Between the Devil and the Deep Sea
1.0
The Pirates
It's the twenty-eighth of Kepakemapa when seagulls rest on the docks, squawking and ruffling their wings. Their heads dart around, round eyes large, as they take in the sunshine and foamy blue sea. Some of them strut about on the weathered wood, and the heavy footfalls of the people is hardly bothersome to the birds. They pick at crumbs from fallen food.
Outset is one of the largest islands in the Great Sea Republic, though it doesn't boast the hubbub of Windfall or Dragon Roost as the sleepy isle rests far south of Republic's other main islands. The docks' most frequent visitors are the picky seagulls rather than ships.
Aryll Forney stands among the flock of white birds, her favorite telescope held up to her eye. She peers through the thin tube and lens, scanning the ocean horizon. Waves lap at the shoreline far behind Aryll and at the posts that hold her over the water. The salty air of Outset fills her nostrils, and she breathes deeply. Wind whips at her pigtails and skirt of her floral dress, tangling the fabric between her legs. Despite the sunshine, Aryll feels a storm coming from the north as she watches the volatile waves churn on the horizon. "It's going to be a big one, don't you think?" she asks the gulls.
One pecks at her ankle.
Aryll shoos it away. "I don't have anything for you today," she grumbles at the bird, and then she looks through her telescope again and sighs.
The young girl spends the afternoon on the docks until Link approaches her. "What do you think?" Aryll asks him. She gestures out to the ocean with a hand. "Think it'll be a bad one?"
"Too early to tell," he mumbles.
He rubs the back of his neck.
Aryll peers through her telescope one last time.
"Come on," Link says. "Kūkū has dinner ready, and we're late."
With their sun kissed skin, golden hair and eyes as blue as the ocean, it's hard to mistake the pair for anything but siblings. Link Forney stands a good two heads taller than his sister. His longer legs carry him farther than Aryll, who occasionally has to jog to keep up with him, as they make their way up through town towards the cliffs on the eastern side of the island where their little house sits overlooking the crashing waves. For Link, the house is a nice haven away from the more populated areas of the island where the waves drift him off to sleep at night, and the seagulls wake him in the morning.
The siblings wave to their neighbor Rose as they trudge up the path to their home. The large woman gives them a cheery greeting and a wide smile as she waves back. She sits on her front lānai enjoying the early evening air while she waits for her husband and children to return home.
The old lānai steps of the Forney house creak and groan under Link and Aryll's weight as they climb. When Link opens the front door to their little bungalow, the pair is met with the sweet, hearty scent of the stew their grandmother made. It wafts throughout the house, and the siblings call out in greeting. Their grandmother strides out from the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron as the siblings kick off their shoes.
"You're late," Kūkū chides.
The pair mumble their apologies. Kūkū shakes her head, reminding them that their parents raised them to speak properly. They mumble again in apology, and then the pair sneak each other smirks before following their grandmother into the kitchen.
Just as Aryll predicted, the storm rolls in during the night. The wind picks up speed, howling as it tugs on the leafy palm trees and drags any loose rubbish out to sea. Link lies awake, listening to the wind and pounding rain on the roof of their bungalow. He sleeps up in the loft area above his sister's and grandmother's bedrooms, so the rain is always louder where he lies. Link kicks off his blankets and crawls to his window but quickly abandons it and flops back into bed when he can see nothing distinguishable in the dark. Occasionally, flashes and streaks of lightning streak the night sky.
There'll be quite the cleanup in the morning, he muses, if the storm even passes before then.
But it does not. Rain continues to ravage the island, and the wind musters all of its strength. Trees are torn from their roots. Waves roll high up on the shores and floods the mainland. The bungalows close to sea level are raised up on posts for such storms, but even then the structures barely clear the waterline. The water that has pooled on the island cuts through the center, effectively carving the mainland in half. None of the islanders dare to wander from their homes until the eye of the storm comes to shadow them around noontime when the waves begin to lap lazily against the island cliffs and their homes.
