-Jade-
I hummed softly to myself, I was being watched by a few people on the busy pier full of pirates, brigands, thieves and rogues. There was a reason for this, I was riding into the harbor on the backs of two sea turtles with a baby seat turtle hugging my ankle.
In the distance I could hear the sounds of cannons firing, I could smell of gun powder in the air among the sea breeze as the gentle winds caressed this loud port town filled with all walks of life. Most of said life was violent, unruly and savage.
It left me wondering, what would my welcoming committee to Turtle Toga be?
The sea turtles were really friendly about allowing me to do this, they stopped at a ladder in the water and I got off of their backs. Turning to them as I clung to the ladder, I had a few words to say to my friends.
“Thanks for the lift, the cool entrance into port and for humoring my silly desires.” I reached up for the rung above the one I was holding onto and I heard a noise behind me. I turned to see one of the turtles holding the baby turtle in its flippers out to me. “Uh, what do you want from me?”
It held the baby up to me, in a ‘take it’ kind of gesture.
“You… want me to take the baby turtle with me.” The two large sea turtles nodded and I groaned. "Are you sure?"
I had heard stories about turtle parenting skills, but this took the cake. Again they were nodded that yes, they wanted me to have the little turtle.
I couldn’t tell you why they thought this was a good idea, even if Turtles were considered a wise creature this was a rather unwise decision on their part.
“Well okay then.” I grabbed the turtle and placed it on my right shoulder, it started to cling to me and nuzzled my neck fur. It even made a cutesy sounding hissing noises. It was probably a female then, female turtles tended to hiss where males tend to growl.
As far as companions went, turtles were generally quiet and friendly. This one wouldn’t be hard to feed as it was vegan species of turtle.
It was only once I was at the top of the ladder that I realized that the baby turtle was not the same species as the two turtles who gave her to me. The two turtles in question were leatherbacks, this turtle on my shoulder was a green sea turtle. I tabled my confusion for the moment.
“Is there any particular reason they wanted you with me?” Who would really expect a response from a young turtle like this one? I probably should have, as it shook its head no to the question. It pointed to itself with its right flipper and hissed a bit before pointing towards me. “You wanted to be with me?”
The tiny turtle nodded and I finished climbing the ladder onto the docks of Turtle Toga with a turtle on my right shoulder. I feel like I was being set up for some sort of cosmic level joke.
“Well I don’t know what to call you, so it’ll be a while before I give you a name.” I started along the pier towards town, at least it was a nice shade of green. “Also, I think you're making poor life choices.”
As I walked along the pier towards town, I spotted something yellow falling in front of me within my peripheral visual range and my foot happened to go down on it.
What followed was me slipping on what I can only assume is a banana peel and doing a complete backflip. I stuck the landing and caught the falling turtle on my right shoulder. I also grabbed my souvenir pirate hat out of the air with my left hand and placed it back on my head.
I blinked for a second and then slowly turned towards the one who threw the banana peel with an angry gaze.
“What exactly were you expecting to happen there?” I asked of the parrot girl just staring at me dumbfounded that I hadn’t fallen flat on my ass, she was laying on a bunch of boxes to my right. “I’m an Abyssinian, we can always land on our feet.”
“For you to take a bad tumble and me getting a good laugh for one. You seem like a smooth operator there captain.” She had black and white feathers, the long black feathers on her head looked almost like they were braided and framing her face. Her bright purple eyes surrounded by white feathers were filled with a sense of wonder as she looked upon me. Upon closer inspection of the lounging anthropomorphic parrot with a bunch of bananas next to her, her long feathers were actually braided together. It was a really neat look for the parrot, she was also wearing a white shirt and black vest and brown pants. “I’m…”
“No, wait, don’t tell me… Jaqueline Sparrow?” Because what else could she be named given her appearance.
