Chapter 6

  The sky is dark, covered in clouds with no end in sight, yet neither rain nor snow falls.

  The swirling sound of waves can be heard, along with the fpping of wings, as seagulls perch themselves atop the mast of a certain ship.

  This ship held 5 individuals, with most sharing a mood matching the weather.

  Eric, Laura, the knifeman and the boy were all watching the captain perform a sort of ritual. While definitely not new to the crew, it was marvelous to the boy who had never interacted with his own kind before, and who never saw miracles like the one before his eyes.

  The boy watched the captain, who was standing at the edge of the boat, his hands cpped together as he spoke, "Oh great Ethryss of the depths, I humbly offer you our st 5 gold and the blood of a mage to guide us through your dangerous and grand realm."

  As he finished speaking he opened up his hands, followed by a swift motion of him using a knife to cut the palm of his left hand. After which he quickly put the knife away and reached down into a small, leather pocket pced on his belt. Pulling out 5 pristine gold coins, he pced them on his bloody hand and raised it high above the water.

  After waiting a few seconds, a deep blue hue of light emanated from the captain's bloody hand as everyone watched the gold coins dissolve into pure, see-through water. As it flowed from his hand and into the ocean. A slight ripple seemed to emanate from the ship, sending an invisible wave through the sea. And with that, the ocean seemed a little calmer, a little more tameable.

  "Wow, he seemed to like the offering, look, he even healed your cut, weird." The knifeman said while leaning up against the railing.

  The captain looking confused at his hand spoke, "Yeaaah, I don't know. I've seen this happen before, but it only happened when you offered more than what you asked for. Yet we matched the price, a gold coin for each passenger," Thinking for a bit more, he opened his mouth again, "But that's not of the matter right now, lower the sails, and then we'll discuss what we're gonna do with our new friend."

  Following the orders, everyone got the sails ready and they were off as everyone watched the isnd with a near-death experience and a mythical monster getting smaller and smaller in the distance along with the continent.

  With that done, they turned to the boy, who while tied in chains. Was also looking at the isnd and continent, watching his home and territory slowly disappear in the distance.

  While he normaly would have resisted and tried to break out, he was too shocked by everything going on around him, his marveling far outshining his survival instincts, after all, while having grown up in one of the most painful and dangerous enviroments, he was still just a kid.

  Everyone gathered around him and started contempting.

  The knifeman, who is called Craik, spoke up first, "So, what do we do with the runt? He doesn't appear to understand us, or any nguage, given that he hasn't spoken yet."

  Nodding, Eric chimed in, "I agree, he also doesn't look like he belongs to any of the wild barbarian tribes, who walk around basically naked in the snow and are covered in tattoos, gah I'm getting chills just thinking about it. Also, he doesn't appear to be truly human, maybe a demi of some sort? And what happened to him, he looks completely battered, his eyes are bloodshot, and looks at all the blood on his shirt. Where did it come from or from what?"

  And almost as if the world wanted to expin, the boy again started convulsing, coughing up amounts of blood and bits of flesh.

  The others watched in slight shock and major confusion, not knowing what to do. The only one with medical knowledge was Eric, but he was to stunned to act.

  After the boy finally stopped, the captain spoke up. "To the demi question, no. He has to little beast for that, maybe a missbreed. I mean, there is a small chance that his mom was raped by the drake we saw and he sprung forth, although the chances for that are slim. But that appears to be the most logical choice. What I'm more concerned about is his health, because I pn to sell him. But given the obvious fact that his health isn't top-notch, I wonder if he will make the journey, heck I wonder how he is even alive now."

  Laura perked her head up at the mention of selling, "Ohh, finally, we've been starved for money, especially with our st gold having just been sacrificed. As for his survival? I think I can answer your question on how he might be still alive, look at the hair, though hard to see under all the blood and grim, it's white. This is normally the sign of a divine blessing, maybe a god or goddess had some sympathy for him and gave him something to survive or at least help him with it. And that makes it even better, those people always go for a high price, no matter how battered and bruised they appear to be."

