Genesis~ the Rose of Heaven's Flood
By Jadesfire2
SUMMARY~~ In an alternate reality, the pokemon world that we know of is no more. A great flood destroyed civilization centuries ago, and the remaining survivors struggle to rebuild without dry land, and a past they had forgotten. (if you have seen the movie Waterworld you know where I'm going with this, in fact this is like waterworld combined with Slpash combined with pokemon and my screwed up imagination!!! Ha!!!)
James is just one of the many men who live on the sea instead of a boat settlement. He had enjoyed his solitary life, until the day someone unexpected literally dropped into his boat. A strange girl, who is not what she seems. She knows the great secrets of what man once was, and what a group of pirates intends to find out, any way they can.
~Rocketshippy!~
~~~~~~~
"What do those idiots think they're doing?" James muttered to himself as he watched the large boat. It wasn't a very big boat compared to the settlements people lived on, but this was an adequate size for a fishing boat, which was what it was. Normally those fishing boats would be miles north, in shallower waters where they would hunt goldeen , starme, and other pokemon. But these fishermen-these stupid, stupid fishermen-were chasing a Garados of all things!
James grabbed the rudder and began to move his small boat away. If the fishermen made the sea dragon angry, it might use dragon rage. An attack that powerful would be too much for James's boat to take. After he was a good distance away, he grabbed his telescope to watch.
The garados had turned around to face the boat, and was very angry. Visible at the front of the boat on deck, were several men. They were yelling-some screaming-and pointing at the garados. They appeared to be having an argument with a young woman. James couldn't really see her that well, but she had long, red hair, and her arms were bound to her sides with rope.
The men yelled at her some more, and she appeared to be yelling back, but James couldn't hear from this distance. As the garados prepared for dragon rage, the men seemed to be frantic. They grabbed the woman and shoved her in front so the garados could see her.
"Sacrificing her?" James thought aloud. "That's a weird thing to do if those jackasses were the ones chasing the dragon anyway, hmm...."
With a roar, Garados used dragon rage. A whirwind picked up and it sent large gusts of wind and water all around. The fishing boat was lifter high into the air and James watched it spin round and round in the tornado. He realized that he was still too close, and though he was too far away to be picked up by the twister, the wind could rip the sails. He began to move the boat away from the area.
The twister was dying down, and people from the boat were being flung into the sea in all directions. Some of them were dead, and others screamed and cursed as they hit the water. They sure did look stupid; James laughed a little and began to go on his way when there was a high-pitched scream. Whirling around, James saw the red haired woman falling down towards him, flung by the whirlwind. Before James could react, she smashed into the sail, and fell into his pile of fishing nets, motionless.
For a moment, James wondered what to do. Should he return this woman's carcass to the men in the water? She was obviously their prisoner...but what would they do with a dead body anyway? He couldn't get money off of her, so he decided he should do the decent thing and just dump her body over the side in a plain burial at sea.
The wind was still hard and it rustled his hair. The waves were strong and he decided that he would get into calmer water before he did anything about the dead girl on his boat's deck.
About an hour later, James had made it to a more serene part of the never-ending ocean. It was a good enough spot to stop his boat and dump the corpse before he headed off to the next trading post. He walked over to the pile of fishing nets on the small deck and untangled them from the still form.
He lifted net after net until he came upon a tangled mass of red. The girl had incredibly long hair and it covered her like a blanket. He reached over and pulled the hair out of her face.
James was stunned. He had seen many people die before, and he had even killed a few to survive, but he had never felt sorry for any of them. But this woman...she was very beautiful, with pale skin and lips the same blood red as her hair; she had long legs and a full chest, and even in her tattered Seel-skin dress and her arms bound with rope, she still looked majestic. He had never seen someone so pretty as her, and he felt sorry that she was dead, and the world couldn't see how lovely she was anymore.
Sighing slightly, he got back to business. In this world, you had to think about your survival over everything and everyone else, so he searched her for something he could sell or trade. The seel-skin wasn't worth much, so he left that on her, but she wore an array of jewelry that he could surely sell. He had removed her necklace and earrings and was trying to unclasp her bracelet when he felt it. His hands had been on her wrist, ready to get the bracelet off of her hand when he had felt a pulse. Had that just been his imagination? James wasn't sure. He adjusted his hand and put two fingers on her wrist to properly take her pulse, and sure enough, there it was. In disbelief, he put one of his fingers on her parted lips and he could feel her warm breath. She was, indeed, alive. Just unconscious.
