A/N: I have tried to write this as historically as possible, not just from internet research but field research as I live in Florida and have been to the historical site of the Fountain of Youth. I have tried to write this from what I saw there. The original legend only said drinking its waters would give eternal life, not that it would require a victim like in the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film, so some parts regarding the legend or the ritual may turn out differently in this story. For the unnamed cabin boy's name I have chosen Jim Hawkins from Treasure Island as well as the Disney movie Treasure Planet, and his companion's name to be Sarah from Treasure Planet as well, though I didn't interpret this to be his mother's name but a young girl's name. I hope you enjoy the story from the fifteen-year-old cabin boy's perspective!
The Cabin Boy's Journal
Prologue
I am the cabin boy of the Queen Anne's Revenge. Call me Jim, Jim Hawkins. I am fifteen years old. When I started out on this voyage from London, England, the missionary by the name of Philip gave me this journal and told me to write in it.
"Want something to do?" he asked me as I lounged, bored, in my hammock below deck. He was about ten years older than me, still young, from the looks of him.
"Aye," I said.
He tossed me a book. I flipped it open curiously to see it was blank. "I can't very well keep the captain's log," I said in jest. The captain, Blackbeard or Edward Teach, was a madman.
"Just write down whatever happens," Philip said. Perhaps his thoughts ran alongside the same as mine. Who knew where this accursed ship or this legendary voyage would take us - somewhere straight out of myth, perhaps. Like Odysseus sailing to Calypso's island, or past the harpies on the rocks who sang them to their deaths. Those were stories I had read. Now we were embarking on a voyage for the actual Fountain of Youth. As if I, at fifteen years of age, needed rejuvenation or more years to live.
...
Chapter 1 - Close Companions
There's one thing I wanted to write down, before we make sail. I was at the inn by the name of The Captain's Daughter where my little friend Sarah was waiting for me, which I wanted to write down for sentimental reasons.
"Sarah!" I called to her at the front door, as she was waiting demurely for me in the street like a doe in the wood. She was wearing a blue-and-white dress and her golden hair was bonneted. She was the same age as me. "I've gotten a job as a ship's cabin boy!" I sang out.
She smiled sadly at me. "Which ship?"
"The Queen Anne's Revenge!"
"A pirate ship." Her pink lips frowned slightly.
I desperately wanted her admiration, her acceptance, anything. "Does that matter to you?"
"No, I just don't want to see you arrested for piracy. I would have to claim we were engaged, if you were, in order to save you."
"Engaged?" I repeated. "You're like a sister to me."
"And you a brother."
"Not more than that?" I teased.
"What else could be more than that?" she asked sassily with hands on her hips. "Now come inside and have a drink before you're off."
We drank our fill of apple cider. When it was time to be off to the ship, I stood with her out at the door again.
"Then I won't be seeing you for some time," she said to me at last.
"Don't be sad, my bonnie lass." I took her in my arms around her waist and held her there. "I'll be back lickety-split before you know it. And with a fair share of the earnings of the voyage."
"You're only fifteen," she said.
"Cabin boy gets a fair share as the rest of the crew," I said proudly. "Even, no - especially - on a pirate ship. All men are given equal shares on a pirate ship, you see."
"And what about a lass? Can a lass come onboard?"
"You know I can't take you and stowaway," I said to her. "But I would if I could." I put my arms to both sides of her, palms against the wooden alley wall, leaned in and kissed her tenderly on her pink lips.
"You might grow up to be a pirate after all, as you've stolen my heart," the girl said in jest to me. Then she pushed me away with her palms, giddy and giggling like a magpie, and rushed back into the door of the inn.
