“Land Ahoy!” The watch-stander shouted.
Finally, after a week been stuck on the pirate ship, we finally made it towards a land which the land was an unknown. Captain Kenny leapt out of the ship, heading up towards the land with a few men behind him, making sure that the land was safe for us to settle down.
“Watch for the cannibals and the other pirate ships. Let’s see, hey Scar, get us some bearing of this area and we need a place where it is very secluded from any attacks,” He ordered.
“Aye, aye Capt’n!” He saluted.
Scar was our boatswain, Fredrick, Roger, Brad, Rio and Sweeney were our gunner, Hardy as our doctor, Henry as our master-at-arms, Ronald, Sylvester, Finn and Draken as our carpenter, me as the cook and the other mates Randolph, Hans, Alfin, Theo, Ronn, Howard, Artney, Josh and the youngest one Chast. There were 23 peoples on board not forgetting the heart-aching captain, Kenneth Rogers.
“You little missy, stay where you are!” He pointed towards me. “I won’t be at all happy if I am to found a dead body of our cook after 3 days of starvation and hardship to find one. Got that?”
“As if I would go out and wander around, breathing the same air as you, my honourable captain,” I mocked as I mimicked my face to provoke him and like always, ended up being ignored.
“Half of our men are to stay while the others will follow me. Thomas, Sweeney, Brad, Scar, Hardy, Randolph, Hans, Alfin, Theo and Chast are to follow me. The rest of you stay and guard the ship. Did I make myself clear?” He gave out orders again.
“Yes, sir!” Everyone’s voice were synchronised through the air in just one breath of words.
“Seems that we are in the same team... As usual, half of the gunner, all the carpenters and half of the mates including the cook must stay on the ship to guard it,” Fredrick went towards me and started a conversation.
“Why is that so?” I asked.
“The boatswain is needed as the navigator to recognise the area, the doctor is for the preparation if any of us who goes with the captain is hurt, a few gunners are to protect the others who are not skilled enough in fighting and the other mates are taken randomly to master any of the skills they learn on decks and as preparation if any of us rankers died during the voyage,” He explained briefly.
“Wow, the people are divided skilfully regarding their jobs!” I retorted in amazement.
“Yep, that’s right. That’s the captain’s ability to organise our specialty for the use of our voyage. He needs to take a few seconds to think of what’s best to do and if anything happens, everything is his fault that his plans have flaws. What’s more, a captain needs to master all knowledge regarding the ship except for cooking and medicals. It’s from his syllabus and I doubt about it. You see, a captain still need to know how to cook and to take care of himself.”
“Agree. So, what are we doing here instead of guarding the ship?” I asked again.
“Well, other than guarding the ship, if we find this settlement is in danger while the captain is away, we need to move away while one of the mates go search for the captain and inform him of our relocation,” He replied.
“What if we were ambushed?” Another question couldn’t seem to stop from getting out of my mouth.
“If we were ambushed, we will do our best to protect the ship while two mates or any other ranks or no ranks will go and search for the captain.”
“Why must two?” I asked again.
“Of course the enemy knows that we will send at least one people to inform the captain. In order to make sure that the information is safe, at least two people from the ship must go out and inform the captain separately and our way in telling that the information has safely been told to the captain is that the bird signal will be released.”
“What bird signal?” I was so curious to know that I didn’t notice that everyone was nowhere to be seen.
“Well, if you hear a bird chirping but the bird is nowhere to be seen and the sound is longer and two times longer than usual, that’s the bird signal,” He answered while whistling the tune of the bird signal.
“I see,” I finally got the picture.
“I think it’s the best for Miss Eleanor to remain inside the ship and stay in her room. Staying outside is quite dangerous you know,” Henry, our Master-At-Arms ordered. He’s much of a discipline caretaker.
“Yes, sir. I’ll be in my room right away,” I replied.
