My eyes opened slowly; my head felt very light-headed and the bed I was lying on was rocking slightly. "Where am I…?" I muttered, looking around and realising I was in a room I didn't recognise.
I sat up at the edge of the bed and my hand instinctively touched my head; my memories were still a bit hazy—though I shook my head and tried to clear my mind, nothing worked until the door opened with a loud creak.
My head turned and a man with ginger hair stepped in—I recognised him, though he was dressed differently than usual. He was wearing a green tunic with loose-fitting black trousers and high boots—his dark eyes met my diamond-blue ones.
"Oh, you're awake." He walked closer before stopping right in front of me; he placed his hands on his waist, which was wrapped in a blue sash. "I never imagined you'd get seasick—it never even crossed my mind."
I looked at my own outfit—I was wearing a blue blouse with a black corset, a layered pearl-white skirt with trailing hems. I saw the arm guards fastened to both my hands; this outfit—it was unmistakably identical to something. "I must be dreaming of being a pirate, mustn't I?" The words hung in the air and the ginger-haired man tilted his head.
He walked closer before crouching down, so that our eye levels were the same, and without warning—his hand slapped my cheek and pinched me so hard that I immediately screamed in pain. "What are you doing, Greenie?!" The pain was real, proving that this wasn't some strange dream.
"Are you properly awake now?" he asked, releasing the pinch. My brow furrowed—he'd truly confirmed this reality in the most infuriating yet undeniable way, leaving me unable to argue. "If you're sensible enough to call me that, we'd better get out of here straight away—the captain is already waiting"
Hearing that, my memory immediately began to clear gradually; I stood up and followed Robin from behind—as we left the room, I saw many men cooking, chatting and laughing together. My feet touched the steps and we slowly began to climb them; I could already see the blinding sunlight as my feet finally touched the ship's deck—I could see birds flying in flocks.
I looked towards the horizon and found we were surrounded by the sea; there was no land at all visible as far as the eye could see. Now I remembered why we were here—a few days ago, Mother had given us a mission: to find a ship called 'The Flying Dutchman'. That ship had been harassing sailors and had caused several of their ships to sink.
And our task is to ensure that this incident does not happen again. As my memory cleared, a rather hoarse male voice suddenly echoed throughout the ship. 'Oh, so the young lady has woken up, has she? How are you feeling?' I turned round and saw a man with long, curly black hair falling to his shoulders; everyone in his path immediately stepped back, their faces full of respect and deference.
"Oh, it's you," he was the captain of this ship—and he was no ordinary captain; everyone apart from me and Robin was either part of the crew or a pirate captain. "Captain James Hook," I said, addressing the man in the long red jacket reaching down to his knees, who stood tall with a smile brimming with self-confidence.
All that was visible was his left hand, whilst his right had been replaced by an iron hook, and he sported a rather thick black beard. His black eyes were fixed on me, and his striking tricorn hat perfectly epitomised a true pirate.
"As a fairly experienced Fable, does facing the sea still bring you to your knees?" He walked closer and the tip of his iron hook touched my chin; my head was tilted slightly upwards, and it was clear he was trying to intimidate me. "You don't wish to answer?"
Without warning, a shard of ice sprouted and instantly pressed against the gallant captain's throat—as he approached, I had secretly prepared the card and slipped it in while he wasn't paying attention. "And for someone who's seen so much at sea, you're still rather careless, aren't you?" I retorted; at that very moment, his other crewmates immediately raised their weapons and aimed them at us.
Robin immediately raised both his hands, and beads of sweat fell from his temples. "Alice, are you trying to get us thrown overboard?" he grumbled, glancing around; there wasn't the slightest gap to escape from here without causing the ship to lurch.
A long silence, broken only by the sound of the waves, was soon followed by loud laughter echoing through the air—a rough hand touched my head and ran roughly through my blonde hair. "You're an interesting girl!" he said between bursts of laughter.
The ice spike shattered instantly into a thousand shards and the card slowly faded into a blue light.
The captain glanced at his crew and gave them a harsh, piercing stare. "Put your weapons down and get back to work!" Upon hearing the order, they immediately dispersed and went about their respective tasks, leaving just Robin and me, who lowered his arms with a deep sigh.
He was a unique captain; his personality was difficult to put into words—rather than 'unique', 'absurd' might be a more fitting description. I found it hard to read his mind because he could be kind at one moment and cruel the next, displaying this to everyone without exception; yet even when he was being kind, I still couldn't see a soft side to him. "By the way, there's something I'd like to ask you both," he glanced in our direction, looking full of curiosity and wonder.
"Go ahead," Robin replied, and shortly afterwards, Captain Hook raised his hand and pointed his finger at me—or, more precisely, over my shoulder.
"Is that part of your Everafter?" As the question came out, I turned towards where he was pointing—my eyes widened in surprise when I spotted a glowing golden orb floating near me; I jumped back in shock, moving closer to Robin.
"No… Robin?"
"Not me either."
The orb of light flew closer to me, and now I had what felt like a tiny sun right in front of my face. "It's… as if it's trying to tell me something," I muttered, but the orb seemed disappointed—well, that's what I imagine, because after that it soared into the sky and vanished in an instant. "Huh…?" Leaving us still completely baffled.
"You Fables do like dealing with strange things like that, don't you?"
"We've had to get used to it."
It was as if I could hear the sound of a bell as it approached my face; strange creatures like that might well like to appear in places like this, and it's just that we haven't realised it yet. After all, not even ten per cent of the oceans have been explored by humans—leaving many mysteries that remain unanswered.
And that sphere of light was, in all likelihood, one such oddity as yet undiscovered by humankind. Making us the first to find it—but before I could take the credit, a rough hand touched my shoulder and, as I turned round, I saw Captain Hook staring intently at the horizon.
His dark eyes flicked towards me before turning to Robin. "You two, come with me," he ordered before turning away; we couldn't refuse—because he could easily rip the skin off our faces with his hook, though that was unlikely as long as I was still able to breathe.
Before we arrived and got to know each other to work together, I'd already conducted extensive research on pirates. Up until now, I'd only ever heard stories about pirates, and now, for the first time in my life, I'm part of a proper pirate crew—even if only for a short while.
Having done my research, I recognised the room I was in straight away—this was the captain's cabin, a place far more luxurious than the room where I'd woken up. "Woah," Robin exclaimed, and my eyes took in all the furnishings displayed everywhere.
Captain Hook stopped right behind the desk and took out a map; he unfurled it and pointed out the compass points, with a red line indicating the direction we had to go—but there were three illustrations along our route.
"We are indeed working together to find the Flying Dutchman, but before that you must help me find a hidden treasure." Hearing that immediately ignited my enthusiasm; reading about pirate stories always left me wondering what it would be like to experience such an adventure for myself.
"However, the journey to find the treasure won't be easy; there are a total of three major challenges awaiting us ahead." The iron hook touched one of the illustrations—a picture of a fish's tail, larger than it should be, coloured turquoise. "The first are the Mermaids."
Hearing that, Robin and I jumped, then settled back down to listen intently to the rest of the explanation—I'd only ever heard rumours about these mermaids, yet my heart was already racing with anticipation.