Chapter 57
Previously: The Rose of Whitby – Chapter 56
He proceeds to tell the tale as best as he can, except he swaps the wolf and the hunter around- which begs the question why the hunter would pretend to be her grandma, and the best he can come up with is to kidnap the girl. Also, it makes the three questions awkward- the hands he can leave big at the end, and for one of the other one he swaps in why grandma’s cheeks are so hairy (so she can better cuddle her), and… why are her legs so long (so she can better run after her)…
He doesn’t think it’s smooth by any means, and is glad when he can conclude the tale with the wolf jumping in to help, and it looking like he’s been killed, and then chasing after the hunter when he does kidnap Little Red Riding Hood, and rescuing her, and them finding grandma trapped in the cupboard. And then they’re all friends and from then on the wolf always accompanied Red Riding Hood in the forest and she was always safe.
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As he started into Little Red Riding Hood, Darcy at first tilted her head with a slight grumble, but when he begins to change it, her tail starts to wag, then to thump into the pillow excitedly. At the wolf jumping in to help, she bounces to her paws and keeps up, pawing her pillow and leaning her snout close, ears pricked and trained on Arthur. Finally she jumps up on Arthur, licks his face enthusiastically to Art laughing at the complaints in the room.
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Arthur laughs in relief at her liking it, and hugs her, because… well, she’s right there and licking his face, so that seems the thing to do.
Appearing in Art’s shadow again, Jack smiles. “Well done, Captain, it appears you won and we have a boatswain. Now, how about we find a master gunner? There must be one in the room who isn’t a useless drunk.”
“I thought we brought you as the doctor to fix the drunk,” Arthur dares to quip back. “And we have to take him anyway if we want to get our navigator back…”
“I’m a doctor, not a miracle worker, I’m afraid.” Jack says as he puts a hand, rather gently, on Art’s shoulder, who groans and just lets himself fall away from the wall, against Jack.
~~~~
He should have anticipated that Art would do that, or he thinks he would have decades earlier, it still is so nice to have his old friend back. Not the shadow of himself, carved hollow by grief, Jack had seen for so long. So the curse at Art for having to struggle to hold him up is rather tame.
Darcy looks at them and starts laughing, runs to help her papa with pushing against her daddy’s weight but berates them.
“No, sugar doll, I can’t. I gambled the ship away, Lucy’s going to be so angry with me for being home late.”
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“Um, I mean, I didn’t really meet her, but I don’t think someone who’s angry would go through all the trouble of luring in a ship, kidnapping their navigator, and sending them off to find you and bring you back in exchange…” he offers. “So, more like… she organised you a lift…?” Looked at that, the situation makes him snicker.
With Darcy’s help, Jack pushes Art back against the wall, then pats his hair, too. “You know she would, you drunkard.”
“Better drunk than an old stick in the mud like you,” Art fires back, only to have Darcy bark at him. “Fine, sugar doll. I’ll go get chewed out for worrying again. Can’t let you down on being master gunner and for that I need my big cannon. Let’s go. Jack, carry me.” That last part is half a whine at Jack, who refuses outright, Art has gotten far too fat in his old age.
Arthur… isn’t sure what to make of that interaction. He thinks they’re… probably teasing each other? In which case, he wants to snicker. He glances at Darcy, and she doesn’t seem upset, so… he doesn’t think they’re really fighting?
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There’s nothing better than seeing her family love each other, Darcy thinks, bouncing from paw to paw around Jack, who might not be carrying Art but still has his arm over his shoulder and supports him. While those two make their way to the door, she bounces back to Arthur, wags her tail, then grabs his sleeve with her teeth, carefully, and drags him along, too.
~~~~
That does make Arthur laugh, and he follows along with the others. This adventure… is only getting more fun, he decides.
At the row boat, Darcy wrinkles her nose, giving the water a whine, and makes puppy eyes at Arthur.
“Uh…” he says, not sure what she wants- well, he remembers she doesn’t like water, but what is he supposed to do about that in a pirate story? Then he remembers that supposed ‘let animals talk’ spell John made him have at the start of this (was that with Darcy’s wolf shape in mind?) and decides to try out whether it also works on Darcy with John not with the group right now, does his best to make the same nonsense movements over her forehead. “This should make you able to speak…”
“I don’t like boats! And if daddy can ask to be carried, so can I, then it must be okay!” Darcy instantly wolf-pouts at him. “Also, I could always speak, you just didn’t understand me.”
