Two days later
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The sun shines down on Shug, looking over the seas in the crows nest as the ship sails along on a highly windy day. Brentha got a makeshift dress, thanks to Zunci for her surprisingly great skill at crocheting. Hillanter was at the wheel, steering the ship with ease. Yunga is at the front of the boat, reading a map they found in the storage section, leftover by Drinter. Shanta is in the captain's cabin, taking a little nap as the day passes by.
“Where are we heading to again?” Shug shouted from the top of the crows nest.
“The part of the ocean called the silent sea.” Yunga shouted back as she looked at the map. “I’m pretty sure we’re almost there.” She looks out ahead and sees that a slight fog is rolling in. “That’s weird.” She says under her breath as she takes one last glance at the map. She got up and walked over to Hillanter.
“I thought there wasn’t going to be any clouds in the sky today.” He said. “It was just sunny all day, where the fuck did this fog come in from?” The fog engulfed the ship making it almost impossible to see out into the ocean.
“I can’t see a thing up here!” Shug shouted down.
“All hands on deck!” Yunga ordered. Zunci and Brentha came up from the living quarters and Shanta came out from the captain's cabin.
“What’s going on?” Zunci asked.
“Don’t know, just be on guard.” Yunga said. The fog loosened up and they were able to see up to half a mile in a circular radius around them. “See anything Shug!?”
“Nope, not yet.” He said. “Wait!” He takes a slight pause. “I do see something.”
“Well what is it?” Brentha questioned.
“It looks like the front of another ship.”
“Be on guard just in case they attack.” Yunga commanded. They all got to the front of the ship to look out at the object Shug pointed out. It was indeed the front of another ship, but it looked torn apart like it had been shredded to pieces. It was perched on top of a rock, clearly the aftermath of a shipwreck. The further they go, the more they pass by the same sights of shipwrecks.
“What is this place?” Brentha asked.
“It’s the silent sea.” Shanta said. “It’s infamous for having this creepy atmosphere, and having little to none wind. Many sailors avoid this part, but I guess we just stumbled upon it.”
“Yeah.” Yunga says nervously as she hides the map. “Can’t believe I didn’t see it earlier.”
“It’s ok, I didn’t know it was in this part either.”
“Guys!” Shug shouted. “There’s another shipwreck!”
“Yeah we know that already!” Shanta yelled back.
“No, but this one still has people on it!”
They all pay attention to the tip of the ship that gets uncovered by the fog, and he was right. Five people on the edge of a ship that is tipping over a rock. The survivors, who look like they had been pretty beat up and disheveled, their clothes all ragged and torn. The survivors see them and start waving and shouting at them for help.
“What should we do Yunga?” Zunci turned to her.
“We should at least help them out.” She said, “Hillanter, steer the ship to them! We’re picking up new passengers.” He turned the ship, with the little wind they had at their disposal, was able to get to the survivors in about five minutes, meanwhile Yunga shouting at them that everything is going to be ok. Once they got the ship close enough, they were able to be in leaping distance, where the survivors could safely get on board. One after the other leapt from the wrecked ship and onto theirs. The survivors consisted of three women and two men, everyone else was either dead or on a rowboat. They made sure they had a jacket to warm them up and some food and water.
“What happened?” Zunci asked one of the women.
“We were just sailing along here, when out of nowhere, our ship had hit this giant rock!” The woman said it while holding back tears. “Many of the people on board were screaming and the captain lost it and abandoned the ship with most of us still on it.” She sniffled and Zunci offered her a handkerchief. “He took the only rowboat the ship had and took off with nobody else.”
“That fucking piece of shit.” She said in response. “Were there any children on board?”
“No.” She said, “Not only that, he took every single piece of food, leaving us with nothing!” She started crying.
“I’m so sorry you had to go through that.” She tried her best to console the woman, giving her a hug.
Shug was helping out one of the men, giving him a warm cup of tea that Brentha made in the living quarters. “That’s gotta be tough to go through.” Shug said after hearing the guy's version of events that happened.
“It was more than tough, it was fucking traumatizing.” The guy said back to him bitterly and with a hint of anger.
“Sorry.” He apologized.
“Those poor kids.”
“What happened to them?''
“They fucking died! What else do you think!?”
Shug stepped back from the man. “Sorry, don’t mean to upset you.”
The guy looked up at Shug menacingly. “Well you do a really shitty job at doing that.”
