Felt a bit of inspiration, and it helped to finally have a weekend off!
Working nearly everyday since October takes a damn toal, believe me!
Please let me know what you think, I'm dying to know!
Listen to Alone by I Prevail for this chapter.
-g.
"Mm.. ah.. Kid!" Jerking out of his dream reliving Caroline leaving him, flooding him with momentary anger, Kenway blinked his eyes open only to shut them against the harsh midafternoon sun.
He'd woken to an empty bed that morning, and although he couldn't find Liete within the manor, he hadn't thought much on the matter and had quickly dressed to make his way to the docks of the village to prep his crew for the days work. The bedding she'd given him that night before had lasted to the early hours of the morning, and as he'd guided his crew in repairing the Jackdaw from its battle days before, as well as marking off supplies and beginning to make amends to the coves inhabitants, the nights activities caught up with him quickly.
As he'd pulled away from the now bustling village, he laid his body against a low palm, intending to close his eyes for a few moments.
He was perplexed that he hadn't seen Liete in the few early morning hours he'd been moving about, but reminded himself that there was much more to this island than the Village and was sure she'd made her way towards the Jungle exploring.
Kenway had smiled to himself as he'd slipped into a light sleep, thinking of the night they'd spent together. She'd been gentle in their moments together, an altogether different experience from their tryst and its following flirtations.
She'd held him in her arms as if he belonged there for eternity, her moans and sweet nothings soft and entrancing. Her hands resting against his cheek as he'd hovered over her, under her, the eyes of silver seeming as if they shifted as the sea, waves sliding back and forth.
He'd never experienced anything similar in his life, the sensation of contentment filling him, leaving him with no other thoughts than those of holding her closer. Melding her skin into his own, and still she felt to far from him.
When he'd been spent, lying motionless in the middle of the post bed, she'd sweetly laid one of her bare legs across his own. Her knee nestled against his member, her palm resting on his chest and her cheek on his shoulder. Her lips pressed against the nape of his neck, his own arm wrapped around her shoulders with his hand resting on her side protectively.
Kenway fell asleep with the single most content emotion of his life, a sense of home.
Now being woken to a thick wack against his chest, from one of his darkest memories no less, left him instantly agitated.
"Wake up, Kenway." As he opened his eyes hesitantly once more, he saw Kidd raising his arm with a small switch in his hands, meaning to hit him once more.
Reaching with lightning speed, Edward grasped the switch and threw it past the lad who clearly held a death wish.
Sitting up, as visions of his dream thankfully faded quickly from his mind, Edward scowled at Kidd who grinned and moved to look out at the cove in front of him.
Moving his mouth about, Kenway grunted out to the younger pirate.
"Is Thatch about..?"
"He left this morning with the Galleon. Has faith we'll discover a good use for this cove ourselves." Kidd's last words had a hint of sarcasm to them as he glanced back at Kenway, both of them already knowing Kenway had claimed the land as his own.
He'd had every right seeing as he'd trekked the perilous island and killed several scores of men, but it amused Kidd to nettle him.
Kidd moved to pick up the switch Edward had thrown, as Edward used his exhausted limbs to push himself from his perch to stand on the sandy shore.
"Aye, We'll make something of it in time.." His own sarcasm was thick as he moved a few feet to look towards the cove now only holding his Jackdaw and Kidd's own ship.
Thinking, Edward grinned to himself as the thoughts of creating a home base, something to return to came to the front of his thoughts.
"We could keep a fleet here, if we like. And with a bit of fixing up, it'd be a decent place to call home."
As he looked across the glistening sea for a moment, he forgot himself.
"Might even convince my wife to come one day." As soon as he spoke the words, he cringed at the hypocrisy of the words. He was a damned pirate so no one expected him to stay faithful in these times, hell even if he'd been home in Wales he'd not been expected to remain celibate save his wife but it felt wrong to speak of his wife as his damned Ward wandered the cove already.
