When I awoke, I was tied to a post. My head throbbed like I had been run over by a mountain, and the wound across my stomach was pure agony. My head was hanging near my chest, my hands tied behind my back. Without opening my eyes, I tried to figure out what was going on.

My mind was fuzzy, and a high ringing filled my ears. I could barely hear the thunder in the sky, but I knew the storm wasn't slowing down, due to the waves that rocked the ship with immense force.

I slowly moved my hands, which were tied together by the wrists with a rope. The rope was tight but big enough for me to get my fingers around, and begin opening the knots. My arms throbbed, and I could barely feel my fingers – the result of having my circulation cut off for a long time.

How long had I been out? Fifteen minutes? An hour? Two? More?

As the ship rocked again, I moved my legs slightly, to make it look like they moved with the ship. I realized that they weren't tied, but I did feel another rope that spread across my chest and continued somewhere to the left and right. I suspected that the remaining crew was tied to other masts with the same kind of rope, awaiting their fate.

Slowly, I gained my strength, although the blood I had lost form my numerous wounds made me feel slightly light-headed. I wondered that if I ever made it out of this mess, would I survive the loss, or was the injury too great.

My hearing was returning as well, and I could make out the Carthyans speaking to the pirates, commanding them to let me go. I couldn't make out much, but I could hear that they were tired and worried. I heard somebody wheezing next to me, and felt a tinge of sadness, imagining a sailor, his throat cut, but still alive, gasping for air.

I heard footsteps approaching and immediately stopped moving. I had only one knot left on the rope, and it was already quite loose. If I could gather enough strength, I could probably rip the knot open.

I slumped against the post as the ship tipped sideways, but was taken by surprise as my cheek received a furious backhand. My eyes shot open, and I glared at the man who had hit me.

The pirate's face was round and fat, his black curly hair reaching just below his ears. He looked a few hundred pounds overweight, which was enough to make me wonder how the ship hadn't sunken under his weight.

A curved blade swung from his hip, and a knife was situated in a sheath on his chest. His face spread into a smile when he saw I was awake. I saw a few teeth missing, but the ones I saw were brown and chipped. His breath smelled like rotten fish, and I just barely held back a gag.

" He's awake, Cap." the Fat Man said, and I straightened my back, not seeing why I had to act like I was unconscious anymore. I also used the move to loosen the rope, and now it was loose enough for me to just pull my hands out.

But I decided to keep my hands still tied, for I couldn't get out of the rope that was around my torso. The knot wasn't even near me, and to open it, I would have had to reveal that I had gotten out of my previous bonds.

I stared defiantly in front of me, at the raging sea, as Devlin walked from the other side of the mast, his shoulder bandaged with care. I wondered how he had gotten the injury, and I couldn't help but wish the wound had been just a little to the right, across his throat. That would have been nice.

Devlin stopped only a little distance away and stared at me with the intensity of the storm raging about. The glare bore into me, but I acted like I didn't even see him. It was only when Devlin leaned his head mere inches from mine, that I shifted my calm gaze onto him.

I lifted my eyebrow, and asked: " Did you have something to say?"

Devlin sneered and tilted his head to the side. I was not one to like being tied up so I said: "Keep tilting your head, and one day it might fall off. It probably would now if it wasn't attached to your body. " Devlin slapped me smartly across the cheek and my head flew to one side. I churned my teeth together and closed my eyes for a moment. Tears threatened to fill my eyes out of instinct, but I pushed them back. I opened my eyes and stared at the Captain.

He opened his mouth to say something, and I used the moment to spit in. Devlin stumbled back, wiping his mouth. I smiled victoriously, but the victory was short-lived.

Devlin made a sign with his hand, and two pirates grabbed me, and somehow managed to get the rope from around my chest. They seemed unprepared, so I used the moment to rip my bonds open and punch one of the pirates square in the nose, and the other I kicked where it hurt most.

My crew gasped with astonishment, and a few even cheered. But those cheers died down as I was grabbed, and forced onto my knees. I released a few good blows, but most of them did little harm since I couldn't hit hard in fear of opening my wound even further than what it was already was. I could barely draw back my arm or foot without passing out from pain. My thigh had stopped bleeding but was still raw, and the cuts I had gathered, were stinging like bees.

On the ground, my hands were kept behind my back with a hard grip from the Fat Man. I made sure that I struggled and cursed his mother's grave numerous times. He wasn't very thankful for it and made sure I knew. My already sore hands ached even more, and I winced at the strong hold.

Devlin lowered himself so that our eyes were on the same level.

" Finally realizing that you're supposed to kneel to me?" I asked mockingly, and I saw that he just barely resisted another blow. Taking a deep breath, Devlin motioned for someone behind me, that was not Fat Man, and I heard footsteps receding. I lifted my chin and made sure to keep my eyes on Devlin's. The pirate seemed furious about my little scene with his followers, but he kept his anger in check. When the person he had sent away returned, Devlin smiled his signature evil smile.

