fhiwda When Captain Blood finds out what’s going on he definitely won’t be a happy chappy as you will see in this chapter.
AN; I just wanted to apologise to everyone who’s following this little adventure that I’ve not updated sooner, unfortunately life has been getting in the way but at last we’re back on track and hopefully from now on I’ll be able to update a lot more often. Again many apologies to everyone who wanted to know what happened next.
[b[THE ADVENTURES OF RED ROSENBERG
DEAD MAN’S ISLE[/b]
Author; Willowtaralover
Rating; NC-17 to R for smut, violence and naughty swearing
Disclaimer; Willow, Tara and all Buffy characters are owned by Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and Fox. The story and all original characters belong to me.
Story; Rough, tough pirate Willow ‘Red’ Rosenberg is on the search for treasure but finds including romance with a beautiful blonde, betrayal from a previously loyal crew-member and deadly danger in the shape of a necromancer, and his army of undead, who plans to resurrect an evil goddess.
Thoughts are in italic Chapter 29
(When Willow Met Buffy part two)
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Willow wearily made her way back up the wooden steps exhausted by the fight she just had with Buffy as well as being tense over what she was going to say to Cap’n Bloody. She paused on one of the last few steps before going up and outside to gather herself together. Once ready she continued to the top deck. Outside the bright sun blinded Willow after having been down in the gloom of the hold but after blinking a few times her eyes became adjusted to the light and she took a look about herself. She saw that most of the bodies from the deck battle had been removed, most likely tossed overboard providing the sharks with some fresh meat.
Around her some of the crew members started to howl in delight and cheer making the girl look about her in confusion until she realised her shirt was still open, her lithe toned body on show for all to see, including her breasts.
“Wha’,” she yelled at the gathered, horny, sailors pissed off at their leers. “Ain’t ya never seen tits afore?” This outburst just brought a bout a fresh burst of cheers now accompanied by laughter and she just spat at the nearest one in disgust then slowly the cheers died down and there were more than a few audible gulps.
“Where ya been Red, I’ve not seen ya on the deck for sometime now?” The voice was cold and threatening as if just the words alone could kill. Willow took in some deep breaths before turning to face Captain William Bloody.
At six foot seven he was far taller than most people including Willow and he liked to use his height to impose and intimidate smaller people like the redhead. What he didn’t realise was that Willow just pretended to be nervous of him but saw him as little more than a preening peacock with his bright blonde hair brushed back revealing his high brow and his propensity for wearing silk shirts and long leather duster coats, leather trousers and thigh length leather boots. Willow had never been scared of him, even with his fearsome reputation she just laughed at him. She was just smart enough not to do it to his face or of those close to him.
No one spoke; everyone knew that you never interrupted Captain Bloody when he was talking to someone, unless you didn’t enjoy living that is. The silence on the deck was only interrupted by the water slapping against the side of the ship. At this point they were too far out to sea for even birds to be around so there was no cawing from gulls or albatross’. The additional silence just served to make Willow even tenserthan she already was and she curled her toes in her boots to channel her apprehension.
“I was down in the hold while you were busy,” she replied in a calm voice though her heart was hammering away in her chest hoping he wouldn’t notice the tremor of nervousness in her voice or that any of the girls led by Buffy wouldn’t make any noise. Her whole plan revolved around convincing the pirate Captain that there was nothing of any value on board.
“I went down ta see if there were owt o’ value but I couldn’t see nuffin down there. I reckons it had nowt o’ any importance there, it coulda been going ta coast ta pick summat up.”
Bloody just looked at Willow as if trying to work out if she was lying to him or not. As he gazed upon her he took in her bedraggled state seeing all the filth and grime on Willow’s bare chest and clothes.
“If there’s nothing down there why do you look like you’ve been playing on a shit farm?”
“I slipped, seems like the whole area were used fer a shit hole. Nowt but piss, shit an’ vomit down there.”
Again the impassive stare, as if her were a human lie detector testing to see if Willow was telling him the truth or not. Once he appeared to be satisfied with that answer he asked a fresh question.
