The Sands Come Calling - Prince Of Persia One Shot

This night was going to be a long one. Winds lashed across the deck, crew members staggering this way and that in an attempt to tighten the rigging. The main mast creaked ominously and the rain poured relentlessly from the heavens as I made my way up the stairs from my cabin to the deck. The raging storm was pounding furiously at the Gull and the little vessel pitched and bobbed in the vast emptiness of the churning ocean. My armour felt cold on my skin and my cloak whipped about behind me as I squinted through the storm the way we had come, seeking out the darkness that I was sure was not far behind.

“This storm shows us no mercy, we shall respond in kind! Reef the mainsails!”

My shouted instruction rejuvenated the overworked crew of the ship and sent them scurrying to comply. I motioned one of the deckhands towards me. “Bring us closer to the wind,” I said when he was within hearing range.

The grim man, apparently a veteran among the crew of this little craft, nodded grimly and hastened away, as I looked around once again into the gloom broken only by the occasional blaze of lightning spearing across the dark sky. Ironically, the turmoil around us seemed to reflect my own emotions perfectly. The parting words of the Old Man surfacing again from the depths of my mind.

“You cannot change your fate.”

The whisper had haunted my memories for many a day and I could feel the strain of having to stand against seemingly insurmountable odds catching up with me, the despair waiting to claim me…

Another brief flash of lightning diverted my attention towards the side of the ship, to the most fleeting glimpse of something in the water beside us. As I quickly moved across the deck to where I had seen whatever it was that the lightning had illuminated, another flash from the heavens confirmed my suspicions.

Another ship.

A much larger, sleeker craft, which was faring much better against the wind and the waves than our little Gull. By now most of the deckhands had noticed it too, as it slowly drew alongside our ship, and we saw that there were men on deck, wearing a strange armour that even I, with my knowledge gained by travels in many countries, was not familiar with.

In the moment that it drew abreast the Gull, an unearthly quiet seemed to surround us, and in the same instant, the moon broke through the clouds for the briefest instant in time, illuminating the men on deck. In that very same instant, I realized that I had made a mistake. Not men, creatures.

As if their glowing eyes and rising weapons were not proof enough, a glance down at the medallion on my breastplate confirmed it. It was glowing.

I shed my cloak and drew my sword in the same movement as I shouted out what would perhaps be my last command in battle. “Ready your weapons!”

It was then that I noticed the woman in armour as black as the sky around us standing amidst the monsters on their deck. She was staring straight at me with the hint of a smile on her cold, misleadingly beautiful face. And even amidst the metallic scraping of my crew members drawing their blades, I could see her mouth curve evilly and form the words, “Kill him.”

Disclaimer: This piece was inspired by content depicted in one of the game's opening cinematics, and the dialogue has been reproduced as voiced by the characters in the game.