Tomboy Pirate Niki

The humming of the Red Behemoth's hull was almost drowned out by the excited chatter of the pirates leering at their next prey. All the hatches at the bottom of the venerable red airship were open and the guys holding bombs, guns, or ropes were only held back by the lack of a command from the Second Mate who was in charge of the action this time. At least for now he was simply observing the situation even if it was clear there would be no fight this time.

Floating in the larger hull's shadow was a small mercantile airship that was not winning any prizes in the competition for the fastest surrender. It was mostly due to the trembling captain in a fancy white uniform failing to give the order to hoist the white flag onto the mast that was almost scraping the pirate ship above that had plunged down through the unnaturally thick clouds only minutes ago. He was staring with pure terror at how eight massive demonic wings were seemingly the only things stopping the other ship from crashing down and turning him into an organic paste.

Just seeing the civilian sailors stumbling around on the deck below was enough to get the pirates laughing hard enough to panic the sailors even more. Though at least the lads above were trying to help the captain below to decide faster, the pirates were dropping down rocks that had papers wrapped around them, and on them read promises of humane treatment if the transfer of cargo happened without the need for bloodshed. Though most also had vivid descriptions of what would happen without a clean surrender from the start.

"Niki, when we go down, feel free to use me as cover, just be sure to send your knives flying if someone resists," one of the pirates with a green tint to his skin exclaimed through the rising cheeriness of the pirates. His shout was aimed at an olive-skinned female with pointed elf ears who was crouching near one of the open hatches. Her posture alone was drawing some glances in her direction as her loosely fitted black pants were aligning with her ass to hint about her shapes and the firmness of her long legs.

"Call me Third Mate and I might consider it, you definitely look sturdy enough to even stop smaller bullets," the slender and clearly athletic woman wearing a red leather coat exclaimed back. None of her clothing pieces seemed to fit together but in the crew of men sharing a similar fashion sense, if not for the lack of orcish green on her skin, she would have almost blended in at the first glance.

"Just try not to damage anything valuable this time or the captain might complain about it again, Most Exalted Third Mate on her second week," a brute of a man grunted from next to Niki. He wore short gray pants and an open vest made of brown leather that left little of his green muscular body for imagination. His chosen weapon was a shotgun-ax strapped on his back

"Well, Second Mate Sadler, the old captain never complains to me about it," Niki voiced while her fingers slid to adjust her black tricorn hat that had golden trimmings. With the tone she used with his title, those who did not know might have guessed she somehow outranked him despite her only being the Third Mate.

"The captain never complains to you, but the lads might pressure him to demote you if you can't at least serve as an example," Sadler said and Niki lowered her free hand to hold one of the six mismatched handles on her sturdy belt like as some veiled threat. The conversation between the two was fast-paced and nobody nearby even tried to be part of it. In fact, most of them suddenly looked very busy making sure the mechanisms of the rope droppers were operational.

"When did you start to care? Did he push the job of watching over me to you this time or something?" Niki shrugged and she pressed her hat tightly against her slightly curly neck-length hair. Sadler tried to reach for her when her golden eyes gained a mischievous glimmer, then she seemingly jumped off the hatch without anything to slow her fall. Though almost immediately one of the knives on her belt flew out and she grabbed its handle to float down toward the deck below.

"By the seven cursed bitches, treat them as surrendered, boarding time," Sadler flared and an echoing cheer filled the ship. Then he rolled a nearby rope around his wrist before dropping down from the hatch. He fell only for a short distance before the mechanism on the other end of the rope began to slowly lower him down.

Niki gave only one glance behind her to make sure a mass of men had begun their descent from the hatches behind her before she accelerated her fall toward the other ship. The sight of over a hundred pirates hanging down from the red ship that had an unnatural demonic surface tint to it was more than enough to motivate every sailor below to rise their hands or in other ways to indicate immediate surrender.

