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jolly sailor bold
chapter five , a royal hijack

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THE SUN HAD ALL BUT disappeared, a few hours after the Dawn Treader left the docks of Narrowhaven. If Caspian squinted he could make out a faint light lingering on the horizon, but it was undeniable that dusk had fallen and he instructed his sailors to light the lamps and continue with their work.

          The King found himself situated where he so often stood, just to the side of the ship's helm, keeping eye on the ocean ahead, the wind in the sails, studying Drinian's movements as he guided them onwards.

        A new found hope had found him since they had departed Narrowhaven's shores, perhaps it was down to the discovery of Lord Bern. He, himself, was a sign of prosperity for their voyage, and now they had a second aim aside from finding the lost Lords of Telmar — they, now, also planned to follow in their footsteps and attempt to destroy the green mist that plagued the land.

        Caspian shook his head lightly at the thought that graced his mind. Attempt. No, they would destroy the most — they had to.

        The addition of two further volunteers to their crew seemed to add to the air of hopefulness that swept over the ship. Caspian cracked a small smile at the sight of them being welcomed by his own Narnian sailors.

        Shasta had proved himself, and fought valiantly alongside them, demonstrating his allegiance. And Rhince was too a worthy addition to their crew, with a hell bent hunger to find the mist and rescue his wife, Helene — Caspian was not a man to deny another the chance to save a loved one.

The King too could not deny the feeling of ease and prosperity as he found himself calming at the helm. Yet, he was unsettled. There was an image in his mind that had failed to leave since he first set eyes on it — or rather, her.

It was those eyes. Caspian could hardly think of anything else, he and the woman they belonged to had exchanged for less than a minute and he could not shake it. He wondered whether their sheer brightness had burned into his brain, it seemed rather plausible.

The more he thought, the more he convinced himself that he'd never seen anything as magnificent. It was as though the sun itself had shone from her very irises. The King was awestruck, even hours after the encounter.

His rational mind told him to discard the thoughts, they were anything but useful to their voyage, and while the King assured himself that he was following the instruction of his rational mind. His actions said otherwise, as he carefully inspected the sword in his grasp which he had received from Edmund in trade for the old sword of Lord Bern — which the just King had been chipping away it since they left the harbour.

He remembered how the sword had danced in her grasp as she intervened to save them from the prison guards. Its balance didn't match that of his own and the handle was slightly worn — he wondered how often she must have fought. He was surprised at its overall condition nonetheless, it was especially refined and its blade was decorated with intricate designs that had rusted into a darker grey that complemented the silver blade.

But no, his rational mind was in complete control. At least, that's what Caspian told himself upon catching Drinian's inquisitive gaze.

"The sea is awfully calm tonight, don't you think, Drinian?" The King asked, clearing throat as he let the sword hang in his grasp, abandoning his inspection of the blade and casting his gaze skyward. "Perhaps it's a sign of prosperity for our voyage."

"I'm not sure about that, Your Highness."

Drinian's remark surprise Caspian, whose eyebrows furrowed upon the captain's honest response.

"You don't think we will succeed?"

"I think it's unwise to predict the outcome of a battle we know so little of." Drinian responded, level-headedly, his gaze not once flickering from the ocean. "Especially considering we don't what happened to the Lords in their attempt."

"I suppose you're right." Caspian agreed, twirling the sword in hand and plastering a gentle smile on his lips. "But then again, we can always have hope."

"That we can." Drinian bowed his head a little as Caspian made to descend to the lower deck. "And, Your Highness?"

"Yes, Captain?"

"I wouldn't be too sure about the calm seas." The captain told him, a hard edge to his voice as his eyes scanned the boat. "There's a storm coming."

"Drinian, my man." Caspian stifled a chuckle as he followed the captain's gaze. "The skies are clear!"

"No. I can feel it." Drinian dismissed the King's response, his lips curling ever so slightly. "A sailor knows his ship. Something wrong is afoot here."