Yunga gave a couple a hot bowl of soup, which they can share. The couple both slurped up the soup as they told their side of the story to her. Though, from what Yunga had heard, the couple gave some weird details about the tale. Especially saying that there were kids on board that had died, but Zunci told her that the woman she was talking to said there were none. She decided to not confront them about it and let them warm up. She sneaked away over to Zunci and leaned over in her ear.
“Didn’t you say that there were no kids on board.” She whispered.
“Yeah, is there something strange about it?” She whispered back.
“Yes, because that couple said that there was.”
“That’s weird.”
“Hey you two!” Another woman yelled at them. “Can I please have some more tea?”
“Right away.” Zunci said as she hurried off into the living quarters.
Hillanter and Shanta were looking around in the crashed ship, to see if there were any leftover supplies that were still salvageable at the very least. The only parts of the ship that were accessible without being submerged in the freezing cold water was the captain's cabin and a silver of the living quarters. The only slight bit of the living quarters they could get to didn’t hold anything important, though it was weird that they saw a slight hint of blood in the water alongside some bloody clothing floating alongside it. If that didn’t raise their concern enough, when they entered the captain's cabin, Blood was spilled everywhere and the bodies from where it came from, laid directly flat in front of the door. There were exactly five bodies, three women and two men, the same exact male to female ratio that they picked up.
“Holy shit.” Shanta said as they inspected the bodies.
“Did the captain do this?” Hillanter asked.
“The only thing they said about the captain was that he abandoned ship and left them for dead, never said anything about people getting murdered this brutally.” She looked all over one of the bodies, trying to figure out the cause of death. It was really weird for this to be this much blood without the body literally being ripped in half. She took the victim's neck and looked at it closer and noticed two small holes, the size of a toothpick that was dug deep into her. She started to put together something but needed more confirmation before she made any conclusions. She went over to another body and looked at his neck, and he had the same holes and in the same exact spot. Then she flipped the body over to see the face, and it was the face of the same guy they had rescued. It seems like her guess really wasn’t off, but that means something really bad for the rest of the crew.
“You got something Shanta?” Hillanter asked as he was about to leave.
“We need to get back to the ship now!” She exclaimed as she pushed past him.
“Why?”
“Vampires!”
“Huh?”
Shug was over by one of the girls and helped her with one little scratch on her knee, disinfecting it and putting a little piece of cloth on it to act as a bandaid. The guy he was talking to before was sneakily walking up behind him, crouching over near him trying not to make a single noise. He got close enough where he was basically breathing down his neck, he grabbed Shug’s shoulder hard and raised his head, where his fangs popped out like a cuckoo clock.
“What the!?” Shug exclaimed as he looked back at the man, who was about to bite down on his neck. Shanta, coming in clutch, released a little lightning bolt from her finger into the vampire's face, making him fly completely off the boat.
“Shug!” Shanta yelled out from the other ship. “Those people are vampires!”
“What!?” Shug yelled back as he was tackled to the ground by the woman, who had also dropped the act and was about to munch on him. Hillanter came over and picked up the woman and threw her at the crows nest, her back hitting it and bending around it, due to the speed he threw her at. Her back made a loud crack as she fell to the floor and rived in pain.
Down in the living quarters, Yunga, Zunci, and Brentha were all there helping out the other three. They heard the commotion upstairs and looked up at the deck above them.
“What the fuck was that?” Zunci asked.
“Don’t know, I’ll check.” Yunga dropped a washcloth she was using to wash off the clothes of the survivors. The other survivors, probably knowing that the act was up, decided it was time to attack. Brentha was putting away a bowl into a little cabinet. The couple both gang up on her and lunge at her while she is none the wiser. Zunci on the other hand is able to throw a knife at them, hitting one in the head and the other getting knocked out of the way by the body. When the vampire died, their disguise had disappeared, their body turning from a nice tanned white to a really light gray. Their skin being completely dry, his eyes becoming a disgusting green color, all of their hair falling out as the body shrivels up, little black wings started growing out from his back, and became a disgusting piece of dry crumpled up paper of a person on the ground. Brentha screams as she watches the transformation in front of her, and drops the plate on the ground shattering it.
