The Legend Of The Five Queens : Arabella's tale

Chapter 22: The Sailors Port.

   Queen Arabella looks at the sailors' port from the bridge. The port is filled with a lot of travelers from all parts of the world. No doubt there will be multiple groups of sailors who are looking for a job that pays well. She puts her hair in a ponytail and hides in the hood of her coat. Taking slow steps, Arabella slowly walks down the dirt hill towards the port. She notices a lot of men pouring into the various bars within the port. It may not be so difficult to find a crew after all.
Queen Arabella's feet slowly touch the rough dirt road. She slowly makes her way to the first bar that she sees while trying to avoid direct eye contact with anyone. Some of the people take notice of the young Queen as she approaches the Bar.
Arabella enters the bar quietly and takes a survey of the environment. The sailors sit with their crew at different tables all with a mug of alcohol to accommodate them. It is a positive environment that is full of energy and different personalities.
The Queen finds herself frozen in place as she tries to figure out how to approach each crew.
   She sets her eyes on a heavy man with a thick beard talking with a crew of other men stationed towards the middle of the bar. Arabella makes her way over to the table from behind the bearded man. The man laughs just before finishing the booze that remains in his mug.
   "Which one of you guys is a Captain?" Arabella asks the bearded man.
   "Aye, I am the Captain of this crew here. Say, what do you need a captain for?" The man turns his attention towards Arabella.
"I need a Captain and a crew that can take me to an island that lies beyond the Death Sea," Queen Arabella sits in an empty chair at their table while continuing to look at the Captain. The captain turns his attention towards his crew and bursts out in laughter. The other men respond by laughing as well. Queen Arabella keeps her look serious as she looks at the men.
"No offense young girl but it is very hard to cross the Death Sea without having your ship completely! We have traveled all over the seas but have rarely ventured across the Death Sea without good reason. I am Captain Kraton by the way," He reaches his dirty bruised hands out to the Queen for her to shake. She slowly reaches out and shakes his hand with a smile.
   "You can call me Arabella," She gently pulls her hand away.
   "Aye, Arabella. So, what can you offer us that would encourage us to take such a trip?" He sits back in his chair.
" That depends on what you guys want. I can provide you with enough money to be able to purchase a very nice ship and be able to buy enough booze to last the next three years," Arabella's statement leaves Captain Kraton bugged-eyed with his eyebrows raised. It is not common for someone to offer so much money for a voyage.
"Well, we could certainly go for getting a new ship as we have seen better days and we certainly love our booze," Captain Kraton rubs his beard. He looks at his men who seemed just as shocked as he is.
    "What do you boys think? If the lady can pay what she says she can pay should we help her?" He moves his mug to the side so that the waitress can fill it once more with booze.
"A new ship with three years worth of booze? Hell yeah, I think we should help her!" One of the crewmen says. The others raise their mugs and cheer together. Arabella smiles at this response for it appears that getting a crew was easier than expected. These guys will make for a great journey.
   "Then what are we waiting for? Gather everything you need for we have a long journey ahead of us lads! Let us all meet back at the ship in about thirty minutes," Captain Kraton stands up and slams his mug on the table. The other men stand up and pull small leather backpacks over their backs.
   Arabella stands up with the guys and smiles proudly as she keeps her hood over her head.
"Come, Arabella, I will take you to our ship while the boys gather the supplies," The captain leaves a small pouch of gold and silver coins on the table. He turns around and walks to the bar entrance with Arabella following behind him.
The two of them walk down the busy road towards the edge of the port where the sailors' ship sits.
"So what do you and your crew do exactly?" Arabella asks Captain Kraton.
"Oh, we take jobs from various people at the different ports that we visit. Most of the time we end up just taking someone across the sea to a different Kingdom,"
   "And the other times?"
   "The other times we are helping someone find hidden treasure. It is how we get paid. We enjoy it though for it lets up see the world in ways that other people cannot," The distance between them and the ships continues to shorten. The ships all appear to look like traditional pirate ships but with different designs on their main flag.
"So which one is your ship?" Queen Arabella asks as she points to the distant ships.
"Oh no, you have to pay about eighty silver just to park your ship there. It is madness! Our ship sits at the dock around the corner that only costs thirty silver," he responds with a short laugh.