“And the bruises Red, howd’ya get the bruises?”
“It were slippy down in the hold, I slipped in the shit a few times an’ knocked meself up a coupl’a times, that’s all.” She stared him right in the face as if daring Bloody to challenge her replies, to call her a liar. The staring contest continued for several minutes, neither one backing down. Finally a smirk appeared on Bloody’s face, a cruel twisted sneering gash of a grin that curved up his cheek.
“Go clean yerself and get some fresh clothes Red, ya smell like a shit farmer,” he said disparagingly. Happy that he appeared to have believed her story, Willow went back to the Reaper to clean herself of the grime that she was now caked in and prepare herself for that night’s adventure.
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Two hours later and a cleaner, less smelly Willow swung back over to Reaper ready to set up the next part of the plan.
“Cap’n,” she called out to Bloody who by now had divested himself of his long leather coat and was now checking over the ship for signs of wear and tear, estimating in his head how many hundreds of gold pieces he would be getting for it. As he heard his name being called he looked up from where he was inspecting the cannons.
“What is it Red?” He said curtly, annoyed at being disturbed from what he was doing.
“Yer planning as takin’ this ship as booty right, well I wanna be the one ta command her when ya takes her to Tortuga.”
He narrowed his eyes at the small redhead as if suspecting that something was wrong. Again Willow felt herself almost tensing up but took some calming breaths and prepared herself for another interrogation.
“What makes ya think I should let ya command her? I got plenty of men who are good sailors and navigators that I can trust wi’ this ship so why should I let ya have command?”
“That may be so, but can ya trust any of em not ta steal yer ship away in the night?”
This was a total gamble on Willow’s part but from the frown on Bloody’s face it appeared to be paying off as he seemed to be pondering the idea of one of his crew stealing from him. Normally he would say no considering it a crazy notion; that everyone was far too scared of him to dare take what he considered his property, regardless of whether it was his or not. Apparently he agreed with Willow’s suggestion that someone could steal his new treasure from him but the next words from his mouth shocked her.
“Woode,” he called out and a huge bald man with skin the colour of ebony who seemed to be made of muscle crossed the deck to where Willow and Bloody stood. His biceps bulged like small cannonballs while sweat ran down his well muscled, battle scarred, blood streaked body. He had a goatee which was normally well groomed but was currently mussed up due to streaks of blood and sweat which ran in rivulets down his face. Woode was not what could be called handsome by any means. He had a hard face with a broken nose and his dark brown eyes had a hint of cruel malice to them.
“What is it Captain?” he asked in a deep baritone, chocolate brown eyes focused with distrust on Willow. Woode had a deep distrust of women who wished to become pirates as he considered women to be little more than home-maker’s, whores or serving wenches. He was forward looking that way.
“Woode, I’m putting you in command of this vessel,” said Bloody in the grand voice he used when he wanted to appear impressive to others which usually worked. “I want you to stay in command of this ship all the way back to Tortuga. I trust you more than any of these other bastards I have to call a crew. Ya take anyone ya want ta help ya and ya just follow me all the way ta Tortuga, once we get there I’ll sell it an ya get a quarter of the gold from the sale of it.”
Woode nodded his understanding at this and quickly bellowed out the names of the few people he wanted with him to help run the ship. A helmsman, navigator, two to deal with the sails, two to clean out the bowels of the ship and one to cook filled out his crew.
“Ya sure ya don’t need no one else?” Willow asked hoping that there may be some task that she would be needed for, even if it meant allowing one of the men access to her most intimate body parts. Woode just looked at her as if she were a fly covered turd before turning away from her dismissively.
Knowing there was nothing more she could do at the moment Willow returned again to the Reaper to quickly try and formulate some scheme to help Buffy just as she had promised. Once aboard the Reaper she sought out Xander and, after telling him about her meeting with Buffy in the ships hold started to plot with him.
