1. A town filled with enemies
"Hey, who are ya?"
She turned around in her improvised bedding of leaves and her coat ignoring the rude voice talking to her. She did not even need to check, if she was the one being addressed with these words. She was the only person lying on the ground in the middle of the street. Actually she was surprised the question had not been "what are you doing there" instead of "who are ya", since it would have been the first thing to ask, if it had been up to her in this kind of situation. Maybe that guy was not that smart. Well, that could be of advantage for her, since it would make her task a lot easier. On the other hand, you never knew how such an idiot would react, if he had to face real trouble. Sometimes those idiots really could be dumb enough to bring not just themselves in danger but others as well, because they never considered the consequences of their stupid ideas. Some people might call it creativity, but usually it was just foolishness.
He proofed her right, when he decided to kick her when she did not answer him, which did not just make her angry but dangerous for him on top. His foot hit her kidneys and caused a momentum of pain running up her back.
She breathed in heavily to show that it had hurt, while he repeated his question. As dumb as he was, it was a good decision to keep him safe and calm, to make him believe he had the upper hand in this. Maybe he would not freak out so much if he believed that. It would not be the first time this would help her to do her job.
"Are you already dead", he asked and laughed at someone standing behind him. Another proof for her idiot-theory. Asking such a question was useless, since a smart person would never ask something like that, if he believed, the questioned one was still alive. And if he believed he was dead, it would be useless, since the dead usually did not answer any questions at all.
The problem was the person standing somewhere near him. Since she was lying with her back to them, there was no way to see them. She could not find out who it was or if he was actually dangerous or not.
"Let's throw him aside and carry on, Tappert", the stranger said a little annoyed. Fear was shaking his voice like somebody mixing a drink.
Another fool? She could not be sure of it. However, she knew what she would do as soon as her plan would start to work out. She had planned everything. But you never knew if such a plan would work out the way it been intended in the end, since the other party could change everything through his pure reaction and his intelligence quotient. She sighed inwardly. Usually her plans did not work out and most of the times she ended up in real danger because of it.
"No", her victim said just according to the things she had heard about him in the first place, "that would be boring. Let's have a little fun."
"I don't know, Tappert", the other man said, "we've got clear orders. Playing around would take too much time."
But Tappert obviously did not want to listen to his friend. Emma almost heard the fabric of his trousers move, when she noticed his movements through his shadow in front of her. He was going to kick her back again. When he pulled his right leg back, she simply rolled against his left one and disturbed his balance. He fell over her without making any sound. Maybe it was because he was too surprised to have his victim actually fighting back. She did not care and she did not have the time to.
Still lying on the ground she used the ten seconds of shock the two men shared to turn on her back and jump to her feet. As soon as her head left the ground, a bulletin hit the spot she had been lying at and send peaces of earth flying through the air.
Emma stepped on Tappert's right wrist to stop him from reaching for his own gun while she watched his friend throwing his gun away. She pulled a knife out of her belt and threw it at him before he was able to reach his own one. It hit his right arm and slid under his skin like in butter. He screamed and fell to his knees while trying to pull it out again.
In the meantime, Tappert had used his left hand to reach his own knife and cut her lower leg. Emma stumbled back and ignored the pain that was spreading from her wound through her whole body. She was lucky he had only cut her instead of stabbing her.
Emma kicked the knife out of his hand and punched him in the face. It was hard enough to knock him out. After that, she ran over to his friend. He had gotten back to his feet, but he had been too slow to draw his sword. Instead of using it, he used his fist to welcome her.
It took Emma a painful moment to see anything again. The pain was rushing through her head, tears shot into her eyes and if she was not mistaken, the warm thing on her nose was her own blood. This was not even, close to what she had planned in the first place. She did not like it. And it became worse.
The next punch hit her stomach as hard as she stumbled back to their carriage. His hands ended up at her neck when he was about to choke her. Emma's vision cleared again and instead of trying to stop him, she took an as deep breath as possible, held it and rammed her thumbs into his eyes. He screamed in pain and his grip around her neck loosened a little, but she was still missing breath. Therefore, she reached behind her head praying to god she would find something useful. She grabbed something that felt suspiciously like a bottle and pushed it as hard at his head as its glass broke. The man let go of her, stumbled back and fell to his knees, before he collapsed on the ground just as Tappert had before.
Emma steadied herself at the carriage, holding her neck where he had squeezed it before. She pulled the air greedy into her hurting lungs and ignored the stabbing pain this caused in her neck. Her gaze wandered to the donkey that was bound to the carriage and chewed grass just like nothing had happened at all. To her feet surrounding her was laying broken glass from the bottle she had used before. It smelled of rum. Pirates.
