The Princess of Pirates

Chapter 3 - [The Rude Captain]

As soon as the two large men climbed up onto the ship, they decided to hide her. After a change in plans, they realized it would be best to keep her away from their captain.

“He always gets everything to himself, right mate?” The first one said.

The second nodded. “We should have a little fun of our own for once…”

“But we’ve got to hide the wench. If the captain were to find out, he’d have our heads.”

“How about we throw her into the crate with the food… the one we stole from Caspian. We’ll keep her in there until night time.” The second suggested.

“And where we gonna put the food?”

“Up your ass you goof. Hurry up and open the damned crate before the captain comes out of his quarters.” The second said as he ran towards one of the crates.

The two of them worked together to open one of the crates, and dropped Nerina in, even though she was still screaming.

“What do we do about her screaming… it’s still loud, even though it’s muffled.” The first man yelled.

“She’ll shut up soon. How long could she keep screaming for?”

And they were right. Like before, Nerina got too tired to keep screaming. She sat there, for what seemed like hours, in the dark crate. There was some light in it at first, but eventually, as the sky grew dark, the crate grew dark as well.

Tears started to pour out of her eyes when she heard footsteps. She couldn’t even defend herself, especially since her hands were tied. Were they coming to get her? What were they going to do with her?

But it didn’t just sound like two people, it sounded like many. Maybe five or six.

She stopped breathing, maybe they would forget which crate she’s in.

The crate suddenly moved, and she gasped.

“Oy… this one feels lighter than the rest, eh?” One man said. It wasn’t a familiar voice.

“Aye!” Another man said. His voice wasn’t familiar as well.

“I think someone opened it.” A man with a deep, smooth, yet unfamiliar voice said. “Open it up.”

Nerina began to panic.

“The rascals who be messin’ around with the food will get a good whippin’ from me, got it?” The first man said, angrily.

“And me!” The second said.

“No… I’ll be slicing his head off, when I find out who did it.” The deep voiced man said, he sounded far away.

There was a crack, and as the lid came off, Nerina gasped. She immediately closed her eyes, surprised by the moonlight.

And then she heard two gasps. She slowly opened her eyes, allowing her eyes to adjust to the light and then they widened.

Two men stared at her. One looked old, with a long white beard and white hair tied back into a ponytail. He had a slightly wrinkled face and large black eyes.

The second man looked much younger. Maybe in his early twenties. His blond hair was shorter and fell over his face as he looked down at her with his brown eyes. He had a couple scars on his face and was very built.

“Captain!” The older man yelled. “It be a lass! The food was replaced with a lass!” He pushed the crate forward and Nerina tumbled out.

When she looked up, she was surprised by the tall man who was staring down at her. After a couple of blinks, she realized who it was.

It was the pirate from before, the one who was at the ball.

She pushed herself up immediately and stared back at the pirate.

“Aina?” He said.

She raised her eyebrows. Aina?

He looked at her carefully and then his face suddenly changed. It looked angry. “Who are you and what are you doing on my ship?”

The younger man walked behind her and pulled the cloth which was around her mouth off.

She looked at him for a moment. “You… you’re the pirate… I saw you at the ball!”

The man raised his eyebrow.

“What ball,Ed?” the younger man asked.

“You aren’t Aina.” The pirate said, ignoring the other man.

“No. I am Nerina, Princess of Caspian.” Nerina said.

“How did you get onto my ship?” He asked.

“Two of… your men, I believe, kidnapped me.”

The pirate began to glare. “All hands on deck!” He suddenly yelled, startling Nerina.

The old man jumped as well, but immediately began to run around shouting the same thing his captain said.

“All hands on deck! All hands on deck! All hands on deck!” He said, over and over again.

In a short while, a small crew was standing in a line, hands behind their backs, heads held high.

The captain looked at me. “Who did it?” He asked.

Nerina hesitated but then looked at all the men that were standing in the line. Her eyes stopped at one of the men and beside him was the other. She pointed at them.

The captain followed her glance and looked at the two men.

“Swanson andMack… why am I not surprised.” The captain said. “Step forward.”

The two men took a step forward and Nerina could see the fear on their faces.

“I have a couple of questions for you. Will you answer?” The captain asked.

“Yes sir!” They both yelled.

“First, did you kidnap this girl?”

They hesitated but then they both nodded. “Aye…”

“Why?”

The first, larger man looked at the second. “A gift for you, cap’n…” The second said.

The captain raised his eyebrows. “A gift?” He asked “Then why did you hide her in that crate?”

“It was supposed to be a surprise…” The second said. “We were going to bring her to you at midnight.”

The captain smirked. “Alright then, now for the more important question. Where did you put the food?”

“It’s in our room, sir…” The first man said.

“And how much have you eaten?” The captain asked.

“Only a small amount… sir…”

The captain leaned against the ships railing. “You committed two crimes today, men.” He said. “One was kidnapping this girl and the second was stealing food. Both crimes are those which are punishable by death.”

Nerina’s heart began to race. What was he going to do to those men?

“Please pardon us… sir.” The second man said.

“I have pardoned you multiple times before.” The captain said as he pulled out his sword. “Now, explain to me how I am to kill you both twice.”

Some members of the crew began to laugh.

The young man with blond hair walked up to his captain. “Captain… Think this through for a second. We’ve already lost too much of our crew on our way to Caspian. Killing off these two isn’t going to help us.”

The captain didn’t look at him, but he was listening.

“It’s better just to let them live, at least until we have a larger crew.”

The captain got up from the railing and walked towards the two men. He looked at both of them for a short moment and suddenly, he threw his fist into the first man’s jaw and kicked the second man in the gut.

“I swear on my mother’s grave that next time you do anything that breaks my rules, I’ll cut both your heads off and feed them to the sharks!” The captain said.

The two men nodded “Y-yes sir!” They said. Everyone knew that they were pleased that their lives were spared.

The captain turned and looked at the old man and the young blond one. “Throw her off.”

Nerina’s mouth fell open. “Well, excuse me!”

The old man stepped in front of her. “Captain, she is a weak girl. There is no way she’d be able to swim back to shore.”

The captain snorted. “Who said I cared whether she made it back or not?”

Nerina glared. “You are so…”

The young blond sighed. “Captain… think this through! This girl could be our key to getting what we need.”

The captain looked at him.

“She said she was the princess of Caspian!”

“So?”

“We could ask for ransom!”

The captain raised his eyebrow. “The Caspian army would destroy our tiny crew before we could get any money from them.”

“No, we’ll ask for a crew.”

“Pirates do not live in Caspian.”

“But there are criminals.” The young blond said. “Why would the Caspian’s want to keep their criminals? We can ask them for the criminals in return for the girl.”

The captain nodded his head.

The old man didn’t seem to like the idea. “Cap’n… Are ye sure that—”

“I like the idea.”

“But she is the Princess of Caspian.” The old man said. “Remember what happened the last time a pirate crew took on the Caspian Navy guard?”

The captain hesitated but then shrugged. “I’ll think about this, but for now, lock her up.”

Nerina frowned. “You can not keep me locked up!”

The Captain turned and smiled at her. “I’m the captain of this—”

“You are rude! That’s what you are!”

“Well then,” he started, “I’m the rude captain of this ship. What I say goes.”