Fel, or First Mate Fel as he should be called, felt very frustrated. Stopping in a human city, especially one located in the kingdom of Golden King, felt like a suicide to him. But who’d listen to him, he was just a first mate. It was the captain’s orders and the captain always knew what was best for them. Fel felt like kicking the gunwale.

The captain seemed to sport a peculiar sort of humor. Instead of sending someone human from the crew to ashore, he had deemed this task fit Fel the best. The captain had deemed best that an elf would walk to a city that hated elfs. Just his perfect luck. Fel was sure he was being punished for something, because he couldn’t think of any other reason for the captain to have this uncalled desire for humiliating his first mate. Especially considering why he was sent to the city in the first place.

“Ask about the Windfort’s woods,” the captain had said. “I just can’t seem to recall where it is…” And with these cryptic words Fel was practically thrown out of the ship and had had to withstand continuous stares, threats, hostility and in some cases copious amounts of fear.

In the end he had found the answer to captain’s question. He knew where Windfort’s woods was know. After hearing the answer the captain had given him a new mission: take a map, take some of the crew, go to the woods, get the treasure, come back. It seemed like a simple enough mission, but Fel felt there was more to it. And to be honest, he had no desire to walk on land where his people had been banished centuries earlier. And he could not be mistaken to be something else than an elf, that was for sure!

His height alone turned heads. With two meters on him he was one of the longest members of the crew. Only the captain himself and the half giant Carpenter were longer than him. His hair was another thing that stood out. Many had mistaken him as a woman in the taverns because of his long raven black hair which was filled with silver bells and colorful feathers. Usually they backed off when they saw his face or his wiry muscles, but more than once he had been challenged to duel.

People were stupid.

And don’t get started on his ears. Pointy eared freak, he had been called and it seemed they were an eternal wonder to everyone. Even if he could pass as a human otherwise, his ears would betray him.

Right now Fel would have given anything for a set of normal ears. He didn’t want to go and wander around some forest he knew nothing about. He wanted to sit inside his personal cabin, drink tea and read about the history of the elves. They had gotten a fairly rare book on their last raid, but he hadn’t had the time to read it yet.

But what can you do? The captain’s orders were the law and you had to follow them to a tee if you wanted to stay on the ship. So, instead of brewing a lovely set of ginger tea, Fel sighed and attached the silver battle axe on his back. His trusty companion had been a source of banter and jokes at first. Especially within the dwarves. An elf with a battle axe! Never had they seen such a sight. One of the dwarves had even pissed his pants because he couldn’t stop laughing.

After the first battle together they had fallen silent though. They did occasionally throw jokes at his direction, but now they were more friendly. It was like Fel had passed some hidden test. He probably had.

Fel grinned to himself. He’d take the dwarf twins with him to find the treasure. The twins had complained for a long time that they were bored, there was nothing to do and even ale was running low… He rolled his eyes. Dwarves and ale…

In the end it wasn’t difficult to choose who else would accompany him. The mission would probably be quick and easy, so he wouldn’t need a lot of people. And the less people accompanied him, the less attention they’d warrant. Fel almost laughed out loud. Even he, by himself, would gather attention. Not to mention the fact that he was in the presence of dwarves and humans.

He had no idea what the captain was thinking. Or maybe he didn’t think. Sometimes Fel was pretty sure the captain didn’t even possess a brain.

Before leaving the ship with the dwarf twins and a couple members of the human crew, Fel also waved the ship’s boy Ratter to join them. Ratter would be ideal if they’d need to reach small places. He was small, lanky and looked like a rat, which had given him his name Ratter. He also possessed quick feet, which would be needed if something happened.

After Ratter climbed down from his favorite spot, the mast, the motley company started their journey towards the forest. Fel prayed to every god he knew that the map was right, the treasure was still where it should be and the people would stop staring at him. He could feel his irritation growing with every second and tried his best to suppress his growing anger. His outbursts were near legendary and quite frankly he didn’t want this city to suffer one. His pride wouldn’t be able to handle it.

