Moonlight Waves

Our Compass

The sun is hidden behind dark clouds and the world seems forever casted in gray. I know that it is a little after noon, but the sky makes it look like early morning.
There'll be a storm soon, it's been brewing since before we left Crescent Island and it's seems to have been following us wherever we go. The question is how bad of a storm is it going to be?
"Prepare to board!" Captain Cutler hollers as we approach The Moonlighter the day after we had left Layshmen, still sitting exactly where we left her. The crew on both ships toss ropes over to secure the ships to each other before lowering a plank on the railings for us to walk across on.
Ian and I cross over first and I'm helped down by a happy Robby pleased to see us in one piece.
"I'm guessing you got what you wanted?" He asks me.
"Not exactly." I tell him, motioning to Jacobe who jumps down from the plank with a loud thud. He extends his arms and turns in a circle, inspecting The Moonlighter.
"This is a nice ship you've got here, Captain." Jacobe says in his strong Italian accent.
Captain Dax makes his way through his crew to the front of the group to see the newcomer. "Who's this?" He asks me.
"This would be our heading." I tell him, "Jacobe says he knows where The Widower is, but he won't tell us straight out because he thinks that we'll just dispose of him as soon as he tells us."
Jacobe wags his finger back and forth as to correct me. "I don't think, I know."
"That's ridiculous." Captain Dax says, "We're not pirates."
"You may not be pirates, but," Jacobe motions behind him at The Hangman, "they are."
Captain Dax looks at him for a long minute before finally deeming it a good enough answer and lowers his guard.
"So what will you tell us?" Captain Dax asks him.
"So far he's just told us to head, 'south'." Sahar speaks up, walking over to join Captain Dax in standing in front of Jacobe. "Which is very vague."
"I can tell you that they were headed south to raid some of the merchant and passenger ship routes that way." Jacobe says, "I can show you a route that they would have attacked a few days ago."
"You will tell us before hand if we're going to run right into them, right?" Ian asks Jacobe, crossing his arms. Clearly not liking Jacobe having all the cards in this game.
"Yes, yes, of course." Jacobe assures him.
"Fine," Sahar says, walking back across the plank to her own ship. "We'll head in the general direction of 'south'."
Both crews begin the process of preparing to make sail again and Jacobe stands in the middle of it all grinning like a fool.
"You all have quite the revenge out for The Widower." He comments.
Robby looks at me and Ian,
"He doesn't know does he?" Robby asks.
"No." Ian says.
Jacobe looks at all our faces, his grin dropping from his face and replaced with worry.
"Don't know what?" He asks us.
"He's just our 'compass'", I say, walking away from the small group and talking over my shoulder. "what he doesn't know won't kill him."
"Hey." Jacobe calls after us as we all go our separate ways, "Hey! That's not fair! Someone's gotta tell me."
Nobody says a thing as they all continue to work, leaving Jacobe looking confused. I keep my back turned away from him, honestly really annoyed that he won't tell us precisely where we're going.
I lean my trident in the alcove under the stairway up to the poop deck and button up my jacket. The wind has picked up and brought with it a biting cold. It's still only early October, but the weather has started to change fast and drastically. Usually the weather on and around Crescent Island has warm days until the beginning of December. I'm not one who likes the cold, so hopefully I'll be warm and at home by the time snow starts to fall from the sky.
  Crescent Island sits higher than most islands and sees more snow than most any island considered to be so far "south". We're not actually that far south, we're still above the equator, but people say it's so far down south because we're one of the farthest islands from the northern mainland Estaria.
I'm given back my job of keeping eye from the crow's nest and I take a length of tangled ropes with me to fix and wind up. When I'm idle for too long my leg begins to bounce and my hands fiddle. I don't like sitting stationary with so many thoughts whirling about my head.
I haven't been told how long it'll take to get to wherever "south" we're going, but I'm guessing since it took two weeks to get to Layshmen from Cutler's Oasis, it'll be about two to three weeks to get to our first southern location.
I feel like this is some cruel, treasure hunt game. Where we're only given certain clues once we reach certain destinations.
  My mother used to hide our birthday and Christmas presents that way. She would get the boys to hide Amadrya's and mine presents all over the island and she would come up with a map and riddles for us to solve. She'd send us out the door and we'd try to figure out where to go next, the boys staying silent behind us. Though, a lot of the time they would get tired of waiting on us to solve the riddles and they'd start dropping hints. Whenever we'd be near a present, Roman would practically stand on it and Robby would try to mislead us.
We had been so young the last time my mother set it all up. It had been for my birthday and I was twelve, Amadrya seventeen, and Roman fourteen. Well, it was for my thirteenth birthday, so technically I had been thirteen.
They had hidden all the presents in a rowboat that was anchored off shore. I was supposed to solve the riddles and find the other rowboat to get to them, but I cheated and jumped right into the water. I had swum out to the boat and victoriously waved a present in my hand. In the next instant everyone plunged into the water after me, swimming and laughing. That was the day I had earned the nickname "Mermaid" from the boys. I had swum beneath the waves and disappeared for so long they said they had thought something had happened to me. That was until I grabbed Roman by the ankle and dragged him under. Since then they have deemed me "Mermaid" for being able to hold my breath for so long and swim so well. It's a beloved nickname that our small group only knows about and it reminds me of my childhood. That would have been six years ago—it seems like ages ago that I was kid.
When did I grow up? Why did I have to grow up? I would've been happy forever playing make believe that we were pirates and the Seaman's Cottage was our ship, or sometimes we'd pull out our old rowboat and take it out to the sea. Make believe as pirates was much better than dealing with them in real life.
As most things are.
Roman and Ian had left for their first trip on The Moonlighter that summer, shortly after my birthday. Roman had always wanted to be a sailor and I wasn't going to stop him from doing what he loved, but I had cried so much that night as I realized that our group was breaking up. That they'd be gone for months and would see so many new and interesting places they would never want to return to our boring Island.
But I had been wrong, they came back every time and every time Roman would bring me back something from his travels. Every single gift was absolutely perfect, but my favorite one is the teardrop necklace that hangs around my neck, tucked beneath my tunic's collar. That one had made my heart skip a beat when I saw it, it's absolutely gorgeous. As if the entire sea was caught up into one teardrop—I still like to stare at it sometimes.
The wind grabs at my hair, pulling me back to the here and now and I pull my knitted hat farther over my ears.
The Hangman is following behind The Moonlighter this time since Jacobe is aboard our ship, and I can just barely make out the small figures of Cutler's crew. There's still nothing but endless sea in every direction as far as the eye can see, but I love that feeling. Being in the middle of something so vast and beautiful, and as old as the world itself. So many stories hidden in it's waves and so much strength waiting to be released.
I sigh and settle back with the ropes in my hands. They'll need this eventually, might as well get them untangled and wound up properly.
Here's to another long trip till we get our next clue.