Adventuresse
patreon
Salt and Blood - Chapter 15
🕑 Added 2024-09-24 01:31:13 +0000 UTC<< Chapter 14 | Table of Contents | Chapter 16 >>
1.15 - Castaway II
We were sailing through a frozen archipelago and there we discovered these fascinating little creatures. White bellies and blue fur, with big fins instead of arms and tufts of feather plumage on their heads. While us rough buccaneers were freezing our asses off on the ship, they clumped up in a big pile and I didn’t see a single one of them shivering. Pretty smart of them if you ask me, but when I offered to do the same with the captain he booted me right in the bollocks. Still have a little mark there to this day.
-Excerpt from ‘Conquest of the White Death’ by Hollmar Yeb
Rose teetered on one foot, desperately trying to stay upright while avoiding falling onto the little fire she had just managed to set alight. Somehow she managed to twirl and land on both feet to one side of the budding blaze and turned to face the man who had emerged from the shadows to surprise her from behind.
She didn’t recognise him. He had long black hair which seemed unkempt and messy at a glance but shimmered in the light of the flames, along with a well trimmed beard of the same colour and hazel eyes that were observing her with faint amusement.
She briefly wondered if the man was native to the island, but that notion was dispelled when her eyes passed over the emblem on his three pointed hat– the broken chain.
He’s a pirate! Her legs started to quiver and she staggered backwards a couple of steps. Then she bit her lip and stood firm against her instincts. She wouldn’t let fear control her this time.
The crew– the people who had saved her life– had been killed or lost at sea because of these bastards attacking the Unrequited Love. It may have been illogical to think that way, given that her goal was to become one of the very pirates she now stood against, but humans were tribal creatures and a clear line had been drawn between them here.
Her fingers curled around the sharp rock she had used to carve out the divot in the wood. It was still in her pocket and she thanked the stars she had kept it there. In a straight up fight she stood no chance against the man, but she would be damned if she wasn’t going to struggle until the end.
He took a measured step towards her and raised his hands, but stopped when he saw her flinch and lift her arm just a little. “I’m not going to hurt you, girl. We’re stuck on this island together, so unless I run out of crabs to eat you aren’t a target.”
Rose yelled and thrust the rock in his face. “Get back, bastard.”
To his credit he followed her command and took a step back, lifting his arms so that his hands were raised all the way above his head in surrender. His smile was gone, but that was somehow less scary than the amused expression that had painted his face a moment before.
“Hey now, there’s no need for that. It was just a joke. I don’t eat women,” he said, taking his eyes off the makeshift weapon pointed at him and planting his ass in the sand beside the fire. “Unless they want me to.”
Why would anyone want him to eat them? “Are all pirates as weird as you?” she asked.
His hat was laid on top of his boots, as close to the fire as they would go before catching aflame. The man stretched out his feet and let them bask in the warmth of the fire while relaxing on his haunches. “Most pirates tend to be a little odd. None of them are as handsome as I am, though. What’s your name, girl?”
A bead of sweat rolled down the side of her face. It might have been the heat, or it could have been the fact she was tensing every muscle in her body as a crippling cocktail of fear, anger and confusion clouded her mind.
His casual demeanour had thrown her off. He spoke as though they were childhood friends rather than strangers who’d just met on a desert island.
Right now she was debating whether attacking him would be a suicidal move. She figured it would be and instead moved to sit opposite him beside the fire.
“Rose.”
“Just Rose? I knew a Rose once. She had thorns, just like you. I admire a woman with a little fire in her belly. You can’t sail the seas without some guts. I’m Trent, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I wish it was in better circumstances, but that’s life.”
“I’m beginning to realise that now. I only left home a few weeks ago and I’ve almost died twice already. It’s surreal. Why are you being so kind to me? We just blew up your ship,” said Rose. She regretted asking that the moment the words left her lips, but it was too late to take them back.
Trent’s eyes sparkled again and this time he let out a chuckle to go along with the terrifying smile. “That’s just the job, Rose. It’s a pirate’s life for me and sometimes that means getting blown away to unknown shores. Besides, stealing a ship is easy. Replacing the crew - now that’s going to be tough. Some of them probably survived but I didn’t see any signs of life on this little island apart from me and you. Though there’s a few corners I haven’t explored yet.”
“How can you be so casual about it all? I’m not sure I should tell you this, but right now I want to smash your head in with this rock. And I hate the fact I feel that way, even though the rational part of my brain says it’s perfectly justified to. I didn’t even equip the title. So many people died. Two beautiful ships were destroyed forever. It’s just so much less… romantic than I thought it would be.”
“You’ve read the stories then? Ran away from home to chase a life of adventure and treasure hunting on the infinite oceans? You’re not the first and you won’t be the last, I’ll tell you that for free. What did you expect? Everyone wants to make a fortune. If you aren’t going to trade then you have to plunder. Or you can join a navy, but if you ask me they’re all a bunch of stuck up prats. The beauty of the sea is in the freedom she offers. It’s messier than a children’s story book will have you believe, but don’t be too dismayed. There’s romance to be had out here, you just need to chase it.”
Passion and fervour spilled from him as he extolled the virtues of piracy. Rose was entranced by the way he spoke, as though she had been placed under a spell.
She still felt horrible. And she wouldn’t forget the fact that Trent had been part of the reason the only real friends she had ever made were now lost or dead, but she was grateful to him for rekindling the flames of desire that once burned so fiercely within her.
“How did you feel? The first time you-”
“Ecstatic,” he said, cutting her off mid sentence. “It was my father. Slit his throat while he slept and joined the first pirate crew I could find in the harbour. Bastard was the reason I didn’t have a mum anymore. So I figured he didn’t deserve to spend his days drunkenly whoring and terrorising the townsfolk. The second time though… was difficult. Made easier by the fact I had already been through it once no doubt, but it took a while for the nightmares to pass.”
“Nightmares?”
“Yeah. Don’t worry, I’m a heavy sleeper. Scream and cry all you want, Rose. The sun and the sea will wash it all away come dawn,” he said. After that he lifted his hat from his boots and lay down in the white sand, placing it over his face and folding his hands behind his head.
Trent was an enigma. Rose wondered why he had been raiding on the coasts of a middling kingdom like Derridas when he seemed to have the charm and bluster of the pirate legends from the stories. Perhaps she would ask him tomorrow.
She yawned. Building the fire had taken longer than she thought and tired her out a great deal. Her arms ached and her palms burned something fierce. They were still raw and rubbing sticks between them had done little to help the healing process. I’m never going to scrub a floor again.
Falling asleep was difficult. It was one of those nights where her body wanted to rest and so did her mind, but for some reason neither actually let her drift off.Trent’s mention of nightmares had terrified her and her stomach was growling.
Crap, I forgot to eat. It was too dark to forage and all the blue crabs had vanished for the night. Eventually she did succumb to sleep, but she knew it wouldn’t be peaceful.
<< Chapter 14 | Table of Contents | Chapter 16 >>
![[井戸水屋]黒すけ from fanbox](https://patrefans.com/kistorage/37951.jpg)
