Sun Bathing [Wicked Basket/Bleeding Phoenix]

[Ethereal-Star]

Turquoise was stunned. Apparently she had underestimated the one who had spoken to her. She frowned at the threat the quartermaster issued, and glared at him with as much animosity and force as she could muster. "I will get away!" she snapped. Somehow... she thought.

[Wicked Basket]

The quartermaster grabbed a handful of dirt and threw it at Turquoise.

"Shut up," he shot back. "You ain't going anywhere. Not unless you know of something more valuable that the captain will trade you for."

[Ethereal-Star]

Turquoise glared fiercely at him after the dirt had hit her on the cheek. Oh, how she hated him! Seething inwardly, she settled down repositioning herself against the back of the tree as best she could. Her fear of never getting back to the ocean was starting to take firmer hold on her, and a tear silently slipped its way down the mermaid's face. She continued to sulk in silence, not saying anything else. What would be the point?

[Wicked Basket]

Halfway through the night the shifts changed. The quartermaster and other pirate went off to go to sleep and were replaced by a single man: the Captain himself.

"I kinda figured ye try some magic trick," Blackheart commented as he sat down under a tree. "The quartermaster's a bit rough around the edges, but he's more loyal and definitely more stubborn than most."

[Ethereal-Star]

After the shift had changed, with the Captain now guarding her himself, Turquoise didn't comment at his statement and refused to look at him even, staring with both anger and sadness out at the horizon before her. After some time she started to get bored, but there was nothing to do for it.

Turning to the captain again she questioned him, "What other sort of valuables are you looking for?" Perhaps she could make something up, a convincing lie that could set her free. It was worth a try.

[Wicked Basket]

"It don't matter," Blackheart told her. "As long as it's valuable."

Blackheart then leaned forward and his voice became low and ominous.

"But if ye lies to me, lass, you'll wish ye'd never been born."

[Ethereal-Star]

At the cold, steely look in his eyes the mermaid shivered a little, but tried to appear unperturbed. She still had to try, to come up with something believable so that she could have a chance to escape.

"I think there is something...but I don't recall exactly where though." she stated slowly, trying her best to meet his gaze and not look like she was fibbing. "It's in an underwater cave though, so I don't know if you could get to it. Some say if you find the right signs it will point out the way quite clearly. I could tell you the signs if you promise to let me go after." Turquoise pleaded hopefully.

"In this cave, you'll find a treasure so beautiful and exquisite, enough to make a living from for the rest of one's life! And probably longer too." the mermaid continued her extravagant tale, hoping the captain would buy it. "As to what the treasure is, well, I'll let you discover that yourself when you find it. Much more valuable than me many times over!" Turquoise finished and looked expectantly up at the pirate captain, trying to gauge his reaction.

[Wicked Basket]

"Do ye take me for a fool," Blackheart asked. "Even if you're telling the truth, there's no way I'd let ye go before I found the treasure. I'd keep you until I was holding it in my hands."

[Ethereal-Star]

"I am telling the truth!" Turquoise argued with him. "I only said you had to promise to let me go. Once you find the treasure, then there's really no need to keep me around anymore. I can go back to the ocean!"

Or so she hoped. Even though there was no treasure like that that she knew of, there had to be a way! Turquoise quickly thought of what else she could say to further make the treasure seem real and out there, trying her best to fill in the blanks of her white-lie.

"One of the signs you'd need to find first before the others is a coral reef with the colors of blue, pink and yellow. It is a rather large coral reef, located somewhere in the Tuor Ocean, perhaps a little west of where you found me." she fibbed again, looking at the captain. Turquoise hoped her act was convincing enough, or this was all for nothing. If she could somehow manage to get away before this, only circumstances at that time would reveal such. The mermaid was fishing for solutions that weren't readily apparent, but she didn't know what else to do.

[Wicked Basket]

Blackheart's eyes burned into Turquoise long and hard trying to discern her honesty.

"Nearly every reef I've ever seen has those colors, lass," Blackheart told her. "You know, it's funny how everyone usually thinks of something more valuable then themselves when I offer to trade them in for it. Do ye know how many of those stories were true?"

