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Chapter one: A Doozy of Day 1 in the Dungeon.
Who thought that he’d of all people be here? There, sitting on the cold stone was the oh-so-privileged Prince Travis Phelps. He wasn’t in his distinct, tailored and elegant clothes, and he wasn’t wearing his crown or iconic, long red cape. But instead he was wearing a dirty, cream sleeping gown. It was still nicer than what half the people in his father’s kingdom wore, but it got chilly sitting in a dungeon. And it only made it worse when that dungeon was part of your own home. It wasn’t even a dungeon actually, well yes it was a cell but it was one in a high up tower far from the ground.
The key was set across the room hung on the wall in a place that the prince would never be able to reach in a million years, and the bars were far too packed together for him to squeeze through. What was a prince doing locked away in a cellar up in a tower of his own castle? Well. He had been caught lying to his father about praying to god. This was the 3rd time in a whole month, so Travis would get locked away in a tower for a week as punishment, only being given the bare minimum daily to survive and sometimes even less than that.
How does one deal with this situation?
He’d been asking questions all day long. The only thing that he had to keep himself entertained was an empty notebook, a quilled pen and a small bottle of ink that Travis had found in a small compartment behind an oddly placed brick in the stoned wall. So he might as well make the most out of this, even if it was the largest squeeze in the lemon for the tiniest bit of lemonade in the cup.
Dear Journal,
It almost seems that I'm going to be locked in this dingy place for the rest of eternity. Well, only a week. But what is the difference between a week of nothing and a lifetime full of something? What now? Am I supposed to just sit here and quiver in fear from my father and the cold? I would like to see you do better. Disappointing, truly. I can see the light drifting away from the sky in the barred window at the very top of the cellar. It will be night soon. I hope they will give me a candle for the night. It’s hard to see in the dark, however, if I were to take a guess, I most likely will not be getting one. I do not have a bed, so I have to sleep on the stone. Which I am not looking forward to. The only thing that I am slightly pleased about is that I don’t have to speak with my father. It’s a nice break. The guard here is a doofus. He has left me unsupervised for hours on end. Which I am not upset about, but he doesn’t give me food. Now of course they can’t just give me food, because what if there are things snuck into it? Maybe a key? Maybe poison? Everything has to go through that dumb guard, always. So I don’t get food. Perhaps by the time this week is over, I will have learned my lesson. I hope that that is true.
- Prince Travis Phelps, Heir to King Kenneth Phelps of the Kingdom of Nockfell.
Well that was something. Travis had more to say, but that was where the page ended and he was told to never use one more of anything to be proper, including paper in diaries.
Travis sat and wasted time for what seemed to be forever until his guard came back into the room. Travis quickly stuffed the notebook under his gown and the ink and quill in a front, right side pocket. That dumbo didn’t see anything. He never did. They never did. No one ever did. No one ever saw Travis. And Travis couldn’t tell if that was a blessing or a curse.
Later that night, the prince was laying on the stone bed that was chained up on a wall. No soft pillows, no luxury blankets, no curtains that draped around his bed, nothing. He was just sleeping on a big rock. He shivered from the cold coming in from the windows and chattered his teeth. It was early springtime, so it could still get cold. He tossed and turned but nothing was comfortable. However eventually, he somehow managed to shut his eyes and force himself to sleep.
Travis didn’t wake up because of church bells or birds chirping outside of his window, no, he was woken up while it was still dark outside because of shuffling noises and the sound of shoes pounding against the floor of the tower. He opened his eyes subtly. But what he saw made him shoot up out of bed.
He was surrounded by four people whose silhouettes he didn’t recognize at all.
“Ah shit!” One of the taller ones said, he had a husky yet laid back voice. “Looks like we’ve woken him up!”
“Might as well take him onboard.” Said a shorter one with what he could only assume to be a female voice. “We could use a new deck scrubber after our last one fell off during a raid.”
Onboard? Deck? Raid? What on earth are these people talking about?!
But then, suddenly it all clicked to Travis. It hit him hard, like a smack across the face. These four in front of him were all those dirty, no good scumbags he had heard all about.
These were pirates.
“Are you sure we should grab this one? Maybe we should just go into the kingdom's cellar and grab one of them” Said the one who looked as if he had curly hair.
“Well we’re already up here, so let’s just grab him now.” Said the shortest one. He had a strong yet not too raspy of a voice, however his accent was thicker than the others’ accents, so he had probably been at sea longer than the others.
