The Pirate Prince

Something caught my eye. I could see a small wake forming in the bay. I leaned forward and squinted. As my eyes adjusted I saw, in the moonlight, a small lifeboat swiftly rowing towards the shore. As the small vessel reached the shore, three men stepped out and onto land. They quickly pulled the lifeboat onto the sand. After the boat was safely on the shore, they began to walk towards the center road. They seemed to already know where they were going. I quickly made my way towards the main road and hid behind some shrubbery as the three men walked by. Their footsteps were barely audible as they strode quickly, almost soundlessly, up the dirt path. Peering through the bush, I saw the three men. The bandit wasn’t among them. There were two older and quite large pirates, followed by a much younger man, probably around twenty years-old. The young man pulled out a cutlass, and the other two men pulled out pistols. They started walking to the armor shop—Melvyn’s armor shop. Ice cold water dowsed my body. What were they doing? I asked myself. I didn’t know what to do. Melvyn was a great friend of mine. I didn’t want anything to happen to him; no, I couldn’t let anything happen to him. I knew what these pirates were capable of, and I could not let them do anything to Melvyn. I ran to the other side of the road, into the safety of the trees. Silently, I crept up to the pirates. I walked until about twenty yards lay between the group of pirates and myself. A twig snapped. The young pirate whirled around with his cutlass raised. He looked in my direction. Fortunately, the shadows of the trees enveloped me, and I stood shielded from his view. I saw fire in his pupils. He scanned the tree line, his eyes wandering down towards the town and back up towards me. Satisfied that whatever or whoever snapped the twig was not a threat, he turned around and walked on. They continued on towards Melvyn’s shop. My heart skipped a beat. No, Melvyn, no. The pirates hid on either side of the door. They knocked. A minute or two of silence passed before the door opened. Melvyn emerged from the interior and looked rather confused. Before he could mouth a word, one of the older pirates shoved him back into the doorway. The three of them entered and shut the door. I ran to the door and looked under it, but I couldn’t see a thing. I tested the knob, but it was locked. Walking around the shop, I looked through a far window to a horrific sight. Melvyn knelt in the middle of the room. His hands tied up behind his back, sweating and looking more scared than I’d ever seen him look before. A strip of white cloth was wrapped around his head and stuffed in his mouth. The pirates looted the shop with surprising speed, grabbing any weapon they could use: guns, cutlasses, daggers, gun powder, and anything else they could carry. The pirates grabbed some bags that lay near the side of the door. They opened up the large sacks and threw in all the weapons they had gathered. Melvyn made a faint, gurgled sound as if trying to say something. The young man turned and spoke to him. My heart dropped as I saw the terror in my friend’s eyes. He looked pleadingly into the young pirate’s eyes. He spat on the ground and walked out the door. One of the pirates followed him, the other one stayed behind. The gruff pirate, whose body was decorated with many scars and with an unkept, brown beard that fell to the bottom of his neck, pulled out a large, serrated knife and walked towards Melvyn. I started to climb up into the window; I had to help. I placed my right foot on a stone that poked out from the wall. It immediately gave away and I slipped. I tried to catch myself as I fell backwards. But it was no use. Before I knew it I was falling down towards the ocean depths below. I watched helplessly as Melvyn’s armory became smaller and smaller. Then I heard a deafening explosion. I immediately curled up into the fetal position as I continued falling. Fiery debris rained down on me, scorching my back. A second later I hit the water, and the cold liquid soothed my burning skin. I stayed under water, thinking over what had happened. I resurfaced. I looked above me and saw what remained of the armor shop: some stones, beams, and, of course, fire. I looked over to my left and onto the shore. I saw the pirates who had killed Melvyn and who had destroyed the shop looking back at the remains of the stone building. Anger, sadness, and pure rage started to flow through my veins. I emerged from underwater and started to swim to the beach. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I didn’t know what I could do. My back was stinging and I felt myself becoming weaker and weaker with every stroke. I reached the shore and limped out of the water, falling down onto the coarse sand. Pain ripped through my back as the burns touched the atmosphere. My hands gripped the tiny grains as tears formed in my eyes. I got up onto my knees and horror filled my body—boots. My spine chilled and my heart started to thump louder than it ever had. I looked up, my beating heart sank. It was the young man. “Did you see?” He asked. I didn’t answer at first, still in shock from what I had just seen. This could not be happening, I thought. Alarm and panic flowed through my body and my arms and legs went numb. My throat went dry—as rough as the sand that pierced my knees.