It was disappointing. After all the work she had had with catching them, getting them on their own carriage and after being hurt like she had been in the process - not to mention all the trouble she had had with that stupid donkey, but nobody usually used to appreciate something like that as it seemed - she hadn't just lost a knife, but hadn't been rewarded correctly. No, the guards had lowered her win through specious reasons like "they are hurt" and "we can't ask them anything now for at least four hours and have to mend their wounds". Emma snorted. The text on the wanted posters had been "dead or alive" and not "healthy and conscious". It was disgusting that they would simply belittle her work and all the troubles she had had with them for being a woman. She was certain that this was the actual reason for their reaction besides saving money for themselves. It had happened before and she already knew it would happen again.
However, she had accepted the prize of what she would have earned for one of them for both together, when they had come up with what her own head was worth even after being set free again for so many years already. She knew they would just come up with a story to explain arresting her to collect her old bounty. It was better to be free with a bit money in her hands, than being imprisoned for stealing like a magpie. In addition, she had been able to empty Tappert's and his friend's pockets before she had delivered them to the guards.
In the end, she had been lucky that stranger, who had been traveling with Tappert and had almost killed her, had been wanted at all. If not she would not just have earned even less, but she would have had to find a solution for him as well. Not to mention that she would have had to question herself for it. He had nearly killed her after all and as far as she was concerned, he deserved his bounty for that alone.
Emma stopped in front of a wall further down the market. There were hanging the latest wanted posters, but as far as she was able to judge, there were not any new ones. Some of the men and women had just committed enough crimes to increase their bounties. It was disappointing that the one person she was looking for had not been on any wanted posters for at least two months. It was annoying.
"Interested", a woman to her left asked curious and mirrored her position in front of the wanted posters.
Emma needed a moment to decide if she would answer at all, "why do you ask? Could I find you here between all those pictures if I kept checking on them?"
"I doubt that", the woman said and checked the faces starring down on them from the posters, "I've never been part of this and I'm not planning to in the future."
Emma rolled her eyes and faced her. She was strange. Even though she was dressed like an ordinary woman what suited her well, everything she was wearing was of an almost sparkling pink. Had she believed her possibly to be another bounty hunter she was proofed wrong now.
Emma frowned, "who are you?"
The woman smiled at her friendly, "my name is Nova. I'm a fairy."
"Don't get me wrong", she said slowly and stepped back like she had just told her to be a disgusting troll, "but you're not really looking like a… a…"
"Fairy", Nova finished her sentence for her and smiled in an understanding way, "that's because you wouldn't have listened to me for even one second if I would."
The fairy noticed the bruise in Emma's face where the pirate had hit her, the fingerprints in her neck where he had tried to throttle her and the cut at her left leg, "seems like you really do need my help, don't you think?"
"No", Emma said in an deciding way, turned on her heels and stumbled away from her like she had just ended their conversation, ignoring the stabbing pain in her leg. She would need to clean the wound soon, since it was dirty enough for two men and the dirt could cause an infection, which she did not need at all.
"Oh come on", Nova said almost begging and followed her anyway, "you are my first person in need. You have no idea what it took me finally to be allowed to help people at all. Please do not let me down now. Please give me a chance."
"Shouldn't you be the one to support others and not the other way around?"
"If you let me, I'll do it."
Emma stopped as suddenly as the fairy almost stumbled into her, "wait. I'd be your first…client?"
"Yes", Nova answered her nervously.
"And you are a fairy", Emma stated rhetorically.
Nova was nervous as she answered anyway, "yes."
Emma sighed before she almost burst into laughter, "that explains everything."
"Em… what exactly", the fairy asked confused.
"Nova, fairies only help "good" people, don't they?"
"Yes only the good ones", she agreed not noticing the trap she was hopping in at all.
"Well", Emma continued, "I'm not."
"What?"
"Good", she said and rolled her eyes.
"Why do you think that", Nova asked and stared at her like she was surprised and worried for her, which was quite surprising for Emma, who had expected her to react differently. She had expected her to simply disappear again or, since she was a fairy, to burst into tears for being wrong with her first attempt to help someone or at least to apologize for it for several times. Nevertheless, this was just as if the fairy was trying to study her. Well, she was not a project and she did not want to be analyzed by a fairy that was just starting to help others. She did not want to be a project for a newbie.
Moreover, for sure she did not want to spread her whole life's story to a fairy, just to explain why she was the wrong person to be addressed by a fairy, who did not even know how to do her job. And she didn't want to tell her how she had grown up on the streets without any family, being an orphan, always lonely, sometimes confused and most of the time stealing in order to survive a life, she had to remind herself that it was worth it over and over again.
What did she know? She had been a fairy for at least the past twenty-seven years and she had never had to live like that. She had had someone to care for her and to allow her to grow up as an ordinary little girl surrounded by flowers, unicorns and rainbows.
"I'm a thief", Emma stated dryly and kept on walking already expecting her to follow her anyway.
She was proofed right, "you're a bounty hunter. There is a huge difference, you know? And even if it wasn't like that, not everyone, who steals isn't worthy a fairies help. Sometimes it's needed anyway or exactly because of that."
