They had been sailing for one week, and Emma stood at the ship's bow as they pulled into the harbor. They had arrived at the closest port to the Enchanted Forest, and she was excited to be getting even closer to her goal.
Emma ignored the fact that she had zero plan once she got the magic bean. Anytime she mentally bumped up against that thought at all, she just put the chore of locating the Evil Queen and the Dark One on Killian. After all, he wanted the Dark One destroyed, and he was much better at the whole vengeance thing in her mind.
She felt the energy around her shift and realized Shorty was walking up behind her. She smiled and turned to look at him. "I'm glad you're joining me." As the ship's cook, he didn't have any jobs to do as they pulled into port.
"I still don't get how you do that," he said, amazed. The truth was that with Killian's help, she found out she could cast a thin, light web of magic that sent out 'feelers' for lack of a better word. It worked exactly like a three-dimensional spider's web did for sensing motion. And with the vast amounts of magic that she had, maintaining it was easy and like second nature to her. The downside was that it left her senses overstimulated by the end of the day. And that reaction was just on a ship and not in the middle of a busy town she knew soon she would have to deal with feeling overwhelmed.
She maintained the web because she was working on her ability while aboard to train herself in the hopes of getting more accustomed to the constant feedback of information. Emma felt everything through her magical web, humans and inanimate objects equally.
She smiled at him lightly and said, "A woman likes to have her secrets." Her true abilities with magic were still being kept from the crew, even the more trusted members.
Killian didn't tell her, but he knew his crew could sense a mystery about her and would want to figure it out. And, being pirates who had lived for a very long time, they had a lot of insight into human nature and had many ideas on how to scrounge up information. He wanted her magic to remain a mystery because he wanted to use that mystery as a smokescreen for her parentage. Something he knew was being kept from him, but he chose to accept it. He didn't know if his whole crew would respect her wishes as he had.
So, while the crew tried to figure out how she always knew who was standing behind her and other little oddities, they would focus on that and not think to question who she really was. Killian wanted to safeguard the secrets she kept from everyone, even himself. He hadn't been lying when he told her that her keeping her family's secret made him trust her more. He had met too many people who were willing to spill secrets to anyone, and he saw how that got people killed.
Shorty chuckled at that. "Talk about an understatement. You're one huge mystery."
Emma grew pensive and frowned, "Does that make you wary of me?"
"Naw. The captain trusts you, and he doesn't trust anyone." He scuffed his foot and said, "I didn't realize how perceptive he was until recently. He knew about Milah, didn't he?"
She nodded slowly. "Does that surprise you?"
"Yes. He didn't seem to be the kind to…" He was going to say share a woman, but he trailed off. Shorty eyed her momentarily, thought, and said, "I think I'm getting it now. She was his punishment because he hated himself at the time."
"What are you talking about?"
"I think he put up with it because he felt he deserved to be miserable." Shorty then grew quiet. He didn't know if he wanted to lay out everything he believed. How he thought Killian accepting Milah's treatment of him was probably a form of self-harm. He had been in a dark place when his brother died, and then it just seemed to have gotten worse as time passed. Milah and the excessive rum were probably both forms of him working to destroy himself.
Shorty decided to shift to a less upsetting topic. "Never mind her, but he trusts you, and I trust my captain. And let's be honest, a mysterious girl is fascinating," he then gave her his best charming grin.
She smiled back at him. "Thank you for that. I am being honest with what I do say to you. I'm just not telling everything."
"You don't have to convince me."
Emma nodded. "Thanks. I just don't want to do anything to jeopardize your friendship."
He blushed to his ears, "I'm honored you call this old pirate a friend."
She rolled her eyes, "Get over the pirate thing already. I'm not impressed with how 'bad' you think you are. Sorry."
He looked at her and was trying to understand her position. He didn't get how she could think a pirate wasn't evil. Although she was sleeping with the most notorious pirate of them all, he mused she must mean what she said.
"You can't like all of us," he countered. "There is Jack."
Emma laughed heartily. "I put him in his place two nights ago. Did you miss that?"
"No one missed that, Emma. Everyone is reliving the exploits of the 'heroic Emma' and how she put a stop to dastardly Jack's ego."
"It's not heroic to stay faithful," she admonished. "Although, he wouldn't be my type anyway."
"And I'm sure the tale has been corrupted in the telling of it, but from what I hear, you made that fact very clear. Did you really tell him that Killian had more masculinity in the hand that he lost than Jack had in his whole body? Or was that exaggerated?"
Emma blushed, "That part is true." She then quickly added, "But he was disparaging Killian for only having one hand." Blushing more, she said, "And I didn't curse his… member."
Jack could well imagine what Jack had said when he picked on Killian's lost hand. He figured that Jack implied it made him a less-than-stellar lover. Shorty wanted to laugh at that. Everyone on the ship had heard Emma screaming in sexual pleasure. How Jack could be left in doubt of her being thoroughly satisfied, he didn't know.
And since it had come up, sort of, and she was blushing anyway, he decided to broach the subject. After all, he realized the others were cowards, and she would be embarrassed even more if it kept going on. He said, "As a friend, I hope you can accept what I am about to say as a help and not as a way to embarrass you."
"Okaaay," she said, very nervously.
"Ummm…." Shorty sighed and decided to just push through to the end. "At night, when you're together with the captain, the crew can hear… things." He blushed scarlet and coughed uncomfortably. "I thought… now you know, in case you want to do something about that."
He was surprised when she burst out laughing. Once she controlled herself, she asked, "Then Jack is even more of a fool than I thought."
He chuckled in response to her comment. "Trust me, he's ridiculous." With how loud you have been, he mentally added.
Emma knew she should be embarrassed, and really, she usually would be, but she wasn't now. It appeared everyone on the whole ship knew that Milah was monstrously unfaithful to Killian, and she found she liked the idea that now the entire crew knew he satisfied her. She wanted them to realize it was a fault in Milah and not Killian that led her to other men's beds.
In fact, just that morning, he had her laid out with his face between her thighs, tonguing her clit and fingering her into an orgasm so powerful she believed she blacked out for a few seconds. What she was sure of was that he worked her over and got her so worked up and so sensitive that when he did thrust his cock in her, she orgasmed immediately again.
She smiled, thinking about how much she enjoyed being his lover, and then said, "Jack has stayed away from me since then. I think I damaged his ego."
"What I heard is that you asked if he had a small dick."
"I didn't ask that," she corrected. "I told him he had a small dick. I was guessing, but with how pissed he got, I figured I was right."
Shorty shook his head in amusement. "I really enjoy talking to you. You always surprise me."
She turned and looked as the ship approached where they would anchor. It warmed her heart that she was making real friends who weren't loyal to her parents since before she was born. She always wondered if people would like her for who she was and not because of what she was —she loved the answer.
"Pull out the dingy!" She heard Killian yell out to his men. "You have a full week of leave. Report back to Smee on the eighth day, or you'll be brought in as a deserter."
