“So, Captain, where we headed next?” Esmeralda made sure to position her smile up close towards her captain. There was a sort of twinkle in her eyes, a twinkle begging for a long adventure ahead of her.
“The Forest of Cernunno. We have a bounty over there to catch. Hopefully we’ll rack up the funds to fix this damn boat.” Captain Ryder took a step back from his crew mate, somewhat uncomfortable with how close she was. His hat slightly drifted towards the side of his head, with Esmeralda letting out a slight giggle.
“Hey! Don’t go yackin’ about our boat like that! This baby right here has brought us a long way, and it’ll take us even further than we can imagine!” Agnar just finished repairing a piece of broken wood near the tip of the deck, but his cladded iron armor made it difficult to do so.
“A cheap ship is a cheap ship. I’d admit it’s got us far, but a bigger, sturdier vessel would get us even farther into the Bronze Sea. If we ever want to get to Ravenna, we’re going to need a boat large enough for a bigger crew.”
“And cannons too!” Esmeralda chimed in.
A boastful cry was heard from behind them. “Why need cannons when you have one right here!” Food splattered all over the deck as Wilder yelled out into the Bronze Sea. His chest puffed as his plate of assorted grilled fish flopped onto the ground.
“Those fish are dead yet they’re still trying to get away from you, and I don’t blame them! Don’t go wasting our food like that!” Agnar shouted with the top of his lungs. Agnar normally was the one to clean the ship, so any messes around him angered the deckhand.
Esmeralda lifted up a barrel that was lying around on the ship. With little difficulty, she managed to sit upon it, crossing her legs afterwards. “Say, I don’t see Edgar anywhere around here. What happened to him?”
“Wow, Es, you aren’t aware of anything that goes on around here, do you?” Ryder found himself with his hand spread out across his face. “Edgar went ahead of us in order to search the forest a bit. He’s meeting us up near the northern-east part of this island.”
Suddenly, Wilder ran across the deck, unknowingly pushing Agnar away in the process. “Why you-”
“Guys, I see land!” Wilder looked back to his crew mates, signaling them to come over.
Ryder tipped his hat down, purposefully this time. A smile quickly spread from ear to ear. “Looks like it, that’s definitely the Forest of Cernunno! Let’s go claim a bounty.”
Agnar threw out an anchor into the sea to position the ship to stop. As he laid the sails down, the rest of the crew laid their feet upon the island. Esmeralda made sure to take slow steps when discovering the island. “My, this place sure is scary. There’s so much fog I can barely see.”
Agnar wasn’t known as the fearful one of the group, but even him running to catch up with the others signaled a collective fear of the unknown. “In a place like this, it’s better not to split up. We’re all after the same man, so there’s no reason to split in order to find him.” Ryder picked up a stick on the ground and made a hand motion towards Esmeralda. She then took out a small match from her pocket, lighting up the top of the stick. “I don’t see Edgar anyway, he might be further inland.”
As they ventured further, they could feel themselves dipping their feet into shallow, murky water. Fortunately enough, the fog began to dissipate, so their surrounding area was more visible. The sound of wicked crows and croaking toads filled the atmosphere. Daylight was out, yet it felt like dusk the way the fog blocked away the light of the Sun. The group managed to reach a large, stone wall, marking the end of the swamp.
As Ryder was first to leave the waters, he felt himself step on a rough, mushy substance on the back of his boot. He swiftly swayed the torch to below his feet, with the corpse of Edgar glaring back at him. A large hole was placed in his chest and a piece of his chin was sliced off. All that remained of his face were glaring eyes with bloody tears.
“Oh- Oh my God! Edgar! Edgar! Listen to me!” Ryder dropped the torch into the grass, with a small flame engulfing the small patch of grass around them.
“What is it- No… No, Edgar! Edgar, wake up!” Esmeralda ran over to her friend, shaking his shoulder in hopes for him to awake. Agnar looked down unto his corpse, filling himself with a large silence.
“Buddy, don’t do this to me… Please, don’t die on us!” Wilder reached into his back pocket, laying out multiple potions. He spread them across the grass, opening each one individually. He tried to lift Edgar’s head up to pour the potions into his mouth, but they all spilled out like an overflowing pool. “C’mon, don’t do this to me. Here, this should heal you all up… All better, right Edgar?” Wilder placed his hands around Edgar’s arms, squeezing his dead body while blood soaked into his garments.
