The orphans momentarily slouched, the tension draining too early.
"Line up!" His voice boomed.
They straightened out and fumbled into a line. I was lucky enough to have the line form around me.
The man nodded and gave a classic hearty laugh, complete with the thumbs in the belt and head thrown back.
"The name is Captain Gryphon. This 'ere is my vessel, Dragon Nest. And this 'ere is my son, Raven."
"And that's CAPTAIN Raven to you bunch!" A golden haired, tan skinned god swaggered into the spotlight, a large smirk plastered on his face. Though quite capable looking, his ability to see us seemed questionable with the height to which his chin was raised. He wore a black and red trifold hat and a large cuffed coat I assumed only a captain could wear. As far as I could tell, though this boy was certainly a pirate, he did not seem quite captain material yet.
"Yes, my boy will take over Dragon Nest once I've retired, then you all'll be his crew." We took a moment to process that. I slowly gasped in understanding.
"That's right. You're all gonna be pirates!" Captain Gryphon gave us a moment to celebrate. The younger boys shrieked and laughed. "Permanently rid of that fat, ugly wench."
The boys cheered louder. I joined in the chorus fist pumping the air.
"Down with the witch!" I saw Cliff practically foaming at the mouth, jumping so energetically. Shiloh shook beside him, giving his own happy shrieks.
The grumble-y roar of the pirates mixed with the squeals of the kids.
Captain Gryphon laughed as he began to explain more.
"Now as pirates, we'll be-"
"What exactly is a pirate?" Shiloh climbed onto Cliff's shoulders and repeated above the noise.
"Don't interrupt-!" A pale wrinkly pirate started to hiss before Gryphon raised a hand.
"Good question!"
The mighty pirate signaled the band and they started up again. For a moment, I believed them about to start singing.
"Pirates are the manliest men of all!" The monkey jumped away as the man swung out his cutlass and his son humoured him pulling his out too.
"We fight."
Their swords clashed and sliced as they play fought, throwing in embellishing spins and flips.
The men roared as they threw savage dis- and encouragements at the both of the pirates.
My eyes glimmered as Captain Raven cut a rope and swung over the current Captain's head. Raven could not control his smirk with all eyes on him, but it was not difficult to tell Captain Gryphon was only letting him take some glory moments. Before Raven actually managed to corner him, the Captain twisted his sword around his boy's then flung it away from him, sticking dead center on the main mast.
Gryphon then took his bow as Raven retrieved his sword only slightly puffed by the play defeat.
"We eat like kings-"
Three awkward elder men shuffled out throwing a whole roasted pig on the table along with an assortment of tropical fruits.
The orphans awed as they crowded the table. The elder men gave the gesture to eat and the boys stuffed their face, Cal unexcluded.
"But dress better than them!"
Raven gave a little spin to model his dashing pirate attire.
I awed. The clothes he was wearing were certainly fanciful, but in reality I couldn't help but think it was Raven that really filled the clothes.
I then realized I was the only one who'd gone quiet and began to mindlessly cheer again.
"We drink rum all day!"
The pirates were laughing and passing out bottles among themselves.
"Don't overdo till least double digits."
My ninja friend collected a bottle from Shiloh who was chugging fiercely.
"This is the best!" Freddy, one orphan, laughed.
"It is," Captain Gryphon agreed. "But you haven't seen the half of it."
He waved a hand to the door.
"Girls!"
I could feel the decrease in need to share oxygen as the boys around me puffed their cheeks and stared.
Seven poor, young, objectified women sauntered in wearing garments that left little to the imagination and corsets so tight their chests were balloons close to popping at the collarbone. Though none of their faces were special, a couple of them were downright ugly. A couple of them were fairly well shaped though, amongst other either over or way underweight.
The fake redhead with heavy blue eye shadow waltz toward Jasper and me.
"Heya sailor." The girl may as well have stripped in front of him; Jasper's eyes were hooked.
Like a deer in the headlights, Jasper froze as the female put her hand on his shoulder and swooped in real close.
"The name's Ruby. My job aside, I think you're cute." Her claws scraped his chin as she pushed it down, refocusing his gaze deviously.