Well that put a whole new prospective on things. What in the world was he going to do with this person? He could sell her. She'd probably make a bad slave though, judging by her attitude towards the men on the boat. However with her body, whoever bought her would probably rape her, then sell her off to someone else. James shrugged his shoulders. It wasn't his problem; whatever happened to her, there was no reason for him to worry about it.
Rubbing his hands together he stood up and got to work. That girl had made a tangle out of his fishing nets and if he was going to eat today, he had to get the knots out.
Jessie woke up with an awful headache. She lay still and tried to remember what had happened to her. She remembered arguing with Giovanni, and the Garadous attacking. She had planed to swim away when she had hit the water, but she hadn't hit the water. She had hit a boat-no wonder her head hurt. And where was she now? The same boat, or had they given her back to Giovanni? Wherever she was, she was genuinely surprised to be alive. She would have thought that the Rockets would have been sick of her by now. That was probably true-she was probably still on that boat she had hit.
Jessie tried to move her arms. No luck. She was still tied up. She opened her eyes and squinted against the light. When she finally adjusted to the bright sunlight she saw that she was definitely on that other boat and she was definitely not with any of the Rockets. This was interesting.
There was only one person within her area of vision. He was only a little taller than her, and she judged that she could take him in a fight, that is if she weren't tied up. Her arms were immobile, and there was fishing net tangled around her legs so kicking him wasn't an option either. Damn.
He hadn't noticed she was awake yet. He was trying to get a knot out of another net in his hand. She couldn't see his face from her angle, for his long, blue hair was in the way. This was probably his boat-and the little skiff was truly a floating disaster. Jessie was surprised that this boat was still on the surface, but that didn't matter. All she needed to do was get in the water...
James had been busily detangling the net when he had the feeling he was being watched. Turning around, he saw the woman, calmly glaring at him from where she lay on the deck. "Morning sunshine," James muttered, for her stare was truly menacing, and if she weren't tied up, he'd be as far away from her as possible.
"Who are you?" she wasn't asking, she was demanding to know.
"My name is James, and perhaps you should be a little more polite to the person who saved your life," James bit out. This girl had a major attitude. He was in for a long trip back to port.
Her face contorted. "Oh I'm terribly sorry. It's a pleasure to meet you; I'd shake your hand but I seem to be a little tied up." She stated in a falsified high tone. Then, back in her normal, arrogant voice, "and what in the name of Lugia do you mean by saved me!?" she shouted. "I doubt that if I hadn't hit the boat ya would have left me in the water which you sure should have because I didn't ask to be 'rescued'."
James lifted an eyebrow. She was quite a character. And she was right. If she hadn't slammed into his boat, he would have left her in the water to probably drown due to the ropes. But was that what she had wanted? What was she, suicidal? "You wanted to be dumped overboard? While tied up?"
"Yeah, not that it's any of your business. So let me go!" she yelled, and began to try and kick the nets off her legs with no success.
"Hey! Hold it!" James yelled, grabbing her shoulders and trying to hold her still. She trashed about still, and gave James a lot of trouble for she was stronger than him. "I'm not going to let you commit suicide; you're no good to me dead!"
"Suicide!?" she shouted, with a trash of her shoulders that knocked him back. "I'm not suicidal! And what do I matter to you, anyway?" She tossed her head, "What are ya gonna do? Rape me? Sell me? Give me back to the Rockets?"
James straightened himself up and sat back down a good few feet away to work on untangling the nets once more. "I was thinking of selling you, if you really want to know. Of course I don't know who in the world would buy you."
"Humph," she left it at that, and returned to trying to free her legs.
A few hours later James looked over and saw that she had stopped struggling. Watching her earlier, he had realized that she had amazing upper body strength, but her legs were pretty weak. Her constant kicking at the piles of thick nets had been ineffective and had completely worn her out.
She laid relatively still, eyes closed, but she seemed to be awake. She was tired, and a bit sunburned from lying out in the sun, not to mention she had gotten paler. Probably dehydrated. She seemed to be too tired to fight him off, so James thought it would be safe to approach her now.
Jessie was exhausted, but too uncomfortable to fall asleep. She felt sick. She was hungry, but mostly thirsty, and had a horrible headache. She was sore from the sunburns and the ropes had started to cut into her skin. She heard footsteps, but didn't bother to open her eyes for it seemed that the James person was the only one on the boat. But then the sudden change in motion got her attention and she looked up to find that James was trying to carry her-and very clumsily due to the tangle of fishing nets.
"What do you think your doing?" she demanded, but she didn't really try to get down. Anywhere would be better then just baking on that deck.
