Other Fan Fiction ❯ The Treasure of Oritemp ❯ part VII ( Chapter 7 )

Ben placed his knife to her throat.

“You would take his punishment? You would sit there as we burned you?” he asks.

“Yes, I will… there is no if or would… I will do it,” she replies.

Ben stares at her a long moment before looking to his boson.

“Cut him loose. And you two, let her go,” he says to the two pirates holding Arianna.

The two pirates let go of her arms. She stays where she is and watches as they cut a barely conscious Sirius loose. Without hesitation, she heads for the chair once they get him clear of it.

“No, I said that you were to be let go. That means go, leave if you wish.”

“Wait… what? No, I said I would take his punishment and I meant it.”

“I do not punish someone who owns up to their mistakes. I am no tyrant; I am a captain of a ship.”

“Then… let me tend to Sirius's wounds,” she says, “Please.”

“Do what you want.” Ben left the brig, looking to be frustrated.

Arianna walks over to where they put Sirius and kneels next to him.

“Sirius, I'm sorry,” she says, “I really am… I should have listened to what you said.”

She looks at one of the pirates and frowns.

“I need something to treat the burns, please,” she says.

“Do it yourself. We were told to let you go, not to help you,” the pirate responds.

She bit her bottom lip and just sat next to Sirius, not knowing where anything was. Closing her eyes, she rests her head on his shoulder and hugs him lightly.

“Bloody Pirates,” she murmurs.

Before too long, Gus came down to the brig, carrying medical supplies. Arianna had Sirius cradled in her arms slightly, a wet rag in her hand as she tried to cool him off. Sirius winces as the cloth ran over his wounds.

“Really bad way for me to show you that I love you, right?” she murmurs.

Sirius, barely conscious, seemed to smile at her, though his eyes were completely glazed over. She looks over at Gus and offers a sad smile.

“Thank you,” she says, “At least there is one kind soul on this ship.”

She takes the medical supplies from him and goes to work on Sirius's burns, talking to him softly all the while.

“Well… The captain sent me down… he says… he says that you and the old guy are to meet him in his cabin after you are done with him,” Gus says softly.

“Alright.”

Once she was finished with Sirius, she kisses his forehead.

“I'll be right back, okay?” she says softly laying him on a cot, “I promise.”

She stood and nods to Gus.

“Alright, lets go,” she murmurs.

Gus leads her to the cabin, where Argus was already talking to Ben.

“You can't seriously be telling me that he is looking for a legend, a story,” Bens says to Argus.

“I can and he is. My captain is looking for the treasure. You said you'd help us,” Argus retorts.

“That was before you told me that your captain was crazy enough to believe in fairy tales. I'm sorry, but I will not waste my time with this.”

“It's not a fairy-tale,” Arianna says, holding up her locket; she had noticed Sirius had had it and she took it back.

Ben looks at the locket a long moment before looking to Argus.

“Is this a joke? You want to go after this treasure of yours because this girl has a locket?” he asks/

“This locket belonged to the original protector of the treasure,” Argus replies.

“Captain, I'm serious, the treasure is real and Sirius needs to get to it.”

“I'm not interested in what he needs. I am a pirate, and I serve my own needs. What do I get if I helped a crazy man search for a treasure that may not even be real?”

With that, Arianna lost her patience.

“He is NOT crazy!” she snaps, slamming her hand down on a desk.

“He's crazy enough to nearly beat one of my best men to death,” Ben retorts.

“Because he hit me in the back of the head with a damn pistol! He was defending me!”

“He was doing his job as I would have expected him to. Defending you or not, I'm not so sure he's all there.”

“I don't care what you think… at least he isn't a selfish bastard like most… if not all pirates!”

Ben sighs and raises his hands, signifying that he was done discussing Sirius's sanity.

“I'll help you find the Maiden and that's all. After that, you can find the treasure yourself,” he says.

“Help us get it back as well.”

“I don't think you are in a position to be demanding things missy.”

“I don't care! Finding it is easy… but the Crew is poisoned in their own way.”

