The woman with the dark hair sat at her table, sipping mead. Her thoughts troubled her. Her life never quite turned out how she had imagined it would. She was miserable; she had to go around every day knowing that she was the wife of the village coward. When she was not being ridiculed and whispered about, her life was rather mundane. The only bright spot in her life was her dear son. But not even he was enough to distract her from her failing marriage. She wanted to start over in a different town that didn't know her family's faces. She wanted to be free.
The tavern got loud as a group of men bustled in. They laughed and roughhoused as they settled into a large table in the corner. The woman didn't pay much attention to them after that, not until a few minutes later when she heard someone mention the sea and a far off place. She sat there and listened in awe at story after story.
"You know," the man at the head of the table spoke, "Eavesdropping is rude."
She jolted herself from her trance, not realizing that she was staring.
"Perhaps you would like to join us instead?" a sarcastic grin spread across his face.
"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean- is all that true?" her expression was that of awe.
"Is all what true?"
She stood up and inched closer to the men's table.
"Did you really sail to all those places?"
"I've sailed to many a place." he boasted.
He looked up at her. He saw the curiosity and wonder in her eyes. He didn't know why, but he felt compelled to continue talking with her. He sighed.
"Come, sit down, I'll tell you all about our many adventures."
A man with a tri-cornered hat and a toothy grin pulled up a seat for her.
"What is your name, Lass?" the first man asked as she sat.
"Milah."
He thought that was a lovely name; it suited her.
"I am Killian Jones, captain of the Jolly Roger!" he declared boastfully as he shook her hand.
"This," he clapped the shoulder of the toothy-grinned man, who now sat to his right, "is my first mate, James Higgins."
He continued down the line, naming each crew member. Then, when he was finished, he ordered another round of drinks for the table.
"Well lads, what story should I tell our guest first?"
A string of suggestions overlapped one another until one caught Killian's attention.
"You want I should tell the story about Roberts?"
The men whooped and hollered in agreement.
"You see, our youngest crew member, " he pointed to the other end of the table at a man who looked to be in his early twenties, "Mr. Roberts actually started out as a stowaway."
The young man gave an embarrassed grin.
"Higgins was below deck fetching some rum when he noticed something odd. And low and behold Roberts was hiding behind some barrels. So, Higgins brought him on deck and threw him at my feet. I asked him what he was doing there and he said that he wanted to get out of his town and have an adventure. I told him that if a pirate caught a stowaway, he would kill him. But me, being an honorable man, gave him a choice. I told him that he could get off at the next port and find passage home, or that if he really wanted to seek adventure, he could pick up a sword and duel me."
"On the account that he's here, he must have beaten you." she assumed.
"Oh, bloody hell, no." he chuckled along with a choir of laughter from the crew. "He was godawful! The poor lad was but a teenager at the time. He had never even handled a sword before. He took one swing and lost his balance. He nearly stumbled overboard. However, he did attempt to duel me, which took courage. So, I made him a part of the crew."
"Wow, you're a real dreaded pirate, eh, Roberts?" Milah shot a mocking smile at him.
The boy chuckled. "I am much better now. The captain here's shown me everything I know."
"You know, you really shouldn't speak so poorly of the captain." Higgins wisecracked.
The table joined him in his laughter and jested amongst themselves.
"He's not that bad, Mate." Killian snickered.
"Just watch, one day I will be the captain of my own ship and I'll make a name for myself. A name that everyone throughout the lands will know." Roberts predicted.
"Careful what name you make for yourself, Lad. A man's reputation can be a powerful thing."
"Oh! Captain, Captain! You have to tell the story about the ogre!" a very enthusiastic man sputtered out, nearly choking on his ale.
"Alright, Mate, calm down. I'll get to it. That is, if the lady would care to hear such a story." he cocked his head towards her.
"An ogre? You've actually fought an ogre?" she nodded with amazement.
"Aye." he said followed by a finishing gulp of mead. He then gestured to a waitress for another one.
"You see Milah, we don't usually get involved in the affairs of the towns we make port in. Usually, we replenish our supplies, spend a couple of nights in the tavern, maybe even make trades with the locals. Then we leave and that's that. But on this particular day, we had no choice but to make an exception."
He looked over at her and saw that her eyes were smiling almost as brightly as she was. There was something about her he couldn't quite put his finger on. She was special; he could tell. He just smiled at her before continuing.
"So, this was about three or so years ago, around the height of the Ogres War. We had made port in a small village in King Thrushbeard's kingdom," Killian stopped and turned to the crew, "I hear he got married not too long ago. The reception was a bit odd, though."
He turned back to Milah and continued.
"So, a group of ogres show up on the edge of town, now we don't know if they're rogues or scouts, or why it's just them and not a whole army. Anyways, all of the men are defending the town line while the women and children are hid. Somehow amongst the chaos, one of the ogres slips through and is rampaging through the middle of town. Now this ogre was large, much larger than the average, and it was adorned with the pelt of an ass. Now, since ogres are blind and hunt completely by sound, as you may know, the town was utterly silent.
Just as we are taking up arms against the beast, a drunk comes stumbling out of the tavern. He kept yelling about how the blacksmith owes him money and how if he doesn't get it soon, they'll have to duel to the death. The poor idiot's all but sealed his fate. The ogre picks him up and is about to rip him in half, when one of the lads gives me a run-up. So now, I'm hanging onto his back and he's trying to shake me off, hurling the drunk into a cart of fertilizer in the process. Then, I climb up his back and seat myself on his shoulders; I take out my knife and stab the beast in the eye, which of course, is the only way to kill an ogre. After the beast was down, we went to check on the poor idiot, now covered in cow dung. All he could say was 'I hate manure!'"
"Wow, that was so brave of you." she said half-heartedly.
"Oh hardly, I just did what any man would do. What many men have died doing."
"I wish all men were brave like that." she looked down at her drink, swirling it around.
"Is something bothering you, Milah?" Killian knew the answer was yes, but he didn't know what it was.
"Oh, no. It's... It's just hearing of your heroic act only further reminds me that I'm married to the village coward." she sighed.
'Oh, you're married.' he thought, but instead he asked, "What makes him the village coward?"
"He was drafted into the war a few years ago, and instead of fighting like a man, he injured himself before ever picking up a sword." she hissed.
"Well, that is quite cowardice and he deserves whatever he gets. But you should not suffer on his account."
"And neither should my son."
He saw that the subject was making her upset, so instead of asking her any further questions, he moved on to another story.
"We once came across a very small tropical island where the natives worshiped birds. Apparently, their gods were a parrot, a duck, and a rooster. It was very odd. But we did get to join in on their festivities. Lots of singing and dancing. Lots of rum. It was great fun until we found out we were to be sacrificed to appease their gods. We got out of there rather quickly and we've never been back."
They all laughed, told stories and jokes for hours. Even a brawl almost broke out between a Mr. Gibbs and a Mr. Hawkins.
"Mr. Gibbs here claims he saw an elephant fly once." Hawkins skepticism showed.
"I did! I saw it with me own eyes!" Gibbs insisted.
"Oh please! When you get drunk you sleep with pigs in their pens. Why would anyone believe a word you say when hammered?"
"The pig thing was one time!"
"That was last week! And the week before!"
"I saw it! I swear!"
"It was a bird!"
"Are you calling me a liar?!" Gibbs stood up and glared at him.
"What if I am?!" Hawkins stood and met his gaze.
Killian quickly jumped in to defuse the situation, then continued as if it never happened. He told many more stories as the day gave way to night.
After every one Milah would respond with "Tell me another."
And Killian would tell her "As you wish."
"Oh, it's getting dark," Milah sighed, "I need to be getting home to my son."
She got up and turned to the men, telling each one of them how lovely it was to meet them. As she started to leave, Killian got up and started to follow her.
"Milah, listen," he was a little nervous, though he'd never show it, "we'll be in port for the rest of the week. So, if you want to stop by again, we have plenty of other stories I- we could tell you."
She smiled. "See you tomorrow, Killian."