The ship is sailing into the port of the militia base. The militia base is a really big stone castle that takes up the whole island, though the island is fairly small. It’s still impressive to build a castle this big on an island that small.
All of the crew is now on deck and ready to port. Yunga notices that cannons start to aim at them, on top of the castle walls. It looks like they are about to attack until they’re is a voice that is amplified by some sort of device.
“Who are you? What do you want?” The voice sounded old and raspy. Yunga looked around at everyone else in the crew and yelled back.
“My name is Yunga, and I'm here on the behalf of Drinter Velantriff. We’re here to ask you a few questions” She tried her best to reach the ears of at least somebody at the base.
“Come into the dock and drop all of your weapons. Then we’ll talk.”
Yunga questions the authenticity of that statement. This militia is known for being pretty brutal to everyone, but it’s worth the risk to get Brentha back from them. Everyone on board is willing to take the risk as well, as they all pull into the dock and drop any weapons on them.
Once they port into the dock, ten soldiers are waiting for them and they’re pointing rifles at them. They all put their hands up.
“Follow me.” One of the guards said, motioning them over to follow him.
Yunga, Hillanter, Shanta, and Zunci all follow the guard. Shug stays behind due to Yunga ordering him to, and he’s there with the rest of the unnamed crew. All of them are held at gunpoint as the others are getting escorted through the castle.
The guards escort them through the courtyard where there are people eating their food, training grounds where you can practice your shooting skills, and people drinking at a makeshift tavern. They walk into the main castle grounds where there are a bunch of workers doing a variety of things, people are constantly running back and forth over the carpet ground, yelling from a guy who seems to run this part of the castle, and slaves are seen being beaten by some of the workers.
“Fucking pigs.” Hillanter mumbled under his breath.
Yunga looks over at Hillanter who is visibly angry, and she also hears him say that.
“Just keep it to yourself for now, alright?” She said, nudging him in the hip.
Hillanter responded with a growl, and Yunga took that as a cue to shut up.
They go up a spiral staircase that goes up multiple floors. As Yunga expected, they reach the top floor and they walk through a big hallway with a red carpeted floor, and only one door ahead that is at the end of the hallway. There are basically no decorations throughout this whole hallway, not even a single painting. It is very unusual that the castle is formed like this, it is really not up to standard around the land.
Everyone in the group gets an ominous feeling from the door as they don’t know what is going to happen next. The guards lead them to the door and they open it up, on the other side is a man standing near a window and is looking down at the courtyard below.
“Sir!” The guard escorting them said. “We have those visitors for you.”
“Good, good.” The man said. “Bring them in and wait outside.”
“Yes sir.”
The guards lead the crew as they stand there near the entrance of what seems like Uff Antrant’s bedroom. In the middle there is a desk and to the right is a massive bed with drapes over it. Once the whole crew is inside, all of the guards leave the room and wait outside.
“What does Drinter Velantriff want from me?” The guy asked, in the same old raspy voice they heard earlier.
Yunga takes the lead in answering the question. “He wants to know where his daughter is.”
“And why would I know that?”
“Drinter told us to go to a town not so far from here, and the mayor told us that he sold her to your slave ship.”
“Ah, I think I do remember now. There’s so many slave ships I have that it’s hard to keep count of them anymore. It’s no longer like the good old days.”
“Do you have her or not?”
“Honey, look.” Uff walked from the window and to his desk, where he leaned over it with his two arms planted firmly on the table. “All of the slave ships go from here to somewhere else.”
“And where do those ships go?”
“Who knows? I have four different islands that are North, West, South, and East. Hell knows what ship she’s on.”
“What!?” Hillanter shouted. “You’re telling me you don’t even have a clue where she went!?”
“Very smart your kind is.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nevermind, maybe not.”
“Just fucking tell us, you absolute gretcha!”
“Like I said, I don’t know.”
“Are you guys sure this guy isn’t fucking lying to us!” Hillanter turned to the others.
“Well, even if he was, we have no way to prove it.” Zunci said.
“All we have to do is take his word.” Shanta added on.
“I’m gonna-”
“You’re gonna what?” Uff interrupted. “Hit me? Kill me? That’s impossible.”
“Why!? What are you? Indestructible?”
