The Empress of the Seas

Sitting on the side of the ship I polished my new sword and while the crew worked around me. I looked at my reflection as I sang ‘A Pirates Life for Me’ before switching to my pistol. The salty winds swirled through the air as it was a perfect day for sailing. Now as much as I loved the salty winds they get rather annoying when they blow my hat off of my head as they did now.

Frowning I jumped off the rail and, putting my effects in my belt, I went to fetch my hat. Just as I went to grab it however, it was snatched up by someone else.

“Jack, give me my hat,” I said and put out my hand.

“No,” he stated plainly. I rolled my eyes.

“Fine, keep it.” He looked at my strange but continued to put it on top of his head then go back to the helm.

I’ll just steal yours’ I thought and smiled as I went below deck. Rummaging through one of the many cabinets I looked for the biggest bottles of rum I could find. Once I had four bottles I went to close the cabinet when I saw two little eyes in the darkness. I screamed dropping the bottles and landed on my butt. Only one bottle broke and the animal came out of the cabinet revealing herself to be a black and brown puppy.

“What was that?!” Jack yelled.

“Uh… nothing! Just slipped!” I screamed back to him and couldn’t help but smile as I watched the puppy lap up the rum.

“Where do ye thing ye are going Gibbs?” I heard him say.

“Um just going to see if the rum is ok?”

There was silence for a few seconds before Jack answered, “Good man.” Then I saw a nervous Gibbs run down the stairs.

“Please, Emma, I can explain…”

“She’s yours?” I smiled brightly and picked the puppy up who happily barked and took to herself to give my face a bath. She had tan paws and chest and her ears were slightly floppy. Her muzzle was also tan but around her eyes was more black. The dark brown/black mix of the rest of her fur ran all the way to the end of her tail. The tip of her right ear was gone, probably from a fight with another dog and one of her front paws has a cloth quickly tied around it.

Gibbs sighed in relief that I wasn’t mad. “Jack doesn’t know.”

“I guessed that since she was in the cabinet. Not a great place to hide him though, right in the rum.” I laughed as I put her on the ground and grabbed a towel to wipe up the rum on the floor.

“I know but I panicked. When I brought her on board I was looking for a better place, like maybe make a little spot for her in the kitchen but then I heard Jack come on…”

“And you didn’t want to get caught. Well you have nothing to worry about I’ll make sure Jack doesn’t get a hold of her.”

“Thank you Emma, why were ye down here anyway?” he asked taking two of the rum bottles still on the floor and giving one to me. I happily took it as we sat at the table.

“I needed a distraction for stealing Jack’s hat,” Gibbs laughed but immediately fell quiet when we heard Jack come down the stairs. We both quickly shoved the rum bottles under the table.

“Gibbs! I know rum is a precious thing but how long does it take ye to make sure that it’s ok?!” He paused when he saw us sitting there trying to look innocent. “What’s going on…?”

“Um nothing Jack, why would you ask such a silly question?”

All of a sudden Gibbs sat up right and looked at me, “Emma, where is that towel?” he emphasized towel and I immediately knew what he was talking about.

“Oh right the um… towel! Let me see, where did I put that… towel.” I bent over the chair and tapped the floor lightly trying to get the puppy’s attention. She was still licking the floor where the rum had spilled but trotted over to me when she heard me.

“Emma… It’s on the table…” I heard Jack and I quickly scooped the puppy up and put her on my lap unnoticed.

“Why thank ye Jack! Ye are so smart ye are!” I smiled nervously.

“Ok I’m not stupid Emma, and, as much as I hate to admit it, ye can bluff and ye aren’t trying very hard right now. What’s going on?” I closed my eyes and took a deep breathe before speaking.

I rearranged the puppy so I held her with on hand and looked directly at Jack. “Ye are right, I have to admit; I want something Jack,”

“Which is…” he motioned for me to continue. I sat back in the chair and started to twirl my hair.

“Ye,” I stated and licked my lips. He raised his eye brows not sure whether of not to believe me. “Yes it’s true so can ye do me a little favor?”

He cleared his throat, “Um ye-yeah sure, what is it?”

Can ye go wait for me in your cabin?” I said with my special charm. He watched me for a few seconds before darting up the stairs. I turned to Gibbs to see him start to laugh. “I know him like the back of my hand.”

“What was that?” Jack jumped back down the stairs and the puppy jumped off my lap.

“Crap!” I yelled. She took the loud noise of Jacks’ boots hitting the ground as a threat and was now barking furiously at his feet. Jack screamed; no not in horror, sadly, that would be too funny.

“What the hell is this mongrel doing on me ship?!” That’s what he screamed and took out his gun.

“Jack no!” Gibbs shouted and the cocking of a pistol was heard; only that pistol was mine.

“Put the gun down Jack,” I glared at him and he just starred at me. “Ye heard me. Put it down,” He looked at me with question and I shrugged. “Like ye said, I can bluff, now put it down.”

Slowly he brought his arm down before throwing it on the table. He glared at Gibbs. “What is this?!”

“A dog…” he replied sheepishly as I went over and picked the puppy up.

“And she’s staying!” I yelled at Jack.

“Oh no she’s not! She’s getting left at the next place we stop!”

“No, she’s staying! She is Gibbs’ puppy and I will not have ye just toss her away!”