Emma stopped again and sighed annoyed.
"And I'm willing to do anything it takes to earn a bounty even if it means to kill", she added coldly to finally get rid of her.
Nova stared at her for a second. She seemed to be shocked. Good. Then she would leave her alone again soon.
"No you're not", the fairy said slowly, just as she wanted to leave her behind once more, "you wouldn't kill if it wasn't necessary to protect somebody else."
Emma looked at her skeptically before her gaze turned into something quite telling, "well, I know someone who'd really be worth to be killed and I'd gladly do it myself even though it would just be for my own benefit."
The fairy froze for a second perfectly aware of what Emma was implying. She seemed to be as scared as a small rabbit facing a hungry wildcat in a burned down forest. She swallowed hard and her face turned back from pale to usual rouge slowly. She did not give up even though her voice was shaking heavily, "you need me."
"For what", Emma asked skeptically, and surprised before she could even stop herself, even though she was feeling a little sorry for that fairy now.
"To protect you."
She examined her from head to toe noticing the perfectly styled hair, the sparkling pink dress and the small and filigree arms and legs and raised an eyebrow. Her voice was almost dripping with sarcasm when she said, "I highly doubt that."
She went on but Nova followed her anyway, "you need my help to become happy, Emma."
She slowed down her steps, "I am."
"No you're not. You need me to take care of you", the fairy tried again. She was still quite nervous and desperate.
"Maybe I don't want to be happy."
"Everyone wants that."
"Maybe I just don't want your help."
"You don't really mean that."
Emma stopped, when Nova was suddenly standing in front of her. Nice trick, but not nice enough, she thought, "I can take care of myself quite well."
The fairy raised an eyebrow and looked at her dirty and messed up hair, her dirty face and her old, off worn and muddy cloths, noticed the bruise in her face, she had gotten when she had fought Tappert's insane friend, and the cut in her leg once again and looked at her in an a lot telling way.
Emma sighed, "I'd like to know what you'd look like after doing my job."
The fairy's expression turned into pity, "the point is that I don't need to."
"Well, but I do."
"And you shouldn't need to either."
"Well, thanks to my vanished parents I've got no other choice."
"But you do", Nova insisted and was all the encouraged fairy again, "you always have. There have always been other orphans like you and most of them took another way, Emma. Not every one of them turned bad or had to go down the route you chose. You don't have to do that job."
"But I like my job."
"It's dangerous."
"Which is why I like it", she insisted before she noticed another wanted poster, somebody had already thrown away, which was why it was lying formed into a wrinkled ball on top of a basket filled with fire wood beside a small fireplace in the middle of the market behind Nova's back. The bounty seemed to be extremely high as far as she could see it.
Emma left the fairy behind once more without paying any more attention to her at all and hurried across the distance to that fireplace, to get the wanted poster before someone would burn it.
"I can't believe you really want to keep on living like this", she heard Nova ranting from somewhere far behind her, when she reached for the paper.
She unfolded it carefully so she would not tear even one part of it. At the bottom there was written the prize, which proofed to be as high as she had expected it before. Right above of it was written the words "dead or alive". The rest of the poster was filled with the drawing of a man with dark hair, quite intense eyes, that seemed to examine her entirely and a very charming, flirty and dangerous smile. From his right ear was hanging an earring and his jaw looked like he had not shaved it for more than just three days. Right above his picture there was written his name "Captain Hook". That name did not really leave much room for imagination. Maybe this would be the first time the bounty would actually match to the person she had to hunt down for it? At least the name was ringing something in the back of her mind. It was as if she had heard it once before, but she could not remember in which connection.
"Oh ducky, I don't think this is a good idea", an old man suddenly said from beside the fireplace. He was sitting there warming his hands at the fire. He had shoved the tip of his beard into his belt to prevent it from getting into the fire and his cloths were just as dirty as hers were. While she had been looking at the poster, he had leaned into her to catch a glance as well, without her even noticing it.
Emma skipped the question why he thought like that, already hearing the same old answer of being a pure small girl and not a tough and strong mountain of a man and frowned, "what do you know about him?"
The man chuckled, "stories. There are a lot stories out there about the sometimes strong, smart or even dangerous pirate captain."
Emma raised an eyebrow. Not every story was true. She had discovered that many times now, "and what are those stories?"
He grinned as if he was feeling sorry for her purity and naivety, "well, one is that you won't find him. Nobody has ever caught him."
"Why that?"
"Because nobody has seen him ever since that bloody curse hit."
"Is that the reason you wanted to burn it", Emma asked not really interested anymore.
The man laughed, "yes, indeed."
Emma held out the poster to him so he could burn it even though she would have loved to keep it, but she did not want to leave the impression to be interested in hunting the captain's head. Sometimes it was wiser to hide what you were actually hunting for, because possible rivals and too far spread rumors could always destroy every attempt to achieve it.
