Chapter 22: Deal or No Deal




For a little while Lily watched the boy sitting there in HER seat behind HER desk, just out of sheer curiosity. Her vision was a little blurry, though it wasn't helping with the fact that her eyes were almost completely closed and she was simply peering at him through her lashes. Breathing softly and deeply, she moved her injured arm extremely slowly so as not to alert him to her movements, and she rolled onto her side to continue to watch. Eventually she opened her blue-grey eyes completely. But it didn't last long. She was quite tired. With one cheek mushed up against the pillow, she let her lids flutter closed again before she spoke, her voice muffled a little.

"For a kid who claims he isn't a sailor, you've certainly got a dirty mouth on you."

Marty gave a yelp of surprise, having not known she was awake. It caused him to toss the book clean out of his hands and onto the floor.

"Pick it up." she muttered, almost at the point where she was ready to drool upon her own pillow.

"How long have you been awake?" he was almost afraid to ask.

"The entire time."


Oopsie.



Strangely enough, she didn't seem that angry at him despite the fact she'd heard him conspiring with the others. He was sure that'd change in the morning when the alcohol wore off and the hangover kicked in.

"Go get me some bandages. My arm is killing me." she grunted, her speech slurred. Though not to the point it had been while she was joking around on deck. She'd exaggerated it a little to see what he'd say or do. Although a little confused, Marty did what she asked, and ended up helping her wrap her elbow tightly in that crooked position.

"What-...?" he didn't get to finish.

"Dislocated."

Fair enough. He wasn't surprised with the force of the sudden stop she'd been brought to when that guy had caught her. They seemed to be at an understanding that he wasn't to tell anyone of her injury though, so Lily made no mention of it as she sat there. Getting up, the first mate staggered over to a small door to the left of the fireplace and mantlepiece, and pulled out a large black coat with a golden trim and some fancy toggles on it. When she put it on to hide the bandages, he could clearly see that it wasn't made for her, but rather a man. Perhaps she'd stolen it. It looked good for cold nights. Coming back to the bed, Lily stiffly laid back down with a groan, settling her arm into place. Everything just ached. Mostly her elbow, back and side though.

"Got any other injuries I should know about?" Marty asked hesitantly, fiddling with a stray piece of cotton on the roughly-sewn sleeve of his shirt.

Rolling onto her laft side to face the wall, she closed her eyes once more. "Everything. Just...everywhere hurts. Pain." she mumbled into her pillow once more.

For a while, Marty sat there attempting to weigh up whether it was more likely that she'd accept a backrub as his attempt at sucking up to her, or whether she'd be more likely to cut his hands off, doing one knuckle at a time to prolong the pain. Sometimes it was best to ask, and sometimes it was best to do. But which one would be better in this situation? Lily wasn't really the type - or so he thought - that liked to talk about things.

Coin flip.

Heads; he asked. Tails; he did. Taking out the coins he'd won, Marty flipped one into the air and caught it, turning it over onto the back of his palm. He gave a sigh, and putting them into his ditty bag around his waist, he approached her as if she was some kind of dangerous animal. Reaching out, he almost retracted his hands. He could hear his brother. 'Grow a spine, idiot', he'd say. Shaking his head, he lowered his hands to Lily's shoulders. She gave a bit of a start, and looked over at him, her eyes barely open.

"Figured you could use a backrub." he attempted to explain his actions, and was rewarded with a grunt before she laid her head back down and just accepted it, despite the fact she hated people touching her. It was hard going due to the thick coat and the leather buckles on her shoulders, so he pulled the former down a little and slid his hands in under the warm red leather.


It didn't take long at all to lull her into a deep sleep.



Come morning, Marty had found himself sprawled himself out on the top bunk, one arm dangling over the edge as he laid there face down on the pillow in a puddle of drool. It was certainly better than sleeping in the hammock, and he'd made a mental note to ask Lily when she was sober and not in a bad mood if he could sleep in here instead. It was so much more comfortable. Hearing a grumble from the bottom bunk, he knew that she was awake. Raising his head, he rubbed the saliva off his face and cautiously peered over the edge of the bunk. She laid there for a long while with her good arm over her face. God damn her head hurt. She'd just about sell her soul to Davy Jones if it meant some relief from the throbbing in her head.

