The Cavalcade of the Pied Piper Ch6

The Cavalcade of the Pied Piper

Ch. 6

            “Keep working! Watch your step, scum.” I returned to work. Not my ideal job on a pirate ship but I suppose I should be grateful I hadn’t died yet. I was the new person. The old deck hand must have been happy to be promoted out of swabbing the deck. I’d been working all day and had barely finished half. I really didn’t feel like I was on a pirate ship, just any other ship with the same chores that needed to get done. I guess pirates were like any other person out at sea.

            “Hey kid,” I heard behind me. I turned around and found a huge man almost twice my height behind me grinning eerily with missing teeth. I felt a shiver run down my spine. That was a real pirate. “Here’s your cut.” He tossed a small coin bag at me and turned slowly on his heels still watching me. I grabbed at the bag as it sailed through the air dropping the bucket I was holding all over the floor I had just cleaned. It could have been my imagination but I swear the man chuckled. I looked inside and found I had received four gold coins, twenty silver coins and about a hand full of small copper coins. Not bad for not really doing anything but scrubbing the deck for a couple of hours. I wondered if that was the cut for the rest of the crew as well even though I had only been there a day.

            The sun continued to rise and soon I was done swabbing the deck and a lunch bell rang up from somewhere below deck. I quickly ran down to the hall were we all ate last night. The cook had set up a stand where a line formed as the he ladled more soup into the bowls of hungry pirates. I couldn’t complain that there hadn’t been any breakfast when I normal didn’t eat at all. A lunch and dinner were fine for me.

            I scrambled to get out my bowl as I stood in line. After watching everyone last night store there bowl in their shirts I had endlessly tried to find a place to put it in mine but ended up having an uncomfortable lump on my back until I realized I could store it in my sleeve. It takes a while to pull it out and put it back in but at least it didn’t hurt whenever I sat down. Now where had I put that spoon?

            “Hey, scum get to eat last. Back up and let real men eat first.” The comment was by a massive man more large then tall who had shoved in before me while I had been looking stupidly in my sleeves for a spoon. My face went red.

            “Well, normally the pigs are fed the scraps after the people are finished.” I replied curtly. As soon as I said it I knew it was a mistake. The man slowly turned as my comment was understood. His muscles flexed and he became twice as large as he had been before.

            “What did the little scum say?” Now that I had spoken up I knew I couldn’t stand down without forever being trampled on by any pirate fortunate enough to hear the rumour that was bound to start. Already people were watching.

            “Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot pigs don’t speak English. Do you want me to repeat it?” I was going to get hit. I knew it. The massive man blew up like a balloon and became as red as a beat as he pulled back his arm and began to swing. I braced for the impact. Out of nowhere a hand shot out and caught the massive mans fist. Everyone stopped what they were doing and watched.

            “Now, we all want to be fed, right? And we wouldn’t want to knock over the cook’s wonderful soup. So I suggest we settle this like civilized men. Why don’t you and your friends go ahead and eat first. I’m sure all that meat needs a lot of food to keep it in shape.” I realized it had been Kilt who had stepped in. Thank the stars.

            The massive man’s brain rolled over what Kilt had just said as everyone held their breath. Finally, finding no fault in him eating first he nodded. Of course, he had completely missed the insult to his bulky size. He continued on and received a scoop of soup from the brooding but silent cook. As he left the hall everyone seemed to take a deep breath and conversations started up again.

            “You should be really careful with what you say to some of these people. That punch would have flatted you.”

            I was stunned. “Why-Why did you help me?”

            Kilt shrugged. “You were in the right. Plus, you didn’t know any better.” My face turned red again. Kilt skilfully pulled out his bowl and when they got to the cook he gave me a nasty look and only half a scoop. I frowned. I should be really careful about upsetting the cook. I sat down at the table and started eating. Kilt joined me.

            “Hey look, the cook gave me two scoops.” Kilt said happily into his bowl. I grumbled and shoved more food into my mouth to make it seem like I had gotten a full serving but ate most of it before Kilt had joined me. I just hoped I started getting regular amounts of servings soon.

            “So, what are your plans for tonight?” Kilt asked.

I almost choked. I had heard pirates doing those sorts of things but never thought they were true...

            “You know, because we’re at port. Are you planning to go to a bar?” I almost fainted in relief.

            “Um,” I said after swallowing “I don’t know. Are there any good ones around here?”

            “Well, there’s the Blue Tavern. That’s mostly where all the business goes down, you know. Then there’s the Grogshop where all the loose women are. Mostly people head over to the Twin Inn. They’re closest to the docks and the innkeepers don’t mind the loudness and occasional brawls.” I nodded understanding.

             “Sounds like the Twin Inn is the place to go.”

             “Agreed. Oh, and dinner on board won’t be served so you’ll have to find some meat on land. I’m getting sick of this soup anyway.” He glanced around making sure the cook hadn’t heard. “Did you get paid yet?”

             “Um, yes, four gold coins, twenty silver coins and-”

            “Shh! What do you think you’re doing? Don’t ever tell anybody how much money you have, let alone pirates.”

            I went still. That’s really sensible. I should have known that. Why wasn’t I thinking? First almost getting in a fight over some disgusting food and now loudly telling a ship full of pirates exactly how much money I had. What is wrong with me today?

            Kilt glanced nervously around.

            “I thought you were supposed to be smart. Well, we better get going.”

            After an awkward moment trying to put my bowl and spoon back into my sleeve to Kilts amusement we left. When we got to the top of the deck we headed off the ship and into the roaring crowds of people trying to sell their wares and catch. I followed Kilt as we made it to the Twin Inn. It was a small little place only three stories high. The bottom was obviously a pub. The sun had started to set as we walked in. The place was crowded yet Kilt and I were able to grab a table. A small little girl half my age came around.

            “I’ll have a liter of rum and a steak.” Kilt said.

            “I’ll have the same.” As the ruddy faced girl nodded and turned away an arm tried to grab her from another table and she skilfully dodged it slipping past the crowd to the back of the pub.

            From where I sat I could see the entrance just fine so I was in clear view as the drunken Finn came stumbling through the door.

            “ ’Nother, Keep!” Finn boomed. He could be heard throughout the inn yet no one paused or gave him a second thought. Kilt ducked his head low to the table as Finn spotted us.

            “Me frands! Wha ye doin’ ere?”

            Like it was some great mystery why a couple of pirates were at an inn having some rum. Kilt cursed.

 Making his way over to where we were Finn grabbed a chair from another table and joined us. Never mind someone was already sitting in it. The drunken man had fallen on his back much to the amusement of his peers. Finn sat there stupidly smiling as if he had a secret that only he knew about.

            The girl soon came back with three large bucket-like glasses filled to the brim with rum. Somehow she had managed to carry all three other to our table without spilling. I watched as Kilt and Finn grabbed them and started chugging the contents. I slowly pulled the heavy bucket up to my mouth and took a sip. It burned my throat going down but it sure felt good afterwards. I hadn’t really drunk any alcohol before and hadn’t really expected it to taste so good. I had another sip. I was soon in a world where everything was funny and I don’t really recall when my steak arrived or whether it was even good. All I could remember was that mean ugly pig from before arrived after several liters of rum.