Disclaimer: I do not own the story or any rights to Pirates of the Caribbean Online. This story is merely for fun and an outlet for my imagination. Thank you.
Ahoy mates! Kat Crestshot here again. Got a brand new chapter here, and this is the chapter I originally tried posting on my blog, but couldn't because it was too long, making me revert back to posting on here. Since it is much longer than the previous chapters, I'd like to believe it's more interesting and has more detail. But, hey, I'm biased.
Haha, anyway mates, here you go, the next chapter about the story of Kat Crestshot.
Her Rescuer
Perhaps it was bad luck for her to be on a boat. At the poking and prodding of Jolly Roger at her back, Kat leapt into the cold, dark waters of the Caribbean. Roger had said something about sharks, but luckily she didn’t see any near her. However, all she had was the light of the moon, so she swam carefully yet quickly away from Bo Beck’s sinking ship. She was just glad that she knew how to swim, being as how in any other case she would be persecuted as a witch just for floating. Silently, she thanked her younger brother for insisting that she know how to swim before heading out with her husband.
She almost drifted off thinking about her family in the cold, unforgiving waters of the Caribbean. It was only the evil cackle of Jolly Roger finally sailing away that brought her back from floating to her death. With new strength, she pummeled through the water, heading for the distant land in front of a rising sun.
Too soon, her strength began to weaken. First it was that her strokes merely got slower, but as time progressed, she was left floating, trying to pull from her reserves of strength to paddle just once more, and then once more again. At long last, she tiredly grabbed onto a plank of wood that was still left from the remnants of Beck’s ship. At this point, she couldn’t push herself any more. In the sun that had risen in the time she had been swimming, Kat lay her head down and closed her eyes.
They didn’t stay closed for long. Not even a minute passed before she opened her eyes again to the sound of laughter. With squinting eyes from the salty sea, Kat raised her head wearily to see a ship approaching her. She tried to cry out for some help, but only ended up croaking. The water had come into her throat, making it scratchy and raw. The salt infected her vocal chords, making it so that when she spoke, it was nothing more than a whisper or a croak. As she tried again, the rushing sounds of the waves covered up her measly attempt of speaking. She laid her head back down on the plank of wood, about to give up.
The sound of alarmed yelling from the ship caused her to look up again. A young man was hanging off of the side of the ship, crying out in her direction. She saw him waving inside the ship and yelling something incoherent. With her ears filled with water, all she heard was some weird bubbly sloshing in place of his speech.
More men came to the side of the ship to see for themselves the woman floating in the sea. A few of them ran back into the boat and grabbed some ropes, throwing them over the side of the ship so she could reach for them, yelling at her to reach. Kat was so close to the brink of unconsciousness though, she could barely keep her head up to look at what the men were doing. As the men saw that she wasn’t reaching for the ropes, the man who originally saw her started lowering the dingy on the side of the ship. Once the rest of them saw what he was doing, the grabbed a hold of the ropes for him and began lowering it as well while he jumped into the dingy.
The small boat hit the water with a loud splash and a wave of water that hit Kat directly in the face. Her eyes reflexively closed and she spluttered a bit to get the water out of her mouth. When her eyes opened again, the man was sitting in the boat right in front of him, offering his hand. Kat gingerly took it, and he pulled her nearly dead weight into the dingy with her. She plopped into the craft and lay down, closing her eyes and somehow finding herself able to breathe easier. The stranger rowed back to the larger vessel, where the rest of the crew pulled the two up to the ship.
When the dingy reached the deck, the man picked her up and placed her in the arms of a different man. Vaguely, she heard a man yell with authority to take her to his cabin. She was carried across the shifting ship and heard a door open. Shade was brought to her aching face and she was placed on something soft. She gave a small sigh of content and shifted a bit, almost not believing the comfort she had. Her eyes opened slightly at the sound of the men silencing outside of the cabin as the man who had ordered she be put in the cabin spoke above the others.
“Now listen, crew,” he said with authority. “I know she’s a lady and all, but no barging in on her. She’s to be treated as a guest. None of you scoundrels are to be bugging her. You got me?”
