Bloodsword: War of the Leaf

Claiming the Cloudwalker

The 'Walker's lookout stifled a yawn as he turned away from the heaving sea directly in front of the schooner and looked to the east.  To find the yawn still born in his mouth at the sight of a two masted sailed flying no colors bearing down on them with full canvas, now only five ship lengths away!

  "Maker!"  He breathed softly in shock then began to pull in air to his lungs to scream the alarm.  Only to find an arrow in his windpipe obstructing his air and his voice.

Mouth working without sound, he slowly toppled over into a heap inside the crow's nest's narrow confines as his strength leached away into the blackness.

  "CAPTAIN!!!"  The boson screamed as he skidded into the officers' mess, his face a mask of panic just as alarm bells began to ring all across the ship.

  "It's the Dawn Princess.  She's right on TOP OF US!"   

Time seemed to suddenly slow as the officers found themselves frozen in a strange sort of disbelieving shock.  All, that is, except for Kaluus.

  " 'S'blood."  He swore softly.  "The Cold Horse!"

Then he was looking up, his blue eyes cold fire as his ears heard the heavy 'thunk' of grappling hooks biting into his ship.

  "NO stinking human pirate is going to take my ship away from me!"  He snarled tightly before lashing out with a big hand to grab a startled Ateen by the arm.

  "Sound general quarters.  All hands on deck to repel borders!!"  He bit out through gritted teeth.

Then he was exploding up and out of his chair, flying like an arrow to the hatch leading out of the mess, grabbing the boson by the shoulders as he stepped through.

  "Make sure the passengers stay below."  He barked then bolted down the passageway as fast as the narrow hall would permit.

  "Where are you going, sir??"  The boson gasped, rubbing his arms where the Captain had grabbed him painfully tight even as the other officers stared after Kaluus' running back in stunned silence.

  "To save my ship from a pirate!"  Kaluus shouted over his shoulder, then was gone.   

The sapphire blue waters of the Meridian were quickly churned into a frothy soup as sweating and swearing elves hauled desperately on the thick hawsers that seemed to link the Cloudwalker and the Dawn Princess together like multiple, perverse umbilical cords.  Cords that even more desperate elves on the 'Walker tried to cut even as the two ships drew slowly together like lovers.  Lovers, aye, with the Walker being the unwilling partner in what would soon be a bloody embrace.   

With soft hums, arrows sleeted back and forth between the two wrestling vessels, to strike with a 'ka-thunk' into wood or into a more meatier target with a wet sound, eliciting a scream of pain and dismay, sending men falling back to the deck.  There they writhed out the last moments of their seemingly too short lives if the wound was mortal, screaming for the surgeon, if it was not.  More often than not, however, the man would tumble forward with a howl to topple into the foam-covered gap between the two vessels, a gap that was rapidly narrowing!  Then, with a bone-grinding rumble, the two ships were touching.

In that instant all the frantic activity: the scrambling wildly for weapons, the jostling of sweaty bodies for position, the shifting of two massive vessels with the hiss of tortured water, the crack and whine of taut lines connecting the two ships together, the grunted curses, the screams of pain, the flying spray, the thud of running feet, . . . .all was transformed into a blind surge across the space lingering between the two ships.

As the gap narrowed, the pirates began to board the Cloudwalker with howls of blood curdling delight, by swinging rope or by leaping, their weapons gleaming cruelly in the early morning sunshine, teeth bared in fearless grimaces and faces set with grim determination.  With practiced precision, the pirate assault teams quickly moved to secure their assigned targets, much to the chagrin of the Walker's confused and somewhat stunned and overwhelmed crew, as soon as their bare feet hit the Walker's deck boards.