Andre had a multitude of words he wanted to say, but once they reached his lips, he swallowed them all back down again, his thousand words condensing into a hug and a teasing remark, "Winters... do you have some sort of peculiar penchant for chopping off heads?"
Winters looked at the complexions of the Venetian soldiers behind Andre and inwardly sighed that his reputation was now thoroughly ruined.
"The pirates want to exchange our heads for money; they have to take our clothes and shoes as proof," Winters explained with a bitter smile, to prove that his mental state was very normal. "Leaving a headless corpse, they can't tell who's dead."
The Venetian soldiers relaxed a bit upon hearing this. Even Venetians would feel chills seeing Winters in action in battle. The man now offering a helpless explanation was once again the normally amiable Lieutenant Montaigne.
"How did you find us?"
