TIC: A Little Spark

The Isa Chronicles, Part Two: A Little Spark

Haw!
Alright, here's the prequel. It's not getting written as fast as Lighten Up, Would Ye, but it's coming along...
Warning though, this is NOT nearly as fun as the first one. I can't do straight up angsty shit though so there's a few classic moments in here. heheheheh
Oh, and there's perspective change now... Davy to Isa and back again.
I haven't editted this since January so it's still rusty.

Enjoy!
~caz


“From a little spark may burst a flame.” ~Dante Alighieri

2.1

Two months BDG (Before Drinking Game)

Jones:

Bootstrap Bill Turner was the first to catch sight of the Chrysalis from his roost up in the Nest. He pointed it out and I studied it through my telescope. An average sized ship, tattered but in acceptable condition, made for short transport of goods. A large hold, only a few scattered and drunk sailors on deck. Perfect.

My crew was anxious for battle (as was I) and we were a few men short, so it was not hard to make the decision to board. The tobacco and rum stocks were running short as well, and we all hoped the soon-to-be pillaged ship had adequate supplies. The crew didn’t get much, but when I allowed them to indulge, they did… for hours. The next day was both frustrating and riotously funny, watching the crew stumble about with headaches and blurry vision. I also consumed more than my fair share during some of the colder nights (it was good to be Captain). One of my many vices… couldn’t resist spiced rum or the sweet smell of good tobacco. Supplies were hard to come by, as making port in Tortuga like other ships was not an option. Naturally I could always send my crew to shore to nab some of the finer things, but last time they tried they’d had to cut down half the village in their own defence. I would not allow that to happen again.

Half the torture here was wishing for things that tasted of freedom. That’s why I allowed the rare spot of ‘honest’ pirating (an oxymoron I didn’t mind using in my more whimsical moods), to allow both my crew and myself that taste, because even if it stung more afterwards it was worth it.

It was nearly dusk when we caught up to the ship. The crew was sparse on deck, likely in the galley enjoying supper. I couldn’t suppress a grin thinking about the nasty surprise they were about to get. If there was one thing I would never get sick of during the course of eternity, it was scaring the wits out of unsuspecting sailors…

It took no effort on the part of my crew to secure the deck and bust into the galley. The unfortunate sailors didn’t even have time to draw their weapons before they were cut down. I felt a surge of pride at my crew’s blood-thirstiness and efficiency. In no time at all they had the survivors lined up on deck, some already begging to be spared, some crying, but one kept looking around as if expecting someone.

That one was the Captain of the Chrysalis, Williams I believed his name to be. Thin limbs but a large gut. Straggly hair, horrid smelling. Deceptively handsome in the face, though anybody with any brains would detect something ‘off’ about him. Something rotten. Years of reading the souls of doomed sailors taught me which ones were rotten from the start and which slowly deteriorated from the trials of life.

This one was born ugly.

Watching him kneel on the deck, eyes flickering around, seemingly afraid of something other than my crew bustling around him, I couldn’t help but wonder if I really wanted him on my ship, even if it was for 100 years of slavery. It would be a pleasure to break such a man but was it worth having to tolerate his presence?

And what in the name of the gods was he afraid of if it wasn’t myself and the crew? Or was I just over-thinking it…

My first mate appeared at my side and informed me of a locked door they could not get through. Thinking it unimportant I told him to pay no heed to it, but he insisted, claiming to hear a rustling on the other side. Could be more survivors, he said.

”Could be chickens.” I said shortly, growing impatient. Something about this ship was making me even more short-tempered than usual.

“Pardon me sir, but they’d have to be pretty damned big chickens to be making that racket.”

Maccus was not one to question my orders unless it was for good reason, so I reconsidered. This could be beneficial. “Break it down, and if it is survivors, ye get first pick of th’ loot.”

With a wry grin, Maccus asked, “and if it’s not?”

“Ye eat what IS in there… rats, chickens, whatever.” I grinned at Maccus’s slightly distressed look, enjoying his hesitation. For a man with a shark head he was a rather picky eater.

Surprising me, he upped the bet. “If it IS survivors, I don’t want Kraken-callin’ duties fer a month.” He crossed his arms, confidence returning. Ahhh, so that’s how it is, aye?

“If it ain’t, ye get Kraken-callin’ duties fer two months straight, no complainin’.”

Maccus thought it over a moment, then agreed. He disappeared with four others, including Hadrus, Koleniko and Clanker to bust through the door to collect what was most likely a…

*~*


Isa:

“Bloody bilge rat!”

The pounding at the door resumed after only a minute, harder this time. Sounded like whoever tried before got some reinforcements.

