"You'll make a fine wife one day." The Pirate Jack Deadbones said during the rare visit home to his daughter.

Little Jackeline scrunched up her nose and shook her head. "I'm not marrying some slug sucking boy!" She said.

Captain Deadbones tilted his head back and roared with laughter at his feisty daughter's comments. Jackeline's mother wasn't as amused. She looked up from her knitting giving the Captain a stern look and shook her head.

"If'n you ain't gonna be a wife when you grow up then what'ya gonna do?" The Captain asked.

"I'm going to be a princess." The six-year-old pronounced.

By this time the Captain felt the daggers his wife was staring into his back. As much as the child's answer warmed his heart, her mother expected him to set her straight.

"Well you'll always be my princess." He began. "But to be a real princess, you would have to be born to a king, and your Papa ain't no king."

The girl thought on her Papa's words for a moment and then replied. "Then I'll be a Pirate Princess."

Jackeline's mother grew red at the girl's words. She took an audible gasp of air and threw her knitting straight down on the planked floor.

"You wouldn't want to be a Pirate, doll." Jack Deadbones said patting his daughter on the head.

"And why not?" Jackeline asked placing both hands on her little hips.

"Because the oceans be full of monsters!" Her Papa said widening his eyes and tickling his daughter's tummy.

"You foolin' papa. There ain't no monsters." Jackeline laughed.

"Oh, but there is." Jack Deadbones said sitting on the straw bed in the tiny one room cabin. He patted his knee and invited his daughter to sit.

"Ever hear of battle toads?" He asked.

The six-year-old rolled her eyes. It would take more than battle toads to frighten her.

"Well what about a Hydra? Have you heard about that?"

The girl shook her head.

"The beast is a snake like creature with nine heads."

The girl's eyes widened with her papa's tale. "There ain't no fightin' the Hydra either," he continued, "for once you cut off one head, two more grow in its place."

"Have you ever seen a hydra, Papa?" Jackeline asked.

"Yep."

"How'd you escape?"

"Well that leads us to the other monster's that Pirates gotta be lookin' out for." Her Papa said.

"What's that?"

"Other pirates!"

"Papa you pullin' my leg." The girl said laughing and cuddling more into her father's lap. She loved the slight salty smell of his skin and the rhythm of his voice when he told his stories.

"Now I ain't. There was once the meanest pirate that you'd ever meet."

"I thought you were the meanest pirate, Papa."

"I'm the meanest to my enemies." He said puffing out his chest. His wife sat in her rocking chair in the corner of the room shaking her head. She didn't think it was appropriate to fill their daughter's head with his pirate stories.

"But Ozzy the Terrible, was even mean to his own crew. He'd make them lick his boots and what-not."

Jackeline wrinkled her nose. "That's gross."

"An' he wasn't right in da head either."

"What do you mean?" Jackeline asked.

"Well he lost an eye an instead of wearin' an eyepatch like any other self respectin' pirate, he had a compass installed right there in his eye socket!"

"That's sick!" Jackeline said. Jack chuckled at his daughter's wonderous tone.

"Well Ozzy the Terrible decided that he wanted a new boat – my boat! That blimey pirate attacked my ship and killed a quarter o' my men."

"What did you do?"

"I captured him. T'weren't easy either. I took a knife to the side in the scuffle." Jack lifted the corner of his linen shirt showing the pale white scar of where the knife once plunged into his side.

"It took me an' five o' my best men to hold him down and once we captured him, you know what his crew did?"

Jackeline shook her head no. "They left 'im. They ain't had no loyalty to their captain."

"No loyalty!" Jackeline gasped. "A pirate that ain't got loyalty needs to walk the plank."

"That's true doll, but it's hard to be loyal to someone who ain't showing proper respect. Maybe if'n he didn't make 'im lick his boots..."

"So, did you kill Ozzy the terrible." Jack's wife gasped again at the question. He squirmed a bit. If'n he continued she was likely to put his eye out with one of them knitting needles. Jack didn't want to go back to his crew wearing an eyepatch.

"Well, I figured that it were best to keep the ol' captain as me prisoner."

Jackeline's eyes grew wide. "Did you shackle him. Did you hang 'im from the yardarm? Did you lock 'im up below deck? Did he have to eat rats to survive."

"Yes, no, yes and gross!" Jack said answering her questions. "Eventually I found a use for that blimey pirate."

"Whatcha do with 'im?"

"Well that's when the Hydra spotted us. My men started chopping at its head but every time they cut off a head two more grew in its place. So, I needed to distract the monster. I shot him with a cannon ball."

