Of Pirates and Princesses
Chaptre Two: The Best Laid Plans of Men
"No one said anything about killing the Queen. I've had a lot of time while walking here to meet you and I've come up with a solution. A way to control the Queen's actions. To perhaps get her to resign her post."
"And how is that?"
Emma leaned back and with effect, said, "We're going to kidnap her daughter."
...
Emma let that statement hang in the air as August leaned back and scratched at the beard covering his chin.
"So, will you help me?" she asked when the silence drew on, his eyes unfocused as he thought. Her words snapped him back and he smiled crookedly at her.
"Emma, as soon as you opened your mouth I was going to help you, no questions asked. But I'm doing this for you and not for Lily."
She didn't expect him to. She knew he did not like Lily. "That is fine with me. Tell me, how quickly can you join me?"
"Honestly, give me an hour or two and I shall be prepared to join you. I must say, despite the pure madness of what we are going to do, I am excited to be sailing once more with you, captain Swan, the Red Baroness," he smiled and they clanked their tankards together before chugging them down in brief celebration of their reunion.
August was true to his word and within two hours he was all packed up, with his home affairs in order so he could journey with Emma. "Where can we find the others?" she asked as they boarded his horse. He only had the one and they did not want to pay for a new one, for most of their coin would be needed for the ship and for the supplies to go on it.
"Last I heard of, Ruby was gone down by the swamps."
Emma wrinkled her nose up in disgust though August sat in front of her and could not see it. "What would Ruby be doing down in the swamps for?"
"Probably conning her way through men's pockets, knowing her."
"I thought she gave up that way of life?" Emma asked, putting on her hat to stave off the glare of the sun.
"Nay, once a con artist, always a con artist."
"She could be putting her skills of direction to better use," Emma tsked, sucking on her teeth. Ruby Lucas had been their sailing master and she had an impeccable sense of direction. They would never get lost with her no matter what. Even if a storm tossed them up and down and right side up, she could find a way out.
Emma suspected it had something to do with how Ruby had grown up so close to nature. Her and her grandmother lived in the woods in a small hut along with a pack of wolves. The wolves treated the two women like family and once Granny had died, Ruby had moved into the city to try and find some money to keep herself fed. Though she found that hard to do when her English was limited and she sounded more feral than human. But she had made do and Emma had fallen for her trap. It was, in fact, how she and Ruby had met.
Emma had been just starting off with her pirating trade and she'd sailed to Ruby's town to find herself some new crew members, most notably a sailing master for the one she had had, had died of scurvy. August had been on the crew at the time, already so young but her quarter master and essentially second in command.
They had been stumbling drunkenly around after getting some drinks at the local tavern, her and August, and had stumbled across a young woman who laid injured on the street, shivering and moaning. She wore only a red cloak around her shoulders, ragged and torn. Emma, in her kindness, for she hated seeing those without a home, or those who were hurt, had she stooped down to help her, which had been a mistake. A fist had crashed right into her face and another hand snatched her coin purse right off her hip.
"You little vixen!" she had snarled out, covering her bleeding nose and racing after the woman, adrenaline flushing away the alcohol. August had pulled out his gun and followed after her too, but the little thief was quick and she lead them down enough twisted paths and roads that they got lost in an unsavory part of town.
There they were greeted by criminals and thieves who saw the sea finery adorning their bodies and wanted to strip them of it. Emma had then drawn her sword and with her back to August, the two of them held their cutlasses out, grim and determined to come out of this alive.
And they had. There was something to be said for their skill with the blade even while intoxicated, for they walked out of there unscathed while their attackers did not. Ten men lay face down in the dirt in different stages of bleeding or crying or dying. Sadly, they did not find the little girl who had stolen Emma's whole purse and she smarted with injustice at it, for that had been half of their loot for now and no more could be gained unless they raided this town.
Yet, Emma would not give up easily. She had to be here for a while in this town anyways to resupply and to find that damned sailing master and so she took the time on the side to hunt down for this red cloaked girl. She asked townsfolk about her and found out that she did this regularly and that she actually heralded from the woods where she had been raised by wolves.
That had drawn Emma's brow high in intrigue and she had decided to head into the woods all by herself despite countless warnings about the ferocious and big wolves there. She went with naught but a sword by her side.
She hadn't been the brightest back in her early days and she blamed her youth on making her rash and reckless.
She would like to say that she found the wolves, but the wolves found her first. Circling around her, snapping foaming jaws. There were five of them and they were big, almost as big as oxen. What had these wolves been feasting upon to get this big?
