THE ADVENTURES OF RED ROSENBERG
DEAD MANS ISLAND
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, Fox and anyone else riding the coattails. 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 italicsPreviously on Red Rosenberg
"CAPTAIN ROSENBERG."
The voice was of a deep, sonorous timbre. It was the sound of the dead and of dark crypts in which unspeakable things crawled
"CAPTAIN ROSENBERG", came the voice again, no less eerie or terrifying than before.
"Aye", the red head replied. "Tha's me, who are ye and what ye be wantin'?"
"I AM SALMONEUS. I WELCOME YOU TO MY ISLAND."
Chapter 39
Hearing the voice put everyone on their guard. It seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once and the ships crew looked all about them, some with weapons drawn, but no figure could be espied.
"What! Who said that? Can you see anyone?" and various other mutterings could be heard from amongst the crew as everyone looked around at the utterance of the voice."
"CAPTAIN ROSENBERG. I WOULD BARGAIN WITH YOU."
"I'm Cap'n Rosenberg," Willow said aloud, in response to the booming voice. Her voice quavered a little at the dread sound of the necromancers deep, booming voice but she was able to hide it well "What is it yer wantin'?"
"CAPTAIN, I WOULD BARGAIN WITH YOU. YOU HAVE AMONG YOUR COMPANY A YOUNG BLONDE WOMAN. THIS FEMALE IS A WITCH AND WILL SURELY BRING DEATH AND DESTRUCTION TO YOURSELF AND YOUR CREW.
HOWEVER IF YOU DELIVER HER TO ME ON MY ISLAND I WILL REWARD YOU AND YOUR CREW WITH ALL THE RICHES YOUCOULD EVER WISH FOR. ENOUGH FOR YOU ALL TO SPEND THE REST OF YOUR DAYS LIVING IN LUXURY."
These words had caught the ears of everyone on the deck of the Slayer. Not the least of these was Katarina who subtly indicated for her allies to gather to her
"You hear that, what this Salmon or whatever he calls hisself." She said in a whisper just loud enough for her compatriots to hear." Treasure enough for us all to live out the rest of our days in luxury and all he wants is that blonde bitch."
"But...would the Cap'n give her up, I mean she does share the Capn's bed," an oriental girl inquired.
"Hah, who cares if she gets a good fingering from the Cap'n," Kat replied with a mocking smirk. "Cap'n will soon find someone else to shag sooner or later. Face it we've all fucked her and been fucked by her and we all enjoyed it too but we got dropped in the end for another pretty face and a nice pair o tits.
"Go get us some weapons then we can start, ey up she's talkin' again. Quick, go now" Kat said with a scowl as she noticed Willow started conversing with the voice from nowhere again and she sent the girl on her errand.
"If ya wants ta bargain why don't ya come here to me ship and we can make a deal." Willow called out to the sky hoping that she didn't look foolish.
"OF COURSE YOU WOULD WISH TO SEE ME IN PERSON CAPTAIN, YOU MUST FORGIVE ME I AM FORGETTING MY MANNERS."
There was a moment of silence which, despite only being a few short seconds in length, seemed to last forever. Then suddenly the figure of a man appeared on the deck of The Slayer. he had a pale face with a bald head, as if freshly shaved, and wore black robes. Also, despite being fully formed his feet didn't touck the wood of the ship.
There was a soft pad of footsteps ascending the wooden stairs leading to the sleeping quarters of the crew. Willow and Salmoneus both turned their heads to the right to see Tara emerge. She still looked tired with her long blonde hair all mussed up, dark circles under her eyes and yawning deeply.
"AH THERE SHE IS, THE WITCH, MY KA FARAQ GATRI." The figure spoke with a slight cheeriness to it upon the arrival of Tara.
"What, ya mean her?" Willow asked in a very casual voice. "Why wha's so special about this lass, she's only our cook?"
Wha' was that he called her? A karf garter or summat. Willow was thinking hard despite the casual appearance she showed.
Shite, it's just like what Tara said. A bald man in a dark robe. Feck he's scary, cant 'let em see, can't let em see. Willow thought to herself while trying to keep her composure."Willow," Tara said in a hushed voice, shaky with fear. "It's him, it's the man from my dream last night."
Willow turned to her lover to see the blonde standing there, barefoot on the deck her eyes wide in fear. As she took Tara's hand in her own to comfort the other girl the redhead couldn't help but notice that her skin felt as cold as ice.
"WHY CAPTAIN ROSENBERG,I KNOW THAT SHE IS NEEDED TO FULFIL A GREAT PROPHECY. AN ANCIENT PROPHECY AND ONE THAT WILL BRING A MUCH NEEDED JOY TO THIS WORLD OF OURS."
Salmoneus said, still in his ominously booming voice.
Willow couldn't help but notice that as Salmoneus spoke he seemed to float closer to herself and Tara, and that as he came where his foot prints should have been there were scorchmarks left of the deck.
Tara herself couldn't bare to look at the dark robed man and, flinching, she looked away from his unnerving stare, her hand taking a tighter grip on her lovers.
While Willow was pre-occupied with Tara and her fear one of the crew started to creep up behind the sorcerer with a belaying pin in her hand. She swung it with all her might only to fall through and land, startled, on the deck at Willow's feet.
The bald sorcerer glared down at the at the crew-member who looked back at him in a mixture of fear and confusion and began to scuttle backwards her fear filled eyes never leaving those of Salmoneus.
A sneer spread over his face. It gave him a harsh, cruel countenance that a cold shiver of fear coursing up Willow's spine, a shiver that, despite herself, she couldn't quite hide.
"YOU ARE RIGHT TO BE AFRAID OF ME PIRATE. I CAN END YOUR LIFE AS EASILY AS THIS..."
