Mysterious Destiny Bright Lights and Thunder Part II by D. J. Holmes
“Ah, not only are you a good swordsman, you are smart also.”
“That’s what Snow Flower tells me all the time,” Blue Cloud says with a hidden smile.
Soon they are close to the shore. Just before they exit their boat, landing in shin high water, Diana looks at Marie and says, “Take a breath to clear the fear from your face. Walk with your head held high…walk like you are a queen and these people are your servants…don’t let any of them shake your confidence… We will both walk like a King and Queen.” Confidence begins to show in her face. Looking back at her again, Diana comments, “That’s good Marie…we want them to know that we are not afraid of them.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“You’ll be fine. Just never leave my side, unless I tell you to, and Blue Cloud, maybe you should walk behind Marie and just in front of me so that they won’t see your foot prints in the sand.”
“…Great idea!”
Walking into the gathering hall of Ocracoke, the atmosphere is quite different from New Providence and Port Royal. Everyone is busy doing their own thing, and no one seems to notice that they entered the establishment.
Walking to the far side of the room Diana sees an empty table. Putting her hand on Marie’s shoulder she motions for them to sit at that specific table.
Sitting down, Diana leans back on her chair, and puts her feet up on the table, while Blue Cloud stands in anonymity behind her. A woman walks over to their table. “Can I get you anything?”
“Just some water, please…for the both of us,” Marie states.
“Water?” she asks with a weird look on her face.
“Yes,” Marie repeats, “water will be fine. Thank you.”
Within a short time she returns with two glasses of water.”
“Is there anything else that I can get for you?”
“Just some information…”
“What would you like to know?”
“We are looking for Black Beard. Do you know anything about him?”
“I don’t, but…” looking across the hall and at the bar, pointing her index finger, she says, “that gentleman knows him quite well.”
“Would you mind asking him if he has time to talk to us?”
“…I’d be glad to, just a minute.”
Walking over to the man at the bar, the bar maid asks him if he will talk with them. He turns around looking directly at Diana and Marie. Diana recognizes his face. Suddenly her mind is going a million miles an hour, retracing how Danielle knocked the guitar player onto the ground in Port Royal. Talking inside her mind she says “HE LOOKS LIKE THE GUITAR PLAYER! TAKE A BREATH… MAYBE I SHOULD TAKE TWO…CALM DOWN, calm down. MMMM, breathe in, breathe out. Oh, my goodness he’s walking our way…” Quickly bending over to whisper into Marie’s ear she says, “Ask him if he plays the guitar. If he does, watch out. If he doesn’t then there won’t be any trouble.”
Wondering what Diana is talking about, Marie does understand that she is trying to make her aware that there might be danger, and she needs to be prepared.
At that moment, he has arrived at their table. “I hear that you want to talk to me about Black Beard.”
“Yes.” Marie begins, “Yes, we do. May I ask you something first?”
“Sure beautiful, I’ll tell you anything.”
Diana takes her feet off of the table and sits up straight, in a warning posture, to let this man know that the way that he is treating Marie is not proper.
“A…I didn’t mean anything by that. I talk that way to all the women,” he says with a smile, looking directly at Diana.
Diana moves closer to him, letting him know that it didn’t matter.
“Ok…simmer down. What did you want to know about Black Beard?”
“We want to know where he is.”
Loudly laughing he then asks, “You want to know where Black Beard is?” Standing up he yells, “THEY WANT TO KNOW WHERE BLACK BEARD IS.” The whole hall is laughing.
Marie quickly asks, “What’s so funny about that?”
Putting his left foot on the seat of the chair next to her, he bends over looking down at Marie. “It’s funny, because he’s where no one can ever reach him…ever again!”
“But, we need to find him. We need to talk to him.”
“Well then, you had better start praying, because that’s the only way that you are ever going to talk to him.”
“Praying?” Looking at Diana, an idea comes into focus in her head. “Are you saying that he is dead?”
“Yes, pretty lady. He’s dead!”
“What happened to his ship?”
“Oh, his crew elected Gray Wolf as their captain.”
“…GRAY WOLF?”
“Yes, he’ll make a great pirate Captain.”
“Isn’t he a little young to be a Captain.”
“…Young? I was his age when I was Captain of my first ship.”
“What is your name?”
“Morgan, Henry Morgan.”
“I think that you were older than eight when you were made a Captain for the first time weren’t you?”
“Lady, I don’t know what Gray Wolf you are talking about…but the Gray Wolf that I know is a young man in his early twenties. Black Beard taught him everything that he knew. And his crew respects him…. Well actually he kept their ship the ‘Queen Anne’s Revenge,’ but he got a new crew as soon as Black Beard died. They are all handpicked, and around his same age.”
“Then do you know where Gray Wolf is?”
“The last thing I heard was that he was heading to Martinique, for some odd reason. I don’t know why he would be going there… it’s only a deserted island.”
“That’s what we’ve heard also,” Marie states.
“Oh, there’s one question that I wanted to ask you in the first place… Do you play the guitar?” Marie questions.
“I do!”
Diana, takes a breath, wondering if he was the one that Danielle knocked over in Port Royal, when he adds, “…EVERYONE HERE DOES.”
