Chapter Seventeen: Part 3

49.2K 1.9K 213
                                    

  A slow sensation started at her toes - a warm feeling, like someone was slowly draping a fleece blanket over her feet, then her legs, and continuing up her body. It was a comfortable, soothing sensation, and Alice shut her eyes and let it flow over her.  Beyond her eyelids was the dark, marked with ribbons of light that swirled and danced.  Eventually the light grew brighter, turning into a picture, and then the deck of a ship was in front of her, the wooden planks fresh and new. She could see them, and feel something beneath her feet. Out past the railing of the ship moved the sea, murky green and smelling of salt. A gentle mist sprayed her face and she gasped, inhaling the smell of seaweed, hearing seagulls on the wind. It was so real.

            “M’lady,” a man’s voice said behind her, “You must get below decks.”

            Alice spun around to see a young sailor. He looked like every sailor she’d ever seen in every sea movie, complete with striped shirt and dirty handkerchief. When she looked down at herself she gasped. She was outfitted in long, sweeping skirts and the top of the dress hugged her curves enthusiastically, giving her more cleavage than she thought decent.

            “M’lady, we’re being attacked. Come along.”

            She gave a startled cry as the sailor grasped her arm and started to drag her toward a set of stairs in the floor of the ship. Instinctively she struggled.  Around them other sailors were hauling on ropes and struggling with a number of heavy cannons on the side of the deck.  There was a tall, whip-thin man in a captain’s jacket at the stern, yelling orders. Alice had time to glance up at the flag to see it was a British vessel, and then she was dragged down into the cargo hold.

            “Stay here,” the sailor ordered, and then he was gone back up the stairs.

            “I don’t think this is especially fun,” she muttered.

             Seconds later there was a loud rumble and the ship rocked violently. Alice gave a surprised yelp as she clutched at the wall, not finding any purchase, she slid awkwardly backwards, falling onto the stairs. Luckily the bustle on the back of her dress was so big that it cushioned her behind from the wooden edge of the bottom step.

“This is ridiculous. Whose idea of a love story is this?”

            There was silence overhead, and then a lot of shouting and swearing. She flinched as gunfire went off above her and there were loud clanging crashes that she soon identified as sword fighting.

“I should have picked the beach one too,” she grumbled, clutching at the bottom step as the ship rocked sharply back and forth.  Footsteps pounded overhead, and someone gave a terrible cry as, a pair of boots flopped over the entrance to the stair case, blood dripping down the scuffed leather.

Alice covered her eyes, “Oh geeze, this is all too realistic.”

             More shouting, clashing and gunfire, and then it all stopped.  Footsteps thumped above her still, but no sound of screaming, dying men.

A deep baritone voice rang out on deck, “We’ve taken the ship, boys!”

Raucous cheers and hearty laughter was followed by cries for ale, and someone came clumping down the stairs. Alice froze. She was face to face with a scraggly man with one black tooth in the front of his mouth, which hung open in surprise for a second, and then curled into a pleased leer.

“Well, look here. Won’t the captain be pleased with this little treasure?”

            Alice’s eyes widened, she had to quell her alarm by telling herself it was just a dream.  I assume nothing can hurt me in this day dream. If that’s not the case, Azura and I will be having words. Before she could back up, the grubby man’s hand shot out and grabbed her arm, pulling her with him as he went back up the stairs.  They emerged into daylight, Alice blinking at the sudden onslaught of light.

ThreadsWhere stories live. Discover now