[Flashback] Dreams of piracy (Solo)

[Jakri]

Summer 500 AV

Jakri, though he was not known with that name yet was going along with some of his Zith kin hunting around the Sea of Grass. The group of four followed the shoreline so they would not get lost as some of the others before them who flew along the mainland did. The day was fruitful, as the hunting party was able to run into a pack of wild horses running along. Jakri saw it first, strange brown spots on the green land with the dust of the movements following and the sounds of thundering hooves. Then he forced his eyes closer, making out the shape of the horses with their large bodies, hairy manes and long legs. "There! Food!" Jakri shouted at the leader in the Zith supersonic language as he pointed.

At the command of the leader, the Zith took formation in a diamond. The leader in front and Jakri as a new hunter at the back but it should all change after Jakri could prove himself, like he did when he spotted the group. It was a simple formation as explained to Jakri back at the colony before setting out. The diamond was so that the hunting party will put their intended quarry in between the Zith which would move closer and closer before attacking and delivering the killing blow. At the signal of the leader's arm going downwards the party followed into a dive, folding their wings slightly so that their quick descent will not be restricted by the air flow going against them.

The party plunged fast and right before reaching the ground, the leader screeched loudly to signal that they should stop and to let the horses know they were there. At the screech the party spread their wings again, allowing the air to go beneath and slow their descent while the horses looked behind and picked up the pace seeing the Zith. Jakri being the new inexperienced one fell behind when he opened his wings a little bit too slow. Seeing the party going in front of him, he flapped his wings harder to catch up and spread it to glide when the reached the party although it got him a little bit tired.

The party closed in on the horses faster and faster, curling up their legs and assuming their bodies in a pose as straight as possible in order to reduce friction with the air. Jakri knew this well, it may have been his first time hunting but he flew a lot and followed suit, lowering his head to allow his speed to follow the group as well since to him he only needed to follow the flight path of the leader.

The horses neighed and stamped loudly to try and scare the incoming Zith off but with no avail and started to move faster leaving a straggler behind. Jakri shook his head thinking he felt the same as the pitiful horse, both behind in terms of importance and respect to their kin. But that did not stop what Jakri had to do. The party landed down still in formation leaving the horse with nowhere else to go but keeping up its movement. With the horse in between them the Zith closed around it more and more. Jakri as the one who found their quarry was given the honour of first blood and he flapped his wings to get closer to the horse and raised his clawed hand. Right at the horse's behind, Jakri brought his claw down slashing into the horse and allowing its blood to fly everywhere. But because Jakri was not used to air combat, he lost balance for a bit and dived a little to the left following the motion of his claw. The horse saw this and used the empty spot of Jakri to escape the formation, running away in the other direction.

The leader screeched in frustration and looked straight at Jakri in anger, signalling the party to go after the horse again. Jakri was lucky that his slash went from the horse's behind to its legs and struck a tendon so it was easy to catch up with it. But when Jakri lost his balance he fell to the ground. He chased after the horse and his party, running as fast as his legs could take him. Though it was near the coast the land was dry and it was easy for Jakri to get his footing even in that panicked state and once he had enough speed, he used the running start to lift himself off as he flapped his wings. Jakri with the momentum and speed went after the group and caught up with the hunt.

The other members of the party already continued without Jakri and when he arrived, the horse was full of slash marks all over his body which Jakri observed will definitely weaken the animal. True to that the horse began to stop running and stopped, neighing and stamping wildly at the party of Zith which flailing its front legs in an attempt to strike some of the Zith.

It must have sensed that Jakri was the weak link somehow because it started flailing at Jakri. The leader shouted "Keep it busy you fool, its weakened so it won't hurt you!" And it took a lot of Jakri's effort to dodge the horse. A left and a right at Jakri's head the horse attacked which Jakri had to swerve and bob his head left and right to not get hit but the horse kept at it. Then Jakri saw his chance that when the horse stood on its hind legs to flail the ones at the front its entire body was exposed. Putting all his energy into his legs Jakri pounced forward with both his claws to the front and slashed outwards. The claws struck deep and rend flesh as it moved blood splattering all over the place. The horse in pain neighed, staggered and started to fall which Jakri only had enough time to jump and dive away from it.

