Promise

Chapter 14

I had never seen so many men with so much determination... and fear.

All of Plume's men were working together. Getting weapons prepared. Getting in their battle stations. Preparing cannons and things I was not excited to see or hear.

"Put our flag up!" Plume roughly yelled out to no one specific, walking past a large huddle of men, setting sails.

Perfect. It looked like a storm was coming. And no, that wasn't actually perfect. It was the complete opposite of perfect.

The men setting sails all yelled to each other, debating who should do it.

Eventually they decided who should do it, and pulled up the flag as it blew violently in the wind. Rain began sprinkling down and it seemed as each minute passed it only started falling harder and harder, until it was a total downpour. The waves became more violent, and it seemed all around there was complete chaos. I felt lost in a crowd of panicked men. I had to find Plume.

Cutting through shouting, fast paced men, I scanned everywhere for Plume. Where did he go?

I yelled his name, asking those I passed if they'd seen him, but they were all too occupied and wouldn't answer me.

Finally, I saw him. He was soaking wet, pieces of hair ha going in his face. He kept smoothing it back with his hand. I pushed away my butterflies. His makeup was slightly building up under his eyes from getting wet but I didn't mind. It didn't matter anyway. Not now.

"Plume!" I yelled out. He didn't hear me at first. Everything else around us was too loud. The people, the waves, the wind, the pouring rain.

Once I got close enough I knew he would hear, I yelled his name again. This time he turned around.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

I shook my head. "Nothing. I just... didn't know where you were. You're my... guide."

He smiled. "Well, then just stay by me."

I nodded. "What can I do? I feel useless, like I'm just helplessly wandering around while everyone else is running around in panic mode."

He thought, looking around, tapping his feet.

"Actually... I need to talk to everyone real quick. So you can just listen up. Sound alright?"

"Okay," I nodded.

"Men!" He yelled out, close enough to me to make my eardrums vibrate.

He had a loud enough voice that basically everyone looked over, and if they didn't hear him themselves, someone else got their attention.

He looked so seriously out to all of them. Before he spoke, as I stood only a few feet away from him, he looked at me, the way he had looked at me when he rescued me in the boat the night before, and said, "I want you to listen closely, Promise."

Before he could continue with his speech, I interrupted, "Please. Call me Oath from now on. Oath is who I am now."

He looked surprised, but smiled and said the same words he'd said to me when we had first met.

"And this is why I kept you." He gave me that same, almost evil smirk.

"Men!" he repeated once more. "Blackbird is coming. Whether it's today, tomorrow, he is coming soon. We lost a member of our team. That person being Bopp. Bopp was young. But he was wise and loyal. He didn't deserve to die, and I know that whoever murdered the boy in his sleep last night was one of Blackbird's men. Or, maybe even frighteningly enough, Blackbird himself. But we must not let this man and his crew frighten us! We must not let ourselves think that this is the end for ourselves. For us. My oath to you," he paused to look at me as if this were directed especially to me, "is that I will protect you all I can! I will fight for you! I will even die for you if I must! We must protect, fight, and die for each other, men."