A Pirates Life for Me

Chapter 2: 

“Hey! I think she’s awake!” A  muffled voice called. 

“ Mrf”

Calypso rolled over on her side in their hammock, her head hurting. Wait, HAMMOCK!? Calypso sat up so fast (which was hard in a hammock) that she got a head rush. Spots danced around her eyes. 

“Hey, you're okay,” the same voice said calmly and gently, as if talking to an injured animal.

“Who are you?” Calypso said with suspicion in her voice as she tried to grab her dagger in her boot. 

“I’m Kai,” the soothing voice replied. 

Calypso’s eyes cleared. She stared at a person with big brown eyes that were almost black, long lashes, a soft flush spreading across the nose bridge, and short, wavy brown hair that lightened to a soft hazel in places. But, despite the soft features on their face, they held the same fierce expression that met Calypso when she looked into a mirror.

“I’m Calypso,” Calypso muttered, her throat surprisingly dry and hoarse. Dry…. “I was in the ocean, how did I get here?”

“I saw you passed out on a piece of driftwood when I was flying on Tsunami doing my daily scouts.” 

“What do you mean flying?” Calypso asked cautiously, her brain finally spinning correctly. 

“Oh! Tsunami’s is my favorite dragon and really, I’m the only one who she will let me ride her.”

“I thought that dragons were hunted to extinction by ‘The Dragon Hunters'?" Calypso questioned, curiosity creeping in at the edges of her voice. 

“Correction: dragons were almost hunted to extinction. We shelter the last species on this island.” Kai spoke, their bubbly energy coming back after the darkened look in their eyes when Calypso mentioned ‘The Dragon Hunters’. “Come on, I’ll give you a tour of the island.” 

Kai reached out their hand out to Calypso, urging her to get out of her hammock. 

“Okay,” Calypso replied, her brain still stuck on the fact the dragons still existed. Both humans walked out of the hut. Calypso squinted, her eyes adjusting to the bright light of the sun after the dark hut. 

SQUACK!!!! 

Neon purple birds scattered from somewhere beyond a couple yards of trees and vines. Kai rolled their eyes and smiled.

“Those idiots are probably causing chaos again. I've got to go and check to make sure no one died. You'd better come along as well, 'cause if you're going to stay on this island for a bit, you're going to have to get used to the mayhem caused by these 4.” 

Kai brushed aside a curtain of vines to a clearing that showed probably the strangest sight Calypso had ever seen; two pink sparkly pink dragons--one spewing out rainbows and the other breathing out laughing gas--with two boys in clothing that matched the dragons scales perfectly, as if it was a matching set. They were playing some sort of monkey in the middle type of game, and both boys were laughing, so carefree, it made Calypso’s heart feel heavy.

“The dirty blond boy is called Orin, and his dragon is called Emmett.” Kai pointed their finger to the boy flying on the dragon who was breathing out laughing gas. 

“The brunette boy is called Ben, his dragon is named Abe.” Kai moved their hand so that it pointed to the boy who was now free-falling and landing on the dragon who spewed out rainbows.

“HEY!” Kai yelled out, and then whistled such a high note that both the boys and the dragons snapped around to look at Kai. Kai made a hand signal that looked very similar to a salute. 

Ben and Orin commanded their dragons to fly toward Kai. When they reached them, Orin slipped off of his dragon, tripping on a gnarled root on the ground and Ben fell backwards to land in a pile of limbs on the light green grass.

"I would like a full report from your morning scout,” Kai asked them as they brushed themselves off while they stood up from the ground. 

Calypso moved silently to the shadows of the trees, watching both walking chaos storms from afar, wondering if she could trust them. Both boys looked at each other. Calypso’s eyes scanned their faces trying to read them. What Calypso got from her quick scan was that the boys' expressions were drained from the look of joy and mischief and transformed into one that held fear and guilt. Calypso started to wonder about what the duo must have found, but with what she just witnessed it could have been anything.

“Well?” Kai asked expectantly, using the same tone that an older sibling used on her younger siblings.

"We were doing our usual scouting around the North and East of the island, and then our dragons jerked their heads and were growling at something in the distance,” Ben started. 

“Since we know dragons have more heightened senses than humans, we decided to trust them and let them fly us to whatever made them worry," Orin continued. 