  The boy, not understanding nguage, wasn't aware of the fact that he was in the presence of people that even devils and demons would look at in disgust, but he would soon find out.

  A few days passed, and while the boy at first didn't hate the chains and the new cage he was moved into, he also didn't like them. But as time went on he yearned for movement, to stretch his hurting body so that he would have something different to keep his mind on besides the ever-unbearing pain resonating from his whole body.

  His stomach was also rumbling, as he had not eaten ever since he arrived on the isnd, he was famished. Yet, they refused to give him food, no matter how much he rattled against the cage, no matter how much he pulled against the chains. The thing is, they wanted to give him food, after all, if he died or was too weak they couldn't get good money. But they had barely any food.

  They originally wanted to gather some food too when they stopped at the isnd where the drake lived, but their visit was cut short. And they couldn't go to the continent due to the risk of the drake following.

  And now, the time for his first meal had arrived.

  The crew watched Laura stand up and ready the food while they were talking. "Can't we just not feed him? He'll probably make it till we arrive and even if he doesn't, I know a necromancer that would give a pretty coin for a god-blessed body." Craik spoke with clear distaste in his voice present, showing his opinion to the caged boy.

  Chewing down on a piece of monster jerky, the captain turned towards the knifeman with a deadpan look, "Craik, I would trust one of your contacts as much as I would trust Kyrion of the fme tower to have an Ice affinity."

  Chuckling, Eric spoke up, "Yeah, especially if they're a necr-"

  His sentence was stopped by a yell coming from the inside of the ship. "AGGGH, YOU FUCKING BRAT, I WILL KILL YOU FOR THAT."

  They all turned towards each other, with confused looks before standing up to run over to see what happened.

  Running down the stairs, to the cell. They find Laura, lifting the boy by the throat with her right hand, choking him. The boy was struggling, trying everything to get her to let go, but his fighting was yielding no reward. Laura as a bruiser simply possessed more strength than a raw-boned, young boy. Though he seemed to somehow have managed to wound her. This was a recognizable bite mark on her left shoulder, blood dripping down. "Huh you little runt, I bet you will think twice before attacking me again after I snap your neck."

  They watched her strengthen her arm, slowly crushing the throat of the boy, almost breaking it, just before the captain's voice boomed. "Laura if you kill our only source of money, I swear to the gods that I will whore you out to every pirate known to Ethryss to make back every single copper coin you cost us. DROP. HIM."

  Looking at her captain, she wanted to speak up and defend her actions, but seeing the serious look, she backed down. Dropping the boy, though not before connecting her knee full force with his nose, sending him crashing against the metal bars. Turning around with a smug grin she spit in his food bowl and left. Or at least she wanted to, the captain holding her shoulder, stopping her. "We will talk about this."With a stern voice, the captain reminded her one st time that she fucked up.

  Letting her go, he turned towards Eric, "Can you check his body? And stay with him to see if he eats, If he doesn't force him to. Some people out there chose death over ensvement."

  Nodding, they saw Eric enter the cell and start inspecting the most definitely damaged skull of the boy.

  Not wanting to annoy or interrupt Eric, they went upstairs, meeting up with Laura.

  -

  "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!? Trying to kill our only source of money, and here I thought Craik was the idiot." The captain was furious, and it was his human right to be.

  Meanwhile, Laura, stood there, apologetic, taking it all. "I'm sorry boss, it's just when I tried to feed him I didn't expect him to just attack me like an animal."

  "WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?!? THAT HE WAS GONNA BEHAVE CIVILIZED? Use your brain for a second. Not only, did he not get food in days, but no, from what we can assume he also never experienced any type of civilization. All that, yet somehow you expect him to behave like a normal human?"

  Laura was getting smaller and smaller as the captain kept on barraging her, "If Eric comes up and tells me that boy died or is somehow too damaged to sell. Trust me, you will wish that Drake caught our ship and killed us all."