It had been too long. Augusts’ foot tapped against the soft grass impatiently, as he grew agitated each passing second. So many things could have happened to them, especially with the Captain’s name on the table: ensnared by the authorities? Captured by desperate townsfolk who wanted prize money? Killed by hired assassins? The painful thoughts rushed by him, pushing his heart to beat faster and faster. He looked around at the others, counting and making sure all of them were there. They didn’t seem to have noticed the duration that had passed without the Captain shielding them- they didn’t seem to have noticed his absence in the first place. His lip quivered in fear of the unknown. He paced the lawn thinking what to do, craning his neck towards the path they had left by in hopes of catching them on their way back.
“August,” Theodore came waddling, “We’re playing Pirates and Soldiers, come play!”
“No.” August replied sternly.
“Okay” the small boy whimpered, backing away slowly as he sensed August’s grave mood. August watched silently as Theodore rushed back. He waited for a few more moments then stopped: he was going to search for the adults. It was time he took some more responsibility into his little fists.
“June!” he called, “I’m going to search for the Captain!” He ran towards the buzzing swarm of siblings beckoning her to come with him, searching for her blonde curls and noisy laugh. “June?!” he couldn’t see her anywhere.
“Oh…” in the burden of revelation, he crumpled to his knees, huddling himself up like a tortoise in its shell. He had forgotten than she had left them. He sobbed quietly with himself there, his cheeks soiled with mud and lawn clippings, until he finally tired out of it. Getting up, he gave everyone else a rather cold stare, deciding that they might as well take care of themselves and ran away.
“I got worried, Cap’n” August mumbled to himself as he walked the path down the dense foliage, ”I thought something could have happened to ye”. On his way, he had found a rather impressive looking stick, dragging it along the moist ground as he strolled, carving meaningless patterns behind him. “I’m certain the others could manage well without me, we are pirates after all!” he smiled- to no one- he was practicing in case the Captain got disappointed he’d left his station. Up ahead, he saw the clouds from last night’s delayed storm loom back into the sky. He better start hurrying up if he wanted everyone out of the rain by the time he got back. Besides, without the sun there to guide him, the forest around him seemed rather unsettling…even to a pirate. He progressed for walking to shuffling to jogging to running, the voice at the back of his head telling him scary stories of beings in the woods and how they might have captured the Captain. As he ran, he remembered Polaris- the North Star, the Wishing Star, and begged for neither of them to have come across any harm. Unless, he thought, Polaris was already in his final moments, flickering with the last remains of his silver-white glow. He shook his head to swat the thoughts away and continued running, out of the trees and down the cobblestone path towards the harbor.
He stopped, panting and out of breath. He tiptoed, stretching his aching calves. There was no carriage in sight.
“Cap’n!” he howled, “ Cap’n Amiaaassss!”. His legs refused to budge, yet with all his will strength he picked up running once again, tears streaking horizontal lines down the sides of his face.
“PAPAAAAA, COME BAAAACK!!” August’s voice was drained by the whoosh of the sea and wind around him. At last, he fell on his bottom and decided to rest, every single morsel of innocent energy in him wasted on what felt like an unsuccessful mission. He sat there in the middle of the empty road, staring away at the raging sea, too tired to show any emotion or even sigh at that matter. It was then that he spotted it: a small caravel, all too familiar to not be called home, sailing away from the Irish coast. Had someone abducted their ship? In the shock of confusion August got up and headed towards the coastal barrier. He stooped dangerously over its edge and squinted his eyes to try and identify clearly who was at the hem. A long blue coat, raggedy black hair. It could have belonged to anyone. But standing next to him a solid white-man? There was only one of those. August backed away slowly, as the insides of his throat seemed to enclose upon itself. Everything finally made sense: why the Captain was avoiding them, the big picnic basket- it probably contained more personal belongings than food; the tears in the Captain’s eyes as he had left; the mansion in the distance- an orphanage.
August’s entire world collapsed in that very moment. In his weakened, sad state, he allowed some demon to take up his soul and let fury wake in his darling eyes.
“I hate you” he cursed under his breath, seething in uncontrollable anger, “I HATE BOTH OF YOU!!!” He took of his favorite Captain’s hat and unsheathed his trusted dagger into it. Placing a stone into the hat as well, he threw it as far as a disturbed small boy could do, hoping it would stay at the bottom of the ocean forever.
Clutching his heart, he shuffled back the way he came as the downpour started heaving down on him, understanding that he was a lost soul, loved by no one in this big cruel world.
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