Kidd was silent for a few moments, and although he'd known the reality of it, he couldn't help himself from quipping quietly.
"You're married, are ya?" The quiet accusation was easier for Edward to shrug off than he expected but it didn't stop him from feeling the need to explain himself, even haphazardly.
"In god's eyes I am, she left me some time ago." Even as Edward explained he felt the harshness of the excuse within his throat like a burn. Kidd's eyes softened only slightly, in an understanding between the two of them.
Moving towards the older Pirate, Kidd placed a hand against Kenway's arm signally he understood the thought.
"Even so, keep that fact kid away. Most of these men don't respect a man with higher commitments than rum and 'plunder'" Edward understood the underlying meaning of plunder immediately, and couldn't help the small half smile that tugged at the side of his lips.
Kidd began to pull away from their conversation, turning his body towards the inner cove signally he was uncomfortable with the turn of the conversation.
"'Pon my honour. Let me know if you find anything."
Kidd nodded sheepishly and stalked off from Kenway, as Kenway put a hand to his forehead sighing softly.
Now alone, Edward glanced about the cove as once more his thoughts turned to Liete and her absence.
Drew cringed as his lady's demeanor changed with such rigor and frequency he was sure she'd end up doing some form of harm to herself.
As the day's sun hung high in the sky, it found Liete pacing around the Queen Anne's Revenge a mask of anger and exasperated despair coming and going. She resembled a caged wild panther, hate oozing from its eyes as it stared out to its captors.
One of the stipulations she'd coldly delivered to their now Captain Thatch was that although Drew came with her, he wasn't to be used for anything other than her chaperon. Although Drew had found this a giddy thought, as if he was a royal officer charged with watching a queen, he was quickly bored.
He didn't know that being a royal officer was so boring, no wonder he'd liked being a pirate.
Smiling to himself at his own thoughts, Drew looked to Liete once more to find her wringing her hands against the ropes holding one of the large sails to the railing. She stared off into the rolling waves, hands turning red as some of the men's foreheads, her lips moving mumbling words he couldn't hear no matter how hard he tried.
She looked like a mad woman for the first time in Drew's eyes, and it distressed him to think he didn't know what to do to make it better.
When she'd woken him from his sleep inside one of the large rooms in the Manor Kenway gave her, he'd been sleepy and unsure. She'd whispered to him to grab a sack of any things he wished to take with him, that he wouldn't be back and they were going on a trip to Nassau.
Drew loved Nassau, and so perked up right away.
He didn't mind the week or so they'd be on the waves, and so began to pack as she'd looked on.
She'd been silent as they'd made their way to the docks, and as he'd made his way towards the Jackdaw, Liete had stopped him with a tiny hand against his arm.
"No Drew, we aren't sailing with Captain Kenway." When she'd motioned halfheartedly towards the dark wooden ship, where Captain Thatch stood, Drew had shook his head harshly.
"No, Mis' Liete, No. Bad Idea." The sweetly sad smile Liete gave him as she'd put both her hand on his face to stop him shaking calmed him as his confused mind worked into overdrive.
He didn't understand at all.
Liete was Kenway's woman. She looked at his captain like she hadn't ever seen another man in her whole life. Why was she leaving?
"Drew, I have to do this. I need you to come with me so I have the courage. Can you do that?"
Glancing past Liete to the darker captain, whose interest had been caught by them now, Drew whimpered softly terribly upset.
"I don' trust 'im Miss. He don' mean well to'rds ya'."
"He's just giving us passage. In a weeks' time, we'll be free of his company."
"'Aptain Kenway ain't ganna like tis, not one bit."
Liete smiled at him then, releasing his face to put one of her hands in his own, quieting the trembling that had started to rack his body.
It didn't feel right, not one bit. Not one bit.
"No, he wont. Drew, you don't have to come with me if you don't want. I have to go, but you don't."
Drew stood up straight in offence, his chest filling up with air as he squeezed her hand.
