The Rookie Pirates (Parts 1-6)

12. Along Came a Physician

The next morning, the black feline, Paddy, rubbed his paws against his face and felt colder than he had when he fell asleep. It was then he realised that his new friend Jessica had disappeared, and a sad aura overwhelmed him; he was already missing his new friend.

Paddy sniffed the air around him and could still smell her familiar scent of honey and azaleas. He looked down beside him to find a small paper bag and a note attached to it. He read the letter, only to see she'd written it in a language he did not understand.

Confused as to why she had written a note in a different language, he picked up his shipmate's bag he had been looking after and stood up to rejoin his crew. Dr Jude Hunter would probably know what the note read; he was quite intelligent.

Suddenly remembering that he had ditched his crew yesterday, he swallowed nervously. As captain of the Hunter Pirates, this behaviour of Paddy's was unlike him. He was going to be in trouble with his first mate.

His ship, the Paw, wasn't too far from the beach, and it only took a five-minute walk along the hot sand to the port to reach where the vessel had docked. Immediately, a shadow from the deck above hovered over him.

"Where have you been, Paddy?" Jude's cold voice spoke out to him. Paddy had been right: his first mate was angry with him. "You know I don't like it when you disappear without telling me. And who were you running away with yesterday?"

Paddy looked up to find Jude stood on the deck, his arms folded and a dark aura surrounding his eyes. Stood behind him were his two quartermasters, fraternal twins Saskia and Pedro, who were trying to be intimidating with their arms folded over their white hoodies, but were failing in comparison to the Dark Physician.

Paddy immediately apologised to his crew, knowing full well he had been in the wrong. Jude jumped down from the deck of the ship onto the harbour below. The feline handed him a piece of paper, and the Physician read it to himself.

Jude found it unusual that Paddy's friend wrote the note in the Honey Tribe Language. The Honey Tribe race was from Hive Island, the same island where the Feline Tribe were from, which explained why she wrote in that particular language. Whoever this person was believed that Paddy would understand the note, but what she didn't know was that Paddy hadn't been with his Feline Tribe since he was a kitten. He'd never had a chance to learn the Honey Tribe's language.

As a physician, Jude made sure to speak the common tongue of most known languages throughout the world, the Honey Tribe language being one of them. Hive Island would hopefully be one of his destinations in the future so he could speak to the locals and collect some rare herbs from their island and learn of their medicine. The Honey Tribe hardly ever got sick and seemed to live longer than was average. Jude speculated it had something to do with the honey they made there.

Jude looked back at his captain, who eagerly awaited for him to read the note.

"It says, 'Thank you for lunch yesterday and for your company last night. I've gone to get us some breakfast. I will meet you back here at nine o'clock, so don't wander off too far, Jessica Red. P.S: I left you some honey-flavoured sweets. Enjoy.'"

Jude raised an eyebrow, a smirk playing on his lips. "If you were on a date, Captain, all you had to do was say so."

Saskia and Pedro's jaws both flung open. "A date?!" they chorused.

What's a date? Paddy thought.

Jude saw the confusion on his Captain's innocent face and sighed.

"Let's meet up with your lady friend and find out what's going on."

He took his bag back from the feline and placed the strap over his shoulder. He had gone too long without his medical tools and felt vulnerable without them. After all, they weren't just for use on his patients; they were also his weapons against his enemies.