Disclaimer: All recognizable characters do not belong to me.
Chapter 5
Sinking Ship
Vidia slid down a rope onto the upper deck.
Vidia untied the ropes holding the canoe above the water, letting it splash down into the water.
I'll float in that until High Eagle rescues me. She decided, then remembered the pirates.
She ran across the deck to revive them.
"Hey, mister!" she shouted. "Wake up!" She slapped him roughly in the face. "Wake up!"
He moaned and blinked, then sat up and saw the water much too high on the ship.
He stood, not noticing the fairy, who went to the next pirate and started trying to wake him.
The next woke up immediately, and Vidia watched him and the other pirate jump into the canoe and get ready to take off for land without her.
"Hey!" she yelled. "Hang on! Wait for me!" She considered following them, but knew she had to try to rescue the last man. She took a step toward the him but he blinked at her before she could speak.
He didn't sit up, but pulled his dagger from his sheath and plunging it into the floorboards where she just had been. She ran across the deck as fast as her tired legs would take her. He yanked the knife from the wood and hurled it at her, but she switched directions, and he just missed her.
Vidia finally reached the mast and started climbing up, but the pirate strode after her and knocked her off with a hard fist. She landed on the deck, but her landing was padded by a good inch of water. She leapt to her feet.
She looked up at the pirate, but had to dive away as he tried to squish her underfoot.
The splash of his shoe in the water startled him as if he hadn't realized they were sinking.
"The ship is going down!" Vidia shouted. "Stop trying to kill me and save yourself!"
The pirate glanced around, and suddenly ran to the rail and dived into the water.
Vidia sighed, shivering, then climbed up the mast to the crow's nest. She nearly lost her balance as the ship groaned and tipped up, then back. It sank much further, then lurched underwater. She climbed up onto the top crossbar of the mast. She saw the two pirates in the canoe rowing around toward the bay, and the third pirate swimming after them.
Vidia glanced toward shore and could see High Eagle talking to a strong Indian brave, pointing toward the ship.
He's trying to save me. Vidia thought. She jumped, surprised as her toes were wet by a wave. She hadn't noticed the water was so close beneath her.
"What I would give for pixie dust." she said, aloud.
She grabbed the tiny wood piece and climbed up as far as she could, her fingers over the top, her feet braced around the mast. "I wonder if Tink ever figure out where I went." She pulled herself up to the top and balanced on her tiptoes on the round top. She glanced toward land and saw the Indian braves swimming toward her, but they were barely halfway.
They can't reach me before the water sweeps me away – and they won't be able to find me in the water. Vidia realized. I'm going to drown.
Somehow, though, it didn't bother her a whole lot.
She took one more look back toward the shore – and suddenly saw a spark in the air – no, two.
Tinkerbell?
Vidia squinted to see. A large wave swept up to soak her knees and she fought to catch her balance.
"Tinkerbell!" she said aloud.
It was Tinkerbell and Fawn, racing toward her.
"Vidia, are you okay?" Tinkerbell yelled as she neared.
"Only about to drown!" Vidia suddenly didn't feel so much like drowning.
Tinkerbell grabbed one of her arms, and Fawn grabbed the other and they lifted her from the mast's top.
"We should take you back to the Sick bay." Fawn said, seeing her scraped and bloody elbows and knees.
"Okay, but fly over by the Indians first – High Eagle needs to see I'm okay." Vidia ordered.
"Who's High Eagle?" Fawn asked.
"I made friends with him." Vidia grinned at him as they flew over, and he waved at her.
"Now we're going straight to the Sick bay." Tinkerbell decided.
Vidia didn't reply.
Treasure Chest
"I prescribe rest." the nurse-talent fairy said, "You can go home now."
Vidia raised an eyebrow.
"Got you some dust, Vidia!" Fawn gasped, racing in the door. "Here!" she handed it to her.
"Thanks." Vidia sprinkled it on herself.
"I was really confused when I looked over on the beach and you weren't there." Tinkerbell confessed. "I figured you might have seen something that interested you and gone off alone. I didn't get worried until someone said you hadn't shown up for your pixie dust in the morning."
"How did you get all the way around the other side of the island?" Fawn asked, curiously,
"I got floated to sea in a treasure chest." Vidia explained.
"A treasure chest!" Tinkerbell echoed. "Where is it?"
"Skull Rock."
"What?"
"I moored it there, then rescued High Eagle – the pirates were putting him on the rock to drown – then he rescued me by swimming to the mainland. But first we swam to the pirate ship and listened to the pirate's plan to destroy the Indian village."
"Why would the pirates destroy the village?" Fawn asked.
"They thought the Indians had taken the treasure chest that they left on the beach." Vidia answered. "I'd like to get home, so I'll tell you the rest of the story on the way."
"Sure." Tinkerbell stepped from the room, and Vidia followed her down the hall. A nurse stepped from a room and Vidia stopped short.
It was the nurse-talent fairy from her dream.
"You!" she exclaimed, surprised.
Tinkerbell and Fawn stared at her in surprise. "Vidia, this is Patsy." Tinkerbell introduced them.
"She was laughed just today." Fawn added. "While you were missing."
"Oh." Vidia blinked.
"Hi." Patsy said, politely.
"I thought you were someone else." Vidia explained, then moved on down the hall, leaving Tinkerbell and Fawn to catch up.
Treasure Chest
"I brought the village wise woman, as you requested, Chuck." High Eagle said, leading an old Indian lady to their meeting spot next to the river.
"Thanks." Vidia grinned at the lady.
The lady said something in her native language that Vidia couldn't understand.
"I don't know what she's saying, High Eagle." Vidia said, loudly.
"I can't understand you, Chuck, but the wise woman says she can understand you."
Vidia blinked. "You can understand me?" she asked, surprised.
The woman nodded.
"Wonderful!" Vidia said, pleased. "Now tell that idiot my name is Vidia."
The woman smiled and told High Eagle.
"Vidia." High Eagle shook his head. "That's no name for a fairy. I'm going to keep calling you Chuck."
Vidia rolled her eyes. "Tell him he has a gift from me behind a rock over there." She pointed.
High Eagle listened to the woman, then went to investigate, and came back with his bear claw necklace.
"I had it fished from the shallow water at Skull Rock." Vidia explained, "I felt bad for losing it."
"Thanks, Chuck!" High Eagle put it on as he sat down again. "I would have missed this for a long time."
The woman spoke and Vidia waited for High Eagle to repeat.
"She asks why you wanted to speak with her."
"I've been having dreams – I dream of my home, but it's a darker place. Like a shadow has fallen. I dream of people I couldn't possibly know about. I saw a fairy in a dream before she was laughed to life." Vidia told her.
The woman thought for a moment, then spoke.
"She says you should not worry about the dreams until you come to the bridge."
Vidia paused. "Is that a variation of the human saying, or what?"
"I don't know what you're saying, Chuch, but I think she means it literally."
"What kind of bridge would give me dreams – nightmares?" Vidia asked, shaking her head.
High Eagle listened to the wise woman, then translated.
"'I mean a different sort of bridge'."
End
I've never before tried to put together two main characters who can't communicate. Thought I should test it out. Hope you enjoyed.
Consult my profile for the chronological list of my Vidia series.