Chapter 15
26 February, 1660

The moment I woke up the next morning and looked out the curtains, I knew I should just layover in Saint Martin. The wind had picked up and the cloud scudded sky kept the light of the sun hidden from the world though it had yet to start raining. After shaving and dressing for the day, I stepped out to find my crew struggling to wake up themselves as they gathered in groups to talk.

Climbing the stairs to the helm, the talk died as everyone noted my presence on the stairs. When I turned back, I saw my new crew was divided into its own group and Shang and his men theirs. I blew out a sigh at seeing it, even as I looked over the ladies of my crew and saw that they had copied Ariel in wearing pants and a linen shirt with mismatched boots, wondering where they had gotten them then remembered that most ships had a slop chest that was full of spare clothes for sailors to wear should theirs be damaged beyond repair.

"Eight bells!" a sailor announced as he flipped the hourglass shaped timepiece and brought it up the poop deck and set it by the wheel. I nodded to him, trying to place his name but came up with squat as the man turned and left.

"Raise the gangplank!" I called and the sailors brought up the wooden plank and began to stow it. "Cast off the lines! Man the sheets! Aladdin! Take Jasmine to the crow's nests and show her her duties there. Then pitch in yourself where you know how."

"Aye sir!" the man called with a salute then began to lead Jasmine up the shrouds to the nest at the top of the main mast and highest point on the ship. Jasmine saluted as well, looking unsure as she swung up and onto the rope ladder that also anchored the masts in place. I looked for and found Ariel leading Melody to the fore lines and was glad the redheaded mother knew enough to pitch in without needing a teacher before looking at the penants and judging I had a favorable wind.

"Lower the mainsail!" I called and the canvas sail was lowered to catch the wind. We began to drift away from the dock as I took the helm and steered the Wench to catch more of the wind and take us out to sea, lowering more of the sails until the final gaff sailed was deployed over my head as well.

With the sails deployed and the Wench making good time on our southern course, I handed the wheel off to a sailor and began the process of waiting for something to happen, my eyes going to both Ariel and Melody or up to Jasmine who was no alone in the nest though Aladdin hung around on the top boon adjusting the trim of the sail as needed but the raven haired beauty seemed to have been truthful in that she was a fast learner.

Still, I kept an eye on the clouds as the day wore on, hoping that rain wouldn't set in but knowing full well that was a possibility. Eventually though, the sea became rougher and the winds rougher to make me douse sail as the masts began to bend, but what happened next was chilling.

"Sail!" Jasmine called, her voice high and carrying well. I grabbed the spyglass and moved forward, following her extended finger to a ship nigh on in front of us. A look through the spyglass told me the ship was on an intercept course, but the black flying above its mast made me lower the glass and glance at my still bending masts.

"Man the starboard cannon!" I called and my crew rushed to pull the cannons back and ready them. I also saw cutlasses being passed out and the eager faces of my crew, but as Shang came to report on the cannons, he saw my fear and knew something was wrong.

"Problem?" he asked as I continued to monitor the approaching ship.

"Pirate," I told him as I put the spyglass in my pocket. "A very popular and deadly one in this corner of the world."

"Hook," he said as he gave name to my fear.

"Yeah, Hook," I confirmed as I looked up at the sails and the flags to gauge the best course to take. Problem was, I was sailing, at the time anyway, with the wind in the most favorable position of running broad reach which was just a few points off of having the wind directly behind us and that Hook wasn't running fast at all with most of his own sails lowered in the storm.

"What are we going to do?" Shang asked me as I formed a plan in my mind.

"Load chain-shot," I told him. "We'll get one good pass as we go by, maybe damage a mast and make a run for it."

"Shi," Shang said as he turned and began shouting for chain-shot to be loaded. The other vessel was coming into clear sight so I scanned looked it over as we readied our guns. It was a brig alright, long and lean with sixteen cannons ran out to meet us on the one side.

"Cannons are ready," Shang told me as I collapsed the spyglass and pocketed it, the brig coming closer.

"Good," I told him, then drew a cutlass from a stand. "Ready!"

The crew held their collective breath as I waited for the brig to be in proper position of board and board as Shang gave orders to aim for the mast. I also got my first look at Captain James T. Hook, the man looking every bit as fierce as I predicted he'd be with a large silver hook in place of his right hand as he held it high as he shouted his own commands.

"Fire!" I shouted as I swung my cutlass down. Hook dropped his own hand at the same time and the resulting roar was deafening. Wood and debris filled the air along with shrieks of pain I could barely hear over the ringing in my ears, and I looked at my crew in the lantern light to find many members of my own gun crews crawling on the deck.

