Disclaimer: I do not own Pirates of the Caribbean or any characters or settings related to it. I do, however, own any original characters in this story.
Author's Note: This is my first POTC fan fic, so please R & R! I can take constructive flames. Please tell me what you think! And also, I will try to keep on updating regularly, and I don't plan on abandoning this story, or any other that I write. Ok, now enjoy!
Chapter One
A New Beginning
It was a cold, pale morning in mid April. In the city of Nassau, in the Caribbean, a ship was setting sail and leaving the docks behind. The Blue Mermaid, as this ship was called, had begun its journey towards Port Royal.
The ship was big and bulky, a merchant ship. It was painted blue, with a lovely mermaid on the edge of the stern. A fancy scripted sign – The Blue Mermaid, 1683 was under her curved tail. The ship was quite old – 11 years old, in fact – and had a sort of teetering, rusty quality about it. The sails were an old dirty white, quite huge. On the main mast, at the top, was a proud British flag, swaying in the wind. The ship carried a few passengers, as well as chocolate, sugar, gunpowder, gold, and other cargo.
One of these passengers was leaning on the wooden railing, feeling the bent nails under her fingers and hearing the sailors calling out, "Anchors away!" as the ship began its route to Port Royal.
She was a young girl of sixteen, with creamy skin, graceful fingers, pale lips and long, fair, dirty-blond hair. Her eyes were chocolate brown and her complexion was angelic.
She was wearing a scruffy white dress made of an old bedspread. She wasn't wearing a corset underneath it, though. Her near perfect figure didn't need it.
The girl turned her head as a familiar voice called her name: "Raquelle! Raquelle! Where are you?" It was her mother.
"I'm over here, mother!" Raquelle cried, laughing. Her mother was so careless sometimes.
"Oh! Hello, darling," Raquelle's mother said as she approached her. She was a tall woman, with Raquelle's features, only more wrinkled with age. She pulled her into a hug and Raquelle breathed in the familiar scent of jasmines.
"Mmmm," Raquelle's mother moaned softly. "I can't wait to arrive in Port Royal. It's a new life, Raquelle. A new beginning." Raquelle nodded slightly. The reason her mother and her were even on this ship was that recently they had received news of Raquelle's father's death. Her mother refused to talk about it, and Raquelle knew nothing about her father's death, or even her father himself! He had visited her only once, twelve years ago, and she couldn't remember anything from that period. All she knew was that he had been a sailor.
Sighing, Raquelle let go of her mother and smiled shyly. "I think I'll take a stroll around the deck," she said as she turned to explore the quarterdeck.
The captain's quarters were to the right, and the ancient oak wheel was in the middle of the upper quarterdeck, being steered by the bored second mate, a scruffy thirty-something blonde. Near the steering wheel was a small flight of steps that led down to the passenger's cabins. Raquelle took these steps and looked for her room, which she had been told was the third one towards the end of the dim corridor.
She stumbled into her room, which was exactly as she has imagined it: small, smelly, and damp. Raquelle sighed and lay down on the bed, silently counting the cracks in the old ceiling.
When she had reached fifty-two cracks, the door opened unexpectedly, and a buff, tan man walked into the room.
Raquelle sat up, surprised, and the man (who she now noticed was carrying her and her mother's trunks) grinned at her, revealing several missing teeth and few gold ones.
"'Ere's yer trunk, miss. 'Ope you 'ave a pleasant journey."
Raquelle tried to conceal a face of disgust. But before the man turned to leave, she asked the question that had been brimming in her head for most of the morning: "When are we arriving in Port Royal?"
The sailor eyed her curiously and replied, "About three weeks if we make good time, I should 'ope so, miss."
Raquelle nodded briefly and the man left the room. She flopped down on the bed once again. It was going to be a long journey.
Three days into the journey (and several complaints later), Raquelle was taking her usual stroll around the ship.
Traditionally, she would start out from her cabin, go past the captain's quarters, through the main deck, down the central hatch in the middle to the galley, where she would request a cup of tea which was usually tasteless and accompanied by two mouldy biscuits. Then, Raquelle would go past the galley, the cargo hold, and the brig to the crew's rooms. There she would stay near the door for a while, watching while handsome and ugly sailors walked past, occasionally smiling or winking at her. Then she would go back up the central hatch and lean on the ship railing to watch the sunset, as bells rang and sailors worked all around her, climbing the ratlines or the main mast, fixing broken things or doing their watches. It was so peaceful, so calm.