“Aye captain,” murmured the rest of the men.
“Good,” said the captain. “Now back to your duties. We have to make haste for Port Royal.”
Kat smiled as she heard she wouldn’t be bothered. Company was the last thing she wanted at the moment. After all she had been through, all she wanted to do was sleep for a bit of time, and hope no nightmares came from her experiences of the past 24 hours. Her eyes closed again, and she fell asleep.
She woke a bit later to a muttered conversation happening at the door of the cabin. Her eyes opened to see a tall, fat man at the door of the cabin, conversing with someone on the outside of it. Kat moved her head a bit to see around the wide man and saw her rescuer. He seemed to be a bit annoyed at the man blocking the door.
“C’mon mate, I only want to see her for a moment,” he told the man.
“I told you, Captain said no,” the man said aggressively. “She ain’t to be having no visitors till we be reaching port.”
“Ah, come on Marcus, be a good lad,” said her rescuer good naturedly. “I am the one who rescued her, am I not? Don’t I deserve to just see her?”
The man, Marcus, seemed to battle with himself for a moment. It seemed that her rescuer was only a little bit away from getting into the cabin to see her. If Kat was telling the truth, she wouldn’t mind him coming in. She wanted to see the man that had rescued her. However, she let the men continue their little quarrel, not wanting to get in the way of a captain’s orders.
Marcus seemed to finally give in. “All right, you can go in and see her,” he muttered. “But mind you, if the captain find out, it’ll be both our heads, savvy?” he told her rescuer gruffly. He moved to the side a bit so her rescuer could get in.
“Don’t worry about it Marcus,” he responded, slapping the man on the arm on his way past good naturedly. “I wouldn’t harm a hair on her head. What would have been the point in rescuing her then?” He smiled.
Her rescuer walked into the room. He was thin, but he seemed to be strong and with muscle. Kat supposed working on a ship would do that to you. He had red hair that seemed to jut out sharply in the front and went past his ears in the back. On top of his hair perched a rather worn looking brown hat. There was also a thin mustache that just danced on the top of his lip, and a short beard that didn’t fall around his chin like some men did. His skin was well tanned, probably from working the deck of the ship, and he wore a tight fitting, light blue tank top with a pair of baggy, light blue pants and what seemed to be a pair of worn but sturdy pair of brown boots on his feet.
He walked up to her with confidence, and smiled when he saw she was awake, obviously pleased. “Hello my lady,” he said, bowing graciously. “It is good to see you awake, especially after the rough ride you went through in the ocean.” Her rescuer stared at her for a moment, seemingly captivated by her, before glancing down at the bundle in his hands. “Um, I hope you don’t mind, but I brought you some new clothes.” He set the bundle down on the table next to her head before backing away quickly. “Perhaps they aren’t exactly befitting a woman, they’re pants and such, but it will be better than that dress likely ruined by saltwater.” There was another silence where he seemed to expect her to say something. Kat said nothing, merely studying her rescuer curiously. He had the most vivid green eyes…
He seemed to feel a bit awkward, so he turned and began to walk toward the cabin door, saying, “I’ll just leave you to your rest then-”
“Who are you?” she called before he could leave. Her rescuer turned away from the door with a smile. He was silhouetted in the sun from the window behind him. Kat was enchanted.
“Lawrence,” her rescuer replied. “My name is merely Lawrence ma’am. And if I may be so bold, what is yours?”
“Kath-” She almost said Katherine before remembering that wasn’t her name any more. “My name is Kat. Kat Crestshot.”
“Well, it is very nice to meet you, Mrs. Crestshot,” he replied before exiting the cabin.
Mrs. Crestshot? Kat thought. Where had Lawrence gotten the Mrs. from? She glanced down at her left hand where it rested on the bed sheets. Her wedding band sparkled up at her. Oh. Now she knew.
She rotated her hand, admiring the ring as if she had just received it. It was such a pretty item of something that reminded her of such an ugly man. Perhaps she could sell it. The ring was very nice, well crafted with some diamonds in it, and she would need money when she reached Port Royal. Yes, she would sell it. The sooner it was off her finger, the better.
