Folk Story about Asja the Princess and The Captain

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This is a story that may or may not be true.
Those islands over there are called the Pakleni islands, meaning hell’s islands, supposedly. In truth the name comes from the old Slavic word for tar- ‘paklina’.
Why tar? Well to answer that this story must be told. It is not a story for the faint of heart.
Back in the day, Pharos and the Pakleni islands were ruled by the King. He lived with his family in the Spanish fortress up on that hill, the Fortica as the locals call it. Some say he wasn’t really a king, that he gave himself the title. Whether or not he was one, he wielded power over the area and was regarded by the islanders as their leader.
In those days trade was done by way of ships. The main object of trade was pine tar produced from the numerous pine forests that thrived on the Pakleni islands. It was used to seal the wooden hulls of the ships common to those times.
Trade was very delicate back then, with Venice dominating the Adriatic, including the Dalmatian coast. The only thing that threatened Venice’s power, that blunted the lion’s claws, were the Pirates of Almissa.
Pirates- the fear of every sailor and every sailor’s maiden. In those days pirates sailed these seas, plundering. However, they mostly stuck to the northern coast and rarely ventured this far south. The pirates had an arrangement with the southern realms and their rulers, to leave their bounty alone, and only sack the Venetian ships up north. Included in this arrangement was the island of Pharos with its ruler the King. As a result of this pact, the pirates, or ‘gusari’, and the southerners lived in peace.
Fate had it that one day ten Sagittas of the pirates’ fleet were forced to cast anchor this far south. A storm was brewing of such strength that many sa...

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...er screaming in agony as she watched the horror unfold at sea. As her tears fell down her cheeks she recalled the gitano’s prophecy. ‘My love is gone, my father has been taken, I am forsaken’ she exclaimed and wept.
Of the pirates’ presence on the islands, no evidence remained apart from a yet unborn child and the figurehead of the Captain’s ship, a dragon. It was placed at the entrance to the Fortica with the inscription iustitiae divinae as a warning for all mankind that the Fates were always watching.
It is said that the descendants of this tar blood line with their green-blue devil eyes still live among the locals. When they look out to the Pakleni islands at sunset they can see the sea burning where all their ancestors died.
There’s an old man sitting over there on the bench, leaning his head on his cane. He’s sitting there because he’s waiting for the sunset.

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