Beyond the Sea: A Pirate's Autobiography

     Cassius looked up from his fish sandwich. It had been exactly one year and five months since the lab ray incident that zapped him Pirate — and transported him to Krawk Island. Before that surreal day, he had been a lonely basic-coloured Eyrie, preferring the virtual reality of his video games over the hardships of real life; and then there had been his childhood daydreams about unexplored lands outside of Neopia from the illustrations of large, beautiful ships in the collected works written by sea wanderers. But what about now?, he wondered as he took another bite of his fish sandwich. No; now, I’m where I am supposed to be, living my dreams, he decided right then. He watched as the expression on Kricket’s face changed from questioning to one of confusion. His friend's lips were moving, but Cassius seemed to be missing something.

     Whenever his mind went back in time to the fateful day that felt like so long ago, he recalled how such a shy pet had been so easily accepted without judgment or hesitation by the Krawk Island crew that found him marvelling at his newly acquired Pirate look by the water. They were all so kind. They had quickly taken to Cassius, who always had been a fast learner, as they showed him the ropes around a ship, proud that this young Eyrie had found them. Proud to call him their future captain.

     But it was Kricket who’d given him a chance at something more.

     A future.

     Kricket waved a taloned hand in front of Cassius’ face to get his attention. As a fellow Pirate Eyrie, Cassius understood this as worry rather than menacing. “Where is my future captain and what have you done with him?”

     Cassius laughed as the world suddenly returned in full swing around him as if it had slowed down, sounds now reverberating off the walls of his room. They were in one of the smaller rooms of the Wandering Eyrie’s lower deck — Captain Kricket’s ship. Bird cries and the cheery voices of conversation carried down below from the upper deck where Kricket was presently supposed to be at the helm instead.

     What sort of business could have pulled Kricket away from his station to visit their captain-in-training below deck?

      “Calling Captain Cassius.” Kricket flapped an Eyrie wing. “I don’t think this is a good idea.”

     “Is something wrong?” Cassius balled up the wrapper of his sandwich, lifted a wing, then tossed it at the trash basket.

     Kricket nodded towards the window behind Cassius. “See for yourself.”

     When Cassius turned around to see for himself through the lower deck window, he noticed right off that something was amiss. It was the sea around them; the way it rolled uneasily beneath them, the way it rocked the Wandering Eyrie side to side. It was a gentle sway, but he admitted that he was beginning to notice a little sea sickness. And yet the sky seemed clear. With the sun brightly shining overhead.

     As he turned back around he clutched his queasy stomach, motioning to his Captain to have a seat as the ship gave a sudden lurch. He had noticed that his friend was calling him Captain more and more often these days. But he wasn’t a Captain, just yet. But . . . the praise still felt good. It was high praise coming from one of the most notable sea wanderers.

     “I’m just a captain-in-training, Captain Kricket.” Cassius shyly looked back outside to hide his childhood vulnerability from him.

     “Maybe not for much longer,” Kricket began, “since you see, I’m an old Eyrie now; and I’ve been in one-a too many battles here on the sea. I’m worn out. And I’d like to eventually retire my cap, so . . .” Cassius felt something placed on his head. “If we sail out of this storm in one piece, you will be the new Captain of the Wandering Eyrie.”

     Cassius opened and closed his beak at a loss for words.

     “You don’t want to captain my ship?”

     “No!” Cassius hurried to correct his Captain’s assumption he had changed his mind. “I’d be honoured to sail the Wandering Eyrie in your place, Captain; there’s just been a shock to my system.”

     “Shock?”

     Cassius shook his head, feeling the weight of his Captain’s tricorne between his ears as his Captain’s own head was now bare of sailor’s adornment. “You said something was a bad idea, Kricket.”

     “Oh, that,” he sighed, his wings falling limp behind him as if in defeat. “I think it’s not a good idea for my old withered feathers to continue sailing these waters.”

     While Cassius took comfort in his best friend’s trust to confide in him, he also felt an electric jolt run through him as he read between the lines.

     “You want me to sail the Wandering Eyrie out of the storm.” It wasn’t a question, it was an order.

     Kricket nodded.

     “I—I’ve never sailed through rough waters before, Captain.”

     “Kricket,” the captain gently corrected. “You can just call me Kricket.”

     “You’ll always be Captain to me.”

