[Crestshot]

Hello my friends. After my severe case of almost month long writer's block, the author has returned! And at the realization that today is the one year Anniversary of Her Beginning, I decided to post my long awaited chapter today. So, thank you if you are still reading this for putting up with my little bout of insanity. I told you I wouldn't be abandoning this story. Now enough chat! You all are anxious, so for you, at last...

Prepare



“Alright, listen up! Listen up!” Kat yelled from her perch in front of the burned remains of Luckie’s shop. The large group of people in front of her were all wandering aimlessly or chatting with friends, not a single one of them paying attention to the point of the gathering. She sighed and nodded to Ironhawk, who lit the cannon just behind him. Kat took great joy out of watching the entire crowd jump at the resounding bang.

“Now that you all are half-deaf, pay attention!” Kat yelled. “You are all here because you absolutely despise this Navy control, yes?” Mutters and a few yells rose up from the crowd, all in approval. “Good! And how many of you are drunk right now?” A large roar came up from the crowd this time. Kat couldn’t help but chuckle. “Even better. Now, here’s a plan that I’m positive all of you would like. What we do is-”

“Why should we listen to you!” a voice cried. “You’re nothing but a woman posing as a captain! You fancy yourself better than us!”

Kat looked around the crowd, stepping down from the box she had been perched on. The crowd seemed to point her in the right direction as they all faced where the voice came from. She walked through them slowly, looking carefully for the source, until a gnarled old hand grabbed her arm. “Why should we follow you?” an old man growled.

Kat ripped her arm away from him. “Why should you follow me!” she yelled out. “That is what the old man asks. Why follow a stupid little woman; he puts the idea in your minds. Well mates, it’s not that I fancy myself better than you!” She ran, parting the crowd and leaped up to her stand. “It’s that I know I am.”

Words of disapproval were flung up at her like rotten tomatoes, and she just absorbed them until the crowd stilled. “Think! For once, use your drunken, rum buzzed heads and think! I am the only one who has even managed to put a dent in the forces here! Doesn’t that make you think that I have the slightest idea of what I’m doing?

“Now listen, and listen carefully. The Navy are almost out of here. Most, if not all of them, should be gone by tomorrow evening. However, if they are not, I propose a full raid on them! Get rid of them for good!” Cheers were coming periodically from the drunken crowd at her words. “If you want to join, sharpen your weapons, and meet back here at dusk tomorrow!” She ended her speech there and leapt off of her box to minor applause and a few riled up pirates. If she had accomplished anything here, if she had swayed anyone to her side, that was all she could ask for.

At dawn the next morning, there were Navy soldiers at the docks, loading all they could as quickly as they could into one of their sloops. Kat watched silently from the window of her cabin as crates and barrels were all tossed hastily onto the ship. Odd, though. Tortuga had far more forces than would fit into that small sloop. She made a quick decision and walked out to the dock.

“You there!” she called to the first soldier she came upon. He turned, and at the sight of her, immediately moved his hand closer to his cutlass. Kat, however, pretended not to notice. “Can you direct me towards Mr. McKinnon?” The man glared at her for a moment, then pointed a thumb behind his back. Kat looked over his shoulder to see McKinnon organizing some of the men. She passed by the soldier with a harsh shoulder bump, and reveled in the glare that followed her back.

“Surely you can’t fit all of your men on that ship, Mr. McKinnon!” she said loudly. McKinnon visibly flinched and turned slowly to face her.

“Good morning, Captain Crestshot,” the man said quietly.

Kat crossed her arm and leveled him with a glare. “Well, McKinnon, is everyone leaving, or did your force shrink in half overnight?”

He wrung his hands nervously, twisting them around and around each other. “Some of us are leaving, but a few didn’t believe my message. They’re staying to try and hold our spot here.”

Kat felt her gaze darken. “They have made their choice, then. Tonight, they are dead.” She began to walk away, but McKinnon grabbed her arm.

“Please, have mercy!” he pleaded with her.

Kat turned her head slowly so that a sliver of her profile was visible. “I have given all the mercy I could have, Mr. McKinnon. I have given as many chances for life as I could afford. You and your Navy should have realized in a town of anarchy, you could not hold power for long.” She tore her arm away from the groveling man. “The only one who may give mercy now is God, and I don’t think he’s listening to either group of sinners.”

With that she ran, up from the docks, up towards the town. But her still injured side, which she seemed to forget had been cut open only three days before, tormented her, and she was forced to slow. She leaned up against a nearby tree, panting and wondering what was wrong with her.

“Voodoo is strong, Kat, but it does not give complete healing,” a soft, lightly teasing voice said from the other side of the tree. Kat turned her body to see Fabiola sitting on a low branch, smiling her mystic smile. “You try too hard, and too fast, my friend.” She let herself fall from the branch and onto the ground next to Kat. “Now, let me see this.” She reached for the bottom of the puffy white shirt Kat had taken to wearing since her traditional green had been sliced, and Kat’s trust in Fabiola was so strong, she just let her.

Kat hadn’t looked at it closely in days, not since it had actually happened. She heard Fabiola tsk at her when she looked down at the wound. It was an angry red around the edges, and the slice itself still looked deep. “Honestly, Kat. It is a wonder you are still standing,” Fabiola said. “Come to my cart. I shall help heal it more, past the pure voodoo.”

Kat followed the gypsy further up the path to where her small camp resided. A small fire burned, as usual, with a pot of some mysterious substance boiling over it. She entered the clearing after Fabiola and immediately noticed her sister sitting with her legs folded under her on the grassy ground.

