A Pirate Tale (Poseidons looking glass)

Chapter 15: Pay a price not paid before

Getting to the mainland wasn't as difficult as Kidd remembered it to be. He recalled that the last time he met with her, she was doing her best to keep people out. Guess she's become more open to visitors Kidd thought to himself.

As the crew wandered further into the thick forest laying ahead they realized that with each step they took their boots sunk a bit into the muddy wet ground, and each step brought a sucking sound as they picked up their feet again. Their muddy footprints were quickly filled with water and they knew that traces of their passing would soon be gone, covered in a new layer of mud and slime.
There were vines hanging from the cyprus trees... noises nearby making a splash as they entered the water.
The moon lit the swamp with an eerie glow.
Kidd was walking in the front lifting his feet dramatically with each step to avoid getting stuck, doing his best at leading the rest of the crew trough the easiest path of the swamp. Chris was in the back trying his best to avoid the mud, by dancing from rock to rock.

"Aww look at what this blasted swamp has done to my jacket!" Chris whined trying his best to lift the muddy jacket like a lady skirt.

"Give up already, remove the bloody jacket or I'll cut it of ye" Kidd yelled back at him, almost losing his balance from turning around to quickly, whilst his boot was sinking into the wet mud.

The crew got distracted when a tinkling sound went off in the distance. Kidd smiled satisfied with the sound.

"Almost there guys" he explained exited.

"This friend of yours" Mason asked, with Toby on his back, trying to spare him from the trouble of getting stuck in the mud.

"Aye"

"Does he/she know we are coming"

"She has a tendency to know when and why ye are visiting her before even ye know it" Kidd answered cryptic.

The crew mates walked just a bit further into the forest, only to discover that the thing making the tinkling sound was hollowed-out bones fashioned into a crude wind chime that was obviously intended to mark somebody, or something's territory.

Miss Bruja a guiding sign said, over a tiny wooden hut.

"Ah how I've missed this crazy witch" Kidd muttered to himself, as he entered trough the door with the rest of the crew right behind him.

A musty, dank order was creeping trough room. The hut was dead silence except for the intermittent creaks and sound of the crew mates heavy breathing trough the tension. Black and brown mold dotted the ceiling in clusters, evident of rain seeping through the roof. Furniture stood clustered all around, clocks, and keys of all sizes were hanging on the walls and from the ceiling, gently banging into each other as a swift breeze blew trough the open door.

"Nobody's home" a cracked but soft voice shouted from a different rome.

"Bruja, you crazy sea witch get out here and say hello to and old friend" Kidd shouted back confident.

A tall slim silhouette filled the doorway in front on the crew, and a strangely beautiful women in her start thirties stepped into the dim light in the room.
The woman had messy brown hair and a build that made her look almost malnourished because of a thin exterior. Her clothes were faded and torn in places, and it didn't help that her pants were too short for her otherwise slim body. She looked harmless, broken almost, but there was something in those blue eyes that stood out from her dark skin, that made her seem calculating almost vicious. This wasn't a person who should be taken lightly.

"Well if it isn't my favorite nephew" she said with a grin showing of several golden teeth.

"Haven't I told ye not to tell anybody that we are related?" Kidd placed his hands on his hips disappointed.

"Haven't I told you to respect you elders?" She replied back sassy.

"Elders? Sorry ye don't qualify for that title. Now enough of this childish fooling around we're here because-"
"You're looking for Robert Moore Jr." She cut him off.

"How did she know that?" Chris whispered to Mason and Cora.

"The winds speak" she answered Chris, who looked at her in shock.

"What do they say?" Mason asked intrigued.

"I don't know I don't speak windinsh" she answered bursting out laughing from her own joke.

"To start with I could not see how Kidd and her were related, but I get it now. They are both nuts!" Chris proclaimed.

"So we need to find Moore, any idea where the bloody bastard is?" Kidd asked.

"Let me get my runes" she signed.
She brought out a black pouch from one of the drawers in the dark wooded dresser behind her.

"Ambapo ni moja i kutafuta" she muttered hoarse as she pulled out a few runes from the pouch and threw them agains the white tablecloth.

"He's making port at Clew bay, oh and your dear brother is right behind him" she explained passive.

"He's what?! Ye were supposed to make sure he was following us!" Kidd turned around and accused Chris who just stood there defenseless on purpose.

"Well distractions, and stuff" he answered painfully honest.
Cora look astounded at Chris, almost admiring the stupidity written on his face.

"How would he even know why he should follow Moore" Cora asked pushing the boys to the side.

"Well can't say with certainty what's going on, but I can tell you that I suspect a traitor" Miss Bruja conjectured.
Kidd turned around to face of his crew.
"Who of ye bastards have been communicating with James?"

The crew mates grew silent for a few minutes, before Mason spoke up.
"Mate, she suspected a traitor, she didn't confirm. Maybe none of us have been betraying you, we may be watched without knowing so, mate"
Kidd turned his attention to Bruja.
"Ye know that late fiancé of yers right?" He asked mischievously.

"Your are not getting it" she stopped him.

"Oh come on, I'll take good care of it" he pleaded.

"If you lose it, I'll put a curse on every hat you ever wear" she threatened, as she got up and walked into a separate room.
The crew listens as she dug her way around her stuff making it sound like a earthquake.

"I didn't lose the mermaid bracelet ye gave, why should I lose this?" He defended himself. She came out from the room with a golden spyglass. He reached out to grab it but she pulled back.

"Be careful, you don't know what you'll see" she warned as she gently passed it to him.

"I'll only use it if I have no other choice" he reassured. "Besides what happened last time was hilarious"
Kidd said.

"We agreed to never speak of it again, so never speak of it again" she ordered.