Soon they reached the edge of the city (not quick enough if you asked Fel) and continued onwards. The grass was soft beneath their feet and the summer air cool and fragrant. The familiar smell of flowers, grass, trees and smoke invaded Fel’s nose. Fel’s foot stopped in mid air. He smelled again. Yep, that was definitely smoke. For a moment he pondered on it and then furrowed. The most obvious answer was that someone was just roasting food on a fire, but for some reason he felt uneasy. But right now he didn’t have time to investigate. And quite frankly he just wanted this mission to be over with and lock himself in his cabin. With tea. Maybe even biscuits.

The mystical smell started to bother him again when later they reached the edge of the woods. The whole forest seemed to breathe animosity and danger.

“I don’t like this!” the younger of the dwarf twins, Aldrik, stated and spat on the ground. “I’m getting the goosebumps and my sixth sense is tingling! Let me tell you, there’s something evil in that forest!”

“Truer words have never been spoken, my brother,” Valdmar agreed. Ratter just shook his head and looked miserable.

“Well, that’s where we are headed. Unless you want to be the one to tell the captain that his ‘dashing swashbucklers’ were too afraid to enter a forest,” Fel commented. What a crew he had. “Are you chickens or pirates?” Everyone was averting their gaze and the dwarves were muttering in their beards. “Is is the trees you are afraid of?” Fel gave a laugh at the end of his sentence before stepping into the forest. The others were not too far behind and everyone noticed that he did loosen his battle axe.

The trees were growing thick and it smelled like rotten wood everywhere. It was almost suffocating. Fel had to do everything in his willpower not to hit his axe to a nearest tree. Even though he was an elf, he didn’t share his people’s love for the trees. His heart belonged to sea and sea only. The thought of returning to the ship and continuing forwards was so attractive to him he almost turned back. But the orders were clear and he knew he just couldn’t return without the mystical treasure the captain had left behind.

If it still was there.

Fel sighed and looked at the map the captain had given him. Luckily it had been drawn with magic and the spells were still as good as new. He could see himself as a red spot on the map and when he moved, the spot also moved.

“Hey, Fel! Come here! I think we might have a slight problem!” Valdmar yelled to his left. With one swift moment the battle axe was ready on his hands, just to be sure. With cat like grace he moved to where Valdmar was kneeling, his brother joining them from the other side.

Fel had anticipated bodies, traps or even orc feces, but nothing had prepared him for this. There was a small human girl on the ground, with tattered clothes and twigs in her blond hair.

“She’s alive, but doesn’t wake up,” Valdmar explained and poked at the girl with the handle of his axe. She made a sound, but otherwise stayed motionless. Fel couldn’t help a sigh. Why him? Why always him?

“Sten!” Fel yelled to one of the humans accompanying them. “You’ll get yourself a new backpack!” Sten arrived with a puzzled look on his face which quickly switched to annoyance when he saw what the first mate meant.

“Why can’t we just leave her?” he growled.

“I might be a pirate, but I can’t leave a little one die in the woods!” Aldrik answered with fiery eyes. “I have my honor and it would be honorless to leave someone defenceless to die on their own! She can’t protect herself!”

“Just carry her,” Fel ordered. “We can leave her in town when we exit the woods.”

“We better,” Sten muttered when he lifted the girl on his arms. “One brat in the crew is enough.” He fixed his gaze on Ratter so that everyone would know who he was talking about. Ratter just blew a raspberry to him.

“You are just mad because I beat you every time during practice!” Ratter laughed, his black eyes filled with mischief. “Or maybe you’re mad because secretly you want me!”

Fel stepped between the two before it came to blows. Sten was staring at Ratter with so much rage it was a wonder he was still holding the girl and not dropped her.

“Quit it. Both of you! We are on a mission, you can settle this later on the ship. Continue in that direction and hope to the gods we’ll find the treasure there or otherwise I’ll give you something to fear.” Both Ratter and Sten gave each other one final disgust filled gaze before continuing forward towards the treasure with Fel in tow.

