The wooden planks were creaking above Tobias head every time a drunken pirate walked over the deck. Then the hatch was opened again and some grim pirates stored some more chests and barrels on the other side of the storeroom.
Tobias was safe in his hiding-place behind the barrels filled with water or rum. Soon the pirates left again without noticing him.
So far, so good.
According to his information the ship would set sail soon and would leave the harbor of Bilgewater. The ships destination was Piltover where new high-tech weapons should be bought. Anyways they would stop at several harbors of the east coast . His plan was to leave this ship as soon as possible so that he wouldn't be discovered as a stowaway because the store room was too empty to hide.
He leaned against the wooden wall of the ship and waited.
It took another hour until they finally set sail. At least Tobias thought so. In the dim light under the deck he soon had lost his feeling for time. By now they had to be on the open sea. He could hear the water clashing against the wood and felt how the ship was dancing in the waves like a playing ball of the tides.
The hatch was only opened once in this time by the ship's cook coming for some provisions. It was completely silent again by now.
He wanted to hoard some food so he wouldn't have to step out of his hiding-place that often. Of course Tobias had to hurry up. He mustn't be discovered, especially not while stealing their food…
Quickly but silently he climbed over the barrels and out of his hiding-place. Then he froze in his movement. There was another one down here taking some food and his expression showed the same amount of shock as Tobias was feeling himself. Some apples fell down from the boy's arms and rolled over to Tobias, who picked them up. The other one didn't seem to be a pirate either. Two stowaways on one ship? These where some really lucky pirates!
"Apple?", asked Tobias ironically when he was throwing the apple back. The other boy struggled to catch it but managed and gave away an unamused expression. "Ok, due to the fact that we will be together in this store-room for several days: Are you up for a game of cards?"
The boy hesitated but then he finally agreed and followed Tobias into his hiding-place behind the barrels.
When he started to shuffle the cards he took his time to eye up the other boy. He was around the same age. A red bandana was holding his dark, messy hair back and he was wearing greenish leather clothing and shoes. Tobias saw the knife the other one was hiding in his belt. "Which game you wanna play?"
"Texas", the short answer came. Tobias nodded. He reached the deck to his counterpart to cut it. Most people just took a few cards only to get rid of the top cards to be sure not to get cheated. This was why Tobias was mildly surprised when the boy chose more than half of the deck.
"What is your name?", Tobias asked instead of showing his surprise.
"That's none of your damn business!"
Tobias simply shrugged his shoulders. He hadn't anticipated an answer. The cards were given.
In the end of the first round none of them folded; there were two aces, two jacks and a nine of spades laying on the planks in front of them. Tobias hand was another ace and a queen. He really wanted to win this first round somehow… So he simply switched his queen with the fourth ace from a deck with the same back. He turned his cards confident of victory. "Four aces."
"Cheater!", the other boy exclamated, but he smiled and turned his cards too. They were showing four aces as well.
Tobias stared at the cards, bluffed. Four aces… twice. He might have found a worthy opponent for the first time in his life. He bursted out laughting. "Oh well played! Let's play some games without cheats and tricks. Else we will never get a winner. My word of honor."
"Without cheats", the other one agreed and they sealed their pact by a handshake.
Tobias was sure that they would get along well.