Incredible Hearts
By: Arch Fox
Chapter 2 : Pirates We Be.e
"The man's a loon," Captain Hook said pawing at his forehead with his good hand. "He drinks and then he raves on and on about heartless critters. Says he tracked them here and they messed up his flying boat."
"...what does he drink?" Jack asked with a hint of a smile.
"We've got a store of rum in the galley."
"I think I might go an talk to the man," Jack said turning on a heel and jauntily heading out of the cabin.
Captain Hook rolled his eyes and continued to pour over the charts and maps on his cabin table. Mr. Smee was busy shining his boots. I had a chair on the other side of the table and I was staring at the same map as Captain Hook. He'd been excited when I said I'd seen the map before and knew where Pan's hideout was, but when I looked for familiar plot points from the movie, I'd found they'd already blown up the tree that Peter used to live in.
"Why keep him on board if he just drinks and raves?" I asked. This other captain didn't really make sense to me.
"The man may drink, but he can fight too. He's beaten anyone who's tried to get him out of the galley. Carries a spear, and even blind drunk, he's good. You're friend could do well not to upset him."
I laughed, "I doubt he went to talk to him; whatever rum you had left, it'll be gone soon."
Captain Hook frowned. He reached over and tapped Mr. Smee on the head as he continued to shine his boots. "We'll take her into the east winds, that should get us back to Neverland even faster."
Mr. Smee nodded enthusiastically and made one last buff on the shoes before running off to see the course changed.
I stared at the map a little longer. It was kind of weird, it seemed the island of Neverland was pretty much the center of the universe and everything else was just vast stretches of water around here. I sighed... this was all well and good but my sister's fate was all I could think about.
I forced myself from the table and went to check on Jack.
"East east! Take 'er east!" Mr. Smee was jumping around on the bridge and shoving at the big tattooed sailor who spun the wheel.
I tried to ignore the noise and slipped from one door and into another. It was a small number of stairs down and into a very cramped passageway lined with storage closets. It opened into a larger room about the size of the Captain's cabin. Jack was leaning against a series of windows at the back of the room, smiling with a bottle of rum in his hand. Someone else was sitting a few feet away, resting with his feet on a table.
"Ah, Captain Cid, I'd like you to meet Evelyn... She's sort of a new acquittance of mine."
The man looked a bit older. His hair was dirty blonde, short and messy. His clothes weren't period correct; he had a pair of aviator goggles on his head like a bandana... Whoever he was, I definitely hadn't seen him in any Disney movies.
"Evening miss," he said evenly, not really looking at me. "Be a doll and refill my flask will you?"
He flung a hip flask on the table. I looked at it a moment and simply brushed it onto the floor.
"You're not from the Carribean or Neverland are you?" I said getting straight to the point.
The man finally looked at me. "My flask?"
"Refill it yourself. I'm not you're servant."
"Stupid (BEEP)ing kids, no respect," he took his feet off the table and allowed his chair to clang forward as he sat up. He took a cigarette from his jacket pocket and lit a match seemingly from nowhere. "So she's with you Jackie?" he asked taking a drag and exhaling through his nose like a dragon.
"Fraid so mate; not really sure why, but she's got something about her that's pulling us together I think."
Cid nodded. "Thought it might be like that. Lemme guess, you just appeared in this world too right?" he asked leaning back in his chair again.
I nodded slowly. "Yah, just... somewhere else one minute, here the next."
"Bet you thought it was a dream too huh?"
I took a seat, my legs were getting weak. "I had kind of hoped it was a dream."
Exhaling in a long smoky plume, Cid laughed, clapping the table. "Haha, sorry darlin', but this ain't no dream. You're really here, just like Jackie over there... although to be honest, he's not supposed to be here either."
Jack smiled. "I'm not complaining. I've got some things I'd like to check into around here."
"Where are you from then?" I asked a bit confused.
"Seems I might have forgotten girly. My throat... its a bit dry."
I sneered. Why couldn't I have ended up with romantic pirates? So far they'd all been jerks. I picked the flask up off the floor. "How do I refill it?"
Jack flung his bottle my way and I grumbled catching it and filling the flask. I flung the flask and the bottle back at both guys. Even in their relaxed position, they caught it without having to move much.
I felt a bit weird... usually I didn't have much grace or dexterity... things tended to break even when I was being careful... Yet without really thinking, I'd just flipped two bottles like a pro. Not only that... earlier I'd decked a pirate and taken his rifle. I hate fighitng, since when I had been good at it?
"Ahh, much better," Captain Cid said taking a swig. "I'm from Hollow Bastion. It's another world, similar to this one and sort of the center of our operation."
"Another world?" Jack asked looking interested. "Didn't realize there were more then one."
"Quite a few more... but that's not important right now. What's important is what I told you earlier Jackie. There's some scary things hiding on this world, I tracked them here."
"We have to hurry, they have my sister."
Captain Cid jumped up from his chair. "The heartless?! You've seen them?"
I shook my head no. "The boy, Peter Pan took her."
