“Cap’in! Cap’in!”
The breathy calls met the pirate Captain’s ears as the scoundrel scurried back into the encampment. “W’at?” he roared turning to face the breathless man, one of his lookouts stationed by the road at the exit of Booty Bay. He and his partner were supposed to strong arm travelers into giving up some coin or goods if they could.
“Er, a big caravan,” the pirate started and then righted himself and held his hand to his stomach. “A big caravan, just left Booty Bay, with armed guards. Large draenei, one of those death knights and a few others, the death knight got Benny though.”
“A caravan y’say…?” he slowly turned back to the maps and charters he had been inspecting and tapped the point of a drafting compass against the parchment. “Get a handful of men and set up on the hills before the troll gate.”
The pirate nodded his head, a wide grin pulling at the corners of his mouth. “Sure thin’ Cap’in,” he nodded and turned sprinting up the gangplank to gather some companions.
“Ain’t had no guarded caravan come through here in a while,” the Captain spoke to himself, “we’re gonna have a good time.”
A wide grin appeared beneath his thick black beard as the apparent leader of the caravan’s guard was snagged in their trap, a large draenei was tugged back in a weighted net though the tree strained under his weight. The Captain stepped out from around the bend accompanied by the rest of his mangey crew. He was dressed in a brilliant red coat and wielded two flintlock pistols, one pointed at the draenei, the other currently pointed up in the air. The cigar held in the corner of his mouth sent a curl of smoke skirting his worn tricorner hat.
“There now!” he cried loud enough for the caravan to hear him, "Yer tryin' ta slip past me roads without a toll! Ha! I can admire that, y'know! Unfortunately, a workin' man's gotta make an honest wage, aye? So, let's say ya pay yer due, and I won' be shootin' anyone who doesn't deserve it."
“We don’t barter with pirates!” the caravan owner cried with indignation.
"Just how much do you want, sir?" spoke a female draenei as she fished in her pouch for something.
The captive draenei was going on in some other language, but by the sounds of it he was just cursing before he started speaking Common, "Get me out of this net, and we'll–"
“Nnnah-ah-ah-ah. Don'tcha try anything fancy. I'm thinkin' a couple hundred gold a pop should do it. So, make that a thousand total, and we can move on, sounds fair, don’tcha think?”
“That's preposterous!” the female draenei declared.
“Humph. I disagree to those terms!” the cavern owner stated.
“Gotta pay me men, y'see. Especially th' poor fella I assume ya killed back there, think'a his poor wife n' kids!"
"You call yourself a working man. We all have mouths to feed and bills to pay. There are ways other than gold to make a living." This time a plate clad woman spoke, by her dress and demeanor he assumed her a paladin, “I am certain we can come to another agreement other than one thousand gold. Or violence, which I am certain is the next alternative.”
"I do not see how there is anything honest in this. You have abducted my friend, have weapons drawn on us, and are threatening to shoot us if we do not pay. He did not die." spoke the death knight the Captain had been warned of earlier.
The Captain began to chuckle at all the banter, he was a fan of it indeed. A group of caravan guards that did not want to fight. He could barely contain his enjoyment of how split this group seemed to be. "Aye, yer right. Ya can refuse t'pay, and I can sic me men on the lotta ya. Yer diplomatic skills don't work so well with men of this breed, lassy," he spoke to the paladin since she seemed to be the only one with some sense.
“That is well enough, for I am certain that our fighting skills will be more than enough for men of your breed. We sieged Orgrimmar with barely a casualty. You are better off being on your way. Final warning.” The lady paladin pressed him.
"Aye, ya conquered Orgrimmar, I'm sure! An' it just so happens I picked Arthas' pocket m'self, while ridin' a seawolf and savin' all'a Booty Bay from his wrath!" he laughed at what he assumed a bluff from the woman.
A brilliant flash of blinding light caused the Captain to shield his eyes. He growled at the sudden onslaught of light.
The death knight whonow stood in the front seemed to be growing agitated with the constant back and forth and the Captain noticed him draw his eerie runeblade. "We will not pay your fine." With that declaration the death knight started walking toward the Captain.
“Get ‘em men,” he grinned and watched as his men approached from all sides. Two sat in the hills on either side of the caravan with muskets at the ready, two approached from behind and three from the front. The Captain stood his ground still holding his pistol on the netted draenei. His gaze fell over the fight watching as the pirates started closing in on the group and the fighting began, a movement at the corner of his eye bought his attention back to the sprung trap where the female draenei was furiously cutting at the net. “No ya don’t” He fired the pistol as the net gave way dropping the draenei to the ground, the round hit the vindicator’s pauldron and glanced off into the brush.
He snorted at the failure and hurried to reload the left pistol while his men begin tangling with the paladin. As he finished loading it he looked up to see the death knight rushing him, he only had time to brace for impact as the knight’s shoulder connected, winding him and knocking him to the ground with a thud. He drew his sword quickly from his hip, and readied himself to fight from his disadvantageous prone position.
The single free pirate behind the Captain charged toward the death knight, shouldering toward him much the way the the Death Knight had done. The strike wasn't enough to send the elf anywhere, but it gave the Captain enough time to clamber to his feet.
The Captain growled deep in his throat as the tides began to turn. He glanced about the small battlefield, seeing one of the snipers being held at knife point by another man and bellowed out, "Fight ta ya death, boy! We take no prisoners, and we certainly ain’t taken!" The sniper quivered, and refused, shaking his head. "Suit yer damned self," the Captain muttered and cocked his pistol. He fired it and watched as the sniper's body fell limp in his captor’s arms.
He traded one pistol out for the other and leveled it at the death knight, pulling the trigger but the knight had slumped unexpectedly as though struck by someone else, the bullet whizzed by the elf’s head. The Captain spit in disgust and bellowed again, “Keep it up boys, two-thousand gold to who ever brings me that elf’s head!” He waved the end of his pistol at the dazed deathknight beginning to back out of the fight.
A rousing cry met his ears as the pirates double their efforts, spurned on by greed. The Captain smiled as he got far enough away without being followed. He turned to walk down the road eventually stepping off into the brush and disappearing.
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