For the most part, traveling with pirates via horseback is uneventful. There are the occasional disputes and raucous behaviors among them, but nothing caused us any real trouble. Today, however, we had a bit of unanticipated excitement.
The climate here is capable of supporting much vegetation, so our travel is mostly through forests growing almost as thick as what we encountered in the Razhin Jungle, although this time we’re fortunate enough to have a poorly kept road along which to travel. This leaves us unable to know what might await us up ahead, except for the brief portions where the road takes a course along the beach. Shortly after lunch today, the road was along the beach, and then curved around a rather tall and jagged cliff that completely blocked our view of everything on the other side. For our band of pirates, turning that corner might have turned out disastrous. Fortunately, things did not come to that.
The first thing we saw as we turned the corner was a large flotilla of ships; some on the beach, and some anchored offshore. The second thing we noticed were groups of men and a few women all along the beach, working at various tasks. The third thing we noticed was that every ship flew the same flag: a skull of frothy waves wearing a diadem against a deep violet background. The flag meant little to me, but meant much to the pirates. Captain Kiiyu immediately halted, and uttered a few choice words I refuse to record.
When two groups of pirates have a chance encounter, it’s difficult to predict the outcome, although our two crews against what must be fifteen crews would not go well for us. Fortunately, everyone understands that a violent outcome is undesirable. Instead, the two captains try to negotiate some terms to keep the encounter amicable, and then eventually go their separate ways. Strangely, Captain Kiiyu sent Tora’Sor to negotiate for us. We’ll find out tomorrow what comes of it.