1. My life as a midget pirate Thanks [My Neighbor Totoro] for entering Generally speaking, life begins with birth - mine did not.At least I don't know how I was born.Maybe I was born from the foam of a wave, which is perfectly reasonable, or grew out of a shell like a pearl.Maybe I fell from the sky, from a shooting star. One thing is for sure, though, I was thrown into the sea as a foundling.My first memory is of me floating in the cold sea, naked and alone in a walnut shell, because I was very small.I still remember the din that could be heard from far away.That's a lot of noise.When people are young, they tend to overestimate everything, but today I know that it is indeed the loudest sound in the world. It springs from the strangest, most dangerous, and noisiest eddies of the seven seas of the world--I don't know, that's the Malm Rapids, on which I lay rocking in a little walnut shell.To me it was just a violent din of water.Perhaps what I was thinking at the time was (if it can be called a thought): on the boundless sea, lying naked in a walnut shell, it is probably only natural to swing to the place where the deafening roar is issued. The noise became louder and louder, and the walnut shells swayed more and more violently. At that time, I didn't know that I had already fallen into the center of the whirlpool.My puny little boat, perhaps the smallest in the world, danced in a spiral eddy miles long, surrendering to the roaring abyss. It must now be thought of, that this was the most desperate situation that could possibly be encountered at sea.Every sailor with a sane mind will make a wide bend to avoid the area called the Malm Whirlpool.Even if someone tries to save me, it will meet the same fate.He will be sucked into the bottom of the sea together, because no ship will escape from the center of the vortex. Now, my little walnut shell is still spinning, dancing to the beat of the waltz, facing the whirlpool, and plunged into the rumbling throat of the ocean.However, I only focused on observing the stars revolving in the sky, and eavesdropped on the sound of Malm's torrent vortex, without thinking of any danger at all. At that moment, I heard for the first time the terrible singing of the dwarf pirates. The Gnome Pirates are the rulers of the Chamonnen seas.Of course no one knew about them, because they were so small that no one could spot them.For them, no matter how high the waves are, no matter how fierce the storm, no matter how terrible the eddies, it seems that they are nothing to worry about.The most daring of all navigators, they are constantly looking for challenges to prove their sailing ability to even the fiercest forces of nature.They wanted to prove that only their prowess at sea could match the whirlpool of Malm. And so it happened that they were caught in a vortex out of sheer recklessness.Their singing is a strange sound that is not afraid of the sky and the earth.It is worth noting that they are constantly searching the water for the most favorable wave tunnels and rapids. The dwarf pirate sitting on the mast-top lookout looked through a tiny telescope when I was about to disappear in the whirlpool of Malm's rapids. found me. It was a doubly lucky arrangement.I never expected to be discovered by the dwarf pirates, because, under normal circumstances, anyone of normal size would probably not notice my existence.They fished me into the boat.Shroud me in a watertight suit, and fasten me to the mast with heavy hawsers.It was a very strange thing for me at the time, but it was for my safety.At the same time, they still take for granted the heroic battle against nature.They scrambled up and down the mast like squirrels, hoisting and furling the sails with such speed that it was dizzy to watch.To keep the boat balanced they act like adults.Jumped to port for a while, jumped to starboard for a while, jumped to the bow for a while, and jumped to the stern for a while.While bailing, they disappear into the cabin, then come up with a full bucket and jump over the hatch.Walking unsteadily by the cable.They kept busy, turning the wheel now and then, calling to each other; sometimes hanging together on a great sail, trying to make it spread out more quickly, and then taking up the hawser, all the while not forgetting for a moment to sing their pirate songs. Song.It was even remembered that one of them was constantly scratching the deck at the same time. Foam rushed to the boat, and the boat tilted and stood up sometimes, and even dived into the water many times, but it did not sink.I took a sip of seawater for the first time, and I must admit, it didn't taste bad.We slide in the tunnel of waves, run on the mountain of foam.For a while it was thrown into the sky, and for a while it was crushed to the bottom of the waves.The pirate ship was tossed about by the huge waves, slapped, pushed and shoved, and drowned in the foam from the waves.Still, the gnome pirates were not lost.They shouted at the sea, spat at it, and stabbed tenaciously at the waves with their iron claws.With lightning speed they would scatter, mount the mast, furl the sail, and spread it out again in the blink of an eye.They respond to every movement of the sea, every breeze, every wave of the boat.He even knew immediately what he had to do next.No one issues orders, all are equal.They worked together and finally defeated the fierce ocean tenaciously.I watched in amazement as they busily worked while, of course, I was tied to the mast by them. If people were as small as the Puldur Pirates (as I was then), he lived in another era.Anyone who tries to catch a fly with his hands at any time knows that the speed and agility of this tiny creature have absolute advantages for him.To the flies, our movements appear to be in slow motion, and it is easy for them to dodge our