Link steps out onto his lānai, calling to his grandmother. "Kūkū! I'm going down towards the docks!" He reaches back through the threshold for his skimmers and squashes them onto his feet while his grandmother protests. "I'll be fine," he promises as Aryll follows him out onto the lānai with her telescope in hand. "I'll be back before the rain starts again."
Feet pounding, Link rushes down the path towards the flood. "You be careful!" Rose calls out to him as he runs by. He raises a hand to acknowledge her, but says nothing. Some of the islanders living sea level hurry past him up to the cliffs for refuge, their most precious belongings in their arms. Link has to dart one way then the other to flit through the migrating islanders. Link keeps an eye on the dark, puffy sky, waiting for the first sign that the eye has passed over the island.
He passes Sue-Belle on the path. "Link! Where are you going?" the young woman calls.
"I wanted to check on the flooding and Orca and Sturgeon."
"Oh please!" Sue-Belle implores over her shoulder. "I tried to get them to leave, but Orca's being stubborn. Talk to Sturgeon!"
"Can do!" Link calls back to her, still rushing down the path and dodging fallen debris.
A palm tree had been uprooted during the storm, and it leans on the front lānai of Orca and Sturgeon's, the railing smashed in from the impact. Link wades through the ocean water, soaking his pants and shoes. The water weighs him down, slow and dragging, until he can pull himself up onto the steps of the lānai. Link sidesteps the scattered palm leaves, sea water squishing within his shoes with each step, and he bangs on the door, calling for the brothers inside.
Orca reluctantly answers. The door cracks open, and the bearded middle-aged man pokes his head through. "Link," he greets, but he says nothing more.
Orca is one of the island's fishermen, a seasoned seaman, and deadly with a spear and harpoon. Despite his age and thin, fragile appearance, the man still retains a stubborn vigor for life. As proof of his travels and trials at sea, his body is adorned with old scars and tattoos. His brother, Sturgeon, shares the bungalow with him, living on the second floor above Orca. Sturgeon is regarded as the island's medicine man. A well read, educated man that is just as traveled as his brother, though Sturgeon bears no scars or marking tattoos from his journeys.
For Link, the two men have acted as mentors and pillars through his teenage years since his father's passing. There's a feeling of kinship between them, Link believes. Orca and Sturgeon are outsiders on the island, just as Link's father was. Though the islanders are friendly, Link can't help but feel a certain distance between them and the outsiders. Link is unsure, however, where he stands among the islanders. Born on Outset, but the child of an outsider.
"Orca, come on," Link pleads. "The island's flooding." He steps aside and gestures to the docks where the water has almost overtaken. "Look! Once the eye passes, it'll likely flood out."
Orca scoffs.
Link starts shouting for Sturgeon.
Aryll stands on the cliff edge, peering through her telescope. The seagulls have tentatively poke out from their shelters and assess the changes around them, but Aryll pays her friends no mind. In the distance, she can see a ship on the water. She lowers her telescope and frowns as she look out to the horizon. The ship is but a blot on the deep, dark sea.
The soft patter rain begins to stir again by the time Link returns with Orca and Sturgeon in tow. Aryll points out the ship to them. The three men shake their heads. "Foolery," Sturgeon mutters.
Once the eye has fully passed from Outset, the storm hits once more at full strength. Kūkū gazes out the window, sliding and splattered with rain, as she cooks a hearty soup for the group with Link's help. Orca sits in one corner, focused on carving a piece of wood. His brother, Sturgeon, a stout middle-aged man, bald and hunched, sits nearby with a book in hand. His eyes flit over the lines of text with ease. Occasionally, he pushes his spectacles up a bit on his nose. Aryll doodles on some scrap paper next to the hearth.
By nightfall, the edge of the storm reaches the island. Link sets up some makeshift beds in the common room for Orca and Sturgeon before climbing up to his space for the night. The wind, though still strong, has begun to settle, and the rain is not nearly as terrible, but still, sleep is elusive for Link. The waves crash against the cliffs outside his window and lap at the rocks.
