A Pirate I Was Meant To Be?
Beta Read by VStarTraveler
Chapter Two
Elaine had left Guybrush gluing the dinner set back together once again—he'd become obsessed with the thing. She'd gone for a walk to the lookout, the side of the Island on which Guybrush had been shipwrecked. Several ships had been sunk in the storm that Guybrush had survived. Up at the lookout was the blind watchman who was technically retired and had been for many years. He still insisted on coming to his old job every day. The young lookout who'd taken over his job was looking out at the ocean with a bored expression, he didn't enjoy the work as much as the old man.
Beyond the men, Elaine saw the older woman she'd spoken with that morning. She approached and said, "Hello, Ms. Woodsbury, how's your stay been so far?"
"For a pirate town, it's been rather pleasant," Elliot Woodsbury replied.
"Is it wise to be out without a guard?" Elaine asked the other woman. She seemed to have experience and wasn't at all afraid of the pirate island she was on, unlike several of the merchants she'd dealt with in the past.
"I used to be a pirate hunter Governor Marley," Elliot replied. "Don't worry, I'm not here to hunt pirates. I gave that up a long time ago to take over my mother's family business. I leave the pirate hunting business to my older brother."
Elliot looked towards the sea again, looking lost. Elaine put a comforting hand on the other woman's shoulder and didn't say anything for several moments. She was starting to get a sinking suspicion that Elliot was related to Guybrush somehow. He'd mentioned wanting to be a pirate hunter like his father and coming from a merchant family who made and sold porcelain. The woman before her was the same build as her husband with the same blond hair as Guybrush. That is where the similarities ended between the two.
"Ms. Woodsbury, did you have a brother who as disappeared twenty-six years ago?" Elaine asked the other woman. That made her feel old. Twenty-six years ago Guybrush washed up on the beach and into her life. They'd been married for nineteen years.
"How did you know that?" Elliot asked, looking a little haunted.
"We had a storm off the coast of the Island that year, a major one with many ships sinking. A young man washed up on the beach. Blond hair, blue eyes and no memory of where he came from before his ship sunk. He's been here ever since. He accidently broke the dinner set with your family crest on it that you gave me. It's stirred up a few memories, and he's been gluing the dinner set back together ever since. He's concerned that his family will not accept him how as he is now."
"Who is he now?" Elliot asked.
"Guybrush Threepwood," Elaine replied.
"Isn't that your husband's name? The famous pirate who defeated the pirate ghost LeChuck?" Elliot asked.
"Yes, he's my husband," Elaine replied, wondering how Elliot would take the news that they were possible sisters-in-law.
Elliot started laughing. "My father must have known; he ordered my brother Charles and me to stay away from Threepwood when his name first started coming up. We thought it was because he was just a wannabe pirate that would disappear like so many others. When Threepwood became bigger, he still wouldn't let up go after him. It never even occurred to me that he might be my missing brother. He was a pirate that no one had heard of him before he defeated LeChuck the first time. My father's retired from being a pirate hunter now. Can I meet your husband?"
Elaine nodded. Guybrush may not want to know his own past; she, on the other hand, had always wanted to know who he'd been before, if he had family that was missing him. She didn't have any family for a long time before Guybrush became a part of her family. Her parents had died when she was young and her grandfather had gone missing, presumed dead until Guybrush had found him also suffering from amnesia.
- Monkey Island -
"Mom, I promise I'll be back," the young man said to the woman standing at the dock. "It's just a simple trade on a pirate free Island. We're not even going through pirate infested water. It's not like I'm doing something dangerous like Charlie and Ellie."
"It's just that I worry about you," his mother smoothed his hair. "It's the first time you'll be away from home. Away from me. You're my baby. I worry about you. You're so clumsy, what happens if you accidently hurt yourself?"
"I'm not a baby any more mom, I'm an adult. It's time that I left home and explore what's out there. Clumsiness has an advantage; I can now trip without hurting myself when I fall."
"Just be careful and if you don't like the adventure, you can always come home. Nothing wrong with wanting to stay in one place and not out on the open sea," his mother assured him.
"I'll be fine. Grandma can't do this forever—someone needs to take over from her in traveling to the different islands and setting up trades. I'll never be a pirate hunter like Dad, Charlie, and Elliot. I can do this and take over from grandma," the young man insisted.
"I love you, don't forget that," his mother pulled him into one last hug.
"I know, Mom, I love you too. I'll be back before you know it, I promise." He returned the hug before he walked to the ship that would take him away from his mother for the first time in his life.
- Monkey Island -
Elaine rushed to her husband who was sitting on the floor crying over the dinner set. Elliot stood in the doorway looking at the man who was openly crying. This was meant to be one of the most fearsome pirates and here he was crying like her younger brother, her clumsy caring brother. How could someone as caring as him become a pirate?
"Guybrush, what's wrong?" Elaine asked.
"I broke my promise to my mom," he turned into her arms. "I promised her I would come home before she knew it."
Elaine just held him close, whispering soothing words, telling him that it wasn't his fault that he forgot. That he couldn't control the weather or what happened to him. That he was lucky to be alive, even if he'd survived with his memory less then intact.
"You really are Ollie," Elliot said from the doorway.
Guybrush looked up at the woman standing in the doorway. His face red and his eyes puffy like Elliot had seen so many times before.
"Mom?" Guybrush said to the person standing in the doorway.
"Try again, I'm not mom," Elliot said with a chuckle. She always resented that she'd grown up to look like her mother.
"Ellie?" Guybush asked sounding unsure of the name.
Elliot nodded, tears now coming from her own eyes.
"You're wearing a dress," Guybrush tilted his head a smile reaching his lips.
"I took over from grandmother when she passed away. I needed to look a bit more professional," Elliot sighed.
"Will they hate me now? Are they still alive?" Guybrush asked.
"Mom and dad are still alive and well. I have a feeling dad already knows, and he doesn't hate you. He even ordered Charlie and me to stay away from Threepwood. Mother has never given up that you're still alive. I know they'd both like to see you again, Ollie."
"Is Ollie my name?" Guybrush asked.
"Short for Oliver."
Guybrush made a face, he didn't really like the name. Maybe that was why he'd forgotten what his name had been because he'd never liked it to begin with.
Elliot walked the few steps, fell to the ground and threw her arms around her baby brother. "I'm glad you're alive."
"Now I wish I could remember more about you," Guybrush admitted.