Unliving

"As time passed and trade between the continents started to become more common, so too did the pirate activity moved. In modern days, pirates are most commonly found in the stretch of ocean between the continents, and to its sides, hugging the contours of the continents themselves.

 

In ancient times, however, when most trade was localized to the continent, it was the southern oceans of Ur-Teros and the western seas of Alcidea that saw most trade activity. Naturally, those with less kind intentions also congregated in those regions." - Excerpt from "The History of Piracy: Past and Present" by Edgar Daumshollow.

"Pirates?" asked Mimia and Éirynn and they came out from their room upon hearing the warning shouts. Aideen was present on deck with Artair when the sailor at the crow's nest noticed the incoming ships, so she got wind of the news right away.

 

The Galleon they traveled in, the Veros family's private ship, was anything but an easy prey for pirates, as the large ship's crew had many who looked like capable fighters amongst them, and even now many of those were arming themselves with weapons in preparation for battle.

 

Even so, the pirates must have thought that they had the numerical advantage, three ships to the single galleon, as the two caravels approached from shoreward and the smaller galleon came from the opposite direction.

 

They had not accounted for the passengers that the galleon carried, however.

 

"Yes, either get your weapons ready, or stay in your room," said Aideen in reply to her niece. "Either if fine by me, but if you're joining the fight, stick close to me."

 

"We might not have to fight much, or at least, not all of them," said Mimia with a smile, as Haon carefully walked out from below the deck and stretched its back beside her. Aideen knew that Dó was always somewhere around the deck, invisible and unnoticed. "Haon and Dó can swim."

 

"You mean…" Aideen looked at Mimia, then to Haon, then to the pirate ships in the distance, before she smiled to match Mimia's smile. "There'd be at least twenty to thirty, maybe as much as fifty in each of those ships. Not too much for them?"

 

"C'mon Aunt Aideen. You've fought with Haon back then, and we've been further improving their bodies all this time," said Éirynn with a slight pout, like an artist whose skills were doubted. "It would be child's play for them to handle those two ships, though I don't know if they can swim back before the third reaches us."

 

"We'll deal with the third one ourselves then," said Aideen with a nod. She beckoned the ship's captain over, and told the man what she had just discussed with Mimia and Éirynn. The man grunted at first when she called him over, but his frown quickly turned into a grin once she explained.

 

"You can send those two off for their fun, girls." Aideen said after their talk. Haon and Dó - which had perched on one of the masts, completely invisible - got their instructions from Mimia the next moment, and both undead constructs jumped into the sea with a splash.

 

Aideen had not seen them surface after the splash, but Mimia told her that there was nothing to worry about, and they were just swimming underwater so as not to betray their presence too soon. When she considered that the undead constructs didn't need to breathe after all, she nodded her head.

 

As for the third ship, their ship's captain had decided to hit the pirates hard before they could even step foot onto their ship. Around fifty of the grizzled sailors were armed and waited for the pirate ship to pull alongside theirs, as they would jump over before the pirates could.

 

While Artair, Mimia, and Éirynn would stay on the ship - Mimia and Éirynn mostly keeping track of their pets' progress, while Artair was a poor swimmer, something Aideen learned during their little "vacation" at the atoll back then - Aideen herself would join the sailors as they jumped the pirates.

 

The pirate galleon would be the first pirate ship to reach them as it had wind behind its sails, but before it did, Haon and Dó had reached the smaller caravels, as they had swum to meet the pirates instead. Both of them surfaced discreetly, climbed the wooden sides of the ships, and fell upon the pirates on board without mercy.

 

Aideen saw some heads turn towards where the caravels were, and as she tried hard to listen, she vaguely heard screaming in the wind, and could barely spot what looked like bodies falling overboard the caravels. Haon's large white figure was noticeable even from the distance on one of them, while Dó remained invisible as she went about the grisly work.

 

The mood aboard the ship turned lighter as they watched the massacre from afar. The pirates in the third ship had closed in by then, and prepared to board, completely unaware of what happened to their fellows in the other two ships.

 

As the hooks latched on the railings, and the ships were pulled closer together, tens of figures swung from atop the masts of the galleon over to the smaller pirate ships, as they expertly caught themselves on riggings or the other ship's masts. A few who didn't landed gracefully into a roll and stood up with weapons in hand amidst the surprised pirates.

 

Aideen was amongst those that landed on the deck. In her case she had landed on

a hapless pirate by accident, and the unexpected impact had shattered the poor man's spine and both of her legs. Unlike him though, she simply healed her legs back up, ignoring the pain, and stood, her staff in hand, as some of the pirates gathered their wits and turned to face the intruders on their ship.

 

Words were not exchanged, as blade and claw spoke instead, and soon blood was shed over the deck of the pirate ship, as the fight began in earnest.