The Birth of the Shark Tooth [Pirates of the Caribbean Fanfic]

Chapter 6: Becoming a Pirate

Days passed since I had fallen captive to Blood Rain and his Chinese crew. I was still recovering in the captain's cabin, but I had gotten strong enough to sit up on the bed and do stuff like reading and studying Chinese. Unfortunately for me, Blood Rain's crew operated in Chinese. Since I was their newly recruited member and after my recovery finished, I would have to start working immediately, I had to learn Chinese well before I joined the pirates in their work, so Blood Rain made me study hard that devilish language (it was truly infernal: such strange curves and illogical logic in the script which made it ten times harder for me to understand; such a hard pronunciation with many different tones to each vowel plus one and only normal tone which Blood Rain translated to me as 'zero tone'; no matter those tones were so different, one could still not tell the difference when the words were pronounced, and what was worse, even if one told the difference, pronouncing them correctly was a whole nother matter). 

So, my recovery, instead of being relaxing and mild, turned out to be quite a pain. My wounds didn't hurt as much as my tongue did when I tried to pronounce Chinese words, added that the Chinese captain would laugh his ass off all the time he heard me mispronounce things. Mispronunciation was a whole nother pain in Chinese - if you pronounced a word in a different tone, you got an entirely different word. So, very often, instead of the word 'mother', I would say 'donkey'. You probably understand how I felt.

One thing was truly good, though - with my sly nature which permitted me to win every person's heart (for I always naturally acted as the situation demanded), I got to win Blood Rain's benevolence towards me. He considered me a funny one, so he was often mild with me rather than strict. It was a good thing, truly, because who knew what he might do if he considered me 'a burden'...

I tried my hardest to learn his language and the rules he conducted on the ship. He was quite ruthless when it came to discipline. When I read his code of conduct, my jaw dropped - the mildest punishment was forty whips on the back! The heaviest punishments included torturing wrongdoers to death with pirate methods. When I read the types of those punishments I got assured Blood Rain had quite a broad imagination.

As time passed, I finally managed to learn Chinese. Also, I fully recovered, my injuries leaving only slight scars - the very first scars on my body that I had received in a battle. So, the time came for another, even harder work - I had to learn using a sword and shooting a pistol.

Blood Rain trained me on his own. We mainly used Dao blades (here in the west they were more referred to as 'Chinese sabres'), but the captain also taught me how to use the double-edged sword - the so-called Jian. 

He was truly skilled in the swordfight. As I trained with him, I got assured I had zero chances of victory back in my first battle against him. He taught me how to take a good battle pose, how to swing a sword, where it was the best place to strike, and which was the best way to strike.

When he had no time, his close friend and first mate, Yao Lee, who also happened to be his cousin, would train me. Blood Rain believed that while training with two different opponents with different styles of fighting, I would develop a versatile style of fighting, which was a good sign for any fighter.

I learned how to use a sword, shoot a pistol and even a cannon, how to work on the ships, what were the specifics of the junk, and so on. I was soon permitted to go on my first boarding. Of course, at first, I tried to avoid any direct fight, but the rules of my crew obliged me to form into a true pirate, for if one didn't participate in battles, one's share of the loot was really scarce. As our captain loved to say, "if you didn't work, you would not eat". So, I had to engage in fights, and I turned into a real pirate in a very short time.

However, I had not forgotten what my primal purpose and goal were - I had to find my father. I did my best on the job so that I would perfect my skills and finally be able to meet my father, whenever.

Even though now, after my complete recovery, I got to sleep with the crew in the depths of the ship instead of the captain's cabin and Blood Rain had turned into the true merciless captain towards me as he was towards his whole crew, I still tried to take a glimpse of his maps from time to time and content my curiosity. I really wanted to know what that big treasure was our captain sought to obtain (yes, the tales about his coming here in the Caribbean in search of some unusual treasure were true, according to the words of my companion pirates). 

I began to realise that I was truly the type of person who sought trouble, because, after reading the code of conduct of Captain Blood Rain, no sane person would dare defy his orders, yet here I was, sneaking around and picking my nose into the stuff I was restricted to look into. However, due to that exact curious and trouble-seeking personality, I soon got my hands on some very important information that would alter my fate forever.