Pirate's Prize Who: Aurin Demarc, Vira Tremaine Where: The High Seas of Adventure When:Three years ago 9:41 Dragon Summary:A pirate finds a slaver ship, and rescues more than she bargained for. Rating:PG-13(For blood, death, and excessive oogling of cleavage)
The smoke was thick and choking as it clawed slowly across the deck of the ship. The deck was quiet except for the caw of seabirds that circled overhead and the creek of the rigging. It was a dirty ship, but a sleek one. It was a ship built for two simple things, transport and speed. It wasn’t a fighter it was a runner, a raider. It was made to carry both men and cargo, a very specific kind of cargo. Live cargo. If living could call it, caged up and chained below decks like animals. A slave ship had little need for comfort for its cargo, and even the raiders themselves had the minimum of quarters. The captain and his pet mages of course had the largest rooms, placed far enough back on the ship to be away from the smells of the slave hold. Yes, it had been a fine ship before this voyage started. It had even been a fine ship when it left Ferelden. It was nothing like a fine ship anymore.
Its mast hung in tattered pieces, pierced by arrows and tattered by oncoming fire. Smoldering patches of pitch were left stinking on the deck as the spray from the sea sent out jets of steam where it hit them. Blood slicked the deck where the slave raiders had met their match in the form of the natural predators of the sea.
Pirates.
The battle had raged for nearly half an hour, the despite raiders attempted to stave off their attackers. They had fought well, but not well enough it seemed. Bodies were entwined in death, human and elf and already they had begun to stink under the heat of the sun. No noise rose from down below, no pitiful cries were herd for release. The last dying act of the captain had been a hateful gesture. His body lay with his hands outstretched where he had fallen, pierced by arrows and bolts, after he heaved a box full of fragile poison bombs down into the slave hold. None had survived that final brutal act. The twisted bodies of the slaves lay still in the hold, their freedom denied to them by a dying man. There was little to find, and little to rescue on the stricken slaver. She was taking on water, and soon she would be just one more wreck at the bottom of the ocean.
Not everything on the ship was dead however. A tall woman with dark hair and a cutlass that was almost as formidable as her scowl, and an blonde female elf with a dagger dangling from either hand prowled the deck of the ship. Scavengers from the pirate ship, they went over the bodies looking for the choice bits just like the gulls waiting for their turn above. The footing on the blood-slick deck was a treacherous thing, but the pair picked their way towards the stern and the better cabins there. The tall woman paused with the frown that seemed to be a fixture on her face deepening.
“Cutter. What you make of this?” She asked of the elf as he kicked lightly at a small cage. Hardly enough for a single person to occupy. The cage was sitting just outside the best cabin on the ship. Its door hung at an odd angle, the victim of a crossbow shot. The door to the mage quarters had been flung open, and it seemed that there was a vicious struggle there. Bodies of both sides were piled there, with the slaver’s wizard lying face down his head canted at an angle that nature had never intended it to be.
“Broken neck?” The voice of the elf called Cutter was harsh and raspy due to a wound she had received early in her career. It lent her a menacing air she liked so she didn’t complain. “Maybe he took a spill from the top deck and landed on his head. Does it matter? The bastard is dead.”
“…ain’t a fall that killed him.” The other woman replied. She was named Hawk for her beak-like nose, and right now she simply stared at the body. “Look.” She pointed out a length of chain that disappeared under several bodies, though one end lay close to the fallen wizard. Her eyes followed the length back to a hand that was hardly visible under the blood and the tangle of corpses.
The fingers of that hand twitched.
“Maker’s balls, we got a live one! Help me with this!” Hawk exclaimed as she moved forwards and began to shift bodies away from the pile. A moment later Cutter shifted in to help, and soon they had uncovered someone that was not pirate, and not raider. He lay flat on his face, his arm stretched out and fingers still clutched around the end of that chain. All he wore was a tatted long piece of cloth around his waist and draping down, cloth that at one time could have been scarlet. His back held evidence that someone had used him as whipping practice recently, stripes and tears marking the tanned skin. On his shoulder was a recent scar where someone seemed to have recently branded him, the marking though was difficult to make out. His dark hair and bearded were tangled and unkempt, showing at least a few weeks of growth. He was suffering from exposure to the elements, but even still his powerful frame could be seen under the grime and blood the covered his body.
“Maker’s…he’s…human?” Hawk stared for a moment at the fellow before Cutter shoved her.
“I don’t care if he’s the second coming, lets get his arse to the captain!”, the elf replied as she grabbed one arm. Hawk shook herself a moment before she took his other arm and between them they dragged the man to his feet. A weak groan escaped him as they began to haul him back across the deck. His feet could hardly find purchase on the deck as they forced him to march and he stumbled repeatedly. The pair of women didn’t let him slow, but continued to drag him onto the deck of the pirate ship that they hailed from.
“Cap’n!“, called Cutter as her feet touched the deck of the ship she called home. “We found one. Alive.” Between Hawk and her they brought their prize aboard before shoving him forwards. The trip had at least awoken the man enough so he didn’t fall flat on his face. He did stumble, and went down to one knee slamming against the deck with a grunt of pain. The pain helped clear his head though, and he managed to catch himself before he fell completely over.