“Why would I risk the lives of my crewmen for the sake of people that tried to take my ship? If you can give me a very good reason, then maybe I'll help.”

“You know the sword Sirius has, what did you think of it?” she asks.

“What does that sword have to do with it?”

“Just answer my question.”

“Answer mine first. My crewmen's lives are at stake if I agree to help you. They will not so easily agree to such a ridiculous offer of new swords, as I'm sure you are going to offer. I ask again; what do I owe the person who tried to take my ship?”

“I can make new swords, pistols and rounds for every member of this crew… unless there is something else you have in mind.”

“I am not in need of new weapons. My crew is more important to me than your are. Swords and guns will not make me put my crew in harms way.”

“Tell me what you want then.”

“My crew will not go for new swords… I want the Maiden.”

“I… I can't promise that… and neither can Argus.”

She looks down and covers her face.

“I guess you can just let us go and we'll try to find another way.”

“Wait a minute,” Argus interrupts. “We can't promise anything, but Sirius can. We would have to talk to him…”

“Damn it… I doubt there is any way he will give up that ship Argus, you know that a hell of a lot more than I do!”

“He wants the treasure more than he wants the ship.”

“He's a pirate, what is a pirate Captain without a ship?”

Arianna seemed hopeless in that moment, her eyes sad as she looks at the floor.

“We will think of something… at least he agreed to help us…”

“I'm going back to tend to Sirius,” she says, walking away.

Before Argus could stop her, she was gone.

“Shit…” he mutters.

Once she gets back to Sirius, she notices that he is asleep, so she just sits next to him silently, hugging herself as she tries to keep warm. After a while, Sirius woke up and winced when he took in too much breath.

“Careful,” she says, “Those burns haven't healed at all yet.”

“I noticed…” Sirius says between winces.

She shuffles around with the medical supplies before taking out some aloe.

“Stay still so I can put this on you,” she says, carefully moving over to him.

“Why didn't you listen to me?” Sirius says before she starts.

“I don't know… I'm really sorry that I did not… I didn't think you'd get hurt.”

She takes the leaf and starts to strip it before taking the liquid and carefully spreading it on the burns with her finger. Sirius jerks back and bites back a scream as she does so. Noticing she was hurting him, she stops and looks at him, that sad look still there.

“I'm so sorry,” she murmurs.

“I'll live…” Sirius manages to say.

“Still… this is my fault…”

Carefully, she goes back to putting aloe on his burns, her touch barely there as she does so.

Sirius stays as still as he can; only wincing every now and then.

“At least I'm alive… so I can give you a piece of my mind when I can move without feeling like hell,” he says.

She gave him a weak smile once she was done before kissing his scared cheek.

“Well then, I hope you get better,” she says.

“You do know that I will be the farthest thing from nice…?”

“Yeah, I know.”

She stands and brushes off her knees.

“I'll let you rest now,” she says, “I'll be back in a bit to apply more.”

Sirius takes her wrist shakes his head.

“No… you can stay, I could use the company,” he says softly.

She seemed to smile more and sat down by him, taking his hand in hers. She rest her head on his leg and smiles at him.

“Now… what are we going to do…? You got into this mess and you'll have to get us out of it,” Sirius says.

“Captain Ben said that he would help us… in return for the Crimson Maiden,” she murmurs.

Sirius nearly shot to a sit up position, only to fall back down with a small scream.

“N-no! He can't have my ship!” he shouts.

“And I told them you would say that, but you need to quiet down.”

“I will not quiet down! He wants my ship! He can't have it!”

With a sigh, she kneeled and placed her hands on either side of his face.

“Sirius, quiet down,” she says more forcefully.

“How can I quiet down when that bastard wants my ship!”

She covers his mouth with hers, careful not to touch his chest. Sirius seemed to lose all of his anger as he kissed her back. When she pulls back, she rests her forehead on his and smiles at him.

“That's how you will quiet down,” she says softly, kissing him one more time.

“That's not fair,” Sirius growls at her, though it seemed to lack the usual anger it usually did.

“Keep it up and I might just do it again.”

“You still, no matter how hard you try not to, get on my nerves,” Sirius says, looking into her eyes.

