//------------------------------// // Chapter thirty nine, a pirate’s strife for me: Swell. // Story: Airship Mauled // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Gallant’s Tavern, Jacky- “Thanks Mrs. Bluster…” I groaned out as she rubbed burn ointment into my feathers. “I must look like a mess.” “I am always willing to help friends of husband and me.” Eir was really quite helpful to have around. “Did you really need to unbraid my feathers?” The long feathers that tended to hang loosely at my back where well kept, I spent each morning on them cleaning them before braiding them. “I am needing to check your health, feathers on head are still in good even when you got close to flaming death.” I felt a tug at the base of my spine. “Tail feathers being damaged though, I need to trim off the charred bits and it should be growing back fine. Am I allowed to do this for you?” “Do what you have to Eir, I think I’m going to sleep now.” I’m surprised I could still hear her after all the dynamite. My exhaustion was getting to me, on top of the shock from all those dynamite sticks, nearly being burned to death and being badly bruised. “So tired…” -Some time later- I gasped and sat up, I groaned in pain and my limbs kind of felt like lead at the moment. Feeling a gentle hoof press against my chest, I was pushed back down slightly. “You are needing rest after nearly having lungs collapse, I am cleaning clothing and have washed your body for you… I am also finding strange cursed coin.” Eir was just giving me a run down. “Burnt tail plumage is being trimmed and will grow back in time, aside from tail being slightly shorter you are otherwise still pretty in overall appearance friend.” “Meh, never cared that much about how I look. I will still say I’m definitively far more feminine than my sisters are, and that’s saying something. Thanks for explaining why I’m naked in bed and have bandages wrapped around various parts of my body.” My head flopped down on the pillow and I felt my feathers fanning out. My head felt kind of odd and naked without my skullcap and evenly distributed braids. “How’s the port looking and how long have I been out for Eir? Also be careful with that cursed coin, you should never flip it up into the air or it will likely give you bad luck eighty percent of the time.” “You are destroying every ship in port except for one, it is very strange. It has been ten hours since you’ve passed out.” Eir tilted her large head and smiled at me calmly. “Also where you are finding coin that can shift luck around?” “Turtle Toga ruins… where’s Trident Tail? I figured he’d want to see me when I woke up, as for the one ship…” I looked to the ceiling. “That one would happen to be mine.” “You are being both very lucky and very unlucky then… is luck currently balanced neutrally thanks to coin?” It was kind of obvious Eir. “Yep, accidentally flipped a heads on the coin, gained luck from it. Don’t know how long that’ll last.” I lifted my left arm and flexed my talons. The bandages wrapped around my wrists and palm tightened painfully. “Though what’s unlucky about me surviving a deadly magical boulder and still having a ship to get off the island?” “A lot of pirates around Turtle Toga are likely wishing to murder you for being, ‘Black Jack the ship sinker’.” It made sense Eir, even when I’m luck neutral I’m still batting a thousand for lacking luck overall. “It figures, even if I had the full power of the good fortune garnet directed at me I’d probably still be under threat of an apocalypse happening.” I just laid there quietly after saying this. “I am going to get anugypt feline with lily petals for mane, will that be cheering you up?” Eir made to leave the room. “Also I am suggesting holding off on any strenuous activity with Viking griffon that tenderly carried you in here!” “We’re not exactly there yet Eir and I don’t think we will be for the most part of a year, we need to get in a few more dates!” I watched Eir leave and I sighed, I’m surprised Gallant and Eir were still willing to shelter me. “I kind of wished I was old enough to go on that ride.” Didn’t know how long the neutral luck would last, but I’m quite sure that it would give me just enough time to recover. I could feel a tiny smile cross my beak as Nefer ran into the room and leapt onto the bed to look at me. “How do you feel captain?” Nefer looked cute with a green skullcap, it didn’t look like mine does though. He cuddled up next to my neck purring happily. “How do you think I feel Nefer?” I was almost killed by a crazy boulder and now have a lot of pirate’s out for my blood while I’m injured, on the bright side none of the