“A week or a month?” Ratter asked quietly from Fel when Sten was out of earshot. “Before the captain kicks him from the crew I mean.”

“Hopefully a week rather than a month,” Fel answered, his eyes narrowed on the man’s back. “He keeps questioning my orders every chance and keeps picking up fights. I don’t like that fact I can’t trust a man in a battle. I haven’t turned my back on him during the last three fights.” Ratter almost tripped over his own feet.

“What? You think he might attack you?” The surprise in Ratter’s voice could be heard clearly. “You think he wants to be the new first mate? I’d be screwed!”

“Bah, the captain wouldn’t let him do that,” Fel comforted the boy and squeezed his shoulder. “The captain would rather die than let that man be the first mate. He is a capable warrior, but his personality leaves a lot to be desired. And after today I doubt I need to worry about my back. Yours though… Don’t anger him anymore. I can’t always be there to protect you.”

“He couldn’t catch me even if I was blackout drunk!” Ratter laughed and then caught the look Fel was giving him. “Which I totally never am, because I am underage and the captain has these weird rules and I have never even looked at a bottle of alcohol.”

“Well, I sure as hell hope so,” Fel answered before a yell from the dwarves caught his attention.

“Ahoy, elfie! We found the treasure! Or at least captain’s mark!” Aldrik shouted. Fel furrowed and looked at the map. Well, what do you know? They were on the exact spot. Finally! Thank the gods, he’d be soon out of the woods.

He soon reached the dwarves with Ratter, who sported a look of fascination on his face. Fel was reminded that this was actually the first time Ratter had been to treasure hunting with them. Aldrik was lazily leaning on his axe and pointed the stone next to him. It had the captain’s mark on it: a skull with two sledge-hammers crossed.

Valdmar was pleased as a punch and Fel could understand why. As soon as they had the treasure, they could leave and the dwarves could go to a tavern and get as much beer as they could afford. They’d be moaning that it wasn’t as good as the one they made, but the they’d drink it nonetheless. Apparently Aldrik was thinking the same thing as his twin, since both of the dwarves shared the same dreamy look.

“Are they thinking about beer again?” Ratter snorted. Fel just rolled his eyes.

“You can bet on it,” he muttered and started to investigate the stone. It seemed the treasure was buried underneath it, although Fel had no idea how the captain had managed that. The stone was bigger than Fel and probably weighed more than Aldrik and Valdmar combined with their gear on. The elf scratched his head. If they had brought the sorceress things would’ve been so much easier…

“How are we supposed to get that out of the way?” Sten complained. Fel checked that the girl was still with him, just in case. “I’m not going to lift that out of the way! It’s enough that I have to carry this rut around!”

Fel felt his patience getting very, very thin. He had been listening to Sten’s complaints for a half year now and quite frankly he was fed up. He wouldn’t have taken him with him at all, but he was one of the strongest members of the crew and Fel thought that might come in handy. And they would’ve come in handy, if they man sporting them would use them instead of complaining and moaning all the time.

“You’ll do as you are told,” Fel said with voice that was more calm than he felt. He had to close his eyes and take a couple of deep breaths before he felt like he could face the world again. Both Valdmar and Aldrik were staring at him with wide eyes, their hands ready on their axes. Even Sten was pale, but Fel wasn’t sure if it was because of fear or anger. “Are we clear?”

“Clear as sunny day,” Sten spat and added a hasty “first mate” when Fel threw a warning glance at him. Two other humans that he had brought with them were glancing at each other and placed themselves near Sten. So, they were on Sten’s side then? Fel would be good to remember that. He couldn’t even recall their names, since they were new additions and he had hoped that he’d learn them during this trip, but apparently Sten had already influenced them enough.

The captain would have a field day with this.