When whoever it was first came knocking, there was no way I was going to let them in, despite reassurances we wouldn’t be hurt. I knew they were pirates, just by the way they talked, and by how footsteps sounded above. Hell, one of them even had a peg leg; I could hear that much…

Who knew what these people would do to us? The slavers were bad enough, but pirates? I’d heard enough about pirates to be afraid. Rape, slaughter, torture, more acts that pirates were notorious for, and the things I wanted to protect the others from. Especially the children, they were sick enough as it was, they didn’t need torture on top of it all.

The attackers didn’t take long to go from reassurances to outright threats, from semi-gentle knocks to violent pounding. When they couldn’t get through they took off for a few minutes. Now it sounded like five or six of them.

Oh, yeah. No problem. HA!

I had told the others to hide behind whatever they could, just in case these pirates got in. Although slim, there might be the chance they wouldn’t be spotted. Being the only one currently capable of fighting, I volunteered to distract the attackers as much as I could, maybe even lead them off while the others escaped. I doubted it would work, but it was worth a shot.

Nahanni, the young, blonde, tribal-adopted woman held her dying child close and wept in one corner, and as much as I hated to do it, I had to try to shush her. The old lady, who I still hadn’t learned the name of yet, crept over to Nahanni and comforted her as best she could. She was a Mohawk, a particularly strong-willed woman, and she’d take good care of Nahanni and her child while she still lived. If the pirates got through the door, she’d fend them off for a good long time too. I’d seen her lift things the slavers couldn’t lift, and out-curse the whole lot of ‘em. Sure, none of us knew what the hell she was saying but the tone was clear enough. I just called her Grandmother.

The hammering at the door went up a few notches and it shook, bending inwards in the middle. They were kicking at the center, hoping to crack the thing in half. I could have laughed, the wood was thick, and it would have taken a battering ram to take the thing down that way. If they had any brains they’d have aimed for the frame. It was secured by metal locks but it would have been the weaker point.

CRACK! What the hell? They got through! The door bent and splintered, and it only took the most minimal of effort for the group of pirates to kick the remaining chunks of wood out of the way, enough to let them file in one by one. FUCK. I should have taken advantage while I had the chance and kicked the shit out of them while they were coming through. Goddamn fear. I pulled the five inch metal pin out of my hair and palmed it, preparing mentally for the battle.

In the slightest light cast through the cracks in the ceiling above, I could see the shapes of five men. They were large but varied in weight… one or two looked big enough to lumber about, so I focussed most on them. Speed would defeat those ones, if I could get around them and out the door there wouldn’t be a problem getting away and having them chase me.

“Hah! I won the bet. Captain’s gonna be pissed,” the one out front said. His voice was like wind over jagged ice, sharp and bitter. The shadow he cast was a little… off. Likely a tri-corner hat or something.

“He’ll find a loophole, seein’ as there’s only one,” said one with a deeper bass voice and an accent.

Well, that answers the question as to whether they spotted me or not.

“This one ain’t a chicken… that should count for somethin’.”

And they’re insane… and circling me. FUCK.

One by one they stepped into the light, and I froze.

They were most definitely pirates, but… not. They were walking nightmares, sea creatures, monsters, wet and rotting and mutated. Half their clothes were eaten off, or rotted off… and the one, who was most definitely NOT wearing a hat, had the head of a hammerhead shark. He also had one hell of a set of talons on him… Ignore it woman, think of the others…

I decided to avoid direct conflict with him, instead choosing the skinny guy with the seashell for a head. The others were either too big or too nasty lookin’ to deal with. Summoning my nerve and whatever strength the Great Spirit blessed me with, I put my fear aside and focussed on getting the hell out of the hold and outside, hopefully to the nearest pointy weapon. With a sudden burst I ran forward, dodging Sea-Shell’s knife-swing just in time, and locked my elbow around his throat. With a quick squeeze I could have broken his neck, but surprisingly his neck gave much too easily and I ended up with a severed head in my arm. Screaming, I tripped backwards over the busted door frame and landed painfully on my back … still with the damned head in my hands.

“Aunido! Help! Follow my voice! Aunido!”

The… but… how… what… talking head… I think the weeks in the ship’s hold finally cracked my brain. This can’t be real. They gave us some bad food and now I’m hallucinating. Yeah. That’s it.

“OW!” The fuckin’ thing bit me! Okay, okay, it’s real, it’s real!

The other four were in hot pursuit, already pushing their way through the door. I took advantage this time, first throwing the seashell head at Hammerhead and hitting him directly in the face… I thought I heard the head say ‘Sorry’ but I was already on my feet and kicking the next guy, so I couldn’t be sure. The next one had spikes all over his face so I kicked him in the belly pushing him back through the door, and the third I shoved my hairpin into his throat. The last one wasn’t so simple, his sword was already drawn and he swung at me before he even brought his body through.