She held out her cutlass, not quite fearing for her life because she was cocky in her own abilities. Before a fight could ensure, the red cloaked girl from before had shown up and she made some growling noises that pulled the wolves back. She then appeared closer, peering out from under her cloak up at Emma. Her face was dirty and her eyes looked feral.
"You are the little thief who stole all my money from me," Emma announced. "I want it back."
"You followed me into the woods?" the girl sniffed at Emma, smelling her. She smelled nice. Clean. Well fed. "Are you stupid? Everyone afraid of the woods."
"Not me," Emma said cockily. "I have terrorized more places than most people and I would be fool to back down from some oversized pups."
The girl growled at this. "They are not pups!" It seemed that insulted her.
"I don't much care. I just want my money back," Emma said.
"No. Fight me for it, if you must," the girl snapped out, baring her teeth and clawing her hands.
Emma paused here. This girl didn't seem to have much of a home, given her bedraggled state and her thin body. She looked starved and in need of a warm meal. A proper human meal. And Emma could always use another member on the crew.
"Actually, why don't you join me?" she asked, putting away her sword. The wolves circling the girl relaxed at it being sheathed. "You can work for me and I will feed you and give you money for the work you do." Emma always pitied those without a proper home. She knew their pain all too well from her own plight.
The girl was shocked by this turn of events. "What?"
"You look young." And she did, only about thirteen or fourteen. "And the woods are no place for a child like you."
"I am not a child. And the wolves are my family. My home," the girl said, distrusting.
"If you say so. But how long can you keep living like this? You need an adult to watch over you and with me you'd have a roof over your head. You wouldn't even have to stay long with me, just enough to get you some money and then you can come back here. I won't even be mad."
The girl's brow furrowed in confusion. "Why help me?"
"Because I too didn't have parents and I didn't have anyone looking after me when I could have used it. I won't hurt you, if that is what you're worried about," Emma explained. "Think about it. And let me know your answer. Tomorrow noon I shall wait by the entrance of these woods. Let me know by then."
And Emma strode off the way she came, only getting lost once in the brush, as the girl followed her with her eyes.
Emma kept her word and came to pick the girl up at the entrance of the woods where the poor thing stood, shivering in the cold, her cloak wrapped around her. Her feet were bare and the cloak was clearly one she had outgrown for it only reached to her knees, exposing bruised and scratched skin.
"I'm glad you have made a choice."
"Not decided. Not yet," she said in that guttural voice of hers. "Wolves are my family. All I know."
"That's okay. You can stay with me for a couple of days and decide if you want to come with us before we sail away."
"What kind of work you do?" she asked as she followed Emma tentatively into town.
"I will tell you all about it. But first, we must get you cleaned and dressed. And fed. You must be starving."
The girl nodded her head eagerly and padded after Emma silently. They entered a tavern. "Two meals, meat and potatoes," Emma ordered as the people looked on oddly at Ruby who pulled the hood down over her eyes more, hunching in on her self and hissing under her breath.
"They will not hurt you," Emma assured.
"They hunt me before. Try to hurt me and Granny. Claim we were witches."
"They will not hurt you," Emma emphasized, patting the sword by her side. "Why don't you tell me a bit more about yourself?"
The girl shrugged, still her eyes flickering cautiously. "Why know?"
"I want to get to know you better. And I want to build trust between us. I'll tell you about myself if you tell me first about you," Emma offered just as their food was delivered.
The girl immediately tore into, with greedy fingers and canines ripping into flesh. She made a mess of the thing, but Emma let her eat in peace, while she ate her meal more slowly. Once done, even going so far as to lick the plate, the girl set back with a mighty burp.
"Better?" Emma asked. The girl seemed more at ease now, sated by the full meal, but if she had ears they would be flattened back in wariness.
"Ruby. That is what Granny called me," she answers.
"And where is your Granny?"
"Dead. Died of old age."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"Don't," Ruby growled, not needing sympathy. "It is way of life. Things live. Things die." She picked at the bone, grinding her teeth against it, trying to get the marrow out.
"And how come you and Granny lived in the woods?" Emma asked.
Ruby shrugged. "Granny said humans were bad. And that nature is better. That animals kinder. So we lived in woods ever since I was young babe. She rescued me from bad parents. And Granny and I lived happy in woods with wolves who were friends. But then she got sick and money she had stopped coming in and when she died I had to get money for food so I went to town to find some."
Poor girl. She had lost her only family.
"And you tell me about you now," Ruby demanded.
