Hey guys! IndianaJoneshoney here! This isn't my first fanfic, but it's my first one in a while! Please read and review. Let me know what you think! Just... no flames please XD.
"Jassy! Starboard side!" my first mate, Chalise yelled. I ran over, and ran the enemy through. We were under attack by the goblins. Why did it HAVE to be goblins? Even though it wasn't uncommon in these waters, for goblins to just come and randomly attack pirates who were doing innocent "pillaging", it was still the last thing I had expected this warm, sunny morning; I'd had the feeling that it was going to be an uneventful day. Yes, I had known what I was doing when I brought my crew through Cackle Passage, but now I as starting to regret it; was the Red Diamond really worth this? We could take them, I knew we could, but my mates and I were starting to grow weary.
I looked over at Kit and Bobby who were single handily fighting off ten goblins each. We were winning but our movements were beginning to slow. I sighed when I caught sight of Chalise and Mo, and watched them fight back-to-back, their tiredness showing in their lagging movements. Then my second hand mate made her way over to me.
"Could be worse," said Sam; even in the most stressful of times, she always tried to have an optimistic view on things. "This isn't as bad as the time when you took us through that hurricane."
"Yeah that wasn't too smart on my behalf," I admitted, "but we had to get to Port Gemini to help Atlanta and the rest of the Dragon Riders defeat that other guy." I tried to remember details, but we had fought so many battles, it was hard to remember all who we had beaten. Plus, I had to keep my head in the current game I was playing at.
"That's true," Sam replied, "but why are we heading to Dead Man's Isle? What's there for us? There has to be a reason its calls 'Dead Man's Isle.'"
"Exactly, Sam," I grunted, lunging at an ugly goblin who was trying to sneak up on Nikki. "It's called, 'Dead MAN'S Isle', not, 'Dead Woman's Isle'. We've had worse before, and I'll explain once we get rid of these bastards."
"I hope you know what you're doing, Jass," Sam replied, drawing her sword once more (I was about to ask her why she had put it away in the first place, but she continued speaking). "Anna over there is planning a mutiny against you. None of us will follow her of course, but she is threatening to jump ship at the next port."
"Thanks for informing me," I said, wondering how long that had been going on. "That chick's been a thorn in my side from day one...but let's continue this later...for now let's kick some goblin-"
I was interrupted by a high pitched goblin war screech from right behind me. I turned around only to come face to face with the ugliest goblin I had ever seen.
"You're the big cheese I take it then?" I glared, as he was raised his hatchet. As soon as his arms were over his head, I stabbed him through the heart, and he fell, giving a last strangled gurgle before he changed back into his human form and died. I shuddered; I hated watching them do that. A goblin is born human...they are only turned into goblins when the are captured by one, or born into a goblin family.
When a human is captured, they are taken to a goblin's "city" (if you could call them cities), where they perform a ceremony to their god yada, yada, yada, and then the human is changed into a heartless "robot", they deform on the outside to reflect the ugliness within them, and then set out to kill anyone that wasn't in goblin nature. Except of course if one of their own kind is sick or dieing, in which case they become cannibals. I shuddered again.
"Jassy, look out behind you!" Mo cried out. I swung my sword about behind me, and felt it collide with goblin armor, which was no good really, because it was only cloth...kind of dumb actually. Anyway, that one changed into a woman this time, and she vanished as well.
"Are we done yet?" asked Nikki, yawning and killing any goblin that came near her. She was kneeling casually up against the railing, yawning as the goblins came at her. Okay, so maybe she wasn't as tired as she had been letting on before…
"Are they all dead yet?" I asked sarcastically, earning a glare from her and Babsie who was battling a goblin and facing me.
"Not quite, only a few more to go," she replied, meeting my satiric response with one of her own.
"Then no, we're not done yet," I said, as the rest of my crew and I killed of the last few. I was very lucky to have a crew who understood that I came across as grumpy, when I was actually just in determined concentration. Once the one I was fighting was dead, I turned onto the last one and struck before he or she had a chance to realize what was happening. "There...now we're done."
"Finally," Anna said. She was sitting on the rail of the ship, and hadn't done anything for the last half of the invasion. She flicked her short-ish blond hair, and marched over to pout in front of me. Ready to attempt to put on an empathetic and understanding expression on my face, I looked right at her- and saw from her reaction that my expression was not saying what I had meant for it to. Anna's pout (if possible) deepened, and she glared while she continued to complain. "Why is it that every time I get in the shower on this ship, we're attacked, or you lead us through a hurricane, or you decide to go on some other random adventure, or-"
"Oh shut up, Anna," Bobby said, sounding thoroughly frustrated, and coming over to stand next to me. "None of us anticipated the attack. Next time don't shower, so then you'll be more prepared."
