Chapter 2

Althawulfaz stood stiffly between the two Bloodsail Buccaneers. His arms were bound with rope and he was pretty sure a blade was being poked into his lower back. 

The boat he was being held on was slowly drawing in to the Booty Bay harbour. 
“We’ll make a fine profit on you, scrub!” said the taller pirate, “Auctioneer O’reely loves new meat!”  
Althawulfaz gulped. 
The shorter pirate turned to him with a look of disgust on her dirt smeared face. “Shame he ain’t got no armour or weapons. Made him easy pickings though.” She chuckled.

The boat pulled in to the harbour and the two pirates began shoving him across an extremely narrow plank onto the docks. Althawulfaz looked around. He could see many Goblins going about their day, some working on maintaining the harbour, some drunk and asleep in the hot sun. Looked like a pretty nice place to visit under any other circumstance.

“Come on with ya, scrub!” barked the taller pirate. They began to usher him up several sloping planks which made Althawulfaz start to feel a little nauseous. When they reached the top, the shorter pirate kicked him in the back of the legs making him fall to his knees. He looked up, furious at his mistreatment, straight into the gleaming eyes of a very happy Goblin. 
“Time is money, friends.” Said Auctioneer O’reely to the beaming Bloodsail Buccaneers. 
All Althawulfaz could do was listen as the auctioneer and pirates bartered over how much he was worth.


Sharm stepped out onto the docks and grimaced. Too hot! She held a hand up to her eyes to shield the white, hot sun and spotted a funny scenario going on at the dock below. 
A Night Elf with shoddy clothing and no weapons was being held by…oh brother. Bloodsail Buccaneers. And to make matters worse, that scheming, filthy rich O’reely was trying to get his claws into him. Oh well, it wasn’t her prob-

“Ow!” The Night Elf let out a howl as the female pirate bonked him on the back with the hilt of her sword. Sharm sighed. She knew she was going to make it her problem.


“Gentlemen.” Sharm smiled at the foursome – including the female. The female pirate sneered back. “Any chance I can come in on your haggling for this fine specimen?” She gestured at the Night Elf who looked extremely agitated at having his life haggled before his very eyes.
The female pirate snorted. “Ha! You ain’t got nothing we want princess, now get on with ya!”
Sharm smiled sadly and went to turn away. “Oh well…I guess you wouldn’t be interested in some silly old spectrecles anyway…” She twirled them lightly on her finger. 

The sound that came from Auctioneer O’reely’s mouth was laughable! She knew he couldn’t resist the infamous Shadowmoon Spectrecles.
“Honey, I got all kinds of toys in my utility belt but I’ve yet to get my hands on some Shadowmoon Spectrecles!” he said enthusiastically, nearly falling off his box. The pirates moaned both frantically reaching into their pockets to grab handfuls of silvers. Sharm saw her moment. She reached down and grabbed the Night Elf by his roped hands, yanking him to his feet. “RUN!” she yelled.

The Night Elf regained his senses quickly and shot off with Sharm back towards the boat he had arrived on. Just as he thought they were going to jump aboard, she quickly turned on her heel and headed up a plank towards … yes, it definitely was a gigantic shark’s head. The pirates were yelling obscenities at them from a distance, clambering over each other to get ahead whilst trying to draw their weapons – dropping silvers everywhere. The greedy resident Goblins were going insane scrambling about on the floor grabbing up every coin they could and hindering the pirates advances. 
The sound of snorting and sniffing caused both Sharm and Althawulfaz to glance behind them as they ran. A Worgen was clambering towards them, not sure whether to run like a Human or get down on all fours. He huffed and puffed as he caught up with them. 


They continued on just past the shark’s huge jaws and crouched down together, breathless. Althawulfaz was already using one of the shark’s enormous teeth to cut through the rope around his wrists. Sharm looked at the Worgen with a confused expression. The Worgen stared at Althawulfaz.
“Cor, bloody hell mate that was messy weren’t it?!” he said excitedly. Althawulfaz finally broke through his bindings and stood up, brushing himself down. An ape nearby eyed him hungrily.

“Yes, well. I would say thank you for your help back there but you were obviously preoccupied.” He turned to Sharm. “Thank you, however.” He bowed courteously. 
The Worgen put his head low and dropped his ears. “I would ‘a helped mate, honest! But you and me, we were in a similar predicament, you see? I did plan on helpin’ once I  got outta these!” He held up his front paws that were also bound with what looked like metal rope. Althawulfaz eyed Sharm’s dagger hanging at her side before grabbing it and aiming it at the Worgen’s bindings. “You might want to close your eyes.” He suggested before taking a hefty swing with the dagger and smashing clean through the metal rope. The Worgen smiled gratefully showing a set of glorious white teeth. “Ahh, thanks mate. Name’s Aingusz. Got caught by them blasted buccaneers whilst I was out for a swim. Caught me in one of their nets, they did!” He began licking his paws gingerly. 
Sharm held out her hand. The Night Elf placed her dagger into it and smiled sheepishly. 
“You,” she pointed at Althawulfaz with her dagger “can’t be here.” She panned the dagger around their surroundings. 
About a dozen apes had gathered a small distance away from Sharm and Aingusz, their eyes fixed on Althawulfaz. A little river of drool was forming around them.
Althawulfaz nodded. “Ah. Yes.”
Sharm pressed some coin into his hand. “You’re going to have to sneak back into Booty Bay. Get to the Salty Sailor Tavern’s upper level and look for the Hippogryphs. They can fly you to Stormwind which is the safest place for you right now.”
Althawulfaz smiled. “Thank you.”
Aingusz sprung up, snorting happily “Hey I’ll come with you! If those pirates do see us you’ll have more of a chance with me by ya side rather than on your lonesome! They won’t get us twice mate, promise!”
Althawulfaz let a gentle smile glimmer through. “Alright then. But if we do get caught again I do not want to see you hiding amongst the crates in the cabin, understand?” Aingusz nodded eagerly. 

The sound of several footsteps approached. 
“Oh there you are!” smiled Athenist with his hands on his hips. “What are you doing down there?” He took Sharm’s hand and helped her up. 
Sharm looked at Aingusz who was still licking his paws carefully and then to Althawulfaz who was half naked. She pursed her lips and turned back to Athenist, Raìdin, Khroen and Parantaja.

“It’s not what you think.”