Adrift

Liz knew it would be futile, but what else was she going to do? She brought up the worn telescope in her pink claw and held it up to her blue eye.

Sea and sky; that was all the scope could show her. Like it was the last dozen or so times she’s checked; no ships, no islands, not even a single rock to dock at.

Her pink, pointed nose wrinkled in the salty air. She shielded her eyes as she chanced to glance up at the sun. Liz was lucky she had such pure white fur; this helped her to reflect the sunlight as opposed to absorbing it. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for her three foot, worm-like tail that hung forlornly in this current situation.

Liz Lightclaw, lookout and navigator for this budding crew of pirates, was a she-rat on a mission. She had to get her friends out of these waters or they would all die.

Liz peered over the small crows nest on their sloop as it sat still in the doldrums. It used to belong to Desdemona, a cruel slaver pirate who had been raiding the ocean around the High Shoals. She was using it as an escape sloop when Liz and the Captain caught up with her and convinced the helmsman to mutiny. Since then it has been an agile and serviceable craft that had weathered many a storm and raid with them. It was a single sail sloop with optional rowlocks so it could use oars. Twin cannons were mounted on each side of the bow and astern was a canopied map room. A small berth in the center held provisions and gear but right now, it was completely empty.

Down below, Paulie was slumped against the wheel. He was the helmsman and third member of the crew. Since he was a half giant, the rudder wheel was customized to fit him; made from a war wagon wheel that he spun before the mast in service to Desdemona. The huge bruiser was easily five times Liz’s size and it was many a times his mighty muscle was called upon to rescue them out of trouble. The wheel being his size also meant it was the only thing he could rest his large body against when the sun was getting to him. He could easily row them out of these doldrums, but Liz had to find a destination first.

The Captain was under the shade of the canopy, pouring over any charts and maps. He had not come out in the last couple of days and Liz was beginning to worry about the captain. He was only human, after all.

Liz had met Captain Matthias when she was trying to pick his pocket. She half expected him to turn her over to the town guard, or worse, her own bosses. Instead; he tossed her a gold piece and told her not to get caught next time. They met again later that week when both the guard and her thieves guild were planning to execute him for trying to steal a frigate. It was at this point that Liz learned that he was one of the wolves of the sea; a pirate captain in a den of lesser thieves. This definitely intrigued Liz to at least see what happened to this bold man. After dodging the execution and leaving the thieves’ guild in chaos, Liz decided to join the man on his quest for a ship and a crew. She helped him steal a fishing boat and that was how they stumbled upon Desdemona and Paulie. Since then, they raided small merchant ships for their profits and half their provisions. They were not cruel enough to leave them without food or water on the treacherous waves.

Liz was prepared to follow Captain Matthias wherever he went. But now it seemed that their little enterprise had reached its end.

The Royal Navy was after them since they had flown a jolly roger before their mast. The relentless Commodore Longleaf had made it his mission in life to hunt down Captain Matthias. The pointy eared half elf and his man o’ war eventually chased them to the edge of the map. With the Navy’s forty guns, their tiny sloop could not survive the onslaught. The Captain, bold as he was, declared it would be more wise to run. The mighty frigate was gaining on their rudder when the Captain noticed a dense fog off the starboard side. He ordered Paulie to steer into it and the Navy did not dare followed them. The crew was able to disappear into a thick fog, but soon after, they found themselves in worse trouble.

Uncharted waters; a sea that showed up on no map and therefore had no record of any trade winds. By now they were stuck in the doldrums; the dreaded windless and waveless phenomena that plagued any sailor.

Paulie turned his giant head to the large barrel beside him. He gloomily looked down with his one eye to see the inside of the open water cask. Even for a larger man, he rationed his water responsibly. He only took half a mouthful when he was really thirsty and tried to keep his strength up in the burning sun. And yet, it was empty and dry even after five days.

The small crew did not have many provisions when they ran from Commodore Longleaf and his Royal Navy. They were at the end of food and water and they draped fishing lines over the railing and even laid harpoons on the deck. No fish seemed to even swim these waters and things were looking dire. Sailors could do terrible things when faced with starvation and both the helmsman and the lookout were considering them. The Captain usually carried three loaded pistols on his person. Maybe it was high time to consider using them.

Liz wearily descended the rope ladder from the crows nest just as Captain Matthias swaggered out from the canopy. Heavy black boots thudded with each step upon the deck. Captain Matthias was a tall, lithe man tanned brown by a long life on the sea. His brown hair was speckled with gray while his large beard was thick and bushy. His black overcoat was gone as well as his gloves, tricorne hat and his pistols. He still had his cutlass in the baldric slung over his shoulder. He grinned from beneath the red rag tied around his head and patted Paulie on the shoulders.