" Tie him up," he told the person I couldn't see. I felt a weight on my hands, and a coarse rope was tied around my wrists once more. This time the rope was tied more securely before, which wasn't very good for me if I wanted to escape again. I was hauled to my feet by Fat Man, and I stumbled backward with a sudden weight that pulled me down. I was tied to a cannonball.

I suspected what was going to happen, and the thought made my blood run cold. I was pushed towards the side of the boat, where two pirates, both covered in bandages and stitches, were placing down a plank, that went a few meters outside the boat, hovering over the raging sea.

As I was pushed onto the plank, my men screamed with horror and pleaded for Devlin to let me go; to let me live. Instead, the pirate captain put his hand onto my back, and pushed me forward, not so gently.

The ship rocked, and I gazed down at the waver. Measuring from one to ten meters high, the waver looked like monsters, reaching up from the sea, opening their mouths to swallow the ship, but at the last moment, they would crash back down, only to rise up again for another try.

I barely kept my balance, as the ship heaved, and even slipped slightly as Devlin spun me around at the end of the plank. He stared at me with a look of victory, his chin lifted high. I lifted my own, barely controlling my breathing. I could see my reflection in Devlin's eyes, as a lightning flashed behind me, hitting the water only thirty meters away. I refused to flinch.

" Any last words, Prince?" Devlin asked, ignoring the shouts that ran from behind him.

" There are many things that I wish to say, but none of them will be my last. I will not die here. So I will say this. When you die, and I hope you do soon, you will end up in a place, that will make the home of the devils look like paradise."

Devlin grabbed the front of my shirt, took off my crown and brought his face mere inches from my own, and whispered: " Perhaps. But you will reach it far before I do."

And with that, he pushed me over the edge, and I was engulfed by darkness.

I couldn't see the surface by the time I got the first knot open. I could have been five meters under, I could have been fifty. The water was so dark, so murky, that I suspected that I couldn't have seen the ship if I was a foot below it.

The knots were tight, and the water made them slippery. My chest burned, and my head felt like it was about to pop. But I refused to breathe in. I was not going to die here, not today. Not with the last thing I said to my mother, having been said in anger. Not with never having said a proper goodbye to my father. Not with never thanking my brother for always being there, no matter for what reasons.

I struggled to get my fingers around the next knot, but after a few moments of struggle, I finally loosened it enough to pull it open. One knot remained.

The canon ball sank faster than I expected, and I was starting to feel pressure on my chest, not from the loss of oxygen, but the pressure of water itself. As the pressure became unbearable, I finished opening the final knot.

I didn't see the difference in keeping my eyes open since the water was so dark, so I kept them closed. Besides, the salt water prickled them. I had gotten used to the pain on y stomach, as the salt made its way into my wounds. I wasn't sure if the pain was dull, or if I was just losing consciousness.

I kicked with all my might, my arms flailing as if I were a bird flying for the first time. I surfaced sometime later, wondering how I had managed to stay alive. I was about sixty meters away from the pirate ship, gulping for air, and coughing the water out of my mouth. I wasn't sure how I had gotten so far from the vessel, but my best bet was that the currents underwater had carried me away or the ship itself had moved with the wind and waves.

I could very faintly hear the cries of my crew, but couldn't make out what they were saying. That was when I noticed the pirates' ship's sails open, and it sent off with unimaginable speed, the large pieces of fabric on the masts puffed up in the storm.

I began swimming towards my escort ship when suddenly there was a nagging feeling in my gut, and I stopped. Only moments later, a bright flash filled the sky, not a lightning, but something larger. I dove as large pieces of wood flew across the sky, and the water turned an orange color. I tried to evade the sharp pieces of wood, as they sank all around me – ranging from the sizes of my thumb to the sizes of me standing up on my toes - but some of them hit me on all sides of my body, not quite piercing the skin, but creating large bruises.

After a moment, I was forced to resurface; since I hadn't had time to catch my breath for long when I came to the surface the first time.

When I came up, I found myself facing the open sea. At first, I thought I had surfaced the wrong around. Then I saw the wood, some still ablaze, and I finally realized what happened.

The pirates had set something in the ship on fire, and it had exploded. I immediately sent out towards the fire, to search for anyone who had survived. What could have caused the explosion? It couldn't have been a simple fire or a lightning strike. Neither would have caused an explosion. Besides, the pirates had gotten out of range just in time. That couldn't be a coincidence, could it? Oh, how I wish I had paid more attention to what they had been carrying aboard.

It took me a while to reach the remains of the ship, not only due to my weak state but also because of the enormous waves.

The water was full of ash, pieces of wood, burning sales, and bodies. Bodies of men who had fought the pirates, and bodies that had been blown up in the explosion.

I heard spluttering, and coughing from somewhere near, and immediately began my search. My limbs ached, and my eyes were sore, but I forced myself to keep moving. As I neared a place where a pile of wood had fallen on sails and rope, the coughing grew louder. I knew I was close, but in the vast sea, the noise carried farther than on land.

