Pirate Life For Me

Date: 1/13/2017

So I had a dream where I was a dude and Makena was a dude and her boyfriend was a girl. So we all went to school together in Cali or Florida and we had a very small class. George and Robby were in the class and so was Natalie. I had a younger brother and an older sister who for whatever reason we're both in my grade/class. So I was walking home from school one day when I decided to go to my favorite spot along the pier and just stare at the ocean for a while. While I was there, a gang of modern day pirates attacked me and shanghaied me onto their ship and press ganged me into joining their crew. Because I was the newest member, they made me swab the deck for hours and hours on end until it sparkled. While I was scrubbing, I listened to my captors talk about their lives and where we were going. There was a cook, a first mate, a captain, a cabin boy, an ex military commander/ current fight strategist, a strong man, and like 20 others. They all had unique and funny stories, but they were all acting really tense and nervous, which made me feel even more tense and nervous than I already did from being kidnapped and forced into a pirate crew. So about a month had passed with me just scrubbing the deck day In and day out, and my muscles had grown exponentially. The ex military guy came over to me and asked if i knew how to fight. I told him I took wrestling in high school for four years, and he said that was a good start and then he attacked me, out of the blue. We scuffled for a few seconds before he took me down. The commander gave me a hand up and said "not bad, kid, now just keep your arms up higher and in closer to your face and chest." He repositioned my stance and then attacked me again, but I lasted longer this time before he took me down. We formed a routine over the next month, I would swab the deck for about six hours in the morning and then he would teach me hand to hand combat for the next six hours, sleep for 12 hours and repeat. Eventually the commander, Steve, began to bring in the rest of the crew for me to fight. I fought a few random crew members and brought them down easily. Then I fought the cook and took him down, and then I fought the cabin boy who was like a tiny 12 year old ninja, but I managed to take him down. I also fought the first mate and I managed to bring him down. This fight changed a lot. Throughout the challenges, everyone had been rooting on my competitors. No one was on my side and as I worked my way through each and every member of their crew, the onlookers got quieter and quieter and when I took down the first mate, the ship was silent. I looked around, breathing heavily, to see everyone staring at me silently, a few with their mouths hanging open in astonishment. I heard a slow clapping sound begin from the shadows along the stern of the ship. I looked up to see the captain walking slowly out and clapping. I subtly repositioned myself for another fight, this time maybe even for my life. The captain was a huge man, he had a long scraggly beard and wore a floor length blood red coat and a matching hat, not unlike Captain Hook. He felt menacing somehow, completely unlike his lighthearted happy go lucky crew, who he ruled with an iron fist. As he reached the circle where the crew was standing and watching, the rest of his crew scrambled to get out of his way. He approached me and looked me up and down. When I boarded this ship I was a lean, tall, dark blonde boy, wearing jeans and a sports tee shirt. Now, after two and half months aboard this ship, I had grown two inches, my hair and skin were lightened and darkened from the sun, and my jeans had been cut into ragged cutoff capris and my shirt had been ripped up to make a makeshift sweat band around my head and wrappings for my knuckles. He smirked and declared me fit for combat before turning and making his way to the captains quarters. I turned back to commander Steve who was watching me with a troubled look and asked what the captain meant, and he said that it meant we were about to make port and rob someone. The next day the commander grabbed me before I could start swabbing the deck and we started our training right away. He upped the training regimen to be twice as difficult and halfway through the day he gave me a sword. We practiced sword training for hours and hours until my arms felt like they were about to fall off. Another two maybe three weeks pass with non stop training and I'm getting pretty good. I've disarmed my teacher multiple times and now he's set the rest of the crew against me in sneak attacks. The cabin boy, Joe attacked me at dinner and I quickly took him down. The cook attacked me in the middle of the night and I took him down as well. The only one I struggled to defeat was the first mate, Franco. He was tough and experienced and much better at sword play than hand to hand. It took another week before I could even come close to defeating him. We were sparring on the fore deck and he kept asking me questions about home and my family in order to distract me and make me let my guard down, but it only fueled my anger at not being home. When he went in for another strike I caught his sword on mine and feinted left before moving in and striking right. I disarmed him and held him at duel sword point. The crew cheered, now finally on my side, and they all patted me on the back. And then the captain appeared again and called Franco to his quarters. An hour later Franco reappeared and relayed the captain's instructions to the rest of us. We were about to land on the southern coast of Africa in order to take over a shipment of cocaine and sell it to a new buyer. I don't remember exactly what happened except for the fact that Joe the cabin boy and Franco were captured in the battle, and I made the mistake of asking how we were going to rescue them. The captain simply glared at me and told his men that it was time to go. We had what we had come for and he didn't care if we had lost anyone along the way. I told the captain no. I told him I wasn't leaving them behind and he whirled on me furiously, drawing his sword before I had even finished speaking. I dodged to the left and launched a spinning kick at his legs which pulled him off balance, before spinning up behind him and putting my sword to his throat. I said "you kidnapped me. Took me from my home and my family and forced me to work for you. You had me trained and beaten and forced me to find a new family in this crew and I have. And I will not lose my family a second time because of you. So we are staying and we are rescuing Joe and Franco and I don't give a damn what you have to say about it." The rest of the crew had surrounded us and were staring, shocked by how easily I had taken down their leader. I called out for the cook and ordered him to tie up the captain. Then I called for Steve and asked him about the group who had Franco and Joe and if he thought we could take them on our own. He told me they were an African militia group who were bent on destroying a budding new African colony in the north. I don't remember the rest of the details, but I know we were able to rescue Joe and Franco and the crew tried to name me their new captain, but I refused. I told them they should allow Franco to have the honor and he accepted on the condition that I become his first mate and I agreed. Then I had them set sail for home and two and half months of sailing later, I was home.