Caspian's smile fell and he found himself swallowing rather nervously as he looked back to meet the captain's gaze with a soft sigh.

"I hope for all our sakes, you are wrong, Drinian."

Whatever lighearted manner he may never feigned, Caspian's words were heavy. There had never, in all the time Caspian had known him, been an incident in which Drinian was wrong.

***

"ALRIGHT, MEN! GET SOME rest. And make room for our guests."

Mira couldn't help but grin at the sound of the man's voice echoing from the deck above, as he instructed his men to stand at ease.

"How gracious." She mused, pursing his lips as she looked around at her comrades, whom she had successfully hidden with in the lower quarters of the ship's deck. "He's calling us guests."

"What's the plan?"

"Same as always." Mira answered Zardeenah's question with a gentle shrug, as she tugged her hair from its ponytail and let it cascade down past her shoulders. "It's never failed."

"They're all fair swordsmen, Mira." Tirian grumbled, his fingers tracing the handle of the sword that hung on his waist. "Best not underestimate them."

"I don't doubt us." The blonde silenced him, as she shrugged off her coat, handing it to Aravis, soaring a wink at the grumbling crook as she did so. "And don't forget we have the advantage."

"Alright." Tirian spared her light chuckle as she took a hand through her hair, before nodding in the direction of the hatch. "Go on then."

Faint light from the deck above shone through the gaps in the door of hatched metal, that hung above them, and caught Mira's ivory skin every now and then as they flickered with each passing shadow.

After a careful moment of deliberation, Mira deduced that most of the sailors had made their way to the other end of the ships, having discarded their weapons on the way. The blonde couldn't help but chuckle — it was almost as though they were asking to be attacked.

"Hang on, Corin." Mira spared a wicked grin down the eager-looking boy that stood at his mother's side. "We about to get a new boat."

The young boy let out a gleeful laugh only to be quickly hushed by Tirian, who shot the blonde an expectant look. Mira let out a huff and quickly surrendered the daggers that she had strapped to her ankles — after all, who would trust a frightened maiden with weapons in her reach?

She would go into battle unarmed, and still she would prevail.

"How do I look?" Mira smirked as she applied a dark red tint to her lips, and looked at Aravis who mirrored her smirk.

"Bewitching as ever."

"Oh, Aravis, do stop." Mira silenced her with a humoured smile, as she set one foot on the first rung of the ladder leading up to the deck. "You know you'll make me blush."

With a final wink at her comrades, Mira twisted so she was parallel to the ladder and slowly began ascending, her hand gently pushing open the hatched door above her as it didn't even emit a creak.

"They have no idea what's going to hit them, do they?" Tirian chuckled, watching as the girl effortlessly hoisted herself up and through the door, undetected.

"They never do." Zardeenah agreed as she twisted her dagger in her grasp, and set her own foot upon the bottom rung of the ladder.

Mira couldn't help but smirk at the sound of her comrades encouragement, as she let the hatch shut quietly behind her.

She kept low on the deck, her golden eyes narrowed as they landed on the party of sailors that had congregated along the other end of the galleon.

A gentle breeze swept over the deck, as gentle waves crashed against the edge of the boat and a low fog began to settle — the air was quiet for a voyage, all the more easy for her to disrupt.

Slowly, Mira rose to her feet, yet to be noticed by any of the crew. She pressed her lips together and started to hum her bewitching song.

Any chatter that had lingered between the crew quickly ceased as they noticed a melody in the breeze. Although they had yet to take note of its source, so she sang louder increasing her hum to eerie melodic vocalisations, as she slowly allowed herself to be seen.

"Upon one summer's morning, I carefully did stray." Mira sang gently, her voice as delicate as the breeze that carried it. "Down by the Walls of Wapping, where I met a sailor gay."

Her golden eyed surveyed their reaction as they spotted her, she noted their wariness at the sight of her but also how their defences began to drop as her song continued. Oh, how easy it was to charm a sailor.

