To Yonder

Paper Bag

“I was staring at the sky, just looking for a star
To pray on, or, wish on, or something like that.”
- Fiona Apple

The scarcity of romance on this pirate ship could almost bore Alessia to tears. Deficit? There wasn’t any trace of tender feelings on the blasted ship! She was on a vessel full of men and she hadn’t even heard a single utterance about women. It was almost as if they didn’t even exist. Wasn’t this what pirates were notorious for? Plundering treasure and terrorizing innocent, unsuspecting women?

Where was the adventure? The thrill? The excitement? The danger?

The reality of everyday pirate dealings fell extremely short of the hype Alessia had built up within her mind. The pirates were refined. They had a hierarchy and adhered to rules. The ship was its own little self-sustaining, floating kingdom tucked away from the observation of the world. Out here, they were free to roam and be as they pleased.

But really, didn’t anyone here ever yearn for the care and touch of a tender woman?

Alessia began to wonder how pirates procreated. Where exactly did pirates come from? If piracy was a lineage thing Alessia was lost. There was an obvious need for a woman to fill that position… Perhaps they just spawned from the sea like the kraken.

Well… some might argue pirates were a sub variant of sea monsters. It wouldn’t be surprising in the least.

“What are you thinking about?”

Startled by the intruder, Alessia turned her head to look behind her. The source of the voice was a man whose hair shone brilliantly. His blond locks shined in the sunlight like gold making him seem to glow ethereally; even his emerald eyes seemed to be a tad brighter than usual. His mood seemed to match the day.

What could have possibly put him in such a good mood? It definitely wasn’t Tanek – the man who had spent a good portion of the morning stomping around and barking orders. Alessia had been on her way up from the cabin, saw him, and proceeded to turn around and flee before she was spotted and before the Pirate Captain had a chance to ruin her mood (even if he was drop dead gorgeous). Obviously Tanek hadn’t gotten to Will either.

“How babies are made…” It was out of her mouth before she had thought. Quickly realizing her misstep, Alessia willed herself to say something up as to cover her tracks. Unfortunately, now she was at a loss for words.

Will stifled a laugh once he realized what Alec had said. At first Will wasn’t quite sure he had heard correctly, but then it was undeniable what had been said. There was no going back. Will was going to give him hell. He looked back over at Alec observing him as a coy smile sliding its way onto his face.

Hadn’t the lad’s Mother told him how babies were made? Sure Alec looked young, but he was a growing boy, certainly he should know such knowledge, right? Well whatever the case, Will didn’t really know much about adolescence nor did he intend to find out anytime soon. What this boy needed was a lesson in men… and women.

Luckily, Alessia caught onto Will’s obvious distress. She quickly clarified before he went into the discussion she could see him mulling over in his head. She definitely did not need the talk especially from Will! “No, I know how babies are made… I wanted to know where they come from, not just normal babies... I was referring to pirate babies…”

God that sounded so stupid – even stupider. If only she could plug her mouth and stop digging herself into a deeper hole. Alessia wished she could grab the words and stuff them right back into her mouth. In the ideal situation Will wouldn’t have heard her. Maybe he had gotten swept up in the ocean’s beauty mid conversation. It had a tendency to do that to her, why not him too?

Alessia stopped herself from laughing harshly. Will was definitely not her and with one look at his face Alessia knew he had heard. Will had heard her loud and clear. He looked like her was about to spontaneously combust at any moment.

Unlike Alessia, Will couldn’t contain himself. He broke out into laughter unable to regain control of himself. Alessia on the other hand didn’t think it was so funny. Her question was valid, maybe a little unorthodox, but valid nonetheless. Suddenly the embarrassment was gone and replaced with sheer determination. She wanted to know. Where did pirates come from?

“From… babies… normal… pirates… ha ha ha!” Will choked out a few other incoherent words.

This was getting ridiculous.

“It is not funny!” Alessia squeaked sounding exactly like the girl she wasn’t supposed to be. Luckily, Will was too preoccupied to notice. Just for extra safety measures Alessia reiterated her previous words two octaves lower, “It is er… not funny.”

Almost composed Will began to laugh again, “Mate, what’s happened with your voice? Shall I explain becoming a man to you as well?”

It really wasn’t funny! Both Tanek and Will had taken the time to laugh at some petty misconstrued message at some point during her stay on the ship. The men on this boat obviously had no real sense of what humor was. Humor was watching someone fall over, not a valid question!

Obviously even if they wanted a woman the moment they opened their mouth all the attraction would vanish.

“… Oh no,” Will murmured finally back to his original state. His eyebrows were slightly furrowed and his face held such a delicate smile his dimple could just be made out, “You were serious mate, weren’t you? You’re not going to cry or anything, right?”

Of course she wasn’t going to cry!

Alessia was almost certain his girlish fit of giggles would resume when he made the most intelligent remark she’d heard him say since he’d invaded her peaceful lonesomeness, “I’d think it works just like any other way. What do you mean pirate babies? Babies aren’t born pirates… well, I suppose technically some are…” That’s right, intelligent, maybe even Earth shattering.

This was a breakthrough. Alessia decided she would have to take small steps from here otherwise all progress would be lost and Will would be reduced back into a blubbering fool, “Well, how did you become a pirate?”

Almost instantaneously, his face seemed to darken and his posture immediately straightened out ever so slightly.

“Me? My Father had been a troubled man. Piracy was something exciting to him, probably because it was deemed immoral and illegal by order of the crown. My Father had been a rule breaker all his life. Luckily, he was also an idiot. Being a pirate probably kept him out of all the trouble he would have gotten into if he were off by himself.”

Alessia never would have guessed. Will seemed to always be so happy about everything. There was always a shimmer in his eyes and pep in his step… She wondered. Was he of Arcadian or Dalmascan descent… maybe from far away? He could’ve been one of her people – regardless of what could have been, Will was now one of her own.

