SHIP WRECK part 2

Copyright (c) 2020 by Randall R. Peterson ALL RIGHTS RESERVED This is a work of fiction. All persons, locations and actions are from the author's imagination or have been used in a fictitious manner.

SISTERS OF THE SEA

SHIP WRECK

Part 2

By R. Peterson

Jagged rocks and coral rose above the waves as Polly, Maggie and two others managed to navigate through the storm and bring the lifeboat to shore. They were wet, cold and exhausted. If the wind and rain hadn’t kept pushing, the women would not have endured.

 Captain Loretta DuPont lay in the boat’s bottom … delirious and suffering from a head injury. Just before they reached the sand, the battered Sea Witch, behind them, listed to starboard, broke apart and sank. Everyone gasped at the sight, but they were too broken themselves to stare for long. Only a fragmented-mast and torn-rigging showed above the churning water. The dense fog that had plagued the women pirates appeared to be lifting and the Island they were on looked large … perhaps even habitable.

Two more lifeboats appeared farther down the beach with a small cluster of ragged and shivering women huddled around each one. One of the boats was still partly in the water and had a jagged hole near the bow.

None of the women seemed surprised to see a wet, near naked and ravaged Fiorella moaning on the sand like a beached whale. “Looks like our captain’s handmaid got her kiss,” Polly mused. “But it wasn’t Davey Jones … perhaps Neptune had pity for her broken-heart and decided not to taste her with his fork!”

While Maggie and the two rowers carried the captain onto the beach, Polly grabbed the bottle Maggie had found bobbing in the surf from the bottom of the boat and removed the cork. “What a festivity!” She laughed. Polly lifted and pressed the bottle against her lips. Her tongue desperately searched for a last drop of rum as she staggered onto the sand. With her hair wet and her clothes dripping she looked like an abandoned child. “But now me thinks … I might be sick!” She threw the empty bottle toward a pile of tide stones. It didn’t break, and she fell to her knees and gagged.

-------2-------

                Loretta was the first concern when the women found each other. They decided she must have a concussion. Fiorella bandaged her captain’s head with strips of her petticoat.

“Does anyone know where we are?” Polly asked.

                “Somewhere west of Madagascar and east of Africa,” Maggie told her. “All my maps went to the bottom along with the ship’s clock.”

                “Not too bad,” Polly said. “I thought this might be hell.”

 They decided what they needed first was shelter. Of the forty-four so far only twenty-three had survived the shipwreck and re-grouped. Some of the women were crying … most were in shock. Fiorella amazed everyone by pulling the metatarsal telescope from the top of her blouse. “You didn’t think I’d let our treasure go to the bottom did you?”

                “There was a king’s ransom in gold in two chests in the hold,” Polly vowed as she stared at the broken mast swaying in the distance. “If this storm ever breaks, I’ll show you why my papa said I was half fish!”

Fiorella was scanning the island. The telescope swept along the coast line, then swung back to linger on a cliff high above them. “It looks like a cave up there but we’ll never reach it from this side,” she said. “It’s time to move inland!”

They pulled the boats off the sand and hid them then they used oars and torn canvas to make a litter for their captain.

 “What’s wrong with spending the night here?” Maggie asked as they looked for a path in the jungle.

                “Yes! What if more of us show up?” Renny was still scanning the beach looking for her sister.

                “We’ll be able to see most of the island from up there,” Fiorella told them. “If any show up we’ll fetch them.

“That ship-of-the-line that crushed our stern, might think we’re a bit of fun.” Maggie agreed. “We don’t want to make our capture too easy!”

                “Let’s hope our enemies hurry,” Polly moaned as she slapped at a mosquito. “I’d rather hang in London than be eaten alive by Madagascar’s restless natives!”

-------3-------

                Two long hours later, they stopped by a fast moving stream and decided to rest. The cave near the top of the cliff was reachable from the jungle side and there was even a kind of rugged path leading to it.

A monkey scrambled up a tree. A bunch of them chattered, and seconds, later Renny was hit with a coconut. Polly chased the apes away with some well thrown rocks.

They placed Loretta in the shade and several of the ladies soaked their feet. The water held tiny vibrant colored fish that none had seen before. The mosquitoes were still feeding.

                “What kinds of beasts take shelter in caves?” Maggie asked as she looked closely at the ground.

                “Bears, lions and pirates without ships,” Polly suggested as she splashed water on her swollen arms and face.

                “These aren’t no cat or bear tracks,” Maggie said as her eyes grew wide. “I’ve never seen anything like them!”

They gathered around. None of the women had. The clawed monster that left the prints looked as large as an elephant. A grieving Renny was summoned; her sister Penny hadn’t yet made it to shore. “We’ve got two problems,” she told them as she studied the print’s depth. “Whatever horrible creature made these marks … weighs close to half a ton!”

                “I hope it’s a turkey,” Polly stammered. “What’s the second problem?”

                “The storm is coming back!” Fiorella wailed. She raised her arms and as if dark clouds had been hiding and listening … it began to rain buckets.

                “Let’s hope that whatever this beast is … it likes to cuddle,” Polly told them as they ran and splashed toward the cave.

--------4--------

                “No way am I going in that door to hell without a light!” Renny shivered. The women were once again wet and cold as they shivered next to the huge hole in the cliff side. At least the rain had stopped, for a moment. Fiorella scanned the beach and the coast with her telescope.

                “Whatever we do we must do it fast!” The ship’s navigator pointed.  The British man-of-war could be seen cruising just beyond the breakers.

                “I’ve been wanting to do this for years,” Maggie told them as she removed her blouse tore it into strips and wrapped the cloth around the end of a stick. One of the girls from the boats had matches. The first two were wet … but the third flamed.

                “After you!” a near top-naked Maggie suggested as she looked at Loretta’s former handmaid.

                “Me?” I’m not the leader of this wretched, variegated crew,” Fiorella grumbled, but as she advanced cautiously into the cave and the rest followed.

The cavern wasn’t as large as they had first suspected and Polly’s humor returned when the cave appeared to be empty. “The largest and most beautiful always leads the way,” she said. “That way … while she is being eaten the others can escape.”

Several women laughed.  Fiorella stopped and looked more terrified than ever. Polly shook her head. “Really Fiora! Don’t you know I’m jesting?”

An ungodly moan came from the gloom that made everyone’s hair bristle. Fiorella pointed and the others stared. A pair of too-large, menacing eyes blinked in the darkness at the back of the cave. Someone screamed. The thing towered at least four feet above their heads. The cavern floor shook and small round stones fell from the ceiling and rolled in all directions.

It was coming!

TO BE CONTINUED …