Life and death. Pirates have to be strong, mind and body. Each of encounter life and death situations, they have to be ready to face them…. On their own.
Shachi creeped behind the wall, inching closer… and closer, to the loud bars lights. First looking out across the street, he turned his head down to the floor… ready to sprint as soon as he lifted his head…..
*Click*
His head lifted very slowly….
Sprinting through the island outskirts, he slowed to lean against a wood post, Nodachi tossed to the ground. Panting breaths and hunched over on his knees against the wood, he lifted his head to see the war in the sea. Waves raising high enough to bury rooftops. From his view at the almost cliff top, he could see and feel faint drops of rain…
*GRRROOOOOUUUSSSSHHH*
He lowered his head from the sky in time to see the killer wave, as it rose higher and reached out to him, almost tripping backwards as he tried to retreat…..
The bear ran blindly, the villagers almost at his heels, their spears poking out from the sides of his ears in stabs. His uniform is lost to the jungle, the home of the crazed hunters on this island. His eyes had been damaged from falling into the rough bark of trees, or falling face first into the dirt too many times…. The scents he tries to follow blur, not strong enough to trail because of the loudness of his own heart in his ears. He sniffs the air, for a moment sensing rain… a storm… then a bright flash screams in the sky, and for a moment all his senses go blind….
A sword flies over his head, and a red pom-pom lands about three yards away on the ground. Ducking into a crouch he rolls under the two in front of him as they bring their swords down to create two deep perfect slashes in the concrete. His muscles have turned into a pain weighing down on his arms, he brings them up in an 'X' as he gets knocked to the ground to block a stomp aimed for his heart. Then he's pinned, from the arms, and in the harsh rain his hat almost flies off, lying sideways to cover one of his eyes. He looks straight up through the rain to the dim light of the sky, teeth ground, as a dark silhouette brings down a thin blade that quickly catches an invisible gleam….
Heavy feet walked, and stomped on the ground as mud more or less kept him above it. Deep slashes cried, blood flowing quickly down his arms and rolled off the two cannonball sized weights chaining the giant's arms together, chains entangled through his arms. The ruins in the area stood tall, and as he fell to his knees in a wave of pain, he pulled himself back up one knee at a time. His vision swam… the pillars started to move, and he tumbled, jaw and throat heading straight for a tall heighted pillar with a deep spike of granite in his line of fall…
They were running out of time. Now they're running out of luck.
THE HEART PIRATES. THE STRENGTH OF A CREW.