by Travis Bughi
“Damn it but you are sharp, lass,” Mosley chuckled. “You realized I didn’t come all the way out here just for you? Ha! Seems like vanity ain’t your strong suit, is it? You’ll never be a good pirate if you keep this up.”
“Har-har,” Emily mocked. “Seriously now, what are we doing here?”
Captain Mosley adjusted his hat and walked up to take a place along the railing next to Emily. It seemed, as usual for him, he’d rather give a long speech than a short answer. He drew in an exaggerated breath before speaking.
“Krakens play an interesting part in life at sea, love,” Captain Mosley began. “Logically, these monsters ought to be avoided at all costs. I mean, look at the size of that bloody thing! Even I don’t marry women that big!”
Emily laughed, mostly to indulge the Captain.
“However,” he continued, “the truth is that krakens aren’t much to worry about when they’re asleep. Unless we ram it with the ship at full speed, this beast ain’t waking up, and it ain’t going nowhere neither. That lends a certain amount of stability that attracts things, you see? Stuff starts growing on the kraken’s skin while it’s here, and that attracts little things to eat that stuff. Then those little things attract bigger things, and then even bigger things, and on that goes till suddenly you got leviathans and hydras swimming around in these waters.
“Then the kraken wakes up, and it eats anything too slow and unlucky enough not to get away. Then it falls back asleep when it gets its fill. It’s a cycle you see? In this wide open ocean, the krakens act like dinner tables—dangerous ones sure, but dinner tables nonetheless—for what lives out here, and the krakens survive by eating a bunch of them and then hibernating for long periods of time. Otherwise, it’d be impossible to feed such a monstrosity.”
Emily took in the information and mulled through it. Somewhere in there was the nugget of the answer she was looking for. Not that her curiosity wasn’t being thoroughly piqued by Mosley’s steady stream of lore.
“So, we’re here to catch a leviathan?” Emily asked.
“Exactly,” Mosley nodded.
“And how are we going to do that?”
“I’m glad you asked!” he smiled. “This ain’t going to be a big shock to you, Emily, but we sailors aren’t the only things with a brain out here. I’m not just talking about merchants and vikings, now; I’m talking about merfolk and naga.”
“Go on,” Emily nodded.
“Merfolk are like, well, normal humans, sorta.” Mosley scratched the back of his head under his hat line. “Except they’re not. The top half of them looks like a human, but their lower half is like one big leg that’s scaly, green and ends in a big flipper. They can breathe the air and water, doesn’t matter, but they can’t exactly survive on land. They might venture a bit onto the shore, perhaps to lounge on rocks or get some wood, but otherwise they stick to the ocean.”
“And the naga?” Emily asked, trying to push the Captain along.
“Hideous looking things.” The Captain recoiled like he could see them. “They smell, too. They got a head with big eyes, a mouth, and got two arms, but they ain’t nothing like humans. Their whole body is scaly, green and blue, and they don’t have legs either. They slither upright on one big tail like a kraken’s tentacle with no flipper on the end. Naga also make this sharp hiss noise as a warning.
“Now, that don’t make them bad, though, not to us. I know what you’re thinking, but we aren’t in any real danger yet. The naga are just extremely protective of their territory, and they hate the merfolk with a passion. Merfolk share the same feeling, too, see, because they’re competitors. They both fight over the same food, and there ain’t always enough of it to go around. The vikings love to fight the naga for fun, but there’s no profit in that for us pirates. If there’s any naga out there, they probably won’t attack without talking to us first.”
Emily was listening intently, but she was also getting impatient. She leaned an elbow on the railing and set her head into an open palm.
“So,” she blinked. “Are you going to tell me what we’re doing here, or what?”
“Right!” Mosley slapped a hand on the railing. “You did ask me that, now, didn’t you? So, anyway, like I was saying, these kraken attract stuff. The merfolk and naga follow them like they’re portable hunting grounds and fight each other to lay claim to the area. If we can, we’ll trade for some information on where to find us a leviathan, and then we’ll go hunt us some fresh meat. Hopefully, it’s the merfolk who got to this one. They tend to be more open to trading. The naga can slither up on land to gather more material, and they don’t like us humans much anyway. The merfolk, though, they just love trading for metal, because they can’t exactly build a forge. They rely on trading with humans to get the weapons they need.”