I swam to the pile of wood and began moving them from on top of each other. Some instinct told me to do so, and soon enough I saw a hand sticking out from under two large parts of a mast, that was still attached to the sail.

I didn't know what was keeping him nearly fully submerged, so I moved the wood that made it hard for him to get to the surface to breathe. Then I dove under him.

I found a rope still attached to the sail, wrapped around the man's leg. It was pulling him down as the sail sank; there were heavy pieces of something pulling it deeper. It was a lot harder to open a knot that wasn't done on purpose, than one that had. The rope was in loops around the man's leg, but the rope entwined with itself many times form various places, in a wild labyrinth that I could not navigate without seeing anything. Even I wasn't that skilled.

My hands rose up the man's leg, to his calf, where I found a sheath. I held back a sigh of relief as I felt a knife. As I pulled the blade out, I rose to take one big gulp of air, before diving back down under the surface.

My hands worked uncomfortably slow in the water and cut very little by the time, but finally, the rope snapped, and the man's leg was free.

I came up from the water to find the man had risen up onto the mast, clinging on like his life depended on it, which it did.

I grabbed onto the mast, just as a wave crashed onto me. I nearly lost my grip, but a firm hand grabbed my wrist and helped me climb onto the piece of wood. With both hands around the round post, I had a good hold, and there was little chance of me sliding off. Still, I squeezed it so hard that my fingers were beginning to gather black-and-blues.

I gazed into the eyes of the man I had saved. Well... eye.

The man had black hair with grey strands here and there. His beard was dripping with water and dirty with salt. His face looked droopy due to being submerged for so long, but the worst part was where his left eye had been. In its place, was a mess of red, solid and liquid. I decided not to look at it for long.

" Prince Jaron? You're alive! How? We watched you drown!" The man rasped, his throat making an awful noise. I recognized him as the captain, Forlor. I coughed and smiled.

" I guess there's one good thing about me being able to open knots. You okay?" I noticed, that the hard cover that I had held up to the world for years was cracking. Forlor nodded, and we quickly braced ourselves as another wave tried to rip us off the wood.

I spit out the water that had made its way into my mouth, and my eyes roamed the water, for other survivors, and after a moment I spotted a brown head bobbing up and down in the water. I told Forlor to wait on the piece of wood, and before he could argue, I pushed off the piece of wood and dove. I found that swimming under the water was a lot faster than trying to swim over the waves, and in only a few minutes I arrived at the place where I had seen the man before. Except he wasn't there.

I spun around, trying to find him when I noticed bubbles rising to the surface a few feet away. I swam under the water and kicked my legs with everything I had. The man was sinking quickly, and I could see his eyes lids closing. He was about a two meters away from me, when he went limp. I reached him moments later.

The moment we surfaced, I started speaking to him, telling him to wake up. I gently slapped his cheeks, saying that if he didn't wake up he would miss dinner. After repeating that same thing over and over again, his eyes shot open, and water exploded from his mouth. I felt glad I had paid attention in one of my classes at home, just before I had sent off on the ship.

I sighed in relief, as I dragged his weak form towards some nearby carnage. I draped his hands over a barrel and made sure he had a tight grip. Then I resumed my search for others. It seemed that I was the only one capable of the feat, although I was, without argument, the weakest of the men.

I found another man, and like with the others, I helped him to something that was floating, before moving to help somebody else.

Talon was the last person that I found. He was the farthest from where the ship had been before, and also the one in the best shape. He had cuts all over his body, and a long slash was on his forehead but wasn't bleeding anymore. He looked shocked when he saw me, but I shook my head telling him that now was not the moment for questions. The waves were getting higher and the thunder was becoming so loud that I had to fight the urge not to raise my hands to my ears.

I reached Talon just as a large wave overcame us. I felt a hand grab my forearm, as I was being swept away, and I felt a body next to mine. As Talon kept me from slipping away, I pulled him up towards the surface. He helped me, but right before we came out of the water, another wave crashed onto us. The force of it forced the air out of my lungs. As an instinct, I sucked in, and water filled my mouth.

My eyes widened, and I kicked toward the surface. There was no way of explaining what I felt. It was agony, torture and limitless discomfort. Talon seemed to have guessed what had happened, and swam below me and pushed me to the surface.

He came up beside me moments later, and by that time I had already coughed the water out of my lungs and was gulping for air. My head pounded, even though I hadn't had the water in me for long.

I had lost sight of the remaining survivors, and I wondered how far we had drifted with those waves. But I was sure, that if the men had been looking, they had seen what had happened. They had seen a large wave take us under, and see another one stop us from re-surfacing. We were far enough for none of them to see that we had survived.

It was a miracle when we found a piece of the hull, about two meters long and about a foot wide. We clung onto it on opposite sides, gripping on for our lives. I was exhausted, and out of breath. Rain poured all around us, thunder shook the sky and lightning lit up the clouds. Drops of all kind were sliding down my face, some of which I recognized as being ones I hadn't shed in a long time.