     “Since we first met, I’d always had the all-knowing feeling you would make a great Captain someday,” began Kricket with a weary smile. He reached out and resettled the Captain’s tricorne on Cassius’ head and continued. “That someday has just come sooner than expected, is all. We all trust and believe in you.”

     Cassius started to argue. “But how do you know so certain I'm ready now?”

     “Just call it Captain’s intuition.”

      ~ ~ ~

      Cassius was awoken from an uneasy sleep by the rumbling of thunder that night.

     When he managed to stumble drowsily from bed to gaze out of his single window, he was careful to cross the room in-between sways of the ship as it rocked and lurched as if a herd of wild Elephantes were dancing on the upper deck. It took a few hard falls before he reached the other side in one piece. Once there he grabbed onto the thin sill of his window firmly for balance as he looked outside. But as dark as it was in his cabin, it was even darker yet beyond its walls.

     Cassius could see nothing but dark waters that grew even darker as he continued to look on.

     As his heart beat frantically in his chest, he recalled how the sun had been shining brightly earlier just that morning. Not a storm cloud or grey sky in sight.

     Suddenly shouts erupted from the deck above as a Pirate Krawk appeared in his doorway.

     “Everyone is needed on the upper deck — now! Go help the others raise the mast!”

     When he raced back to the upper deck, Cassius didn’t hesitate to follow. He expected to find order and balance among the crew at their stations, but what he found instead frightened him.

     It wasn’t balance or order, at all.

     It was complete chaos.

     Captain Kricket was struggling with the helm when he saw Cassius appear from below deck.

     “Cassius! Cassius! Over here!”

     Cassius had almost reached the others where they were raising the mast when, over the roar of the storm, he’d heard his friend’s voice calling him. He turned around to find Kricket just in time to catch the raincoat someone tossed his direction. When Cassius quickly pulled it over his head and looked up, he found that it had been Kricket.

     “Captain!”

     Kricket was having trouble steering the ship as the violent storm kept pushing against the Captain’s wishes like the way opposite sides of a magnet repelled each other. “Cassius! I need to go help them raise the mast!” he shouted over a rumble of thunder. “I need you to cover for me!”

     “What?” Cassius shouted back. He had to have misheard his Captain.

     Kricket was thrown to the side as the helm suddenly spun wildly in the other direction. Cassius caught it just before Kricket could completely lose his balance. Together they righted it — but just barely.

     “I! Need! You! To! Cover! For! Me!” Kricket yelled again as lightning arced across the sky, lighting the dark sky long enough for Cassius to see the worry etched in the lines of his weathered face.

     “But what if I can’t do it? What if I tip the ship? Then it will all be over!" Cassius panicked. Did their Captain honestly believe in the newest addition to their crew this much? What if he failed them?

     “No time!” Kricket released the helm, forcing Cassius to catch it before it could spin the other way. It felt like playing tug-of-war with a baby Gelert. “Just keep her steady!”

     It was now Cassius’ turn to struggle with the helm as the storm continued to rage around them as the wind blew Kricket across the deck to where the others were having trouble with raising the mast. Its ropes seemed to keep tangling every time they tried to lift it. As he watched he felt the Wandering Eyrie lurch again and threaten to tip. Whenever it did this he would spin the helm into the wind, rather than against it, to avoid the storm from pushing them further off course. He didn’t really think it was the right thing to do, but it certainly felt right.

     Cassius listened as Kricket gave orders to the crew, secretly hoping that he would direct him, too. But knew it was futile. If he was to be their future Captain then he would have to think for himself in dire circumstances. Such as unforeseen storms out on the sea. Storms just like the one ravaging it now. Did he really have what it took to be a Captain? Bravery? Heart? The trust of his crew? If he wanted to find out, then he would have to steer them safely out of the storm.

     All future Captains started somewhere.

     -no tags here-

     ~ ~ ~

      It was darker than the Snowager’s Cave and growing darker still with no end in sight. Cassius guessed by the slight glimpse of moonlight peeking through the storm clouds above that it must be just minutes from sunrise now. Its glow in the sky hung too low for it to be some time before 7:10 NST. He guessed this morning the sun would begin its gradual ascent around 7:26 NST. Which meant that, according to his internal clock, then that meant the sun should rise in approximately sixteen minutes.

     I hope my guesstimate is right, thought Cassius as he continued to keep the Wandering Eyrie steady.

