Kai: Well, one more chapter) twist of plot, ne?
Enjoy) and we'll love your comments) it's the sign that our work is not a waste! =3
The fifth night
When Kathryn got a hold on herself, she felt rather surprised.
Quite surprised, actually.
She was in the lower hold. She didn't knew why, but she was certain she was on the ship, and she was in a lower hold.
The last night pirates had caught her, she remembered. But she awoke while they were dragging her up to the deck.
Okay, she thought, the only thing I'm certain of is that I'm on a ship. It doesn't have to be the same ship, afterall. If it was the same ship, she continued, I, for one thing, would have been in a cell, or tied up at the very least.
She wasn't tied or otherwise suspended from what she could tell. And when she looked down at herself, she could make out her bare feet, a severely frayed pants and a baggy striped shirt. She didn't want to reach to her face and check whether there was also something there.
I seriously doubt Captain would have made me a new recruit, she thought carefully.
Well... okay, they might have been shorthanded, but recruiting while she was asl... ahem, awake?
A door in the wooden ceiling burst open.
- Howa long yer goin' to lay th're? - an angry voice yelled. Kathryn jumped, - Get up onna deck, you scallywag!
The door slammed shut.
- Okay, - she said quietly, just to hear her own voice, - I seems I was wrong. Ouch.
She was surprised very much.
Strangely enough, she calmed down once she got to the deck. The crew consisted of creatures not so much human-shaped as bipedal, and not exactly with animal features as with non-human-vaguely-animal features, brightly colored.
It's a dream, Kathryn thought contently, smiling. I'm a member of the crew full of weird creatures. I'm sure I'm a member of the pirate crew, and I'm sure we're still somewhere near Neverland.
What the heck. A girl could as well have some fun.
***KT***
- Scrub well, seamate Scally! I want this deck all nice and shiny!
Kathryn looked up from her work, staring at the superior pirate morosely. She turned around, mop in hand, and ran to the other side of the deck, to scrub well there.
She gritted her teeth, scrubbing the deck violently.
Well... not so much scrubbing as stabbing it with a mob. She thought she could hear hammocks rattling in the lower hold.
Which, of course, couldn't be. Hammock don't rattle.
Bottles of rum, then. She whistled a senseless, slightly malicious tune, imagining how all of them go crash...
Kathryn winced. There's gonna be the smell. And that just won't do. She needs other means of revenge.
Because, even though she was accepted as a member of the pirate crew, she wasn't allowed to have any fun. All she was allowed was scrubbibg the deck with a mop. And that just wasn't her idea of fun.
All over the ship pirates were having fun. Not that their fun were her idea of fun, either - they either got drunk in groups of three, or, equally drunk, were playing cards in groups of four. She tried counting just how many pirates there were, but gave up soon.
It's a dream, she thought with a mental sigh. Could be a hundred. Could be seven.
Could be none, what does it matter? What was important is that she was dreaming, and nothing interesting was happening - and occasional hits landed on wandering drunkards didn't count. And not interested in something Kathryn was an irritated Kathryn, and irritated Kathryn usually sought for means to become interested.
"Interested" being close to "amused" in meaning, of course.
I need to become some scullion soon, she thought. Then get to the indian village and get some herbs... surely they have something useful. Hallucinations could be too dangerous, but a severe case of...
Well, anything.
Or, she could just stir up some revolt and become the captain. And make the whole crew wear ruffles, just for the heck of it. Oh, the hilarity.
She paused ever so slightly as her eye caught some faint movement. With a nonchalant whistle, she waltzed towards empty barrels, and begun to scrub around them. Whistling louder, she raised her mob and stabbed the deck, nearly bruising the nose of someone who was about to crawl around the barrels, apparently to distance himself from the girl.
Kathryn smile sweetly:
- Hello there, peanut. Who are you?
It was a kid, dressed in some black rags that covered almost everything about him, leaving only his eyes, bridge and brows visible.
Said brows furrowed:
- Uh... a big crow? - he guessed, looking up at her innocently.
- Good one, - she praised, - Now, who am I?
- Never saw ya.
Kathryn practically beamed:
- Well, I'm seawoman Scally. And my job is to keep the deck clean.
***KT***
The new kid was only arguably useful, but Kathryn managed to persuade the boatswain to make him scrub the deck instead of her. Boatswain didn't argue much, though, and Kathryn left with an impression that was how they got someone scrubbing the deck in the first place - the position was filled with the most recent pirate. Makes sense.
So now she was promouted to watchman on lookout.
Kathryn blinked.
- And this works how?
- Oh, yer just hafta stand there on that...
- No, I mean, why do I have to be on lookout?
The boatswain blinked. Then, his face reddened, brows knit together tightly.
