Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 | Page 89

Wei had panicked when he heard something sniffing at his arm in the dark, at night. It bit down hard
enough to draw blood when he tried to shake it off without letting anyone outside hear. He cursed quietly.
Wei caught the animal by its tail. “If I catch you poking around here again I will stab you,” he whispered,
reaching to the small dagger tucked in his pocket as if to prove his point. The rat wiggled free and
scampered away.
Unfortunately, the rat somehow still didn’t get the message after their first encounter, though the second
one went slightly better.
Around a week and a half into the voyage the provisions Ling had given him had almost run out, despite the
fact that Wei had been extremely careful to make it last. He was planning to head out to get some more
bread from his former mentor before he was interrupted by that tell-tale sniffling that made him want to
claw his eyes out in frustration. The dagger was out in an instant. But before it could kill the offending
rodent, Wei noticed a sizeable chunk of bread that definitely wasn’t there before. A peace offering of sorts,
he guessed.
So he didn’t kill the rat, it could help him. He didn’t name it either because that would mean they were
friends. They were not.
It was peaceful, being at sea. Wei eventually got used to the smell, as putrid as it was, and having the sea
rock you to sleep was quite soothing.
Until one day that changed.
The first sign that something was wrong was when Wei woke up to the thunderous sound of a cannon blast
that got him up on his feet in an instant.
All of a sudden, more deafening cannon sounds could be heard being fired into the side of the ship just as
Wei managed to stumble into the commotion that was the crew’s quarters. One of the cannonballs had
managed to smash through the wood and water was rapidly pooling on the floor. Repairmen were trying to
fix the damage the cannonball had caused, sailors were pushing past each other to get to the deck and people
were reaching for their weapons. No-one noticed Wei following the sailors upstairs.
The deck was full of people defending against the pirates from the other ship that just appeared out of the
fog, seemingly out of nowhere. The pirates attacking were giant, hulking battle-hardened men, cutting
down anyone in their way. Their ship was a monster of a vessel, rivaling the Ming ship in sheer size. Wei
knew who they were. Everyone knew who they were. The first time he had ever been on a ship, with Ling,
they had to wait another week on land before setting sail because there was news that the Howling
Hangman was in the area.
They were a force to be reckoned with, but the crew of the Ming dynasty treasure ships weren’t anything to
dismiss either. The Ming Emperor had paid informants to find the best sailors, craftsmen and scholars across
China, and he paid each of them a decent amount to sway them into joining up. Needless to say, both sides
were quite evenly matched in battle prowess.
The fighting was messy, and Wei was right in the middle of it. Rather than standing there like a headless
chicken he opted to pull out the dagger and slash the leg of the burly pirate next to him. He decided to
squash down whatever fear he once held for the Howling Hangmen to make it out alive. Blood spurted out
of the wound, staining the floor, and the burly man who he injured stumbled, then fell. Other sailors
immediately leaped on his body to finish him off.
Turning away, Wei ran to a part of the deck where the fighting wasn’t as intense. Even if he was prepared
to fight, it didn’t mean he would actively seek it, that way, he had a better chance of surviving.
He removed multiple hidden daggers from his clothes to throw them into pirates. All of them found their
marks. One of them being a man holding a knife to the Ming treasure ship captain’s throat, luckily enough.
When he ran out of daggers to throw, Wei ran over to various fallen pirates, pulling out the sharp objects
lodged in their body for reusing.
The fight continued, but the tide was turning against the attacking pirates.