Welcome to Gaia! ::

Long over-due diary to keep record of Percy's (not-so-)great escapes adventures.
Will be updated whenever his hands stop shaking.

People I don't have to run away from (most of the time):

Tock - The Boss, the captain, scariest person I've ever met. Maybe not the scariest thing, but surely...okay yeah, he's also the scariest thing I've ever seen.

Jake - Boss' sidekick? Don't know much about him. Can't really complain though, I'm eating his cooking.

Sparry - Not-so-average girl. She doesn't look like much but isn't to be trifled with.

Percy's loot (Misc.):

The Lost Children gathered around the strangers and listened. Stupid waste of time, thought Percy, who was leaning against the tree far away from the others. He paid little attention to what the strangers said and tried to distance himself as much as possible. He liked the newcomers little more than he like the Children.

“Cabbages?” he said to himself curiously after catching part of the conversation, “what could they want with cabbages?”

He suddenly realised that he had heard of the cabbage-hunt before, although he could not remember when or where.

Not that he would want to help these ‘adults’ anyway, he thought as he shrugged off the disturbing sensation. Why is everyone with them at all? Aren’t they, well, scared?

“Oh, sure they’re delightful, and their ‘candy’ tastes delicious,” he had eaten more than his fair share, “but being scared isn’t a bad thing if it keeps you alive, is it? I mean there are lots of scary things around here, I just want to be careful.”

Finally realising the stupidity of his internal argument he walked away from the gathering. The stars twinkled brightly in the night sky. Was it night before? Since when did it go dark?

The uncomfortable feeling nagged his mind again and to his surprise, when he walked around a bush he found it, lying there. A cabbage!

He picked it up, excited, blood rushed to his head and made him dizzy. “Ha! Now I can get all the ‘candy’ I want from the adults and nobody else will get a piece!” Percy was dancing with joy at the thought of having something valuable all for himself.

Then slowly, the cabbage moved and started to peel open in his arms. To his shock, it had transformed into a green gator head which opened its jaws, bearing rows of frightening teeth. And it growled;

“Percy! Where are you, you worthless little worm!”

...

He woke up.

“Aw, give me a break,” he grumbled out loud, “even in my dreams?”

Percy flopped back on to the sandy beach and stared at the sky absentmindedly. At least he was a pirate now. Long gone were the boring old days with those Children. From now on he wouldn’t have to worry about treasure, he wouldn’t have to lie his way out of boring tasks anymore.

Sitting up, he felt a flood of courage and squeezed his hands into fists. He was brave, a pirate, no more running away, no more being scared of anything that can make a sound!

He jumped a feet in the air when he heard the boss’ bellowing over the beach again, breaking his train of thought. That’s right; he was supposed to be collecting fruits for the crew – hours ago. It was probably too late now anyway so Percy got up and ran back towards the Jolly Rodger.

What excuse would he use on Tock this time?

Task: #18. The crew is starting to doubt your qualities as a pirate. The captain was never impressed with your first meeting and you've failed to deliver ever since. Not wanting to test his, or the rest of your crew's patience, you decide to prove to them once and for all that you are cut out to be a pirate! What do you do, and how do things turn out? (write-your-own task prompt)



Percy crouched low behind a fallen tree at the edge between the forest and the beach staring out to sea.

Coward, chicken, you yellow-bellied COWARD!

The voices of his fellow pirates came back to haunt him. He frowned. Sure, they all had a reason to call him a lazy, incompetent, not-fit-for-a-pirate coward, he just didn’t know what the big deal was. It had kept him relatively out of harm’s way in the past and he didn’t regret acting the way he did one bit. But still, he was here. Something had driven him to do something to prove his captain and crewmates wrong. He didn’t know why he wanted to, he just wanted it.

Remembering the stories of mermaids and their vast treasures and headed west from the Jolly Rodger to where he heard was their cove. Percy had never actually seen a mermaid before and was quite shaken by the prospect of tackling them alone, but what must be done must be done.

On his way to the western beaches of the island he avoided the feien cities, small as they were, Percy never really liked those tiny people. “Creepy little things,” he whispered to himself in a shaky voice as he crept past their territory just to overcome the fear, “creepy crawly, well creepy...but not crawly.” And so forth.

He even snuck by near the tree hut earlier to grab what he could from the brats. Things were looking good for Percy and he felt more confident of his quest. That was until he heard the next monkey screaming in the distance. However, is journey took a different turn when he got to the beach.

He had been on the lookout from that spot for the entire day, and the day before, and had yet to make his move, he just sat there. For all his fear, when Percy actually saw the mermaids he found them to be strangely fascinating creatures. He even thought they were...pretty.

“Grrraah!”

Percy growled and slapped himself in the face, Tock was right, how did he expect to be a pirate with this attitude? He couldn’t go having sympathy for his prey. He was here to show them he WAS a pirate, not to add another weakness for their arsenal of insults!

Percy spotted a lone mermaid sun bathing on a rock just off the shore and tried to pull himself together. It was time to make his move and he was going to get one, if not more, of those lovely pearls she was wearing. His heart raced as he started to sneak up on her.

He made his way zigzagging across the beach as quietly as he could, but when he got into the water, it was a different story. Being that he was never a strong swimmer and his only experiences swimming with the pirates have been nothing but huge splash-fests. Percy soon found out he was not built for stealth in the water. And like a bumbling fool be managed to alarm everyone in the area if not all the way back to the Jolly Rodger itself.

The mermaid promptly dove back into the sea with a half-startled, half-annoyed expression, as if to say you just had to come and disturb my afternoon tanning session, didn’t you?

Realising his mistake and cursing himself in the process, Percy reluctantly tried to follow her into deeper waters. Bad decision.

Once he had gotten out far enough for his swimming to falter, the angry mermaid was back. Along with a few of her angry little friends.

The struggle was brief and Percy only managed to barely make his way to the safety of the beach through a combination of wild swimming, mad water splashing, and insanely noisy shrieks of terror.

Out of breath, he made ran as quickly as his tired shaking legs could carry him back to his hiding place. His attempt was a grand failure. He was scared, very scared, and what’s worse was he couldn’t even get his hands on the treasure. Not even close.

For a moment he was too terrified to do anything, he didn’t want to go back to try stealing from another mermaid, nor did he want to go back home.

Back home..?

Percy slowly realised that he thought of the pirate’s den as more than just a place to hide from the dangers of the island, or place to hang around with the ‘tough guys’ who could protect him. No, he thought of it as home. And what he was scared of most was not being able to return home. Not having a place in the group. Not being able to be a part of the pirates.

As he calmed down, Percy looked back into the sea at the Mermaid’s Cove. He was still shaking with fear and it would take some time until he was ready again, but he knew he had to do this.

He was going to try again.