Daughter of the Seas: Queen Anne's Revenge (Discontinued)

Orders

           I woke up to shouting. I sat up quickly, alert. It was coming from above deck. I knew someone would come and get me soon. I stood up, and cleaned myself off. My wrists were red, but no real wounds. I shook at the brig wall. I shouldn't have even tried. I leaned against the far wall and let myself slide down it. I closed my eyes, and imagined being on my own ship. Will had given me the runaway telescope from the Flying Dutchman which sat in the map room. My room was quite empty. The only things in there were my hammock and a small desk. My ship was a beauty. She sailed very quickly and with ease. I manned her myself. Footsteps brought me back to reality. I stood up, waiting to see Quartermaster, but it was someone else. It was Blackbeard's 'daughter', Angelica. She spoke with a Spanish accent in her voice.
          "Until you are useful to us, you will be working along with the crew," she unlocked the door. With a different note of her voice, somewhere along curiosity, she added, "I heard you were the daughter of a goddess. Is that true?"
           "Yes, but most think my powers are simply witchcraft," I didn't understand why she was attempting to be nice, she was probably going to end up killing me anyway. She stifled a laugh.
           "I've seen some pretty supernatural things, but none of them 'witchcraft'," she led me up onto the top deck without shoving me. Actually, she wasn't even guarding! My hands were free as well! I was expecting to be blinded by the sun, but it was just coming to be dawn. "You are in the crows nest," I hesitated. I hated taking orders, but I didn't want to see Blackbeard again and nodded. I climbed up the rope mesh to the crows nest. I had only been up in a crows nest once before. I had only been seven. I was exploring the ship, and I climbed up the rope mesh wall. I got into the crows nest and was terrified. At that time I had been terrified of heights. They don't really matter to me anymore. There are so many other things to be scared about.
           I stood and admired the view. The breeze blew free strands of my hair away. It looked a lot better now that I wasn't under the sea all the time. I had cut it to shoulder length and tied it back to give the impression I was a man. Then I looked down at the ship. The entire crew was staring at me. They were probably scared I was going to make it rain or rock the ship again. I looked back up. The sun was just coming up, turning the sky a rainbow of colours. I took the telescope that was attached to the railing of the enclosed space. I looked at the horizon, scouting. There was nothing but wide, open sea. I wondered how long I would have this position before I switched to do something else. I looked down again. One of the zombie-people was shouting at the crew to get to work. Most of them were scrubbing the deck. I didn't really understand that job, we almost never did it back on The Dutchman, we were underwater all the time, sometimes we did when the salt layer got too thick of slippery we cleaned it, but that was every two months. Plus it was fun to watch the new crew members slip and fall, the thought made me smile. I had cleaned off the deck few times on my own ship, it was much easier having control over the rain, though.
The zombie-man looked up at me. It seemed he was going to melt a hole through me. I shivered and changed my gaze. I took up the telescope again, searching. I wasn't expecting anything, so I wasn't searching for anything. I just kind of stared in one spot. Wait, is that waves? It was becoming a beautiful, clear day, and the sea looked like a mirror it was so still. Except that little spot on the horizon. That little spot wasn't a little spot anymore. It was the tip of a ship. I tried to judge how far away it was.
"Ship in range! Eighty yards!" I shouted. Angelica went right into action, using her own telescope.
"False alarm! It's only Hornigold." The crew went straight back to what they were doing. Who was that? I thought I was pretty well educated on Pirates and their ships. I had never heard of him. Minutes later, the crew from 'Hornigold's' ship were boarding The Queen Anne's Revenge. They were all wearing clothes very similar to the Englishmen's, even complete with a wig. Then the huge door to Blackbeard's Cabin swung open. He walked out, looking very sleepy. I wonder what he did in there every day. Then the Captain of the other ship came out. He had to be at least six feet tall. He was a husky man, obviously well fed, and had a long dark brown beard. His face looked as if it had been scraped across the bottom of every sea. Even from the spot I stood, I could see that his eyes were black as coals. He almost frightened me as much as Blackbeard. He just brought fear onto the ship. Blackbeard had a reputation everybody had heard of. This man, not so much, but yet I knew to be afraid.
          They had started talking to each other. Blackbeard did something I didn't think he was able to do. He laughed. Not a normal happy laugh, a deep cruel one that made my blood go cold. Then he spoke to Angelica. She looked at me and motioned with her head for me to come down. I climbed back down the rope web, and walked up to the group of people with my head held high. The voice in my head was screaming, run away! Run away while you can! Like I had with Blackbeard, I showed no signs of fear, and put my slightly shaking hands behind my back.
"This here is my new secret weapon. You must have heard of her. The Pirate Goddess? All the crew on my ship are scared silly by her," he made that horrible laugh again. I looked straight into Hornigold's cold, hard eyes. Then he spoke.
"Yes, I have heard of her. Quite the impression she has made," his voice was indescribable. It sounded like sandpaper, but yet very smooth. He had used it a lot, that was for sure. Then I noticed a hint of fear in his dark, cold eyes. It was only there for a second, I almost didn't see it.
             "She is a stubborn one, that's for sure," this time Hornigold laughed. His was similar to Blackbeard's, but his was more practised, and there for more terrifying. Then Hornigold grabbed my arm. I fought back, pulling, but he had many more years at sea than I did. The skin on his hands were rough, absolutely covered with calluses which scraped the bare skin on my arm. I made the horrid mistake of flinching, and now they could both see my shaking hand.  I glared at him.
           "Not so stubborn now is she?" Blackbeard was smirking, and I was glaring icily.
           "Are you just going to talk to me like some tame dog, or hare you really going to talk to me about something? I would hate to leave my working position for too long," I spat, and ripped my arm from Hornigold's grip. Blackbeard still held his evil smirk.
            "To answer your question, yes, I do have a use for you. We are going to go take over a few ships, and I need your help to 'tempt' them, or use other methods to make them cooperate."
             "You two have obviously been doing that for a while with no casualties, why do you need me to help?"
             "Because a man will always fall for a woman," said Blackbeard. They both laughed their cruel laughs. I looked back over to Angelica. At least she wasn't laughing too. Maybe I could trust her. Just maybe.