The Pirate Writer: Part Six

     All of the female pirates screamed on the ship, running around, waiting to get orders from the captain. Even the male pirates cried a little bit. Everybody was worried. Even I was worried, and I was just sitting there, calm looking.

     "Captain!" a few of the pirates yelled. "There's a leak in the ship. What shall we do?"

     I knew Captain Woodbeak was fully aware of the leak, because he had seen the fire, but he didn't reply. He was too busy reading a letter. It was the letter from me, and to Woodbeak, from Kera.

     The captain frowned when he got to the end, and then looked up at the panicking pirates, all running around like the little babies they were deep inside. "Stop yer blabberin'," Captain Woodbeak's voiced boomed through the ship. All of the pirates immediately stopped what they were doing, and stood like stumps. Captain Woodbeak looked uncomfortably at the pirates as they all stared at him as he messed with his two keys. "What are ya lookin' at me for?"

     As the co-captain I was, I said, "Yes, you should all calm down. Ye jus' go on and try to think of a way to seal the hole. Give the cap'n some peace."

     "Thank you, Firaga," Captain Woodbeak said sweetly. With that, the pirates murmured to each other as they walked away.

     Silence filled the area. Only Captain Woodbeak and I stood. I realized that I shouldn't be where I was, so I said, "I better get going too, huh? The ship needs to be saved." I walked away, keeping a close eye on Captain Woodbeak. I opened the door to my room and walked in.

     After the squeaky door shut, I quickly dropped to the ground and looked under the door to see Captain Woodbeak clearly again. This time he was alone. He looked around to make sure nobody like me was there, then he unlocked the door that Kera was in.

     I shook in joy. Captain Woodbeak did just as my letter had hinted to do. He checked if Kera had actually escaped, but would the second half of the plan work?

     When the door was unlocked, stars came zooming out of the door. The starry wings of a staring Shoyru flapped, happy to see the light. She didn't waste any time however. Her tail gracefully grabbed the keys from the captain's hands, then with a flying kick Captain Woodbeak came tumbling into the empty room. Kera whipped out the key and locked the door as fast as she could. Banging twice as furious as Kera had been came crashing into the door.

     I was overcome with joy. I dashed out of the room. The ship was actually sinking now, and very quickly too. "The ship-We have to get out of here now," I said.

     "No, the fire paint brush," Kera said. I was shocked to have forgotten about the brush. The two of us dashed inside the captain's office to find the room half way filled with water.

     "Oh no!" I shouted in horror. "It's gone!" I figured that there was no hope, seeing that the chest was deep underwater.

     Kera shook her head, "No, it's not gone. Let me handle it. You just leave."

     "But-" I tried to argue, but Kera held out her water faerie token that was around her neck. I knew what those things did. They allowed pets to stay underwater much longer than the average pet. "Okay," I said, and left.

     I clawed my way up the ship, not knowing what to do. At this time pirates were using their swords to try to get Captain Woodbeak out of the empty room. It didn't look like the smartest thing to do as it seemed that the pirates were stabbing the door with their swords with the chance of one of them hitting the captain.

     My claws stayed buried deep into the wood, until I was swooped away by the starry Shoyru. I was only taken off of the ship when the water had reached my head. I was freezing cold, but I didn't care with Kera and the fire paint brush by my side.

     We were in the sky, flying to Neopia Central which only seemed to be a mile away. I pulled myself onto Kera's back. I looked down to find Captain Woodbeak burst out of the locked door. His wet wings flapped in the water, splashing even more water all over him. The ship dropped beneath them, and all of the pirates seemed to have nothing to support them but the water alone.

     "So, how have you been, Firaga," Kera asked as she started to land at Neopia Central.

     "Don't land yet. We're heading for the rainbow pool," I said to her. Kera picked herself back up. I was surprised that Kera could hold all of my weight. She didn't seem to struggle at all. Did she forget that I was even here? It was only a matter of seconds before we reached the rainbow pool.

     "Kera, the brush." I didn't have to say any more. She handed me the brush. I held it tightly in my paw, feeling all of the magic inside it, feeling all of the joy I felt when I was first painted over a year ago. I was not going back to life before, but I was going to a life as an all new pet, as a fire Kougra.

     "Firaga, what are you waiting for," Kera shouted toward me.

     "What?" I asked, confused. I just seriously wasn't thinking at the moment.

     "You know what to do. Remember last time," Kera said. I looked back at the last time I had a paint brush, and started smothering myself with the paint of the paint brush. It felt just as last time did. I almost forgot why I wanted to paint myself. I couldn't believe how wonderful I had felt back then, and I feel just as wonderful right now.

     "Dive!" Kera shouted, when we were flying right above the rainbow pool. Without thinking, I leaped right off of Kera's back and into the water. Was I free?

