Scourge
Day 10/30: "And that's what happens when you're raised by pirates."
The flagship of Erelan's Royal Navy appeared in her telescope's sight, its bright red and purple flag a dead giveaway against the azure sea and steadily lightening sky.
"Ya see it, Louisa?" an older man asked, squinting into the distance. His tricorner hat had seen better days, his jacket faded and patched.
She nodded, passing over the telescope. "It's there, alright. Looks like they have a hostage, too. He's on the upper deck by the captain's quarters. Poor man's been shivering for the past quarter-hour."
"Looks like a Shengrian officer," the man frowned. "Erelan an' Shengria are supposed ta be on good terms. This ain't looking good."
Louisa frowned. "Should we stage an extraction, Father?"
"Is my name not Edward Stonehenge, scourge o' tha world's seas?" Stonehenge chuckled. "We'll get 'im out, don't ya worry. Rally tha boys, we'll make a plan. I've been lookin' forward ta this for a long while..."
Three hours later, Louisa shimmied up to the crows-nest, exchanging their rebel skull-and-crossbones for a quick substitute for an Erelanian flag, sewn in remarkable time by Louisa, Doc Remus, and Stanley, the first mate.
"Will it pass, Father?" Louisa asked, swinging down to the deck.
Stonehenge nodded. "Aye, looks great, darlin'. Are ya ready for your half o' tha plan?"
Louisa grinned. "Is my name not Louisa Stonehenge, daughter of sea and its scourge?"
"Tha's m' girl," Stonehenge chuckled, kissing his daughter's forehead. "Be safe, swim well, don't let anyone see ya change."
She waved to the crew and dove off the back of the boat to cheers from her fathers' men.
Louisa took a deep breath and dove under the quiet early-morning waves, exhaling as her legs turned to a silvery tail.
She'd never learned the full story of her heritage, other than a very drunk Stanley mentioning that her father had a little too much fun on a break in the Southern Isles with a beautiful woman named Samaria.
Stonehenge went back to the Isles two years later after a successful loot to find a colony of merwomen raising a half-human child with his gunmetal blue eyes. She'd travelled with her father, the Scourge, and her men ever since, learning the finer points of pirating, stealing from the Erelanian Royal Navy to give back to their suffering citizens.
Louisa unlatched two knifes from her belt as she approached the starboard side of the enemy ship. She'd accompanied her father on many loots on similarly-sized ships. If she remembered correctly, there'd be a hatch about five feet over wave-level that housed a few cannons.
She let out an ear-piercing underwater whistle and a few dolphins appeared, nudging her sides with big grins.
Louisa smiled. "Hello, friends! Here's what we need to do..."
The dolphins put on a spectacular show of breaching, leaping, and playing with the waves created by the flagship, drawing the large majority of the crew portside.
While they were distracted, Louisa shifted, dug her knives into the side of the barnacle-encrusted ship, and climbed upwards to the hatch, prying it open and slipping in completely unnoticed. Upon entry, she donned a spare uniform found in the cupboards, the pants just a little too big, the jacket just a bit too small.
Regardless, Louisa twisted her wet hair into a mariner's cap and reported to the second deck, given the ever-dreaded assignment of cleaning the poop deck.
Luckily for her, the captive was lashed to the mizzen-mast, directly in front of the poop deck. Louisa took a good look as she climbed and started scrubbing-- the man was young, ranked no higher than a Second Lieutenant, and was blissfully asleep, head drooped forward across his uniform.
Louisa checked port, checked starboard, and crept forward, washing her way towards the man.
"Psssst!" she whispered, slapping his face with a sponge.
He startled awake, about to yell, but she clamped a hand over his mouth.
"Listen, I've been sent to get you out. In a half-hour, another ship will approach starboard. We'll swim out to meet them."
He nodded. "Aye, I understand. They broke my leg when I was taken, I might not make it..."
Louisa dropped a few of her father's favorite oaths. "I'll figure something out. What's your name, soldier?"
"Patrick Anthony Martin, Ensign," he said. "And you?"
"You'll find out when we survive this," Louisa said, dropping back to scrub the deck.
Silence settled over the pair as an officer on the flagship announced a sighting of a friendly ship. The flagship shifted course towards Stonehenge's ship and prepared for a crew exchange.
"Ready?" Louisa asked, pulling her knife from her belt.