"Conversing with a young lass, who seemed to be in pain." The blonde continued to sing, allowing her gaze to analyse each and every sailor. "Saying William, when you go, I fear you'll ne'er return again."

She took note of some familiar faces in the crowd; the young girl who had been captive in the market place, the young boy who had taken her sword and, of course, Shasta who shot her a knowing look from where he stood beside the boy.

However, the face that Mira was most pleased to see was the one who stood in the middle of the crowd of sailors, his dark eyes intently fixed on her as his hand caressed a very familiar sword that the bandit recognised to be her own.

She allowed a soft smirk to dance across her lips at his attention, as she took a step forward and began crossing the deck that separated her and him.

"His hair it hangs in ringlets, his eyes as black as coal. My happiness attend him wherever he may go." Mira sang, her focus never wandering from the young man. "From Tower Hill to Blackwall, I'll wander, weep and moan. All for my jolly sailor, until he sails home."

Out of the corner of eye, she could make out the vague silhouettes of her companions weaving their way around the crowd of sailors — who were all too preoccupied by her display, to notice their weapons leaving their belts.

"Come all you pretty fair maids, whoever you may be. Who love a jolly sailor that ploughs the raging sea." The blonde allowed her song to soften as she came within close range of the man. "While up aloft in storm, from me his absence mourn and firmly pray, arrive the day, he's never more to roam."

The next step Mira took was daring; the two of them stood almost chest to chest, neither of their gazes wavering. The blonde could feel his breath fanning her face as she bored her golden eyes into his own, as her hand reached for his own.

"My heart is pierced by Cupid. I disdain all glittering gold."

She gave a light smirk at the hitch in his breath as her hand touched his own, her fingers dancing along his palm as she expertly guided her sword out of his grasp into her own.

The blonde couldn't help but smile as the comfortable weight of her weapon settled in her hand, while the man only continued to stare at her completely transfixed.

She twirled the sword delicately in her grasp, slowly but surely rising it to strike.

"There is nothing can console me but my jolly sailor bold."

"Your Highness!"

No more than a second passed, in which her golden flashed dangerously and the man was broken from his daze.

She didn't wait to use to his confusion against him, a well aimed kick knocked him to his knees before her. Mira followed through with the rest of her threat, resting the end of her sword at the base of his throat before any of his fellow crew could get any ideas about trying to trap her.

"Caspian!" The voice of the young girl cried in horror, as the rest of the bandits revealed themselves and chose their own victims to hold at sword point.

"Ah ah." Mira tutted, a victorious smirk emerging on her lips. "One more move from anyone and pretty boy here is chum for the sea serpents."

"Sea serpents?!"

"Edmund!"

Mira merely rolled her eyes at the bickering of the two young sailors, before turning her gaze back to the man on his knees before her.

"Look. You might as well surrender." She told him, her smirk never once fading. "I think you'll find yourselves at slight disadvantage."

"How did you get on board?" He grunted, as the blade pressed against his throat.

"We were invited on. By one of your true-hearted recruits." Mira shrugged as though it was the most obvious thing in the world, before letting out a tut. "Only ... I wouldn't necessarily agree with your assessment of him. I found Shasta to be an awfully slippery character."

At the sound of Shasta's name, the man closed his eyes in visible anguish, his jaw hardening as his gaze wandered over to where Shasta was standing with a wide grin on his lips, twirling two swords in his hands.

"Wait a minute. You're the—"

Mira's attention was captured briefly by the boy once more, whose eyes were darting between her and her comrades.

"The?" Mira quirked an eyebrows.

"You're the bandits of Narrowhaven." He remarked, almost in disbelief, keeping notably calm considering the circumstances.

"Would you look at that? We have a fan in our midst." Mira smirked, shooting a look around at her companions.

"No often that happens." Shasta chuckled, his grin never fading.

"Yes, usually our interactions with sailors are so awfully brief." The blonde continued bringing her gaze back to the man before her. "There's very little time for introductions when you're slitting their throats."