The man took it and threw it into the fire, "believe me ducky, it's better that way. I don't think you would have been able to catch him anyway. He really is dangerous."
"And as far as you know I don't need to worry since nobody has seen him in twenty-seven years anyway", Emma added before he could say anything more, just slightly noticing that Nova had left her alone again.
"Well", he said slowly, "you never know and you're just a woman."
Emma forced herself to grin, "yeah, well, you never know." She left him behind and walked straight out of town. She would need a horse if she really wanted to go where she expected him to be the most. It would take her a while to get there and a horse would just be handy to speed up her journey. It would make everything a lot more easily.
It was a dark and rainy night. The moon fought its way through the heavy and dark clouds every now and then and its reflection in the puddles at the ground lit up the world in a dim and mesmerizing light. Everything was silent out here except for the few horses and their riders, traveling through the small alleys, searching for a place to stay and the far sounds of laughing and sometimes even singing men that was dimmed through heavy wooden doors of the taverns on both sides of the lane. The men had saved themselves inside to avoid the cold and wet rain.
This tavern's windows were dirty and some of them had holes like a huge cheese so the air was piping inside every now and then. Just as dirty as the windows, were the jugs and glasses the bartender gave out to his guests, who were excessively drunk to care for it anymore.
Emma had been lucky. She had found a corner in the tavern she had all for herself, where the wind was not getting through. Thanks to her dark hood, she was wearing pulled far into her face, so it was not just covering her hair but also hiding her gender, nobody seemed to notice her at all. She was free to watch the men drinking, laughing and yelling stories more than simply talking, because they were excessively drunk to notice how loud they were. She was free to dwell on her own thoughts now.
It had been months since she had found that wanted poster at that little market. Back then, she had not believed the old man, maybe because he had belittled her for her gender. She had believed him to be insane for believing in old stories and myths about a man, who would bring her a lot of money, once she would catch him. Moreover, she had believed, she would not need the help of the noisy fairy, who had been just as annoying back then.
Well, she had been more than wrong, as it seemed. She had been too proud when she had believed her skills would be enough to find and catch that pirate. Sure, she was still healthy, had caught several of other wanted people and had survived through stealing from others, if she had a tough time between her catches, but she had not found the captain. Everyone seemed to know him, but nobody had actually seen him in the past few months. It was annoying and frustrating, but she had to admit that searching for him was pointless. Nova might have been of help but she had disappeared ever since they had met first. Maybe she finally had understood that Emma would never be suitable to be her client in the end. Well, the fairy would not have helped her to catch him anyway. It would have been against her appeal.
Emma sighed and resisted the urge to get out her wanted posters and check his one again. She had found that copy around three weeks after talking to that old man at the market and had hold on to it ever since, just in case she would meet someone looking even slightly alike him. It would not be a good idea to reveal who she was by showing off wanted posters in a tavern filled with thieves, murderer and pirates, if she was not mistaken.
Instead, she decided to watch the people in the tavern once more. Most of them were men who were quite drunk. They were celebrating with some prostitutes, playing drinking games or singing and yelling, until they lost their voices. The bartender could not get new jugs fast enough for them, to stop them from screaming for more. Some of those men she could even find on her wanted posters. It would have been way too easy to catch at least three of them tonight, but she was not in the right mood. To be honest, she was frustrated and she did not want to take it out on even one of those men, since it was too dangerous to lose focus because of it. She might be killed, if she would not be able to concentrate, as she needed to, in order to survive and do her job. Moreover, it would be pointless to die in a fight with some ordinary men, when she was actually waiting for a bigger fish.
However, not to catch them annoyed her even more, because it meant loosing money, which could force her to steal again.
Emma took a sip of her rum ignoring the dirt in it and leaned back in her seat once more. The problem with pirates was you never really knew which crew they belonged to, unless they were important members of it or leading them. There were many pirates here tonight, but there also were at least three pirate ships in the harbor as well. In addition, some of these men were just pretending to be pirates, because they wanted to become part of a crew in the near future, which meant their heads were worth nothing at all.
So it would be useless, to just catch one, to lure the one out, she actually wanted to catch. Bloody hell, she had not even seen Hook's flag yet.
The door opened and another crowed of men swapped inside the tavern. They were laughing, chatting and some of them immediately had a woman hanging from each arm, just like they were magnets and the women were filled with iron. Others already reached for a jaw of rum, even before they had ordered anything and confused the poor bartender.
More pirates, Emma thought and rolled her eyes. Nevertheless, she would not have expected anything less, since this was one of the well-hidden pirate towns. It had taken her four months to find it. She had started to search for it long before she had found that wanted poster. She had been searching for it ever since she had heard of it for the first time. However, she had been certain, that Hook and his men would be here.
There was another man against who she had a personal grudge. She hated him more than she could tell and she would love to catch him. He was the reason she had been searching for this town in the first place. Blackbeard was his name and he was the reason she had lost a close friend or at least she believed so.
