I stood up, head still dizzy. Some guy had attacked me just moments prior for bounty hunting, and I honestly didn’t care. It wasn’t as though my reputation mattered anyways. Even with the various bruises and injuries I had suffered from him, my first priority right now was to get to my brig. There was a castaway on it, and I had to make sure to get her to land. I could care less what happened to me; I just wanted to make sure she got the second chance she deserved.
I had picked this castaway up in the middle of the ocean, like many others before, around Limestone Key. I was headed for Ravenna, so I informed her that I’d drop her off at Rubica. We exchanged the typical conversation, with her thanking me for rescuing her, and we were off to Ravenna. I docked my ship a short distance away to take care of some quick business, and that was when I had been attacked. But no matter, for now I needed to make sure I did what I promised her.
I started towards my brig, when I felt something hit me in the back. An arrow. It had embedded itself in my clothes, but not injured me, thankfully. I suddenly felt it again, this time a sharp pain spreading through my body. And then it happened again. And again.
I whipped my head around to find a person shooting at me with arrows. Immediately, I began to run towards the brig, not caring about the pain in my back. If I didn’t make it back in time, someone would take the ship, I knew it. And then I wouldn’t be able to rescue the castaway. I didn’t care that my attacker was pursuing me. I hopped onto my brig, and commanded the crew to raise the sails.
We took a few moments to get close enough to land, the assailant still hitting me with arrows. I knew it was unbearable, that the splitting pain in my back would continue, but I knew that if I saved this castaway, it’d be alright. “Quick, get to safety!” I called out to the castaway as soon as we docked the ship again. She listened, hopping off the ship and running for land. I heard her cry out her thanks as she ran towards Rubica.
I sighed in relief, getting off the brig and standing in some tall grass, facing the attacker. “If you’re going to take my bounty, then just go ahead. I don’t care.” Arrows continued to puncture my body, and I fell to my knees. Fine. He could take what he wanted.
Then I saw him point his bow upwards in the air. Rain of Arrows, I thought to myself. I put my hands over my head so I wouldn’t start bleeding out dead, and I felt the arrows strike me… And I then heard a loud, shrill scream.
Something wasn’t right. Was it a Ravenna soldier who had screamed seeing this? I turned around, my whole body aching with the arrows plunged into it. My head spun and I felt like I’d collapse, blood leaking from all my wounds, but I needed to see what happened. Then I saw it.
Lying face-down on the Ravennan grass, covered with a bunch of arrows across the body, was the castaway I had saved. There she lay, obviously dead, life taken by the arrows I thought were aimed for me. What kind of scum would do something like this? I forced myself to stand up, wincing from the pain, drawing my weapon.
“How dare you kill an innocent bystander… I won’t let this slide. I can’t.” As much as I felt like my body would implode from the pain and the pressure, I started to use whatever moves I cloud, slashing and shooting at the person with my magic and weapons. I then saw it again. Arrows, falling from the sky. Those accursed arrows, landing on me and making me collapse. I knew I had wounded him, seeing him retreat as he fired them.
But it wasn’t enough. He caught his breath, walking over and pickpocketing some money from me, as I lay there helplessly, immobile. I realized this wasn’t a bounty hunter at all, for he had no poster curled up somewhere in his pocket or belt like most did. He had just attacked me for the fun of it - and an innocent life had paid for its price. I tried to stand, but to no avail. An image of the castaway, dead and bleeding on the floor, flashed through my mind. No. I can’t let it end like this. But the person was already running off with the stolen money and a maniacal laugh. Out of the corner of my blurred vision, I saw another person run towards the area. A Ravennan ensign.
“What happened here?” He asked, looking at me, lying almost unconscious on a slab of rock near the shore.
“The… castaway…” I managed to utter out, before putting my head down again. “Please… Give her a good resting place…”
I knew I couldn’t avenge the castaway, for I couldn’t fight such strong opponents. But maybe… I could find a way. I saw the ensign spot the dead woman on the grass, lifting her body up. The ensign nodded to me, taking her corpse back to Rubica. “I’ll come back to see if you need any help.”
I felt myself shift my head a little in an attempted nod, and as he walked off to get help for me and inform his higher ups about the castaway, I finally shut my eyes, blacking out.
In memorial of Skye Diaz, the castaway whose life was taken too early by some RKer.