“Aye-aye, Captain!” shouted the rest of them.
That meant that Travis was looking at the captain of a pirate ship, or even of multiple ships as for all he knew!
Travis’ adrenaline kicked in at full strength and he stood up before saying, “Excuse me? Do you-“ He was cut off by a fist hitting him in the face and well, knocking him out. What he had been trying to say was “Do you even know who I am?! I am not a regular person in this kingdom!” But he never got the chance to.
When Travis woke up, he had a pounding headache, a sore back, he couldn’t move his hands, and he couldn’t see. His eyes were open, yet all he saw was black.Travis registered it as some sort of bag over his head. He started to panic, squirming around until finally, the bag was lifted off of his head.
“Looks like Mr. Sleepy Head is awake.”
Travis immediately recognized that voice. That was one of the same voices that was in the room where he was knocked out. That’s right, Travis had been knocked out by pirates who came into his cell during the night! He looked around, he saw a ton of wood and boxes, ropes and barrels. Cargo. He was on a ship. Travis had been abducted by pirates. His hands were clasped together behind a pillar with manacles.
“Who are you people?!” He yelled out before staring at the man in front of him. The guy had long, knotted brown hair, tanned skin, dark eyes, a very dirty white shirt unbuttoned, a loose red tank top, an unclosed leather vest, a belt, brown leather pants, and a brown tricorn hat with a red feather attached to its side. He wore brown boots and there was a sword that was tucked into the left side of his belt. Oh dear god did this man smell terrible. And by terrible did Travis mean atrocious.
His smell was so strong and so appalling it made Travis want to projectile vomit right then and there. His throw up would most likely have a nicer scent than what that man smelled like. Travis gagged.
The strange man stepped back.
“Woah there, don’t go vomiting all over me!”
“You smell-” He gagged again. “so extraordinarily vile.”
“Oh trust me, I’m not even the worst of it. It’s hard to smell all nice and pretty like a flower when you're on the sea all day, battling with other ships and choking in the sun. Soon you’re gonna smell just like us so I don’t wanna hear it from you.”
“Is that a threat?!”
“Maybe, depends on how you interpret the truth.”
“Why am I even here in the first place? Get me off of this ship!”
“You’re not going anywhere. Plus, why the hell would you wanna go back there? It’s not like sitting and rotting in a dungeon is better than this. Wouldn’t you rather be around people?”
“I’d prefer to be alone rather than with the people who have kidnapped me!”
“Wow, we really got a pissy one this time. Didn’t we? I knew we should’ve gotten someone else.” Another voice behind the two called out.
“Yeah!” The brunette man yelled back. “Tell me about it! He wakes up and the first thing he talks about is how I smell horrendous! I mean can you believe it?!”
The person from behind came up, and based on her voice, she was the same woman from before who had also been one of the people who kidnapped Travis.
She had a stained loose shirt with lace on the collar and frills in the front, green linen breeches, a belt that held both a pistol and sword on either side, short, choppy maroonish hair with one long tiny braid that reached her hips, green eyes, and a scar across her eyebrow. Hanging off of her belt was a patterned purple rag, she wore a purple bandana with green polka dots, and she also wore sturdy brown boots with cream laces that had a few colored wooden beads on them.
“That’s such a shame. But hey,” She leaned in towards Travis and Travis tucked his head farther back so he was touching the pillar he was tied to. “Aren’t ya happy that you get to go from peasant to pirate?”
“I’m NOT a peasant! I am the prince of Nockfell, Prince Travis Phelps! My father is the king! King Kenneth Phelps of Nockfell! You abducted the prince!”
And suddenly, the two pirates in front of him froze with their eyes wide, and they slowly turned towards each other.
“You’re the prince?” The man said to Travis.
“Yes. I am the prince.”
“That’s the prince.” He turned back to the woman.
“Yeah, I heard him the first time, Larry!”
“Do we tell Captain?"
“I think it might be necessary, but let’s get Todd in here. I bet he’d know. He’s doing the ship's repairs down in the furnace room. Go fetch him.”
“And if he’s not?”
“Well then he’s chattin’ with the bar tender.”
“Good to know.” and the man, presumably Larry, left the room.
The woman turned back to face Travis.
“So, if you’re the prince,” She took out her sword on the side of her belt and pointed it at Travis. “Why were you locked up in a cell?”