“Oh, that’s good to know” Marie smiles, “Thank you for answering our questions.”
“It was nice meeting you.” Looking over at Diana a little strangely, he adds, “Welcome to our Pirate Family, but next time you’re going to have to talk a little. We want everyone to take part in the fun that we have.”
“Thank you sir,” Marie says trying to get his attention so that Diana won’t be made to talk.
Getting up to walk out to their ship, Morgan begins talking again. “Don’t be in such a rush to leave…the night is still young…I’ll buy you a round of drinks.”
“No thank you.”
“No? I want to pay for your drinks,” he insists.
“We don’t allow others to pay our way sir.”
“SIT DOWN. I want to pay for your drinks,” Morgan demands.
“We don’t drink your beverages sir. And we have already had a glass of water. If you will excuse us, we’ll be on our way.”
Looking around the room, Diana notices that all of the other pirates are now looking their way. Sensing danger she quickly stands up, pushes the table over, pulls her sword and puts it to Morgan’s throat.
Looking at Marie, she motions with her head for Marie to start for the door, while she nudges Morgan forward and continues to hold her blade at his throat. Moving toward the door, as soon as they pass the threshold Diana stabs Morgan’s leg, hoping that this will slow everyone down as she and Marie run for their boat.
Once out on the beach, two pirates have caught up with them yelling “No one hurts Morgan and gets away with it,” while drawing their swords.
Several other pirates pull their swords and begin to move toward Marie and Diana. Suddenly one pirate yells, “Hey, you’re supposed to use your sword on them, not on me!” looking at a pirate standing behind him.
“What do you mean? I didn’t do anything.”
“You just hit me with your sword.”
“I didn’t.”
Several other pirates are also feeling the twang of steel on their back sides. “Hey that hurts!”
“Do you think that that’s funny?”
“If you hit me again with your sword, you will never see the light of another day.”
Soon, all of the pirates are fighting with each other on the beach as Marie and Diana, and unbeknownst to them, Blue Cloud, are making their way to their row boat. As soon as their boat is in the water, streaks of light are leaving the ‘Destiny’ and suddenly exploding into the air with sparkles of every color of the rainbow.
“Hurry Diana, hurry, they must be in trouble,” Marie states.
“Move over, let me row the boat,” Blue Cloud commands.
As the light from the colors brighten the sky, making everything visible, the pirates on the beach stop their fighting while they look at the strange sight. Finally, they notice a boat rowing toward the new ship in the harbor. “Look over there, are those oars rowing the boat by themselves?”
“That’s strange. I don’t see anyone sitting by the oars either.”
“It must be too dark to see.”
“What do you mean dark? Look at all the light in the sky…this has been one strange evening; boats rowing themselves, and lights coming from a ship that we have never seen before.”
As Blue Cloud quickly rows back to their ship, they all notice that there are several boats around ‘Destiny.’ On the deck they can see the gleam of the moon reflecting off of each sword as it is poised to hit their opponent’s sword.
Everyone is engrossed in their own duel, yelling, threatening, and maneuvering their position to gain the upper hand, as Blue Cloud, Diana and Marie climb the rope ladder up, and over the railing. No one notices that they have arrived.
“I’ll stay on deck and help Snow Flower.” Blue Cloud laughs… “Now the fun begins…Snow Flower, let’s get in the middle of these guys and have some fun,” he whispers.
“Fight each other?”
“Yes, this should be fun.”
One by one pirates notice the swords in the air fighting each other. Soon other pirates notice their shipmates have stopped fighting and are looking at the ghostly dueling swords.
“Look, those swords are in the middle of the air.”
“How can they be in the middle of the air with no one holding them?”
In the Captain’s Cabin, Diana quickly raises her ship into the air.
“What’s happening here? This ship must be haunted.”
With the fighting stopped, the pirates run over to the railing to see why the ship is moving so strangely. As they get to the railing they notice that the ship is above the water. Looking down to figure out what is happening puts them at a disadvantage as the island sisters push them overboard. Landing in the water the intruding pirates are completely in shock.
Morgan and his pirates on the shore are also in shock, as they see a ship that is above the water and flying in the air.
“…I must have had too much to drink!”
“Me too, this can’t be happening!”
“I’m not going to tell anyone what I just saw,” Morgan spits out, “but you can bet that one day I’ll meet that Pirate, and I’m going to return his favor.” Looking at his mates, he asks “And what is with you guys, fighting amongst yourselves?”
“Morgan, he stuck the point of his sword into my behind.”
“I didn’t.”
“Yea, he did that to me also.”
“I didn’t either.”
“What you are saying then is that there is someone that we can’t see walking around on this island just poking everyone with his sword?”
“No, I’m not saying that Morgan, I’m just saying that I didn’t poke him with MY sword.”
“I just wanted to see what any of you would say, because anyone that thinks that there are invisible people and flying ships are not going to be a part of my team…DO ALL OF YOU HEAR THAT?”
“Yes Sir.”
“I CAN’T HEAR YOU!”
“YES SIRRRR!”
“Now that’s more like it. Let’s get back to what we were doing before they came.”
