Prologue:
The walls creaked eerily, books upon books about various dark lords and horrible kings were strewn about the room; the carpet, in front of the desk, was stained with dried up blood and wine, and out from the ceiling, was a chain with a lamp hanging on a hook at the bottom. It swayed side to side slowly with the ship, this was the captain's cabin. Aryll had no idea why she had even thought of coming in here-if anyone were to catch her snooping around-No! She wouldn't think of the danger right now, right now she needed to concentrate on what she was here to do; it was now or never, she had to get out of here. Carefully she reached for the rolled up scroll sitting ever so neatly in the center of the desk; as she started to unroll the parchment there was loud grunting noise, Aryll froze. The grunt was answered by the sound of laughter, and that came from the ceiling. The girl's shoulders relaxed, the grunt had come from the floor above. She took a breath and started opening the scroll once again. Once it was all the way open, Aryll let her eyes wander over the gigantic map, it showed the full expanse of 'The Great Ocean' her eyes then traveled over to one large island by the name of Stratos a massive red 'X' almost completely blocking out the island in question marked 'their' apparent destination, but it wasn't hers.
Zephos' words rung in her head: 'Young Aryll to start your quest you must retrieve something of great value, since this is your first time I'll go easy and tell you where to start. *AHEM* The island of Aeros is your first step.'
'The island of Aeros…..' Aryll mused silently, looking up from the map to the blank wall on backside of the room.
[BOOM], the sound of a cannon. The ship had company, and that meant the captain would be in here at any moment to get his pistol and cutlass. Aryll wrapped up the map and started to leave without it, but she back tracked, and instead, stuffed it in the special spoils bag Zephos had given to her. [BOOM], another cannon went off, it was time to go, Aryll headed to the door but stopped when she caught sight of something that piqued her interest,
'Well I guess a couple of extra rupees wouldn't hurt', she gave an inaudible squeal of delight and took herself a bit of extra bounty. She took five orange rupees and four purple.
"All men be ready for the plunderin'!" At this statement from the captain, the deck above seemed to come alive with stomps and shouts. The perfect cover for her get away, and it was in the dead of night. Apparently more than just one god had smiled upon her fate.
"Cannons ready?! FIRE!" [BOOM, BOOM, BOOM] "To ARMS!" The captain shouted.
Aryll now on the top deck, unseen among the men raging for battle, sidled her way over to the escape boat and she said quietly to herself, "….To Aeros…."