"You don't look too good, I'm getting you into the shade," James replied, not looking at her.
Jessie was taken to below deck to a small cabin and James put her down on a makeshift bed made out of dried seaweed. "If you promise not to punch me I'll untie you, okay?" James offered. Jessie begrudgingly shrugged her shoulders. She wasn't quite in the mood to fight anyone off. She just wanted to some water and to fall asleep. Besides, if he wanted to get any money off of her, he'd have to keep her alive. That meant he would give her food and water. After she felt better, she could punch his lights out and go home.
Felling a small tinge of pain as the open air hit her cuts, the rope came loose. Jessie stretched her arms out with relief. They were cramped, cut and sore, but in working order. James, who had backed away, thinking she was going to hit him, came back over when he realized she was just stretching. "There's water and fish over there on the table," he said, and started to try and get his nets off of her feet. Jessie was dimly aware that she was still partially immobile and on a bed.
"I can slam you into kingdom come, so if you try anything-" she started.
"Oh get off it," James growled, and managed to get the last net off of her. "I'm not gonna touch you so don't have a fit."
Jessie just made a noise and closed her eyes. Dry seaweed was surprisingly comfortable and she was very tired. The food could wait; right now she wanted to sleep. She heard clothes rustle and vaguely noted the sound of keys clinking. But it all didn't matter. Sleep was the only thing on her mind.
James was about to turn the lock on the door, but then he remembered something. "Hey," he shouted into the cabin. The woman made a noise in response. "Should I address you as 'hey you' or do you have a name?"
She mumbled, "Jessica." And then was asleep.
"Shit," Jessie hissed as she fell. She must have twisted her ankle when she hit the boat, because now she couldn't walk on her left foot. "I guess this cuts out beating him senseless and escaping when he opens the door," she muttered. "There goes plan A."
It wasn't hard to pull herself to the small table and climb into a chair, for she had very strong arms. Jessie then set to work at eating the meal that was on the table. It was just some fish, recently gutted and slammed carelessly onto a plate. She personally couldn't have cared less about the meal, but there was only one glass of water.
Fresh water was such a hard thing to come by, for you had to trade a lot to get one of those machines that filters the salt out of the ocean water. Usually, rain was collected in buckets and saved, but it hadn't rained recently. Looking around, Jessie couldn't find anything that could be a water container. "He's probably hidden it from me; didn't want me to drink it all," she muttered as she bit into her fish. Afterwards, she drank every drop from her glass and was in the process of crawling back to her seaweed bed when the door opened slowly.
James was careful in unlocking and opening the door. He had expected her to try and ambush him as soon as he turned the key, but when he opened the door, he found her on her stomach in the middle of the floor. She propped herself up with her arms and seemed to be dragging herself back to the seaweed bed. "This is new," James commented, and she glared at him.
"I twisted my ankle you idiot!" she snapped and returned to the task of pulling herself to the bed.
For a moment, James thought it was a trick, but he looked at her left ankle and sure enough, it was swollen and out of place. That was just great. He'd have to wait for that to heal before he sold her, or else he wouldn't get that much.
"Will you just hold still for two seconds?" James hissed at her. He was trying, note the word trying, to get her ankle back into place and bandage it.
"I don't think you're doing it right," Jessie snapped back at him. "If I can't walk again after this I will personally hunt you down and gut you with that harpoon over there," she jutted her thumb in the direction of James's harpoon gun. A messy and primitive apparatus, but the cheapest he could get. Every so often he could pull in a big fish with it. It catapulted a heavy, metal tipped spear at whatever you aimed it at, but the latch on the trigger was always getting stuck. Usually, by the time he got it to work, the fish had swum away.
Jessie winced again and it finally looked like her ankle was right, but you could never tell for sure. James was now attempting to make a decent bandage out of kelp. "You," he grunted, pulling hard on the slimy seaweed to make it stay put, "Need to work on your attitude."
"Oh, you expect me to be nice to the person who's gonna sell me?" she retaliated.
"Point taken," James yanked the kelp again and looked for a spare piece of rope to tie it with. Finding one, he tied the kelp to her leg with a precarious looking knot. "Now if you would just sit still, I won't have to redo this thing."
He left her, crossed armed and steaming mad on his spare sail that was folded up at the back of the deck. He didn't have to worry about her sneaking up on him now, for every time she moved, it required hopping on one foot, and that made a considerable amount of noise.