The slightly over-fed-looking captain in a white uniform tried to collect himself but the best he could do was to keep standing and staring up. Niki was heading straight at him with an excited smile on her beautifully symmetric face that had a bit of a sharp jaw. Though even then he still kept focusing on the eight massive wings of the demonic airship to make it clear what was frightening him the most.

"Where did you hide the good stuff, the demon weapons," Niki shouted even before her feet hit the deck next to the captain. She pointed the knife she had used to float down to threaten the integrity of the captain's neck while the remaining five bolted out of their scabbards to form a circle around her like invisible ghosts were protecting her.

"We only have rice, you can take it all," the captain uttered while Niki's eyes traveled to examine his belt. Though it took only seconds for her to decide that her golden buckle was way more expensive than what he had.

"Don't try, we know you have some extra goods, I'm either taking those or what's below," Niki grinned charmingly while the knife in her hand traveled down to point at the man's belt. Though as the fear almost tilted his eyes, he was clearly thinking something else than the buckle.

"There are some boxes among the rice, I don't know what's in them," the captain stuttered and Niki gave just one last glance down before sighing in disappointment from getting first to the captain for no reason. As she turned around to head for the ladder leading below deck, she did not pay attention to the fact that a slight bulge had grown in the captain's crotch even as he was almost trembling from fear.

Sadler shouted for a few of the pirates to go after Niki before he began directing the operation on the deck. Not that the casually marching elf paid much attention to anything else than what was between her and the rice storage. Once she was in the large cargo space filled with gray sacks, she immediately proceeded to sink her knife into one of them.

"Cut them up, the old captain said there's some really good stuff hidden in here, might even be demon weapons," Niki ordered the two greenish brutes who had followed her. They hesitated only for a moment before they began grabbing up the stacks and shaking them to find out if they hid anything but rice. Niki looked at them with a tilted head before shrugging.

"Captain also said, we taking half the rice," one of the pirates muttered. Niki sighed and she lifted a sack to feel it up. With the way the rice was evenly balanced in them, it would be relatively easy to spot if anything heavy like a weapon was hidden inside one of them. Though the main issue was the fact that there were hundreds of sacks stacked in the cargo bay almost to the roof.

"We never finding anything at this rate," Niki pouted as she dropped the sack. The six mismatched knives that were floating around her began pointing their tips at the rice and soon after all of them lunged through the air to rip and tear at the sacks. The two orcs jolted with mild panic but as a great flood of rice was flowing down the side of the pile only in seconds, they backed away towards the doorway with such speed that it was clear they already gave up on stopping Niki and only focused on leaving the scene to not be blamed.

"Third Mate, stop that," Sadler exclaimed from the doorway with slight sweat on his forehead. He had run down to the cargo bay the moment the situation on the deck had allowed it. The two pirates who were tasked to follow Niki were trying to press against the side of the hull like they were trying to hide and slip away from the bay the moment the path was clear.

"Stop what?" Niki asked with a tilt of her head while her knives kept going at the sacks with rotating thrusts. Though then one of them caused a sharp screech from metal hitting metal. It sent her eyes to immediately lock into a chest that was revealed by the outflowing rice.

"Careful, you might damage what's inside," Sadler flared. His relief from the knives stopping their movements became short-lived when the chest with unknown contents was pulled down with a hard crash into the wooden floor. It had been near the top of the pile so it almost fell down the height of the woman manhandling it.

"If the weapon breaks this easily, it's not worth my time," Niki grinned as she sent her knives to stab into the wood on top of the chest. Despite looking like a very crude way to open locks, it let her use the magic from the knives to fiddle with the mechanism.

"It could be fragile gems, with trapped demons in them," Sadler muttered while he readied his shotgun-ax's muzzle to shoot if anything began to grow out of nothing in the room. Meanwhile, Niki managed to get the chest's lid open. Her greedy hands dug into the contents and began throwing out old fragile-looking papers.

"Be careful damn it, the captain will want to see those," Sadler exclaimed as he holstered his shotgun on his back and rushed to collect the papers even as Niki kept unleashing more of them until the chest was completely empty.

