In another lifetime she wore a different face, and bore a different flesh. She had another name back then, and it was chanted by many. Sacrifices were given for this name, holidays were had to honor this name, and they prayed to this name they had given her, and accepted as her own. This was a long time ago, another lifetime. She is now but a remnant of that once great culture that gave her holidays and sacrifices. Perhaps she is the only thing that can remember such a time, as the others like her left here a long time ago, no longer needed by the children of the Earth. She can remember the years as it began to happen. She was never welcomed by the others like her as much as she wished, for she was the daughter of an enemy, her father punished to hold the entire earth upon his shoulders. They did not come to her, and not many worshipped her as others, so she did not notice when power began to wane.
But the time suddenly caught up with her and she saw mankind no longer needed her or the others like her, for she and the others became mere legends. It's a strange thing, creation. Mankind once said that they created men, when it was the other way around, but given the responsibility to be their Gods, they rose to the challenge, and now their creators no longer wished for them to be there anymore.
She stood upon the beaches of her island, allowing the waves to come and go upon her feet. She can recall the day Poseidon left the sea, and the water felt somehow emptier. She watched from her shores as the world she and those like her ruled, began to change, and she could do nothing to stop it. No one came for her when the time did come. No one came to take her away from that island to go where the others went. They abandoned her to wherever they went, she imagines they simply left the mountain, but she doesn't know for sure. They couldn't have died, because she, being a mere nymph was quickly forgotten, but she still lived. Could Gods die, even when no one believed in them? She thought not, for there she was, waiting upon her shores for someone to come and get her.
It was in these lonely moments, that she recalled him.
She was no Siren, no child of a God or Goddess, no cross between the immortal and mortal like Achilles or Helen or any others, she was but the spawn of two defeated Titans, and no one came to her island. Until he came. Back when the Gods still lived upon mountain, only years after the great war, did he come to her. Odysseus, warrior of the Trojan war, King of Ithaca, husband to Penelope, studier of the crafty and clever. Odysseus who was before his time, a man who used his mind and not a dependency upon the Gods. A man who defied the Gods themselves to get home. What a world Odysseus found himself in, a world that shouldn't have been his own.
He came to her by accident, after going through so much. A war, six-headed sea monsters, Sirens, going to Hades and back again, Cyclops and so on and so on. He must have been dying by the time he came to her.
She will never forget that face, she will never forget that smell.
Odysseus, man of the sea, survivor of war, monster killer, clever man, king of Ithaca was hers. She would keep him forever if she could have. She showered him with all that she could, and gave him all that she could. She held him close, and gave him all that he wanted but one thing. His home.
She loved him, but he did not love her.
And one day, seven years had passed, and Odysseus was going mad with his longing to leave her. She promised him immortality, she promised the island, she promised him herself, but these things were not Ithaca, these things were not what she wanted. But for a moment there he loved her, for a brief instance in time in one of those nights on that island, he loved her, she knew he did.
The others like her, the Gods took him away. She let him go.
They said she died of grief, but this is not so. She came close to killing herself, if a sea nymph could do so, she would have gone to her beach and stabbed her heart out if she could, the pain too much to live with but not enough to die. They said she died of grief, but this is not so. She simply left that island once. The years and decades went by, and the people forgot of those like her, and she was abandoned by them, left on her island with the memory of her Odysseus that she had stolen from Ithaca.
A ship came, a ship with a captain, a sea man, and a clever man. He fell in love with her, and took her away, no knowing what it was he was falling in love with, a child abandoned by the forgotten Gods of another man's lifetime. She was younger back then, her heart still broken and not yet healed. She knew not of the world outside her island, and it was not the captain that she fell in love with, but the world beyond it all.
The captain gave her love and taught her the ways of the current day, and he kissed her, and she let him. And he gave with her all he could, and she took it, returning what was disguised to be love. And he aged and died as mortals do, and she went on from there.
But he was not Odysseus.
She took to the care of a young lad after that, who grew to be a great man of the sea. He loved her like a mother, and then loved her like a wife, though this was not meant to be. One day the young lad that became a great man drowned in the sea, and she went to the depths as she could to retrieve his body. She buried him on the nearest island of which she would someday reside in.
