Hiccup's P.O.V
3 days had passed, no land was on sight. I kept searching for any land we could land on, and maybe resupply our supplies. The wind had never really changed its power since we all departed off. I kept my right eye on my monocular, and did a 360 scan for any land. Nothing, still nothing.
I sighed down and put away my monocular, and walked off to the deck. Since there was nothing to do, the crew was just resting inside the ship.
One thing that changed since we departed off, that we never heard the shriek anymore. It sounded like a woman in pain, but it was so loud that it sounded like an echo from across the sea.
I walked to the front of the ship, and opened up my compass. I made sure that there was no metal around me, a metal can change the direction of a compass will point. I look to my left and spotted a bucket of metal, I kicked it off and point the compass to the front of the ship.
"South west... We're still en route." I mumbled to myself.
I heard footsteps from behind me. I turned around and spotted Eret walking towards me.
"Excuse me capt, what are you doing here?" he asked, fixing up the bucket that I just kicked. "Just checking for direction and lands." I said, sighing down and shut my compass off. My eyes caught a shiny object on Eret's pocket, it was the watch. "So Eret. What's so special about that watch again?" I asked, sitting down on a crate. "Oh. Right. Well, it's a long story, like I said. Do you have times?" he asked, as he flipped down the bucket and sat on it. "I do, until we find a land." I said, taking out an apple from my pocket.
"Alright. As you can see," he grabbed out his watch and opened it, revealing a picture of a woman and a baby on her arms. "This is a picture of my wife and my boy." He said, showing the picture to me. I grabbed it and examined it. "Did you leave them at Norway?" I asked, rubbing of some dusts on the picture.
"No... My wife was killed in a fire accident... 20 years ago." Eret said, sighing down.
"Oh. Sorry. I'm so sorry for your lost..." I patted his back in sympathy. "...What about your boy?", "He was kidnapped by a stranger when he was only 5... 5 years right after my wife was killed." Eret said. "Oh... Sorry." was all I said.
I remained silent for a few seconds, still holding the watch. I patted his back again to comfort him. After a while, "I got that watch as an anniversary gift from my wife, it was a watch that I had been dreaming to get for. She worked so hard for it. The only thing I could give to her, was her... favorite wine. And that's all." He said, dropping down tears. "But she still loved me. I'm such a terrible husband and father." He shook his head.
To be honest, I knew nothing to say. I was just a 23 year old captain but people bow down to me because of my firmness. I could kick ass if I need to. But giving out solutions was not my thing. I just kept rubbing his back to comfort him.
"Don't worry. I'm pretty sure that your boy is still out there, growing up by himself." I said, giving a small smile. "H-hopefully... You must have what it takes to love someone."
-Time jump-
The sun was beginning to set at the far west. I enjoyed every single evening while sailing, you'll literally never get bored seeing the sunset on the sea. I climbed up a net that connected te deck floor and the mast. I pulled out my monocular and looked at every direction. I looked to my left, but there was nothing but a clear sky and a calm sea under it, and the beautiful sunset as well. I shifted to my right,
and spotted a ship.
I gasped in shock, as I zoomed in, trying to see the ship's flag.
"Please don't be pirates... please..." I said to myself.
Boom. My guess was right, it wasn't a pirate.
It had a different flag, from what I saw. I examined it more clearly, and still couldn't get what the ship's flag meant.
Suddenly, the ship switched its flag. It was a flag that signed that the ship meant no harm. I breathed in relieve. The flag also meant that the ship wanted to approach us to do some deals. I climbed off the nets and stepped on the deck's floor.
"Wakey wake crew!" I exclaimed to the crew, who were sleeping inside the ship. I could hear lots of footstep inside the belly, as they got out from the staircase right behind me.
"Set the sails down. We're making some deals with the ship on our right." I pointed to my right, and the whole crew looked at it. Seeing this, they immediately went to work. We always wanted to keep the lives on our ship to be safe, so we had this procedure. Every time a ship wanted to make some deals with us, the crew always went to the weaponry inside the belly ship. This once ever worked when we were dealing with a pirate ship, which faked its identity by putting on a British flag instead of a pirate ship.
