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━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🏴☠️ S T U R M H O N D 🏴☠️ ━━━━━━━━━━━━
"You really shouldn't be here."
"Neither should you," Sturmhond said to Teuta as they walked through the shouting crowd. "Or the rest of us."
The whole crew was moving closer to the wooden stage in front of the angry people. Many had seen how Cassian broke the code, word spread quickly and the whole town wanted to see him hang. Traitors weren't welcomed in the pirate community and execution was the common solution for this problem. If he wouldn't be hung today, the people would hunt him down. The rules of the code were holy here and nobody tolerated a rulebreaker among their lines.
Even though his best friend wanted to kill him after the duel, Sturmhond didn't have a grudge against Cassian. He didn't want him to die but he also knew that Cassian would come after him if he lived. And after Teuta. It was a mystery to him why Cassian freaked out whenever he did. Maybe he was jealous about him and Teuta. But there was nothing, Cassian must have imagined something that wasn't there.
Teuta stopped in the sixth row, Sturmhond stepped next to her. The twins alongside with Bassim were behind them, the rest of the crew was splattered around somewhere as well. The shouting and yelling grew stronger when the hangman led the tied-up Cassian to the stage.
One insult was even worse than the other, but Cassian didn't seem to listen to them. He looked straight forward, not taking any notice of the crowd as he climbed the stairs. His eyes glanced over the crowd only one time when he stopped on top of the loose wooden floor next to the big lever. They were pinned at Sturmhond and Teutla for a split of a second but continued to look for familiar faces. He knew a lot of people among the crowd.
Sturmhond could hear Teuta next to him taking a deep breath when the hangman approached Cassian from the side and put the big rope around his neck. Cassian's face didn't move, he looked at the horizon with a face made of stone. It seemed like he was ready to face his fade, he had made peace with it. Sturmhond thought about all the good times they had have together. They sailed, drank, laughed, played games, saved and fought for each other ... they were brothers. He could recall the times they had pledged their loyalty and sworn to take care of each other before shaking their bloody hands that sealed their brotherhood.
The hangman adjusted the rope around Cassian's neck to make sure it wasn't too lose. Sturmhond wished him a quick death, he shouldn't suffer. He hoped the neck would break when he dropped down into the air and the rope drag his head upwards. Teuta exhaled loudly and tried to steady her nerves by rubbing her hands. With everything she had seen over the time, this must be one of the most difficult things she had to experience. At least he wasn't the only one who didn't want to see Cassian die, unlike the others among the crowd.
Sturmhond took her left hand and liked his arm with hers, placing her hand on his forearm. His left hand rested on hers, shielding it with warmth and support. She placed her free hand on his left one, pressing down gently to let him know they were in this together. Her comfort soothed the wave of sadness inside him that was in the constant danger of dragging him down.
The mayor of the town read the crime Cassian had committed out loud and sentenced him to death. Although this was only the matter of a few minutes, it felt like an eternity. The crowd was getting impatient, hence why the mayor announced it was time for Cassian's sentence right away.
"Any last words, Smith?"
Cassian looked directly at Sturmhond and Teuta. "We'll see each other again. On this side."
Sturmhond's heart dropped when he heard the words that sounded like a threat. Teuta's hand over his grabbed onto him tighter, she had noticed the dangerous undertone as well. The hangman stepped in front of the level and grabbed it. Sturmhond looked into his brother's face one last time before the wooden floor swung open and Cassian dropped down from the stage without a noise. The neck of the pirate cracked, and a lifeless body hung in the empty area between the platform and the ground.
Cassian was dead.
Sturmhond took a sharp breath and closed his eyes for a moment. The crowd around him went wild, cheering in joy and clapping at the hangman who went down from the stage to cut the dead man from the rope. When he opened his eyes again, Sturmhond noticed that Teuta was staring at her dead friend, tears building in her eyes. She blinked quickly to make them go away but the pain and sadness grew stronger the longer she looked at the scenery in front of her.
Without thinking twice about it, Sturmhond unhooked their arms and pulled her into a hug. She put her arms around him and pressed her face into his shoulder. He held her close, not knowing what to do else. This must be the first and only time where he had no idea what to say. So, he just stood there with Teuta in his arms, trying to process that his brother was dead. He would never see him again. Cassian was gone.
Teuta held onto him and quietly cried into his shoulder. Sturmhond leaned his head against hers and was glad not to be alone at this moment. The hangman cut the rope and the body fell to the ground with an awful noise. The crowd clapped one last time before they all went back to what they were doing before the incident, leaving Sturmhond and his crew with pitiful looks behind.
Bassim approached them with uncertain steps. "Captain? What now?"
"We should go," Teuta whispered and let go off Sturmhond, turning around to leave the scene. "Work is waiting, we need to distract ourselves."
She was right, distracting was the best method to cope with horrible things. He simply nodded and followed her towards the harbour. The crew joined them, making their way through the town in silence. When they were back at the ships, nobody mentioned what they just experienced and got back to work, slowly starting to talk to each other, getting back into their normal rhythm. But it was an odd feeling.
Sturmhond already missed hearing Cassian's loud laughs around the ships.
"When are we leaving, Captain?" Bassim asked after he came back down from the Billy of Tea. They just had finished stocking up the ships for their next mission.
"Tomorrow," Sturmhond replied. "And we won't be alone on this job, our clients are sailing with us."
Teuta frowned. "Who are they?"
He hadn't talked much about the mission, the most important thing still remained a secret and Sturmhond was wise enough to not tell them right away. If word got out who they were letting on their ship, things might turn out differently as he had them planned. And Sturmhond didn't like a big change of plans.
