ONE

“It came from this direction, sir!”  A crewmate of mine called to me.  Myself and a couple other of my crew ran from the campsite into the direction of the calls.  We came upon a beach where a scraggly pirate crew was dragging a small boat onto the beach. 

            “Hands up, pirates!” I called, and my crew held up their guns.  “Whose crew do you hail from?”

            “The Blue-eyed Captain of the West,” one in a baggy, tan shirt called. “We mean no harm – we come for rations.”  I looked the four pirates over and looked to my first mate, who was watching me with a sort of fear in his eyes.  I then nodded my head to three of my crewmembers.  As they began to handcuff the pirates, I called,

            “We will lead you to our campsite; you’ll tell us all you know there.”

            Back at the campfire, the rest of my crew backed away so the pirates could take their places across the fire from myself, my first mate, and my guards.

            “The Blue-eyed Captain’s crew, aye?” I asked them.

            “Aye,” said the one who first spoke.  I took him to be this band’s leader, and addressed him.  “We meant nobody hear harm; we have come for rations.”

            “So you’ve stated.  Is your ship nearby?”

            “Non.  We’ve anchored out of ammunition range.”

            “Aye…yes.  A strategic move…” I muttered.

            “Sir, a word?” Piped up my first mate.  He followed me to a nearby grove of trees where we could be neither overseen nor overheard.  “When do you plan to ask them?”

            “The key?  Soon enough…I need to find out more of herself first,” I explained in a hush. 

            “Sir, pardon my brashness, but…that’s just a legend…a very new legend, yes,” he said to my frown of disapproval, “but that could just be a key…a key to nothing that has ever existed.”

            “Do you doubt me?  I grew up with her, and I loved her, but she…”  I stopped there.  “It’s of no importance now.  I know what I’m doing.”

            “I have no doubt of you in my soul, sir,” my first mate muttered begrudgingly.  He bowed and I led the way back to the campfire.

            “Pirates, I will need some information from you concerning-“

            “Information?  Information without any gold for pay?” Spoke up a particularly scruffy pirate with a black beard in a gruff voice.

            “Speak only when spoken too, or hold your tongue,” said my first mate, thrusting his sword against the pirate’s neck.  I gently put my hand on the blade and lowered it, forcing my first mate to sit back down.

            “I never said anything either side about gold,” I said, narrowing my eyes at him.  He smiled back at me, a toothy smile, despite a couple missing teeth. “And it’s not pirating information.  I may work for the governor, but I am not, as of now, doing such.”

            “Aye, ye drive a bargain I see?” Spoke the gruff, bearded one again.

            “Aye pirate, I do.  I need a story clarified and some extra information on that story if need be.”

            “If we say non?”

            “Then you’ll die and we’ll question those who come after yourselves and your rations.”

            He had no more to say.

            “What is it ye wish to know, Captain?” asked the pirate in the baggy, tan shirt.

            “Everything.”

            And so he began.