Morning came and all hands were on deck. They were nearing Velantriff’s castle and were near the dock. Yunga and all of the other crew members are looking overboard at the sight. Brentha comes out of the captain’s cabin and onto the highest part of the deck. Everyone bows down to her, except for Yunga and the others.
“I want to thank everyone for rescuing me, I know that we’ve lost some good people on the way. So let’s take a moment of silence for all of them.” Brentha put her hair down and everyone didn’t speak a word, the only noise was coming from the ocean around them. “Thank you. You guys may rest now.” Brentha dismissed the whole entire crew.
Shug looked at Brentha’s eyes, she didn’t look too thrilled to be returning home. He tried to wonder why, but Brentha had one more thing to say. “Yunga, Zunci, Hillanter, Shanta, and Shug! Come to the captain’s cabin immediately.” They were all compliant and entered after Brentha went inside.
Once they were all inside the captain’s cabin, Brentha took a seat at the desk that faced the door.
“Close the door.” She commanded. Shug as the last person to walk into the cabin and he closed the door.
“Good, now with that out of the way. I have to ask you guys. Were you criminals forced to go on this adventure for your freedom?” She nailed it directly on point, a straight bullseye.
“Yeah. How do you know that?” Yunga curiously asked.
“Because it’s happened before.”
“Really? Like how many?” Zunci questioned.
“Way more than I can remember. He would always send criminals out on missions for their freedom.”
“So we weren’t the only people in that situation.” Shug said to himself. “It did feel like he was too trustworthy when he sent us on this mission. Did he give back the freedom to those people who did those missions?”
“There was only one group that came back fully alive. Their promise of freedom never came though.”
‘What?” Hillanter interrupted.
“They were immediately executed after their missions. My father will never grant you guys your freedom like he promised. He’ll just let you get executed, no matter how much you beg and plead.”
“Are you fucking kidding me!” Hillanter slammed his fists down on the table, almost breaking it. “Did we all do that for nothing then!”
“I’m afraid so.”
“No that can’t be.” Yunga said in disbelief, putting her hand to her forehead.
“I thought-” Zunci was immediately cut off by Brentha.
“You thought wrong. I didn’t want to be the one telling you this, but it was the right thing to do. You guy’s need to hear this before we fully dock at the castle.”
“Son of a bitch!” Shanta screamed. “Fuck this bullshit!”
Everyone was ranting about their frustrations, instead of Yunga who was just standing there in disbelief. How could she go out like this, and due to her injury she can’t just run away from the situation.
“My story can’t end here, it just can’t. Mom and dad need to see me become a great pirate, not just to be executed like this.” Yunga said inside her head. “But we saved his daughter! You think he would give us some slack, right?”
“If he really cared about me then he would’ve just come and get me himself.” Brentha argued. “But no, he just sat back at the castle and let you guys do the dirty work for him. Like the coward that he is.”
Yunga’s point was immediately shot down and crashed into the ground.
“Well what do we do now?” Zunci asked.
“Don’t know, but trying to overthrow the boat at this point will be a big mistake. You will immediately be shot down by cannons. As soon as you got close to the dock, you were locked in place and couldn't do anything to stop it.”
“Why didn’t you tell us earlier!?”
“I didn’t know your situation, but I should’ve assumed because he had a Joonkel on board.” Brentha looked at Hillanter. “He’ll never hire them.”
“So there’s nothing for us to do?”
“I’m afraid so.”
No one had anything more to say, only stood there thinking on what to do.
“You all can leave if you want.” Brentha said, pointing to the door. “Maybe it’ll be best if you guys think about it yourself.”
Hillanter went out first, bursting the door open and slamming it closed as he left. Shanta crossed her arms and walked out of the captain's cabin. Zunci held her head down as she headed out after Shanta. Yunga also followed suit, and began walking out of the cabin.
“Yunga, giving up again?” Shug said to her.
“This isn’t like last time Shug.” Yunga said. “We’re not gonna have some miracle that saves us all, if what Brentha says is true. Then we have no chance to escape.”
“We can think of something at least.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know, but if we all put our minds together we can think of a good plan!”
