A Tale That Never Was

As what remained of Captain Hook’s crew began cleaning the ship of the blood, body parts, and bodies the captain retired to his cabin. Sinbad took the wheel and sailed the damaged ship in a northwestern direction. Jack aided the crew in cleaning Jolly Roger. Hook gestured for Red, Cindy, Selvina and Bigbad to follow him into the cabin and they hurried inside.

Bigbad, acting as if he owned the expansive room, found a spot near the long row of windows in the back and lay down with a deep yawn. A large desk sat in front of the wolf and Captain Hook had his hands resting atop of it. He was looking at a map when the girls approached.

“Have a seat,” he told them, his voice strained and full of pain.

“Captain,” Selvina started, her own voice full of concern and worry, “shouldn’t you be resting? You don’t look well…”

“I have been through worse, Selvina,” he replied gruffly. “Now, please, sit.” To his left was a large bed along the wall and at its feet were several large chests. One of them was full of women’s clothes Red and Selvina changed into, though the former preferred the plain clothes the men on the crew wore. Three luxurious chairs sat around the room and the girls gathered together and sat in a semicircle, facing the captain. He moved away from his desk and sat on the edge of his large bed, sighing with weariness.

There were long moments of awkward silence and the three girls exchanged curious and questioning glances.

Finally, Captain Hook said, “I wanted you three here so I can tell you why I chose to pursue Peter Pan instead of avoiding him.”

“You’re a pirate hunter,” Red said. “We all know that. You were just doing your job.”

Captain Hook removed his hat and shook his head. “No, it is more than that. It is more than the simple fact that he slaughtered those merchants, their crew, and sunk their ship. It is more than that he is a pirate and I am a pirate hunter. Peter Pan and I have history…”

Selvina remained quiet and her ears listened intently to what she hoped would be answers to questions that have been disturbing her for quite some time. In her world Peter Pan and Captain Hook’s relationship was completely different and now that she knew Peter Pan was the pirate in this world, and not Hook, the questions in her mind had only multiplied.

“Her name was Julia,” the captain said. “Her hair was as sleek and black as a raven’s feather and in a certain light it shone violet. Her eyes gleamed and glimmered like two freshly minted bronze coins. She had a smile that could calm the fiercest of storms and her beauty humbled the sea into quiet awe. She was as delicate as a spring flower in a morning frost yet stronger than tempered steel. She was worth more to me than this ship and all its crew. She was everything to me…”

Selvina glanced at Red and Cindy, who were both silently listening, and could already guess where this story was heading.

Captain Hook resumed talking. “I met her on my eighteenth birthday. There was a celebration in Tortug honoring fallen soldiers and sailors that had fought for King Midas’s father, Gordias, ten years to the day. I cared little for remembering the war as I was just a boy when it happened and no one I knew had fought in it. I was admiring a ship that had just docked into port. It was a sleek, newly-built frigate and I could still smell the fresh coat of varnish on it from where I stood on the dock. Julia saw me there with longing in my eyes and dreams in my mind. She said she knew the ship’s captain and asked if I wanted an audience with him. At that time in my life I had no ship of my own and knowledge on acquiring one was something I deeply desired so I agreed.” He looked up at the girls and sniffed with a smile on his face. “Her father was the captain of that ship. He had named it after Julia’s excitable younger brother that had died from sickness at an early age.”

“Jolly Roger,” Red said knowingly.

Captain Hook nodded. “Aye, the very one. Julia and I spoke of many things that night, and eventually began speaking of one another. As the night drew on I realized that a ship was not something I desired most in my life. It was her.”

Selvina’s heart ached. Her teenaged mind was already filling in the blanks and jumping to conclusions, as it was wont to do, and was foretelling a most tragic tale. She took a deep breath and continued listening, hoping her predictions were wrong.

