The Tale of Davy Fireskull

[Tiberius Fireskull]

Well, I was bored today, so I decided that I would write a story, about my pirate, Davy Fireskull. It is currently untitled, but for now I will call it The Tale of Davy Fireskull. I have only written the prologue so far, but I will write more, and I will post when I finish a significant piece.

Enjoy!


Prologue

On the island of Port Royal, there lived a wealthy family of merchants. The merchants were well known and respected throughout the island, even by the island’s governor, Governor Swann. They were a kind, and generous family. If they ever saw a beggar on the streets, they would help him, or when they saw sailors who’s cargo had been plundered by the Caribbean’s pirates, they would make sure that they would not go home with nothing to feed their families with.

One day, fate granted this family with a gift, a baby boy. The boy was named David, after the father’s father. How they loved him! They would always make sure that he was happy, and what was not to be happy about? He had the nicest toys, the best food, and the love of all the townsfolk. When David was three, another child was born into this family. He was named William, after a good friend of the family’s.

When David was only seven, his father took him to the shipyards. This sparked David’s love of the sea, and the people who sailed it. After that, David would, by himself, go to the shipyards, and talk to some of the sailors, and hear their tales of the open ocean. He adored hearing their yarns, and always wanted to learn more. The seamen liked him, and thought that he would be a sailor when he grew up.

Seeing as David loved the sea so much, his father, Henry, decided that he would take David and William on a sail to the island of Padres Del Fuego on a business trip. However, rumors of dark forces in the Caribbean were starting to get more common, especially after ships from Padres stopped arriving. Many people believed that Padres Del Fuego may have been attacked by the undead army of Jolly Roger.

Little was known about the infamous Jolly Roger. Most respectable people believed he was just something that drunken sailors spat on about when they saw strange things. It is said that he used to be a powerful pirate. Fate lead him to killing a witchdoctor, who in his dying breath, cursed him to walk the land as a skeleton. He soon discovered that he was able to bring the dead back to life in this new form of his, and he could manipulate them to do his bidding. Rumor had it that he raised an entire army of undead humans, as well as formerly sunken ships.

Henry didn’t believe in such rumors. He set sail to Padres Del Fuego on his mighty vessel, The Eagle, with two naval frigates to escort his ship for the two week long voyage. Eight days into the trip, bad weather struck them. It wasn’t horrible at first. Just a small amount of rain, and lots of fog, reducing visibility range greatly.

The next day, the weather got worse, and a thunderstorm rolled in. Henry didn’t care, The Eagle had been through worse storms. “She has gone through hurricanes strong enough to send the biggest ships to the depths! She can survive this drizzle!!!” He proclaimed. However, soon it became clear that this was no ordinary storm. Some of the sailors started claiming that they were seeing ships with torn sails, and rotted hulls, sailing through the storm with lightning and green fog all around them. Henry didn’t listen, calling them drunken animals, and then locking them in the brig. They said that they weren’t insane, and that they saw it with their own eyes, or in the case of One Eyed Will, eye.

On the third day after the storm struck, Henry was proven wrong. As he was looking out his ship’s window, he saw a concentration of thunder and lightning, and the mysterious green fog that the sailors had reported. As he got on the deck to take a better look in the pouring rain, he noticed three other areas like this. As he watched in awe, David came up to look.
“
Father, what’s that?” He asked in fear.

“N-nothing David, go back down, your going to get your nice coat wet.”

But David stood there in awe, watching the mysterious green fog as more of the crew came up. There was mumbling from the crew about bad fortune, and that the sea was mad at them for something, and that it was time for them to pay. All of the sudden, out of each of the fog clouds, a ship emerged. The ships were large, with rotted hulls and tattered sails. Each had twelve guns on each side, which slowly emerged from their slots in the hull of the ship. They all started towards The Eagle.

