HoloPirates: A Tale of Adventure

Tavern Fun

Finally, after what felt like hours, both Marine and I exited Heavens's Gate, and both of us were weak as we stumbled out of the brothel, escorted out by Choco, who was worried that we may have over indulged.
"I can walk you back to your ship if you would like." She said.
"No no." I said, sitting on one of the chairs on the porch of Heavens Gate as Marine took her seat next to me. "Just gotta take a breather."
"I understand." She said. "I hope you enjoyed your stay, please do return if you so wish!"
"Oh, I think we'll be back." I said, giving Marine a wink, earning a giggle. "Thank you, Choco."
"Anytime." She said.
And with that, she turned around, walked back into the brothel, and shut the door behind her, leaving us alone on the porch of the brothel. Both of us were still breathing heavily, our eyelids drooping, but when I looked over at the tavern, something caught my eye. There were two of those Dark Water magicians that were strolling into the tavern, and I sat up in the chair, rubbing my eyes.
    "Hey Marine, can we rent out any of them Dark Waters for some help getting through the Deep Fire?"
    She perked up at the mention of the Dark Waters, and she rubbed her eyes while yawning.
"I mean, they pretty much stay out of most conflicts, but I guess with enough gold we could convince them to give us an escort."
I considered that, and I looked over at the ship in the harbor, where a large team of shipwrights were busy working on the ship, having fixed most of the hull and were now working on the masts. They had removed the remnants of the destroyed masts, and now, they were working on figuring out how to fit the new ones into the slots. They'd be done, soon, so we had to hurry. I reached over and grabbed Marine's hand, giving it a light squeeze, and I looked her in the eyes.
"Let's get in that tavern and hire them, eh?" I said. "How much gold we got?"
"250 coins after paying for the repairs." She said, getting up from her chair on the porch. "It should be enough, don't you think?"
"Aye, I think so." I said, standing up.
Both of us started towards the tavern, trying to stay out of the way of the many, many people that were coming and going throughout the street, and there was a scary moment where my feet were almost crushed by a large cart carrying multiple barrels of rum. The driver yelled at me to watch it, but before I could retort with some threat or snarky remark, Marine grabbed my wrist and yanked me towards the tavern, clearing the street and stepping up onto the wooden steps and porch of the tavern. We creaked the doors open, looking into the very familiar sight of a noisy tavern, but this time, it was so much rowdier. Tons and tons of pirates were drinking everywhere, and they had multiple groups of pirates that were throwing knives and small axes at a large target on the wall, cheering every time one of them would hit near the center of the target, though most of them were so drunk it wasn't happening much. In the corner, there were multiple mixed racial couples making out, like elves and humans, humans and what looked like much, much shorter dwarves, and another weird person that I had never seen before. She was a humanoid, but instead of just having skin, she had tons and tons of crystals and jewels that grew out of her skin all over her body, and her eyes, although closed for most of the make out session, were bright, crystal blue.
"What the hell is that?" I asked, pointing at the crystal person.
"Its an Amethine, one of the crystal people." She said. "They come from the Deep Fire, but in recent years, they've been pushing farther and farther out from the Deep Fire. No one could figure out why, but I guess we know now, huh?"      "Aye, lemme talk to them."
"Wait, I don't think thats a good idea!" She said as there was a roar of cheers from the pirates around us. "They're...busy."
"Aye, but not for too long."
I trudged my way over to them, pushing drunk pirates out of the way as they stumbled throughout the tavern, and I got up to the couple as they were still deep in their SpitSwap session. I waited for just a minute for the couple to separate ad notice me, but after a little bit of them focusing on each other heavily, I tapped on the human dude's shoulder. He turned around as they separated, and he stared at me drunkenly as the girl gave me a wide eyed look.
"What the hell do you want?" The pirate asked, struggling to focus his eyes on my face.
"I need to talk with your...girlfriend for a moment." I said. "Now get out of my way."
The pirate immediately stood up, like he was looking for a fight, and before I could stop myself, I quickly drew my flintlock and pressed the end of the barrel right against the bottom of his chin, stopping him right in his tracks.
"I said move aside." I said, my voice stone cold.
After staring daggers at me for a little bit, the pirate moved aside, drunkenly stumbling over to the bar to grab another beer from the bartender, leaving me alone with the girl who was just staring at me awkwardly.
"Sorry about that." I said, sitting down in the pirate's place. "My name is Micheal, and I got a few questions for you."
She nodded, but so far, she wasn't saying anything, which was understandable given that I just interrupted either her boyfriend, or her hookup.
"Well, lets cut to the chase. I know that you're an Amethine, and I know that you guys had a home in the Deep Fire. Rumors are that you guys have been running away from that place for quite a while now. What's been going on?"
She shook her head, then looked me straight in the eyes as a mug of beer went flying through the air, striking an unseen pirate with a loud thud.
"It was our home." She said. "We lived amidst the volcanoes and towers, but we've been making our homes out here for now. Now can you just go and tell my—"
"Its because of the guy in there, isn't it?"
Her eyes shot wide, and she went dead quiet as she tried to contemplate what I had said. She started to looked around the tavern as if searching for someone, before turning her eyes back to me.
    "How do you know of The Man from the Stars?"
    And the moment she said that, there seemed to be a darkness that rode straight through the tavern, and while no one else except for me and the Amethine noticed, it still made the both of us uncomfortable.
    "We do not like to speak his name, but he fell from the stars, many, many blood moons ago."
    "So this guy came down from space?"
    "Well, from the stars, aye." She said. "Now please, can you just leave me alone?"
    "Aye, but I have one last question." I said. "Where is he now?"
    She sighed, but she grabbed a piece of paper out of her pocket, and when she unfolded it, I saw that it was a map of the local region, with Albahaarn, being on the very far left, and the rest of the Deep Fire region being more to the bottom. She took out a pencil, which was really just a burned stick, and she made a big circle around one of the islands that was right in the middle of the Deep Fire, while making dots and tiny squares next to some of the other islands.
    "Avoid all of the islands that are marked with the squares." She said. "Those are the dangerous volcanoes, parts of his fleet, and some of the fortresses that he stole from us. You need to steer clear of all of it if you want to get up close to his fortress without being noticed beforehand."
    "Aye, thank you very much." I said as she offered the map to me, which I happily took. "I'll go get your boyfriend."
    "Aye." She said. "Oh, just to be warned, there's a ship out there, one of the biggest, the Silent Serpent. Its a fearsome vessel, and its the pride of his fleet. I'll mark the route that it takes on the map."
I was about to speak, but right as that name, the Silent Serpent hit me, I felt a wave of unease. Wait a minute. I thought to myself, trying to keep my expression neutral. That name sounds familiar...
    I turned back to the crowd of rowdy pirates, trying to see if I could spy her boyfriend, but after just a moment, she spoke up behind me.   
    "Are you going to kill him?"
    "Aye." I said. "We have to."
    She nodded, with a rather solemn look in her eyes, then, she looked back up at me with a look of determination
    "There is not much i can offer you except for my thanks. Good luck." She said. "Please do get rid of him."
    And with that, she turned and disappeared into the crowd, going to find her love, while I went to go and find mine.