When she had met Graham, she had been more than lost. Her love had betrayed and left her and if it wouldn't have been for him, she would have been dead for a very long time now. Graham had saved her life. It was thanks to him she was able to use a bow, guns, knifes and a sword. It was thanks to him she knew about reflex points and how to read someone else's movements and how to fight without a weapon. It was thanks to him she was able to do what she was doing in order to survive and it was thanks to him she was able to protect herself and others.
There were not many women, who could say that of themselves in a world ruled by men. Sure, there had been rumors of the past of famous women like the Evil Queen and Snow White but in the end, they both had not been fighting and at least saving themselves. The Evil Queen had always been able to relay on her magical powers and that had nothing to do with physical strength and protecting yourself through natural and ordinary abilities. You could hardly call a witch to be ordinary.
In addition, her husband in the end had saved Snow White. If it would not have been for him, she would have been rotting in her coffin of glass for the rest of her cursed life. Therefore, in the end a man had saved her as well. Still Emma was impressed by her. She had taken on the Evil Queen after all and she had done it without any magic, just relaying on her own abilities and natural strength. She was close to what she wished for every woman in a man's world.
Maybe she was too proud and her judgment was too strict. Nevertheless, she was sick of living in world where men decided about everything. She wanted to make her own decisions and to act the way she wanted to without being reduced on her gender.
Anyway, it was thanks to Blackbeard that Graham was gone forever. She had searched for him everywhere ever since that night, but she had never found him. And just like her big love, Graham had left her alone forever.
Emma watched a pirate leaving the tavern with on of the prostitutes. His intentions were more than obvious, just like the woman's goal to earn his money or whatever he had to offer. The door was not even shut again, when some other men entered the tavern. Some of them followed the pair with their eyes, while others were already focusing the rum at the bar or another woman waiting for them to do her job.
Those women were quite poor creatures. They had nothing to offer to live and they had lost more than they could bear, so they had to give everything they had left, in order to survive even though they got nothing from it. Emma did not even want to imagine what they experienced sometimes.
She rolled her eyes and stood up, as a pirate pushed one of these women into the air and swung her around, while circling, her breasts hanging in his face, while she laughed like a hyena. She did not want to watch this disgusting and strange show any longer, just as if she really did not want to steal in a town like this. A pirate town definitely was not the right place to risk the own life with the possibility of being caught and discovered as a bounty hunter, who had caught many of their men. No. She would have to catch one of them and she would have to be very creative in the process. In addition, she had a long way to go to earn the bounty, since there were no guards in this town. On top of that catching one of those men would be quite satisfying for her despite her frustration and the danger that came along with it.
Emma avoided some men chasing after a woman of the staff, they clearly confused for one of the prostitutes and made sure, her hood was staying in place. She made her way through the crowded room barely noticing the men sitting in the other corners, some laughing and chatting, some putting their heads together and some lying in the women's arms or between their breasts, just like they had forgotten, where they actually were or just believing their corners were dark enough. She stopped for a second and took another look back to a corner filled with pirates sticking their heads together, obviously laughing and chatting about a friend of theirs, flirting with a woman, who seemed to hang on his lips like he was a preacher telling her about her redemption. Something was odd in that picture, even though it definitely was usual to see something like that in a tavern like this. The problem was she could hardly see anything in that corner. It was just too dark to see anything special. However, she noticed something in the people's movements.
Something about the man was wrong. He was flirting and entertaining his friends and the woman really seemed to enjoy it, but he did not seem to at all. It was as if he was putting on an act, but she could not explain to herself why he would do that. She could see it in every movement he made, in every caress and every move of his shoulders, when he seemed to laugh about something. It was odd.
Was it just up to her imagination or was she judging him right? But why would someone do that? Moreover, why would a man not be interested in a woman he could easily convince to join his bed? She had seen plenty of men in her twenty-seven years of living on the street and taking care of herself to know that most of the ordinary ones always enjoyed such women. Sure not every man was like that, but men hanging around in a tavern like this, in a town where there was nothing like ethics and morals, usually did.
Suddenly he stopped focusing on the woman and turned to look around, just as if he had noticed someone watching him, until he found Emma. She was glad the hood was covering her face just as her cloak was hiding her features. For a second she felt like she was frozen. She felt like he had pinned her at the spot she was standing at, just by looking at her. There was something in the way he was focusing on her, even though she couldn't see any features of his face through the darkness surrounding him, that made her feel uneasy.
Slowly she turned away from that corner and left the room looking around as if he had just caught her by accident, while she had been searching the room without any intentions. She wanted him to believe that she had not focused on him. She wanted him to know that she had just noticed him by accident, just as she really had.