There was quiet for a little bit. Jessica had stretched out on the stiff, tan fabric. She didn't sleep, she just lay there with her eyes half open and her arms behind her head. She would stare into the sky or the ocean for a long time, then drop out of her daze for a bit. She would watch him and glare horribly if he got within eight feet of her, but after a while she would drift off again.
James had been repairing the fishing lines and for the first time he realized that it was very boring work; not that he had found it thrilling beforehand either. He had been so used to being by himself, and there was so little to do on the boat, that he had just sunken into a routine. The only interesting thing to do was the necessary chores, so they had never struck him as boring before.
But there she was. Something new and interesting that had just fallen from the sky into his lap, or boat to be more precise. And now that there was something far more attractive then a fishing net around, James couldn't help staring at her. He was aware that she hated him with a passion, but she was beautiful and alive. Far more colorful then the drab surroundings of the boat deck.
Another thing that captured his attention was that, although he had seen many humans at the seaports, none of them looked at all like her. All the red heads he had seen had more of an orange tone to their hair, but Jessica's hair was a bright, blood red. It reminded him of a flower he had seen in Cinnabar, the biggest seaport around. It was the only place in the world with a botanical garden. There had been a flower that James had really liked in the garden. It smelled sweet and looked beautiful, but it had sharp and plentiful thorns. It was called the rose. It was the same color as her hair.
He snapped his head up, realizing that he had been staring at her again when there were more important things to do. He had to get the nets ready so that there would be food.
He worked for another half an hour, and had almost succeeded in getting her out of his head when she spoke. It wasn't a word, just a sound, "Huh?" as she sat up and looked to the ocean in all directions.
"What is it?" he asked, for although she had made quite an amusing array of faces, she had never looked troubled.
She focused on the horizon to the west, and said nothing. After what seemed like ages, a slight breeze picked up, coming from the west. As it did, it seemed to carry some message to that girl. A message that James couldn't catch, but she certainly did. Her back straightened and she stood up on her good leg. "The Rockets," she said. She sounded like a mix of anger and apprehension.
"They the ones trying to kill you?" he asked, deciding not to bother asking how she could hear or see them, whichever it was for he didn't notice a thing.
"They weren't trying, they were threatening." She said, not looking at him. "It got a little out of hand, for them anyway." She smirked, then her face turned serious again. She turned around and faced him-not glaring like usual, just looking very serious. "So what are you going to do with me?"
James blinked. He could take her to the trading post, or try and sell her to the rockets-or he could keep her. What should he do? He didn't know. "Why do they want you anyway?"
"Not your concern."
"Well if you don't want to go back to them then it is my concern!" he yelled, now frustrated.
She looked like she would say something, but decided against it. For a moment they just stood there looking at each other--glaring at each other. Then she opened her mouth again and spoke.
"They want me to do something for them, that's all I can say."
"Do WHAT?" he yelled. Her answer wasn't enough.
"THAT'S ALL I CAN SAY!" she looked like she would charge at him. In fact, she tried, but her ankle wouldn't let her and she ended up grounded on the deck.
He was running out of patience with her. "Look! Just tell me what they're after! What do they want from you?" James really had no idea why he cared.
She continued to glare at him, but said nothing for a long time. The light breeze tousled her hair and she turned her gaze back to the sea, where a black dot, a ship, was on the horizon. "It doesn't matter what you do, there's not enough wind to outrun them anyway." Her eyes looked glazed and far away.
He looked at the horizon and saw she was right. The Rocket boat was coming, and coming fast. "What powers that thing?" he asked, grabbing her arm and pulling her up to stand on her good foot.
"Manpower." A simple reply, his question had been answered in a tone of malice coming from Jessica. She hated them-the Rockets. What had they done to her? What did they want her to do? There was no doubt in James's mind that the woman was special. She just made him feel different; it was strange and nerve wrecking, but he didn't want to give her up. He couldn't for the life of him figure out why.
He crossed the deck and got out his telescope. She was right, manpower. Protruding out of the sides of the large ship, were many, many large oars. People were inside rowing the massive thing, like slaves.
"You see that white striped thing? With the gears-over to your right at the end of the boat," James directed, not looking at her.
"Yeah, what is it?" Jessica answered, looking at the funny apparatus that was partly in the water.
"It's a motor," James replied, jumping downward and crawling over the mesh net to reach the thing. "It's for emergencies."
"Mo-tor..." she repeated. "I've heard of those, but never seen one."
"Rare" James grunted, pulling the cord a good many times. "Hard to find fuel, but I got enough." Finally the engine started with a weakened churning noise, and the boat jolted forward.