"Oh yeah, like I'm going to do that," Anna's whiny voice pierced through my brain like a white-hot knife. "I've had enough problems without being on this stupid ship. And my room is such a mess, I don't have time to kill goblins twenty-four-seven...and how the hell did you get plumbing on a pirate ship anyway?"
"Well there are very simple answers to your questions," Chalise said to her. "First of all, you could just quit; secondly you could try cleaning your room, while the rest of us are cleaning ours'- We've been telling you to tackle that shit hole for a month now, you dunce."
"Thirdly," Kit put in, startling me; I hadn't heard her sneak up behind me. "You were with us when we went to that place called Earth...they had plumbing there and those nice people on that Vancouger Island...or Van- Well Van-Something-Island fixed us up with some civilized things...no offence Jassy."
"None taken," I said to her, finding it difficult to act like I had patience at the moment. "We didn't even know what plumbing was until we were transported there by the Oracle."
"Well I don't know how much more of this I can take," Anna said. "I mean I'm going though a lot of stuff right now. I was just attacked by goblins, my room is a disaster, and I have a terrible captain who is constantly leading us on wild goose chases-"
"Well first of all, Anna," Babsie said stepping in and cleaning off her sword on Anna's pants (I had to smile at that). "We were ALL just attacked by goblins, if you haven't realized; we're all kinda literally on the same boat here. Second of all, if you think your room is such a pig-sty, why didn't you clean it when we were all asked to? And don't repeat you problems needlessly. It makes it seem like you just want attention."
"Not only that," Nikki said, sounding like she was just as fed up as I was, "but if you hate it on this ship so much, why don't you just get off at the next harbor?"
"I'm sure not everybody here wants me gone," Anna scoffed and stuck her nose up in the air. I caught Sam's eye, and she shook her head, as if warning me to keep my runaway-mouth shut.
"Wanna bet?" Chalise shot back, allowing all of her negative feeling to show through her voice. Anna stood there shocked, while the rest of the crew was covered by an awkward silence. Chalise always had a way of showing her exact feelings by the tone of her voice, and it usually either had a negative or positive effect on the people she was around. I decided to break the awkwardness.
"Alrightie then, Anna," I said, patting her shoulder in mock sympathy, making sure that she understood that I didn't care what happened to her next. "The next time we come to a port, you'll be the first one off ok? And don't bother coming back. We obviously don't want you."
The crew took that as a dismissal and went back to their stations; I went to the wheel, and turned it so that we were moving South. By nightfall, we were out of Cackle Passage, and on our way back to Port Gemini. On the way, I had a lot of time to think. After Anna's dismissal, I had gotten a kind of sick feeling in my stomach, almost as if I would regret it someday. As much as I tried to, I couldn't shake it off. I had thought that by going to my place at the wheel, I would feel more comfortable; distracting myself with other thoughts didn't work either. The thought of Anna's look wouldn't get out of my head.
"Penny for your thoughts, sweetie?" Chalise said, leaning against the rail to look at me.
"We did the right thing," I said it mostly as a question. "Anna doesn't belong here, right? And she pisses us all off?"
"Jassy, we did the right thing," Chalise said to me, her eyes searching my face. "And yes, she really does piss us all off. I don't think that the rest of the crew and I really think of the people on this ship as people belonging to a certain position. We're all friends, and you're never out of the loop. Though we may follow your orders, Captain, you have our respect and our loyal, loving friendship. We're usually behind you, no matter what, even if the feeling isn't always mutual. You know that, right?"
"Thanks, girl," I said, half-smiling for the first time since that morning. "That's not what I'm worried about though. No, she definitely did not belong here. And yes, she was a pain in all of our asses. But as soon as I told her that she could no longer be part of this crew, I got a bad feeling. A feeling like we would all regret it later."
Chalise looked deep in thought for a while. Finally, as if a light bulb had gone off over her head, she spoke.
"We could go see Orie about it!" she said, looking eager. "After we go to Gemini, then we'll go and ask her about it… if you agree, Captain."
"Sure," I said, grinning as a lighter feeling lifted my spirits, just thinking about our Oracle. "We haven't been to her Island in a while. I'm sure she'd love a visit. And are you sure that's the only reason you want to go? You don't want to upgrade your Gifts or anything?"
"Well," Chalise said, pretending to ponder, "I know that I shouldn't ask. But we've done so much since our last visit. I'm sure that we've earned the rest by now?"
