The Greatest Adventures

Chapter 12 Odd

A week passed before things returned to normal and calm.

Hook was out on the deck, watching from afar the activities of his ship. The Jolly Roger was gliding across the waters, and a light breeze guided the sails in the direction of the port, where most of the adults of Neverland lived. They were in dire need of relinquishing supplies.

Especially rum.

The captain's watchful eye roved about, keeping track of all his men and what they were doing. They all moved at a sluggish speed, exhausted and tired from a tedious business called living. And Hook knew that feasting and drinking for a day would lift their spirits and work pace back to normal.

As always, his attention always wandered back to a certain girl. And then ended up staying on her and only her.

Clara was listening as the helmsman explained how the ship moved and how it was able to sail forward. And Hook clenched his teeth when the man glanced down at her chest area. But when the guilty person caught the captain sending him the warning glare, and so he quickly fixed his error and focused on the lady's lovely eyes again.

Since the first day of her arrival, Clara was much smellier than before and dirtier since she had not had a bath, and like a true sailor, she did not mind at all. There was always a fire of determination that burned inside of her being as she tended to her chores, and there was a healthy glow about her. The young lady thrived in her new, nautical environment and excelled in her menial duties as the cabin girl. Neither of the two had mentioned the first day Clara had assisted him. The night where she had probed too much and the captain answered too much. Neither ever mentioned the incident, and both acted as if it had never happened in the first place. Which did both of them good.

Every day, she had barged into his chambers along with Smee to wake him up. She assisted Smee in laying out his clothes and she did most of the assisting when it came to feeding him. But she ceased when three days past because by then Hook's wrist had grown well enough. Since the two had treated him as if he was an infant, the captain's injury had improved to the point that he could start grasping things again, and he was able to bend. The swelling was gone, and on the outside, it appeared normal.

In fact, it was as if everyone had been resting for three weeks instead of one, yet no one was alarmed. After all, it was Neverland. And the natural rules such as time bent backward in the land past the second star. And like everyone else, it was not the exponential rate of recovery that the captain found strange.

It was how the girl had somehow forced herself into his mind and occupied all of it.

Following the incident, Hook grew absorbed in trying to figure out the mystery puzzle called "Clara." He could not find a good explanation as to why she was so nervous around him. She had made it clear again and again that she did not fear him, and so that couldn't have been the reason... And she had made herself quite at home on his ship and pranced about as if she owned the place! There wasn't a logical answer as to why she gaped at him without shame on some days, and on others not be able to even glance at his chin! On some days, she was so eager to be in his company, and at others, she avoided him like the plague!

Hook blamed it on her being a woman because women were peculiar creatures. And Clara was the most peculiar of them all.

She was as sweet and beautiful as her mother had been, with an innocent sparkle about her that couldn't be tarnished. And he couldn't help but find that to be extremely suspicious: her cheerful disposition was too... Too cheerful. She acted too happy and far too angelic. She too akin to a talkative child, and yet Hook had a feeling that she was hiding an ulterior motive underneath her dazzling façade.