Juliet of Dundee

Mystery Man

Juliet of Dundee Chpt. 11

Juliet

The sea was calm. Too calm. Too calm for sailing, too calm for comfort. The ocean seemed to sleep, and in it's slumber it held us stranded in its warm waters. Poseidon was betraying us.

I looked down towards the deck at Pater.

"What is it?"

There was a sudden stirring in the water.

Ripples.

Immediately I lept over the railing of the crow's nest and grabbed a rope and I began me descent towards the quickly approaching deck. Within a few seconds me feet were planted firmly on the wooden boards of the Serpent.

"Decided to come down, did you?" Pater seemed slightly nervous and it sorta surprised me; and I'm never surprised.

"Ripples," I breathed.

"What?"

"There are ripples in the water behind the ship!"

Pater lept to his feet and we both dashed to the back of the ship. With the corner of me eye I saw a shadow, me ears heard footsteps.

"There's someone there!" me cried.

"You there!" Pater cried. "Stop!"

But, by the time we'd gotten there the person was gone. I looked over the railing.

"Um, Blue-eyes, ya may want to go evaluate the rations."

"What?" Pater looked over the railing seeing a crate bobbing in the water. "Bloody!" He slammed his hands on the railing. "Someone's throwing the rum overboard! Not the rum! Bloody hell, not the rum!" At this point Pater seemed to be losing his 'cool'.

"Well what do ya suppose we do?"

"We do nothing. I'm going after it. Hold me by my ankles."

"Are you sure ya want to be trustin' a she-pirate like me wit' yer weight?" Pater had turned away from me and began to remove his boots. He abruptly froze and turned to me with a suspicious and eyeing look on his face.

"A-are you calling me-" he hesitated.

"What? Calling ya what?"

"Fat?!"

"What?! I never-" I raised me hands as if to surrender, but after a quick second I lowered them. Me never surrendered to anyone!

Liar.

"Ya just did!"

"No I didn't!"

"Well, guess what? You're fat!"

I pulled in a quick breath. He seemed to be turnin' red.

"I-I mean-" Before he could say anythin' to defend himself I smacked him backside the head.

"Ach! What was that for?"

"Bein' a smart arse. Or should I say a fat one?"

"Did you - did you really just-"

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't," I laughed noticing the bright color in his cheeks.

"You did! You called me fat again!"

Why does that even bother him?

"Sure. Whatever floats your boat, or in this case... sinks it," I laughed and laughed at the hilarious response that flooded his cheeks perfectly.

"Whatever," Pater flashed a quirky smile at me before removin' his leather boots. "I'll go after the rum and you throw me down a rope. I'll tie the rope to the rum and you hoist it up. And then once you do that, toss the rope back down to me and I'll climb up."

Strange. Clearly he wasn't the big tough guy he came across as at first sight, and there was definitely a deeper side to him; otherwise he wouldn't have described the violin as "whimsical, peaceful, and calming." Those were some pretty fanciful words for an "uneducated pirate".

The more me thought about it the more it seemed to make sense. That explained why he spoke the way he did; he lacked a lot of the slang and terminology that most pirates used along with the sea-folk accent.

"We're forgetting something important, Pater," I realized as I looked around, forcin' the smile that had spread on me lips to disappear. His name sounded so foreign on me lips, so calming, soothing. It was so strange...

"What?"

"The guy who threw it overboard to begin with!"

"Bloody hell, you're right! But he's probably long gone by now..."

"Hm..." I began to pace back and forth and I felt Pater's eyes following me. "That's the truth, but we will probably narrow it down sooner or later. But why would someone dump cargo overboard besides trying to lose weight or to leave a trail... That's it!"

"That makes sense. But that means we're being followed by someone. Well that's grand! We can't have anyone following us to the Source."

"Right. And that means we'll have to figure this out before more cargo is thrown overboard," I added.

"Alright, so that means someone strong enough to throw that amount of weight is the culprit. Well that eliminates several of the cabin boys," Pater said as he leaned on the rail and rolled the ends of his pants up.

"But let's not get too hasty. Any one of the cabin boys could lift that weight. We shan't jump to conclusion." I paused for a moment to see Pater continue to prepare to jump into the sea.

"You're still going to go for a swim? You realize that there are probably tons of sharks in that there bit of ocean?"

"I realize that."

"Well I've come to my final conclusion; yer a muppet."

"Emmie, 'yer' a she-pirate," he said as he flashed a cheeky grin my way for the second time that evening. There was a pause as he finally finished preparing himself.

"Wait, was that supposed to be an insult?"

"Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. Whatever floats your boat-"

"Don't even mister!" I laughed as I shoved him playfully. Pater half laughed and we gave each other knowing glances. I stretched out my hand towards him.

"I propose a truce. Put our differences behind us. I don't know what's come over us to even hold decent conversation, but I quite enjoy your company. So what do ya say?" I watched as Pater seemingly all too quickly took my hand.

"Agreed. Couldn't have said it better myself."

And so began our... acquaintance-hood... along with our search for the mystery man. And with that Pater dove into the sea.