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It was midnight and the crews on both ships were fast asleep, only the watches were wide awake keeping an eye out for any other vessels or naval patrols that may recognise the ship of Captain William Bloody. Two dark shadows emerged silently from the hold of the Reaper and stealthily made their way to the port side of the galleon where they started to slice through the grappling-hook ropes. Slowly the two ships started to drift apart and it wasn’t long before the two shadows made sure they were on the captured ship.
The two figures each picked up a belaying pin and quickly but furtively went round the ship, proceeding to knock out the three men on watch covering the mouths so they didn’t cry out and raise the alarm on the Reaper. Once they had all been knocked out the duo carried them to the aft of the ship, weighed them down with two belaying pins each and threw them overboard.
“Right Xan, I is gonna go down below and free the girls. Can you take the helm an’ turn her?” Willow whispered to her companion.
“Aye sure I can but we’ll need someone up here fast so that we can free the sails and really get away.”
“Jest leave me ta worry about that, ya just steer us away from that bastard an’ his ship. Xander nodded and made his way to helm where he began turning the ship toward starboard where it was least likely to crash into the Reaper.
Down in the hold Willow made her way carefully along the corridor. She stepped cautiously along the passageway when her boot pressed against something and she heard a slight tinkling crack and realised that the lantern that she had dropped earlier during her fight with Buffy hadn’t been removed.
“Buffy, Buffy are ya there?” she said in as loud a voice as she dared hoping the tough little blonde she had fought earlier would be ready and waiting for her.
A lamp was suddenly shone in her face making the redhead shield her eyes from the glare.
“Aye, I’m here. You’re here to keep your promise I take it?” Buffy glared at Willow as if she were daring her to break her oath.
“Aye, I promised ya I would now drop the attitude ya stuck up little bitch.” Willow said in a gruff manner not wanting to take any crap from anyone right now. If this Buffy wanted another fight later she would be only to happy to oblige and teach the blonde some manners with her fists but for now there were more important things to be done.
“Here, free the others an’ get em up top so we can get the sails down,” she said tossing the keys which she had been able to purloin from the former captain earlier when no one had been watching.
Buffy went to the where the main lock was fitted on the chain preventing escape and within a couple of seconds the girls who were going to be sold as slaves were free once more. They jumped and ran and danced about yelling, screaming and crying with joy at the first feeling of liberation in many a month.
“God’s shut them up can’t ya,” Willow hissed at Buffy. “If the other ship’s company hears em then we’ll all be slaves and I ain’t gonna be nobody’s slave,” she finished grimly. Buffy nodded and told the other girls to lessen their noise telling them that there would be time for celebration later, first they actually had to get free from their captors.
Buffy and Willow had three of the girls upstairs and bade them be quiet about it for fear of retaliation if Bloody realised one of his own was stealing his new prize. The redhead then followed them to the deck to see how things were progressing. When she got there she could see things were developing badly.
None of the girls had any idea on how to get the sails down while Xander was fighting someone but she couldn’t see who. Willow crept closer and discovered that her friend was struggling with Woode. He must have been aboard and sleeping in one of the officers berths, how could she have been so stupid as to forget him. The two men were fighting furiously, exchanging punches and grappling but it was plain that Woode was going to kill Xander, and soon unless she did something about it.
Seeing that Woode had Xander over the guardrail in an attempt to break his back, Willow snuck up behind the big man who was nearly invisible in the dark of the night and plunged her boot dagger into his back. He let out an annoyed grunt and looked over his shoulder to see the source of this new irritation. Spotting the redhead, without letting go of Xander, Woode raised a booted foot and slammed it firmly in the middle of Willow’s chest. She found herself being propelled at full steam across the deck where she came to rest against the other guardrail.
She was about to make another attempt when a third figure entered the fray. The new participant leaped onto Woode’s back and drew a blade across his throat. He released Xander who grasped hold of the guardrail to stop himself from falling to the deck while Woode was doing just that. Collapsing slowly to his knees, not able to say a word, only gurgle as blood filled his windpipe. He tried to stem the flow by holding his hand to his throat but to no avail and he was dead as soon as he hit the deck, his body coated in thick, wet blood. Willow looked and saw that Buffy held a bloodied cutlass in her hand. She gave a slight, curt nod of the head to Willow who responded in kind, recognising it for what it was a sign that there was no debt between them. Neither owed the other anything. All they needed now was some freedom.