"Want some water?"

Water would be quite spendid in helping to-...Wait, what? Peeking one eye open, she moved her arm a little to see the non-hungover face of Marty looking down at her.

"Ugh. What are you doing here, scut? You're lucky I don't..." she trailed off and gave a groan. "...have the energy to even finish that threat, let alone beat you." taking her arm off her eyes, she flopped it back out to the side and struggled to sit up. At seeing the cup of water being waved in front of her, she readily accepted it, downing the contents to hopefully get rid of the taste left in her mouth. At least she rarely got the nausea anymore.

Standing up on a rolling ship, however, was a different story altogether. With her head spinning, she ended up dropping back down onto the lower bunk with a moan. Marty had no problems climbing down and wandering off to get her some more water. He knew she needed it, and probably wanted it too. It didn't take long for her to gulp down the contents of that tankard as well.

"How bright is it out there?"

"Uhh...Its about the same as it is every other day. You guys need to hurry up and invent sunglasses. It'd do you a world of good. I think a bunch of pirates walking around in designer sunglasses would be a bit of a fashion statement. Those Prada ones I saw the other day would probably suit you, though." he pondered. "Maybe even Gucci. Yeah. Gucci would be way better for you. Oh my god. I've been hanging out with women too long."

"Ugh. Stop talking so fast. I don't even know what a Goochim is." Lily placed her hands over her eyes and lowered her head so it was resting on her knees.

"Gucci." he corrected.

"I don't care. Get out of here, you mongrel brat." She didn't look very happy, or in the mood to talk about fashion.

"Okay, okay. I'm going. And just so you know, breakfast has started."

"WHAT?! Why didn't you wake me up, idiot?!" Lily growled at him and jumped up. Bad idea. Teetering for a moment, she dug her talons into Marty's shoulder for balance before pushing him away and stumbling out onto the deck. Following her closely as she walked around practically covering her eyes, they soon found themselves in the comforting darkness of the mess hall.

"Out of my seat, oaf." she ordered, barely even all the way down the stairs yet. The man moved from her seat at the head of the table, but all fell silent and stopped eating when they saw what she was wearing. That coat. Gulping down what was left in their mouths, some stared at her pale faced. Marty wondered what was wrong as he took a seat between Cannonball and one of the others. Something was going on. Marty had one perspective on it, and the priates had a completely different one.

Lily simply laid her head upon her arm tiredly, and tossed the plate down the other end of the table. "Fill it up. I'm starving." the order was done in complete silence and without question before it was hastily passed back up to the first mate. When Blackheart and Dougal came down the stairs to join in on the meal, even they eyed the woman warily, looking a little rattled.

"What's going on?" Marty whispered, nudging the master gunner next to him. Cannonball just shook his head and raised a finger to his lips to tell him to be quiet.

Finally raising her head and looking a little worse for wear, she dragged the plate towards herself and went to grab her dagger. Patting around under the coat with squinted eyes, she leaned back and opened it up.

"Hm. I seem to have misplaced my pointy things."

Shrugging it off, she dropped the lapels of the coat and feigned a yawn, spreading her arms out wide. And within an instant, she'd snatched a dagger off the man sitting next to her. It already had a piece of meat speared to it. Their food was nearly spoiled, but they ate it anyway. That was why they were sitting in the dark. The hard tack tended to have weevils, and the meat was often crawling with maggots. But it was better than nothing. So they just ate without looking.

Sticking it in her mouth, Lily chewed upon it, practically with a sneer as she lowered her injured arm to her lap. Up at the other end of the table, Blackheart and Dougal watched the first mate suspiciously. She was awkwardly eating with her left hand this time, which was a little different. Nobody else seemed to notice though. Maybe she was too hungover to care what arm she was using.

Lily yawned again before she raised one of the hard, long-lasting biscuits to her mouth and bit down into it, snapping a piece off to chew on. "Ugh. This stuff is horrible after you've been drinking." she gave an unhappy gurgle and then spat it back out on the plate.