“Um, sorry, okay, then it makes it so I can understand you…” He looks between her and the boat. She isn’t that big… but neither is he. And getting into boats is a wobbly affair at the best of times. But she asked, so he doesn’t want to turn her down. “Um, okay, I’ll try to lift you in…” Now he just has to figure out how to lift her at all. He crouches down to wrap his arms around her middle, and lifts her so she is partially over his shoulder and doesn’t throw off his balance too much.
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Having gotten Art safely into the boat, Jack turns around and… can’t keep a snort it. “Rose petal, you are such a daddy’s girl.”
“Daddy’s and Papa’s girl!” Darcy huffs back instantly while trying to help Arthur by holding on with her paws.
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Arthur steps up to the boat slowly and carefully, and looks to make sure Dr Seward has a hand on the pier to stabilise it and keep it in place before he climbs down into it.
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Doing just that, Jack keeps an eye on the children in case he has to act fast. He can just imagine Darcy’s pout if her papa would let it happen that she falls into the harbour.
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There is a moment where Arthur feels his balance wobble while he has one foot in the boat and one still on the dock, but he manages to let Darcy down onto one of the benches, and catch himself on another one.
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Doing a bit of a ferret impression, Darcy makes herself long and stays low to the ground, well, bottom of the boat, as she moves to squish herself between Art’s legs. It feels a little bit steadier this way; Daddy would hold her easily if she was in danger of falling out of the boat. She hates the thought of falling out of the boat. She can’t see the bottom, what if she ends up just sinking and sinking?
This isn’t John’s pond behind their hunting lodge… oh, his hunting lodge now, she guesses with a pang of loss. In any case, she curls herself up, but thanks Arthur for getting her safely into the boat.
Arthur tells her she’s welcome, and takes one of the oars to row them back to the ship- tells her he hopes she’ll feel better on there, what with the ship being bigger and all?
“It doesn’t make the ocean smaller,” she answers and gets Art’s large hand ruffling her fur for that and Jack quipping that Art’s fat enough; he’ll float even if they go overboard, just climb on there.
Art laughs at that and fires back: “Which makes me the more useful father here, you beanpole.”
~~~~
Arthur thinks that surely, this being John’s dreamscape, and a pirate story, he would’ve made Darcy a wolf able to swim? Also, he half expects Darcy to jump in and defend the usefulness of her papa- she is always very protective of him, isn’t she? But then… yes, this just seems the way in which Dr Seward and Art joke around.
Darcy indeed makes a whiney noise, but Jack holds his oar steady for just a moment to pat her head, right next to Art’s hand. “Don’t mind us, rose petal. We have a quest to get back to.”
“Yes, let’s see if we can get our navigator back,” Arthur agrees. He takes a moment to verify that the treasure map is still where he’d stowed it, and it hasn’t gone missing.
~~~~
For a moment, Darcy wags her tail, she can’t wait to see John… Oh, right, wait, they aren’t like that anymore, he’s moved on from her, he probably doesn’t want to see her. She’s in her drac form and he said he’ll keep his distance from her drac. But why did he make her look like this then? Why did he give her that sweet meaningful pillow? She doesn’t know, so she just puts her snout on her paws and waits to get onto the ship. This is about Arthur, she’ll just try to be as good for him as she can.
~~~~
The easiest way to get a wolf onto a sailing ship, clearly, is for her to just stay in the boat while they hoist it back up, careful to make sure it doesn’t tilt any way. Darcy still doesn’t look particularly happy when she jumps out onto the deck, but they set off again without incident, and arrive back at Lucy’s rocks maybe a bit faster than they should- Arthur is suspecting a ‘story time’ speed-up.
There’s no singing this time but the sound of wing beats reverberates off the rocks, coming from too many directions to give them a clear warning before the siren sets down right on top of their mast. “Have you brought me my man?” Lucy is clearly trying hard to sound ominous, but the way she wiggles looks far too much like Darcy when she’s excited.
Arthur bites back a grin at her failure to be scary, and points at Art. “Safe and sound.”
Leaning down, Lucy turns her head sideways much further than should be possible, grins with sharp teeth but at Art shuffling his feet and mumbling a ‘sorry’ she nearly falls off the mast with a giggle. “Jackie, how does he always do that? Ugh, my sweetest of scoundrels!” Letting go of the mast, she swoops down, shrinks in the process, and comes to sit on Art’s shoulder.
That has Darcy blink, then she starts giggling. “Lucy is a parrot!”
Arthur didn’t expect that one, either. “…I guess a pirate ship needs a parrot…?”
Strutting around on Art’s shoulder, Lucy grins, far less creepy this time around, and winks that she won’t demand a biscuit, she already has the sweetest thing to nibble on. Oh, and Darcy’s version thereof is over that way. Her daughter can have him back, she promises she didn’t do anything Darcy would have done.
