Waves
1/1
The sea is calm. It stretches everywhere, in all directions; a dark, deep nighttime blue, churning underneath a red-orange canopy. A red sky at night is a sailor’s delight, so the saying has always went. I steer towards the glowing dome of the Sun resting on the horizon, though I know that I will never catch it before the sea swallows it up. The ship, her old bones creak as she treads through the gentle waters while mine creak as I sway in the warm ocean breeze. I’ve been steering her alone for almost a decade now, far into unknown waters, looking for the edge of the world while I remain at the edge of my life.
My name is not important. A forgotten moniker once feared from island to island, from continent to continent. Forget everything except that I’m an old pirate, withering away with the only thing he’s known. My crew has long since died, my fortunes long since spent. All that remains of the past is a weathered, sun bleached, pale blue captain’s hat that shades my tired eyes, along with a body worn from use.
Ah, how could I almost forget about her! The creaking ship is the sole other relic of the past; almost as old as me, yet still sailing like a beauty. Her name is more important, Clear Sky, given years ago by islanders a thousand leagues away. Long forgotten is her true native name, but her sails are as magnificent as any memory has ever seen. They tower above like a wall of sea; the brightest blue that blue can be, also darkening with the sun. The wind picks up and blows her thick waves; strands whip against her wooden face and normally she would wince - yet she didn't. The night sky was a deep, deep red.
I have fought against sea beasts and armies, sailed to all corners of the world, lived a life much longer than any of my companions. I feel that these are my final days at long last, so now I search doggedly for the end. I said that it’s been going on a decade, but it’s funny that I feel like it’s been much less. They say that life flashes before your eyes when you’re about to die. And it does, but I’ve been dying for nearly a decade. My memories have been replayed thousands of times and my future seems as endless as the sea. My hair and beard are grey, my muscles now ache when I used to be able to climb amongst the clouds in her mast, and I can’t even see crow’s nest when I used to gaze clear across nations with my monocular.
I could have settled and lived my last days as a rich man on a remote island. I could have been a king in my own right, king of the pirates, as I almost was. I could have lived to terrorize the blue for another two decades! For the last 30 years of my life, this was my plan, my dream. But, plans sometimes fail, and dreams are sometimes lost.
Yet I still dream. Every night for the past 10 years, I have dreamed of her. Not my ship, the queen of the sea; but a princess of dirt, of civilized lands. Her name is important too, daresay I even more so than my ship. Catherine, the daughter of the king of the most civilized land of all.
We met on an evening just like this, about 10 years ago. A pitiful, foolish excuse for a pirate crew was attacking and looting a lone royal vessel. I watched from a distance and my fleet of 3 ships swept in when the battle was done. The royal ship was burning as it sunk into the blue, my crew and I boarded the smaller ship asking for trade. Then we slaughtered every member of the stupid lot, the royal family would get them anyway. This worked out better for us anyway, when the navy found this ship, they would find the dead crew and none of the valuables, and we would be leagues away.
This was the last act as a vicious man I would ever commit. While ransacking the conquered ship, I saw a young girl with blonde hair crying in the holds. How strong I was back then! I gripped the rusted cell bars and tore them off with my bare hands. I believe that I was in my 40s then, before the disease took. I asked her and she timidly said that she was 16 years old. A mere 16, much younger than myself, yet I saw something more in her deep, nighttime blue eyes. I saw a wisdom and compassion that pierced even my own chest. But I also saw something shadowy shifting beneath the surface, something that reminded me of some of the darkest places I have seen in the blue, something that I found absolutely beautiful. I had to have this princess for my own.
She was captivated by me as well. I was tall and strong, my hair was long and black and wild as it fell down my back. My eyes were still bright and sharp; my mind like a blade. I was the king of the ocean she wanted. Instantly, we caught each other in a net that would eventually sink our entire world.
Against the protests of my crew, I determined to set sail for the civilized lands. The first night we slept in my quarters, I took her innocence, and she my cruelty. My crew tried to dissuade me, push me back out to the blue, but I was in love. The blue was no place for children, which were on the way within the first couple of days. Ha, even my seed was mighty back then! I would return a pregnant princess to a furious king. I was not afraid. My three ships have blasted dozens of those royal canoes into oblivion! But I was arrogant, having already forgotten the pride of a powerful man by the time we arrived at the city.
