CARIBBEAN SEA JUNE 1968
"Britannia!" Flying Dutchman cried.
She raced forward only to have the five ships that attacked her mentor turn on her.
Flying Dutchman stopped.
"You should've run away chika." The leader said through a heavy Spanish accent.
She advanced and Flying Dutchman bared her teeth, ready to meet her challenge.
More cannon fire sounded and Flying Dutchman whipped around to see a British patrol charging in with guns blazing.
Among them was "Wicked Wench?!" Flying Dutchman exclaimed in disbelief.
"You again?!" Wicked Wench exclaimed, her eyes widening.
Flying Dutchman nodded.
"Didn't think I'd be fighting pirates to defend pirates." Wicked Wench said.
"I'm not a pirate." Flying Dutchman growled.
"Then what are you?" Wicked Wench asked.
"I am Flying Dutchman." Flying Dutchman growled.
"Britannia's apprentice." Wicked Wench realized.
Flying Dutchman nodded. "That's me." She agreed.
Wicked Wench saluted. "After you ma'am." She said.
Flying Dutchman chuckled and charged in.
The remaining pirate ships either fled or were destroyed.
"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Flying Dutchman laughed.
Her happiness was short lived as agonizing pain shot through all her mental berries, invading her whole body.
Flying Dutchman gasped, trying hard to remain upright.
"Dutchman, what's wrong?" Wicked Wench asked, using her shoulder to support the failing fluyt.
Images ran through Flying Dutchman's head in a way that made them seem as if they were on a time delay.
But the most overwhelming thing was a deep agonizing pain and fear, fear that was not her own.
It made Britannia's mental shriek for help 2 months prior look like a small squeal.
"Britannia!" Flying Dutchman whispered and raced off.
Her mentor was listing heavily to one side.
Flying Dutchman raced forward and caught her before she fell.
Her head rolled limply against Flying Dutchman's hull.
"Britannia, look at me!" She begged. "Look at me!"
Desperately she reached out over the bond only to find it was not working.
Britannia was still blocking her.
"HMS Britannia, you will not leave me!" She growled.
She nudged her mentor.
"Britannia, please..." She cried.
"Shadow..."
Flying Dutchman froze.
She'd heard her mentor sob, heard her angry, heard her rage and rant even but never, never had she ever heard Britannia beg.
Never had her cherished name been whispered in such desperation.
"I'm here. I'm here." Flying Dutchman assured her.
YOU ARE READING
The Damned: Part 1~ Innocence
Historical FictionIn the late 1600s, a new ship is commissioned into the Dutch Navy and is mysteriously lost on her maiden voyage. Only, she wasn't lost, merely taken and re-purposed to ferry the dead. The story of the Flying Dutchman, as told by the ship herself.
