Dawn- An age of Darkness

The pirates came to shore and started gathering food and water. There were plenty of coconuts and regretfully rabbits to collect.

"Don't let your guard down." The old man passed by and whispered. He didn't have to tell me, I'd been on my guard from the get-go.

I was gathering my things. My bag seemed a little heavier than usual but it was probably because the old man had stuffed worthless things inside. I didn't want to bother with them so I just kept things as they were.

This island had a lot going for it. There was life, there was death and the undead were sandwiched in between. But to leave it after two months, everything felt surreal.

Before setting out once and for all, I tried to cut the tree I first started my training with. No matter how many times I tried, I couldn't cut it through in one shot. I cut down hundreds of trees but never actually succeeded. Not the most environmentally friendly thing to do but this world didn't have all that global warming crap, to begin with. When was the last time I worried about global warming? Wait, have I ever worried about it?

Lately, I'd forgotten all about the trees, but since today was the last day, I had to at least see what I was capable of. I took my best stance and focused.

This is the result of my training, all the suffering, and pain. And yet, the coconut tree in front of me didn't seem all that worried. Could trees worry? I mean, they had life, right? Maybe they could feel the pain too? I was just making up excuses as to why I shouldn't cut down this tree. But it was mostly because I didn't want to know how far I'd made it. After all, I'd be sorely disappointed if I ended up not making progress at all.

No! I will! It took me a minute to refresh my goals and strengthen my resolve. I took a deep breath and swung with all my might and skills. It had to work. I had to do it. If I couldn't then what was the point of all that ruthless training for the last two months?

The sword touched the trunk and I knew it. There was a satisfactory sound of a falling tree. That was close! It almost fell on me.

I cleaved it through: not fully but the last bit just cracked on its own anyway. Finally it happened. I did it! I was truly glad. My training had finally paid off. I laughed as hard as I could. To an ordinary outsider, I might have even seen mad or something but I was perfectly sane. It was a shame that I couldn't cleave it through fully, but at least I finally made it fall. I was glad, if nothing.

As we got on the small boats I looked down. Darkness spiraled infinitely down. I could see small flashes of light and hear vivid chuckles. Sirens!

"But, I'm surprised ye survived on that island. Not many people can stay alive there for even a single day." I was with two pirates. They were different from the rest and seemed friendly; more than the rest of them. I got the impression that they probably came regularly to this island.

"It was luck and skills I suppose," I said.

I was looking back at the island. It's been three months since I arrived in this world. Have I become stronger? Have I become a better human being? The former was obvious but the latter I couldn't say much about.

"You must really be strong then?" He was talking in normal tongue. Not even a shred of pirate-ness.

"I don't know." I honestly didn't know. The guy didn't really say anything either.

When we got near the ship I was yet again marveled. The ship was larger than I had assumed. The bowsprit was quite long and below it was a carved half angel. It looked rather similar to the angels I saw back in the forests but was carved out of wood. Talk about being fancy!

It was getting dark. There were twenty-seven pirates on board. All of them were men, but not all human. Some looked like crocodiles and some even looked like half animals; there were plenty of variety. The helmsman was a large dwarf. I couldn't even begin to wonder why dwarfs were called dwarfs. Given their sizes, it wouldn't have been surprising if they were called giants instead, fat giants that is.

"Move it ye pretty boy; unlike ye, I got things to do."

I was shoved aside by one of the crew members; he had a wolf like body and face. He was rather rude but the fur was cute. What's his problem?

"Don't mind him; he's Gack, the throat slicer. I'm Brend. Nice to meet ye."

I looked back and behind me was the blonde pretty boy. Throat slicer? That's scary! But, why is this guy being friendly now? I got the feeling that he was up to no good.

"I'm Daarc. Nice to meet you too," I said. I tried to pretend I didn't hear him. I for once wanted to keep my throat attached.

"Dark? Who names their kid after darkness? Were your parents-"

I didn't let him finish. Even I didn't know why my name was, what it was. "It's actually spelled with… never mind. Anyway where do we stay?" It would have been a chore to explain, so I gave up halfway.

Apparently the guy didn't care about my name and he moved on. "Here. On the deck. We don't have any place for ye on the inside." That was not something anyone should say to someone's face, at least not with the type of grin he had.

The old man wasn't with me. He was busy negotiating with the captain. It seemed pirates take their treasures very seriously. On the deck? This might be tougher than I had imagined.

It was fine during day, but what about nights? When I came to this world, it was summer. But now its autumn and sometimes it really got chilly. So that wasn't something I looked forward to. Besides, then there was the problem of monsters. After all, every night I had plenty of fun with Sirens. A type of fun, I never ever wanted to experience again.

My silence triggered some response from the Blondie. "What are ye be thinking? Ye don't expect us to give ye quarters eh?" He didn't hold back anything. I guess I couldn't fault him either.

"Nothing. Never mind." I stared at the water below. It reminded me of the ship I was using for sail to Alfheim. Which in turn reminded me of that dreaded night when Araan pushed me overboard. I didn't really know why he did that but now that I was off the island, I had time to think about what I was going to do next. The peaceful sunset made the experience even more surreal. I only sighed.

The sun had set and stars were poking through the clouds. The sky wasn't cloudless but wasn't too cloudy either. Brend- or whatever the hell his name was, was staring distantly at the sky. "Aren't they beautiful?"

Don't you have anything better to do? I wasn't sold on his being too friendly. He had an ulterior motif and that was clear. "The stars?" I asked. I had to play a little dumb. I was on their ship, of course.

"Aye. I miss the moon though. She's much prettier than the stars." He looked at the sky longingly.

"Wait, but the moon is just a legend, isn't it?" I never saw the moon in this world and whenever the topic of the moon came, everybody just avoided it.

He stared at me. His eyes shone with innocence. "Just because its legend doesn't mean it don't exist, now do it?"

I had no idea what he just said but I could guess. Apparently I had a lunar fanboy on my hands. "I suppose I'll have to agree with you on that one."

He turned his gaze back to the stars again. He might have really been a total lunatic. Over the moon that is. "I actually have an impossible dream. I want to visit the moon someday. Laugh if ye want. But I-"

"It's possible. With a modern rocket you probably would be able to head to the moon in just months," I said. The very next moment I realized what a blunder I made. I said too much. Why did I always end up babbling information to random strangers? Not only did the moon not exist in this world but also the concept of traveling to the moon was even more novel. Was I always such an idiot?

His eyes opened wide. He wore a very troublesome expression. The expression that had trouble written all over it. "What's a rocket?" His question was as innocent as it got. And yet, it made me sigh in despair.

"Ahh… well…" I tried to smooth things out by making excuses but couldn't come up with anything good. I could never make up good lies on spot anyway. But just when everything was lost, I saw a glint of hope: The old man came out of the captain's cabin. There it was, my excuse. "Old man," I shouted.

I immediately went toward him. The Blondie was staring at me with doubts. I would have been surprised if he didn't.. But by some miracle, I'd escaped.