Foxtails and Fairytales: Facades and Fables of the Phantom Prince

Arc.18 Ch.7 Pirate's Story

"Once upon a time there was a boy born in a port town. His parents were fisherman and net weavers, and handymen. Whatever needed doin' they could do. Whatever could pay, they mastered. And there was always food on the table for their efforts.

Wasn't always 'good' food, but that's a matter of preference. Heh heh.

One day, this boy's life was turned upside down. Filthy water bandits razed the town to get the attention of a certain person. Someone even I had heard about.

Dread Captain Scourge the Red.

To say stories about him were a guilty pleasure of mine would be an understatement. You had to understand that this boy and his town were no strangers to pirates, lawmen, and merchants. But this village was remote enough that its primary form of defense were mercenaries. Whenever a new lord tried to swing his weight around, we put in a word with pirates who made him see reason. Whenever new pirates tried to break the status quo, we hired adventurers, mercenaries, and burdened the lord as much as we could.

We were a community of people with horse sense living on the border of every map ever made. In value to the world, we were little more than a collection of agreeable dock dwellers in the pitstop of life, with enough strong-armed men to keep the peace most of the time.

Such was the case and since it was thus and such was such, heh heh, we liked stories. Especially if it kept us connected to lifelines to help us maintain our little slice of paradise. Well adventurers came and went, merchants came to rest and sell, sometimes they were pirates in disguise and we just said nothing, and kings were just fancy men on a throne we'd never see. But one pirate was grander than all the others.

Well, I could tell you enough stories to fill a library of all the myth and mettle I heard of him, but this ain't about him this time. Safe to say he was almost as respected as he was feared, and as much as he was feared he was slippery. The world was his to explore and conquer as he pleased.

I dreamed of that. To call the sea my mistress and let the wind take me where adventure and treasure waited for me hand in hand. All the fantasy of swashbuckling adventures were put on hold the day my parents died as if fate was telling me that life ain't so simple.

When my parents died, Scourge's name was on the lips of the men that killed them. The boy in me watched it happen and became a man of vengeance if only for a time.

I... I wanted to hurt them.

My mind burned white with anger as I compulsively wanted to rip those bastards apart. Not in any methodical sane way, no. In a frightful animalistic way, I wanted to bite and claw pounds of flesh away piece by piece.

As if summoned by my bloodlust, he appeared, the reaper of my vengeance.

Scourge the Red descended on the bandits in an unholy tide of blood and violence.

The screams of those men who took my parents... it's with some reservation that I say I still relish in their karmic agony.

He was like the angel of malice, who intercepted the devil that would have surely bargained my soul for power.

Power, I would have taken.

Power, Scourge later gave me.

After a mundane and rather confusing set of circumstances, I found myself aboard Captain Teach's ship as her son.

From fantasy to reality, I woke up in an adventure. And as you have learned, the cold splash of reality isn't gentle.

I once imagined a ship would be the ultimate form of travel, that pirates were the adventurers with gold pouring out of their pockets.

After my initial disappointment I was able to see and learn new things beyond my perception of it all.

But then from my pity party in the crow's nest I grew bored. And from that boredom I was able to open my eyes and understanding. A ship can take you anywhere you want to go not because it's free from the constraints of the world, but because it takes advantage of them.

The sea isn't a mistress that can be bettered with domination and power, but her whims can be learned. The wind isn't something that can be predicted or ignored but it can be friendly.

I put my nose to the grindstone. I thought I knew everything there was to the sea but under my captain I learned the currents. The Helmsman taught me the weight and depth of the keel. The rigger showed me the strength of the rope. And the quartermaster may have taught me every creative way to curse, he also taught me the songs of his homeland.

What does that actually mean?

Well, I challenge you to tell me whose story I'm in? Am I simply a side character in Scourge's legend? Am I the new Pirate who will eventually loot the greatest treasures in this world?

Nay, I am a ship sailing in a sea of songs. Every song, a story of someone's life wrapped in a ballad of mystery, never knowing the endings, only the chorus. Those choruses reflect the desires of the people but not necessarily the climax nor conclusion. Some are loud and some are quiet but never a single song is played at a time.

Do you understand?

This is not a land of one story or one song. It is a choir of chaos! A cacophony of unredeemable crescendos!

Sometimes the wind of adventure breathes a harmony of hope among the many strings of fate and other times the Drums of tragedy silence a voice or two. But everybody sings.

Everybody sings.

Most sing many songs of infantile dreams, of childhood's adventurers, and adulthoods various philosophies.

Listen my friend.

You are not in a story written by the gods and fates. You are not so loud that you drown out the songs of the people below us or above us. But if you listen you can hear the sweet chorus of life.

Do not sail your ship only thinking about the storm or making port. You will blind yourself to the songs and stories around you.

And if I have to add anything else to that, it's a bit arrogant of you to think your like song of selfishness is really so impressive that reality is bending around it."

Flint ended his story with a slap on the back of my head.

I felt... better. Ya I really think I did. Like I shared that weight with someone and realized I was breaking my back over a cushion. I have some comments on his story telling abilities and techniques...Buuuut I won't spoil the mood.

Songs huh.

If the world is full of songs, I wonder what mine sounds like?

If I had to choose, I'd pick...

... Ya I know what I would pick.

"Thanks, Flint." I said.

"That's what friends are for mate." Flint nodded but I could see his nose getting longer with self-importance. 

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A/N

Ahoy!

First of all Merry Christmas! I hope you've enjoyed your Christmas and enjoyed the Chapters.

Thank you for your patience and all the support. I got a chance to experiment with some ideas and even posted a few of them in the meantime.

I don't want to make too many promises on posting schedules coming up. So look out for announcements on my Discord. It is where I am the most active right now. You can find the link on my Patreon page where the "about me" part is.

I will continue Sebas's adventures it's already going better then what I had planned when I took a break so look forward to seeing at least the grand climax and end of Foxtails 2 coming up here in the near future.

Once again, I love and appreciate you all. Real life sometimes gets in the way of posting schedules but my passion for writing hasn't died down and I plan to continue sharing it for a long time to come.

And as always may the winds of fortune ever fill your sails,

-The Captain.