Aboard the Reaper there was the first faintest awareness that something was going on the other ship and lamps were being lit. Someone called across asking if all was well and Xander replied that all was well while Willow aided the girls in getting the sails down while her male friend distracted the other watch officers. It wasn’t long before the guy ropes securing the two craft together were severed and the boat began to turn away from the Reaper, their hulls nudging as it turned.
Unfortunately that nudging rocked Bloody’s ship enough that crew members sleeping in their hammocks below decks were suddenly pitched out of their makeshift rope beds landing heavily on the hard wooden timbers of the ship and complaining loudly as they got up again. That same nudging had also tossed Bloody out of his own bed where he had been busy with one of the girls that he kept as his own personal harem on the ship.
“What the bloody hell,” he swore as he picked himself up from the floor and looked around, more than a little perturbed by the incident. Quickly he hauled on his leather britches and headed for the
main deck of his galley not bothering with any shirts.
“What the fuckin’ hell is going on here,” he yelled out to the assembled members of his crew who were gazing out over the side of the ship towards where the captured vessel was starting to sail away, a couple of the sails down and already catching the breeze. Cap’n Bloody was shocked to see his latest prize was sailing away from him and no one appeared to be doing anything to stop it.
“Cap’n, the ship’s being taken from us. I called out ta Woode but there’s no response and Cap’n...there’s no sign of Red or her friend on the ship. I reckons as how she’s the one taking it.”
“So would you kindly tell me why the fuck you’re standing there telling me all this and not trying to stop em ya fucking moron,” Bloody snarled at the crew-man.
“We didn’ dare ta fire on em Cap’n cos we thought ya still wanted ta take it in ta Tortuga.”
“Fuck Tortuga, blow the fuckers out if the water,” and so saying he went to where a small cannon stood against the mast and pushed it to the stern of the ship checking that the cannon was loaded he sliced the wick so that it wasn’t as long as before and set it alight. A few seconds later the cannon fired out its deadly load in the direction of Willow’s new ship but by now the vessel was so far out the metal ball fell with a splash into the water. Thinking, Bloody quickly decided what to do next.
“Raise the sails, they can’t get far if there’s only two of em running the ship,” he growled and stared at the image of the receding ship before going back to his cabin to get a shirt. When he got back he discovered that the sails still weren’t raised.
“What the fuck are you shit heads arseing about at???? Get those bloody sails up and get em up now.” No one spoke but two of the crew raised a small part of one of the sails. It was full of slashes where blades had cut through it, Bloody’s eyes opened wide, his hands balled into fists so hard that his nails broke the skin in the palm of his hands and his teeth clenched. Bloody’s musculature clenched all over his body like a bare knuckle fighter about to step into the ring. He turned and ran to the stern of the Reaper as he vented a rage terrible to behold.
“YOU FUCKING BITCH,” he roared out in the direction of the escaping ship. “YOU BITCH, YA THINK YOU CAN STEAL MY SHIP AN’ GET AWAY WITH IT? I’LL FIND YOU ONE DAY AND I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU YA HEAR ME? I’LL RIP YER HEART OUT AN’ EAT IT AN’ WHAT’S LEFT I’LL FORCE DOWN YER THROAT YA LITTLE CUNT SUCKER. COME BACK HERE YOU BITCH.”
As Willow’s new prize sailed off into the darkness Bloody’s words could be heard chasing her across the waters and she smirked as she heard his rant. For now she had a ship of her own and a crew to help sail it. She turned at the sound of booted feet approaching her. It was Buffy, now dressed in a shirt though bruises still showed from where they had fought earlier.
“Summat I can do fer yer’s?” the redhead asked in a lazy drawl hoping it would infuriate the blonde.
