“Fuck,” I said as I thought over my position. He told me that I had back stabbed one of the most infamous pirates in existence. But it wasn’t really me. The body had perhaps been the same body to commit the crime, but the mind was entirely different. How I prove that though, I have no clue.
Also, Jimmy revealed another thing to me. He was only following me because he thought I was a genius. I knew that wasn’t the case, but if he found that out it would be bad for me. His reason to follow me would disappear, and that would leave me either dead, handed over to blackbeard, or most likely, not the captain.
And quite frankly, I liked being the captain.
Fortunately, he chose to sleep over analyzing and questioning all of my decisions. I reckoned that was a good thing. It would make it easier for me to keep my disguise up. Although, he’d be notified of all the large decisions I’d make, so I needed to make sure they were good.
After some minutes of gazing at the blue sky and feeling the fresh ocean air wave over us, I heard one of our goblins start spitting and insulting the ocean beyond. It was the goblin I’d named Bo, and it seemed that Bo was in an argument with a fish.
I walked over to the railing and looked to see what it was catching his attention. I wasn’t sure what I’d do if he’d gone mad. Maybe hit him in the head again and hope it snapped back into place.
But he had not gone insane. There was a face. A hideous, cringe inducing face, but a face nonetheless. It almost didn’t have any skin or flesh on its face. It was a human skull, but much more jagged ends. The eyes were black, and its skin was covered in scales. It was smiling at me in what I assumed to be a seductive manner, but I’d describe it as the least seductive thing I’d seen in my life.
“You’re not going to ask to join my crew are you?” I said.
“Are you the captain?”
“Me?” I said. “Depends who’s asking.”
“About 5 miles starboard there’s a traders ship filled with tea. It has little to no protection.”
That shocked me. I hadn’t expected this information to come up. Then again, I hadn’t really been sure what this disgusting fish wanted of me. Was it common place here for fish to give you the location of other ships? What exactly was it gaining from that?
“And?”
The creature smiled at me, revealing it’s moss covered yellow teeth, as it slowly sank into the deep, black water, and away from my view. Bo was staring at with a white face, clearly intending to say something, but not being sure if it was appropriate.
“Spit it out,” I said.
“Captain,” Bo said. “That was a mermaid. Mermaids can’t be trusted. They always tell lies.”
That was a mermaid! There goes that dream. “What’s the point in telling a lie if everyone knows you’re lying?”
“Well,” he said, rethinking his earlier statement. “It’s not so clear. There’s always a speck of truth in their statements. Sometimes it’s the full truth, but everybody knows a mermaid never has your best interest in mind. They’re agents of chaos.”
Bo seemed to know more than I thought originally. I’d make a note to ask him for his thoughts if something puzzled me. However, he also seemed like a coward, and sadly, if I didn’t do anything, my ship wouldn’t grow stronger. If Blackbeard, who I assumed held a powerful ship, came for me whilst I still had a Sloop, I had no chance of surviving.
“Turn starboard and sail for the ship.” I need their resources a heck of a lot more thank they do.
“Captain?” Bo said.
“I’ve already decided.”
“Fine.”
***
There was a ship, and it did indeed have very little protection, but there was no tea. Its mast had been broken, its sails touching the water. It was bouncing to the waves, in other words, very slowly.
I reckoned I could still gain some resources. We sailed close enough for the mouth of the ship to be attached to theirs, and for us to suck their resources. We were met by four men, standing and staring at us. A lot could be said about their expressions.
But before I got a better look at them, I noticed that Jimmy had woken up and was standing right beside me. He flashed me as mile when I glanced at him. The goblins seemed to have lost all of their earlier hesitation and were dripping with bloodlust, but I wasn’t intending to kill these people.
I jumped from my ship to there’s, and Jimmy followed me. It felt really good to have a giant, viking looking man behind me and heeding my orders. It was intoxicating almost.
“Pirates teaming up with goblins, pathetic,” one man said. This man apart from the others looked more bothered than scared. He had an air of superiority about him, and I wondered where he’d gotten that from. It certainly wasn’t visible.
“Is he your captain?” I asked the two sailors. Of the four men, one looked superior, one looked like a butler and was silent, and there was two sailors, short but tough-looking men standing to the side.
“Are you mad?” The sailor with the white mustache said. “I’m the captain. He paid a sum I couldn’t say no to for transportation to Alta. Wait, you’re not going to steal it are you?”
