Side Story 2: The Story of Jorge! A First Mate's Decision!

Jorge

I should've been dead. My head was cut off. I should've been dead. But I wasn't. I was still alive. I still felt my body, I tried touching my head but all I felt was the stump where my head used to be.

My new captain, Sandra, held my head by the hair. She was watching a group of pirates leave the cape. She used me to threaten them, then did nothing as they fled. "They have Ciara. We have to follow them," she said.

I tried to respond, but I couldn't talk. She moved me to her face. She had blue eyes, but they showed no emotion. "Don't you agree, first mate?" I still couldn't make a sound. "Why are you trying to talk? You need a throat to do that."

She walked to the rest of our crew. They were sitting around the table with the old man. They were despondent, failing to intimidate an old man took its toll on them.

My head was thrown on the table. My crew put it on my neck stub. It nearly fell off but I was able to catch it. I could see Sandra push someone out of their seat to take their place.

She put her elbows on the table, interlocking her fingers. "Hello, sir. Sorry for my subordinates. They're not the brightest." None of us dared to disagree.

"I could guess that much," said the old man.

"I am looking for someone. She wears bandages and a red coat. She also has a small boat. Do you know anyone like that?"

"You saw the boat. You already know the answer."

"Great. So we can cut to the chase. Tell me where they're heading, and I'll let you live."

"Kill me if you want. The big guy up there won't let you hear the end of it." The old man pointed at the large whale. He was angry, I could feel it coming off of him.

Sandra only glanced at him. "Then I'll propose something else. Give us some food and we'll be on our way."

"I have hardtack. It'll last you a few weeks." He got up and walked towards the lighthouse.

"One more thing." Sandra got up took my head, and threw it at the old man. He caught me without looking, I assumed because I was so dizzy. "Fix his head back on. Do that and we won't turn into the Marines, Crocus of the Roger Pirates."

I was in the lighthouse. Crocus was stitching my head onto my neck. It was painful, but I kept my composure. He was a member of the Roger Pirates, that made him dangerous. I shouldn't do anything to set him off.

"Why are you looking for that girl," Crocus asked. I was too scared to talk. "Come on, I don't bite."

If I didn't talk, he could've killed me. I told her about the woman in the West Blue, the piece of paper she gave me, and how we met our new captain.

The old man shook his head when I finished. "Damnit, Mary. What happened to you?"

"What?" Mary, was he talking about that woman?

"Mary D. Read used to be just Mary. We picked her up in a brief visit to the West Blue. We left her in the South Blue with the captain's girl when the crew disbanded. After that, she disappeared for multiple years before returning to her home sea. She formed the Immortal Pirates and quickly rose to be one of the five emperors."

"Why are you telling this to me?"

Crocus finished the stitching, tied the string, and put his needle to the side. "I'm an old man. If your captain wanted to, she could kill me. I may have been on the Pirate King's crew, but I was just the doctor." I rubbed my neck briefly, but Crocus forced me to stop. "Don't play with the stitches." He started bandaging my neck. "Keep these on for a few weeks."

"You didn't answer the question."

"Mary D. Read lives in the New World. If she wanted to find someone, she'd use a Vivre Card. Did she give you one?"

I remembered getting something like that. I got it from my pocket and showed it to the old man. "Is this it?"

He took it and put it on the table. After a few seconds, it moved. "Yes. If you follow it, it'll lead you right to Ciara." So that's what she meant. I put the card back into my pocket.

"Thanks for the help. I'll make sure you won't get hurt." I got up to leave.

"Don't forget your hardtack." Crocus put a box on the table.

I picked it up with great difficulty. "How is this so heavy?"

"Hardtack is a dense form of cracker. It doesn't spoil for weeks, but you'll wish it did." I wasn't excited about that, but I still took it outside. I thanked him as I walked out.

I took the box to my crew and put it on the table. It made a large bang when I put it down. The rest of the crew opened the box to get some. They took out a cracker the size of my head and put it on the table. "Uhh, how do you eat this?" Sandra punched it, breaking it into small pieces. She took a small piece and put it in her mouth. She ate it with a blank face. "Oh."

"First mate, did he tell you where she went," asked the captain.

I thought for a few seconds. If we found this Ciara character, she'd be in the hands of Mary D. Read. I only met her a couple of times, but I knew she was dangerous. I didn't want to hurt a stranger. "No, he didn't say anything."

She looked at me closely. "Okay, if you say so." She got up, eating another piece of hardtack. "Take the rest of the food to the ship. We'll be sailing blind for our next voyage." She walked to our ship, swaying with each step like the ocean's waves.

