Riptide (PirateJunkratXFem.Reader)

#12= The Queen

The thunderous noise of Cannon-fire splintering through the wooden shell of the amidship was enough to wake you in the middle of the pitchblack night, startling you to the point that you let out a fitful shriek as the clamorous noise shook the ship vigorously enough to make to tumble out of the poster-bed with an ungainly thud. On impact, all you could do was writhe and curse, as it reopened the freshly carved cut down your torso, keeping you from assessing what was currently in the happening for a few blissful seconds of ignorance.

When you were forcefully torn from the sweet lul of sleep though, you heard the commotion outside the stateroom stir, the orders being barked around and the mesh of hurried steps and hollering that signaled a pre-fight atmosphere pungent enough to turn your stomach when another canon tearing the hull of the ship a new leak made you realize what was even going on, or what cogs were currently working towards the inevitable: a battle. That discernment alone however was enough to make you completely freeze up, your body sending a near instant panic-induced bolt of adrenaline through your arteries to properly wake you up.

Jumping to bare your feet, you searches through the cabin, which, aside from you of course, was devoid of any other human. And when you went to check the sturdy wooden door shutting you out from the approaching fight, you soon found that it was locked from the outside. No amount of your flimsy pushing or pulling was going to make those metal hinges do as much as budge, and your calls and knocking were really no one's concern on the main-deck. In all likelihood, no one even heard you. Not that you wanted to see any of the near slaughter anyway, but you felt particularly helpless being trapped in that relatively small death-chamber in the case a cannon-ball found its way through the wall or something set fire to the whole place. It felt like being a bug in a jar, at the mercy of whatever the outside forces may inflict upon you.

And you had heard your fair share about sea-battles between pirates and or the british marine back at the tavern, you had heard of the bloodbaths that tinted the decks red and the canons black with soot, you had heard tales of the harrowing screams echoing through the loudest storm, and you had heard of the sharks circling the ships, waiting for the discarded corpses being sent down into their watery grave after being brutally dismembered, disbowled or otherwise mutilated by careless blade; but the prospect of actually being part of any of that gruesome business was something you were not too keen about. You couldn't fight, let alone defend yourself against as much as your own mother.

Well, on second thought, if it was the marines who had found your rather conspicuous boat, which was most certainly stolen from the British (The name British Man o War didn't come from nowhere after all.), you may have been able to talk yourself out of here with the claims to being a prisoner, which, seeing as you were a woman was unlikely, but you had hopes in the 'civilized' nature of the Queens men. On the flipside, if this was indeed another pirate ship that you had so ungracefully sailed into, you could only pray that you were not on the losing side of that coin, because you knew all too well that you were unlikely to be granted a merciful death. Hell, you could hardly deal with the captain, let alone an entire crew of careless pirates who hadn't seen a woman in months. That flimsy dagger you clutched was nothing but the idea of safety, nothing really meaning in face of what you feared you were in for.

So, you did the only reasonable thing in your opinion: Which consisted of grabbing the more decorative than lethal golden dagger with the embedded ruby-roses that was still sitting on the small commode beside the bed, still having the traces of your own dried blood on it, and hiding under the bed with the weapon tightly held in your hands. You knew that this was just a matter of time. You had no place in a battle, and you were willfully ignoring all any any possible outcome it may fair for you in favour of curling up on the spot and whispering pleas of mercy to whatever deity may be listening.