The Life Of Pirates

Chapter 5

She plunged into the icy water, gulping for air. She had a clue what might've been in the bag and she wasn't going to simply let it die. Although, she might've been wrong but she wasn't willing to take that chance. She'd barely learnt to swim when she was younger, but here she was, risking her life for a bag. Slowly she reached out and grabbed it, struggling to keep afloat, she could already hear the shouts from the ship and she suspected the captain had come to investigate what was going on. The rope was thrown down quickly after which she held onto with all her might, shivering and her teeth beginning to chatter. She was lifted up gently by the crew and touched down onto the deck, bag clutched in her hand.
Instantly, she ignored the people around her and placed the bag carefully down, kneeling next to it. It was knotted which she struggled to untie in her state but then her suspicions about the captain were right. He joined her, sitting down and took the bag, untying it for her and handed it back. Whilst she was distracted, he'd taken off his long coat and draped it over her shoulders. But then Jasmine gasped, looking into the bag. Carefully, she reached inside and pulled out a very tiny creature.
A kitten.

Jasmine was sat on one side of her ledge again with Darren opposite her. He wasn't entirely angry at her, but warned her to never try it again, but she wasn't focused on that. Instead her attention was drawn to the small ball of fluff she was cradling in her arms.
"What do you think I should name it?" She pondered, saying the question aloud, "something... interesting" she emphasised. She didn't want some boring common name, she wanted a name that would suit him.
"And what makes you think I'm letting you keep it?" Darren retorted, his arms crossed and his eyebrows arched.
"Because I said so?" She stared back, as if it was a stand off.
"Ah alright, you win" he said after a couple of seconds, acting defeated. But he chuckled and looked out of the window at the dark sky and calming waves.
She quietly laughed too, it felt like the first time in months that she'd laughed, and to be honest it probably was. The kitten was purring in her arms, warm in the new clothes that she'd been given. It was a super long dark blue top that she'd suspected had once been Darren's, and also some pale brown trousers. She wasn't really fussy, at least she was warm.
She looked over at him and watched interestedly, there was a few ideas she had created in her mind about his past, some more believable than others. She often wondered how he'd ended up here, and why he was a captain at a fairly young age, barely older than her.
"Where do you sleep?" She couldn't really stop herself from asking, she was genuinely interested since she thought that this was his quarters, but she'd never seen him sleep in here before, "I mean, not in a weird way I'm just wondering" she added, beginning to feel slightly stupid.
"I'm currently in a hammock downstairs, actually we've been trying to find a way to perhaps extend our spaces, to give you you're own room" he explained about the plans she'd never even heard of before, despite them including her, "I don't think I'm going to let you sleep down there with them" he almost grimaced at this.
"I'm guessing you used to sleep in here?" She asked, but continued without a response, "I'm sorry, you can sleep in here, I don't mind sleeping out on the deck or even just in a corner here somewhere" she apologised hurriedly and began thinking of where she could sleep instead, she was small so she'd probably fit in a lot of spaces.
"Honestly it's fine, you don't need to be so worried and sorry all the time" he chuckled, his blue eyes meeting hers, "and I know you like watching the waves so I don't think you'd be moving from this room if we do create more space" he smiled at her, and she smiled back, but now a rather shy feeling settling in. He seemed to notice her slight change in behaviour almost instantly, but believed she was just tired so he got up to leave.
"It's quite late and you should get some sleep, it's been an eventful day for you" He chuckled again, "I'll see you in the morning" he gently closed the doors behind him.

Jasmine was left alone with her thoughts, the image of her father springing to mind. She'd tried so hard to lock her memories up and push them away, but it was times like these that unconsciously unlocked them. She curled up carefully under the covers and was cautious not to wake up the sleeping kitten. She cried silently into her pillow wishing she was back in her small seaside cottage wrapped up in her own duvet and in a familiar surrounding. It haunted her that she may never see it again, her old bedroom, her old life. The life she wished she still had. She could imagine it, rotting away into old planks of decaying wood that were once white. She didn't want to be out at sea, she didn't want to be in this room, she didn't want the pirate life.
But somehow, Darren had become the only thing keeping her going.