There's a creaking groan. It cuts through the night and the waves, and at first, Link just believes it's an auditory hallucination of some sort. But the sound erupts again across the island. He sits up in bed, waiting in the dark. He climbs down from his quarters, stepping carefully in the common room to be mindful of Orca and Sturgeon. He slips out onto the lānai, where the wet wood sticks coolly to the pads of his bare feet. The moaning is louder out here.
Link walks the lānai and leans over the railing to try and see down the cliff, but the darkness covers everything. The crashing, splintering of wood quakes through the storm, and Link bolts back from the railing. His eyes then catch sight of the small lights through the rain swinging from across the island.
His mind whirling, Link bursts into the bungalow, disrupting the brothers. "The ship!" he gasps. "I think it's crashed into the rocks!"
"Boy, you must be mad to want to go out there now," Orca grumbles.
"Please! What if they need help?"
Orca puffs his chest and considers the situation, and soon enough, Orca and Sturgeon relent to weather the storm with Link. The three men rush out the bungalow and into the storm carrying lanterns to light their way. Down the island they go to the raised sea level. Sturgeon holds the lanterns while Link and Orca recover one of the boats thrown during the storm. It seems to still be in good condition. When they put it into the water, the small boat still floats with no apparent leaks, though the darkness and rain make it hard for them to tell. The men decide to take a chance on it.
Sturgeon sits at the back of the boat, tethering up a lantern with the other sitting between his feet. The water has risen above the allowance from the posts at Orca and Sturgeon's home. Orca swims to his home, forcing his door open, the salt water pooling immediately into the home. Link drags the boat out into the water until his chin can barely break the surface. With Sturgeon's help he climbs aboard the boat, the little thing rocking to and fro as it tries to settle in the waves. Orca reemerges from the home with two oars in hand. He wades down the steps to his bungalow and tosses the oars out to Link.
As the men row out to the ship caught on the rocks off the island's coast, they can hear the orders howling over of the storm and sea to release the dinghies. Lights swing around on the deck of the ship. The blotted figures of men fight for their seats in the dinghies.
Link, Orca and Sturgeon eventually make it to the wreckage. They call out to the crew. A smaller, lithe figure appears, silhouetted by the swinging lights. The men scream for the figure. Another man jumps straight into the water. He surfaces and tries to grapple for a piece of debris to keep him surfaced. Link and Orca row their little boat up alongside one of the ship's dinghies. "What's wrong?" Link shouts out to them as Orca reaches out for the man clutching a splintered piece of wood. Orca pulls the overboard man into their boat.
"It's the young miss!" one of the crew hollers back to Link. "She won't leave the ship!"
"Is she thick?" Orca spits.
The young man accidentally knocks over the lantern at Sturgeon's feet. The light goes out.
The crew tries to encourage the woman to abandon ship, but she shakes her head. Link, soaked to the bone from the rain and ocean, loses his patience with the woman. A damaged dinghy slaps against the ship, so Link dives into the waves, heading for it. His hands grapple for the rope that still tethers it to the ship through a pulley. After tugging on it, Link finds that it still has a good hold within the pulley and careful to make sure that the rope doesn't slip and throw him back into the water – or worse, into the dinghy – Link takes hold of both ends or the rope and starts to little by little pull himself up the side of the ship.
"What're you doing, you idiot?" the woman screams at him, but she reaches out for him to help pull him on deck.
Link snarls at her. "They're waiting for you!"
"I won't leave this ship," she says defiantly.
"Are you serious?" Link bellows. "You've run straight into the rocks! She's done for!"
"Exactly!"
Unthinking, Link grabs the woman round the waist. The wet fabric of her nightshift is cool under his hot fingers. She kicks and screams. She beats his back with her fists, but Link throws her overboard. Her figure plunges into the ocean, and one of the two remaining dinghies holding the crew rushes forward to retrieve her when she surfaces.
The woman's surprise is only surpassed when Link opens the door to his bungalow and his grandmother catches sight of the motley crew. They are all soaked through like wet dogs with hair matted to their foreheads. The woman has a persistent frown on her face with her arms crossed.
"What's going on?" Kūkū asks. Aryll pokes her head out from her bedroom, her blue eyes round and wide.
