The Princess of Pirates

Chapter 12 - [The Initiation]

Nerina sat down and sighed. It was late in the evening, and a week had passed since she started her work to become a pirate. She had swabbed the deck, washed all the horrid clothes that belonged to the pirates, washed windows and when the ship stopped at the port of a nation she had never heard of, she spent the whole night picking barnacles off the rear of the ship.

She had even spent a whole day grooming every single pirate on the ship.

And Captain Edward watched. He was starting to feel sorry for her and was starting to realize that she was serious about wanting to be a pirate.

So he decided to be nice.

“Nerina.” He called.

She didn’t look at him. “What?”

He frowned. “Well, is that how you treat your captain?”

She still didn’t look at him. “Do you want me to do some more housework for you?”

She was definitely angry.

But this amused Edward. She was stubborn, yes, but also brave. None of his men had ever spoken to him like that. Well, no one but Richard, however, he was an exception.

“No. I was going to tell you that you have one more task to do before you become a full fledged pirate on the Eternal.”

She turned her head. Her anger disappeared. “What? What’s the last thing I have to do?”

Edward smirked. “Hazing.”

Nerina raised an eyebrow. “What’s that?”

“You will see tomorrow morning.”

Nerina frowned. “Oh, why can’t you tell me now?”

The captain ignored her and walked away.

But Nerina smiled. “Fine, I’ll just ask Richard.”

Nerina knocked on Richard’s door and he opened it right away. He wasn’t asleep, so she wondered what he was up to, but decided she didn’t really care.

“Good evening Richard.” She said.

He smiled. “Good evening Princess.”

“Could you please tell me what hazing mean?”

Richard began laughing. “It’s a form of initiation.”

“What does the pirate need to do?”

“Well, what happens is the crew strips the newbie to their undergarments and then we shave the newbie’s head and then we throw them off the ship.”

Nerina’s face paled.

“And if the newbie can swim back, climb up the ladder and get back onto the ship, we give the newbie a second name and they become part of the crew.” He grinned. “It’s very entertaining!”

Nerina stormed away, leaving the surprised Richard behind. She rushed to the Captain’s Cabin and opened the door without even knocking.

He looked up from his book and raised his eyebrow.

"You… how could you?!"

"What's wrong?" He asked, sounding a little bored.

"You were going to make me strip down into my underwear and shave my head? And then you were going to throw me off the ship and expect me to swim back?" Nerina shouted.

Edward stared at her and then looked back down at his book as a smile formed on his face.

"Well Captain? How could you be so cruel?"