Emily blinked as her mind tried to process the massive amount of information that had just been shoved into her head. She was pretty sure she hadn’t caught all of it, but she nodded as she got the general understanding of what Captain Mosley saying. It was just like the Captain to take as long as possible to answer a simple question.
Emily shook her head and looked back out to the kraken. Now that she knew they were waiting on either merfolk or naga to contact them, she began searching the waters for movement. The pirates hadn’t sounded off or raised any flags to signal the ship’s arrival, yet somehow Emily figured they didn’t have to. The Greedy Barnacle was in plain view and holding steady. If anyone was in sight, they’d see the ship even from a good distance away.
Unless they were on the other side of the kraken, Emily realized.
She frowned at that thought. She had hoped for a nearly instantaneous response, but now she realized that perhaps this would be a long wait. In fact, there was no guarantee that either the merfolk or the naga had made it here at all. Lonzo had guessed the kraken to be here only a few months. Was that long enough to attract anything?
Emily looked over at Lonzo now and examined him again. His last name was Romero, and he was one of the few pirates to come aboard this ship alone. Like any pirate, he wore loose clothing and carried his wealth upon him. It wasn’t much, just one large emerald on a short necklace that was hidden from view by his scraggly beard. His eyes were hard, and he had yellow, cracked teeth. He was older and rarely had anything to say that wasn’t honest. Captain Mosley had taken a liking to him immediately. In fact, for being a man who traveled alone, Lonzo had become well liked and trusted by most of the other pirates as well.
Lonzo had been one of many that had been hired on half a year ago in Lucifan. Mosley and his First Mate, Carlito Hacke, had arrived in the city in need of a whole new crew, and they’d found twenty such individuals in one night. A desperate need to leave the city, coupled with free drinks provided by their new captain, convinced most to join up without hesitation. Many of the pirates traveled and were recruited in twos or threes, though there was one group of five. That group was comprised of four men and one woman, the only other woman on the ship besides Emily. Her name was Priscila Valdez, and it was well known that all four of the men she traveled with were more than just her friends.
Emily had befriended Priscila early on in the voyage, an effort surprisingly more difficult than Emily first imagined. She’d thought that because they were the only two women on the ship, Priscila would take to her naturally. However, with four men that stuck to her like family, she had no need of any more bonding time. Priscila was old enough to be Emily’s mother, and Emily practically had to beg the woman to help her learn to pick the locks of the cages she was thrown into. Thankfully, Priscila had taken pity on her and agreed to teach a few tricks. After a couple of lessons, Priscila had decided Emily wasn’t so bad after all.
“Captain,” Lonzo spoke up.
Emily snapped out of her memories at the sound of urgency in Lonzo’s voice. Captain Mosley raised an eyebrow, as well, and turned. Lonzo stretched a single arm out toward the water and nodded his head in that direction. Emily looked out and caught
a shimmer of green speeding towards them beneath the rolling waves.
“Well done,” Mosley said. “You got good eyes for an old fella.”
“Thank you, Captain,” Lonzo answered.
Emily watched the green shimmer and saw two others alongside it. As the figures bolted toward the ship, they began to take shape. As Emily leaned over the railing to catch a closer look, she jumped a bit when they suddenly burst through the surface and splashed water almost as high as the railing.
Now free from the obscurity, Emily could clearly see that one was a mermaid and the other two were mermen. The mermaid had freckles like Emily, but also had bright red hair that was long and wild even when wet. She was all smiles and appeared very friendly. The two mermen flanking her, however, were coldly serious and held metal spears that gleamed from one end to the other.
All three were stunningly beautiful with well-defined bodies that Emily found difficult not to notice. They were also completely naked.
