Three members of a pirate crew were sitting on barrels, chatting amongst themselves—one was a man with ginger hair, and the other two were girls with blonde and light grey hair. They were chatting about their favourite films, but what the other two meant was Robin and me, as Liz seemed completely baffled by what we were talking about. "I've never been to the cinema in my whole life," remarked the girl called Liz.
The two of us who lived in the city were immediately surprised but also understood why—after all, she lived in a village, which had been raided by the very pirate crew she'd now joined. "Once we set foot on dry land, I'll take you to see a film," I offered, and her face immediately lit up with joy.
"Really? Thank you!" She turned and gazed out at the sky and the sea, imagining herself sitting in a soft chair in a cool room, watching moving pictures. "I'm holding you to your word, okay?" She turned to me with a broad smile still on her face.
However, this heart-warming moment was immediately shattered by one of the crew members—a large man with a thick, fair-haired beard. "Hey, Liz, I'll be waiting for you again tonight as usual," the man said before simply walking away, laughing—my fists clenched tightly, and my adrenalin surged almost instantly.
"That bastard Colin," muttered Robin. The man was known to the entire crew because, before we'd even set foot on this ship, he'd been the strongest candidate to become the captain's right-hand man simply because he was strong and brave.
But that wasn't why we disliked him; we were furious because he was the one who'd unilaterally taken Liz's purity, exploiting her under the pretence that the whole crew would recognise her for it. He did keep his word, but in a thoroughly wrong way—he turned Liz into a puppet that the entire crew could happily play with, just to gain respect.
I glanced over at Liz, who looked absolutely down in the dumps; she always refused every invitation, but because she was smaller than the others, she still lost out. "Robin, would you care to do something rather terrible?" I whispered; I couldn't bear all this—one of my close friends had been a victim just like her and had nearly died as a result.
I didn't want the same thing to happen to Liz. Unlike Red, who'd been lucky enough to be saved by Everafter, there was no guarantee Liz would have the same luck. Robin, hearing my question, immediately gave a nod in reply.
"Hm? You two look as if you're reading each other's minds." We both turned round straight away and said it was nothing, before laughing it off. "Strange, you Fables are really strange... Oh! Speaking of Fables, can you tell me about them?!"
"About Fables...?"
"Yes! Who's the strongest Fable in the world, for example?"
"Oh, that's obviously me."
"Really?! You're the strongest, Alice?!"
She seemed to perk up again and completely forgot what Colin had said; as for Robin himself, he didn't want to respond to my remark about the strongest of the Fables—he knew that whatever response he gave would end in either ridicule or, worse still, a punch.
"Oh? Sounds like it's going to be an interesting story," said a familiar male voice that suddenly rang out, making the three of us nearly jump out of our skins. Glancing round, we spotted a man with long, curly black hair, wearing his iconic red jacket, his chest and six-pack fully exposed.
"Captain!" We all cheered in unison, and he smiled back whilst waving his hand. I hadn't expected him to be curious about the Fables, because until now I'd thought he only cared about treasure—which I didn't even know what it was. "Do you want to know too, Captain?" Liz asked, and he replied with a nod.
"Yes, I'm just curious about what exactly you've sacrificed," hearing that, the three of us were taken aback—Liz was surprised because she'd never heard that before, but Robin and I were surprised to hear that the Captain knew a Fable had to make a sacrifice. "I have two Fables I know who sacrificed their sense of fullness, which means they have to keep eating," he laughed, leaving us even more confused and surprised.
I fell silent for a moment. I knew he was familiar with the Fables and Everafter, but I'd never imagined he had any acquaintances other than us who were Fables. Had there previously been other Fables besides us serving as crew on this ship?
"Come to think of it… I haven't actually told you two, have I?" he said. What important information hadn't he revealed to us? Robin and I fell silent and waited for his answer, like cats waiting for their owner to feed them. "I am James Hook The Wrath; I'm a member of The Seven Sins."
My mind felt as if it were about to explode at what he'd said; we'd been helping our enemy all this time and had been on his ship for a week, yet we hadn't realised it until now. The fact that he'd allowed us to join meant he still didn't know that we were Mother's children—because if he'd known, we'd have been kicked straight off the ship and left to drown in the sea.
All this takes me back to when we first volunteered to join. Back then, we'd accidentally overheard Captain Hook discussing the Flying Dutchman at the harbour, and that immediately made us beg—even beg so insistently—to join him.
After demonstrating our abilities as Fables, Captain Hook accepted us straight away without asking any questions or making us take an oath. I sometimes wonder why he acts like a child who trusts people too easily.
"Ah, about that, I sacrificed my pet," I lied, and Robin, upon hearing that, immediately understood what I was trying to do. If we were to simply reveal what we had sacrificed, Captain Hook would use it as leverage against us should we try to leave the crew.
It took Robin a long time to decide what lie he wanted to tell. "And I sacrificed my wealth," he said. I really wanted to laugh when I heard that, because he was the sort of person who'd take the rich man's wealth and give it to the poor.
"Ugh, how boring," he said, turning on his heel and walking away from us just like that; he was really rude—I hope the Fables who've truly sacrificed themselves out there will curse him, but there's something I'm desperate to find out yet can never possibly know.
But there's one more thing I want to make certain of; I immediately stood up and raised my voice so it would reach his ears. "Are you a Fable too, Captain?" And that question made him stop in his tracks, and neither of us said a word for a moment—both of us were being watched by the entire crew as if I'd just challenged him.
"Fables are both a blessing and a curse for people," he replied without turning his body even slightly; from the tone of his voice, he didn't sound angry, but rather as though he were offering advice. "But I already feel fortunate enough to be in this world," he said, resuming his walk, showing no inclination to explain further.
The crew went back to their respective tasks, as if they'd seen this sort of thing every day and treated it as nothing more than a brief gust of wind. Seeing that no one was paying attention anymore, I whispered and called out a fairy's name. "Tinkie, keep an eye on the captain," and the fairy hiding behind my long blonde hair popped her head out.
The fairy smiled and raised both her eyebrows, teasing me. "Ugh, okay, okay… One spoonful of honey for you, now go on," I whispered, and the fairy immediately flew off to follow the captain from behind. I turned round and saw Robin, who had already diverted Liz's attention by striking up a conversation with her so she wouldn't realise it was me who'd given the order to Tinkie.
The fairy flew quietly and slipped into the captain's cabin, where she immediately glided over and hid behind a jar of gherkins, her golden eyes peering out to see what the captain was doing.
Captain Hook touched both corners of the map before pulling it open; his eyes scanned the entire map, but his dark eyes came to a halt when they reached the path leading to the treasure, his hook as if ready to tear the map to shreds—his heart was pounding with anticipation.
"Just need to defeat one more monster," he muttered to himself, his hook piercing the spot on the map where the third monster was located. "And the heart of the sea will be mine."
CLINK!
The clinking sound of a tin can, echoing throughout the room, immediately caught Captain Hook's attention; his dark eyes shot a sharp glance around, and his left hand slammed down on the table so hard it could be heard from outside the room.
"Who's there?!" he shouted, but of course no one answered; after all, no spy would ever admit to being one—whilst the source of the sound was hovering in the air, hiding and covering its mouth with both hands. "A rat, perhaps." Hearing this, Tinkie breathed a sigh of relief, though now she had to stay put until Captain Hook opened the door so they could both get out and breathe some fresh air again.