But three days of the same thing was starting to bore Raquelle, and she decided that today she would go somewhere new. Instead of exploring the ship, she simply left her room and knocked on the door next to hers.
She didn't really know what she was doing, but she felt an urge to meet new people and make friends. She couldn't stand to be alone while her mother napped in her room a moment longer.
She waited patiently until the door opened. A middle-aged woman with flecked white hair answered it. She looked annoyed and restless. Her eyes stirred with anger.
"I was taking my afternoon nap. How can I help you?" she asked sternly.
Raquelle blushed in embarrassment. "I…I…I just…wanted to meet my…er…neighbour. I'm sorry to bother you." she added hastily, gave a small curtsy, and moved on to the next few doors.
The second door she knocked on had no answer, but the third one did. A tall, thin girl about her age answered. "Yes?" she inquired in a confident voice.
The girl had striking grey eyes and long, unkept brown hair. She was wearing a satin blue dress that Raquelle would have died for and a white lace bonnet was in her hand.
Raquelle mustered up the strength to say, "Oh, hello. My name's Raquelle. My room's over there," she pointed, signalling her door, "and I was just in the mood for meeting the other passengers on this ship."
The girl's eyebrows raised slightly and she looked amused. Raquelle was unsure if this was a compliment or an insult.
"I'm Bethany," the girl said loudly. Raquelle nodded and there was a short silence, broken by Bethany herself: "So, d'you want to go for a stroll and grab some rum—er, tea?" she asked.
Raquelle frowned. There was something peculiar about Bethany. Rum?
"But of course," Raquelle replied, smiling. Maybe this could become a new friendship.
The two girls climbed up the stairs to the quarterdeck and both leaned on the railing for a while. There was a peaceful serenity about the calm blue waves that rippled in the ocean, stretched out endlessly all around them.
"So, why are you going to Port Royal" Raquelle asked Bethany.
Bethany just sighed. "Do you have to talk all the time?" she replied, rather rudely. Raquelle was taken aback, and fell silent.
Bethany just smiled slightly and after a while she said, "I'm going to visit my aunts. I might stay there for a while."
Raquelle expected Bethany to ask her why she was going, too, but she didn't, and so once again Raquelle fell silent.
"Come, now. Let us go down to the galley and drink some good ol' tea," Bethany said suddenly, grabbing Raquelle by the hand.
They hurried down the hatch past several sailors who stopped working to glance at the beautiful ladies who were in such a hurry.
Bethany broke out in laughter when Raquelle tripped on the stairs and fell flat on her face, to the amusement of all the on-looking sailors. As Raquelle's cheeks flushed deep red, Bethany fell to the ground beside her, clutching her sides in laughter. Raquelle glared at her and tried to get up, but she ended up, again, sprawled on the floor.
Raquelle was red from embarrassment, and Bethany was purple from laughter. Raquelle thought about it: she could sulk and be embarrassed, or…she could be like Bethany. Carefree. Enjoying life. So Raquelle did something she had been sure she would never do: she laughed at herself. It was like something had clicked.
From that moment on, Raquelle and Bethany became extremely close friends. Raquelle liked how spontaneous and adventurous Bethany was, with an added element of mystery. And although she tended to be blunt, she had a great knowledge of sailing and navigation. At daytime, she would show Raquelle how the ship worked and what sort of things the sailors were doing, and at night they would spent hours talking, with Bethany pointing out the constellations in the night sky and how they helped determine where the ship was going. It was perfect.
Bethany also brought out the crazy, wild side of Raquelle, and over the next week, they stole food from the galleys (the good-tasting jar of biscuits the cook was keeping in secret), flirted with sailors, told incredible stories, sung songs, and waved at passing ships. The journey so far had been incredibly peaceful and fun.
But despite all the laughter and fun, something felt wrong to Raquelle. Missing. While Raquelle had shared tons about her own life and dreams, she knew almost nothing about Bethany. She had asked her about her family, but once Bethany had curtly mentioned her mother and father were both dead, she had dropped the subject. Still, Bethany never really told Raquelle anything. It was mysterious and often quite annoying.
