Stories I Never Finished

Hoist The Colours

"A ladyboy huh? Well you wanna know what we do to lady boy fellas such as yerself? We kill 'em."

"I don't think my boss would appreciate it if you killed me. I cost him a lot of money to buy, you see? He'll be awful mad... So mad, in fact, he might just skin you alive."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Leather boots clacked against creaking wood of a boat's dock, layers of fabric drifting and floating with each buoyant step the whimsical pirate took upon land.

"Ain't there just nothin' better than home?" Michael spun on the heels of his boots, turning toward his second mate. His best friend, his rival, his king; Ashton.

"I can think of many things better." Ashton muttered, unimpressed, and Michael snorted back a laugh at the sight of bird poo on the man's shoulder.

"Name one!" Michael snatched a loose rag, wiping the white mess away before tossing the cloth carelessly into the face of a young passerby who dropped his basket of fish in response.

"Davy Jone's Locker." Ashton spared the distressed passer barely a glance, disinterested.

"You just the funniest thing, Slasher." Throwing an arm over Ashton's shoulders, Michael continued to lead the way further into land; approaching the town dwelling on its surface. "That's why I keep ya around. For the flair."

Ashton was, what Michael liked to call, his third love.
First came the glorious sea.
Second was his beauty of a ship, his life's work.
And then Ashton. His favourite of all of God's divine creations.
Ashton was a deadpan kind of man, a beast who could survive any storm or churning wind of chaos the sea could throw at his face. He was vicious, a man to rival even the most deadliest of sea serpents, and Michael would forever call him his own.

And, of course, slaughter any one who dared suggest such a love was inhuman.

"We're gonna go and get us a couple drops of rum, lighten that foggy head of yours." Michael chimed, blissfully unfazed by the unsettling stares common folk sent his way.

"Perfectly timed." Ashton bitterly commented. "Nightfall pends."

"Never will there be a navigator better than me."

"Than I."

Michael pulled an amused face, entertained by his first mate. "Shut yer talk, will ya? I came for drinks! Not for lessons."

"Do you know this place?" Ashton shifted closer to Michael out of disgust of young children playing in mud as the pirate pair wandered through the muck of town.

"Aye. It's enough to blow me down." Michael nodded, taking his arm away only to grasp a ring adorned hand to Ashton's arm and tug him toward the nearest bar.
"I've been here once or twice, sugar cane mostly." He pushed open the doors; guiding them both inside.