Young Writers Society

The Port of Alpa is small and located along a remote coastline. The citizens are peaceful and prosperous. Which is why pirates are now targeting it.

The Sheriff of Alpa, once a formidable fighter; has been destroyed by alcoholism. Brought back by rumors of the Sheriff's problems, personal and professional, his friends now return to aid the Sheriff. Even if they manage to bring him back in shape in time; it may still not be enough to stop the greedy Pirate King known as Markram.

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Aloysius McDoodle woke up from his drunken stupor and rose from the bed in the drunk tank. He moved through the Sheriff's office and looked out the window. Port Alpa was busy as usual. Somewhere out there, she was probably blowing with some glass maker, or fiddling around with some musician.

Fortunately, Aloysius had a cure for that. He went inside and found a bottle. His one consolation in this world was the bottle would always be there for him. He wouldn't go out today; besides, nothing ever happened out there anyway.

As Aloysius took his first swig, two amber eyes peered up at him.

"You mean that's for drinking?" a squeaky voice came out. "I thought that was for cleaning!"

Aloysius sprayed out the drink. "What in the world--" he started to say.

A strange creature, half fox and half eagle, sprang up on his desk. "Fareme, at your service, sir!" she squeaked. "On a related note, I am sorry for scrubbing the floors with the drink. It smelled pretty potent -- I thought it was bleach! Though, to be honest, I can't really smell very well." She looked bashful. "I suppose the entire jail smells like it now. Though, to be fair, it smelled like that in the first place. Perhaps you use it as a drink and a cleaner?" Her tone was hopeful.

Aloysius looked at the bottle. Then he looked at the creature -- Fareme, was it? Then he looked at the bottle. His eyes narrowed. He put down the bottle slowly. "I am hallucinating," he announced.

Fareme looked excited. "Really? What do you see? I always thought it would be fun to hallucinate. I've heard that sometimes you see dancing stars. I always thought that sounded pretty. I mean, stars are so far away, but if they are dancing close by, can you imagine how pretty they would be?" She flapped her wings in excitement and shot up five feet in the air. "What do you see?!"

"A gryphon," Aloysius said. "There is a gryphon talking to me."

"Really?" Fareme looked disappointed. "That doesn't sound very exciting. Where's the gryphon?" She looked around politely.

"You're the gryphon," Aloysius said. "And you're talking to me."

Fareme clicked her beak. "Me? A gryphon! Ha!" She flew in a spin. "I'm a vulpegryph!"

Aloysius looked down. Turns out it was a bottle of cleaning solution. That probably accounted for the strange burning taste in his mouth. Other details emerged.

"Why are you wearing a badge?"

"The townspeople gave it to me. Isn't it pretty! I'm your new deputy!" Aloysius blinked and then rubbed his face with his hands.

Things were still fuzzy. The hallucination was definitely more persistent than he thought. But a solution came to mind.

"Okay then, if you're my deputy, then why don't you go out and patrol the Port and I'll just stay here in case someone comes by," Aloysius said. It would give him the time to get properly drunk or time for the hangover to pass; he hadn't decided which.

"Okay!" Fareme agreed. "As long as I don't have to deal with the nasty water parts of the port, then I will do it! You hear that, firmly landlocked parts of town? Fareme's going to get you!" She jumped off the table and glided into a desk, sending papers flying everywhere. "Whoops, sorry about that."

"Landlocked?"

Fareme tried to reorganize the papers. "Yep. I am especially good at monitoring forested areas. As long as there are no large lakes involved." She stomped on the papers a little, trying to kick them away, but finally gave up.

Aloysius gave her a look. "It's a port. You can't escape the water."

Fareme did a kind of side step and shuffled her wings nervously. "Then no can do."

"But I thought--"

Fareme's feathers fluffed up in annoyance. "Listen. Vulpegryphs aren't good around water. Forests? Yes. Trees? Yes. Dens? Definitely yes! But water? No thank you. So, what are the non-water parts of town?"

"There are none."

Fareme grabbed a map nestled into her feathers and spread it out with her paws. "We are in Alpo, are we not? This is a mountain resort town, right?"

"Alpa." He pointed to it on the map.

Fareme looked devastated. "But I thought--" She cocked her head to the left and then shook her head. A stray feather went flying. "Where's Alpo?"

"Haven't the slightest."

"So am I in the right place?"

Aloysius was getting annoyed. "You're a hallucination. You're in the wrong place no matter what. Now scat!"

"But... water?" Fareme gave him puppy eyes.

Markram went over the list that came with his "Do-It-Yourself Pirate Kit!"

Pirate Hat

Check.

Eyepatch

Check.

Cutlass?

Markram looked down at the wooden sword; it had taken a long time to strap that to his body; but it was finally in place!

Authentic Pirate Dictionary

Check.

Telescope

Check.

One illustrated copy of "How to Be A Pirate in Less than a Day"

Check.

And that was all there was in the basic version. Markram wondered if perhaps it wouldn't have been a better idea to get the deluxe version with the treasure map and chest; but it had taken the last of his gold to get even the basic version.

Despite the flimsy nature of some of the goods; Markram felt ready to begin pirating. He began swimming closer to shore in search of pirate ships.