[26]

We couldn't keep a crew aboard the Wicked Wench…not an experienced one anyways not with us running raids and ambushes on slave vessels.

Jack and I are sitting in my quarters sharing stories, "My mum…she was a witch and got into some really dark devilishly evil stuff…she was gonna sacrifice me for power…luckily Dad popped up cut off Mum's head…but since he loves her so much he performed some ritual tethering her soul to her head, then he shrunk her head and carries it around with him everywhere…sometimes when we visit I can hear mum whispering to me…but…" Jack expresses as he sways drunkenly while sitting down.

I laugh softly, "My birth mother tried killing me indirectly half a dozen times if not more, a few times she offered to give her body to men to kill me in battle then there was the poisoning attempts…though one or two of those could have been my wife's father or the cuckold husbands of the wives that I was fucking...either behind their backs or right in front of their faces." I tell Jack.

"Bloody hell, fucking poisonous whores." Jack curses, "To the poisonous whores who gave us life!" I reply with a smile as we clink our rum bottles together and laugh jovially under the light of the full moon that shines in through the open windows in my quarters, the Wench…recently renamed the Pearl rocking on gentle waves.

Suddenly I hear boots on a deck but not our ship's deck, along with the loading of cannons and the gentle sound of soft breeze hitting against lowering canvas sails.

"Jack, we're under attack." I say softly and Jack smiles like I'm pulling his leg as I bite into my wrist and force him to drink my blood.

"Bloody Hell Vidar! What was that for!" Jack curses at me as the Pearl trembles and cannon fire hits us, one ball goes right through the open window barely missing Jack and I by a centimeter.

"THE PEARL ! ! !" Jack releases and angry anguish filled shout as I pick him up and throw him over my shoulder and start to use my speed to get us to the top deck only for a cannon ball to hit the back of my knee by pure fucking luck.

I managed to get Jack and myself out of the ship, and had to hold Jack back as the ship formerly known as the Wicked Wench was sunk and burnt down.

"Why, we could have saved it together?" Jack asks me as he falls to his knees heartbroken and that's when I notice that he has a small piece of wood piercing his heart as he slowly falls to the sand, I rip out the piece of splintered wood while dripping my blood into the wound.

"Come on Jack don't die on me, you're the only one that has ever made me truly feel like a brother." I express as my eyes sting as hunch over Jack, soon to my great relief the hole in Jack's chest closes up.

'Jack would have died trying to save the Pearl…he might hate me for saving him but it's worth it…' I mutter in my mind feeling lucky that we were so close to this small smugglers island. 

"Maybe I can bring back the Pearl without having to summon Squid face Davy Jones…" I mutter softly as I grip my sword and I picture the Pearl in my mind. 

"Abyssi operuerunt mihi aliquid pretiosum, pro eo reddo abyssum." I chant a spell I come up with on the fly. Soon the water around the island becomes aggravated as it ripples and twists soon and an all black ship, with black tattered sails rises up out of the ocean, water sloshing off of it the Pearl is in pristine condition. 

But I feel drained more so than I've ever felt before, I slip off the chain I wear around my neck that has an extra daylight ring on it and lift Jack's head up putting the chain around his neck. 

"Gotta get Jack a snack…" I groan as I push myself up to my feet and turn in all directions spotting the British navy Man'O'War ship retreating into the sunrise.

Taking off from the island at full tilt feeling like the world around me stops spinning as I jump from the water onto the deck of the ship and start slaughtering British soldiers, drinking my full leaving 3 alive for Jack to eat as I go to the top deck and steer the ship back towards the Black Pearl and the island.

My feeling of being drained from earlier is completely gone now that I've drank fresh blood for the first time in almost a month.

~ — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ~

Garmr whimpers as he rests his massive, fury head on my lap. 

"Yes I know you miss your Papa…I do as well…but a part of me is relieved he is off having fun on an adventure…he has even made a new friend…The way Vidar looks at me…it breaks my heart…I just don't have the heart to tell him…that this immortal life is not for me…I miss the true thrill of battle, the threat of imminent death at any moment." Lagertha sighs sadly as she scratches Garmr behind the ear as he pokes her abdomen with his cold wet nose. 

Lagertha lets out a mirthless laugh that makes Gar whimper as if in pain. "I should stake myself and free Vidar from me." Lagertha mutters and Gar bites her hand and growls. 

Lagertha does not notice that Shadousurī is watching her from the shadows of her and Vidar's chamber, or that Shadousuri vanishes into the shadows of the rafters.

Shadousuri appears outside of Clan Head Vidar's stone castle and lowers her mask revealing the face of Asa Akira.

~ — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ~

Jack sits up and wossily tilts to the side as I rip open one the necks of my live captives and, Jack groggily crawls forward sniffs, and the change washes over his face and Jack bites into and greedily drinks from the British soldier.

Jack pulls away from the dead man's throat like he's been burnt and screams as he cups his mouth, before burying his face in the sand and covering his ears. 

"Jack, listen to me Jack concentrate on the sound of my voice, push everything else out of your mind." I command Jack in a soft soothing voice that slowly has Jack uncovering his ears and sitting back on his knees looking at me with an unsure expression on his face. 

"I need Rum!" Jack finally says making me laugh softly.

"I agree, we need Rum…and I want to introduce you to the Black Pearl and the Dauntless." I say while gently turning Jack's head to face the ships.

"YOU SAVED THE PEARL ! ! !" Jack shouts hugs me and then vamp speeds to the Black Pearl like an excited child running to a present, making me laugh softly at his jubilant reaction.

[Hit 1k Power stones woo-hoo]