“Two years later I took her hand in marriage,” Hook continued. “As a wedding gift her father gave me Jolly Roger, overjoyed to find his daughter so happy. He was a great man, he was. I was no noble or wealthy merchant. I was a twenty-year old boy with nothing to call my own but my own clothes and a rusted cutlass. He saw past that and saw that to his Julia I was so much more. Julia’s mother had passed away from depression after the loss of her brother and her father was all she had. On our wedding night he took me aside as Julia danced with a friend of hers and told me that he had never seen her that happy, in all his years. He was proud to call me a son-in-law and knew that if he died overnight he would do so with a smile on his face. He had such faith in me…

“Days later I took Julia and a fine crew with me on Jolly Roger to sail across all of Faeryum for our honeymoon. We visited all the kingdoms and saw many breathtaking wonders. It was an amazing time and one I shall never forget…for many reasons.” He grabbed a tankard on the side of his nearby desk and took a swig of it. He then offered drinks for the girls, telling them it was just water, and after filling their cups from a small barrel in the corner of his room he continued his tale.

“We were on our way back to Tortug when a storm hit us. Jolly Roger was able and strong and I guided it through with natural skill. Julia stayed in the captain’s cabin at the time, though she had often aided the crew with surprising skill. She was rather bloated with our child at the time and was forbidden to strain herself. She was stubborn, however, and had tried several times to leave the cabin to aid the crew but I stopped her every time. I wasn’t about to let her get hurt.

“Or at least that is what I told myself.

“A young man in my crew had been acting strangely ever since we had stopped on a forested island several weeks prior. Fairies had abounded on that island and Julia and I had found it incredibly romantic. The young man, hardly more than a boy, had caught a few and had shaken the fairy dust off of them. To our surprise he had then eaten it. It had initially made him sick, which I had warned him about, but as the weeks went by he became stranger. He said things that made my skin crawl and had a disturbing fascination with Julia’s pregnant belly. I was already thinking of disbanding him once we reached Tortug.

“During the storm, the boy saw his chance during the confusion and attacked me with his dagger. The night was dark and loud with thunder and the rest of my crew was busy keeping the ship intact and sailing straight. I fought back but he was surprisingly quick and could leap inhumanly high into the air. I managed to push him away and knock him overboard and I thought I was finally done with him. Unbeknownst to me he had climbed up the side of the ship and I saw him too late.”

Captain Hook removed the black glove from his right hand and the three girls gasped. In place of a hand of flesh and nails was one made of whirring gears, metal, and polished wood. The hand clenched into a fist and then spread its fingers wide, the sound of gears spinning and whizzing with every movement. Captain Hook replaced the glove and took another gulp of water before continuing. “He sliced it off, waved it in front of my face like a prize, and then drank the blood dripping down from it as if it he was squeezing juice from an orange. Struggling to slow the bleeding and overcome by shock I was unable to stop him when he burst into the captain’s cabin.”

“Oh god no,” Selvina gasped, putting a hand to her mouth, her eyes wide.

Captain Hook ignored her. “I charged in after him, forgetting the wheel and abandoning my position, and came in time to see him attacking my pregnant wife. She was all fire and hate and was holding her own quite well but the boy was too fast. First he cut her thigh, then her shoulder, and before he could injure the baby I launched myself on him. I pummeled his face with my one good fist but his dagger stabbed into me numerous times before I gave up. Bleeding my life out on the ground I could do nothing as he turned on Julia again.” The captain’s fists were clenched tightly and his entire body shook. “Instead of killing her, he knocked her unconscious and then returned to me. With strength that belied his small frame he threw me through the cabin’s windows and I plummeted into the raging sea.

“I don’t know how I survived the waves or the storm but I woke up on the deck of a fisherman’s boat hours later. The fisherman, Smee I believe his name was, had patched me up, given me healing herbs, and had saved my life. He had had a whaling hook lying about on his boat and had attached it to the stub where my left hand had been. He had amazing surgical skills and had told me he had once worked for a doctor and had learned much from him before he was attacked by a mob and killed. I do not completely recall the doctor’s name….Frank something or another.

“Anyhow, he took me to shore with my hook for a hand and gave me a horse. I thanked him for his aid and asked if he wanted anything in return. He told me all he wanted was a pair of seeing glasses he had heard a certain inventor had created. That he managed to stitch me a hook hand with poor vision and never getting an infection from it was a true wonder. I agreed, so long as I found another ship.

“I came across Jolly Roger docked in Tortug. I found some men from my old crew and, after overcoming the shock of seeing me alive, they told me that as soon as they saw the boy at the wheel they had fought back against him. They would never call him captain. Unfortunately, they also told me how, in a fit of rage at being denied the title of captain, the boy grabbed Julia and threw her overboard. She had always been a strong swimmer but the storm had been fierce and injured as she was, and pregnant…” Captain Hook took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “The men could not save her or the baby in time.”

