Cloafe and the pirates

- Reviews:
The Daily Crumb: There’s nothing in it for me, it’s a terribly pointless read and we hate it.



Cloafe
of Mash Island
and the pirates

The giant wooden ship sailed rapidly under the enormous stone cliffs rocking the water forwards into the stones by the bay.
Cloafe (C-l-oe-f = A Mash Island name) stood at the height’s of the rock face staring down as the sea shook forwards ripping through the sands below, pulling out the vegetation and life.
He held in grasp a thick rope, one of strength. He ran forwards towards a thick tree and tied the rope around the circle of wood.
Once he’d pulled it tight he stared at his watch, glaring at the green neon light it sprang, nodding to himself and then letting go of the rope watching it collapse onto the waving grassland.
The wind shook his dark brown hair as he then made sure the same rope was safely tied around his waste and arms.
In one swift move his muddy mountain boots had left the surface of green and were in the air as Cloafe leapt off of the side of the cliff.

The storm was getting tough and the ship below couldn’t hold much longer, the hole in the back was letting in gallons of water.
The enemy; the one’s who tracked the boat into the giant stone and stole the bags of gold coins were evacuating on a small wooden boat whilst holding the victims at gun point.
“Blood, sand and salt taste good…” One of the criminals said to a shaking old man on the boat. Lead, the criminal with the ammunition held the cold end of the gun up to the old man’s forehead. “We’ll torture all of them, then suffocate them in the sand, and for the main dish, let your bodies rot in the salty waters of the ocean.”
Lead gave an evil smile before moving the gun towards a woman to the side of him, “All of you.” Two other bandits were packing the gold filled bags into the rowing boat. “Tell you what, we’ll be nice. We’ll let off some dynamite on the ship and watch as you all burst open and get flushed down under the current when the vessel goes down,” Lead said laughing to himself.
A young man came into the spotlight, from hiding behind some barrel’s with his family. As he walked he treaded sideways trying to keep steady as the great ship sank even more to its side. “How do we know you have dynamite? How do we know there are even bullets in that gun?”
Eyes shut as Leads gun rotated slightly firing a bullet straight into the man’s stomach. The bullet crashed into his body, like a pin touching a blown balloon. The man’s body crashed backwards leaving splattering blood across the wooden cabin. His body sank down until it was motionless and bent.
“Probably watches to much of The Bill,” Darken said from the rowing boat, another thug packing the dosh.
Lead started to laugh to himself, “That guy cracks me up,” but as he said it the group of victims stood silently. The gun shot, the body, the shock of it all.
“I hear this is shark territory, have a nice swim,” Said Darken placing the last bag of gold coins from the ship. The other man, Ark, was now grabbing the oars.

The wild, natural environment of Mash stood practically everywhere, even in the main towns. This particular attack though, was happening in Half Side, the darkest depths of Mash Island where the vegetation may look ripe, but behind its gaze the roots are dead.
Cloafe hung slightly over the cliff edge as the tree he had tied himself onto was so weak it had ripped out of the lifeless soil. Now it just laid down on top of the cliff sliding slowly forwards on the way to a very far fall.
Cloafe prepared to untie himself, he’d swing as much as he could bringing down the tree with him, he’d untie himself and shoot down into the ocean beside the ship where he’d attempt to stop the disaster.
Problem was, most of it was all part of his imagination. The tree skidded along the dirt, the dead roots dragging behind at the weight of Cloafe.

He stared up to see almost the whole tree sliding off of the cliff edge, it’s fall would be so fast it’d hit him on the way down.
He couldn’t think of anything, this was unfortunate. The whole circular object of wood and shrub collapsed off of the cliff and fell straight towards Cloafe whose rope had now become so loose he was falling as well.
In a very quick thought and move he untied the rope and tried to swing forward, things didn’t go to plan, the body of the tree soared behind him as he swing just missing it.
His body flipped in the wind, his back flying into the rock as he skidded down, he soon became loose and realised he had landed on the falling tree itself.
He held onto the weak rope as he fell making sure he didn’t fall off.

Just as the tree crashed onto the rocks below, exploding into pieces of bark and snapped wood falling over the stone and waters. Creating an un-needed amount of ripples Cloafe leapt off of it, in the air for a few seconds, and then falling straight into the sea.

