• Merideth followed her captain out of his cabin. “Hey Captain, where are we going?” Merideth asked with determination.
    John looked at her as if she had something on her face. “Where do you think?”
    “I don’t know. That’s why I ‘m asking,” Merideth retorted.
    John glared at her, his hazel eyes showing a menacing look. “Don’t talk like that to me Daniel,” John said fiercely, though his eyes showed a glint of humor. “I’m your captain; you have to respect that from now on.”
    “Yes Captain,” Merideth replied solemnly. She waited until John had turned around and rolled her eyes. I hope he isn’t like this if we ever get married, she thought to herself. What am I thinking? I’m only 18. I don’t want to get married yet. I want to explore and become famous.
    John led her down into the lowest part of the ship. They past many cabins that Merideth noted hadn’t been used in quite a long time. The only reason she knew that was because there was a large coat of dust over everything, even the door knobs of the cabins.
    They came to their destination, or at least, what Merideth thought was their destination. As John opened the cabin’s door, a burst of chilly air nearly blew her over. “What do you keep in there? A canister of wind so people will get blown over when they open the door?” she asked sarcastically.
    John knew that she was being fully sarcastic and that it was in her nature. He showed the same humor in his eyes that he showed every time Merideth said something that amused him. “No dear. Just look inside.”
    Merideth hadn’t noticed that he had called her “dear” so didn’t even bother to comment. She looked inside the cabin to see many practice dummies to keep the pirates’ skill with their swords up. Behind all that was an open window. It seemed like this had previously been the ballroom on an old ship of her step-fathers. The walls were painted a beautiful emerald green, almost the same colour as her eyes, with lilies as a design all amongst the wall. “Jonathon, this is beautiful. How could you use a beautiful room for something for fighting?”
    “Pirates don’t have many parties so my father filled the room with practice dummies. The only problem is that no one ever thinks that they need to practice with the sword,” he commented. “I do bring special, beautiful girls down here to dance though,” he added flirtatiously.
    Before she could object to anything, she heard the door close. Before she knew it, John had swept her up in his arms and they were spinning and dancing around the floor. Merideth felt herself blush. She had never danced with John, or even seen him dance for that matter. John stopped dancing and drew her up into a deep passionate kiss.
    Merideth drew away after the kiss. “John,” she started, “you can’t do that. I need to hide my true sex. This is too much. It’s good to know that you love me while the rest of the world has deserted me though.”
    “Merri, you have to know this; I’ll always love you. I don’t care what people think of me because I love you. I could love a warrior maiden, which would be you, and people could shun me from the realm in which I lived in, and I would still love you.” John kissed her once more.
    “You should be really grateful no one is going to walk in. This would embarrass me probably to death. I look like a man, or at least a young man. Being in the arms of another man might make them have odd thoughts,” the thought made her turn a bright crimson red.
    John rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry. Dear Lord you worry far too much. What am I going to do when we marry?”
    Merideth’s eyes became as wide as the ocean blue. “J-j-john? I’m not ready to marry. I want to but the thought is too much for me to bear right now.”
    He stopped suddenly. His eyes turned glassy, and it looked like he was on the verge of crying. “OK. If that’s what you want, then I’m fine with it. You don’t need more than you can handle.” He changed the subject suddenly. “So, let’s get working with those swords.” He tossed her a rusty old cutlass. “It’s not the best but I didn’t know that you were joining. It’ll have to do for the time being. You may want to keep it. My father said that it belonged to your father, when he was on this ship.”
    Tears welled up in Merideth’s eyes. “I never even met my father. I never thought that I could end up confronting so many memories of him all at once.”
    John held her close so that she could cry unseen. He hummed an old tune that they used to sing together as children to cheer each other up. Merideth recognized it and looked up into the silvery-blue eyes of her lover and gave a very slight smile. “You’ve always known how to cheer me up…”
    “And you, I,” John interrupted. “Continue,” he coaxed.
    She looked around quickly to make sure that no one would see what she did. She continued to look into those pearly eyes and gave him the most romantic kiss either of them had ever experienced. Merideth looked away flustered. “I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry John.”
    Without another word, she was back in John’s arms, her lips touching his. “This is the one place no one will come on this ship anymore. You don’t have to worry about anyone seein’ us,” John told her noticing that she kept on looking towards the door. “The crew says that this part is haunted by the spirits of those who were once members on the ship, searchin’ for a resting place,” he smiled lightly. “Listen to me. I’m beginning to sound like my father when he was drunk tellin’ the crew and me an old yarn.”