“No, use your brain you fucking idiot. Make one step towards me and all of these people will absolutely blow you to pieces, along with the ship, and the lackeys you brought along. That’s the reality here, to you guys I’m basically untouchable.”
“This fucking guy.” Hillanter growled.
“It’s funny, you know. Back in my fathers days he was owning your kind and you guys would make us the food we needed to eat and sell. Many of you were begging on your knees, just so you didn’t need to work another grueling day. But all of those cries from the mothers were all on the deaf ears of the owners. Because nobody cared and nobody should. All of you were created just to serve the superior race, us!”
Hillanter was about to lunge but everyone in the crew held him down and told him to stop. Uff starts laughing.
“You motherfuckers! You people ruined our whole race over some damn copper and silver! Fuck you!” Hillanter ranted on.
“Hohoho please don’t blame me. I’m not after your race.” Uff chuckled. “I’m after those purks. Those things think they have the right to run a whole kingdom, I’ll show them. They need to be put in their place and have to be put down to the level they belong to.”
Hillanter was still hurling swears at Uff, and everyone was still holding him back from attacking Uff.
“Now, you’ve got all of your questions right? Now get the fuck outta here, I don’t want to see your faces ever again.” Uff dismissed off the group and snapped his fingers. This gave the signal to the guards to escort the crew back to their boat. The crew is down in spirits as they now have no leads whatsoever. And now are pretty fucked on finding Brentha.
“What the fuck do I do now!?” Yunga panicked to herself as they were all walking back to the ship. “We’re so fucked!”
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Shug is waiting for the crew to return and is with the rest of the deckhands. He’s standing with his arms up, as the guards told him to. He notices an interesting conversation going on with one of the guards on the port.
“Did you hear about what happened to one of the slave ships.” The helmeted guard said to the unhelmeted guard.
“No, what happened?” The other guy responded.
“There was a huge storm on one of the islands and they had to dock at a really small island until it passed.”
“I thought there weren’t supposed to be any storms during the trip.”
“I thought that too but, this one just came out of nowhere.”
“Isn’t that the ship that went East?”
“Yep, and that’s the one that’s holding Drinter Velantriff’s daughter.”
Shug immediately is shocked and now is more interested in the conversation. He gets close to the edge of the ship so it doesn’t make him suspicious, and is now able to hear the conversation.
“Damn, whoever gets their first turn with her must be a really lucky guy.” The unhelmeted guard said.
“Wish it was me though.” The helmeted guard said. “God I would do anything for that opportunity.”
“Hell you can sail there, it’s only an hour away.”
“I would if I wouldn’t get in trouble.”
“A man can dream.”
“Holy shit!” Shug thought to himself. “I need to tell everyone else this immediately when they come back to the ship!”
As soon Shug finishes the thought, he looks over and sees Yunga, Hillanter, Zunci, and Shanta. They all looked depressed as they all gathered up on the boat. Shug looks at all of their faces, they look like they’ve been chewed out.
“What the hell happened?” Shug pondered. When everyone was on board the ship, the guards gave them back their weapons and everyone started to sit down in defeat. Hillanter went directly into the living quarters. They departed from the militia base.
“Guys!” Shug said to everyone on the deck of the boat. “I’ve got to tell you guys something.”
“Not now Shug.” Yunga said, sitting down and looking at the ground. “We’re not in the mood.”
“No, I have some important information.”
“Are you trying to do this to make us feel better?”
Shug was hesitant to answer, as the question made no sense to him. “What? No, I actually-”
“Just drop the act already Shug.” Zunci said.
“Even you Zunci?” Shug sadly said.
“We have nowhere else to go, we just have to go back to the king and tell him of our failure.” Shanta said.
“Guys, I don’t know exactly what happened there. But we can’t lose hope!”
“What else are we gonna do, Shug? Scan the whole ocean for her!? Face it already, we are fucked, no doubt about it.”
“Out of everyone here to be giving up. I expect you to be the last person.”
“What?”
“You’re an Elantra pirate aren’t you!? Why the fuck are you just giving up here!?”
“Because I’m not as good as them! Alright! I never was.” Yunga started to tear up. “And I’ll never be.”
