Abducted Treasure

Chapter 1: I Get Abducted By A Mysterious Hot Guy

 ~~~ Fwhip's POV~~~

I took another sip from my mug of beer, idly watching a pair of Nightingales dancing drunkedly with each other, but my eyes kept straying to a booth in the corner of the tavern, where two Kestrels and a Kite were drinking and talking with each other.

He was watching me again.

I first noticed him watching me a few weeks ago at the docks. I was rerigging my sails because one of the ropes had snapped, and when one breaks, it usually means the rest are soon to follow.

I had felt a tingle on my back, my senses telling me I was being watched, and I looked up to see him staring at me from his own ship, only a few berths away.

He was a bit taller than me, from what I could tell, and had golden hair with several small braids that shone in the sun, and hung loosely around his shoulders. A short beard covered face, also glowing golden. His eyes were a dark brown, and he filled his shirt and jacket very nicely. He was wearing a loose white shirt with puffed sleeves, a light blue vest on top of it, black pants and dark brown boots. A golden-brown badge with a flying Kestrel on it marked him as a part of the Kestrel faction.

All in all, he was quite hot.

Our eyes only met for a second, pale blue to dark brown, before he turned abruptly and jumped onto the dock, walking away with his hands in his pockets. I noticed a silver gun at his belt, probably a flintlock, the most common gun carried by pirates.

I had seen him more since then, lurking around the Heron base and at the quest board, but this was the first time I had seen him indoors, and without him running away as soon as he saw me. His hair wasn't actually gold, it was a warm brown that shimmered in the light, as if dusted with golden glitter. The braids shifted in his hair as he turned to look around the tavern, our eyes meeting.

We both froze. Normally he'd look away and make an escape as soon as I clocked him, but this time he stayed staring, and so did I. If this was a competition, I was not losing. It's not like looking at him was a problem, anyways.

My thoughts must have reflected in my eyes, because he suddenly shot me a crooked grin and stood up, turning back to the two people at his table. One of them gave him something, a cylinder, and he walked away, slipping out a side door into the night.

I stared at the door he had walked out of, and began to get up too, to go after him, but a hand landed on my shoulder, keeping me in my seat. I swiveled around on the chair, seeing the face of my friend Scott, a fellow Heron, fill my vision.

"Staring at cute guys, Fwhip? If you want to find a boyfriend, there are plenty of people with a crush on you. I could set you up with one, a nice double date?" Scott signed.

I shook my head, but then a detail from his signs caught me. "Double date? Double date with who?"

Scott looked around, then leaned in conspiratory, signing in smaller gestures, "There's a super cute Nightingale called Jimmy. I'm going to date him."

I snorted, never hearing the sound but feeling the vibration in my chest. "And have you actually talked to Jimmy yet?" I asked him.

Scott grinned. "We went on a quest together the other day. He's such a cute idiot."

I finished my beer and stood up, dusting my pants to clear it of crumbs from a pastry I ate earlier. "Well, good luck with that. I'm going to sleep." I signed, the dim lighting making it barely visible. "Later, Scott."

Scott waved goodbye, and turned to flirt with a man sitting on his other side, who was rapidly beginning to blush at the cyan-haired Heron's attention.

I step out of the tavern, shivering as the warmth from the hearth and the heat of bodies was replaced with the icy nighttime wind. The full moon lit the path ahead of me, and I walked down the road, heading for the Heron base on the far side of the island. I saw a few birds hopping in the trees, probably nocturnal nightjars getting up and preparing to hunt their quota of bugs for the night.

Darkness suddenly covered everything as a cloud floated in front of the moon, and I ignored the goosebumps rippling across my skin as I stopped moving. Everything had gone from being moderately visible to only faint suggestions around me, shadows swirling around darker spots that could or couldn't have been trees and boulders.

I decided to stay still until the moon came back out, so that I wouldn't walk into anything. Since I was deaf, I wouldn't be able to hear anything, and I was as good as blind with the moonlight gone. It was safer to stay put, really.

It had nothing to do with the shivery feeling of losing another sense, of not being able to see as well as not hear. I was not scared.

Taking a few hesitant steps to the left, I extended my hands out, trying to feel my way to the side of the path without hitting anything head-on.

I only go around a foot and a half to the left before my hands hit something large and smooth- a boulder.

Guiding myself by sliding my hands along the smooth surface, I carefully lower myself to the ground and sit with my back against the big rock, staring up at the sky.

The moon had to come back sometime...

I sat in the darkness for a few moments, staring blankly at the black sky, studded with stars, and tried to find the constellations I knew. Drakonisius, Amascis, Yvolu... The patterns formed in the sky, calming me a bit.

The brisk wind from earlier picked up again, and I rubbed my bare arms, wishing I hadn't left my jacket home. It had seemed a warm night when I stepped out in the evening...

Fortunately, the wind pushed the clouds covering the moon away, and I was able to see the path again. I got up quickly, eager to hurry home, but then something behind me pushed me back down, and my head hit the ground hard enough that I almost slipped into unconsciousness.

I put my elbows under me and pushed up, twisting around to face my attacker, but then something went over my head and arms, making me lose my balance and fall over again.

My head hit the ground again, and this time it knocked me out. The darkness rushed in, and I slipped away to the feeling of being picked up and carried.