The Pirate Letter: Part Six

     Anger bubbled up in Firaga. She yelled back without even thinking about how terrified she was of him. "I want to go home, Captain. I don't want to live life on a grimy ol' ship. Mystery Island is my home. You don't know what it's like to be taken away from your friends and family."

     Captain Woodbeak swung his sword at Firaga. She ducked and the blade went right by her head. Captain Woodbeak sighed. His eyes seemed to soften. He lowered his sword. "You think you know me well, Firaga. I am not like all of the worthless pirates in me crew. I am more like you. I lived in Faerieland, and I was a striped Eyrie. I never really liked being a striped Eyrie. I always wanted to be painted pirate. I thought they looked so much better than a striped Paint Brush. So I managed to save up enough money for the paint brush. I went down to Neopia Central to paint myself. I was so proud of the way I looked, but when I got back home, everybody was afraid of me. They chased me out of Faerieland forever. So I made me own crew. When I saw you, when you first were painted, you reminded me of myself. I didn't want you to feel the same pain, and I wanted to get a better pirate. One that is smarter than all of the pirates I knew."

     Captain Woodbeak sounded…nice. It didn't matter though. That was no excuse for taking Firaga away. "Mystery Island would accept Firaga. Everybody knows her, and everybody loves her," I said. "I need Firaga."

     Captain Woodbeak shook his head. "You just don't understand, young Shoyru. Firaga and I need each other. Firaga is the perfect pirate for me crew. She is a pirate now, and so she must do what pirates do."

     "But I want to go with Kera, Captain. I just want to go home. Let me free, please." Firaga tried to give the captain an irresistibly cute look, but failed.

     "Your home is here, Firaga," Captain Woodbeak said, sounding normally furious. "You have no choice, Firaga. You are coming with me whether you like it or not."

     Captain Woodbeak ran up to Firaga and threw her on his back. He took off into the sky toward the ship. Firaga was being taken away again. Firaga was terrified. She is afraid of heights, so this wasn't easy for Firaga to handle. She pulled her Fire Sword out, and raised it up to strike at Woodbeak. Captain Woodbeak saw this. So he rammed into a tree, hitting right where the sword was. The sword fell down to the ground.

     "Oh, not again," I said, shaking my head. "Why do you have to be so much trouble, Firaga? If you weren't my best friend then I would have left you a few hours ago." I flew up into the sky, and began to chase after Captain Woodbeak.

     I felt like a slug compared to Woodbeak. He was moving so much faster than I could ever hope to go. I couldn't catch up to him in a life time. So what else was I supposed to do? What do I have with me? I have a shield and a spear with me. That could work. I could catch Captain Woodbeak with my spear. I had wonderful aim. Maybe I should have gotten a bow rather than a spear. Well all that didn't matter now. I had a spear, and I better use it to my fullest. I aimed at Captain Woodbeak's wing, and I fired the spear in that direction.

     The spear tore through the sky and flew right at Captain Woodbeak. "When I get home, I'm going to buy myself a bow," I said to myself. The spear fluttered beautifully through the sky. It was too bad that Captain Woodbeak flew upward so it would miss. So the spear missed. Since the spear was winged, it was in the air for a long time. It went farther and farther away.

     When the spear finally landed, it was in the ocean. "My spear!" I cried as it sunk into the ocean, "My only weapon is gone."

     Captain Woodbeak landed on his ship with Firaga. As soon as he touched the ground, Firaga jumped off his back. "Let me go right now!" Firaga yelled.

     The guard I saw when I first got to Meridell was asleep on a chair. What a pathetic guard.

     Captain Woodbeak looked back to see me coming closer. He took Firaga and threw her into her room. He locked the door. "Stay in there!" Captain Woodbeak said, knowing that she wouldn't have a choice. "We have to wait for the rest of the crew to come back with the treasure."

     "No!" I yelled, landing on the ship. With no weapon in hand, I pulled out my fists. "Let go of Firaga right now!"

