Chapter Twelve – Dogs of the Sea

*** Captain Morgan Castle ***

Two nights ago we had come upon Boraia, an island nation that has been recently competing with Bulbaria over the new continent. I’ve been a pirate all my life, I was born into the trade, and by the age of sixteen commanded my first vessel. Just two years ago the nation of Bulbaria started producing massive ocean goers, which upgraded our pirate status in the underworld after we successfully commandeered two in their maiden voyage. We’ve been using them to raid, pillage, and plunder across the continents and across the oceans. Unfortunately our luck hit rock bottom near two full moons ago, a small fleet of warships from Bulbaria chased after us relentlessly.

Just a week ago we managed to lose them in a storm, but the fighting before then lost us one of the two massive vessels. My once glorious fleet has been reduced to a bare four, a galleon, two frigates, and a small schooner.

After the battle with the Bulbarian navy my fleet needed to make repairs so we docked in a small cove to make all the necessary patch-ups. The fleet was back in working order in just those two short days, the other galleon and three other frigates had taken the brunt of the damage from the battle, all four of those vessels were now at the bottom of the ocean. Without their sacrifice the entirety of the fleet would have been sunk.

With the fleet in working order I had gathered the men so that we may raid to our hearts content before anchoring off. There were two small towns we were hitting tonight, the first of the two was a small one with wood walls at the mouth of a wide river. The second was more of a village than a town that was upriver and had no walls.

I sent my first mate Doran with most of the men, out of three hundred fourteen I took only fifty to strike the village town further up. Doran is an adept water and fire elemental mage, he is also a brilliant groundside tactician and strategist. His favorite way for attacking during the night is by calling in a heavy mist and striking silently. To avoid friendly casualties he has the men whistle low sounds and move slowly about, any fast moving target is usually a non-friendly target, especially if it isn’t making the right noise.

I too am a mage, I specialize in wind, a very helpful attribute out in the vast oceans.

The people of the village were easy enough to deal with, we encircled the village then started hacking our way to the center. When the first screams started I used blasts of air to herd people towards the center of the village, most of the people were unwilling to fight which was just as good for us as we had no real intention of killing them all.

Everything was going smoothly until we started going through the outskirt houses, specifically when a couple men entered a blacksmith’s home. The two men were propelled out of the house by wind magic, very powerful wind magic.

A young girl barely of marrying age exited the home as she took point, leading her family out of the house and towards the safety of the nearby forest. Before they could escape I was already upon them, with a simple strong gale I stopped them in their tracks. The girl, now that I was closer, was no more than a child, a young woman who was barely in her pubescent years.

This young maiden carried a torch which incidentally also lighted the area well enough that I could see the faces of her family. The mother, the father, and two sisters, but there was one more and it was quite clear that this one was not of their family. For starters, the girl’s skin was tan and her hair was oak and gold, her pointy ears marked her as an elf.

“My my,” I said grinning widely. Today there was a fine catch indeed. “A mage and an elf…a desert elf to boot. I haven’t seen her kind in quite a while. I could die fat and happy with what I am going to make out of selling both of you.”

*** Sophia ***

I got up startled, there was screaming outside the house.

“What’s going on?” I asked looking towards Mr. Helton who was at the window of the house looking out.

“We have to go,” he said after a moment looking back at me with a serious expression, before rousing everyone from sleep. The house is small and with just a single room and a kitchen Mr. Helton didn’t have to go far to wake everyone.

“What’s going on honey?” I heard Mrs. Helton ask as she wiped the sleep from her face.

“Hush now,” he said grabbing a sturdy looking hammer off the wall, it was one he usually carries. “We have to get to the woods.”

There was a sudden bang at the door that made me jump. My body shivered, I don’t know if it was from the cold or because I was really scared. I waited tensely to see if the banging would happen again.

Mr. Helton hand moved close to the door while Mrs. Helton guided me and the others up behind him, there was only one way out and someone was currently in the way. The banging came again, only this time it was a harder and louder bang that cracked the sturdy wood of the door.

