Wolfswood : Black

Chapter VI

We arrived in port cove by morning, the weather was extremely warm compared to the dull mountains we just hiked from, the buildings were exotic looking, palm trees with coconuts stood everywhere, along the port there were numerous ships, carracks and even a large galley ship, the galley ship caught my attention as on deck there were a couple of slaves in chains standing all around the mast with there hands down, elfs, humans even an a large Orc one with extra chains, the sight of this pissed me off greatly, Sam noticed this and came up to me, "Don't say anything, we won't stand a chance here, they'll waste us", I took his advice and kept all my anger on the inside, my stomach was incredibly painful, but still better since during our hike down, I collapsed and Sam used a small healing spell on me so I could at least make it back to woolfswood. We were catching a lot of attention, so we needed to leave fast, we were especially drawing attention with Elis, many of these scummy fucks were rapists and slavers, they'd rape her and then sell her off to someone in a split second, just for a bit of coin, it was people like these that caused problems in the world, there's war between kingdoms over petty borders etc, but it was these day to day things that made me sick, it was men like this that would cause the worlds ending, god will strike our land and rid it of everyone, if this is how life exists, it shouldn't deserve to exist. We had only a little coin left so all of the larger ships were automatically marked out, I really didn't want to, but I approached the captain of the galley ship with the slaves on deck, after a moment of haggling I promised him a bag full of silver if he sailed us to Navan, the captain, a rather fat cunt with a straggly beard with crumbs in it, wearing an oversized white Tunic with a white woolly hat, his crew consisted of half a dozen sailors, we all boarded and were about to depart, I assumed the slaves were cargo that he was planning on selling somewhere in one of the free city's, but instead of the crew members took out a large black whip and began lashing the slaves, the shouting of agony made me shriek with disgust, he ordered the slaves down into the galley and they began rowing, every few moments there would be a loud *lash* noise followed by a cry of pain, Sam and Nolan and penny seemed to ignore it after a while but Elis and I were disgusted by it, the entire journey was just the crying of slaves, they weren't even given a break, just laboured for hours on end. The journey back seemed to be far longer then the one over, I also mourned over the death of spud, times were changing, all the fighting for freedom, was it even worth it, i thought things would only get better, but I fear times are going dark, darker than before.

We arrived at the port in Navan at a quiet enough time, we docked up against a small pier, I heard the captain whisper to the first mate, "Keep the slaves in the galley" before he turned his attention to us, "Now the bag of silver", I looked at Sam and nodded to him, "Sam wait here with the rest while I go get it", Sam was basically acting as leverage, he would stay on ship while I went to get the money, I left and headed to the port but along the way I had a plan.

I arrived back at the port about thirty minutes later, the captain was pissed and walked up to me quickly as I walked onto the deck, "Where the fuck have you been huh?, you said five minutes, now pay me and get lost", I pulled out the bag of coins and said, "These boys want to talk to you first", we all turned and from a street, out came ten Woolfswood soldiers, they boarded the ship and made two lines of five facing each other and onto the ship walked General Losty wearing his black and wine garments and cape, he walked up the line and stopped right before the captain who at this point was now shitting himself and began stuttering, "Is there any cargo you shouldn't have, this is a random inspection in the name of his Grace?", the captain was silent for a moment and was sweating buckets, "N-Not that I know off, We were just giving these mercenaries a ride back to Navan, no trouble" and he began to awkwardly smile, General losty put his hands behind his back and stood straight, "You will address me as my lord", the captain lowered his head and said nervously "Of course of course, most apologies My Lord", General losty began to slowly walk around the deck, he then headed over to the stairs and walked down into the galley, he disappeared for a couple of moments where there was awkward silence, he then appeared back up with the same straight face, "You are aware Slavery has been in the new Woolfswood empire" the Captain began sweating even more and couldn't muster up any words no matter how he tried, out of nowhere he drew a small dagger and charged at the general screaming, The general Caught his arm Mid swing, he then drew his sword with his other hand and shoved it right through the captains chest killing him, he then looked up at the rest of the crew he were holding there drawn swords, they Immediately dropped there swords and yielded, the soldiers them cuffed them and put them onto there knees around the mast, I thanked General losty for the help and we shook hands and left, he began rolling a smoke with tobacco, Nolan walked up to him and said "Losty, I've always wanted to ask you this, but how did you hold Athlumney castle against eight thousands with only a hundred men" The General looked at him confused as if he didn't know what he was talking about, he then smiled as he remembered and just casually said, "Just did", Nolan began laughing and we left heading for the fort. I needed a healer and fucking fast.