"It's the Merchant...The Merchant,"
The boy heard the man aloud over and over,
PaleFace jumped on the main deck, grabbed the little boy off the floor, lifting him up with his arm around his waist, and hurried to the stern that now faced the horizon.
"Look boy...look," PaleFace pointed the boy's attention away from all the blood and the dead.
It was hard to get a clear view of the sea in the midst of all the fog and cannon smoke. However the Merchant's fleet was hard to miss no matter how thick the fog got. The boy glimpsed shadows, many shadows of small ships approaching very slowly. The pirates stood still, they didn't board or fire at the captain's ship, they stood still.
"They stopped the fight! The pirates are just watching us now," the boy said as he pointed to the pirates who stood still steaming in anger. "How did this happen?"
"Because the Merchant is here boy. In the Merchant's presence guns grow silent. The Merchant doesn't take sides; he helps the ones in need though. He will not attack the pirates, but he will not leave us to them. The Merchant will tow us to a safe harbor, and if the pirates try to stop him or dare to fire one cannon ball at one of his ships, he will blow them away in a glimpse," PaleFace answered.
One of the Merchant's ships ripped through the fog and smoke and bumped into the captain's ship gently. The ship had a small crew of five to seven men, the boy noticed as he gazed at the ship. Somehow all the crew looked alike to him. They were all wearing the same black trousers, black boots and white cotton jackets with a wide black belt tied around their waists to keep the no-button jackets closed. They seemed strong. Their shaved heads claimed them to be tough men and their daring silent look proved it.
"Are they brothers? All brothers?" the boy asked PaleFace.
"Sort of," PaleFace answered. "I bet you have never seen Asians before boy...they are Asian men boy...a far land...from where the sun rises,"
The small ships passed first. All ships looked the same, the exact same.
The boy watched them passing one after another until they were engulfed by those small ships from all sides filling the narrow gap between the captain's ship and the pirates.
The pirates stayed helplessly still, while the Merchant's fleet passed through.
"The Merchant saved us; and look the sun is out," he added as sun rays swept away the mist. The boy checked his palms back and forth and smiled. "Yeah look, the sun is on my hands,"
"Is that him?" pointed the boy at one of the bigger sized ships that followed the first smaller ones.
"Nope...that is not him...not in those," said PaleFace.
The boy waited a little while for ships to pass, then he saw bigger ships passing by.
"Then he must be in these," said the boy in excitement.
"Young fella, those are for the sailors," PaleFace said.
"Then he must be in one of those. This must be his ship," said the boy pointing at a big ship sailing by.
"What are you thinking boy?! Would the Merchant stay in one of these? These ships are carrying his fleet's supplies. I told you it is the biggest fleet and he...he has the biggest ship,"
"Bigger than this?"
"Yes,"
"Then how big is his ship?" asked the boy as he turned and looked PaleFace in the eyes, but before PaleFace could explain how big the Merchant's ship was, a shade swept slowly on the boy's face, he felt it, he looked at his hands and found the sunlight gone, now both standing in shade. PaleFace smiled and pointed upwards and answered the boy,
"It is that big,"
The boy looked upwards with wide eyes and an open jaw. He had never seen a ship that big, a ship that blocked the sun. Every one was now. standing in the shadow of his ship.
"That is Venus young fella. The biggest ship in all the seas...this is the Merchant's ship."
YOU ARE READING
The Merchant
Fantasy"They say every lighthouse keeper receives one last visitor to hear his story" said the Old Keeper "Oh! You think I am here to listen to your story?" the Sailor seemed amused "Yes" answered the Old Keeper in deep t...