At that, she drops her hands from his face and stands.

“Yeah, whatever,” she says, starting to pack up the med kit.

Sirius sighs.

“I didn't mean to hurt your feelings…” he mutters.

“It doesn't matter if you mean to or not, you always seem to find a way,” she shoots back, heading for the door, “I'll be back in an hour.”

Sirius slams a fist into his cot and curses himself for saying what he did. Arianna was walking among the crew, watching them as they work and talking to some to learn what they were doing. Argus found her after a short time and stood next to her.

“What did he say?” he asks.

“He said that no matter how hard I try, I still get on his nerves,” she murmurs, watching as one of the pirate ties a knot.

“Um… I was talking about the Maiden…” Argus mutters. “But… he said that? At a time like this?”

“Yeah… and as for the Maiden… he won't do it.”

Surprisingly, the pirate allows her to try to make the knot.

“Take this part of the line and loop it through here,” the pirate instructs.

She does as instructed and actually seems to enjoy herself.

“What are you going to do about him… you still love him don't you?” Argus asks her.

“Of course I do! Maybe that's the damn problem… I love him and even though I told him he just doesn't care.”

As she was speaking, she finished the knot and showed it to the pirate.

“A bit off, but good none the less,” the pirate says with a nod.

“Maybe he does. Think about it, the way he was raised, he has no idea what to say in this situation,” Argus says.

“Stop making excuses for him,” she snaps; then turns to the other pirate, “I want to become a pirate.”

“Become a pirate? Missy, I don't think you know what it entails being a pirate,” the pirate says.

“Then teach me… I'm willing to learn.”

“Hold on a minute. What do you think Sirius would think?” Argus says.

“I'm doing this to even the playing field,” she says, “I'm tired of constantly having him put in danger for me.”

“He won't agree to this.”

“Of course he wouldn't, but I already get on his nerves.”

She tried the knot again, going through a bit faster; then showed it up for inspection.

“This part here is still too loose,” the pirate points out.

“Shouldn't you talk to Sirius about this and have him teach you?” Argus asks.

“I don't think he would,” she murmurs, “I want him to… but I… if he doesn't I want to be taught anyway.”

“Go speak to him. I'll bet he would agree.”

She tries the knot once more before going back to Sirius's room, though only thirty minutes had passed. Sirius was on his feet, pulling on his gear and cloths, not looking at her.

“Sirius, you shouldn't be up,” she says, walking up to him and stopping him from pulling on his shirt, “You'll irritate the burns.”

“Who cares. I'm going to find a way to get my ship back that doesn't involve these bastards,” Sirius says.

“Teach me to become a pirate… I want to be able to help you.”

She carefully wraps her arms around him, avoiding his burns.

“I don't think I can do that,” Sirius says gently pushing her away from him. “Cause last time I checked, even when I try to be nice, I hurt your feelings.”

“Damn it Sirius… either you teach me or I will find someone who will!” she says, “I want to be able to help you and… maybe you should try to get to know me before you say shit!”

“Go ahead and find someone else! Maybe they will be able to say something to you without pissing you off!”

“FINE! Maybe I'll just stay with these damn pirates!”

She throws something at him before storming off, it was her locket and, instead of just a picture of her mother, it had a picture of her in it as well.

Sirius looks at the picture of her for a long moment before stuffing it in his pocket and going up to the deck and down the ramp to the pier. Arianna was sitting on the rail of the ship, looking down at the water with a heartbroken expression on her face. Sirius storms past her dropping the sword she made him next to her as he leaves the pier. She looks down at the sword and grabs it before turning and running into the lower decks, tears running down her cheeks. She ends up pushing past Ben and a few other pirates on her way. Argus grabs her wrist before she could get too far.

“What happened? Why did he leave?” he asks frantically.

“Just let me go!” she cries, yanking out of his grip and slamming the door in his face.

She leans against the door and slides into a sitting position as she hugs the sword to herself, crying the whole time. Everyone on the ship left her to herself for the day. Eventually, she left and sought out the pirate from before and managed to get him to agree to teach her.