Captain Lucky and The Sword of Light

Captain Lucky stood with closed eyes, at the bow of the ship, allowing the wind to whip her long, golden locks in all directions. The sun beamed on her pale skin, warmth embraced her cheeks. She was finally approaching her dream, she was going to find the treasures of Tuatha De Danann. Excited and giddy butterflies danced in her belly as she daydreamed of the day she discovers the treasure. 

Strong arms creeped from behind her and tightly hugged her around the ribs. “Ahoy there Captain.” the man’s voice whispered against her neck, followed by a light kiss in the very same spot. 

Captain Lucky turned to face him “Ahoy to ye, my quartermaster.” She said softly through a smile. 

He kissed her softly on the lips and held her close. The warmth of his body was a nice change from the wind constantly nipping at her skin. “Can ye believe we are so close this time?” she asked him. 

The quartermaster smiled and nodded in response. “We are indeed.” He stared out at the ocean with a look on his face. A look that did not match excitement and happy she wanted him to feel in this moment.

 “What is it? Ye look like a red coat has taken ye ship from ye.” Lucky half joked. 

He pretended to smile, but she could tell this was bad. 

“Lucky… Another man has fallen ill. He is below deck and the surgeon is with him, but… the surgeon thinks… he says it could be smallpox like the man before. He says it is spreading.” he frowned knowing this would disappoint and frustrate Lucky, but as always she remained calm. 

“What does he suggest we do?” 

  Below deck, Captain Lucky approached the surgeon. “Ahoy Emma. Quartermaster Sawyer filled me in. What shall we do next to stop the spread?” Lucky asked her.

“Well, we need to find a way to separate the sick from the healthy, and the sick men will need fresh air, extra water and they’ll need to rest. They won’t be able to work. We should also keep record of any men the sick have had direct contact within the days before their symptoms appeared and those men should be monitored and if possible, quarantined.” the doctor explained. 

“That's more than half my men, we need men to work the ship.” Lucky was becoming impatient. 

“Perhaps we can warn the men to stay a good distance away from each other when possible and monitor them for symptoms. If any man so much as has a headache they are to report to the surgeon at once.” Sawyer chimed in. 

The three agreed on Sawyer’s suggestion. Captain Lucky made her way to the main deck and made an announcement to the remaining crew. “Ye need not panic men, but ye need be smart. Smallpox is a serious illness, me father passed from it years ago. Ye need to keep ye distance from all the other men at all times possible, a few feet at least. Do not share canteens or flasks with anyone, keep ye own flask and let nobody else drink from it. And if ye have so much as a ache in ye head, see the surgeon!” Lucky finished her announcement and headed back to the captains quarters. Men behind her mumbling and muttering to themselves. Sawyer discreetly followed behind her moments later. He closed the door and locked it turning to Lucky. “We are going to lose half our men to this illness… Every time we get close to Tuatha De Danann, something else happens. Maybe… we aren’t meant to find it.” she faced the floor of the ship feeling defeated. 

“We could make a stop. Me knows it wasn’t in the plans but when have our plans ever followed through smoothly? We make a stop, get the men off the ship and somewhere they can heal, where there are doctors and Emma can stay with them, and water and food and fresh air. We get more supplies for ourselves. We take only our healthiest and best men and finish our search.” he said.

It wasn’t the worst idea. It wasn’t her ideal plan either. Reluctantly she nodded in agreement. “Fine.” she said with a low grumble of disappointment. What choice had she had? She could risk her men’s lives and finish her quest, she could end her quest and wait who knows how much longer for a healthy full crew or she could try Sawyer’s plan. Sawyer kissed her gently on the nose which made her smile as he knew it would. 

When the ship docked at Londonderry, the sick were escorted off of the ship and brought to an Inn in the village. Lucky and Sawyer chose their healthiest, best men to accompany them on their hunt assuring them there would be payment that would not disappoint. They bought more supplies, rested the night and were climbing aboard once more the very next morning. 

They set out toward the Shetland Islands of Scotland, following the compass North. Days passed and there was no sign of smallpox and the weather was ideal for sailing, all was well. Lucky made her way out to the bow of the ship, enjoying the wind on her face and the sun on her cheeks once more, but not allowing herself to get too hopeful or excited, she knew how that always seemed to go for her. She walked to the main deck of the ship, her thick heels knocking on the wood planks beneath her feet. She noticed not how loud her steps were but how quiet the ship was. With more than half her men back on land it was an eerie feeling to hear nothing on her ship. She reached the main deck to check with her remaining men. Silver Lenny was maintaining the barrels, Dreadful Mack tightened ropes and Mean Morgan worked the sails. The men seemed to have everything under control. She turned on her heel back to the front of the ship, when something, a head slowly poked up from the side of the ship. A woman. Her eyes did not leave Lucky’s eyes as she slowly crept up the wall of the ship. A gorgeous woman with long soaked hair stuck to her face, eyes a color turquoise she had never seen, plump breasts exposed. Out of the corner of her eye she could see another blob slowly rising above the side of the ship, and another, and another. Lucky heard one of her men “Shiver me…” followed by other men yelling and the unsheathe of swords. One of the men yelled “Selkies!” as their finned bottoms quickly changed to human legs.