By now, the small fire began to spread a couple meters around them. Agnar placed his hands on Ryder’s shoulder, attempting to move him back. “Ryder, we have to go. The flames are spreading fast and-”
“Go? No, we have to help Edgar. There must be a way somehow. There must be…”
“Ryder, we have to go-”
“No! What the Captain says goes! We are not leaving Edgar here! We aren’t leaving him! Do you hear me?!” The flame instantly went mad, spreading out to multiple different trees in the forest.
A soothing voice crept into the sound of the ignited flames. “Why go so soon?” A flying dagger was pierced into Wilder’s left arm with much force; piercing his flesh into Edgar’s corpse. Esmeralda hurriedly placed both of her hands onto the dagger, wedging out the dagger for Wilder to escape.
“Wilder, take Edgar’s body to the ship, now!” Wilder positioned Edgar on his back, grasping his limp arm over his shoulder. A slice of wind was directed towards Wilder, knocking him down to the rough ground.
A silhouette of a man in a long cape appeared in front of the sky of flames. A longsword was in one of his hands, and a collection of daggers in the other. As he walked closer, a scar was visible across his left eye. “That’s him, that’s the guy we’re looking for!” Ryder and Esmeralda both reached for their flintlocks, attempting to shoot at the bountied man.
Like a flash, the man was gone, yet they knew he was still around. “Esmeralda, behind you!” Agnar cried out. Esmeralda tried to use her claws on her fists, yet the man managed to grab one of her arms and threw her to the ground. When the man turned, Ryder dropped his gun and tried to stab a sword through him. The attack was swiftly blocked by a dagger, therefore positioning the sword to go into a different direction. As the sword went out of Ryder’s grasp, the man kicked him in the knee. As Ryder fell, the man used his boot to kick his head in the mud.
Agnar used this opportunity to creep up behind him. “Golden Curse!” A ball of gold using magic was directed at the man’s face, but the man managed to dodge the attack by ducking, then stabbing Agnar by using his sword. The sword managed to pierce him through his chestpiece and into his stomach, subsequently Agnar coughing out tons of blood.
“Agnar, no!” Esmeralda grabbed her flintlock and ran to her friend. She shot multiple times as she ran, but none of them managed to hit due to her aim. As Esmeralda came closer, she swiftly swiped her hand toward the man’s face, managing to scratch him in his neck.
The man removed himself from his calm demeanor and became somewhat angry. He swung his sword up in the air, striking it down directly between the arm that she used to scratch him. Her flintlock dropped to the ground, with the man picking it up. He slowly approached Esmeralda, with the girl holding onto life by crawling against the burnt grass. The man stepped on her back, multiple times even.
“Esmeralda, I’m coming!” Ryder quickly released his blade, but he was too far to be of any use. The man’s finger motioned quietly into the trigger, firing a shot directly through her head. When the man turned to face Ryder, he shot another round right through his foot.
Agnar clenched onto his stomach, yet unable to touch his own skin due to the armor. His armor wasn’t strong enough that a sword was able to penetrate it. Ryder watched as the man once again approached one of his crew mates. The man made it clear to dig his sword into the dirt to create a line as he welcomed his next victim. When he arrived to Agnar lying on the ground, he delved his sword even deeper into his stomach. Agnar couldn’t take any of the pain anymore, appearing to pass out.
“How pitiful…” The bountied man made one final slash for the fallen Agnar, directly at his heart. “How cheap is this armor anyway, it’s practically useless.” As if the man remembered something, he looked into the direction of Wilder who was on his knees attempting to get away.
“No… no, please. Stop it, no more! You’ve taken everyone away from me, not him too!” Ryder cried out. Before he even realized it, Wilder’s body was cut in two. All Ryder could do was stare into the abyss in shame and guilt.
The brutal man finally approached the now one-man Captain. “Were you the captain of this crew?” All Ryder could do was nod. No amount of wealth or power could make him speak, as he was powerless without his friends. The man took Ryder’s hat and placed it on top of his own head. “You are no captain anymore. You all were too fresh to remotely hurt me, I don’t know why you even thought to look.”
Ryder was silent both physically and mentally. His mind was blank and all his thoughts were void. “Here, take it.” The man threw Esmeralda’s flintlock on the ground in front of Ryder. As seconds passed by, the once sought after criminal vanished back into the distant flames of the forest. Ryder picked up the gun, placing his finger on the trigger. All that he had left was himself.