The Cursed Fleet: A Sea of Thieves Story

Chapter 2: The Rogue

       Sunlight crawled into a cave, and the morning breeze whispered through the tall grass, as the sun rose on Smuggler's Bay. John Loobe awoke, earlier than usual, and walked to the cave entrance. John was 18 years old, tall, and built. He had red hair parted to one side, and an eyepatch bearing the mythical Pirate Legend insignia upon it, that once belonged to his father. He was formerly the powder monkey on the "Merchant's Fortune", a merchant alliance vessel out of Plunder Outpost, but after an altercation with his former crew, he killed the captain, and blew up the ship, sending the ship and crew to Davy Jones' locker. John's father was "Smoke-beard" Nathan, the former First Mate of the "Merchant's Fortune" and was killed, murdered by his own captain, in an explosive raid on another vessel. After John sought revenge on his father's killer, and destroyed the ship and crew, he set off in a rowboat to Smuggler's Bay, searching for answers to his father's past. His father had made a camp here long ago, inside a cave in the center of the island, and so for just over a year, John resided within the cave, honing his combat skills, and testing his mettle on passing ships.

       The past few days had been slow as far as traffic went. Two days prior a green and gold brigantine, manned by just two people, handsomely maneuvered into the bay, and before he could strike, they had gotten what they came for, and were off. The following night, heavy storms kept most ships docked, but off in the distance, at a nearby fort, he watched as a brigantine was ambushed by two ghost ships, and the fort itself. He watched the battle until it was engulfed by the storm, before retiring to his camp for the night. This morning though... No ships left from the fight, and the giant skull shaped cloud in the sky, was gone.

       He walked around the northern cliffs, and beaches of the island, in search of washed up loot, messages in bottles, or hopefully another rowboat, as his was destroyed by foul weather shortly after his arrival on the island, but unfortunately all he could find were some bananas, and loose planks. He decided to check the bay for any passing by ships, and once more, maybe a rowboat.

       After quite a hike, John made it back to his cave, which was at the top of a hill, with a path to the beach, and he noticed something out of the ordinary, that he hadn't seen earlier...

       A rowboat.

       He went into the cave, and quickly grabbed his pistol, and cutlass before carefully proceeding down the path to the beach. He thought to himself that this rowboat must have washed up from the battle last night at the fort, and began getting excited to finally leave Smuggler's Bay. As he walked further down the path, and closer to the rowboat, he was taken by surprise when he looked into the rowboat, and saw a person. He quietly drew his cutlass, and approached the rowboat even more carefully. The being was still sleeping when he arrived. He pointed his cutlass at the stranger's throat, and kicked the rowboat to wake him up, and sure enough, it worked. His eyes fluttered open, before squinting from the sunlight beaming down on the beach. Once he realized there was a sword in his face, he opened his hands, and backed away slightly.

       "P-please, don't hurt me, I mean no harm" he said.

       "Who are you?" John asked, while maintaining his steady grip of his sword. "And you best start talking, before things get... complicated."

       "My name is Les, I- I'm from Sanctuary Outpost. Yesterday, we were on course for Keel Haul Fort, and we got ambushed by skeleton ships, and the fort. I managed to sink one of them, but we lost, and our ship sank... I just barely escaped." John kept his gaze on the boy.

       "We? I only see one of you, who is 'we'?" he asked.

       "I was sailing with my father, and he- he's-".