The blade grazed my forearm and I backed away. The thing crouched, laughing evilly as he emerged from the hold. This one’s face was barely recognizable as human, more deep-sea than the others, with big black eyes and a fan-shaped head of rough coral.

The others were already recovering, on their feet and coming through after Coral-Head. I heard Sea-Shell cussing in some Asian language as his leg popped through the door.

Knowing when I was beaten, I spun and ran, hoping like mad I could find my way to the deck and get myself a weapon. I couldn’t beat these guys bare-handed, especially now that I lost my hair-pin… if I could beat them at all. Obviously if their heads could come off with little effect, they were beyond my paltry abilities. In any case, the further I got these things from Grandmother and the others, the better.

I ran into another one half way down the hallway. This one looked like a lobster, and was about half my size. I ran straight up to him and rammed the palm of my hand into his chin, dropping him backwards onto the floor before he could even swing at me.

Oooooh, a sword! “Mine!” I grabbed it up with a grin.

The five other monsters were catching up to me so I started backing down the hall, thinking that’s right you bastards, keep coming… Grandmother, I sure as hell hope you’re getting the others away right about now…

Then I heard the tell tale thump of a man with a peg leg in the hall behind of me. Knowing an easy target when I heard one I prepared myself to spin and kick him in the other knee, just so I could get past him… he’d off-balance easily enough… then I could cut off his head and run like hell…

It might have worked if I didn’t freeze like a coward when I first laid eyes on the giant.

“Holy…”

*~*



Davy Jones:

“…Shit.” All the sailors were lined up and awaiting their dooms, and I was still waiting on fucking Maccus and his chicken-hunting. All I wanted was to get back to my cabin with that tobacco I found in the Captain’s chambers before the others spotted it and whined. Not that their whining made a difference but I’d much rather go without the noise. Impatient and angry I went below-decks to see what the hold-up was, only to see a robed figure barrel down the hallway and knock Penrod on his ass.

Staying silent, I watched the figure retrieve Penrod’s sword, stand up, and swing the sword experimentally like he was testing the weight. The last thing I expected to hear was a victorious feminine exclamation of “Mine!”

It wasn’t so very surprising the fact that there was a woman on this ship, I’d seen plenty over the centuries (but it was unusual… I half wondered if she was the captain’s wench, and felt sorry for her if she was,) but I’d never seen a woman beat down one of my crew before. Penrod may have been small but he was a tough little bugger. And from the looks of Maccus and the others she’d already ran through them as well. Hadrus was carrying his head in the crook of his elbow like he would a small barrel and grumbling, Clanker had something stuck in his throat and Maccus’s nose was bleeding.

The woman started backwards towards me, not even noticing I was there. Mildly offended, I took the last two stairs and started towards her.

She tensed for a moment, stopping dead in her tracks, and then spun to face me, apparently thinking she’d just kick me aside and run.

I froze, as did she.

By all the gold and souls in the world, she was beautiful. I couldn’t see much of her because of the deep hood, but what I saw was stunning. Dark hair, big black eyes, golden-brown skin, high cheekbones… and a scowl that could melt iron. The shadows cast by the hood looked like bruises across her cheek.

She apparently was just as bewildered by seeing me, but not likely for the same reason.

“Holy…” her voice came out in a whisper, shocked to stillness.

Then Maccus had to run smack into her and spoil the whole thing.

The hallway instantly erupted into complete chaos. The woman stumbled forward a few steps but didn’t fall, instead grabbing Maccus’s arm and bending at the waist, twisting him over and tossing him over her back… right into me. I got Maccus’s feet in the gut before he hit the floor. I fell back a couple paces, more shocked at the contact than hurt, but still I could not take my eyes off the battle in front of me.

Maccus was still picking himself off the floor when the woman disembowelled Koleniko with a swift slash of Penrod’s stolen sword. Watered-down blood sprayed out in an arc, leaving droplets all over the wall and all over anyone in the way, including me. I wiped the blood out of my eyes, drew my sword and, stepping over Maccus, advanced on her. Impressive though she may be, I could not allow her to escape. And escape she would if someone didn’t stop her.

She sliced through Clanker’s chain and dropped him with a high kick to the chest, then walked over him, stepping none so lightly on his belly as she moved further down the hall.

It bothered me that she would not face me. It would have been so easy to catch up to her and just take her head while she was looking the other way, but something in my senses, leftover honour maybe, stopped me from doing it. That, and this woman baffled me, and I couldn’t bring myself to dispatch her just yet. Stop her, yes, kill her, no.