There was sweat on Mr. Helton’s forehead as he made an angry face and lifted the hammer like he always does when striking metal.

The next bang cracked the door inward and two men rushed inside.

They looked dirty and mean, there were swords in their hands and their faces were twisted into scary looks. I thought they would hurt Mr. Helton who had not yet moved when Chasity suddenly stepped forward, I wanted to step up and stop her but I was scared.

“Concussion Grenade!” she yelled as she pushed both of her hands forward straightening her arms with the forward thrust of her open palms, her finger coming to meet each other. The air suddenly pulled into her open palms before exploding out into the general direction of the two men.

I was still stunned when Mrs. Helton grabbed me by the arm and pulled me out of the house along with Alice who was also like me, too scared to move under our own power. I could see Jenna being pulled by Chasity as Mr. Helton guarded the rear. We all started to make a mad dash for the trees once we got out of the house but before we could a strong wind blinded and stopped us in our tracks.

Another man appeared in front of us between our goal and us.

He was tall and looked like a nobleman, he had on a sharp black and crimson red overcoat, with a black vest and shirt as well as a pair of black pants and matching boots, even his hair and eyes appeared coal black. His greatest contrasting features were his pale skin and iron sword.

He said some things, I think he even talked about me, but I was too scared to pay attention.

Chasity attacked the man in the same way she attacked the other two, but this new man was a mage and simply cut through the force of her attack with a wind blade.

“Wind mage versus wind mage,” the man laughed cruelly before attacking. I couldn’t see it but I could feel the barrage of wind attacks the man was releasing, I looked at Chasity worried that she might get hurt or worse.

We had all stepped back to give them room to fight, which was a good thing, because the attack Chasity used to defend herself sent out an area wide shockwave that disrupted all the enemy spells. The next spell she was about to use I recognized, it was powerful and destructive. I couldn’t even worry about whether or not she might hurt herself using this magic because the man suddenly rushed forward closing the distance in the blink of an eye. He punched her in the gut with a wind propelled fist, Chasity doubled over gasping for air as she vomited.

He started walking towards us.

Mr. Helton surprised the man by charging forward and tossing his hammer ahead of him. The bad man pushed away the hammer with a blast of air and countered quickly with a forward thrust of his sword, its tip pierced Mr. Helton’s chest and came out his back. Even as blood poured out of him he punched the man twice, the third swing missed as he grew limp and fell to the ground.

My whole body was trembling now and I was too weak to stand as I watched a good person die in front of me. At some point I started screaming, I didn’t even know I was screaming, I think I could hear it, but I felt like I was far away and couldn’t focus.

Incidentally, one of the five rings on my hand began to glow as my natural earth attribute flooded it with power.

I think that I called out for Papi, I wondered where he was and why he wasn’t here to save me. I was scared and I needed him. Then, I felt tremendous pain on my cheek, the pain was so intense that I blacked out.

*** Captain Morgan Castle ***

I looked down at the little monster girl, making sure that my fist had knocked her out, before looking at the devastation that had just occurred.

When the girl had started to scream the earth had started to tremble, rocks began to float, then clumps of dirt. The house the kid and the family with her had come out of had suddenly broken apart and lifted up into the air in pieces. Out behind me some of the thinner trees were being yanked from the ground.

All of this stopped once I was able to crawl my way towards the girl and strike her across the face as hard as I could.

Both my men and villagers alike were left in a daze.

“Gather up the loot!” I ordered as I lifted myself off the ground and regained my composure. “You there, you and him over there, take these two unconscious girls and bind them. Gag and blind fold them as well. They are precious cargo so do be careful or it will be your necks that answer to me.”

The two men whom I addressed nodded and quickly set about to find some rope and rags.

“Please don’t take them,” the woman who I assumed was the mother of one and guardian of the other begged. “Please!”

“I suggest you keep your two youngest close and be thankful that you are losing only one daughter,” I replied coldly. I could tell she wanted to fight, to protect her daughter, but she was a smart woman. She hugged her remaining daughters tightly before guiding them away, I didn’t pursue them nor did I direct anyone else to do so. I was not so cruel.