"All hands on deck! All hands on deck! Leviathan!"<br/><br/>The crys rang out over the storm. Multitude voices all chanting the chorus. Repeated ad nauseum though the crew had been fighting for hours already. Rain and wind beat against the skin of every man aboard the ship as they tied down ropes and hammered nails back home as the craft fell apart under the relentless torrent. tried to escape.<br/><br/>The Seashearer was no ordinary vessel. A faster ship had never sailed and its every wooden plank was a mastercraft of engineering. But this was no ordinary storm. Thunder and lightning summoned by a beast of myth. Only it was no myth. As real as the men and women it now sought the send to the depths. Gramdire. A monster so immense that its very presence called the fiercest of storms.<br/><br/>It could not be seen. It lurked miles below the surface. Harbinged by a great whirlpool. Should it have surfaced beneath the ship, even the Seashearer would have been ripped apart in the currents. As it stood, it circled the great expanse of rapidly circling water. The ocean ripping at its seams.<br/><br/>Thiner stood at the helm. Hand on his bright blue hat to hold it down in spite of the wind, his other hand on the wheel keeping it steady and his bright blue coat flapping around him. He'd seen this storm before, and it wouldn't be the last time. He left the orders to his Quartermaster, Ziliana and concentrated on his own task. The rest of the crew toiled tirelessly to keep the ship afloat. Great waves washed over the deck, dragging some of the shorter men to the other side. Two men had already been lost to the deep that way. Carried clean over the side. Might have been more. It was difficult to hear the cries of the dying over the sound of creaking wood, roaring thunder, and crashing waves.<br/><br/>A man burst out from below deck, as soaking wet as those who'd been above for hours. The hull was taking a beating. "Cap'n, we've got a leak in cargo!"<br/><br/>"Then plug it!"<br/><br/>"We're outta boards, used the last of the tables already!"<br/><br/>"Then break down the cots! Better to sleep on the floor than with the fish! Ziliana, take the wheel, I'm heading below!"<br/><br/>The statuesque piratess shouted in the affirmative, but Thiner had already leaped down to the deck and was heading below with the other pirate leading the way.<br/><br/>Down below, the massive form of Garland led the charge. The boatswain singlehandedly held cannons in place as his small group lashed them to the ship. Forced wooden boards into torrential leaks while they hammered them shut. He was an imposing figure. Seven feet tall and made of muscle, without him they'd already be at the bottom of the ocean.<br/><br/>Thiner stepped quickly after the other pirate as he lead him towards the hold. "This way Cap'n."<br/><br/>The ship tilted up, nearly turning vertical. A snapping sound that made the storm sound silent. A rope. The sound of metal crashing off of metal. Someone shouted a warning but the Blue Captain was already rolling to the side as a cannon broke free from its bindings, bounced off another, and hurtled straight down towards the ships aft.<br/><br/>Thiner had avoided it easily. The man standing beside him had not. The full two thousand pounds of gun crashed into the poor bastard. Crashing right through a wall, into the Captains Quarters. Thiners Quarters. Immediately, Thiner slid down after him as the ship slowly began to right itself. Climbing through the hole where his door had once been.<br/><br/>The pirate was pinned between the cannon and what was left of Thiners desk. The gun had quite clearly destroyed the lower half of his body, but he still lived for the moment. A weak cough. The lower part of his lungs had been crushed as well. He had minutes left at best.<br/><br/>Garland ducked under the broken doorframe just in time to witness the mercy killing. Thiner sheated his sword and waved his hand at the huge pirate, who immediately set to work rolling the cannon back to its position. Thiner made his way below to the cargo.<br/><br/>Spitz nearly knocked him off the stairs as he rushed up. The short but bulky man spun around at the top of the steps and called down to Thiner. "Oy Cap, m'gonna break down the beds. S'like we're fish down there!"<br/><br/>Thiner stepped into the hold. The water was nearly waist deep, and coming in through a wound in the port side. The hole was out of the water for the moment and the men were desperately trying to nail boards over it. Thiner could see clearly out into the center of the whirlpool through it.<br/><br/>This was how he died.<br/><br/>From the center or the raging waters, a black silhouette rose. Like a great cliff face rumbling up from the deep, Gramdire had begun to surface.<br/><br/>The wind whistled past him. So sharp it cut his nose.<br/><br/>Actually...<br/><br/>It really had cut his nose. Thiner blinked awake. Reaching his fingers to the bridge of his nose, he found blood. A very small cut. Sitting up from Povundra's back, he stared over the side of the massive lump of wrinkles. An arrow sat lodged in one of the supply packs the elephant was in charge of carrying.