DREAMS of a CLOUD
Peruse the many random ramblings of a writer-in-training as I build stories and develop my craft.
5 June 2023
“If you’re finished deciding what you want,” the woman cut in, “how would you feel about handing the ship over to me? Complete with crew and passengers.”
Everyone around inhaled sharply. Once again, who was this woman, that she could talk to the Pirate King as an equal? And what would she do once she got them?
The King just raised an eyebrow. “Hardly seems worth the effort. I was thinking I’d just scuttle it and be done with it.”
9 May 2023
The Pirate King stepped toward Elliott with a feral grin. “Tell you what, princeling. Now that we’re being honest, how about a deal? You come with us, and I spare all those refugees downstairs. By Fortune’s breath, I’ll even repair the ship, keep ‘em from starving to death. What do you say?”
5 May 2023
The man in the scarlet coat gave an order, and their cannons thundered. One of the masts on the Siren’s Lament cracked and fell, and it stopped dead in the water. They raised a white flag, but the pirates didn’t care. The man barked the order again, and another volley of cannon fire tore into the hapless ship.
28 April 2023
There was a pause from the cannons on the [Siren’s Lament]. Worried they’d been hit, Charles darted over to a portside porthole, and saw that no, the other ship was fine. They had just been turning their cannons…
Which were now aimed directly at the Dragon’s Flight.
Charles could only stare mutely as their sister ship prepared to fire on them. Elliott barely had time to pull him down before cannonballs tore into the ship, leaving them crippled in the water.
11 April 2023
“I’m afraid I’m all but married to my job; I’ve little time for such matters.” His face softens. “I do visit my sister and her two children when I can, however. A niece and a nephew. The older one is nearly twelve; the other just turned eight this past month.”
“And their father?”
Roland’s smile vanished. “A sailor. He died when the Pirate King targeted his ship some eighteen months ago.”
28 December 2022
Jasper the Pirate King was intimidating. He wasn’t a large man, per se - he was only of average height, and wiry, rather than bulky. But there was a sharpness to his gaze, and he had a subtle tension that made Charles feel like a mouse caught in a serpent’s gaze.