movements and escape from us.Gnome pirates are a lot like them.What was a swift current to an ordinary ship was to them an innocent eddy.A giant wave breaks down for us into many smaller waves that we can comfortably ride through.Just as a hurricane sweeps through a city and brings down the house of the tallest man while a tiny spider's web remains safe, so the dreadful whirlpool does us no harm.What protects us is because we are small. that's it.We escaped the whirlpool of Malm's rapids.I have already said that at the time I knew nothing of the dangers of the whirlpool--a long time later.What I can record is that the sound of the flowing water is getting weaker and weaker, and the pirates are no longer so excited.At last, the situation greatly relaxed, and they gathered around me, let go of the ropes that bound me, and looked at me in amazement. I too stared at them in amazement. Dwarf pirates, as the name already suggests, are rather small in stature.Ten centimeter dwarf pirates are considered giants among them.The dwarf plum pirate drives a very small boat on the sea.They're always looking for something small enough to grab.This rarely happens.It would have never happened.To illustrate the truth: in all the history of navigation, not a single ship was plundered by dwarf pirates, not even a single oar-rowed ship.Occasionally, gnome pirates also attack larger ships, even sea liners, mostly out of desperation.Generally speaking, their efforts are never easy to detect.These tiny pirates hooked their tiny iron claws into the wood of the great ship, and were dragged away until they finally gave up.or.They fire their own little cannonballs, and their shots never reach their target - only to plop a few meters away and fall in vain into the sea. Since they never had prey, they had to subsist mainly on seaweed or fish, eating what they could eat, such as small fish or shrimp.Even in the most urgent cases, they do not eat plankton.Dwarf pirates have no hands.Instead of hands are small iron hooks, and their legs are not real legs.It's made of wood.Besides, I saw not a single one of them not wearing goggles.At first I thought maybe their eyes were hurt during the valiant snatch, but then I learned that they were born that way, along with their beards and hats. Quoted from The Encyclopedia of Miracles, Populations, and Oddities of Zamonin and Surrounding Areas Professor Dr Abdunahti ed. Gnomish Pirates: They are kind by nature, or, perhaps because of that, they like to appear bloodthirsty and rough on the surface, but they are not bad at heart.They love big talk, especially when it comes to successful pirate voyages as luscious prey.Almost can say.They just like to brag.If two gnome pirates collide (this happens all the time on a ship full of gnome pirates).They would put on an exaggerated posture face to face, count the number of merchant ships, and say that those merchant ships were drilled through them and sank to the bottom of the sea.They also boasted of how many innocent sailors they had thrown overboard or driven onto deck.Then they would talk and drink rum, a drink made of seaweed and beetroot, which, though not alcoholic at all, would inflame the fantasies of the pirates even more. Will harden their tongues quickly. Gnome pirates have no appetite for alcohol. At that time, I often went to their parties and listened to the great bragging of the dwarf pirates.Of course, I am willing to admit that this extravagant description and rich fantasy have an influence on me.What I have learned from them is that a harmless, emergency lie is often more exciting in nature than the truth.In other words, it seems that the lie puts a more beautiful coat on the truth. There's nothing worse than boredom for midget pirates.Once one of them is even just a little bit bored.He will feel that it is a kind of torture, and he will feel very uncomfortable in his heart.He would sigh and groan, and threaten the sky with their little hooked hands, pulling his hair, and sometimes even tearing his clothes.But it only made things worse, because afterwards, in the locker room, he would bemoan the gash in his melon and complain about how fate had thrown all the tragedy on his head.At sea, the dwarf pirates are constantly moaning and moaning, as boredom frequents every ship.If you're not sighing, you're bragging.If they neither sighed nor boasted, they would sing their pirate songs strangely.I grew up in this atmosphere. I became a special life content for dwarf pirates.During the five years I lived with them, their entire lives revolved almost exclusively around me.As if I had finally given their absurd lives some meaning.They told me movingly all they knew about piracy and pirate life.They sang to me those dreadful pirate songs all day long, and cursed all day long, whether it was when the skull and skull was hoisted, or when the little cards were made.Once, they wanted to make me happy.Give me a boat that is at least a thousand times bigger than theirs.I learned everything one needs to know about failure that day. also.I learned the sailors' craft simply by observation and help.From lifting anchors, plugging seams to tensioning cables.That starts with scrubbing the deck.Possibly scrubbing decks is a high art, brushing them until every voracious germ on the wood is visible, but not so slippery that one can stand on them ( Especially important for the slender wooden legs of gnome pirates).Soft soap mixed with quicksand is ideal for scrubbing decks; soap is used to remove germs, quicksand keeps decks from slipping, I learned how to hold a sail in the wind, when there is wind, the sail should be taut, and when the sea is calm, let the sail go Drooping, I learned to take advantage of the day-to-day breezes, tack, turn around in cold seas and come to a full stop mid-sail. (This