September 1716
"Land ho!" One of the crew exhaled. Edward heard it from the bed in his cabin, and he had just awoken from his slumber.
The previous night he had a bad dream, and he didn't really want to think about it at all. Staying in bed would only prolong the thought and on top of that it was time to go. The Captain pulled himself out of his bed, the weight of the mattress shifted to one side as he did, making the annoying squeak as usual.
Edward then went to the table and proceeded to wear his robes and gear.
First the robes and boots, then his two cutlasses and finally his flintlocks.
He went for the door, and as soon as he did, a huge glare of the sun met his gaze. In front of him stood Ade, who seemed to be cleaning up some leftover gunpowder misplaced on deck.
"Ahoy Ade," Edward greeted warmly, covering his vision slightly with his right hand.
Ade smiled, "Morning Captain Kenway," He greeted, "Weather is clear and calm, and we're about to near the coast of Nassau."
Adewale handed over Edward a spyglass, and Kenway walked to the bow, opening his tool to look over Nassau.
They were now really close to the coast of the island, with the water turning a lighter shade of blue as the sand neared the keel.
"All stop!" Edward orders, "Get those sails down and prepare to weigh anchor lads!"
The crew follow his orders, with fishes of men scurrying about the deck preparing to tie the sails and drop the anchor.
Around Edward, many of the crew were working on the damaged ship. Some were carving and building new parts of the ship, such as parts of the broken mainmast. Others were repairing the splinter filled deck, with scrapes of wood on the deck from the cannonballs.
They were going to repair the Jackdaw in Nassau, while anchored. Nassau had plenty of resources and building material from the many stores there. Edward was also going to send the wounded to be tended off-shore.
The Jackdaw was in a bad state, and unless they wanted to sink, they had to repair here.
When Edward was walking around deck, overlooking the process of repair, his eyes glanced over to shore.
They were near the coast now and were anchored. On shore, he noticed two familiar faces.
There on the beach, sat James Kidd, and Edward Thatch. The two were on shore, around a burned out campfire. Kidd seemed to be doing nothing but reading an old book, while Thatch seemed to be occupied with his drinking habits.
The crew unloaded onto the small transport boats the Jackdaw held inside of her, and loaded the crew and the wounded onshore. Some officers were left onboard to assure the ship would stay.
Edward along with Ade made it onshore, where the walked up to Thatch and Kidd, who now seemed to take notice of the pirate captain and his quartermaster.
"Ahoy, Kidd! Thatch!" Edward greets, giving a small wave in the distance.
"Ahoy Kenway!" Kidd says in the distance, looking to them raising his voice,"Ahoy Ade!"
Kidd seemed to take the hint of their presence, however Thatch was a different story. He was knocked out completely by the amount of alcohol and booze he had drunk.
Edward had taken great notice into this, he swore that man could hold his liquor greater than the ship holding in water.
Edward and Ade were now with the others, and the two sat down on some wooden log used as a seat.
"What brings you to Nassau already?" Edward asks James, who began to put his book away, "I thought you were staying in Tulum."
"Oh, nothing really, something happened with the ol' schooner I guess," James explains, looking slightly away.
"Did something happen?" Kenway asks.
James fixed his gaze back to Edward, "Oh, I'll tell you after," He responds, "But you must ask me, what brings you here?"
Edward motions his head towards the direction of the Jackdaw, and James takes the hint. James turns to face it, and his vision fixes on the seemingly ruined state of the Jackdaw.
It's beautiful white sails that it used to have were now filled with holes and had dark patches of grey in them. It was limping slightly to one side, most likely due to the water situation below deck. The wooden sides of the ship had many holes and scratches on them, by the looks of it, most likely from a cannonball.
"Damn Kenway, you're tinderbox there ain't in the greatest shape," He points out, "The bloody hell happened?"
Ade hands Edward a brown rum bottle, "We were attacked..." Ade explains.
"By who?" Kidd responds. His curiosity gave them his full attention.
"Well..." Edward pauses, "It's a long story..." Edward takes a drink of his rum bottle, "Judging from the seriousness of it I'll think Thatch would want to hear it."
James nods, "Don't worry, I'll take care of that," His voice sounds playfully devious. His grin too.
Thatch by now was still knocked out, but his position changed and now he was sleeping face first into the sand, and his butt was facing upwards towards the sky like a hound dog.
"Thatch!" He yells into his ear, and Thatch bolts awake, his eyes wide like a puppy.
He seemed like he was in the middle of a dream.
"Wha-? You Spanish lapdog! I'll rip your gu-" Thatch pauses his insult, as he realizes that he's not being attacked by the Spanish, but rather in the comfort of his own republic.
"Oh...Ahoy Kenway!" Thatch exclaims laughing, "And you brought your little friend here as well!" He acknowledges to Adewale.
"It's Ade...you sand filled gob," Adewale responds, with sass in his tone.
"Yeah...alright," Thatch calmly nods, "So...what brings you her-" Thatch pauses as he notices the crippled Jackdaw in the distance.
His face turns slightly serious, "What in King George's crown happened to your ship Kenway?" Thatch exclaims flabbergasted. James grins slightly as Thatch's interesting reaction.
Thatch was sitting up now, and his bottom was now visible to everyone. Unfortunately for him, he didn't tuck his trousers around too much.
James smiles laughing and pointing, "Haha! Thatch, look at your arse mate!"
