CC2

1.5 - Pirates

The only thing that kept me sane and hopeful was the diary I now had from CC1. He was having quite a rough time on his side, too. The world was moving all around us, though his stories were much more uplifting than mine. I felt relief to know he was alright, in high spirits and still evolving as a person. At least he should cross paths with spear-tank and be in good hands now...

As for me, I was still as lost and alone as ever...

With every step forward, I take two steps backwards.

There was nothing I could do to stop the ship. It just kept moving, further and further away from the coast, travelling west, not even towards the side of the continent I was from.

Why must fate toy with me so...

For hours, I just sat on the deck, curled up in a little ball, lost and alone... I had given up on steering it, so all I could do was wait, hoping to come across other life or land... I had waited too long, and could no longer see land in the direction I came from.

As time went on, it almost felt like the ship had picked up speed. The water looked like a current, like it had a destination in mind that it was moving towards. I hadn't noticed before, but maybe something was causing the ship to have a fixed direction of travel.

Why would there be a current so deep in open waters?

In the distance I eventually saw a ship. My spirits lifted and I waved towards them, the thought of archers not even crossing my mind. The ship was larger than mine, and was headed towards me. For a while, it felt like fate was just going to ship me out to sea, to starve alone and away from everything...

But I was saved!

After getting closer, two balls of fire were launched from the ship, setting both sails ablaze. It confused me at first, but I remembered two things. I was still on an archer ship, so perhaps they could somehow tell. But more importantly, the balls of fire were from a mage, meaning we were on the same side.

"Wait, I'm not an archer!" I yelled, as loud as my little voice would let me. "I'm the only person on board!"

It was unclear if they heard me or had only intended on destroying the sails to begin with, but they let the ships closer without any more signs of attack. The crew were all surprisingly old, the eldest seeming to be the captain. It made me a little nervous, as they were all adult men, with very grotesque and rough expressions.

"Why is a lone girl on an archer vessel?" The captain asked me, raising one of his brows.

"It's a long story, but I was caught in a fight with archers and ended up stealing it. I don't know how to control it, so it floated off this way unintentionally."

"I see" the man said uncaringly, looking back to the ship. "And you really claim to say there's not another soul aboard?"

"Not that I know of. It's been hours so if there is anyone, they're likely archers that have been hiding, I guess."

"You have the captain's permission to come aboard then."

They threw me a rope and after I climbed over, the captain led me below deck. He didn't say anything when I asked where I was going, and after climbing down the stairs, he pushed me into a barred-off room, which he locked immediately.

"I don't know if you're up to something or if it's just a coincidence, but I don't have time to deal with the matters of you" he said, before leaving me alone.

I found myself a prisoner, once more...

While I often felt like I was naturally naïve and lacking of common knowledge, I couldn't help but wonder how much of my life would make sense to others. I hoped that they just locked me up until they finished whatever it was, they were doing, be it searching the empty ship or some event going on aboard their ship, but they didn't get back to me for quite some time. I heard a lot of yelling and accusations above deck, unorganised chaos pursuing. The captain came back and brought me a small cup of water and some food.