     Cassius’ was beginning to feel like giving up. His entire body felt stiff from battling the storm at the helm for so long; but he refused to let go. He had to protect his crew mates and his Captain. He had to get them to safety. And just as he was starting to doubt himself again a shout from one of his crew mates rang out over the wind like a beacon.

     “Over there!”

     He followed his crew mates’ gazes where, up ahead, just a few short miles north, there was Krawk Island underneath a clear, sunny, blue sky. Cassius’ chest fluttered with hope.

     Krawk Island.

     At that the crew must have finally managed the mast because the Wandering Eyrie gave a sudden lurch — then straightened out. It seemed to Cassius that they seemed to be sailing out of the storm as the wind no longer fought against them.

     Which meant he could more easily steer the ship to safety.

     “Pull! Pull!” Kricket called out to everyone gathered under the mast as they raised it higher and higher now with ease.

     Cassius took the opportunity to turn the helm, aiming the ship directly for the island that awaited their arrival. Just as he turned it the ship sailed smoothly forward as they left the wind and the rain and the thunder and the lightning behind. Cheers went up around the upper deck as the crew celebrated their victory against the treacherous waters.

     Cassius finally let himself relax at the helm.

     The Wandering Eyrie was going home.

      ~ ~ ~

      As the Wandering Eyrie docked at Krawk Island and the crew let down the gangplank, they filed off onto land to a loud chorus of cheers. They were rain-soaked and weary; they were tired and hungry. But the sight they saw made them forget all of that. It seemed to Cassius that the entire island had shown up to greet them. Proudly all of the crew left the ship to join those waiting below, returning the hugs and high-fives of their friends and families that awaited them in the large crowd of Neopians.

     All of them except for the young Eyrie.

     Cassius had quite forgotten on the sea just how lonely his former life had been. He’d been a loner without friends for most of it — until the Mad Scientist changed his life with a lab ray malfunction. Now he had something better than a friend — he had a crew.

     Of course it wasn’t to say that Cassius had forgotten about his old life. Never could he forget if he tried. Oftentimes on sea, he would recall the old days as a young Eyrie relaxing with the newest copy of The National Wanderer magazine. Or a new bestseller written by a notable sea wanderer. He still fondly remembered first reading Do You Sea What I Sea? by Kricket T. and dreaming about becoming a Captain to his own crew one day aboard his own ship. It had detailed Kricket T.'s travels as a young sea wanderer before he became Captain Kricket.

     Captain Kricket himself was now walking up the gangplank as the celebration continued behind him. When he reached Cassius he lifted a tired wing and shouted to the crowd below, “Could we have your attention, please?” and waited until their conversations quieted down enough before he continued. “I’d like to make an important announcement.”

     A hush fell over the gathered pets as they wondered what the Captain had to say.

     “Captain?” Captain Kricket settled a wing around his friend and best crew mate’s shoulders as he proudly beamed. Cassius thought the joy that radiated from his friend made him look youthful again. “Is something wrong?”

     “Wrong? Oh no! Far from it!” the Captain chuckled. “Everything is right!”

     “Then—”

     Kricket interrupted whatever Cassius was about to ask to address the eyes on them. “You can see this old Eyrie’s wings are withered now and that his eyes could use stronger contacts. But what you can’t see, is his heart. His heart is full. Of pride and joy and admiration.” As he talked he gently nudged Cassius in front of him. “For this young Eyrie, right here. He pushed past his worst fears and sailed his crew to safety out of a rampaging storm. Without his quick thinking, we might not have been able to come home safely to you again.”

     A roar of cheers erupted through the crowd below.

     Cassius had shyly hid behind his wings at the attention as his Captain spoke, but now he returned to his side. “Captain?” he asked wonderingly.

     Captain Kricket readjusted the tricorne he’d given Cassius so that it rested proudly on the young Eyrie’s head and turned back to the crowd. “Please give a warm welcome to the new Captain of the Wandering Eyrie — Captain Cassius!”

     “So how did you do it?” Kricket asked, walking them over to the ship’s helm so that only Captain Cassius could hear him as the crowd below cheered again.

     “Captain?”

     “Ah ah ah. You can just call me Kricket.”

     Captain Cassius nodded as he corrected himself with “Kricket?”

     “How did you sail us out of the storm to Krawk Island?”

     Captain Cassius smiled as he leaned on the helm and thoughtfully gazed out into the sunset. “Just call it Captain’s intuition.”

     The End.