...
~ Pirates ~
And so they continued this way, after the little river met the Greyflood. It had now reached September, and over the next few cool and overcast days the river had widened to almost a mile. The gulls began to appear, squawking as they glided overhead. Elraen wished she had asked Radagast about asking birds for help, wondering if it would do much good here.
They had now run clear out of food, and it was plain that trying to walk anywhere would be folly without more provisions. Elraen began to wonder if they could even make it as far as the Blue Mountains.
Around noon the current began to pick up - they were finally approaching the mouth of the Greyflood. They needed to get to closer shore lest the current push them too far out to sea. The last day was a clear and fine, and as the afternoon began to wane Elraen got the boat to the north shore and realized they had made it - just up ahead was the great sea.
Elraen gasped, her breath caught at the sight of the water stretching out in every direction. The deep gold sun behind them cast upon the endless rolling waves in all manner of colors, red and orange and purple with glittering white spreading wide down the center.
All of a sudden along the shore she spied something that stood out. There it was - a thin wooden pole with white fabric draped down beside it.
"Wait here," she said, though they had no thought of going anywhere.
"What is it?" asked the youngest.
"There's a ship!" she exclaimed in a whisper. She thought Lond Daer was abandoned. Before they could respond she started off toward it, making her way past the decrepit old buildings lining the riverbank, already thinking of trying to find some food. She hadn't gone fifty steps when out popped a tall man with a scruffy beard and disheveled hair and a bow with a strung arrow pointing at her.
Elraen jumped back a step startled. The man started toward her. "Thought you could get a jump on us eh, sweetheart? Thinkin yous clever enough to rob us, huh?" he said as she backed away. Another man armed with bow and arrow jumped out from behind a bush along a line of shrubs growing over the old wooden boardwalks. "We seen your little boat a mile off," said the second one. "Curious little gang, here. Boss'll wanna have a look at you lot," added the first.
And off they were trotted at arrow point onto their large brown ship. The men untied the rope and pulled up the plank. Elraen did not like the look of that. Whatever their intentions there was no hope of release or escape by land. The ship pulled away from the worn and weathered and otherwise abandoned harbor and turned northward. 'Going north. There's one thing in our favor at least,' thought Elraen.
They were herded toward the middle of the deck. One of the sailors noticed the odd shape at Elraen's back. He pulled back her cloak and found the sword. "Thinking you'd save this for later?" he snorted at her, and pulled it from the sheath. She gasped. "No!" she cried and lunged to reach for it. That resulted in a fierce shove to the floor, and the Dwarves received likewise.
"Precious thing to you eh, dearie?" he said to her. "It'll be worth all the more to the cap' then."
Another sailor came up and tossed a loaf of stale bread and a flagon of water at them. At this point none of their odd group of prisoners was feeling too proud to accept. Elraen took up the loaf and broke it into four, and passed out the pieces. The rest of the crew busied about unfurling the sails and taking up positions; one climbing to the nest at the top of the mast.
At last after a half hour the captain strode out from inside the cabin. His boots made a great big heavy stomp. He came around and stood before them, a tall burly man with a bushy brown beard. The sailor holding the sword came up to him. "Girl had this on 'er," he said, holding it up. "Precious thing to her it is," he added.
The captain took it to inspect it. He chuckled. "I can see why - if this thing's worth half as much as it looks then it was already worth rounding up the lot of you," he said in a grumbling scratchy voice. He handed it back to his mate to hold onto and gazed at her with a puzzled look. "Playing soldier on some secret mission, eh little girl?" he continued. "I'll wager that you'll fetch a fine ransom with that thing."
She dared not reveal that no one now alive in Middle-Earth even knew she who she was or that she had the sword, least of all anyone of import who could offer money.
"What bout them Dwarves?" asked the mate.
The captain glanced at them, looking rather pitiful in their tattered dirty coats, still strung together with a heavy iron chain. "They don't look like much," he replied. "Toss em over," he said, and a couple of crew members yanked them onto their feet and started pushing them toward the gap in the rail.
"Are not the dwarves famous hoarders of treasure?" Elraen blurted out in a hurry. "They'd be worth a good ransom too."
The crew members paused to wait for the captain's answer. "These rabble are plainly from the Blue Mountains. Ain't no treasure left up there," he replied. "No need to bring em along now; the only Men with money's in the south. We're turnin that way to find a buyer for you and your beautiful sword," he said at Elraen. He nodded toward the two crewmembers who resumed prodding the dwarves to the edge, and the captain strode over to the wheel. Nim tried to chime in protest, or to try and persuade them otherwise, but got a swift kick to the back with a barked warning to quiet down. Down with him went the others as the chain yanked them forward. The sailors gave out a cruel laugh and shouted at them to get up. The wind started to pick up and blow every which way.
Elraen was at a loss over what to do. Besides losing her new comrades, going south would likely mean a bad ending for her, too, where anyone who even knew of the sword would likely figure she stole it, or inherited it from someone who stole it. In the distance thunder started to rumble.
Elraen watched the captain's mate stride toward the rail to oversee the execution. She couldn't have explained what happened next or what good she thought it would do, but a desperate panic overcame her and she charged at him. She crashed into him before he could react, and amid his surprise she grabbed the sword as he tumbled over the rail and fell into the water. A flash of lightning cracked a few miles away followed by a boom of thunder.
Elraen swung around toward the rest of them. "Back up!" she cried, raising the sword. They stopped, and even leaned back a step. But the captain had not been idle, and in a flash she had a knife at her throat with her hair pulled back tight.
"Drop it, girl," he grumbled, "or your corpse is going in with em!" The captain nodded to some of the others who scrambled to lower the anchor and get a rope down to their mate. She lowered the sword.
All of a sudden three large arrows, longer and sturdier and more finely wrought than those of the sailors, landed on the deck all about them. They looked to have been shot from up ahead to the north but none could see from where.
At the same time the lookout up in the nest was shouting something but no one could make it out over the noise of the wind.
"What is it?" shouted up one of the crew. The man in the nest kept shouting. At last the wind slowed enough to hear: "Sea swell!" he was crying frantically pointing off due west.
The captain held firm but his nerves began to fray. He pushed the knife harder as he swung his head to get a look. Elraen could scarcely dare to breathe. Suddenly a fourth arrow struck him, straight through the ribs. He dropped to the floor, but not without leaving a terrific scrape upon her neck. The lost little maiden ran and tried to grab hold of the rail with her free arm. Half a moment later the great swell reached them.
It was an enormous hill of a wave that crashed over and tilted the ship so steeply that suddenly all the men tumbled down, flying off the deck into the sea, where they were swallowed up and carried off by it. The dwarves tumbled and slid down until they hit the side of the cabin in the middle of the deck. Elraen tried to hold onto the rail but the force of the sway was so violent that her grip was loosed, and she slid across the deck, which sloped almost straight into the air, until she was stopped by the opposite rail. Then just as soon as it came the wave had passed, the pirates were gone, and the ship returned to rights.