<br/><br/>It seems that they had finally found the elves.<br/><br/>About time too. Thiner didn't decide to join this ridiculous expedition to nap on the back of an elephant all day. He did it to stave off the boredom of getting drunk with his crew and bedding inumerable wenches while he found a replacement for his beloved ship.<br/><br/>A ship Jack had destroyed. Though for the most part, Thiner had forgiven him for it. Jack was an odd person to hate. Thiner killed men for small slights at times. But Jack had already died. Thiner himself had killed the man several times. How do you stay angry at someone you've already murdered? Seemed a bit silly to hold a grudge against an immortal who's probably already forgotten what he's done. Jack was also an idiot. Or just a drunk. But a perpetual drunk may as well just be an idiot.<br/><br/>Thiner stretched his arms out and yawned loudly, fumbling around for his hat. He'd stuffed it into a pocket of one of the nearest bags to his position, rather than risk losing it to Povundra's swaying gait. It was slightly crumpled, but no worse for wear. No worse than it already was anyways. Compared to his bright blue coat, fresh from a tailor in the last town, the hat was a more faded blue, and notably ratty looking. Two crossed white sabres decorated the front of it.<br/><br/>Thiner rubbed the sleep from one of his eyes and shouted at Jack. As it was obviously Jacks fault. "Why are the elves shooting at us you bloody foo.. oh. You're already dead." Thiner had rolled onto his stomach, staring off Povundra's back end at Jacks horse, tied to his own mount. The poor fool hung upside down from it, full of arrows.<br/><br/>That confused the pirate for a moment. Elves were well known for archery. He'd done trade with a few and heard stories about inland elves before. Obviously they were exaggerated to a degree. That was the nature of stories that weren't about himself. But such stories usually had some foundation in truth.<br/><br/>It took Thiner a moment to realise that they hadn't been shooting to kill. Jack had probably just given them reason to kill him specifically.<br/><br/>It was a little bit silly how easily he was able to come to that conclusion given the lack of evidence. It just struck him as the truth. Although everyone else was still alive and calm, so maybe that had something to do with it too.<br/><br/>He began to take in the situation. His group was being led through the forest by a very imposing elf. In the trees, some distance away, he spotted others. Many others. One of them had probably noticed him sleeping up on Povundra's back and taken a shot at him to wake him up. Intimidation or some such nonsense. Thiner didn't much care. And he certainly didn't feel like walking. He waved a hand to the elves in the distance and went back to staring at Jacks lifeless body. He'd probably push those arrows out sooner or later. He'd be up in seconds then. But with the arrows stuck in him, he'd likely remain a corpse for a good long while. Or at least if he regained any of his functions he'd probably croak again almost immediately.<br/><br/>He even got to watch as two elves wandered over, cut the rope tying the dead man to his horse, and tried to carry him off. Now that was certainly not going to happen.<br/><br/>Thiner shouted at the elves to get their attention as he slid down off Povundra's back. Bouncing off a sack full of... who knows what. Something. He hit the ground at a fast stride and was nearly on the elves when one of them dropped Jacks legs and lunged at him. A steel blade knife zipped past Thiners belly as he directed the savages wrist safely away from his entrails. "Calm down now, don't want to fight. But you can't take our friend."<br/><br/>He could hear several bows being drawn taut, but the Blue Captain didn't like backing down.<br/><br/>"No waste. Use for food."<br/><br/>Ah, right. Cannibals. At least he could sort of speak. That made getting the 'corpse' of his friend back easier.<br/><br/>Or perhaps...<br/><br/>Thiner grinned from ear to ear. "Not yours. Ours. You want, offer trade." They didn't know Jack. He could get something out of nothing.<br/><br/>The elf stared at him for a few moments before responding. "Trade." A riveting conversationalist. But he produced a very small bag from his person and held it out in offering. Thiner took the pouch and opened it. It was full of what seemed to be bark from a tree, shaved into thin strips. It had a purple tinge to it, and the elf motioned that it was for chewing.<br/><br/>Strange elf drugs? Thiner laughed to himself and accepted the bag. "Good trade." He nodded to the elf, and he smiled back, showing off his rather horrifying set of teeth.<br/><br/>The captain tied the small bag to his belt. For a rainy day, setting off after Povundra and his companions, as Jacks lifeless carcass was carried off into the trees. A very good trade indeed.