Day 62- I'm getting tired of interesting days. I've barely had time to write the last weeks. I've barely had time to
sleep. Far too much has happened to catalog all of it, so I'll simply write down when all of this started.
We were having a simple gathering on the beach, celebrating something—I honestly can't remember what—when Amazonite came crashing in, shouting something about pirates closing in. I'd assumed she was overreacting to the usual distant(or not-so-distant, lately) ship sightings until she calmed down enough to properly describe what she'd seen. Her description of a vessel flying red flags captained by a green-and-black Ridgeback didn't alarm me, at first—until Hanohano, for the first time since I've known him,
panicked.
He says he knows exactly what that ship is and who captains it: the Ocean's Damnation, helmed by
Catamurloc. Even
I've heard of her; she's the most infamous pirate to sail the Sea in living memory. Her crew is notorious for their brutality and downright cruelty, leaving no soul alive on whatever ships or settlements have the misfortune of being in their way.
After that revelation, the festivities had to be immediately halted—now that I think about it, I think it was Caoimhe and Cadan's coming-of-age; good timing on that—as we scattered to defensive positions. We managed to block the ship from getting into the harbor, but they still dropped anchor right off-shore. Rather than the full-on attack I'd expected, only a single dragon disembarked the ship: a massive finned Ridgeback, tall enough to tower over even I and Lazzaro.
Considering her reputation and why she was here, she was... shockingly polite. Apparently, she's looking to settle down, and rather than retire peacefully, her plan is to
steal our atoll. Normally, we wouldn't give such a ridiculous idea a second thought, but when confronted with
her, the entire clan went dead silent. She laid out her simple terms: our options were to join her crew, leave our home, or die.
While the rest of the clan was talking this over, Bylii stepped forwards and announced she'd accept the offer to join the crew. No one was happy to see one of our own switch sides that easily—particularly not her family here—but the most dramatic reaction was from Osley. He burst into an enraged rant and, in his smoking fury, flung himself at Catamurloc.
I'll spare the details, but just as quickly as he attacked, he was thrown back onto the beach with a slash of seawater from Catamurloc. After that, to put it bluntly: all hell broke loose.
I still don't know how we did it, but together, we managed to drive her back onto her ship, and put up enough of a fight that her crew turned tail and
fled. As we celebrated—and tended to our wounded, no more fatalities, thankfully—she shouted back one clear message: She'd be back.
Since then, tensions have been high in the clan. I can't blame anyone for being nervous; we've had to constantly keep a lookout, and Doubt was so shaken by a close call on a scouting mission he's quit doing patrols entirely. Even though we've ramped up security, I can't help but let in wanderers seeking a home.
Kyanite turned up on our shores since I wrote last, having lost everything he couldn't carry to a shipwreck. We need all the help we can get.
