"Oh god!" Mr. Boyle gasps, looking at the animal, "Could that really be?"
The Jackdaw sailed past a huge corpse of a floating whale, with its huge white belly popping out and shining with the sun.
"It's a whale all right," Wong corrects, "Look's like it's been dead for about a day or two."
"So," Anne says, "What do we do with the darn thing?" She asks, examining the majestic beast.
Edward scratches his stubble for a moment, but the answer was already obvious.
"We'll just eat the damn thing," Edward points out, "It's dead, and we could definitely use this as a food source, so why not?"
Everyone including Mary exchange glances at Edward's proposal. Either way, he's the Captain so they shrug.
"Alright," Mary agrees, looking to Edward, "Just be careful, that thing is larger than the whole bloody ship itself, and I don't want to be sinking anytime soon."
Within hours, the whole tonnage of the great whale was hoisted up by a beam and skinned up for resources. The meat would be used for eating, and as for the rest of it, it would be used for other purposes. No-one in the crew knew exactly what to do with the whale.
By the time Mary got back from her shift, she was met by the presence of whale meat on her plate back in Edward's cabin.
"Really? We're eating whale?" Mary looks to it, not really feeling her stomach want it.
"It's better than nothing at all.." Edward restates, "Come on, chow down.."
Mary groans as she sits herself down on the table. The food smelled bile.
...
The Jackdaw was anchored, sitting hidden but near the mouth of Havana, waiting for their intended target.
All of the crew were ready on their heels, prepared for the order to speed and sail. In anytime, the target's ship could pop out of Havana exposed like prey.
Ah Tabai gave a broad description of their target's ship. It was a small, fishing sloop, acting as a merchant ship.
Boyle stood on the bow, with his spyglass opened as he scanned the area in front of him. His eyes were peeled, looking for any ship possible, and so far, no vessel was appearing. Not even the local fishermen and their small canoes.
"Oi, you see anything yet Mr. Boyle?" Edward asks tapping on his foot lightly of impatience.
"Not yet sir," He responds, removing his eyes from the scope, and he turns back to face Edward, "Either he's left already, or he's still in port," Boyle infers, holstering his spyglass.
Edward however, grabs the spyglass from his hand, and uses it himself, looking upon the sea ahead.
"We'll keep waiting, and if he doesn't come 'til nightfall, we'll have to depart these waters. The Spanish will be curious to why there's a brig sitting in the middle of the ocean," Edward throughly explains, giving Boyle's spyglass back.
"Tell the men to arm themselves, we might have to board them," He orders, walking off.
However, Boyle was curious, "Why couldn't we just sink them?"
Edward stops walking briefly, as if he was thinking. He turns back to face Boyle, "Ah, we might have to come to that!" He responds, chuckling slightly to himself.
"Prepare the halyards! Await word to unleash all sail! Hurry lads!" Edward orders loudly.
Boyle just stares at Edward's back as he walks away back aft, and he taps Wong by the shoulder. Mr. Boyle had a delicate thought.
"You see there?" Boyle points to Captain Kenway, "That's some seamanship right there I tell you, my God that seamanship..."
Wong snuffs and smiles, "Haha, your right. Our Captain can be quite the show," He responds.
"He's also in love with James Kidd," Wong jokes, laughing quietly so Edward wouldn't hear, finishing up tieing a rope.
Boyle sputters, "Haha, you know her true name is Mary Read, right?"
"It was a joke Boyle..."
"Ah...y-yeah I knew that."
"You sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure..."
"You sure sure?" Wong refutes in doubles.
"Yes..."
"Because, you know, something about you smells a little fishy," Wong puns.
He pointed at Mr. Boyle's badge of a trout, as back in England, he loved to fish. As a result, he got a badge of a fish.
Boyle's slight smirk beforehand quickly shifted to a dumbfounded, stare face. The pun that Wong had just performed was just plain malarkey.
Boyle slaps him in the neck, with the slap being accompanied with the sound of a ting.
...
The Jackdaw has been at sea for nearly a week, and has been heading towards Charles-Towne, Carolina on a northerly course, with wind as their guidance.
