Philosopher's Stone

03

The men lifted their jars over their heads in response to his toast, all letting out vigorous cheers, clanking their jars against each other.

Even the minor was drinking himself to a stupor, showing off how well he handled his liquor.

Leo was not impressed.

"Excuse me for a moment, but did you just say you predicted this would happen?" He chimed in, placing a damper on their light spirits.

The crew's natural reaction was to ignore him and overshadow his voice by intensifying their cheers, however, a dissatisfied Leo raised his voice, making sure he was heard.

"What kind of captain willingly plunges his crew into danger? All for some stupid stone!" The heavy words spilled out, finally placing a lid on the celebration.

Seeing the foul mood the boy created, Warwick the captain heaved a heavy sigh, examining his half-full jar of liquor, he slumped his shoulders, relaxing his tensed nerves.

"Watch yer mouth in fron of dee kaptain." The dark-skinned hefty man warned in a stern tone, attempting to march forward, to teach him a lesson.

"Let him be, this kid has something he wants to say to me." The captain said, stretching out his hand, preventing the other man from advancing any further.

'Now you've done it.' he grimaced to himself, straightening his back to properly face the captain. With all eyes pointed at him, he cleared his throat and then spoke up.

"The cost of setting sail and the living expenses incurred over this voyage must have taken a massive toll on your accounts. Not to mention that these people must have been your comrades, was all that really worth some stone?"

Leo was speaking from the frustration of his past life. His mind flashed back to the software development company he used to work with right after his internship.

He remembered how said company had worked him and his colleagues to death, extending their work hours with no added pay. Even through a plummet of their stocks in the stock market, Leo and his team stuck to their company through the bad and good times.

Though the bad outweighed the good.

One couldn't even begin to imagine the despair felt when the company announced it was laying off its workers, right after crawling out of a huge debt. And to his surprise, all the workers who never lost faith in said company, himself included were all listed off that month's payroll and then subsequently fired.

Seeing Warwick count causalities like seeds made his blood boil.

The captain upon hearing what he said lost the color in his face, and he curled his lips into a frown.

"So what?"

The question took Leo unaware, somewhere in his heart, perhaps he felt that his words would move the captain.

However, a man who had sacrificed his eye and leg for a stone, would definitely not think twice about letting some inventory-eating men take the fall.

"You still owe me for that shot of vita you used up, why don't you worry about yourself more than others?" The moment Warwick finished speaking, some men grabbed a hold of Leo's shoulders.

His jar of liquor crashed against the deck flooring, cracking into two halves, the remaining liquid moving at a face pace toward the fire!

"No!" Leo cried out, the image of his delivery truck blowing up in flames, played in his mind. More than anything, he did not want a repeat of what happened.

"Scared of a little fire huh?" One of his two angry captors teased, trying to push him closer to the flame.

Leo gritted his teeth, flinging his head back, struggling against them, as the trail of liquor finally met with the burning fire!

In a second, red and blue, and purple flames shot up to the sky, lighting up the pitch-black night.

The youngster watched ridden in awe, Leo didn't know whether to laugh or cry when the fire didn't blow up in his face but rather turned into a fancy parlor trick.

"As impressive as always, Darth." Warwick praised, referring to the minor on the ship, who had his palms stretched out and a sort of dark red magic circle projected itself in front of him, expanding momentarily.

The young teen merely nodded in recognition of his captain's praise.

"How is he..." Before Leo could finish his statement, he was miserably dragged away and forced down the steps, towards the end of the hall, where the foul stench from earlier came from.

And then, without a second's notice, they tossed Leo into the cabin not caring where he landed, and then slammed the door shut, nearly quenching the torch that lit up the room.

"Bunch of pricks! Don't you dare underestimate a truck driver! I've broken doors and split walls in my past life!" Leo spat out, reminiscing his days on his keyboard, playing a trending online game for his weekly feeding allowance.

That's right, while most people play for the fun of it, Leo was behind his screen gambling on whether or not he'd get to eat thrice a day that week.

Though there was no use dwelling on that right now. He convinced himself, standing up straight, angrily slapping the dirt off his brown pants and dark blue shirt that fell to his ankles, parting in the middle, falling on his sides.

"Oh brother, it's that smell again." he laments, pinching his nose, depending on the dim torch to help him navigate his way to a bed. Or at the very least a clean spot to rest his head and clear his thoughts.

However, the moment Leo's brown eyes land on a bed, a sigh of relief leaves his lips. He rushes over to the bed, about to jump land on it when he notices how strong the odor had become.

"Why is it suddenly..." he was saying, stumbling back to fetch the torch, grabbing it, and brandishing it in front of the bed, checking to finally see what it was that strung up the foul smell.

"Now then, time to see what this is."

Leo diverts his gaze to a pale figure laying stomach first on the bed, their skin as white as snow. "Is this a woman?" he noticed their long brown hair, and some curves men usually didn't have.

Worried that her body was moving, Leo pulls back on her shoulder, "hey lady, if you sleep in that position you'll end up dy..." his act of kindness was cut short the moment his eyes came in contact with what lay on the bed.

If he didn't grip firmly onto the torch, he might have dropped it and caused a fire!

"I think I'm gonna..." Leo couldn't even finish speaking, he rushed over to the only window and spilled his guts out into the sea.

"That isn't real, this isn't happening." he repeatedly chanted in-between breaks, the vivid image of a sharp claw sticking out of the woman's forehead, coupled with a missing tongue, was too much for a shut-in to handle.

Yes, he had seen such a level of gore in video games and movies, but when it came down to harsh reality, he couldn't combat the horrid sight and sickening stench.

And yet these people wanted him to sleep here?

Looking at his roommate, Leo knew that his fate might end up being worse than hers, and ultimately stayed up the entire night, too afraid to close his eyes in slumber.

*Next morning*

That was a lie.

It only took about two hours for him to get used to the smell, not to mention that he slept beside the window, the mesmerizing sea and fresh scent of the ocean effortlessly put him to sleep.

However, the sound of a cannonball...or was it a fireball causing the ship to shake forced him awake.

In the middle of stretching, the ship once more shook, almost propelling him out the window! "Don't tell me that thing is back?" he panicked, looking out the window for any trace of it.

But in place of a flying creature, Leo found himself staring at an even bigger ship than the one he was on, firing bright green balls of ammunition at the docks!

He was still in the middle of processing his thoughts when the door was kicked open, allowing two frantic crew mates to saunter inside.

"Don't just sit ya ass there! We need more men in our arsenal." the shorter one missing a front tooth cried out, ignoring the brutal corpse on the bed.

"What's going on?" Leo asks, standing up, the look on both their faces spelled nothing but trouble.

"We're under a bloody attack!" The taller one panicked, his clear voice resonating off the cabin's walls, sending the message across to Leo.

They were in deep shit!