“What the fuck!” Zunci said. “Was that a vampire!?” The third one in the living quarters took a bite at her, but she ducked underneath her and kicked her in the stomach as she flew over. Brentha was dragged by her legs from the other vampire, who had undergone the transformation of the one that was dead on the floor. She started to climb on top of her body and tried to take another chomp at her neck. Brentha took one of the glass shards from the plate and stabbed the vampire in the neck, and the blood spewed out on her face. The vampire started gurgling and holding their neck to stop the bleeding, but it was futile as they fell backwards and squirmed around until they died.
“Zunci!” Brentha turned over and got up on her feet while trying to wipe the blood off of her. Zunci was fighting against the last vampire, it kept leaping at her and she kept dodging, getting little hotshots in as she kept driving by. Brentha grabbed the knife from the dead one's skull and headed over there to aid her. The vampire was in a prancing position, now focusing her attention on Brentha, lunging at her. She instinctively put her knife up in the way as she turned her head and closed her eyes. The vampire got caught on the knife, directly on her chest as she flew by. The knife was drugged along her torso, spilling all of her guts on top of Brentha, landing on the ground, their limp body tumbling until it slams into the wall. She bent over, shaking her head to get all of the bloody guts out of her hair, throwing up as they landed on the floor.
On the deck, Yunga came up from the living quarters and saw that woman being wrangled around the crows nest. “What’s going on!?”
“These people are vampires!” Shanta yelled, still on the other ship.
The guy that Shanta blasted into the water, flew out of it and was now flying around the ship, his wings flapping in the wind like a bird. This one was different from the others, he actually had some muscle on him, and it was pretty fast.
“Holy shit!” Yunga exclaimed. The vampire came from above her, trying to slam her down into the ship. She reacted quickly by zipping out of the way and above him as he landed. He attacked again, coming up to her like a bullet. She responded quickly again by kicking the guy in the head, sending him crashing into the deck of the ship, making a small hole. The guy quickly got back to his feet but Hillanter came running in and punched the guy square in the face and sent him soaring off the ship and into the disguise of the fog. Yunga landed on the ground next to him.
“Didn’t mean to send him that far.” He said.
“Don’t worry, he might not even come back.” She responded, stretching her arms. “Can’t believe those people were blood sucking vampires, should’ve never wasted our food on them.” When she finished that sentence, the vampire came from the sky at an even faster speed than ever before, going beyond his limit. Yunga couldn’t respond in time, only being able to turn around and see him right in front of her face. She put her arms up in defense and expected the huge blow she was about to take. But, the guy was just stuck in place, like someone was holding him back. Which was exactly what was happening. Shanta was holding out her arm, keeping the guy back away from them.
“What’re you waiting for?” She said, “I can’t hold him there for long.”
“Say less.” Hillanter said, winding up a punch. “It’ll only take one punch.” He put his full back into it, and completely punched him the hardest he could. The punch crunched his face in, like a meteor crashing into the earth, breaking his skull and spraying blood on both him and Yunga. Shanta let go of his corpse and it fell to the ground with a final splat. The only other vampire left alive was the one that Hillanter threw at the crows nest, her back being broken and her whole body in the shape of a U. He went over to her and stomped her head to put her out of her misery.
“I hope Zunci and Brentha are ok.” Yunga said as she ran down into the living quarters, she was also wiping her face from the blood that was sprayed on her.
Shug got up from the ground and scratched his head. “Thanks for saving me.” He said to Hillanter, who was throwing the bodies off the deck.
“Don’t mention it.” He said, as the body splashed into the deep water. “Next time, you need to protect yourself. You shouldn’t rely on us to help you every time you’re in trouble.”
“Got it.” He gave him a thumbs up.
“It’s ok Shug.” Shanta said as she hopped over. “You wouldn’t have known that they were vampires.”
“Yeah but still, I did nothing in that fight. I kinda feel bad.”
“Don’t be, I’m pretty sure everyone was left unscathed.”
Yunga came out from the living quarters. “Zunci and Brentha are ok, we’re all good here.” She was dragging out one of the corpses and threw it overboard. “They only got dirty.”
“That’s great to hear.” Shanta said. “Need any help moving the bodies?”
“I’ll help too!” Shug said eagerly as he rushed down into the living quarters and past them both.
“He’s more energetic than usual.” Yunga said.
“Guess he really wants to help out.” Shanta said.
“Let’s get this over with.” They both started walking down the stairs. In the living quarters, Zunci was helping Brentha wash off all of the blood she got on her. The hole the vampire made was visible. Shug dragged a body by carrying the guys shoulders and up the stairs. Yunga and Shanta both grabbed the same body, making it easier to carry.
