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Ch 71 Lazing under the stars Part 2
🕑 Added 2024-09-18 16:52:41 +0000 UTC"They are going in," Bran whispered while squinting his eyes to see as much as he could in the light of the moon.
"I can see that boy," Oberyn replied to the obvious observation from the son of the Sellsword Captain.
Both of them were acting as scouts for the company and were hiding in thick bushes on a small hill about two kilometres away from the castle.
At that very moment, hundreds upon hundreds of pirates were hurriedly, but with vigilant looks on their faces, heading into the castle.
These pirates were the ones from the settlement of the Western shore, the only pirate camp still left unscratched from the company massacre during the night.
They were estimated to have about 750 men according to Jon, from what Oberyn could observe that was an accurate assessment... which meant that they had abandoned the camp and now every single one of those pirates was racing into the castle to hide from their company.
"Wouldn't now be a good time to attack them, Prince Oberyn," Bran asked in a low voice, his voice tinged in confusion, "Why are we just letting them easily get away into the castle? Why aren't we ambushing them like the others?"
"Because now... they know that we are here and that we are attacking the pirates on this island, which means that any attack we go into... would not be an ambush but a proper battle," Oberyn explained calmly, "And battles mean heavy casualties, and from what I know of your friend, Jon Snow, he doesn't like them very much..."
"So then are we not going to... fight them anymore? Because if we are then wouldn't it just be harder to attack them when they are all inside the castle..." The boy asked in a baffled tone.
"Of course, we are still going to fight, otherwise everything until now would have been pointless... As for how we are going to do that..." Oberyn shrugged with a helpless smile, "Only your friend Jon knows that..."
"Oh! That should be... fine then."
At that moment the last of the pirates had gone inside and the large wooden door of the castle was finally being closed, so Oberyn took one last look at the walls and whispered, "Let's go."
Bran nodded his head as the two of them slowly but silently stood up and began backtracking their way through trees and thick foilage towards the camp near the shore where they had left the rest of their company.
It only took them twenty minutes to reach the camp and what they saw surprised them quite a bit...
Only about an hour must have passed since they parted from the company, but the pirate settlement looked completely different from the condition they had left it in...
For one thing, all of the dead bodies of pirates they had killed had been cleared off and dumped into a massive pit dug some distance away to ward off the smell and the company sellswords also seemed to have done some nominal cleaning to open up a huge space in the clearing, where most of the sellswords were lingering at the moment.
Other than the ones who were on watch duty, most of the sellswords had already let go of their vigilance and were now in complete rest mode. Some were cleaning their weapons, others were chatting with their friends, and a few of the older ones had already gone to sleep...
If one just sees the peaceful atmosphere that the company was in, then they would find it hard to predict these people had fought a brutal battle just an hour ago, that they were still in the middle of a pirate-infested island, and that there were still enemies on this island waiting to kill them... because from the looks on these people's faces, it felt as if they were sitting in their backyard and not in enemy territory...
Oberyn shook his head at the absurd situation after absurd situations he had found himself in ever since he had joined this company.
But so many of these situations had happened that by now Oberyn felt that he had built some immunity to it.
So when he came to the middle of the camp to find Jon and Gared sitting on the ground conversing nonchalantly about different types of swords, he didn't act like a panicked greenhorn began badgering them with questions like what they were doing or if they were in their right mind...
Instead he just calmly and nonchalantly took a seat beside them and asked, "You're not planning to set up home here, are you? Because you look entirely too comfortable on this pirate island..."
"How did you know I was thinking the exact same thing?" Jon replied with a wide smile on his face, "Don't you just love how peaceful it is here... and not to mention how beautiful and unique the view of the night sky here..." he said while pointing towards the sky filled with millions upon millions of stars that looked so clear and close that one feels as if they could touch them... just by raising their hands. "One doesn't find views like these just anywhere,"
"Sure! Sure!" Oberyn nodded sarcastically while rolling his eyes.
"So did you see them?" Gared suddenly interrupted with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes. Jon here was right about his information however he got it," Oberyn replied a bit reluctantly while taking a deep swig from a pouch of ale placed nearby, "All the pirates from the last settlement entered the castle a while ago and from the looks of it, none of them have any intention of coming out anytime soon. So it seems that there is no need for us to worry about them for a while..."
"Do you mean that 'you' don't need to worry about them?" Gared asked with an amused smile on his face, "Because as far as I recall you were the only one who insisted that we absolutely need to scout the castle because Jon's information could be wrong..."
