107: Captain Douglas of the Kaiou Pirates

January 20, 2021 - 8 minutes read - 1520 words

My brain wrote 2020 instead of 2021 for the time to release… oops.

A seafood barbecue, sightseeing around Esprit, purchasing food to store using Spatial Magic, three days in Esprit flew for me while doing those sorts of things. In the early morning of the fourth day, I found myself at the port in front of the ship that will take us to Kagura.

Mornings for the port of Esprit start early. Fishermen are busily moving around the docks getting ready to go out for the day. Some boats look to have recently come back and are offloading their catch while taking on a new crew for today. The harvested fish from those boats have been moved to the market, so that’s crowded with customers. That area sorts, processes, and preserves the catch.

I can hear lively voices from the market area.

“We’ve got this freshly caught bluefin tuna! Starting at six large gold coins!” Vendor

“Six large gold and five gold!” Bidder A

“I’ll do seven large gold coins!” Bidder B

I bet they’re bidding for a large fish in the market, I can hear the shouts from here. Sounds like chefs are bidding for the fresh fish that were just brought in. The hustle and bustle of the market excites me for my upcoming sea trip.

In front of me, I can see a sea that spreads out to the horizon, currently capped by gentle waves. The dark blue sea and bright blue sky extends all in front of me, the horizon has a slight mix between the two. The contrast between the greenery and sky in Koriat Village is beautiful, but the sea and sky pair up well too. Those were my thoughts while squinting into the early morning sunshine.

In the cloudless sky, I can see three seabirds flying around while cawing to each other. They seem to be enjoying their freedom of flight. I thought about taking a walk through the sky using Shield magic, but I’d prefer staying on the ground for now.

The sound of the rushing waves is pleasant to my ears. Between the regular wave crashes, there’s irregular ones to keep the tune from getting boring. There’s some other sounds as well, like someone hammering on something, fish jumping in the water, or waves hitting docks or ships as well.

The sounds of waves don’t get too noisy even with those other sounds, it’s a gentle melody that is somehow harmonious. It feels like a lullaby… a calming sound.

Some say that the sea is the mother of all things. I feel I can understand that sentiment today.

After that, I continue staring at the sea in a meditation-like state. I feel the sea breezes of Esprit with my body. How long has it been since I enjoyed a seascape like this?

Then Irving came out from the ship.

“Hey, Alfred! Are you ready? It’s time for the sea leg of this journey! Those dead eyes?! You look like the tuna head from yesterday, what?” Irving

Such a rude person to greet a person by saying their eyes look like a dead fish.

Irvine looks into my face and pokes my cheeks in direct conflict with the previous thought process I was on.H

“Excuse me, my eyes are always like this.” Al

“That’s right, you’ve always got dead eyes.” Irving

I meant that I’m stuck with these eyes as my normal eyes, but I’ve been misunderstood. My eyes are as clear as the sea around Esprit, but instead I get a misunderstanding. I need to clear this up somehow, but before I can Irving puts his hand on my shoulder.

“Kids don’t need to look like that? Alfred is still a young kid, there’s lots of fun for you to have! Let’s just enjoy an easy boat trip! Look, the next few days will be fun!” Irving

After that Irving stood up and rushed back to the ship.

“Hey, come on! Don’t give me sympathy in weird ways! I’m making sure to enjoy my childhood normally!” Al

“This is the ship we’re traveling on!” Irving

“Oh, this ship looks quite powerful compared to the nearby ships.” Al

When I followed Irving to the our ship, I found a large sailing ship. It was large enough both us needed to look up to see the deck, we’ll need to use a ladder to board. I didn’t think it would be small since it was a trade ship that sailed between Kagura and Esprit, but this is larger than I expected.

It’s a three-masted ship, a big main mast, a foremast ahead of it, and I think the back one was the mizzenmast? I remember bits from a movie about sailing adventures, but not that well. There’s so many specialized tools onboard a ship, I can hardly remember any of them.

“If we were in a story, the main mast would break in a terrible storm.” Al

“Hey, don’t jinx us right before we set sail.” Irving

When I looked up, ropes were strung here and there, with sailors climbing the masters or along the ropes.

“What are those diagonally strung ropes?” Al

“Oh, the one that sailor is climbing on? That’s a rope ladder to climb the mast that’s called the shroud. The forward diagonal rope is called the forestay and the rearward one is the backstay, they both support the masts.” Irving

“I see, they seem all cluttered up.” Al

Irving sounds to have traveled on the sea previously, since he knows those things. He was nice enough to point out all the ropes he was talking about, but I’m not sure how one of those ropes got named the shroud.

“Well, we’re not sailors, so we can call them all ropes.” Irving

“That’s right, we’re not sailors, we don’t know why they call a climbing rope a shroud.” Al

Yeah, they’re all ropes to me. That works.

“Hahaha! I heard that some gert aristocratic boy would sail with us, but he don’t seem aristocratic!” Giant Sailor

When I was looking at the sailing ship with Irving, I heard a loud voice from behind me. When I turned around, I found a giant man around the same height as Rumba with his arms crossed. He’s a wild man with black hair pulled back with a thick beard around his mouth. He’s wearing a green pirate coat and a collared white shirt underneath, his skin is tanned and he’s very muscled. He’s got many knives stuck in his waist, where an embroidered orange cloth is tied around.

So, to explain this man in one word…

“Is he a pirate?” Al

“A common mistake, but no! I’m a merchant or summat!” Giant Sailor

The man laughs at my unafraid question, a little loudly.

“My name be Douglas, I’m the captain of the sailing ship Kaiou!” Douglas

“Captain of the Kaiou Pirates?” Al

“Ah, yeah! The Kaiou Pirates, who scare annoying children into silence! If you mind your life, leave the gold coins… t’aint!” Douglas

“You seem a bit sloppy though.” Al

He’s using different sort of slang than what I’m used to. I can only think the sailors must be familiar.

“Well, when I look like this, I sometimes play at a pirate when I’m three sheets to the wind.” Douglas muttered while scratching his cheek.

As he said that, he seemed a bit embarrassed. Sailors are pretty strong, so I could imagine them entering a bar like a group of pirates.

“How ‘bout calling me Douglas? Alfred ain’t no uptight noble boy, ay?” Douglas

I think about that while Irving and Douglas talk about things. It seems they’re previously acquainted. If the Silver Wind party is doing sea escort missions, this wouldn’t be the first time they’re in Esprit, and it wouldn’t be weird to think they’ve sailed with Douglas before.

I’d like to know if Irving is complimenting or making fun of me.

“Oh that’s gert lush. He don’t stay so high and mighty, nice. Not like somma them nobles, easy to have ‘round.” Douglas

The Misfilt Kingdom has a range of aristocratic sensibility. There are aristocrats that have high pride like he’s thinking about. It’s simple to be easy-going when you’re a Baron-rank aristocrat like Eric or I, but there’s higher expectations for higher ranks. Counts like Bran can’t get away with being so friendly. I guess that the captain would act differently when talking to someone like a duke, but he’s calm around me for now.

“He look a bit odd, but he’s got the eyes of an watchful person.” Douglas

Douglas bends down and stares into my eyes. Is his remark supposed to be a compliment? I’m not really sure…

For the time being, I should introduce myself.

“I’m Alfred Slowlette, thank you taking me on the weeklong sailing journey.” Al

When I gave a greeting, Douglas and Irving started to laugh. What’s wrong? Isn’t that a common thing to say?

“Oh! I’ll fix you up nice!” Douglas says as he puts his hand on my shoulder.

I wondered if my shoulder would get bruised from this treatment.