“Now that we’ve all waved our man parts around enough, could we please take a look at our problem here?” Ratter suggested with feigned perkiness. “I’d like to get back to ship before dark. This forest just doesn’t seem like a place I’d like to spent a night in, aye?” Both of the dwarves nodded and even the humans begrudgingly agreed. Fel focused back again on the stone.

“Anyone bring any gunpowder with them?” he asked after a while and noticed how the looks on the dwarves’ face changed to sunny immediately. He should’ve known. Dwarves without bombs? Not going to happen. No matter where they went. Even in the bath house. Especially in the bath house. He groaned at the memory.

“Oh, it seems that this a job for the bomb squad, brother dear,” Aldrik rejoiced and rubbed his hands together eagerly.

“Oh yes, oh yes,” Valdmar laughed and started to rummage through his many pockets. “I think I might have some pocket sized Orc’s surprises!”

“And I have the Giant’s Fire fart! Those should be enough! Or do you think we should use...it.” The dwarves stared at each other with eyes glinting from excitement.

“Brother, you read my thoughts!” They both laughed and Fel felt something akin to horror. Ratter had already started to back away from the twins and Fel noticed he wanted to follow him. Neither of them had forgotten the night of horrors when the dwarves had decided to test their newest invention after drowning a casket of their homemade beer. If their sorceress hadn’t been awake, they’d all be fish food right now. The dwarves had to peel potatoes for eight months after that until the captain had finally forgiven them.

“Okay, everyone further back!” Fel ordered and noticed that everyone had already backed a safe distance away. Or at least they were pretty sure it was a safe distance. The elf decided follow their example and started to briskly walk away from the dwarf twins who had started to converse in their own language and were already putting bombs beside the stone. He could hear the telltale sound of flintstone and decided his walk wasn’t quick enough and ran to the ditch the others had found safe haven in. Both of the dwarves soon joined with them, their mouths in wide smiles.

Fel quickly stuffed his ears with magical ear protection. Because of his heritage, his hearing was more sensitive than normal, so he required the protection more than others. He had already spent way too much time in the sickbay because of hearing loss and bleeding ears, so when he found the ear protection - with fifty percent of the original price - of course he had stol- bought them.

And then they waited. And waited. And Fel took his ear protection off. Clearly nothing was going to blow up.

“Bloody hell! Why aren’t they blowing up?” Aldrik yelled after a while and risked a glance. Valdmar just shrugged.

“I have no idea! They can’t all be duds, can they?” Valdmar asked and then sighed, when nothing happened. “I’ll go check it out.”

“Don’t be a fool! What if they blow up on your face?” Ratter argued, but the dwarf didn’t listen to him.

“I know my bombs, boy! If they haven’t blown up yet, they won’t!” Valdmar yelled back at him and walked to the stone. “Do I seriously need to start open these things…” he muttered right before the bombs decided to go off.

“Vaaaaaaaldmaaaaar!” Fel could hear Aldrik yell until he could feel the ripping pain in his ears. He could feel something rupture and stifled a cry of pain. Something warm was running on his neck and the world just kept on ringing. Why had he taken the protection off? Why was he an idiot?

Worry of Valdmar override all the other thoughts. He started to run towards the unmoving body of Valdmar with Aldrik, whose mouth had opened to a silent scream. Before they reached him though, Valdmar sat up, beard smoking and face full of soot.

To his horror Fel realized that he could hear nothing the brothers were talking about. Actually, all he could hear was nothing. He could understand from their body language, that Valdmar had activated his magic shield just in time. That had saved his life.

Fel’s hearing was gone though. He’d have another trip to the sickbay waiting for him in the ship. He noticed both of the dwarves had turned their looks on him. He grimaced at them and sighed. This wasn’t the first time when an explosion had surprised him. He hoped it would be the last though.

“Draconia can fix me on the ship. Can’t hear anything. Use signs,” he signed to the twins with his fingers. They both nodded.