That didn't make sense to me. It was a good thing that I was also the navigator. It was one of the many reasons I was first mate. I took out our compass and opened it. The needle was spinning without stopping, it was useless. We had to sail blind to get anywhere. Unless we used the Vivre Card.

"You heard her." I stood up and addressed the table. "Get the rest of the hardtack. We're sailing blind." They complained the whole way back.

I was having a terrible time as the navigator. It's been two hours and we almost died eighty times. At least they all trusted me, the captain wasn't being helpful. All she did was sit in her chair doing nothing.

The captain's chair was in the back behind the helm. I was there as the helmsman. I relieved the usual helmsman to have a private conversation with the captain. "What's your plan if we don't find Ciara?"

"She's not subtle, we'll find her eventually. Others would also be looking for her."

"Who?"

"Ciara's full name is Dymon D. Ciara. But something in her brain forces her to say Diamond Tiara. It's the name of a character from a popular story on Mirage. People from Mirage are all over the world. Most of them work for my mom. She always talked about wanting to meet her favorite character in real life."

"Is her favorite character Diamond Tiara?"

"How did you know?" I wondered if the question was genuine.

"I had a feeling." I focused back on the ship. "The compass doesn't work here. Do you know anything about that?"

"No. You're in charge of navigation." I should've expected that.

"We need a way to find our bearing or we'll be going in circles until we starve to death. Worst case scenario, we end up eating each other."

"I'm sure it'll work out, eventually." That sent a cold shiver up my spine. I could feel the captain's gaze burning a hole in the back of my head.

The weather calmed down just enough for everyone to get a full night's sleep. We were in the barracks under the deck. It held all 13 crewmembers in a tightly packed room filled with hammocks. The captain had a room with a bed, it was the same size as the barracks.

I woke up from my hammock being shaken. It was my crewmate, Dolores, who joined the crew right after me. She was a pariah on her home island and wanted to escape. I was the only member other than the captain, so we welcomed her with open arms. All of the other members joined because of the old captain's bounty, so I always enjoyed Dolores' company more.

"Wake up, the captain has an announcement!" I got out of the hammock and rushed onto the deck. I stretched my back and neck, getting rid of the last of my fatigue. I've had the hardest time sleeping. It was like someone was watching me the entire night.

We got to the deck. The rest of the crew was there. Jacob was missing, he must've been steering the ship.

The captain was at the front. She was fiddling with a rope that went up and back down, over the railing and into the ocean. It was taut, there was something hanging on it.

"I've discovered something over the night," said Sandra. "One of you has lied to me." She looked right at me. It couldn't be that, right?

I checked my pockets, they were empty. I felt my blood run cold. I was in real trouble. I needed to hope she would be merciful this time. I could feel cold steel on my neck.

"First mate."

I stiffened, standing straight up. "Yes, captain?"

"Please introduce us to the traitor." She pulled on the rope, revealing Jacob. He was hanging upside down, gagged.

"That's Jacob, the helmsman." I said it without thinking. The shock left me bewildered for a whole minute. "What did he do?"

"He doomed us." Sandra took out the Vivre Card. "This was our one chance to find Ciara, let alone an island and he kept it from us. Isn't that terrible?" The majority of the crew agreed, while I was silent.

Jacob tried to yell, but I couldn't understand him.

"We could've found Ciara and all been done with this paper if it weren't for this man." She was looking directly at me the entire time. "What should we do with him?" I could guess that she knew the answer.

"Drop him overboard!" "Gut him!" "Let him hang 'til he's dead!" Everyone gave about the same answer, except for me. I was the real culprit. I should be telling the truth. I was a coward.

Jacob thrashed around, screaming much louder, but still incomprehensible.

"First mate, what do you think?" She beckoned me over. My legs moved without my input and I walked to her side. "Should we drop him overboard, or give him another chance." She moved close to my ear and whispered, "Isn't it awful when someone close to you breaks your trust?"

I had to agree, betrayal was terrible. But she didn't care, she only wanted to punish me. This was all for me. I whispered back, "Don't do this. It was all my fault."

Sandra let go of the rope. Jacob started falling, but I was able to catch the rope before his head got in the water. I wouldn't let someone die because of me. "Stop it! It was me! I had the Vivre Card!"

"Oh, First Mate. You don't have to do that. I know how close you two were, but you don't have to sacrifice yourself for him," She spoke to the crew, making sure everyone heard. Sandra took the rope from my hands. I had no choice but to comply. "Betrayal truly is awful," the last line was just for me. She let go of the rope.

I'll always remember his eyes as he sunk into the ocean.