Silence filled the room and Selvina sniffed and blinked away gathering tears. After many minutes Selvina worked up the courage to speak. “That boy was Peter Pan, right?”

The captain nodded. “Aye, he was. After throwing Julia overboard the men say he leapt off the ship and disappeared into the darkness. They never saw him again until years later as a pirate lord. With a ship and crew of his own he kidnapped women, especially young ones, and did unspeakable things to them. He is said to frequent that forested island full of fairies and, instead of eating the fairy dust, I have heard tales that he eats the whole fairy as well. Countless daughters and wives have been stolen by that monster that I take any chance I can get at stopping him. He always manages to get away, however.”

“What did you do when you found your ship again?” Red asked hesitantly, as if she feared asking too much.

“I went to see Julia’s father to bear him the bad news. He was so crushed by it that he followed his wife into the realm of death, overwhelmed by grief. I blame myself for his death. Had I been more careful with whom I had picked as a crew Julia would be with me still. Had I stopped that devil from ever setting foot on my ship none of this would happen. None of those kidnapped daughters and wives would have died and the affected families would remain whole to this day. It is my fault Peter Pan exists and I place it as my responsibility to set things right again.”

“There was no way you could have—”

“It is my fault, Red, and you can try all you want to convince me otherwise but you will fail. It is MY fault Peter Pan is the way he is and that is the truth of it. I bear the guilt of that on my shoulders every day of my life and I will do so until I die. Nothing I do can bring back the people he’s kidnapped and killed but if I can stop him and kill him, I can prevent any more tragedies.”

The captain eyed the three girls hard for several minutes before calming down. “So that is my tale and now you know how no matter what mission or quest we may be on that if Peter Pan makes another appearance I am diverting all my attention on him. I have to end him. I need to end him. It is my task and my purpose in life. Do you understand?”

“I do,” Selvina and Red replied while Cindy nodded wordlessly.

Captain Hook nodded and removed his black cloak. “If you excuse me now, I have some wounds to tend to and some rest to take.”

Red and Cindy nodded and moved to leave but Selvina remained where she was. “What happened to the hook?”

Hook glanced at his right hand and grinned lightly. “I found the inventor Smee had spoken of many years after hearing of him. During that time I had made a name of myself as a skilled pirate hunter and the name Hook was given to me. The inventor goes by the name of Geppetto and is a good friend of mine. When I asked him of the seeing glasses, which he called spectacles, he noticed my hook and said he could fashion me something much better, which he certainly did. I found Smee again, nearly a year later, and gave him his spectacles and his whaling hook back and thanked him again for saving me all those years ago. I asked him if he wanted to be a part of my crew but he politely declined. A man with his healing skills would be extremely useful on my ship but I didn’t push him. He’s done enough for me already.”

Pleased with the answer, Selvina smiled and nodded. “I’m sorry about everything that happened to you, captain, but I’m happy you trusted us enough to tell us. Maybe one day you’ll tell us how Wendy fits into all of this and what your real name is.”

Captain Hook chuckled. “Maybe.” He gestured to the door, where Red and Cindy waited. “Now go, Selvina.”

“Um…”

The captain sighed in mild annoyance. “What now?”

Selvina smiled nervously and pointed to one of the chests along the wall. “Cindy needs clean clothes, captain. You…wouldn’t mind if we looked for some, would you?”

Captain Hook shook his head and removed his leather vest and shirt, revealing a body full of bruises and scars, some old and some new. “Leave as soon as you find one that fits. This is supposed to be the captain’s cabin…” He then reached under his bed, produced a small box, and opened it to reveal various small knives, clamps, stitching hooks, and other crude surgical tools.

As the captain tended to his wounds, the three girls rummaged through the large chest of women’s clothing with excitement, marvelling at the sight of dresses and skirts they had not yet not discovered.

Bigbad, lying under the windows, perked his ears up and suddenly looked up and gazed through them, watching the sun dip toward the blue horizon. In the ship’s wake, what looked like a human with a fish’s tail briefly breached the surface and then disappeared.