"Maybe," I said, making sure that my tone was serious. "Just make sure that you don't flat-out ask. You can already hypnotize, and persuade people by touching them. What more do you need?"
"Not sure," Chalise said. "I mean, we have our main ones on top of our given Gifts anyways."
"Hmm… I see in your future, a man, a big house, and a shit load of money," I smirked.
"Really?" Chalise asked, excitedly.
"Actually, I was joking," I said, with a slight twinge of guilt. "And you know I can't see that far yet. I only get feelings."
"Damn," Chalise said. "I think we can drop anchor here. Let's mess with their heads a bit over night."
I smirked, agreed, motioned to Bob and Mo, who were talking and laughing by the port side of the ship, and they nodded; Bob flicked her fingers, and the anchor went down.
"Could you be anymore lazy?" I called down to her, with a smile on my face.
"Yes," Bob said, smiling back.
I bade the rest of my crew goodnight, and went down to my cabin. Once I was alone, in my tiny nightgown, I did what I usually did. I stared up at the half-moon, and thought myself to sleep.
*
I awoke to a tapping sound; although I didn't open my eyes, I could tell that there was morning sunlight showering my cabin, so I covered my head with the blankets, and tried to ignore both the noise and the cruel brightness. The tapping continued anyway, so I threw the covers off, and groaned. "You know there's another way to do that. It's called, not-being-an-ass-and-asking-politely-for-entrance."
But the tapping carried on, so I sat up and looked around my cabin, still not impressed. I was not a morning person. There was no sound coming from the door, so I looked out my window. There was a black crow, tapping urgently on the glass, glaring at me.
"Oh I'm sorry," I said, letting him in. He flapped angrily into my cabin and sat on my desk beside my ink bottle and quill. He continued to glare at me. "What's new Niles?"
"A lot," the bird said grouchily. "I had no idea that you were such a heavy sleeper; I've been perched on that sill for a good two hours-"
"Get on with it Niles, you just interrupted a really good dream," I said groggily and not really caring how much I've discomforted the messenger.
"Alright, alright," the crow chuckled, "but first I have one question..."
"Which is...?"
"Was your dream about...him?"
I angrily threw my pillow at him, which he dodged easily by flying up and landing onto my bed, on my lap. I shook him off, and he settled on my bed frame.
"Alright, no need to make a fuss, just teasing-"
"Not funny..."
"I said I was sorry-"
"No, you didn't," I pointed out. "What're you here for Niles? Not that I don't enjoy your company or anything…"
"Oh, that's nice," the bird said, wincing, as if ready for another pillow to be hurled his way. When none came, he relaxed and carried on. "The queen wants to see you; she said it was urgent...and that there's also another Pirate crew, who's just about got you ladies beat."
That last part made me sit up. No one was better than us. With my cleverness, Kit's wolf and fox powers, Chalise's ninja skills, Sam's logic, Nikki's...well you get the point...we were invincible. And we had been for a good seven years.
"What does the queen want, and who the hell is this so called 'better pirate crew who's almost got us beat'?" I asked, intrigued.
"Come see the queen tonight and your questions will be answered. But I will give you one hint...you do know the captain of the other crew." And with that, Niles flew off, without another word...except for a screech as another pillow was hurled in his direction.
Again, I was alone, and again, I was frustrated. I was not normally an angry person, and stuff like this didn't usually get me down. However, kicking a crew member off of my ship, getting invaded by goblins at nine in the morning to fight them until five in the evening, and then getting a sick feeling in my stomach after all of it, sure didn't make me a happy camper.
I threw on some clean trousers, put my corset on before I put on a shirt, and then grabbed my sword and sheath. The only satisfactions that I had to make my morning better was seeing my friends' faces, and watching the port guards scramble around, wondering what a pirate ship was doing just sitting in their harbor, with their battle flags up.
"Kit!" I called up to the crow's nest. She poked her head over the side, a heavily amused smile on her face. "Maybe we should put up the white flags… let's let them relax until we tell them that we actually have an appointment with the queen."
"The queen?" Mo asked me, slightly taken aback.
I nodded.
Well there you go! Please read and review and let me know what you think! And even if you think it sucks, I'm still going to write more... because I'm cool like that. Any constructive criticism is greatly welcomed!
Special thanks to: CSIBABS, Chalise, and Kit for finally getting to me, telling me over and over again to continue this thing!
~IndianaJoneshoney
Pronunciation: Chalise-- Sha-LEESE
Jassy-- JAH-see