“YOU ONLY THINK THAT BECAUSE YOU REFUSE TO EVEN TRY!!!” Shug shouted really loud that it even echoed off the boat. “So you’re just gonna sit here and wallow about your losses everytime it happens? Is that what you’re gonna do with the remainder of your life!? Because if that’s what you’re gonna do, then you’ll never be as good as your parents.”
“You have no right to say that, you’re the only person who has messed up in this entire mission.”
“Yeah I fucked up and I admitted to it, but there’s a difference between you and me. I actually tried to do better and improve. While you just bask in your despair and do nothing about it!”
Yunga didn’t respond to that and only looked at Zunci and Shanta, who were shocked by Shug’s sudden speech.
“Since I’ve clearly gotten your guy's attention, you can finally hear me out. Turn this ship to the east!” Shug ordered the crew. The deckhands looked confused and looked directly at Yunga for her input.
“Why!?” Yunga asked.
“Because, while you guys were in the castle. I overheard a conversation a couple of guards were having. They said a slave ship heading east was the one that was holding Brentha.”
“Really?” Zunci questioned.
“Yes, they also said that they haven’t made it to the island yet and are stuck an hour away from here on another small island.”
“Don’t tell me you’re fucking with us right now.” Shanta said.
“No! This is for real! I’m not fucking around when I say this.”
“Holy shit! Thanks Shug!” Zunci said running to Shug and hugging him. Yunga stands up and wipes the tears from her face.
“You heard the man. Sail this ship East!” Yunga commanded. The crew quickly went to work and changed the sail direction to face East and the boat was now heading towards the apparent island, where they are keeping Brentha.
“You know what Shug.” Yunga turned to face him. “I was wrong about you. You’re actually the most useful member of the crew.”
“Thanks.” Shug said. “That means a lot coming from you.”
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Soon after heading East, Shanta notified Hillanter about Shug’s discovery. Though Hillanter was surprisingly not as enthusiastic about it, he was still mad over the blatant racism he faced today.
They kept heading East for about an hour and they were all getting worried that maybe the lead that Shug heard was wrong. But, over the horizon was an island with a ship at the beach. And the really small island was covered with a bunch of tents. The sun was setting down, and everyone was ecstatic to find the island. Celebrating as they finally have some hope of getting Brentha back.
“Slow down the boat!” Yunga commanded, when they were near the island. The crew did so, by lowering the sails and letting the boat drift.
“Alright, we need to figure out how we are going to do this.” Yunga said, gathering the crew around together.
“Looks like the only way we’re gonna successfully do this, if we completely just invade the island.” Hillanter suggested.
“Well that could work, but we don’t know how many of them they are.”
“Yes that’s true, but if we strike them while they’re sleeping. Then boom! We’re good.”
“I agree. There’s no point in going in silently, because most likely they’ll notice if a ship just came into port.” Zunci chimed in.
“I second that.” Shanta butted in.
“Imma also have to agree to that.” Shug expressed.
“Looks like we’ll do it that way then.” Yunga reluctantly agreed. Once they were all on the same pace with the plan, the crew raised the sails and began heading towards the small island.
It is now nighttime and their ship is just about to pull into the shore.
“Alright! When we get there, immediately dock and we all hop out! Everyone got that!?” Yunga looked out over the rest of the crew.
“Yeah!” Shug cheered. Hillanter suddenly put his hand on Shug’s chest.
“Wait here on the boat while we do this.” Hillanter said.
“What!? Why?”
“Because, I’ve heard about your previous fuck-ups. So this is the moment where we don’t need you to fuck-up. I’m not asking for me, I'm asking for the whole crew here.”
Shug just stood there in shock. He was the one that heard about the lead and informed everyone about it. And this is the thanks he gets? He was furious, he was about to say something when.
“We’re here! Charge!” Yunga led the charge off the boat as soon as it docked, everyone else followed after that. Except for Shug who stood there on the boat in anger.
“Everytime I try to redeem myself they always punch me down again and again!” Shug said to himself. “No! I’m not gonna let his words get to me! I’m not gonna just stand here and do nothing! I’m gonna do my part!” Shug jumped off the boat and charged into battle.
“I’m gonna do something, no matter if it’s big or not! I don’t care! All that matters is saving Brentha!222Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwLmglEPBKr
