The Tale of the Vanishing Pirate
One day a young man was sitting on his porch looking very sad. His grand father was in a back room sick and was soon going to die. His grand father used to work on a merchant ship and the lad wanted to take up the trade and do the same. It had fine money and sometimes a nice ol' fight to practice with yer blade. The boy was deep in thought when he herd his mother call "Coming mother" said he. "Your grand father wants to see you son" said his mother. As he ran to the back room and slipped in the door he noticed grandpa was sitting up. "Hello grand father" he said "Mother said you wanted me" "Yes son" said the grand father. "I want to give you this necklace, it is magical. If the barer is murdered at anytime while wearing this necklace it is said the murderer in a space of one week will be cursed in some way and must fight to cast it off or live with it for his life. You want to take up my trade I know. I want you to wear this at all times and, here, take my saber for good luck." "Yes grandpa thank you" said the lad. The grand father died that night in his sleep.
Many years later there was a pirate captain named Aronnax.
One day he spotted a merchant ship just at the horizon, it did not fly the pirate flag so being as they where pirates they attacked it. As Aronnax fought the captain of the merchant ship he realized the man was not to be killed without a fight. The man was skilled with the blade and had not made a wrong move yet. The captain had not the best of clothes but nice and the pirate had a mind to have those clothes if it was the last thing he did, although he would not wear the odd looking necklace. It had a strange symbol on it that resembled the type you would see sketched into the counter at the random bar that someone had made while drunk on rum. Soon the pirate played a nasty trick on the captain, that only the pirate would do. When the captain made a swipe at his sword he let the sword fly onto the deck below then the pirate looked behind the captain with a look of fear and astonishment and the captain of course turned around only to see sky and clouds but he felt something...the pirate had stabbed him in the back! The captain fell to the floor and murmured something in a language Aronnax could not understand. Soon the battle was won, the pirate had the clothes, and the necklace was thrown in a box to soon be forgotten.
One week later the pirates where in a tavern on a remote island that had been taken over and run as a pirates "hang out". Soon a officer of the crew noticed that Aronnax was not his usual self. When he turned to ask his captain if he was alright the captain was not to be seen. He asked the bar tender if he had seen where Aronnax had gone too but the bar tender did not see him leave at all. The officer looked around and did not see the captain so went back to his drink and his pretty lass.
Aronnax awoke with a start. His head felt light and he decided to go for a stroll. In around one half of a hour he returned still a bit dizzy but not enough to matter. He walked up to a pretty girl outside the inn and commented on her outfit (It consisted of light shades of pink,purple, and green). But the girl screamed and fainted. He went to his room in quiet a temper at a girl screaming which had never happened to him before in his life. He went and looked in the mirror to see if something was wrong...then grabbed a glass of rum and drank it quickly as he sat down. He was invisible. Or so it must be he could not see himself. He went to another pirate and asked him directions at which the pirate seemed confused and turned in all directions..including up and down then said he must need some sleep and left Aronnax alone in the cool night air. "what could have happened to me?" "why do people not see me" "how did I turn invisible...and how do I turn back!". All these thoughts and more troubled Aronnax. He had no idea what to do. Such a problem had not been presented before.
The next afternoon as he sat on a rock on the island he thought through how this could have happened...then he remembered the captain of the merchant ship. That strange necklace! The words he did not know! Could it be some sort of a course? He ran to the ship and pulled out the necklace...it was glowing! a bright green and in the light it was a bright red. Aronnax sat down to think and realized he must go speech to the magician on Acrilion island.
So he boarded a ship and stowed away till he got close to Acrilion island and took off the skimmer ship and started rowing to shore. As soon as he got to the island he ran to the magicians and slowly opened the door. As he spoke with the magician (who as it turns out did not go to bed nor faint) he noticed the magician not answering his questions of how to make it go away. Finally he pointed a sword at the magician and told him "I am invisible yes, but I am sure you could loose what blood you have very quickly". At which the magician said "You would have to go to the arch of Ashkelon". slowly the magician continued "saying you where to get there with one of my potions, which I may add are only 1 doubloon, then you must stay on that island for two weeks. Fighting Cyclops, dragons, and even some natives perhaps. You would have to grind up a dragons 5 teeth and get them hot add some dragons blood to it and boil it all together. Rub it on your skin (which is invisible but there none the less)while it is still hot and you shall be back to normal in twenty-fore hours. Mind you you must stay on the island for two weeks". the magician stopped for a second, "I might warn you if people stay on that island for more then 2 weeks they will die"At this Aronnax bought a potion from the magician and left with a sword, matches, butcher knife, and bow with arrows.
He got to the arch of Ashkelon and in 1 week he had not yet gotten his dragon. Many a wound but not the dragon. He had even bested a Cyclops of which he was proud. In 10 days he had managed to find a dragon and started a plan to slay it. On the 13th day he faced the dragon, he managed to shoot the dragon in the eye and soon he had killed the dragon, gotten teeth and filled a mug with it's blood. He did as the magician instructed. My did that dragon blood hurt, it was so hot. As soon as he was done he used a potion to go to a island near his home island. He fell asleep as soon as he hit the hay and the next morning Walla! he could see himself...but he realllly needed a shave. So he cleaned up and went back to his home island. He did not leave pirathood oh not at all. But I have heard over the winds that he doesn't attack many merchant ships. And he is going to retire early. Keep an eye out for ol' Aronnax he has quiet a few stories but none as good as... The Tale of the Vanishing Pirate. =D
Written by Littlewave aka Rachel Freshwater.