Saturday, September 19, 2015

The Magic Saber: Part Six

After a loooong wait, I'm finally giving you the next part of this story. :) Sorry about the huge gap in between, but I figured y'all wanted to finish 'Alice & Alyssa' up.
Anyways, if you missed any of the parts, or simply need a refresher on the plot, go to the links below:


Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five



Chapter Six

“You made plans for escape… for all of us to escape… even my crew and me?” The Captain asked, frowning thoughtfully.

Emily nodded. “Yes…in fact, if all goes well, you’ll even get your ship back.” The captain obviously didn’t believe her, and he even laughed until he caught sight of the look on her face.

“How?” He asked.

Emily smiled, and told him her plans. “…and so, the pirates would be captured and your ship would belong to you again.”

The captain shook his head, but a look of hope came to his face that used to hold one of despair. “Well, if you and your brother’s can pull that trick off, I’ll make you captain of my ship, and you brother’s will be first and second mate!”

Emily laughed, but sobered again. “Captain, seeing you and you crew back where they belong, and the pirates where they belong would be reward enough for us.”

The captain smiled. “I have something in my cabin that will help, but you will have to get it for me. Can you do that?”

Emily nodded. “Luke and John are going to be working in there anyways, all they need to do is wait for a good chance to smuggle the thing under the noses of the pirates back to you.”

The captain looked over at the two boys. “I’ll tell you how the thing works. I think it will help your escape plans go a lot more quickly.” He pulled the boys and Emily aside and whispered to them the directions to his secret weapon.

The afternoon passed quickly enough, and before long the children were again shoved down into the dark hull for sleep. Since the siblings were too excited over their escape plans, they instead huddled together and went over their plans to fix any holes.

Soon they were yawning and drifting off to sleep, their exhaustion from the hard day of work overwhelming the temporary excitement. Slowly, one by one, they dropped off to sleep, and even the scurrying of small furry creatures didn’t disturb their rest.

* * * * *

A rough hand jerked Luke out of his deep slumber, and he sat up, blinking from the sudden light from the open trapdoor.  Hopkins, for this was who had awakened him, pulled him to his feet.

“We’ve got work for ye, lad. The captain’s in a terrible mood so try to stay out of his way,” The pirate said, continuing over to his siblings and waking them up in a similar way.

More asleep than awake, the siblings stumbled up through the trapdoor and onto the rolling deck. John almost lost his balance as an especially large wave slapped the side of the ship, making it sway precariously. Hopkins led them towards the kitchen again, and Emily parted with her brother’s there. While no pirate was looking, she gave a quick wink of reassurance to the boys.

With renewed hope, the boys followed Hopkins into the captain’s Cabin. Under the angrily bellowed orders from the pirate captain, Luke had to fight back his temper. Seething inside, John did the same. Hopkins managed to remove Rudy the Red for a while, and then the boys had some peace.

As soon as the pirates were out of the cabin, the boys stopped their work and began searching the desk. In the back of a drawer, hidden by a false back, there was a bottle of some concoction known only to the real captain of the HMS Golden Eagle. He had been keeping it there for such a time as this, but had forgotten until Emily came up with her idea for escape with help from Luke and John.

Polly, the parrot, had been watching them curiously and suddenly broke out into a loud, “Awk!” John, the parrot’s favorite of the siblings, rushed over while Luke went to the door, listening for footsteps.

“Hush!” John hissed at the parrot.

Polly cocked her head, not understanding. “But Polly wants a cracker!” she complained.

John put a finger to his lips. “Will Polly be quiet for a cracker?” he asked.

Polly seemed to brighten at the idea of being able to eat a cracker. “Polly will be quiet for a cracker,” She said, puffing her feathers and looking pleased with herself. “John is nice to Polly, so Polly will listen to John.” She turned to Luke, who was silently standing next to the door, his ear against it. “What does Luke hear?” she asked.

Luke crept towards them. “Nothing yet Polly, but I don’t want the pirates to come in here while we’re finding something.”

Polly cocked her head the other direction. “Polly doesn’t like pirates,” She said haughtily. “Pirate yells and yells at her to be quiet!”

Luke glanced over a John.  “Polly, will you help us escape the pirates?” he asked suddenly.

Polly flapped her wings thoughtfully. “Polly wants a cracker,” She finally replied. Luke rolled his eyes. He shot a look to John for help.

John quickly came to his rescue. “Sure Polly, we’ll give you a cracker if you help us escape.”

“What will Polly do?” the parrot asked next. Luke didn’t reply right away, he was busy putting three drops of the clear liquid from the secret bottle into the pirate captain’s whiskey jug. He finished, corking the jug quickly and shaking it so the secret liquid mixed with the rest of the whiskey. He turned back to the parrot that was looking through her feathers for any stray bugs.

“Polly needs to get the captain to drink all his whiskey tonight,” He said, slipping the bottle into his boot where so many things had gotten safely under the noses of the pirates.

Polly stopped her preening and let out a satisfied, but soft, “Awk! Polly will make the pirate drink his whiskey. But…” she paused, picking a bug out of her feathers suddenly and then eating it. “Polly doesn’t like pirates.”

Luke nodded, impatient to get the bottle to Emily. “Yes, yes, I know Polly doesn’t like pirates,” He said.

But Polly wasn’t finished. “Polly wants to go with nice boys.” She flapped her wings excitedly. “Boys don’t yell and yell at Polly to be quiet,” She added as an afterthought. “Polly doesn’t want to stay with nasty pirates. She wants to go away with nice boys.”

Luke suddenly realized what the parrot meant. He gasped. “Y-you want to escape with us?” he asked.

“Yes,” The parrot agreed, climbing upside down across the top of her cage. “Polly doesn’t like nasty pirates.” She climbed back onto her perch. “They yell and yell at Polly to be quiet,” She explained again. Luke gave John an exasperated look.

John quickly turned to the parrot. “Of course Polly can come with us,” He replied before Luke could say anything to stop him. “But Polly has to be a very good parrot for us if she comes. Polly has to be very quiet, even if she doesn’t get any crackers, and she mustn’t squawk. Does Polly understand?”

The parrot cocked her head again, apparently thinking seriously over the terms of the agreement. Finally, she tilted her head in a different direction and answered. “Polly will be quiet if nice boys take her away from nasty pirates.” John smiled, but Luke groaned. “Polly doesn’t like pirates,” The parrot added. “They yell and yell at her to be quiet.”

The parrot lapsed into a thoughtful silence, undoubtedly thinking about how nasty her pirate captors were and how they yelled and yelled at her.

Luke however, as soon as they finished hurriedly cleaning the captain’s cabin and were on their way to help Emily in the kitchen, turned to glower at his brother. “Now look what you did!” he exclaimed, putting his hands on his sides. “You’ve made that ridiculous parrot think that she’s coming with us!”

John shrugged stubbornly. “She is,” He replied.

Luke sighed. “Look, we can’t escape with the parrot, Emily won’t like it, the captain won’t like, most of the crew won’t like it…it can’t happen.”

John stuck to his promise. “We can’t leave her with the pirates! She’ll get slowly and cruelly killed by them, it’s simply mean to leave any living creature in their hands!”

Grudgingly, Luke admitted to himself that John was right. Leaving the parrot in pirates’ hands would be cruel. “Alright,” He said at last. “She can come, but only if Emily and the captain don’t mind.”

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