Now she viewed the clothes Lawrence had brought her. It was unfathomably kind of him to give them away, especially since he had already saved her life. Gingerly, she sat up and swung her legs out of the bed, feeling the protest from her sea-worn muscles. She reached for the clothes, the rough texture moving underneath her fingers. These definitely weren’t the types of clothes she was used to. For one, she had worn dresses her entire life, and what she had in her hands were definitely pants. Second, these were heavy clothes, made for hard work on stormy waters. These were completely different from anything she had worn before, but perhaps it was for the better. Perhaps now she had to change every aspect of her life, including her clothes.
She stepped out of her salt soiled dress and let it drop to the floor and slipped out of the dainty little shoes she had worn since England. She wasn’t worried about anyone walking in on her, what with the man named Marcus guarding the door. With little hesitation, she stepped into the light tan pants that Lawrence had brought her, finding them surprisingly snug about her legs, but not her waist. There was a baggy, dark green shirt as well that she slipped on, with a tan colored vest put over that. There was a dark brown belt that held her pants up at the waist. Her feet slipped into a pair of heavy brown boots that were a bit too big, but were strong. A long, dark mossy green coat went over the entire entourage, piecing it together quite nicely.
At the moment she slipped the jacket on, there was a knock on the door, and the voice she had identified earlier with the captain called inside, asking if it was alright if he came in. Kat slipped underneath the covers of the bed again, taking her dress with her and hiding the clothes she wore. She didn’t want Lawrence to get in trouble for seeing her and the captain would certainly inquire as to where her clothes had come from. Once she got herself situated, she called out that it was fine if he came in. The moment the captain stepped through the door, Kat feigned drowsiness, hoping the man would not bother her too much if he saw she was still resting.
The captain walked in, nearly blocking the light from the doorway with his girth. It wasn’t that the man was fat, but that he was tall, with large muscles, much like her bodyguard. He looked like a man who had worked hard to get to where he was, perhaps not entirely by reasonable means. He had a large, graying beard and small, sharp eyes. This was not a man Kat would like to mess with. She burrowed a little deeper into the sheets as he stepped into the small cabin, not wanting him to see her body with his piercing gaze.
The captain stepped toward the bed. “Hello Miss,” he said gruffly. “My name is Captain James Donaldson.” He stepped forward and bowed shortly, seemingly more of a formality than a force of habit. “You had a right fall miss, but we’re headed for Port Royal now, so we can drop you off there while we drop cargo as well.”
“Thank you very much for your kindness,” Kat said meekly. “If you’d like, I can pay you once we reach port. Surely with all the trouble you have gone through-”
“Nonsense,” said Donaldson, cutting across her speech. “It’s a pleasure to help a fine young lass like yourself out of a rough spot. All I ask is that you stay on Port Royal and not come further with us. I’m afraid I have a few superstitious men aboard my ship that don’t take kindly to the presence of a woman.”
That superstition again! From the looks of it, the captain was one of those superstitious men who didn’t want her aboard the boat. She sighed internally. Perhaps it was for the best if she just stayed on land. Surely the sea wasn’t for her.
“Very well captain.” Kat agreed. “I shall not follow you from Port Royal once we dock.” The captain looked pleased at this news.
“Excellent. Now, if you’ll excuse me miss, my crew needs attending to. We’ll be arriving at Port Royal shortly.” The captain beat a hasty retreat out of the cabin, and she heard him begin to bark at the crew.
Kat busied herself with her thoughts while the crew worked to make haste toward Port Royal. It wasn’t too long. Only about three hours passed before she heard the men yelling about land and getting ready to dock. Kat braced herself for stepping outside of the cabin and onto the dock of Port Royal. She had things to do.
Well, what do you think? A bit of a break from the norm, aye? Anyway, constructive criticism is welcome. I'll probably try to get the next chapter up Thursday or Friday. Thanks for reading!
-Kat Crestshot