"Oh my stars!"
The words fell from her mouth without a thought, and the man to her right's glance told her that she would pay for it later.
"Girl, my mistress will be happy with your capture." The captain of the ship looked thoroughly displeased with her lack of flair, but Cress was having none of it.
Eyepatches and frilly shirts was the fashion, as if this was a bad recreation of Peter Pan. And the smell. Ugh, how she hated pirates. She buried her nose in her dress, and what must've seemed like fear to the onlookers was pure disgust at her captors.
Cress herself was wearing a thin dress, her long blond hair tangled around her. Her arms were bound to a mast with coarse rope on what could just barely be called a boat.
Her voice held a tremor, but she looked the man in the eye defiantly. "I will escape, and your little pack will be taken down."
The captain knelt to her level and gave her a yellow-toothed smile. "I don't know why you're so important to Mistress Sybil, but she didn't say you needed to arrive unharmed."
A cold laugh and dramatic flourish later, she was left on the mast alone while the surrounding pirates milled around. Cress was just waiting. She knew what, or who, was coming.
She wasn't disappointed when a gleaming silver dagger struck just above her head, freeing her arms. All eyes turned to her, and the men missed the shadow that flew overhead. That is, until said shadow landed with a solid thump onto the deck. The captain swivelled around, coming face to face with glittering blue eyes.
"C-captain Thorne?"
If under different circumstances, Cress would've laughed. A well-practiced captain should be able to hide something as trivial as fear, which was just one of the many reasons Thorne was clearly superior.
Thorne just gave the man a lazy smirk and pushed him out of the way. The rest of the crows parted for him. He sauntered slowly through the pirates. Though he was one himself, he looked more like the hero from a storybook.
"What's this I hear about a damsel in distress?"
His eyes fell on Cress and something seemed to soften. He reached forward and grabbed her arms just above her wrists, which were still raw from her restraints.
"Are you alright?..."
"Crescent." She supplied, looking up at him through her lashes.
He gave a low laugh and turned back to the onlooking crew with a flourish.
"What is this? Keeping a maiden tied to a mast?" He ignored the captain's blubbering excuses and faced Cress again.
"Are you ready to get out of here?"
He extended his hand invitingly, and she so wanted to take it, but she couldn't.
Cress straightened her back and matched his smirk with one of her own, watching his expression turn baffled. Wrenching the dagger from above her and stepping forward daringly, she gave them all a cold laugh.
"Fools. You thought you captured an innocent? You captured none other than Crescent Moon, the most feared pirate around."
The crew gave a collective gasp and even the collected Captain Thorne looked shaken.
She strode forward confidently and grabbed the rope that had reached the deck unnoticed. With a jaunty wave, she was hoisted up and out of view.
And with that, the curtains closed.
Standing onstage, Cress had never been happier in her life. The applause was deafening, roses were being thrown, tears were being shed, it was so cliche and movie-esque that it was almost funny.
Cress was in the middle of the thought that nothing could make this moment better when Thorne, the male lead, Carswell freaking Thorne, grabbed her hand. She was trying not to hyperventilate when he just gave her a weird look and nudged her into the group bow they did at the end of every show. Whoops. This was her first time as the female lead, so it would still be special anyway.
As they headed backstage, she tried to lightly shake her hand from Thorne's, but he gripped it tighter. Cress looked at him in confusion, but was met with a shy smile as he ran his other hand through his windswept brown hair.
"Good job out there Cress. You did better than any other lead I've worked with." With a wink, he let go of her hand and walked into the dressing room, seemingly unaware of the looks he was getting.
In that moment, Cress decided that she was quite fond of pirates after all.