The pirates erupted into cheers and whistles. A few banged the railing with an open palm and swung a fist in the air. Captain Mosley smiled broadly, Lonzo let one side of his lips creep up into a grin, and the whole crew either leaned against the railing or hung from the ropes above to catch a glimpse. Emily just gazed with lips parted at the impressive figures of the mermen.
“It’s merfolk,” one pirate called out. “Pay up!”
The vocal pirate came by the line with his cap upside down in his hand. As he walked, those who’d bet on either naga or nothing parted with whatever they’d wagered and placed it into the hat. Those who’d won took their winnings from the pool with shameless grins. As the collector passed by the Captain, Mosley grumbled and pulled two coins to drop into the hat.
“Sorry, Captain,” the pirate shrugged.
“Aye,” Mosley waved. “It’s just my luck. Shouldn’t have bet against myself.”
The pirate moved on, and Emily watched him leave before turning to glare at the Captain.
“When did that betting take place?” Emily asked.
“Uh, sorry, love,” Mosley apologized. “He was taking offers when you were in the hold.”
Emily frowned at Mosley’s words. The male pirates always called her ‘love’ when they were trying to be charming or apologetic, like a cute nickname could make up for their shortcomings.
“And you didn’t put in for me?”
“I thought about it, but you should be happy I didn’t,” Mosley countered. “I don’t know if you saw, lass, but I just lost.”
“Captain,” Lonzo spoke up again, “the merfolk?”
Mosley suddenly remembered his guests and turned back to the ocean. Despite the crude remarks from the pirates involving her body and their love of it, the mermaid seemed unaffected by the attention she was receiving. She waited patiently for Mosley to address her and kept her expression pleasant.
“My lady, my apologies,” the Captain bowed.
The mermaid nodded her head.
“Oy! Knock it off!” Mosley burst out suddenly.
The pirates, a few still chuckling, grinning, and nudging each other, went silent.
“Now,” he said, adjusting his hat, “to business, my dear. I believe introductions are in order first. My name is Captain Mosley, and this is my mighty vessel, The Greedy Barnacle. These rogues you see upon it are my crew, and we’ve come here to trade with thee.”
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Captain Mosley,” the mermaid said. “You may call me Alana.”
“Alana,” Mosley savored the name, “a beautiful name for a beautiful mermaid.”
He winked at her, and she blushed. Mosley, along with most of the crew, seemed absolutely smitten.
“You mentioned you wanted to trade?” Alana asked after a long pause.
“Yes! Right!” Mosley blinked. “Well then, me mates and I are looking for some fresh leviathan meat. Our food stores are running low, you see, and getting a bit too moldy at the same time. We’ll be restocking in Savara when we get there, but any food we catch now will save us some coin when we make port.”
“Information on our hunting grounds?” Alana clarified as well as questioned. “Well now, Captain, you know information like that won’t come cheaply. We’ve already had to fight off some naga scouts to maintain this area.”
Emily noted something different about the mermaid’s voice. It was off, like every word echoed within the mermaid’s throat. She nudged Lonzo and asked him about it.
“They got something different in the way they speak,” he said. “They can talk underwater, and you can hear them just fine. I would know. I fell off a ship once as a young lad and got rescued by a merman. Wasn’t much of a rescue, though. He thought I was there to steal from him and cursed my drowning arse the entire time he drug me back up to the surface. I figure that whatever makes them sound different out here is what makes them able to talk down there.”
Emily nodded before turning her attention back to the exchange.
“Cheap? Ah, come on now,” Mosley said. “We just want to know where one is at. We’ll kill it ourselves, I promise! And we won’t be telling any naga we come across about it, neither.”
Alana’s smile changed to a smirk, and she squinted one eye. Emily thought it actually made her even more attractive.
“What do you have to trade?” she asked.
“What do you need, love?” Mosley countered.
“Weapons,” she replied. “More of these, if you sweet darlings have any.”
She reached out a slender hand and grabbed one of the mermen’s spears firmly, gently biting her lower lip at the same time. Emily could practically hear the mouths of every pirate drop open.
