caprizant

Chapter 1 : The Harbour

The stench of fish and sea water slapped the white-haired woman out of her sleep. She turned over and tried to go back to bed, but it was too late, she was fully awake. Sighing, she slunk out of bed and looked out the window. It was a beautiful day, blue skies and a gentle sea breeze. She noticed a swarm of seagulls circling and she looked down at the harbour below her. She chuckled to herself as she watched annoyed fisherman swat away the hoards of seagulls looking to swipe a portion of their morning's catch. Walking away from the window, she slowly made her way down the winding stairs of her lighthouse and began to get ready.

Once she reached the bottom floor, she slipped into her kitchen to grab a cup of coffee. Upon seeing that she had run out, she groaned and decided to just skip breakfast all together. She made her way back up the stairs and started to get dressed. It was a warm day, so she opted for baggy black pants, a loose button-down shirt and a simple black corset. She buckled her belt around her waist and attached her scabbard to it. She fixed her curly white hair and put on her town guard badge. All of a sudden, the realization hit her and she hurriedly patted her pant pockets for her pocket watch. It was 8:25. She rushed down the spiral stairs. "Shit, shit shit shit shit shit shit shit" she muttered as she ran out the door, making sure to grab her hat and quickly putting on any pair of shoes she could find.

She jogged down the hill and followed the small winding dirt path that brought her to the harbour. Near one of the fisherman's stalls stood a man wearing unusual red and blue glasses with an unusual lack of hair on his head. As she started to slow down to a walking pace, she checked her pocket watch once again, reading 8:29. She was just on time. When she neared where he was standing, a familiar voice called out to her. "Captain! punctual as always". She smiled and playfully punched his shoulder. "I've told you many times Sam that you can just call me Puffy, no need for formalities, we're both town guards ey?" He chuckled and sighed "I know I know". They strolled through the harbour, stopping to chat with most fishermen about their catches and hearing their maybe-true-maybe-mythological tales of sea beasts they fought and mermaids they seduced. Puffy and Sam laughed with the fisherman who told these tales, but as they went around every stall, there was one story each sailor told.

These fishermen were well-versed in fighting and took great pride in their skills. While many of their stories of fights were tall tales, they would never lie about being defeated. When telling the story of the morning, the fishermen had different versions but the bare bones stood the same: a short, young, female pirate with flaming pink hair forcefully boarded their ship. For some sailors, this pink-haired mystery arrived, forced her way aboard, stole a portion of their catch and left without a word. For others, the lady stole not fish but spare rope or clothes, or simply caused chaos. Some sailors barely made it out alive from their encounter as she slashed their sails, shot holes in their ship, and attempted to burn the ship down.

After asking the last fisherman who saw her what she had done to him or his ship, he simply replied "Oh she was quite nice, she asked directions to this town and left. Her other friend was quite nice too." Sam and Puffy glanced at each other. "Friend?".

"Oh yes! I think he said his name was Jack, lovely fellow, they gave me some of their fish they had caught and went on their way. I never got the girl's name though, such a shame. I hope I run into her one day. You know, she reminded me of my grandkid". And with that the fisherman walked back to his stall, leaving Puffy and Sam very confused. Ordinarily, had this not been 9 in the morning before she had had her coffee, Puffy would've investigated these incidents further. However, it was in fact 9 in the morning and she had not in fact had her morning coffee, so they headed towards the town guard station where a surplus of coffee awaited.

After following a small cobble-paved road through a small wooded area, the duo made it to the outskirts of the main town. From there, they walked a good 10 minutes until they arrived at the heart of the town and the location of their station. The station was unsurprisingly empty, the town was very late to rise and they were the only town guards. Puffy rounded the corner into the kitchen and poured herself a well-earned cup of coffee. Sipping it contently, she wandered over to the small pile of papers that had appeared at her desk. As she flipped through them, there were reports of a small theft from a nearby bakery, many other mundane docking or building violations, as well as a report of a sea monster from Fisherman Joe. She sighed and filed the monster sighting with all the other reports from Fisherman Joe. While he truly believed what he saw, the whole town knows he's just an old man spinning tall tales. She told herself she would check in with the bakery later and passed the violations and tickets to Sam.

• • • • • • • • • • time skip • • • • • • • • • •

Puffy sat up in her chair and stretched. It was now 5:30 in the afternoon and Sam had already left. She wanted to stay a little later to catch up on the work she didn't do in the afternoon, too busy thinking about that pink-haired pirate. She looked back down at the files and sighed. "You know what, I'll just do that in the morning" she thought. She got up, picked up her hat from the desk and put it on, and headed out the door. She always found it peaceful walking through town after the shops had closed. The dim glow of the fire-powered lamps was always calming to her. As she walked through the now-dark woods back to the harbour, the soft hum of crickets surrounded her. She arrived at the harbour and was about to start climbing up to her lighthouse when she saw something unusual.

A new ship in the harbour.

One that she had not seen before.

(1115 words)

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A/N: that's the first chapter done! i'm sorry it took so long for this to come out! feel free to make any suggestions or any comments at all are welcome. as always, if any parties written about in this story feel uncomfortable, i will take this down immediately. 

i hope you have a good night, day, afternoon, or whatever it is! don't forget to drink water, try your best to eat something, and if you haven't but need to, take your meds! 

toodles!