Savior

His Prized Possession

Adrian:

Eleven Years Later:

Lights twinkled in the horizon, contrasting against the folding waves of the dark ocean. The boat swayed in the water, its maroon mast fluttering gently in the wind. The thumps of shoes, cussing of the sailors, and the bangs of beer containers on wood could be heard from the deck. I glanced at my reflection in Harold’s half- shattered mirror that lay by the railing.

The damned man couldn’t even care for the possession he treasured most. I looked down into it, the cracks etched across the glass like the web a spider spins. The dark blanket of the sky above framed a familiar face. Short, jet black hair blended in with the sky while his golden skin and piercing green eyes bored through, shining against the dark background. He was me. In seconds, my boot was up, crashing down onto the thin shard of glass, shattering the bit into dust.

A brisk wind blew, skewing the fine dust into the water, letting the sea consume another prized possession. The wind blew harder, shoving me against the side of the boat as it rocked dangerously in the breeze.

“A storms a breewin.” A voice croaked from a dark corner of the deck.

“I know.” I replied, mind off in another land, in another time. I was a man of little words and more action. That’s what we all had to be if we wanted to survive.

“Say, is that yours?” the voice suggested.

“What?” I asked, spinning round to the source of the sound, a sixteen year old boy that sat perched upon a barrel in the far corner.

“That red thing? It just flew from your pocket.”

“Wha…” A panic seized me so tightly that I found it hard to breathe. My lungs threatened to collapse, my heart hammered angrily against my chest. A sudden dry spell infected my throat and my stomach twisted in fear. Her ribbon - the wind had snatched it away, making it dance in the wind, far from my reach.

And that’s when I did the unthinkable. I, Adrian Radkov, formidable pirate of the seven seas jumped into the chasm that is the ocean to retrieve her ribbon. But it more than just a ribbon to me. It had been my savior, my protection, my solace throughout these years; the one reminder of what I had done to preserve my humanity in the midst of these animals.

The ocean welcomed me like a formidable enemy, its cold claws trapping my body in its infinite layers. Darkness and compact silence engulfed me as I groped through the water, searching for the one possession I treasured far more than all the pirate gold in the world. The water pushed me back, slowed me down as I continued my search. But I didn’t give in. I couldn’t give in.

When my lungs burnt and the water became undecipherable, I broke through the surface for a breath of fresh air. Then, as if I had been destined to find it, there it lay, her ribbon, the sliver of satin, bobbing in the waves of the sea. Grabbing it, I swam back to my ship, ordering my crew to pull me up.

“All that for a ribbon? Don’t you have enough money to buy a billion more of those Cap’n?” the same boy asked as I dried myself on the deck of the Acasta.

“I could go to any measure to preserve this.” I said, looking down at the piece of satin in my hand. Years of being by my side had tarnished it – there were a few stains and many threads had unraveled. 

“But why Cap’n?”

“It’s my most prized possession. I went through hell and back for this.” I stated simply.

“LAND HO!” Harold called from the crow’s nest.

Thankfully avoiding any further questions, I turned towards the lights I had seen earlier. Leave it to Harold to fall asleep during his post and wake up with important news hours late. A large light house was situated at the base of the island with a sliver of road that led up to what I presumed to be the town. Hundreds of houses, large and elegant, to small and minimal cluttered cobbled streets. What a cute little town. They’d never know what hit them, I thought with a smirk.