The Lost Islands

Daggers In The Dark

Snoring. Just loud snoring. I tried to close my eyes but it wasnt quite the best of beds. Everyone is dead asleep at the crew quaters. Its pure darkness as i hear the small waves rocking the ship and splashing against it. I cant sleep. I get out of my so called bed and slowly walk towards the doorway. I looked to the left and then right, and headed towards the ladder leading to the deck. I climb and get out of there, i needed some air.

"Beautifull." I whisper as i look at the moonlight, lighting up the waves around the ship, alongside a few lanterns shining on the dark brown wood. Above there are  thousands of starts decorating the night sky. - "Cant sleep?" A new voice frightens me. I turn around to see an elf at the wheel, looking down on me. - "No... i cant..." I look up on him. - "Me neither" He motions me with his head to come over. "Come on here then." I nod as i walk up to him, puting my hands on the railing. He looks to the sea in front and then at me again. He is holding the wheel casually. - "What is your name boy?" He asks me with a soft smile. "Toby Scott, sir." I say. "What is yours?" He looks back to the way the ship is slowly sailing. - "Call me Finlas." He says, nice, simple and short.

"I am the capitans quattermaster. I like to take the wheel by night, when it is calm, dark and peacefull." - "I can see why..." A bit of an akward sillence came in. "How long do you know the capitan?" He looks at me again, then back to the front. - "Seven years. And he called me Finlad the first one." He chuckles a bit. "But he is a good capitan, you know, he-" He suddenly stoped talking as he looked into the darkness. "Go get the capitan." He said in a serious tone. I looked to where he was looking but could only see darkness. "Now." I looked to him, not asking a question, and then ran back, towards the capitans cabin.

I aproached the door and knocked it loudly. No answer. I knocked again, as i heard grunts coming from inside. The door opened, with the capitan apearing in his tunic. - "What is it lad?" He said in a bit annoyed yet worried voice. - "Finlas told me to come and get you, sir. I dont know why." I answered in hurry. He looked at me for a second as he came back in a bit with his uniform. I seen a one handed dwarvish sword hanging by his side. - "Lets go." He spoke as he hurried to the deck, with me right behind him. We got to the deck as i heard him speak again. "What is it Finlas?" He walked in hurry up the stairs to the wheel.

The lanterns were out and we seen Finlas standing there, in the darkness, as he sushes the capitan. We crouch next to him as he whispers. - "Goblin raiders, a small ship in front of us now. I dont think they have any cannons though. Its an old scooner i think." Capitan Steelfist takes a moment to take it all in. - "Call the lads, we wont waste cannonballs shooting in the dark, arm yourselves." He says as Finlas runs of quietly and swiftly. Soon, a quiet noise is heard bellow and after a few minutes, the crew appears, armed to the teeth with mostly daggers, swords and spears. "Hide. Prepare to ambush on my mark." Steelfist says as he starts lighting the lanterns back on, geting many odd and confused looks his way.

With asking no questions, the crew hides. Some under, next to and in some places on the ship, between the cannons, on top of sails, inside, in and around the boat in the middle and so on. Steelfist puts his hand on my back as he lies on the floor, lowering me as well. He gives me a fine dagger as he nods at me. It took me a while to understand all what he just did but it came to me as i seen two hooks tied to ropes grabing hold of the railing of our ship, as from the darkness a smaller vessel soon aproached us. I seen some evil looking short creatures working the ropes and sushing each other as they prepare their daggers and spears and weapons such.

Soon, two more hooks grab hold of the other side of the ship, another group of goblins appearing. They start climbing the ship quietly. Their leader appears, strong, a bit taller than the others, and wearing a torn, old capitan hat. I look right at him as a loud noise of a pistol fires right next to me. The goblin falls to the ground. I look to my left to see the capitan standing there, a dwarvish flintlock pistol in his hand. He raises his sword and yells out. "ATTACK!" On that, the goblins look terrified as the crew appears everywhere, stabing and slashing away at the goblins. Some try to run, some try to defend themselves, but with no luck. They are ambushed and would only have a chance if the crew was dead asleep anyway, so the men, elves and dwarves made short work of the leaderless horde. Soon, they were all cleared as some of the sailors start throwing their bodies into the water, a splashing heard every few seconds.

By then i was allready standing there, looking at what happened as the capitan thrusted his sword into one last goblin on the wooden floor. I looked at him and reached out my hand to give him his dagger back. He gave me a warm smile as he gently pushed my hand back. "Keep it, hopefully you wont need it, but just in case." I smiled back at him and placed the dagger on my belt. - "What do we do with the scooners capn?" A man walks up to him, looking at him. - "Take whatever parts and cargo we might use and sink the ships." The man nods at him and salutes. "Aye, aye." He leaves and talks to some other crewmembers. - "This sure was new..." I say to myself as capitan Steelfist laughs hearty and pats my back.

The night got along as most went back to sleep. I heard someone talking about how there were no casualties and only one sailor was wounded, only a minor wound on the arm. I guess that went well. I climbed back to my so called bed as i managed to close my eyes. I rewinded all that happened today in my head. I felt the fine dagger by my side as it made me feel a bit safer. As the sea moved the ship slightly i slowly felt myself drifting into sleep, to another dream i will probably forget by the time i awake.