The king’s pride was wounded indeed after his healers confirmed not one, but two children! The princess was pregnant with the bastards of sea scum. After a long silence, the king ordered for me to be taken away. I fought, slaying at least a dozen guardsmen before they could subdue me. The king said that I was to be hanged at sunset, Catherine pleaded and howled at her father, but the king still possessed his cruelty. As punishment, she would be forced to watch the hanging and her children would be taken before they were born. There was nothing we could do besides scream.
I waited in the dungeon like a caged beast; these bars were not rusted enough for me to break free. Anger gave to despair as I watched the sky darken to red from a crack in the wall up above. They came for me with shackles, a dozen guardsmen. I was brought from the dungeon and into an angry crowd that struck, spit, and shouted curses at me. I walked through and stepped up to the gallows all in silence, my back facing the jeering masses. My love, along with her bastard father and a hooded hangman, awaited me. A priest read halfheartedly from a book of lies, but I didn’t hear a word. I was drinking in the last sights of the blue I ever thought I’d see. But it wasn’t the ocean I was looking at, just beyond the wall, darkening with the blood red sky. It was the blue of Catherine’s eyes, becoming blurred and teary.
When the priest finished, the hangman placed a black sack around my face, Catherine was taken from me and replaced with darkness once again. I felt the noose around my neck; the crowd grew silent except for the royal sobs of a princess. The trapdoor fell underneath me, Catherine cried out, I kicked for the ground yet my feet touched nothing, I dared not relax my throat. I heard a fight break out in the crowd and a voice yelling for the princess. I fell with a suddenness that caused my ankle to be injured, but I was alive. I tore the sack off of my head to see a full blown riot with my crew at the center! The next moments were drawn out long enough for a kingdom to fall.
Turning my head back up to the platform, I saw Catherine looking down upon me. She mouthed the word ‘run!’ before being jerked back violently. I moved, leaping up the steps, returning to the platform just in time to see a bastard king slit his own daughter’s throat.
In my fury, I struck down the hangman when he moved to attack. The king’s eyes were fearful as I advanced; my old cruelty suddenly flooded every vein in my body. The riot was beginning to be quelled by guardsmen, but I was frenzied. Feeling no pain in my injured ankle, I knocked the king unconscious with one blow to the head, threw his fat ass over my shoulder, and bounded over the wall where my ship was waiting in the docks.
The remaining members of my crew welcomed me and we stole away with the king of dirt. I lied, my last act as a vicious man was what I did to him. I strung him naked by the wrists to the bow of my ship, high enough so only his waist would be submerged. Once a day, I climbed down to him myself to force clean water and fine foods down his throat. We sailed for months from island to island, continent to continent. One by one, my crew left to start new lives in new lands. I stayed with the blue, with my ship, and with my king. Day by day, I watched the king wither away. The constant flow of the waves and the motions of the boat seemed to erode his skin away. I watched him swell so that the rusty shackles bit into his waterlogged wrists. I watched his flesh turn from pale white to grey to green and purple. I watched his legs slowly eaten away by little fish and his eyes burn in their sockets by the salt. And if his life ever flashed before his eyes, I hope that he saw nothing of the land. I hope that he saw sharks and giant squid and other terrors of the blue. I hope that he saw his beautiful daughter stained with blood, his kingdom torn away, and the faces of my unborn children. When I found him dead, I raised his body to become the gruesome figurehead of my ship, never to return to the dirt from whence he came.
Now, the globe of the sun is disappearing beneath the waves. I stare out over my wheel, over the empty, salty deck, at the skeleton of a king. His name was not important, another dark secret of the sea, swirling beneath with his long gone flesh. It gazes out over the calm, black ocean, watching for seabeasts and the like, having already seen the end that I so desperately seek. You see, I have lost something dear, something never to be had again. Just like with time, when you’re lost at sea like I am, the only way to go is forward. I have nothing left to see, I have nothing left to learn, I have nothing but my hat, my queen of the ocean, and my long dead guardsman.
