I was the first to notice the commotion. The sounds of men running, orders being shouted, and sails shifting leaked into the cabin from underneath the door. I stood and made my way toward the noise. When I reached the deck I was greeted by the spray of sea air and the morning sun cresting over the horizon, illuminating three black ships headed directly for us.

“I guess a respite was too much to ask for,” I muttered, walking in the direction of Captain Jase who was bellowing orders to his crew.

“If you bunch of filthy pig-dogs want to live to see your next woman, you better get moving!” His beard was uncharacteristically unkempt and his eyes had a wild look to them.

“What’s happening?” I asked.

He pointed to the approaching ships. “Privateers,” he moved toward the helm, throwing a clearly terrified first mate from it and taking over, “from the Eastlands. You can tell by the ships. Black wood like that only grows there”

The Eastlands were the orcish homeland. They were called the Eastlands because they acted more as a loose confederation of clans than a united kingdom, so no unifying name existed. They joined together in war and allowed free trade between the separate provinces, but otherwise ruled themselves. Raids on other kingdoms were common and suspending those raids was often their first move to garner good will when they made a diplomatic effort. Their central desert province was the place Pebble had called home.

“Their ships are small, quick, and meant to take prizes of larger ships. I used to pay them off through Talen, but I figured I’d have time to make a new contact before it became an issue.” He furrowed his brow. “How could he have figured out I’m the one who’d smuggled you out and managed to get them a message in just a few days? It shouldn’t be possible.”

“How many do you think there are?”

“Too many, and their ships are faster than the Nedra. I’m having the boys dump some cargo behind us to buy some time, but they’ll catch up within two hours anyway. I sent a crewman to wake up Dorsia and your friends.”

Hrig, Jade, Stone, Dorsia and Kyren made their way to the bridge just as I threw a barrel off the stern and into the path of the nearest Eastland ship. After a quick discussion they made themselves useful in any way they could. Hrig and Jade threw cargo overboard with me, Dorsia and Stone greased the railing to make it harder to climb onto the ship and Kyren started to prepare a triage area for any wounded.

When the first Eastland ship reached our port side, we were as ready as we could be. The enemy crew was grim faced and dressed in cream colored sweaters that bore distinct weaves and patterns, clan markings to help identify them if their bodies fell overboard. Over those they wore simple blue coats that emphasized the green and grey hues of their skin. They were a head taller than the mostly human crew that surrounded me and clearly better trained, wielding bladed hooks and light shields. They began laying down planks between the ships which we quickly kicked off, but it was just a distraction that allowed two of the privateers to climb onto our vessel using their hooks to haul themselves over the railing, completely avoiding the oil Dorsia and Stone had applied.

Hrig moved to intercept them so I turned my attention to the enemy vessel. Rather than waiting for them to board I took things into my own gauntlets and leapt down onto the pirate's ship to the gasps of the Nedra’s crew. The pirates seemed less surprised and the two that had engaged Hrig actually leapt back onto their own vessel just moments after I did. The ship itself then shifted under my boots and started moving away from my companions and towards their other ships. I saw looks of surprise on my companions as the vessels seperated. This wasn’t an attempt on the Nedra, this was a trap for me.

I chose not to make it easy for them. I ran through the nearest of the orcs with my sword, knocking another off the side of the boat with my shield. One attempted to trip me with his hooked blade, but was surprised when his hit didn’t move me and I severed his arm. I kicked another of them off the deck and heard his ribs crack from the force. After a few more strikes and bodies thrown overboard there was no one left attacking me, though several of the orc crew were still piloting the vessel.

My break was short lived as the two other enemy vessels pulled up to the sides of the one I was on and I found myself again surrounded as the crews of those ships filed on, curved blades in hand. I drew up my sword and shield, preparing for another wave of attackers.

Instead of attacking, they parted and an orc woman made her way to stand in front of me. Her outfit was more ornate than that of the crew, she wore no sweater, but instead a simple blue tunic threaded with gold filigree and a black leather bicorn hat. Her skin was the color of charcoal and her white teeth were even more pronounced than those of her crew. Above her fanged smile were two golden eyes, a color I was growing far too familiar with.

“Good morning, monster,” her voice came out as a sultry growl.

“It takes one to know one.” I responded. I'd been getting a lot of practice with banter.

Her mouth curled up in a wider smile showing a few more of her teeth. “Talen asked me to take care of you for killing our brother.” She let out an exaggerated sigh, “Frankly, I couldn't care less about that brute, but Talen owing me a favor, now that has value.”

I added ‘talking over large distances’ to the ever growing list of talents the children of Aurum possessed.

“More value than your life apparently. I’ve already killed two of your siblings.”

