Chapter Twenty-Five: News Come Late
I am never doing that again, she thought to herself as she performed the usual duties to her ship the next day. Especially if it means I'm going to be so damned uncomfortable! She was sore in spots that she hadn't thought possible, and in her mind, that was reason enough to be furious with Devon. Why hadn't he warned her about that?
A tiny voice in the back of her mind warned her that she was being a bit unfair, but she squashed it. How was she being unfair? He was the one that had started it in the first place! Growling, she went back to her cabin for a quick drink, slamming the door behind her.
**
Her crew looked at each other as she entered her cabin, and all let out a sigh of relief. It was obvious that the captain was in a foul mood, and they had all been holding their breath as though they were waiting for a storm to break over them. Not a one of them was foolish enough to ask what was wrong, and they worked extra-hard so as not to bring her wrath down upon them for slacking. Even the oarsmen were working harder than usual to avoid Captain Firestorm's wrath, and at the rate the ship was moving, they'd be to St. Maarten before the sun had completed its descent.
If Reanna was in a foul mood, however, Devon was downright cheerful. He seemed incapable of ceasing to smile, and many a man on the crew elbowed each other and passed meaninful glances between each other. They all knew the source of that smile, even if they didn't know which of the few women on board he had been with the night before. They whispered in awe to each other that he had gotten away with it right after a storm--especially right under the captain's nose!
They knew better than to gossip that he had been with the captain, however. They knew well that she would likely keelhaul the source of any such rumors with no hesitation.
All in all, the skies were clear, the wind was good, and the angry captain was in her cabin, leaving her grinning first mate to run the ship. It was a good day.
**
Later, when someone knocked tentatively on her door, she shouted a rude "What do you want?"
"It's me, Reanna," said Y'lorani.
"Y'lorani!" Reanna exclaimed, turning to face her. "What are you doing in here?" She swallowed her irritation for the sake of the elf, knowing that Y'lorani hated it when she was angry.
"I came to ask you why the devil you're in such a bad mood today," Y'lorani said, a single brow raised questioningly.
"I...I..." Reanna started, and stopped, blushing furiously.
"So, you're really a woman now," Y'lorani said, sounding amused. "I have to assume that it was Devon, since he was the only man in your room to my knowledge."
"Yes," Reanna said, it coming out in a great whoosh of breath. She sounded almost relieved that Y'lorani had figured it out.
"Then why are you so angry? Did it not feel good?" Y'lorani asked, confused.
"It was good," Reanna said, "but now I'm sore in muscles I didn't even know I had! Why didn't anyone tell me about that? And...and...well, I don't know why I'm so damned frustrated. Maybe because it wasn't quite what I expected it to be."
When Reanna didn't say anymore, Y'lorani asked, "And what did you expect?"
"I don't know! Isn't it supposed to be this magical experience? Shouldn't I feel this immense love for him now?"
Y'lorani smiled. "Reanna, there can be love without love. In fact, your father used to love as many women as he could find, but he never loved them as he did your mother. As he would your mother if he were still alive. Love and sex are two very different things, Reanna darling. And love isn't something that happens suddenly. It takes time. There is the occasional time when someone meets their soulmate and knows them for what they are, but it doesn't happen often.
"The society in Port Royal wouldn't agree with me as I say this, but you should love whomever you choose until you do find a true love. We elves have been doing this since the beginning of our kind. We don't see the reasoning behind human custom of waiting until marriage to have sex. Would not you want each other to know what you're doing so that first special time isn't disappointing?"
"So," Reanna said slowly, "what you're saying is that 'practice makes perfect' and that love has little to do with sex?"
Y'lorani smiled. "If you wish to put it that simply, then yes, that is exactly what I mean. Do what you enjoy."
Y'lorani stood up and said, "We will reach St. Maarten within the hour, it's already well within sight." She turned to leave, and when she stood before the door, she said, "It only makes you hurt the first time," then she left, leaving Reanna to muse on her words before following.
**
"You don't know where they're going, then?" he asked the man that had come to report.
"No, sir, the captain just told us that we had to evacuate the ship as quickly as possible. The woman was holding onto him and said that she'd kill him if we didn't do as she said. Then when we started to get off of the Lady Pandora, the Pearl began to sail away. Well, some of us decided that we weren't gonna leave the ship, but most of us did 'cause we thought that they could still see us, and those that wouldn't come with us are all dead now, nothin' more than ashes anymore," said the man, apparently frightened at his memory.
"But you said that there was no boarding," the seer said.
"Right, sir, and there wasn't! But we hadn't gotten more than half a league out when the ship suddenly went up in flames! They were at least twice as high as the tallest mast, and we still don't know how it happened."
"You're positive that the gunpowder didn't accidentally blow up?"
"Positive, sir, well, it could have, but that still wouldn't have accounted for the sheer height of the flames, not to mention that there wasn't an explosion when the ship first went up. That happened later."
The seer took a moment to think on what the man was telling him. No explosion? Then how did the ship go up in flames like that? He dismissed the sailor's rendition of the flames--they were an exaggerating lot, and he would be foolish to believe everything they told him. The remaining men had likely set the ship afire so that the Pearl couldn't steal it. Captain Devon should have been proud to have such loyal crew members. That was hard to find in pirates nowadays.
Instead of commending the man for his news--albeit that news was quite old now--the seer instead made a motion with his hand to one of the guards that had brought the lowly sailor here. The guard took the man outside the room, and when the seer heard the gurgle of the man trying to speak with his throat cut open, he smiled in satisfaction.
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Yes, I know I'm a day behind schedule, but at the moment, I don't care. I was burnt out, lol, so I took the weekend off! Not that I could have written anything yesterday anyway, what between the sleeping until 3 and packing up to move back here. I do hope that no one's terribly irritated with me over that.
I've decided that I'll stop forcing myself to write a chapter a day, so the updates likely won't be as fast as they have been since...well, since the beginning of the story. I will write AT LEAST once a week, however.
Also, thank you for the reviews!