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Lucy thought she’d get a protesting squeal out of Darcy that way. Instead, Darcy just deflates. Oh dear, did those two fight after the obsession? Did Darcy not like him enough without the obsession? She’ll have to go talk to them after this, her poor girl! This calls for a girl council and talking boy gossip and strategizing.
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It seems Arthur isn’t the only one who doesn’t quite know what’s going on with Darcy and John, which he finds kind of reassuring- at least it’s not so obvious that it’s just him missing something… For now, he steers them the way Lucy directs.
Arriving at another one of the jutting rocks, Arthur spots a staircase winding its way up the stone. Sitting on the stairs, reading a book, is John. Arthur finds himself chuckling. “You comfortable up there? Should we come back for you later?”
“Finding your way around without a navigator now, are you?” is John’s grinned answer as he puts the book to the side and walks down the stairs. “Looks like you got your crew all together, Cap’n.”
“We did okay getting to the tavern and back…” Arthur dares to joke back. He glances at Art and Lucy. “Well, yes, if our master gunner is happy to come along on a treasure hunt- or rather, his wife lets him…”
“Telling the old scoundrel no and getting puppy eyes from two people? Not worth it. Fine, let’s show why my husband is the best master gunner west of the Indies.” Lucy chuckles and takes off from Art’s shoulder, rises up to the top of the rock with the stairs, growing back to her full size as she does. She vanishes from sight for a moment and when she returns, she’s holding an enormous canon in her claws.
Arthur can’t help but look impressed. “How can you carry that?”
“She’s quite a bit stronger than she looks. Never underestimate a short lady,” Art answers with a wide (to not call it love-struck) grin as Lucy sets the cannon down on deck and shrinks again to take her spot on his shoulder, starts grinning herself when she gets her chin scratched in thanks.
“Clearly,” Arthur agrees, and then pulls out the treasure map. “So, now that we’re all here, this is the map.” He spreads it out on the deck so they can all look at it, including Darcy.
It takes Darcy a moment to come over, she was throwing wistful glances at John while he climbed back on board, but once he might see her doing that, she turns and sniffs at the map.
The map looks like a treasure map ought to, with islands outlined and a big X and dragons drawn in the margins, and with mysterious annotations that don’t mean anything to Arthur, so he looks at John in question.
“Aye, Cap’n, them’s navigator ciphers. I can read them. I’ll chart the course in.” Taking a longer look at the map and humming and hawing, John adds with a growl. “There’s a warning on the map, too. The island’s guarded by the last crew that tried to steal the treasure.”
Arthur tilts his head. “…The last crew? Um… now I wonder who drew the map and how they know, were they part of the crew? Also… does that mean they’re cursed, or something?”
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“I don’t know, Cap’n, but it sounds like we’re in for a fight. You aren’t getting cold feet, are you?” John grins, and there’s an immediate pang of hurt as he sees Darcy jump to Arthur’s side to support him and tell him she’ll protect him.
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“Of course not!” Arthur says. “After all, that’s why we got the best crew on this ocean together, right? Let’s go and see what we see! If they’re very ornery, we have a wolf and a big cannon.” He smiles down at Darcy. “And a parrot that’s much stronger than she looks…” He offers Lucy a smile, too, though a more shy one.
Throwing an arm over Jack’s shoulders, Art adds: “And the best doctor there is to patch us up, too!” Jack smirks at him, then looks at Arthur and nods. “As well as a competent captain to lead us. It may be the wrong genre for our locale, but as one of my countrymen famously said: One for all and all for one.”
That makes Arthur chuckle. “Well, it is an adventure, so it seems appropriate to me…” The praise has a blush rising on his cheeks, of course. “Um, thank you all. Let’s go, then!” He does his best to make that last not a question- he’s the captain, after all. But all of them going to such lengths to have a birthday ‘play’ with him like this really does mean a lot to him.
Darcy barks excitedly once and jumps, gives John one quick look, then runs to the front of the ship, nose in the wind and ready for anything. Lucy flies up to the crow’s nest as John sets the course and Jack finally gets to ‘healing’ Art’s drunkenness. With the course determined by John, they set off across the ocean.
As the afternoon wanes, the sun sets in an ominous, blood-red haze.
“I’m not sure I like the look of that,” Arthur says. “Could be another storm?”
Art, having half-dozed against the mast, with Jack leaned into his side and reading comfortably, cracks an eye open and audibly inhales. “That’s no storm, that’s an omen.”
“That’s unfounded superstition. It is merely an effect created by light reflections.” Jack counters, hardly even looking. “You are an old worrier.”
