Brilliant flashes accompanied by powerful, earsplitting crashes of thunder rattled and ripped through the sky. The thunder pierced the ears of the crew, driving knives of white hot fire into their skulls with relentless intensity.
Lightning, tinged red with closeness, lit the boiling purple-grey clouds for an instant and darkness was thrust upon the sea again as it had countless times before in the last two days since the tempest struck.
The wind suddenly died and Oros could be heard for the first time screaming orders at the crew.
"Bring the fore stay sail down! Bring it down!" Quicker than would have been thought possible the rouge sail, the only one they hadn't managed to bring down before the first winds slammed into the ship, was brought in.
The wind renewed with strength enough to knock the crew over. The sheet flew from the hands of Lendethiel, Talf, and Morien knocking them over and flying over the chaotic sea, twisting and turning crazily in the air as the wind bore it far away.
Oros shouted a string of wild, passionate abuse at the three, but even his booming voice was snatched from his mouth and lost forever. With the sail now gone the ship steadied from its wild plunging and swaying somewhat.
A massive wave loomed less than one-hundred meters away, swiftly approaching the White Raider. Fendwall roared as he strained against the wheel, using every ounce of his great power to hold the ship in a northward course.
Up, up, up, and up the ship rose. Higher and higher until she began sliding backward, pulled back into the trench. Despair filled the crew as they realized what was happening. If the ship slipped back into the trench the wave would crash down on top of her, smashing her hull to splinters.
"Lower the main sail!" Oros bellowed. "She'll pull us through!" He made a quick hand motion that was noticed by most of the crew.
"Are you insane?" Fendwall shouted. He was the only one near enough to Oros to hear the captain. "The mast'll snap!"
"Better a mast then the whole ship! Bank to starboard side. We'll ride the wind up this beast."
Fendwall heaved on the wheel, Oros helped by nearly hanging off the wheel, using his full body weight to turn it. The main sail snapped open with a crack. The White Raider jerked forward with a groan. Fendwall was thrown into the wheel, bruising his ribs against the hard wood layered over iron. The mast groaned ominously and began fracturing
The ship climbed up and over the wave, cresting with a massive spray that drenched the already half drowned crew.
"Hang on!" Oros shouted as they plunged downward. Everyone grabbed the nearest solid and anchored object they could reach, for many it was only the rope attached to the mast that held them to the ship should they be cast overboard.
They hit the bottom and instantly a second, smaller wave, crashed over the deck sweeping the crew to the side. Fendwall and Oros clung stubbornly to the wheel, refusing to give the storm control over their ship.
Oros watched worridly as his crew picked themselves up slowly. Drida and Brandt didn't move for several breathless seconds. Adrahil stumbled over to Brandt and shook his shoulder violently. Brandt coughed up a mouthful of water and shuddered. Drida groaned and rolled to her feet. She gingerly picked her way across the heaving deck back to her post. Adrahil helped Brandt to his feet.
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A Middle Earth Story: The Corsairs of Oros
قصص الهواةSail the high seas in search of riches beyond the imagination with Captain Oros and his crew of motley and dangerous corsairs from around the whole of Middle Earth. In search of a mythical shipwreck said to hold the untold riches of the long dead A...
