Aether : Calraem

Chapter 15: Edward Teach

Almost two weeks have passed since he was left on Devil's Peak. A lot had happened to him while he was there but tomorrow he was going to return to them. He was finally going to be a proper member of The Black Pirates.

Hikari was standing at the entrance of the cave. It was at a very high altitude so he could see the almost everything on one side of the island. His shirt was shredded and there was a large scare on his left forearm. He had a wooden stick in his hand that was carved into a sword. One his shoulder was an interesting creature. It was a pyrolion. It was still a cub so only the top of it's head and the tip of it's tail was on fire. It had become his familiar.

"Mm?" He noticed at the bottom near the beach there was a large ship and from the black flag he could tell it was pirates. What was confusing was that it wasn't Kaizoku and the crew he was waiting for. They were only suppose to arrive tomorrow.

"You wanna check it out Pyro?" He asked his familiar. It nodded in response and they made their way down to the ship.

Hikari was glad to have come across such an amazing friend. On the second day of Independence Fortnight he found the cub sleeping next to him. At first he tried to kill it but couldn't bring himself to do it. He took it with him in search of its mother. As he trained the cub trained with him in hunting animals and it grew stronger with him.

A week later he found that its mother was nowhere so he gave up on finding her since he become attached to the cub. A status bar asked him if he wanted to make it his familiar he clicked yes. It turns out that because of this he gained the ability to use magic from the cub. He can use fire magic now but it isn't as strong as the cub in magic. All he can do is create small ignitions from his hands. He called it [Spark].

After arriving at the coast he found four people sitting around a fire happily conversing with each other. Benches were made using logs and they sat across from each other while conversing. Smiles were on their faces as they spoke. One of them was dressed as a pirate with a large number of guns hanging around his sides. He also wore a tricorn hat to show his position as the Captain. What was confusing for Hikari was the fact that the other three were dressed in clothes that were white with black stripes.

Suddenly the captain stopped speaking and turned around to look straight Hikari. "Come forward," he said. A grin appeared on his face but nothing felt pleasant about it.

Hikari paused for a moment. He didn't know why, but the amount of fear welling up inside of him was overwhelming. He was breaking out in cold sweat and he felt like he was going to collapse. Kaizoku used [Kraken's Presence] but this was definately something worse. He could tell that just from the man's eyes.

Pyro was also afraid and didn't even make an attempt to move, much less breathe. Hikari cursed himself for his carelessness. They were suppose have mastered how to conceal their presence but this was ineffective against that glance.

"If he wanted to kill you, you would've been dead, boy. Just come forward." Spoke one of the four. It was a women with reading glasses. She had dark red skin tone showing that she was a demon.

The voice of the women brought Hikari to his senses and when he averted his gaze from their Captain's eyes and his sense of fear was gone. Is it a result of looking in his eyes? He wasn't sure or maybe it was the Captain who stopped using some form of intimidation.

"What's your problem, young fellow? Aren't you hungry? We have just made breakfast." The Captain spoke again and laughed. Almost as if he hadn't noticed the tension.

Hikari took a heavy breath and stepped forward, walking towards them. Something cut his finger as walked out of the forest but he didn't pay much attention to it. It barely bled.