To be continued
By Jadesfire2
SUMMARY~~ In an alternate reality, the pokemon world that we know of is no more. A great flood destroyed civilization centuries ago, and the remaining survivors struggle to rebuild without dry land, and a past they had forgotten. (if you have seen the movie Waterworld you know where I'm going with this, in fact this is like waterworld combined with Slpash combined with pokemon and my screwed up imagination!!! Ha!!!)
James is just one of the many men who live on the sea instead of a boat settlement. He had enjoyed his solitary life, until the day someone unexpected literally dropped into his boat. A strange girl, who is not what she seems. She knows the great secrets of what man once was, and what a group of pirates intends to find out, any way they can.
~Rocketshippy!~
~~~~~~~
"What do those idiots think they're doing?" James muttered to himself as he watched the large boat. It wasn't a very big boat compared to the settlements people lived on, but this was an adequate size for a fishing boat, which was what it was. Normally those fishing boats would be miles north, in shallower waters where they would hunt goldeen , starme, and other pokemon. But these fishermen-these stupid, stupid fishermen-were chasing a Garados of all things!
James grabbed the rudder and began to move his small boat away. If the fishermen made the sea dragon angry, it might use dragon rage. An attack that powerful would be too much for James's boat to take. After he was a good distance away, he grabbed his telescope to watch.
The garados had turned around to face the boat, and was very angry. Visible at the front of the boat on deck, were several men. They were yelling-some screaming-and pointing at the garados. They appeared to be having an argument with a young woman. James couldn't really see her that well, but she had long, red hair, and her arms were bound to her sides with rope.
The men yelled at her some more, and she appeared to be yelling back, but James couldn't hear from this distance. As the garados prepared for dragon rage, the men seemed to be frantic. They grabbed the woman and shoved her in front so the garados could see her.
"Sacrificing her?" James thought aloud. "That's a weird thing to do if those jackasses were the ones chasing the dragon anyway, hmm...."
With a roar, Garados used dragon rage. A whirwind picked up and it sent large gusts of wind and water all around. The fishing boat was lifter high into the air and James watched it spin round and round in the tornado. He realized that he was still too close, and though he was too far away to be picked up by the twister, the wind could rip the sails. He began to move the boat away from the area.
The twister was dying down, and people from the boat were being flung into the sea in all directions. Some of them were dead, and others screamed and cursed as they hit the water. They sure did look stupid; James laughed a little and began to go on his way when there was a high-pitched scream. Whirling around, James saw the red haired woman falling down towards him, flung by the whirlwind. Before James could react, she smashed into the sail, and fell into his pile of fishing nets, motionless.
For a moment, James wondered what to do. Should he return this woman's carcass to the men in the water? She was obviously their prisoner...but what would they do with a dead body anyway? He couldn't get money off of her, so he decided he should do the decent thing and just dump her body over the side in a plain burial at sea.
The wind was still hard and it rustled his hair. The waves were strong and he decided that he would get into calmer water before he did anything about the dead girl on his boat's deck.
About an hour later, James had made it to a more serene part of the never-ending ocean. It was a good enough spot to stop his boat and dump the corpse before he headed off to the next trading post. He walked over to the pile of fishing nets on the small deck and untangled them from the still form.
He lifted net after net until he came upon a tangled mass of red. The girl had incredibly long hair and it covered her like a blanket. He reached over and pulled the hair out of her face.
James was stunned. He had seen many people die before, and he had even killed a few to survive, but he had never felt sorry for any of them. But this woman...she was very beautiful, with pale skin and lips the same blood red as her hair; she had long legs and a full chest, and even in her tattered Seel-skin dress and her arms bound with rope, she still looked majestic. He had never seen someone so pretty as her, and he felt sorry that she was dead, and the world couldn't see how lovely she was anymore.
Sighing slightly, he got back to business. In this world, you had to think about your survival over everything and everyone else, so he searched her for something he could sell or trade. The seel-skin wasn't worth much, so he left that on her, but she wore an array of jewelry that he could surely sell. He had removed her necklace and earrings and was trying to unclasp her bracelet when he felt it. His hands had been on her wrist, ready to get the bracelet off of her hand when he had felt a pulse. Had that just been his imagination? James wasn't sure. He adjusted his hand and put two fingers on her wrist to properly take her pulse, and sure enough, there it was. In disbelief, he put one of his fingers on her parted lips and he could feel her warm breath. She was, indeed, alive. Just unconscious.
