Pirate Princess (25 page)

What is she doing?

“Tilia,” he said softly, “What are you doing?”

I ignored him. I hated snakes. I had very few fears and I rarely freaked out about anything, but snakes were right up there. At home, the snakes were small and easy to catch or kill, but this thing was humongous! I grabbed another dagger and felt a little better. I turned around and Finn stood silently watching me, even his thoughts were silent.

“I’m fine. Let’s keep going,” I said, glad that my voice didn’t come out shaky or quiver at all. He bent to take my dagger out of the snake’s head and I yelled, a little too loudly, “Don’t! Just leave it there.”

He stood back up slowly and walked towards me.

She’s terrified. I bet she’s never seen anything like this before. Poor thing. How can I calm her down or help her? I don’t like seeing her frightened like this. I want to stab that damn thing again for scaring her.

“Are you going to hold the dagger the rest of the way?” he asked me softly.

I didn’t want his pity. I didn’t want him seeing me as weak. “I’m not terrified,” I snapped, “Snakes are a lot smaller back home is all. I was just
shocked
, not scared.”

He smiled and nodded his head. “Okay, Tilia, I believe you. Let’s keep going.”

Fruits, bagels, whiskey, mead, cherries, oranges, rolls, butter, milk.

What was he thinking about food for? As we walked beside the dead snake’s body I stared at the massive size of it in absolute horror. Its body was as round as a tree trunk and it had to be over ten feet long like Finn thought! Did everything grow larger here?! Were there lizards ten times the size of regular ones?

I am actually glad she is afraid of something. It would have worried me if nothing frightened her. Where did her dad take her while she was on his ship? Did he stay in one area or just take her to the boring places?

“We didn’t visit many islands,” I whispered, finally able to speak now that we were far away from the snake. “We visited one other kingdom, but aside from that we spent most of our time at sea and didn’t go far from land.” Probably because he wanted to make sure he could take me to a doctor or mage if I got sick so he wouldn’t lose me like he lost mom.

“Do you want to go back to the ship?” he asked me, looking at me with concern on his face.

I’d never leave the ship or just stay at port if she wanted me to.

“I’m fine,” I growled, “Let’s go.” I needed to kill something or get in a fight or a competition so I wouldn’t feel so pathetic.

“You’re mad at me,” he said.

I sighed. “No, I just don’t like having faults or fears.”

“Everyone is afraid of something,” he said with a shrug.

“What are you afraid of?” I asked him curiously.

He pulled the ring off his finger and stuck it in his pocket. “That is not something for you to know.”

“That is not fair!” I yelled at him.

“Even with you wearing the ring for two weeks I knew none of your fears until just now,” he said calmly, “That is something you will just have to find out in the course of being with me.”

“I’m not going to use it against you,” I said feeling dejected.

He reached out towards me, but I walked passed him up the path. “Tilia,” he called, “I didn’t say you would use it against me. That’s not why I won’t tell you.”

I spun around and glared at him. “Then why not?!”

“A man’s fears should not be left open for people to see, especially not the woman he has chosen to protect.”

“I don’t need
protection
,” I said, “I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I may be young and inexperienced with giant snakes, but I can cut off heads as easily as you.”

“That snake was the largest I have seen yet!” one of his crew said, catching up to us.

I turned around and marched up the path. How could we learn anything about each other if he hid everything from me? The point of dating and spending time together was to learn about each other. He’s chosen to protect me? Hah! I don’t need his protection.

“I’m sorry,” he said softly as he caught up to walk beside me. “I didn’t want to upset you.”

“Good job,” I muttered, pushing a branch out of my way.

“I think you are really mad because you got scared and I saw you get scared,” he said.

I stopped walking and he took a full stride past me before realizing I had stopped. “I am
mad
because you were supposed to keep the ring on for three days and you couldn’t even last half a day. Imagine not knowing it was happening and finding out that someone had heard every thought of yours for
two weeks
!”

“I’ll put it back on,” he offered, reaching for the ring.

