The Fallen Stars

Chapter 6 Damião

Beautiful Chaos.
Chaos,
Leave me never,
Keep me wild
And keep me free
So that my
brokenness will be,
The only beauty
The world will ever see.
- Anonymous.

I can not remember much of my mother, but I do remember her soft brown hair... sweet smile. And I remember she used to play and dance with us in the meadow.
I remember her sweet laugh that can make the birds envy her.

But that is all. I can not remember her saying, 'I love you.' To me, or comforted me when my father let his wrath out on me. She did not celebrate with me when I had a victory.
She did not teach me all the names of the flowers, nor the different species of fishes that roam the waters. She did not teach me the way to love... but I still love her. Even though she left me... I still love her with all my heart. And María is far from being good... I still remember the days when she used to smile all the time. Those are memories I keep locked deep, deep inside my heart.
Knowing they will never come back again.

"Cap'n! There's a storm comin!" Hae yell, from the Railines.
"How far long?" I ask, walking towards her.
"Two hours... maybe more." She jumps down on the quarter deck.
Hae is my second mate... because she's a bloody, dangerous woman. She's Asian, with a squared shaped face... hazel eyes.
And soft pink heart-shaped lips. Tanned skin, her long black wavy hair is loose it ends just above the waist, and there is a red piece of fabric rapt around her head.
She's wearing a mid long off the shoulder sleeve shirt... with brown harem pants that end at her ankles and brown boots. There's a leather belt around her waist with two small skulls dangling from the ends with a few daggers held by the belt against her body.
She's also wearing golden bronze bangles around her wrists.
She's a head shorter than me, but the same age as Theo... nineteen.

"Will we be able to anchor by the isle before it hits?" I ask, looking over the ocean... dark clouds over the horizon.
"Aye, if we're smart, bout it." She says flattly.
I turn to look at her. She rolls her eyes at the person behind me. I turn to see Theo.
"Cap'n." He greets with an easy smile.
"Hae... you should tell the crew to get ready to anchore at the isle." I say, looking at my two mates. Hae nods, Theo turns to Hae.
"How are you feeling today?" Theo asks Hae.
"Mmmm, I feel that I would love to insult you, but I'm afraid I won't do as well as nature did." She glares at him.
"So, good?" He says, smirking.
She rolls her eyes and walks away.

"Eessh, Theo.... what did you say to her?" I ask in Spanish.
"Nothing! She has been hating me since day one!" He replies back in Spanish, lifting his arms and dropping them in exasperation.
I chuckle.
"You're not worried about the storm?" He asks in english. After a while.
"We've faced greater storms than this one... besides, the ocean is allowed to be angry sometimes." I say, walking up the stairs to the helm.
"We're cutting it very close." He says, walking behind me.
"We've been cutting it close since we were born." I say, with a smile. I give a qurt nod at my helmsman. Abner.
He's tall, black long curls covering his head that ends at his shoulders. And thick black eyebrows. He's shirtless, with dark blue pants on with a white piece of fabric as a belt and brown boots.
He's tanned, a little bit burnt on the shoulders.
He has a twin brother, Connor.
"Captain." He greets back.
"It doesn't mean we should keep cutting it close." Theo reasons. I turn to face him.
"Yes... it doesn't. But... if we survived a siren attack, we could survive almost anything." I reply calmly.
"Aye... that was ferocious night." Abner adds.

It was a sanguinary night... we were in the middle of nowhere, exploring the unknown waters.... away from my sister, away from my father. Away from my family tragedy.
I needed and wanted to get away from it all.
So we were the most drunk of the drunkest of pirates... singing our hearts out with the shanties. Then, all of a sudden, we heard a shriek... booming over the whole ship and ocean.
We ran towards the edge to see what had happened...  as we looked over the edge, grey creatures were climbing the ship to get to us. They looked like mermaids at first, but their whole bodies were covered in grey scales, webbed hands sharp fins on their backs that ended at the tips of their tails.
And black eyes with sharp long teeth, black wavy long hair.
We started shooting at them, and some fell back into the water with scarlet blood coming out of them... we shot and stabbed so many. Some came onto the deck, killing some of my men. But we killed them immediately. All you could hear that night was siren's shrieking and singing their melancholy songs for the dead. We weren't under their control by some miracle. We kept killing until there was no more who dared to fight us anymore.

