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The village was prepared for this. We had defenses, stockpiles, shelters, everything one might possibly need to survive an invasion.
I was fishing down by the river, an offshoot of the sea just a half a mile away, when I heard my brother running towards me.
"Dan! Daniel!" Clearly he needed my attention if he was calling me by my full name. I turned to look at him just as he was getting close, close enough to knock right into my face as he came to a stop.
"He-"
"They're here! They've seized the beach and are on the way to the village!" Fear ran down my spine as I realized who Adrian meant by "they", the pirates were back.
"How did they get past the outposts?" I questioned as we ran back to the house. As Adrian explained how the pirates had managed to sneak by our scouts, something about camouflage to look like the sea, all I could think about was getting to the square to take my place with the rest of the militia. The run back only took about 2 minutes but looking towards the beach we could see smoke rising from fires getting closer and closer to the homes. By the time I had assured Adrian I would be fine and joined the other 17 to 25 year olds word was going around that the pirates were at the edge of the village.
I had been prepared to fight this fight for 7 years, but I still wasn't ready to see this amount of violence. The pirates broke through the line of trees with extreme force, I was surprised there were no felled trees, running directly at us. Everyone on the front line readied themselves for the attack when suddenly everyone stopped. The others looked around at each other with confused expressions but I knew better and kept my eyes on the pirates. I groaned to myself when I saw their leader step out of the middle of the line, this is exactly what happened when my father was killed 10 years ago, the last time the pirates were here. As the man continued walking forward his features became clearer, he was tall (like really tall, damn), his eyes blue and cold as ice. Cold eyes that settled right on me.
"Hello!" His voice bellowed across the small clearing between the woods and the center of the village.
"We've come to collect some supplies for our return trip, and we know you fine people will be so helpful to us. Right?" No one from our side responded, this same thing was requested of our town the last time the pirates stopped by. That time ended with only one death, I was afraid this one might be worse. The pirates started getting restless as the silence stretched on, their leader, eyes still trained on me, seemed to realize that nothing was going to get done. He gave an invisible signal and the others started to stalk forward once again.
"Due to your reluctance to share I have decided to give my companions the go ahead to take whatever items they think necessary for our travels. Though, do not fret, as long as you don't get in their way no one will get hurt." At that not only did the pirates start running but the other villagers started to back away, giving them free reign of our homes. I didn't move and I kept my eyes on the lead man, whose gaze had not strayed from mine since finding me in the crowd. He started walking towards me, I expecting him to attack at my clear show of defiance, I readied myself. What I was not expecting was for him to stop just in front of me and offer his hand.
"Philip. Captain Philip, but my friends call me Phil" he said as if we were casually meeting in the street. I spat at his feet. He flashed me a crooked smile with his tongue poking out. What I really was not expecting was for him to grab me around the waist then knock me out with a hit to the back of the head with his pistol.
I came to not long later and realized I was thrown over over the captain's shoulder, I could only assume I was being brought to the ship. I attempted to kick him or flail or something but my body just was not responding. My last thought before falling back into unconsciousness was "Why the hell did he take me?! There's plenty of valuable stuff left in the village. What the fuck?!"