A Pirate's Life for Her

A golden ray of light escaped through the curtains of Maeve’s cabin.
She made silly faces when the light disturbed her sleep.

“That bloody...bastard’s....landlubber...fish-face!” she mumbled and buried her face to her pillow.
The sea was wavy today, she could feel it underneath her ship, moving restlessly.
And the wind... she could hear the wind outside, it was going to be a rough day at sea.

Her head was spinning and her stomach was lurching from last nights drinking.
She tossed and turned in her bed then finally got up. Each of her boots were on the other sides of the cabin and some of the books and maps were scattered all around the floor. “Fine, fine...” she mumbled and tidied it a little, then she slipped into her boots, tucked her sword and pistol to her belt and left her cabin.

“Y’arr scallywags get up on your arses and get to the sails !” she yelled, “Full speed Joe! Now!”.

The crew jumped out of their hammocks one by one and got to their duties. Joe walked sleepily to the rudder and Maeve went down to the dungeon.
The moment she opened the dungeon doors Landon got annoyed by the sun light and woke up, shouting, “Water! Please, water!”.

Maeve rolled her eyes, “Fool .” she murmured and took out a small bottle of fresh water from a barrel. “Thank God! “ she heard Landon say. She opened the bottle and pressed it to his lips. He drank with such a thirst, his lips got wet and he closed his eyes pleased.

Maeve pulled away the bottle. “Look, Lan, like we said earlier, you’re a part of the crew now, until your ‘royals’ save you, if they ever do ... Now get on yar’e feet and do what i tell ya tou’!”
She freed him from the ropes with one quick move of her dagger. Landon rubbed his elbows and glanced at Maeve thankfully.

He got on his feet and followed Maeve out of the dungeon.

Suddenly, heads turned and Maeve heard her men whisper, “What is that rich brat doin’ out of de dungeons?”
“Has Cap’n gone out of her wicked mind?” “A royal in arr crew,eh?”

“You clean the floors, Neil will tell you what to do exactly.” Said Maeve, pointing at a young sailor.
“Thank you , Captain, for accepting me in your crew!” Landon said in an overly fony way.
“Oh just cut it Mr. Prince!” groaned Maeve and Landon was silent.
She walked up to her rudder, pushed Joe aside.

Joe mumbled something and moved aside. “What ?” asked Maeve, she could feel her friends’ eyes on her.

“That prince, arr, Landon, what is he doing? His place is in dah dungeons i reckon!” said Joe in a disturbed way.

“He asked to join the crew until his royals save him, they won’t ever, we know how to deal with the british.”

Joe nodded and played with his pistol. “I see, still... The men are talking, about—“
“I didn’t ask to know what they’re talking about Joe.” Maeve shut him.
“But there’s this other thing about the Brethren Court!” Joe kept talking.

Maeve was suddenly interested. The Brethren Court.
“What about it?”

“I heard they were gathering for an issue; a new pirate! A pirate who is a real savage rebel man!”

“We are all savage rebel men, Joe.”

“But no, Cap’n , this mate is different, he doesn’t accept the codex and he is not respectful to anything it says! The court is gathering to punish him, so we heard!”

“There are lots of pirates living like that Joe.”

“But he is young.”

“How young 30-35? What’s impressive is our age. 20 years old pirates are quite rare, especially the ones running ships.”

“He is 21.” Joe said.

“Well that’s interesting. What a pity he’ll die.” Maeve replied and went to the rudder.

Below them, Landon was listening to the conversation. He was definitely interested in their conversations because they were deciding HIS future. What was going to happen to him? What if his men really wouldn’t be able to save him? Would he be a part of this pirate crew for the end of his precious life?
He took a deep breath and continued cleaning the floors.

Up on the deck, Joe understood that Maeve wasn’t interested in talking to him at the moment, so he left her side to check the sails.
Her crew was annoyed by her decision. Was it wrong to add Landon to the crew, probably just temporarily?

And there was another pirate, just as young as her? Who was he? How could he be so young and so savage and against the codex! True, like she said there were many pirates going against the codex, but this one must’ve been a real dangerous lad.

Maeve couldn’t deny, she was a little jealous. She was one of the rare women captains in the seven seas and probably the most savage, young and talented one among.
Thoughtfully she nodded to herself.

Right after having a delicious lunch -which was actually salted meat, rum and some fish they caught- Maeve handed the rudder to Joe and decided to take a nap. She put up her hammock and lay down.
Most of the buccaneers were taking naps or chatting silently among eachother.

Prince Landon was sitting on the floor, his back to against the door which opened to the other cabins of the ship playing with an empty bottle.
Maeve folded her arms under her head and watched Landon for a while. His skin was a little tanned already and that made him look even more gorgeous than he already was.

He looked up and met her gaze, Maeve looked away instantly.

What was she thinking? “Bugger...” she murmured to herself.

Then suddenly sat up and called for him , “Hey ya royal! Come ‘ere!”.
Landon excitedly stood up and walked towards her hammock, “Yes , cap’n !” he said smiling with a bit of sarcasm. Maeve rolled her eyes, “Are you getting along with my buccaneers, Lan?” she asked.

Landon bit his lip, looked around for a while then raised his eyebrows and answered, “I can’t really tell so.”
Maeve laughed loudly, the troubled expression on his face was funny. The crew members who heard her laugh turned to look at her, they nodded looking at each other and kept on whispering even more.
“I don’t think that was funny, Mae—Captain.” Said Landon even more annoyed.

Maeve lay back down and closed her eyes then said ; “Don’t tell me what is funny and what is not, Landon.”
Landon sighed, how could she be so witty, she was nothing like the women he knew so far.
He stared at her face for a while, she had full lips and her hair was almost flaming. He could tell her body was pretty fine as well..

“What are you waiting here for scallywag? Go to your place!” said Maeve suddenly opening her eyes.

Landon jumped on his spot then turned around and walked back to where he was sitting.
Maeve closed her eyes again, taking a deep breath. She was sure that he was looking at her when she closed her eyes. But not just looking, ‘looking’.
The last person she needed to get involved with was a royal landlubber, for sure.