Create your MONSTER Challenge!
by @snook
I Dedicate this to my friend @takuris, hand drawn by me of course :)
The Story Teller
“Uncle! Uncle! Tell us a story please!” A bunch of children swarming around Pirate in his house, pulling his pants and shirt. He drag them with him, one he carried under his armpit, a couple grab his legs and another on his arm till finally he was able to sit down on his rocking chair in front of the fire place.
“Rrrr, a story you say… well now lads and lasses, me ever told ye about the tale when me Captain and I took the bounty on the ocean’s most feared sea monster? The legendary KRAKEN!”, he raised his arms wide then slowly contorted his face imitating a fierce monster.
“Yay! Uncle is gonna tell it again!” The children jump up and down in joy.
”Guess me already told ye lads this story… very well, sit down ye lot.” Pirate waited till the children calmed down and sat properly in front of him, making sure they are comfortable on the bear skin mat, “Now, me hearties… listen well and listen good to the tale of…”
”…The Pirate, The Kraken and The Merrow!”
The Self Proclaimed Princess
The Kraken, the eight tentacled terror of the sea, has for some reason left it’s desolate lair and started attacking merchant vessels on one of the busiest trading routes on the sea, The Straight of Arbaleste. This trading route is the shortest sea path from the Continent of the West to the Continent of the East. The alternative will be taking the long way down, then going around the Demon Continent, risking getting boarded or worst sank by the Demon Navy.
The Great and Noble King of the Empire of the West put out a bounty worth our crews weight in gold. After hearing it, our beloved Captain V. Merrow ordered our merry band to set sail for the West.
We reached the major of Port of Thar’ga in record time, and as our ship The Self Proclaimed Princess wade on their waters, we showed off her twenty four broadside guns while gloriously waving our jolly roger, this strike fear and panic among the Emperial Navy but before any sinking happens, I raised a white flag with a picture of the Kraken that I nicely painted on it.
The King welcomed us as mercenaries for hire and thus the Captain was able to make a formal contract with the Guild for the bounty on the Kraken.
We filled our ship with provisions and gunpowder in which the Empire gave us for almost nothing in return; as soon as we are finish we sailed off into the sunset.
The Straight of Arbaleste
“Captain! Starboard side, the Kraken!” a sailor shouted from atop the crows nest.
Captain flung aside her wavy green hair then took from her black buccaneer coat a scope, she move the thing ever so slightly from side to side trying to get a fix on the monster, when suddenly she shouted, “Pirate get the Princess near! Full sails, man the starboard guns and keep them eyes peeled!”
”Aye! Captain!”
“Okay boys, let’s show this overgrown squid how real seadogs terrorize the sea!”
”AYE, AYE! CAPTAIN!”
As we get closer, we saw the Kraken breaking apart a merchant vessel, it’s crew helplessly swimming away from the wreckage but the monster didn’t give them an inch and slammed it’s tentacle on the water sending the hapless sailors flinging up on the air.
Captain spat out to sea, “Tsk! Can’t be help… lower the boats for the survivors to cling to, but that is the most they will get from us. Keep your eyes on the prize boys we will fire when we are clear!”.
”Aye, Captain!”
“Pirate, keep the damn monster within maximum range but no nearer… can’t fire whilst there is still survivors out there, if we end up hurting them it will ruin our name with the GUILD.”
“Captain, If me not so bold to suggest that we lure the damn squid off to open waters.”
“How do you suggest we do that Pirate?”
It is relatively easier to draw Kraken cause he is 'boneless', just a few outlines and he is done. Creating a miniature Pirate and Merrow is hard though.
“Ghad, me and me stupid mouth,” Pirate said as he rows his boat.
The plan was simple, ‘someone’ rows a boat which is tied with a rope to The Self Proclaimed Princess then get near the Kraken. Once that ‘someone’ gets there, that ‘someone’ uses all the profanity in the world to get the monsters attention and make it chase that poor ‘someone’ out to sea, that is if that 'someone' actually manages get out to sea, that is.
Unfortunately for Pirate, no one on the ship is stupid enough to do that.
Pirate stood on top of his small boat, then shot the Kraken with his pistol before shouting. “Your mama is an ug—”. The Kraken suddenly move towards Pirate. Panicked he started waving towards Captain signaling the ship to move.
“Full Sails Ahead!” Captain ordered.
Pirate watch as the rope slowly gets raised out of the sea then pulled his boat violently away. He look back to mock the Kraken but his face grew pale as he saw a tentacle right above him smashing half of his boat.
“MAMA!” Pirate shouted on the top of his lungs while tears welled on the side of his eyes.
The Kraken dove into the water in pursuit.
Pirate suddenly realized a problem with his plan… there is no plan after getting the Kraken away from the wreckage, what then he ask himself? His heart skip a beat as he realized a looming visage beneath him.
”Hard starboard!” Captain commanded, making The Self Proclaimed Princess take a sharp turn.
Pirate seeing this understood what is going to happen now, which made his face paler. As his half-boat slowed down he drew his sword and waited. No sooner the Kraken showed its ugly face with it’s row of razor sharp teeth beneath its tentacle. He cut the rope before jumping towards the Kraken digging his sword deep in its flesh then held on for dear life.
Now that the Kraken is in perfect view of the Princess’s broadside guns, the Captain drew a wide grin on her face then shouted, “Fire at will!”
Twenty four cannons fired almost simultaneously, filling the air with smoke and gunpowder.
Pirate hid the best that he can behind the monster’s flesh as he prayed that none of the cannon balls came his way.
Hurt, the Kraken swam away but to its surprise.
”Captain! I tied the damn sea monster to the ship!” Pirate shouted as he swam towards the The Self Proclaimed Princess.
“Good Job Pirate!”, she turned towards the crew and shouted, “Get those harpoons out and keep the damn sea monster on our broadside!”.
The crew started firing harpoons towards the hapless Kraken, but the monster won’t go down alone and slammed a tentacle towards Pirate sending him flying away from the ship.
”More harpoons! Ploughing tie that bastard on our broadside then blast it to smithereens!”
“AYE, AYE! CAPTAIN!”
After the order Captain dove into the water then rush towards Pirate in her mermaid form, skillfully avoiding the Kraken’s tentacles and grabbing Pirate by his hand, then dragging him away just in time before The Self Proclaimed Princess emptied her barrels unto the Kraken.
The sea turned red with a tint of black as the lifeless monster floated.
The Pirate, The Merrow and The Crew of The Self Proclaimed Princess rejoiced.
FIN
Notes:
If by chance you want to know the story how Pirate met Captain V. Merrow here is a link The Pirate, The Crowd and the Merrow
‘Merrow.’ is an Irish name for mermaid also known as ‘Sea Fairies’ or as simple as an irish species of the mermaid race. Checkable on Wikipedia.org.
And, for those that read my stories, Yes, The Demon Continent and The Great and Noble King are places and person from the stories What does burning the World got to do with it?’ and ‘-Hero’ (stories that I myself are proud of, has lots of kinks but did better than I actually expected).
"Sleeping with a Princess" banner was made by myself using a picture from Pixabay.com, and also the drawings are made by me ©@khoola, else I provided the source on the sub caption below the image.