“Mr. Paulie, good to see you at your post,” he said, trying to keep good humor.

“Gotta be ready...for when we see land, Cap’n,” the half giant croaked out.

“Good man,” Captain Matthias nodded. He then looked up to Liz before walking over to the bow’s railing. Liz finished her journey down the ladder and padded along the deck on white furred paws. The Captain did not even turn around when she approached him.

“Miss Lightpaw, any land sighted?” he asked.

“Nay, Captain,” she answered.

The Captain sounded like he expected the answer, but he still sighed and placed his weathered hands on the railing. He was staring out upon the still sea.

“We’ve got to get out of here…” he whispered.

Liz Lightpaw cleared her throat before she asked the question.

“Captain...where are the pistols?”

Matthias stiffened up from the railing and crossed his hands behind his back.

“They’re locked up, Miss Lightpaw,” he said with an edge to his voice. “And I have the only key.”

The small she-rat clenched her tiny pink fists and steeled herself for what she was about to do.

“Give it to me,” Liz said.

The Captain spun around and glared at his lookout.

“You do not give the orders around here, Lookout Lightpaw; I do. And I order you to not consider something you won’t live to regret.”

“Captain! Paulie is dying, we’ve run out of water and food and we’re not going to live long anyway! It was a good try, but the whole enterprise has failed!”

As they argued, Paulie’s single eye lazily darted between the two of them. He seemed to stiffen up in order to move, but even he did not know whom he was going to move against.

“I won’t have that mutinous and fatalist talk aboard my ship!” The Captain roared. “We are still alive and with that comes the chance that we can sail out of here!”

“For how long?! It was your idea to sail into the fog! Now we’re lost in uncharted waters and the doldrums! I can’t see any islands or other ships! For all I know; we could be the farthest away from civilization!”

“We just need to keep looking! Things will get better...”

“How can things possibly get better?!”

That last outburst brought a deafening silence across the sloop. Liz and the Captain were huffing and puffing as Paulie stared at both of them with his only good eye.

Liz’s paw slowly approached one of the daggers shoved into her sash. The Captain’s breath drew short as his hand trailed up his baldric.

“Miss Lightpaw...what are you doing?”

“I could ask you the same thing…‘Captain’.”

Liz did not care what happened next. If they were going to die anyway, nothing mattered.

That was when the Captain’s face lit up. His hand shot from his baldric to point up to the sky.

“Look!” he yelled.

Liz was too streetwise to fall for this old trick, but it was Paulie’s voice bellowing out that made her turn.

“Liz! Up in the sky!”

She followed his arm up to the air and both of their faces lit up along with his. They could see a single white seagull flapping high above their ship. It let out a sharp cry twice as it flew off. It was heading further out to sea.

“That seabird is headed for sustenance or I’m a liar!” the Captain yelled as he ran over to Paulie. He helped the half giant to his feet and led him to midships. “Break out the oars! We’ve got to keep up with it!”

The sight of the white bird lit a fire of hope within Paulie and Liz. The half giant slipped the long oars from beneath the railing and dipped them into the calm sea beside the ship. Each powerful stroke pushed them further along as Liz kept the bird in sight. The Captain did his part by dipping one of his many rags into the nearly dry water cask. He swabbed at Paulie’s bald head to keep him from overheating and collapsing. They followed it for six leagues until Liz spotted something.

“Shipwreck ahoy!” she cried out.

“What colors does it fly?!” the Captain asked.

“Unknown! The prow is aimed at the sky!”

The Captain grinned and drew his sword. He checked the cutlass’ sharpness on his thumbnail.

“Let’s hurry, then. If there are survivors, we might get a couple of deckhands out of it. If not; the provisions are ours for the taking!”

“Aye-aye!” both Liz and Paulie called out.

Once they reached the shipwreck; it was clear to them that the only occupants it had were the dozen or so seabirds roosting in the upturned bow. The previous sailors of this ship were only bones, picked clean by the air borne raptors. Captain Matthias sent them all soaring into the air with a loud cry and wave of his cutlass. They began to circle above the wreck, glaring angrily at the invading pirates. Paulie had collapsed down on the deck of the sloop, exhausted from the rowing. Since they were the two best swimmers; the Captain and Liz promised him first taste of any water casks they could find.