“Okay,” Aldrik signed back at him. Or it could have meant “haha you’re deaf”, but for Aldrik’s sake Fel hoped it was the former. Fel turned his attention to the rest of the crew. Luckily they all seemed to be mostly alright. Ratter was spotting a nasty looking gash on his cheek, but Draconia would take care of it too. It wouldn’t even leave a scar. Unless the boy wanted so.

But they had accomplished their mission! The stone was now gone, luckily. Fel wasn’t sure he could’ve survived another explosion and a heart attack. Ratter had already found his way to the chest that was sprouting from the pit the explosion had left. It seemed unharmed, which was a wonder. It probably had some sort of magical protection.

Fel could feel the anticipation they all felt, when Ratter started to pry open the chest with shaking hands. Then Ratter’s look changed from excitement to anger so fast Fel didn’t even know it was possible.

He did share Ratter’s feelings though when he saw what was inside the chest. Just a piece of paper. No treasure, no nothing. Just a piece of paper. But it wasn’t the paper itself that almost made Fel go over the edge, no. It was the message it held. One of the crew members had almost died because of this?!

The chest contained a small piece of paper with neatly written “Gotcha, love Cap”. Fel couldn’t hear what the others were yelling, but he had a pretty good idea. If the captain had been present, Fel might’ve challenged him to a duel. This was just ridiculous. One of them had almost died. His hearing was gone, again. Because of this. Because of some stupid prank.

Fel grabbed the edges of the chest and concentrated on his breathing. In and out. In and out. He had to calm down. Little by little he could feel his anger resede and the murderous thoughts were disappearing. The captain would hear about this. For a long time.

“Fel, we can see smoke,” Ratter was frantically signing. “Should we investigate?” Fel lifted his gaze from the cursed paper and furrowed, before stuffing the paper in his pocket. The smell of smoke was getting strong again, but it could have been because of the previous explosion. But even he could see the plume of smoke was coming from somewhere else.

“Doesn’t seem to be too far for us. We can get back before nightfall even if we check it out. Tell the others to follow. I know Sten and his friends don’t know sign language.” Ratter nodded at Fel and he couldn’t help but to feel surprised when they followed without questions.

Fel tuned his senses to extreme. Usually he trusted his hearing a lot, but now he had to survive without it. Luckily nothing was wrong with his sense of smell or vision. The same couldn’t be said for his sixth sense. Now it was warning him that this wasn’t good and Fel hoped to the gods it was wrong. It usually was.

When they neared the origin of the smoke, Fel pieced together what information they had. They had found an unconscious girl in the woods, with no explanation why. He had smelled smoke even before entering the woods, so the fire must have been going on for a while. Could it be, that someone had attacked the girl’s village and she had escaped?

Fel sighed. With the girl oblivious to the world there was only one way to find out. He just hoped there wouldn’t be battle awaiting them. Valdmar was still a bit shaky after his near death experience and he heard nothing. Not in the best fighting shape. This day had just been perfect.

When they arrived at the edge of the forest, they all noticed that the smoke came from the ruins of a small village. There was no house left standing and the remains of a bonfire was still plummeting smoke towards the sky. The place was littered with cannon balls and broken wood. Food was scattered around the bonfire.

But nowhere, absolutely nowhere, were bodies or people.

Fel could feel the cold grip of faith grasping his heart. This seemed familiar. Too familiar.

“Try to find any survivors. Or bodies. Anything! Tell Sten to take care of the girl!” he signed to Ratter and the twins. Fel didn’t stay and watched what Ratter or the twins answered to him. He was too busy finding clues, information, anything that would prove him wrong. He didn’t want to be right this time. Because if he was right, this was more than just a random pirate attack.

His worst fear became reality when he stepped on the beach and saw what he had been looking for. He stared at the pirate flag for a while before chopping the pole in half with his axe. He could see his vision getting red around the edges and how to world seemed to blurry. The blood red flag on the ground seemed to mock him, which just fueled his anger.

But he knew that flag. The black skull with a snake coming from it’s mouth, its fangs poised to attack. It was too familiar.

Captain Death was back.

Next Chapter: Sledge Hammer