“I probably owe my life to this pirate ship. It saved me from what I could have been…” Alessia nodded unable to think of an appropriate response. How could someone who had come from such bad circumstances turn out so… good?

“I wasn’t born into piracy… but I like to think that it found me, just when I needed it. My Mother had abandoned my Father and I. He had nowhere to turn and wanted nothing to do with a kid whose own Mother didn’t even want him. Pirates were raiding the town where we had lived, my Father offered me, and then offered himself. Without this ship… without Tanek… I would truly be lost. He’s been with me from the very beginning and I’m eternally grateful to him.”

Alessia didn’t know what to think. It was proving to be true over and over again that what she had thought her whole life was nothing more than petty lies told to her as a kid that manifested into a reality as she grew older. She thought about it some more. If Will had that kind of story, she could only imagine how all the others got to this point.

All the men on this ship, each one had their own story that somehow led them to each other. They were all bound by one simple word, piracy. Alessia decided she would find out how they all got here, that way she would make sure others wouldn’t have to resort to such a thing. When she was ruler the world would be different.

… And maybe she also wanted to know the peculiar case of how Toothy became toothless. That though, would have to be left for another day.

“It’s nothing really though,” Will shrugged. He hadn’t actually looked at Alessia since he started talking so seriously, “Nothing compared to Tan-“

“Will” A familiar, sharp voice cut through the air. Will looked guilty, but his expression quickly changed, like lightening, it was gone in a flash. His grim expression was quickly replaced with a carefree one as he turned to look at Tanek a smile in place.

“‘Tis the name my lovely parents bestowed upon me,” Will smirked like he’d told a funny joke. Sadly, he was probably the most amused at one. Clearly he had been fully trained in all the ways to dismiss Tanek under any and all circumstances.

One look at Tanek and you could tell her wasn’t here to jest – the iron fist was here to lay down the law.

“Actually, it was William,” Tanek said curtly right back at Will with a painfully serious expression it was almost comedic. Lord he was beautiful, but Alessia still couldn’t get passed their strange, unfunny male connection that just took place in front of her. It was obvious they were in some kind of twisted relationship with one another…

Looking at the two of them was like dark and light. Tanek’s dark hair, stubble face, and brooding baby blues the color of the ocean were such a stark contrast to Will’s golden locks and glistening green eyes. Their features battled against one another but were also complimentary. These were two men who were cut form the same cloth and had grown up together.

Suddenly Alessia felt awkward – almost like she was intruding.

“… I think I am going to excuse myself… I need to go and uh… clean stuff… or something.” Alessia got up to leave when Tanek looked at her dead straight in the eye making her freeze in strange half-up, half-down position.

Great, now she was stuck in this stupid position.

“Clean stuff?” Tanek scoffed, which seemed rather out of place. For as long as Alessia had known Tanek he had always sounded blunt and curt rather than dare she say, sarcastic, “I haven’t seen you ever life a single finger since you have arrived. You sit on the deck all day and stare into the horizon.”

Alessia’s face turned red, she knew that Tanek’s accusation was pretty much true. It wasn’t entirely her fault though; he never actually assigned her to do something like all the other men. Obviously she had taken the liberty of giving herself her own assignment, watching the waves and making sure there wasn’t any weird kraken monster coming after them.

It was silent for a few more moments. None of them chose to comment so Will decided to break the silence, “Our mate Alec here wanted to know about babies…”

Tanek looked genuinely puzzled before his face seemed to soften and Alessia could almost see a bubble of laughter forming in his throat. And so it began again.

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It was nearly midnight when Tanek finally gave his tired body the permission to retire to his chambers. He was the first to admit it, he pushed his crew hard and he bushed himself even harder. He couldn’t help it though; he had a faint yet peculiar feeling bubbling from within his being…

A knock at the door broke his thoughts. He hadn’t even gotten the chance to summon Will before he was letting himself in prancing around like he owned the place. Tanek went to ask him what he wanted hoping to finish this as quick as possible when Will broke out into a whole string of thoughts.

“I’d be the first to admit that I like Alec. Tanek, I really like him, but I just can’t…” Will seemed at a loss for words. Thinking there was a break Tanek moved to interject. Of course Will wasn’t done. Neither was he ever at a loss for words. Always the eloquent one, “But it’s not really him. I’ve been keeping an eye out like you said. It’s Danny. He’s always wound up so tightly. I think if we’re going to gain any knowledge it’d be from that one. I’m so sure he’s got something to hide. You feel it too, don’t you?”

Tanek was suddenly alert. It was Will’s intuition that kept the man on what many would consider a lucky streak. Never had Will been incorrect about something and that alarmed Tanek. He would put his life in Will’s hands before anyone else. If there was a threat on his ship, Tanek needed to return the favor and protect Will’s.

“And what do you propose exactly?” Tanek thought back to that night up on the deck, the night of the full moon. Tanek was hardly a threat yet Daniel always seemed skittish in his presence and always so eager to get away. The boy hardly talked to anyone besides Alec. Perhaps Will really was on to something.

“You keep your mind on the Princess, I’ll take care of this,” Will was now a man on a mission.

The two men spoke in hushed voices throughout the rest of the night up until daybreak. The feeling returned. It started in his gut and worked its way outward through his body pounding rhythmically almost in sync to the ocean waves. It would have almost been comforting if it weren’t for the uneasiness that began to circulate through all his apendages.

He was afraid.

Tanek was hardly the man to ever admit it, but he knew the feeling and he knew it well. Throughout his twenty-some years he had felt it… not often, but overwhelmingly. There was no denying that something was about to happen. Tanek didn’t know what and he could only pray he was prepared.

This was the calm before the storm.
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