Jack's World

Chapter One

Abduction

The dragon masthead of the pirate warship sliced through the dense, early morning fog. It led the ship forward, in total silence, towards its final destination. The fog was growing thicker, making it difficult to see. There wasn’t even a sliver of the moon from the sky above shining through to give off any light for guidance.

Dawn was still two hours away, and that time had been the goal. Arrive unseen, before the dawn’s morning light might betray them — leave without a chance of being overtaken.

No creaking came from the ship’s timbers. No sound from the pirate crew who occupied her giant frame. The wind blew quietly against her sails, pushing her forward into the delta and main river of this island.

The crew was stationed around the ship and everyone stood motionless, except the captain. He was at the helm, maneuvering the huge wooden steering wheel. He detected nothing in front or behind him as he navigated the ship from the ocean into the island’s river delta. The pirates could barely see each other through the fog on the ship’s deck. The river measured two hundred feet across from bank to bank at the point it met the ocean. The current under the ship was moving her forward slowly, causing ripples to emanate to the shore on either side.

Captain Hammerjaw didn’t seem concerned with the fog as he entered the shallow waters in front of him. He had sailed up this river delta from the ocean many times in his life. With his experience to guide him, he had no worries he would reach his ultimate goal.

Somewhere, further up along the shoreline, there would be a lookout watching day and night to warn the villagers of any incoming pirate ships. The captain chose this particular night knowing that the fog would prevent anyone from seeing them before it was too late.

The first mate lowered and raised a rope with a weight at its end over the side of the ship and into the water. This was to measure the depth of the river bottom. Judging by the time since they started from the mouth of the river, the speed of the ship, and the depth of the water, the captain knew he was now close enough to move nearer to the shore and drop anchor.

Raise sails, lower the anchor, and prepare to go ashore, the captain whispered to the crewmen who stood nearby. They dispersed throughout the deck of the ship and signaled with their hands to the other crewmen that the time had come. The men who were already on the rigging pulled up the sails.

A group of ten of them lowered the anchor until it reached the bottom. With amazing quickness and little noise, they worked in unison to get everything prepared. They had done this many, many times before.

The ship came to a stop, and the crew quietly moved small boats over her sides and into the water. These would take the crew to shore and ferry back their prize, a culling of young boys and girls from the nearby village.

Nimbly, without saying a word, the pirate crew climbed down the cargo nets on the side of the ship into the small boats. Placing the oars into the water, they rowed to the shore. Once on land, they pulled the boats out of the water, up onto the beach, and secured them in place.

The village was only a short distance away but getting to it would be difficult for the pirates as the fog laid a blanket upon them too thick to move safely at any great speed. Thirty of them advanced towards their prey, the boys and girls of the village. The children would still be asleep in their homes at this hour, just before the early morning light of dawn would appear. Each pirate placed his hand on the shoulder of the pirate in front of him as they moved forward. This kept them all close together and avoided anyone being lost in the fog. The pirates were well-armed and well-trained to fight, a far greater match than the villagers would be able to stand up against.

They slowly made their way along a narrow path in the brush to the edge of the village. Thatched roof cottages began to appear in the distance as the fog was beginning to dissipate. The pirates had to strike before the morning light. The cover of darkness was an advantage they wanted to make the most of as the element of surprise was their greatest asset.

The sly and despicable group huddled behind tall bushes near the edge of the village. They would now wait until the fog lifted just enough for them to see more clearly where they were going. They did not have to wait long. Morning twilight was breaking through the dense fog. The village still slumbered in silence with no idea of the horror about to befall them.

The pirates then split up into groups of two and three men and spread out on the different paths running throughout the village. Each group moved into place just in front of a cottage. This village was built similar to villages on all the other islands. There were several cottages grouped together near the center, then spread out as you moved further away.

The first sound came from the pirate captain. Quietly, as if talking only to himself, he counted down in a slow and thoughtful cadence.

"One … , Two … , Three … , Four … , Five."

Immediately after saying Five the other pirates closest to him screamed out again and again at the top of their lungs as they ran through the village. This was the signal for his men to begin. Shock and terror were what the captain wanted to wake the villagers with.

Moving now with deliberate speed, the groups of pirates broke into the small huts and cottages, beating down anyone who stood in their way as they grabbed every young boy or girl who met the requirements.

The captain had reminded them often of those exact and specific requirements. Only take children between twelve and thirteen years of age, tall, fit, and no physical impairments such as a broken limb or feeble physique. Those who compensated for these cullings paid well for each able-bodied child captured by the pirates.