Patrick nodded.
As the captain of the flagship approached Stonehenge, Louisa cut through Patrick's ropes, grabbed his hand, and pulled him overboard, hitting the water with a hard splash.
"What was that?" the Erelanian captain asked, turning back over his shoulder.
Stonehenge extended a hand to shake. "Nothing but my men tossing a container of waste overboard, Captain. How fares your journey?"
Louisa and Patrick surfaced for air, the Ensign coughing up saltwater.
"Alright, now what?" Patrick asked, looking around.
Louisa put a finger to his lips, shifted, and pulled him underwater, propelling herself in a long arc out of view of the two ships.
Two heads popped out of the waves.
"You're one strange girl, aye?" Patrick said. "How many more secrets do you hold?"
Louisa grinned. "This isn't half of it."
"I'm curious, but I'll wait until we're to safety," Patrick said, eying Louisa's long dark hair and iridescent tail. "Shall we?"
When they surfaced the second time, a panic call rose from the flagship, an Erelanian sailor yelling for his superior.
"Sweet seabiscuits," Patrick groaned, we'll never make it--"
"Don't tempt fate," Louisa said, pulling him under for a third time. She pushed herself hard, reaching her father's ship in record time. When she poked her head out of the water, Stanley and Doc Remus tossed a ladder off port.
"Hold on to this," Louisa said, guiding a coughing Patrick to the ladder. "Doc Remus and Stanley will pull you up."
Patrick gave Louisa a furtive glance. "Aren't you coming, too?"
"Soon, Ensign. My task isn't complete just yet. Tell my father and the others to plug their ears, aye?"
She dove beneath the waves again, calling out thanks to the dolphins for their distraction. Louisa propelled herself around to the sterns of both ships and emerged, taking a deep breath of ocean air before launching into a siren song from her first two years in the Southern Isles.
The Erelanian sailors stopped in their tracks, transfixed by her voice. They scrambled to the stern to catch a glimpse of a true mermaid, staring longingly into the distance.
Louisa kept singing, buying the Scourge enough time to gain a considerable lead.
When the Erelanian sailors came to, they were alone, their captive was nowhere to be found, and there was no sign of the young mermaid off the stern.
Patrick let out a yell as Doc Remus finished splinting his leg with the limited supplies they had onboard.
"Well, that's all I can do until we reach our next port," he said, wiping his forehead. "How are you feeling, young man?"
Patrick raised an eyebrow. "Thoroughly confused. Your flag was one of Erelan, but none of you carry their accent, and there's a mermaid on board?
Stonehenge pushed a now dry Louisa forward.
"Patrick, my name is Louisa Samaria Stonehenge. This is my father, Edward Stonehenge. This is the Scourge. We're taking you to Shengria, right?" she said, catching her father's gaze.
Stonehenge nodded. "We've had our issues with the Erelanians for a long time. This was a welcome mission."
"You have my sincerest thanks," Patrick said, doing his best to bow from Doc Remus' examination table. "I never thought I'd be able to count infamous pirates among my allies."
Stonehenge's eyes sparkled. "Infamous! Tha's a new one!"
"'Tis true!" Patrick said. "I grew up hearing tales of your escapades across the high seas. Now I get to journey with you, if only for a short while."
"Ya're a welcome addition," Stonehenge said.
"Father," Louisa interjected, "while I was in the flagship, I found something."
"Oh?" Stonehenge asked.
Louisa produced a small satchel from her belt and placed them in Stonehenge's hands.
Her father laughed long and hard.
"Is this their official charter from the King himself?"
Louisa grinned.
"I'm proud of you, daughter," Stonehenge said, hugging Louisa. "How did this survive the water?"
"The satchel is waterproof?" she offered. "If the ship ever sank or wrecked, they'd need for it to stay safe. Their magicians are rather cunning to come up with something like this."
Patrick shook his head in disbelief. "The things you find out here..."
Stonehenge shrugged. "Comes wit' tha territory. We're in tha business o' findin' odd items."
Stanley nodded. "Once yer leg heals, we'll put ya to work findin' rare things, too. How'd ya feel about searchin' while scrubbing tha poop deck?"
Patrick shot Louisa a glare.
She laughed. "It's expected of the youngest members of the crew. That's what happens when you're raised by pirates, y'know..."