"Did you kill it?"

"Please that Hydra barely even flinched. But it was long enough for us to get away. I was commanding my men to heave ho, for we needed to outrun the monster."

"Did it catch up with you?"

"Sure did." Jack answered. "That Hydra scallywag cornered us into going between Scylla and Charybdis."

"What's Scy, sc..."

"Scylla and Charybdis are two sea monsters on either side of a narrow straight. If'n you try to avoid Scylla, Charybdis will surely git ya. If'n you try to avoid Charybdis then Scylla will kill ya."

"And if'n you didn't go through, Hydra would git ya!" Jackeline said.

"That is very true doll. So, I had my ship go through the straight keepin' to the middle. I hoped that the monsters would go after the Hydra instead o' my ship but they were all working together."

"What you do?"

"Well it was time for Captain Ozzy the Terrible to go on to Davey Jones' Locker. He walked the plank and all three monsters tried to git him. While the monsters were busy with the captain, I stole away with my ship."

"I'm glad you outwitted all them monsters Papa."

"But there were more." Jack Deadbones said.

"Sounds like you said enough." His wife huffed in the corner.

"Well one of the monster's heads or tails ended up hittin' the ship and put a great big hole in it to. We was takin' in water and ended up shipwrecked on the Isle of Bones."

"That sounds scary!" Jackeline gasped.

"The Isle of Bones ain't no scary place less you be responsible for someone's death!"

"Papa, you ain't responsible for nobody's death."

"Well doll, remember ol' Captain Ozzy. I recon I was responsible for his death."

"What happened."

"Well all the bones came to life! They started attacking us but they wasn't dead. So, every time we cut one set o' bones down they would just reform and keep on attacking. The only way to beat them was to find the bones that you was responsible for killin' and kill the bones."

"But how'n you gonna' kill some bones?"

"I had to find Captain Ozzy the Terrible and cut off his head. It was hard. I had to cut down hundreds of bones and them scallywags kept on reforming but then I noticed one set of bones that had a machine in his eye socket. I knew that had to be ol' Ozzy's bones. I cut off his head and all the bones fell down dead! I reckon I was the first to survive the army o' bones so that's how I got my name: Deadbones."

"I always wondered why we had different names." Jackeline said.

"Well how in the world did you fix your wrecked ship?" Jack's wife asked from the corner.

Jack chuckled at the woman's curiosity. "Well we fixed the ship wit' the bones o' course."

Jackeline started counting on her fingers, "That's six scary monsters!"

"They ain't even the scariest." Jack continued. "The scariest be the Sirens."

Jack's wife rolled her eyes. He supposed she didn't want to hear her husband speaking of the Sirens' unparalleled beauty. "What Sirens be?" Jackeline asked.

"They are beautiful women who live under the ocean and instead of feet they have fins. They have golden wings they use to fly out of the water. They have the voices of Angels."

"Are they prettier than mommy?" Jackeline asked.

Jack's wife trained her gaze on him. Sometimes he wondered if his little girl was as innocent as he thought, or did she just plan to viciously set him up with her question.

"Nobody is prettier than your mother." That seemed to make both women in the room happy. "The sirens voice is hypnotic, and no man can resist it. When the Siren sings men want to go to her and they will jump straight off the ship to do it. Most men will never reach the Siren and those who do experience a grisly death, for Sirens have two sets of teeth: pretty human ones, and an entire set of sharpened fangs."

"They eat the pirates?" Jackeline whispered.

"Pirate is their favorite food."

"Have you ever seen a Siren?"

"Aye. She started singing and all I could think was I had to get to that voice. There was a mad rush to get to the front of the ship and jump overboard. Men were fighting each other, punching, kicking and biting to be the first to jump to their deaths."

"Well why ain't ya dead?" Jack's wife huffed.

"Well there was one lad I brought along. The scallywag couldn't get work elsewhere on account of him being deaf. He couldn't hear the Siren song. Every night this lad would clean out his ears hopin' that it would make him hear better. He saved all his ear wax in a jar. When everybody started goin' mad but him, he figured that they needed to shut their ears. So, he got that jar of wax, found me first and shoved some of it in my ears.

"That's not gross at all." Jackeline said.

"Well once my ears were closed, I realized that I had been driven mad just like the rest of the ship. I scooped out some of that earwax and me and the boy went to work closin' up as many ears as we could. The men began helping to close their ship mates' ears and then when we ran out we started knocking them out. It was better than lettin' them jump off the boat. But by the time we escaped the Sirens, my crew was down to an eighth of its size."

"Did you get more crew?"