At the outer edge of the village, awakened by the noise and chaos, a young man ran from his home to the village center. An alarm bell had been put there specifically for this type of invasion.

Bong, bong, bong, the bell sounded as the young man pounded at it again and again. The bell rang loud and could be heard far away. Cottages on the very outskirts of the settlement would hear it long before the pirates would arrive at their location.

The pirates are here! The pirates are here! the young man cried out as he continued banging the bell. People ran from their homes and went off into the nearby woods to escape the would-be abductors and to save their children. The pirates used their clubs indiscriminately on those who stood against them.

They didn’t want to kill anyone. Villagers needed to continue having children to support future raids. They also didn’t want to take all the children. They wanted just enough to meet their quota. As the small groups of pirates got their prey, they started making their way back to the waiting boats.

On the edge of the village, there sat a thatched covered hut. Inside, the mother and father were waking their two children to run off into the forest with the others.

Jack, move fast my son! hollered his father as he burst into the small room where the boy slept.

Jule, leave your things, we must run, her mother urged as she picked up her young daughter and rushed to the door. The two children were terrified. The screaming, shouting, banging of the bell — they didn’t understand what was happening.

Their father reached to open the front door for them to leave, but he was too late. Just then, the door burst open and three of the pirates walked calmly inside, holding heavy wooden bludgeons in their hands. As they went for the children, the father ran at them and a pirate easily brushed him aside with one swipe of his club. The mother screamed frantically as she clung to her daughter, but to no avail as the pirate pulled the child from her arms and pushed her to the ground.

Jack tried running to the door, but a pirate grabbed him by his hair and tucked him under his arm. Jule squirmed under the arm of another as the pirates carried them out the door and took them to the waiting boats.

As they were being taken away, the two children could see fires burning throughout the village. People were either running off into the woods or fighting in vain with the pirates who had taken their children. Once Jack and Jule reached the boats, the pirates tossed them in where two other children already sat, cold and terrified, crying for their parents.

When all the pirates had returned to the boats, they looked at their haul. There were ten children, six boys and four girls. Their quota filled, they rowed their boats back to the large ship waiting just offshore.

The beach was deserted now, no hope of anyone coming to rescue them. Those who had put up a fight were overpowered into submission. The children now stood together on the deck of the ship. They all looked back towards their village where they saw the glow of their homes burning in the early morning light. They were petrified, terror-stricken at their new situation and wondering if they would ever be with their parents again. The parents knew better. Children taken by pirates were forever lost.

Captain Hammerjaw stood at the helm of his ship. He looked down below him on the deck where the latest haul of children huddled together, looking around at the ship and the pirate crew encircling them. For the captain, this scene had repeated itself over and over for as far back as he could remember. Back to the time when he had been a member of another pirate captain’s crew and spent many years in the practice of abducting children from helpless villages. The captain took a moment’s pause and thought back to the time when it all began, the beginning of the reign of pirates as undisputed rulers of the ocean.

Retrospect

A thousand years ago he reckoned since the great sea battle of Temenot. The large northern kingdoms of Bandellon and Taradoon had declared war against each other. There are no records of what started the war, but the ramifications were being felt to this day.

The captain knew, as did every pirate down through the ages since the war had ended, that a loose alliance of pirate captains and their fleets had long ago made the calculated move to influence the war and gain an equal footing with the three groups holding power in the world.

Until then, those three groups were composed of the Kingdom of Taradoon, the Kingdom of Bandellon and the Confederation of Island Nations located south of the two very large kingdoms.

The two kingdoms were both considered large because they inhabited the two biggest areas of land mass in the known world. They were connected by a narrow strip of terrain from one kingdom to the other, called the Warrior's Pass, which bridged the two kingdoms with the ocean on either side. In various places along that strip, it was only fifty feet in width, but a hundred feet high for its entire length of several miles. This made it impractical to march a large army over the strip between the two kingdoms.

There was no room to make a charge of horses or send thousands of troops without them being stopped by the opposing army in the narrow passage. This did not prevent each kingdom from placing troops in the pass and continually having skirmishes between them.

Both kingdoms tried often throughout the centuries to control the pass. They were never successful. The rival armies kept their men encamped facing each other, both comfortably out of the range of arrows which were constantly shot at them.

All the other island nations were much smaller in comparison. However, combined in a Confederation, the other island nations could exert their power and influence, and the two large kingdoms maintained good relations with the island Confederation to keep them from favoring one of the large kingdoms over the other.

What each of these three groups had which held the balance of power equally between them were their massive fleets of ships. These ships transported goods and people between the two kingdoms and the different islands. This was important because each kingdom and island by itself did not have all the goods and materials they required.

