Chapter 4: Spread your wings.
There was yelling and lots of it. I was woken up from it in the middle of the night and tried to shut it out by putting the pillow over my head, but the muffled voices were only annoying me. That's when I finally got up and crept slowly to the door. I rested my ear to the door to hear what was going on. It was Silver and Scrapper talking on deck. "Why did you leave her?" Silver said, obviously pissed off.
Scrapper scoffed and probably rolled his eyes from the sound of it. "She lived, didn't she? What's the big deal?"
I heard Silver pound his fist on the ship. "That girl is worth more than you, Scrapper! I's the one who took her in, and I's be the one who says what happens to her and I say you keep an eye on her when in the kitchen!"
"What?" started Scrapper. "Ya don' trust her? Or is it me ya don' trust?"
"I'm warnin' ya, Scrapper. Keep ya red curly locks under control and stay where ya meant t' be." I heard Scrapper and his one peg leg walk away from Silver in a hurry and down with the rest of the crew to sleep. I felt compelled to go to Silver and tell him that it was alright. Scrapper had things to do on the ship, too, I understood that, but I stayed in my room and walked back to the couch and went back to bed. There was so much on my mind that it was hard to go get back to sleep. I thought about my dad and how he was doing. Was he crying right now? Did he think I was dead? And would I ever be able to go back home? I should be grateful though, and I was, I really was. I was experiencing things that were beyond the human ability…at least from where I was from. And just how long would I be here? How long before Silver would get tired of me and throw me off the ship and leave me to fend for myself? Would he do that to me? These men were pirates after all. And weren't pirates mean and nasty? Maybe these pirates were the good kind? I had been here a month and always kept my guard up, even if I was in the kitchen half the time. That was my job and I was glad to take part in helping out the crew. I closed my eyes real hard and counted my lucky stars…or what was left of them.
"Rise and shine!" Silver's voiced boomed in my ear, making me yelp and sit up fast. Silver stood hovering over me and laughing. He bent his head back and slapped his knee.
"That wasn't funny!" I told him and threw the blanket off of me.
"Sure it was." he said. He quickly contained himself and said to me, "I have an idea."
"Uh oh…" Did I say that out loud? Silver led me to the very bottom of the ship where they kept extra boats and supplies. I had never been down here so it was a treat to see something new, something I could possibly get my hands on. I grinned.
"Help me out with this." Silver said, trying to haul down a boat with golden sails tide up. I helped him lower the boat and open the bottom door of the ship. I knew exactly what he had in mind and I loved it. I felt myself becoming a part of the crew more each day. "I highly doubt you have flown one of these before. It's high time you learn." We both got inside the boat; him on one side and me on the other. He told me which lever to pull to go and how to make the ship slow down and turn. It was like driving one of those small motor boats only this was so much cooler. As we lowered from the ship and were out far enough I pulled the first lever and off we went. I stopped for a second, the sudden rush making me laugh with excitement. I looked to Silver who just about had a heart attack but was smiling all the same. "Keep going!" he urged. Boy, did he pick the wrong person to tell to keep going. I pulled on the lever again and this time I moved from side to side, getting used to the feel of the boat. It wasn't as grand as the ship, certainly not, but it gave me a lot more freedom.
The fast ride didn't last for long, though. Further out was another ship. Silver told me stop and he used his red eye as a telescope. "What do you see, Silver?" I asked.
He looked at it a bit long then his red eye went back to normal. "An abandoned ship?"
An abandoned ship? I thought. "Cool! Let's go check it out!" I put my hand on the lever, ready to go but Silver stopped me.
"Stop!"
I looked to him in question. "What? What's wrong?"
"We have no idea whose ship that is. Ya jus' can't go explorin' it." I took my hand off the lever and sat back. "But I'm here, so let's go." I sat right back up and grinned, putting my hand on the lever and easing my way over to the abandoned ship. The ship had giant holes, resulting in there being an all-out fight. The ship constantly creaked and Silver and I tide the boat to the ship and let ourselves in through one of the holes. The gravity pull was still intact so it was easy enough to walk around and not have to worry about floating off. Everything was a mess too. Nothing seemed to be of importance and we moved along rather quickly. "If you see any weapons, grab them." Silver told me. I nodded to this and kept walking. From the looks of the ship, it seemed to be one that carried prisoners. Perhaps that's why they were attacked. A get-away ship must have come for them. I looked in all the cells. All of them held nothing but broken bars and pieces of wood. I did, however, notice a marking…an initial B.B. I heard Silver call for me then and I went to find him. He was up on deck which had a few dead bodies lying around. I held my hand to my nose, trying not to smell. "It was a mistake to come here." said Silver.
