The Books that Never made it

Welcome aboard

It was darkness for a long time. It felt like forever.

I rocked peacefully, my body seemed detached from all of my senses. I was lost. 

        There’d been explosions. I remembered fire, the sound of wood being blown to pieces and people with panicked screams just before another explosion would go off and bodies along with limbs would cascade through the air. The memory seemed fresh to me now, just like the sweet salty air I no longer felt brushing against my face or leaving a weird fishy tang in the back of my throat.

I suddenly felt jerked out of my still position, moved, touched, posed—it was uncomfortable.

        I felt alive again; all my senses suddenly came running back to me like someone had flicked an on switch. I felt my back being pounded on, making my whole body shudder with pain and discomfort.

Breathing.

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. My lungs felt heavy and stuck, filled with something.

The unknown hand patted me again and I heaved, water coming like a geyser from my mouth and in rushed the air. It felt like a release, but painful. My throat throbbed and my tongue stung from the salty water, leaving the inside of my mouth dry.

        “There ya go!” a disembodied voice announced.

        “She’s breathin’!”

        “Looks like she’s come round!”

I gasped for the delicious air that I’d missed so dearly and coughed again, choking on the last bit of water that was dislodged from my lungs.

        Slowly after my shoulders stopped shaking from the choking and sputtering, I opened my eyes to harsh sunlight and rolled on to my hands and knees and surveyed the many boots that were circled around me. I blinked back the water from my eyes and shook my head, soaking wet hair tumbling over my shoulders in wet tuffs.

        “Someone get the captain!” one the men hollered.

I shivered and looked up through the laser beam of light from the sun overhead.

A bunch of men, varying in ages all stood around me gazing curiously with toothless grins and dirty rags as clothes, some wearing bandanas around their necks and head and others with shining swords and daggers stuck in their holsters. A handful of men had scars and tattoos decorating each bit of skin and others glared at me with an undesirable grimace. I swallowed and craned my neck even higher to see a big black flag flapping joyously in the wind.

In the center was a white skull and crossbones.

I was on a pirate ship.

        Busy in my thoughts, I hadn’t had time to notice a new face had shoved his way through the crowd and stood before me with a sly smirk and a devious line of black under his eyes. In his holster was a bouquet of guns and swords, I wondered how he managed to walk without puncturing something. He crouched down to me on one knee and jerked my head up with his thumb, forcing me to look into his sea blue eyes and gaze at her shoulder length sandy blonde hair that swung in greasy clumps around his face. I grimaced as I got a quick whiff of booze and the faint scent of week old bad fish.

He chuckled low under his breath as he released me with a jerk of his thumb and stood, placing his hands on his hips.

        “W-where am I?” I stuttered with a voice I thought I’d never hear again.

The presumed captain threw his head back and laughed along with his crewmates that chimed in as if I'd just told a joke.

        “You’re sittin’ on the Queen’s Arrival, I’m capn’ and this here’s my crew. You’re aboard a pirate ship, ‘matie.”

I swallowed and felt like a sheep in his wolfish presecnce.

        With a unnerving smile, the captain looked down at me pointing with a silver ringed fingers and said, “You’ve just boarded the greatest ship on the seven sea, lassie, welcome aboard.”