My Treasure

My Treasure: Chapter 8

The Red Sprite was only three days away now from their final destination. Mari had a hard day of work, the waters seemed much more volatile in these parts. Yet, she couldn't find sleep. She slipped from her hammock and clambered up the crow's nest in the moonlight. Mari's fleeting form appeared as a shadow as she reached for each handhold to pull herself up to the highest place on the ship. She dangled her legs out beyond the railing into the void below her, she sighed and leaned back against the mast. The sound of booted steps broke her from her reverie. 

"Hello Arthur..." Mari says with her eyes still closed. 

Arthur sits beside her and gazes up at the stars. "How come you aren't in bed?" he asks. 

"I could say the same for you Arthur dear." Mari responds with her usual wit. She leans back against Arthur's shoulder and opens her eyes. The vast heavens of the clear night sky are open above them. The two are captivated by the twinkling stars and the ripe moon spilling light over the deck below them.  Mari draws her knees up to her chest. "The sky is beautiful tonight...." She whispers. 

"Almost as beautiful as you." Arthur tosses his arm over Mari's shoulders, while she tries to hide the blush rising to her cheeks.

They sit together in silence until Mari has the courage to ask a question eating at her since the beginning of their journey. "Arthur, I've told you about my family. Can you please tell me about yours?" Mari asks tentatively. 

Arthur chuckles. "Well I guess that's fair." He pauses to collect his thoughts before he begins. "My father, John Kirkland, was a sailor under the Queen. His dream was to out to sea and find adventure. He never did get to that. He stayed as a dock worker in port. To soothe his miseries, he drank until he was permanently drunk. The man was never seen without liquor at his side. His drinking only got worse after our mother passed, and we were all unable to care for our youngest brother. Ironic, that I should go out to sea and fulfill my father's dreams. Well I did fulfill them in a different way though..."

His voice trails off, his mind probably caught in reminiscing. "I have four brothers and one sister. The youngest, Peter, who is ten years younger was given to a family in London. We couldn't care for him after my mother's death. Shortly after his birth, my mother fell ill and soon after passed."Arthur's voice becomes strained as he says this, yet he finds the strength to carry on. "I met him once, three years ago at this point. The boy was hell-bent on becoming a sailor. He has my father's thick eyebrows and blue eyes, but no one knows where he got his sandy colored hair from."

Arthur's brow creases in resentment as he remembers his next brother. "My oldest brother, Allistor, always picked on me. He was the oldest, being three years older than me. He had my mother's bright red hair and green eyes, and coincidentally inherited the family eyebrows too. The man's always smoking now, it can't be good for his health. He still gets pleasure from bullying me every so often now."Arthur's voice holds all those past grudges as he speaks about his brother.

"My second oldest siblings, Cailean and Aoife, are two years older than me. They're identical twins, yet Aoife is a girl. They acted exactly the same as well, except Aoife was considerably nicer to me than Cailean was. They had my mother's green eyes as well. In fact, all of us did except for Peter. They had a mix of my father's blonde hair and my mother's fiery red hair."

Arthur takes a breath to steady his growing nerves. "I had one more older sibling.  Dylan was one year older than me, but experienced the same fun in tormenting me as Allistor did. He looked quite a bit like Cailean and Aoife, with the same hair and eyes. Every one of us have thick bushy eyebrows, all except Aoife."  

Arthur pauses again, steeling his nerves for what comes next. "The last member of our no so happy family was our mother. Eily O'Hara, a cheerful and happy woman. She did have a temper as fiery as her hair though." Arthur chuckles at his mother's memory. "She had freckles almost as red as her hair. And her eyes could read your soul." His eyes tear for a moment at his mother's memory. "But by God's Grace, you did not want to feel that woman's wrath. My siblings and I used to say that all Hell breaks loose when our mother was cross with us. She could hold her liquor in her youth as well, but she gave up that habit when she had children. My father didn't." Arthur sighs dramatically, and Mari leaves him to relive his memories. 

"Do you ever miss them Arthur?" Mari blurts out. She fears she has tread to far into Arthur's personal life and clamps a hand over her mouth. "I-I'm sorry. If you don't want to tell me it's fine."