"There are no weapons either." I told him. "Who would do this?" I asked.
Silver turned back round, heading back to our boat. "Some maniac. Let's go." I went right along with him and we left the ship without saying a word. "Promise me that you won't speak to anyone of this." Silver told me, his voice firm.
I nodded, softly gliding us back to our ship. "Of course," I had more questions for Silver but I kept my mouth shut the rest of the way back. I wanted to ask him if we were entitled to the same fate possibly, or if he had seen anything like this before or who he thought might have done this. I didn't though. It would have only upset and made him worry more.
Once we returned to the ship and loaded the boat up again we didn't say one word to each other as we headed up on deck. The crew was busy as usual and others not so much as they sat in their circle playing cards. "Do you want me down in the kitchen?" I asked Silver before he disappeared into the captain's room.
He hardly looked back at me and said. "Do what ya want, lil bird." I sighed and walked over to the ones playing cards. They were betting silver coins, some jewelry and even a nice juicy looking apple.
One of the lizard men that I gave a quarter to looked up at me and told me to either sit down or walk away. I decided to sit down and watch. The idea of the game was to take everyone's cards by beating the deck with the highest number. The cards were divided up evenly so everyone had a fair chance at winning. If it was a tie those players would have to have a single battle and the other players would retrieve the card they had set down. Depending on how well the cards were shuffled also depended on how well the game would go. After a while I joined in and nobody had to explain the rules to me because I had watched before and this moved the game along more smoothly. I enjoyed playing with them and I even bet one of my quarters. The number one rule in order to play the game was to bet something and as beginners luck would have it I won the entire deck within ten minutes and it kept my mind off the abandoned ship too.
My spare time was short-lived, though, and everyone, myself included, looked out to space as one of the watchers called out, "We've got company!" cried the little imp man named Fidget. I stood up fast and slapped my palms on the wooden rails and looked far out. My eyes grew wide with fear and worry, but the feeling in my stomach was far worse. What I saw was no friendly greeting of another ship passing by that I saw once before, but a black ship with red sails. It chilled me to the bone. "Get yer weapons and ready the canons!" Yelled another crew member.
"The blazes is going on here?" Silver came out of his room, eyes wide, realizing what was happening. He quickly scanned the deck and his eyes met mine. "What are ya doin' jus' standin' around for? Get your things together! We'se puttin' up a damn fight!" his robotic arm turned into a gun and his red eye glowed. I wiped around and ran into the cabin area and quickly snatched up my arrows. I still hadn't had much experience, but I had to protect myself one way or another. I couldn't be dependent on the others. I headed back outside, it was as if things got ultimately worse in the last twenty seconds. The ship with the red sails was closer and we were just starting to pick up our speed. That's what they first fired at us. They missed, but not by much and the blast shook our boat, rumbling as it did so. I raised my arrow as they got closer, my heart beating faster with every inch they moved toward us. They were so close I could almost count how many were on the ship. The sight of them mad me grit my teeth; mean, nasty, and probably smelly. "Steady!" I heard Silver yell from across the ship. I looked about the deck one last time and saw all my friends, my crew. I was scared for their lives and I looked back to the enemy that was gaining on us with a fiercer look in my eyes this time.
I counted down to ten as they came into full view; I didn't even get down to zero when their ropes and hooks latched on to our ship. One hook nearly took off my ear and I yelped, stepping back. It was then when they came on to the ship. Everything was happening so fast that my head almost spun out. I fired my bow by mere shock of a dark blue lizard running at me with heavy black chains jingling in his large hands. I shot him right in the shoulder. As he growled, about to rip my arrow from his body, Kristoff came at him, swinging an axe and severed his head. I rolled to my feet and I moved to get out of the way. I was suddenly hit in the back of the head by one of my crews elbows by accident as he pulled back to punch the day-lights out of our nasty enemies. When he knocked him out he looked back at me, grinned and apologized in a silly, sloppy manner and ran off to punch more idiots.
I watched as guns fired, some even came close to hitting me that came from my own crew members. Our numbers were not looking too good. I found more bodies of my friends lying about rather than those that were coming after us. I raised my bow again, ready to fire or accidentally fire off my arrow. But before I could manage to fire an arrow I fell backwards, tripping over one of my own friends. The arrow I had ready flew off and pierced one of the sails, flying off into space, never to come back. I dropped my weapon for a second and scrambled to pick it up again. A peg leg slammed on my injured hand and I cried out in pain. I looked up and saw Scrapper eyeing me down with a mean look. He suddenly smiled at me and I was filled with fear and very confused. He raised one hand, dagger looking nice and pretty as it was about to stab me right in my chest. I stopped breathing for only a few seconds until Scrapper was kicked by Kristoff. I finally found my breath again and I stood up quickly.