Clear Sky trembles above me, her masts creak. What a beautiful ship. I swear she’ll last forever. I hope she does. I would not mind sailing her for an afterlife. Once more, the wind picks up and blows her thick waves; strands whip against her wooden face and normally she would wince - yet she didn't. She never will.
My name is not important. A forgotten moniker once feared from island to island, from continent to continent. Forget everything except that I’m an old pirate, withering away with the only thing he’s known. My crew has long since died, my fortunes long since spent. All that remains of the past is a weathered, sun bleached, pale blue captain’s hat that shades my tired eyes, along with a body worn from use.
Ah, how could I almost forget about her! The creaking ship is the sole other relic of the past; almost as old as me, yet still sailing like a beauty. Her name is more important, Clear Sky, given years ago by islanders a thousand leagues away. Long forgotten is her true native name, but her sails are as magnificent as any memory has ever seen. They tower above like a wall of sea; the brightest blue that blue can be, also darkening with the sun. The wind picks up and blows her thick waves; strands whip against her wooden face and normally she would wince - yet she didn't. The night sky was a deep, deep red.
I have fought against sea beasts and armies, sailed to all corners of the world, lived a life much longer than any of my companions. I feel that these are my final days at long last, so now I search doggedly for the end. I said that it’s been going on a decade, but it’s funny that I feel like it’s been much less. They say that life flashes before your eyes when you’re about to die. And it does, but I’ve been dying for nearly a decade. My memories have been replayed thousands of times and my future seems as endless as the sea. My hair and beard are grey, my muscles now ache when I used to be able to climb amongst the clouds in her mast, and I can’t even see crow’s nest when I used to gaze clear across nations with my monocular.
I could have settled and lived my last days as a rich man on a remote island. I could have been a king in my own right, king of the pirates, as I almost was. I could have lived to terrorize the blue for another two decades! For the last 30 years of my life, this was my plan, my dream. But, plans sometimes fail, and dreams are sometimes lost.
Yet I still dream. Every night for the past 10 years, I have dreamed of her. Not my ship, the queen of the sea; but a princess of dirt, of civilized lands. Her name is important too, daresay I even more so than my ship. Catherine, the daughter of the king of the most civilized land of all.
We met on an evening just like this, about 10 years ago. A pitiful, foolish excuse for a pirate crew was attacking and looting a lone royal vessel. I watched from a distance and my fleet of 3 ships swept in when the battle was done. The royal ship was burning as it sunk into the blue, my crew and I boarded the smaller ship asking for trade. Then we slaughtered every member of the stupid lot, the royal family would get them anyway. This worked out better for us anyway, when the navy found this ship, they would find the dead crew and none of the valuables, and we would be leagues away.
This was the last act as a vicious man I would ever commit. While ransacking the conquered ship, I saw a young girl with blonde hair crying in the holds. How strong I was back then! I gripped the rusted cell bars and tore them off with my bare hands. I believe that I was in my 40s then, before the disease took. I asked her and she timidly said that she was 16 years old. A mere 16, much younger than myself, yet I saw something more in her deep, nighttime blue eyes. I saw a wisdom and compassion that pierced even my own chest. But I also saw something shadowy shifting beneath the surface, something that reminded me of some of the darkest places I have seen in the blue, something that I found absolutely beautiful. I had to have this princess for my own.
She was captivated by me as well. I was tall and strong, my hair was long and black and wild as it fell down my back. My eyes were still bright and sharp; my mind like a blade. I was the king of the ocean she wanted. Instantly, we caught each other in a net that would eventually sink our entire world.
Against the protests of my crew, I determined to set sail for the civilized lands. The first night we slept in my quarters, I took her innocence, and she my cruelty. My crew tried to dissuade me, push me back out to the blue, but I was in love. The blue was no place for children, which were on the way within the first couple of days. Ha, even my seed was mighty back then! I would return a pregnant princess to a furious king. I was not afraid. My three ships have blasted dozens of those royal canoes into oblivion! But I was arrogant, having already forgotten the pride of a powerful man by the time we arrived at the city.