- 'Cause we hafta have someone on tha lookout. An' if yer scallywag ain't gonna do it, yer can jolly go scrubbin' the deck.
Kathryn considered standing on the pillar watching the sea over scrubbing the deck. Then she looked at boatswain's face. It was an open face, the kind that told you exactly what its owner thought about you and what he'd do to you if you don't jolly obey his orders.
- Yeah, right.
- What wassat, scally?
She sighed.
- Sir, yes sir. I'll go on the watch, sir.
And so, as much as she disliked the boatswain and his orders in particular, and the situation in general, she had to obey it. Okay, so orders were more specific and less vague than aimlessly wandering through the Neverland, but something so tedious? In a dream? That was simply ridiculous.
But even that she could deal with. Kathryn picked at her emotions, figuring out what was it that annoyed her so. Apparently, she had no problems obeying orders - those were the rules after all, she wasn't supposed to break them, she'd only get herself in trouble...
That was the right course of thoughts, and she let it slowly advance further. She'd bring trouble upon herself if she disobeys, disobeying means punishment, and punishments... are executed by someone. She closed her eyes and submerged deeper in her thoughts. Someone executes the punishments. Someone with power, knowledge... either of them, anyway. On the ship, that most likely was the Captain, whom she didn't see yet.
Maybe that was it, she concluded, opening her eyes and setting more comfortably in the crow's nest. She was just a seaman, a part of the crew. That was hardly acceptable, she thought gloomily. I can't be just any part of the crew. I have to have a better position.
Kathryn squinted her eyes. The sea was just like the sea should be - vast and blue, and slightly hazy. No apparent danger...
Whoops.
- Boatswain!
- What yer yellin' yer scallywag?
- There's some other ship out there! We are not meeting anyone, are we?
The tiny figure of boatswain was still for a moment.
- What's ther flag?
- Eh... black with bones and a skull, sir.
Boatswain seemed to curse - from what she could figure out. He dashed to the captain's room in a particular hurry that suggested it was something gravely important and not entirely welcomed...
Kathryn sighed, dropped her string of thoughts and got out of the nest. By the time she got to the deck, every sailor was sitting about like a madman, doing... something. Probably things seamans should when they are drunk and have to face an enemy ship. Kathryn squinted her eyes until she could feel her head hurt, but even so she couldn't make out what was it exactly they've been doing.
The unvoluntary recruit boy was hiding behind the same barrels, mod clutched tightly in one hand, eyes big and gleaming.
- What's the matter, Sally?
Kathryn blinked at the name, but decided not to bother.
- Someone else's ship. Another pirates. What do you think?
- I think they're gonna fight, - the boy said, half afraid, half anticipating the fun.
- Okay, peanut, that mop? Give it back to me, good boy.
Kathryn took the mop and headed to the cookroom, seeing how the cook ha already ran out with a sword on one hand and a soup ladle in the other. In the cookroom, she selected a nice big knife, took a piece of a string and attached it firmly to the handle of the mop. Now, there's a nice lance...
She stepped out, enemy pirates roaming around the deck already, and stabbed the nearest foe, which promply dissapeared in a puff of stingy smoke
The girl blinked. Then, she smiled wide, and let out a yell, half-exitement, half-rage, and a major warning on the whole, and joined the battle.
It all became rather hazy and fuzzy then. She felt lightweight and sharp. She felt like she was slicing the air. Enemies were brightly outlined blobs against the murky background, and she saw them all. They were perfect targets. Perfect... snacks.
She pierced two pirate at once.
Hardly anyone could stop her. If you counted how many people could stop her, you'd be left with spare fingers.
She felt satisfaction. Almost a predatory kind.
It struck her with it's oddness, the feeling.
Kathryn looked around the deck, feeling somewhat lost. It seemed murky and foggy, in muted and blurred grey colors; some bodies were laying around. Most of those seemed to be enemies'.
She dropped the mop, not really taking any notice of it, and wandered about for some place she could use to sit down and think. It was weird, really. That what had happened just then... sort of felt lucid, but wasn't. And she also felt vaguely disturbed by being so excited with, what fundamentally have been, killing other people.
Kathryn sat down in some hidden corner and closed her eyes, trying to steady her breath. Let's think. Let's think logical. I'm a member of the crew, right? I'm supposed to serve under my captain, right? Obey orders and whatnot? Okay, now, when there's an enemy that endangers the crew, the ship and, fundamentally, the captain, I'm supposed to destroy such threat, right?
Right. Simple logic, nothing criminal - she tried to avoid thinking that pirates were criminals, that was the whole point. She was a dutiful seaman, protecting her captain and the ship. She had done the right thing. Thinking metaphorically, the whole ship might have beed a representation of her psyche, and her defending the ship was all more right...
- You don't really think that, do you?