“Why should I tell you?” He said, admittingly with a little of hesitation due to the sword pointed to his face.
“We need to know if you’re faking it or not because kidnapping a prince can bring some serious trouble to our ships, our crew, and hell even other ships that aren’t even part of our clan! And it might even bring danger to you! So we gotta know!” She pointed the sword right to his chest, resting the tip on his heart.
“Okay! Okay! I’ll tell you! I was locked up because my father caught me not praying when I was supposed to be! So as a punishment, he put me in that tower for a week!”
The woman withdrew her sword, sliding it back between her hip and belt.
“Praying? Damn. I didn’t know that royals treat each other like that. Did they at least feed you?”
“No! No, they never feed me when I’m in the tower! I starve!”
“When was the last time you ate?”
“Yesterday morning…I think. How long have I been knocked out?!”
“A couple hours. It’s still night though.”
“Then yes, the last time I ate was yesterday, and it was just a simple apple.”
“How long were you in the cell?”
“I was only in it today.”
“So you didn’t stuff yourself before getting locked up?”
“No. I am not a gluttonous beast.”
And just like clockwork, his stomach grumbled. Loudly. The woman chuckled and Travis felt his face heat up and he looked down in shame.
“Well, we eat good on this ship.”
“I’m not a fan of sea food.”
“We don’t eat too much seafood actually, mostly just beef, salted pork, and hardtack, fish is a special occasion food.”
“You are surrounded by the sea every day, and you don’t eat fish?”
“Nope.”
“That’s stupid.”
“It’s a waste of time to fish. We have ‘bout 100 people on this ship. We could never catch that many fish to feed us all!” She sat on one of the boxes of what Travis thought to be cargo.
“How large is this ship anyway, 100 people?! That’s so many!”
“Pretty big.”
Travis rolled his eyes and looked down at the floor.
“Could you at least untie me? I can’t feel my hands.”
“No can do, you're stuck like this until Captain orders otherwise.”
“Ugh.”
They sat there in silence, glaring at each other until there was an interruption.
The brunette man from earlier and a new man walked into the room. The new man had orange, messy, curly hair and glasses. He had a regular cream poets shirt, a brown, dirty leather apron with a pocket in the middle that held all sorts of tools, black and white striped pants that cut off at his ankles, and shorter shoes that weren’t exactly boots but they were shoes that were clearly easy to get around in. His sleeves were rolled up to his forearms which revealed a few scars on his arms and oil smears. And to top it all off, he wore a belt that had a pistol on his right side.
“So this one is the so-called prince?” He said. He had no sass in his voice, he just sounded like he was stating the obvious.
“Yup, apparently." The woman said
“Then why on earth was he in a tower?”
“He says it was a punishment from the king.”
“Wouldn’t the king be his dad?”
“The king is my dad.” Travis said.
“I am not talking to you.” Said the curly haired man.
“Excuse me!” Travis yelled back.
“Could you batten down the hatches!? I’m sorry but your voice is annoying and I can’t focus on talking to you and both of them at the same time.”
“I’ll gag ‘em.” Then the brunette man came up next to Travis.
“WHAT?! No, don't you dare gag me!” And he started squirming around.
The man took a bandanna that was tied onto his wrist, folded it in half, and shoved it into the prince's mouth and tied the ends around the back of his head.
Travis tried yelling out before eventually he gave up, knowing that nobody would care in the slightest.
The three pirates were huddled up close together, discussing what to do about the captured prince.
Travis couldn’t make out what they were saying, but suddenly, the curly haired one left the room.
The two others turned to face the prince.
“Captains comin’” The brunette man said. “So you better behave.”
That’s when the prince suddenly felt anxious, I mean, he had never truly seen the captain. Well, technically he had, but Travis still had no idea about what this captain looked like besides the fact that he was a little short, maybe. Travis’ head was still quite fuzzy after the whole accident.
Hours in the span of minutes passed by, until the door burst open. Travis felt his heart drop into his gut and the chains around his hands suddenly felt like they were chains around his whole body, keeping him from taking in a whole breath. The curly haired man walked in and then a shorter man also strolled into the room.
