CHAPTER 3

*BANG!!!!*

The door of the prison in the ship was pushed open.

“Move out! Move!! Move!!!”

The Iron Masks pirates began bringing their captives out of the prison as they yelled at them like worthless slaves.

They have arrived at the Iron Fortress, a big tower situated somewhere in the middle of the water. This is the main hideout of the Iron Mask pirates and here, all their members are present. It seems the night just continues to favour the Iron Mask.

Walk faster! Faster!! Faster!!!

The pirates continued yelling at their captives as they marched them from the ship to the Fortress.

Gryza, the captain of the Iron Mask pirates, walks towards the main door of the Fortress, resting his back on the gigantic gate of the main entrance. He began saying to the captives as they dragged themselves into the Fortress,

“The Iron Fortress will be your final stop. Only a strong ship can sail around this area and survive”

“The Iron Mask ship is the only ship allowed within sight of this island, any other ship that comes closer to the Iron Fortress will be annihilated with immediate effect…”

“...No man has ever escaped the Iron Fortress, where are they even going to escape to?”

“May the gods favour you if they care, for it is the only mercy you have left in this Fortress…”

“Welcome to the rest of your lives!!!” Gryza shouted, wearing a villainous smile on his face.

All the captives got into the Fortress as they shut the main gate. The outside view of the Fortress tells what the inside should look like. 

Inside the Fortress, there are many stairs leading to different rooms and cabins. The pirates kept marching the captives forward; it seemed the cabins and the rooms upstairs were not for them; luxury might exist here, but not for the prisoners. 

Gryza opened the door of a large pit in the base of the Fortress as the rest of the pirates dragged all the captives inside. 

“This is where you will all be having fun before you all meet your maker” Gryza shouted hysterically.

“Food! Food!! What about food?!” The old man asking questions earlier from the other captive in the harbour began asking Gryza.

“Oh?! I forgot.” Gryza said pitifully as he walked slowly to the old man.

“So what exactly do you love to eat, mister?” Gryza said his voice slow and gentle as rests his arm across the shoulders of the old man.

“Anything, Anything humans eat, just so we don't die here.” The old man responded, his voice breaking as he didn't expect the captain of the pirate to give him so much company, he was even resting his arms on his shoulders.

The other captives who have entered the large pit in the ground, the prison in the Fortress, began watching the scene between the old man and the captain of the pirate.

“Have you tasted pig poop before?” Gryza asked the man, his voice almost above whispers.

“Huh?!” The old man responded out of nowhere.

“Get into there, you bastard!” Gryza exclaimed as he pushed the old man down into the prison forcefully.

Seeing this, the other pirates burst into laughter as they walked away from the prison.

“Enjoy the rest of your lives”, Gryza shouted as he slammed the door of the prison and locked it with a heavy lock, handing over the keys to one of the pirates who were to guard the prison gates, and he went away.

The prisoners began looking at themselves, they're about a hundred of them in the prison. Some of them went to another to make new friends while some just sat and kept mute.

No one even moved closer to Tydeus, not even with the look on his face. He is a handsome young man, but due to the scene that happened between him and the pirate's leader, Galdashkeh, He seems to be the first person they are going to kill, and any other person they find with him will be the second target.

As the other prisoners began talking to each other, Tydeus stood up from where he was sitting. It got the attention of some people, but many of them just minded their businesses. If he couldn't escape when he was being humiliated by the pirate's boss, how is he going to escape now in a prison locked up in the middle of nowhere?

Tydeus began walking around the prison, moving his head from left to right, front to back. It seems he is looking for something or someone.

He stopped moving his head when he saw someone; it seemed he had seen who he was looking for.

Tydeus moved closer to the old man in the prison who had been making some scenes before Gryza, the pirate's captain, shut the door of the prison.

As he began moving closer to the man, the old man was shocked, as if a demon was coming closer to him. Other people around the old man began making way, giving the old man a large space for Tydeus to kill him or something.

Tydeus sat near the old man. 

“Hey Hello,” Tydeus said.

People near the man began wondering, so he could talk.

Everybody faced their businesses again, leaving Tydeus and his new friend to have a proper discussion.

“Hello, can you hear me?” Tydeus asked the old man again who refused to talk.

“Hey, listen to me, you are Apphathorus right?” Tydeus said gently to the man again as the old man remained speechless.

“What is he doing here? Even though he knows my name, I am telling him nothing”, the old man said in his mind.

Tydeus sighed and asked the old man again, “You're Apphathorus the wizard, right?”

“I am not a wizard!!!” Apphathorus, the old man shouted out of nowhere.