“Hey, would you quit that already! It’s creeping me out!”
“I’m sorry but that’s not possible.”
“Then do it much quieter!”
Yunga is laying down on the floor of a prison cell slowly waking up from her injury, she is still pretty out of it. The voices arguing are ones she cannot recognize.
“I don’t understand all of the hate I'm getting. I am simply asking the spirits for guidance.”
“Guidance for what? Not being executed!?”
“We don’t know for sure that we are getting executed.”
“Do you even know what town you’re in!? The king here lives by his own rules that everyone else has to follow! We could be taken out and hung in front of the whole town!”
Yunga sits up from laying on the floor and looks around the cell. There’s a boy in front of the bars of the cell looking out, it looks like he was the one that was talking about being executed. There’s a woman in the corner sitting down and looks like she is praying. That must’ve been the woman that was arguing with the boy from earlier. There is also a large blue man laying down on the prison bed.
“Would you please shut the fuck up!" The blue man on the bed said loudly with a deep voice.
“I was gonna do that. Not because you told me to.” The boy looking out the bars from the cell responded back, turning his head to face the blue man on the prison bed. The boy had black hair and green eyes. He was wearing a rundown outfit, it was a beige shirt with a hole on the right shoulder, dark brown pants that were cut off at his ankles, and he didn’t even have any shoes on.
“That goes for you too, witch lady!” The blue man continued on.
“For the last time I'm not a witch! Do I need to explain this to you guys for the fourth time!?” The girl in the corner said.
“No!” The blue man and the boy said in unison.
The girl in the corner was wearing some kinda purple robe that was purple, the robe matched the color of her hair. She has brown eyes and is wearing slippers.
“Look who’s awake!” A girl said, appearing from out of nowhere in front of Yunga’s face. She has blonde hair, pink eyes, and was wearing black shirt and a black skirt.
Yunga crawled back further up the wall in shock of seeing this girl directly in front of her.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you like that. Was just trying to greet you!”
“Well, next time just don’t do that.” Yunga responded, releasing the tense posture she put herself in.
“What happened to your leg?”
“I hurt it fighting the king of this town.”
“WHAT!?” The boy over at the bars of the jail cell yelled out. “Did I just hear that you fought the king?”
“Yeah, you heard right.”
“Oh my god! You gotta be fucking kidding me. If anyone here is getting executed first, it’s gonna be you.”
“Well what are you in for?”
The boy looked out of the jail cell.
“I’m in here because I was accused of murdering an old man.”
“Did you?” The blonde questioned.
“No! Of course not!”
“Then why did you get accused of that?”
“Because I stole from the guy, and while he was chasing me he fell down the stairs.”
“Are you really telling the full story, or are you just picking and choosing which parts you wanna tell us.”
“No! Do I look like a murderer to you!?”
“Anybody can be a murderer, and also we don’t even know each other. So of course I'm gonna be suspicious of you. We don’t even know each other’s names.”
“How about we start with that. My name is Shug Xilenth.”
“Shug? What a funny name.”
“Fuck you! What’s your name then?”
“My name is Zunci Hermich.”
“Shit that’s a good name.”
Their conversation gets interrupted by Yunga grunting in pain as she tries to get up.
“You ok?” Zunci said, helping Yunga get into a comfortable position to sit down in.
“No, I’m afraid I can’t really walk.”
“I’m sorry. Hopefully it’ll heal soon.”
“Thanks.”
“Wanna know why I'm here?”
“Sure.”
“I was caught in a big black market scheme and was arrested.”
“You were in the black market?”
“Yep, for as long as I can remember.”
Zunci looks around at the blue man on the prison bed. The blue man is wearing a prison outfit of all black. He doesn’t have any hair and he is not wearing shoes at all.
“Why are you here?” Zunci asked.
“I’m not telling you!” The blue man said.
“Me neither.” The woman in the corner said.
“Fine then, be boring little Betty's why dontcha?” Zunci retorted
“Go fuck yourself you gretcha!” The blue man snapped back.
“How dare you call me tha-”
“Someone’s coming!” Shug yelled, interrupting the conversation.
Ten guards are walking up to the jail cell holding Yunga and the others. They unlock the cell door and open it, pointing their guns at them.
“Come with us!” The guard who unlocked the cell door commanded.
Everyone in the cell didn’t object to it and only complied. Yunga tries to get up but can't. Thankfully Zunci is there to help Yunga up on her feet. Shug lines up first at the cell door with the girl in the robe behind him, followed by the blue man. Yunga and Zunci get in line behind them, with Yunga supporting her weight on Zunci’s shoulder. The guards lead the inmates through the prison or dungeon that they were being kept in. They pass by torture machines and even pass by a guy currently getting tortured by getting stretched out. The place they were being kept in was dimly lit by torches around the whole place. It’s hard to get a grapes on how big this place really is.