The horse's time was up but it kept fighting, feebly flailing its legs again which this time Jakri only had to brush aside with his arms until he got tired of it. Jakri caught the leg when it came towards him again and with his other free claw sent it down, slashing the legs and cutting the tendons. The horse no longer able to fight only neighed loudly in defiance. The leader must have also felt the same tiredness because he went up to the horse's head and slashed his claws into its throat killing the horse once and for all.

[Jakri]

With the kill done it was time to get it back to the colony. The leader looked at Jakri and snarled "You, new one! Its time to learn!" and motioned Jakri to the horse. There he took out a dagger and threw it at Jakri "Chop it up into pieces we can carry." Jakri obeyed, taking the dagger and started cutting up the horse. The horse was a tough old beast even in death, its flesh fighting every inch Jakri had to exert his strength on to cut into. He started off by cutting off the limbs one by one into pieces. At the horse's large body, Jakri just cut through it with a cross incision, making four different distinct pieces for each member of the hunting party. With the deed done, the leader snatched back his knife and started allocating the kill to each party to carry back home.

The leader looked at each member of the party before he jumped lifting off as he said "You all know your way back. Lose the meat and we'll have yours." The rest of the party went on their seperate ways leaving Jakri all alone. Jakri picked up the meat which has already been packed and tied up by the leader and started to carry it. Walking along the coast as the intense flying while they were hunting the horse got him very tired. Jakri walked on the sand feeling the funny felling sand gives when it goes in between the cracks in your legs. He tried to shake the sand off but the funny feeling was still there. The longer he walked, the more sand got there so in the end Jakri decided to try and outrun the sand.

Kicking off with speed despite the load on his back Jakri ran. Looking back he only saw the dust from the sand he kicked up and his footprints on the sand but it felt good. Less sand on the feet and wind on the face, just like flying. So Jakri ran and ran awkwardly sometimes when he had to put his feet over the sandmounds. Until nearly half an hour when he got tired, he stopped and sat on the sand.

Jakri was going to rest for maybe an hour before flying back to the colony when he saw some dark shadows in front of him at the beach. True to his Zith nature, Jakri got curious and took up his things, running towards it. As he got closer and closer, the shadows got bigger and bigger and when he reached it he found that it was a shipwreck of ruined timber and metals, washed up on the shore for who knows how long? Jakri living all his life in the skies of the mainland did not know what to make of his new discovery which belonged to the ocean so he decided to explore it for a bit that day.

He walked on the wooden deck, half rotten from the damp and age and looked around seeing the mast, cannons and wheel. Another few steps with "Creak...creak...creak..." and the floor gave way, taking Jakri down with it. He landed with a "BUMP!" and found himself in what used to be the mess hall. Skeletons of sailors still intact on their chairs all over. Jakri continued on, going through the main door. He walked along the passageway which connected other rooms to it, the quarters for the crew and moved up the stairs to find himself in the captain's cabin. The grand scale and design of its beauty trumped the rest of the ship that Jakri had already seen so he decided to look around in this special room.

Jakri opened the drawers and cupboards in the room. From the cupboard he found the captain's uniform though now ragged and torn still looking very impressive. He took the coat and flung it over himself and went to the broken mirror to see himself, happy that the coat made him look like some sort of royal. "This definitely belongs to an important man, and since he is gone I should have it as the next most important person here" Jakri convinced himself and looked over the other things.

Opening the drawers, Jakri found the goggles which would soon become his most prized possession in the world. Along with that he also found a journal. Jakri lighted up one of the candles and sat by it to read. Page by page he flipped and he learnt more and more about these people.

[Jakri]

Jakri closed the book when he was done at a loss for words. Taking his things again he began to walk the ship again this time with a new insight. He started from the captain's cabin which from the book he called "the room where the magic happens" taken in by parts of the journal where the captain negotiated all his dreadful activities with his victims and partners as well as the room where the captain escaped all the assassination attempts thanks to his trusty crew.

