Pirates and Pariahs
A D'veen Tale for Flash Fiction February (Day 8)
Finton Merrybrook stood at the edge of a small dock. In front of him, an ocean spread out into the horizon. The sun was setting, casting flickering orange light with hues of red across the surface of the water.
“Quite beautiful, the Ascetic Sea, don’t you think?” Finton asked.
He heard muffled screaming behind him. He turned around and saw a pirate lying on the ground, his hands and feet bound. In his mouth, a ball of white cloth blocked nearly all of his cries for help.
Finton’s eyes followed the winding rope running across the ground away from the man’s legs. It was tied to a gargantuan stone near the end of the dock.
All Finton had to do was kick that stone off the edge, and the man would be sent to a watery grave.
Finton knelt down. “Now, I’m going to pull this cloth out of your mouth, and you’re going to tell me your story in a calm and respectable manner. If I don’t like what I hear,” Finton looked back at the rock, “I’m going to kick that rock into the sea, and you along with it. Got it?”
The man nodded, his face glistening with sweat. Finton patted the man on his bald head.
“There’s a good lad.”
He pulled the cloth out, and the man immediately began talking.
Well, you see, me and the boys were like heroes in the slums of Giant’s Bane, yeah? People knew about us because we stole from the rich and gave to the poor!
Anyway, the leader of our group was Tashwin Felix. Guy was built like a cat, could sneak in and out of anywhere without anyone noticing. So, he broke into the castle at Giant’s Bane and stole the king’s scimitar.
Finton nodded. “Not exactly bright, but brave. I’ll give ‘em that.”
The man shrugged. “Wasn’t exactly my idea. The guy wanted a challenge!”
Finton mulled it over. “Okay. Continue.”
Well, he came back to the hideout with the scimitar, and then the king’s guard showed up. They were mad, real mad! They started killing all my friends, trying to get through to where Tashwin was.
And Tashwin, he snuck out the back, leaving everyone to die! I chased after him, and I was planning on killing him for being a coward, but then I saw he had a ship. Not just one ship, either, he had a fleet of four ships all waiting for him.
“Wait, wait wait,” Finton said, “How could he have had that many ships just waiting on him?”
“He told me later that he had arranged for everything to happen. The guards, the hideout, all of it. The ships were supposed to be waiting for him.”
Finton nodded, his eyes wandering back to the stone nearby. He wasn’t sure he believed this tall tale.
“Well? Keep going, I’m getting impatient,” he said.
Right, so me and some boys jump on the ships and we try to make a getaway, but then the ballistas and the cannons started opening fire!
I tried to find Tashwin, but I saw him go running under the deck like a coward. He still had the king’s scimitar and everything, so it’s not like he couldn’t fight or nothing!
They were putting holes in the ships, and I was panicking. I decided to be brave and head into battle! I turned and ran toward the fray, but didn’t see where I was going, so I ran headfirst into a pole!
Finton sighed. “Let me guess, you knocked yourself out cold?”
The man offered a weak smile. “Wasn’t long, though, I promise. I’m getting to the part you wanted to hear!”
Finton stood up. “Really? Because you could have fooled me! I swear, what is all this exposition, anyhow? Why not just skip to the part I need to know?”
The man gasped. “Skip the whole tale? And you call yourself a storyteller?”
Finton rolled his eyes. “Fair play. Alright, continue.”
So, when I woke up, we had made it out of Giant’s bane, but Tashwin, he had news for us. He said we would have to learn to live our lives upon that fleet of ships. There was little hope of seeing dry land again.
I asked him why, and that’s when he told me: he said that we had been labeled as cohorts of the Dread Pirate Jameson Netherwave! That made us pariahs. We couldn’t go to any kingdom without them coming for our heads!
So, we had to stay out on the water forever. So, of course, I ask him, I say hey, how they’d get that idea? You want to know what he said?
Finton fought the urge to slap the poor excuse for a storyteller. “You’re not actually asking me, are you?”
“I am, wanted to make sure you’s paying attention!”
“I AM!”
“Right, back to it then,”
He said he spread that rumor himself! Thought it would be a good way to keep people off our backs. Can you believe that? The bloody fucking idiot got us blacklisted from dry land because he couldn’t keep his yap shut?
Oh, I was so mad, you should have seen me. I wanted to rip out his eyes, but just as I tried to tell him what for, a giant tentacle slams down on the deck!
It was a sea beast, unlike anything I had ever laid eyes upon! It had too many eyes! Eyes everywhere, and teeth, too! It has teeth on its tentacles that sliced through the ship like it was parchment!
I had never seen anything like it. I started praying to every god and titan I could think of! That’s when a cannonball tore right through one of them slimy appendages! I looked over and I couldn’t believe my eyes, it was the Dread Pirate Jameson Netherwave!
He took us on board his ship and taught how to be real pirates! He’s the only pirate who sails the seas around D’veen! Everyone else is too scared. All the old gods that got tossed in the drink, they’re still out there!
But he’s not afraid of them. People say he’s got Titan magic? You heard about that? It comes from beneath the waves. Deep down, from the pieces of the celestial forge. People say it’s like the Verack technology, but its got magic too, like a combination of them or something. Isn’t that crazy?
Finton had stopped listening a while ago. When silence filled the air, he snapped back to reality.
“So, he saved you?” Finton asked.
“Yeah, that’s right!”
Finton nodded. “And you know where he is now?”
The man nodded again.
“Tell me, and I’ll let you go free.”
The man pointed to a nearby tavern. It was so close Finton could probably hit it with a stone. He ran a hand down his face and grunted.
“He was right there this whole time?”Finton roared. He calmly walked over to the rock and kicked it off the dock.
The man screamed as the weight pulled him down the planks and off the side. The rock dragged him beneath the serene surface of the water, his last words nothing more than gargled screams the moment before he went under.
Finton shrugged. “Serves you right! Try to lecture me on storytelling and then waste my time with that vile excrement? No sir, not the great Finton Merrybrook, no way!”
Finton brushed himself off and headed toward the tavern. He had an offer for Mr. Netherwave and his crew.
One that would finally give them a chance to step upon the lands of D’veen as more than just pariahs and pirates.
It was also the kind of offer one didn’t refuse. Not if they wished to live.
Thanks for Reading! Here’s Your Musical Pairing
Listen to this track after reading, like pairing a glass of wine with dinner.
I absolutely love this character. I feel this is my first exposure to his darker side and it’s so well written. He means business and I can’t wait for more.
Dang Merrybrooke! I didn't know you had that in you! Not a very merry brooke at all 😂😂
I love this story and the voices were on point!