Standing there in the village square, I was idly wondering how things were going with my friends, and not really paying all that much attention to Silver's praising me to the skies for my recent actions in daring to enter Pirate Village and then proclaiming myself to be the King of the Pirates. I think he did that mainly for his own entertainment, since it took him a full five minutes to finish off his fulsome compliments, and then to actually start upon my qualifications for this royal position. Considering he didn't know a single thing about me, I was just as curious as the rest of the pirates on exactly what he'd say regarding their visitor.

Note for the future: Never try to second-guess Long John Silver.

"Me hearties, I give ye…The Patch."

I incredulously stared at the man who'd just managed to pronounce the capital letters of that last pair of words, trying to figure out what the hell he was talking about. That guy couldn't possibly mean something for nicotine addiction, could he? It was only when a strange noise came from over where the other pirates were, that I snapped my head around to look at them, and at the same time, I finally understood.

Those rough, hard-living, hard-drinking sea bandits had just rumbled out a growl of approval, all while every one of them gazed with admiration right at my eyepatch. I stood there stunned, as a really smooth talker went on.

"He's known loss and pain, me lads, and then he got back up on his feet, goin' on with his life. No whinin', no sayin' the world ain't fair, just gettin' down to business and makin' his way through the world. We've all done it, aye, and we know how hard it is. Wouldn't ye care to follow such a man wherever he may lead ye, who can and has driven himself past what he previously thought were his limits? I'd sign up for any voyage with him, and may the divil take me before me proper time if that ain't the honest truth throughout the seven seas!"

That resulted in an actual roar of agreement, with gap-toothed grins, thumbs up (at least from those pirates who still possessed those exact digits), and supportive winks bestowed upon me standing there trying to take it all in. I could actually feel the flush appear on my face then, particularly at where my eyepatch pressed into my skin. Yet, I also felt something like…flattered delight. Those guys had began to accept me, just like one of their own, and while doing it, they'd shown me something that I hadn't had in a long time.

Back in the real world, people might think that an eyepatch was dashing and cool, but up close, face to face, virtually everyone talking to me tried to ignore what I was wearing on my head, keeping their own eyes directed away from it and what that item covered. Sure, part of it was sheer politeness, not wanting to offend me, but it also included simple revulsion, and also trying to avoid thinking that their own bodies were equally fragile and the same thing could just as easily happen to them.

Here…nobody cared.

"Ahem."

Well, there's always one spoilsport.

Captain Hook stopped fingering his right wrist where the flesh of his arm met the metal cup covering his stump, and he looked around with a cold eye that instantly ruined the mood. Directing his unblinking gaze at me, which in this specific case I could have really done without, that wicked pirate captain sneered, "Yes, yes, most affecting. However, I do confess to a certain niggling curiosity on exactly how you lost your eye. After all, if it was perhaps something on the order of an ejected champagne cork striking you there during some student revelry, that's certainly not going to win you any sympathy from everyone here!"

I glanced over at the other buccaneers, who were now nodding thoughtfully, as they then stilled expectantly, clearly waiting for me to say something in my defense. Even Silver had a grudging look on his weather-beaten features that indicated his loathed fellow pirate had an actual point.

In my own case, I could feel my face stiffening over unwanted memories from years ago. It was clear that I had to come out with something, though, so I managed to speak through clenched jaws, "It was during the middle of a war, and the second-in-command on the other side, a crazy ex-preacher, he gouged it out with his thumb!"

"Oooooo…" moaned the mob of pirates in awed horror.

Even their leaders, Hook and Silver, looked impressed over hearing that, with the latter pirate then asking in honest curiosity, "So, what happened then, matey?" In his chair, Captain Hook leaned forward to listen, his face intent as he eagerly awaited more information.

Remembering what Buffy had done to Caleb with the Scythe, my mouth twisted into a chilly smile, as I told them, "Soon after, a friend of mine caught up with that bastard and chopped him in two with an axe. Lengthwise."

The man with the peg leg beamed in utter delight, saying appreciatively, "Now, that's a grand friend! I'd like to meet him!"

I opened my mouth to correct the pirate over that last pronoun, until I hastily shut it, due to the sudden dreadful thought of what might happen if Buffy Summers and Long John Silver ever managed to meet each other, or even worse, then decided to team up permanently. We'd have to find another word to describe an absolute catastrophe, since 'apocalypse' wouldn't even begin to cover that horrifying situation.

Thankfully, my attention was diverted by an exasperated snarl from where Captain Hook was seated. Leaning back in his chair, that man shrugged his shoulders in irritation, to then snap at us standing before him, "Oh, all right! I'll give him that one!" Beginning to drum the fingers of his remaining hand upon the chair's armrest, an annoyed shipmaster had his face darken at the sudden outburst of cheers from the pirates around him at this acknowledgement of my courage.

I wasn't all that confident myself, since I soon saw Hook look pensive, with him then developing a very sinister smile upon his lips. Raising his voice over the happy comments of the crowd, the pirate captain now mused, as if to himself, "You know, that eyepatch of his… It does tend to attract one's attention. So much, that in fact you might miss something else important about that perisher's face!" In the sudden quiet of his audience closely listening to this, Hook leaned forward, his eyes gleaming with malice, as he spat out, "It's…clean!"