I stood there staring at Red, through the cell door, who looked more dead than alive, and at the pirate laying on the deck. “Did you kill him?” I whispered. Neither one of them gave an answer. I walked over to where the pirate lay and dragged him away from the door. Moving to the cell door, I tried banging on it. It wasn’t impressed. “Where’s the key?” I asked Red. He just stood there, swaying on his feet. The red of his fox pelt was stained and it was as ripped and messed up as mine normally was which meant that things weren’t good at all. I asked Red if he knew where the key was in a louder voice, but that just made him cringe and back away from the door. I checked the walls to see if there was a nail or something that it might be hanging on, but didn’t see anything. The pirate let out a low groan, but didn’t move from where I’d dragged him. A thought rose in my muddled mind and I checked around his neck. Sure enough there was a leather thong tied around it with a key on it. I pulled the thong off his neck and tried to put the key in the keyhole of the cell door.
I was so nervous, I was babbling to myself and it took me a moment to realize that the reason the key wouldn’t fit was because I was trying to put it in upside down. “Way to go. It’s a wonder you can find your hands at the ends of your arms,” I muttered to myself as I slotted the key in the lock, this time in the right direction. I turned the lock and then removed the key and placed it in my pocket. I was pretty sure it might come in useful later. The door screeched as I pulled it open and I held my breath again, waiting for someone to come and demand what was going on. I looked down the passage towards the galley, but didn’t see anyone in that direction. The light was still bad enough that half The Jolly Roger’s crew could have been hidden beyond the dim light, but some things ya just have to take on faith. I entered the cell and looked down at where Red had collapsed on the floor. “Are you okay?” I asked which was probably something that would get me the dumbest question in the world award.
“Cubby? It is you, right? I thought I was dreamin.”
“It must’ve been a nightmare, then. Can you stand up?”
He looked around the cell as if he was seeing it for the first time and then looked up at me. “Yeah, I think so. They wanted to make sure I could walk the plank I guess. Give me a hand.” I held out my hand and pulled him carefully to his feet. He stood there swaying for a minute before steadying himself. “You got anything to eat?” I started digging through pockets before remembering that I was wearing pirate garb and not my own pelt.
“No, but maybe I could find something,” I said doubtfully. The last thing I wanted to do was to try and find something to eat even though I knew where the galley was.
Red gave a weak chuckle. “We should probably skip it for now, Furball.” He squinted an eye at me as he looked at me. “Have you gained weight?”
“What?” I demanded as quietly as possible. “I come to rescue you and you ask if I’ve gained weight? What kind of a dumb question is that?”
Red smirked as much as was possible. “I owed you that for the bedbug incident.” He stared at me another moment and looked as though he was either crying or laughing. “What happened to your hair?” I knew when he asked, it was laughter he was trying to cover.”
“Shouldn’t we be trying to get out of here before someone figures out what’s going on?” I wasn’t in any mood to discuss my lack of hair. I was pretty sure that Leo was going to have to pay for that somehow since it didn’t really need to have been done.
Red’s smirk vanished, and for a moment I wished I hadn’t brought it up, but he recovered quickly. “Right you are, Cubbs.” He took a step, faltered and then took another, stronger one. I breathed a sigh of relief as he made it through the doorway, more steady than not.
“Here, take this,” I said as I pulled the cutlass from its scabbard and managed to cut one of my fingers with it as I handed it to him. Red took it and shook his head at my clumsiness, but the grin he gave was worth it. “When I came on board everyone was at the front of the ship. We can leave from the stern and be gone before anyone notices.”
He nodded. “Is that where the rowboat’s at?”
“We ain’t got one because Leo figured they’d be expecting that. We’re going to fly. I got some pixie dust.” I left out that it had taken me a lot more than it was supposed to and that I didn’t know if we had enough to get back. Red gave a shrug.
“That’ll work. Be lots quieter than trying to drop into a rowboat. I’m not sure I could climb down a rope anyway.” He turned and started towards the hatch ladder with me behind. I hadn’t made it more than a few steps when something grabbed the arm I was holding the wooden sword with. I’m ashamed to say I let out a yelp as I turned to see what had grabbed me. It was the pirate that was supposed to have been unconscious. I heard Red turn around as I tried to yank my arm away from the pirate. I didn’t want him and the pirate tangling and tried yanking harder. That didn’t have any effect and I saw the pirate raising his other arm. I didn’t know if he had the dagger or anything else in it,but I really didn’t want to find out the hard way. I grabbed my held arm with my other and pulled it to my mouth and bit the pirate. Those who don’t think I bathe enough should discuss pirates. I was pretty sure he hadn’t bathed in a couple of years.
