Black Calypso

A month goes by before Draven is finally allowed to join the crew fully. His injuries have healed to the point where he has scars on his chest; his right cheek is slightly lower than his left from where the bones didn't mend as seamlessly as he was hoping. His left arm healed completely however and he didn't notice any loss of strength in the arm that was broken, though that arm did tire more easily than the right arm; he hoped with training he would be able to build up his stamina once more.
The Captain stayed away from him for the most part, having only showed enough interest in his health for him to know that she personally cared about each of the men under her control. He could see her influence in the type of food that was obtained for the men to eat. There were always fresh fruits and vegetables, meats and flour for bread and pasta, nuts and berries were obtained and sealed in containers to prevent spoilage. To say that the men ate well was an understatement, not even HE ate as well when living with his parents as the men on the ship. In return for the food and health care the men were willing to do whatever their captain asked of them. Working from sun up to past sun down to ensure that the ship ran smoothly and needed barely any work aboard or below deck.
Draven felt himself compelled to the Captain, watching her when he was sure she did not know that she was being observed. The crewman that sat in the crow's nest had gotten ill, the Captain had taken over that duty and when Draven came on deck to look out over the sea he saw her sitting against the mast, her feet propped up on the banister, looking out with such a view of deep longing and peacefulness that he took out his drawing book and etched her image on a sheet of paper, capturing her image and the rapturous expression on her face. He also drew pictures of the sisters, though not as many as the Captain.
His notebook was soon filled with pictures of all of the crew. A week after capturing the Captain's image from her place in the crow's nest another ship was sighted in the horizon. With grim expressions Adnama and the Captain gathered the men on the deck and informed them that the crew on the other ship was not to be trusted. The Captain then sent Adnama below decks and called all the men to be armed, but to not show their weapons unless they were threatened. Draven watched in an almost morbid fascination as the crew hurried to obey their Captain's orders. When the other ship got close, a flag was sent up on the main mast, signaling that the other ship requested for the Black Calypso to pause.
The ship was filthy, bird droppings were on the banisters, coloring the wood to a dark gray shade. The sails were tattered and in need of repair, the men on the ship looked to be underfed. Their cheeks were sunk in and hollow looking, their teeth; when they grinned, were black and decayed, some appearing to be loose in the tilted way they rested within the gums that were swollen and red. Draven shivered at the appearance of the men looking at the crew, but grew angry when he saw how they viewed the Captain. The look of malice and lust was evident on every face, and when the captain of that ship stepped up to the banister Draven could see the Captain of the Black Calypso barely control herself in her revulsion.
The Second called out to the other captain, "What is it that you have a need of good Captain?"
A chuckle rippled through the men on deck as the other captain licked his lips with a fat, slightly purple tongue. He wheezed as he spoke, "We want the woman of the Black Calypso. The one that leads yonder group of men."
"What is it that you want with our Captain?"
"She needs a man in her life, I propose her come aboard and the men and I teach her her proper place in the world. After all, it ain't right for a woman to be above a man, unless she's pleasing him with her mouth and body."
The Captain leaned over and Draven could see her whispering to the Second. The man nodded and stepped ahead of her. "We don't desire to give you our Captain, however, we are willing to part with a portion of our provisions so that you and your men could have food to eat while on the sea until you can get to a port and resupply your wares."
"We will be helping ourselves to your supplies and riches once yonder captain agrees to surrender everything to us and submits to the attentions of the crew and myself."
The Captain shakes her head and the Second frowns fiercely. "Then you have until the end of the day to prepare yourself for battle. My advice is for you to sail on and not darken our sights again."
The Captain steps back and turns around, her actions signaling the end of the conversation, but once she does this the other captain shouts an order that is swiftly followed. Scores of men cross over the space between the ships. Shouts from the men on The Black Calypso as they withdraw their weapons are the immediate reply. Swords could be heard ringing as they clash together, gun powder fills the nostrils as fire arms are discharged. The Captain withdraws her rapier and turns swiftly, skewering the man who had thought to attack her from behind.
Draven calls for his own weapons, trusting the spell that was aboard the ship just for this purpose to place his swords in his hands. He feels the familiar weight of the broad swords as they place themselves in his hands and he swings his weapons around his body. The battle was fierce and bloody, but quick. Draven looks up and sees the Captain as she stands with one of her feet on the body of the other captain; she pulls her rapier out of the man's body forcefully as he lay bleeding on the deck in front of her. The death of the man causes his crewmen to immediately withdraw, but The Black Calypso had latched on to the other ship. When the enemy crew tries to re-board their ship, the crew from The Black Calypso follows them. Blood flows from both decks as the crew kills off the remainder of the enemy crew, their healthy diet and constant exercise making them far superior than the other crew.
