A Pirate's Life for Mei

Poisoned Words

Jie the jaguar, perhaps a bit bored, perhaps curious about the others sharing her ship, rose from Mei's side and began to wander and sniff about. As always, all eyes watched her every movement.

When the cat stopped next to Putin, sitting chained to the base of the mast, and sniffed at him, it was amusing. When the jaguar's forepaws climbed up onto the man's shoulders and the jaguar put her face right up to his, even the serial killer flushed and tried to back away; it got laughs and cheers.

When she pushed off him and turned her attention on the others, the amusement rapidly dwindled, replaced by nervousness, and several people anxiously begged Mei to call her companion back to her.

Mei, keeping a watchful eye, nonetheless affected an innocence. "What's wrong?" she asked, nearly laughing as the great cat explored.

Juan nearly fell overboard in his haste to get away, and the Carib women and Winny went so far as to climb down onto a pontoon.

When the cries of alarm became too much, she relented and fetched a brick of hardtack out of the locker. Jie, an opportunistic eater, loped over and chomped onto the brick with her huge teeth. Laying down with it in between her big paws, she happily gnawed on it like a dog with a chew toy. Even her incredible jaw strength couldn't dent that brick.

It was then that Putin took advantage of the fact that he was no longer gagged. He sneered at her and spoke mockingly. "Cute little kitten. You kitten too." His eyes danced.

"Oh, shut up." Mei didn't even deign to look up at him, preferring to watch the jaguar.

"You know what kitten is? Soft. You soft."

She rolled her eyes.

He seemed to have recovered confidence and courage following his capture. Perhaps frustrated at his physical helplessness, he was now trying to interact verbally. "Act tough," he told her. "Go ahead. But I know. I watched you scream, remember? Remember fire? Remember pain?" He winked at her.

"You want the gag back on?" she asked in a flat voice. Listening to his voice made her skin crawl.

"You think about it, don't you? Is bright memory. Trauma. Keep you awake at night? You think about it every time you see fire?"

Her head rolled his way and she mocked him back. "I think about carving you up with my sword. And shooting you with my pistol. Remember that?"

He dismissively shrugged, utterly unaffected by her. "No. Is forgotten. Small thing."

One of her brows rose. "Ha! I bet. You want to try it again?"

A knowing look came to his eyes. "You want to practice? Practice killing?" He leered at her. "You need it, huh? You go to island, think you steal ship. Silly little murderous girl, you are."

She sighed, pretending to be calmer than she felt. She really should have shut him up, but a defiant part of her didn't want to give in because it would mean he'd won. She attempted to ignore him instead.

"You cannot," he stated as fact, ignoring the fact that she was ignoring him. "Impossible. Too weak you. They catch you." A greasy grin split his lips. "When they do, I tell them about fire. How much you like fire. Maybe they burn you, what you think?"

Her eyes flashed, temper winning out. "Like we did to you?"

Her response only excited the bastard further as she gave in to his games. "Yes! Yes. You think that's bad? Maybe they do to you. But burn not just one time. Many times. Maybe your existence is just fire from now on. Every day, they burn you. Then burn you more. Then burn you alive, flames eating you again and again. How many days you think you can survive? Hmm? Two? Five? Ten? We see what kind of tough kitten you are. See how long it takes fire to break you forever."