Kathryn supressed the urge to jump up on her seat and looked around.
The owner of the voice was hard to miss. It was a petite young girl, only a few inches high, with long fair hair, blue dress - apparently made of bluebells - and colorful dragonfly wings on her back. And she was emitting a soft, calm glow.
- You are a fairy, - Kathryn stated flatly.
The girl nodded. Being so small, it was hard to make her features out, but she was pretty and no doubt.
- Why do you think that I... don't think that?
- Because you don't. I know myself.
- So what? Did I do anything wrong?
- Wrong? Right? I still don't quite know what does it mean. It a very relative thing, you know?
- Don't avoid the queston.
- No, the question is, whether I want to forget myself and do what I'm told, or choose my own path.
Kathryn was confused:
- Um... the latter choice?
- Being lost and alone? Sometimes I wonder if I should have stayed close to my origins.
- Are you lonely?
- Are you?
- We're not talking about me!
- Yes we do. Everything is up to you. Now, what do _you_ want? You can go away any time. They dragged you there against your will. You have every right to go away.
- Did you have them?
- I wasn't the same.
- What do you want from me?
- To choose well, that's all.
- Alright, one more question. Do you want to come back?
The fairy stared up somewhere, dreamingly, then heaved a sigh.
- There's nowhere for me to come back to. Nowhere I'd want to come back to.
- There's... someone, then?
- No one who'd know. He wouldn't know.
- Oh... the "he", then.
- I don't think that was stupid, - fairy said with defiance, - It was creative. It was only a logical step. Incidentally, however, that was also disobeying.
- Creativity is a crime, then?
- Not anymore. Certainly not for you. That is why I need you.
- I don't get it. You sound like you want to go away, but don't. Or that you want to stay, although there's nothing left for you. Why?
Fairy's expression slowly turned angry, and Kathryn vagyely recalled that fairies are so small they can contain only one emotion at a time.
Then, there was an angry gasp. But not fairy's.
Then, there were feet pounding away hurriedly.
Then, the loud voice:
- It's a traitor! She's been talking to a fairy!
When Kathryn turned back to the fairy, she wasn't there anymore.
And after that, she was caught and immobilized and dragged across the deck towards the captain and here's the traitor, should we go get the plank ready?
Kathryn looked at the captain and felt strangely nauseous. But most of all, she felt ashamed.
Is this I thought I've been trying to protect? Really? This creature that is not even human-shaped? This creature that doesn't even seem any better than any member of his crew? This _thing_ I wouldn't even allow to bring me houseshoes?
God, what an idiot I am. Is this what I've been looking up to? This thing that is so obviously, painfully inferior to myself?
No, of course that wasn't it. She looked around frantically. There's got to be someone else, someone around here...
The creature, which actually resembled an octopus with a brick for a head, seemed to increase in size. Its presence was suffocating, but not because he was stronger in any way. Its just sort of robbed you of breathable air. That's what it was. A robber. An impostor.
- We have decided, - it said, - That you will walk the plank.
She raised her chin and stared. Her surroundings looked stormy, the air was dark, and the floor under her feet was rocking. She felt rather angry, really. And dizzy.
She spun around, shaking limbs that was holding her away, and dragged her feet towards the plank. It was a long way.
And the whole crew was sniggering.
It probably was the worst thing. She was being humilated. She didn't do anything wrong - she had dutifully obeyed everything - so why do they point at her and mark her as an outcast? Why do they want her gone?
All I did was talking to a fairy. Stupid fairy. She didn't even gave me any pixie dust.
While she was forcing her feet to walk in the direction of the plank, scambling through their accusing stares, she was searching, only with a corner of her vision, for a person. He had to be there, she thought. He had to be there somewhere, watching. I only need to see his face...
And then came a tiny and cold nagging feeling that she had experienced something like this before, albeit in different form.
No, she wasn't weak. She wasn't a criminal. She got out of control - got in touch with something they couldn't control - and they got scared. And so, before she knew it, they wished her gone.
She felt like something was trying to choke her.
Kathryn was on the plank already, dark waters underneath tugging at her long nightgown. Oblivion was only a step away, and really, it was the only way.
She felt like some cold, indifferent claws were slowly closing around her. They'd let her fall to her death, but first, they'd strip her of whatever they deemed useful.
Not that she'd let them.
Kathryn gasped for breath involuntary and jumped off the plank.
As she was falling down with all the insides freezing with fear, she thought - is this how its really going to an end? Am I going to simply give up? Just because they didn't need me? Really?
Maybe she was still falling, or maybe she was already in the waters, but there was a tiny blue starlet in front of her, and she grabbed it.
Wait, she realised, I'm only dreaming. It's not real.
And then up and down switched places, and she was forcing herself to go up, floating to the surface.
And then she gasped and woke up.