"No, yur' not goin' wit' out me, Miss Liete."
Drew didn't know what to do as Miss Liete's eyes glittered like the ocean as droplets came from her eyes, and smile once more for him came to her lips.
It confused him to see someone crying and smiling at the same time. His mama had told him crying was a way for a person to let go of the poison inside them, but smiling was to show everyone how happy they were.
"Thank you Drew."
To see her now, as angry as a damn mama bear, put Drew now on even more of an edge.
What was making her so angry, if this was what she wanted?
Drew frowned as he continued to watch Liete as she flung herself away from the side of the ship cursing about the large Galleon following close behind, stomping soft leather shoes against the deck as she snarled at another pirate who'd been scrubbing the deck, only for him to knock his bucket over as he shoved his body back and away from her.
What could he do, and how could he make it better…
"Leaving already?" Edward whom after exploring the cove, and the manor's secret for the day he had been surprised to see Kidd's ship on the verge of setting off into the Caribbean.
Kidd turned from where he'd been speaking to his first mate, his arms crossed against his chest to pin Edward with a raised eyebrow and a smirk.
"I think this cove suits you best Edward. Better than that costume does." Edward scoffed and paced the wooden dock, raising his arm to preach back to his young comrade.
"Oh, come now. We're Pirates, Kidd. We take as we please, and become who we like. Self-Made Men!" Even as he spoke he felt a vacancy about the words. That the passion behind them was half-truths.
Kidd threw a leg up to rest one leg against a cannon barrel, a disapproving look on his face, and as Kenway looked to him he felt the disapproval and a slight anger to his demeanor.
"That look ain't you, it's not who you are."
The words ignited a curiosity within him, not having had anyone question him, well other than Liete who was still missing.
"And who am I?"
His words were accusatory, and probing as he watched the war play out on Kidd's face that he'd seen many times after he'd spoken to the younger man about the Observatory.
"Hard to tell most days, all I know is you like dangerous prizes." Pulling his foot from the cannon, Kidd crossed his arms once more, smirking towards the blonde pirate, making it clear he meant more than one thing he'd been chasing was dangerous.
"Like the Observatory? See, I think you know more about that, than you let on in Nassau.."
"Caught that did you? Meet me at twenty degrees, three minute latitude just off the coast of Yucatan. I'll have something to show you there in a few weeks' time."
Edward could tell as Kidd gave him the coordinates and instructions that something was deeply amiss with the younger man, that wherever he was sending him, he'd be in for a damned eye opening adventure.
The promise hung in the air as Kidd's ship began to pull out of port, and just as Edward went to turn away from the ship setting sail, Kidd couldn't help himself as he bellowed to the oblivious man on shore.
"Speak to your night watch, your women's flown the coop Kenway."
Within moments the ship had pulled far enough out into the cove that even if Kenway bellowed into the open air, it was unlikely that Kidd would have been able to yell back. The last words between them hung in the air heavy as an anchor and sending Kenway into an absolute frenzy.
He'd turned from the ship for a moment as he processed the information but as it sunk into his psyche, his body set off, running towards his Jackdaw, scrambling up onto the deck and lunging towards the trap door that led to the slung up barracks of his crew.
He knew the night shift were fast asleep but he couldn't leave them to peace with the bomb that had been laid upon his conscience now.
Bellowing like a ringing alarm, Kenway grabbed onto the rope that made up each man's swinging bunker, any man that came within his sight he grabbed the edge of their sleeping platform and shook viciously.
"Wake up you damn scurvy beasts. Where's Liete, have any of you seen the damn witch?" The men that had been fast asleep slammed awake some letting out yells of surprise and dismay at the interruption as two individuals fell from their bunks with a holler.
Kenway felt the true absolute fear course through his veins, not understanding how to truly process the information that Kidd had thrown at him last second. With everything within him he hoped that it was just come cruel way to tease him.