Well that put a whole new prospective on things. What in the world was he going to do with this person? He could sell her. She'd probably make a bad slave though, judging by her attitude towards the men on the boat. However with her body, whoever bought her would probably rape her, then sell her off to someone else. James shrugged his shoulders. It wasn't his problem; whatever happened to her, there was no reason for him to worry about it.
Rubbing his hands together he stood up and got to work. That girl had made a tangle out of his fishing nets and if he was going to eat today, he had to get the knots out.
Jessie woke up with an awful headache. She lay still and tried to remember what had happened to her. She remembered arguing with Giovanni, and the Garadous attacking. She had planed to swim away when she had hit the water, but she hadn't hit the water. She had hit a boat-no wonder her head hurt. And where was she now? The same boat, or had they given her back to Giovanni? Wherever she was, she was genuinely surprised to be alive. She would have thought that the Rockets would have been sick of her by now. That was probably true-she was probably still on that boat she had hit.
Jessie tried to move her arms. No luck. She was still tied up. She opened her eyes and squinted against the light. When she finally adjusted to the bright sunlight she saw that she was definitely on that other boat and she was definitely not with any of the Rockets. This was interesting.
There was only one person within her area of vision. He was only a little taller than her, and she judged that she could take him in a fight, that is if she weren't tied up. Her arms were immobile, and there was fishing net tangled around her legs so kicking him wasn't an option either. Damn.
He hadn't noticed she was awake yet. He was trying to get a knot out of another net in his hand. She couldn't see his face from her angle, for his long, blue hair was in the way. This was probably his boat-and the little skiff was truly a floating disaster. Jessie was surprised that this boat was still on the surface, but that didn't matter. All she needed to do was get in the water...
James had been busily detangling the net when he had the feeling he was being watched. Turning around, he saw the woman, calmly glaring at him from where she lay on the deck. "Morning sunshine," James muttered, for her stare was truly menacing, and if she weren't tied up, he'd be as far away from her as possible.
"Who are you?" she wasn't asking, she was demanding to know.
"My name is James, and perhaps you should be a little more polite to the person who saved your life," James bit out. This girl had a major attitude. He was in for a long trip back to port.
Her face contorted. "Oh I'm terribly sorry. It's a pleasure to meet you; I'd shake your hand but I seem to be a little tied up." She stated in a falsified high tone. Then, back in her normal, arrogant voice, "and what in the name of Lugia do you mean by saved me!?" she shouted. "I doubt that if I hadn't hit the boat ya would have left me in the water which you sure should have because I didn't ask to be 'rescued'."
James lifted an eyebrow. She was quite a character. And she was right. If she hadn't slammed into his boat, he would have left her in the water to probably drown due to the ropes. But was that what she had wanted? What was she, suicidal? "You wanted to be dumped overboard? While tied up?"
"Yeah, not that it's any of your business. So let me go!" she yelled, and began to try and kick the nets off her legs with no success.
"Hey! Hold it!" James yelled, grabbing her shoulders and trying to hold her still. She trashed about still, and gave James a lot of trouble for she was stronger than him. "I'm not going to let you commit suicide; you're no good to me dead!"
"Suicide!?" she shouted, with a trash of her shoulders that knocked him back. "I'm not suicidal! And what do I matter to you, anyway?" She tossed her head, "What are ya gonna do? Rape me? Sell me? Give me back to the Rockets?"
James straightened himself up and sat back down a good few feet away to work on untangling the nets once more. "I was thinking of selling you, if you really want to know. Of course I don't know who in the world would buy you."
"Humph," she left it at that, and returned to trying to free her legs.
A few hours later James looked over and saw that she had stopped struggling. Watching her earlier, he had realized that she had amazing upper body strength, but her legs were pretty weak. Her constant kicking at the piles of thick nets had been ineffective and had completely worn her out.
She laid relatively still, eyes closed, but she seemed to be awake. She was tired, and a bit sunburned from lying out in the sun, not to mention she had gotten paler. Probably dehydrated. She seemed to be too tired to fight him off, so James thought it would be safe to approach her now.
Jessie was exhausted, but too uncomfortable to fall asleep. She felt sick. She was hungry, but mostly thirsty, and had a horrible headache. She was sore from the sunburns and the ropes had started to cut into her skin. She heard footsteps, but didn't bother to open her eyes for it seemed that the James person was the only one on the boat. But then the sudden change in motion got her attention and she looked up to find that James was trying to carry her-and very clumsily due to the tangle of fishing nets.
"What do you think your doing?" she demanded, but she didn't really try to get down. Anywhere would be better then just baking on that deck.