The Captain calls her men back to The Black Calypso and orders a fire to be lighted on the deck and in the middle of the ship. The Black Calypso sails away as the other ship is burned where it sits. The Captain standing on the upper deck with her back to the crew; who are busy cleaning the deck and repairing the damage done to the ship, and watches as the enemy ship slides beneath the water in bright orange, red, and blue flames. Draven, taken by the image that he had seen of her conquering her enemy, goes below deck as soon as he is able and commits that image to paper, drawing her as she stands over her enemy with the bodies of the others surrounding her.
Another week passes by before Draven finds himself in a hallway that he had never been in before. There are only three doors in this hallway, something that he had never seen as the corridors that he was used to travelling in had several doors along the length. There is one door to the right that is plain, the door to his left is decorated with metal studs and leather, the third is in front of him and is decorated with pastel colors over the surface. Frowning thoughtfully he went to the door in front of him and is surprised to see the third sister open the door. She looks up at him and tilts her head to the side. "A greetings Draven La'Fon. What brings you to our hallway on this day?"
He blinks and coughs in his fist and blushes lightly. "Well...you see...err...I didn't mean to come to visit you, or the Captain or Adnama. It's just...I was thinking that I needed to find out where your rooms were because I have something for you all and ...I need to talk to the Captain."
The third sister nods her head and steps back into her room. "Well, if you have something to say, then you may as well come inside and speak it instead of standing in the hallway. And don't worry about finding the hallway, there are spells on the ship that allows for those who have a need that one of us can provide for, outside of sexually, to find our rooms."
Draven nods thoughtfully and enters the room, noting that the basic layout was similar to his own room. On the table there were two tea cups sitting on saucers and a variety of condiments in the middle of the table. He turns to her. "Um, were you expecting someone? Did I interrupt something important?"
The sister laughs and takes a seat, motioning for him to take the other one. "Of course not. I saw you coming and knew you wanted to talk about something that was weighing heavily on your mind. So I fixed us both some tea so that we can speak for a moment before you go on to visit my sisters." She stirs in a small amount of honey and watches as he takes a seat in front of her and fixes his tea with sugar lumps to sweeten the liquid. Waving her hand over the top of the tea to cool it, she slips the cup under her veils to sip on the beverage. "So, why is it you need to talk to all three of us?"
Draven takes his notebook and thumbs through it. He tears out a page of paper and places it on the table. When the sister looks down she is shocked to see a picture of her standing on a cliff, notes of music float around her head as the sun sets in the horizon. "This is what I wanted to give you. I ...I may have some things to do when we land in the next port and I wanted you to have something nice before I go off the ship."
The sister looks at him thoughtfully before looking down at the paper. "You are quite an accomplished artist Draven. I wish I had that type of talent as it is sometimes much more useful than singing." She looks up at him. "Since you are leaving, I suppose you should know my name."
He chuckles and scratches the back of his head. "Well, if you WANT to tell me then you can."
She continues to look at him, and when he meets her eyes he sees immense kindness within their depths. The bright blue color softens as she whispers. "My name is Violet, and your drawing will be treasured. I thank you for it."
He nods softly and then looks down at his cup. During the conversation he had finished his tea and had not noticed that several hours had passed. Sighing softly he rises to his feet and bows respectively towards Violet. "I must go and see Adnama. Though to be honest, I don't know if she will be able to see the pictures I have for her."
Violet rises as well and places a hand on his elbow, "Hold the pictures out to her and let her touch them. She can see more than those who have vision. Do not think that her disability will affect her ability to see the art work that you have for her. But she is not in her room at the moment, come back tomorrow and visit her then."
Draven nods and leaves the room. Looking at the remaining doors he goes back to his room to rest since his job in the kitchen was completed. The next day he returns to the hallway and moves to the door on his left, the one that he figures has to be Adnama's door since it is decorated as she dresses. When he knocks he hears a voice call out for him to enter. Standing at the door he speaks out, "It's...um.. it's me, Draven. Can I talk to you Adnama?"
A scoffing sound is heard from within, and as he stands there the door opens. Adnama stands in front of him, the door opened so that he can easily see within. Noticing that the room is stark in decorations, looking so bleak that it reminds him of his room before he was able to obtain books and bottles of whiskey to decorate his shelves. "So, tell me why you have chosen to come to my door?"
When he takes a seat he can hear her inhale deeply. "Um, I'm sorry if I smell, I just got done in the kitchen and ..."
She raises a hand and stops his speech and shakes her head and a lock of hair falls in front of her face, causing her to blow quickly to make the hair go back behind her head. "What is it that you need Draven?"
"I...may have to leave at the next port so I had some things that I wanted to give you and your sisters. I gave Violet hers and now I want to give you your gift."
He takes out his notebook and tears out two pages. Placing them in her hand he watches in fascination as she takes the papers and places them side by side and then runs her fingers lightly over the surface. In one picture there is a picture of her and the Captain conversing at a table, in the other there is a picture of her looking out over the sea and carving a figurine into a piece of wood. Adnama's eye brows raise up as she tilts her head to the side and puts the pictures back together.
"They are very good drawings Draven. I thank you for them. The second picture...you must have been sitting for a long time to be able to draw me doing that action to be able to place so much detail into the drawing."