But he was not Odysseus.
She was taken to the more modern lands of England from there, she enjoyed England for it was an island.
There she met a man in the street, whose name was David. He was nothing more but a bum by then, a man not fit for the society. Though educated he had a drug problem, and now had lost everything. She took David in, and brought her to her current home where she tended to him and cared him back to health. It was then he revealed he was a Pirate from the northern islands of England, that he had been mutinied by his crew and almost killed until he crawled back onto land and escaped the authorities by become a piece of what he once was.
Together they bought a ship and took a crew of pirates. Together they began raid after raid after raid. He loved her very much, this David, and she began to see that strength in Odysseus in him. And so she loved him as well. They spent a decade together as lovers, he aged as she did not.
They crawled upon every sea the earth had to offer, the sea nymph giving her lover the best of winds and the greatest of waves without he ever knowing. He had an organ in their bedroom to which she taught him a tune, and crafted a necklace for he and she to share, and over the years she would make a music box that would play the same tune as he. She taught him about the worlds that have gone by, the civilizations she had been through, and she told him of the sea and the wonders within it. She showed him the last remaining monsters of the sea, the Kraken, and the a Sea Serpent, creatures as old as she remnants of that forgotten time.
And yet David wanted her to have a woman's place in the world, and she would not have that, for she was the closest thing to a God the Earth still had, and she would not stand for how this world treated women.
David Jones loved her with all his heart, but one day she could have no more. For David Jones was a criminal in all rights, he fought not for good, or killed those of evil, he was a pirate in the most vile of senses. He killed and slaughtered, and she was the only one he care to be kind to. She left him, throwing herself into the Sea, and making him think she'd drowned. For he was not Odysseus, and in no way could she love him any longer.
She didn't know he'd stab his heart out and put it into a chest, and become Immortal like she had tried to make her Odysseus. She didn't know he would make his ship follow her. She didn't know, she didn't know, her foresight and magic had yet to develop.
She was picked up by another ship, and taken back to England. There a Dutchman took her to a strange new land called Africa, and they settled there. He was a fisherman of sorts, and they went to the south where she found people of a darker tone than she had ever seen. She found she was on the south side of the Egyptians' land, the keepers of the wrapped up dead, and Gods of half men and half animals. She knew them well for her island lay between her homeland where she was worshipped and the Egyptians. But these people before her were even darker.
The fisherman loved her with all his heart, he taught her to cook the animals of the sea, and she'd always bring the animals close for him to catch and make a good business with. On his death bed she took him to the beach, and made dolphins and whales and all sorts of beautiful ocean life come to him.
But he was not Odysseus.
The next man who would fall in love with her, fell in love with a darker face than her previous lives. She changed her flesh, and a king of the native land took her in. They were somewhat farther south, and were fishermen as well. She was a queen to the people, even though she had not wed their King, she didn't need to there. They had ceremonies to different sorts of Gods, and they taught her the ways of this world she found herself in. She heard so much of new Gods, and yet none of them ever came to her, abandoned by no only others like her, but other Gods as well. Still, she learned the ceremonies and brought with her knowledge of Europe and Greece and Egypt. She told tales of other Gods, but never calling them Gods. She told them the story of Odysseus, for which she gave another name, and how he won the love of a sea nymph who was just a daughter of a monster. She was taught the art of fortelling, and with her nymph blood the craft was amplified, and so she became the shaman in the kingdom, the oracle, and she told the futures of those who passed, for a price.
The King grew old and died, and she moved on to another group of people who took her in as well. She traveled back north of the country, as these new people walked around a lot, yet always on the coast, so she could still walk upon the beaches. She became a teacher of the young, and they loved her like a mother, growing to love her like a wife. Upon reaching the north of this new country, she was reunited with the people of lighter skin.
They took her new people, and they took her for slaves. How far she had fallen, how horrible the world had fallen. To still do this after all the lifetimes she had had, after all the things she had seen and been through, for this to still happen.
