Post by Shinku on Jul 9, 2014 17:37:38 GMT -5
It had been one of the worst storms he ever experienced. The waves where as high as small mountains and the wind was blowing them around like a rocking nutshell in a pond full of geese that just took flight at the same time. The rain was icy and felt like little spiky needles on one’s skin. The sky was dark and forbidding and no one who didn’t knew better would have believed that it was just early afternoon, for there was hardly any light shining through the thick clouds. The deck of the ship was wet and slippery and the rocking of the big merchant ship didn’t help one to keep one’s footing. The small and light weighted man had a hard time trying to stay on his feet. His long blue-black hair was not like usual in a ponytail but braided to a long plait to prevent it from blowing around in all directions and most important; to keep it out of his face.
Dan had been hired as an additional help to the merchants own fighting force, which was supposed to protect the ship from pirate attacks. He was not a good fighter nor did he know much about ships, but there had been a lack of interest from the other bounty hunters for this mission which enabled Dan to take the spot. The pay wasn’t much to talk about and now that he got to see the predominant weather of this region he couldn’t fault them for being uninterested.
True be told, the weather was much worse than predicted, but at least the pirates seemed to be as unenthusiastic to sail in this weather as the other bounty hunters had been and so far they hadn’t met any. With a storm like that outside, they needed all their hands in order to steer the ship and even someone like him who had not much experience of being a sailor was asked to help out.
Dan wasn’t religious like some of the ship’s sailors, but even he caught himself sending a quick prayer to any god that was willing to listen. The biggest part of the prayer consisted of a repeating; “please don’t let me fall overboard, please don’t let me fall overboard, please…”
Finally someone got some sense and the ships course was changed. It was too risky to try to reach the intended island, so they took a big turn and headed for a near island instead, where they would anchor in the port and wait for the storm to pass.
The weather was slightly better here on Sedna island than it had been on sea, but for some reason the dull ambiance was even more gloomy and dark than before in the middle of the storm. The residents looked just as hospitable as a chair of ice coated with iron spikes would look. Yet it was a chance to stretch one’s legs and get of the ship and Dan decided to use it. As cool as the island looked like, there HAD to be something interesting, he thought and he was determined to find it.