I decided to ignore the question. I’d notice that the other sailor had been nodding along to what he was saying. He had a nasty scar on his cheek.
“Has he already paid you or did he promise to pay you?”
“He promised.”
“Then how do you know he’ll hold up the agreement?”
“What?” The man said, angered by the mere thought. “That’s how business is done! What a stupid thing to say.”
“Is he a sailor?” I asked.
“No, but-”
“Then how do you know he’ll hold up his end of the bargain?”
The man’s glare turned to the posh man, who looked even more bothered than before. I hadn’t thought it was possible.
“Here’s what’ll happen,” I said. “When he reaches his home, he’ll tell you that he’ll bring the money. Then, he’ll walk away, and he won’t come back. If you decide to ask him for it, he’ll act like he doesn’t know what you’re talking about and then throw you out as if you were a mad man.”
The sailor looked seriously bothered now. If he got a little redder I’d ask Jimmy to restrain him.
“But,” I said. “I can take that problem off your hands.”
“What?”
“I’ll grab him. Matter of fact, I’ll even hand over enough resources for you to repair your ship.”
“But we were promised lots of coin!”
“You wouldn’t have gotten it either way. At least this way you won’t waste anymore of your time.”
The annoyed man-child could have stepped in at any moment and declared that he was in fact telling the truth, and reassured the sailor. I’d been expecting him to do so, but instead, he simply kept sneering. It really helped me. I guessed I should thank him for it.
“I don’t like doing deals with pirates, but sure.”
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We shook hands.
***
By untying some of the rope attached to the boat and giving it to the sailor, we were able to give them resources. After doing so, I simply needed to untie the
The posh man came with us without much of a struggle. Matter of fact, he jumped to our ship by himself. His one condition was us not touching him, and I could agree to those terms.
His butler or servant insisted that he come too. The man looked pretty reasonable and I reckoned that if the noble, which I assumed, started making a fuss, the servant could help calm him down.
I wasn’t going to be some sort of savior and help him. To be fair though, I wouldn’t have done it even if he was nice. I was, afterall, a pirate.
“So what’s your name?” I asked the posh my.
“Charles Lukant Standford,” he said. “The third of-”
“I’ll just call you Charles. My name’s William. Where exactly is your home?”
“Alta, have you already forgotten fool?” he said.
“Please Sir Standford, it’s best to not irritate the pirates.”
“I’d listen to your servant,” I said. “Whilst you’ll be staying with us I’d advise you not wake Jimmy as he will kill you. Don’t bother the goblins, as they would probably also kill you. And you annoy me, I’ll tie you up, and probably gag you. You’re welcome to eat with us later.”
“What do you mean by “staying”? Alta’s only an hour away the sailors said.”
“Who’s saying we’re going to Alta?”
The man’s faced flashed red, and his voice was loud when he tried to speak but I interrupted him.
“Don’t worry. We’ll return you to Alta. That is, when your family starts searching for you. Until then, enjoy your time with us.”
“You son of a bit-”
I slapped him. He quieted down, bitter tears welling up, and I heard Jimmy scoffing behind me.
***
I sat by the railing watching the waves bounce up and down. The goblins had shifted the direction of the ship towards the closest pirate outpost. Afterall, we needed food and water, and that was not something the ship was capable of producing. After we’d gotten that fixed, I could continue gaining resources.
I made a note to try to stay low-key in case any of Blackbeard's allies were there.
I jumped back from the railing when a face slowly emerged. Then, I realized that it was a face I knew. It was the mermaid from before, and she seemed particularly smug.
“You’re back.”
“And you’re planning to ransom Charles to his family. That’s a cute idea.”
“So you’ve been listening to us?” I really saw her large ears. They were gigantic and cone-sized outwards. No wonder she’d been able to hear us. Her body was practically made for spying.
She smirked.
“I hope nothing will go wrong with your little plot,” she said and began to chuckle.
“I already know you’re going to his family and tell them about the situation.”
She froze, and for a moment her expression fell down to reveal a cold, and calculating creature.
“No, I’d neve-”
“Stop. Their ship just broke randomly? That’s really convenient, not at all the work of a creature that likes to mess with sailors. And yes, I don’t find him particularly enjoyable, but he’s not yours to mess with.”
“Oh, we’re playing the role of a hero now? Or are you just a opposed to me? Either way, it seems I misjudged you,” she paused for a moment. “But if you knew what I was planning, why do you still want him?”
“Maybe I just want to see your beautiful face more often.”
“Stop.”
