User:Khandivya/Pirates!

Keishe frosted off another pirate. His cry for mercy was cut off as the ice crept through his lungs and prevented him from drawing another breath. His body stopped moments later and he toppled over, shattering into pieces on the deck of the ship. Keishe grinned, enjoying her work immensely.

One of the goblins, she couldn’t tell them apart, had offered her a bounty to go to Lost Rigger Cove and kill as many pirates as she could. The goblins hope was that if they lost enough members of their crew, they would not be able to continue their piracy off of the coast. Keishe’s hope was that they all died with such delicious looks on their faces.

She walked downstairs, taking no care to cover the sounds of the creaking boards as she walked. Anyone who heard her coming would be dead in minutes anyway, what did it matter? She got to the second deck and dusted off another pirate, a lady this time, who had been busying herself cleaning out the cannons. Unlike the others, she had gotten off a tiny squeal of a scream before she died. Keishe smiled again, thinking that she might have to slow down a little bit, simply for the joy of that little sound.

Around corner, she saw another pirate, this one was facing away from her and obviously hadn’t noticed anything was wrong yet. Keishe shook her head, they let just about anyone be a pirate these days, didn’t they? You had to be aware of your surroundings at all times, otherwise SNAP you died, burning from the cold as it stopped all heat in your body. Keishe prepared another frostbolt, channelling the energy slower this time, maybe the ice would start at the bottom and creep up, so that the pirate knew she was going to die, had enough time for the knowledge to sink in, and then died. It was all a game. These weren’t people, they were toys in her careless hands.

She felt a CRACK at the top of her head. Her last thought before she went down was “So much for paying attention”. Her last words before she went down were “I gots some rum, joo guys want some?” And then she collapsed unconscious on the hard wooden floor of the mighty pirate ship.

She woke up with a mighty headache, but was more surprised to be alive than surprised about the headache. She moved her hands, expecting them to be bounded, but found them free. She heard drums. She hesitated to open her eyes, was she dead? If she was in the afterlife, there would be hell to pay, probably literally. She said a quick prayer for her soul, a useless precaution. They probably didn’t let you repent after you were already dead. She opened her eyes, cautiously, wanting to take in hell a sliver at a time.

Hell contained pirates. And from her sideways view of the world, she could only assume that they were drunk pirates. A dozen or so were dancing around a giant fire pit in the sand, the same pit she had seen as she had walked into the walled pirate city on the coast. It was dusk, the sun just going over the horizon, so she could see but the world had a hazy overworldly look to it. She still wasn’t convinced she wasn’t dead. She sat up.

A pirate raised his drunken hands in the air and cried out, “She’s awake!” He staggered over to her side and sat down, offering her a flask of rum as he tumbled into the waterlogged wood that served as a bench.

Still confused, she took a hesitant sip from the offered flash. Maybe in hell the rum tasted like wasps? Or maybe hell was forever thinking you were going to die? Or maybe hell was just hanging with pirates?

As the liquid flowed down her throat she felt renewed energy coarse through her tired body. Her headache lifted and her vision got stronger so she could see the scene around her more clearly. Her initial response had been correct, she was in the pirate city, surrounded by drunken pirates. But….what…had—

She figured it out. Or rather, it figured her out. As the magic and Earthroot infused concoction nestled quietly into her brain she felt a strong urge to hug the pirate next to her. She decided to go with it, and turned and gave this smelly, hairy, burly man the biggest troll hug she could manage.

He cried out, “Heeeeeyyyyy!!” and jumped up, taking her hands and leading her to the fire.

They danced the night away. She was certain that she had danced with every pirate in the city by the end of the night, but her body didn’t want to stop moving. The energy kept flowing and the sound of the drums moved her body in ways she hadn’t thought possible. She had been heard saying “’ey! Joo guys are all right!”, but no one was aware enough to realize that they were dancing with the carefree killer of their shipmates.

In the morning Keishe snuck out, thankful that she’d made that rum for long nights of action. She didn’t even say a prayer for her good luck, trusting that it was entirely her own skill and power that got her out of death this time.

She didn’t even think that maybe one day the universe would catch up to her.

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