The target back in Havana didn't come up for some reason, and after countless days of waiting, the whole crew decided enough was enough, and left to go to meet Thatch.
Besides, they could hunt for him later anyways, no doubt a merchant with his profile wouldn't leave the Caribbean.
Luckily for them, they managed to get themselves caught in a heavy windstorm, with the hairs of everyone blowing around in the large gushes of sea wind. Waves, most likely in the dozens of feet in length, rose and sunk in the water as the Jackdaw sailed through it's drift.
Unfortunately for the crew onboard, life wasn't so pleasant.
"W-woah, ah, damn!" Edward slips on the slippery deck of the Jackdaw, landing square on his back and head.
He looks upward from below, only to see Mary glance down at him with a raised brow.
"The hell are you doing on the floor Kenway?" She quesions, "This is a ship, not your bloody bed," Mary insults jokingly.
"Very smart Mary..." He mutters in his thoughts.
Edward rolls his eyes, "Tosh Mary, your a mouthful to deal with," He responds, snorting, and grabbing Mary's hand as he is pulled upwards.
The Jackdaw again rocked sideways and forwards with heavy force, and the whole crew was shaken by the wind and gust.
Adewale was occupied with duties below deck. He was trying to assist on the water situation below deck, as violent sums of seawater somehow managed to slightly flood the keel room.
As for the rest of the officers, Edward didn't have a damn clue to where they were, other than that they were on this ship, somewhere..
The sea ahead was rough and wavy, with it, a blanket of gray sky and clouds covering the sun, making the day look bland and uninviting.
"This storm doesn't look like it's going to give up," Edward observes, back on the helm, "If we can't sail through the wind, we'll damn sail around it!" Edward viciously shifts and turns the wheel facing the port side.
The whole vessel leans to the left, creating a brief list on the ship. Cutting waves caused huge splashes of water to engulf the bow.
Mary hold's on for dear life, "Christ Edward!" She yells, with her boots on the verge of slipping," Your trying to kill us?"
Edward looks to her, grinning, "Seamanship," He mentions, "It's called seamanship, Mary. Ever heard of it?"
Mary sputters, looking at him with a smiling dumbfounded look, "I can't believe what him hearing right now, Mr. Kenway!" She replies, but Edward could tell with the tone of her voice that she didn't actually yell at him in anger.
"What can't you believe?" Edward plays along, "Hmm? So what is it Mary?"
Mary rolls her eyes in result of his comments, "My my, aren't you a special one, ain't you?"
"Your special one?" Edward flirts, changing her words to fit his narrative.
At this point, the two were now flirting in the midst of a windstorm on an mildly unstable vessel.
Flirting...in a storm at sea...
"Ah, I see how it is..." Mary replies, moving closer to his face, "I think I know what you want..."
Mary touches his stubble, slightly massaging it lightly.
"Mmhmm, I indeed know, Mary..."
Edward let's go of the wheel, closing the gap to kiss Mary on the lips.
"I know..."
The moment was almost perfect, with their lips in only mere centimeters from one another as they were going to lock lips.
Unfortunately, someone had to ruin the fun.
"Captain!" Mr. Boyle yells, running up towards the pair and the helm.
Edward and Mary suddenly look to the direction of the voice, distracted and annoyed with the feeling of it shuttering through their bodies. The two poor souls just got blocked.
"Captain!" Boyle yells again, this time Edward notices the look on his face. Mr. Boyle had his eyes wide, his face red and puffy, probably from the running he had to do, and also he was gasping and breathing heavily. Something fishy was up.
"There something wrong Boyle?" Edward's face turned slightly worried, moving up to face him.
"Aye!" He responds.
"We're off course!"
Edward arches an eyebrow, "Wait, are you serious?"
"It appears we've been heading East, pointing to Africa instead of North," Wong corrects the Captain.
Edward facepalms and mumbles to himself quietly, "Bloody hell..."
Authors Note:
I don't know... I'm not so sure about this chapter... I might rewrite this one later...
Anyways, thanks for reading.