There was shouting and yelling from the captain on the deck as a torrential rain poured down on their ship.
"Quick Pull up the sails! Or we're gonna go down!" The captain reprimanded his crew, his voice increasingly worried as more rain fell down.
On the rear of the boat there was a man and his teenage son. The boy had messy jet black hair that went in all kinds of directions and covered one of his eyes. He was wearing overalls meant for a blacksmith and under was an all black outfit: a button up long sleeve blazer and black jeans.
"Kai! You useless son!" The man slapped his son across the face causing Kai to hit the cold wet boards of the wooden floor as the rain poured around them. "I told you that if you messed up again I would disown you!" Kai looked up at his father, his features obscured by the rain.
"But I can do better!" Kai's voice came out in a choke, hoping that his father would forgive him. Kai was suddenly picked up by the back of his collar and held over the edge of the ship high in the sky. "Wait!" Kai pleaded but his father let go.
As he fell Kai looked back up, thunder cracked and he saw his fathers face, it was full of disgust and pity. Suddenly Kai hit the hull of the ship and slid down the metal plating of the ship due to the rain. He tried to grab hold of anything but it was no use. Eventually Kai was falling as his last hope floated above the clouds leaving him at the mercy of gravity.
"I guess nobody wants a failure like me, not even fate." Kai closed his eyes accepting his predicament as he suddenly felt something soft and opened his eyes and saw he landed on the sails of another sky ship. "Holy shit!" Kai grabbed at the cloth but his leather gloves provided little grip from the previous downpour of rain.
Kai was yet again sliding down the side of something and at the mercy of gravity the temporary reprieve only slowed his descent. When he was about to hit the deck his foot caught on some rope and he was stuck hanging upside down in the rain, the force of the stop knocking him out.
"Where am I?" Kai slowly opened his eyes, the rain had ceased and he could feel the hot sun beating down on his neck and face. Some of the rain ran down his chin and down to his hair dripping on the deck of the mysterious ship.
"OI! Captain! Looks like we got a straggler!" A gruff sounding man shouted back to someone. "Looks like he might be dead!" The Gruff man Chuckled darkly.
"Now now Brock we don't know if he is" The new voice sounded gentle as it approached. "Lets jumpstart him" Kai suddenly felt pain in his gut and he gasped out winded.
Opening his eyes quickly from the danger Kai came face to face with a group of pirates. "Why did you…" Kai groaned, too weak to talk or move.
"See he lives!" The captain laughed heartily. "Where did you come from, kid?" The captain leaned in close to Kai trying to get a read on his expression.
Kai racked his brain trying to remember how he got in this situation. The memory of last night came back to him like a bolt of lightning and he tensed. "My…My father threw me over the edge of a sky ship…" Kai felt the familiar sting of tears in his eyes as he recounted the memory.
The captain of the ship looked alarmed at this revelation. "That's no good, you would have died if we weren't below." The captain's expression hardened and he turned his back to Kai. "Brock cut him down gently please." Brock saluted to his captain then took his Scimitar and sliced through the rope holding Kai's foot like butter.
Kai fell to the deck with a hard thud. "I thought he told you to be gentle?" Kai complained as he rubbed his aching body.
Brock laughed and sheathed his scimitar. "That was gentle." His response was firm and held no trace of lies. "Now go see the Captain in his quarters" Brock continued to laugh even as he was walking away obviously not used to as he might say 'City folk'.
Kai weakly got up and he could still smell the damp wood from last night. The memory burned into his psyche. Once he got up he looked around for any markers indicating where the captain might be. Kai saw a huge sign in the center of the back of the ship saying Captain's quarters, he slowly made his way to the door and knocked on the door.
"Come in" The captain's voice came clearly from the other side of the door. As Kai entered he saw the captain writing on some paper with ink and quill. The captain looked up and smiled. "Ah the stranger, come on in and take a seat" Kai gratefully accepted and made his way over to the desk when the door burst open and an angry looking Girl walked in.
"Dad! I heard from the crew that we picked up some City kid!" she continued yelling as she got closer to the desk. When she made it over she slammed her hand on the table. "You promised we would only accept those who were screwed over by society! Not some…some...city kid!" Her anger was very clear.
"Nils! Behave yourself!" The captain balled his fist and slammed it on his desk. "He's right here!" The Captain pointed over to Kai.
Nils looked over and saw he was soaked through from last night's rain and looked rough overall, Kai just awkwardly waved at her. She scoffed and sat in the other chair in the office wanting to hear this stranger's story before she could accept her fathers choice.