Lockwood & Co. Pirates Treasure

Part 1

It's a little strange when your captain and first mate are both children. In fact, when you first find out that they're kids, you start to get a bit worried. Kids are reckless and often times, they don't think ahead of themselves. But somehow, the kids never actually got caught for their piracy. Whether it was luck or they actually knew what they were doing was a mystery for another story.

This story is about the pirate captain of this ship, Anthony Lockwood, and the odd occurrences him and his crew began to experience.

~

Blue skies and water as far as the eye could see. The salty sea air and the fresh breeze of the morning. A cloudless day for the young captain as he stepped out onto the main deck of his ship. Captain Anthony Lockwood was a tall, slender, yet well built male. His dark eyes scanned the ships deck, seeing nothing problematic. He ran one of his gloved hands through the curly dark locks of hair that had fallen in front of his eyes. Breathing in the salty air, he began to walk up to the helm. Out of the corner of his eye, another young man was running up to him. This man was short and chubby. He had long golden whisps of hair that often fell in his face. He wore spectacles, and his eyes rivaled the sky with how blue they were. For clothing, he simply wore a loose white over shirt and baggy brown trousers, as well as brown boots that had not been washed in a long while.

The captain recognized this man as his first mate, George Cubbins.

"I wonder what's so important to get you running?" Captain Lockwood mocked as his friend drew closer to him.

"Ha ha." George blandly grumbled through pants. He handed a rolled up paper to him.

The captain smiled, taking the paper. He unrolled it and examined it. It was a map leading to supposed treasure. On it were notes scribbled next to the riddles and cryptic codes. George had spent a week deciphering the map. Captain Lockwood had suspected that it lead to some great treasure (why else would it be so heavily coded?) and had put George to work using his greatest asset; his brain.

The captain abandoned his quest to the helm and instead lead his first mate into the captains quarters. There was a the world in his room, and he often used it in deciding where to go and what should be done.

He unlocked and opened the door and entered, George behind him. The two men walked over to the table in the center of the room. Lockwood set the map George had decoded on the table and grabbed a compass. The two men began to discus how long it would take from where they are to get to their destination and what they would have to do.

Their conversation was cut short when one of the men cried out for the captain. Both rushed out of the captains quarters and onto the main deck. A man climbed down the crow's nest. He was panicked as he spoke.

"Capt'in! The Royal Navy is onto us and they're gonna to beat us to Bermuda." He reported. The Royal Navy had seemed to be everywhere looking for pirates - not just them - and they seemed to know where each destinations were for each ship.

The captain thought for a moment before looking to his first mate.

"George, change route to Siren Island. That'll take them off our tail." He commanded.

"But capt'in! Siren Island is-"

"We aren't stopping there. We'll just..." He thought for a moment. Siren Island was an infamous place where many ships - pirate or otherwise - have met their doom. It was mostly surrounded by the myth of mermaids and sirens that tempt sailors to jump into the water. It's said that sirens eat the humans while mermaids just like doing it out of pleasure. But without any sailors aboard the ship, it crashes and sinks.

But just imagine all the loot down there. If anyone wanted to find any sunken treasure, it would probably be there. And they may even catch a siren or mermaid. If they did, they could sell it for quite a handsome price.

"We'll just have a quick look around. Surely, that won't hurt anyone." He shrugged, then walked off to his quarters to chart out where they were going. George sighed, yet obeyed his orders.

That bastered is gonna get us killed one day.

~

Siren Island was a relatively small island. It looked like it didn't harbor any secrets at all; it looked like just a normal island. Especially on such a sunny day, but the crew knew better. While the captain watched over the men on the main deck, his first mate would not shut up about what a bad idea this was.

"We don't even know what one of them is capable of!" He reminded, referring to the mermaids.

"All the better if we catch one and sell it. We'll be helping other sailors a lot of money in the process." He figured.

"It could kill us." George stated bluntly.

"Only if we let it. We're smarter than it. We've heard all of the legends. Besides, even if we don't catch one, we'll have more fish for the men. That's also a positive." The captain hummed. Honestly, he knew that his first mate didn't believe in mermaids. If it hasn't been studied and recorded in a book, it wasn't real.

"Food is the last thing we need more of right now." George grumbled, rolling his eyes.

Suddenly, some of the men began to make a commotion, saying they caught something. The captain rushed over along with his first mate to see what they had been pulling out.

"It's a heavy one!"

"Think it's a mermaid?"

"If it's just another dolphin, I swear imma-"

Everyone went silent what whatever was pulled out of the water was dropped on deck. It was a large creature. It had a fish tail with magnificent scales, deep purples and sea green-blues. It wiggled and writhed in distress, desperately trying to get out of the large net it was tangled up in.

The captain pushed his way threw the awe-struck men, looking down at whatever was tangled in the net. He knelt down to look closer. All of the men stayed silent as they watched their leader begin to unravel the netting over this creature.

He was able to reveal enough of it for him to verify that this creature had the head and torso of a girl, but the tail of a fish. She had fins on her arms and some on her waist, and a long dorsal fin that trailed from the top of her back all the way down to the lower part of her tail. She had webbed hands and gills on her rib cage and neck. She had short brown hair that was soaking wet from the water she had been pulled out of. She had pail skin and huge, round eyes. They were amber colored with hints and accents of gold. She wore nothing to cover her bare chest, which many of the men were looking. The captain however, couldn't tear his gaze from her eyes. And once she had locked eyes with him, she couldn't look away either. She seemed as transfixed on him as he was on her. She still remained mostly wrapped up in the net, causing her to lay awkwardly on the ship.

The men began to whisper about the creature. There was no doubt about what she was.

Lockwood took a dagger from his belt and began to get closer to her. She tried to back away, for fear of being hurt. Slowly, to prove he wouldn't harm her, he began cutting at the net, slowly setting her free. She was mesmerized by him and his actions.

"What should we do with 'er?" One of the men asked while he was cutting at the net.

"Prepare a bath for her. We're keeping her. And if we're lucky, we'll be able to sell her." He commanded. The men got to work with his orders as he finished cutting through the net. He looked back at the mermaid. She had a very confused look on her face and was still quite scared.

He pinned his arms around her before bringing her closer to his body. He picked her up bridal style, her clawed, webbed hands gripped to his shirt for support. But her eyes remained locked with his. He felt some sort of tug in his heart knowing he was going to sell her, but he dismissed it as the mermaids magic. He tore his gaze from hers painfully and looked to the men rushing around to prepare water for her.