Chapter 3 Onward to Nassau

1705

Smith and Jonathan have searched high and low for Damian, yet he was nowhere to be found. How hard was it to find a tennager in Havana, apprently hard. They have asked every store clerk, shopkeeper, soldier, heck even drunk. He was nowhere to be found, and they were behind schedule. Smith and Jonathan sat down and tried to think of where he could be. Just then, one of the crew members runs to smith and says that he's found damian, and he’s with company. Smith and Jonathan rushed to meet him and his new friend. They found him in the town market, chatting with a well respect woman. Jonathan walk over to his brother calmly took a seat next to him.

“Where have you been” he asked

Damein turned his head a saw his brother next to him and knew what this was about, he didn't tell them where he was.

“Well for starters, i just recently saved this young woman right here and have retrieved something that will help us significantly in our hunt.”

“what pray tell is that?” answer Jonathan in his sarcastic tone

“Well, dear brother, this parchment right here has exact coordinates of locating Black Flint, and from the looks of this map, he is in New Provence.”

“Nassau?”

“Correct, with this map in our hands, we can find Flint and his crew easily before they know we were hunting them. Well be done faster and return home. In a sense it's an easy victory for us.”

This seem to get Jonathan's attention really quickly. If what damian said is true, then they had the upper hand on the Flint and would easily collect the bounty. However, he had to be cautious too, it was very common to forge parchments and maps for and easy price. He need to give this Smith to authenticate this to be sure.

“Well now that that's out of the way, mind introducing me to your girlfriend.”

Damian slightly blushed at the question; however Victoria was not amused. Her eyebrow twitched a little and her expression turned sour, but only for a while, for she too was blushing, somewhat.

“He is not my boyfriend sir, just a kind fellow who saved me. Who might you be to say that you ninnies?”

Now Jonathan was irritated, and though he was tempted to hit her, he decided to go another route.

“Im his brother, las. Is it wrong for a brother to keep an eye on his family. Especially from unwanted company.”

Damian could see that this would erupt into a fight and that was the last thing he wanted again. He wanted to leave Havana with few scars as possible. He then decided to break the tension between the two and go meet Smith.

“Well, I think we three have lingered long enough, let's go meet smith at the docks hm?”

Victoria and Jonathan were still staring at each other, and then parted ways. The three of them walk towards the docks in hopes of ending this “wonderful” day.

Back at the docks, smith polished his blunderbuss ax and flintlocks. He whistled a cheery tune in the process until he heard a familiar voice coming his way. He turned his head to see Damian, Jonathan, and Victoria making their way towards the docks. Getting up, he holstered his guns and walk to meet them. After scolding Damian for a while, the gang settled down for a swig of rum and mouthfuls of food. Damian and Victoria, being the only sober ones between the four of them, walked over to the bow of the ship to watch the sunset over the ocean.

“Your brother seems nice, the same for your father as well.”

“Oh no, smiths no my dad, he our godfather and family friend, he’s here as our babysitter, for our hunt. Actually this is my first hunt, Jonathan has been on more chase’s than me.”

“Are you nervous, I hear that Flint is a butcher on the high seas and on land.”

“Scared, hell yes, I nervous as ever!”

Victoria looked at Damien face and could see that he was telling the truth.

“Then why are you on this hunt, if you're scared why don't you tell your father how you feel?” she asked curiously thinking why would a father send both of his sons out when one of them is scarred.

Looking up at the colored sky and taking in the fresh air, he replied back saying “Our father, the famous Robert Caldwell, thinks that it time for us to take on the family business. In a way, he's right I suppose, i mean how else are we supposed to live, we can't just go back to england and live our old life. And besides, we knew of the dangers before we signed up, though i guess i'm still weak in the knees, but that won't stop me.”

Victoria looked at Damian and studied his manner. Though he did seem quite foolish about this adventure, she could also see that he was serious about his work and the duo continued to look at the sunset. The next morning, several days behind schedule, the black raven prepared for the long journey ahead. Jonathan and Smith were already on deck helping the men prepare for sail. Damein however, was still on the deck with Victoria. The duo eyes looked at one another and Damian, slightly squeezing her hands, gave her a friendly hug and just before he let go of her to join his crew, she quickly gave him a kiss on the cheek. Red as a tomato, he cupped his face, trying to hide his blush and embarrassment, asked “ W-what was that fo-or.”

