Once upon a time in a fair kingdom by the sea, there lived a young lad who was terrified of the ocean. He watched ships go out to sea, but each time they set sail he imagined himself standing on the deck watching the land sink away. His stomach turned over and his fear forbade him to set foot on one of the great sailing ships.
This terrible fear of the sea was likely the fault of the sailors’ many tales. Often when the ships came to land, the sailors came to the inn of the boy’s father. There they bested one another with terrible stories of sea witches, giant serpents, and the terrible Kraken. Even when the sailors were not telling tales of monstrous creatures they traded news of pirates. Many of those burly men bore vicious scars from the raiding brigands. “Sea Devils,” they called the pirates. He hated listening to those stories, but as much as he despised them, they amazed him. Now one-day the boy’s father announced a plan to travel to a distant land. The boy was delighted, for he would never again need to stare at the ships going out to sea. Neither would he listen to the terrors of the sea as the sailors traded stories. His father’s announcement of their new home soon crushed that delight. They were moving to an island. The boy panicked at this news, for in all his life he never once imagined a fate more terrible than living on an island. An island, he thought, was more like a ship than real land. Yet the day of their departure came, and the boy gripped his luggage with white knuckles. Ahead of him menaced the white sails of a ghastly ship. Far behind him stood the lovely white caps of the mountains. With his knees shaking and stomach writhing, he crawled up the wobbly gangplank and stumbled onto the ship. The next thing he remembered was laying in a hammock in the belly of the ship and trying to hold in the contents of his own belly. He failed. Day by day the rocking of the ship put terrible visions of sea beasts and pirates into his mind. Though his father tried to nurse him back to health he showed little improvement. The boy could not be persuaded to leave his bed for anything. One fateful day as they sailed on and on - for it was quite a long journey - a ship appeared on the horizon. Its black sails towered into the sky, and a red flag fluttered in the sea wind. No one came below deck to tell the boy, but he heard the shouting, the readying of canons, and the clamor of swords being drawn. The clattering became silent for a long while, and the boy hoped the pirates had left them alone. An unfamiliar voice crushed those hopes. “Give us your treasure, or we take your lives!” The boy could not think of any reason a dead man might need gold and quickly decided he preferred life to treasure. He hoped his captain thought the same. The booming of canon fire dashed his frail hopes once again. Gaping holes opened in the walls of the ship, and the boy saw sunlight for the first time in weeks. His absolute terror prevented him from caring. He felt the boards of the ship breaking apart underneath him and clung desperately to a wooden beam. His ears rang from the cry of canons. His stomach rolled and twitched. He could smell the burning canon powder mixing with the salty air. Water gushed into the ship. Another canon roared, and the boy found himself trying to hold on to a piece of wood bobbing in the open ocean. Around him floated the wreckage of his own ship, and there, standing against the cloudy sky, was the ship with black sails. A menacing red flag fluttered in the wind. “Oi! We’ve got a live one ‘ere cap’n!” Yelled a rough voice. “Bring it aboard!” Came a smooth and dreadful reply. A strong hand grabbed the boy, and he was rudely plopped into a small boat between two incredibly ugly men. The uglier of the two – though both sported grand-champion scars, warts, and wildly disproportionate features – pointed a rusty blade at the boy and smiled. “Try anyfing an’ Oi’ll gut you quicker ‘an you can blink.”
2 Comments
Josh Walker
5/20/2016 10:17:11 pm
How long am I going to have to wait until the next installment.
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J.C.E.
5/21/2016 09:25:43 am
New installments will come out every Friday at 9PM.
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