I went to my room and pulled out ‘The Unrequited Love’ and read it to my fullest enjoyment with my body landing on my cosy bed. In this chapter, Lilianna was kidnapped by a thief and was threatened to get married to him. Fredrick went after her and searched for her for the entire city but still couldn’t find any trace of that sneaky thief. When the holy matrimony was almost held, Fredrick finally reached the place and took away his lovely lover away from the danger. Lilianna was so terrified by the incident and cried on his shoulder for comfort as he felt so relieved that he managed to save her before the wedding took place and to know that he would lose his lovely lover forever. How sweet!
Fredrick finally knew the truth after he found Lilianna’s mother’s diary and read it out loud. They rejoiced over the revealed truth and sworn under the God’s name that both of them were to be husband and wife and live happily ever after:
You my love had awaited for me,
Longer than what I had ever thought of,
Me who was fooled by the dark lord,
Who wished for me as the next heir,
Who under the God’s name faking me,
The summer knight as his bloodline son,
Do not be worried my lady,
From now on and so,
We vow to love,
And protect each other.
But that’s not the end of the story! There’re more chapters ahead and before I could manage to read it, a shrill scream was heard from the outside doorway, heading towards my room. I jolted in alert and hide myself under the bed and the figure of an unknown masculine guy entered my room.
“Here kitty, kitty... Nice little kitty... Come out, come out wherever you are,” The stature was searching for something and I could tell that he was looking for me. I was so terrified, shivering from under the bed which I hugged the book tightly to my breasts. I saw Fredrick entered my room and knocked the man’s head until he fainted and called for me. I got out from my hiding and went to him as he swiftly grabbed my right hand and took me away for safety.
“We were ambushed! Someone in the ship associates with them! We have a traitor on board!” He explained.
“You got to be kidding me. Whoever is willing to do such heartless action?” I asked.
“I don’t know but Josh and Artney have made their way to inform the captain. None of us except me, you and both of them know about the information right now since we have a traitor here,” He said it in a single breath.
“What are we going to do now?” I asked.
“I need to get you to somewhere safe and fight back in order to protect the ship.”
Suddenly, 3 swordsmen appeared in front of us in just a blink of an eye. Fredrick took out his guns and shot them straight through the heart and heads. My eyes widened to see the situation and my breath seemed to stop for a second or two. Fredrick grabbed my hand and held it tightly as he led me somewhere safe. On our way, someone deliberately shot his left leg that made him fell on the woody ground.
“Ronnald, Finn... Why are you doing this to us?” Fredrick asked in a painful tone.
“Why? On what reason must every of us share the profit of our last robbery from the Navy when it was us who got it?” Ronnald asked.
“Everyone must share whatever their achievement is! Isn’t that what’s written in the protocol?” He fought their words back.
“Humph, we don’t need this weak crew and what bullshit is that protocol is about? Trash,” Finn provoked. “You lady, be our guest on our new crew ship.”
I frowned in disbelieve. I paced backwards for two steps as they went nearer and nearer towards me. Fredrick stood up, ignoring his wound and shot the bullet almost aiming at them.
“You know how skilled I am in this field,” He gaped at them with a scary look on his face.
“Yep. We know it very well...” Finn mocked. “Oh, be careful with the sword.”
“Whaa...” A sword struck deep inside his chest that made him fell back on the ground.
Another man, probably one of the unexpected guests stabbed him from the back, aiming straight towards his chest that leaved a very deep wound.
“You traitor!” He exclaimed.
“You buffoon. Ha-ha... Come here you lady,” Ronnald was reaching towards my wrist.
“Run Eleanor, RUN!” He shouted.
I sped away with full speed away from those so called traitors and I was running aimlessly for I know must be out from that place. Finn and Ronnald went after me, leaving their mate taking care of Fredrick who was now very weak to fight back due to the loss of blood. I went passed through the kitchen, along the corridors and now towards the hind deck. Somehow, I was kind of trapped in between jumping into the water or just let them take me.
“I bet you don’t know how to swim my lady. Just come here obediently and we’ll give you no harm,” Finn gave out one of his sarcastic smile.