"Their ship is sinking off the coast," Link gasps as he heads back to bed, peeling his soaked shirt from his skin.
In the morning, when the storm had finally passed from the island, the remains of the ship still sit off the coast. The islanders come out from their homes to assess the damage from the storm, and they point and gasp at the sight of the damaged ship caught in the rocks. The islanders that live at sea level all revel in the sight of the flooding that cut the island in two. Collapsed trees are hacked to pieces to be carried off.
Link catches sight of Rose and Sue-Belle sweeping lānais to clear them of debris. He stands leaning over the railing of his own lānai, looking out at the destruction on the island. He yawns some, cutting off the smell of his grandmother's cooking. Once the shock of the appearance of the ship's crew had worn off, Kūkū has been more than happy to have a few more mouths to feed and has been keeping busy cooking for the hungry crew.
He jumps a little at the sound of light footsteps behind him. Behind him is the woman he'd so thoughtlessly thrown from the ship. She has a thin mouth, pulled tight into a straight line. Her chin is raised, giving her a haughty air that rubs Link the wrong way. Link straightens and turns round to face her. "Thank you for coming to my crew's aid and giving us a place to sleep."
"My crew"? Her crew? Her crew?
"You're their captain?" he blurts.
Her brow furrows, and she scowls a little at him. "Yes, I am." She hesitates for a second, but then the captain sticks her hand out for the young man to take. "They call me Tetra," she says.
"Link."
She nods her head, and then looks down at her night shift uncomfortably.
Link turns and eyes the ship slowly being swallowed by the ocean. "If you want, since the ship isn't completely lost yet, I can take some of you back out there to try and recover some of your belongings… not in those little dinghies."
It takes her a moment, but then she bobs her head. "I'll let them know."
Aside from their petite captain, six of ship's crew made it through. A couple of men had been thrown overboard during the height of the storm, and it isn't likely that they'd find them again.
Tetra's second-in-command is a large muscular man by the name of Gonzo. He has a stern disposition and a short fuse, and the crew listens to him nearly as much as Tetra, who Link quickly learns has an iron fist over the men. Despite his appearance, the man has a soft spot, particularly for the captain.
The crew's lookout is a short man by the name of Zuko. While trying to make sure that Orca's boat is in order, Zuko follows Link around like a dog, pestering for paper and ink. "He's always like that, yeah?" Gonzo whispers to Link in passing. The large seaman says no more and turns away.
Apart from Gonzo, the other helping hand Link has – for Zuko was more of an annoyance – is a tall, strong, but effeminate man named Nudge. He is so soft spoken and quiet, that Link often has to ask the man to repeat himself.
In sharp contrast to Nudge is Niko. According to Gonzo, Niko is the lowest ranked member of the crew, the skivvy. Niko seems to be a bit younger than Link, maybe by two or three years, and like Zuko, follows Link relentlessly. "You have a nice boat," he comments.
"Not mine," Link mumbles, thankful when he hears Kūkū calling.
His grandmother leads the remaining seamen, their captain and Orca down the docks to the boat. Orca gives the boat a one over before giving a nod to Link. With the boat in order and the crew settled in, they set off for the sinking ship. More than half of the ship is sunk at this point, and Link grimaces at the damage it's suffered. There was no saving the ship. The damaged dinghy from the night before has disappeared, and occasionally they kick or push splintered planks of wood out of the way.
Orca pulls his boat up alongside the ship where the dinghy had been before being sunk. Using the old ropes as Link had the night before, the crew scale the ship. "Go with them, lad," Orca says. "Make sure they don't take more than we can handle."
"Right."
Once on board, Link scans the deck, but the crew have all gone below to see what's been swallowed by the ocean. He heads under. Along the stern is a single door facing another opening for another lower level. The door is slightly ajar, and Link carefully peeks his head in. The room is the captain's room, and Miss Tetra, as her crew calls her, is throwing clothing into a pillow sack. "What?" she demands, not turning to face him or even looking at him.
"Nothing," Link says sheepishly. "Everything alright?"
