The trip took two days and during that time An Ning learned that Tsai Po was not only crazy about boats he was also a pirate with a fish fetish. He didn't like them. Not only did he not eat fish, he also didn't like the smell of them, or the way they look or the way they swim in the water like blind idiots. He became a pirate because he was crazy about the mechanics involved in piracy. The boats were not only strong and powerful but were built like they could withstand anything, even an attack from a sea monster.

He also liked the power being a pirate gave him. Tsai Po grew up weak and sickly, the son of a swash-buckling pirate who was a little bit ashamed of his son but tolerated him because he adored the boy's mother.

When he was ten, Tsai Po's father made him an apprentice to another pirate, Whitebeard, a notorious raider whose particular area of expertise were villages. He would target them, attack them, kill the men and raped the women. Then he would sell their children to the growing human trafficking trade that went on with other pirate vessels plying the same sea.

Whitebeard was named because he had a head full of thick white hair and beard that looked preposterously angelic plastered on his craggy and deeply tanned skin. His hair was not grey nor salt and pepper but the pure white of a snow cat. Whitebeard was also one of the most feared pirates that coasted the wide Pontos sea. He was so a.s.sured and c.o.c.ky about his nefarious reputation that his s.h.i.+p, the Naxos, refused to carry any pennant other than his own, a sketch of his profile with his famous white head against a backdrop of black.

When Tsai Po's father forced him to leave and follow Whitebeard, Tsai Po knew that the only way he could come back and his father would welcome him back was for him to make a name for himself as a pirate, acquiring the same cunning viciousness anyone in the piracy business learn early to survive. Piracy was not a scholarly business like He Heng envisioned it to be. It was brutal and violent, and involved underhanded decisions even his father's equally rotten soul would cringe to see if he knew.

Tsai Po returned home when he was twenty-two. By then, he found out he had a younger brother and that his mother had taken in the son of a dead cousin, who ironically enough, died at the hands of another pirate more brutal and notorious than Whitebeard.

Tsai Po, during his twelve years as Whitebeard's apprentice, not only learned piracy from Whitebeard but the seeds of a much bigger and more ambitious dream also began to germinate within him. He once asked Whitebeard why he chose to stay living afloat on a boat when he could go to land, buy a house or even start a family. He never forgot what Whitebeard told him, that he so feared his own shadow, the idea of living on sh.o.r.e was more of a threat to him than any monsters lurking underneath the waters. The Naxos, it turned out, had become Whitebeard's prison, and the wide blue sea his silent jailer.

When Tsai Po left the Naxos, Whitebeard gave him his share of a plundered pirate's treasure worth about two full chests of gold coins and jewels. This included the dead pirate's s.h.i.+p which Tsai Po renamed the Fancy and Whitebeard's blessing and good will. Tsai Po had come into his own under the elder man's tutelage and he was in fact more of a father to him than his own father. Whitebeard also bade him goodbye with a rather cryptic word.

"When you build that city of yours, then I will come and visit you," Whitebeard had said.

What city? Tsai Po was surprised but did not have a chance to say the words out loud when Whitebeard silently signaled and the small boat that would carry him to Fancy was lowered and he found himself on his own for the first time in years.

Barely a month after leaving the Naxos, the newly renamed Fancy met an accident during a sea storm and found herself stranded on a rocky island in the middle of nowhere. Luckily, the s.h.i.+p was rescued, the treasure it carried salvaged, and the rocky island turned out to be a mound of good luck that would change Tsai Po's life forever.

Fancy and the Whimsy reached Pirate City in the middle of the night two days later. An Ning was awakened by the sound of drums, which was getting louder as the s.h.i.+p got closer to its destination. She put some clothes on and went on deck. Nian Zhen and the crew were already there, watching as the barge followed the Fancy into the dock and the engines finally stopped.

The people on deck stared with gaping jaws at the long line of light s.h.i.+ning from several dozens of lanterns that wind their way up a long zig-zagging road which ended on a small bridge and an open gate. Beyond this gate were high elevated structures that stack themselves up like boards high up a mountain. The buildings were ablaze with lights, like neons in a busy Las Vegas strip. Palace City twinkled in the dark as attractive and inviting as any gambling joint. The sight was so incongruous and so jaw droppingly gorgeous that it took An Ning several minutes to realize that hundreds of people were watching from the bridge the hubbub of activity down below.

The curiosity seemed to be directed at the Whimsy which floated on the dock like some kind of rich man's idea of a fantasy ride. The barge was surrounded by lights, which showed the people huddling on deck against the wind, and Tsai Po, who came down the gangplank as casually as any deckhand on his way to do an errand. He was followed by He Heng who, as usual, looked glum and unhappy.