Lucky’s heart fluttered and a rush of energy raced through her veins. She expected the men to kill the creatures that were now invading their ship, until she heard one man drop his sword, the loud thump on the floorboards of the ship. Then another thump, and another. She turned to face the men, when she realized the women creatures were whispering in the men’s ear, one selkie for each man some men even had two touching them and giggling, making eye contact. Lucky, watched one selkie slowly reach for the man’s crotch of his pants. It was like seductive hypnosis. The men were in a dream state over these beasts. Lucky now being seduced by a male who made his way onto her ship, but she knew better than to make eye contact, she shielded her eyes with her hand and ran to her quarters to get her sword and her quartermaster. “Sawyer!” she called. Where was he? She grabbed her sword and her musket when he came barreling into the room as she was leaving. “Selkies!” She said adrenaline filling her up. “Aboard the ship.”

“Selkies? Those are real?” he said clearly not taking this as serious as she. How could half woman half seal be threatening? He followed her out of the quarters as she stopped in her tracks and turned to him. “Sawyer, whatever you do. Do. Not. Look. Them. In the eye!” she said sternly. 

He nodded. When they got back out to the main deck Lucky loaded her musket. Sawyer unsheathed his sword and avoiding eye contact with the selkie approaching him, he waved the sword in an easy line across the creatures head and she immediately collapsed to the floor. Lucky fired her musket and reloaded, shooting any new selkie trying to climb aboard while Sawyer whipped his sword back and forth with a ‘schwing’ as he took down every selkie already on board. They made a good team. As soon as the selkies fell to the ground, the men who were hypnotized immediately came back to reality. “Don’t make eye contact!” Sawyer yelled over the swings of swords and the shots being fired. Men began grunting and groaning as they each fought off the selkies. One male selkie snuck up behind Lucky kissing her on the neck. She whipped around with her elbow blasting him in the head. The selkie fell back, she tried to load her musket but it took too long. The selkie was approaching her quickly. As hard as she tried not to look at his beautiful turquoise gaze, she couldn’t look away. Hypnotized she released the musket to the floor. The selkie went to pick up the musket aiming it at her as she stared at him smiling. Slice. He fell to the floor transformed back to his original form, revealing Sawyer standing behind him. Lucky, dazed taking a moment to remember what her task was. She looked around, the main deck blanketed with half naked men and women with fins and tails and gils, bleeding pools of blood onto the dark wood. Panting and shaking now from the adrenaline or the fear she wasn’t sure which, she stood there in shock. Sawyer came to her, embraced her. “Ye are safe. Promise.” He held her for a long time. The men removed the bodies and cleaned up the blood as they sailed on. 

Once the ship reached the location Lucky believed the treasure of Tuatha De Dunann to be, she prepped to dive into the ocean to retrieve it. The crew lowered the small wooden lifeboat. Lucky rocked and teetered inside. When she finally reached the surface there was more rocking and her stomach began to do flips. Was it nerves? Excitement? Or sudden sea sickness that was hitting her? She wasn’t sure. She swallowed but her mouth was dry too. She looked at her reflection in the water, broken by waves, suddenly realizing the dangers of diving, alone, in the deep sea. Sharks, and drowning, were the two dangers that came to her mind now. She shook her head as if to remove the thoughts from her mind. She stood, she jumped. A rope tied to her ankle to be sure she wouldn’t lose the boat. When she plunged through the water, all her worries and anxiety floated away. The ocean was her home. This was where she felt safest, and comforted. According to the maps she had studied night after night, the treasure should be right below her. She dove as deep as she could with one breath. Something gleamed in the distance as the sun shined dull rays through the clear blue sea water. Turtles larger than she, passed her. Fish of bright colors, blues and yellows skittered by. The object was too far down, she needed air. Before her brain could make the decision her body was already moving her toward the surface for breath. Gasping, she held the side of the boat to catch her breath. Sawyers voice distant and dull she heard “Anything?”