The pirate let go of my arm and let out a roar. I swung the wooden sword at his head and managed to connect. The pirate’s eyes rolled back up into his head and he collapsed to the deck once more. He was still breathing, so I didn’t think the wound would kill him.
“Good job, Furball. Now let’s get the heck out of here.” There was nothing I wanted to do more and followed him to the deck above. The mist that had been around when I’d gone below was fading away and it looked as though the horizon was getting lighter.
“We gotta hurry,” I said as we approached the stern rail. We both skidded to a stop. From above us there was a yell. “Prisoner at the stern.”
“That can’t be good,” I muttered.
“Maybe they’ll think you’re a pirate and you’re taking me somewhere.”
“He’s escaping,” the pirate from above decided to add.
“Maybe they won’t,” I said, fumbling through my pockets trying to get the rest of the pixie dust out. I couldn’t get the first bag open and ended up ripping it with my teeth. I accidentally swallowed a little of the pixie dust and immediately started burping. “Here,” I said, as I flung the dust over him. Behind us the murmur of angry voices was growing. I got the next bag open without resorting to my teeth and flung the contents over him. He sneezed, covering me in spit. “Think of a happy thought,” I yelled. The sound of slapping feet were approaching quickly.
“I’m trying. I’m trying. It ain’t easy.” I was panicked because Red was panicked. I remembered what Stumble had told me.
“Pie fight,” I yelled at Red. “Naw, food fight!” There was no reaction. “Food fight!” I yelled again at the top of my voice. I almost laughed out loud at the looks of confusion from the pirates as they slowed to a stop, suspecting some sort of trap. Red’s feet rose an inch off the deck and came to a full and complete stop. “Aw, c’mon.” The pirates, seeing that I hadn’t unleashed some sort of terrible weapon, had started moving forward again but slowly as if suspecting some sort of trap.
Red shook his head, the humor going out of his face. “It ain’t no good. You go on, I’ll catch up.”
“Yeah, that’s going to happen after all this,” I said to myself. I shredded the last bag and dumped it over Red then took a step forward making sure one paw was in front of the other causing me to go sprawling on deck. I could see the gold ring around a pirate’s toe it was so close.
Behind me Red burst out in renewed laughter. “It’s working, it’s working You did it.”
“Blueberries, blueberries, blueberries,” I yelled. I rose from the deck sluggishly and came close to crying with relief. I felt the whistle of wind as one of the pirates took a swing at where my head had been with his sword. I heard a solid thunk as the sword hit the deck. I was halfway over the rail as I started sinking. I didn’t have enough pixie dust to get me flying again. I closed my eyes, waiting to feel a ton of pain when I was suddenly yanked into the air. I opened my eyes and looked up to see Red above me. “Out to sea and then head around so they can’t shoot cannon at us,” I said as we headed out into the lightening dark.
Red followed my instructions and we quickly left The Jolly Roger behind. I was just above the water and was getting my face slapped about every third wave. I kept thinking my happy thought as hard as I could and suddenly thought of something. “You’re holding me up by my pelt tail, aint’ you?” I asked.
“It’s the only way I can keep us both in the air.”
“Aw, great. I’m never going to hear the end of this. Stumble is going to have a field day when he finds this out.” The wind was favorable and we made excellent time as we headed towards the horizon that was just becoming the faintest of light around the edge where sky met sea. As The Jolly Roger disappeared behind us, the wind changed and drifted us around in a huge curve before blowing back towards the Island. The way the wind acted, it would have been impossible for us not to have lost our way this time. Not that the attempt wasn’t made, but the breeze was insistent on carrying us in the right direction for which I was extremely thankful. The sea below us became sand and then dirt as we were gently deposited on the Island by the breeze. It sounds corny to put it that way, but it’s the only way to describe it. Even stranger was the fact that as Red and I approached the tree line, the rest of the guys popped up. Red let go of my pelt tail and I belly-flopped onto the ground. At least I didn’t have to worry about landing this time.
“The trees told us where to find you,” Roo answered distractedly when I asked aloud how they’d found us. “He’s been beat up pretty bad,” he continued after examining Red, “but he shouldn’t have any problems.”
“Is he going to be okay?” I asked, spitting sand out of my mouth.
“How should I know? Probably, but for all I know a tree could fall on him on our way back or a bunch of bees could sting him to death. If you mean will he be okay from the beatings he got, then yeah. Maybe.”
“Maybe? But what if he’s not?” I asked, almost pleading. It wasn’t something I normally did.
“Forget it, Dragonbait. Even you should know by now you can’t ask that question. It’d be helpful if you had something other than sawdust in your head.”
I nodded at Stumble in agreement and grinned since the fact he was insulting me meant that everything was okay for now.