“Hmm,” Arthur makes sceptically. If they were in the real world, he’d agree with Dr Seward, but they’re not. They’re in a pirate adventure story, and those have omens and such. “Let’s be on our guard, anyway,” he decides. “Keep our weapons ready. Have everything set up for quick loading and firing of the cannon, should we need it.”
Despite his previous remark, Jack stands up together with Art and starts helping him ready not only their massive cannon, but every single one on board. Darcy plays powder monkey for them, rolling cannon balls with her snout to where they need them and having the powder horn between her teeth, running along her fathers.
From above, Lucy shouts that the horizon is hazy and John agrees with a grunt that something doesn’t feel right with the waters against their bow.
Once again, if this wasn’t a game, all of this would worry Arthur. But since it is a game, it’s exciting instead. He wonders what John came up with next.
As night falls, a fog starts to rise around them, first red from the sun, then it turns pale with reflected star light. Soon, it wraps around them in chill, damp streamers all around, smothers sounds until it feels as if they’re sailing in a bubble, alone with the sound of creaking wood and splashing water. So when Arthur notices that there is something like an echo to the sounds, he isn’t sure how long it’s been there- but no, that’s not an echo, that’s another ship! As it draws nearer, he can distinguish the slap of the waves against the other hull, a groaning as if its masts are about to give out.
Before he can even shout a warning, it looms out of the fog, a vast, dark shape. There are no lights on it anywhere, its sails are tattered, its railings broken, and it brings with it a wave of wet, clingy cold.
Arthur blinks, and, yes, that can only be one thing, so he yells: “Ghost ship!”
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Art and Jack run to the cannons, Darcy is at Arthur’s side instantly again, only Lucy can’t help herself. A ghost ship, a real ghost ship! She bounces up in the crow’s nest where she can see the forms of long dead sailors more waft than wander on the broken deck. She shouldn’t squeal, this is scary, but it’s the best kind of scary! Right, she’s supposed to be their big cannon- carry the big cannon- in either case. Ghosts! Real ghosts! She’s still squealing when she dives down to fetch the cannon and swoops to get Art on her back so he can do his job.
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Arthur tries to swing them away from the other ship, but of course fog also means hardly any wind, their sails slack. “…What do you do against ghost ships?” he asks Darcy. “Fire? Don’t board them, in any case!” he calls to everyone.
A heavy thud makes the timbers shiver and John calls out. “What about them boarding us?” as he runs to hack at the line with an axe.
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It’s a reaction Darcy hasn’t even thought through, her drac leaping before she wonders if she’s overstepping, but the fog and darkness don’t give her trouble. John can’t see in the dark, he couldn’t have seen the ghost… no, not ghost, that’s a skeleton! Darcy realises as her jaws close over the bones of the arm that was swinging a dented, rusty sabre towards John from where it had been balancing along the rope.
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“We fight them!” Arthur yells back as he sees Darcy sprint off- they need more light here, and he runs to turn all the lanterns he can find up to full flames and light any that are out.
Having pulled the arm off the skeleton, Darcy yells that they aren’t ghosts! They can be hurt… uh, deconstructed!
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Across the deck, Jack feels somewhat surreal. This is a game, and still he can feel his double training spring into full effect. Just that Art isn’t right there next to him where he should be. He knows they are more effective as a team, and for a second he worries that he’d overlook a wound without his friend keeping him safe, but then Lucy swoops overhead with a hollering Art lighting the fuse on their large cannon and it all feels like a game again. Jack can relax again, the children are just having some fun with a tall tale, he doesn’t have to throw the dice of likelihood and calculate constantly what has the highest chances of keeping them alive.
A story, not the last twenty years of senseless danger he subjected himself and Art to. No, let them enjoy this, let himself and Art enjoy finally getting to play with their daughter together. Smirk back on his face, he dives between the shadows that remain on deck even with the lit lamps and places knives where they will have the most effect.
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With every lantern he can find lit, Arthur pulls his sabre and joins the fighting- really not something he would do normally, what with him not actually knowing how to use a sabre. But it is a lot of fun to not be scared in a fight, and to be at the front of it, instead of worrying from the back.
The night is torn apart by an ear-splitting boom and cannon fire flashes against the fog moments before the ghost ship’s mast explodes into splinters. Lucy swings around and drops Art to the deck, follows along as he sets off a full broadside, too. Each cannon roars and takes deep bites out of the enemy ship.
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Not as deep as those of Darcy’s teeth where they rip into the skeletons, though. For once, Arthur isn’t shouting to hold her back and instead he’s right next to her, swinging to protect her back when she makes sure nothing can get to him either. She wants to run from person to person, protect them all… but John isn’t hers and she can see her parents cover each other, so she stays by Arthur’s side.