“Why? So you can take it back off if you start thinking about something you don’t want me to know? Just leave it off,” I said. I stormed up the path and heard a growl to my right. I stopped, turned my head slowly and saw amber eyes in the bush beside me.

I raised my hand toward Finn and he and his crew stopped. Finn drew his sword and started to move towards me. I drew my own sword and then threw a dagger towards the bush, hoping to scare the animal away so I wouldn’t have to hurt it. It leapt out of the bush and tried to scratch my arm instead of running away as I had planned. A jaguar! I had read about them and heard stories from dad’s crew. Its body was black as night and as it walked around me I could see the supple muscle under its hide.

“Why aren’t you a pretty thing?” I crooned. It snarled and hissed at me as it continued to circle me. “I would rather not make a rug out of you. Why don’t you head back into the jungle and take on something worth eating? I’m afraid I’ll taste terrible and probably upset your stomach.”

“What is she doing?” someone asked down the path.

“She thinks she can reason with a jaguar?”

“Figures Finn would get a girl with a damaged head.”

I lowered my sword and slowly sank down into a squatted position. “See, I’m not here to eat you.”

The jaguar growled, showing me long sharp teeth and stopped circling me.

“Tilia,” Finn said quietly, “What are you doing?”

“Jaguars are like tigers,” I said in the crooning voice I used on the jaguar, “and if you show that you aren’t a threat while also asserting that you aren’t food, they will leave or sometimes try to eat you.”

The jaguar was silently regarding me, its tail flicking back and forth in irritation and curiosity.

I set my sword in the dirt to my right and showed the jaguar my hands. “See, no weapon.”

“She’s insane.”

“Pick up your sword you lunatic,” Finn growled.

The jaguar turned towards him, puffing up and hissing.

“Oh don’t bother with him, he is just full of hot air,” I told the jaguar, drawing the attention back to me. “Why don’t you go back and find a hog or whatever else there is in this jungle? That boy will only upset your stomach.”

The jaguar swished its tail a few more times and then turned and walked calmly into the jungle, disappearing into the dense foliage. I stayed where I was a few moments longer, then picked my sword up, put it away, and continued down the path.

“Did everyone else see the same thing I saw?” Finn asked.

“I think so,” one of the crew said, “or maybe we are all hallucinating.”

“Maybe she used magic on us,” someone else suggested.

“No, I’m damaged in the head remember? I couldn’t have put a spell on you,” I called over my shoulder.

“That is some girl, Finn,” one said with a laugh.

The path grew steeper and the higher we got the hotter it became. My skin was starting to dampen from the heat and even the trees drooped in exhaustion.

“Here,” Finn said and handed me a water bag. I took a long drink and handed it back to him, wiping my hand across my mouth to get the excess water off. “How did you know it would work?” he asked.

“What would work?” I asked him as I looked around. The jungle was quiet here, which meant the animals must avoid coming up this high.

“The jaguar. How did you know it wouldn’t attack you?” he asked me.

I shrugged. “I didn’t.”

His jaw clicked as he ground his teeth together. “You didn’t? You didn’t know it wouldn’t attack you and you still put your sword down and faced it unarmed?”

“Jared showed me it with a tiger back home and explained the process. He calmed the tiger into even letting him touch it. I figured the jaguar would at least leave or I would have to kill him. And I wasn’t unarmed, my sword was right next to me,” I explained.

“He might have sliced your arm open before you had time to reach for your sword,” he said angrily.

“I’m faster than you think,” I told him, “and faster than that jaguar.”

“Just because you were embarrassed that you got scared of the snake is no reason to risk your life to try to gain your pride back,” he snapped at me.

“Where does this path take us?” I asked, ignoring his comment.

“You’re not even going to acknowledge what I said?”

“You’re wrong about why I did it and I don’t feel like fighting anymore so yes. Now, are you going to answer my question?” I asked, arching an eyebrow and putting my hands on my hips as I faced him.

“You could have died. That jaguar could have cut your throat open before I got to you or before you could defend yourself. How do you think your dad would feel if the very first place I take you to I let you get killed by an animal? What do you think your uncle would have done?”