We lost five that night... five of my best men and women of my crew.

I shake the memory away, I look over my ship, two swabbies are finishing with their scrubbing the wooden deck floors, and six riggers are getting the sails ready.
"Get us quickly to the Isla." I order Abner.
"Aye, Captain." He answers.
I walk back down, holding the soft brown wooded railing... my father stole this ship from the Mundo Extraño... from merchants a few hundred years back. A few hundred years before me and María... before my mother. He was fourteen.
It was known as a Merchant Galleon ship.
He gave his first ship to me, so I named it the Siren-Killer.
Now, don't confuse mermaids with sirens. Sirens is the wicked version of mermaids... with gray tails, thin, long black hair, webbed hands, sharp long teeth, black eyes, and mouths. They lure you with their melodic voices... untill you're too close to get away fast enough from them, they break the spell with a shriek... they love to see their prey in terror. Climbing the ships with their sharp claws.

While mermaids they also have melodic voices, they don't hypnotize you to be your food... they hypnotize you to bring you to safety... or they just give a warning song to the sirens. Mermaids protect humans from sirens if you help them with some things.

For instance, we had to give them two full treasure chests... even though they steal the treasures from sunkin ships from Mundo Extraño, they wanted more... so we gave them that. They asked for a hundred coconuts, which was hard to get in without getting caught by the Niños Perdidos (lost boys), on Isla Nunca Más. Isla Maldita doesn't grow coconuts.
But we did it.
This happened after the siren attack. After losing five of my best crew members, I need to protect my crew.

The sails are down, and  they are big and white. With our pirate flag on the top.
I have seventeen on my crew, twelve men, and five women.

Hae is our Sailing Master.
Gwen is our surgeon.
Becca is our cook.
Polly and Martha are our powder monkeys.

Bodhi is our cabin boy
Chino, Rafe, Ryker, Dawson, Orson, and Abel are our riggers.
Mateo and Liam are our swabbies.
Amo is our gunner.
Gael is our carpenter.
Abner is our helmsman and musician.
And Theo is my first mate.
Then there is me, the captain.

After an hour and a half, we are almost  at Isla Nunca Más.
The clouds are almost above us. The riggers are getting ready to pull the six sails up.
We sail through the vale of grey rocks that are higher than my ship's tallest mast. The green of the trees stands out against the dark clouds above it.
As we anchore. The sails go up, and the ship is swaying with the rough waters.
Cool wind is picking up, thunder in the distance, flashes of lightning far in the distance.
This is Paraíso Pirata (pirate paradise).
Our little piece of land of Isla Nunca Más.
We used to sneak in through the Vale to steal fruites and other food... after a few attacks on the lost boys and a few attacks on us.... Ainsley Pan finally came to me one day to ask for truce. If you ask me, I think it was his fish friend... the princess who convinced him.

So he gave us the whole beach in this atoll... the walls are rocks, and hills are covered with tropical trees.
The mountains are covered now under the clouds... and the rain starts pouring.
"EMBRACE YOURSELVES...!" Theo yells over the ship. He's standing next to Abner, Hae helping to secure the last canon with Chino and Bohi.
We all are soked by now, the rain is so thick we can barely see anything of the island.
The water is getting rougher, but I've felt worse than this.
I'm standing on the main deck, holding on to the railing.
Watching the water crash against the hull of the ship.

What made you angry? Why are you angry?

She doesn't answer.

You're beautiful either way.
Everyone has anger... some just try to keep it bottled up, but you... oh, you express it magnificently.

Waves crashing against wood, the ship creeking, thunder and lighting, shouts from the crew, rain pouring.
But I don't listen, I just watch the beauty in the chaos.

I breathe in and out.
"Show me the way." I whisper to the ocean.