60th Zi’da 717
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“Have you been a pirate for long, Jim?” she asked, thinking that a bit of smalltalk would make transitioning to the actual questioning would be better than just interrogating him outright.
“‘Bout five arcs now, Miss,” he responded, rather polite for a boy on a pirate ship.
“How’d you get a spot on board? There’s not a lot of young people around here.”
“I is the only one.” He shrugged. “But that’s not a bad thing. Capt’n says I is as much a man as any other on the sea, and more than any landlubber out there.” He sounded very proud of that.
“Hmm. Because it’s dangerous?” she questioned.
The boy shrugged. “Maybe. But the Capt’n always makes sure I is safe. When the others is going to board the target ship, I always stay behind. Capt’n says it’s to make sure the ship is protected, but I know he’s trying to protect me too.”
“You don’t like it?”
Another shrug. “I want to go with sometrial, but I is not good at fighting. Not as strong as the others either. Capt’n teaches me in his free time, but I don’t feel like I is improving.” He gave her a grin then. “But even if I is just good for cleaning the ship and helping to cook, it’s still better than being on land. We go where we want, we do what we want. No rules to tie us down, no wife to nag our ears off!” The way he spoke made it obvious he was imitating and paraphrasing the Captain. “Our only love is the ocean, our mistress is treasure! Everything else can just go suck a big fat dick!” He laughed, hands on his hips and pushing his chest out, much like how Skunkbeard had done a few moments ago.
“I imagine you hear a whole lot of stories of ships the others have boarded and treasure they’d taken, yes?” she tried, figuring that the boy could go pretty much anywhere to clean.
He nodded. “The Capt’n’s is my favorite ones. He can tell them better than anyone else!”
Good, good. This might just work. “So then, have you heard a story about a ship of Ne’haerians?”