searching pirate’s knew the only ship left was ours. Once I was good enough to get to the map shop and hire two more people, we’d have to quietly leave port before someone gets suspicious about The Ardent Survivor being perfectly fine. “Like you got chewed up by a dragon and blasted out its flaming backside Captain Blackcap.” Nefer received a disbelieving look from me. “At least that’s what Mr. Bluster said when he saw you.” “Such is life, I didn’t think you were creative enough to come up with something like that Nefer. Remind me to teach you how to curse like a pirate later.” I stared at him a bit and something occurred to me. “How did you get to Turtle Toga? You said you’ve only been here for about a year.” “I fell into a river and spent some years floating around in the ocean doing nothing, it was kind of fun at times and at others really, really boring. At least no large fish tried to eat me and it was always kind of warm and sunny.” Sounded like Nefer really didn’t worry about much. “I’m pretty sure I would taste horrible if a big fish actually did try to eat me. I also made a lot friends that are called jellyfish, but they weren’t made of fruit. I would know, I tasted one and I don’t think they appreciated it.” “So still looking forward to being a pirate even with someone as unlucky as I am?” I asked, because the trial run was up and I was willing to haul him around on my ship. “You’re at least lucky enough to have friends, so I’m not going to change my mind one bit!” The little trident tail was making me blush. “You’re really interesting and quite adventurous Captain Blackcap, just don’t scare me too often with getting hurt like that.” “Eh, I’ll try.” I smiled and patted the cat on the head and he mewled loudly. “Not making any promises, because I likely wouldn’t be able to keep them knowing my luck.” “Captain… stop treating me like a generic cat.” Nefer whined, but he certainly wasn’t being very quick to move away from my talons scratching him behind the ears. “No can do cabin boy Trident Tail, you’re almost too cute to be a pirate.” That made him gasp and look at me with watery eyes. “Calm down Nefer, I said ‘almost’. Plus I already told you a while ago that I’m willing to take you into my crew.” “Yippee! Wait… what does a cabin boy do?” Nefer had a lot to learn about being a pirate, I’m glad I was at the top of my class in pirate school so I technically had credentials to teach him. Not that pirate’s cared about teaching licenses, being mostly lawless has its perks. “Cabin boys are errand runners.” That was the gist of what I could have Nefer doing outside of special occasions. “They do small, relatively easy, things for their captain and crew. Tasks that could include anything from shopping to carrying messages to deliver to people… I’m not going to send you to deliver messages though.” “Why not? I’m sure I could deliver messages.” Nefer really didn’t seem to understand the dark side of pirates, he was a little naive. “Have you ever heard don’t shoot the messenger… yeah, pirates sometimes do that.” I watched as Nefer turned a bit green, but he eventually swallowed it. “Still, even small things like you can be quite important Nefer, want to hear the stories about how the smallest thing can destroy even the mightiest of ships? I’ve got quite a few of them given my history.” “Would I ever!” Nefer rested his head on the bed while looking to me. “It’s so nice that you’re willing to look out for me Captain Blackcap.” “Okay, I have an old story of how a young parrot pirate girl tried to stow away on a ship and single screw caused it to be destroyed…” It was one of my better tales. -Next day, Gallant’s Tavern - My feathers were pulled back into a thick ponytail and my skullcap was right where it belonged. I sat down at Bluster’s Bar and ordered some grape juice and water for Nefer. When the glass of water was placed before Nefer, he just put his paw into it and the water in the glass started to slowly drain. Apparently he didn’t need to drink it through his mouth. “Got a new potential recruit for you, I did some asking around…” Gallant said as he placed a cold mug before me and a banana. He knew me so well. “Apparently one of the ships in the harbor was a slavery ship and it was carrying a rare ‘white and black’ who is highly conspicuous. She wanted to meet you to thank you for saving her, she’s even here right now.” “Sure, tell her to come over and I’ll interview her.” Though I wondered how bad her blackcap curse was and did it outmatch her whitecap boon? “Okay you can come up from beneath the counter now.” Gallant stated blandly and up popped something my sister Jade would