4 Chapter 3

He slammed the door shut behind you.

You backed up, getting as far away from him as you could, against the wall of his cabin, terrified of what might to happen next. It was a very small room with a messy cot on one side, a wardrobe on the other, and boxes of gold and food next to it. In the back of the room was the only other entrance to the mapping room other than one on the deck, which was locked.

He looked at you and narrowed his eyes. Then he turned and walked over to his wardrobe, looking through the drawers for something. "Take it off," he said.

Your eyes widened. "Take...what off?"

"Your clothes. What do you think? Now take them off."

You nearly fainted on the spot. "Please don't touch me, please don't-"

"Your majesty, you are wearing a slip. Slips are made for wearing under fancy dresses, not for scrubbing decks." He pulled something out of the drawer and threw it at you, which you caught with clumsy hands. "Put these on," he said. "Now I'll be outside waiting for you."

It took a second for you to process what just happened, and the fact he had paused for a response. "Oh! Yes sir, Captain, sorry sir."

"Yeah. And be quick, or I'll come back in and drag you out of here whether you're dressed or not."

"Y-Yes sir, Captain," you stammered.

And with that, he gave you a nod and walked right back out the door, slamming it behind him.

You immediately did your best to dress quickly. You slipped out of your slip and threw on the clothes without a moment's hesitation. They fit better than you'd expected any outfit out of a pirate Captain's wardrobe to fit you, and seemed like they actually were a women's outfit.

Then again, that Captain, with the largest pirate ship in the bay, yet a small select crew, more than three pounds of gold in his pocket, and a well-known reputation around the cove, he probably had everything. Collecting a lot of wealth meant he had several women's pirate outfits in one of those drawers, just waiting to be cut up and repurposed for his own next time he needed a new shirt.

The outfit you were putting on consisted of a pair of black, baggy, cotton pants, held up by a brown leather belt with a bronze buckle, and a tight-fit white cotton deep-cut-v-neck elbow-length-sleeved shirt.

You spotted a cracked handheld mirror, and you did your best to see yourself in it. It was hard to see yourself well, but it didn't actually look half-bad. The fact it complemented your shape, you weren't sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing.

You heard footsteps coming back towards the cabin, and you immediately set the mirror down and faced the door.

The Captain knocked first. "You're done, I presume?" he said from the other side of the door.

"Yes sir, Captain," you replied loudly.

He opened the door and looked a bit taken aback by you. For a second you wondered if he thought you looked nice too, charmed by the beauty that you were so well known for...and had by now become your curse, carrying you off to this land. But then he said, "Well that looks boring. Is that really what I gave you?" he asked.

"Yes sir, Captain." You swallowed. Excuse me?

"Hmm." He walked back in and continued fishing around his wardrobe, until he threw you a red vest, then searched through a little jeweled box on one of his wooden boxes and pulled out two big, heavy, expensive golden hoop earrings.

You put on the vest, and he handed you the earrings, which you tried to get on. But you, though you'd never admit, had never actually put your jewelry on yourself. You didn't know how to put on an earring very quickly, much less without a mirror.

The Captain simply took them impatiently from your trembling hands and put them, gently, carefully, on you himself. It didn't hurt. Your new earrings looked like the one he had in his right ear.

He stepped back. "Better," he said, shrugging, as if you could've done better with how you looked. Well, if someone as pretty as you didn't satisfy him, what would? Unless that carelessness was simply a mask.... "Now put your hair back. I suggest a braid. It's hard to work at things with your hair falling in your face."

By the look on your face, he could tell you didn't know how to braid. "Well I'm not doing anything else for you. I hope you prove more experienced with other tasks."

You bit your lip.

"Just tie it back until you can do something with it. You've got work to do. I'll teach you to braid later if needed," he said. "And then I can at least have you doing my hair. But really, braiding is a very basic task..."

"Sorry, sir, Captain." You weren't quite sure what to say.

"Nothing to be sorry for. Now put your hair back."

"Yes sir, Captain," you said in a small voice. He handed you a ribbon, and you tied it as best you could into a loose low ponytail.

"Now go out on the deck."

You did.

He pointed to a bucket of water with a scrub brush in it sitting near the mast. "Scrub this deck until it shines."

It took a second to process. You took a deep breath.

"I said scrub this deck until it shines," he repeated.

"Yes sir, Captain," you said quickly. That seemed to be something you were going to be saying a lot.

"So get on your knees and scrub this deck."

You slowly got down on your knees, and reached inside the bucket of water, and pulled out the splintered bristle brush. Well, never gotten on my knees to pick anything up myself before... You examined the brush in your hand with delicate curiosity. So this is what the maids use to clean the floors?

All of the pirates stopped to watch you, it was so obvious you felt so awkward doing it.

"Get to work," the Captain snapped, and you swallowed, not sure where to start. So you set the brush on the deck and slid it back and forth, ever so gently, across the deck, trying to to bend the bristles. It might break it.

"You have no idea how to do this, do you?" He sighed. You shook your head slowly. "Well for one thing, it works better when you've got more water on it, and second, you need to push harder. Use two hands if you have to."

You gingerly set both of your dainty hands on the brush and started to scrub it a bit harder.

"Better," he said, unimpressed. "Now you'd better start working fast, because you're not stopping until you're done with this deck level, and if I find you sleeping on the job, you'll wake up in the ocean, got it?"

"Yes sir, Captain," you said quietly.

"What was that?"

"Yes sir, Captain," you said a little louder.

"Speak up!" He kicked you. Lightly, barely even a touch. But right then and there. He...at least nudged you with his foot. The pirates watching looked stunned, as you, startled like a cat, fell on your bucket of water. It spilled everywhere.

"Yes sir...!" you said louder, and sniffed. "Captain." The first words nearly yelling, the last word barely louder than a breath of air, nearly crying, back on the verge of tears.

He raised an eyebrow, and gave you a nod. "Alright. Better get going," he said gently. "Now back to work!" he barked at the rest of the crew, turning and walking off. "You there. Refill her bucket when she runs out of water."

The pirate he'd singled out said, "Yes sir, Captain!" and took your bucket to go refill it already.

The Captain turned and walked off without another word, and spent the rest of the day in his cabin, (which you could tell was unusual by the concerned looks the crew kept sending to the cabin door, as if they wondered if something was wrong with him.) It was then you went hungry for the first day in your life, and worked long and hard for the first day in your life, getting several blisters and callouses on your sore, once-flawless hands.

The Captain definitely had some very strong emotion towards you.

Whenever he looked at you, you could see the light in his eyes. Curiosity? Jealousy? Hate? Revenge? Something more? It was complicated.

You couldn't help but to fall asleep on the frozen desk before sunrise after being up most of the night.

You shivered fiercely in the cold, under heavy water-tinged bone-chilling salty breeze with no barriers to slow it down.

You had nightmares that you woke up on the deck, naked, surrounded by pirates staring at you and a pirate captain yelling at you and telling you to get back to work, and you tried to tell them to stop, but whenever you went to speak, the only thing you remembered how to say was 'Yes sir, Captain.'

In the morning, when you woke up at the first rays of dawn hitting your eyelids, you found yourself under a warm blanket with a third of the deck already scrubbed for you.