It was a hot afternoon on the Grand Ocean, and the deck men were all slumping against the sides of Vampyren, scrambling for what little shade they could find as the ship changed directions. It was heading for shore, but upon orders from the Captain, it was headed to an island in the middle of nowhere.
The history of Vampyren was a peculiar one. It was rumored to have been the ship of the first of the Vampyr, but since then, no vampires had ever commanded it, or worked on it. Throughout history, its name was recorded in multiple places at once, as a ghost ship, a carrier of The Gate of Hell, and as a simple pirate ship; it was none of these.
These days, it was a pirate ship, yes, but it was also the only ship to be commanded by a girl, and the strongest ship on the seas. The commander, Naruen, was a young girl of seven when she first boarded the ship as its Captain. Now, Naruen was fifteen, and beautiful.
As she stepped out of the Captain’s Quarters, Naruen’s auburn hair blew in the wind, revealing a scar across her neck, where a sword that would have killed her grazed her. A man had died to save her life, throwing himself into the blade just as it began to cut her skin. She wore a skull-and-crossbones earring on that side – the Pirate code for rebirth and salvation. Her normally blue eyes turned a light shade of pink in the sunlight, when reflected off of the ocean.
She did not even have to look around her ship to know that the crew had been slacking off; like all good Captains, she had a connection to her ship. When a crewmember was slacking off, she knew it. No matter where she was on Vampyren.
Upon seeing her, they all went back to their posts, and began to work once more. It wasn’t that she was a cruel Captain; she just set straight all of the crew whenever one didn’t work.
Most of the crew was already sweating after hearing where they were headed; they were afraid she was just going to leave them stranded there if they didn’t work at par. Having no intention of doing so, but wanting them to work, she simply left them to believe it.
The day faded fast as she watched her crew work; often, she even helped them. Vampyren reached the island as the sun set.
“Drop Anchor!” she shouted loudly enough to be heard across Vampyren, but no louder. “Lower the rafts!” she yelled once more, as she jumped over the side of the boat into a small raft. She steadied it, and then motioned her Second to follow her into the tiny wooden raft before she dropped it into the calm sea below. She had left her First in charge of the ship while she was gone.
She and her Second rowed to shore, and buried the raft in the sand. She drew her twin scimitars, and listening to the island’s call for a moment before putting them back into her scabbards, and tossing them onto the sand pile where they had buried the raft. Her Second proceeded to un-strap his weapons, and drop them in the new pile.
Taking off at a brisk walk, she began to hum The Call to Nature – a song used in ancient battles to time attacks. Her Second picked up the song, and walked off in another direction.
Remembering her childhood and all the fun she had in a forest she once visited, she started to glide between trees, spinning and dancing to the tune she hummed. Minutes passed, and still no vision had come to her of where she was supposed to be. The vision that she needed to visit this island had been the first in years. Still, with no vision, she could do nothing but continue to dance, and dance, she did.
And then she saw something in the trees around which she danced. Leaping up to it, she noticed it was a wire of a sort. She tugged on it, and the land around the tree fell into a dark pit.
By the tune she sung at that moment, she had two hours before her Second would go back to the ship, and pronounce her lost. She flipped down into the darkened pit hole.
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