Chuckling at his embarrassment “that's for saving me back there and i wish you didn't have to leave, i didn't get the chance to know you better, but maybe our paths will cross again, until then, farewell my cobber.” and with that she was off.

Damian stood there, puzzled and shocked at what just happen. Did she just kiss me, on the cheek. why am i suddenly feeling so weird. His silent manner was broken by his brother sarcastic voice, “Hey lover boy, were shipping off without you, get your butt up here now!”

Snaking out of his trance, he rushes towards the ship and tries to hide his embarrassed face from his pals. Shaking those thoughts out of his head, he prepared for the long journey ahead and the awaited death of Flint.

After a few long weeks of sail and turmoil on the open sea, they finally reached Nassau and docked in the harbor. Once on land, they noticed that there were already British and Spanish soldiers on the island. The gang then began to question if they were on the island at all. Everything on the island had a strong resemblance to Havana. But Nassau or not, the coordinates led to this island and that must mean that Flint is here. Grabbing their gear, they prepare the investigation of Flints whereabouts. They had to be careful though, Flint is known to have many spies all across the West Indies and has escaped the British and Spanish empire multiple times in the past. Making their way to the town square, they noticed small groups of both spanish and british soldiers patrolling the streets, and heavily armed to. Apparently Flints reputation in the caribbean has greatly intimidated the great empires of Europe. Damian, Smith, and Jonathan realized that this wasn't going to be easy. Naturally the crew would split up individually to cover more ground, but since this is flints territory, they agreed that it would be wise that three groups of three would go and scout the area.

Though Nassau is smaller in size to the other islands, the environment and and european influence was not. Every street corner and venue had a tiny hint of europe, predominantly spanish. There is even a swamp on the outskirts of the town infested with alligators and bloodthirsty mosquitoes. But probably the most notable feature was the fort. The fort that defends the bay of Nassau has been on the island since the time of the buccaneers and though it has stood the tests of time, its appearance is slowly fading away. It's going to take a miracle to find Flint in this place. While the crew decided to check in the town, smith and the Caldwell brothers ventured all across the island, asking every fisherman, every prostitute, heck even every bum on the street if the seen flint and his crew. All which ended horribly. It was just around midday that the trio got some news from one of the crew. From what the crew member told, he says that flint was last spotted leaving an inn in a hurry, possibly for his ship. The trio asked where he got the information, not that they didn't believe him, they just had to be sure it was true. The crew member overheard a couple of english soldiers talking about how flint was in a rather hasty hurry to his ship. The last place, they say, he was at was the fort and the near end of the island. He pointed to large fort that oversaw all ships entering the bay. It was defended quite well actually, from a 200 men garrison to hour patrols around the fort, and the only entrance was guarded by heavy infantry who never left their posts and carried large naval axes.

If they were going to ambush Flint at the fort, they first needed to get in it first off. They soon met up at a local tavern to discuss their plans of attack. If they tried storm the fort now in broad daylight, they would either be captured and killed or simply shot like dogs at the hands of the english or spanish. They were almost out of option when damien came up with a idea

“What about this, if we strike at night and divide up our crew, we could take fort Royal. While a small handful of us sneak into the fort, the rest of the crew can draw out the defenders and blind them of anything else that moves. Once the small force eliminates the men inside, we can open the gate to rest of the crew and from there we can prepare our strike against flint.” The majority of the crew nodded their heads in agreement to this new plan, while others were skeptical, others including smith. Smith raised his hand to silence the chatter.

“While i think that's a great plan, your forgetting one thing, we have no intel of when flint will come back to Nassau, it could be even weeks before he reaches us, mayhaps even months. Before we lay an ambush to the fort, we must know of when flint will return or expected to return. So until then, we must find intel on anything we can find on flint, agreed.”

The crew agreed to this new plan, and so for the past few days, the crew waited in plain sight for flint's ship to return to harbor. The only problem is that none of them has seen what's his ship looks like. Some say that it's as large as a whale and breaths fire. Other say that it spurs from the depths of davy jones itself and legend has it that Flint's ship is so dangerous that if you speak its name, you die few days later. It may sound like a kid's nightmare, but no ones knows for sure.

