Pirates a League of Brothers - H, J, Macey (novels for teenagers TXT) 📗

as the tide rose. As they waited for the high tide, they unloaded the goats and pigs they had taken from the villagers.

 

Tethering them to feed and fatten in the lush undergrowth, between the beach and the wooded forest. The captives were shackled and showed how to tend the ropes, so when the tide turned the ship would lie on its side. While they waited, the Captain took four of his crew and a longboat and rowed out of the bay. While they were gone the tide turned, and the ship slowly keeled over as the tide went out.

 

On his return the Capitan detailed his crew off to do different jobs, three were detailed to oversee the captives. This included Dorian; they were tasked with cleaning the hull with long scrappers to remove barnacles. Two men were made cooks and butchered a goat, to be roasted to feed the men. Two were detailed to go with the carpenter, to find suitable wood for repairs.              

 

While others were sent out to forage for anything edible, and to search for fresh water. The tide would take hours to recede, which meant it would be midday or after before, the tide turned again. The first of the men to return had found water, a small stream flowed into the bay up on the left where it flowed down the rocks from the high ground. They took a few of the captives, with water bags to carry the water back.  Dorian was not one of them, he remained firmly bound.

 

With the tide low enough now to exposé the keel of the ship, the Capitan examined her bottom. There were scrapes and gouges in the planking, but no serious damage to her hull. The reef had scrapped the hull of barnacles, as the ship had dragged over it. Much relieved the Capitan put his captives to work, cleaning the rest of the hull of sea growth. They would turn the ship on the next high tide, to finish scrapping her bottom.

 

All afternoon Dorian and the captives worked to clean barnacles from her bottom; the returning tide was lapping at the ship's keel by the time they finished. The other side of the ship would take longer to clean, as the reef had not scrapped that side of her hull. The captives and Dorian were once again bound to poles driven into the ground and guarded by two crewmembers. As the rest waited for the ship to float, they could turn her so she would careen on her other side.

 

During the night in the darkness, some of the pegs holding some of the animals must have worked louse. In the morning, some goats and pigs had disappeared, their ropes and pegs missing too. The Capitan sent a search party to search for them, while the others continued searching for food and collecting water. When the tide allowed, the captives and Dorian were made to scrap the bottom of the ship again, only this time it would take two tides to clean her hull.

 

Again at high tide, the Captain took the longboat out of the bay, to return as the tide turned again. He was angry the search party found no trace of the missing animals and took his frustration out on Dorian, beating him with a length of rope. The next day there was still no sign of them, and Dorian was beaten again. With the scrapping of the hull finished, they would float her off the beach at high tide. They planned to leave the Island on the midday tide, the following day.

 

Over the last two days, the tide had steadily moved higher up the beach. Now the ship was floating in deep water, they moved the animals and Captives back onboard. Dorian was stripped and tied up in the Capitan cabin and suffered the drunken Capitan's abuse again during the night. In the morning with two of his crew, the Captain took the naked Dorian ashore. The day before’s high watermark, they drove wooden stakes into the sand and tide Dorian spread-eagled to them.

 

Chapter four

 

With the tide lapping at his feet, they left him to drown and be eaten by the fish and crabs, as the tide flowed over him. He watched helplessly, as the two longboats towed the ship from the bay. Then as it disappeared around the headland a shadow spread over him, and he saw a naked old man undoing his restarts. As he sat up he saw there was a naked old lady with him, and between them, they helped him off the beach.

 

Up over the grassy plain above the beach, and through the undergrowth they climbed higher up the wooded slope of the hills. Then the ground levelled off to a fertile plateau, which could not be seen from the beach. Although fatigued and in pain, Dorian had to smile. For fenced off on the grassy plateau, were the pigs and goats that had wandered off from the pirates. Or had they been helped to escape just as he had?

 

At the edge of the clearing, stood a simple wooden building made completely from bamboo. It had only one room that held a crude table and chairs, a bed in one corner and an array of things Dorian could not work out there use. He was helped to the bed, and the old lady broke a large green leaf. The green gel she squeezed from the leaf she applied to Dorian's back and the rope welts, that the Captain had crisscrossed his back with when he had lashed him.

