Across the Sea Chapter 1

Hey guys! So this is in response to the post Aerwiar Archives put out about making some stories for our own, "Legends of Aerwiar" or something lol. So I wrote this. I have never actually finished a chapter, let alone let anyone read it. So, sorry if it sucks. 😶

Father: Ren Evelyn Age: 48

Mother: Talia Evelyn Age: 46

Oldest son: Malik Evelyn Age: 17 (Pronounced Mal-lick)

Youngest daughter: Hali Evelyn Age: 14 (Pronounced Hallee)

2nd day of Sixmoon, Year 112, Third Epoch

Hali Evelyn was the only daughter of the Evelyn family. She had an older brother, Malik Evelyn, who was the heir to the family fortune. You may wonder how they obtained such a fortune. Well, the Evelyns were pirates. More specifically, Symian Pirates, the fiercest pirates in Aerwiar. Hali was born and raised on a ship named Serendipity, meaning “Unexpected Good Fortune”, which is what the ship had brought them. You see, 6 years before Hali was born, her parents, Ren and Talia, had bought the ship with the very last of their money. Three months later, they stumbled upon a few Dragoneer ships sailing home with their catch. On their way home to sell their catch, they had been caught in a terrible storm that blew them way off course and straight into the claws of the Serendipity. After they had plundered the Dragoneers and sold the sqwyrm, there was only one, they were quite rich indeed. But that was not enough, no, not for a Symian Pirate. They began to hunt for Dragoneer ships that had already caught a sqwyrm, and that became there life’s work. And if they found a Dragoneer ship sailing home with no sqwyrm, which happened more often than not, they would happily plunder it anyways, taking whatever looked appealing.

And so Hali was born into a wealthy family, for they plundered about one or two sqwyrms a year, which brought about huge amounts of money. She was a tall, strong, healthy looking girl. She had long black hair that was always let down except one thick braid down the middle. She had dark blue eyes, like the sea during a storm. She was trained her whole life to follow in her parents footsteps, and she wanted nothing more. Her older brother, Malik, had already robbed a Dragoneer ship with a sqwyrm in his life, which was enough to last him until he was old. She had helped take down quite a few ships before, but never Dragoneer ships, for she was told she was still to young. And so it became her goal to be the youngest girl to ever capture a Dragoneer ship. Many people said she was the youngest most talented girl pirate they’d ever seen.

Hali was at the dinner table on this night, the 2nd day of Sixmoon, and she stared out the window of the Serendipity as the sun swiftly sank behind the faraway mountains. She smiled contently to herself as she bid farewell to the sun for the night. Then she stood up quickly, grabbed her dragon-tooth dagger, and walked up to the deck as she strapped the dagger onto her waist. On the deck, she saw her father, mother, and brother along with a few crewmates huddled around a map of the surrounding area. Malik smiled when he saw her, not exactly a welcoming smile, but a smile of mischief. Malik had dark brown hair that was almost shoulder length and was always in five small identical braids. He had foggy green eyes, the color of a forest clouded with morning mist, although, he didn’t know this, because he had never seen a forest.

“Ah, Hali! There you are. Come here, sister, you should see this.”

Hali quickly walked to where they all stood, curious to what they could be looking at.

“Look here, Hali. This is the course the ship we’re going to attack is taking, right?” Asked Malik

“Yes. And?” Said Hali

“Now look over there.” Malik pointed west, towards the course their targeted ship was supposed to take. But instead of one ship, like there was supposed to be, there was three!

Hali turned angerly to her brother. “Why are there three!? You said there’d be one. We can’t possibly take down three ships with this many crewmates!” She pointed to at all the crewmates

Malik smiled his devious smile, “Can’t we?”

“No! We can’t! Do you see the size of those ships? This is a mistake on your part!” said Hali sharply.

“Calm yourself, sister. We can take them on. Come look at this.” He signaled with his hand for her to follow him

Hali reluctantly followed Malik downstairs to another paper spread out on a table.

“This is a report from our ship’s watchtower. They counted about fifty men on each ship. Only fifty each! Come now, sister, we can take down one hundred and fifty men! We have done better than that before.”

Hali sighed but smiled. “With our thirty men and woman, including us… I say we stand a greater chance than they do!”

Malick smiled wider, “That’s the Hali I know!” He bellowed, “Let’s prepare the boats.”

Hali smiled a terrible smile as they made their way back to the deck.

“Alright everyone!” She shouted, “Make ready the boats! We strike in an hour when it’s fully dark!”

Hali’s mother, Talia, Had dark brown hair and dark blue eyes. She tied her hair neatly into one long braid that hung down her back. She also had a small scare on her left cheek close to her eye, but she never told how it got there. She had a crooked smile and a slight lazy eye, and to most people, she was deemed not very attractive. But to Hali, those things only made her more beautiful. Hali’s father, Ren, had short black hair with one tiny braid on the back of his head. He too had foggy green eyes like Malik. Ren also had a large scare right across his right eye and nose. He, however, told the tale of his scare proudly to anyone who would listen. It happened during an attack on a Dragoneer ship. One of the Dragoneers threw a sharpoon straight at him and he turned just in time to dodge it, but he lost the sight of his right eye instead.

Hali’s parent approached her with wide grins on their faces.

“I see you’ve decided that we shall take on those ships” Talia said

“That’s my fearless girl!” Ren said with a smile

Hali smiled back “It was really Malik who-“

“Told her what a great idea she had” Malick imposed with a subtle wink at her.

Hali cracked a small smile. “Well, we’re all ready to go, just say the word daughter.” Said Talia as she and Ren quickly sprinted to the boats.

She look at the three ships once more, than looked around at their crewmates. She gave a short chuckle. “I don’t know why I ever doubted us.” She smiled mischievously to herself. Then, she spun around and began shouting orders to the crewmates. This would be a breeze.

Congratulations if you actually read this all the way through! You get a cookie 🍪 Anyways, I would really appreciate your guy's feedback on this and if I should continue this story or not. You can be honest, I can take your criticism. 🙂