Living on Writer's Block

Suddenly another voice broke in. “You know, laddie, some people find scars rather fetching.” The man turned, and Ramona caught sight of Samuel standing just beyond him, one fist on his hip, leaning nonchalantly on his sword as its point stood buried in the deck. He glanced at her, then leveled a cold stare at the first soldier. He pulled the sword and raised it to the man’s eye level, just barely tickling his smudged and scarred nose with the point. “Now, if you’ll please let the lady go, my friend, and do drop your swords, the both of you,” he said pleasantly.

Jaws slack with shock, both men dropped their swords and scurried away from the girl, who immediately straightened up, gasping from the exertion of such an uncomfortable position. Samuel looked pointedly at Ramona’s antagonists, eyebrows raised, then motioned away toward the center mast with a jerk of his head and a slightly threatening move with the cutlass. They jumped and scurried to obey, joining a growing knot of people around that area. Samuel watched them keenly, then sheathed his sword and stepped quickly to Ramona’s side, pulling a handkerchief from the inside pocket of his dark velvet vest. He applied it carefully to her stinging cheek, and held the kerchief firmly on. 

“You alright, Redhawk? Or, should I say, Bloodhawk?” he asked. 

“Yes, I am, Captain, thank you,” she said quietly, smiling faintly at his comment. Her eyes calmed from the amber, turning a soft sort of grey-brown.

“You were doing very well until he surprised you there.”

She huffed a dry laugh, glancing away in embarrassment. “I did some fancy jumps, that’s all.”

“No, I’m quite serious, Redhawk. You got him twice while he only got you once; the only thing that went wrong was that he surprised you by getting your back to his friend.” 

Her eyes went  to his. “I still lost, Captain.”

“Nonsense. You kept fighting long past my expectations.” 

She smiled gratefully for a second but stopped when it hurt her cut. “Well — thank you, Captain. And, I suppose we won?”

“Yes, we did; you missed most of it though.”

“I was a little busy.”

“You’re good now, though.” He glanced up over her head. “Ah — do you think you can handle your cut on your own? The crew’s waiting — and chuckling a little.” He tightened his lips exasperatedly. 

“Of course, yes, go before they start saying things,” she said, putting a hand quickly up to the handkerchief. Her fingers brushed his as he let go, and she was surprised to find them cold. Her eyes flashed brighter amber inquisitively, but he was already gone. With a sigh she sheathed the captain’s knife and bent to pick up her opponent’s rapier. She tested it a little and smiled carefully, very pleased. It was light, very well balanced, and had a beaten edge that would not need sharpening. She put it carefully through her belt and turned to watch as Samuel and his crew put the survivors of the fight into a large knot around the mainmast in the center of the deck. She went closer to hear what he was saying. 

“I will only warn you all that, while we are a somewhat merciful crew, we will kill anyone who attempts to fight. We’ll take what we want, as we are pirates — I need not explain that to you; but if you can provide a suitable enough reason, I might be persuaded to let you keep a few of your things, and if I can manage convince whichever of my men is in possession of an item in question, you may keep it. Mind, these cannot be reasons like ‘it was my grandmother’s and we were such good friends that when she died she gave me this’, alright? I’m not nearly that softhearted. It must be vital to the survival of someone very dear to you, or something along those lines — however, given the type of things we generally take, I highly doubt you’ll be able to convince me. Do I make myself clear?”

The frightened group nodded silently. A few heads turned as Ramona’s bright figure drew closer to the group of pirates; Samuel looked round, and nodded slightly at the question in her eyes. As she came to his side, he spoke quietly. “I’m glad you’re alright. I’m not being too harsh, am I?” 

She smiled and shook her head. “As long as you’re leaving them enough supplies to make it to port, I think they’ll be fine.” He nodded and turned back to the captives. 

“There will be enough left over for them all to make it, you needn’t worry,” he said, still speaking quietly to her. “See, this is why the rest don’t consider us pirates. We don’t go in and slaughter the whole ship, nor do we plunder and take all we can lay our hands on.” He shook his head slightly, his lips tightening. “But here’s where we’re truly different,” he added. Turning to the captives, he addressed them all again. “I will also,” he said, “leave enough valuable items for you all to begin rebuilding your finances on. You’ve done it before; you can do it now. However, I think that what with the size of this ship, we shall still have plenty.” He turned to his own crew and nodded. Whooping and yelling, they swarmed across the ship while a few stayed to watch the captives. They would get a turn later, when their replacements traded out with them. Samuel turned to Ramona again. “See, that’s the thing the rest of them don’t like. Just because I’m a decent human being, and I’m not going to kill more than I must or steal their whole livelihood, they say I’m not a pirate.”

She glanced up at him, one eyebrow raised over the kerchief that grew darker with blood every second. “I’m pretty sure I’d call you a pirate, Samuel, if I was on the crew of this ship. And, er,” she added, blushing slightly, “I think I’d probably elect to join you rather than continue with this lot.”

He gave a wry smile. “Some people were born into the wrong profession, Red. And by the way,” he added, remembering something, “if you don’t mind my suggesting it, you might be able to find some cloth and such down there to make new clothes, if you like. I’ve noticed a few holes lately in your old ones.”

She looked down at her slightly ragged garb and smiled. “It does need some help; thank you, Captain, I’ll see what there might be.” She went to the hatch that she’d noticed much of the crew disappearing into, and in a scarlet whirl jumped down to the hold.