"I am Emma. And I am a pirate. Have you heard of those?" she asked, wondering what the girl's reaction to this information might be. She spoke in lower tones too, she did not need the people in the tavern finding out about her profession. They might kick her out.
"They sail fancy boats and run people with swords," Ruby grunted out, kicking her feet under the table like a child.
"Some. Not all. I haven't become infamous enough to do that. I just try to take money from the rich."
"You steal? Like me?"
"Yes. But with more people helping me. And more fire and swords," Emma said. "You won't have to do any of that. Not everyone on my crew fights. Some clean. Some feed others, and others just turn the sails."
"I don't know how to do that," Ruby said, looking frustrated. "How can you want me for work?"
"Like I said, you don't really have a steady way of making money. And if you join me, I can give you money and food like this," she pointed to the empty plate, licked clean. "And you'll learn how to work on a boat. Learn real human skills and then you can leave in a year even and go on and find other work to support yourself."
Ruby hummed. "I don't know. I have never left the woods."
"Think about it. And in the meantime, let us pay for these meals and focus on other things." Emma held out her hand expectantly. Ruby stared at it. "What?" she barked out.
"You have the coin purse on you. Pay for the meals."
Ruby tightened her lips. "I thought you were paying."
"I am. It's my money you stole. You don't have to waste anything," Emma chuckled as Ruby found herself caught.
"Fine," the girl huffed out and discreetly reached under her cloak to pull two coins out.
They then left the dinning hall and went upstairs to where hot water could be ordered. Bathing was an interesting ordeal. The girl had no shame of human nudity for other than her cloak, nothing was on her body. And she was thin and pale and as soon as she sat in the water it colored brown. The poor woman who had heated up the bath, had to draw more water up and she did not look happy about it.
"Damned kids can't bother to wash the spuds out from behind their ears and now I's gots to do more work," she grumbled as Emma watched her trudge up and down the stairs with fresh water. Ruby took her time splashing in the water, content to be clean for the first time in a while. Emma let her take her time. It wasn't like she had too many pressing issues to attend to. And even if Ruby decided to not join the crew, Emma at least wanted to make sure she had one good meal and bath today. And some proper clothes.
Ruby looks more respectable once washed. She looked more like a child and not the feral animal she could be mistaken for. Her hair was still shaggy and fell over her eyes and her nails were long but they were trimmed easily, though Ruby would not let anyone touch her hair. Bath done, Emma informed Ruby it was time to get her new clothes and to throw her old cloak away. She seemed reluctant to part with it, given the gnashing of her teeth.
"This is special to me. It's what my Granny made me."
"Alright. Take it easy. I won't throw it out," Emma assured. "You can keep it, but we're still going to find you new clothes for you to wear."
And find them they did. Ruby was picky with her outfits, and wouldn't accept anything that didn't come in the color red, even if it was shades of red that didn't match.
Emma found that a bit adorable and didn't dissuade Ruby from having her fun. She let the girl pick out three new shirts, two pairs of pants and a coat to go over it. The girl looked a bit stiff in her outfits, no doubt not used to wearing so many clothes after years of being nearly naked each day. She tucked her cloak safely into her coat pocket.
"So, do you like your new clothes?" Emma asked.
Ruby nodded her head. "I do. Can I keep them?"
"Of course you can. These are yours until you grow out of them."
That delighted the girl and she happily followed Emma onto the next part of their journey.
Ruby accompanied Emma for most of the days Emma spent in the little town. The girl on occasion would slip away to her wolves and spend time with them, before returning to Emma. The pirate captain wouldn't introduce Ruby to the crew yet- only to her close friends. They were all nice to the orphan girl and spent time teaching her human mannerisms.
Eventually, the time came for Emma to leave and for Ruby to make her choice on whether she would work with Emma or stay behind.
The decision was not a light one, and Ruby was visibly pained over it. "Let me at least say good bye to my wolves before I go."
Emma was surprised but not unpleasantly at the choice. "Why did you choose to come with us?"
"While I love my wolves, I can not survive only by using them. I must learn human," she said and then rushed off to her family. When she came back, the ship was ready to leave dock, and Emma did not bother to introduce her to the crew. Let Ruby navigate that on her own; learn the social callings of humans. And the girl took a while to do so. She felt more comfortable talking only to Emma and her close crew such as August and Neal. But as time went by, she became more at ease with the job and the people associated with it. On board the ship she began to grow into her full potential and though her tasks were small, like passing messages to crew members, helping Leroy in the kitchens or securing some rigging, she did it with vigor. And as time passed it became apparent she was more skilled at another task.