is a trick only dwarf pirates have. To avoid collisions with bigger fish on the high seas. This happens when they encounter cod.) One of the most important things in the life of a seaman is the knot.I am not referring here to the knots used to measure the speed of a boat, I am referring to the knots that can be made of various shapes with a hemp rope.I learned to tie 723 different knots that I still remember vividly to this day.I (of course) tie a simple sailor's knot, but I also tie a midget pirate's double apron knot, a storm bow tie and gooseneck rope, a ship monster's rope, and even a double Gordian knot, and I tie a tangled red wing bird.As good as a zip tie with eightfold rings, I use linen knot manila rope, and I can even blindfolded tie two eel knots so intricately that they can never be separated again.That's how I became the master knotter on the dwarf pirate ship, and whenever anyone needed a knot, they came to me.I can tie knots into a fish, and, if necessary, can even tie one knot into another in an absolute emergency. Of particular importance at sea is of course navigation.Gnome pirates have few technical aids.They don't even know what a compass is.They sailed according to a system based on the observation of the shape of the waves.If you look at the waves carefully, you will realize that they are all different.Although people say that it looks like one wave is no different from another.Not really: every wave has a particular crest curve, some steep, some pointed, some flat, some round, some thin, some thick, some green, some Some are blue, some are long, some are wide; some are cold, some are warm, and the taste is sweet and salty.The sound can be high or low, the speed can be fast or slow, some are safe, while others are life-threatening. That is to say, each wave has its own structure, its own face, and one can even say that each has its own hairstyle on the head.People distinguish them by their shape, which is called the undulation of the waves.The waves of the southern waters are lazy and swaying, while the waves of the northern sea are tense with cold and danger, frozen into large ice floes.Hawaiian waves appear to dance to the rhythm of the rumba, while Scottish waves march in long file to the accompaniment of the most beautiful bagpipe music.If you study waves deeply, you will know what kind of waves like to stay where, such as green happy ripples in shallow tropical ponds, dark and muddy waves on the coast, especially in Where rivers meet, high and blue waves mostly in cold and deep seas, etc. According to their appearance, people can accurately judge whether there is a deep pool, whether there is an invisible beach or coral reef, whether it is near the land or on the open sea, or whether it is in a hidden undercurrent, or even Is there a big shark in the water, or just some herring.If there are large sharks, the waves will tremble gently. I also learned about the daily maintenance of the hull and the repair of the cabin, removing the conch from the hull (the ingredient of their seaweed soup), maintaining balance in the rough and rough strait, lowering the lifeboat, throwing the lifebuoy and sitting on the lookout and other emergency skills.A year later, I was a well-trained sea bear, and I stopped throwing up, even in a storm. The rich food that the dwarf pirates gave me was mainly seaweed and small fish.They recognize 400 ingredients, from 'natural seaweed' to very complex soufflés. I can eat whatever I want. My distaste for seaweed today may have something to do with the diet of the dwarf pirates. One could say he hated eating seaweed, if he wanted to.But seaweed contains all the vitamins and substances a little blue bear needs to grow, and maybe even more.So I grew up fast, and not only did I feel it.Before long, even the dwarf pirates were frightened.At first, I was smaller than my saviors, but after a year, I was as big as them, after two years, I was twice as tall as them, and after four years, I was five times their height. Adding them together is even higher. It is conceivable that such a rapid growth is a very uncomfortable thing for the small pirates.They have a natural distrust of all tall creatures.Five years later, I was so tall and heavy on the boat that their boat was in danger of sinking at any moment. Even if I didn't understand it at the time, what the Shed pirates did was correct.One day they put me on a small island.I am sure it will not be an easy task for them either.They gave me a bottle of seaweed juice and a piece of seaweed bread as dry food.Then they sighed and complained and drove off towards the sunset.They knew their lives would be more boring without me. I first thought about my situation when I sat naked and alone on a lonely desert island.Indeed, this was entirely the first time I had thought about the matter, for I never had a definite idea in such an endless rowdy atmosphere as on a pirate ship. I must admit that my initial attempts at thinking were not too deep.The first thought that came to my mind was: hungry.The second thought is: Thirst.That said, I greedily devoured the seaweed bread and drank the seaweed juice in the bottle in a hurry.Then, immediately, I felt a warm pleasure spreading in my stomach, as if someone had kindled a campfire inside of me.Therefore, I also have a certain kind of self-confidence that encourages me to seize fate and get to know this island, that huge coconut grove.This earlier experience serves as a lesson for all future life: no matter how serious the challenge, any peach battle is easier to win if you have had a serious meal before then. Then came night and darkness. Darkness—I still don't know what it is.In the gnome pirates, it is always bright, even at night.At night, the boats are brightly lit.The ships of the gnome pirates are always a small