A grueling journey in the hold of a pirate ship. Nothing good.

The following days you are **** to endure hardships.

You are treated like a thing.

They feed you only once a day. Therefore, hunger is your constant feeling in these sad days.

At the slightest attempt to ask anything, they beat you painfully.

Sometimes you get beaten simply because one of the pirates decided to have a little fun.

Fortunately, these abuses do not result in serious injury or ****. It is clear that the blows are not intended to cause serious harm to you. You could have been hit much... much harder.

What happens looks more like sadistically humiliating blows to your ass, to your cheeks, to your back. Your pitiful cries and your tears only cause laughter from the cruel tormenting pirates.

But we must try to find positive aspects in the current nightmare situation: you were not killed and, for now, the pirates are going to save your life.

Probably the pirate captain gave orders that the “goods” should not be damaged. It’s unpleasant to realize the fact that you are now a “commodity”.

You, like a couple of captive sailors, have to spend many days in the cramped, dirty and smelly hold of a pirate ship. You realized during this time that tied hands and tied legs are very... painful. The limbs become numb due to lack of blood flow. You are terribly afraid of the onset of gangrene. However, by order of the tall pirate captain, the pirates untie the hands and feet of each captive (including you). Just for a couple of hours in the morning and evening... Then your limbs are tied again... But short hours when your arms and legs feel normal blood flow are already good...

You haven't given up thoughts of escaping. Unfortunately, attempts to talk to the two captive sailors were unsuccessful. These guys were quite seriously injured during the pirate boarding and subsequent bloody battle on the deck of the dromon. One of the captive sailors spends most of the day in semi-oblivion. He is delirious and his body is experiencing convulsions. One of the pirates sometimes comes to this wounded captive, makes him drink some liquid and bandages his wounds. Probably, the pirates would not want to lose the income from the sale of this captive and therefore try to maintain his health at a minimum acceptable level.

Regarding the second sailor-prisoner, we can say that he was not so seriously wounded. You even managed to exchange a couple of phrases with him (before the pirate overseer noticed this and beat you and this sailor for violating the ban on talking).

From a short conversation with the sailor, you learned that the pirates are probably going to sail to one of the pirate ports that are located on the Curse Islands. The Curse Islands are an archipelago of islands about four days' sail to the east if you deviate from the route dromon took. The islands of this archipelago are covered with rocks and ancient ruins of elven fortresses. The frightening name of this archipelago is associated not with magic, but with unpleasant facts for shipping: these islands are difficult to access due to many reefs (only experienced bosuns and captains can navigate their ships between these reefs), strong undercurrents and frequent storms. The strategically advantageous position of the Curse Islands archipelago near popular maritime trade routes and the inaccessibility of these islands for large fleets - all this led to the emergence of pirate settlements on the islands. Small and maneuverable pirate ships skillfully maneuver between reefs and often attack merchant ships.

Your interlocutor did not know where exactly the pirates were going to take you. But he said that the largest of the pirate settlements is a fort called Storm Reef, which is located on the island of Reithnor (this is the largest island of the archipelago; it is located east of the other islands).

You and other prisoners will likely be taken to Fort Storm Reef. After all, there are the largest **** markets and the richest buyers. There is, of course, another option: the pirates can go far to the east and sell you into slavery in some distant city in one of the states in the eastern part of the continent. But this is unlikely: the risks of a long sea voyage (storms, hostile ships, low supplies and water) will most likely prompt the pirate captain to sell you into slavery as soon as possible in order to get money and free up space in the hold of the ship.

What you learned during your days of travel as a prisoner leads your mind to sad reflections.

You think: “I have lost almost everything... My friends, my weapons, my freedom... I have lost everything... I have lost everything except my life... Do I have a chance to somehow escape? Until the pirate ship arrives at the port, I don’t see even a small chance of my salvation! Damn! Dromon will not be able to catch up with the fast and maneuverable pirate ship! And I have to face the truth: the captain of dromon will not risk the lives of his sailors and ship passengers to try to save some half-elf! Conclusion: I need to rely only on my own strength. I need to wait until I arrive at the port. The pirates will sell me into slavery. Then I need to figure out a way to escape from the island where the pirate settlement is located ... "

About four days into the grueling sea voyage, you hear the calls of birds. It looks like seagulls. This means that the ship has almost arrived at the port!

Indeed, the pirates **** you, like the rest of the captives, to rise.

The prisoners are taken to the deck of the ship.

You see several piers. On land you can see a settlement, which partly consists of the stone ruins of some old fortress. In addition to the stone buildings, you see many wooden buildings that have clearly been put together haphazardly and leave you with the impression of being dirty and of poor quality.

On the streets of the settlement you see many armed men. Mostly humans predominate (various skin tones: pale, bronze, brown). You also notice half-elves, dwarves, halflings. One peculiarity: there are very few females here.

The escort pirates kick your butt painfully, forcing you to walk along the ship's ladder in the direction of the pier.

On land, you and the rest of the captives are led into an open space that looks like a square surrounded by trading stalls. You and the other prisoners climb onto the wooden pedestal. Your hands are still tied.

Many eyes of locals are looking at you, examining your body with an expression as if they were judging cattle at a fair.

The loud noise of the crowd.

Speech in languages unknown to you.

Various persons try to interrupt each other's speech. Disputes arise. Once there was almost a fight. But calm was restored by armed, muscular guys from the guard of the tall pirate captain who captured you.

Among the words you don’t understand, you catch fragmentary phrases in the Orlanian language: "Two muscular guys are a great buy! They can work in a mine. Or do other dirty and hard work. I'm buying! Price 10 gold each! I'll offer more! 11 gold! A small, weak half-elf will die doing any hard work. He's useless!"

Obviously, you are now at a **** auction. And you are a ****. You are a commodity. A product that someone will buy.

It's humiliating.

It's cruel.

It's horrible.

But you need to get at least some chance of salvation. Therefore, you need to wait until this auction ends. Now any attempt to escape is simply suicide. After all, the wooden pedestal on which you stand is surrounded by a crowd of local residents. And most of them are armed. These are pirates. They might just kill you if you run away now.

So you wait patiently.