1 Red mercy

Red watched the stars. Speckling the sky they gave life to the night sky. The gentle scatter of some crustacean broke his fascination. Looking around he gazed at the white coral trees as he heard Parrot break a long held silence."Did you know that coral is actually an animal, and that coral trees are their only variant to be able to survive at low tide, a-." Soap cut him of, "shut your God damn trap, we don't fucking care." Soap gave a pause between each of his last four words to show the severity of them. Parrot shut up, last time Parrot had kept yammering on Soap had played tooth fairy and threw a coin so hard at Parrot that he lost a tooth. Red spoke as they came to sharp incline in the sea bed as it went up twenty feet. "Leave your petty squabbles for the camp". Red then listened to the wall in front of him pouring his will into it and sang its song back at it, his note was hard and stable. Sturdy stone below, before, ask of thee favour once more. Not break but mould, open way, give us a door way. Several feet of stone moved and beheld carved stairs, Red went in first and let the others pass him then he chanted again closing the door. He rushed past his men as leader he must, well you know lead. The passage had a dry stale air to it and was not at all pleasant. As Red came to the top of the stair way he moved a lid made of leaves and sticks and set eyes on the stars once more. The fresh air was a sharp contrast to the stairway and Red felt refreshed. Looking at his surrounding he slowly crept out. The stair led him to a forest and actual one not a coral one. Then he walked off in the direction of his camp not looking to see if his men followed. Breaking into a small clearing not far away he gazed longingly at it. Tents encircled a small camp fire long dead which was

encircled itself by a few logs meant for seats. There was only one thing wrong, someone was sitting on one. Red gestured for his men to stop. A small figure sat illuminated faintly by the night light and it was, sobbing. He then started singing between sobs the tune flickering inconstant and morose. "Call upon warmth inside, give light, give love, give sunrise." The coals started to glow and the boy clutched his cloak, His sobs getting louder. "Oi, Soap yelled what you doing in our camp". The boy stopped and went ridged, he spun his terror barely seen in the pale light. His hand went to a previously unseen short sword at his side. He tried to yank it out of its sheath and failed. Red dashed forward and picked up the boy by the collar of his tunic under the cloak. The boy squirmed but seeing their was no malice or anger in Reds expression he stopped his helpless struggle. Only then did Red speak in a soft voice,"what are you doing here." The boy gulped a bit then his words came pouring out."My mom she left me she said she wasn't coming back and that I should go. So I did leave the house but I stuck around and someone came and torched it. They burned my house! After that I ran, I couldn't wait and watch." He stopped his tirade as Red set him down and combed fingers through his black hair."That's enough son, dry your tears", Red couldn't just leave a child. "What's your name?" The boy hesitated and half-whispered, Oriatis. Red froze then grinned,"so should I call you Ori or black"."Ori," the boy tried to return the grin but failed in the midst of remembering who gave him the name."So how old are you Ori" " I'm eight," Ori said with an almost proud demeanour but the pride was soon swallowed by his grief. "Would like to come with us," Ori hesitated then nodded his head. Much later Red watched Ori sleep in that time that they had spoke his men had quietly set up camp, made the fire and put a soup on to cook. It surprised Red he thought Parrot would have talked himself out of breath by now. Finally Quick spoke he had got the nick-name for two reasons first he was a devil with a bow and arrow being able to draw and fire in seconds of danger. Second no matter where or how long they stopped he managed to get a quicky in with a whore. "Are really taking another in, they shouldn't be calling us the pitch pirates but the orphanage orchestra." Red instantly shot back." I didn't just let him in for being a orphan, he's eight and already knows a bit of fires melody." Quick shut up. Red tried to calm down why did he get so worked up by Quick genuine concerns. Red closed his eyes and took a deep breath then let it out.