“Gibbs’! Then Gibbs can get rid of her!”

“No! She’s staying!”

“I order ye to get rid of her!”

I laughed, “Order? I am not part of your crew captain, ye can not order me.”

“Fine but Gibbs can not keep her!”

“Fine! I will! I’ll keep her in my room!”

“Your room? What room? Ye don’t have a room!”

“Oh yeah well,” I looked around the room, “I’ll find one.” I said and stormed above deck.

“Emma get back here!” I ignored him and started looking around the ship. Well I soon discovered going above deck was pointless so I went back below deck and down the hallway that led to the crews’ quarters. “Where do ye think ye are going?!”

Again I ignored him and found a number of closets in the hallway, one of the being only a bit small then his cabin. Setting the puppy on one of the many crates, I went back out and over to the door. Jack walked in behind me and started to walk over to the puppy.

“Ye touch her ye die.” I said plainly as I took a dagger out of my boot that I always kept there and started carving the door.

“Where the hell did ye get that?” Jack yelled referring to the dagger and I sighed.

“Ye are such an unresourceful pirate Jack,” I carved one more letter into the door then stood back to admire my work. “Perfect,” it read: Emma Reads' room, keep out.

“That’s vandalism!” he whined as I turned around.

“Ye’ll get over it, now out!” I yelled.

“Ye can’t make me-”

“Out!” I screamed and he immediately left, closing the door after him. I sighed and turned around to see the puppy still sitting on the box and happily looking to me. I couldn’t help but laugh when she tried to jump down to get to me but wound up tripping and doing a flip in the air. When she sat up right again she smiled up at me in her own way.

“You hungry?” I said and she barked her answer. Smiling I opened the door and walked out with her following me. Right when I was about to go into the galley I heard Jack talking to the crew and paused to listen in.

“Come on Jack, where are we going?” yelled one of the crew members.

“I already told ye all, a place that brings great riches…”

“That’s not good enough!” The crew ranted.

“How do we know ye won’t take it all for yourself?”

“Ok, ok, quiet down,” Jack said. “I don’t know what else to tell ye about it besides that it is a great treasure.”

“Tell them the legend Jack,” Gibbs smiled and Jack glared at him.

“A legend? Ye didn’t tell us about a legend!” The crew yelled then Jack quieted them once again.

He sighed. “It is legend that Calypso is not the ruler of the seas.” Everyone looked at him waiting for him to continue. “As it says, she gets her power from an ancient city who’s empress controls not only the seas but the air and all animals. With that power comes great responsibility however with her people were always coming to her with complaints and things for her to fix; most of these things were caused by humans. One day she got so fed up with it all she created a terrible storm, one so strong it would take down every ship in the sea and destroy all port cities.”

“Normally, this would have no effect on her but because of her rage she hadn’t controlled herself and on top of the storm she created a powerful water tornado and wasted all of her energy. Now her and her people may not be human but they looked exactly like them. The next day a young sailor who had just became captain of his own ship found her floating in the water and took her onto his ship. When the empress woke up she was furious and went above the deck to kill the people who she thought took her captive but when she saw the young sailor she stopped. She couldn’t kill him or any of his crew for a feeling had took her over which she could not explain. That day the empress fell in love with a young human sailor.”

“Now when her people found out about this they felt that the human had hypnotized their empress and that they needed to retrieve her and kill the entire human race. When she found out of her plan she quickly made a bracelet lined with the gem of her home to cloak her existence but to do this she had to put all of her power into it. While staying with her captain she realized that her people were wrong about humans and could not let them wipe out their race. After a few years she told him that she had to face her people. The captain protested at first but gave in and took the bracelet she had giving him. Jumping into the water she told him to sail as far away as possible and she began to swim in the other direction.”

“It didn’t take long for her people to find her and just as they did she sank into the water, drowning herself. Her people blamed the human for it but had to go back to their city for their twenty year grieving process for their leader. What they didn’t know was that before their empress killed herself, she had a child; the rightful heir to the thrown. Now to become the empress ye need to wear this tiara and if ye aren’t the rightful ruler, it kills ye. When the twenty years were up and they looked for the their new leader, they of course knew what had happened and went in search of the daughter but she had received the bracelet from her father many years ago and there was no use finding the father for he was dead.”

“Growing up, this girl learned all the ropes of sailing from her old man. He always told her she ruled the world but she just took it as a father like thing to say. She grew up like any other girl though until she started showing signs of getting the power to control the water. This is when he gave her the bracelet. Now on the ship was her, her father, the crew, and-” Everyone looked to the stairs where I had fell from trying to lean closer and closer without being seen.

“Damn,” I muttered as the puppy barked at all the starring eyes.

“And that’s the end of the legend. Any questions, no? Ok good, I’ll be in my cabin!” Jack ran off to his cabin but stopped when I called his name.

“Please don’t stop story time on account of me,” I smiled and he looked nervous but then glared at the puppy barking at his feet.

“Like I said love, it’s over.”

“Whatever ye say but ye will tell me the rest later and as for now…” I had walked up to him and place a finger on his right ear and circled around him and traced around his lips then to his chin. “My hat,” I snatched my hat off his head and placing it on my head I left for the galley with the puppy at my feet.