An Ning and Nian Zhen followed behind them more as a point of courtesy than anything else. It had been decided that since it was far too late into the night to see the hostages, the crew of the Whimsy would stay put where they were and for Tsai Po to expect their official arrival after breakfast that morning. After all, there was no sense in making everybody lose sleep that night. They've already arrived, they were there to negotiate. What did an extra hour or two matter anyway?

The two camps were satisfied and went on their separate ways temporarily. The people on the bridge were slow to disperse though, still hoping to see the occupants of the strange s.h.i.+p before the night ended but were disappointed when the visitors still didn't come out and only Tsai Po, He Heng and some crew members of the Fancy crossed the bridge and entered the city.

Eventually, everyone hankered in for the night. The drums stopped drumming, the lights were dimmed, and everyone went back to their own beds to sleep off the rest of the night. Everyone, of course, except for some villainous ent.i.ties who had taken advantage of the excitement by sneaking into the dungeon and killing the guards. The villains then viciously woke the four sleeping prisoners and started beating them up. The beatings were so savage and vicious the prisoners were almost at the point of death when the beatings finally stopped.

Then the four unconscious bodies were hoisted up and taken outside. A short while later, the prisoners were taken to a cliff where they were tied to cartwheels. A middle aged man then performed a rite which ended in an incantation. When the incantation stopped, a man in a black robe took out a knife and savagely stabbed Indian's left rib with it.

The knife did not break bones but was expertly used to create a wound that would bleed out the unconscious man to his death. The blood started spilling on the ground as the incantation was repeated over and over again, the wind carrying its message of death and destruction until it reached an underwater cave where a mythical creature dwelt and slept for some hundred years.

An Ning woke up with a snap when a hand insinuated itself under the covers and playfully caressed the tuft of soft hair that covered her mons veneris. She sat up, unconsciously swatting at the intrusive hand and glared groggily at the man looking l.u.s.tfully down her naked body.

Nian Zhen was supporting his head in one hand while the other hand was skimming An Ning's body like he was caressing silk. He looked down at the face so close to his and saw the confusion written there.

"Did I wake you up?" he asked softly, giving her temple a lingering kiss.

An Ning nodded.

"I guess I'm still not used to sharing my bed with someone. I thought you were an intruder."

"Well, you might call me that," Nian Zhen whispered huskily. "I like nothing better than intrude on you constantly, my dear Ning Ning," he ended hoa.r.s.ely as his hands caressed the familiar curves that now dominated his waking dreams. "Like now. I want to intrude on you so badly I'm shaking like a kid with his first woman."

"Stop that," An Ning protested weakly, trying to resist his boldness as he tightly plastered his naked and aroused body on to her equally naked loveliness. "I'm..I'm tired and I want to go back to sleep."

"But I don't want to waste a raging b.o.n.e.r on sleeping, darling," he whispered against her throat, his hot body pressing her down to the bed with increasing urgency. "I want to spend it clutch inside your tight and wet sheath."

"Nan Zhen!" An Ning cried, scandalized.

"What?" he innocently asked, his lower limbs beginning a familiar dance between her legs. "Don't tell me you don't want it? Don't close your legs against me, darling. Let me in," he said, his voice hoa.r.s.e with need.

"Nian Zhen...no," An Ning breathed, her voice reed thin with l.u.s.t.

"I just have to convince you then," he whispered against her open mouth then captured her wet tongue and sucked deliciously on it. He then proceeded to rub and sc.r.a.pe his engorged c.o.c.k against the soft hair between her legs, his entire length burrowing in and out at the juncture of her closed thighs, causing a heated friction that resulted in even more moisture to gather between An Ning's nether lips.

The feel of him rubbing against her drenched s.e.x was more than An Ning could bear, however. Her body surrendered even as her long and silken legs opened at a particularly savage rub that nearly sent her over the edge. Nian Zhen's ma.s.sive c.o.c.k sank effortlessly like a long sword inside An Ning's tight scabbard, leaving the lovers in a frenzy of l.u.s.t that was only a.s.suaged when Nian Zhen started to deliciously pull in and back out again between her legs. They came at the same time, grunting their satisfaction against each other's throats as their bodies s.h.i.+vered and shuddered, their fevered senses coming down from the highs of another earth-shattering climax.

Outside, the wind seemed to gather force, creating ripples on the surface of the water. The two s.h.i.+ps danced on the dock, the lounge chairs on Whimsy's upper deck sliding on the floor as the barge suddenly rode out big tides.

Approximately a mile away, the water created ripples in the wake of a monster swimming its way angrily and very fast towards the still sleeping Pirate City. The creature has been awakened by a familiar voice it hadn't heard in thousands of years. Where did that creature been and why did it take it long enough to reveal its presence?

The sea monster swam towards Pirate City determined to find answers and perhaps kill that person who called out to him and awakened him from his long sleep.