"Get out of here!" he yelled at me as Scrapper crawled to his feet and ran off in the fighting crowd. I ran back to the cabin room, brushing past everyone and dodging hits. I gathered up my things quickly and headed to the docking room. Silver took a strong hold of my arm and pulled me along. He surprised me at first and I almost screamed.
"You's need to get off this ship. Now!" he yelled. The ship was full and we were constantly being pushed back. Before he reached the door to the loading area we were stopped by none other than Stickler. He bared his teeth with an evil grin and raised his right hand, a shiny grey pistol gripped tightly in his grasp. "I've waited a long time for this." he spoke. "I'll only ask once, Silver. Where is the map?"
"The map is long gone, Stickler. Stop chasing a lost dream."
"It isn't lost!" he yelled. He pointed the pistol at us, his hand shaking from anger. I looked up at Silver, wondering why he hadn't shot him already. Before he could shoot either of us, the ship rocked, getting a canon blown into it. A lot of us fell, including Sliver, me, and even Stickler. My alchemy book and even one of my coins and a few pens came falling out of my bag. I rushed to pick up my book which flopped open and my book-mark long gone now. It was then when I came face-to-face with Stickler before finally getting up. I'll never forget the look of struggle that went through his eyes and also the curiosity that sprouted from him when he saw what was inside of my book. He gave me one last look before Silver picked me up with his arm and pulled me to the docking area.
Together Silver and I unloaded the boat that we were on just hours before in just a few seconds flat. I hoped in and reached out for Silver to get in. "Come on!" I said.
He only shook his head and gave me a sad look. "A good captain…goes down with her ship."
My mouth dropped a little and I shook my head. I reached out even more this time. "Come on, Silver!" I begged him.
He took hold of my hand and for a second I was hopeful. He only squeezed it slightly and managed to give me a small smile. "You'se don' belong on this ship anymore, lil bird." my eyes watered. I was angry, confused and sad all at the same time. I tried to pull him in but Silver wouldn't budge. "I'se wish I could have taught you more." he voice was soft all of a sudden.
He let go of my hand and I reached to touch his face. "Silver…" I was starting to choke on my own tears now.
Silver took off his red bandana and placed it in my hands. He reached for the lever and said, "Fly away, little bird!" and the boat dropped from the ship, taking off on auto-pilot.
"SILVER!" I cried out, tears coming down my face. I screamed loud, still reaching out in a hopeless attempt that Silver would change his mind and follow after. But he never did, and as I floated off into the sea of space quickly I cried and watched as my beloved crew and ship burned.
I laid in that boat for hours and hours. My eyes stung and felt heavy with all my crying. Even my voice had gone hoarse. I stared up at the sky, watching the stars float above from billions of miles away. Occasionally a space whale would float by; I didn't have the strength to reach out and pet its smooth skin. I was hungry and I had not a drop of water or a bite of bread on this boat. The longer I was on this boat the worse I became and just when I thought it couldn't get any worse the soft humming of the boat silenced. It was dead. I was now drifting to God knows where. Hah! Funny…God. I found myself thinking about him. Did God even exist in this universe? I shook my thoughts of him completely away. Soon the air would evaporate from the boat and even the gravitational pull would start to fade away. I would soon suffocate and float off into the sea of space. I started to hum, trying to stop myself from anymore tears falling down. It was just me, my humming and the silent, drowning sigh of space. What did I expect to happen? Did I think everything would be all hunky-dory on Silver's ship? No. Something was bound to happen that would result in me getting split up; I just thought it wouldn't be this soon. The sound of my voice, humming, was making me sleepy and I started to drift off to sleep. My eyes were flickering open, scared that if I did fall asleep I would never wake up again. Suddenly, I saw white sails coming toward me. I was too tired to raise my head or wave my arms and I continued to lay there. The ship came closer. Were my eyes deceiving me? Was this real? Was I about to die and fly to paradise on a ship with white sails? No. I saw creatures and a few human men peer out on the side of the ship. They pointed their fingers and a few of them even waved their hands. Some of them were even calling out to me, but I could hardly hear them. I saw a hook that latched down on the boat, making me stop. I was close to passing out. I strained my eyes to stay open, to keep myself awake and I was fighting sleep as much as I could. The young man who came floating down next to me on a device similar to the one Silver had (only bigger) picked me up in his arms effortlessly and I felt myself go. But before I did I heard him speak, "Don't worry, I've got you. You're safe now." I closed my eyes; sleep over coming me as I rested my head on his shoulder. Don't worry…I've got you…You're safe now…His voice echoed in my head as I dreamed about flying home.