They were lost at sea, the navigator that Emma had hired, mumbling under his breath, cursing everything under the sun as he tried to fix the directional sense that had been corrupted due to running into a storm that sent them spinning around.
"Can't you feel it?" Ruby asked as she stood on the port of the ship, arms out and eyes closed as she inhaled the salty sea breeze coming in on the night waves. "North is that way," she pointed in the direction of it. It was 45 degrees to where they were sailing to.
"Don't be stupid," the sailing master scoffed. "My maps tell me it's this way."
"Your maps are stupid ones. Not me," she scowled. "I know it is this way."
"Captain, tell her to stop meddling in my affairs," he snapped out and Emma walked down from her post to get in between them. "What is happening here?' she asked, hands on hips.
"This little brat thinks to tell me how I do my job."
"Your job is shitty, because you will lead us wrong!" she exclaimed, eyes raging.
Emma turned to Ruby, pulling her aside to speak privately to her. "Ruby why do you think this man is wrong?" she asked gently.
"Because he is stupid. I can sense the north. I just know we are going wrong way." She said this with so much resolution that Emma was blown away.
Emma furrowed her brow. She had heard of people with a great sense of direction, but to feel north? "What do you mean you feel it?"
Ruby shrugged. "I just do. Each direction has a different feeling. North is like an old man, snoring loudly. The south is a dainty woman with a girlish giggle that is faint to hear but enticing. West is loud and blustery and it sends chills down my back. And East is soft and soothing, like a lullaby that tugs at my heart strings," Ruby claimed, though she was frustrated in being unable to answer it more concretely.
Emma had never heard of directions sounding a certain way, but for some reason, the oddity of such a claim made her believe Ruby whole heartedly. "Alright. I shall believe you."
She straightened up and cried out loudly. "Follow the girl's directions!"
"You are choosing her word over mine?" blustered the sailing master.
"Yes," was Emma's unapologetic answer. He threw his maps down in anger. And it turned out her hunch had been right to listen to Ruby. The girl lead them correctly without the single use of a map or compass. She was their compass as off as it sounded and when they reached port, Emma kicked the sailing master off and made Ruby the new one.
In this way Ruby became part of their crew permanently. And the girl flourished on the deck of their ship. She turned from a scrawny preteen to a strong, hard headed teenager with a taste for wrestling the men on board. She was strong for her age and it had something to do with her life in the woods. She fought dirty, almost always winning. With food, and hard work, and sun, she grew taller and gained more muscle. Even her language improved and she didn't speak in as many growls and snarls, though that part of her, the inner wolf, would never leave.
Emma would find her sometimes curled up on the sheets like a wolf, and her eating habits never did change. She always ate quickly and ravenously, as if any meal could be the last one, or taken from her.
Life on deck wasn't easy, but she adjusted to it. She did miss land sometimes, and her wolves, given the way she always hungered for shore. Perhaps that was why she could always sense it, because she was so close to the earth, that it bound and called her no matter where she was on the giant blue.
But she never asked to go back. And once the crew had gone apart, Ruby had returned back to her old village for a little while to see her wolves, before she ventured out to find work. And that work, it turned out, had been conning as she once did.
"I suppose old habits die hard," Emma chuckled as her thoughts cleared and she focused on the long winding road before her and August.
"What do you expect? You took her from the woods, and then took her from the sea. Wolves don't do well without packs."
"I was hoping she'd be grown enough to figure her life out on her own by now," Emma sighed. Ruby was...28 years of age now?
"Well, we'll see once we get there. My word could be wrong," August grunted as they rode onto the steadily approaching night.
"Say, will you tell me your plan?" he asked once they had gone an hour without speaking.
"I shall once everyone is together. There is no point in repeating myself."
"I figured you would say that," he smiled.
"Then be patient you old stooge, and ride on for us," Emma teased and they rode on, the horse's clomping hooves the soundtrack to their impending adventure.
Travel took three whole days through inlands as the swamps were more up to the water. Emma hated mushy lands like that. Either be water or be land, not both. And much disease was bred in such parts. Emma would bet her left leg if Ruby was conning than she would be doing so to sick people, which wasn't right but what could Emma say on that. She had been a bloody pirate for about five years. She had no right to judge people's life choices.
When they finally rode into town, having wrapped shawls around their mouths to cover the stench of death and smoke from the burning fires that consumed diseased bodies, they didn't have a hard time finding Ruby. She wore a nice red cloak upon her shoulders. She never could drop her affinity for such a style. She even kept her old cloak to this day, though she slept with it under her pillows.
