The Unwilling Queen of Pirates

Not Again

"Wake up, little Sparrow," a soft voice called out to her. Little hands gripped her shoulder and shook her lightly.

The little bird forced her eyes open, but sleep threatened to pull her back. "Where am I?" The words managed to slip out to the familiar voice. Why was she so tired? And why did her neck ache?

The voice giggled and shook her a second time. "Get up, sleepyhead. It's a beautiful morning."

Sparrow managed to drag herself up to a sitting position and lazily glanced around the room. Her eyes landed on a figure by her bed.

"We didn't stay up that late," the girl laughed.

The little bird rolled her eyes at her older sister. "Yes, we did. Now let me go back to sleep."

"You can't sleep!" Her voice sounded panicked. "You've got to get up."

Sparrow got a weird feeling in her stomach but ignored it when her sister held her hand down to her. "Fine," she pouted, taking her sister's warm hand.

"Mom and dad went to town, so we have the whole day to ourselves!" Rose spun around in a circle jumping excitedly. "I've set some stuff for us to do."

She pulled me along down the stairs of our enormous house. Sparrow never could figure out how their parents made so much money from farming. Not once have they gotten attacked by bandits way out in the country. It was strange.

"I set out some bottles for you to shoot. Do you have your BB gun?"

The little bird gave a nod as she felt the toy on her side. When did she grab that? She must have fallen asleep with it.

"But first, let's go for a swim out in the pond. It's a really hot day today."

Rose took her outside and straight to the pond. When they got there, Sparrow spotted a bottle on the little useless dock. She expertly shot a bb at the target. It exploded, the glass raining down everywhere.

"Wow, you got one. You're really good with that thing," my sister complimented.

"Thanks."

The two sisters stripped to their undergarments and dove into the cool refreshing pond. Rose was right. It was a hot day.

Rose sighed in content as they floated on their back in the water. "I've missed you."

At first, Sparrow didn't register the words she said. Then she raised her head slightly to give her sister a weird look. "What?"

"Hmm. Oh nothing," she laughed off. "Come on. Let's get dry."

They swam out of the pond and waited until their skin was dry before reclothing. Sparrow glanced over at the gate to their property. She felt strange. The gate seemed to beckon her over. The little bird took a step towards it, but Rose jumped in front of her.

"Come on. Let's see if you find any more bottles."

The two girls wandered around the farm, Sparrow casually shooting the bottles as they appeared.

"When did you set these up?"

"While you were sleeping in," Rose teased.

Sparrow rolled her eyes again before shooting another bottle.

"It's getting late. Maybe we should go to sleep," Rose said.

That's when Sparrow noticed it had gotten dark out. It only seemed like minutes ago, they got up. She only shot six out of twenty bottles.

"You can get the rest of the bottles tomorrow."

"Okay," The little bird shrugged.

They made their way back to the house and went straight back to bed. Weird. They never even ate anything yet Sparrow didn't feel hungry.