have liked to see… an actual sea pony. “Hey there…” She seemed pretty depressed as pulled herself over the counter and into a stool. She had a bright blue fluffy body, two small wing shaped fins, long dark blue fin hair, a horizontal tail fin and seeing as her hooves ended in flippers… she was probably a good swimmer. “Gallant said you needed some people for a crew?” “Yes, I do. I’m Jacky Blackcap Chickadee La Perm, to start off what’s your Name?” My questions would be different from the ones I asked Nefer, I just had to know what kind of whitecap boon she had. “The Blackcap? That explains all the sunken ships in the harbor at least... and why I almost drowned if it wasn’t for that section of the docks floating in the water.” Wait… what did she just say? “I’m Flotsam De’ Brie, but you can call me Sam or Sammy.” “Excuse me, but… drown? You’re a…” I started to say when she snapped at me. “I know what I am! How could I not? I probably have the worst blackcap curse imaginable.” That’s rather debatable Sam. “So you’re unlucky enough to be allergic to coconuts yet need consume a certain amount a day to keep your fur on? Unlucky enough to have a deadly boulder chasing you across Turtle Toga and…” I looked around. There weren’t any customers in here, it must have been a slow day or all the angry pirates were scouring the island looking for me. “End up causing bad luck or general misfortune to everything wherever you go?” “Well no… but it’s still pretty bad.” Her large tail wiggled agitatedly and her brown eyes looked into mine. “So, Gallant said you were both a whitecap and blackcap at the same time?” I asked as I finished my banana and put the peel on the counter. “What’s the curse and what’s the boon?” “My blackcap curse is that I can’t swim or breath underwater, I almost died at birth because of that. It led to my childhood nickname being ‘Drowning Dolphin’.” Yikes, it seems like Sammy had a really bad childhood. “As for my whitecap boon… it’s not that great nor does it make up for my life. It’s easier to just show you than actually tell you.” She took up my banana peel and threw it into her mouth and started chewing. When she finally swallowed it, she was gagging and sticking out her tongue. “So… eating banana peels?” In answer to my question, Sam held up her left flipper hoof and flopped off the stool to slowly slither her way over to a table like a snake. It was obvious she’s had practice at it, because quite frankly being incapable of surviving in water was pretty bad for a blackcap curse when you were born a sea pony. She has definitely spent most of her life on dry land. She put a hoof under a table and tapped the underside of it, sending the however many pounds heavy table flying up into the air, she slithered underneath it and caught it with that hoof. She spun the table on her flipper and then carefully sat it back down. “You have Super strength?” I asked, that seemed like a pretty good whitecap boon, nowhere near as good as Jaqueline Sparrow’s wits. “Something like that... lasts five to ten minutes at best after eating fresh bad tasting fruit rinds and only bad tasting fresh fruit rinds.” Sammy was at least capable of taking care of herself. “My boon doesn’t make up for the taste at all, so I consider myself doubly cursed.” “Got any skills as a pirate?” I already know swimming wasn’t one of them, at least Nefer could save her if he became a flotation device. “Never saw you on this island before.” “You know swimming is out, I need floatation devices to not drown. So I’m going to need to wear a life jacket at all times if I’m to join your crew. As for skills, despite my handicaps…” Like having no rear legs. “I’m quite good for carrying and moving things, plus I’m a quick learner and I already know how to fight somewhat. I learned how to move around on land like a snake, even if it’s rough on my scales. I wasn’t born in Turtle Toga, in fact I didn’t know why I was a sea pony that couldn’t swim. Until I learned that my father was a pirate and must have done something for me to end up with a blackcap curse.” “Why should I let you join my crew? Aside from feeling sorry for your lot in life, and trust me I know how it feels to be a blackcap.” I chugged some grape juice. “There’s a reason why I’m called ‘The Blackcap’ and you saw that a day or so ago when the entire port went up in fire.” “I like her captain, she’s beautiful!” Nefer gives her a vote of confidence. “I’ll do anything that you could need of me.” Sammy gave me a pleading look. “Going off with a blue pirate is better than being sold off to the highest bidder.” “Fine, you’re onboard.” I needed one more person at least.