xxxxxxxpieces of eight
xxxxxxxxxxxxticking clock // chapter two
xxxxxxxxxxxxlisten while you read
xxxxxxxxxxxxinfluences :: monkey island and adventure
“Well, what do you think?”
“Hard to say. I think we’ll have to ask him.”
Orange lights lit up the inside of the ship and four men sat inside the main cabin. Their vessel was not very large but it was big enough to hold them and enough supplies for a decent sea journey. Ryker had haggled the price with the merchant after falling in love with the winking topless figurehead. It wasn’t the best boat out there but with a little money stolen from the Benett family fortune, they’d gotten one that could stay afloat. And that was all that they really cared about.
With another piece of the puzzle under their belt, the anxious pirates could relax and sleep a little easier at last. They were getting closer to their goal, finding the mysterious treasure: B.F.D.
“Let’s set out in the morning.” Ryker yawned and tugged his boots off. It wasn’t that it had been an exhausting night, the expedition to the graveyard and forest hadn’t been nearly as taxing as most of their other adventures, but rather that he’d had little to eat all day and the drink in the tavern hadn’t given him enough spirits to go all night. Nor had they been able to afford much.
The redhead sleepily lumbered off until finding his hammock and he slide inside absentmindedly. Ryker was not known for his grace or elegance and his feet stuck out at awkward angles. Already snoring, the others shook their heads, some laughed and got ready to rest as well. If trouble charged aboard, they had the finest lookout on the seas up top to wake them.
She’d joined the crew late but had been easily accepted once proving her usefulness to them. The others had all been sailing together six months prior to her arrival.
It was an odd crew, patched together by a quilt of mismatched dreams. The only real connection in the beginning had been the fact they’d all been on the same island three years ago for three months. Four boys running recklessly around the island, diving into the sea in search of pearls, harassing the locals in play games of ‘plunder’. The desire to become full fledged pirates had always lingered in the children’s minds.
It took the pitiful cough of a frail young girl for the thought to actually do it to bloom.
She was ill in the way that preys on a person slowly, confining them indoors but leaving them well enough to find time for boredom. Senka was too young to keep up with her brother already but her cough made it even less likely for her to ever join him on his outings with the other village boys. Her crying as he left to play nagged at the back of his mind.
“RIIIIIIIIIISE AND SHINE! RIIIIIIIISE IT’S TIME!” Whatever dreams the boys had been having were shattered as the sun rose and their beloved lookout shrieked her misery at being the only one awake. Disgruntled curses sounded from below and stockinged feet padded up to the deck to silence (or strangle) the source of the noise.
“It’s too early for this...” Basil groaned and rubbed at his face in between uprighting a table that had fallen sometime since the last time they’d been aboard their ship. The Lazy Catfish looked a bit sloppy since they’d been spending much of their time on Swogg Island. It’d taken then a while to piece together the map to the small bronze trinket now in their possession.
Wyatt stretched and hopped up the steps with pep as if exhaustion could simply be banished with a yawn. It didn’t seem to matter that they’d only gotten an hour of sleep. His spirits always seemed to be highest in the morning when nothing had gone wrong yet and the day could hold any sort of adventure in it. He hummed and fished a few crackers from his pocket that he’d snagged from the tavern last night.
“Prima, breakfast. Catch!” Her master was too busy downstairs trying to untangle himself from his hammock and so the brunette took on feeding duties to try and calm the parrot. Tossing a cracker in the air, a blur of red swooped down and caught it before returning to her perch.
The last two crewmen trudged up the stairs and began to prepare the ship to leave. There was little left on Swogg that interested them and if they left now, they could skip out of town before anyone came to collect their dues. A tattered black and gold flag sailed high in the breeze as Basil drew up the anchor and they drifted apart from the docks.
“Damn them, they’re getting away!”
“Bloody pirates, those scoundrels’ll really get it next time!”
A small crowd flocked to the edge of the sea enraged but unable to do much about the fact. It was part of living during such an age of pirating, but it didn’t mean they liked it. The pirates had paid a little on their tavern table but several items had gone missing from the shopkeepers and other places around town.
“Don’t worry, we’ll get em fer ye.” Worn boots walked to join the group as a collection of hassled and tired looking women staggered over. Guns and swords hung at their hips and bits of shrubbery clung to their clothing as if they’d been canvassing the forest for something. Something they hadn’t found..
“Hurry up! We’re losing them!” The tallest of the group stomped aboard a decent sized ship and started fussing over things in a state of agitated irritation. Her caramel hair hung over her shoulders and got in the way of her work and she pulled it back after letting out a high pitched noise of frustration.
“Calm down, at least we know where they’re going. They’ll want to see their friend.” Stoic eyes looked out over the sea and the band of girls watched the other boat fade into the distance with predatory eyes. The cats might’ve won the battle but they’d win the war at the rate they were going. Staying just one step behind seemed to work well, the men would lead them straight to the treasure. It was a lot easier to follow and swoop in at the last moment, the hawk mused, than to scramble through the scavenger hunt.
“Aye, but will ‘e help us?” The question hung in the air, the only unpredictable part of the puzzle none of them could answer. The man was a mystery. His motives were questionable but his morals were even more enigmatic.
“For the right price, let’s hope so.”
Yamashii Community Member 
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