“I wish... I’m Jacky Chickadee.” Wait, did Jacky here just confirm to me that there was someone actually called Sparrow in this world? How in the world does that work? Well this is a magical fantasy world with anthropomorphic bird people, so of course it works. “Now who are you captain?”
“Why am I your captain and what’s your angle here?” I wasn’t exactly known worldwide for my exploits yet, yet this Parrot already seemed invested in me. “I just got into town and I lack any form of notoriety whatsoever.”
“Then what better place to start than here, eh my wonderful captain? You need a guide and I need a friend!” Ms. Chick sat up while clasping her hands together and wheedled at me while I just stared at her blankly. She closed her eyes and continued speaking. “You see, it works out for the both of us and I don’t care where you’re going as long as I get to come…. along? Hey, where are you going?!”
I was walking away from this one at an even pace along the strip of buildings with various maritime flavors, I was washing my paws of that parrot immediately!
“To find a decent tailor, get some fresh clothes, receive the one rare as Tartarus soap bar in this dingy town, use it, do some extreme ship shopping and to get away from you!” I continued forward while shouting back over my shoulder. “I can get into all kinds of trouble by myself without your help! Also you didn’t answer my question and tried to dodge it, which would have been more effective if I were a complete idiot.”
“Oh come on, don’t be like that Captain Kitty!” She started to follow me into the town and I ignored her presence.
I passed by several salty sea dogs that were drunk. They were quite literal sea dogs, given that they were Diamond Dogs that seemed to be sleeping off hangovers. Average pirate grunts from the look of it.
I was walking by a store that seemed to sell compasses when the window was smashed outward and I stepped around the unconscious dark blue earth pony stallion on the ground.
There was a pitched fight going on to my right, it was between two cutlass wielding Minotaurs who looked quite skilled at wielding such small and lightweight weapons.
Now if I were a…
A thunderous explosion and a wall of dirt kicked up in my face. I looked at the ground and saw a cannonball resting there, having dug its way into the street ahead of me. That could have killed me, even if I had seen it coming it would have killed me had I been a few seconds faster. I didn’t have a cast or sustain that could have stopped a cannonball cold, except maybe the knife sheath.
“Okay I’m sold on you being my captain! A lesser pirate would have absolutely been in position to lose a limb. All the best pirates are the ones that haven’t lost a limb yet or are quite skilled despite missing one.” I ignored the commentary of the following Jacky. “So where do you want to… hey are you still ignoring me? Come on now captain, I’m offering my services to you with no strings attached you know!”
“It’s the unattached strings or the unseen ones that I’m worried about.” If this were a pirate story, then it was dangerous for me to even acknowledge that Jacky even existed knowing this world.
“Uh hey, you’re not thinking of going in there right?” I looked to the building Jacky pointed out and she seemed a bit reluctant to go in there. It was tavern, just the place I needed to go.
This was a world where two parrots could wrestle over a fish sandwich apparently, I moved past the two pirates fighting for the right to eat said sandwich at the entrance and entered the bar. It was less than what I expected, but it still had the feel of a seedy pirate bar.
I entered a cavernous open room with less than half its furniture smashed, by pirate standards this was probably the ritziest place in all of Turtle Toga.
There was the running dice rolling game at a table with unicorns that all looked to be cheating, their cutie marks seemed to be directly tied to gambling enough for it. I wouldn’t challenge them to a game if I was smart, it seemed to be about who could cheat the best.
I stopped to watch a pegasus mare with a cutlass cutie mark for a few seconds. She was in the middle of beating a diamond dog black and blue with her bare hooves. I decided to steer clear of that altercation.
There was a yak playing a piano… poorly. I would have probably been better off without ears right now, it was the most horrible thing I’ve heard since I got here.
I was noticing a distinct lack of Abyssinians of any kind here, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of an Abyssinian pirate before and I doubt I ever really would. When you were a mercantile nation, it was a bad idea to mess with your people’s ability to survive.
