Before the Attack (Original Fiction by Xan)

“Father,” Jenny roared through the thick oak door of the inn’s finest suite, “you had better not be in bed with that sweet young barmaid you was flirting with all last night!” Her voice began to show signs of impatience as she pounded on the door with more force. “That’s it! I’m coming in!” She screamed as she backed away from the door and across the hallway. She huffed a deep breath and charged at the door with her shoulder. The door crashed open as it broke of its rusted hinges. The sight that Jenny expected to see was not the one that awaited her in the suite of her father, Captain “Red Dog” Blackbirch.
Jenny nearly lost her footing as she slipped on the crimson pool developing on the wooden floor. His signature black and red coat lay on the bed at the far side of the room folded eloquently, probably from the night before. A man lay on a table in the middle of the room gasping for air, his white shirt stained burgundy by his own blood lay torn open exposing his red curls of hair matted with blood as well and a strange marking carved into his flesh.
“Jenny,” he gasped.
“Who did this to you father?” Jenny dashed to his side, bundling his shirt on the wound and trying to stop the blood.
“It is too late for me Jenny,” the fading captain gurgled out. “The Dryad Duchess is yours. Take her crew as your own. Leave here, now.”
“Father, what happened?” Jenny sobbed “Who did this to you?”
“Not… much… time…” he garbled out between coughs of blood. “Blackfin marked me with his Black Delta. He wanted me dead, and my ship to be his.” Jenny tried in vain to keep him breathing but the brand carved into his flesh ran to the bone. “You musn’t go after him, Jenny. Promise me!”
“Father, what will you have me do? Run from him like a coward?” The fire of revenge burned in her tear filled eyes as she hung onto her father’s final words.
“Take me hook, it controls the Duchess. You know that the elementals bound to its hull will only be controlled by its power.” He gasped. “Promise me you will not go looking for Blackfin, but you will RUN and take the Duchess far away from here.”
“I promise.” Jenny sobbed as her father’s last breath gurgled from his slack jaw. “For now…”