Captain's Quarters (Sequel to The Piper Boy)

Chapter 4

"Jed, what am I going to do?!" Amily asked.

Jed was whittling beside her when he was supposed to be working but nobody bothered to point that out. Amily sat on a barrel and looked out at the ocean, away from Neverland. After hearing Hook's words her heart had sunk so much that she almost fell to her knees. The pirate captain said nothing more after that. He just continued to stare out at Neverland with the occasional glance through his telescope.

"Ah don't you worry about it, lass" Jed spoke carelessly as he whittled. He was still working on the wooden raven and Amily could hear the flakes of excess wood fall as Jed carefully structured each nook to his liking.

"Jed, that message was obviously meant for me. Pan will come after me! Oh..." Amily held herself tightly and started to shake. She was so afraid.

"Oh come on now! If I know Hook he's always two steps ahead of Pan and steering this ship well out of harm's way. You'll see, no one's getting onto this ship to hurt anyone. The cap'n will see to that. Now up ya get and start scrubbing, gurly" Amily was strengthened by Jed's words yet the dark cloud of dread still hung about. She knew Peter would come for her, it was only a matter of time.

But Amily did as told and grabbed her brush to scrub a stain of bird's droppings that had been bothering both herself and Jed with it's stubbornness to be cleared. The whole time she could feel Jed watching her. Amily moved slowly as if she might make a wrong move.

"Is that your knife?" Jed asked unexpectedly.

"Yes... why?" Amily spoke slowly and continued working.

"'Ere, let me see it" Jed held out his hand for her knife and she reluctantly handed it over. She stared at the old pirate as he examined the wooden handle of her knife. Jed looked up as if he just noticed she was on the boat.

"Oi! Quit staring and get back to work, gurly!" Amily's attention snapped back onto the bird droppings and she worked without another word. Jed held her knife and stared at it the whole time.

***

"Look it's probably not as bad as you're anticipating, you know?" Byron washed dishes but after this morning's surprise and the stress of scrubbing decks all day, Amily was too exhausted to assist him. But Byron didn't seem to mind, as long as he had some company.

"You're right, it's probably worse" Amily groaned and put her head in her hands. She was sitting in one of the chairs at the crew's dining table, beneath the crude portrait of the lady. The crew called her Dorrice. Amily tried to obtain some of the confidence that Dorrice wore in the portrait but she still felt drained inside. Nothing was helping.

"Now you're not going to get anywhere with that attitude. Do you wanna spar some more?" Byron asked helpfully. Amily's head remained rested on her elbows on the table.

"Nothing can help. I'm doomed" she said to the wooden surface beneath her.

"Top marks for being positive. Surely there's something you'd to like to do." Amily just groaned in reply.

"Hmph, well maybe there's another activity that'll take your mind off of Pan" Amily's head shot up at this and her face was horrified at Byron's jumpy eyebrows.

"Pigs! I swear, all men and boys are pigs! God, I hate every single-" she screamed. Byron held up his hands in surrender.

"Relax, I was joking. Here, I know what will help" Byron vanished into the storeroom behind. It seemed that there was always a solution in the storeroom.

He emerged with a piece of parchment, some charcoal and  a short dagger. His bright grin was growing with each step towards the table Amily sat at. Byron sat down opposite her and began to sketch something on the parchment. He took wide sweeping stokes across the paper, it was no masterpiece. Amily could already tell that.