Captured

     Our captain, Lenny (he's a pirate Lenny), understood what this meant, too. He shouted to his first mate, a pirate Bruce named Bruce, to grab all the stolen goods and gold and take them to our single life boat, which he would then escape in, which didn't make any sense to me, why wasn't he fighting? Maybe he would. Who knows.

     The rest of the crew was in panic. We grabbed our few belongings and tried to decide the best way to escape. Me, I grabbed my journal, my best Horus feather quill, and a picture of my late mother. I stashed it all into my leather drawstring bag and ran to the top deck.

     Let me explain a little bit. My name is Jason, and I am a pirate Xweetok. I work and live on a pirate ship dubbed The Ghost Gabar. A week ago, we snuck into the Brightvale Treasury and stole almost half of what they had. Sadly, guards had seen us, and they chased us away. The royal fleet has been chasing us since then, and now, they finally have caught up.

     Another cannonball was fired. I could feel it hit the bottom of the ship, shaking it and making us fall. I grabbed my bag and looked around.

     Water was already on the deck. A few of the crew members were hopelessly trying to bail out the water, but it was not working. We were sinking. I saw my only friend, May, a pirate Meerca, desperately grabbing the side of the ship. She and I both knew that she got seasick when the ship rocked to much.

     All of the sudden, two green Draiks flew above the pirate ship. "Surrender now," one said. "Or we will sink this ship,"

     It hit me. These were part of the Draik Army, a group of elite Draiks from Brightvale. They were either painted green or speckled, because those colors are very green, and green one of the colors of Brightvale. If the Draiks were very well trained, they were painted silver, and then gold if they were even better.

     We all turned to captain Lenny. He shook his head, speaking to the Draiks. "This is our gold," he said, "our ship," then he paused. "And our time to shine." Then to the crew, "Fight them! Attack!"

     The battle cry must have inspired the crew. We grabbed swords and charged for the Draiks, but they were too high in the air for most of us. But those who could fly, the Pteris, Shoyrus, and Eyries, along with others, flew up and attacked. The Draiks, however, were well trained. They soared higher, and one shouted. "Reinforcements!"

     About two dozen more Draiks flew in. They carried large cannonballs in their arms, which they dropped onto the deck below.

     It was chaos. I ran for cover as a cannonball almost hit me. Sheltering behind a barrel, I saw May again. She had climbed to the crow's nest and was fighting against one of the Draiks. I scampered across the deck, then climbed up to help her.

     I drew my sword and jumped onto the back of the Draik, shouting, "Ahhh!" as I went. Apparently, I weighed a lot, because I was too much for him. He tried to fly, but couldn't. I saw May grinning at me, then her grin changed to a look of terror. I turned my head, and gasped. Another Draik was flying at me. The next second, I was hit. I fell off of his back, but turned so the fall would be braced by my legs.

     The Draik above me laughed. "Ha! You'll never win, you sea scum!"

     "Whatever," I said calmly, keeping a poker face, though I knew fighting would be hopeless. There were just barely more pirates than Draiks in the Draik Army, but reinforcements were arriving at every second. The crew was holding them off, but not for long. It was hard because all of the Draik Army could fly, and less than half of our crew could. Some of us, like May and I, had climbed up masts to fight. Others went on the backs of those who could fly, demonstrated by a Blumaroo who was riding on the back of an Eyrie, and both were fighting the Draiks. I saw out of the corner of my eye Captain Lenny, who was climbing over the side of the ship. I ran towards him and confronted him. "What are you doing?"

     He sighed, and rolled his eyes, like he was explaining a simple math problem to a baby neopet. "I'm escaping. I do not want to be killed or captured."

     I was surprised. "You? But you told us to fight the army. Don't you want all this gold and treasure?"

     "Gold can be replaced," Lenny said, and he was now looking around at the battle. "So can the crew. I've told them to fight so as to cause a diversion, so I can escape." He winced a bit as a Draik pushed somebody off the side of the ship. "I have had to do this, to abandon my crew and ship and treasures, at least two times before this."

     I was puzzled. And mad. "But... but... you're our captain. I can't let you just leave us!" I was not sure, however, how I would stop him. He had much more experience then I did.

     Captain Lenny was puzzled as well, it seemed. He said, "What do you mean? Of course I can do this." Then he frowned. "Or is it that you want to come with me? You can, of course. I will not mind. The life boat only holds two people, so nobody else can come."

     "No!" I shouted. "I could never leave my friends in a situation like this! You must be out of your mind!"

     The captain shrugged. "Your choice. I want to live to see another day, but I can't say the same for you."

     His first mate, Bruce, ran over. "Captain, the army is advancing. We don't stand a chance." Then he saw what Lenny was doing. "What... are you trying to escape? To leave us?"

     Lenny shrugged. "Yep. Sorry, Bruce." He grabbed a big bag full of treasure, not much, compared to what was down in the hull, but the bag was still bursting to the seams. The captain then jumped over onto his lifeboat. I jumped after him. I am not sure why, as I did not want to abandon my shipmates, but probably, most likely, to stop him.

     He smiled as he saw me. "Ah, reconsidered my offer, have you, Jason?" He began lowering the boat by untying a rope, then lowering down it. "Good, now I can have somebody to help me. On our next pirate ship, you can be my first mate."

     I shook my head. "Again, I would never leave these guys." I grabbed the rope and tried to pull us back up. "We're fighting." Above us, looking down from the deck, was Bruce. He looked so relieved to see me pulling Lenny up. He reached down and grabbed the rope to help me pull the boat up. Lenny was fighting against it. He tried to push me aside, but I ignored him.

     Then we were at the top again. It was a losing battle. Twice as many Draiks then before, easily beating the crew members because each battle was about two on one. Lenny groaned. May jumped down from her crow's nest. "What was that about?" she asked us.

     I glared at Lenny. "He tried to leave the ship. Tried to leave us in the hands of the Brightvale army." May gasped, then glared at him, too.

     Then, just like that, four silver Draiks flew down. Each one grabbed one of us, the bigger two grabbing Lenny and Bruce, while the smaller ones (that's a relative term, as they were much bigger then any of us) grabbed May and me. Other Draiks grabbed their opponents, and in just a few seconds, they had us all captured.

     A golden Draik flew down. "We have you captured. Do not try to escape. We are taking you to the Brightvale dungeon."

     My crew mates groaned. We were going to the dungeon.

     The plank was lowered. Our hands (or paws, wings, etc) were tied behind our backs, and we marched onto the Draik Army's ship, which had been sailed during the fight so it was right next to ours. We walked on, and when the last neopet had entered the new ship, started moving. The Draiks led us down to the bottom of the ship, where it was lined with small cells for holding prisoners. May and I were pushed into the same cell. I peered out the window. The Ghost Gabar, our beloved ship, was sinking beneath the waves, because of a freshly fired cannonball.

     Soon we were all in the cells. I heard sobbing, which was not unusual, figuring what had just happened. Most of us had lost our belongings. I, amazingly, still had my little bag, with my journal, quill, and picture. May also had hers, though it was in a small chest. I turned to the crying. It was Lenny.

     "My gold," he sobbed. "All of my gold. It's all gone."

     He was right. Not just his gold, but everything. Our lives were probably over. We would probably be given a long sentence for thieving. Especially him. If Lenny had been telling the truth earlier, he had been on many other pirate ships than any of us had. It was all gone.

The End