A Sorcerer's Journey Chapter 10
It was a cool and crisp evening, and the sea was placid. All of a sudden, there were agitated loud noises coming from the deck. Ge Lin sped off there to see what was going on.
In the distance was a large, two-masted, 90-feet-long, and square-rigged brig with "Ocean Dragon" engraved on its side of the hull. It was approaching, at full speed, the s.h.i.+p that Ge Lin was aboard. Over twenty cannons and many swivel guns were mounted on both sides of the s.h.i.+p. About two hundred men could be seen on the deck waving their guns, scimitars, and cutla.s.ses in their hands, with several men perched on the masts with one hand, eyes intent.
They were all yelling strange words and expressions that made no sense to the students until a man shouted "Avast ye!" as he swung his hand before him. The man wore a poofy lived-in s.h.i.+rt tucked into his ripped black jeans with a few b.u.t.tons missing from his s.h.i.+rt, revealing some chest hair. The rest of the horde was more enlivened as he howled "Yo Ho Ho!" to mount the final charge.
Ge Lin was sure that the s.h.i.+p must be a formidable adversary. Many s.h.i.+ps would presumably have surrendered to her without a single shot fired. For the first time, Ge Lin felt fear for his life.
"Come have a look! They are pirates!"
"They look so weird."
The rest of the students didn't share Ge Lin's fear. It took Ge Lin a minute to finally come to a realization that he was on a s.h.i.+p that had no chance of ever being defeated by humans. There was a crew of over fifty sailors who were previously all knights, each and every one of them were strong and fully armed. They were said to have crushed all invaders in their voyages. And not to mention Sorcerer Dior, who could overwhelm even larger and more powerful wars.h.i.+ps all by himself.
As the s.h.i.+p maneuvered towards Ge Lin, he noticed that there were no women on the s.h.i.+p. He was then told that a voyage at sea would be cursed with women onboard, a curse where grisly sea creatures would be awakened to hunt you down, suck up your blood and skin your flesh.
And the pirates had not ever been tempted to doubt that.
There was an abrupt stir on the deck of the Ocean Dragon, which was racing towards Ge Lin's s.h.i.+p at top speed. Ge Lin wondered if it was a rebellion against the captain, but in seconds, he decided that it was more likely that they were fleeing because the man at the helm was fanatically swinging the rudder after he heard the chest-hair-showing man roaring, "Come about!" several times.
"Are they fleeing?" a student, who was leaning over the bulwark to watch the Ocean Dragon, inquired.
"No reason to doubt it," replied the student beside him dully.
The truth was that the captain, the man who wore the puffy s.h.i.+rt, concluded that the s.h.i.+p he was about to plunder was one that belonged to the Lilith School of Witchcraft and Sorcery, a fact verified by the several dozens of full-armed knights and the hundreds of students on the deck, and even more by the composure a.s.sumed by the knights who were about to confront a s.h.i.+p of savage pirates.
The second the captain became conscious of the predicament he was in, he shouted the order of, "Come about!" to flee from his fate of taking on a s.h.i.+p of Sorcerers.
A big fight was foiled and the pirates avoided being s.h.i.+pwrecked.
As the pirate-watchers left the side of the s.h.i.+p disappointedly, a boy and a girl came out of Sorcerer Dior's cabin, which reignited their curiosity.
"They are allowed to go into the cabin? How come...?" a student begrudged. "Are they related or are they simply born Sorcerers?"
"Don't you know? They are said to be geniuses. Sorcerer Dior said it himself," responded another student in a coveting manner.
People on the deck who had been gazing upon the pirates now gravitated to make fervent comments on the two cosets.
The girl was blond and dressed in white. Her hair cascaded down her back like a golden river and her sparkling blue eyes were irresistibly charming, glowing brightly under the sun. She swept her eyes over the crowd which was divided into two columns while making way for the princess-like girl. However, her innocent appearance was betrayed by the domineering expression she a.s.sumed.
Beside her, the boy was toying with the little white rat in his hand, displaying no interest in the hustling and bustling viewers as if his rat had more significance than all of them combined.
"Kyrie, it's boring. They just took flight without a fight," said the girl as she whipped her hair and left it drifting in the wind.
"Told you. n.o.body has the guts to ransack a s.h.i.+p bound for the Lilith School of Witchcraft and Sorcery," said Kyrie drily. "You insisted on coming. Now what? Shall we please leave this foul-smelling place?"
Irritated by Kyrie's air of impudence, many students were throwing angry looks at the boy, but were still ignored by the boy who strutted back to the Sorcerer's cabin, followed by the pretty girl.
Another big scene was over.
Ge Lin was reading Canine Olfactory Enhancement in his cabin when he was interrupted by a knock on the door. He frowned at the sound as he had been so absorbed in the reading of the book that he didn't want to be disturbed in any way, and even more vexed by the thought that it might be Robinson who had been repeatedly annoying Ge Lin by asking him to hang out.
As it turned out, it was Chris and Nina Hank who had come to visit him to convey their grat.i.tude for Ge Lin's objection to the Triad's rogue behaviors.
"I just don't know what else to say, but you saved my life. You saved my sister's life," said Chris in a manner that was much more grown up after the scuffle on the deck.
And Nina, still rather timid, said in a low voice: "Thanks, Ge Lin."
Ge Lin treated the two each with a cup of juice. The juice could be saved for up to two months before going bad if one used the special method of conservation.
"I was not helpful at all. It was Lafite who took down the big guy." Ge Lin felt embarra.s.sed at this unjustified grat.i.tude.
"We are truly incredibly grateful. You helped us and what mattered more was what it represented to us," Nina then carefully drew out two stones from her dress and pa.s.sed them to Ge Lin.
"Chris and I got these stones by accident when we were still young, and they turned out to be Sorcerer money - a currency in circulation on the Sorcerer Continent. They are called Magical Stones."
'Magical Stones! Sorcerer money. I see. So the stones that Wade bribed Sorcerer Dior with were Magical Stones,' thought Ge Lin as he accepted them.