As men finally came awake, they grappled with sudden reality as one man in particular growled, "What in the devils name are ya' doin' waking us up?"
Kenway couldn't help himself as he lunged forward grabbing onto the man, grasping onto his arms seeing as the man had lept up with no shirt. His eyes were wild and vicious and he shook the man with all his strength.
"What did you see this morning? Where is Liete?" As he repeated himself, the man he shook looked frightened and unsure as Edward couldn't even stop himself from his epic tirade. Just as he was about to smack the poor hand, a man a few barracks off with tousled shaggy hair and a deep tan whom had fallen from his bunk with all the yelling cried out.
"He don't know a thing Cap'n. He was workin' the jungle edge. I saw the damned witch board Thatch's ship early morn'. When it slid from port, I ain't seen her since." The news hit Edward like a cannon ball as he released the shaken sailor, his hands clenching.
She'd left me for Thatch?, Even as the thought went through his mind, he wouldn't believe it. He held all his effects, she'd not taken a thing from him, and a woman didn't put a bedding on a man like that when she meant to take another man.
No, she'd left a piece of herself with him last night, he could feel it pulsing in his chest as he lifted one clenched hand to push against his now heaving chest. Turning away from the staring men, Kenway backtracked on the shallow set of stairs erupting into the fresh air of his cove.
Why had she left then, what in god's name was she thinking?
Moving so his hands grasped the edge of the Jackdaw, Kenway's chest imploded. He didn't know how to handle this with grace, and it scared him faintly to know that within a week or so's time she'd nestled into him to do this much damage. Damn Liete to hell for this, he cursed within his mind, his mouth set in a thin line nostrils flared as he huffed through the pain.
As he stared out as the afternoon tide swirled and pushed the waves against the Jackdaw, Kenway finally understood.
She'd been saying goodbye last night.
Cursing once more, Kenway slammed his hands onto the railing letting out a bellow of rage to fill the Great Inagua cove.
He wouldn't chase after her, his resolve was instantly set.
Edward would continue on his path to the Observatory, Liete Beckford be damned.
The sun fell from the sky quickly, as if it feared Liete's wrath as well. The waves had stilled even as the winds blew against the open sails carrying the Queen Anne's Revenge across the ocean like a hot knife through churned butter. The moon was full and bright, a challenge to Liete as she glared with hatred towards the orb reflecting her own mind.
How dare the moon taunt her with her own child hood aspirations, so different now from where she'd been.
Liete's mind flooded with different thoughts, the caverns of her own soul overflowing sending her entire body into a frenzy. She was practically shaking with emotions that she had no idea how to handle or express.
Freedom now tasted like ash in her mouth, as the planks beneath her feet felt like quick sand.
It hadn't occurred to her in her fervor that within the sparing time that they'd been at each other's throats that a part of newly found soul was Kenway's to keep.
She couldn't deny it now, as the soul that had been rejuvenated by her encounter with Kenway now felt halved. As if all the intensity of the emotions she felt now was harder to comprehend as the parts that held a semblance of sane thought had been Kenway's all along.
He had brought her back to humanity.
A new cage, one I chose for myself now.
Liete sagged against a large black cannon, her arms thrown across the barrel, as her servant's skirts covered her crumpled legs. Sighing softly, Liete felt the dam break within her chest as a soft wail followed the sigh out of her throat right before it constricted and for the first time in her life, she began to sob heavily.
Not for the death of her father, the abandonment by her brother, nor the raping of her body did she truly weep.
Only now for the loss of life, fleeting and new, that brought humanity to a mad woman.
As she wailed, she felt a hand against her back, rubbing against her shoulder blades in a comforting motion. Unable to voice her thanks to Drew, Liete turned her face from within her own arms to peer behind her, and when she found the stricken face of Edward Teach, Liete's eyes once more overflowed blinding her unable to comprehend the older man's sudden caring act.
She simply sobbed into the cannon once more, her cries swallowed by the empty & lonely Caribbean.