“Stop it.” Brentha interrupted. “We’re too close to the base to think of something that fast. Even if you do, it will be an awful plan. Not to insult your intelligence but it’s just not gonna happen.”
“God! We just can’t do nothing.”
“You die either way, it doesn’t matter.”
Shug punches down on the desk. “Dammit!”
“Told you, nothing we do will matter. We’re dead.” Yunga walks out of the cabin and the door closes behind her, leaving Shug and Brentha alone.
“I understand your frustrations but you need to calm down.” Brentha said to him, holding his hand down on the table. “But you can’t let your frustrations get the best of you.”
Shug clenches his teeth and a tear slips out and drips into Brentha’s hand. “Stupid!” Shug lifts his hand off of the table, shaking Brentha’s hand off of him. “Couldn’t you just talk to your dad?”
“Why should I?”
“What?”
“Why should I even bother arguing with him? If I even bring one word up to him about showing you mercy. He’ll bring down a big punishment on top of me. He already has bars on the windows of my room.”
Shug sighs. “I should’ve known it was way too much for me to ask.”
“It was a good question to ask.”
Shug begins to walk out of the room but he quickly turns around to Brentha. “There’s just one thing I don’t understand.”
“What?”
“How were you even kidnapped?”
Brentha looked down at the ground and twiddled her thumbs. “We were out on the dock doing some ceremony, when I realized that no one was looking at me. I snuck out onto a little paddle boat and sail away from the castle.” Brentha gets up from the desk and walks to the window. She looks out at the crashing waves and the castle that is getting closer.
“Why did you do that? I thought you had a good life. I mean, you’re the daughter of a king and all.”
“You don’t get it do you?”
“To be honest, no.”
“My mom died when I was six, ever since then my dad has been a different person. He started to treat me like a son more than a daughter.”
“Is that bad?”
“He wanted me to become the son he always wanted, and he treated me like I was gonna be a future king more than a queen. I never get to talk to anyone. He would hit me and-”
Shug came up right beside her and patted her on the back. “I get it, don’t need to explain more.” He rests his arms on the windowsill. “I was in the same situation, or a similar situation.”
“Really?”
‘Yeah,When I was the same age your mother died, I was part of a pirate crew that treated me the same way as your dad treated you. I was beaten everyday for the smallest mistakes, they treated me like I was a full grown man.”
“Who was this pirate crew?”
“It was the Mickels.”
“THE MICKELS!?” Brentha shouted, and Shug covered her mouth.
“Don’t say it out loud! Not when an Elantra is around.” Shug uncovers her mouth.
“An Elantra? They died, they’re no longer here.”
“Yunga is the daughter of the Elantra leaders.”
“No fucking way!”
“Yes fucking way.”
“That can’t be! There’s no way, I didn’t think that they had a daughter.”
“Barely anybody knows that, but I do. Because I was there the day that it happened.”
‘You saw the Elantra’s die? Holy shit! Don’t tell me you're lying.”
“It’s not like I can bring up proof or whatever.”
“If it is true, then you can be a first-hand witness! You’ll be in history books, you’ll be famous around the world! Why didn’t you tell anybody?”
“Because I had no one to tell it to. Also if I did, nobody would believe me. It is crazy to claim that you were a living witness to the Elantra pirates death.”
“Yeah, I still can’t believe it.” Brentha laughed as she ran her fingers through her hair. “How old are you now?”
“I’m seventeen.”
“Me too!”
“Wow!”
“Guess we did live pretty similar lives, well not really but you get what I mean.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Shug looked directly at Brentha who was looking out the window. Brentha looks at Shug at the corner of her eye.
“Are you just gonna look at me awkwardly or?”
“Sorry!” Shug said immediately and turned his head towards the window as he hid his face from her. Brentha giggles and playfully hits him on the arm.
“You’re so weird.” She looked out the window and looked at how close the castle had come. They were now in range to dock at the port.
“Get ready to dock!” A deckhand can be heard through the door.
Yunga looks on as the rest of the crew goes to work and pulls the anchor.
“This is it.” Yunga whispered to herself. “This is where our future is gonna be decided, and may Drinter have mercy on our souls."
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