Then he continued down the stairs and along the corridors of where the crew slept. Flipping through some of the pages he visualized some of the parts of the journal as though he was there. Friends and crew alike sleeping in the quarters only to suddenly wake up when they were under attack and rush over to their battlestations. Moving on he went to the messhall where the captain loved to talk about the "magic juice". An alcoholic drink meant to make a person more brave and tough the more they got drunk. As the book mentioned, the secret why the sailors are the feared scourge of the seas. As Jakri read that he decided that he should learn the secrets of this juice. He is already part of a race that is feared in the skies so why not the seas as well? Then he would be more famous than any of these sea monsters in the world.

Then he walked somemore and found himself in the armoury. The weapons were all rusted and broken but that did not stop Jakri from playing with them. He picked up a sword and started slashing it around against an imaginary adversary. "Arrrrrr, you now face Captain Jakri!" as Jakri slashed the sword all over the place to try and block his imaginary enemy. Then he tried lunging, putting his foot as far as he could from the other and stabbed the sword right into the wooden wall. Jakri took another one of the swords and started again, slicing spears he put upright into half and breaking shields into pieces with the force behind the sword. This time the sword shattered as it was in the middle of breaking another shield and Jakri tossed it away in disgust calling it "Unreliable piece of Shyke!"

Then Jakri found a strange piece of equipment, a crossbow but to him it was just crossed pieces of wood with string. Jakri picked it up and used it like a hammer, smashing it against another shield but the crossbow just shattered into tiny pieces. What kind of weapon is this and Jakri looked over the journal again. The journal described a weapon favoured by the captain called a crossbow. Following its description, a wooden cross which you had to pull back the string to attack with bolts, a weapon fit for those who did not like the front lines and are too important to sacrifice. The description decided Jakri and he took out another crossbow, trying to load it as it was said in the journal. After numerous attempts to pull back the string, Jakri succeeded and put a bolt in it. Then he smashed it again but the bolt didn't even fly out.

He screeched with annoyance before loading it up again. This time holding the handle he accidentally pulled the trigger and the bolt flew straight into the walls. Jakri was elated that he finally knew how it worked and loaded it again and again, shooting at different things in the armory like the mounted armours, the shields and other weapons. Jakri missed a lot but he was satisfied in the end that he finally got the crossbow to work. Before he left the armoury he loaded the crossbow one last time and took careful aim at one of the shields. Pulling the trigger, the bolt flew straight into the middle of the insignia. Jakri smiled satisfied that he was able to his his chosen target and left the room.

[Jakri]

Jakri was about to continue exploring when he looked out a window and saw that the sun was rising. Not wanting to be caught out alone where any random person might try to kill him or to incur the wrath of the leader he headed back to the mess hall where he fell through. He dumped everything else but the meat and folded his legs accumulating energy in them. In a flash he jumped and lifted off, flapping his wings as he went and out the hole.

He looked back down at the ship and saw the ship again in a new light. Then balancing himself and getting used to the air currents he spread his wings and glided back towards the colony. No one would know what he found, it will be his little secret playground which he will be returning to very soon.

On his way back he was able to see a few of his zith brethren on the horizon. They could have been birds but Jakri could not mistake the size of wings and the shape of their bodies so he picked up the pace, flapping a little to increase speed to catch up with them. When he reached them one asked "Where were you?" and Jakri only replied "Out hunting for new things." before taking some of the meat he was carrying and tossing it over to them for them to help him carry. It was a tiring night but well worth it to Jakri as it gave him a new purpose.

[Cayenne]

This isn't working for me. You've got this by all counts enormous ship with all sorts of things out in the open on the Cyphrus coastline, which would presumably see plenty of Svefra. Why it hasn't already been picked clean, I don't know. Nullified. Next time you want to do something like this, I thoroughly recommend talking to an area moderator before just going off the deep end in self-moderated threads, because any moderator in this area could have told you this wouldn't be likely and would have saved you essentially all of the trouble.