Chapter 3: The Favour

Captain Xavier called all his crew together on deck, he put a magic barrier up so that no one could hear or see their discussion.

“The Kings and Queens have decided to turn their fear of the supernatural into hate and have started to attack us.” Some of the humans on board looked fearfully at each other. Ethyn smiled reassuringly at them. Xavier, Ethyn and Creamer had spoken after Alyvia had left the ship. Their discussion lasted long into the night and their decision was final. They would help and protect all that they could.

“We do not blame all humans the royalty’s misdeeds, truly they are the ones to blame. We want to protect people, not hurt them.” Ethyn said

“We want to protect as many as we can, humans or otherwise, because of this we will be going on a rescue mission, it won’t be the last, so if any of you feel uncomfortable putting your lives on the line for other people, you may leave, and I’ll pay you enough to set up home somewhere else.” The ship’s crew were mostly supernatural, and they knew they risked being attacked if they left the relative safety of The Shadow. The humans all came aboard for different reasons, but they too would rather face the dangers on the ship then deal with the unknown dangers of the land. As a collective they all grabbed their sabres and raised them in salute to their captain and his second mate.

“My Life For The Shadow!” they all chanted. Captain Xavier smiled faintly in appreciation and with nod of his head he dismissed them and went to the ships wheel, ordering them all to get ready to depart.

Captain Xavier pulled Shadow out of the harbour and back out to sea. He concentrated on navigating away from the rocks that surrounded most of Skull Rock. Once they were back out in the open sea, he caught the wind making them shoot through the water. As the navigating became easier, Xavier extended his senses to listen to his crew. After the meeting this morning, with all of them choosing to stay, Xavier wanted to make sure they were all okay.

“Do you think that the Captain is okay” Masher asked, Xavier could hear the sound of swords being sharpened,

“He's helping out a friend, just like if anyone of us needed help he would, just because you leave the Shadow, doesn't mean that the Shadow will leave you.” Creamer replied. Xavier smiled, Creamer was one of the crew that had been around the longest and been with him on a few rescue missions, he was in charge of weapons maintenance and could use any weapon in fight. Masher was his apprentice, human but secretly lethal because he looked so small. One of the truths that never got spread was that Captain Xavier looked after his crew, even if they weren't on his ship anymore. Xavier listened elsewhere

“Alright ye Lardbutts, get this stuff stored righ' ah' propa.” Roland yelled to the two crew that were helping him lock everything down as they were anticipating rough seas.

“Aye, aye.” Reggie replied. “Do you think what we're going to do will be dangerous?” he asked the person next to him

“We're pirates, everything we do is dangerous.” Trax answered.

“But this seems more dangerous than usual. What if we get hurt? What if...” Reggie’s voice trailed off. Xavier heard Trax pull him close

“What if you lose me?” Trax asked. Xavier pulled away. He didn't mean to eavesdrop on their intimate moment, he didn't even know they were together. As Xavier thought about it, he realised that they were keeping their relationship a secret out of fear of repercussions. Xavier wanted all of his crew to feel at home and safe on the Shadow. He knew he would have to deal with it, but he wanted to find The Innocent One first.

After listening to most of the rest of the crew, Xavier knew none of them would betray him, so he pulled back and concentrated on finding his enemies.

Xavier used his power to track down the people that attacked the herd, it took two days, but they only found the mercenaries, bought and paid for by others, Xavier looked at the leader,

“You are not human; do you understand how the royals view us?” Xavier asked in his quiet voice and the leader shrugged.

“I am a mercenary; I don’t know what the people who pay me do I just do what I’m paid to.” Ethyn scoffs in disgust, the leader glared.

“Unlike some people, I don’t sleep with evil incarnate in order to stay safe from threatening humans.” Xavier looks at Ethyn who was furious,

“who do you think he was talking about?” he asked and Ethyn laughed and slowly let down his glamour revealing the long teeth and red hued skin and vibrant purple eyes that marked him as a king demon. The leader grew terrified.

“I don’t know much, just a name, just the name of the ship the put him on.” The leader shouted and tried to crawl away,

“Well? What is it?” Xavier asked harshly

“The Deceitful Kraken.” Xavier and Ethyn exchanged a look. It was a ship well known for doing the crown of the lands dirty work. The crowns had no power over those on the seas, so they often tried to control them by hiring ships to fight pirates.

~Meanwhile~

As Xavier closed in on his captors, Dante bathed using the lukewarm water that was provided, he was glad that he was able to get clean, but he wished the water was hotter so he could feel something other than cold. Once he was clean, he put on the clothes he was given, they were clean but had a slight smell of rum to them.

“Argh, I see ya got ya self-cleaned up an' dressed. Aye ya new owner will be pleased. Get some sleep laddie, ya will be busy tomorrow.” the pirate cackled Dante tried to stop the tears from falling, he didn't want anyone to see him cry. He lay down on the blanket and willed himself to sleep. He looked for a happy dream, for some comfort of family, but he was still so young and couldn’t travel very far in the dream world, he was lost and cut off from his family in this dream world as much as he was in reality, he woke himself up. He missed the moonlight too much to actually sleep. His mind was chaotic and terrified. He wanted home.