HoloPirates: A Tale of Adventure

Albahaarn

    Finally, at dawn the next day, we pulled into the city of Albahaarn. It wasn't the absolute most glamorous city that I had seen in my time on this planet, but, it was large. The island that it sat on was rather large, with a tall mountain that stretched up into the sky, still shorter than skyscrapers on my world. The actual city was a rather unappealing one, but, even though it didn't seem so great, there were a lot, and I do mean a lot of ships in the harbor. Brigantines, barquentines, schooners, and small frigates and snows that dotted the harbor and the surrounding bay. Most, if not all of the ships had their sails down, and as I watched, one of the ships pulled itself out of the harbor and let down its sails, sailing away from the harbor and out into the open sea.
    "Well, it ain't much, but it'll do." Marine said, peering at it with her spyglass. "Jansen, clear our approach and kill the engine when we're close enough to just drift to the harbor."
    "Aye captain." He said, turning the wheel so that ship would bank into the harbor.
    The wind picked up as I stood there at the Helm with Jansen, and before I could say anything to Jansen, I saw the Storyteller climb up the stairs and sidle up next to me, eyeing the ships in the harbor. But, when I looked over at him, I realized that he wasn't staring at the city as much.
    Instead, about twenty or thirty miles to the south of the city, the sky was completely black, grey and brown from ash, like a gigantic stain on the sky. Below the sky, just barely visible on the horizon, there were large spots of yellow, orange and red fire that spewed from the tops of the innumerable volcanoes down there.
    "He is in there." He said, his voice barely a whisper above the howling wind around us. "I can feel him."
    "What does he feel like?"
    "Anger. So much anger. And hatred." He said, trying to keep his voice as low as possible. "He wants to kill all of us and destroy this world so that he can ascend to the throne of the Storytellers."
    "Well, seems like he's in a good mood."
    He chuckled for the first time in a bit, and I slapped him on the back lightly to get my point across.
    "He's so going down." I said. "And he'll hit the ground hard too, trust me."
    "I sure do hope so." He replied. "This is the last stop before everything goes crazy, so if I were you, I would spend it very wisely."
    "Aye, I plan to." I said. "What are you going to do?"
    "I have been practicing and running over how I will defeat him." He said. "It will very most likely be his intention to kill me first, so I will draw him out and fight him myself."
    "And what about us?" I asked. "What do you want us doing?"
    "Well, since I likely will destroy the fortress before the battle, I want you guys to take care of any of his minions that may poke their wormy little heads out of their holes."
    "Aye, I understand." I said. "We'll take care of his little baddies while you take down the head honcho."
    "Sounds like a plan." He replied.
    As we got closer and closer to the town, the wind picked up yet again, driven by the ash and fire of the volcanoes down to the south. Another of them erupted as I watched them nervously, and I saw more and more fire, steam and ash billowing into the sky.
    "Whoooooweee." I said as our ship was pulling into the docks of the harbor. "Let's get this over with, shall we?"
    "Aye." Jansen said. "Micheal, can I talk to you? I have a slight proposition for you."
    "Aye, what's up?"
    "Well, in that city, there's this place, called Heaven's Gate." He said. "Its a brothel."
    That got my attention, and I looked around at the crew before scooching closer to him and dropping my voice to a whisper.
    "Go on."
    "They offer services like any good brothel would, but they also offer private rooms for couples that want to....ya know."
    "Aye, so why are you telling me this?"
    "Because I'm taking Noel to go there with me, and I was telling you about it so that you and Marine could tag along if you would like."
    "Aye, I'll go talk to her." I said as the town loomed ever closer and closer.
    "Aye, good idea." He said. "Thank me later!"
    I flashed him another smile, and he grinned while steering the ship into the dock. The wooden piers came about the side of our ship, and I saw that a lot of the pirates and folks of the tower were staring at our extremely damaged ship with wild eyes, and I saw multiple shipwrights running from their shops and to the docks. Before they could get to us, I came up to Marine and stood next to her.
    "Hey, uhh, just got an idea from Jansen, and I wanted to float it by you."
    "Aye, what is it?'
    She turned and looked right at me, and as I stared into her beautiful eyes, my throat and mouth began to dry up, choking my words in my throat before I could get them out. How could I even ask her to go to a brothel with me and maybe even go all the way? We had done nothing more than cuddling and kissing, so this was like jumping straight into the deep end of the swimming pool. But, instead of pulling back and shying away from the possibility, I gulped and forced the words out of my mouth.
    "Well, uhh, in this town, there's a building called Heaven's Gate." I said. "Its-its very private. I wanted to see if you wanted to go with me?"
    "Oh, you mean the brothel?" She said, seeing right through my attempts to water it down.
    "Uhm, aye the brothel." I said. "I wanted to see if you wanted to go there with me."
    She flashed me a bright grin, and she wrapped her right arm around my chest, pulling me in close as the shipwrights got closer and closer.
    "Aye, lead the way!"

*    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

    KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!!!
    The door of the very damaged Medical Bay rattled on its hinges, and Amelia sprung up from her seat and opened the door, expecting to see Noel wanting more relationship advice for Jansen, or maybe Chloe to practice her English, but instead, there was Captain Marine, standing there fidgeting nervously.
    "Its time." She said, with a rather determined look on her face. "Is it ready?"
    Amelia gave her a smile.
    "Aye, its ready." She said, then turned back to the medicine cabinets on the other side of the room.
    She opened the door of the cabinets, and she started to rummage around side, looking around for her target, and finally, after searching a little bit and cursing like a true sailor, she saw a small pink vial in the back, with a single label on the bottle.
    "Contraceptive."