"Shit," I cursed as I knelt by one sailor who had a slice on his arm. I ripped off a piece of his ruined shirt and wrapped the wound before looking at the body next to him. That poor sod had what I initially thought were bullet holes in his head and chest, then I realized it was grapeshot. That fucking motherfucker had fired grapeshot at me!

"Get the wounded below!" I shouted as I watched Hook turn to chase me down. Problem was, with his slow pace, he was slow in getting around and I was able to speed a good distance away before he was able to get back behind me. The walking wounded helped the really bad wounded below and I found out I had five dead, their corpses piled in the bow of the main deck while we dealt with Hook when the rain began to pour and I smiled.

"Douse the lanterns!" I called as I snuffed out the one closest to me. "No lights except in the hold!"

"But why!" Ariel asked as she followed orders and snuffed out the lantern by the helm.

"We'll turn when we get the lights out and lose them in the rain!" I told her with a smile. "You can barely seem them with their own lights on."

"Oh!" she said as it lit a light bulb over her. We went to douse the lanterns on the poop deck together, then I had the men in the sheets lower another sail to improve our chances of getting away, but couldn't risk more as we were going as fast as I dared and making the Wench's masts bend. Being near the rail as we topped a wave, I saw most of my shiny copper hull come out of the water before we dropped back into the trough behind it as the seas got rougher.

"Man overboard!" I heard being yelled and ran to the other rail to find a man had fallen into the water.

"He was bounced off the rigging," Ariel said, having apparently seen it happen. "Do we turn back?"

"Can't," I said as the man floundered in the water. "Hook's still too close."

Ariel seemed to think for a moment, then began undoing her large belt. I wondered what she was doing as she get dropped the belt to the deck, then kicked off her shoes as well before dropping her trousers and underwear to leave her butt bare on the deck. I was too shocked to ask why when she immediately jumped over the rails and into the water. I looked for her to come up, but couldn't see her red hair anywhere.

A flash of lightning showed me a flash of red in the distance, and as I watched where the drowning man was supposed to be found Ariel had already made it out to him and was bringing him back to the ship with apparently the world's fastest backstroke. It was all so hard to make out in the darkness that until Ariel got close, I couldn't tell more than that.

"Get the hooks!" I called as Ariel came alongside the ship as she dragged the sailor along on her stomach. The man was still sputtering water but appeared to be alive as hooks grabbed onto him and lifted him free and up to the deck where the assembled crew dragged him aboard.

If I hadn't been watching Ariel instead of the sailor I'd have never seen her dip below the water as the man was lifted clear and up to the deck before Ariel jumped clear of the water herself and for one long glorious moment I had the answer to an age old question as I saw the fish-like tail of her lower half as she grabbed onto the ladder and hung there by her arms. Once clear of the water, her tail quickly resolved itself into human legs and she began to climb the ladder up, getting helped by the sailors as I brought her clothes to her and let her get dressed.

"Unnatural that is," a man said but I glowered at him. "She has to be some kind of demon!"

"Unnatural or not, he's alive because of it!" I shouted at him as I stepped in front of Ariel as she shimmied her way into her pants. "Leave it at that or I'll throw you over myself for Hook to have!"

"Sir," the assembled men said as they shot accusatory glances at Ariel as she straightened herself out, but broke apart with the nearly drowned man being taken below.

"Thank you," Ariel said as she stood tall and dressed again.

"Why doesn't the world know you exist?" I asked her as I turned in awe at seeing a real live mermaid. Ariel looked sad for a moment, bowing her head as she looked over the water.

"We don't live lives above the water," she finally admitted. "Except for Whitecap Bay, we're not even supposed to be seen."

"Why is Whitecap Bay the exception?" I asked her but she seemed hesitant to answer.

"It just is," she finally told me. "But ever since I found out that when we try our tails out they turn into human legs I've been fascinated by life on land. When Eric found me wandering around the beach one day, I decided to stay with him."

"So, Melody is a mermaid too," I asked her but she shook her head.

"Her legs won't change," she told me. "She can hold her breath for hours but she can't breathe water like I can."

"You have fish gills?" I asked her and Ariel nodded.

"They appear on my neck when I'm under," she told me. "Everything else is the same but the tail and gills."

"If the men give you problems, come to me," I told her with a smile. "You're a treasure to have aboard a ship, especially in a storm."

"Thank you," she said with a smile as she turned and walked away, some sailors looking at her warily as she joined Melody as we rode out the storm.

Thankfully my idea of turning to angle off from Hook's pursuing brig worked as the rain fell heavily for hours and obscured my ship from view as Hook sailed on by. I knew I was drifting further west than I wanted, but I had to run the ship with the waves and that meant a westerly course to get away from Hook. Once we were clear and I had all but a few sails dropped to spare the masts, we readied to ride the storm out in the darkness.

It had been a nerve wracking day, to be sure.