It seemed to work. After a few steps, she was almost certain he was not paying any attention to her anymore. She felt like he was not looking at her any longer. Maybe he was concentrating on flirting with the woman sitting in his corner and flirting with him again. She did not know it, even though she was quite curious, since he somehow had so much influence on her, which she could not understand at all. Nevertheless, she did not dare to turn around to check on it. She could be mistaken after all. Maybe thinking of Graham and her past had brought up something inside her that had softened her as much as she had been open for his sudden interest. Or maybe she was secretly longing for someone being close to her, someone who would care for her? She had been alone ever since Graham had died after all. Was it not just natural to long for someone who would be interested in her? Someone who would treat her as if she was the most precious thing in his world. Someone who would be there for her and would treat her as someone equal to himself? But could someone like that even exist? And would she even be able to open up to such a person?
She did not know. All she knew was that she usually winced back if someone tried to reach out to her. She had pulled up her walls ever since she had been betrayed. It had been difficult to reach her even for Graham, who had been everything she had ever had of a family. So how could she even think about someone staying with her and caring for her the way she wanted to? Moreover, how could she even think of someone like that, when she wanted to be her own person? Was it even possible to have both, someone who cared for her and took care of her and to stay independent and free from the common rules, made by men? Could there be any man who would accept her like that, without trying to change her?
Could there even be someone who would love her like that, even though she was not pure and innocent anymore? She had given that man more than her trust and love. He had taken everything before he had betrayed her. She had trusted in the wrong person and now she maybe even would have to pay for it for the rest of her life, by being alone and judged by everyone who would find out about it. It was bitter but in a world like this, it was a sad fact.
She sighed and walked down the alley hoping to find a pirate or anyone close to that, she could beat up to get rid of her frustrations. She barely ever felt like that. However, when she did, she needed to do something about it to distract herself and beating up someone was better, than to burst into tears of self-pity. Moreover, the best thing about it was that she could even make some money with it, if she would find someone to lend her a horse, so she could deliver her victim to the next guards, who were quite far away from this place.
"And you believe she was worth it, why?"
"Because she is a good person. She is just covering it up", Nova explained and watched Emma chasing down a pirate through dark and wet streets. It did not take long and she was already fighting him… she was more than fighting him… she actually was breaking him. Nova frowned as Emma broke his nose.
"I see", Blue said sarcastically, "she is such a good person, Nova, you're right."
"She is just hiding it."
"Hiding", Blue said emotionless, "if she was buried by an avalanche she couldn't be hidden better than her good side, I'm afraid."
"But", Nova started to try to convince her again, but was disturbed by the Blue Fairy, who didn't want to listen any longer, while Emma bound the pirate's hands together on his back and pulled him to his feet roughly, "I don't want to hear this. You are wasting your time and even worse you're wasting mine as well."
The fairy turned her back on Emma, after risking one last glance at her, while she forced the hurt pirate down another street and on a horse's back, "forget her. She doesn't even show a little glimpse of guilt or a wish to change her life, Nova. She is not worth it, but there are a lot of others who'll need you."
Nova swallowed hard while watching Emma riding out into the night. She was right about her, she was certain. If Emma would not want to change something, she would never have wanted to help her at all. It was just a feeling but if she could not trust her own feelings anymore, she was not right for this job. And her feelings proofed her right. She trusted them and she believed in Emma just as she believed in her own abilities.
Ignoring the small voice in the back of her mind questioning all that, she sighed and followed Blue back into their world filled with flowers and sunlight. She would need to take another job or she would be ordered back to deliver fairy dust between the dwarfs and the fairies again and that would not be of help for neither of them. Neither Emma nor she would benefit of it. In addition, she had no wish to face that one particular dwarf again, who had broken her heart.
Nova looked down at the world while she followed Blue. It was just too hurting to even think about her Happy and the way he had left her. She had not had the power to experience all the wonders and adventures without him, after he had left her.
"Don't worry, Nova", Blue said misjudging her reaction, "don't worry. You'll find another person you can help. One who'll be worth it."
Nova bit down any other word, remembering what had happened to the misguided Green. She would not be of help for Emma if she would end up like her and that woman needed every help she could get.
Emma pushed dust and pieces of straw off her cloths, before she bound her hair to a knot and pulled the hood, which was part of her cloak, over her head until her face was hidden. She had slept in a stable since she did not trust anyone in this town. You never knew what a crazy and greedy innkeeper could come up with especially in a town like this.
It had been her third night spending in a stable and yesterday she had caught and delivered her second pirate in this town. Of course, she could not just bring him to the guards since there was not anything like this here, so she had spent most of the night traveling around to other towns with her prisoner as part of her packages.
Emma left the stable and stepped out into the night. After her last journey her perspective on day and night had shifted, since she used the day to sleep. It was just safer than at night. At night it was possible that one of those pairs - a pirate or thief and a prostitute usually - would suddenly show up to have a "nice" time together and she did not want to be a witness of those meetings. Emma avoided another puddle while she walked down the street and watched the pirates around her carefully. They were everywhere. She felt like a mouse in a snake's nest hiding under something. But she knew it would not take long anymore and the snakes would notice her.