Arthur smiles and pulls Mari into a hug. "No, it's fine. People say it's best to get rid of pent up emotions." He rests his head on top of Mari's. She can feel a tear trickle down his cheek and fall onto her's. "Yes Mari, I miss them all the time. Even my father sometimes. I've heard news that my father passed, from drinking related problems. I always knew his life would end from over drinking. He wasn't an all terrible man though. My siblings are spread across the English Isles though. Allistor lives in Scotland, Cailean lives in the northern area or Ireland, Aoife lives in more to the south of Ireland, Dylan lives in Wales, and Peter lives in London for the time being. Though I can tell that boy wants to spend his life on the seas. I miss my mother the most though. I miss her smile, her laughter. I can still see her sometimes in my dreams..." Tears spring from Arthur's eyes in more frequency.  He buries his head into Mari's shoulder. 

Mari hugs him closer and strokes the back of his neck. "It's alright ot miss them. I miss my family too. They meant everything to me, and now they're gone. I can still hear them in dreams. They tell me stay strong and believe in myself." Tears now slip down Mari's cheeks. They hold each other close as they let loose the flood of tears they held back all those years. 

"Thank you, Mari. Thank you for caring." Arthur lifts his head up and looks deeply into Mari's eyes. Her eyes have turned silver in the moonlight. 

The moonlight also reveals a scar under the left side of Arthur's jaw. Mari traces it with her finger, "Arthur, what is that scar from?"

Arthur claps her hand to his face. "We all have our scars, and they all tell a tale." His eyebrows furrow as he tells his own tale. "That damn Spaniard pirate Antonio gave me that scar. It was six years ago, on one of my first trips to the Caribbean. I found a beauty, she seemed quite taken with me too, until that Antonio swooped in. He stole her from me and we fought over her, he said 'that a woman wanted a man, not a boy.' And to think, he's only three years my elder. He was the only one that ever bested me in a sword fight. I guess I should thank him though, from that day forth I vowed I would beat him. In the past occasions we met, that hasn't happened, it became a draw. But I will beat him, one day." Arthur's emerald eyes fill with a determined fire. 

His eyes drift down to Mari's, but stop halfway there. He lifts Mari's forearm closer to his face. A long, thin, and jagged scar runs up the inside of her arm from her wrist to nearly her elbow. "Mari, what is this from?..." Arthur asks slowly. 

 Mari yanks her arm away from his grasp. "It's nothing." Mari answers too quickly. 

Arthur raises one bushy eyebrow, quite a comical sight despite the nature of the conversation. "Mari, I know exactly what a scar like this means. Now tell me."

Mari sighs and her shoulders visibly droop. "I tried to end my suffering. It was shortly after my family died. I was at my lowest. But that's when I stumbled across that elderly woman, the one who is now living in my tower. She made me realize that there are people who are in much worse condition than myself, and that those people needed assistance. So from that day forth, I became their protector." Mari's thin frame shudders. "Seven years ago and the memories still haunt me...."

Arthur draws Mari into his arms and rests his cheek on the top of her head. Mari smiles and curls against his chest. Her deep and even breaths  tell Arthur that she has fallen asleep. Arthur smiles softly and carries Mari's sleeping form back to their room. 

Author's Note: Okay, this might be one of the more confusing chapters. That's why I'm leaving a note. For the sake of the story, Ireland is Arthur's mother. Scotland is his oldest brother. And I decided to make Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland identical twins. I couldn't really get an exact picture for him, so I went with this instead. They look the same if their identical twins, so it works out well enough. Well except I think the Republic of Ireland is a girl. So imagine  her as the girl version of Northern Ireland. Wales is his other older brother. On the picture on the right, Wales is on the far right, Scotland is in the middle, and Northern Ireland is on the far left. England is in front. His father is supposed to be Britannia in this. But I couldn't really get solid information on him. So I sort of made him up. Imagine a guy that looks sort of like England, but rougher around the edges. And instead of green eyes, imagine blue eyes like Sealand's. He still has England's blonde hair though. I guess I just made a Britannia OC then (by Britannia I mean the old English Empire). I couldn't leave Sealand out either, so he's the youngest brother. You probably can guess what Ireland looks like, so I don't think she needs a picture. Sorry if I confused anyone, I'm confusing myself. Feel free to ask questions if you're confused, I'll try to help.