Sailors cried out in fear, and ran to the edges of the ship to get a better look. Some prayed, thinking that these were demons coming to make them pay for their sins. Others ran down under the deck, but Henry stood there, terrified.
Dear God, they were right! He thought.

The mysterious ships all surrounded The Eagle: One in the front, one at each side, and one in the rear. Each fired a broadside of a bright, ghostly cannonballs that tore through the hull of the ship. The mysterious ships got lucky, and hit a stash of gunpowder in The Eagle. The Eagle exploded, sending planks of wood flying everywhere. Then it started to sink. Sailors cried out in terror, and jumped off the ship in their fear. Henry looked around in fear, trying to find David and William. He cried out their names, tears in his eyes. Finally he spotted them, both of them sobbing in terror.

“Father, what’s happening?” William asked through choked sobs.

“What are we going to do?” David yelled.
“
Just follow me!” Henry cried, tears in his eyes. He lead them across the sinking vessel to the life rafts. There were two left, each with room for one. He placed William in one of them, telling him that he loved him, and giving him a kiss on his forehead. Then at the other lifeboat, he spotted his servant, Sven Johnson, in one of the life boats.

“Master!” Sven cried, “Please, get in this boat, and take your son with you! Better I die than you!”

“No!” Henry said through the howling wind and the screams of sailors, “I want you take David with you, I will stay. Just promise to take care of David for me, as my last request.”

“Master I…”

“Mr. Johnson! Please!”

“… yes master… I swear, I will make sure no harm comes to David.”

“Father! Wait!” David cried.

“I’m so sorry David, I love you so much, and I want you to know how proud I am to be your father. Now, go!”

The lines on the lifeboats were cut, sending David and William’s lifeboats down into the water, each drifting away from each other’s.

“No!!!!” David screamed, watching his brother’s lifeboat drift father from his. David looked back at The Eagle, and saw his father’s face. He was looking directly at him, with tears in his eyes. Then, the last of the ship’s gunpowder exploded, blowing the ship to pieces, and sending it down to the depths, with Henry on it.


~~~~~~~~~~



The storm had ended a few hours after The Eagle sank. It all felt like a dream to David. He kept telling himself it was just a dream, and that he would wake up soon, back on Port Royal, with his family, but deep down he knew that his father was dead, and he may never see William again.

After another few hours of drifting, a ship came into view. The 4 sailors on the lifeboat, plus Sven and David cried out to it, and soon it came to them. As they were dragged on board, David noticed a lowered flag. It was black, with a skull and two crossed swords beneath it.

Pirates. David was once again afraid, and started to sob once again.

“What have we ‘ere? Some shipwrecked sailors eh? Hehe, and a little boy,” said one of the pirates, grabbing at David. David didn’t move, his eyes wide in fear.

“Dan! Quit bothering the boy! Can’t ye see how scared he is! Go down under the deck or I’ll cut out yer tongue!” said a figure walking out of a door. “My apologies mates, he can be a bad one. James Hawk, at yer service, I am the captain of the Black Swan, the ship ye have the pleasure of sailing on now. Now, what happened to ye to make ye stuck at sea?”

Sven told him what happened, from the start of the voyage to abandoning The Eagle. Captain Hawk was quite polite for a pirate. He may steal and kill for a living, but he seemed to be sympathetic, and when Sven finished his story, he said, “Alright then, ye all seem to have some experience sailing, and I be needin’ a few new crewmates because of a nasty accident we had with some gunpowder the other day, what do ye say to joining my crew?”

The survivors of the shipwreck were not sure. He was a pirate, and pirates are wanted thieves. Most of them wanted to just get back home. But then Sven remembered his oath to Henry. I will make sure no harm comes to David.

Sven stood up and, with his head held high, said: “We accept your offer, Captain Hawk.”

Captain Hawk grinned, showing off his yellowed teeth. “Well then, welcome to the crew!”

And so began the adventure that would change David‘s (or Davy, as the crew soon started to call him) life, forever.