She went down to the docks where the ships were landing all the time, to check if there were new pirate crews. On her way, she passed some pirates trying to hire new members for their crews, which was something she had never seen before. Maybe because something like that was only possible in a town like this one.
She stopped in front of one of those tables and watched the men. One was sitting at the table writing down names on a list and talking with the men telling him their names so he would hire them. In the meantime, another pirate was standing right next to them shouting out the crew's name (which usually contained the captain's name) and advertising for the crew with stupid stories, which generally ended up being pure tales. This crew did not seem as famous as others did, since the men standing in a line to be hired looked like they were weather about to die soon or just like kids.
Emma rolled her eyes and stepped aside to turn around, when someone suddenly wrapped an arm around her neck and pulled her back violently.
Her breathing stopped and her neck started to hurt immediately. The arm was very strong just like the flat chest she was pressed against, that belonged to the man behind her back. Even though she tried to free herself again by using both of her hands to pull at that arm, she was not able to get rid of him.
Well, but she did not really try, did she?
He pulled her back through a small lane and Emma had no other choice but to stumble after him, until he stopped far behind the houses and pushed her in the middle of a yard.
Emma's hood was still covering her hair and face for what she was thankful, when she noticed all the pirates surrounding her in a dangerous circle. It seemed the snakes had noticed her and they obviously were more than angry with her.
"Is that him", the pirate behind her back asked and as she turned on her heels to face him, she noticed that he indeed was very strong and big. His muscles were as big as plates that showed through the strange and thin fabric of his vest, which was the only thing covering his chest at all. His hair was bound back into a brown ponytail where his head turned into his neck and his brown eyes were starring at her more than angry.
As she turned back to the man answering him now, she secretly counted the men surrounding her. She studied their positions and body sizes, noticed their muscles and tattoos just like their body piercing and weapons. Everything could be important.
"This must be him", the other pirate right across from her answered. He was smaller and fatter than the rest. He wore a red hat on his thin hair and had something nervous in his eyes. His face was somehow familiar to her but she could not recall why or from where she thought she knew it. It was possible that he had just passed her on the street after all.
"Good", another one said before her kidnapper said, "then let's talk about the man you sold to the guards two nights before." He seemed to be the leader of their group even though she was not sure their captain was with them yet.
Emma turned around to look at him as he walked up to her slowly and dangerously like a cat, even though he was more looking like a bear, "he was our friend."
She counted ten men, if she was not mistaken. They exchanged angry glances and became even more furious when Emma did not show any reaction to their accusations. It was useless anyway. This was not planned to be a fair fight at all. They had already decided her punishment. Every word would just be wasted.
"You don't say anything", said the little scared one in a rebellious voice from behind her back and when she looked at him again, there was something chargeable in his brown and small eyes. He did not seem to be as vulnerable as before anymore at all and the weapon in his hand did not change anything about that to her advantage either. However, seeing him like this now, what she had recognized before, seemed to form into a picture that was familiar to her. A man sitting at a table beside two other pirates and a prostitute and a picture drawn on a wanted poster came back into her mind. Sm…Sma… Emma could not come up with his name. It had been something unusual…Smee! He was part of Hook's crew.
"He was part of our crew", Smee continued talking about the pirate she had caught making out with a prostitute two nights before, "and you never harm a pirate if his crew is around."
Emma rolled her eyes. Why did she always have to listen to those stupid speeches about how great and dangerous they were in such situations?
If Emma was not mistaken then Smee was Hook's first mate. That was interesting and confusing. She actually had expected that gorilla in her back to be their leader and not that frightened rat only encouraged by the majority of his men. And there was something ironic about this situation, too. After all those months searching for these pirates without any trace of them, they had found her. If her position would have been different right now, she would have laughed about it.
In the end, the old saying was true: be careful what you whish for.
They obviously had enough of her silence and Smee's stupid small talk since they decided to pull their swords and knifes. Smee stepped back just like a dog trainer throwing a chicken into a bunch of bloodthirsty, crazy and quite hungry dogs trained to kill. For him there was no question what her role in this was. It was clear she was supposed to be the chicken. But they did not know they had gotten a tiger instead.
The men exchanged short glances before one of them stepped forward and started to attack her with a sidestep. They send a beginner at her. Seriously?
Emma did not even pull her sword. She avoided his blade grabbed his wrist, extricated the sword out of his hand, kneed his leg, so he stumbled forward and pushed him into his friends, so they were distracted for a moment, within seconds.
Finally understanding what she might be capable of, the huge one behind her grabbed her again, while another pirate decided to attack her from the front. Emma grabbed the arm around her neck, took a deep breath and pulled herself up to kick the second one in his face. His nose started to bleed immediately and tears shot into his eyes as he sank to his knees a few meters away from her.
