Status: Nanowrimo story, working on updates constantly
Paper Bindings
Open Waters
The name's Sonja Maria Alonses, captain of the Stronghold, the biggest and, if I do say so myself, the best pirate ship ever to sail these open waters!
Now, one would agree I'm pretty special, after all, how many wenches end up being a pirate captain? That's not what sets me apart from all the others though.
Ya see, I don't just stay to my own story like a character should. I'm one of the rare few that can break through our paper bindings. I'm a page hopper. It may be a blessing in disguise, or perhaps a curse, but it's a gift all my own, and it'll take me places that I could never go.
Now I may be a pirate, but I tell ya, my purpose lies in these here pages, whether I want it to or not.
Sonja had faced many great challenges in her 15 years. She'd climbed a mountain when she was only 9, taken over the largest pirate ship in the Delphinus Sea when she was only 13, and robbed a greedy king blind before he could spend his filthy gold on forced labour and factories. She'd battled landlubbers and swashbucklers alike, rarely ever falling with defeat, taken up arms against the kings finest knights, crept within the deep catacombs of the royal family in search of nothing merely more than adventure, and traveled from story to story unlike anyone had ever seen.
Perhaps her greatest challenge though, was teaching the stubborn Henry Williams to accept the word "no!"
"Just take me once So! Then I'll shut up forever!" the boy cried as the two began to spar.
Sonja caught his wooden blade with her own and knocked it to the ground before he could even lay a hit. "Aye, right, ya bloody liar! You'll ask to go again, and again, and again! Besides, ya ain't a hopper!"
The young pirate muttered to himself as he picked up the toy sword. He then prepared to start again, but not before throwing in his opinion. "Aye, and how do you know So? I just don't have a book ta hop! I've seen people hoppin' all the time usin' only one book!"
Henry was a sharp tongued 16 year old with ebony hair hanging in his saucy blue eyes and a devilish smile permanently on his lips. Likely, he wasn't a bright boy, after all, he was the only pirate dumb enough to talk back to his captain. There was always the possibility though, that this seemingly stupid boy was smart and had realized several important traits about the pirate queen.
She was half his weight for one, and barely reached his shoulders standing on the tips of her toes. He'd often mess up her golden brown hair to see if she'd get mad, kiss her on the cheek to see if she'd turn red when no one was around, (and this worked every time, he noted proudly) and of course, he'd beg, and beg, and beg some more to take him along when she jumped into a new story, a trick that only the two of them knew of.
"Aye, but you need someone ta let ya use the book!" Sonja smirked, she finally had decided she'd won, whether Henry agreed or not.
Clearly, he didn't. Instead, he flipped his hair out of his eyes and smirked. "Or I could jus' jump in after ya!"
"And defy your captain's orders?" the captain retorted, hoping the boy wouldn't be stupid enough to say yes.
But of course, she hadn't ever considered the boy intelligent in any way. "Then yes, I'll defy my cap'n's orders."
She scowled, her blue eyes turning to flames, and turned away. "You're askin' for the plank boy!"
"While we're docked Cap'n? I don't think the pier owner would appreciate me blood on their new boards."
Sonja hadn't paid attention to a word he said, and instead, had already started walking away, not so much as turning her head back to look at him. "G'bye Henry!"
The captain slipped off into the crowd before Henry could follow after her. From the satchel on her hip, she pulled a heavy book bound in brown leather. An antique lock, now rusted and tarnished, held it shut to protect it's precious secrets and powers. Around Sonja's neck on a string from a fishing net was the key, just as aged as it's counterpart.
With a light gasp she pulled the key off her chest, the metal growing hotter and hotter until it left a faint burn on her tanned skin. The book needed her somewhere, but where exactly, she didn't know. Either way, she needed to hop.
"The city's too crowded, the alleys are visible, the hilltop, that's it!"
"What's it Cap'n? Have ya decided where we're off to next?"
Sonja shot around to see Tila, the cook's daughter standing behind her. The young cabin girl, dressed in her typical over the top ruffled skirts and laced up bodice, had several cookbooks clasped in her arms, and likely a couple more in the overstuffed burlap sack hanging limply from the crook of her elbow.