"I just wanted to see it with my own eyes to be sure... or else I wouldn't have been able to sleep." Oberyn replied while ignoring the amused expression on Gared's face, "I mean what was I supposed to do to when Jon here tells me that..." he waved his hand at the Northern Bastard, "that he wants all of us to take rest and go to sleep right here, right now."
"Not all of us, you know," Jon interrupted while pointing towards the attentive lookouts.
"Yes, yes," Oberyn mumbled sarcastically, "Can't forget about the five sentries now, can we?"
"My father always told me that a meal and a few hours of sleep can be the difference between a veteran warrior and a stumbling greenhorn," Jon said with a small smile, "So the few hours we have left before the sun rises would be very useful for us to rejuvenate ourselves from the exhaustion of all the battle and ambushes we went through during the night... And thankfully none of our fighters here are novices, so I don't have to worry about them having trouble falling asleep in this foreign environment due to nightmares(from all the killing,) or something else..." he said while looking at surrounding sellswords, most of whom were already deep in their sleep, snoring loudly.
"You think I don't know the importance of rest for an army," Oberyn scoffed while looking at the sky, internally agreeing that the night sky on this pirate island really was quite beautiful, "Because trust me I do... it's just that I was worried that the pirates might get some ideas and would want to launch an ambush of their own to take revenge..."
"Trust me, they won't," Jon said factually as if he had complete confidence in his own words, "They will pass the night alert in the castle, waiting for us to attack but they won't launch an attack of their own," he said calmly while finding a flat place nearby and then he immediately laid down on the ground as if he was ready to sleep.
"But what if they did..."
"Then I'll know long before they even leave the castle," he replied with a mysterious smile, the same one that he always had on his face whenever he was sharing information... as if he knew something that no one else did, and it frustrated the Dornish prince to no end.
And he hated that a part of him immediately began to feel relieved at that smile as if he had already begun to unconsciously place his trust in the boy's words as if he knew deep down that if the boy said there was no danger... then there would probably be no danger.
"Ugh! Fine, then. But know this, if I die in my sleep... then I am definitely going to go haunt that wasteland you call home for eternity," Oberyn threatened before shaking his head and making a place of his own on the ground to sleep.
"People who live in the desert should really not comment on other people's homes, you know," Jon retorted making Oberyn snort as a small smile appeared on his face.
Things went silent after that as the conversation around the camp went down and all the exhausted sellswords gradually fell asleep under the night sky.
....
"It seems your prediction turned out to be right..." Ravager murmured as he stood upon the wall of the castle gazing at the horizon as the first rays of morning fell upon the island driving away the gloominess of the night, "They never did attack us during the night..."
All around him stood pirates with bloodshot eyes trying hard to keep their eyes open, so that they don't miss anyone attacking them.
Even though the advisor had told them that they wouldn't be attacked during the night, Ravager didn't dare to let the pirates under him fall asleep. He had kept more than half the pirates awake at all times as a precaution, and no one could fault him for it, considering the number of pirates they had lost because of carelessness in a single night.
"Of course, Captain." The advisor nodded with a calm expression on his face, "I can easily imagine the kind of person their leader is... he must have been so sure of his plan that he probably kept all of his men awake and ready to attack us for the night, they must have been waiting impatiently for us to leave the castle so that they can fall upon us all this while. Hehe, it must frustrate him to no end that we didn't play into his hands..."
"I am sure it did," Ravager said as a satisfied expression appeared on his face at the thought of frustrating his unknown enemy, "All the work they did, all the pirates they managed to kill was all useless because, I am still here, alive and well, having lost nothing more than a few worthless pirates.... pirates I can easily replenish with a few raids at any time. But all their hard work must still be rewarded and when I find out who they are..." his eyes gleamed with a burning rage, "I'll be sure to pay them back a thousand times."
"We may not have to wait for long to do that, Captain..."
"Hmm, What do you mean?"
"If I am assuming it right, then all those attackers must have been quite exhausted by now, their eyes weary with sleep, their limbs aching from the exhaustion of the fights during the night. So if I were their leader, then I would be looking to cut my losses right about now and preparing to leave the island... so if we time it right, we can hit them in the back, exactly like they wanted to do to us."
"That... is not a bad idea," Ravager nodded slowly as a hungry expression appeared on his face, "Good! Very Good!! I'll get the pirates to prepare... we should leave immediately then lest they manage to run away..."
"Don't worry, Captain. I've had the cooks woken up early so they should be done preparing the food by now. With a simple meal to rejuvenate us, we'll be ready to go after them properly..."
"Perfect! This is a chance to finally show those bastards why they call me..." he said with a savage smile on his face. "The Ravager."
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