She was talking to some men who looked worn and gray. This whole town looked gray, and brown and just tired, except for Ruby who was looking so lively in her colors, and healthy given the rosy nature of her cheeks and the glossy luster of her hair. She looked well taken care of, so what would she want with this town?
They slid off the horse, and tied him up to a pole nearby before slowly approaching Ruby due to their aching limbs.
Ruby didn't need to turn around to know who it was behind her. Her quick ears picked up the footfalls and her keen nose sniffed them out. She turned with a wide smile on her face. "Emma! August!" she jumped into their arms, smothering them with her strong hold. She nuzzled her face into theirs, all the while they laughed in joy at the reunion.
"Ruby, you have grown taller," Emma commented as they pulled away. The brunette was a good five inches taller than her and she had to look up to spot her. "What have you been eating?"
Ruby smiled and gave a playfully wink. "That is a secret. It is good to see you both. What brings you here to find me?" she asked.
"That is less joyous," August said. "But first, tell us what you have been up to before we bare our bad news."
"Let us walk," Ruby offered. "I'm sure if you have been riding for long, your stiff legs could use it." They walked down a quieter path off of main street, Ruby leading the way. How the smell of the town did not bother her with her sharp nose was mysterious. Perhaps she had gotten used to it by now. "You will not believe me when I say this, but I have actually been conning."
"Ah, we guessed as much," August laughed.
"But for good reason. I take from the rich, entice them with my body, those foolish drunk men, and then use the money to help others less fortunate. Like you did, Emma."
"Oh please," Emma shook her head in amusement. "I never did as much good as you did. I was a pirate."
"Yes, but you saved me when I was young and lost and I do that when I can to others in need," Ruby said.
"So, you travel from town to town, after you rob the rich blind?" August said, looking impressed. "My, the lone wolf has grown to be less with teeth and certainly more domestic."
Ruby hit him on the arm, and with her strength it hurt. He gasped and grabbed his hurt flesh. "Do not call me tame. I can still beat you with one arm behind my back," she scowled though in playful jest.
"I hear you," he said, rubbing his hurt flesh.
"I am glad to see you doing well. I gather you are helping these in this town too?"
"Aye. They need some supplies but many are afraid to approach this town for fear of the illness spreading. But with my keen nose I know that what they have is not infectious but something wrought upon by the town water. It could infected and they have drank from it. I sniffed it out," she tapped her nose, "and told them to drink no more from it until the water was safe once more. But already things are looking better. I think my work here is done."
Emma smiled fully at Ruby, glad to see the woman doing good. Proud of her, almost. "May perhaps then I shouldn't ask you to do what I want you to do." It would be wrong to drag Ruby away when she was helping many. But then again, she could help many by embarking on Emma's quest as well...
Ruby tilted her head to the side. "Not tell me what?"
"Lily was hung by the neck until dead. And so has been most of her crew," Emma reported somberly, each time the sense of loss fresh in her chest.
Ruby's eyes widened. "She's dead? But she was so hard to catch. Hence her name. Nary she left a sound as she stole, moving like the wind when she was being chased. How did they..." she shook her head, at a loss of words.
"And that is why I need you. I am getting the old crew back together in order to get revenge. I am going to make Queen Cora pay for her corruption against our kind," Emma vowed. "Will you help me?"
Ruby nodded her head. "Of course I will. There is no question. The crew and our ship was my home for so many years. I have missed our adventures. Many a nights of escape and plundering and drunken revelry. And not to forget the mermaids."
Emma smiled at the memories. Ah, how could she ever forget the mermaids. All so pretty and enthralled by humans but in actuality monsters that wanted to strip the flesh from their bones. They had been lucky to get out alive.
"But how can we revenge ourselves upon such a might?" Ruby phrased.
"We must get a ship and weapons and supplies and then we shall set shall to her kingdom."
"To the Red Kingdom?" Ruby's eyebrows went up as did August's. "Right to her heartland?"
"Aye, for that is only where we can get what we need. And that is the princess."
"You want to steal the princess? Princess Regina?" Ruby gasped. "But she is highly guarded and kept hidden away for her great beauty. Queen Cora would never let us near her."
"Tis true that Regina has been held away to preserve her beauty. But she will be exiting her safe halls for something momentous. And that is her wedding," Emma let a confident smile grace her lips and waited as similar ones filled her friends faces, understanding sparking behind their eyes.
"We are going to crash Princess Regina's wedding," Ruby announced loudly and grandly. The idea excited her. She always was and would be, a wild child.
"And we have a week to get ready for it." Emma announced. They would have to have everything prepared by then.
