Aa a loner, Patch would spend his days on the parapet of the castle hundreds of feet above the waves, gazing out at the cold grey sea. He had been a pirate in life and was proud to say so. The sea and adventure had been his whole world. Now he could only dream of what once was.

 

 

 

 

Patch was the oldest of the captive orphan children, fifteen when he died and only days from his 16th birthday and freedom.

 

It was a cruel day that took the lives of all nine orphans when their boat was destroyed in the storm and taken to Ravensbreath Island.

 

 

 

In his pirating days, before the orphanage, before his death, when he was free, Patch's life was full of perilous adventure and he came away with many scars that he wore with pride, even a head full of snow white hair.

His last ship, the Farwind, under the command of the bloodthirsty Captain Belard, was eventually ambushed after a hard fought battle and sunk by the even bloodier Captain Jaunk in the shark infested waters of the Caribbean.

 

 

 

 

The sharks swarmed the men clinging to bits of broken ship bobbing in the water and most, including the captain were chewed up and swallowed like Sunday lunch, but Patch, who was small, managed to drag himself into a halved whiskey keg, although he was gravely wounded as well.

 

 

 

Patch drifted on the waves and in and out of consciousness as rivulets of blood drained from his mangled body, luring sharks along.

 

 

 

 

But by some miracle a passing navy vessel spotted the floating debris and the boy curled up in a broken barrel before he was a meal too and retrieved from the waves.

 

 

 

 

Patch survived but was badly maimed, having lost half a leg, part of one hand and his right eye. But none of that compared to the heartbreak of waking up weeks later and finding he'd been shipped to Scotland and placed in a workhouse until his sixteenth birthday which would never come.

 

 

 

Two centuries hence and Patch mostly kept to himself, preferring the higher cliffs on Ravensbreath Island where he could gaze out to sea and play haunting melodies on his pipe.

 

There is much more to Patch's story and will be revealed in time.

Patch will haunt you forever.