The odd thing out here is that the bartender was a yellow hippogriff with a blue bandana on his head, he looked up from the glass he was wiping. I sat down on the stool and gave the yak a glance.
“A yak on the piano… who did you lose a bet to for that to happen?” The hippogriff gave me a flat stare.
“That’s my wife.” That explained so much about the hippogriff, I looked at his wife and she wasn’t ugly by any means. She was probably a rarity around here and not too bad looking, but her piano playing was destroying my ears.
“That explains a lot about why you haven’t stopped her horrible playing yet, at least she looks nice.” He just nods at me without comment and continues to clean the glass. “Do you know anything about Jacky Chickadee, a place where I can get clean clothes and an airship that nobody would miss if stolen? Given the kind of customers you get around here, you can just point me at whoever you like the least.”
“Yes, on all counts. Jacky’s an odd bird, she believes one day she’ll find a lucky person to follow around by sticking around here. Not many people who are here are lucky in any respect or else they wouldn't call this place home, except for me that is.” He smiled towards the female yak fondly, despite cringing at her piano playing. He got a bowl out and started pouring some cream in it before shoving it to me. “On the house, don’t worry about paying. Anyway, I don’t know why Jacky’s really here, not exactly the safest town for a girl like her. She gets by well enough on her own though, she’s sometimes known as Black Jack.”
“Thanks for the cream.” Sniffing it to be sure it was safe, I picked up the bowl and started to partake in it. The cream was quite tasty and any Abyssinian was keen on eating dairy, except for the exceedingly rare and quite sad lactose intolerant Abyssinian.
“Don’t mention it, because I’m sure my wife will as she likes it when I do nice things for friendly folk.” Eventually the noise, that could barely be called music, stopped and I heard the sound of the yak thundering over to the counter. “If you need some clothes fresh, and not stolen off someone’s back, there’s a shop out the door to the left and down the next street. It’s the only thrift store in town. I'm sure you know why, pirate town and all.”
“Is Eir’s husband being nice and making friends again?” The yak heavy with thick brown fur walked around behind the counter and then pulled the poor hippogriff into a crushing hug that made the poor guys bones pop. The hippogriff really seemed to like it despite the slightly pained look on his face. “Eir is loving Gallant Bluster as life companion.”
“That sounds…” I started to mutter and stopped. If it was the Eir that was known for her medical talents… and her battle prowess as a Valkyrie. For the love of… I just ran into the Norse version of Sekhet. On an island of pirates of all things! “Excuse me, could you remove the stitches from my left shoulder? They’re chafing.”
“How did you know Eir is being good at medicine? Oh right, you are friend of husband, how silly of me to be forgetful! You are being in need of Eir’s care yes?” After finishing my cream, Eir led me to the back room to have my stitches removed. It also led to one very embarrassing medical checkup via Eir the out of place medical Valkyrie.
I came back to the tavern once I was finished getting cleaned up and healed. I was looking much better than when I had left and I was now a fan of the Valkyrie Eir. Gallant addressed me once more.
“As for your last question before my wife dragged you off to see to your health. Yes, I do know of a ship you can take, you’ll be doing me and a few others a big favor.” The hippogriff blushed as his large wife cuddled up to him. “There’s a small pirate airship in particular nearby, it’s the one that’s been firing cannonballs randomly into town and we’d like it to be taken from its three owners.”
Eir nodded in agreement, as did a few of the other patrons when I looked around the tavern.
“It’s been bad for business, the real pirates certainly don’t want to deal with the riffraff until necessary.” Gallant ran a claw through his feathers. “The ship you’re looking for is The Double Dare, it shouldn’t be hard for you to steal.”
“What am I expecting here?” This didn’t sound too problematic.
“Three diamond dogs.” He sighed as another cannon shot was heard. “Without the ship they really won’t be so much trouble.”
I nodded and turned to leave only for a familiar, if younger, green feathered parrot to walk in. The young Celaeno still had both her legs.