“How did you figure out these people were vampires?” Yunga asked Shanta.
“Oh.” She said, “Inside the wrecked ship we found them on, there were five bodies inside that all had bite marks, and what gave it away to me is that they had the same face as the one we picked up. I know vampires can take the disguise as the people they suck the blood out of. But from what I hear, vampires aren’t seen out here at all.” They both threw the body off the ship and into the cold dark water below. “Mainly because there's no one who's insane enough to even come through here.” Shug got out a mop and bucket and started cleaning the blood off the deck and inside.
“So where do we head to now?” Shug asked as he planted the mop into the bucket, making a little squish sound.
Yunga pulled out the map she had in her pocket and unfolded it. It was a little crumpled up but still clear enough to read. There was a little town up ahead, just a little bit past the silent sea. It was labeled on the map as Ruken, and had a little chest symbol next to it, signaling it as a primary market town. “This place looks good to go to.” She pointed at it.
“I’ve heard of Ruken, very popular in the market space.” Shanta said looking at what she pointed at.
“Did you guys say Ruken?” Zunci came out of the living quarters.
“I forget that you used to be involved in the black market.” Yunga said.
“Ruken is not only one of the most popular market places, but it’s one of the biggest coastline markets in the whole world.”
“Are there any good places there?”
“Are you kidding? Of course! If you think of it, they’ll have it. All the way to weapons to clothing and even miscellaneous stuff like little pins used for crochet. Many sellers from all over the world come to that place and sell anything they have on hand.”
“Hm clothing.” Shug said. “We could use some new clothes. Plus, we’ll need wood to patch up that hole.”
“If there’s weapons I’m totally in.” Hillanter chimed in.
“I’m definitely in need of some new clothes.” Brentha said as she was still scrubbing off her dress.
“All right then, to Ruken it is.” Yunga said. They all got back into the routine of getting the ship in motion and moving on past the wreckage and out of the silent sea.
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It took almost half an hour but they were finally able to make it out of the silent sea. The look of sunlight felt foreign to them, after being in the fog for almost an hour. They kept along the downstream, reaching a shoreline of a huge island, they followed it down until they saw it, Ruken. The town was huge, all littered with marketplaces as far as the eye could see, all of them bustling with business. The town had a port which was packed with tons of ships, some as big as warships, but they were all filled with market goods. The town was placed right next to a huge forest landscape that covered the remainder of the island. The crew pulled up their ship, slowly drifting it into the dock and anchoring the ship in the dock. They all hop off onto the busy dock, people rushing past them with carts full of stuff, people and guards walking around. A very crowded area that was almost overrun, it felt like the whole dock was gonna collapse on itself due to the weight of all of these people.
They finally got through the dock, after barging their way through the dock and into an even more crowded marketplace. The shops were separated into aisles for all of your needs, one aisle for food and another for weapons and so forth. Hillanter immediately broke off from the group to go check out the weapons aisle. The whole group had a collective share of leftover gold inside the ship left over by Drinter’s crew before them. Shug and Brentha both went to the clothing aisle, which was the least populated out of the bunch. Yunga, Shanta, and Zunci, go down the food aisle, needing to stock up as they spend the remainder of their supply.
“Shug, look at this!” Brentha pulled out a dress from the rack, it was a pretty dark blue color that had a nice little flower pattern on it. “This one is even softer than my last one.”
“That looks nice.” He picked up a black pair of pants, and a brown pair of boots. “Oh my god.”
“What?”
“This’ll be the first time I’ll be able to wear shoes.”
“You’ve never worn shoes before?”
“Never, always been on my bare feet ever since I was born.” He gave off a little smile as he brought it up to the vendor and bought them, along with Brenthas dress, and some t-shirts and shorts she also wanted. Using up their last of their share. They go to a more secluded part of the market place and try on their new clothes. Brentha flaunting around in her new dress, and Shug enjoying the new feel and look of his pants. He kept his old shirt, with the dirty spots it still has on it.
Brentha took his boots and held it out towards him. “Try them on.”
Shug took them with eagerness and put them on. “Oh my god.” He started giggling with excitement, like a kid with a Christmas present. “This is amazing!” He started walking around with them, then started jumping with joy as he laughed. “I can’t believe so many other people in the world have this luxury!” He was overcome by his laughter, the hardest he laughed in his life.
