Steam Pirates Part II
Here is the link to Part I in case you havn't read. Enjoy the story and please post comments, they help with the formation of the story!
Part I: http://europe1.yiffstar.com/?pid=84827
Steam Pirates Part II:
The back of loss, gives way to the black of evil...
I slowly opened my eyes and rubbed the back of my head. My vision is still blurry from the blow to my head. There is a small light from a tiny window in the back. I look at the floor and see a rusty metal flooring and a small bowl. Then something stirs in the dark corner of the room, and it speaks.
"Its about time you woke up kid. I was beginning to think they hit you a little too hard." It moves it's head out from the dark and into the light. It's a parrot! I jump back and cover my face.
"Ha ha! No need for alarm kid, I'm not gunna hurt ya." He puts out his feathered hand. "Names Pauli, lock pick extraordinaire and your welcome wagon to the crew." I take his hand and loosely shake it. I look around the room and notice the iron bars that are in the front.
"Um, hi. I'm Thomas O'Leary. Do you mind my asking, where the hell are we?"
"Your on an airship, a pirate airship, about thirty kilometers from Stoch, the town we picked you up at. This is the Gun Wolfe, and we are her prisoners."
"What? An airship? No it can't be! I can't be on an airship! I was suppose to meet someone at dawn! Adolf!"
"Well you'll have to cancel any plans kid, your stuck here. You've been press ganged into piracy."
"No, why would you do this to me? The person I was suppose to meet was in trouble." I put my hands on my face and sunk to the floor. I can't believe this, Adolf will think I abandoned him. I'm so sorry Adolf, there's nothing I could do.
"Hey don't blame me kid, I was shang-highed when I was twelve years old! I've been on this ship for ten years. Wow, now that I think about it I'm quite the old bastard."
Some how I have to get off this ship and find the ship Adolf is on, oh what was the name of his ship? I can't remember shit. Well first I got to get out of this jail cell.
"If your such a master lock pick then how's come your not out of this cell yet?"
"Cause I've been waitin for you to get your lazy arse up to help me with some work, sheesh, what a wise guy." Pauli gets up and stands by the look of the door.
"They remembered to take my picks this time, so we are gunna have to do this the hard way." He plucks a feather from his side and winces. He reaches around and twists the feather inside of the lock and makes funny faces as he turns the make shift pick each way. I can't help but giggle a little.
"A jokester too? Oh you're going to have so much fun here. You and the flogger will be best of friends." The lock clicks and he makes a relieved ‘ah' and opens the door. He is about to leave the cell but turns to me.
"Op, age before beauty." And pushes me through. What a cocky guy, I'm surprised they still keep him. As we walk out of the cell Pauli waves to the guard who is relaxing on a chair.
"Oh hey Joe."
"Hey Pauli." The guard waves back. How can Pauli just do what ever he wants and no one bothers him? How come they don't punish him or anything?
"See, I own this ship. Even though old Roth is the captain, he can't touch me! They've flogged me so many times, I don't even feel it anymore!"
"Why do you get in trouble so much? You're all prates, I get that. But what do you do that gets you flogging?"
"Because I don't like to follow orders and I question them. Plus I hate being told what to do. But I fight well, and I know this ship as good as the captain and his mates. So I don't get the noose. Well, not just yet." As we walk the halls of the ship I get a picture of what the inside of a steam airship looks like. Its all pipes and valves and exposed gears. The spaces are very small, and everyone has a gun. Different people pass us by going about their daily work. Pauli waves to people and they wave back. Eventually we reach a large room with a furnace in the middle. Sailors are shoveling coal into the furnace and others are pulling leaves and turning valves and knobs.
"This is her engine room, and I am one of her engineers. Now..." He hands me a shovel and handkerchief. "... you are too! Sure its back breaking labor, but from the look of you, you've shoveled coal before. So this should be no problem." He leans over and whispers to me. "Plus you don't have see old rat face. He never comes down here." I'm still so confused about what's going on here but I sigh and dig the shovel in. Pauli shoves coal down from the top of the pile and I shovel the loose coal into the furnace. We work endlessly for hours on end, then a voice come over the loud speaker.
"This is your ‘capen speakin! Report to the deck immediately or there be no meals for a week. So get a fuckin move on you boiler scum!" Pauli throws down his shovel and wipes his face with his handkerchief.
