Chapter 3 – Hoist the Colors

The next day was dedicated to looking for nice and decent clothing to wear when they met with Elizabeth Swann and the other pirate lords. It was no problem for myself, since I had a hug chest filled with fine clothing, in case the moment ever came that I would have to look presentable. The crew, however, had great difficulty.

They didn't want to go into town and waist the little money they had with them, so they had to attempt to make their own. Being men, they knew nothing about sewing with a needle. But little Noah was one of the few who did, as his mother was a seamstress and taught him the skills that she knew. So everyone would come up to him and ask for his assistance.

By the time the sun began to set, we all ourselves the most presentable garments that we could possibly make myself included. I never was one to like dresses, so my own fancy clothes consisted of long jackets in shades of brown, black and deep purple with a different bandana for each.

As I was sewing up my favorite jacket, the one I always wore which was in need of some serious mending, there was a persistent tapping noise on my window. I looked over and saw Ini-Herit there with a message.

Opening the window, the little bird flew in and landed on the table. The piece of paper that was tied around his right leg came undone easily, as I unrolled it and read what it said.

To Captain Maria Ruthford, captain of the Sea-Wolf's Howl,

I, Elizabeth Swann, have decided on where to meet you and your crew. I have decided that the best place to meet is along the Nile River in Egypt, Africa. Yes, I know it may be quite a trip for you and your crew. But the reason being we have to meet here is because of Captain Norrington and him teaming up with Davy Jones himself. If we can get as far away from the English as we can, the better the chance we have of not being hung.

We are to meet in the city of Faiyum, outside of one of the many temples dedicated to the god Sobek. Ini-Herit knows of which one to lead you to. If you get lost, just ask anyone to show you to the largest one there. Everyone in the city knows where it is.

I look forward to meeting you there. May the luck of the world be with you.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Swann, pirate lord of the South China Sea and current pirate king

With the arrival of the letter, I rushed on out to the deck and yelled to the crew members. "We have our destination! Let's go! We're headed to Egypt!"

The crew on deck heard my voice and suddenly there was a flurry of action. Sleeping crew members were awakened and put to work immediately. Someone ran onto land to find any crew members who were out to buy clothing. In a matter of minutes, those crew members on land came back to the ship, with new clothing, and the anchor being pulled up from the waters of the ocean.

Within a half hour, we were back on the open seas, the wind pushing us along and out flag waving in the breeze. A young man named Raymos stood at the wheel, while I gave him the directions on where we were headed.

"You sure you want to go this way?" He said. "People said that they've seen British ships over here."

"Well, do you have any better ideas? It's the quickest way to reach Egypt: better then traveling through the Atlantic, where England has tons of ships sailing. No, once we reach Polynesia, there won't be any ships out there, save a few of the natives."

It felt good to be back out on the sea. I've gotten so used to it that it felt like a second home. And besides, it was rare that I ever got to return back to Tortuga, so it was comforting to know that I felt at home out here as well as back there. And plus, it was good to have crew mates that you were so close to that they were like an extended version of your family.

I stood by myself, watching Ini-Herit dive into the sea every now and then to catch a fish, when Nyasar ran up to me. "Marie, we've got a problem. Looks like there's British ships in the distance, and they're headed our way."

With this news, I yelled out "Raise false colors!!" Immediately, the ship's flag came down and a British flag went up, to conceal the identity of us. There was no way any of us wanted to be hung from the gallows.

Every crew member held their breaths as the ships passed by us, and for a few minutes no one spoke. But finally, they were at least two miles or so away from us and it was safe to raise the black flag with the red wolf's head once again.

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It would be only two hours later until we ran into another ship, this time a pirate ship with a black flag that had a heart on it being stabbed by a sword. I didn't know what was to happen if they decided to ambush us and try to take us down, but we were prepared to fight them, if something did happen.

Lucky for us, there was no need to. They simply passed by us waving and saying hello, with their captain, a tall red-haired man, shouted to be careful of Davy Jones and Norrington.

"Damn buccaneers." Noah said, munching on an apple. "They think they own the seas, when they're only false pirates. They deserve to die, that's what I say." Such words from Noah were shocking, as everyone stopped what they were doing and stared for at least thirty seconds before resuming what they were doing.

Soon he walked off to attend to his duties, as Ini-Herit flew back to my shoulder, feathers perfectly dry despite the fact that he had been diving after fish for at least thirty minutes. Well, he was a bird whose diet centered around fish and had to dive into water, so maybe that's why his feathers were always dry when he came up.

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It had been at least four days at sea before we even hit the small islands of Polynesia. The wind had died down constantly, slowing our progress to reach Egypt. The crew didn't mind though, since most of them had never seen a sea turtle, which followed the ship for at least thirty minutes.

The day passed by quickly, as the sun set. The wind had picked up again, so we were able to cover many more miles then we had during the day. Before we had been in Polynesia, now we could clearly see the coast of Africa.

"LAND HO!" Rodual yelled out from the crow's nest, the rest of the crew running on nothing but pure energy, it seemed. I was currently writing a letter to be sent to an acquaintance of mine in Asia. Tying it up to Ini-Herit's leg, he took off with a loud screech and flew to his destination.

The winds had picked up greatly, so we made our way to the entrance of the great Nile River, which ran all the way through Africa and Egypt. We had to first sail the Red Sea before hitting our destination. I knew very little of this land, this place I've heard that priests use flesh-eating beetles and that the gods smite those who have done wrong with fire from the sky.

But such were only rumors. I myself didn't know if the gods frowned upon pirates, but I'm pretty sure they didn't have anything against ones that don't worship a god or some deity of some kind. So at least I was lucky there; we pirates praise the goddess Calypso.

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It didn't take long to sail the Red Sea, as Calypso was with us for the remainder of the evening. We sailed non-stop until we saw a triangular shape looming far in the distance, illuminated by the moon's light. The Great Pyramid.

We had reached Egypt.

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Well, here's Chapter 3. READ AND REVIEW PLEASE!! I WANT AT LEAST THREE REVIES ON THIS CHAPTER BEFORE I POST THE NEXT ONE UP!