“We’ve collected all of the Gold we need,” Said Ark to both the victims and criminals, “So we’ll be leaving now.”
Suddenly an arrow burst through Darkens stomach, the point springing out of his front firing specks of blood onto the wood.
His pupils rose as his body fell, collapsing forward onto the floor of the rowing boat. Ark turned suddenly to see a character disappear behind the cabin. “KILL THEM LEAD!”
Lead nodded to the order and held his gun up at the ready. He jogged over to the wall of the cabin and stared around the side glancing for any light of movement.
Silence came over the slow sinking ship as people stared around quietly.

Breaking the silence Cloafe lifted his hand up onto the side of the boat and pulled his self upwards. He straightened up trying to mop the water off of his clothes and looked up suddenly to see two dead bodies, a bunch of victims, a man with a gun and a packet of crisps.
“Did I come at a bad time?”
In a wave of heroic behaviour Cloafe leapt forward and did a role on the wood. Ark stared at him raising an eyebrow. “Kill him Lead.”
Lead getting ready to fire, suddenly noticed another movement at the corner of his eye and before he knew it there was a blade through his stomach.
Munch stood in front of his shaking criminal body glaring in anger as he pulled the blade out of Lead’s guts spilling blood and drooping bits of skin onto the floor. Munch closed his eyes and stepped side ways disappearing once again into the darkness.
Both Cloafe and Ark stared around to watch Lead’s body collapse onto the ground, sleeping in his own puddle of blood.

Cloafe suddenly noticed a bound of rope was still tied around his waist; he quickly unravelled it and shot towards Ark who was still terribly surprised.
In a flash he had the rope at Arks neck, pushing him backwards slowly off of the boat, “Why do this?” Cloafe asked angrily. “To Innocent people??”
Ark smiled, twitching in one eye, water dripping down his pale face. “Simple, we do it for gold; we only kill if they get in the way, we are the modern day pirates, to the extreme.”
Munch appeared behind them and stood behind Cloafe, he spoke, “Good work, but we’ll need someone to take him for imprisonment and questioning in the Lamton Sofa Room.”
Cloafe became silent, looking around slightly to see Munch. “What? Have I got something on my face?” Munch asked smiling. He then re warned everyone on the ship that it was sinking; he placed his Paskon Blade back and tied his set of a bow and arrows onto his back.
Munch jumped onto the rowing boat, “Don’t worry we wont need the boat, the Paskon society helicopters will be arriving in seconds, let’s get your gold back.”
He picked a bag up and threw it back onto the ship.
The old man in the crowd spoke, “It was not ours.” He said, “It was the Albish future King’s gold. He was shot.”
The old man pointed at the young man dead on deck. Munch went silent, Cloafe bowed in sympathy as the wind of the helicopters splashed the water against the ship which was now very vertical.

In no time at all the people were climbing up rope ladders straight into the helicopters as the boat below them bubbled into the ocean, it’s image misting and disappearing in the blue.
One helicopter held only four people, the driver, Munch, Cloafe and Ark who was now sweating his own blood. Red veins bulging out of his eyes, dribbling with tears.
Munch turned to Cloafe and spoke in the sound proof conditions of the copter. “What were you doing there?” he asked.
Cloafe looked worried, “I saw them in danger, and thought I could help. I’m a Paskon warrior you see, I guess I didn’t think it all out that well.”
Munch swayed his head giggling, “No, I don’t know what you’d be like if I wasn’t there. You practically popped out like a jack-in-a-box, you’re lucky that edge-men didn’t shoot you at first glance.”
Cloafe nodded, “I did an awesome thing with a tree though, completely avoided a death thing there.”
Munch laughed and stared over at Ark, “So what’s your name?”
Ark smirked, popping a droplet of saliva over his chin. “It is forbidden.” Munch smiled at this remark, “No it isn’t. I’ve been watching your little trio, you are all just mental freaks who wanted to see what it was like to steal and kill.”
Ark made an evil grin, “You’d know everything about killing, wouldn’t you?”
Cloafe stared, glaring down at the handcuffs Ark wore, shaking. Munch returned a glance at Ark. “You murdered them! Both of them! Lead and Darken!”
“Well, we’ve got two names now,” Munch said.
Ark swore under his breath.


The helicopter flew off into the sunset.




- Nathan Viney