05; "Port Isabella"

Captain Ross and his crew set sail upon the small port of Isabella. While there, Toube learns an interesting bit about Ian.

 Toube was once again rudely woken by Master Flack early in the morning to do his duties as Boatswain's Mate. "Boy, get yer tail-end out here and get to work! Or so help me Boy, ye'll dance the Hempen Jig!* " Master Flack pounded on Toube's door. Toube looked out the porthole from his quarters to see the sun barely beginning to glint against the sea in the early hours of morning. Toube sleepily walked to his door, half awake, and opened it when Master Flack began to threaten; "And yer last duty on this ship will be to string and tie yer own noose!" Master Flack spat in Toube's face as he opened the door and the last three words hurtled out of Flack's mouth.

 Scratching his messy bed-head, Toube received another good whack from Master Flack. Toube was sensing a pattern here. As Toube walked out onto the main deck, Captain Ross walked out from his quarters. The sleepy crew hurried to their posts once they seen their Captain with an angry scowl on his face. "Aye! Everyon' gather 'round!" Captain Ross waved his hand in the air as he walked to the middle of the deck. Once the crew had gathered in front of him, Ross continued to speak. "It was careless of me ta' not check before we stopped in Saint Clarissa but... It appears we are outa' rum... So we'll be dockin' in The Port o' Isabella today. While we're ere' I wantcha ta hide in every dark corner of every tevern n' barn ya can find. Ifn' anyone hears a thing about o' map I wantcha ta do everythin' in yer power to get yer hands on it, got it?" Captain Ross told his crew, who all seemed to get a bit excited. "Now, we know where were goin' so get on it!" Ross shooed his crew with his hand and they all ran back to their posts, he turned and walked the steps up to the quarter deck and took the wheel.

 "A good four hours, me boy." Captain Ross had said when Toube asked about how long it would take to get to The Port of Isabella. Toube sighed, he was happy that he might get the chance to do something to make Captain Ross happy with him, if he could get his hands on a map that lead to a nice amount of loot, maybe even Master Flack would stop hitting him every morning, but he didn't like the thought of having to go back to land. He hadn't spent much time at sea and didn't even have time to get accustomed to the constant rocking. Toube began to climb up the criss-crossing ropes that led up to the crow's nest. He found it was easier to inspect the flag by climbing up and then climbing back down instead of having to bring the flag down, inspect it, and then hoist it back up.

 About half way up, Toube looked out to sea. It was beautiful. So far it had been everything he'd hoped for as a pirate. He looked back up and continued climbing until he reached the crow's nest. "Ron." Toube greeted and nodded at the look-out as he hung himself over the crow's nest to inspect the flag. " Good mornin' Toube. How ya like bein' a pirate so far?" Ron asked, Toube and Ron had talked a bit amongst one another when Ian was too busy and Toube had no one else to keep him company. "It's great, Ron. And being a Boatswain's Mate is even better. I love heights so getting to swing around on the cables and climb up here every mornin' and night to inspect the flag is good fun for me." Toube chimed as he held out the flag in front of him and then shook it out a bit. "Aye, that's great. Ye ave' brightened up my days a bit too, Toube. It's borin' just sittin up ere with a telescope all day lookin' out ta nothin' but tha sea." Ron said as Toube tied the flag back up. "Haha, well, I'm glad to be an ease to your boredom. Now if you'll excuse me..." "Oh, yes, Toube. See ya 'round Port!" "See ya 'round!" Toube waved back as he grabbed onto a different cable from the one he was on and slid down holding on with one arm and one leg wrapped around the cable, letting the rest of his body hang free as he came down onto deck.

 But Toube had miscalculated which cable he'd grabbed and ended up sliding down and landing on top of Master Flack, who was standing next to Ross on the quarter deck. Captain Ross peered down at his Master and Boatswains' Mate, both sprawled out on the quarter deck. Ross' laughter boomed across the whole ship. Toube jumped back up on his feet and Flack sat up, rubbing his head. Master Flack scowled at the boy who had fallen on him. "Oh my, I'm so very sorry Master Flack, I must have grabbed the wrong cable by mistake!" Toube tried to apologize, but Flack would have no word of it. "Don't be apologizin' like some lass, Boy! Get to yer post!" Flack jerked his arm out towards the cables in the middle of the vessel. "Yes, Master!" Toube flinched and walked down the steps back onto the main deck. "Don'tcha think yer bein' a tad too hard on the boy?" Captain Ross asked glancing over at Flack as he walked to the railing that lined the end of the quarter deck and leaned forward on it. "Nah, I'm jut makin' up fer what ye lack, Captain." Flack stared sympathetically out at the sea. "Be too stern on yer crew and ye  risk bein' voted out o' Captain's rank, Flack. And bein' voted outa' Captain's rank means gettin' killed, Flack, ya know that."