But of course, I always hoped that I could keep the existence of this ship and its crew.
The ship was now almost side by side to ours. I walked to the right wing deck. I could see a captain with that 'Royalty' sideburns. Now the ship was side by side, making it possible to trade some crates of good.
"English?" the captain asked me.
"Yeah, English is fine by me. What do you want?" I asked, crossing my arms.
"We want to trade some consumables. Our crew is famishing." Hearing from his accent, the man spoke in a heavy-pure British accent. From my knowledge, there was no British man who would become a pirate, except it that man was born somewhere else that is not England.
"Alright. What do you got?", "We have golds. How about that?" he answered, jumping onto my ship. "Mhm. How about half kilo for a box of meat plus a box of wine?", he frowned after hearing this, then he smiled. "Ahaha... Give me 10. Traded with 5 kilos of gold, then?" he gave his hand for a handshake. I shook it. "Deal. Nice to be trading with you sir..." I paused in sign of asking his name. "Hans Westegard, prince of the Southern Isles. And please, don't call me with 'sir'. It doesn't fit me." I chuckled in response. "Hiccup Haddock. Just an explorer." I commanded my crew to get out of the ship's belly, then told them to give them what I just dealed. Hans did the same, by jumping back to his ship and commanded his crew to give me golds.
Hans jumped back onto my ship, examining its deck.
"So Hiccup. Where are to heading at the moment?" he asked, walking around.
"The Caribbean." I simpy answered.
Hearing this, Hans' eyes went wide. "Wait what? Are you serious?", "I pretty sure am." I shrugged. "What's wrong with the Caribbean?" I added.
"Hiccup, I'm warning you... Caribbean is dangerous! Pirates are everywhere at every 10 miles! Storms are brewing up in this season! And what's more dangerous is..." Hans paused, looking at the front of the ship.
"The sea nightmares." I raised an eyebrow, letting Hans to continue his story. "A storm will pass you but will consume you in a more vicious way by releasing its nightmares. The nightmares will climb onboard your ship and drag you one by one... The nightmares are known to be half woman and half fish. This may sound crazy but it is real!" He looked frightened.
"I believe it's just a legend. Or there's just a really BIG fish inside the sea. You know-", "No, Hiccup." Hans gripped my shoulders. "I have seen them." he pressed every word.
I suddenly became worried about doing the expedition. My whole crew was placed on the bet. But this expedition was for us, the crew and I myself even created a promise that we would go everywhere in spirit of exploring. This was why I thought that I had the right crew for exploring on ship.
"No, we're gonna keep moving." I pushed Hans slightly. "If there are pirates out there, how did they get into the Caribbean? That means that they've passed the sea of thos nightmares. If they can do it, why not we?" I gave a smile.
"... Take this." Hans grabbed up something from his pocket, which turned out to be a black pearl.
"Whoa Hans. I've got golds already." I pointed to one of the Hans' crew, who was putting down a crate of gold.
"No. Just put this on one of the nightmare's forehead, and it will instantly kill it. But do NOT get attracted by their beauty." He said, opening my hand and put the pearl on it, and shut my fist.
"Good luck. And thank you for the nice trade." Hans waved a hand, and jumped back to his ship.
With that, Hans commanded his crew to set the sails again, and off they went.
I examined the pearl. The black pearl looked so shiny, as if it had glitters all around it. I decided to examine it more inside my room. Before that, I commanded the crew to set sails again, and move to south west.
I entered my room, and picked up a jewelry loop and sat down on my chair. I saw Toothless slept on the bed, as if he was playing dead. I chuckled at him. I turned my attention back to the pearl.
I examined it with the loop, and saw something... moving? It was like the wave of the sea.
No... it's a storm, being displayed on the pearl itself. I continued examining it, until I saw a woman underwater... and somehow her legs turned into fins? Whatever it was, the woman looked like in pain. And the pearl showed nothing else.
I sighed down, and put the pearl on a jewelry box, where I kept my jewelries in it. I walked outside to the deck, and it was already night.
"AHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhh!..."
I gasped in horror, now the shriek sounded even closer than before.