Dawn- An age of Darkness

The person in front of me had: blonde hair overflowing on all sides, bright blue eyes, and a nose that looked almost too perfect.

"You-you-you\'re a girl!" Words escaped my lips like they had no worries.

Yes, the person in front of me was a girl and she was wearing nothing but a towel-like cloth as she just came out of an attached shower. I was enchanted.

She pulled me inside the room and covered my mouth so that I wouldn\'t be able to make any sounds. I didn\'t want to make a fuss, so I obliged. Once inside, she locked the door and stared at me with crude eyes. She looked like she would chop me up. "If ye scream or even make a spec of sound, yer dead!" She meant business, and I knew it.

I nodded to show my obedience. She let me go. There was a glowing stone near the bed. When she picked it up, a pale amethyst gem shined around the golden bracelet. Who is this beauty? How come no one told me about her?

She wore it and a bright glow covered her entire body. She turned into a man; not just any man, but Brend.

My eyes were twitching. What the hell! How- what? Frankly, I was a little disappointed.

"Never thought anyone would be dumb enough to crack open a locked door and come inside just after knocking once. Maybe I should have changed the lock."

At first, her accent sounded strange but then it all clicked. The door was locked to begin with. No wonder it took so much of my energy to open it. But I never thought anything like this would have ever happened.

I was still silent. So she started. "Don\'t look so dumb. Ye don\'t think a girl in a pirate ship would survive did ye?"

She had a point. A single girl on a ship full of pirates couldn\'t possibly live a dignified life. But then again, were pirates really living dignified lives, to begin with?

"But-"

She sighed. She was weighing something on her mind. I got the impression that she was thinking over whether to kill me or let me go. "Forget what ye saw. And don\'t ye dare tell anyone."

"I won\'t but-"

"I can take yer word for that right?" He held a knife against my throat. I nodded in desperation. Cold sweats fell from my forehead. How he did it seemed irrelevant at this point. "Why were ye here?"

He put the knife back in its place and became cool again.

"Gack told me to get you and-" I tried to make up excuses. This time, I had a good one.

"I see. I\'ll be right there." He kicked me out of the room.

I couldn\'t believe what had happened. Was he a she or was she a he? My brain was as confused as I was.

"Hey, newbie, did ye call him out?"

"…" My eyes were on the ground.

"He looks lifeless." The other pirates were laughing at my poor display.

It just had to be pirates? I really didn\'t want to be on this ship. I could almost start crying.

Brend came out a minute later and threw three consecutive knives. Three fat birds dropped from the sky. But I was still skeptical of what hell was going on.

"Yarr! Time to feast!" Gack ran lifted his sword and ran around screaming. It\'s not like he anything, so why was he so excited?

They began to cook the birds straight away.

"These guys take food very seriously," the old man said. Where the hell were you, geezer?

He went through his beard a couple of times. As if to gaze my reaction. When he saw I was almost in tear, he started laughing loudly and went away. I hated that geezer.

Even I had a beard at this point but after I got off from the island. It was mostly just rough hairs though. And apparently, the pirates didn\'t like my beard. So they shaved it off for me. My dream of having a proper beard was shattered yet again. And I couldn\'t even complain about it. Now, I really wanted to cry.

Although it was Brend who made the catch, the pirates seemed to share the food properly; not equally though. It was the first meal that was actually somewhat edible aside from its saltiness. I wasn\'t punished in any way though, as Brend forgave me.

It was a very sunny day. I don\'t know why but the sea had been rather calm ever since we arrived on the island. Maybe these regions had a good weather system. So the ship didn\'t meet any horrible weather either. As the day went on the ship drifted farther and farther. Monster sightings were rare too. What was this? The calm before the storm or something? at this point, I really couldn\'t be optimistic anymore.

"Captain, how long do you think it\'ll take us to reach port?" I asked.

"About seventeen days. "

"That long? Can\'t we make it faster? I thought it only took less than two weeks from Moire to Alfeim!" I didn\'t want to think about it, but always running away from memories wasn\'t great for me either.

"Who told you that?" the old man intercepted.

Oh boy, don\'t tell me. "An elf," I said. My attitude suddenly skyrocketed down. Even I wasn\'t dense enough to not see where this was going.

"That one eh? It takes less than a week by conventional ships. Besides, Alfeim is really close to Moire." A guy walked closer to us. He was covered in rags and I couldn\'t see his face. He left as fast as he came. I didn\'t even get to ask any questions.

"Yup, that guy said. You were duped kiddo." The old man wasn\'t enjoying this. For once, he was actually a little sorry for me.

I wasn\'t really prepared to hear that though. I suppose I should have known. I know the prince betrayed me but knowing he lied as well, was really making my heartache. Why would they betray me this badly? Was she in on it too? But agonizing about it wasn\'t going to get me anywhere either.

"If ye wanna get there as fast as possible then get yerself a raft and paddle like a mad lad. Har har ahr!" The captain did have some funny ideas though.

Again, that\'s a weird way to laugh! I didn\'t reply to that. I got the feeling that if I replied to that, they might have seriously put me on a raft and sent me packing.

The old man grinned and laughed as well. "By the way captain, which route are we takin?"

The captain continued to laugh but his eyes were serious. "The Trenched way."

Although there was a smile on the old man\'s face as well, he wasn\'t happy to hear that.. I couldn\'t even begin to wonder why.