With that Salmoneus snapped his fingers and a small bolt of green lightning flashed from his fingers in the direction of the the girl who had attacked him. Instantly there was an ear piercing scream as the lightning struck the girl surrounding her body.
Willow, along with the rest of her crew looked on in horrified fascination as the lightning around the crewmember seemed to glow for a moment or two then slowly faded and as it did the image of the girl faded as well until there was just a small pile of ashes left on the deck.
The bald pated man then fixed the crew with a frosty glare, slowly turning to each of the deck hands in turn. Some of the lesser crew members flinched but Willow just responded with a steady gaze of her own.
"DO NOT ATTEMPT TO MAKE A FOOL OF ME CAPTAIN. YOU WILL FIND I AM NOT A MAN TO BE TRIFLED WITH." Salmoneus softly growled, his voice edged with flint.
Shit, I forget that I was gonna be dealing with a magic user. I'm gonna havta watch things from now on.
Willow thought to herself as she winced slightly at the site of the former crew member whose ashes were now being blown away by the breeze.
"Wha's in it fer me and me crew If I hand the girl over?"
"AS I HAVE SAID ALREADY CAPTAIN ROSENBERG I CAN GIVE YOU AND ALL YOUR CREW TREASURES BEYOND YOUR WILDEST DREAMS.
"I dunno about that," Xander said to Laragh." My dreams are pretty wild."
Laragh just rolled her eyes at that has she had a good idea what Xander's wild dreams were really about.
LET ME SHOW YOU."
Suddenly on the deck there was a small mountain of gold and silver coins, rubies, emeralds, diamonds, pearls and other stones, both precious and semi precious.
The redhead let out a low whistle as she saw the amount of treasure that lay there on the deck and approached the pile of gold and silver warily.
Whew, now that there is a fair bit gold. He must be desp'rate fer Tara ta be willing ta give all that treasure fer her.She then recalled what happened to the crew-member so decided to take cautions. Once she was she was in reaching distance Willow withdrew her sword and carefully poked her sword into the small glittering mound only for it to vanish in a slight shimmer. Salmoneus spoke again though this time with a mocking smile
"THERE CAN BE NO TREASURE UNLESS I GET THE WITCH."
"And what if I don' wanna gives ya Tara, eh?" Willow asked in a mild voice. "Wha' if I jus' go over t' yer island an take yer treasure?"
"HAVE A CARE PIRATE. YOU HAVE ALREADY SEEN WHAT I CAN DO WHEN ANGERED. YOU DO NOT WANT TO MAKE AN ENEMY OF ME."
At this the two of them, the sorcerer and the pirate locked eyes with one another, as two prize fighters weighing each other up. Whilst everyone elses attention was taken up with the confrontation between Willow and Salmoneus.
Everyone except for the girl that had been sent on the errand to the armory.
"I got the blades," she told the group as she proceeded to hand them around to Katarina's group. "What do we do now?"
"Now?" Katarina said with a smirk as she admired her curved blade. "Now we just watch and wait."
"What do you think she'll do?"
"WHY CAPTAIN ROSENBERG, SHE WILL BE THE MEANS BY WHICH I WILL USHER IN A NEW AGE. AN AGE OF JOY AND PROSPERITY FOR ALL."
Salmoneus replied with great reverence in his face as well as voice. His expression making most of the crew look at him cynically as they were all very aware that such an age is impossible, especially in a world where the rich seemed to be getting richer and the poor were either becoming poorer or becoming enslaved by the rich.
After giving the bald man a serious look over Willow spoke again.
"Jus' give us a day t' think things over," Willow said to the magician. "When we're ready we'll..."
"YOU WILL GET TWO HOURS PIRATE AND ONLY TWO HOURS." Salmoneus interrupted with a long hard glare at the redhead.
"AFTER THAT I WILL TAKE WHATEVER ACTIONS I DEEM NECESSARY TO TAKE THE WITCH AS MY OWN."
With those words he slowly vanished into thin air much as he had arrived. The last aspect of Salmoneus to fade were his eyes staring at Willow as if daring her to ignore his threats, or at the very least not take them seriously at all. For her part the redhead kept her gaze steady, watching the sorcerer as he faded. it wasnt until he had completely vanished that she let out the breath she didn't even realise she was holding.
"So what do we do now Will?" Buffy asked her friend
Willow looked around at her friends and crew while slowly rubbing her chin, a thoughtful look on her face before she replied.
"Ya know, I already made enough treasure so far and I can make plenty more easily robbin' the merchant's ships. And it'll prob'ly be safer too." She finished with a grin.
"Xander, anchors up, sails down and turn us around. We're goin' home," Willow called out cheerfully to her friend.
"B...b...but aren't you afraid Willow?" Tara asked, a look of absolute fear on her face. "I don't want anything to happen to you. Or any of your crew."
Willow turned to look at her lover still holding her hand and she gave it a gentle squeeze and a loving smile.
"Don't ya worry yerself me darlin'. I don't believe that ol' slaphead could do anything elsewise he'd a done it then 'stead o' that big show he put on."
Buffy then interrupted
"I get it. You mean that if Salmoneus could have taken Tara he would have, maybe even from you own cabin and none of us would have known."
"'Zactly Buff, I knew there were a reason I kept ya around." Willow replied, this time earning herself a glare from her friend.
"Hi there Xander are we rea..."
She stopped as she saw Xander with his hands on his head whilst the asian girl held a blade to his throat.
Then she felt a blade poke in her back.
"Sorry Cap'n but ya ain't goin' nowhere." Willow heard Kristina's voice from behind her and saw members of Kristina's group all armed and gathering menacingly round the rest of the crew.
TO BE CONTINUED