Sisyphean Attempts at Self-Improvement

Shattered Sky #1

DARROW: I

As their skyship began the docking process in Blackreef, Darrow Eden took in his surroundings with a practiced neutrality. It might set a bad precedent for the captain of a ship in search of safe harbor to arrive with a look of utter disgust plastered across his face. Even if it did match what he was feeling on the inside. Oh, how he longed for the affluent environs of Val Marath in times like these!

Sadly, he wouldn’t be returning to Val Marath anytime soon. Especially not after the particularly flamboyant way in which he liberated this ship from his father’s fleet and claimed with the utmost braggadocio on his way out, that he could easily make his own way in the world, thankyouverymuch.

That was three weeks ago and, now that he was running out of the funds he had the foresight to bring with him for the journey (it was more expensive to make your way in the world than he had assumed!), he was faced with the very real possibility that he might have to, ugh, work to make money and keep up this ridiculous, self-imposed enterprise. The only place worse than Blackreef would be his home if he had to go back to his father after less than a month and admit that he was an ignorant fool.

So Blackreef it was! And he went ahead and buried that whole “ignorant fool” label as far back in his mind as possible so he could continue to operate with the staggeringly overconfident and empirically dubious impression that he knew what he was doing.

Darrow had heard rumors about Blackreef before and he could safely say that the whole whole “dilapidated shanty-town built over the foulest water you can imagine” aesthetic he had heard rumors of didn’t really do this place any justice. If anything, that was a description that he figured the locals would probably gladly accept and use in their tourism brochures.

As his single crewman, a mostly monosyllabic sailor by the name of Crix, went about securing their yacht on the docks of Blackreef, Darrow considered his options and whether there was any actual work to which he might be suited. When he had first hired Crix on the industrial side of Val Marath on his way out of town, he had promised the man a share of whatever spoils presented themselves on this grand adventure. He suspected Crix accepted more out of a desire to leave Val Marath in a hurry ahead of a rather thorough search of the island by law enforcement, but the novelty of freedom was quickly wearing off and Darrow started to suspect that if he couldn’t provide some coin soon, Crix might go about acquiring some for himself by other means, quite possibly using methods that would reassign Darrow from the role of “captain” to “hostage.”

Darrow approached the gangplank leading down to the docks and got an intense glare from Crix, as if the latter had heard every word of his inner monologue and was saying, that’s absolutely what I’m going to do if we strike out here. Good luck, future hostage!

Stepping onto the firm ground of the dock, Darrow paused for a moment and looked around. Most of the other ships near him were aging, battered things that looked like they were as apt to sink as fly. Realizing that his brand-new yacht stood out like a sore thumb, he also realized he stood out like a sore thumb, with his fine clothing and ostentatious jewelry. And while he couldn’t necessarily do anything about the clothes himself (it wasn’t his fault he didn’t have poor people clothes!), he did decide to slip off most of his jewelry and pocket it to avoid drawing any more undue attention to himself than was strictly necessary.

He didn’t really like the wide-eyed little kobold with long brunette hair who was intently watching him pocket his valuables like she had never seen so much affluence in her entire life, but he figured a single kobold was probably not much of a threat. Still, he kept his hands pressed tight to his gold-laden pockets as he passed by and headed for what appeared to be the only dining establishment as far as the eye could see.


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Word Count: 715

Written For: "¤ Shattered Sky ¤"