Chapter 2 - Yorik Silverbeard
Yorik woke up to someone knocking on the door to his quarters. He groaned as he rolled over, still nursing a hangover from the previous night of drinking. “Why are you waking me up so early?” He called out groggily.
“Sorry for waking you capt’n,” Came the voice of his first mate, Berry. “We found a person in the water.”
Yorik was surprised for a moment as he thought. It had been about four days since he left port, and unless his helmsman was drunk at the wheel, they shouldn’t be anywhere near land. He stood up, groaning again, and started getting dressed. “Did you already pick them out of the water?”
“No sir! But H’ren has already tied a line and is currently fishing them out as we speak.”
“Good.” Yorik said again, turning to his wife in bed, gently shaking her. “Bodil wake up, you will have a patient soon.”
She groaned resistant to waking up, but he knew she would be up in a few minutes. He started fixing his belt to his waist, with his two cutlasses. He opened the door and winced as the early morning light flooded over him. He was the same Dwarf that was the envoy’s guard, but he doesn’t have his leather jerkin on this time. As he looked across the deck, he gave his first mate an order, “Berry, wake up the nurse and let her know she may have a patient soon.”
“Aye sir!” Berry responded, immediately turning around to go down to the crew’s quarters. Berry was an orc, standing a bit taller than the rest of the crew. His skin was a darker green, and like most male orcs, he was quite lanky, but his tusks were shorter than normal, only going up to his eyebrows instead of above his head.
“Captain!” came a call from over the side of the ship. “They’re alive!”
Yorik smiled as he walked to the railing on the edge of the ship, then immediately frowned as he saw the stranded person. It was just a kid. His heart ached for their parents, knowing that if it were one of his kids, he would be worried sick that they were missing. He was also confused wondering how a kid got stranded in the middle of the ocean anyway.
H’ren, a beast man with panther like features, tugged on the rope indicating that he had the stranded person, and was ready to be pulled up. 10 men took the line that was tied around his waist. When he got to the deck, he laid the child down, and Yorik could tell they were out on the water for at least a full day. They were an elf with sunburnt skin and bruises all over from the waves battering them, and a broken arm.
“Make way, make way,” a female voice said. Yorik turned to see the beautiful form of his wife, Bodil, making her way towards the child. She knelt down, holding her head to the child’s mouth while taking their hand in hers and checking for a pulse. “Their pulse is weak, if we were an hour later, they might have perished. Yorik, help me carry them down to the sick bay.”
Yorik complied, lifting the child up, one hand beneath their knees and the other under their shoulders being very careful not to agitate the broken arm, their head resting on Yorik’s bicep. He carefully walked towards the sick bay, when he got there, he gently lowered the child onto a cot.
“Their parents must be worried sick, poor dear.” Bodil stated.
“Yeah, and they’re an elf, do you think they belong to the Isle of Sun?” Yorik replied.
“Doubtful, they haven’t left that Isle since that moronic king closed their port. You know we are a good week away from there.”
“You have a point,” Yorik acknowledged, turning to leave the sick bay and begin his day as the captain of the Summer’s Hope. They are a group of Privateers sanctioned by the Thatopian kingdom, and their ship is a brigantine class ship with a modest crew of 300 sailors. She has a broadside of 15 cannons and two swivels on either side.
They were currently on their way to Gentun, which is a pirate’s port, for resupply after their last mission. They could resupply at a Thatopian port, but it is cheaper to do so at Gentun. Not to mention that they have one of the biggest red light districts of any port, and the men are starting to get antsy. If the wind favored them, they would be in the port a couple hours after noon.
The nurse suddenly ran up to the main deck, to the rail on the side, and let out her nausea over the side of the ship. Yorik rushed after her, concerned. “What is the matter?”
“The child, she, hrk-” she tried replying, but was sick again.
Yorik patted her on the back, “get some rest, you deserve it.” He said, then started heading towards the sick bay.
Bodil was down there applying a salve to some of the heavier burns. “It’s a good thing you came down here, there’s some heavy stuff surrounding this child. I was performing an examination, and found some irregularities with her just being a castaway. She has normal symptoms such as bruises, sunburn, but you see these bruises here?” She asked, indicating some of the bruises on the child’s chest. “These are partially healed, I would say about a week old. She also has a few broken ribs, hairline fractures on all of her limbs, and her left arm has a compound fracture. That’s not the worst part. There are also signs that she has been sexually abused.” As she revealed this, Yorik started feeling nauseous.
The elven child started to stir, and opened her eyes. She looked at them with a tired look, that slowly changed to alarm upon seeing Yorik.
Bodil switched into a more maternal mode and immediately tried to sooth her. She started speaking in a calm voice, in elvish, “Shh shh, it’s ok, you’re safe now, can you tell me your name?”
The child started to look a bit calmer as they answered “Violet.”
“Where are your parents?”
“Dead,” Violet answered in a saddened tone. Bodil gave a sad look to Yorik, and he returned the stare.
Bodil turned her attention back to Violet. “Alright Violet, and I’m sorry if this is difficult to answer, but do you know who did this to you?”
The child uttered one more word before passing out once again. “Castronald.”
“That bastard!” Yorik cursed, turning back to head back up to the main deck. Of course he knew about the Castronald and Commodore Neely’s cruel nature, but to think that he would allow this to happen on his ship. It’s not a ship full of humans, but a ship full of monsters. Something that Yorik hasn’t felt for a long while came welling up inside him again. Pure rage.
“Helmsman!” He called out when he got back up to the main deck.
“Aye Captain?” the Helman responded.
“How much further until we reach Gentun?”
“About another day should do it.”
“Good.” Yorik then raised his voice again. “Bad news lads, tomorrow’s shore leave is canceled! I will pay twice your salary though, out of my pocket. We are going on a hunt!”
A mixture of discontent and cheers followed his announcement. He then turned back to his cabin to start preparing the payment. “We’re going to get the bastards that did this.”
