Lost At Sea (Rough Draft)

Part 06

After a couple hours spent solely on finding an expression to escape the island, the young teen finally found the complex expression that would give them the ability to fly off the island and when they did it, they were not expecting to grow feathered wings. The feathers were light yellow, like their hair, that faded into pure white at the tips, their beauty and power stunned the young teen, they flexed their new muscles in between their shoulder blades, that were almost as big as they were. The young protagonist spent the next few days practicing flapping their wings, getting airborne and hovering a couple feet above the ground until one day they felt confident enough to fly over the ocean and back to civilization or to find the grand pirate ship. So one early morning, they woke up early and packed a bag full of food and water, reading to start their adventure across the ocean and to civilization, they took a jump off to start, frantically flapping their wings until they were finally high enough in the air and began to fly in the same direction they came when on the pirate ship. The experience of flying was exhaliterating and anxious just on its own but with flying with their own wings, it felt like actual freedom, whether or not it was too much or not is undecided, the young teen felt powerful and ready to face whatever and whoever came their way. The protagonist knew that what they were doing was unimaginable to anyone who didn't know about the magic, so they kept above the clouds to keep hidden from any pryfull eyes. Flying for most of the day landed the young teen on an island that was a port for ships, filled with pirates and shop keepers, busy enough for them to swoop onto a less busy part and vanish the wings with a flick of their wrist. They slipped into the crowd effortlessly blending in and began to snoop around, looking for anybody that they might recognize when they came across a loud tavern bustling with drunk pirates. It was almost impossible to distinguish any of the voices and they were about to give up, and began walking away, when a loud familiar voice shouted over everybody else, stopping the young protagonist in their tracks. They whipped around to see a very drunk captain being supported by a couple other crew mates, all with solomon looks on their faces and was about to run to them when out of nowhere they were yanked into a dark alleyway, a hand over their mouth and a sharp blade pressed against their throat dangerously close. The protagonist stood as still as possible, feeling the sharp blade dig into the skin of their throat as the hooded person pressed forward to whisper in the young teens ear, "Don't move as much as an inch or I will slice your throat and kill you." With a firm tug the stranger forced the protagonist further into the shadows, down more alleyways that were like a never ending maze until they stopped at a door and forced themselves in, locking the door with no escape. The hooded figure armed with a dagger gestured to a chair to sit in before warning the young teen to answer their questions truthfully or else they'll kill them, before pulling up a similar chair to straddle and begin their intense questioning. The protagonist's heart was racing in fear, while another part of them knew deep down that they could trust the hooded figure, so when the questions came, the young teen answered truthfully and honestly, or up to their ability, then out of nowhere the amulet pulsed sending a tingling sensation all over their skin when the kidnapper got too close. The kidnapper's eyes darted down to the glowing amulet before darting back up to the protagonist, in a hushed awe voice, "How do you have the amulet?" staggering back like they've seen a ghost, plopped down in the adjacent chair, dagger falling to the floor. The young teen wasn't exactly sure what to say, cautiously told the hooded person about their adventure of a story, living life on a pirate ship, then the island incident which led to them being stranded with the magical amulet and learning about the truth behind the myth of the magic and thus expressions. The stranger sat there silently for a couple moments after their story, suddenly they cursed, stood up and yanked the hood off their head revealing a female with similar features as the protagonist with short black brown hair and striking emerald eyes with an intricate tattoo, starting from the side of her face down her neck. The black image distracted them for a couple moments when a distinct sound of cannons firing startled both of them, the lady jumped back into action, sheathed her dagger to her hip and ushered the teen out of the random, deserted room to see what was happening and jogged back to the port. They skidded to a halt a safe distance from the commotion but close enough to see what was happening, the young woman hid behind a corner, peering behind it while the protagonist crouched behind a group of barrels while most of the island's population ran the other way. The young teen quickly recognized their crew of a family, weapons drawn, pointing at a giant of a person holding their captain up by the neck of his shirt, growling and demanding to know where the mythical amulet was. The captain barked back, yelling that they didn't have the amulet, just the mention of the powerful artifact made the crew flinch, the bigger man scoffed, dropping the captain back to his feet, explaining that he knew that he was gifted the tool to track down the island. In a drunken rage, the captain shoved his hand into his jacket, fumbled around to grasp something, yanked it out and threw it at the other man's feet, "Well here you go ... now you have the sailors tool, you can go find that damn amulet for all I acre" before walking away, waving his crew off, they reluctantly lowered their weapons and followed his lead into the tavern. The protagonist watched as their role model went from this courageous pirate captain to a man who has lost everything, no will to fight for his honor against a rival pirate but was yanked out of their thoughts when the woman next to them was glaring daggers at the other pirate captain as he picked up the tool with a bone chilling smirk and padded away, she met the young teens gaze and motioned for them to leave, back where they came with the promise of an explanation.