Cid stubbed his cigarette, sat down, and lit another. "Feh, she'll be fine. He's not the enemy."
I frowned, stomped around the table and took the cigarette from his fingers. "My sister has been kidnapped."
"What the (FUZZ) woman!?"
I flicked the cigarette out the window, missing Jack by just an inch or two. "I want to know what kind of dangers are around this world. I want to know if she's in trouble... I WANT HER BACK."
The two of us glared and growled at each other for a few minutes before he finally sneered and looked away.
"Settle down... geeze," Captain Cid said frowing and sitting up. He grabbed another cigarette out of his pocket. Jack pulled up a chair and flipped it backwards to sit with us. He did the same match trick as Cid had done and lit the cigarette for him.
"All cozy? Now then how about you tell us about what's so special here?" Jack asked cooly.
I grabbed a chair, slammed it down next to them and promptly sat. "Yes. Explain EVERYTHING."
We sailed on for rest of the afternoon; picking up speed and heading into choppier waters as the sun went down. As the sea worsened, I learned a few things about myself.
Oh god... the little dingy hadn't rocked this hard. I felt my stomach flip and for a moment, the world spun. I ran for a window and pushed open the glass pane; lurching as my dinner came up.
"Oy... that's pretty bad," Jack said with a bit of a squeemish twinge. "You... you okay luv?"
I watched the last bit of dribble hit the water. "Gruh... shoot me."
"Ah leave 'er be Jackie," shouted Cid from the table. He kicked back his flask. "Let 'er get sick. Ain't no cure in the (BONK)'ing world for a weak stomach; best to ralph it up and grow a new one! Gahahah!"
If I felt any better, I'd go kick him. "Shut up old man," I said quietly over my shoulder.
"What was that?!" growled Cid. "Hey, you got something to say you little (SQUEAK), say it so I can hear it!"
My stomach lurched again and whatever I was going to say was replaced with "blaghhhh..."
"Thought not, gahaha."
Staring at the water, half hanging out the window and sobbing, I made a silent promise never to sail again if I made it ashore. I tried wiping the outside of my mouth with a fist, and it was in the evening moonlight that I noticed something in the water. My sobbing stopped as my breath caught in my throat. Those somethings in the water were black with claw like hands... many somethings... latching onto the tail end of the ship.
Cid had stopped laughing, and the lamplight had dimmed in the galley.
I felt a hand on my back. "They're here aren't they?" he asked.
Cid yanked me away from the window and I stumbled back. He grabbed his spear that had been laying against a wall and kicked over a table, grabbing me and keeping me behind it.
"Those don't look very happy eh mate?" Jack said backing up toward the door.
The windows were filling with black creatures. It looked like shadows had clogged the frames and all you could see was white eye slits glaring at the three of us.
"This is bad..." Cid said flicking away his cigarette and taking the shaft of his spear in both his hands.
"What the heck are those things?" I asked with my back against the table. I thought about crawling toward Jack and the galley exit.
"Those are heartless woman!" Cid spat. "They're dead shadows on a hunt!"
Death wasn't really someone I wanted to meet. I tried my best to crawl toward Jack. As I began to move, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. The creatures where also crawling into the room... along the wall, ceiling, and floor from the windows.
"You got a sword Jackie?"
"Course mate," Jack said drawing his sword. "Although this doesn't exactly look like my type of fight," his free hand reaching for the galley exit.
"You piece of (EWWW) the heck do you think you're going?"
There was a meaty ka-chunk as Cid's spear was thrust at the ceiling, skewering a heartless. The creature exploded in a fine black mist.
Captain Hook stared in disbelief at a spear tip sitting squarely between his two feet. He slowly backed up his chair, just as the spear point was yanked through the deck, leaving a fist sized hole between his cabin and the galley.
"That's it! No more rum for drifters!" he yelled.
He got on his knees and cupped a hand to his mouth to yell down in the hole. "You hear me faux captains? No more ru..."
There was something black with a white angry eye looking at him through the hole. He jumped back with a slightly girlish shriek... The spear tip suddenly tore through the deck once more about a foot behind the last hole. The creature was gone.
"MR. SMEE!!! We're under attack!"
I've heard that discretion was the better part of valor. Sounds pretty good at least when you're crawling around under tables trying to make your way out of a room filled with monsters.
Captain Cid was cursing and slamming his spear everywhere. Jack had already left.
I was nearly to the door when I noticed something quickly moving across the wall. It jumped between me and the door.
It was all black, syrupy in structure, but yet solid. One of its arms ended in an hooked scythe-like hand, and its narrow white eyes were blankly staring at me.
"What do you want?!" I asked in a panic. It didn't reply, it just swung its arm at me. I barely backed up before it splintered the deck in front of me.
I might have screamed, I'm not entirely sure, but as my back met the overturned table I felt an odd sensation in my hand. It suddenly felt warm and a bit heavy.
The creature lunged at me with its wicked arm again. I shut my eyes and out of instinct my hand flew up to guard my face. There was a clash and I cracked open my eye to find there was a long curving key in my hand... barely holding off the creatures hook.