Lucky shook her head and dove again. This time she knew exactly where to go, she swam fast and determined. Reaching the object and grabbing it up before even examining what it was she raced back to the surface feeling like her lungs might explode. She threw the object into the boat. When the salt stopped burning her eyes she saw the shiny object blurred from her eyes wet with salt water. A moment for her to focus, then her heart jumped in her chest. The sword of light. Lucky was slumped over the side of the boat, trying to climb aboard she kicked her legs. A shadow cast over her, then the boat and kept moving higher until the whole ship was embraced by darkness. When Lucky turned to see what had caused such a large shadow on such a sunny clear skied day, she was face to face with a gigantic worm, one of which she had only heard about in children's stories. It’s body swirled around the ship and back again ten times, its head had horns and spikes and its mouth filled with hundreds of sharp, yellow teeth each longer than she was tall. The stoor worm opened it’s pointy forked tongue waving at her. It was glaring at her with glowing red eyes. The sky turned dark evil gray and thunder and lightning began to scatter across the sky. Lucky stared frozen, unsure what to do. Her sword would barely give this beast a splinter. Suddenly, a noise so loud from above her everything went silent for a few seconds followed by a screeching ringing sound. Above her black balls of fire flew at the worm. Canons. The crew was trying to fight this thing with canons. The boat started to wobble and seesaw. Still unable to hear anything but the ringing she grabbed her sword of light with no clue of how to use it. Immediately when she picked it up it illuminated and glowed a glittery golden hue. The hilt felt comfortable in her palm. The worm dove for cover under the blanket of the sea, completely disappearing for moments. Everything went quiet. The ringing began to fade in her ears and she could hear muffled, dull sounds. “Lucky! Lucky!” She turned to see Sawyer yelling at her only inches away. A worried look filled his eyes as he waited for a response. She didn’t say anything she just exited the life boat which had been rising back up to the ship and hugged him. The ship then lifted straight up and flipped upside down tossing every single crew member off and into the water. A man was crushed by the ship. A man was drowning. A man was gulped by the giant beast worm. Lucky still gripping the sword of light, panicked. She looked around for Sawyer but saw no sign of him. What she did see surrounding them was not a good sign. Fins. Dark gray fins above the surface of the water, circling her. She assumed the scent of blood and death of man was what drew them but she soon realized the sharks were…. attacking the worm. The worm flipped its tail tossing the sharks miles away. It shrieked a loud noise. The sharks attacked harder. As she watched this she felt something hit her feet. Immediately looking down below her she saw nothing but darkness. Anxiety and fear filled her, she felt helpless as she tried to swim away from it. But then whatever it was pushed its way up leaving her sitting on it’s back. A blue whale. It was letting her ride it? Another blue whale came to the surface next to them. Another and another. Several whales surfaced and began ramming the stoor worm from all sides. The stoor worm cried out again. Her whale brought her to the back of the stoor worm sneaking up on it. When the stoor worm dropped its head low enough Lucky took her opportunity. She swung her new sword hitting the worm behind the ear. Her hands slippery with sweat and sea water she nearly lost the sword. The worm cried out again and turned and hissed at her. The whale took her under water and quickly swam away from the worm before it could attack. The whale resurfaced with Lucky this time directly in front of the stoor worm and rushed towards it. Lucky swung another lucky swing this time holding tighter as to not let it slip, slicing into its head. The stoor worm began falling and as it did it released a toxic gas into Lucky’s face before the whale could reverse away. Lucky’s eyes closed and her body went limp. 

When Lucky awoke she was on the shore, waves crashing at her body. She opened her burning eyes, her head pounded and her skin burned from the sun and salt. She spit sand and coughed from the water in her lungs. Nausea swirled in her stomach from the toxic gas. She wanted to lay here in the fetal position until it disappeared. But, Sawyer. She got up, dizzy and swaying. A man lying on the beach. She called for Sawyer. Racing as fast as her body would allow. She turned the body over, it was a Mean Mack, dead. She gently closed his eyes for him and covered his body with a tarp she found beside him. On the brink of devastation and realization that Sawyer was probably not a survivor of this wreck, she heard a voice. She heard her name being called. Still unable to hear clearly she couldn’t make out the words. Then it got closer. Sawyer emerged from the brush “Lucky!”. Their eyes met. They ran to each other. He took her in his arms and held her tightly as if she might drift away from him if he didn’t have a good grip. Tears slid down Sawyer’s cheek. They both dropped, knees hitting the sand. They both silently cried. They cried for the destruction of the ship, and the lives of their crew. They cried for happiness that they had found their treasure. Most importantly they cried for finding each other, both realizing that they were both the other’s treasure.