"Nay, um, just saw the perfect stop ta read! Tell the crew I'll be back in a few hours, won't cha Til?" Sonja asked with a wink.
Tila twisted her nose. "A pirate cap'n readin', sounds a bit weird, don't it Cap? I mean, we've been docked five days, the land locals are startin' ta notice we ain't normal traders. Shouldn't we get packed up?"
Sonja shrugged. "No one'll notice if ya don't talk so loud now Til. I'll be back in a few hours, you go have some fun, eh kiddo?"
The land anxious cabin girl sighed. "Alrighty Cap'n, I'll see ya then."
Once again, Sonja slipped off into the crowd and out if the seaside town. The hill was empty, and if anyone could see her, they must have been spying or hiding.
"So where are we going today?" she asked. She no longer faked the pirate dialect, which had faded the more and more she left her story. She then that took the key from her neck and unlocked the book. Without so much as gently putting it down, she dropped the book onto the grass. It opened on a page with a beautiful valley painted on the left hand side of the page. The writing was done by hand, and seemed to be in another language. "Book, I swear, if this another fairytale, I will burn you!"
The key grew hot enough to burn again in her hand in response.
"Ow, fine, I'll go! Just cut that out already! Hurry and open up the portal if you're in such a rush!"
It was well enough to say Sonja wasn't particularly a fan of her book, she's often considered switching it with another hoppers. It was stubborn, it had it's own goals, and it most certainly did not respect Sonja. It wasn't as if you could strike fear into the heart of a book, win it over with your charisma, or honestly earn it's respect. After all, it was a book. A saucy book with too much personality for Sonja's liking, but a book none the less.
The grass on the hill began to glow in different shades of blue, silver and violet, the colours began to leap off of the page and spill into the world around them, even climbing up and swirling around Sonja herself. The pages, now blank, emitted a glow that would draw anything to them.
Sonja took a deep breathe before backing and at running full force at the book. She jumped into the book like it was water and vanished into the next story, the book falling through the coloured grass with her.
Now, one would agree I'm pretty special, after all, how many wenches end up being a pirate captain? That's not what sets me apart from all the others though.
Ya see, I don't just stay to my own story like a character should. I'm one of the rare few that can break through our paper bindings. I'm a page hopper. It may be a blessing in disguise, or perhaps a curse, but it's a gift all my own, and it'll take me places that I could never go.
Now I may be a pirate, but I tell ya, my purpose lies in these here pages, whether I want it to or not.
Sonja had faced many great challenges in her 15 years. She'd climbed a mountain when she was only 9, taken over the largest pirate ship in the Delphinus Sea when she was only 13, and robbed a greedy king blind before he could spend his filthy gold on forced labour and factories. She'd battled landlubbers and swashbucklers alike, rarely ever falling with defeat, taken up arms against the kings finest knights, crept within the deep catacombs of the royal family in search of nothing merely more than adventure, and traveled from story to story unlike anyone had ever seen.
Perhaps her greatest challenge though, was teaching the stubborn Henry Williams to accept the word "no!"
"Just take me once So! Then I'll shut up forever!" the boy cried as the two began to spar.
Sonja caught his wooden blade with her own and knocked it to the ground before he could even lay a hit. "Aye, right, ya bloody liar! You'll ask to go again, and again, and again! Besides, ya ain't a hopper!"
The young pirate muttered to himself as he picked up the toy sword. He then prepared to start again, but not before throwing in his opinion. "Aye, and how do you know So? I just don't have a book ta hop! I've seen people hoppin' all the time usin' only one book!"
Henry was a sharp tongued 16 year old with ebony hair hanging in his saucy blue eyes and a devilish smile permanently on his lips. Likely, he wasn't a bright boy, after all, he was the only pirate dumb enough to talk back to his captain. There was always the possibility though, that this seemingly stupid boy was smart and had realized several important traits about the pirate queen.