Edward and Ade also seemed to take notice, and the two began to laugh hysterically. Dirty humor was still funny to the adult.
Thatch turns to face his bottom, and he gasps in embarrassment. This wasn't going to help reinforce his persona of being a fearless pirate. He quickly covers up the bald spot with his trousers, shifting up his pants to cover it up.
"It's rather large as well!" Ade chuckles, clutching to his stomach.
Thatch heard it, "No, it's not!" He growls.
When Edward heard Ade say that, he was all about to be done. He tried to cover his mouth to stop his constant laughter, but he couldn't help it. As for Kidd, the young teenage lad couldn't help it. He was on the ground, pounding heavily on the sandy bottom as he laughed hysterically like a teenage boy.
Thatch, discouraged beyond thought, decided that he was defeated. He plumps himself and his large bottom on the log, and crosses his arms like a child.
It took a few more minutes until the rest of the gang got ahold of themselves. Their lungs grew tired of comedy.
"Ah..." James reliefs happily, as he finishes his laughing session, "So, with Thatch awake, let's hear your tale then."
Edward was done laughing now, but his face turned to one of seriousness.
He began to recollect and reflect on his engagement against the Prince in the fog. Edward remembered the screams of wounded men who's limbs were probably blown or shredded off. The pools of blood on the deck, the booms of the cannonfire as the two ships dueled it out in the sea. Most importantly, he remembers the sudden light of orange in the fog, when the Man O' War first revealed her presence to them.
By now, Edward was staring into space for a few minutes now, and James and Thatch gave confused looks.
"Edward?" James asks worried, "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, umm, Kenway, you alright or?" Thatch adds, wondering.
"Breddah, you alright?" Ade puts his hand on Edward's shoulder.
Edward regains his thoughts, awakening to the reality around him. He didn't realize he was just lost in his thoughts.
"I'm sorry...um, I'll start," Edward clears his throat.
"One of my crew reported to have seen weird shapes in the fog, and we were in a fog so..." Edward recollects his memories.
Meanwhile, Thatch and James were giving him their full attention.
"I went to check out his report, and I looked. For a while, nothing appeared in my scope. Nothing. Just the misty fog in front of us. But out of nowhere..."
Edward pauses again, clearing his throat as he was about to tell the goodies.
"A sudden splash of orange appeared in the fog, along with the sounds of cannonfire after it. I ducked as I ordered the rest of the crew down, and that's when the shots hit us. Splinters flew everywhere around us, and the ship rocked heavily."
"I ran up to the helm, and I ordered Ade to wake the men, meanwhile the full appearance of the ship appeared. It was huge, it's masts taller than fortresses. It's sails were ripped and it's hull was larger than the average galleon."
"By now, most of the men were awake, but the ship kept on catching us. It's cannons were pretty damn accurate, and it kept pounding into our hull. I could feel it. We fired back but to no luck, many of the shots hit but weren't effective. The damn ship even shot off our rudder."
Edward didn't want to tell them about the part where he was almost struck by a cannonball and was dazed. So he continued to tell the tale.
"I looked over with my scope, and I managed to make out its name. Have you lads ever heard of a HMS Prince?" Edward asks.
James and Thatch's eyes sort of opened up and widened to the moment he said that name.
"Anyways, we managed to escape as Ade and I ordered the men to pull out every last sail. We managed to escape due to us making it inside of the fog. Marvelous escape really, we would've been dead if otherwise." Edward finishes his story.
"Damn..." James replies, surprised at the tale.
"We thank the fog for our escape," Ade adds.
"I've heard tales of the HMS Prince Kenway," Kidd reveals, "They've been spreading like wildfire around Nassau, and they've matched your description of it."
Thatch nods, "Aye, many men tell tales of a phantom ship appearing in the fog like a ghost. Afterwards it devours the victim whole, like a sea-monster. Only a few tell such tales here, and many piss their trousers because of it. It's taken a toll on our morale here."
"Where and when did this occur Kenway?" James asks Edward, who drank another sip from his bottle.
"About twelve miles? Twenty miles of the coast of here?" Edward replies, answering.
"That's awfully close," James adds.
"Aye," Thatch nudges in, and he stands up to his feet and begin walk off.
Kidd notices this, "Oi! Thatch! Where you going?" James raises his voice.
"I'm going to watch the inlet, in case that bloody galleon comes here!" Thatch explains, his voice in the distance.
Edward chuckles, "Ah, classic Thatch. Always off to do his own thing."
James chuckles too, "Aye, I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up in the other end of a blade one day.."
James stands up, "So, Kenway? You up for a little walk?"
Edward nods, standing up, "Aye, why not?" He looks over to Ade, "Ade, you joining along?"
Ade nods his head no, "No, I have some rather important things to tend to."
"Alright," Edward replies.
The whole gang disbands, heading their own directions in the Pirate Republic of Nassau.
Edward and James were strolling around the town of Nassau. Looking around and just enjoying the stroll.
However, James decides to bring something up.
"Kenway," He grabs Edward's arm,"We need to talk business," Kidd explains.
Edward looked at the young lad puzzled, "What business?"
Authors Note:
Once again lads, this is a rewrite from the original! It's still the same the idea, but I just worded it better to just be more up to date.
If you see any weird typos or anything like that, please inform ke below!
Any feedback is appreciated! Thanks for reading!