An Endless tide

CH 4: (Bella's Point of View)

Who did that idiot think he was? Did he just roam around the streets of Tortuga, waiting for some helpless girl to stroll on by and molest her? Was he that stupid?

He had no idea what kind of girl he was dealing with. I was anything but helpless.

When I reached the boat, I alerted my crew to the problem at hand. They came, immerging out of the wood work. The younger ones looked up at me in horror, not completely understanding what was going on. Twig came up beside me, his fingers twitching.

"Where is this pervert, let me at him!" he said as Mute joined him in pursuit, cracking his knuckles.

The crew followed behind, out of the ship and faced, in red hot anger, the boy from the bar.

"Who do you think you are, hurting our captain?" Teddy said as he grasped hold of my hand.

"You'll get out of here if you know what's good for you!" A red head named Spike added in.

"Wait! It was an honest mistake!" The boy said defensively.

My eyes narrowed as I pushed though the crowd my crew had formed around the boy. When I was finally right next to him, I looked him square in the eye, testing him.

"Well, say something!" I demanded.

"I swear, I meant you no harm." He said, no louder then a whisper, looking right into the centers of my eyes.

I studied his face carefully and sighed.

"What should we do with him Bella, hang him from the bird's nest?" Twig purposed.

"Feed him to the sharks!" Another boy chimed in.

"No," I said, holding a hand up to stop them from going any further. "How about… he joins our crew?" I suggested with a smirk.

"What? No way! He can't!" A boy with blonde hair protested.

Mute came up next to me and gave me a look of pure disagreement.

"We will make him work for us, swab the decks, prepare the meals, man the sails." I patted the boy on the cheek. "Our little maid" I said, mocking him.

Surprisingly, the boy didn't argue, he simple hung his head low as he spoke, "I will do anything to make this up to you."

I raised an eyebrow at him. A boy, whom I'd first found in Tortuga's infamous bar, was as tough as the girls of the Gasper manor. I was more of a man then he was.

"Alright then it's settled everyone on the ship! Study the sails! Let's get out of this god forsaken Tortuga." I ordered, marching up the ramp, back onto my ship.

"Bella wait! You can't possibly want this guy on our ship." A boy named Mouse exclaimed, sneaking up behind me like he always did.

"Come on, he can't be that bad. Besides, you might not have noticed but Cricket hasn't been... Well, he hasn't been too great with working the sails lately." I pointed out to him, looking toward the loose sails where Cricket dangled, swinging back and forth singing a song about a witch who took children to a house made of gingerbread. He was a pretty hyper-active kid and had a hard time focusing on just a single thing. He "jumped" from one thing to another.

Mouse just stared at me and moved toward the front of the ship, where he helped the other boys ready us for departure.

I ordered the stranger to help them. He stumbled along, often confused about what he was doing, but eventually he seemed to get a hang of it. Heaving and Hoeing he pulled the roped and the sails rose up into the night sky.

I took the helm and the ship moved beneath my grip, moving up and down with the crushing waves.

Once we were far enough away from Tortuga that I didn't have to check every which way for drunken pirates, I ordered Mute to take the helm as I officially greeted our new maid.

He was leaning up against the railings at the side of the ship, breathing heavily. Occasionally he checked his hands which looked a bit swollen. I saw sweat roll down his cheek, glistening in the moon light.

"Was the work too rough for our little maid?" I said smirking as I leaned next to him on the railing.

He didn't even glance at me as he continued to try and catch his breath.

I took the moment to study him a bit. He had a strong jaw bone and dark brown eyes, as rich as the earth. His arms were built, muscular, and showed no sign of scaring. For one thing, he hadn't been out at sea very much. He looked like he was going to be sick but held it in as he griped to the wood behind him.

I laughed a little, saying, "Oh! Breathe in that salty sea air! Isn't it wonderful?"

Again, he ignored me, focusing more on keeping the vomit inside his mouth.

"What, do the sirens have hold of your tongue? Say something boy!" I shouted.

It wasn't till he spoke that I realized it wasn't vomit he was holding in, but words.

"Look, I am sorry for what I did. I didn't mean to do that to you. This is my first time off the island and everything is a bit new to me! I don't know how to be a pirate but I want to become one and find my father. He is out there somewhere with a crew of his own and I know if I became good enough, I might just..."
"Slow down there! Take it easy." I said, holding my hand over his mouth to quiet him causing him to look at me with wide eyes.

"I didn't even get your name in that speech of yours." I said smiling.

"It's James." He said, once I'd released my hand from his mouth.

"And I'm Bella, Captain Bella Rose." I smiled brightly, proud of my title."So, your father's a pirate huh?"

"Sure is, sailing… somewhere out there." James said, looking 0ut at the vast ocean that lied out before us.

"Well one thing I know is that right now every pirate from every stretch of the globe is gathering in the Gulf of Guinea. It's rumored that a copied map to fountain of youth is being held in the trading docks there. Maybe your father is on his way there with his crew as well." I explained to him as I played the strings on my blouse.

"We need to set a course there then!" He shouted in excitement, his face brightening up.

I looked at him, narrowing my eyes. "Hold on a second boy, let's get something straight. I am the captain of this ship, the Siren Maiden. You take orders from me. And besides, what makes you think I'd even want to go there... such a waste of time."

"But... if you had the map… maybe you could sell it for a lot of money! Or even better… if you were able to find the fountain of youth, you could sell the water for five hundred times our weight in gold!" James said, trying desperately to convince me.

I looked at him and then slowly walked toward the deck, facing my crew who had been secretly spying on our conversation.

Suddenly, I shouted out, "Mute!"

He looked at me from the Helm.

"Set a course for the Gulf of Guinea. We are going to find ourselves the fountain of youth."