For weeks, damian and the crew waited for any news of Flints arrival, sadly they got no news of any progress. During those weeks, some of the crew became restless and wanted some action. They would occasionally picks fight with the soldiers to keep the men entertained, but soon bore the gents in a matter of days. There has been no news of flint for days on end. Days became weeks and weeks became months. Damian and Jonathan spent their days prowling the cities and hoping to find any info of flints wearabouts. They will also occasionally get a drink but went straight back to business. For a while, the crew began to grow tired of the wait, their contract was almost up and if they went home empty handed, it wouldn’t be a happy sail home. There was even word of mutiny among the crew, it was only a matter of time before things got worse. In hopes of avoiding bloodshed among the men, smith ordered everyone back to the bar for a meeting. Once everyone was accounted for, there was much debate of whether or not they should leave nassau and return home. Growing tired of the debate, Smith raised his hand to ease the chatter.

“I know that many of you want to leave this place. he said. “and trust me i would to go home as well, but we can't leave just yet. We still have no information on flint's whereabouts and until we get something, anything for that matter, we are staying here until we do, any objections.” There were many. Men were shouting and screaming threats towards smith and caldwells. Soon men were drawing their blades and pistols but were halted by the thundering boom of a flint lock. There was dead silence in the tavern, sailors, bartenders, cooks, the drunks, even the women halted in their tracks to see what was happening. Standing on a nearby table, damien holstered his pistol back in his pouch. Looking at the crew he could see their fear and other emotions mixed in their faces. Though he rarely gets angry, one could see that he didn't want to have another situation like the one on havana. Looking at his men dead in the eyes, he cleared his throat before speaking

“listen up, I know that all of you want to go home, trust me i would like to go to, but we have a job to do, that's what we sign up for. This is who we are, and we must see this through. Think about this, if we kill flint, we would rid the world of a great threat. We would be remembered as heroes.” He stopped to let the men process the information. they pondered on the idea of earning fame and glory and possibly infamy for their acts. Soon smiles began to appear on the crew's faces and their was soon cheers of hurrah in the bar. With the men's spirits raised again, everything seemed perfect until dameion noticed that their was some commotion coming out from the bar. Getting the crew, they left the bar and saw what was going on. a ship has docked in the harbor, but not just any ship, it was big, black, man of war with gray wretched sails and the smell of death, if that wasn't scary enough, the captain was at the bow of the ship wearing a blackish red cape with a demon skull painted on the back and on his side he carried a silver trident while on his back he harnessed a claymore, the scottish longsword. His hair was neatly combed and cut somewhat short just to the rim of his neck and his eyes were that of a demon, looking at his eyes directly was like looking into the face of the devil itself. He stood tall and proud at the helm of his mighty vessel and once his crew was off, he reached into his side pocket and pulled out a grenado, lit it and threw it into the mass of people. The crowed then ran for their lives, hoping to escape the blast while others started to pray.

Once the fuse was burnt to the core, there was no explosion, not even a small bang. The crowed then looked up to see the man laughing with a huge devilish grin on his face. Walking off his ship in a gentlemanly manner, he picked up the grenado and placed it back in his pocket. He then turned his attention to mass of people around him and with the voice of an angel, but a hint of the devil, he spoke loud and clear.

“Let it be known now to all here, my name spread fear all across the seven seas and this here is my kingdom and to all those soldiers who run this tiny island, let them know that reaper of the seas, the face of death!”

“who are you” asked someone in the crowd

“ My name is William “Black” Flint of the Red Suns, and this is my kingdom.” he replied back with a foxy grin on his face.

Everyone's face lost all color at the mention of his name. the tyrant of the seas, the butcher of Havana, the grim reaper of the high seas, had come home. Damian heart stopped beating for a few seconds and felt that chill run up his spine again. Jonathan’s eyes slightly widen and his jaw slightly dropped. With a wave of the hand, Jonathan motion the crew to get back inside the bar, everyone except damian listen. He stayed a while to get a better look at Flint, then he noticed something about his face, especially his eyes. Moving through the crowd, he managed to get a better look at his face, that when noticed that one of his eyes was fake. It was a glass eye.

Not wanting to stay any longer, he left the crowd and headed towards the bar. Once inside, he clutched his heart and breath in slowly to regain his composure. It seems just a glance of flint is enough for a man to have a heart attack. Looking at his crew, they all had the same idea are we really going to do this. Straightening up, he walks over to men and whispers to each crew member's ears the words “meet at the fort and night, make sure your not followed.”