“You don’t need to worry about them taking it out on you,” I told him angrily, “if an animal kills me they won’t kill you so calm down. Your hide is safe.”

“This is not about
my
hide,” he said in a calmly angry voice. I knew that voice, Jared spoke that way when he was about to blow up.

“I told you that I don’t need you to protect me. I meant it. I didn’t do this to show off. I did what I thought was best in the situation. I would have killed it if I had to, but this is the jaguar’s home and I didn’t want to kill it just because I invaded,” I explained calmly to him.

“You are the most infuriating, exasperating, irrational…”

“Oh look, I can see the top of the volcano,” I said, interrupting his tirade and walking away from him.

“She walked away from him as if he wasn’t even talking,” one of his crew said.

“I don’t think I’ve seen him so upset before.”

I ignored them all and kept walking. Finn bellowed angrily behind me. I followed the trail where it led right up to the top of the volcano. I didn’t dare walk close enough to be near the edge, afraid that the ground would be unstable and dump me into the lava, but I didn’t need to be near the edge to see the lava below. The top was at least a mile wide and it was so hot that my skin couldn’t sweat because it dried as soon as it left my pores. The lava bubbled and boiled like stew. I could hear a constant sound of steam and walked around to see a hole in one side of the volcano leaking lava into the ocean where it sizzled and released smoke as it cooled. It was magnificent!

“That’s my favorite part,” Finn told me when he had finally caught up. “The place where the hot lava and the cold ocean meet and the ocean wins within a matter of minutes, cooling it into hardened rock. Nothing beats the ocean and this is the best reminder.”

“It’s magnificent,” I told him.

“I thought you would think so.”

My anger with him was forgotten as I stood on the mouth of this giant place filled with enough lava to bury the kingdom twice over, making me feel like the smallest most insignificant ant in existence. What did I matter in the grand scheme of things?

“Now you look sad,” he whispered.

“It makes me feel insignificant,” I admitted.

He wrapped his arms around me and whispered into my ear, “You are very significant in my life already. Your dad and your kingdom would feel the same I’m sure, but you mean more to me than all the treasures in the sea.”

“There you go flattering me again,” I whispered as I tried to pull myself back together from the discovery I had just made. “If I fell into this pit, life would go on without a second thought.”

“Not for me,” he said, tightening his grip on me.

“You have done perfectly well before you knew I existed,” I reminded him. “You would revert just as well.”

If I lost you I wouldn’t want to sail. I would have lost my purpose.

I realized after a moment that he hadn’t said any of that out loud. He had put the ring back on.

“Your purpose is that of every pirate, sail, explore, plunder, and enjoy life,” I reminded him.

How could I enjoy sailing if you weren’t fighting me to get to the wheel? Or standing at the bow throwing your head back as the wind blew your hair like a golden flag? Or filling my cabin with the scent of grass after a fresh rain?

“You’re poetic even in your mind,” I whispered, “That is quite a feat.”

“Don’t tell my men,” he whispered, kissing my cheek quickly. The ground beneath us trembled and he clutched me, pulling me farther away from the mouth of the volcano.

“I think that is our sign to leave,” I said nervously.

“It wasn’t the volcano,” one of the men said. Finn and I turned and looked in the direction the crew was facing. A giant squid was fighting a giant crab and the crab had thrown the squid onto the island, which was the reason for the quake.

“That is definitely our sign to leave,” Finn said. “Return to ship!” Finn yelled. I ran down the path behind Finn and stumbled as another quake shook the ground. Finn grabbed my hand and pulled me after him. “We have to get to the ship and sail out of their range,” he yelled, “or they’ll destroy the ship and possibly set the volcano off.”

“I didn’t need to know that!” I yelled at him.

I have to get her to safety. I have to get her off the island.

A few of his crew raced ahead of us and began pushing the boats into the water. We ran into the surf and climbed into the boats. “Row like your arse is on fire!” Finn ordered.

The men rowed as fast as they could, focused on their task. I looked around nervously and saw the squid racing towards us under the water and leaving a terrible wake behind it. “Look out!” I screamed.