You Forget One Very Important Thing Mate – (13)
After manning the tiller for quite some time, Ashley felt hungry; she walked below deck and pulled out a few things. She had never cooked in her life.
I told Jack that once.
After her supper she stood up and looked at the mess on the table, but there seemed no point in clearing it away. It would be time for breakfast soon enough. Why go to the trouble of putting everything into the lockers when she would just have to take it all out again? In any case, it wasn't as though she was cooking proper meals; she just took what food she pleased, and half the time, ate it in her hands, on the deck. Dully she got up, and shut herself into her little cabin in the bow, and lay down on her bunk.
This probably isn't the best idea seeing as I'm the only one on this boat, but I checked and there isn't any land or boats near, I'll just let her float along.
And that thought was enough to set off the accusing voice inside her mind. She should have never left Tortuga, never gone with Jack, never met Will, never went ashore, never lived with Elizabeth, never started the commotion that may have disturbed Port Royal's residents for some time.
Ashley awoke with a start.
Blast it I fell asleep! She exclaimed as she rushed back onto the top deck, however it would appear that she may have only been sleeping for an hour or so, as it was still dark.
Ashley looked up. One by one the stars were being eaten up by darkness; clouds gathered swiftly, blotting out the moon and spangled sky. It was apparent that a storm was rising all around her, howling over the sea. She could hear someone's sobbing breath, and then realized that it was her own.
There was a distant low rumbling of thunder, and she felt the first splashes of rain on her cheek.
Ashley ran about, hauling on different ropes and fastening them. The main sail was growing smaller and smaller, giving the wind less canvas to catch, and 'The Silent Wanderer' bucked less violently then before the storm. Ashley remembered how the tiller had eased under her hands. The boat moved more smoothly, but fast, so fast, through the water. The rain was driving down hard on her back, and streamed into her eyes. Then Ashley heard a noise she hadn't heard for many days: the deep uneven boom of the sea crashing on the rocks, somewhere ahead on the port side.
She yelled out, "LAND AHEAD," only to feel foolish and remember she was the only one on the boat.
Her hands were still bust trying to fasten down the many tie points that held the sail in place, her fingers were slippery and clumsy with the rain, and the deck unsteady beneath her feet. Jack had told her about the mouth – it seemed a lifetime ago – the place where the Bay of Sardi joined the Great sea beyond – as some called it - It was a narrow and dangerous gap, flanked by cliffs, and the strait between them was dotted with treacherous rocks that some sailors and pirates called 'The Teeth'.
Some of them thrust high above the water, but others lurked just below the waves. Ashley glanced up, squinting against the rain and saw one of the rocks slide past, silent and sinister, looming up out of the dark then vanishing once more. It was so close she could have touched it with her hand. But there was no time to feel frightened; already she remembered with a pang that she had left open the porthole in her cabin. All her bedding, everything would be drenched and damaged.
Suddenly 'The Silent Wanderer' was climbing a sheer cliff of water. Flecked with white foam, rearing up and up; then they dived down the other side, skidding into a glassy chasm.
Without warning, something smacked Ashley off her feet and sent her sprawling to the deck, the breath knocked out of her. Helplessly she slid towards the edge of the boat and the yawning abyss of the waves, desperately scrabbling for something, anything to cling to. But no 'The Silent Wanderer' rolled the other way, and she slithered back, cracking her head on the cabin wall, dazed and drenched and sobbing for breath.
Get up! Get up now! Ashley thought to herself.
But she could only clutch the cabin railing as the next wave threw itself onto her. Above the scream of the storm there came the most terrifying sound of all: a tremendous creaking groan, louder than the nearest thunder, a noise that made the whole boat shudder from bow to stern. Ashley heard herself shriek, then the terrible crack as the mast snapped in two and crashed down onto the deck in a tangle of wet canvas and ropes. And then, everything was chaos.