Dear Father,
I am writing this letter to inform you that I will not be continuing my education as you wanted. I have instead decided to pursue the career I have long wanted, that of a Pirate. I understand that this will cause you much grief, and for that I am sorry, but it is what I want. It has long been my dream to sail the seas searching for adventure as a Pirate, and so I must take this opportunity to do so. Please father don't worry for your son, and tell Mother not to cry, I will be fine on my own.
Your Son,
Rod Francis Connason.
Rod stood in line patiently; clutching the medallion his mother had given him. He waited silently for his turn. He heard a sound in front of him, a sound like wood hitting wood, but he tried not to pay any attention too it. After a moment the lined moved one step forward. Two soldiers walked past him carrying a body. Rod heard the wooden sound again, and again another step forward, and again two soldiers with a body.
Rod looked up and saw what he was in line for. Before him was a set of stairs, leading to a platform, and on this platform was a cross beam with a noose. Rod was in line to be hanged.
Next to Rod stood a man in uniform, holding a parchment. The Man noticed the medallion that Rod was holding. "What is that in your hand Pirate? Something you stole?" Said the man as he forced Rod's hands to give up the trinket. The Man handed the medallion to another man, this one dressed in a fine suit.
"Ah..What is this boy? No dought stolen from some old widow. Well no matter, it belongs to me now." Said the Well Dressed Man with a smug smile.
"So tell me, what is your name?" Asked Rod of the Well Dressed Man.
"Its Moorings, Ellis Moorings, not that it will matter to you much in a few moments." Said Moorings with a grin and a chuckle.
"In a few moments, no. But a little while after that I'll want to know who to look for when I want my trinket back." Rod said with a smile.
"What could you possibly mean by that?" Asked Moorings. However just as the words left his mouth Rod made a run for it.
Rod ran as fast as he could with his hands shackled. He had noticed that there weren't many spectators, Pirate hangings didn't draw a crowded like they used too. Nonetheless this was good news for Rod, meaning there where less people to try and stop him. Rod had also noticed that though the crowd was sparse there were enough gathered to prevent the military from just firing their guns after him. So Rod ran, through the thin, but not too thin crowd. He ran through the open arch that allowed the village folk to move freely from the village to the military fort. As he ran he could hear the beating of the soldier's feet as they gave chase.
Rod didn't quite know where he was going to run yet. Nor what he would do once he reached this place he didn't know he was going too. All Rod could think about was the name Moorings, and that he had to get away from the soldiers. However the latter somehow didn't seem quite as important then the former.
Rod ran as fast as he could, being very grateful that the Fort didn't have any ankle shackles for him. He chose his path almost at random, turning down this alleyway because it looked to be too tight for the Soldiers to run down in groups, turning down this street because it looked more crowded, or even because he spotted another soldier or two ahead of him. He cursed himself for not knowing where he was going, not being able to decide weather he should run inland and get out of the town, or head to the port and stowaway on a ship.
Suddenly Rod found himself in the middle of a under crowded street, with soldiers both in front and behind him. He stopped and stood there thinking, looking for another route he could take, he found none. He counted the soldiers, four in front of him and ten behind him, they where standing there, holding their rifles at the ready. He finally decided where he would go, he would run for the port and stowaway, he remembered that a transport ship was supposed to leave today, he could pretend to be one of the passengers. With this thought Rod chose to run, toward the four soldiers in front of him. He was confident they would not shoot for risk of hitting one of the other soldiers. He was so confident of this that he tucked his head down and hunched his shoulders so as to make a smaller target. He tackled one of the soldiers knocking them both to the ground, and rolled as far as his momentum would take him. He struggled to get back up as quickly as he could with his shackles.
The other soldiers where shocked by Rod's actions. They didn't react as quickly as they needed, giving Rod the time he needed to return to his feet and continue running. It took Rod almost ten minutes to get enough room between him and the soldiers so that they wouldn't know which ship he boarded, and another five minutes to reach the harbor and find the ship he was looking for. He reached the passenger ship, The Small Adventure just as he was leaving the dock. Franticly Rod ran for it and jumped reaching for a rope that hadn't been properly pull and stored yet. He climbed the rope and pulled himself onto the ships deck.
Still wearing the shackles Rod knew he would need to hide and get them removed before he could move about without drawing suspicion. He saw a door leading down to the stow and decided to hide down there. The thought of how cliché hiding in a ships stow was did cross his mind, but he just figured there had to be a reason it was cliché right? When he reached the stow he found some large creates to hide behind and fell down exhausted, and soon fell asleep.