"You don't look too good, I'm getting you into the shade," James replied, not looking at her.
Jessie was taken to below deck to a small cabin and James put her down on a makeshift bed made out of dried seaweed. "If you promise not to punch me I'll untie you, okay?" James offered. Jessie begrudgingly shrugged her shoulders. She wasn't quite in the mood to fight anyone off. She just wanted to some water and to fall asleep. Besides, if he wanted to get any money off of her, he'd have to keep her alive. That meant he would give her food and water. After she felt better, she could punch his lights out and go home.
Felling a small tinge of pain as the open air hit her cuts, the rope came loose. Jessie stretched her arms out with relief. They were cramped, cut and sore, but in working order. James, who had backed away, thinking she was going to hit him, came back over when he realized she was just stretching. "There's water and fish over there on the table," he said, and started to try and get his nets off of her feet. Jessie was dimly aware that she was still partially immobile and on a bed.
"I can slam you into kingdom come, so if you try anything-" she started.
"Oh get off it," James growled, and managed to get the last net off of her. "I'm not gonna touch you so don't have a fit."
Jessie just made a noise and closed her eyes. Dry seaweed was surprisingly comfortable and she was very tired. The food could wait; right now she wanted to sleep. She heard clothes rustle and vaguely noted the sound of keys clinking. But it all didn't matter. Sleep was the only thing on her mind.
James was about to turn the lock on the door, but then he remembered something. "Hey," he shouted into the cabin. The woman made a noise in response. "Should I address you as 'hey you' or do you have a name?"
She mumbled, "Jessica." And then was asleep.
"Shit," Jessie hissed as she fell. She must have twisted her ankle when she hit the boat, because now she couldn't walk on her left foot. "I guess this cuts out beating him senseless and escaping when he opens the door," she muttered. "There goes plan A."
It wasn't hard to pull herself to the small table and climb into a chair, for she had very strong arms. Jessie then set to work at eating the meal that was on the table. It was just some fish, recently gutted and slammed carelessly onto a plate. She personally couldn't have cared less about the meal, but there was only one glass of water.
Fresh water was such a hard thing to come by, for you had to trade a lot to get one of those machines that filters the salt out of the ocean water. Usually, rain was collected in buckets and saved, but it hadn't rained recently. Looking around, Jessie couldn't find anything that could be a water container. "He's probably hidden it from me; didn't want me to drink it all," she muttered as she bit into her fish. Afterwards, she drank every drop from her glass and was in the process of crawling back to her seaweed bed when the door opened slowly.
James was careful in unlocking and opening the door. He had expected her to try and ambush him as soon as he turned the key, but when he opened the door, he found her on her stomach in the middle of the floor. She propped herself up with her arms and seemed to be dragging herself back to the seaweed bed. "This is new," James commented, and she glared at him.
"I twisted my ankle you idiot!" she snapped and returned to the task of pulling herself to the bed.
For a moment, James thought it was a trick, but he looked at her left ankle and sure enough, it was swollen and out of place. That was just great. He'd have to wait for that to heal before he sold her, or else he wouldn't get that much.
"Will you just hold still for two seconds?" James hissed at her. He was trying, note the word trying, to get her ankle back into place and bandage it.
"I don't think you're doing it right," Jessie snapped back at him. "If I can't walk again after this I will personally hunt you down and gut you with that harpoon over there," she jutted her thumb in the direction of James's harpoon gun. A messy and primitive apparatus, but the cheapest he could get. Every so often he could pull in a big fish with it. It catapulted a heavy, metal tipped spear at whatever you aimed it at, but the latch on the trigger was always getting stuck. Usually, by the time he got it to work, the fish had swum away.
Jessie winced again and it finally looked like her ankle was right, but you could never tell for sure. James was now attempting to make a decent bandage out of kelp. "You," he grunted, pulling hard on the slimy seaweed to make it stay put, "Need to work on your attitude."
"Oh, you expect me to be nice to the person who's gonna sell me?" she retaliated.
"Point taken," James yanked the kelp again and looked for a spare piece of rope to tie it with. Finding one, he tied the kelp to her leg with a precarious looking knot. "Now if you would just sit still, I won't have to redo this thing."
He left her, crossed armed and steaming mad on his spare sail that was folded up at the back of the deck. He didn't have to worry about her sneaking up on him now, for every time she moved, it required hopping on one foot, and that made a considerable amount of noise.