   They follow the road that curves around the corner to the cheaper docks. The cheaper docks hold ships that appear to be more worn out than the other ships. The worn-out look of the ships does not necessarily mean that the owner is of lower income.
Queen Arabella notices a pirate ship with a skull that has crab legs etched onto the main flag. The ship has pieces of its hull missing probably due to a battle of some sort. Strangely, something about it makes it stick out from the others.
   "Who commands that ship? The one with the crab skull on it?" Arabella asks as she points to the ship. Captain Kraton smiles underneath his bushy beard.
"That ship there would be my ship- The Adventurer. She had taken a beating over the last week," he replies while pointing at his ship.
"What made it take such a beating?"
"Oh, we ran into some dirty pirates that were looking for a fight. We taught them, boys, a lesson,"
   Captain Kraton walks in front of Queen Arabella and boards his ship.
The ship looks like the average ship that a crew would use. They have wooden crates marked "fishing supplies" onto their ship. The deck of the ship is very clean and organized.
   Captain Kraton enters the main quarters of the ship where a table sits with a map on it. The map is over with several small pins scattered onto different islands.
   "I take it that these pins represent everywhere that you have been?" Arabella leans over the table looking at the map.
"Ah yes, we keep track of every location we have been to. A lot of those pins are from previous jobs over the past year. We have accumulated tons of great stories
   "Oh, I am sure you do," She places her bag down next to the table as King Kraton stands next to her looking at the map. He picks up a red pin and hovers it above the map.
   "So, which one of these islands past the Death Sea are we going to visit?" He asks her. Arabella gets out her map and opens it on the table.
"It looks like we need to go to this island here just past the Death Sea," She points to an island that already has 5 pins on it. Captain Kraton furrows his eyes brows at the island.
    "Are you sure about that island? We've already been there a handful of times and have never heard about anything extraordinary being there. Are you sure there is something of importance hidden there?"
"Yes, I am sure of it. My mother was an explorer for a long time. She was searching for a powerful sword," She pulls out a drawing of the sword from her bag. Captain Kraton takes a close look at it and strokes his beard as he furrows his eyebrows more. Suddenly his eyebrows widen as if he has just recognized what he is looking at.
   "I have seen that sword before in other drawings. As far as I have heard stories of the sword but I had figured that it was all rubbish,"
   "It is not so rubbish after all. I want to find this sword as soon as possible and I will pay what I need to to stay on this ship," she looks up at the Captain who is now giving her a gentle yet worried look.
"But Arabella, you have already offered us so much money. How could you possibly be able to give us more money?"
   "Money has never been a problem for me. I have enough money to fund this quest that I am on," Arabella rolls up the drawing and snaps back into her bag, and stands up.
   "Do you have a room available for me to use?" Queen Arabella says as she throws the bag over her shoulder. Catalina Kraton walks towards the door and opens it.
"Yes, in the farthest part of the ship there is a small storage room that we do not use. There may be a few boxes in there at most," He gestures for Arabella to move forward. Arabella gathers up her bags and walks through the doorway stepping onto the lower deck of the ship.
Captain Kraton walks to the middle of the deck and opens a hatch that reveals a small ladder. He slowly climbs down the ladder until his feet touch the floor. He moves out of the way to make room for Arabella.
Arabella slowly climbs down the ladder and steps onto the floor. She quickly notices the wooden door in front of them. Captain Kraton opens the door revealing a small room filled with a few cardboard boxes as well as a few cobwebs.
   "You guys do not use this room very much. It will need some work done for it to be fully useable," she shakes her head and moves the first box out of the room setting it in front of the Captain. He looks at Arabella confused before opening the box. His reaction quickly changes as he pulls out a small music box and rubs the dust off of it.
   "This box contains small random trinkets that we have collected throughout our travels," He says while continuing to rummage through the box. Arabella slides the other three boxes out of the room.
   "Looks like now you will be going down memory lane with these boxes. It looks like I've got some work to do in here," With that said, Arabella closes the door.
   The captain takes the boxes up to the main deck and meets with the rest of the crew who have arrived with supplies for the trip.
   Lady Arabella plops her body down onto the small old cotton bed that sits against the wall. A smile comes across her mouth as she stares up at the ceiling. Her lifestyle is about to change for an unknown amount of time. With this crew, she now hopes to collect the artifacts that her mother was after. If everything goes well, Arabella will become the most powerful person in the world.