Ahoy mates! Here's another chapter, nice and fresh off of the pen ink! So, for you...
Locked Away
The ship was silent around her. Kat glanced around from her red tipped blade. “It had to be done,” she said just loud enough for everyone to hear. She flicked the blood off of her sword, and small drops of it splashed onto the deck. More stains.
“Now I’m afraid that we have a slight change in plans,” she announced. “There is no longer any reason to travel to England. Correct course for…” She pulled out her compass as a guide, but the arrow spun indecisively. A small hum of annoyance escaped her throat. “Head south in the general direction of Padres. We’ll see if we can intercept some ships on the trade routes. To your duties!” she ordered.
She walked up the steps to her cabin with her cutlass dangling from her side. The occasional drop of blood still spattered to the deck as she moved.
“Was that what you would consider ‘necessary’, Kat?” Sarah asked quietly at the top of the stair.
Kat looked at her with cold eyes. “Yes,” she said simply, and continued to her cabin. Nobody followed her.
While she cleaned the blood off of her cutlass, she was left with her thoughts. The fearful look of Jenkins' last moment would haunt her, she knew. It made her question.
No, she had made the right choice, she knew. If he had been a part of the crew, he would have been terrorized, perhaps even killed by another. Afterwards, if he had lived, at the first chance he got, it would have meant betrayal. She still remembered Figgins. The choice had been right. She had saved the man from a much worse fate, but more importantly, she had saved her crew.
After only three days of lonely waters, the
Lightning Mercenary came across a merchant ship off port side. It was quick and simple to cripple it, board it, and subsequently raid it. There were no casualties in the least from it. It was clear to Kat that the captain was new and inexperienced to his station as he fumbled about trying to give orders to his crew in counterattack. Only when Kat threatened him with the sharp end of her blade did the man completely give in.
While the rest of her crew searched the lower levels for something shiny and valuable, Kat invited herself into the timid Captain’s quarters. During her own search, she called to the man, who had been on the main deck, guarded with the rest of his crew, up to her. The two locked themselves in there for quite some time, until the rest of the crew was itching to leave. They were getting impatient, and Lawrence was at the door, ready to knock, no matter what she was doing, but at that moment, it was flung open, and Kat exited with the captain in tow. Nothing appeared to have changed or have been taken from the cabin, which Lawrence considered odd, but she ordered them back to the ship and he got no chance to ask about it.
They let the ship go free with only minor damages; mostly to the sails. Kat spent the rest of the day mostly at the wheel and giving the occasional barking order. The next day, however, she was locked in her cabin with orders not to bother her unless it was absolutely necessary.
This became a regular occurrence on the ship. Kat would come out some mornings to perform her duties and shut herself away in the afternoons, or vice versa. Lawrence would often give a worried glance at the closed door, and he would hear the crew mutter about it from time to time. When Kat did exit, Lawrence tried asking her what she was doing all these times, but she either ignored or avoided the questions. It was frustrating him to no end.
One evening, noticing that Kat hadn’t emerged for supper, Luckie sent Angel up with a plate to the cabin. Lawrence watched as she went up the steps, curious as to what would happen. A moment after Angel entered, a crash rang out from the quarters, and he heard Kat scream “Out!” Angel flew out of the door at top speed, Kat following with her sword.
“What part of do not disturb does my crew not understand?!” she shouted venomously. She didn’t wait for an answer, but spun on her heel and stormed into her cabin again, slamming the door behind her.
The silence among the crew was deep as the stared at the door. Angel was wide eyed like a deer while Luckie comforted her, murmuring that Kat wouldn’t have actually killed her. One by one, eyes began flicking to Lawrence. Luckie caught them when he finally glanced away from the door, nodding back towards it in a clear message to go talk to her. He sighed slightly as he noticed the other eyes staring at him with the same plea. Placing his dinner plate down, Lawrence proceeded up the steps for the verbal battle he knew was to come.
Kat hadn’t bothered to lock the door again when she had charged back in. Lawrence opened it slowly, cautiously, not wanting to provoke Kat’s wrath right off the bat. She was kneeling on the floor, picking up the plate and scattered food he assumed had flown from Angel’s hands.
“A little annoying, isn’t she?” he asked casually. Kat’s eyes shot up from the mess to him. “She keeps making fun of my hair. Says it’s too long and too red, whatever insult that is.”
“I didn’t know about this,” she muttered. “I’ll be sure to-”
“Maybe if you actually acted like a captain, you would know what’s going on with your crew,” he cut her off, the slightest hint of Mcrage in his voice.
Kat turned away from him to her desk. She slammed her plate down on to it. “Lawrence, I-oh no!” The plate had hit a bottle of rum and tipped it over. Brown liquid sloshed towards a half open scroll, which Kat quickly snatched up. She rolled it up completely and stuck it under her arm as she grabbed a rag to clean up the mess.
Lawrence eyed the parchment curiously. He didn’t recognize them, and he had been with Kat long enough to know about everything that she had.
“Kat,” he began slowly, “What is that?”
She glanced over at him, then at the small scroll under her arm. “Nothing,” she told him simply, but Lawrence crept closer.
“Is
that why you’ve been locking yourself in here for days now?” he demanded, grabbing for it. Kat easily evade him.
“I don’t see why you need to know,” she told him brusquely, tucking the long item into her coat.
“Don’t see why…!” Lawrence spluttered. “Kat, I’m your first mate! You don’t trust me enough to look at a piece of paper?”
Kat paused. “That’s right, you
are my first mate. And that’s all you are.” A rigid finger pointed past him. “Now get out.”
“Get out?! I’ve been more captain than you the past couple of days!” he thundered at her.
“I said
OUT!” Kat roared. “That’s an order, Mcrage!”
“Fine!” he shouted at her. He stomped out the door, slamming it behind him much like she had a few moments before. The crew looked at him suspiciously, but he just stormed down to his cot. Kat in her cabin went back to her mysterious writings.
A few hours later, when most of the crew was asleep and the moon was high in the sky, Kat revealed herself again. She nodded to Tim on watch, and began making the rounds on the ship.
A shock of dark green hair, shining white in the light of the moon, met her on the bow. “Do you ever sleep?” Kat asked.
The woman leaning over the railing chuckled without humor. “No’ for a long time,” Luckie murmured. She turned her head to look at Kat out of the corner of her eye. “Do you?”
Kat moved to her side. “You’re not scheduled for watch tonight,” she said, clearly changing the subject.
Luckie glanced at her. “Apparently so.” A small hum escaped her throat, and she leaned over the railing the slightest bit more. “I come to watch tha waves. They’re very calm this time o’ nigh’. Much more so than anythin’ happenin’ on this ship, at leas’.”
“What do you mean?” Kat questioned gently. “Am I missing something?”
Luckie looked at her with her sharp green eyes. “Only wha’s righ’ in fron’ o’ ya, Captain.” She went back to staring out at the waters, and Kat decided not to question any more, but wait for dawn.
“EITC, starboard side!”
A little short, but we'll be getting into some good stuff soon.
Thank you to Luckie and Angel for letting me abuse them.
Well mates, I think we know how this works, aye? Haha, thanks for all of the reviews last time, and I'll see you guys sometime this week? Haha, here's hoping. Thanks for Reading!
-Kat Crestshot