“Sarah? What are you doing here?” Kat asked, standing over her.

Sarah glanced up from intently watching the pot. “Fabiola has been helping me with a few voodoo things,” she replied with a small smile. Kat could see that behind it, for once, Sarah was content. Perhaps it was the new bright violet of her eyes… the bright color that so resembled Fabiola’s…

“The voodoo,” she said quietly.

“Hmm?” Sarah asked, not hearing Kat’s soft words.

Kat spoke louder, explaining herself. “Your eyes. They changed after the fight with Jenkins. It must be because of-”

“The voodoo,” Sarah finished for her. “Yes, Fabiola explained that to me.”

“Yes, it has taken full residence,” Fabiola said, approaching the sisters. “Here, take this.” She handed a paste to her, and Kat had been through this enough times to know to apply it to the area of the wound.

“Residence?” Kat asked as she spread the medicine around.

From the corner of her eye, Kat saw the two exchange a glance. Sarah began smiling. “It means I finally accepted it,” she said.

Kat flicked her eyes towards them, seeing the peace there. It was odd. She could really do nothing more but nod at Sarah’s statement. There was nothing for her to say to this new presence in her.

Fabiola finally spoke to break the silence. “What are you going to do about tonight, Kat?”

The young woman’s eyes darkened, and she bowed her head slightly. “I must keep to my word. I may be pirate, but if I do anything with the truth and a pure heart, it is this. They did not believe the words of warning I sent them, and for that, they make their own graves.”

Sarah looked upon her sister with unease. “Katherine, must you really? Isn’t there another-”

“No, there is no other way, Sarah!” Kat bit out. “There is no other way, for not only I have given every chance for some semblance of peace that I thought possible, there is one crucial fact that you constantly seem to forget!” She stood. “I am not Katherine. I am a pirate. I am a ruthless, thieving, selfish scoundrel who is somehow trying to free this small dingy port in the middle of a sea I didn’t even know five years ago. And I shall free it by any means necessary.”

Sarah looked shocked into silence. It was Fabiola, who had heard outbursts like this before, that spoke up.

“Kat, sit. The herbs need to work, or you shall not heal. You know this.”

“No, Fabiola,” Kat said with a shake of her head. “There is too much to do. I must prepare for tonight.”

She turned to her sister. “I don’t expect you to be there. You don’t have to if you don’t want to. But, I would feel better with you at my side. We’re meeting at the remains of Luckie’s bakery just before nightfall, if you do.” She turned away and walked out into the woods, feeling the medicine on her side burn slowly in protest of her movement.

“She is going to kill herself with all of this one day,” she heard Fabiola say sadly to her departing back. Kat had no choice but to let the words bounce off of her and continue through the dense trees.

She spent the rest of the day with Lawrence, organizing the crew into groups to lead the assault, gathering weapons and ammunition for those who would show that night, and drinking far too much rum. Near the end of the day, Lawrence had to forcibly remove it from her hands.

“Lawrence, give it back!” she yelled, running after him. He charged up the steps at the stern, leaping over some crates in the way. Kat launched herself towards him, her hands slamming down on the crate that separated them. Lawrence held it out to her tauntingly.

“You want it?” He tossed it into the air behind him and caught it with his other hand. “Well too bad! You’ve had far too much rum today! Your mind has no chance of being clear tonight at this rate!”

Kat quite literally growled at him. “Give. It. Back!” she screamed at him, beginning to turn red around the edges.

Lawrence eyed her critically with a raised eyebrow. “You know what?” He offered the bottle out to her again, but when she reached for it, he tossed it to the side and off the ship. The splash echoed ominously. “No.”

There was a silence for a moment. The entire crew watched with wide eyes as Kat steadily turned redder and redder, finally stabilizing at roughly the shade of a Navy flag. “You did not just throw my rum into the water, did you Mr. Mcrage?” she hissed, the sound carrying across the boat. Lawrence just folded his arms and nodded.

She rushed at him, smacking and hitting and kicking every part of him that she could reach. He accepted a few hits, then began grabbing at her hands to try and stop her.

“Why did you do that?!” she yelled at him, punctuating each word with a hit. “It wasn’t doing any harm!” She was forcing him to step back and back until his back met with a railing.

HE finally got a grip on her hands and stilled her movements. “Because maybe now you’ll get your head back from wherever the hell it’s been all day!” he roared directly into her face.

They both stood there a moment, glaring at each other, until Kat ripped her hands from Lawrence’s grip. “You are my first mate, Mcrage, or do you forget that?” she asked, pointing a slightly shaking finger at him.

“Oh believe me, I remember,” he replied haughtily. “That means it’s my duty to tell you when you’re being a total drunkard and moron when you have things that need to be done. Do you recall that part of my job description?”

Kat continued to glare at him, as if searching for a specific weakness in his iron will. She found none, however, and huffily turned on the spot and began walking away from him. “You’re on my list, Mcrage!” she called backwards to him.

“So long as I get my point across,” he replied. He watched as Kat walked off the ship, then let out a small chuckle. “Come on all! Time to get started!”



I'm very much aware how overdue this chapter is, and yet I still leave you without the climax.

I want to thank those of you who are reading this after my almost month long silence. I think my Muse came running and gave me a swift kick in the behind. So thank you for holding on tight, mates. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. Even WITH the threats to make me sad so I will be inspired to write. :P

So, you know how it is mates! I look forward to reviews, whether it be good or whether it be attacking me for not posting in so long. Thanks for Reading!

-Kat Crestshot