“A runt of a goblin and a blind beggar. They were nothing without our father’s gifts and so they glutted themselves on them, losing themselves to have more of him. I'm different. I was strong before my father. He didn’t build me up from nothing, he just magnified me.” She unclasped two hooked blades from her waist. “Keep him occupied, I need to get in as many clean hits as possible.”

Her crew closed in, all swinging their blades down at me at once. I lifted my shield and felt it eat a bit of their energies, I then pushed them off of me with enough force to knock them back. I moved toward the heaviest concentration of them, not bothering to be delicate or to act as a mortal knight would. I simply let them hit me while I bludgeoned them with my shield and cut through them with my sword. My friends weren’t watching, so there was no reason to pretend to be something I wasn’t.

The orc captain's first strike hit me just after I left a crater in the skull of one of her crewmen with my sword’s pommel. She hooked her blade around my helmet and yanked me backward, knocking me down. I splintered her deck as I landed. I stood up swinging my sword in an arc as I did and crippling a row of privateers in front of me. Before I could find my balance, she hit me again, this time hooking my leg and tripping me. I landed faceplate first and felt four pirates piled on, each one grabbing a limb.

I began to push myself up despite their weight, but their captain chose that moment to begin attacking in earnest. Her hooked blades fell onto me cutting long gashes into my backplate and slipping between my straps and gambeson to strike directly into my essence.

This was a bad matchup for me. Her fighting style relied on keeping her opponents off balance and striking their vitals when they showed openings. It was as if I was fighting Dorsia, but with the strength of the goblin chief.

Since she already knew I wasn’t human, I decided to give her a taste of what that meant. I separated my gauntlets from the rest of myself. The orcs that had been straining to hold me down flew backward as the tension they’d been pulling against gave. The surprise let me kick off the remaining two that clutched my legs and I flung myself upward and backward slamming my helmet into the captain’s face. She recoiled, clutching a bloody eye socket. I let my gauntlets return and retrieved my sword and shield, kicking back a few more orcs as I did so.

I looked over my surroundings. There were more than a dozen dead around me and the water around the ships was tinged red with the blood of those I’d knocked off the deck. “You’re running out of crew to hide behind.”

She grimaced, removing her hand from her face and picking up the sword of one of her fallen crew. “He’s right. Everyone back away or we won’t have enough men to man the ships!”

“Yes Captain Vash,” said an older looking orc and they all made space for us.

I took a defensive stance. Without her crew to hide behind, I’d have the advantage. I wondered where The Nedra had gone. I assumed Captain Jase would keep it heading away rather than risk everyone else's lives for me. That suited me, it was easier this way.

Vash and I moved toward each other. She attacked first, pulling my shield down with one sword and striking at my helmet with the other. I batted away her strike with my blade and lifted my shield and her toward me, attempting another headbutt. She jumped off the shield leaving one of her blades behind and swung the other low toward my feet, attempting to trip me. I jumped over it and made a downward strike at her head, but only managed to knock off her bicorn.

She flipped backward, grabbing another of her fallen crew's blades as she did so. We began to charge one another again when the ship rocked. We stopped, looking around. The crew muttered and shuffled on their feet. It rocked again, this time harder.

“Gods, no. The blood and bodies in the water,” said Vash, her toothy smile drooping into an equally toothy look of concern, “Move the ships. We have to-".

A massive tentacle shot up from the water and slammed onto the deck, crushing a crewman with a sickening squelching noise.

“Kraken!” yelled a crewman, running for one of the exterior boats. Just as he was about to leap for it another tentacle emerged and wrapped itself around him, pulling him down through the murk of his crewmates' blood and into the depths.

Before I could react more tentacles emerged and everything devolved into chaos. Crewman ignored me and Vash yelled orders to them, trying to regain control. The tentacles began wrapping around the vessels and I could hear them creaking under enormous pressure. I took that chance to finish the fight, buckling my shield to my back and returning my sword to its sheath.

I charged Vash and tackled her just as the ship gave way and snapped in two. We were launched into the water and with me holding onto her, she sank like a stone. I risked a look at the kraken as we descended. It was a massive red beast, all tentacles, spines and dozens of eyes the size of my chestplate.

Vash struggled. Bubbles of air escaping from her mouth and making their way toward the surface. I opened my skin and began wrapping myself around her. I couldn’t keep dealing with these children of Aurum like this. I had too little information and kept being taken unaware. I needed to risk what her essence would do to me.

I felt her start to fade into me, I sensed the edges of her memories and emotions along with something else. A second presence so massive that to touch it was to feel as if I was pushing on a mountain. As I closed around Vash a voice rang through my entire body.

“No.” it said, and I felt more strength in that word than in anything else I’d ever experienced.

Vash’s essence began burning and exploding inside me. I fought, trying to keep her down, but she broke free and swam out of me, a freshly grown golden tail helping to propel her to the surface.

My essence ached and shuddered and I lost all sense of the world as I sank down into the depths.