We might find out, after we cut back to the ship

The king of all headaches was wrecking Richards brain around. The first moments after awakening he couldn’t have told you neither his name nor the colour of water. Which gets worse if you consider water being the only thing he could see lying down, his head hanging halfway through the railing.

The last thing he remembers is his wife screaming his name. Total darkness and his wife screaming. But there was more… Pirates! There were mother focking pirates on this mother focking boat! Richard takes all his strength and stands up. To fast for his own good, as the world is spinning and he stumbles back and only the railing stops him from falling into the water. When his eyes clear up he sees his efforts were for nothing. Not a single pirate in sight.

Actually no one was in sight. No one at all. Richard was the only one on deck, surrounded solely by the remains of a crashed party. The stench of **** and gunpowder (or what Richard would guess to be gunpowder at least) and blood lay in the air. A little frightened, Richard touches his head and yes, the blood he smells is his own. And maybe he didn’t smell it, but instead taste it. Because now that he checks his head for wounds, he also realizes his face is covered in a thin layer of dried blood and he must have lain in a puddle of it. This was far too gruesome for a vacation.

Still a little shaky but with the resolve of a man on a mission, Richard made his way through the ship and on his way back to his cabin. Like in a haze he stumbled the way back uninterrupted. He heard voices in the other cabins, so he obviously wasn’t the only one left on the ship. But if the cries and the whining were any indications, the others were in a similar sour mood. Richard enters his cabin and finds it empty. Aria is gone and if his fractured memories are to be trusted, the pirate scum probably took her. Or worse. No. He would have nothing of it.

If the pirates were still on the ship (maybe in the captains quarters?) or if they left, either way they must have taken her. That was as bad a reality as Richard was able to comprehend right now.

“I have to do something! How cliché are pirates in these waters? I don`t know which state is responsible out here, but they must know about them. And they probably know where they get ashore. That or the pirates are successfully playing tricks on whichever navy patrols here. So either this could work out or it absolutely won’t. And-“

Richard, hardly recovered from his head trauma, spun scenario upon scenario and in the end he was sure he couldn’t leave his Arias fate to others. He remembered the sea bear telling him one yarn and another. He is no captain anymore and years beyond his prime, but maybe with his help he can rally the other passengers to go after the filth that stole the woman he loved

A timid knock on the door interrupts his thoughts.

“Dick are you in-“

“You’re not supposed to call him that! Aria said he doesn’t like it.”

“Uhg. It’s a cute nickname and everyone loves that! Besides if he’s in there that’s the last thing we should worry about.”

Two female voices are bickering in front of Richards cabin. And more importantly they seem to know Aria, maybe they can be of help?