Pirate Chains II ~ Against Tides ~ Preview (Published)

2~I am a pirate too!

Nyx

I stood by the side of the deck, my hand holding one of the ropes tugging the sails. I watched as the sun dove behind the horizon, where the sky and the few clouds traveling slowly were painted in a beautiful shade of red. Another hot day tomorrow, I thought.

We sailed south for about a month and twenty five days, then we turned slightly east. And we sailed in that direction for about three weeks already.

I tried so hard over the days to figure out our exact destination by my own. I had a few ideas, but I still felt frustrated of being uncertain. 
If we continued in this direction, there were so many possibilities. And judging from the food we had left, I narrowed it down to five possible destinations, and one of them was Eboa.

I really wish it would be Eboa. I've never been there before, but it's a known big island, surrounded by a couple of small ones. Many merchants like to go there to trade or put their hands on rare items. In fact, my uncle is one of them. He used to visit Eboa once a year. I remember him saying that he was thinking about owning a couple of shops there, something about getting the locals to trust him and favor working with him. 
So if I looked around a bit at the port of Eboa or the market, I'm sure people would recognize his name! 
The hope gave me a spite of excitement and I kept praying for Eboa to be our next stop.

But I could still be wrong... I have never sailed this far ever before and all my guessings are from what I remember from maps or heard from people who got this far. But if we were sailing to Eboa, we would have gotten there already. We're not exactly following the shortest routes, more like approaching indirectly, like in a circular way. Which is understandable for obvious reasons: Pirates. They don't exactly knock on front doors.
Besides, lately the Martina crew started fishing from time to time. The sea is not very generous in this area, but they're getting enough to maybe last longer without land. I observe them, hating myself for wishing they would catch nothing. But they do, and everyday I try to reevaluate the time left based on the remaining food.

Now, if we were heading to Eboa we should've turned sharper to the East, like, days ago... At this rate we're missing the island and moving further. And the ones in the following area are not exactly protected islands. People live there and everything but there are no guards to keep the order, so they're what we like to call 'The Shadows'. Full of thieves and...... Damn it... full of pirates. Which makes them a much better fit for Martina than Eboa.

So.... If we missed Eboa, I might start praying the food will keep us long enough to reach another guarded area.

I sighed, aware of my own naivety. 

"You're praying for land so hard an island will just pop out in the middle of the ocean"

I rolled my eyes to Nash's sarcasm. Of course I made sure he didn't see that. He doesn't exactly need to be provoked. Even silence is enough fuel to warm him up for a seance of mockery.

"I'm not praying"

"Liar"

"I'm just watching the sun set, Nash"

"Oh, that's very romantic!" said Lou while trying but failing at mimicking a woman's voice, after he leaned his heavy body on my shoulder

Nash snorted: "More like very bullshit"

"Aaaalways looking for someone to bully." Yeagar appeared right behind Nash who stepped away instantly. Yeagar smirked at that and his brother Ajax approached from the other side, giving the impression that they were cornering Nash: "Huh! You know him brother, he likes to play with small fish. What does that make you, Nash?"