After that, Emma used momentum to pull the other one over her back and throw him to the ground. Before she could knock him out, another pirate attacked her with a knife. She only avoided him through jumping back and crashed into another one of her enemies, who pushed her, in order to stab her with his friend's knife anyway. She stopped herself from falling into it, through grabbing his shoulders, to keep enough distance between the knife and her. She was cut at the waist and suppressed a sound of pain, before she reached the reflex point at his neck to nock him out entirely. He fell on his strong friend, who had been standing up again and fell back to the ground.
Emma jumped across them to get space between the other seven and her and turned on her heels to face them.
One of them threw a knife at her, which she avoided praying that none of them had a gun or at least, that none of them would decide to use it.
When the bear-like came back to his feet, she saw her chances floating away. It was a shame she had not knocked him out yet. That would have been of big help for her.
The boy from before was still holding his wrist like it was hurting. Maybe he was just scared of her and used his wrist as an excuse not to attack her again. Too bad the others were not thinking like that as well.
The huge one stepped closer towards her. There was no way she could beat him like this. She had just three options left besides being killed. The first was to attack him with a kick. He would grab her leg and if she would be lucky, he would just throw her back into their circle, where she would be stabbed long before she would get back to her feet and she would die.
Second she could try to use one of her own knifes against him, but considering how strong he was he could easily extricate it from her grip to use it against her and she would die.
Or third, she could wait for his attack and hope to reach a reflex point to stop him. Any point would be fine. However, if she would not succeed she would simply die.
He made her decision when he suddenly punched her in her face. With that, all of her options were done. She almost flew back against a barrel that broke apart underneath her. Her back was aching and her vision blurred for a second. He used her current situation to come closer, stepping across his friend who was still lying on the ground unconscious.
Emma stood up, blinked to see clearly again and looked up, an idea forming in her head. When he was close enough she jumped up, grabbed a transom of a balcony above her and swung her feet to kick his head, what seemed to be his weakest point.
He grabbed her ankle and steadied her hanging in the air an evil grin on his face. Fine, then not. Emma kicked his face with her free foot and forced him to let go of her, to stumble back. She let herself fall back to her feet, grabbed a small and empty barrel next to her and crashed it above his head. She knocked him out and when he hit the ground, the other men, who had stayed back to enjoy the show, stared at her more than surprised.
Her hood had slipped back revealing her blond hair and her face to them as she stood grunting heavily in the shadow of the balcony, above their strongest man lying unconscious to her feet. She pulled her hood back up and ignored the sticking pain in her arms and the warm feeling from the back of her head, where blood was escaping her body.
The pirates calmed down and one after another came back to his senses. They started to attack her again in pairs of two or three men and she managed to knock them out, before the next pair showed up. Of course, she still was hit but in the end, she managed to win, what she never would have expected to be possible at all.
A lot of them were lying on the ground, some were pinned up at the walls and one was hanging from the balcony above her, pinned at the wood with his own knife. About five of them had run away after watching their comrades loosing to her and Smee had already disappeared as she had beat up the big man lying to her feet. She had bet up around nine men what she could be proud of even though she was hurt.
Emma had bruises in her face, at her neck and at her arms. Her back was aching as if she had dug over a whole field on her own and the back of her head was bleeding. She was cut at her waist and her legs. Once more, she was dirty from head to toe and mud was burning in the wound at her waist. Maybe the blade had been dirty. Stupid pirate. She was grunting and her head was aching. Moreover, she was not sure, she would be able to bring as much distance between herself and them as she whished.
But the most annoying thing was that she could not collect the bounties on their heads after all the trouble, she had had with them just now. She was certain the big one would have been enough to feet her for a whole year.
Emma hurried away from them. She was not foolish enough to believe this had been more than luck and even less stupid to think she would get away with this again, hurt as she was.
No, she needed a place to mend her wounds and take a breath, before she could search for their ship. And Smee. And Hook. She needed to be fine again before she could fight the rest of his crew.
She blinked her vision free once more, which blurred every now and then, as she dragged herself down the lanes, her head feeling like a balloon and her vision changing form time to time. She ignored the stabbing pain rushing through her whole, by adrenaline empowered body. She definitely was more than exhausted. Where was that fairy if you needed her?
Whom was she fooling? She had been right when she had told Nova she was not worth her help. And as it seemed the fairy had started to believe it, too. If not she definitely was a bad fairy.
Emma pushed open a door to a stable and looked around. There was nobody there if she was not mistaken, which was quite possible in her current situation, but that could change very fast. She was too close to the harbor and still too close to the unconscious and bet up men, who would be screaming and hunting for vengeance anytime soon.
She stepped a few steps further inside the stable not wanting to fall asleep, since she had to stay awake to protect herself, stumbled, her vision blurred again and she collapsed on the ground.
Currently I'm trying to edit my story, before I add new chapters. But the next chapters will be out soon.
Enjoy reading and feel free to tell me what you think of it.
:-)