Captain Fury: Pirate of Berk

10: Escape

Advisory: Violence

Escape

Fury was paying a lot less attention to his surroundings as he was hauled back to the cell, his legs completely turned to jelly by the events of the previous hour and head spinning from the effort of not screaming. The guards opened the door and threw him bodily in. He slammed to the floor and curled up, wrapping his arms over his head and trying to get just a few moments to compose himself. They had dragged his tunic over his body and he had hauled his leather armour on but underneath...oh gods, he couldn't even think about what they had done... He curled up tighter, his shoulders tightening and the burning pain nagging. He bit hard against his lip: he couldn't share this. Drago was a monster and Fury realised just how cruel and vicious the man was. He just wished he could have some time to come to terms with what had happened. But then he heard small steps running forward and he frowned as Arild's voice called for him. He groaned as the boy threw himself against the pirate and hugged him. Fury winced as he painfully managed to get to his knees and hug the boy fiercely before staring carefully into the anxious face.

"Why are you here?" he asked sternly. The boy gulped: this was it. He had disappointed Fury.

"I'm sorry," he murmured. "I-I wanted to help. So-so I sorta stole the key..." Fury stiffened and stared at him.

"What?" he breathed. The boy smiled and pointed to Fishlegs, who was whirling the key around his finger.

"What's the plan, Captain?" the First Mate asked, seeing his friend heave a sigh of relief. Fury lifted his head-then pulled his scarf up, hiding the horrible bruises on his face.

"It's obvious-we return to the ship and make our escape!" Eret said pompously. "Honestly-why are we deferring to his vagabond thief?"

"He's the Captain, his man got the key and he's the only one who's had a chance to check out the layout of the ship!" Stoick pointed out gruffly. He was getting heartily fed up of the pompous General. Even their crew had deferred to Fury's team because they had already plotted a basic escape plan and quartered the cell for every possible advantage: they were clearly a team with experience and determination The pirate glanced up.

"Thanks," he said roughly and tousled Arild's head absently. "There are lots of guards-especially on the stairs to the main deck. They don't hesitate to use force. They travels in fours so will be a handful for a small group. The passages down the ship are less well guarded but there is an anchor chain that passes close to our ship: if we get to the chain it should provide a safer route to the Night Fury." He took a breath and lowered his eyes. "If we want to go, we need to go soon because they are coming back for me."

"So we wait until they take him back to be tortured and then we escape," Eret said as if it was obvious. At that point every head snapped round to glare at him-including his wife. "You may not like my reasoning but if we go before, it is highly likely our escape will be uncovered before we even get off the ship."

"You listen here..." Astrid began, her eyes flashing in rage. She had no idea what Fury had done but he had promised to protect them and so far, he seemed to be delivering.

"No, he's right," Fury said in a low voice. His arms were still wrapped around the boy. "But you won't find your way out without me." He raised his head and his piercing emerald eyes swept over the crew. "Twins-this thing has a double hull, both twice as thick as ours. But I believe the lower hold is packed with explosives...and if we can ignite them, this ship will go to Hel and provide enough of a distraction for us to get away." He swung his head around. "Governor-there are fifteen ships in this Armada. I have seen the orders for them. They plan an attack soon...but I hope our escape may make them pause."