“That we have,” Mosley nodded. “That we have. You two! Get the spears. Damn it, stop gawking, ya’ scallywags, and fetch the spears!”
The two pirates hesitated for a moment, and so Mosley gave one of them a kick to his behind. He and the other got the message then, and they went below deck.
“Now, name your price,” Mosley said, turning back to the mermaid.
Alana sauntered back and forth in the water as if weighing the details in her mind. Finally, she gave a steadying flip of her tail and looked the Captain in the eyes.
“Twenty spears, and I’ll point you in the direction of the nearest leviathan,” she said.
Mosley’s mouth fell open in disgust, and he placed a ring-heavy hand upon his chest.
“By the sea, love, are you trying to rob me?” he asked, exasperated. “For twenty of my finest spears, I could purchase an entire leviathan, gutted and cooked, in Savara! What do you take me for? No, no, I’m afraid the best I can offer is only five spears.”
“Five!” Alana scoffed. “This isn’t general knowledge I’m giving you here, Captain. We’ve scouted every leviathan school in this area, and we even know where the hydras are if you’d like to avoid those. Or does your crew enjoy fighting a beast that grows multiple heads?”
Emily heard the hatch open and whirled around to see the two pirates emerge from below. They each had ten metal spears, five in each hand, and Captain Mosley quickly signaled for them to get down. They hunched low.
“Well then, now we’re getting somewhere,” Mosley frowned back at the mermaid, showing approval. “I’ll tell you what, little lady, me crew and I here need to travel southeast, then just south as we get closer to Savara. If you tell us of a leviathan in that direction and have one of your bodyguards lead us there, I’ll double my original offer. Ten spears, and you’ve got a deal.”
“Lead you there?” Alana asked, somewhat taken back. “I’ll point the way for ten, but if you want a guide, then that’ll cost you fifteen. I’ve heard how much leviathan meat goes for on land; I’m being more than generous.”
“Aye, then,” Mosley sighed, “it seems we’re at an impasse. I was trying to talk you down for good reason, love. I didn’t want to say it before, but I ain’t got twenty spears, honest sailor. Most I got is ten. Just guide us there, and we’ll give them
all to you.”
Mosley held a hand to his heart, and Alana stared at him hard. A few moments of silence passed before Alana swished her tail angrily.
“Fine,” she said.
The pirates cheered, and Alana nodded to one of her mermen. He swam forward, and Mosley motioned for one of the pirates with the spears to come forward. That pirate did, taking his ten spears and carefully lowering them one at a time, pointed end up, to the merman. Alana counted the spears with her eyes and, once all were in her possession, nodded to the other merman.
“It was a real pleasure, Alana,” Captain Mosley tipped his hat to her, “real pleasure.”
Alana smiled at the Captain, but Emily swore she saw a subtle look of contempt. The spearless merman swam up towards the front of the ship and looked at Mosley.
“When you’re ready, Captain,” he called out.
Emily was impressed with the merman’s voice. It sounded strong, and honestly, with a chest like that, she would have been surprised if it hadn’t been.
Chapter 3
The ship turned southeast and followed the merman across the sea. He was surprisingly quick and agile, and his stamina was a sight to behold. His muscular body kept a steady pace that let The Greedy Barnacle follow without interruption, and Emily could easily decipher where such strength came from. Unlike humans, merfolk used their entire body to move everywhere and anywhere, and they had no vessels with which to make themselves lazy or ease their journeys. Emily eyed the merman for a full minute before finally deciding to do something else. She’d most certainly come back to see him leave.
She decided to return to her room to put her weapons away, at least her bow and quiver. They were essential to her new way of life, most of the time, but their need was practically nonexistent aboard this ship. She didn’t need to hunt for food or stand ready to fight. Pirates liked to duel and train, but they announced such activities and fought with wooden sticks, often too drunk to risk using naked blades. Spontaneous fights happened with fists only and normally occurred over a disagreement in food, assigned seating, improper counting, unpleasant lack of clothing, too much drinking, not enough drinking. . .