There were islands needing fruit and grain which other islands produced in abundance. Several had iron deposits, others large forests providing lumber. Livestock needed to be traded with herds on other islands to prevent inbreeding. There were many goods flowing throughout the ocean from island to island and to the two kingdoms.

This arrangement existed since the earliest recorded history of the world. All three groups lived in a peaceful harmony before the great war. The small exception came from a group of pirates attacking and plundering ships, regardless of what nation they were from.

There had been several attempts, all unsuccessful, to wipe out the pirates. No one knew where the pirate island was located. Where they lived and harbored their ships was a secret known only to them.

The pirates always worried that if anyone found out the location of their island, they would be wiped out and everything they had built along with their society would cease to exist. They lived in constant fear of this. So, when the great war came, an opportunity presented itself for a change.

One of the pirate leaders, Captain Bimby Redbeard, came up with the brilliant plan to raise the pirates from a group of hunted men and ships to the most powerful force in the world.

News reached Captain Bimby and the other pirates about the great war breaking out between the three factions. Everyone knew the most decisive battle would be taking place at sea. Whoever controlled the oceans would control the world.

Captain Bimby received word the great fleets of Taradoon, Bandellon and the Island Confederation were all sailing to the Sea of Temenot, located just south of the two large kingdoms. Taradoon committed their entire fleet to overtake the key island of Halfstar, so named because the northeastern side of the island looked like the top half of a star with three points of land jutting out into the ocean at equal distances.

Halfstar was the largest island close to both Taradoon and Bandellon. It was an ally of the Bandellon kingdom, supplying them with a lot of crops and raw materials. By taking control of Halfstar, Taradoon hoped to cut off those supplies to its rival.

As soon as the Taradoon fleet left port, spies sent out their messenger birds with notes to Bandellon and the Island Confederation telling them the entire Taradoon fleet was heading south towards Halfstar. Both Bandellon and the Confederation immediately sent all their own ships out to intercept the Taradoon fleet.

The Bandellon fleet reached Halfstar Island first and set up a defensive perimeter. The Taradoon fleet stopped their forward motion when they saw the Bandellon ships between them and Halfstar. Taradoon ships tried for two days to maneuver to a better position, but the Bandellon ships were equally matched to prevent them from gaining any advantage.

When the Confederation ships arrived a few days after the other two fleets had begun their standoff, they positioned themselves behind the Taradoon fleet, cutting off direct retreat to Taradoon. The Confederation hoped this would cause the Taradoon fleet to negotiate a peaceful settlement to the situation, but they were wrong.

When the captain of the Taradoon fleet noticed so many Confederation ships flanking his rear, he took immediate steps to neutralize the threat. He turned his ships around and attacked the Confederation fleet.

The captain of the Bandellon fleet saw the Taradoon ships turning. At first, he thought the sight of the Confederation fleet had made them think twice about invading Halfstar Island and that they were returning to their home. When he finally realized they were on course to attack the Confederation fleet, he gave the order for his ships to engage them.

The leaders of all three fleets didn’t know that far off in the distance, just out of sight of their spyglasses, the pirate fleet had taken position. They were biding their time and watching the other fleets. A small pirate vessel had been sent ahead to observe the situation but stay out of sight. They had a crate of messenger birds to communicate back to the pirate fleet of events developing between the other fleets.

Captain Bimby stood at the helm of his pirate flagship reading the latest message delivered by bird. All three of the fleets at Halfstar Island were now engaged in battle, inflicting heavy damage. This is exactly what he expected and hoped would happen. All he had to do now was sit back and wait.

After two days of fierce fighting, over two-thirds of the Taradoon, Bandellon, and Confederation fleets were crippled or destroyed. The fighting had gone on non-stop. The smoke from the flames of ships burning in the ocean waters could be seen for hundreds of miles. Over the battle area, the smoke darkened the skies and blocked out the sun during the day and the stars at night, making it difficult for anyone to know where they were or what direction they were heading. That is to say, everyone but Captain Bimby.

Biding his time, and getting constant updates from his forward spy ship, Captain Bimby timed his entrance into the battle with the other three fleets to his maximum benefit. He did not want to engage while there was still a large enough force which could cause a lot of damage to his own pirate fleet. He also didn’t want to wait too long as many of the surviving ships would leave the battle and return to their home ports for the protection they offered.

He planned to enter the fray at the point when the other three fleets had exhausted their arrows and spears and their troops would be tired from the continuous battle. The latest message he received told him it was time.

