To the Depths and Beyond

KayhalxKun

That was interesting… A few grammatical errors… I shall try and fix them, so don't chew my head off because of them…

Chapter 2- The Colours

(12 Years Later)

"Yo, ho

Haul Together,

Hoist the Colours high

Heave, ho

Thieves and Beggars

Never shall We die," I sang out loud, but also as quietly as I could though, seeing as how it wasn't the best song to be singing while on the sea out loud. Unfortunately, I have a strange habit of standing when I sing.

"Dangerous song to be singing on the sea itself, lad," my supervisor, Mr Young, said, slapping me in the back of the head, causing me to kneel back down, "Especially with the stories that are going around these days."

"Well, I don't exactly believe those tales," I replied, kneeling straight, high, and proud. It was true; I didn't believe those as more than ghost stories out to scare people. To me, the stories of the curse being released on the seas by that song were just absolute poppycock.

"Ye would be smart to believe in them tales, lad," Mr Young said slapping me in the back of the head again, "And I thought I told you I want this entire deck cleaned by sundown."

"Aye, you did," I sighed, dipping my brush into my bucket.

"Then enough singing and more swabbing, Mr Turner," he said sternly, walking away.

"'Then enough singing and more swabbing, Mr Turner,'" I said in a mocking tone, "Just wait. One day this deck will be so clean, you'll slip and fall right off and no one will notice." I raised my brush-hand at this, fist clenched. The brush, still quite wet, splattered water over an area of the deck. I tried to clear all the water up before someone slipped, but I just wasn't fast enough.

As I was bent over on the deck, in pretty much the middle, a fellow crew member, Mr Chu, came around from below, carrying a barrel of rum for tonight's meal. Of course, the blundering idiot that he is, didn't see me or the puddle of water and slipped first on the water, then tripped on my leg, landed on his back, and the barrel of rum went flying. It was thankfully the whole crew that saw this and dived to save the precious rum, not the blundering idiot who almost lost it.

"Ahem," came the captain's firm voice from behind me, "Mr Turner, my quarters, immediately."

When you first hear those words, the first thing you think is, "Oh shit, what did I do now?" Those were the first words that came to my head.

As I walked towards the captain's quarters, I could feel the eyes of every crew member there, following my every step, almost like at an execution.

I slumped in through the door the captain had disappeared behind, closing the door behind me. I could still feel the crew member's eyes through the door, following me, burning holes in my back.

"Have a seat Mr Turner." I took a seat in front of the desk he sat at, the back of his chair towards me. "Do you know where we stop next, Mr Turner?" he said kindly, his tone of voice kind.

"T-Tortuga, sir," I said quietly, unable to look him in the eye without stuttering.

"Tortuga… Yes… But I'm afraid you won't be heading back from Tortuga to Port Royal with us when we head back this time."

"Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt, but Mr Chu wasn't looking and he didn't see me working carrying that barrel and all and… and… I'm really sorry and it won't happen again," I said panicky. I wasn't sure if he was kidding about this or what, just because of that smirk on his face.

"Mr Turner, this has nothing to do with what happened today out there. All that is happening is you are being put on a different ship that is in need of more crew members and we might need an opening on this ship. I know that this is a Pirate stop, but that shouldn't be a problem for you, right?"

"Yes sir… Thank you, sir."

We both began to chuckle at this, but almost as suddenly as he had started, his face became quite serious.

"That wasn't the rum barrel he almost lost, was it?"

That night's feast was a big one, everyone celebrating it since it was my last with this crew. We were planned to be at a port by Tortuga at around midday tomorrow, so we said our main goodbyes now. Mr Young was the most at loss.

"You will promise that you will work as hard for them as you did me, lad," he said, slapping my back as he took his seat beside me, "That was, when you get praise for something, you can say it was us who taught you." The drunken crew howled with laughter as they agreed, clanking mugs. That one barrel of rum hadn't even lasted half the meal.

I was encouraged to drink some of the rum, to let loose like any other night, but I refused. I hated everything about it, the smell, the taste, nothing had ever appealed to me.

"It's a sign of responsibility, good trait to have, lad," is what most of them had said when I refused even a sip. That surprised me the most. Usually I was called chicken bones or something, but tonight they didn't care, they just went back to visiting or nodded and wandered around.

The feast went on almost all night, ending when more than half the crew was too drunk to keep their eyes open. Looking from a doorway, you would have thought cannons had been blasted in here, stringing the crew all over the floor. The only one not that drunk was the captain. He had no more than a cup full of rum. He looked at me, then signalled me to follow him outside.

"Now that you are leaving Mr Turner, I think it might be time for you to learn how to use a cannon properly," he said, gesturing to the cannon on board.

I smiled as he handed me the torch for the cannon, taking it, then touched the bit of fuse for the cannon. All it took was a bang, and the captain smiled.

"Too bad we aren't keeping you," he smiled as he watched the cannon fly into the distance.