I chuckled. “In some situations, you shouldn’t avoid the trap.”
She snorted.
Her face slowly sunk into the water. She seemed displeased with the current situation. I felt a headache forming at the back of my mind and continued thinking through the different things she could do. I wasn’t a genius, which meant I needed to be prepared.
***
We reached the town at sunset. The docks were well-built and spacious. Plenty of room for a ship to dock. About a hundred meters behind the docks was a small town. Many stone houses standing in columns. There was many people, and most of them walked around with a bottle in their hand.
On the dock were roughly ten ships, all larger than mine. The idea of stealing their resources crossed my mind, but I saw that most ships had a crew stationed on it. I guessed it was to prevent that, but I also assumed it would be pretty unacceptable to do it. Then again, I was a pirate.
Apart from my general jealousy of their impressive ships. I also noticed that they carried fine, black pirate flags. I made a note to create one. At the moment, the ship displayed a black flag, nothing else. I wanted some sort of symbol on it. I wasn’t sure what though.
I was planning to trade resources for food, although I wasn’t sure if that was possible. I’d ask one of the merchants and go from there.
When the ship docked, I told Jimmy and the goblins to stay behind and defend the ship’s mouth. The last thing I wanted was to come back to a ruined, resource dry ship.
I got off the ship and walked to find a merchant I could buy food from. Moving through this crowd of pirates really made me feel insecure. These were large and confident people, with large nasty scars and large swords. Fortunately most people ignored me, probably because of my small stature and because of the rum.
After a couple of minutes, I spotted a man behind a stall. I approached him and from the get-go there was rough expression on his face. I figured that was necessary if you were aiming to do business with pirates.
“3 copperwood for each piece. Final price.”
“And how much would that be in resources?”
“Are you thick?” He said, and when he saw my confused expression, his expression changed into a strained one for a brief seconds. I think he was wondering if I was messing with him, but he decided to give me the benefit of the doubt. “One resource can be transferred into ten copperwood.”
“Ahh,” I said. “I’m a bit new at this. Do I do this conversation in front of the ship mouth?”
“Where else? You’re wasting my time, if you’re not going to buy anything piss off.”
“I’ll be right back.”
So I went back to the ship and opened up the system screen. I saw that there was a tab for currency. There, it showed me that I had 36 resource which could be translated into 360 cooper wood. I took out fifty copperwood, hoping to buy meat, and also some barrels of water.
The mouth of the ship seemed to spit and the bag of coins, tied neatly by a small rope at the opening, flew out at a slant. It hit me right in the face, and I was really happy that Jimmy had chosen to fall asleep at that moment. The goblins saw it though.
“If any of you speak of this, I’ll have your necks.”
With the money, I chose to find barrels of water first. Whilst having some rum on board was nice, it was also really expensive. It was nothing I’d want to spend my resources on.
It was much easier to find the barrels of water. It really only took a couple of seconds, the store was just beside the beach. One barrel cost ten copperwood. I bought two. It felt a bit silly to drop the really tiny coins into the man’s hands. Each one felt metallic and was about the size of ten sandcorns, but it was still resource and it hurt to drop it off.
It would be nice if Jimmy was here helping me out. I could only cary one of the barrels at a time. They were heavy, and tricky to hold onto, and I must’ve looked silly doing it. I certainly didn’t look like a captain. On the second trip back to the ship, I was heckled by a small crowd of pirates, who were all drunk.
In total, I had thirty one resources. Since there seemed to be a connection between economy, and resource, starting a successful company could be a solid way of making money. It was certainly something to keep an eye for.
With only thirty copperwood left, I walked over to the meat-store, aiming to purchase four slabs of meat for the crew to share on, but the place was closed. I looked around, finding the different stalls, but everybody seemed to have disappeared.
I wasn’t going to go back to the ship without something to eat though. Mainly because I’d gone the whole day without eating and I was starving. I walked around the town, but it seemed that all of the stores had closed. I wondered why.
After a while, I noticed that there was almost nobody on the streets anymore. The people who were still there looked shady. Then. suddenly, I heard people shouting in the distance. I decided to go check it out.
Moving through the streets and navigating towards the sound, I found a circle of people chanting, fight fight fight. It intrigued me enough to check it out, even though it wasn’t necessary.
There was two shirtless men fighting it out. Their fist thunked against their skins, creating large thumping noise. One of the men immediately spotted me, and gave a puzzled look. Then, a stray overhand rocked his chin and he collapsed.