(CHAPTER 10: GAME NIGHT)
After the heart to heart talk, Hero has become the captain's disciple. He taught him how to navigate the stars, how to set up the sail and rode with the waves. He tell him about tales, about being's, both evil and pure on his fifty years of adventuring the ocean. He even tell him how to fight, as well as to deal enemies of all kind. They bond together well, and soon one month has passed, and it was the annual Game night of the week.
To keep things simple and energetic for the crew, during weekdays, the captain would dock the ship down and have a Game night right in front of the deck. Which is actually often consists of game such as spades, card guessing and spin the bottle. And usually the loser would need to answer a question. It was for "crew bonding" according to Captain Black. Through this game, Hero really breaks the ice between the other crew, and learnt the tale of how this bizarre team is bought together.
Captain Black's full name is Ruff Queen. His early years consisting of living on his father's voyage ship, The Mullion. So basically his entire childhood is on the Sea. His father is a famous voyager, Joseph Queen, and his mother is a skilled mapper and writer, Anny Brenda. Together they had set many sails and reveal a lot of discoveries. They would travel across the seas, write poems while Ruff would sang them out loud, praising the beauty and the power of the sea.
But one day, a merciless wave took their lives away. Ruff survived the wave and was sent to Dead Man's Cove, a rural island, and at here he meet his master, Trojan Black, and his crew of twenty pirates. His life of the sea continues afterward. Trojan introduced him to a new world, the cruel and deadly side of the seas and gave him a new name, Black Jack. When he first met with the Drowns, he had set a quest in his heart, to cure these unfortunate souls.
After turning 18, he leave the crew and with all of the money he saved during his stay with the pirates, he bought the Big Betty. He set sailed to find a cure. On his first sail, he meet with a shipwreck, and he fish out Gale, who is one of the merchant on the Cargo ship, and since then Gale was always beside as they traverse the maze like ocean.
It was ten years of sailing before they finally found the cure. The Heart of The Sea, an ancient relic that only can be found at the Ocean monument, guarded by fearsome Elder Guardian and it's minions. With only two men's strength, they aren't able to fight their way through their first Sea Monument, that's why they had to recruit more people into their crew. They headed to the market where skilled bounty hunters were always lurking around, and at there, they met the Witch-For-Hire, Evanora J, she is one of the cheapest hunter on pick and available for long time hire, so she was in the crew. After knowing their objective, she insist on following them even after the date of their payment contract, so she is now officially one of their crew. With her and her potions help, they successfully obtain their first Heart of The Sea.
Just at the day they dock and head towards the local tavern to celebrate their successful voyage, the team met Edward Treverson, who is lost in the harbor. Edward is actually one of the royal family, but he grew bored by the fancy life and escape the bars of his castle, out to the open world. The royal guards are on the hunt for him, so he plead the team to keep him on their ship for a month, not any longer. But when he was exposed to the freedom life of the sea, there is no turning back. And the sea is where he stays, for the past 5 years.
Hero also share the story of his and Brine, and so do Rose and Norman. Rose was a normal villager of the village swamp, but one day, lightning struck her when she and her mother were gathering food around the swamp. She survived, but her mother fell in a coma afterwards, unable to wake up from her deep sleep. That's why she learn how to create potions and spells, even into dabbing dark arts and having trades with beings at the dark dimension. But on her 18th birthday, after trying all her got of the past ten years, her mother finally leave the world, leaving her alone, desperate and broken. Since then she began dealing with illagers, until she met Brine and Hero. She saw haw desperate Hero was, yet not losing hope. That's why she decide to follow Hero and the rest, she decided to head to the Witch and Wizard Academy at the plains. She decided to find some purpose in her life, and stand up to face her fate.
Norman was a normal villager too, like Rose. One day the illagers attack and kill every single of them. Only leaving the young ones alive and bring them back to their base, an island above the clouds, an impenetrable fortress that no one has ever breached before. At here he was brainwashed, trained to kill, trained to lay waste on this world, be enslaved by the illagers. Before he left the sky fortress, he and the others were implanted by the parasite secretly to avoid further leakage of their base's information. After the implantation, he was sent back to one of the many illager outpost down, and he starts his daily routine of killing, capturing and scouting. Before he met Hero, and realizes the ugly truth. And now he is on his path with Hero destroy the world he once love and slain the demon he once idolize, for good and for real this time.
After tonight's game, Captain Black announced to the crew that they will arrive at the Ocean Monument tomorrow before sunset. And according to the trial of the Glowsquid which kept getting lesser and lesser, this hinted that the sea monument was a huge one.
"The boys get some rest while the girls prepare the potions and items for the trip." He tell to the crewmates at the end of the game. "Tomorrow is going to be a rough day."