"Well that's our queue kid. Time to get a move on to the top deck." I follow Pauli's lead and wipe my face and toss my shovel to the floor. We walk up at least a hundred flight of stairs and finally we reach the top deck. This is the first time I see the outside and... Oh my, I'm on a big fucking ship. The dark crude brass lightly shines in the sun as the rays of the yellow fireball reflect off the giant guns of the Gun Wolfe. I watch as crewmembers scatter to form a line on the crude wooden deck. They are a bunch of ragged pirates all right. Some tall and slim, some short and fat. Some in between, some just fucked up beyond all repair. Pauli and I get into line and stand at attention as a snare drum begins to play a march. The captain makes his appearance at the end of the drum roll.
The so-called captain is a fat, disgusting, old, burley, rat. His foul odor of fish and corpse crawl across the deck like a severed torso. The worst of all, is his metal mechanical leg, it twitters and grinds as he makes each ragged step. Slowly he paces down the lines of his shang-highed crew. As the captain walks by us I catch the hideous smell he projects and take a small cough to relieve myself. The captain Roth stops cold and the rest of the crew look at me like I just murdered some one.
Roth turns to me and looks me right in the eye. "So you think you're a funny guy eh? Think you can make a cock of me?"
"No, sir, er captain. I just had to..."
"Hey you're the new one aren't ye? They boy we picked up at that old town? Your right, I'm sorry. You know, I'll tell you what. I'll pick some one from the crew, and they will say how to punish you. Now lets see." He turns to the crew and looks for any volunteers. Idiot, he should know that no one would punish a boy. No one could have that kind of heart, could they? "Ah yes, you in the back, why don't you come up front and share your idea with us." I turn and face the most awful sailor he could have picked. It was the bear that had kidnapped me. The bear stood in front of the captain and gave a big evil grin.
"Well ‘capen, if it were up to me. Id say, oh... forty of the bare back lashins would do just fine." I stood in shock, forty lashings for a damn cough I have to do something! That could kill me! But I was shit out of luck. They grabbed me and ripped off my shirt, then ripped off my trousers.
There I stood in front of the whole crew, shammed, embarrassed, and ready to faint and die. The captain and a few of the crew, to which I guess are his loyal subjects laugh at me. The captain takes the flog from the rack on the railing. He lifts the flog to striking height.
"This will teach yah, boy! You're a slave to the Gun Wolfe now!" And he brings the whip down on to me... wait, it was stopped. There was Pauli holding the end of the whip in his feathered hands. What are you doing you dumb bird! They'll kill you! "Pauli what the fuck are ye doin! If ye don't let go, I'll have ye whipped twice as hard!"
"I can't let you do this ‘capen."
"Why the hell not? Its my damn ship, and this is my crew! Fuck off and get back in line! Or I'll have you hung for mutiny!"
"I can't let you do this because, well... I'm taking full responsibility for him! Give me the lashings!" Pauli lets go of the whip and takes off his shirt.
"You know what Pauli, you're right for once. Whip them both!" The bear grabs a hold of Pauli and strips him down. They tie both of our hands down to the railing so we can't escape. Pauli looks at me in the eyes.
"Sorry kid, better luck next time huh?" A small tear rolls down Pauli's face and I can't but help shed tears too. The captain raises his whip, and then with a loud crack, all force come down on my back. I peel to the ground like a hunk of meat. The whip reddens my soft back and as it tears small pieces of skin and fur from it. I begin to tear and water forms in my eyes. The whip hits again, this time even harder than the last. I turn to look at Pauli, who is still standing and does not even flinch. I can tell its painful to him, but he does not show it. Oh Pauli, why did you do that?
The third lash hits me and I am on the ground now, the bear comes over and lifts me back up and kicks me in the side. I begin to spit blood as the fourth ash hits me and my back oozes with blood. My once white fur is stained with crimson blood. Then the fifth lash hits me, and I black out and lay in Silence.
I wake then, my eyes fly open like shutters. Where am I? All I see is white, I toss and I turn and find it hard to move. My wounds grip me in pain and I yelp out loud. Then, like the sun parts the clouds in the sky, the whit is pulled back and I see Pauli's face. He looks at me with saddened eyes, instead of his usual happy face. Quietly he speaks to me. "You ok kid? They beat you pretty hard. They never hit anyone like that before."
"Pauli, what happened? After the fifth... I... I..."
"Its ok, after you went out, I picked you up and carried you down here. The captain chased after me with the whip, but I ignored him. After a while he gave up and I set you down in this here hammock to let you come back into it." I slowly moved out of the hammock and sat on it instead of in it. We were in a small room. There was a small porthole window on one side and I could see out into the moonlight. The clouds passed us by as we moved through and around them.
Pauli placed a bowl with warm water next to me. "Lets have a look at those Thomas." I carefully pulled up the blood stained shirt that Pauli must have put one me and sat there. "Holy shit kid, in all my years in this tub, I ain't ever seen something as bad as this. You got some balls to last even that long, five of those. I think the captain used the glass and nail whip. He never used that before. " He wet a small cloth and gently wiped the blood off the fur on my back. I yelp from the pain.