"Cursed bastards, these papers better have instructions on how to bind some very cool demon weapons," Niki flared while she stared at one of the papers that had complex red symbols imprinted on it. Though as her fingers were almost digging through it, Sadler grabbed it from her and she let it go as she admitted with a sigh how useless it was to her.

"The captain wants to see you, something about a new weapon," Sadler voiced as he glanced at the rice sacks that were still mostly intact despite the floor being completely flooded with a white layer. Niki just stretched a bit before making her knives enter her belt scabbards. Then she headed towards the stairs with fast steps.

Once on the deck, Niki was greeted with a hand wave from a few pirates. The merchant ship's crew was neatly herded to the bow of the ship while the occupiers were having some kind of a meeting around the main mast.

"They found something interesting?" Niki asked one of the guys who was clearly meant to be guarding the deck with his rifle even as his focus was on the black-bearded man in a black and gold long coat. At first glance, his red face looked burned but on a longer inspection, it was clearly demonic in nature.

"The captain is giving First Mate a hard time, you should step in," a nearby pirate replied. Niki scratched her curly hair a bit before adjusting her tricorn hat. Then she headed through the small crowd with a slight smile so that she came in from behind the man with the demon-like features.

"Old Captain Elijah, why don't you just replace him if he keeps giving you grief," Niki exclaimed. The crew around the captain immediately took a distance to the towering figure that began turning around to face the newcomer. Though even through his bushy bear, it was clear his visible agitation was being replaced by a smile.

"Just instructing Nick here to learn from his mistakes," Elijah voiced while his red eyes darted around like he expected that Niki was followed by at least some kind of horde of trouble. Though as he did not spot anything, he visibly relaxed and turned again to give the half-orc that had previously occupied most of his attention a quick stern glance to indicate that he was going to say more at a later date.

"Ooh well, just say if you ever need a new First Mate, or plan to retire," Niki sighed and Elijah began laughing. Then she headed to the cargo lift that had been lowered with four sturdy ropes from the airship above. She sat down in the middle of it like she planned to be lifted alone whenever it suited the guys operating the mechanism.

"Captain, you should see this," one of the pirates shouted when he ran to the captain with a logbook. Elijah grabbed it and began devouring the pointed page with his eyes. The intensity in them flared almost enough to make it look like he was trying to burn the paper with his eyes.

"You know what Nick, maybe Niki here is right, maybe you should retire," Elijah mused as he walked over to the First Mate and tapped some lines on the book. For a moment the two of them sent glances at each other while Niki observed it with clear interest.

"You know what, I think you are right," Nick suddenly flared to the puzzlement of the pirates around the deck. "Drop me off at the nearest port, I will have no trouble finding a captain that will appreciate my talents."

"Fine then, but you better do your job till the end or I might drop you off in more than one piece," Elijah exclaimed and the logbook in his hand burst into flames. He sent the cinders flying at Nick's face but they left no signs of any damage. He just turned around and stomped to stand next to sitting Niki on the lift.

"Can you nominate me as your successor?" Niki asked when she reached to tug from the leg of Nick's shorts. The man rolled his eyes with a momentary smile before he suddenly focused when the olive-skinned woman stood up in a way that almost made her nose poke at him multiple times. Then her bright golden eyes narrowed to stare at his face intently like she was planning ways to cut it.

"Captain, why don't you have her take my place, that way there won't be any trouble later," Nick voiced and a wide smile spread on Niki's lips. She turned towards Elijah with fast nodding but the bearded man almost began laughing again before he covered his mouth with his hand like he was yawning.

"I will have to think about it, why don't we have a chat at my cabin to make sure this is the right choice," Elijah commanded and he too stepped onto the lift. He immediately gave the sign and the guys above triggered the mechanism to rise the lift. The two men took support from the ropes while Niki leaned into the captain's free hand.

"I promise to learn what First Mate does if you let me be one, I also won't mind if you mix our names, so you don't even need to change what you shout when you get mad," Niki pleaded while she almost pressed her face into the captain's beard. He moved the hand she was gripping just to have her stand further away from him.