He was the oddest man Travis had ever looked at. He had bright blue, messy hair that had small, patterned, golden hair cuffs in a few locs of his hair, a linen poet shirt with frills on the front and the wrist cuffs, golden bracelets, rings with colored gemstones in them, a lace up waist corset made of leather, red breeches, ankle lace ups, black, heavy boots, and to top it all off, his face looked almost totally mutilated, healed, yet still mutilated. He had deep red grooves on his whole face besides his right eye and the areas around it, it was the only part of his face untouched. His mouth had a small slit in it, showing off a few messed up and stained teeth. His left eye looked closed, but Travis guessed that it was because the whole thing was missing, and also on the left side of his jawline, there was a chunk of it gone, yet it luckily didn’t reach his mouth.
“This is the prince?” He asked.
“Yes sir, we were surprised about it too.”
The woman said.
“Well why do you have him clapped in irons and gagged?”
“He wouldn’t shut his pie-hole and we didn’t want him scrambling around ship.”
“Ah, so you’re a dog.” The Captain looked at Travis.
Trvais raised an eyebrow. He did not understand some of the phrases these people used.
“He’s saying that you're loud.” The curly haired one called out.
The Captain then took his hands from behind his back, pulled Travis’ head forward, and untied the fabric around his mouth.
“There, now speak. What is your name, who your family is, and why were you in a tower. Keep the volume down.”
Travis sighed and rolled his eyes. “My name is Travis Phelps however I am most widely known as Prince Travis Phelps of Nockfell. My father, Kenneth Phelps, is the King of Nockfell and I have two sisters, one older and one younger named Madeleine and Mary. I was in the tower because I had lied to my father about praying and was banished there for a week. Is that what you need?” He said as his right eye twitched.
“Aye.” The Captain nodded and then looked at his crew members. “We’re keeping him on board. He is staying here. And we will stay clear of Nockfell until our ships are safe to come back into the area.”
“Captain,” The tallest man started. “Are you sure that's a good idea? That will send a lot of ships to us and our clan as a whole.”
“I’m sure.” He turned to face Travis.
“Prince, it’s about time we give ourselves a proper introduction. The tall one on your left is Larry, he is our Quartermaster, the woman in the middle is Ashley, she is our Sailing Master, and the curly haired one is Todd, who is our ships best Carpenter and Boatswain. We’re most known as the Stolen Face Pirates, that name may ring a bell. And Me? I’m the Captain of this ship and my name is Sal. However, I’m known as Sally Face. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Stolen Face Pirates? You gotta be kidding me. Travis had heard all about these guys before. They have been rumored to catch up to 20 different ships and are also one of the largest clans at sea! His father had talked about these pirates before, apparently they had been a huge bother to Nockfell in the past. They’ve raided the kingdom multiple times and captured many of the people. The Stolen Face Pirates and the Kingdom of Nockfell had been sworn enemies long before Travis was alive.
The Captain started speaking to his crew again. “Todd, would you please escort him to the sleeping bunks? I think we have a free one near the back row.”
“We’re giving this guy a bed right off the bed?” Larry asked.
“Yes. Yes we are.” The Captain nodded.
Todd took a key out of the front pocket of his shirt and unlocked Travis’ manacles that kept his hands tied behind the pillar he was sitting against.
Soon Travis was in a dark room, on a hammock surrounded by a ton of other people who he had never seen. There was only one source of light in said room and that was a wax candle emitting a soft glow, casting large shadows around him. Travis slid the notebook that was still under his gown out and set it in his lap and took out the pen and ink from his pocket. He started writing.
Dear Journal,
Today took a very unexpected turn. I ended up being taken hostage by the Stolen Face Pirates that my father always speaks about with a sharp and cold tongue. I’ve heard these people have captured up to 20 different ships at sea and my father wants these guys “all dead with their heads on sticks.” Or that’s at least how he talks about them. These no goods say that they are going to keep me on ship. They didn’t even know that I was the prince when they first captured me! Now I'm surrounded by a group of different people who I have never seen before, everything smells like garbage, I’m tired, I’m sleeping on a hammock, and I don’t know where on earth we are on the sea! God, please save me. I am praying that I am found soon and I never have to see these pirates again! I’m worried about what will happen tomorrow, will I be tied up again? Will I be forced to a job? What will others think of me? What are the people on this ship like? Can I just jump into the sea and end my suffering before anything happens?! Well, anyway. That’s all I have to say about now. Well maybe I do actually have more to say, I’m just too tired to write it out. Goodnight.
- Prince Travis Phelps, Heir to King Kenneth Phelps of the Kingdom of Nockfell.