“We know every detail of this ship since we’re the carpenter. So if you’re searching for a way to escape, it’s futile. We would never make an escape route and all carpenter needs to discuss every detail of the ship among them including the captain,” Ronnald let out a smirk of satisfaction.
I heard a whispery sound that told me just to jump off from the hind deck. I obeyed the whisper and jumped quickly without thinking the consequences of what would happen to me. I rather die than being treated as a slave. Finn and Ronnald quickly went towards where I jumped and had a slight peek from above. Captain Kenny rescued me when I was almost drowned falling into the ocean and dragged me inside a safety boat where it was used during hoax. He coated me with his coat and exclaimed, “I had long foreseen your act of betrayal, my honourable traitors. You may now face my judgment.”
“Captain, it’s not what you think it is. The ship over there threatened us to follow their orders,” Ronnald with his twisting exclamation.
“How do you explain this?” He took out a blue-print of the whole ship and on the blue-print were printed some plans to invade the ship. “The others have made their way in attacking those invaders and as for you two now my lovely traitors, any last words before your judgement?”
Both of them jumped out of the ship and were heading towards the unknown ship that was parked nearby. Captain Kenny took out a long sword and was speeding towards them on the water! He looked as if he was skiing on the water with a quick dash towards those two and slashed their heads off from their head. My eyes widened and my voice chocked my throat. I was too terrified to even see what happened and faced away from seeing whatever happened next.
“Don’t play with the Devil of the Sea,” He let out the words with the look of disgust towards the beautiful ruby sea where there, no more bodies were to be found floating instead of the bloody water that’s smearing the ocean.
He swam back towards where I was and entered the boat without a sound. He faced upwards, waiting for someone to peek down and greet him. Not long after that, Chast came and let down a rope.
“Go on,” He ordered, making sure that I went up first before him.
I obeyed his dictions obediently as Chast was holding the rope tightly with a help from Sylvester that was pulling the rope behind him. Chast let out a weak smile for comfort while Sylvester pulled me up inside the ship. Next, Captain Kenny’s turn. A bunch of invaders were tied with a rope and Randolph, Hans, Theo, Ronn, Howard, Artney and Josh were guarding them.
“Who sent you here?” Captain Kenny questioned.
“He... He asked us to come here,” One of them replied.
“Who is he?” He frowned.
“He! It was He!” He shrieked.
“Who is he?!” Captain Kenny’s volume went higher.
“Don’t you recognise him? It’s him! The one who called himself the Devil of the Sea! Kenneth Rogers!” He squeaked.
Captain Kenny was astounded to hear their statement that he finally knew that there’s an impostor that claimed himself as the Devil of the Sea. He let out an evil yet a dreadful laugh and gave them a very horrifying look of disgust.
“Tell me... Who is this idiot and where does he live? I’d like to meet him in person which I’d say the so-called phony,” He smirked.
“He’s no phony! Only the Devil of the Sea who can dance on the water and kill his prey with a perfect score! A quick dash on the water and a few steps of the deathly dance and kill his prey until it leaves no trace of human being except for the lovely ruby ocean,” Another one started to speak.
It was exactly just like what I had observed just now. The judgement he made for both of the traitors that leave nothing except for the bloody ocean. Captain Kenny was still gazing at them with an angry look, “Do you want to see the real judgement of the Devil of the Sea?”
“I’m quite certain that there’s no other than him could be the true Devil of the Sea,” One of them replied with a very serious tone. “He lives at a nearby cannibal Island with his crew and no one had ever seen him except us and his crew.”
“I really doubt that. That’s where I used stay 3 years ago and I found no trace of human beings except for the cannibals themselves,” Captain Kenny stated.
“It’s true! He’s there! He’s there! Not far from this island is where you can find him. There are 7 cannibal islands in this world so you might’ve gone to the wrong one,” He muttered.
Captain Kenny grabbed the man’s collar and exclaimed, “Take me there.”
And so, off we went in searching for the phony. Would we able survive in that so called Cannibal Island? I wasn’t quite sure of our safety but anyhow, since we have this legendary Devil of the Sea, we might not be harmed.