"Th-thanks." Jasper's stare disappointed me. Another boy near us tried to get in on the action between Jasper and Rudy. I just turned and looked at the other boys, the hypnotized animals. Then I noticed another like me.
Fay stayed away from the girls, giving disgusted glances.
He looked up and noticed me.
We shared a moment of fellowship before our attentions were re-concentrated.
"Then there's another of my favorite things-" Captain Gryphon's ability to draw attention seemed insignificant next to the hormonal boys with their new toys. "Treasure."
His short ponytail swung over his shoulder as he leaned down and opened the box in front of us.
I jogged up for a better view. What I saw was positively dazzling: gold.
There were probably literal tons of gold and jewels and other treasures within the chest. I pulled out a heavy golden necklace with a red gem and placed it around my neck. Fay, as well as some other boys whom the girls weren't busy with, joined me with digging around.
"Woah." Fay handled the pearl necklaces and diamonds with care, placing them back in the box tenderly.
"Of course the view from the crow's nest is also reason enough for wanting to join us." Gryphon's large gnarly hand swung into the air directing my attention up the ladder to the small deck at the top of the main mast.
"There you can really feel the way of being a pirate, a man: free." Of course the words seemed lost on all the boys with women and gold on their minds, but I am not a boy.
I stared up at the circular shadow against the stars.
"Now it's time for you men to sleep." The statement was met with very unmanly groans and whines. "Long pirate day ahead. You want to be pirates right!?" His voice rumbled.
A chorus of orphans responded in approval. I was almost one of them.
"Good. Now it's time for the ladies to go home."
The orphans, pirates, and girls alike whimpered.
"Yes, yes, I know. We'll visit again girls!"
I glanced back to see Ruby plant a kiss on Jasper's neck before sliding away from him.
"Juniors! My first Mate Howler will show you your new lodging, if you'll follow him into the crew's quarters through that door." He pointed to our right at the wooden door in the middle of the deck facing us. I registered my first pirate friend walking to open the door, silently smirking at the irony of the silent man's loud name.
Some old pirates with tired eyes waddled out with mops and began cleaning after our earlier feasting.
I looked around contemplating. Jasper noticed and held back.
"What's wrong?"
"I don't know." I shook my head. "This all is just happening so fast. I feel blindsided."
My eyes found Captain Gryphon and his son.
"Hey!" I jogged up the couple steps. "What about the downsides of being a pirate?"
Raven raised an eyebrow.
"Downsides? Why would you want to know that?"
I heard shoes against wood as my backup arrived.
"Yeah, how long do we have to consider the offer?"
We both looked to Captain Gryphon expectantly but Raven stepped up instead as Gryphon seemed to be looking past us.
"I won't lie. There are quite a few downsides." He paused and glanced up at the current Captain. Gryphon walked toward his men. "Disease, bad weather, other pirate ships, naval ships-" The pirate crew began to bustle shouting to each other, pulling ropes and making knots. "The food rots after a few days out, and don't get me started on the 'toilet'."
The warning on the bathroom made me almost tune out the obvious movement.
Jasper snapped.
"The offer though, how long do we have to consider?"
Raven smirked and shook his head.
"I don't think you understand. We bought you. This is not an offer."
I looked up to the ruffling of the sails as they caught the breeze then ran to the edge of the ship. The land I spent a year on in an orphanage was surprisingly quickly shrinking.
Jasper ran to my side and shared my sights.
"God." He whispered like a curse then looked down at the bottomless water and backed away from the edge.
"Well nothing we can do now."
"Besides, the pirate life seems great." I nodded talking more to myself than Jasper.
"Yeah." We stood for a minute running though our options silently.
We both seemed to come to the same sigh-able realization and headed into the crews' quarters to sleep.
There was no way around it; I was to become the girl in the Dragon Nest.
*Author Note*
And finally the main conflict has been fully set up! Hope you reader(s) are enjoying so far! ...if there are any readers...
Well if there are readers, I promise to them/you you're getting closer to the good stuff.
At the very least, the next chapter I found pretty funny. Oh Kyle, he reminds me of myself (you'll see next chapter).
Until tomorrow- À tout à l'heure~!