The Captain and his lookout stripped down to their trousers and tunics and dove beneath the still water. They swam along the hull of the wreck. It was then they learned that it was half of a ship. Jagged timbers covered in little bubbles of air still seeping from the broken seal. Captain gave Liz a tug on her tail and jabbed a finger to the opening in the midship when her head spun to him. The lookout nodded and made her way into the wreck followed by her Captain. She nearly lost the air in her lungs when a fat mouth grouper sprang from the dark recess of the vessel. The Captain also stifled a laugh as they swam in.

When they resurfaced, they carried with them five large water casks and three provision casks labeled as sealed provisions strung along by a rope net. Paulie’s large head wearily peered over the railing to see his salvation bobbing in the sea. Liz and Matthias heaved the barrels up onto the sloop and the Captain himself cracked open the first water cask with the reinforced guard of his cutlass. The two of them lifted the water cask up to their dutiful helmsman’s lips. The half giant heartily gulped down the chilled water from the cask. His once dead eyes lit up at the refreshing taste.

“Aaaah! I’m alive again!” Paulie called out while rearing his head back. “Thank you, Captain. Thank you, Liz.”

Captain Matthias accepted the thanks and then proceeded to break open another water cask. He and his crew helped themselves to the water until their thirst was quenched.

After a few minutes rest, Captain Matthias stood up.

“I think I saw a few bottles of rum floating about in the wreck,” he told them. “They should be nice and cool in the depths. I’ll be back in a tick.”

The lithe figure dove back into the depths and Liz thanked him for this. Maybe she could have a conversation with their helmsman. She needed help navigating these new feelings welling up in her.

“Paulie?” she asked as she nibbled at a piece of cheese she found in the provision cask. “Have you ever...regretted following the Captain?”

At first all she could hear was the helmsman’s heavy breathing. Then, one final deep breath before his spoke.

“Do you?” he asked. “You were about to stick him.”

Liz scoffed; she had almost forgotten about the shortest mutiny in history.

“I...was not as hopeful as he was,” she said. “He’s always been like that; bold in the face of death. Even when a town and thieves guild want you dead. But how many times is that boldness going to get us in trouble?”

The half giant heaved himself up and looked down at the young she-rat.

“More trouble than flying a jolly roger in open water? More trouble than being a sneak thief? More trouble than being a servant to a vile slaver bitch who plucks out your eye when you blunder? We have been through a lot already. I haven’t been with him as long as you have, but he saved me from a life of painful servitude. Trouble is always going to be with us on these seas. I’m willing to trust in him as long as he has faith in us.”

Liz looked away in embarrassment. He was absolutely right. None of them were born into a life of ease. They just now had to play the cards they had been dealt in there life. At least she knew the Captain always had an ace up his sleeve.

It was then a loud splash broke the silence. Liz and Paulie looked up to see Captain Matthias pulling himself back onto the ship along with at least three dark brown bottles of rum. However, his face was not that of drunken joy or excitement; it was one of fear and trepidation.

“Mates! I found out what sunk the ship!”

Something big and strong slammed against the ship and made it rock back and forth.

Paulie and Liz leapt to their feet and peered over the railing of the ship. In the ocean was a massive shark with a long, serpentine body. Its rough skin was a sickly green tinged with a deep blue. It was swimming out into the ocean so it could turn around and ram them again.

Liz and Paulie turned to their Captain to ask him what they should do, but Captain Matthias was already picking up one of the harpoons.

“Paulie! Get ready to smash that thing in the nose! Liz, row as hard as you can.”

The half-giant nodded and retrieved his two handed great hammer from the hold while the she-rat ran over to one of the oars. Captain Matthias stood on the railing as he watched it approach. Once it was a yard in range, he gave the order.

“Now!”

Liz used her entire body to row on one side. The sloop veered to the left just as the snake-shark breached the ocean. Paulie swung his hammer into the creatures nose with a satisfying crunch.

The beast bucked and swam in the other direction, away from the thing that beat its sensitive nose. As it swam off, the Captain stood up on the bow. He launched the harpoon and buried in deep into the monster’s flesh. The line went taut and the sloop lurched forward. Like a horse drawn cart, the ship began to drag along the surface of the water. Paulie and Liz stumbled back and held onto the mast, but Matthias remained at the bow, grinning and drawing his sword in triumph. He could see that the snake-shark was pulling them further out into the ocean.

“Do your best, beastie!” he roared as he swung his sword. “Drag us out of this wretched sea!”

Liz stared on with a renewed wonder and admiration for their Captain. No matter what kind of trouble they got into; whether it was thieves, slavers, Naval gunships, trackless oceans or even sea monsters, Captain Matthias the Bold would always be there to get them out of that trouble.