I’ve been captured… I thought as I sat, gagged, blindfolded and tied, hand and foot, in the small rowboat, squished between two of the five bulky sailors crammed into the small boat. We were headed towards the Quintess, ship of the cruelest and most mysterious pirate known to man. No-one has ever seen them, nor their ship, and lived to tell the tale. It’s even said that they use magic to conceal their ship from the outside world, only the crew of the ship know how to find it.

I suddenly heard the sound of wood against wood and felt the small boat jerk to a stop and fell forward, nearly going overboard. As I did, the five sailors all burst out laughing. Then one of them pulled me to my feet by the collar of my shirt and spat onto my ear, “Be’er not go overboard boy! The cap’n won’t be happy if that happened” That caused them to all ring out in laughter again. “That’s right!” One of the others said, “And the crew will want to see yer head, wouldn’t wanna disappoint ‘em!” That aroused yet another round of their mind numbing, drunken laughter.

After their laughter died down one of the sailors pushed me towards the edge of the boat and tied a rope around my hands and pulled it so tight it cut off the circulation. As soon as he finished tying the rope, I heard what sounded like metal grinding, then the rope around my hands started to drag me upwards. I groaned in pain, it felt like my arms were being pulled off and my wrists burned as the rope pulled roughly against my bare skin. The rope smelled of rotten fish and rum, not the most pleasant combination, it made me want to puke. It didn’t help my stomach any when I was suddenly jerked over the side of the ship and thrown on my back.

I laid there, winded yet grateful for the moment of calm. Then that moment of was interrupted by a rough hand dragging me to my feet. The smell of rum was overwhelming as the sailor untied the rope that had hauled me onto the ship just moments before. I flexed my hands trying to regain feeling in them, but just as I started to feel them again, they were retied, just as tight as before, cutting off the circulation once again. When the sailor let go of my wrists I lost my balance, because of the ropes around my ankles, and fell painfully to the rough wood of the deck. “Hah! The farm boy can’t even keep ‘is balance long enough ter stand straight!” One of the sailors gawked as he kicked me in the side, causing an eruption of pain to shoot through my whole body. I doubled over in pain as I felt another kick, to my stomach this time, and all the sailors burst out in laughter.

“Now, now boys. Is that how we treat our guests?” I heard an eerily familiar crystal like voice say. A panicked shuffling of feet followed then one of the sailors said quickly, “ Uh- we’re sorry cap’n! We didn’t mean no harm! We was just messin’ around with ‘em!” “I’m sure you were Darnell.” the voice said again, This time I recognized it…

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