The king’s pride was wounded indeed after his healers confirmed not one, but two children! The princess was pregnant with the bastards of sea scum. After a long silence, the king ordered for me to be taken away. I fought, slaying at least a dozen guardsmen before they could subdue me. The king said that I was to be hanged at sunset, Catherine pleaded and howled at her father, but the king still possessed his cruelty. As punishment, she would be forced to watch the hanging and her children would be taken before they were born. There was nothing we could do besides scream.
I waited in the dungeon like a caged beast; these bars were not rusted enough for me to break free. Anger gave to despair as I watched the sky darken to red from a crack in the wall up above. They came for me with shackles, a dozen guardsmen. I was brought from the dungeon and into an angry crowd that struck, spit, and shouted curses at me. I walked through and stepped up to the gallows all in silence, my back facing the jeering masses. My love, along with her bastard father and a hooded hangman, awaited me. A priest read halfheartedly from a book of lies, but I didn’t hear a word. I was drinking in the last sights of the blue I ever thought I’d see. But it wasn’t the ocean I was looking at, just beyond the wall, darkening with the blood red sky. It was the blue of Catherine’s eyes, becoming blurred and teary.
When the priest finished, the hangman placed a black sack around my face, Catherine was taken from me and replaced with darkness once again. I felt the noose around my neck; the crowd grew silent except for the royal sobs of a princess. The trapdoor fell underneath me, Catherine cried out, I kicked for the ground yet my feet touched nothing, I dared not relax my throat. I heard a fight break out in the crowd and a voice yelling for the princess. I fell with a suddenness that caused my ankle to be injured, but I was alive. I tore the sack off of my head to see a full blown riot with my crew at the center! The next moments were drawn out long enough for a kingdom to fall.
Turning my head back up to the platform, I saw Catherine looking down upon me. She mouthed the word ‘run!’ before being jerked back violently. I moved, leaping up the steps, returning to the platform just in time to see a bastard king slit his own daughter’s throat.
In my fury, I struck down the hangman when he moved to attack. The king’s eyes were fearful as I advanced; my old cruelty suddenly flooded every vein in my body. The riot was beginning to be quelled by guardsmen, but I was frenzied. Feeling no pain in my injured ankle, I knocked the king unconscious with one blow to the head, threw his fat ass over my shoulder, and bounded over the wall where my ship was waiting in the docks.
The remaining members of my crew welcomed me and we stole away with the king of dirt. I lied, my last act as a vicious man was what I did to him. I strung him naked by the wrists to the bow of my ship, high enough so only his waist would be submerged. Once a day, I climbed down to him myself to force clean water and fine foods down his throat. We sailed for months from island to island, continent to continent. One by one, my crew left to start new lives in new lands. I stayed with the blue, with my ship, and with my king. Day by day, I watched the king wither away. The constant flow of the waves and the motions of the boat seemed to erode his skin away. I watched him swell so that the rusty shackles bit into his waterlogged wrists. I watched his flesh turn from pale white to grey to green and purple. I watched his legs slowly eaten away by little fish and his eyes burn in their sockets by the salt. And if his life ever flashed before his eyes, I hope that he saw nothing of the land. I hope that he saw sharks and giant squid and other terrors of the blue. I hope that he saw his beautiful daughter stained with blood, his kingdom torn away, and the faces of my unborn children. When I found him dead, I raised his body to become the gruesome figurehead of my ship, never to return to the dirt from whence he came.
Now, the globe of the sun is disappearing beneath the waves. I stare out over my wheel, over the empty, salty deck, at the skeleton of a king. His name was not important, another dark secret of the sea, swirling beneath with his long gone flesh. It gazes out over the calm, black ocean, watching for seabeasts and the like, having already seen the end that I so desperately seek. You see, I have lost something dear, something never to be had again. Just like with time, when you’re lost at sea like I am, the only way to go is forward. I have nothing left to see, I have nothing left to learn, I have nothing but my hat, my queen of the ocean, and my long dead guardsman.
Clear Sky trembles above me, her masts creak. What a beautiful ship. I swear she’ll last forever. I hope she does. I would not mind sailing her for an afterlife. Once more, the wind picks up and blows her thick waves; strands whip against her wooden face and normally she would wince - yet she didn't. She never will.
Fin.