaimed in a deep, resonating voice.

Having grown up without a family, those words had a huge impact on me.

With a gentle smile, Van Drake said, "Remember that as long as the Maelstrom sails these wide oceans, you’ll always have a home to go to."

I smiled and nodded, showing that I had understood what he meant and appreciated his kindness.

We finally arrived at the warehouse, and we began to load the various marked crates onto the cart that we had brought with us.

Just as we were about to load the last crate, however, a loud yell came from the woods. It was one of the rookies that had been assigned to the other pick up locations. He was limping, holding onto an injured arm, and was bleeding profusely from several severe injuries on his body.

“Officer Van Drake! We’ve been attacked! The crates, they’re AGHH!" The rookie had been yelling at the top of his lungs before giving a sudden cry of pain. A gunshot coincided with the man's agonizing shout, and the he collapsed on the ground, a pool of blood forming around his body. In the same direction as the rookie had come from, a man with a pistol in his hand appeared from the forest.

With a tone that made it evident that he saw this situation as nothing more then an inconvenience, the unknown assailant said, “Huh? So there are more of you here? Guess I’ll just have ta kill ya too.”