 

The cooling and soothing effect of the gel was almost immediate, and the old woman's hands had a calming feel and Dorian drifted off to sleep. How long he slept he would never know, but he awoke refreshed and almost pain-free. It was a bright day and the sun shining through the door told him it must be a new day. As he looked around him he saw on the table beside the bed, a woven bowl full of exotic fruits.

 

They were delicious and he gorged himself on them until his belly was full and his hunger satisfied. As he finished the old woman came into the building to check on him, in her hands another green leaf. Smiling she broke it and extracted the green gel, and sitting on the bed beside him applied a fresh coating to his back. The young Dorian felt a little strange, at having this naked woman attending him.

 

He had never before seen a naked woman, his mother had always worn full-length multi-layered dresses that hid her body. Here this woman thought nothing of his or her nakedness, as she sat close to him to tend his wounds. The thought of his mother brought a tear to his eyes, that flowed as he pictured his parents lying dead on the deck of the ship. As he sobbed the old lady put her arms around his shoulders to comfort him, not knowing the reason for his tears.

 

For long moments she held him, her tender embraces comforting him and easying his pain. And tempering his anger at the pirates who had taken his beloved mother and father away from him. Calmer now he looked at the lady holding him and tried to smile. She smiled letting go of him, she again tended his wounds. When she had finished she beckoned him outside, to where the man was working on his patch of growing ground. Where green plants grow in abundance, in well-worked fertile soil.

 

The two of them happily jabbered away in a tongue Dorian could not understand. He had so many questions to ask like were there other people on the Island, did other ships call here so he could get passage to India. When he had come out of the building, he saw the sun in the sky beyond the entrance to the bay. In the last three days, it had passed over the Island from that direction to set on the other side.

 

When the old couple had brought him to their home, the sun was high in the sky above them. This was a new day but how long had he slept, it seemed like an age, not just a day. He gave up in frustration and just listened to them, trying to match words with their actions. He picked up a crude digging spade and holding it up said "spade", the old man smiled and said "paddo."

 

It would take some time, but Dorian thought he had found a way of learning their language. They all smiled when Dorian thumbed his chest saying "Dorian," then pointing to the old man said "you"? The old man and woman looked at each other, and then turning back to Dorian said "YOU"! Dorian shook his head, this wasn't going to be easy, but he couldn't give up. "Dorian," he said again patting his chest smiling, as he held out his arms to the man.

 

Dorian then smiled with what he thought was a success, when the smiling old man seemed to grasp what Dorian was doing. He smiled broadly tapped his chest and said "Matto" and then turned to the woman saying "Seeua"! Dorian's happiness seemed infectious, as he smiled and danced about the old couple did the same. Then Dorian continued touching things, and Matto gave them names.

 

Then Matto took Dorian on a tour of the plateau. There were tropical fruit-bearing trees and bushes that Matto picked from and handed to Dorian to eat. As he leads him to where a small stream flowed from the high country, then down to the cove where the pirates had landed. Following Matto, Dorian climbed the gently rising ground beside the stream, through the wooded slopes to the summit.

 

Where the last hundred feet or so was a baron and rocky hilltop, Dorian stood and had a three-sixty view of the Island and the reef that surrounded it. He could also see the gape in the reef where the ship had been drawn through by the rushing water. He also saw the circling mist curtain that hid the Island from view, for anybody beyond it. From this vantage point, he now knew why the pirate Captain had taken the longboat out of the bay at the top of the tide.

 

 At slack water, he could sound for the depth of the water at that point, to know if he could get his ship over the reef. As Dorian surveyed the scene before his eyes, he pondered his escape from the Pirates. It had not gone as he wished, but he had got away from them. What to do next to get back to civilisation, he did not know but at least he was free.     

 

Back down at the plateau, Seeua had made a type of bread, that they eat washed down with fruit drinks. The bread was still warm and had a coconut flavour to it; after they had eaten Dorian watched Seeua make another. To the water and flour, she added flakes of dried coconut then mixing it into a dough, she worked it with her hands until it was just right. It was then partitioned into equal sizes, and taken out to an oven Matto had built