Chapter 7: For Ship and Crew
The sea and the sky were unhappy when the strange ship came to port and the crew of riff raff disembarked on the sleepy sea side village.
The ship arrived by night on the calm after the storm. Behind the storm was left sloppy white foam and on shore rested the debris and the damage the violent sea had brought but the day to come was brilliant and new with all the glory in it that the sun and the calm waves could bring to it. The storm had cleaned the earth and everything smelled fresh and new.
Elizabeth had laid awake most of the night listening to the crashing of the waves and the violent moaning of the wind. The rain pelted her small shack and the water leaked in under the floor and through the roof. The feelings of her husband's sorrows were the cause and effect of the seas violence. In every thunder clap and every flash of lightning Elizabeth felt Will. She knew that she had upset him by sending his father back to him with news of her determination and yet there was an anxiety and despair in the way it rained. In that moment she knew that he knew he could not stop her and though the rain pleaded with her, her heart beat with his and the water called her more violently to him for there was a strange hope in the way the storm attacked the shore. She could feel his longing and hope at seeing her and the child though he was denying it to himself his heart was speaking in volumes louder then the storm.
Never had there been a more miserable sight of a pirate then there was in Elizabeth Turner, but by first light she was awake and aware of the world outside of her sleepy life.
The scene out her door was the most surprising kind. She had never imagined such a sight but there amidst the debris of her life and the storm ravaged coast line was the familiar sight of an eastern style vessel and a crew was coming ashore to meet her.
"It is time for you to return to the sea," An elderly man with a long white beard said as two able bodied men lifted him out of the dingy.
"Who are you?" Elizabeth asked as she stared at the old man, "I have not seen you among my crew before," she said as she began to recognize the men that gathered around her.
"He is one of our elders and a very old captain," one of her crewmen said.
"He was one of the first pirates to sail this ship," another man said.
"I am a man of the sea and it is through the sea that I have lived," the old man said as he stood before Elizabeth.
"That still doesn't tell me who you are or why you have come to find me," Elizabeth said as her shock faded and her pride returned.
"You will know me only as Mi, as you need not know me by any other name or face. But know that I know the sea and how she speaks. I can here that there is much in store for you. Out there upon the waves you are whispered of as a great and fearless pirate," the man said as he sat down on the sand among the debris of the storm.
"And this is all the explanation I am to get?" Elizabeth asked.
The man nodded.
"And I am expected to take you back onto my ship?" she asked.
"You can leave me or you can take me if your crew decides to accept you as their captain," Mi said.
"If that is the case I can find my own crew. If these men are not going to remain loyal to me then why did they come?" she asked.
Mi remained silent.
"I thought so," Elizabeth said with an annoyed sort of laugh, "if they did not need me, they would not have come."
"That is true, they need a captain," Mi said.
"And you are not captain enough for their ship" she asked.
"I am an old man. I cannot act as a captain should. But I can listen to the sea and I can interpret for you," Mi said.
"I can hear what the sea is saying," Elizabeth said.
"You then knew that the crew was coming to you," Mi asked.
"Yes, I had heard the call," Elizabeth said.
"Your men must leave us," Mi said as he addressed the crew.
For a moment the men looked to Elizabeth for orders. There was a sense of nervousness and confusion among them. Elizabeth looked at the little old man that sat at her feet and then to the twenty or so able sailors around her. She nodded to the man she recognized as Sao Feng's first mate and he motioned for the rest of the crew to depart as well.
"You are wise to take the offensive at the sight of a strange man," Mi said as he looked up at Elizabeth.
"I've sailed with some of the most notorious pirates on the sea," Elizabeth said.
"Yes Barbossa," Mi said, "Sparrow, I believe that there is even a link to Davy Jones," Mi said.
"That is true," Elizabeth said.
"Please sit," Mi said as he motioned to a space on the sand. Elizabeth did as she had been asked and sat down cross legged before the old man, "I believe you to be hearing the sea and her call. You are the pirate lord of the eastern sea and it is time for you to return to your ship and your crew. As the king of the pirates I believe that it is a dangerous time for you and that you are very cautious, it is good, as I believe there are many out there that wish to take your place, but as many pirates, myself included, you cannot stay on land," Mi said as he looked sharply into Elizabeth's eyes.
"I have been ashore for far too long," She said in agreement.
"The sea needs you for guidance, and her keepers are needing you and cursing you all at the same time," Mi said as he made a swirl in the sand with his long boney finger, "you need to take your place and yet there are pirates with villainous intent looking for you. Your crew is your crew and they shall remain loyal to you and only you as they were loyal to Sao Feng, but they do not trust other pirates that have sailed in the past. They fear one and one alone, whom you have a great tie to."
"Will is a good and just man," Elizabeth said as she watched the swill of the sand and the images of ships and storms appeared.
"I believe you, but your crew is afraid he will become like Davy Jones. The Dutchman is a cursed ship and cursed by forces stronger and more sinister than the sea herself. The gods that rule over the sea control Captain Turner and it is a dark fate he has been press ganged into," Mi said as the Flying Dutchman appeared in the sand, "it may not be Captain Turner but there is a powerful force that controls that ship and that power is very appealing to lesser men. I would worry if I were you."
"Is that why the sea has turned to calling me back to her?" Elizabeth asked, "Am I to protect Will from lesser men?" she asked.
"It may be and it may not be, but it is one of many dangers that have been whispered upon the waves. There is a man seeking you hungrily and yet he fights for a part of him is just and torn between pride and his own desire." Mi said as another ship appeared in the sands.
"Who," Elizabeth asked, "I do not know that ship."
"Nor do I," Mi said, "she is a virgin vessel on her maiden voyage and she seeks you out."
Elizabeth watched as imaged came and went in the sand before her. Ships she knew and ships she did not know. People and places of foreign lands and familiar ports and yet there was a fear and a deception at every point in the story that Mi unfolded before her. He spoke of truths and some of her inner most desires and yet she was unconvinced at times and frightened by his knowledge.
"I can see in you, an honest heart and a protective nature, but you must be fierce and commanding on this voyage. It is going to be one of the most dangerous of your life of piracy," Mi said at last as the sand returned to its still, wet form.
"And why should I believe you?" she asked as she stood up, but her voice shook and she felt the chill of the morning air.
"I cannot give you reason to believe me or not to believe me but I can give you my word that I am only speaking truth to what I am seeing and hearing from the voice of the waves. They want to protect you from the dangers and warn you and I will gladly step aside of you would rather I do not sail with you," he said as he continued to sit on the sand.
Elizabeth paced on the sand before him for quite a while as the sun rose in the east and cast long eerie shadows around them, "I think it would be better for me to have you then to not. I believe there comes a protection in a weathered captain," she said as she knelt down on the sand once more, "I will trust you until you give me reason to not," she added as she held out her and to shake his.
Mi took her hand and she helped him up off the sand, "I am grateful to you my captain, and I will do all in my power to prove that I mean you no harm," he said as he bowed to her and fell into step behind her as she walked along the beach toward her small house.