She huffs, blowing a jet of air from her mouth that puffs her bangs up. "I don't need much," she says, her voice much softer this time. Her eyes drift along the wall to a single portrait hanging above her desk.
Link steps into her room, and he gives a nod to the portrait. "Who's that?" The woman in the old pictograph, still in black and white, has fair hair and sharp eyes. A striking resemblance to the captain.
Miss Tetra informs him that the woman is indeed her blood, her mother in fact.
"I can take this to the boat myself," she says, and she brushes past him without another word.
Link sighs, standing alone in the captain's quarters. "Right," he breathes. The young man ventures deeper into the ship. The level below Miss Tetra's room has flooded to about knee deep towards the bow where the ship smashed into the rocks; soon enough the water will fill the level's floor completely. The six seamen were arguing towards the back, and Link catches bits of their heated conversation.
"No, no, we should keep this…"
"- This is from that merchant off the Mother and Child Isles…"
As Link steps off the narrow stairs, his eyes widen in realization. Water seeps into his skimmers.
Pirates.
He turns slowly and carefully approaches the band of men, some much larger and stronger than he. The pirates surround a large dining table, the dishware having slid forward towards the bow of the ship. Zuko is the first to spot him, jumping nearly out of his skin. The other pirates look up and stare expectantly at him. "Orca sent me to see if you need help."
"Orca?" says one, Senza, Link thinks.
Gonzo replies before Link, "The old man, yeah?"
He turns to Link, and in an attempt to intimidate the lad, crosses his arms over his chest and steps closer. Link considers himself to be of fairly average height for a man, but he can't help but feel somewhat dwarfed by Gonzo and Nudge. No matter how strong Nudge is, he does not boast the authority Gonzo does. Gonzo can't squash the islander's boldness, and Link cheekily retorts, "Didn't realize I'd brought pirates onto my island."
Gonzo claps Link's cheek lightly, and Link scowls a little. It's as if he were nothing more than a child. Insulting. "Let's just keep that between us then, shall we? Or perhaps…" The threat hangs silently in the air, unspoken, but all can hear it.
There's a clattering. All eyes break away and catch sight of a large rat nibbling at the remains of a meal on the table.
"Goddesses!" one of the men curse.
"Again?"
The seamen scramble, picking up whatever they can to beat the rodent. The rodent scampers from the table, and Link grabs a goblet laying at his feet. He manages to strike the rat once in the head, stunning it. Blood spurts from its mouth before Senza steps forward and finishes the poor thing off by stomping on its head with his boot.
"Are there more?" Link asks, taking a look at the rat. It looks bloated and fat. Abnormally large for just a normal rat.
"We've had a bit of a problem with rats since we attacked a merchant off the Mother and Child Isles," Zuko says.
Link frowns.
"Whatever," he says, turning to leave the pirates. "Just grab your clothes and what else you need or want."
I went on vacation, and I wrote two sentences for Coin-Operated. I'm not joking. I don't know where my drive went.
I was writing this in between some lectures in the spring when I wasn't playing games, and for the most part it's finished. I'm not too invested in this one, to be honest - meaning I'm not too, too concerned on how realistic parts are in relation to what I've researched. As long as it's plausible. If you're interested, the idea came about when I was researching different diseases transmitted from rodents, so most of this is based around Lassa fever. The mortality rates for Lassa fever aren't super high, if treatment is available, and it usually is. I'm not sure how high that percentage is without treatment, I couldn't really find anything on that. Buuuut. Hell, this is ficiton. Just enjoy the story.
The other part that I mean that I'm not too invested on is the lingo on Outset. The island lingo is Hawaiian, if you're interested. I don't speak Hawaiian Pidgin, I speak German and French, so it's not too in depth. Most of the terms used are for days of the week, months, nicknames (like Link's grandmother). If you actually do speak the language, that's awesome. It sounds really awesome, but I don't speak it, so mistakes are probably bound.
Updates every Friday though! Swear it. I am totally willing to rework things, so drop a word; nothing's set in stone on this one just because it's mostly finished.
Alright, stay fresh guys!