The Story Thread

[Cosmere Savant]

This is where we will wright our collaborative story! 

Before we officially start I just want to put forward a few guidelines. Try to post your segment of story as soon as possible after the previous post, if it takes longer than two days for you to pay your segment we may have to skip you, and the most important role is be creative! Don't be afraid to try something new and also don't be afraid to try something old! Have fun!

Edited July 24, 2017 by Cosmere Savant

[Cosmere Savant]

The tides were shifting. A sign of change that was, a sign that things would not remain the same, but was that really a sign? Things always changed, nothing remained the same but yet I know from my keel to my topmast that something was coming, something more was happening. I knew of it long before the sailors did, the water was more fluid than air and it’s ripples spread far. It sped up behind me growing ever closer and finally I heard the sailors shout the thing I had dreaded. “She flies the skull and crossbones!” Even as the sailors worked I knew that it wouldn’t matter my sister ship whispered across the waves to me. “Give up, there is no point. My masters carry 30 cannon and I myself have 3 sails to your one. They hang off my rails sabers clenched in fists of steel hearts so hard they scarce beat.” I felt pity for my sister ship then. I had seen her before knew her before this and I was sad because of what these evil men had turned her heart into. She came alongside me and I knew the truth of her words there would be not pity from these men their hearts so black they scarce could be seen. I felt my men scrambling about on my deck striving to live for just a few moments more. And then I felt boots strike my deck, I saw a shadow on the water and I heard a loud voice ask: “Why so scared?” These words were accompanied by a flash of brilliant lightning and the loud voice of thunder. I felt the lightning strike the water and the ripples of its strike expanded out across the vast ocean. Thunder at a man’s presence, that was a very bad omen indeed. The winds and the waves rebelled at this man’s coming and the tide itself seemed to tremble in outrage. More boots thudded against my deck, scores of them and my brave crew huddled together at the far side their hearts shining bright despite the overwhelming odds. “Search the hold.” That same voice said and those boots scuttled toward my hold en mass. A single crewmember moved as if to stop them but a single pistol shot broke the air and that brave heart winked out. The one pair of boots that hadn’t moved seemed to burn on my deck as blood spilled past my gunwales out into the sea. No others tried to stop the pirates as they scrambled about beneath my decking. They eventually returned above decks carrying a handful of odds, ends and personal effects. “Is this all you  bring me?” the pirate Captain asked in a quiet and dangerous voice. “Sir,” a pirate reported. “We found nothing in the hold, the ship has no cargo, we just found these trinkets.” The air went deadly quiet. “I am not pleased with this.” The pirate captain said. A moment later he said. “Sink the ship.” Immediately shots of panic want through the air as the sailors began to tell in panic. With a crack of protest my sister ship seeing out in front of me broadside toward me. It was then I saw him. The pirate Captain was dressed in what must have been pirate finery. A dark red trench coat covered a white ruffled shirt and a black hat with a white feather was perched on his head at a rakish angle. But among these rich clothes to things some out of them wildly out of place. His eyes stared out of his head like black pits and all who looked into those depths saw reflected in them an absolute lack of compassion, to this man everyone was a thing to be used as you wished and then destroyed. I'm sorry, my sister-ship whispered across the waves as the cannons flashed red.

Edited July 25, 2017 by Cosmere Savant

[Scadrian Chasmfiend]

I broke under their assault, my planks stove in, and water rushed into my brig. But the damage wasn’t just physical the wonderful rightness of being a ship was gone. As I slowly filled with water I looked through a haze of confusion to my sister-ship as she tacked into the distance. I braced myself to see my crews hearts wink out one by one as they were drowned while trying to man the pumps. Water began to cover my eyes and my vision became blurry. The great weight of water dragged me down and I had nearly surrendered hope when I felt a lessening in the flow of water in surprise I focused on my hold to find that the sailors had draped my sail across the hole blocking the inrush of water. The pumps were still working and with the flow of water now reduced to almost nothing I felt myself rising into the air, freed by increments from the mighty weight that had held me. When finally I had been raised up slightly the sailors started rowing me towards the nearest island. The hours stretched long as the men toiled to move me across the ocean’s blue depths. Finally a cry was raised above-decks.

    “Land ho!”

    At that precise moment I was once more rent in pieces this time by a far more powerful and larger force than a cannon ball. A reef struck me and my sailors where flung from my decking into the sea.

 

Ben the cabin boy's first action upon regaining consciousness was to promptly vomit all the water out of his stomach. Raising bleary eyes from the new tide pool that was in front of him he scanned the beach. Not matter what direction he looked he saw not signs of life except for the crabs scuttling around the beach. Turning to face the ocean Ben couldn't suppress a shiver. He remembered as if he were living it again. Being catapulted from the deck of the Poseidon, looking down at the waves roiling below him and knowing, knowing that he was going to die. Just as he had felt when confronted with twenty some blood-thirsty pirates. Well as he was still alive he obviously wasn’t very good at rating peril-filled situations.

Turning from his contemplations of the waters, Ben began making his laborious way down the beach. His legs trembled and his stomach growled at him from lack of food. Ben ignored it as yet another concern leaped atop the already teetering pile.

The others! Ben turned once again frantic this time looking for any signs of his companions. Ben saw no sign of them and with panic bordering on hysteria tried to take off down the beach. Instead he took two long steps and then stumbled and fell on his face. Looking up Ben tried to scramble forward on hands and knees but with every shaky motion he felt his strength diminishing and with a final agonized effort he collapsed onto the sand, exhausted.

 

Though Ben did not think that he slept when he looked up again the sun had moved, he was in the shadow of a tall palm tree and he was covered with crabs. He leapt to his feet with a shout spraying crabs in all directions, he then took off into the jungle trying to simultaneously run and brush himself to get rid of crabs. He only stopped when he was sure he’d removed the last crab from his clothing and hair. Ben slowed to a walk after just a few minutes and as just as he was bending over hands on his knees, his chest heaving. At that moment the sand gave way beneath his feet.