     "Well aren't you desperate? You know that I won't let Firaga go," Woodbeak said. I sighed. I was tired of all of this. I know that there was no point in arguing. That would get me nowhere. There is no point in fighting either. I was way too weak. So what should I do? I needed to put some thought into my actions, but I had no weapon. I then touched my necklace and my Water Faerie Token. That was what I needed. I was not alone.

     So I ran. I ran right at Captain Woodbeak, and I knocked him overboard. He spread out his wings in order to fly up, but it was too late. He crashed right into the water. Now it was my turn. I dived gracefully into the water as well. The water swallowed my body. I was able to stand water for a long time thanks to my faerie token. I pushed Captain Woodbeak deeper into the water. He was now in my trap. I had the advantage here.

     Captain Woodbeak's sword lashed through the water. All of his attacks missed, but after all of his moves from his sword, he swiftly kicked me in the stomach. It was very painful. I had to get him back, but I still felt useless. Let's see. We were now surrounded by water. That's when it came to me. I had my necklace. It had the ability to use all of the water power the Water Faerie does.

     So I closed my eyes. I concentrated on my necklace. Then my necklace did the rest. My body was completely taken over by the necklace's power. I started swimming. I swam around Captain Woodbeak. Each time I swam around him, I started to swim even faster. After a few rounds, I was moving extremely fast. So fast that I couldn't even describe it. It was just amazing. A whirlpool started to form. Captain Woodbeak was trapped in it. The whirlpool was moving very fast. So fast, that it started to rise out of the ocean. A swirling stream of water pulled Captain Woodbeak out of the water, and crushed him on his own boat. The water lifted me gently out of the water, and back onto the ship. Captain Woodbeak groaned.

     I couldn't believe it. I had won. I jumped up in joy. I touched my neck to look for my necklace, and it was gone. I only had my water faerie token. That didn't matter too much. I was just happy that I had won the fight.

     I looked back, and saw pirates loading onto the ship. All of them were empty handed. They didn't have the treasure. Captain Woodbeak lay on the ground. As the pirates one by one got onto the ship, Captain Woodbeak said, "Pirates, get rid of that Shoyru."

     All of the pirates surrounded me and threw me off of the ship. They all sailed away as fast as they could go. I was tired, and I had nothing with me. I was at the point where I had finally given up. I got to see Firaga again, and I guess that's good enough for me.

     I went back to the island and looked out into the sea. The pirate ship was growing smaller with each passing second. You don't know how horrible I felt. I have done my best, and I had failed horribly. I didn't even want to go back to Mystery Island. I just wanted to lie there and rot.

     Firaga must be feeling horrible as well.

     I would have cried, but I didn't feel like it. I was a stronger Shoyru now. I was much stronger than I was back when I first left to go find Firaga. I saw the reflection of the moon in the water, and I threw a rock at it. I now felt like a pirate, greedy and selfish. I wasn't though. I just felt that I didn't care anymore. Nothing mattered.

     I laid where I was, and I drifted off to sleep.

     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     "Kera of Defenders of Neopia, wake up," I heard someone say to me as my eyes slowly opened. I yawned and got up. I was not in a good mood this morning.

     "What do you want?" I said. I was half asleep. "Can you see that I am trying to sleep here?"

     I saw a green Draik standing in front of me. "You are the Shoyru who saved Meridell, correct?"

     I smiled, and stood up. "Yes, yes, I am." I stood triumphantly. My grumpiness was starting to go away.

     "Well you left before being rewarded. So King Hagan sent me to give you this," The Draik reached into his coat pocket and brought out a fire paint brush. The paint shone on the brush.

     My day suddenly got a whole lot better. "Oh thank you so much," I said. I grabbed the paint brush and looked at its beauty. "You can go now," I said rather rudely.

     The paint brush was just so pretty, but what would I use it for? I looked out into the ocean, and then I realized that I was closer to achieving my goal than ever before. I took off into the sky and out into the ocean. I didn't know where I was going, but I knew where I wanted to go. That was good enough for me.

The End