This took entirely too long to make and I'm sorry! I didn't mean for it to be so long, I just couldn't think of anything!
I hope you can forgive me!
I.O.N.!
Enjoy!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The moment the captain left, Ella, Etta, and Manon decided to help distract some of the more, shall we say, nervous passengers. Each headed toward the back in different ways. Manon just happened to be the one to stumble onto it. 'It' was a group of around five young adults surrounding an old man who appeared to be telling stories.
"I'm afraid to say that I've seen the after effects of things just like this. A typical trip, an overly happy crew, a woman as the captain. Then all of a sudden a pirate ship 'appears' and it's just too fast, or powerful for a small boat like theirs to outrun. So they'll send all of the passengers down away from the fighting. Except there won't be any fighting. For one reason, the entire time the captains were in cahoots! Planning to enslave the passengers!"
Manon walked up to the group with her best innocent wide-eyed stare, "Wow mister. You don't think that's going to happen to us, do you?" The young adults seemed embarrassed and avoided looking at Manon so they wouldn't have to say anything, but the old man had no such restraints.
"Indeed I do, little missy. Ships like this are nothing but boats of lies and deception, waiting for the next gullible group to draw into its trap."
"What are you going to do mister? Those guards seem pretty scary."
"Ugh! One of them is a girl so a good scream would probably put her out of the fight and the boy looks like he'd get lost in a blanket."
By this point, Ella and Etta had noticed that Manon was completely absorbed in a conversation with the old man, as he subtly hyped up everyone around him for a fight. Ella went to grab Kim so that they would have some back-up.
"But mister, what about all of the ships that are captained by ladies?"
"No self-respecting lady would work on a ship!"
Manon was growing frustrated with the man. She had tried to calmly talk it out with him, but it just would happen. So she pulled out the trump card, "So you're saying that every female that works on a ship has no self-respect?"
"Of course!"
"Then what about... Ladybug?"
The entire area around them seemed to freeze. Everyone knew that it was bad luck to mention the pirate on any seafaring vessel. "And what about that old wives tale?"
Manon chose her words carefully, "Well, don't most people believe that-" at the worried glances everyone had she paused, "-that particular captain is a woman of some renown that would never work as a slaver?"
"Like I said, girl, it's an old wives tale that gets past down so ships boys don't go getting all upity." Taking a deep breath, proving that even the old man believed the legends even just a little, "Ladybug doesn't exist."
"If you say so, mister! After all, you're so much wiser than I am."
But what Manon hadn't realized is that one of the young men in the group was just a little smarter than the rest. He had noticed that she was entirely too comfortable saying Ladybug's name and that Manon was much smarter than she first appeared. Something was off, and he was going to get to the bottom of it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Again I am so sorry about how long this took!
And to top it all off, it wasn't even plot related!
I am a horrible author...
But I still hope you enjoyed!
See ya next time!