"Yeah, tell me about it." there was a murmur of agreement around the table, but they kept eating anyway. Pushing the plate away, they knew that was cue that they could have what was on it, and the remains were distributed among whoever got to the pickings with their dagger first.

Pouring herself some of the beer instead, which was of a better quality than the bitter, salty water, Lily slurped that down. The best cure for a hangover was more alcohol, in the opinion of a pirate.

"Hey giglet," she insulted Marty once more to the amusement of the others around the table. "Go find my..." she trailed off, gesturing to her torso. "Strappy...knife...things." God, she couldn't even think properly anymore.

Forcing down the last of the vile tasting food, Marty squeezed out of the small space behind them and ascended the stairs to go and grab Lily's sword and the assortment of daggers. She followed him out, as there was no way she was taking off her coat there and showing them her banged up arm in the bandage. Marty ended up helping her to get the heavy garment off the stiff limb, and he even went so far as to buckle it all up for her before the coat was put back on.

"Oh yes, Tortuga seems to be the perfect place for you. Do you spend a lot of time dressing and undressing women?" she teased. "You seem to be awfully good at it for someone so young."

Marty just rolled his eyes. "Ha ha." he sarcastically replied.

"Come on. You are going to row the boat, since I can't. It'll be a good arm-strengthening technique for you."

"Why? Where are we going?"

"I'm going to trade with the locals. You're going to be the solution to the argument as to why they should trade. And the oar boy, of course." she smirked, still not quite used to the sunlight.

After she got one of the still rather drunk crew members to help Marty lower the boat into the water, she borrowed the man's flintlock pistol and stuck it into the belt at her waist. Just in case she needed to use a noisemaker to scare them.

Once in the boat, it took him a little while to get the hang of how the oars moved, and so she took that time to settle herself into a comfortable position lounging across the thwarts that one could sit on. Pulling her headband down over her eyes, she then laid back, crossing her ankles and interlacing her fingers across her stomach, relaxing.

Upon reaching the shore, she hopped out into the surf that swirled around her ankles, and they dragged the rowboat up onto the beach so that it wouldnh't be swept away when the tide came in.

"First rule of pirating when you come onto land: Survey your target, even if you think that you know them." she informed him, leading him up the beach and closer to the trees. "Helps get the mood of the village, and whether you should approach or not."

"Just out of curiosity, what exactly are we trading?"

Lily looked down at him. "What, don't trust me?" she smirked a little. "I can be very persuasive when I want to be." ruffling his hair, she then stalked out into the village with Marty close behind.

It didn't take long for the word of pirates to spread around, and it wasn't long before they were being warily watched by the village warriors. Tyler and the two girls looked on, not quite sure what was going on, and why Lily was there with Marty and nobody else.

"Now now. Put your sticks down. For once I'm not here to cause trouble." Lily held her left hand up in surrender, the right one resting in the crook of her dagger and body.

"Then why are you here, pirate?" Sol asked, gritting his teeth angrily.

"Oooh. Cold. I'm glad I wore this coat." she sneered, giving a mock shiver. "I'm here for a trade."

"What kind of a trade?" he asked suspiciously. Tyler, Kirra and Alison soon wandered over, eager to hear what the deal was. Up this close, they could most definately smell the rum and see that she was still a little bit unsteady on her feet. Upon closer inspection, one could see even past the heavy eye makeup that she hadn't slept most of the night.

"You give me enough of that wild boar there, as well as some fresh fruit, and I won't kill this little runt and all your people." she smiled with a false sweetness as she ruffled Marty's hair.

"Lily?!" the boy exclaimed, looking up at her in protest.

She raised a brow at him. "Fine, fine. I'll sweeten the deal. I'll give you all a half share in whatever treasure we find." Sol crossed his arms over his chest with a frown, showing that he still wasn't happy with her offer.

"No deal."

"You're a hard man to bargain with." she smirked. "Ooh. I know. I've got it..." they leaned forward to hear what the obviously hungover pirate had to say.


"I'll get rid of Blackheart for you."





"Deal."

Want to comment on this Short Stories? Sign up to Edit Red and you will be able to comment on Short Stories and get access to: Upload your own stories and poems, get readers and their feedback, promote your work...