"That's what I'm fixin' to do doll." Jack winked. "Now tell me you put all this pirate princess foolishness out o' your head."

Jackeline nodded, and her Papa kissed her on the forehead for the last time before following her mother out of the cabin where they spoke in soft murmurs. Jackeline told her father what he wanted to hear, but one part of his story bothered her. He said that no man was immune to the Sirens call. Yet Jackeline was no man.

It was years later before she found out that she too wasn't immune to the Siren's call. She didn't just carry her father's name she had his weakness too. Shortly after her seventh birthday, a Siren killed her Papa. She hated the creatures for what they did to him. She hated the immense attraction she felt whenever she heard their song even more. Her father tried to warn her about the monsters of the sea and he was right, the Siren was the worst of all. But even knowing everything she did about the Siren's allure affecting her, Jackeline probably would have still made the choice to be a pirate.

Jack turned to piracy when it became clear that she would never experience romantic feelings for boys. Her desire for women made her weak to the Sirens song. But she was on a boat full of strong women who could steer them through the Siren infested waters. Jack had them tie her to the mast along with Jo, the first mate, who was equally attracted to other women. They survived Siren's Bay on three separate occasions and today was their fourth.

The melody started to ebb and soon they would be completely cleared of Siren's Bay. Once the Quartermaster, Quinn, felt they were a safe distance she would remove the ropes that she tied around the Captain and First Mate.

But before they cleared the bay a gold winged woman jumped out of the water and flew to the ship.

She was the most beautiful woman that Jack had ever seen. She had blonde hair and pale blue eyes. She wore pink sea shells over her breasts and seaweed over her nether regions. Upon entering the boat her tail turned into human legs and Jack had the urge to kiss every one of her pink little toes. Only because she wasn't worthy to kiss the Siren's rosy lips which she parted to speak. "You won't escape my wrath again!"

"I don't want to!" First mate Jo said to the Siren.

"That's sweet." The Siren cooed. "I'll be taking all your men now."

"Um, we don't have any men," Quinn said.

The Siren sang towards Quinn who stood rooted in her spot blinking. Jack and Jo fought to rid themselves of the ropes that bound them. The Siren stepped towards Jack touching her face with clammy hands.

"Leave her alone!" Quinn shouted, gripping the hilt of the sword she wore at her waist.

"I would never hurt a woman." The Siren looked back at Quinn baring her second set of pointy teeth before explaining, "Women are to be loved. Men are to be food."

"Now sweetheart tell me the truth." The Siren said. "Where are your men."

Jack giggled at the attention. "Sometimes I dress up like a man."

"Why." The Siren asked showing both sets of teeth as if the idea disgusted her.

"How else will I get the respect that I deserve?" Jack asked.

"And why do you deserve respect little one?" The siren asked.

"I'm the first ever captain of an all-female ship," Jack said puffing out her chest.

The Siren stomped her foot. "This is awful. My sisters are hungry and if you have no men they will hate doing it, but we will have to eat four women."

"Now wait a second." Quinn said at the same time that Jo volunteered to be Siren lunch.

"This is your ship's fourth time escaping our bay without feeding us. So, you owe us four lives." The Siren said.

A story from her childhood niggled at the back of Jack's brain. "In two days', time I can bring you a man for lunch." Jack offered.

"I'm listening." The Siren said.

"I'll be your lunch," Jo said.

"No, you won't Jo!" Quinn shouted at the tied-up girl.

"There is this Jackal who was supposed to marry a Countess but instead he stole her dowry."

"That's why we eat those pigs." The Siren spat.

"The Countess hired me to retrieve her dowry. Now it seems only fitting that the scum that would steal a dowry get served up for your lunch."

"That is one. You owe us four and one more each time you cross our bay."

"One within two days and another four within two weeks. Also, we will bring you a meal each time we cross your bay."

The Siren thought about the offer. "How can I trust you?"

"Because we love you," Jo said.

"Jo!" Quinn chided shaking her head.

"Yes, little one. I believe that you and the captain do love me, but she doesn't!" The Siren said facing Quinn.

"We can get rid of her." Jo offered.

Quinn began to pull out her sword. "You scallywag." She yelled at one of her oldest friends.

"What if you stayed with us on the ship until we make the delivery?" Jack offered instead. Quinn stopped pulling out her sword. Jack could tell that she didn't like the idea, but it was a sight better than getting rid of her. Though if the Siren wanted to get rid of Quinn, she wouldn't be able to protest even though she knew it was wrong.

"Yes, I think that can be arranged. I think we'll make good friends." The monster said caressing Jack's face.