"Why would he beat me so badly? I haven't done any thing!"
"Well for one thing, Roth hates kids. You the youngest one on board besides that girl..."
"Wait, there's a girl? I saw no girl."
"Not many do, she stays in the captain's cabin all the time. Roth takes food in for her and she vary rarely comes out. But when she does, she's a little blonde otter girl, maybe only twelve. She must be older now, but I still remember when we first brought her on. She never left the ‘capen's sight."
"That's strange."
"Oh it gets worse, some times the boys on watch by the cabin can hear screaming from in the ‘capen's cabin. Screaming from a little girl."
"What the hell is with this ship, it must be cursed? Why don't the sailors revolt? Mutiny?"
"They respect the ‘capen. They respect him out of fear. Don't get me wrong; they hate him just as much as you do. But no one has the balls to start anything." Pauli wipes more off my back and prepares a bandage. His gentle feathered paws touch my sides and my chest. I close my eyes and think, they feel just like Adolf's touch. He slowly wipes the remaining blood off of my fur. His feel, his breath, are so much like Adolf's. Oh how I wish he could hold me right now. Oh Adolf love, I miss you so.
"Kid, what are ye doin?! I'm flattered you find me attractive, but you can get your paw off mine! I this bird don't swing that way!"
"Oh! I'm sorry Pauli, I didn't mean anything. You just kind of remind me of some one, some one I really miss right now."
"Ah, and I assume this some one is your mate?'
"Yeh, so?"
"And I assume this mate might be another guy?" I blush and have to put my paw across my muzzle to keep from giggling. Pauli rolls his eyes and looks at me. "A fairy! I just saved a fucking fairy! Oh Pauli old boy you've out done yourself this time."
"Pauli, there's nothing to be worried about. Trust me, I am under lock and key to some one. You can sleep sound tonight. Now lets have a look at your back."
"Fine, but I swear. You try anything on my, and you'll wish the ‘capen would have killed you." I wet a new cloth and Pauli takes off his shirt. The skin under his feathers is hard as a rock from all the scars. There are almost no cuts, but some minor bruises. I gently wipe the blood from his feathers and wash the cloth off in the bowl. I ready the bandages and begin to wrap them around his chest.
"So who is this lucky guy?" Pauli asks with a grin.
"His name is Adolf, a black wolf, and my best friend until yesterday."
"Shit, I know imperial when I hear it. Adolf, noble wolf. Your boyfriend is a dog of the empire?"
"Yup, he shipped off yesterday. I was supposed to say good bye, until I was press-ganged into this hell."
"Well, if it means anything I'm sorry to hear that. I use to think some one cared about me, I had no idea who that person was, but I had hope. My parents left me when I was five years old, abandoned me on a beach in Dakota. I lived there by myself and did ok. Ships would come and go at the nearby harbor and I use to beg to the crews. The crews felt bad and they all gave some, except for one, the Empire. The imperial pigs spit on me and called me bottom scum. I hated the imperials and still do. One day, the Gun Wolfe came and claimed my soul too. I was one of the first too. The Gun Wolfe had just lost most of its crew and couldn't afford to buy a new one. So they kidnapped em. Apparently the new ‘capen, Roth, didn't care too much for loyalty."
"That's really sad Pauli; I hope you know that I care about you, especially after how you stood up for me. In a total friend only kind of way." Pauli smiles and taps me on the cheek in an affectionate way.
"Thanks kid, that's means allot. We should get some sleep though, our watch is at two."
"Watch?"
"Yeah, we basically just stand around and yell if we see an oncoming ship, or anything that moves really. It's the sky, what all are we going to see?"
"Well fine, good night then Pauli."
"Sleep tight kid."
I climbed into my hammock and lay there. The low hum of the engines helps me drift off into dream. Adolf is in front of me. He runs towards me, and then he falls to the ground at my feet. Behind him is Roth, he beats Adolf with a whip until Adolf is nothing more than pulp. I try to stop him, but it's useless. He just keeps beating him, his dead corpse. I wake up then. Its dark and I can't see much. I feel so scared. I get out of my hammock and walk over to Pauli's.
"Pauli, can I sleep next to you? Just this once?"
"Wha? Fine, whatever, just let me sleep." Pauli turns over and I gently crawled into the hammock and curled up next to Pauli. I moved up next to him and put my arm over his shoulder. He turned over and put an arm around me; I smiled, sighed, and felt relieved and drifted off to sleep.
The light of the moon, give way to dark sleep...