There was quiet for a little bit. Jessica had stretched out on the stiff, tan fabric. She didn't sleep, she just lay there with her eyes half open and her arms behind her head. She would stare into the sky or the ocean for a long time, then drop out of her daze for a bit. She would watch him and glare horribly if he got within eight feet of her, but after a while she would drift off again.
James had been repairing the fishing lines and for the first time he realized that it was very boring work; not that he had found it thrilling beforehand either. He had been so used to being by himself, and there was so little to do on the boat, that he had just sunken into a routine. The only interesting thing to do was the necessary chores, so they had never struck him as boring before.
But there she was. Something new and interesting that had just fallen from the sky into his lap, or boat to be more precise. And now that there was something far more attractive then a fishing net around, James couldn't help staring at her. He was aware that she hated him with a passion, but she was beautiful and alive. Far more colorful then the drab surroundings of the boat deck.
Another thing that captured his attention was that, although he had seen many humans at the seaports, none of them looked at all like her. All the red heads he had seen had more of an orange tone to their hair, but Jessica's hair was a bright, blood red. It reminded him of a flower he had seen in Cinnabar, the biggest seaport around. It was the only place in the world with a botanical garden. There had been a flower that James had really liked in the garden. It smelled sweet and looked beautiful, but it had sharp and plentiful thorns. It was called the rose. It was the same color as her hair.
He snapped his head up, realizing that he had been staring at her again when there were more important things to do. He had to get the nets ready so that there would be food.
He worked for another half an hour, and had almost succeeded in getting her out of his head when she spoke. It wasn't a word, just a sound, "Huh?" as she sat up and looked to the ocean in all directions.
"What is it?" he asked, for although she had made quite an amusing array of faces, she had never looked troubled.
She focused on the horizon to the west, and said nothing. After what seemed like ages, a slight breeze picked up, coming from the west. As it did, it seemed to carry some message to that girl. A message that James couldn't catch, but she certainly did. Her back straightened and she stood up on her good leg. "The Rockets," she said. She sounded like a mix of anger and apprehension.
"They the ones trying to kill you?" he asked, deciding not to bother asking how she could hear or see them, whichever it was for he didn't notice a thing.
"They weren't trying, they were threatening." She said, not looking at him. "It got a little out of hand, for them anyway." She smirked, then her face turned serious again. She turned around and faced him-not glaring like usual, just looking very serious. "So what are you going to do with me?"
James blinked. He could take her to the trading post, or try and sell her to the rockets-or he could keep her. What should he do? He didn't know. "Why do they want you anyway?"
"Not your concern."
"Well if you don't want to go back to them then it is my concern!" he yelled, now frustrated.
She looked like she would say something, but decided against it. For a moment they just stood there looking at each other--glaring at each other. Then she opened her mouth again and spoke.
"They want me to do something for them, that's all I can say."
"Do WHAT?" he yelled. Her answer wasn't enough.
"THAT'S ALL I CAN SAY!" she looked like she would charge at him. In fact, she tried, but her ankle wouldn't let her and she ended up grounded on the deck.
He was running out of patience with her. "Look! Just tell me what they're after! What do they want from you?" James really had no idea why he cared.
She continued to glare at him, but said nothing for a long time. The light breeze tousled her hair and she turned her gaze back to the sea, where a black dot, a ship, was on the horizon. "It doesn't matter what you do, there's not enough wind to outrun them anyway." Her eyes looked glazed and far away.
He looked at the horizon and saw she was right. The Rocket boat was coming, and coming fast. "What powers that thing?" he asked, grabbing her arm and pulling her up to stand on her good foot.
"Manpower." A simple reply, his question had been answered in a tone of malice coming from Jessica. She hated them-the Rockets. What had they done to her? What did they want her to do? There was no doubt in James's mind that the woman was special. She just made him feel different; it was strange and nerve wrecking, but he didn't want to give her up. He couldn't for the life of him figure out why.
He crossed the deck and got out his telescope. She was right, manpower. Protruding out of the sides of the large ship, were many, many large oars. People were inside rowing the massive thing, like slaves.
"You see that white striped thing? With the gears-over to your right at the end of the boat," James directed, not looking at her.
"Yeah, what is it?" Jessica answered, looking at the funny apparatus that was partly in the water.
"It's a motor," James replied, jumping downward and crawling over the mesh net to reach the thing. "It's for emergencies."
"Mo-tor..." she repeated. "I've heard of those, but never seen one."
"Rare" James grunted, pulling the cord a good many times. "Hard to find fuel, but I got enough." Finally the engine started with a weakened churning noise, and the boat jolted forward.
To be continued