Lost

Chapter 1

The wind howled as rain fell in such high quantity that it was practically thick fog. The sailors scurried across the deck, fixing all the leaks and holes on the main deck. All the while, the captain remained on the quarterdeck to maintain stability of his vessel.

"Keep steady!" he shouted, over the crashing of waves. Soon, one slammed right into the side of the ship to rock it to the side. Sailors fell down and quickly disappeared from sight. In dismay, the captain watched his crew dwindle in numbers until but a few stood up and went back to work.

Eight days. Eight long, hard days that didn't seem to end. The captain kept a personal note of each, his guide being the transition from dim daylight to pitch-black darkness only illuminated by bolts of furious lightning. Never did the rain stop nor the howling wind. It felt like they were stuck there for an eternity in the same conditions. Over and over again. It was purgatory or some type of hell.

"Cap'n!" a sailor cried under the loud downpour.

"What is it?" the captain demanded. He put all of his weight into steering the ship; all that mattered was maintaining a straight line. If the ship were to submerge, it would be certain death. He didn't want to know if the sea monster rumors were true. There were quite a few, which had all of them dwelling in the deepest and darkest depths of the ocean. No sailor lived to tell tales of any encounters, though some claimed to witness boats being torn apart or terrible events of that sort from afar--it could all be a load of lies for all he knew.

"We don't have the manpower to keep 'er steady!" the sailor returned, rushing up the stairs onto the quarterdeck. The captain gave the weasel of a man a hopeless look, but he directed his eyes to his surroundings. It could not end this way. There was some way out of this hell, surely.

"Get back down there, so she doesn't submerge!" the captain ordered, in an impatient shout. Following the command, the sailor ran back to his post and helped with the others. Water was already flooding the main deck, about to rise up the stairs. The boat was bound to sink eventually. He could only imagine the bottom deck--bottom deck! The captain's eyes shot over to the trapdoor on the flooded main deck.

He had just plundered a trading vessel, but not just any. It was a part of the Royal Fleet, operated by agents of the Golden Dawn. Once he spotted those golden flags rustling in the wind, he knew he had found gold, literally. Barrels upon barrels... bars upon bars... the sailors had all grown so happy.

Now it was all gone. Every single last of the cargo had vanished. There was no use attempting to retrieve any. It was suicide to venture down below, for it was surely fully flooded and perhaps a new home for predatory monsters. Out of sight, out of mind; he had to focus on the most essential task: survival, then money, if it still remained.

Another bolt of lightning lashed across the dark sky, a piercing roar of thunder in close pursuit. The captain had grown used to such sounds and sights, but that one startled him for whatever reason. Death was soon approaching, and that was a clear sign of it. Time was running out. He had to find an escape, somehow. There had to be something to help him. Something!

There is always an escape. Just look over yonder, for the stars themselves, and you shall find it, a voice echoed in his mind, blending with the rain smacking against the deck around him; the waves crashing against his vessel; and the thunder that screamed bloody murder.

He would call it his own, but it really wasn't. This was the intervention of some creature, maybe even a god. His pleas had been answered for the first time in his own life. In the past, he had rotted in a cell, watched his brother get impaled in the chest and bled out until his untimely demise--he was helpless. Only the gods could help him, and they saw it unfit to.

Apparently now they had. It could've been out of pity for not helping him in all those times before. It could be that they saw value in him. Or that he was truly going to die this time, for all the rest he had barely slipped by. Life and death were on opposite poles. He had gotten a fingerwidth away to the latter multiple times, though it wasn't enough. He always made it out in the end.

"Stars... stars," he muttered, and frantically searched the dark sky for any specks of light. Anything but lightning. Anything but despair. After minutes of searching, he dropped his eyes down and sighed. It was just false hope. He had been mocked. Death was surely playing with him by now.

"Cap'n! Cap'n, look!" a sailor shouted, exasperated,  the roar of thunder, rain, and waves alike. Hope had surged into the captain once more, so he obliged to the request. There he saw it. It was true alright; this was no mockery or a blatant lie. A grin spread across his face as he gripped the steering wheel, so that his knuckles were white. His eyes widened as if he were back in the hold of the trading vessel. Gold, precious gold. It lay right before him within reach. He only needed to grab out for it.

"Well, boys, we have just struck gold," he announced, steering his vessel straight ahead of him, where specks of light shone through a thick, dark blanket of clouds. It was either all in or nothing. This was his last chance. Life or death. Riches or empty coconut shells.

He steered with more focus than he had ever cared to give in his life. All those times before, he had been so careless. Money was on the line. But when life--his crew's life as well as his own were at risk, things were different. They had not died in vain, for he would continue on to build a great legacy. He would be known as the most fearsome and notorious pirate across the seven seas. His name would go down in every piece of paper, in every mind, in honor of those that put his life before theirs. And there were plenty.

With a clap of thunder bouncing from ear to ear, he shot left to right, his vessel synonymous with his commands. He corrected every turn, anything that would threaten stability.

And when he shot right out of darkness and into an explosion of light and clear skies, he heaved a relieved sigh. What remained of his crew cheered and threw their caps up. Water had risen to their knees, yet, it would not rise any longer. It would only fall now that the storm was behind them. Chaos had moved out. Order had made its miraculous return in perfect time.

There was land in the distance, a bright green mass that seemed unnaturally flat. But land was land.

"Land ho!" he shouted, taking it upon himself to relish the duty. He stood back, his sweaty and red hands free of the damp steering wheel, and stared at the beauty before him. Behind him, his men gathered and stared ahead. They had hugged the pillars to save their own hides as their crewmates were forced into the sea, forever lost. It wouldn't be easy to rid of such guilt.

There was hope, after all.