Approx. 10am, William’s Caravel
~William’s Perspective~
I lean over the railing, looking out at the horizon.
“What are you doing?”
I turn around. Standing there is Landon, who we decided to take along with us to Oblitesco.
“Just looking around,” I respond. “Why do you ask?”
Landon looks out at the island in front of us. In 30 minutes or so, we’ll get there.
“Why do you need to go there anyway?” I ask. “You have someone there?”
He glares at me. He looks a bit older than me. His arms are lean and muscular, as if he has been working out.
“None of your business,” he replies.
I sigh. Pax tried to talk to him yesterday, but no luck.
We’ve been trying to learn about him ever since we left the day after he joined us. Especially because of what he showed at that fight. That was cool.
“How did you do that?” I ask. “That thing at the tavern?”
“Shut the fuck up,” he responds. “Let’s just get this over with.”
“Just stop Will,” says Pax from the steering wheel. “He won’t talk, so just leave him alone.”
I raise my hands in surrender as I back away.
“Alright.”
Pax looks back. And for good reason. We passed by a group of ships gathered at an island called Trinity Oasis before the sun rose. They had the symbol of the Shining Pirates. Luckily, none of them noticed us.
At least, I think so.
“Uh… guys?” Pax yells. “There’s a Shining Pirates ship heading this way.”
“Shit,” I curse. I run and grab my sword. I run back and see Landon just standing there.
“Holy shit,” Pax says in wonder. “It’s huge.”
“Fuck,” swears Landon. “It’s a fucking brig.”
“What’s a brig?” Pax asks.
Landon glares at him.
“Please tell me you’re joking.”
“Afraid not. Long story short Will’s from a sky island and let’s just say I have a special situation right now.”
Landon sighs.
“For the blond boy that makes sense, I don’t know about you, you can tell me later. A brig is about, hmm, 2 classes above this caravel. And that one’s built for combat from the looks of it.”
“Hey who you calling blond boy!?” I yell indignantly.
Landon looks at me with a smirk.
“Who else?”
“Maybe they will ignore us?” says Pax.
“Doubt it. Pirates won’t let a chance of profit go by.”
I exchange glances with Pax. After meeting Arianna, Avery, Castor, and Alex, we both know that Landon’s only partially correct. I remember something.
“Wait,” I say. “The Shining Pirates have the most positive reputation of the 3 big organizations for a reason. Maybe they will.”
“Or maybe they’re just good at keeping secrets,” retorts Landon.
The ship passes by us. I see Landon’s fist clench.
“Wait,” says Pax. His face is filled with shock. “Is that-?”
I follow his gaze and my eyes land on a familiar face.
“Castor?”
His eyes sweep over us. He ignores us as if we were never there.
The ship passes by.
“Wha-?” I ask. “How did he not recognize us?”
“He looked different though,” muses Pax. “There were a lot of bottles at his waist filled with something. His clothes were different, and he had a cutlass, not a spear. He also looked a lot less, I dunno, physically active?”
“Huh,” says Landon, impressed. “You’re good. You know who that person is then?”
“Huh!? I thought you would know, being from here and everything. Even Will over here knew about them, and he’s from the damn sky.”
“Not everyone at Altavista sailed around. And we most certainly didn’t care about a few pirates. We were pretty isolated from the rest of the 2nd Sea.”
We both look at Landon. He realizes what he said.
“Forget I said anything.”
He walks away. I look at Pax.
“You know anything, man?” he asks me.
I shake my head.
“I only know of Cassius, Castor, Alex, Avery, and Arianna. They’re all wanted but those 5 are the most infamous.”
“Wow,” says Pax. “I wonder what they did?” He walks back to the wheel. “You should continue looking around.”
I look out to the ship speeding away towards Oblitesco.
“I have a feeling we’ll run into them at Oblitesco.”
End of Chapter X