She would go to the Americas, and be a slave to a wealthy man who owned a lot of property. She was to teach his son, and tend to the wife and mother. The wife and mother died one day however, in the winter when it snowed, and she was able to witness snow for the first time. She tended to the husband, and he fell in love with her, but he would not let her go to the North, and to the Sea like she requested even as he said he'd give her anything, even as he treated her as well as he could have for the time.
She ran away from this man, and he committed suicide.
He was not Odysseus.
She made her way back to Africa, with the help of love and stealing, she retrieved a boat all on her own. And sailed alone back to the world where she felt most at home. She considered returning to her island of Greece, where perhaps Hermes would be there waiting for her, to take her to one of those stars the modern astrologers were trying to map out with the names her original people had given them.
But then her home was invaded once again, by those of lighter skin that were going to take her back to the birthing colonies in the gulf of New Spain, to those islands, or perhaps the northern new country that England was beginning to colonize the people said. She was once again on a ship bound for a worst life. If she had the strength of Poseidon she could put an end to this, or the wisdom and bravery of Athena, but she had none of these things for she was but the daughter of a Titan who had also probably abandoned her.
But then just as the ship was taking off into the Atlantic Sea, into the triangle it always followed, it was abruptly stopped. Cheering came from the upper decks as did footsteps, and the sound of men dying. Big thuds hit the board above her, and cheering men bearing swords and guns burst into the lower decks, with keys. The enslaved ran out to the upper decks, cheering in broken English to speak to the savior, who replied only in their native tongue, if not his was a little broken as well. Children jumped down from the ship itself, swimming back to the beach, and others were helped by the crew of this savior.
And she, who had by then been given many names, walked up to the savior. He was at the time lecturing the enslavers as they were chained and tied to the boat as if they were now the slaves. He removed their wigs as they had cut their hair, and he took their clothing and whatever wealth was on them for his own, as they had done to the Africans. The Savior smiled as he did this, almost skipping as he walked around the mast where they were chained. His manner of walking was strange she recalls, but it wasn't something she hadn't seen before. For she did see it a long time ago, it was the same walk Odysseus had as he struggled from the beach to her feet, dying as he came to her.
"Serves you right." The Savior said. "Didn't you ever hear the Lord? 'All men are created equal' and what not?" The Savior then noticed her, and briefly looked up at smiled at her. "And I'm sure God meant women too! I mean, I don't want to get philosophical but you lads seem to be using this 'God' person to justify what's going on. My mother was a good woman, and she taught me many things including a bit of that holy book, and I'm not so sure he would have approved of all this." He grinned. "But that doesn't matter right now, because I sure don't approve of all this!"
The Savior came to her and took her hand and presented her to the chained up enslavers.
"You see my lads, you have to start understanding some things about people. I know people, I know people very well. People are people, and people are at times good, and are at times not so good, and are at times not good at all in any way or near it, but in the end they are still people. And people like you treat other people like you with kindness, now this lass here is a person, thus qualifying her into that people category, you are part of people and she is part of people and I would just love it if you could follow me on this one. If she is part of people and you are part of people, well the only thing stopping you from treating her nicely like you would all other people is that you're not very smart and you are almost one of those people who has no good in him at all. Savvy?"
The Savior took her hand and walked up to the edge of the ship and stood upon it.
"And so you will remember this day my lads and lasses, of all are which people, as the day you were righted and freed by Captain Jack Sparrow!"
The Savior, Captain Jack Sparrow looked down at her and smiled.
"Come, let's go, shall we?" He said.
He didn't have many men on his ship, and he was still a young and fierce man. She could feel it in his heart which she heard at all times, that he was young and had gone through much. She felt he had heard the Siren's song just as Odysseus had, and become a man of the sea at a young age, and perhaps was a king of a sort of kingdom anyway. He couldn't have been older than twenty-five at the time, but he held his head high, having conquered all that had stood in his way up until then. The early death of a good mother, the abandonment of a father, the stowing away on an alien ship, and perhaps even death, but she could not tell at the time.
In all garbs he jumped off the side of the ship into the very sea where the children swam onto the beach, and he walked with them away. His crew stayed on the ship that was black with all black sails, and sailed away into the safety of the rest of the world, and Captain Jack Sparrow stayed with them at least for a while. He came with them home, and they celebrated with the feast of the sea, and for which she brought dolphins and whales the likes of which Jack had not yet seen and enjoyed.