     "Nooooo!" I could hear the shouts of my former captain even though he felt far away. The heat from the paint brush went over my skin and warmed it. It was comfortable. This time it didn't feel like last time. The big difference was that I felt free for the first time in over a year, and it was the best feeling that any fire Kougra could ever have in a rainbow pool. From my toes to my ears, the paint slowly became a part of my body. I opened my eyes to find grey melting away from my body, cleansing it from all I had experienced in the last year. My life was starting over for the third time in my life, and I knew that it was going to be good. Life was going to be better when I left the rainbow pool.

     Just when I was completely relaxed, grey claws from the surface came in and grabbed my paw. I was yanked out of the water by no other than my old captain.

     "Firaga!" Woodbeak sobbed dramatically. Yes, he actually sobbed. My ex-captain actually sobbed. "Look at you," his claw lightly scratched behind me ear, "You're the pet I wanted to be for ten years."

     I looked down at my own body. The coat shined in firey beauty. It looked perfect. When Woodbeak put his claw on my new fur, I thought I would pull myself away, but I only sat and listened. Kera stood beside him, giving him an evil stare the whole time.

     "Why did you get to be painted when you only had a year of being a pirate?" he asked. He sniffed uncontrollably and acted extremely unpirate-like.

     This question was easy for me to answer. "You chose this life, Captain- I mean Woodbeak. You didn't have to be the pirate you were. You could have just lived life as a normal pet painted pirate, but you know what Woodbeak, you couldn't have it that way. You just had to be a pirate because you were painted pirate. You had to make yourself miserable. Not only that, but you had to share your misery. Do you know you had to share it with? It was me. So I had to live my life in misery, and you made it so the only way out was to paint myself. This was all your doing."

     I took a deep breath. I blabbed to the point where I didn't even know what I was talking about, yet I was still talking. I must have said something meaningful however, because Woodbeak stood quietly, sniffing.

     Woodbeak looked behind him to find his crew (or what survived anyway) standing behind him with wide eyes. They were as shocked as I was to find Woodbeak as a wreck. I realized that my voice also had some tweaking.

     After he noticed that his crew was behind him, he made an effort to suck it up a bit. "So what do ye suggest I do then, Firaga?" He sounded polite as well.

     "Oh, and so you listen to me now?" I said angrily.

     "Yes," Woodbeak faced the ground. "I wouldn't if my ship didn't sink."

     "I knew it," I said, a bit joyful. I then stopped. I needed to answer his question. I was supposed to lead another pet's life. "You need to start over. There are many possibilities for you. Get an owner possibly, find a Neohome, make a shop you can make money off of. There are many things you can do, but it's not me to decide. It's whatever makes you happy, Woodbeak." He nodded and began walking away.

     "Captain!" the pirate Bori came running up to Woodbeak. He sounded as sweet as ever. "What's going to happen to us?" He looked sad and lonely.

     "Why you're free, Borus," Woodbeak said. I giggled at Borus' name.

     All of the pirates looked at each other in confusion. "Cap'n-" the Grarrl said.

     "It's Woodbeak," Woodbeak corrected.

     "Yes Cap'n- uh, I mean Woodbeak," the pirate Grarrl cleared his throat. "Where do you expect us to go? I mean, our life's with you."

     Woodbeak rubbed his chin and looked at me. "What?" I said, "They're your pirates."

     Woodbeak sighed. He was alone, so he had to make the decision himself. "If you want, you can stay with me, but you don't have to. You do as you wish."

     "Remember that there's no stealing," Kera piped up.

     The pirates nodded. They all started walking in their own direction without saying goodbye. I was happy, but I felt that there was something to say before he left. "I won't forget you, Captain." I stopped for a short amount of time at the word "Captain." "I won't forget you."

     Soon Captain Woodbeak was gone. I was alone with a Shoyru by my side with nothing beside me. Was my adventure over? It was all done. I began walking away. Kera followed. I was a little disappointed that my life with Captain Woodbeak and his crew was all gone. I never got to know any of the pirates. I just thought of them as one person.

     Kera and I sat at the shore and waited for a boat to come around and take us to Mystery Island.

     I sighed a few times. "Firaga, what's wrong," Kera said as she always did when I was depressed.

     "Kera, do you ever feel sad when-"

     "What's that?!" Kera interrupted me. I looked on the shore to find something unusual on the beach. It was something red.

     I got up and ran down to the unusual item. Kera followed.

     "It's a book!" Kera said in joy. I picked it up, and water leaked out of the wet pages. I flipped through them. The ink was smeared, but it was still readable if I actually tried to read it. The ink wasn't too badly smeared, but the hand writing was very bad on it. I flipped the pages until I reached a place where two pages were ripped out.

     "Kera, do you know what this is?" my eyes seemed to grow very large with excitement, and my paws shook with surprise. "This is my journal. This sank with the ship."

     "Really!" Kera jumped. "I would love to read it."

     I suddenly had an urge to write. I looked around panicked. A white weewoo stood by my side with a pen in her beak. I didn't even spend the time to think about how strange it would be to see a white weewoo with a pen.

     I scribbled onto a blank page, 1st day as a fire Kougra…

     I paused. What was there to write? There was so many words to be said. I thought so many words, they all crammed into my head. With that, I knew exactly what I wanted to say.

     I'm free.

The End