Tales of a Peculiar Pirate

3. Sea Island 4

Polly had many fantasies about how her life as a pirate would be, but none of them came quite close to reality. For starters, she had no crew, and despite a few hands-on practices, she was far from being a pro in the matters of ship steering. Upon acquiring The Birbalinda, Polly had almost immediately packed her bags, loaded the ship, written to her parents, friends, and other relatives, sold her cardboard box by the trade route, and set sail.

She honed her piloting skills for a few weeks by sailing over, into, and through the BRB Cut Sea before taking a bittersweet leave from her home island and sea and moving on to the Eht Sea. However, being a one man crew was no slice of pecan pie.

Polly guessed she lost more weight manning The Birbalinda than she did when she was a young sprout and had tried her hand at counting calories. That wasn't saying much though, for in those days of old she had about as much self-discipline as an embryo. This led her to decide losing five pounds would be a waste of time and effort only moments after she had decided that she would lose five pounds if it were the last thing even if it killed her.

As of now The Birbalinda was slowly drifting towards Sea Island 4, the island closest to hers. Polly was in the kitchen beneath the deck cracking a cold can of iced tea looking over her map. From her infrequent studies, Polly knew that Sea Island 4 was what could be described as a jungle island. The terrain there was mostly of gargantuan flora, but the fauna there was of average size, or so she assumed.

Her plan was to pop by the island, do some exploring, pick some flowers as mementos, maybe scavenge something that could serve as food, and then sail on to Sea Island 5.

Polly emptied the can. It was getting late, and she had mopping the bathrooms set for the morrow, so there was no way she was staying up any later than necessary. In a matter of moments darkness had swallowed The Birbalinda and Polly had crashed on the couch.

x x x

The morning brought with it the fresh screams of seagulls. Unlike fairy tale princesses who had the fine pleasure of using singing doves as alarm clocks, pirates had no such rights to animal labor. Instead, they got gulls screeching like it was a pirate who killed their family, ate their dog, stole the dirt off their great-aunt's grave, and ignored their grandma's birthday invite. Polly rolled out of bed, didn't brush her teeth, and popped up to the deck. Somehow, despite the fact she had left Sea Island 7 literally six days ago, she was already able to see the unmistakable neon green of Sea Island 4.

After confirming her suspicions that her destination was in sight by checking her map and her Island Encyclopedia, Polly headed back down, performed her morning routine (including brushing her teeth, which is something all civilized folk should do), ate half a bagel, and waited for her ship to drift closer to Sea Island 4.

It was far too early in the morning for her to be doing any hard labor (in her opinion), such as ship steering, so she decided she might as well enjoy the free manpower that was the morning wind. However, Polly quickly tired of lounging in her kitchen snacking away, so she decided to walk to the island. It wouldn't take long, it would be good exercise and practice, and it wasn't even that hot. Really, what could go wrong?

So, being the jolly young lass she was, Polly jumped ship and began strolling on the cerulean waves of the Eht Sea. Soon, after an hour of casual walking that had Polly sweating so much it looked like she went swimming instead of walking, she was there.

Sea Island 4 was even brighter close up than it was from a distance. When you were an hour's walk away, you could pretend that the fluorescent flora didn't make you want to claw your eyes out, but when you were standing face to face with a garishly green tree, well, there wasn't much one could do.