“Aye, I want to know where you plan on taking us?” Buffy asked looking seriously at Willow who merely shrugged her shoulders.
“Anywhere ya likes. If girls wanna go home I’ll take em an’ if they wanna stay they’re welcome.”
“And I have your word on that?” Buffy asked suspiciously her hands on her hips.
“I’ll give ya better than that,” Willow replied and reached in to the boot sheath to remove her knife. Buffy started at this, raising her fists ready for another fight but Willow merely clenched the knife blade in her hand, her green eyes locking with the blonde’s hazel ones as she let the cold metal slice into her skin. Droplets of blood spattered on to the deck between the two girls before Willow unclenched her fist with a wince as she acknowledged the painful sting from the blood oath she just took.
“There, ya have my blood oath. Yer happy now?”
Buffy looked at her shocked for a moment before giving the redhead a wry smile.
“You didn’t have to do all that you know. Your word would have been good enough.”
Willow just stared at her. “Now ya tell us,” she said before a big grin spread across her face. Within seconds the two were laughing like old friends until Willow’s self inflicted knife wound made her wince again.
“Ooh fuck that hurts,” she complained and Buffy looked at her with compassion and put an arm round her shoulders.
“Come on, let’s get that wound seen too,” she said as she lead the redhead towards the captains cabin. As they made their way to the cabins a young girl hurried towards them falling into step as she reached the duo. Willow studied her noticing her long brown hair, wide eyes, the simple dress she wore that left her arms and legs bare below the knee. Taking in her looks Willow reckoned she couldn’t be more than fifteen years old but already very attractive. It then struck her that the girl would have wound up being sold in some slave market somewhere to satisfy the lustful urges of some old, fat, rich man who couldn’t stand sleeping with his wife any longer and wanted to trade her in for someone younger, more attractive, more vulnerable. Realising this made Willow feel happy inside. For once she had done something good.
“Buffy, are we going home now?”
“I’m sorry Dawn,” Buffy replied as she put her other arm round the younger girl’s shoulders. “I don’t think we can go home, or at least not now anyway. Here I want you to meet someone, Dawn this is Willow who rescued us. She’s our new friend, Willow, this is my sister Dawn.”
PRESENT
“S...so you’re first meeting with Buffy was in a fight?” Tara enquired surprised at this after having seen the close friendship that the two girls had.
“Aye Tare, that’s how we met but it were a damn good scrap,” the redhead replied with a big grin on her face. “Course once we got ta know each other all proper like things went nice ‘tween us and she became me right hand woman.”
“Hey I thought I was yer right hand woman...I mean,” started Xander only to fall silent as he was surrounded by mocking laughter from the girls surrounding him. Even Willow and Tara couldn’t withhold their mirth. Eventually Willow, between snorts of laughter, was able to speak again.
“Xan me old mate, ya may not be me right hand woman,” again more laughter making the dark haired young man sigh deeply as he realised that he was not going to hear the end of this any time soon. “Xan, ye are me left hand man though and I couldn’t wish fer a better one.”
“I reckons as how I can live with that,” he said grinning broadly at her.
Willow stood up and linking her fingers together straightened her spine by stretching backwards. She let out a small groan as her stiff, aching muscles and bones cracked as her body parts reset themselves back into their proper places. This inadvertently revealed an inch or two of her toned abdomen which made Tara’s eye’s open wide while their blue shade darkened lustfully. Everyone else was either finishing their drinks off or telling their neighbours about the first time they met Cap’n Red.
Finally the pirate queen tapped out her pipe against a log on the fire then yawned and stretched, tired after a long day and gave out her last orders for the day.
“A’right yer lazy bunch o’ landlubbers, we set sail again t’morrer. I reckons as how ye’ve had enough time off so we be setting sail at the noon tide that we can get all our stuff aboard. We still has a fair distance ta go till we reach Verminas so everyone make sure they get a good night’s rest. She then helped Tara up and they went over to their blanket and settled down for the night arms wrapped round each other.
TO BE CONTINUED