Draven shakes his head. "I saw you, and the image was imprinted in my mind so I was able to recall the details from memory. I didn't sit and draw you the entire time."
Adnama nods her head as she tilts her head to the side in a calculating manner. "I believe you would want to see the Captain now. She's in her room, just go on and go inside. She knows you are coming to see us." Adnama points to the door standing opposite of her own and pushes him towards it. "Just go on in Draven, I swear she's waiting for you inside." When he still stands uncertainly Adnama sighs heavily and opens the door to the Captain's room and pushes him in before closing the door behind her and walking away.
Draven stands for a moment listening to Adnama's footsteps until he hears her own door slam closed. He turns and faces the room, looking around and frowning softly when he sees no one is inside. When he takes a few steps in however, he can hear the sounds of a shower being run and he turns towards the door intending to leave, but when he goes to open the door he finds that it is locked shut and he can't see a way to unlock it. Sighing softly he goes to the table and takes a seat, placing his notebook on the top of the table and thumbs through the pages while he waits.
The shower is shut off and when Draven looks up he sees the door opening slowly. The Captain stands in the doorway, nude in every way with the exception of the towel that is wrapped around her head. She starts in surprise and looks at him; he on the other hand turns around swiftly; nearly toppling the chair that he was sitting in. He hears her chuckling as she walks behind him, moving around the room. "Well, I knew you were on your way, I wasn't expecting you to be here when I got done bathing the salt of the sea off my skin though."
"I...Adnama told me to ..."
"Yes, yes I know. I bet my sister is over there laughing her backside off now at her cleverness in putting us together."
The rustling of clothes is the only clue as to what is going on behind him. Within what seems like an eternity the Captain calls out. "You can turn around and take a seat now Draven La'Fon. I promise my mode of dress is not as ...revealing as it was when you saw me enter my room."
Draven turns around and places three pages in the top of the table that he had torn out while waiting for the Captain to dress. "These are for you Captain."
The Captain walks over to the table, her clothing is not unlike what she normally wears, her skirt being parted up to the thighs and showing her legs as she walks barefoot across the floor. The mask on her face matching the deep blue of the fabric that covers her body. As she looks down at the pages she inhales sharply.
One picture is of her and her sisters sitting together eating a meal, all of them are laughing and having a good time. Another picture is of her standing over her enemy, she could recognize the men that they had just recently battled being part of the picture's background even though the focus was on her. The last picture was of her sitting on the crow's nest. She could feel the betraying sting of tears behind her eyelids at the image of peace and longing on her face.
"When ...when did you have time to draw these?"
"I had plenty of time after working the kitchens in between meals. Most of them were committed to memory so the details weren't that hard to depict."
"Why are you giving my sisters and I pictures of ourselves?"
Draven scratches the back of his head as he watches her take a seat at the table, still absorbed in the pictures that she had in front of her. "I...I have some things I have to do on the main land. It could take up to a year before I am done, if I survive the experience that is. I ...wanted to give you something to remember me by since I know I'll never forget any of you."
With his confession she looks up sharply at him, her eyes as flat as stone as she gazes in his eyes. "You haven't completed your contract yet. You still have six months on board this ship before you can be allowed to leave."
"I never signed any contract when I boarded Captain."
The Captain stands up and walks over to the desk that sits against the side wall. Opening the roll-top desk she pulls out a large bundle of papers. Thumbing through them she withdraws one and nods softly before coming back to the table and handing the papers to him. He can see the title "Agreement of Service" and as he reads he can see that his handwriting is along the margins of the parchment. On the last page his signature is written in large letters compared to the Captains seal. "I … I didn't sign this paper. I know I would have remembered signing a document to a year of service."
"You didn't have to sign, by boarding this ship and agreeing to serve under a female Captain your word signed that document instead of your hand. It's part of the spell work on this ship Draven. It's also how my sisters and I knew your full name when you've only introduced yourself to others as 'Draven'."
"I need to go on land Captain! I swore another oath to ..." He sighs roughly and looks at her with desperation in his expression. "I have to go back. I have to... I'll do whatever you deem as a worthwhile punishment so long as you let me go back on land and complete this other oath that I have made."
The Captain looks at him and then leans back and nods. "Very well. We land in one week. I will have the terms of your release presented to you when we dock." She sits up and looks at him as she continues, "You will NOT leave the ship until I present you with your new documentation. Nor will you try to sneak away. The spells on this ship will do you grave harm should you try to disobey me in this matter Draven. Do you understand?"
Draven nods and rises to his feet as the Captain takes the contract and puts it back in her desk. He walks back to his room and looks through the book, choosing a blank page he begins drawing a new picture. The image of the Captain issuing her orders to him is soon placed on the paper, only it isn't a harsh picture, but instead one that shows a side of the Captain that Draven had never seen before. He had seen fear in her eyes when she was giving her orders to him, a type of fear that had him confused as she had never shown any type of fear in the six months since he had first boarded the ship.