Hadrus stood in front of her, holding his head in one arm and brandishing his sword in another. I stepped over Clanker, boxing the woman in. She glanced back at me, then to Hadrus, then to me again, clearly panicked and on the edge of admitting defeat. Her sword shook in her grip, but I wasn’t disappointed in her fear. She’d resisted better than most hardened sailors.

“There’s nowhere t’ go, lass. You fought bravely, but now it’s time t’…”

She interrupted me with a determined sounding, “Fuck it,” and kicked Hadrus’s head out of his hands.

“Ahhhhhh!” His disembodied head screamed as it flew in the air, bounced off the ceiling, and landed in her arms. Again totally dismissing me, she pushed past Hadrus’s flailing body and took off at a dead run down the hallway.

Hadrus’s whining voice carried all the way down the hall, “Captaaaaaaaain! Heeeeeeeeeeelp meeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

I watched her disappear down the hall, then turned to see my crew putting themselves back together. Penrod was up and had Hadrus’s body by the hand, leading it to a stable wall. Clanker was off the floor and frowning at his ball and chain set, now just simple flails. Maccus looked terrified that I’d flog him for kicking me even if it was accidental, and Koleniko was trying to put his guts back in…

I would have laughed if the situation wasn’t so… well, it is funny but it’s also downright embarassin’!… My lip quivered…

I couldn’t take it anymore when Hadrus’s body tripped over some of Koleniko’s innards and fell into a heap. They all jumped when my laughter bellowed down the hallway.

“That… was definitely NOT a chicken!”

It took Maccus’s extremely discomfited face to get me to stop laughing. “Cap’n?”

“Oh, go get her ya useless gits! A shame to the Sea, all o’ yeh!” I waved them off with my claw and leaned against the wall, gasping for air. Oh, I hadn’t had a good laugh in months.

The situation was NOT funny. A woman half my size just mopped the floor with my fiercest fighters, holding up my raid, and didn’t have the good sense to surrender when she had the chance. I only hoped they didn’t kill her so I could…

*~*



Isa:

…get past that last guy, that’s it, one pirate to kill and you’re free. So what if he’s bigger than you, so what if he looks like a rough patch of rock, just slice him open and run like the wind…

Easier said than done, and frankly I was surprised I made it past those four guys in the hallway… there was no way in hell I was going against that giant fuckin’ pirate with the broadsword and who was so obviously a warrior. Something about him told me that he was not a man to piss off. It wasn’t even that he was all that big either. He only felt like a giant because of that strange, well, presence. There was a feeling of ancient pain around him, and coupled with his ice-blue eyes, tentacles for a beard, and crab limbs… Nuh uh. I may be crazy but I’m not a complete lunatic.

As it was I took the alternative and it nearly killed me. I was already hurt from some earlier floggings, not to mention two days of involuntary fasting, and the fight in the hallway drained me almost completely. On top of that my lungs absolutely burned and I was in a near panic. This final pirate monster, Coral-Head, was going to kill me if I didn’t settle down, and settle fast. He’d already wounded me because of my inattention.

The head I carried in my arm kept yelling “Captaaaaaaain!” and I could only assume the blue eyed warrior with the big hat was who Sea-Shell was crying out to.

Coral-Head was near the hold, facing the broken door. I hoped he hadn’t spotted the others, but from the looks of things, he had. He had something dangling in his arms, and as I came upon him he spun around to face me…

“Isa!”

He had one of the children, clutching him under the chin with one sharp-taloned hand and holding his sword in the other, pressing against the boy’s neck. I stopped dead, nearly slipping on the water slick wooden floor.

The child, an orphaned blonde boy named Thomas, wriggled in the monster’s grasp, crying openly but valiantly fighting his captor. The monster growled and gripped him tighter and Thomas squeaked.

The severed head in my arm called out to him. “Palifico, help me!”

“Where’s yer body?” Coral-Face asked.

“Back there somewhere.”

I half-listened to the exchange, focussed mainly on little Thomas and trying to think of a way to get him loose of the monster long enough for him to escape. If I could just…

“Drop the sword or…” the monster interrupted, digging his claws into Thomas’s tender flesh. The poor child whined but kept fighting him. I got the message.

What choice do I have? I lowered my sword, but didn’t drop it. “Let him go.”

“No.” Coral-Face loosened his talons but didn’t let Thomas go. I winced at the blood staining his hand, and I took a step forward intending to rip the child from his grasp, but the monster suddenly looked past me and smiled.

Oh you idiot, was my last thought before someone brought the hilt of their sword down on my head. I fell to the floor hearing Thomas crying and the monsters laugh, and that heavy thump of the crab leg coming closer, then I blacked out.

“Chain her and bring her upstairs with the others.”
*~*


yeah yeah, cliffy. sue me.
no don't, i'm poor.
lol