“So as we got closer to the thing that made our dragons alert--which they never are--we saw that there was a ship which  got blown up by the looks of it, the biggest shell we have ever seen. We circled around a couple times and saw that about 4 young women all huddled on a large piece of stray wood.” Ben finished, staying silent to let all the information sink in. 

“My crew,” Calypso gasped . Ben and Orin’s heads snapped around until the voice realized that someone else was with them. 

“Don’t worry, she’s a rescue from sea, and it seems like, from the same ship of the rescues you guys found.” Kai explained noticing the confused expressions on both boys' faces.

“Can I see them?” Calypso asked, eyes filled with a plea. 

“Yeah, sure, they are probably in the healing center in the main village of the island, you can ride on Tsunami with me,” Kai replied.

. . . .

When everybody landed, Kai led Calypso to a hut that had a canopy of straw on the top. Kai opened the door and led Calypso inside. Calypso gasped with relief. It was her crew all huddled up together. She could see no one missing. Robin stirred and woke up, her eyes landing on Calypso. 

“C?” Robin whispered. 

Chapter 1:

Whoosh!!!

The ocean sprayed the crew as the ship sliced through the waves, bouncing up and down like a roller coaster. 

“Aye, Cap, the day is as clear as glass,” Luna called, perched up on the bird’s nest. Her white hair shimmered in the sunlight, blue eyes mirroring the ocean below, with a royal blue and gold telescope in her hand. It was a gift from Calypso’s mother, A.K.A. the greatest pirate that ever lived: Captain Star. 

“Aye, be careful up there! The wind is pretty strong!” Calypso said with playfulness in her tone and humor in her ice blue and dark brown eyes.

“Aye aye, Cap! Whoa, Whoa, Wh- Oof!” 

The strong wind blew Luna off of the bird's nest and she toppled into the cloth of the sail. 

“At least that means that we won't have to row today,” Adena said with laughter in her voice. Her dark brown curls bounced around matching her warm chocolate brown eyes. 

“I guess  my sacrifice is worth it then!” Luna said, crawling out from the sail cloth, her silver hair all messy. 

It brought back Calypso memories when her mothers crew talked like this. Calypso sighed with a little bit of grief.It had been a couple of years since Captain Star went out to sea and never returned. Most people assumed that she was dead, but Calypso still clung on to the hope that she would see her mother again someday.Until then, Calypso stayed in charge of her ship. 

“Umm, Cap,” Adena said with fear. Her fearful eyes were fixed on something in the distance. “I think that I see the Dragon Hunters.” 

The Dragon Hunters were indeed dragon hunters, of whichCalypso's mother hated. They were also the meanest and most brutal pirates in the age. 

“Don’t worry, I'm sure they haven't even seen us,” Calypso said, her voice faltering ever so slightly. 

BOOOMMM!!

The canon replied in answer. 

CRASSSSSHHHHH!!!!! 

The cannonball crashed right into the deck. 

“Robin, can you check the ship for any critical damage?” Calypso called down under the deck, already seeing a bright red head running to the crash scene.

“Already on it, C!”

“Adena, start firing the cannons. Only use the shells if absolutely needed!”

“Clover!” Calypso called over the loud shot of the cannon.

“Yes, Calypso?” A short curly brown head popped out from under the deck. 

“Make sure that all the medical supplies are safe!” Calypso yelled over the booming cannons. 

“On it!”

Calypso turned her gaze back onto the approaching ship; close enough to now see the crew but far enough to not see the name of the ship that was engraved in pure gold on the front of the bow. ‘We still have time,’ Calypso told herself. She ran to help Adena with the cannon then all of a sudden the cannons stopped coming from “ The Dragon Hunters”; they stopped moving altogether, it was like they just disappeared. 

“Alright crew, we still need to keep our guard up. This might be a trick” Calypso called out to the whole ship, suspicion in her voice. The crew worked around the ship to repair any critical damage. BOOOOOOMMM!!!!!!!!! All the crew's heads whipped around just in time to see the biggest shell they have ever seen flying towards them. No one had any time to react before it exploded, making everyone get thrown back into the ocean and  turning Calypso’s ship into a pile of splinters.

“Ooof” Calypso grunted as she fell back, her eyes starting to blur. The last thing that she remembered was the feeling of the warm ocean water wrapping her skin and then everything went black.