She saw her Odysseus in this man, and she almost saw his face, and almost smelled his smell.
He stayed a few weeks with them, celebrating each day, teaching him their tongue, which he was very good at learning and listening, but he told them not to tell anyone, he wanted to keep that fact a secret. His hair was long and brown and in braids, but they gave him the hair of Kings, dreadlocks for the first sides of his long hair, and showed him how to keep it that way.
It was she that gave him the bone of a long ancient and extinct whale, and for a while he wondered what he'd do with the bone as it was too big to wear around the neck. And so one night he braided it into his hair, and it made her smile.
Young, full of life, full of pride, a king among kings, a studier of crafty and clever things, Odysseus through and through.
She spent the nights with him, telling him stories of a great king that won a war and spent a decade getting home, falling in love with a Sea Nymph and fighting sea monsters. He loved her stories, and had a couple of his own for her. She taught him of the cultures she had seen, and began painting his face in the manner of kings. Black paint over the eyes and two stripes down the face, she gave him a new face for each night. He'd tell her of the Caribbean, and Tortuga where he was born. He spoke of his mother, and father, who acted as King and Queen of this Tortuga. He told her so much, and she the same. She told him lifetime after lifetime, and called him Odysseus, for she truly believed it was her love in a new face and flesh like herself.
He loved her and she the same.
One night, under the stars where she was showing him the constellations, he showed her a scar he bared on his hand. "P" it said.
"Do you know what it stands for?" He asked.
"Pirate." She said and he nodded.
"I used to work for that man. The man who is doing all this, taking these people away from here, taking them to be enslaved. One day, I told him I would not transport slaves as he called them over to the West…He gave me this scar and called me a Pirate. And you know what?"
"What?"
"I think he was right." Captain Jack Sparrow, the pirate smiled.
"I think he was right, too, Jack."
When the time came for him to leave, she went with him. She joined him on that black ship with the black sails that smelled of an old lover she had, but she ignored the thought. He loved her and she loved him. But Captain Jack Sparrow, the pirate, also loved others. And so over the days and the months Jack Sparrow's love waned. Five years passed and her heart slowly broke and was finally in pieces to the point she could have stabbed it out. Again Odysseus has left her, but this time there was no wife for him to return to, it made the sting that much harsher.
It was during these times when he would avoid her and go to Tortuga and get some whores that his first mate took notice in her. Barbossa was his name, perhaps a decade older than Jack, but he appreciated the woman elegance and care she brought to the ship and the sea, which was usually a lonely place. Barbossa loved her, but not blindly like so many others, it grew from appreciation. And Jack ignoring her made his hate of Jack grow as well. They spent one night together as Jack spent it with a lady named Anna-Marie, whom reminded him of her.
But she did not shed a tear, for she had grown old and strong to such wounds, and she knew she had inflicted the same pain on many lovers before Jack and after Odysseus. Jack avoided her often during the end, but he could not escape his quarters for it was where he kept his personal rum. There she stood above a map of the world, Jack had outlined in red a good part of Mexico where she was aware a people called the Aztecs once lived. She knew what fate laid in store for Jack, for her powers grew with her age, and she knew she was not part of his future, at least, not in the way she wished it to be.
He came for rum and found her drinking it.
"Do you know me, Jack?" She asked him.
"I know you, Tia." He said.
"Then you know what I want to do." She said, leaning her feet upon his desk.
Captain Jack Sparrow, Odysseus of his time looked to the floor.
"I'm sorry." He said lightly but meaning it as much as he could have.
"It's more than you said to me last time, my Odysseus. And for that, I thank you." She said.
She walked up to Jack and kissed him. She knew they would meet again soon. She would meet many of them again soon. All these years, all these lovers, this longing love she had, she knew she had to let it go now. It was enough these lifetimes, it had been enough. She could see in the future when she slept, a new future she had with she and Jack and Barbossa and her David, there was no time to weep over a man she loved so long ago.
Calypso, Tia Dalma, whatever face she wore, flesh she had, or name she was given, she was ready for it, and she was ready to mend her heart, and anyone else's.