Destiny of Fire: The Normality (WotP)

Chapter 24: Maralyn Waters

Porthold City, Porthold
August 19, 1003

-~•~-

I ran towards Captain Skylar, jumping over the crates that she jumped over, and heard a few people yell at me for jumping over their apples or crabs or whatever rubbish they may be selling.

"Sorry!" I yelled back, half in giggles.

I could hardly keep up as Captain Skylar darted through the streets, sometimes having to look around for a while until I saw a figure wearing brown in the distance.

Eventually, I saw in front of me the Captain standing still and looking back at me, and I panted, trying to catch my breath but failing miserably.

The Captain nearly fell over in laughter as she exclaimed, "hah! You can't even run as fast as a pirate. You're doing a horrible impersonation of this Alexander S. Collins."

"Shush! Don't talk so loud!" I half-whispered half-shouted at her, scared that someone had heard. Luckily, no one else had heard over the constant and distant chatter in the background.

Captain Skylar seemed to not hear me and asked, "what does the 'S' in Alexander S. Collins even stand for?"

I sighed and said, "I dunno, Seaworthy or something?"

The Captain gave me a stern look and replied, "you need to choose what that stands for, otherwise people will know you're just impersonating some fake person you made up in your head."

"Okay fine," I gave in and groaned. "Alexander Seaworthy Collins doesn't have much of a ring to it, so how about something like Alexander Sambill Collins?"

Captain Skylar chuckled and retorted, "only if you want to sound stupid"

I crossed my arms and shouted back at her, "well I like it! So imma keep it! Alexander Sambill Collins! My name is Alexander Sambill Collins!"

It seemed that people finally seemed to notice the fight the Captain and I were having and sent small glances in our direction.

"Fine! But at least try to make it a bit more normal, something like Samwell maybe?" The Captain suggested.

"I like Sambill." I retorted.

Captain Skylar just rolled her eyes at me before asking, "so? What do you think?"

I was quite confused, but I answered anyway. "Good? I mean I like the name? I think it has a good ring to it."

The Captain hit me in the back of the head and scowled, "you goof! Not the silly name, can you not see when there's a whole darn ship in front of you? Kids these days, so oblivious to their surroundings!"

I looked right next to me, and I just now noticed we were on a different dock. Wait... there were different docks? Aside from the surprising fact that there was more than one dock, there was a large ship also next to me with pirates running about on top of it. The flags that were raised were seahorses, probably because that was a common animal found in the Porthold seas. A small wooden platform led from the docks to the ship, and allowed crossing between pirates, merchants, children that ran around playing, and mothers followed them, yelling for them to stop doing this and not do that.

"There's more than one dock?" I asked, stupefied.

"Yes? You didn't know? Have you been living under a hole?" Captain Skylar asked back. It was her turn to be stupefied.

I shrugged and replied, "I've been living in a castle-prison. Personally, I'd rather live under a hole."

"I'd rather live under a hole too. Castles stink as far as I've heard. Why use up a bunch of our materials and resources that we could use to get coin and gold, that we could use to give to the citizens, that we could use to build shelters for the homeless just so we can make a tall and large house for up to around fifteen people and a couple of servants and slaves that everyone but a few people even like?" Captain Skylar asked more as if she was talking to herself than talking to me.

It took a while as the Captain stared into the distance for her to look down and remember why I was there. "Sorry, Maralyn, I can sometimes daze off like that, I just like to think sometimes and question questionable things."

I nodded and asked, "I question things too. Also, the name is Alexander, not Maralyn. But anyways, how many docks are there?"

Captain Skylar shrugged and responded, "I'm not sure, maybe around seventy-five?"

I gasped and shouted, "seventy-five!?"

The Captain gaped at me and stated, "you actually didn't know." Captain Skylar just shook her head and looked back up at the pirates on the ship. "Follow me, Alexander S. Collins. I bet you want to see the Blue Sea." She ordered me.

I followed her without hesitation, running up the long wooden platform to board the ship.

Once we were on the top of the ship, Captain Skylar yelled, "all hand hoy!" Every pirate on the ship lined up in front of the Captain and I, saluting.

"Pirates of the Blue Sea! Today we have someone joinin' us. Her name is Princess Maralyn but she goes under the name of Alexander S. Collins. When around other ordinary people, ye will all call 'er Alexander. Savvy?" Captain Skylar shouted at the pirates. It only frightened me slightly that she had told them all my real name, but I didn't really mind trustworthy pirates knowing my deepest darkest secret.

"Aye, aye Captain!" The pirates all shouted back.

Everything was sort of loud to me, everyone was shouting at each other. I was starting to question myself. Was this what I truly wanted?

"We're gonna show the princess what it's like to be a pirate, or more importantly we're gonna make 'er go on account. So weigh anchor and hoist the mizzen!" Captain Skylar shouted.

"Aye, aye!" Every pirate yelled and started getting to work. I watched as the platform was removed, my only way back to land. I watched as the pirates rushed about to slowly make the ship set sail, and I felt the waves crash against the boat as slowly but surely we edged away from the docks.

I closed my eyes, and I was overcome with delight as all my other senses took over.

I couldn't taste much other than my own saliva, but I sure could smell the pungent smell of the salty sea air.

I could feel the wood of the deck beneath my feet, the breeze ruffle my dark brown hair, and my lips forming a smile. I stood still and raised my arms to fully enjoy the wind, and I realized how silly I must've looked to a stranger. Then I felt the sudden touch of a hand against my shoulder, kind and soft.

I could hear the waves crashing up against the boat, and birds crying up in the sky above. My heart thumped beneath my chest, and it was just quiet enough so I could hear it if I listened closely. Distant chatter from the docks still sounded in my ears, but those sounds have started to be pushed away and replaced with new ocean sounds. Then I heard a voice next to my ear ask, "do you like it, Maralyn?"

I nodded and replied to the voice with "I love it."

What were those feelings I had earlier? Doubts, possibly? Well, no matter what, those feelings were gone. The only thing that was still here was me, the voice, and the sea.

"Open your eyes." The voice commanded.

Next, I felt my eyes open up and I turned to face whoever had been talking to me. It was the Captain, and she sent me a calm and warm smile. I turned away from the girl and gasped as I saw that we were in the middle of the ocean now. I must've zoned out for so very long that I hadn't realized we had left the docks.

(1332 words)