"Speaking of which, Mira, don't you want to be getting on with it?" Tirian's gruff voice echoed from somewhere else on the ship.

The golden eyed girl let out a small groan at the crook's request, as she surveyed the man once more, as he stubbornly returned her gaze.

"He's awfully pretty, don't you think? Killing him would be a shame." Mira mused, still smirking upon him. "Oh, I do hate hard decisions."

"Your name is Mira?" The man spoke up, his gaze never wavering away from her.

"What's yours, pretty boy?" The blonde countered, amused at the way that encounter was playing out.

"My name is Caspian."

Caspian. The sound of his name echoed in her brain, it suited him. It was nice to put a name to the face, especially since he wasn't much longer for the world.

"I think I prefer pretty boy." Mira quipped in response.

"I am your King." Caspian continued, his gaze hard as the blonde fought hard to contain her amusement.

"Is that so?"

"What do you want?" He asked, his jaw clenching and nostrils flaring.

"I think it obvious, don't you?" Mira continued to smirk, thoroughly enjoy this so-called King's irritability.

"If you kill me—"

"If?" She scoffed. "You really think the chances of your survival is up for discussion?"

"I am telling you I am your King, and I demand that you respect as such!"

Mira only chuckled, readjusting her grip on the sword, pushing it a little harder against his throat.

"Alright, pipe down, Princess." She replied, her chuckle shaking through her as she mused his story. "A King? You know, you could have come up with something a little more original. I tell you if we had a gold piece for every time we heard that one. Why, we'd be the richest gang in all the Lone Islands, wouldn't we, lads?"

"Ah!" The bandits cried in humoured agreement.

"CORIN!"

The sound of Aravis' gut wrenching cry was the only thing that broke Mira's concentration, a surge of panic rushed through her veins at the sound of Corin's pained grunts and the sight of him in the tight grasp of the only familiar face she had not accounted for — the Captain.

Her jaw clenched, but she refused to back down, firmly keeping her blade in place at the sight of the challenge.

"I see you found yourself entangled with crime once more, Tirian." The Captain's gruff voice called out in the direction of the crook he once knew. "Something's never change."

"Yes, I see you've still not managed to grow you hair back, Drinian." Tirian bit back, his nostrils flaring with a menacing look at his foe.

"Let the boy go." Mira rose her voice to address the Captain with an icy glare as Corin struggled in his grasp.

"Let the King go." Drinian reasoned with the same expression while the blonde bandit only scoffed.

"You would harm a child?"

"For my King and country, I will do whatever is necessary." The Captain countered, drawing a dagger from his belt while Mira gritted her teeth.

"I see what you mean Tirian. He is awfully devoted, isn't he?" Mira quipped before her voice was drowned out by the pained cries of Aravis, who was being held back by Shasta.

"You lay another hand on him, I will tear you to pieces, do you understand?!"

"Aravis!"

Mira tried desperately not to show her panic, she couldn't quite see a way out of the mess they'd found themselves in but nonetheless stood her ground until a booming voice cut through the air.

"Let him go, Drinian!"

Mira hid her surprise well as she recognised the voice to belong to the man before her, whose jaw was still tightly clenched as he made his request.

"Your Highness—"

"Do not harm a child, for my sake." The King reasoned with his Captain, who reluctantly obeyed.

It didn't take two second for Corin to dart out of the man's reach and into his mother's arms, Mira allowed her relief to leave her through a discreet exhale before her gaze turned back to Caspian.

"I have shown you mercy." He told her, absolutely. "I only ask it is returned."

Mira let out a short breath — there was no way out. They had sold their ship and were stranded far from land, if they showed any mercy they would end up in the brig for who knew how long.

No, mercy was not an option. Despite how righteous that man before her might be.

"I'm afraid I can't do that." She replied, however her tone had less bite to it than she would have liked.