She was half his weight for one, and barely reached his shoulders standing on the tips of her toes. He'd often mess up her golden brown hair to see if she'd get mad, kiss her on the cheek to see if she'd turn red when no one was around, (and this worked every time, he noted proudly) and of course, he'd beg, and beg, and beg some more to take him along when she jumped into a new story, a trick that only the two of them knew of.
"Aye, but you need someone ta let ya use the book!" Sonja smirked, she finally had decided she'd won, whether Henry agreed or not.
Clearly, he didn't. Instead, he flipped his hair out of his eyes and smirked. "Or I could jus' jump in after ya!"
"And defy your captain's orders?" the captain retorted, hoping the boy wouldn't be stupid enough to say yes.
But of course, she hadn't ever considered the boy intelligent in any way. "Then yes, I'll defy my cap'n's orders."
She scowled, her blue eyes turning to flames, and turned away. "You're askin' for the plank boy!"
"While we're docked Cap'n? I don't think the pier owner would appreciate me blood on their new boards."
Sonja hadn't paid attention to a word he said, and instead, had already started walking away, not so much as turning her head back to look at him. "G'bye Henry!"
The captain slipped off into the crowd before Henry could follow after her. From the satchel on her hip, she pulled a heavy book bound in brown leather. An antique lock, now rusted and tarnished, held it shut to protect it's precious secrets and powers. Around Sonja's neck on a string from a fishing net was the key, just as aged as it's counterpart.
With a light gasp she pulled the key off her chest, the metal growing hotter and hotter until it left a faint burn on her tanned skin. The book needed her somewhere, but where exactly, she didn't know. Either way, she needed to hop.
"The city's too crowded, the alleys are visible, the hilltop, that's it!"
"What's it Cap'n? Have ya decided where we're off to next?"
Sonja shot around to see Tila, the cook's daughter standing behind her. The young cabin girl, dressed in her typical over the top ruffled skirts and laced up bodice, had several cookbooks clasped in her arms, and likely a couple more in the overstuffed burlap sack hanging limply from the crook of her elbow.
"Nay, um, just saw the perfect stop ta read! Tell the crew I'll be back in a few hours, won't cha Til?" Sonja asked with a wink.
Tila twisted her nose. "A pirate cap'n readin', sounds a bit weird, don't it Cap? I mean, we've been docked five days, the land locals are startin' ta notice we ain't normal traders. Shouldn't we get packed up?"
Sonja shrugged. "No one'll notice if ya don't talk so loud now Til. I'll be back in a few hours, you go have some fun, eh kiddo?"
The land anxious cabin girl sighed. "Alrighty Cap'n, I'll see ya then."
Once again, Sonja slipped off into the crowd and out if the seaside town. The hill was empty, and if anyone could see her, they must have been spying or hiding.
"So where are we going today?" she asked. She no longer faked the pirate dialect, which had faded the more and more she left her story. She then that took the key from her neck and unlocked the book. Without so much as gently putting it down, she dropped the book onto the grass. It opened on a page with a beautiful valley painted on the left hand side of the page. The writing was done by hand, and seemed to be in another language. "Book, I swear, if this another fairytale, I will burn you!"
The key grew hot enough to burn again in her hand in response.
"Ow, fine, I'll go! Just cut that out already! Hurry and open up the portal if you're in such a rush!"
It was well enough to say Sonja wasn't particularly a fan of her book, she's often considered switching it with another hoppers. It was stubborn, it had it's own goals, and it most certainly did not respect Sonja. It wasn't as if you could strike fear into the heart of a book, win it over with your charisma, or honestly earn it's respect. After all, it was a book. A saucy book with too much personality for Sonja's liking, but a book none the less.
The grass on the hill began to glow in different shades of blue, silver and violet, the colours began to leap off of the page and spill into the world around them, even climbing up and swirling around Sonja herself. The pages, now blank, emitted a glow that would draw anything to them.
Sonja took a deep breathe before backing and at running full force at the book. She jumped into the book like it was water and vanished into the next story, the book falling through the coloured grass with her.