[Ethereal-Star]

Turquoise shook her head, uneasy. "I don't know?" she asked, trying to appear clueless and so not to give him any more reason to doubt her. So, okay, either Turquoise needed more skill at lying or the Captain was more perceptive than she had given him credit for. Perhaps it was both.

She stared at her hands, not sure what else to say at this time. Her silence probably spoke volumes about her false story, but right now the mermaid didn't seem to notice that to be a possibility. Turquoise was worried about her friends, and how she might never see them again.

[Wicked Basket]

"Two," Blackheart told her. "And only one was actually worth more than the person."

The captain leaned back against the tree.

"Ye don't seem so sure of your story anymore. I've been doing this for a long time, lass. You don't be captain for as long as me by being stupid."

[Ethereal-Star]

"So, I take it you go around with your filthy pirate gang to capture more unfortunate souls from the ocean, is that it?" Turquoise snapped angrily at him, purple eyes ablaze. "And then what? They are forever stripped from their homes, never able to return? What kind of life is that? It's not I tell you! If you had any kind of decency in you, you'd let me go right now!" she shouted this last part, completely fed up with the entire situation and this 'captain'.

[Wicked Basket]

"It's because I have any kind of decency that you ain't one big bruise, lass," Blackheart told her. "It's also what keeps my crew from having their way with you."

[Ethereal-Star]

Turquoise's eyes widened at his words, fearful. "They wouldn't...." she couldn't finish that sentence.

Hugging herself again, the mermaid once more wished to be free amongst the waves, the deep blue depths where much was possible. Here, on land for too long, that kind of freedom was in very short supply. It reeked of human scum like these pirates and other such creatures that were not attuned to the sea like she was. In the ocean, her cares seem to melt away and independence was at an all-time high. In the ocean, Turquoise was in her element, free and uninhibited. Now, her fate was uncertain and the mermaid was at a loss on how to simply be. Being on land was only supposed to be temporary for her kind and others like her, not dredged out like this. It was an atrocity! And sadly one she couldn't get out of at the current moment.

Tears threatened to overwhelm Turquoise again but she fiercely held them back. She would find a way, she would! She had to...

[Wicked Basket]

"They would," Blackheart replied. "A bunch of men at sea with no women around makes them a bit antsy, but they know what will happen if they try anything."

Blackheart sat and observed the mermaid. It looked like she was about to cry, which was to be expected. She also seemed to have a lost a bit of her fighting spirit. Hopefully she would survive the journey back to the mainland. A live mermaid was worth a lot more than a dead one.

[Ethereal-Star]

Turquoise didn't respond. Once again, she prayed to the Ocean Mother hoping for some miracle to save her as well as trying to keep her tears at bay. The mermaid wondered what this associate of his could possibly want with her. Hopefully, she wouldn't have to find out.

The rest of the night passed in silence, with Turquoise sitting back against the tree. She was much too worried to even try sleeping, the circumstances surrounding the sea maiden were not in her favor. As dawn broke, marking the passage of half a day gone by without water, Turquoise was starting to feel the effects come upon her, weakness beginning to grip her in its ugly clutches. This was not looking good.

[Wicked Basket]

As a new day dawned, Blackheart wanted to get moving as soon as possible. He stood, stretched, and then fired his pistol into the air immediately waking everyone present.

"Rise and shine," Blackheart announced.

The pirates groaned and complained as they immediately started getting breakfast for themselves. They really hated when the captain did that. Blackheart turned to Turquoise.

"Are ye hungry yet?"

[Ethereal-Star]

Turquoise slowly turned her head and glared hatefully at the captain. "What I really need is water right now!" she shrieked at him. "I don't suppose you could just drop me off at the nearest shoreline?!" And with that, she folded her arms again in a petulant manner, not speaking any further to him or any of the other pirates.

[Wicked Basket]

Blackheart said nothing and walked away. A little while later as the pirates were finishing their breakfast, a young boy who was probably only around 12 approached Turquoise with a bucket. He then slowly and carefully dumped seawater all over her.

"Is that enough," the boy asked.