"You said that with the Third Mate," Nick muttered from the other side of the lift. Niki sent her a sharp stare and she even opened her lips to retort but every time she almost began forming words, she hesitated like she had just come up with an even better way to falsify the accusation aimed at her and only needed a few more moments to plan it.

"Sadler, get the men working, I want to set sail for Corsair's Rest before noon," Elijah commanded when the Second Mate entered the deck of the merchant ship. He immediately began ordering pirates to go where he had just come from to fetch intact rice sacks and find any chests among them.

After that Niki kept following Elijah for a few hours while begging for the promotion one way or the other. She only stopped after he gave him a supposedly broken demon weapon that could breathe fire if she was able to fix it. She took it and ran off to the ship's workshop to fiddle with it with eager glee in her golden eyes.

** * **

"I can't believe the old captain did that to me, the gun wasn't even magical," Niki complained while rolling a barely emptied wooden beer mug on a covered card table. Sadler who sat opposite of her might have intervened with the staining of the fabric by the spilled beer if it had not already been stabbed full of holes by some previous guests of the establishment with a special kind of clientele.

"You spent two days with the gun like a complete newbie, I always imagined that magic stuff was the one thing nobody could trick you with," Sadler voiced while he stared at the roof of the small gambling room. Though even then he felt the burn on the side of his greenish face from the intensity of Niki's stare.

"What's that supposed to mean? Only the captain is older than me on the ship," Niki voiced while one of the knives on her belt found the need to fly into the air and start spinning around. Usually the flaring up of the manic glee in her eyes was enough to stop Sadler from pushing her with jokes but this time she was feeling a bit more adventurous than usual just to see what would happen. There were only so many times the captain could make him watch over her at the port and he would not try his luck.

"Please remind me how many weeks it has been since you were made the Third Mate?" Sadler asked and he leaned forward to match the gaze of the woman before him. He used the chance to carefully examine her mid-twenties symmetric features that were covered by almost flawless elven skin despite the uncharacteristic olive tint.

"Don't change the topic, and ask me in a decade and I might pity your poor memory enough to reply," Niki taunted while she reached to grab a full beer mug from Sadler's side of the table like he would not notice if her hand did a long enough detour while both were leaning in for a staring match.

Sadler just leaned back while he tried to imagine how Niki's body looked. She definitely was athletic enough to have a firm build and the wind sometimes pressed her pants tightly enough against her ass to show that at least one part of her body had perky mounds. Though as she always wore leather jackets or vests it was a bit hard for him to get the full picture even if her chest was sticking out a bit even with them.

"And I'll have you know, it took me two minutes to figure out the gun had never been magical, I spent the rest of the time to rig it shoot explosive acid shots," Niki voiced until she suddenly pulled a handgun from the pocket of her jacket. "Want to see it?"

Sadler's attempt to think of the most effective way to take the gun away from Niki ended when Elijah slammed the door open with a kick and he carried over another set of full beer mugs. He landed half of them before Niki who dropped the gun on the table with a clang before grabbing the mug she had pulled from Sadler's side of the table like nothing was enough for her.

"Good news, the spot of the First Mate has been successfully vacated, once we pick a new one, I'm planning to have a party on the public side," Elijah grinned after he sat down to pour one of the mugs down his throat. Niki did the same while Sadler sighed like he was seeing good alcohol wasted. Even after several mugs, the gluttonous woman did not seem any drunker than she usually was.

"So, can I have it? I can offer you a beer for it," Niki voiced with a wide smile while she lifted a mug to replace the one Elijah just emptied with another one he had brought himself. Though he still took it and did a deep sip that this time did not empty it with one go.

"You two figure it out," Elijah voiced with an intense stare aimed at Sadler. "The one better suited for it should take it so there is no need to rethink duties, again."

"Any reason why you can't just appoint me as the First Mate?" Sadler asked while keenly observing reactions from his drinking partners. Niki rushed to swallow the liquid in her mouth while she lifted her free hand like she had something really important to say.