The ship sailed west despite the strong eastern wind. The bow cut through the dark torrential waves, which splattered across the hull. The main mast flexed at an unbelievable angle, but the ship pushed forward anyway. A marvel to modern ship builders, the Pelican defied physics.
The crew of this masterpiece stood on the deck and watched into the night. The rejecting wind was a bad omen they thought. A suicide mission to be sure. But who would dare say anything to the captain? These men had too much respect for him. “Fear” perhaps, was a more realistic word to describe some of their feelings. It wasn't because he was ruthless. It wasn't because he was cruel. It was because of his sense of adventure, and his unbending will when his mind was made up. He was “unjustly optimistic” as his crew liked to put it and they were the ones who were most affected by his temporary oversights.
“Come now gents,” Kail said. “What’s the worst that could happen?” The captain always had a way of sounding even more out of his mind than he actually was. What’s the worst that could happen to them? They could think of numerous scenarios, which all ended in death; many first involving torture.
Kail took his telescope and climbed the crow’s nest. The lights from the city were far in the distance and he wanted to get a better look too make sure they were approaching outside of Imperial Jurisdiction. Of course, nothing was really out of the jurisdiction of the Pleneasian Empire, but at least arriving from the south, a ship could go undetected for quite some time. By the time they realize that this was an unlicensed ship, the Pelican would be hitting the docks. Patrol ships were sparse this late, but still a problem if encountered. Not that it could compete with the Pelican’s fire power or speed, but it could raise the alarm to other ships and the mission at hand would be jeopardized to say the least. No ships were in sight. Kail closed his telescope and started down the rope ladder.
Not one of his crew members knew his last name, but that suited him just fine. It added to his mystery. It added to his persona. The less people knew the better. The more mysterious he became the less questions people would be willing to ask him. He was the captain of this ship but he hated that title. His crew just referred to him as Kail. However, he had become somewhat of a legend of the seas and earned the name Kail the Brave, a title usually only bestowed to the knights of the Empire. The name was a slap in the face to those who worked so hard conquering territory for Pleneasia, and did not go unnoticed. He had a bounty placed on his head, partially for a name that he did not have a hand in creating, but more prominently because he was a pirate.
He was not a typical pirate though. In fact, other than the telescope he carried around with him, there was nothing piratey about him. No eye-patch. No peg leg. No hook for a hand. Nothing he wore differentiated him from any normal Pleneasian citizen and he liked it that way. It made it easier to get through towns without a huge target on his back, or at least it did until his face was plastered all over every town within the Empire’s control, with a nice price tag attached to bringing him in. Alive or dead, it didn't make a difference. He often thought about growing a beard to mask his recognizable face, but could never stand the itching after a week of growth. He tried wearing a hat pulled low to his eye line. It only lasted a few days, and then found a new home in the sea. He didn't like the shape it gave his thick brown hair. Never did a pirate care so much about his appearance. Despite being the adventurer that he was, Kail had not a single battle scar to show for it. That is, until he took off his boots.
Though he would never admit it, Kail had the remarkable affinity for getting shot in the feet. A few seasons earlier, during a resource raid on a Pleneasian settlement Kail was shot twice; once in each heel; while heading for the dock. He hobbled his way to the Pelican with cover fire from a couple of swivel cannons. The Pelican had already prepared to set sail and made a quick exist once Kail was safely on board. This little encounter earned him the name Lead Foot. It was bestowed on him by his first mate Foghorn, and he made it clear how much he hated it.