 The time had passed quickly and the vessel was soon docked in the quiet waters of The Port of Isabella. The crew filed off the ship behind their captain and were left to do their own thing as Ross payed the docking fee, as the crew walked onto the dock Ross said "Back here by midnight." and the rest of the crew replied with "Aye.". Ian ran up beside Toube and hit him hard on the back with his hand. "Hey Toube! Ever been ta' this port?" Ian asked, his blue eyes shined, so Toube guessed this place was important to Ian in some way. "Um, no. I was born in Saint Clarissa and never left there till now." Toube sighed. "Oh, really? I was born here." Ian chimed. "Oh, you where? No wonder I'd never seen you in Saint Clarissa before." Ian gasped before he could say anything back to Toube and ran off. 'He probably hasn't been home in a while.' Toube thought as he walked past the building Ian ran into and looked through the open door as he did to see Ian hugging an old woman.

 A good seven minutes had passed before Toube stumbled upon an old tavern at the edge of the Port of Isabella. He walked in to see an old man working the bar and a few young adult patrons. Toube found a table in a dark corner at the back of the tavern and sat down. "Can I get you anything?" A young lady of about seventeen asked. "Pint of rum, please." Toube said trying to act calm, he couldn't do anything to raise suspicion and make anyone think he was a pirate. The girl turned and walked away to the bar. Two local fishermen walked into the tavern and sat down at a table in front of Toube. "Did ya see the pirate ship anchored in the docks?" The short, sunburned one asked is friend. "How could I miss it? It makes me mad to see pirates docking in Port Isabella." The other one, who was quite fat, replied. "Yes, but what can we do? We're just a small fishing port. We don't have anything to protect us, if we told them to leave they'd probably kill us. Just be glad they aren't rampaging the port." This touched a nerve in Toube a bit, he doubted that Captain Ross would kill anyone for telling him he couldn't drop anchor.

 The girl returned to Toube's table with his rum. Toube set two pieces of eight that he received from Captain Ross down on the table. The lady only smiled at Toube, "Sir, you'll probably be here a while. I'll just pick up your pay before you leave." she said and went to the table with the fishermen to serve them. Toube had finished off half his drink when, to his surprise, Ian walked into the tavern. Ian took a seat at the bar and the old man greeted him like an old friend. Toube put his money back into his pocket and picked up his drink, walking to Ian. "Hey." Toube said as he pulled up a seat next to Ian. "Oh, hey. There ya are." Ian said as the old man placed a pint of rum and a slice of bread in front of him. "Hear anythin' yet?" Ian asked, taking a drink. "Nope, you?" "Nothin'." Both men sat in silence for a while. Then Ian began to speak again, "Hey, you wanna know a secret?" Ian asked, his voice wavering. For an Irish man, you could tell he couldn't hold his alcohol. "Hm? Sure, what?" Toube shrugged. "Captain Ross' my dad." Ian said pushing away his already empty mug. "W-what?" Toube stuttered, "Have you been to any other taverns today?" Toube questioned, how could Captain Ross be Ians' father?

Author's Note

*:To "dance the hempen jig" is a pirate term to be hanged by the neck until dead. the hempen jig was the dance of death at the end of the hangman's hemp rope.

These chapters will probably slowly work up to being a good 15 paragraphs each chapter. So please bare with me as I slowly grow the amount of paragraphs in the chapters ahead.

Reviews

[Rae]

Ha ha. Ian is drunk and ends up telling a huge a*s secret. Wow. Great chapter! Not a lot wrong here. Keep it up. :3

[Carcilia Ravencraft]

This is my favorite chapter so far. I really like the way it turned out. I thought that maybe I'd have so many ideas for this chapter that I'd have trouble getting it all down understandably.