FireSweet

No Mistake

            I continued to wander in my thoughts as I led everyone to the meadow.   I still had to move around like I was in a dream, or I would get lost like any other pirate.  Yet as I took the final turn, something was different.  The image before me did not match the one in my mind.  My focus snapped back and I stopped moving, forcing those behind me to stop as well.  Bodies dotted the grass near the rocks, sprawled in different positions, asleep.  Yet as I watched them, they winked out, one by one, disappearing entirely, leaving a younger girl to stand in the center of the meadow alone.

 She was dressed strangely, a tattered grey cloak hanging limply off her shoulders, its hood pulled over her head, obscuring most of her features.  But even with the shadows cast on her face by the hood; I could see her eyes.  She ignored me at first, her unnaturally bright green eyes darting from one body to the next, watching as they disappeared.  When the last one was gone, she looked up and met my eyes.  Defiantly she pulled her hood back, proudly lifting her chin when her face was exposed. 

She was pale, in a way that no other pirate was.  We had all lived in the sunshine and heat for the entire year, and every one of us had been tanned by the sun, our hair brightened by the constant light.  Yet her skin looked pale enough to burn in minutes, and her hair was a dark, rich red.  It shone in the early morning light, the edges gleaming a deep copper.

Her defiant eyes were lined with kohl, the dark powder drawing out from the corners of her eyes in a single thick line.  But her eyes could not command my attention, not when I noticed her tattoo.  It was of two snakes, onyx on her left cheek and dark emerald on her right.  Their tails stopped just above her lower jaw, with each serpentine body winding its way up her cheek, through the dark kohl streak by her eye, and across her forehead until they met one another in the center.  They then wrapped around one another, twice, their heads pointed downward, stopping above her eyebrows. 

She smirked as I stared, letting me visually drink my fill before she sank to the ground, curled up slightly, closed her eyes, and disappeared like the others.

“What was that?” I asked after a few seconds.

“That was a who, and a she,” Jumé said, shoving his way through the other pirates to reach Obsidarian and I.  “I believe she comes from the frozen wastelands of the deep west.  They harbor no affinity for those outside their crew, and are not seen on days other than the solstice.”

I nodded slowly, permitting myself to be guided forward by Jumé on one arm and Obsidarian on the other.

“I would tell you more,” Jumé offered.  “But I fear we are out of time, we must be return to Effugere before the sun has fully risen.”

“Lie down my queen,” Obsidarian instructed under his breath.  “I will watch over you before you sleep, but the others can’t sleep before you do.”

I grudgingly listened, feeling awkward as I closed my eyes in the damp grass in front of hundreds of pirates.  I thought I would never sleep, lying there rigidly, opening my eyes every few seconds to make sure no one thought to kill me right before we returned to camp.  Yet as I watched the sun rise slowly, my eyes grew heavy, and despite my fears, I succumbed to a deep sleep.

When I opened my eyes I was back in my cabin in Effugere.  I moved my hand slowly, waving it in front of my face in a test of willpower.  My hand moved as I commanded it to, and I sat up slowly, looking around the cabin I had once occupied with Briamy, or whoever Briamy was in reality.  The cabin now stood empty, the other bed and wardrobe completely empty of belongings.  Her make-up was also absent, leaving half the surface of the vanity bare.

A pale red dress was draped carefully over the back of the vanity chair, what I was meant to wear today.  I stepped out of my nightclothes and slipped the dress over my head, twisting my hands behind my back to tie the sash in the neatest bow I could ever recall tying in my life.  I turned back to the nightclothes, picking them up and packing them neatly into one of the bags neatly stowed beneath my bed, already ready to be taken to the car.