The guards get to a door and they unlock it, then open it. The door leads to a staircase that goes up. It is very dark with no torches lighting the way. The guards lead the rest of the inmates up the stairs and they end up in the main hall of a castle. Yunga puts together that they must be in the king's castle. The guards lead them down the main hall where they turn left and there are two very big doors. It is very heavy to move as it takes almost all of the guards just to open the door. Once the guards open the door it is very clear where it leads to, A huge dining room where a bunch of men in robes are gathered around the big dinner table. The guards lead them to a dark corner of the dining room and are forced to stand there until the meeting is over. At the end of the long dinner table is a throne where the king, Drinter Velantriff, is sitting overlooking everything.
“Thank you for coming here my great nobles.” Drinter started his speech. “You people have been so loyal to me, and I appreciate every single one of you. But, the reason I called you here is to test that loyalty.”
Drinter snapped his fingers and a bunch of servants ran out with glasses of wine and placed them in front of the twenty nobles.
“These wine glasses may seem just like normal wine, but little do you know that one of these twenty glasses of wine. Has been poisoned.”
The nobles raised their posture in shock, even though you couldn’t see their faces.
“On my count you will all drink the wine from the glass until there is not a single drip left.”
One of the nobles takes the glass and slams it onto the floor, shattering the glass and the wine spilling on the ground.
“What is this shit!?” The noble shouted at Drinter. “This is the worst test of loyalty I’ve ever seen!”
Drinter looked directly at the noble, and he didn’t need to give any signal for what happened next. Two guards came up from behind the noble and stabbed him in the back with spears. The blood splattering on the table and the two nobles around him. He then fell back on the floor and his body was dragged away by the guards who stabbed him.
“Holy shit.” Shug said under his breath.
“Well he shouldn’t have objected the king, fucking dunce.” The blue man whispered.
“Anyone else have any objections!?” Drinter announced.
All of the remaining nobles didn’t say anything and stood completely still.
“Good. Now, pick up your glass.”
The nobles pick up the glass of wine in front of them and hold it tightly in their hands.
“Once I clap my hands, all of you will drink the wine. Do you all understand?”
All of the nobles say yes in unison. Drinter fixes his posture in his throne and readies his hands to clap. He then releases a thunderous clap that is very loud. Once the sound of the clap is made, all of the nobles drink the wine and empty the glass until there’s nothing left. All of the nobles finish their drink and look at each other to see who got the poison glass.
“Thanks to all of you for putting your trust in me that much. But I'm afraid you’ve been misinformed. I didn’t just poison one cup. I poisoned all of them.”
The revelation of the situation of the nobles were faced with and they all started to panic, running around and many trying to escape the dining room. Many of them started praying, but all of those prayers land on deaf ears. As the nobles began to drop one by one, they all had one thing in common. Blood was coming out of their mouths like a fountain. The last noble dropped onto the ground and the chaos came to an end.
“Now that was just uncalled for” The blue man butted in with.
Guards were cleaning up the bodies and moving them out of the room.
“Come forth!” Drinter said, pointing at Yunga and the other people. They all come forward in front of the throne of Drinter.
“You all may be wondering why I called you guys here, and it’s not for executing you if that's what you think.” Drinter pleasantly said with a smooth tone. “I’m here to give you guys a proposal.”
“A proposal?” Yunga raised her voice in concern.
“Yes, a proposal.” Drinter continued. “I have a lovely daughter named Brentha. For how much I love her is unfortunate, due to her constant ignorance of my position of power. Unfortunately, that ignorance has gotten her into trouble as she spilled some pieces of information to a specific group that has taken a dislike to me. They’ve kidnapped her and they’ve sent me a ransom note. But, these times are hard with how much food is scarce around here and I can’t afford the money. So, I’ll give you guys a ship and you go rescue her and in return you get your freedom.”
“We earn our freedom?” Shug asked.
“Yes, no strings attached.”
“Are we sure we can trust you?”
“Oh Shug Xilenth, can you remind me what you are here for?”
“Murder.”
“Do you know what the punishment is for murder around here?”
“Death.”
“Exactly! So, why would you not take the opportunity?”
Shug looks down and doesn’t say anything.
“Same thing with you Shanta Afritz.” Drinter was pointing at the girl with the robe. “You were arrested for trying to overthrow a local village with your magic guild.”
Shanta looks up at the Drinter and gives him the pinky.
“Also you Hillanter Forecka’linser.” Drinter was talking directly to the blue man. “Arrested for attempted murder on one of my kind.”