"Is this really how to choose to live?" The man asked her with a grimace, his eyes narrowing. "Slaughtering? Stealing?"

"You think we have a choice?!" The blonde countered, any vague trace of pity immediately transforming into rage. "This. This is not living. This is survival. Something the King who you claim to be would known nothing about."

She scoffed as she allowed her gaze to travel around the rest of the crew of the mighty galleon, disgust legibly written upon her features.

"You all stand here in your fine silk shirts, on your colossal galleon and tell us we have a choice?" Mira seethed, perhaps killing the pretty boy wouldn't be so difficult after all. "Thanks to the mist, this is what we have been reduced to. I owe you nothing. Least of all mercy, after what you've allowed to happen to us."

"I can help you." The man responded, his gaze no longer hard but somewhat sincere as he surveyed the blonde bandit.

"Oh, really? What could you possibly offer me?" She retorted, her jaw locked. "Gold, riches? I've never had any problem getting those myself."

"I am the King of Narnia." He declared, boldly. "I can grant you immunity from your crimes."

Mira wavered. This was an entirely new ultimatum, although she refused to let hope overtake her. Disbelief was instead her prevailing emotion as she tried to understand his motives.

"That is if you do something in return for me." The King reasoned after a moment, surveyed her manner which was still cold as stone.

"You're awfully demanding, I don't know if anyone's told you." Mira told him with pursed lips and a tut. "It's very unbecoming."

"Do you want to know the deal or not?" Captain asked, quirking a brow at which she smirked.

"Amuse me."

"You said you've been reduced to this life due to the green mist that's been plaguing our seas?" He clarified, at which she gave a soft nod. "This voyage is attended to find the source of the mist and destroy it."

She wavered again, her grip on her sword becoming slightly unsteady as she digested his words, looking to Shasta for answers.

"Destroy the mist? Shasta—"

"I didn't think he was serious." The thief replied, as the attention of each bandit piqued at the King's proposition.

"You know your way around these waters, and you wish to see it eradicated too, do you not?" Caspian went on, at which Mira only continued to stare him down harder. "Then, spare us and aid us on our voyage.

"If it is defeated, you will have no need to live as you do any longer. I will view your crimes as purely circumstantial and grant you immunity."

It was almost too good to be true. She pondered for a moment, before Aravis caught her attention from where she stood nearby with her arms around Corin.

"Mira ... if the mist is gone then ..."

The blonde wondered what other implications vanquishing the mist would have. She thought of her father, her heart clenching at his mere memory.

The blonde glanced around at each of her comrade — each of them had been robbed by the mist in one way or another, and to see it vanquished ... well, Mira couldn't think of anything greater.

She allowed her gaze to travel back to Caspian as she slowly lowered her sword, smirking ever so slightly at the shallow cut her sword had caused upon his neck.

"I could never say no to a man on his knees." She mused, as she sheathed her sword, surveying Caspian's every movement as he slowly rose to his feet.

"I want your word."

Mira couldn't fight the smirk that emerged onto her lips as he squared up to her, his dark eyes boring into her own.

"You really think it counts for much?"

"I think we have a shared interest in defeating the mist and will both benefit from its destruction." He said matter-o-factly. "I'm asking for your trust. We will welcome you as crew upon the Dawn Treader providing you assist our voyage."

"And don't kill you in the process?" Mira quipped, and could have sworn she saw a glint of amusement in the King's eye.

"That would be appreciated."

"And you'll grant us immunity?" She reminded him of his terms, folding her arms across her chest.

"If we succeed."

The King slowly reached his hand forward and presented it to her with a quirked brow. Mira took in a deep breath as she took one last look around at her own crew, before squaring her jaw and sliding her hand into his.

Her smirk morphing into a grin as his breath hitched once more at her touch.

"Alright, pretty boy, you've got yourself a deal."

𝖙𝖗𝖎𝖓𝖆 𝖘𝖕𝖊𝖆𝖐𝖘!
ladies and gentleman,
may i present: them

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