Elizabeth looked around her large cell. She shared it with five other member of the crew. She recognized three of the women as cadets like herself. They were bunched together with their uniforms still on.
The other two women were regular “Seamen”, and were somewhat older than the cadets, though still young by any other measure. They had evidently fought, and consequently had also been relieved of their uniforms. One of them you knew by name. Melody Macbain , was a raven haired girl with blue eyes, almost as pale of skin as Elizabeth herself. She had the lithe, wiry muscles and flat stomach of a hardworking woman at sea. From one of Vaeland’s nearby island colonies, Belair was extremely proud of her cultural heritage, and was consequently somewhat aloof from the rest of the crew.
The two women’s posture declared that they were not cowering as a result of their predicament. They sat back to back, each cross legged with their backs straight.
Elizabeth sat contemplating the crew’s situation. Judging from the number of women in her own cell, and that those in other cells in the room, the pirate’s had captured at least 16 women from the Navy ship. Some of them women who Elizabeth had personally seen captured weren’t there, so she assumed that a good number were being held elsewhere. It was a strangely large number of captives to take and keep alive. Even if the pirate’s had simply captured them for entertainment, they would need to feed their captives, and more than five captives would strain any ship’s pantry quickly. That indicated that they must have some plan for the captives that involved getting rid of them quickly. However, they were not likely to be killed, as that they would have done already. The confusion was enough for Elizabeth to wait to see, rather than plotting to escape.
Sure enough, after a few minutes a larger pirate steps in to the brig and starts speaking to the guard. The pirate was a tall, lanky man with scraggly red hair, not unlike Elizabeth’s own. He stood in front of the door to the first cell, unlocked the door, and stepped inside. He quickly picked out two cadets, a
“Captain wants to have a word with a few of the prisoners. Sent me down to pick out a few.”
Not waiting for a response, the pirate opened the door to the first cage and pointed out three cadets, two blonde girl and a cadet who Elizabeth immediately recognized as Aminah, the daughter of an ambassador to Vaeland who had been admitted to the crew as a diplomatic gesture. She had very dark skin and curly black hair. She had been stripped of her uniform in the attack, and Elizabeth noted that though she had a relatively modest bosom, her bottom had an appealing shape to it.
Subsequently, the pirate opened the cell that held Elizabeth and pointed to her first. Elizabeth stood and walked out of the cell and joined Aminah and the other girls who had been chosen. After selecting another two girls from the last cell, the pirate lead the 6 girls up through the halls of the ship. When they were lead above deck the girls were greeted by strong wind and hard rain. The three girls who were still wearing their uniforms were instantly soaked through. Elizabeth was just grateful to be washed by the rain. Finally, they were standing before a large door that presumably opened to the captain’s quarters.
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