“You Purks have no place saying that!” Hillanter snapped back. “For all that you’ve done to my people! He deserved it!”
“Whatever keeps you up at night.” Drinter looks over at Zunci. “Zunci Dermich, the infamous black market scammer, was finally caught in a sting operation.”
“You know I gotta give you props for that, I didn’t really see it coming.” Zunci responded with a smile.
“Ah and then we get to you. Yunga Elantra.” Drinter said, looking directly at Yunga with the same stare he gave her earlier when they fought. “To think that the last surviving Elantra crew member ended up in my town.”
“Wait, you're the child of Jane Elantra, and Sinther Elantra? Of the Elantra Pirates? “ Shug frantically asked. “How come you never told us!?”
“Because,” Yunga responded. “We don’t know each other!”
“Shug Xilenth, don’t you ever cut me off again or I’ll kill you.” Drinter butted in.
“Yes sir!” Shug panically said, changing his posture immediately.
“LIke I was saying. The Elantra bloodline is continuing and it’s all under control of me. I’m willing to give you a ship and you can be the captain of it. What do you say?”
Yunga didn’t know how to respond, but this was very weird of her. This is what she wanted to do, become a captain of her own ship and continue the legacy of her family. But, this isn’t how she wanted it, not like this. Under someone else’s control on a controlled path instead of just exploring the ocean and what it has to offer. Instead, it’s all just to get her freedom.
“I’ll do it.” She finally responded.
“Glad to get one person on board!” Drinter said in a celebratory tone. “Just need everyone else’s answer!” Drinter looked at the others, waiting for them to respond.
“Well, since I have nothing to lose, why not? I’m in!” Shug was the first one to respond out of the four.
“I was gonna do this even if I didn’t get my freedom or not!” Zunci said.
“I’m not gonna be too into this, if this is the only way out of my execution I’ll do it.” Hillanter said in a dismissive tone.
“Sure. whatever.” Shanta annoyingly said.
“Great! With everyone ready to do this, I’ll get the ship ready for you. Guards! Escort the newest crew to their ship.”
Guards come out and escort them out of the dining room and out into the pier of the castle. The pier was home to many ships, but the biggest one caught the crews attention. It was a very huge ship that looked like it could hold a crew of a hundred men. It was painted a very nice dark purple color on the outside of the ship, and the flag is a gray crown surrounded by the purple colored background. There are a bunch of crew members on board loading the ship with boxes of supplies.
“This’ll be the ship you guys will be using.” A deckhand that approached them said. “It’s a very well built ship and it has a lot of firepower to it. This baby can take down a militia by herself if she wanted to.”
“Nice, reminds me of my family's ship.” Yunga responded, eyeing the ship up and down.
“We can leave right now, not that you have a choice of the departure time, but just to let you know. Once you’ve decided what the roles your fellow friends are gonna fulfill, and you hop on board we’ll leave. See ya.”
Yunga looked back at the fellow inmates she shared a cell with for only a few minutes. She can now stand on her own and not have to use the support of Zunci to stand up. But she is not able to move as fast as she could, or else she’ll be trying to escape right now.
“Well, what are you guys good at?” Yunga asked.
“Um, I have good experience being a deckhand and lookout.” Shug responded with a nervous voice.
“I can handle the combat on board with the cannons and such, I can be the lead commander of the deckhands.” Hillanter said with not much confidence but with enough certainty.
“I don’t have much to offer but I’ll try my best.” Zunci said with much enthusiasm.
“I’m a mage if that helps.” Shanta said carefreely.
Yunga looked at all of their faces and contemplated for a good minute.
“I think I know which rolls to give you guys.”
Yunga and the rest of her crew arrive on ship and the deckhand gives the signal to roll out the sail and raise the anchor.
“Shug! Help them raise the anchor and be on the lookout!” Yunga commanded, and Shug followed as she said. “Hillanter, make sure to arm the cannons!” Hillanter does as she commands. “Zunci! Check the map to see where we are going!” Zunci does as she’s told. “Shanta! When the time comes, we’ll use your help!” Shanta just walks into the captain's cabin.
Yunga goes to the front of the ship as it sails out from port. They sail out from port and wind blows onto Yunga as she smiles. This is the moment she was waiting for her whole life, the struggles of getting by on crumbs will finally pay off. She is the captain of her own ship, even though it’s not under the circumstances she wanted but it still feels good.
“With you as our captain, we’ll have nothing to fear.” Shug said, walking up to her.
“Thanks.” Yunga responded, still facing the front of the ship.
“Don’t worry mom and dad.” Yunga said in her head. “Your little girl will carry your torch onwards.”244Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ88S5i5WlPh