sensation at night.Looks like a miniature church feast.Includes sound effects.That said, gnome pirates have a special fear of the dark.They thought night might be the time of the Ship-Monsters, who came to eat the souls of the Sea-Dirty.And those ship monsters can only be scared away with bright lights and as loud a sound as possible.The dwarf pirates light up their ships not only with lanterns, torches, and colored luminous chains, but one by one, they fire signal rockets continuously into the sky and sing, shout, and beat iron basins with hammers, etc., so that It made a deafening noise, so that no one could close their eyes at night.They sleep during the day.So, we were never harassed by ship monsters. Now, for the first time, darkness appeared.With this darkness came a new feeling, one that I had never endured until now: fear. It was an uncomfortable feeling when the darkness invaded my body and ran through my veins.The fat green palm trees were still swaying leisurely in the wind just now.Now it suddenly turned into a black, swaying huge figure, waving its huge palm, and sending out a terrible message. I was amazed by the crescent moon hanging in the sky.Because it was always lit all night on board, it never caught my attention, and the wind rustled through the ferns in the palm grove and turned them into outlaws among whispering specters.They were getting closer and closer, surrounding me and prodding me with their slender fingers.Suddenly, I had to think of the ship monster. I tried to suppress the thought, but couldn't.Not as hysterical as the dwarf pirates, nor as feigned, especially without their extravagant lights.Light can scare off ship monsters.My young life went to an absolute trough: stripped, naked, alone, in an eerie, strange wood, full of fear.Suddenly, I saw a little disturbing light between the trunks of the palms.The green light, like a snake, was far away at first, but came quickly, and at the same time made a loud buzzing sound, like the sound of ordinary electrical appliances, and sometimes a kind of hollow giggle , like a horned monster that sits in a well.Presumably this is where the Ship's Monster arrives, which I know from the midget pirates.

Ship monsters: Ship monsters belong to those so-called generally cursed species (comparable: forest spider spirits, baloks, and the creatures of Chamonnin and its surrounding areas will also be counted in their group), and their main life The content is to spread fear among the contemporaries, and in addition to create troubles in various forms, disrupt the harmony of the society and reduce the joy of life for the creatures.The appearance of the ship monsters is repulsive, even scary. When they appear, most of them appear in groups, make scary noises, sing creepy songs, and like to appear among those defenseless creatures as much as possible. Have fun watching their discomfort. It was too much for me, and I felt a heat rushing upwards in my head.My eyes, mouth and nose were filled with that stuff, and there was nothing I could do but give in to this internal pressure: I cried.This is the first time in my life!Big salty tears flowed into my hands, snot dripped down my nose, and my whole body shook rhythmically with my sobs.Now nothing else matters.The ship-monsters, the darkness, the fear surrounding me--everything became secondary to this violent outburst of emotion.I howled, I sobbed, kicked my calves, and cried until my soul was about to run out of my body.My tears flowed into my fur like two small waterfalls, crying until I was like a wet rag.In the end I passed out completely. Then, I quiet down.The tears dried up, and the wave of sobbing calmed down.A sense of sedative warmth and weariness overwhelmed me.I even had the courage to open my eyes and stare into the kraken's face.They floated around me in a semicircle, a buzzing form of six or seven ghostly lights.Their arms and hands dangled and hung like deflated bicycle tires.They stared at me intently for a moment in silence, almost moved, and then they started clapping their hands. I don't want to glorify them at all: the ship monsters are indeed hideous.The slimy way they walk, if touched by them, there is a slight electric shock-like feeling; their high-pitched voice, that singing-like voice, especially their suspicious looking helpless people frightened The appearance of being happy from time to time is very hateful.In addition, they exude a smell of rotten wood, which flows like a river (this has something to do with their sleeping habits), and what is more disgusting is what they eat.More on this later. Yes, there were only ship monsters here and no other creatures, but even so, I went with them.What else can I do but go with them? I didn't understand a word they said or sang, but I quickly understood, and they asked me to go with them.I feel that I am in such a situation that it is better to go with them. Who knows what will happen to me here?Anyway, maybe they can use me. They slid into the woods ahead of me, gliding around obstacles like glistening green water snakes.If the obstacle was too high or too big, such as a huge rock or a fallen mammoth tree, they would chuggle right through the middle of that obstacle as if it were no thicker than fog. I can't be like them, but the ship monster will rest not far ahead, waiting for me together.Then they would sing a dreadful song that sounded so repulsive that I was glad I couldn't understand the words at all. When we finally reached our destination I was completely exhausted and I was covered in leaves, brambles and twigs.It was a clearing in the middle of the forest.There are hundreds of huge mammoth trees lying in disorder in the open space, and the trees are all decayed.A cemetery in a large forest, where hundreds of ship monsters live.This is another home for me.