“Yes, Captain.”
On board the ‘Destiny’ as they fly from their harrowing experience at Ocracoke, Diana asks Marie to go and see how everyone is. Walking over to Jaimie and Snow Flower who have taken charge of caring for everyone’s wounds, Marie states, “Diana wants to know how everyone is.”
“There are no life threatening injuries, but Danielle is hurt the worst. While you are here Marie, would you please get us some clean water and bandages?”
“Yes, do you need anything else?”
“Just your help when you return.”
“I’ll hurry.”
“Danielle, this is a bad one,” Snow Flower states.
“You didn’t see the wounds I inflicted on the ones I was fighting with, did you?”
“I can only imagine…”
Looking over at Jaimie, she can see that all of the rest of the island sisters only have minor wounds”
“Danielle. Why are your wounds so bad compared to your sisters?”
Kristen answers for her, “Danielle was fighting with two at a time.”
“Well, you now know why she is called the ‘Island Warrior,’” Jaimie states as she looks in her direction.
As soon as everyone is bandaged, Jaimie, Snow Flower and Blue Cloud go to the Captain’s Cabin to talk to Diana. “Diana, everyone is bandaged up.”
“Thank you. I’m so glad that you all have that knowledge.”
“When did they board the ship Jaimie.”
“…Shortly after you and Marie entered the meeting hall.”
“Oh… so that is why Morgan was so nice to us. He wanted to keep us in the hall as long as he could.”
“What did you find out about Black Beard?”
“He’s dead, Jaimie.”
“…Dead? So what are we going to do now?”
“Guess who their captain is?”
“Who…”
“…Gray Wolf.”
“…The same little boy that told Black Beard about father’s ship?”
“Well, to be perfectly honest I don’t really know. Morgan said that he wasn’t a little boy, that he was a young man in his early twenties.”
“That means that he would be around our age.”
“…Right. The thing that I am worried about though is that Morgan said that he is on his way to Martinique.”
“…Martinique? Why would he be going there?”
“I don’t know, but we need to get there as fast as we can so that we will be able to protect our mother’s, incase our fathers haven’t returned home yet. For that reason I am going to fly this ship as fast as it will go. I don’t know how fast that is, and so we won’t have to worry about the safety of everyone, will you please ask everyone to come here to this cabin, so that they won’t fly off of the deck?”
“Of course, I’ll get everyone as quickly as I can.”
Going up on deck, Jaimie asks, “Would all of you please go down to the Captain’s Cabin? Diana has something that she wants to talk to you about.”
As soon as everyone is seated, Diana announces. “The Queen Anne’s Revenge is headed for Martinique. Because of that, I am going to fly our ship as fast as it can go. I need you all to stay in this cabin, and while I am at the helm, I need each of you to search the sea to see if you can see any ship headed toward our home.”
“I’ll help.” everyone choruses.
After they are flying for a while, Jessica states, “There’s a ship down there. Never mind it’s starting to turn west. It must be going to the Dominican Republic.”
A short time later, Jaci shouts, “I see one. I see a ship.”
“I’ll slow down a little. Watch it to see where it is going.”
“I have an idea Diana,” Jessica says. “Why don’t we use the looking glass to see if we can see the name of the ship, and if it isn’t the Queen Anne’s Revenge then we can pass over it and not waste any time.”
“What a great idea, Jessica. Where is my looking glass?”
“I found it,” Kristen says. “Get in position Diana, so that we can see the stern of the boat, and then I can look at the escutcheon, where the name is displayed.”
Positioning the ‘Destiny’ just right, Kristen reads the name of the ship. “It’s the ‘Bounty’… move on, Diana.”
Ship after ship, Kristen reads the name of the ship. And ship after ship has every name, but Queen Anne’s Revenge. “Are you sure, Diana that Morgan was telling you the truth?”
“No, I can’t say that he was telling me the truth, but I would rather trust his word and make sure that our mothers are safe, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes, the pirate sister’s chorus.”
“Then, let’s continue to look at each ship that is sailing in the direction of Martinique.”
Throughout the evening, as they are found, several ship names are shouted out.
“It’s the William.”
“It’s the Ranger.”
“It’s the Royal Fortune.”
Everyone is getting tired looking at the rolling waves and watching for ships after their grueling fight, and now this long fast flight.
“Diana, we aren’t going to be able to see the names too much longer, the sun is starting to go down.”
“Just keep watching for as long as you can, my sisters.”
And they begin their search again, shouting out each name of the ship, as they come up behind it.
“It’s the Neptune.”
“… the Pearl.”
“… the Rising Sun.”
“Yes, too bad the Sun is setting rather than rising,” Jaci quips and all of her sisters giggle.
Diana announces, “Well, we have been flying south and we’ll soon be turning south east, everyone brace for the turn.”
“Look over at those strange lights in the water, Jaimie,” Kristen points in their direction.
Turning her head Jaimie says, “I’ve never seen them before, but I remember our fathers talking about them. I remember them saying that just after the light show that bubbles begin forming all over that area.”
“I remember those stories.” Stacey adds. “They actually saw a whole ship go to the edge of one of those bubbles and then it fell into it without any warning.”