Captain Bimby looked up at the crewman stationed in the crow’s nest at the top of the largest mast. He took a red handkerchief from his pocket and waved it upward, the signal the crewman had been waiting for. He grabbed two large red flags in the crow’s nest and waved them over his head to signal the other pirate ships that the time for action had arrived.

Throughout the pirate fleet, an excitement now grew as the crewmen on every ship saw the red flags being waved from the crow’s nest of every ship as they passed along the pre-arranged signal to begin their attack. From ship to ship you could hear men shouting Weigh anchor and hoist the mizzen as the ship’s sails were unfurled and the wind filled each one, pushing them forward.

The sail at the top of the mast in front of each ship displayed a blood red color. All the other sails were white. This was done to strike fear in the eyes of those who saw the ships coming, letting them know the blood-thirsty pirates were on their way to get them.

Back at the battle between the three fleets, there were few ships left that were not damaged. The fighting was still going on when the sound of horns came from what was left of all three fleets. This was the universal warning call that the pirates were coming. All at once, the fighting amongst the three fleets stopped. Everyone on every ship looked out on the distant horizon and saw the red topsails of three hundred pirate ships descending upon them.

In disarray and confusion, the ships of the three fleets, still able to maneuver, turned to face their common enemy. Now the battle of the three fleets had concluded, the battle for their very survival and existence had begun.

Captain Bimby and the pirate fleet had a simple strategy — anything floating, burn it and sink it. The pirates unleashed flaming arrows which filled the sky and landed on every ship before them. They swept through what remained of the three fleets, making sure each ship would burn until it sank. No quarter or mercy was given to the troops.

The head of the Confederation fleet, Captain Nor, came from a group of islands called the Outer Rim Islands. From his helm, he looked out at what little remained of his ships. Those that weren’t sunk were burning and they would soon be heading to the bottom of the ocean.

The only choice he figured he had now was to try to sail to one of the main islands of the Confederation and warn them of what happened at the battle that day. By themselves, no single island could hold back an invasion by the pirates.

Only the two large kingdoms of Taradoon and Bandellon had the armies on land capable of withstanding such an attack. He turned his ship to leave the fight, but he would not escape. Three pirate ships coming from different directions were merging on his position. Before they reached his ship, he managed to send a messenger bird off to warn the Confederation of what had transpired in that battle. He knew the Confederation islands would be an easy target now that the fleet was no more.

Finally realizing there was no hope of defeating the pirates, several ships from each fleet turned to escape. They were all overtaken and destroyed, except for one. A smaller ship from the Confederation fleet, built for speed, evaded the oncoming pirate ships and made it back out to the open ocean. The name of the ship was The Runner, so named because of the speed she traveled over the water.

As the crewmen of The Runner looked back, once they had reached a safe distance, they saw debris and masts of ships barely above water as they sank into the depths. They could hear the cries of men struggling to stay afloat in the water, begging for help, yet receiving none.

The captain of The Runner was Nicoby Rose, an elderly man who spent almost his entire life at sea. He knew the islands and ocean currents better than any other person alive. He sailed his ship out of reach of the pirate armada and safely back out into the open ocean, followed by a dozen pirate ships that tried to catch him but were never able. The Runner was never seen again.

Back at the center of the Sea of Temenot, the pirate fleet destroyed what remained of the other three fleets. The wreckage was strewn everywhere in the water. A great victory achieved by a group of pirates that, until this battle, had been hunted at will by the other three. Sadly, that would never happen again. The pirates now ruled the oceans.

With the fighting over, Captain Bimby invited many of the pirate leaders, who had joined him in battle, on his ship to celebrate their victory and plan their future. They created what would be called the Pirate Charter of Laws that would forever guide them and protect them from being hunted by others ever again.

There were several items in the Charter. Most of which, of course, were very important to the pirates’ preservation. Chief among these was that no kingdom or confederation would ever again be allowed to build a fleet of ships other than small fishing boats. This Charter did not stop others from trying, but regular patrols of each island nation by the pirates would let them know if anyone was attempting any shipbuilding, and the pirate patrols would quickly move in and destroy whatever had been built.

The pirates now controlled all movement of goods, livestock, and people between the islands. As this transportation was sorely needed, a fee had to be paid to the pirates to provide it. Sometimes payment was made in barrels of food and wine, sometimes in gold, silver, or other raw minerals.

With their fleets gone, the kingdoms of Taradoon and Bandellon began fighting against each other exclusively on land. The narrow strip of land which connected the two kingdoms became the focus of each one trying to control it. They would be at a stalemate for hundreds of years, each army trying, again and again,