His laugh made Brentha laugh alongside him. “I’ve never seen someone this happy.” She remarked as she kept laughing alongside him.
They both stared at each other as they stopped laughing and smiled at one another. “This is the best thing I’ve experienced.”
“I’m glad.”
They both take their old clothes and throw them away as they walk back to the group. 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRbKvwlNPeJ
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“Hey guys!” Shug waved at the rest of the crew, who were standing outside a little tavern.
“Ooo, loving the new look.” Zunci said as she held a sack filled with vegetables.
“Thank you so much.” Brentha bowed. “What’d you guys get?”
“Just the usual stuff for cooking and some little snacks as well. We picked up these little baked brownies, you just need to try it, it’s so fucking good.”
“I got myself a new axe.” Hillanter said as brandashed it.
“You could’ve gotten something for the whole crew.” Yunga said.
“Well I didn’t hear anybody say they needed anything.”
“I could’ve used a new sword.”
“It’s unfortunate that we don’t have enough money to put together to get that.” Shanta said.
“It’s fine.” Yunga said. “I can live without it.”
“How much do we have?”
“I’m not sure.” Yunga pulled out a little purse she had on her. In total, they had five gold pieces left to spend. “Only five.”
“Damn, well at least we spent most of it on food.” Zunci said as reassurance.
“Yeah, that's the good thing.”
“Where do we go from here?” Shug asked.
“Don’t know, but we’ll have to find some way of making money, soon we’ll run out.”
“Maybe we can ask around?” Brentha suggested.
“It’s getting kinda dark, no one will be up for people asking around for little jobs.”
“Are we just gonna get back on the boat?”
“Looks like it.”
They all grab their stuff as the sun continues to set, and Shanta looks back at the tavern and pops up an idea. “How about we stay at the tavern for the night?”
Everyone turns around to look at her.
“I’m pretty sure they have a bath we can use to wash up, and we definitely need that.” She continued.
“Sure, that sounds great.” Zunci said. “Let’s just get these to the ship and we’ll rent some rooms.”
“I’ve never stayed in a tavern before.” Shug said.
“How much will it be though?” Yunga asked.
“I’ll check, give me the purse.” Shanta requested. She took the purse that Yunga held out to her and went over to the tavern to see how many rooms there were available, and the price of them. The rest of the crew went back to the ship to put all of the goods they got. The rooms were relatively cheap, as many people in the night leave Ruken as most of the shops close around that time, leaving the dock nearly empty. To rent the rooms it was only for one gold coin. The rooms came with a bed and a bathroom. Included with the room was the key for the communal bath.
The whole crew settled into their rooms and they all hit the communal baths, they were separated by sex. Their ship was being protected by one of the guards that guard the port at night. While in the baths, everyone washed their clothes along with their bodies. Soon after the bath, they all went to their respective rooms after saying goodnight to each other, exhausted from the past three days.
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Shug couldn’t sleep at night and got up to use the bathroom. Though, when he walked in, the toilet was destroyed, like someone smashed it with a hammer. Not wanting to wake anybody else up, he went outside to take a piss in some bushes. He put on his new boots and walked outside into the cold dark night. He walked out to some bushes and started to let loose, when the front door to the tavern swung open and a guy just ran out holding a small chest in his hands. Shug freaked out and stopped his twinkle, zipping up his pants as he turned around to face him. The man came running up to him and held out the chest to him.
“Take it!” The man said, while also keeping it in a hushed tone, like he wasn’t trying to let anyone else hear. The man looked old but still young at the same time, his eyes bugged out on some kind of chemical. Shug had known that look too many times, always seeing it in the face of his parents.
“What!? No.” Shug responded as he pushed the chest back at him.
“Please dude, take it!”
“I told you no.”
The guy, not wanting to waste any more time, pushed the chest into Shug's face and ran away. Shug stood there, holding the chest as the guy ran off into the woods. He reluctantly put the chest down on the ground, thinking he stole it. After a minute passed, no guard came up to him like he thought would happen. When he was sure no one else was coming, he bent down to inspect it. There was nothing strange about it, it just looked like a regular chest. He fiddled with the latch that was on it, lifting it up, unlocking the chest. He slowly lifted the top off, to see what was inside. A bright green glow shone in his face, slightly blinding him. The source of the green glow was a singular small green crystal, the size of a pebble238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtZJOuI8Vy8
