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Tale 8: “Avanora” – Part 9.

  SurfAngel_1031

  Ruby shook her hand free of Ava’s and pulled out her dagger along with her own small sword and grinned wide. “Bah.” She ughed, “Be you out of your head, Gerald? This be round two, aye.” She paused, “One was losing me eye, that’s facts. This be round two.”

  “Spin’n lies per the norm. Expin how I sunk your precious Dancing Dagger if that wasn’t round two.” Captain Jaques took a step forward. “...and now ya be at a disadvantage. You have to guard your dragon.”

  Anticipating a lunge the moment she opened her mouth to respond, Ruby crossed her bdes and blocked the incoming swing from Jaques's heavy bde, sending sparks both silver and red through the alley. “You never stopped to consider why I gave up my ship, did you?” Ruby answered and deftly sidestepped a follow up swing from Jaques.

  “Bah.” Captain Jaques responded and aimed for Ruby’s blind right side shoulder. “No captain gives up their ship, girl.” Met with another ring from Ruby’s twin bdes, Jaques backed off and studied his crouched bck leather-cd opponent. “Face it…” Finding what he considered an opening in her defenses, Jaques lifted his longsword up as though aiming for Ruby’s face. “...you lost round two, just like you are about to lose this one.” Switching up his attack, He swiftly kicked out in hopes of hitting the smaller woman in her chest.

  Unsure how she figured out the feint, Ruby dodged to her strong left side and caught Gerald’s leather booted foot in her crossed weapons and closed them like a pair of scissors then yanked. “I didn’t lose…and…” Ruby ughed when Captain Jaques nded on his ass and turned red as a cherry. “...I pnned every bit of that attack.” Experience taught her that since the man was still at full strength and nearly doubled her in size and weight, trying to get a follow-up attack would likely end up with her losing her one good eye or worse. She backed up and pushed Avanora a little further back. “Princess…” Ruby looked quickly between her opponent and Avanora. “...back up and give me room to fight this bastard.”

  One careful foot at a time, Captain Jaques stood up and then picked up his tricorn from the ground where it had been crushed under his weight. “Now you owe me another cap.” He tossed the hat aside and shook his head. “What exactly did you get from losing your ship, just like you’ve lost this?” He smiled and drew his pistol. “Give me the girl and I’ll let you live.”

  With a devilish grin crossing her face, Ruby went from instinct and let her dagger fly as Captain Jaques was still trying to get his aim on the agile pirate. When the vampire bde dug in itself into Gerald’s hand, the elder pirate dropped his pistol and it bounced off a wall and then skittered harmlessly on the ground behind him. “The Dancing Dagger was a rotting ship anyway, I took it from a merchant and the damned thing had all of four guns.” She ughed and watched as Captain Jaques tried to free the dagger from his hand unsuccessfully and groaned in pain. “I got my loot, including my damned gold egg, most of your gold and most importantly, I have Delzie. I did make her a promise after all.”

  Suddenly at a severe disadvantage with an immovable dagger in his hand, Captain Jaques used what he knew most about his ‘daughter’ and her attachment to the ruby-encrusted bde to turn the tide back to his favor. Figuring that she wouldn’t be patient in regards to her hallmark bde, he charged forward and with his cutss lowered and his injured hand in a ball as though he were going to punch the dy pirate. As expected, Ruby went for the dagger and managed to pull it free when Jaques swung his bde at Ruby’s blind side once again.

  Unconcerned with the sword she knew was there, Ruby knew that she needed her vampire bde back in her hands in order to have a chance of beating her former captain and self-procimed father. With the dagger back in her hand and flipped down across her forearm, Ruby had managed to lift her own cutss in order to block, when she found herself on her back from Jaques's foot into her leather-cd knee. Ruby’s sword hand hit the stone walkway and sent her sword flying into the night, just as another loud sound rang out and she turned in time to see a bullet punch through Jaques sword arm.

  “Ruby, get up.” An older gruff female voice came from behind Captain Jaques as he turned around to face his other attacker. “Evening Gerald.”

  “Pearly?” Captain Jaques managed to moan and fall against one of the walls. “What do I owe the honor of your bullet in my back, you demon?”

  Much like an acrobat, Ruby bounced to her feet then sheathed her dagger, and stood face to face with the woman she knew as ‘Pearly Pieces of Eight’. “Aye, ya came along at the right time, Pearly.” Ruby grabbed Ava and tugged her forward as grinned at the older woman. Many times during her travels, Ruby found herself both amazed by Pearly’s presence as well as being compared to her. Things like her long bck hair, her simir shape to include her hips and breasts, Pearly’s height and weight were all common factors. What completed the near mirror of the two was the fact that Pearly was also missing her right eye, and it caused quite a few sailors to call to Ruby using Pearly’s name, only to be embarrassed that they had the wrong dy pirate. “You seem to be a lucky charm as well, Pearly. This is three favors Ol’Ruby owes ya now.”

  A smile simir to one that Ruby often used crossed the woman’s face, and her one dazzling green eye focused on the younger pirate. “Get out of here, Ruby. We’ll discuss what you owe me over dice ter. I'll take care of Gerald.” Pearly walked up and patted the captain of ‘The Ghost Spade’ on the back. “Good to see you, old man.” Pearly ughed as she watched Ruby take off with Avanora down the alley.

  By the time Ruby and Avanora reached ‘The Mysti Mermaid’ Ruby saw and heard the frustrations from the other captains who were yelling at their crewmembers and looking overboard. She pulled off the backpack and ran into Nerice’s arms. “Natasha, you and Avanora, work together. I’ll get the st of the lines.”

  “Your secondary pn was a success, Gweyir and I disabled and filled this harbor with goods that will be washing up on shore for weeks.” Nerice ughed and took Ava’s hand. “You get to assist me with getting us out of here, dragon-dy".

  Wildly ughing, Delzie gripped Digger tightly, “So you are the reason none of the other captains left port for weeks, even when the weather broke?” Delzie gave the boy a quick kiss and held up her finger. “Digger, I will be right back dear.” Walking over to Ruby, she took the captain’s hand into her own. “You gave up your ship for me?”

  “Aye.” Ruby affirmed and gave Delzie’s hand a tiny kiss. “Your home is here with Natasha, Avanora, and myself, Miss Delzie.”

  It was only after Delzie walked over and sat down in his p and pnted a deep lipstick-staining kiss on Digger’s mouth, that the young man fell backward and the two began rolling around in the grass. It was a few minutes ter that Delzie stood up and ughed, “Good Captain, with your permission…I am going to take care of my gentleman caller.” Watching as Ruby nodded, Delzie pulled the excited Digger to his feet. “We can come back after…I am sure you want to keep thinking about our captain.”

  Nodding frantically with a fair-sized bulge in his breeches, Digger didn’t do much other than smile as the two headed back to the ship. “I am thinking about you now, Miss Delzie.”

  With the other two out of view, She turned to Avanora. “Love?”

  “Yez?” Ava responded with a swift flutter of her silvery eyes. “Vhat is you your lovelyz mind, captain?”

  Climbing over her lover with her naked frame, Ruby pushed Ava onto her back and took her time exploring Ava’s body much like Nerice would. “All this time, you’ve never expressed any concern for those who burned in the fire that night. Those people were your family, and you never asked me to turn around…save another, or even go back for things that were personal for you. They all burned.” Ruby sighed when she felt Nerice’s hands on her shoulders. “Thank you Ner-Ner.”

  “Anytime, Tanya. I feel your confusion dear. I admit it is perplexing.” Nerice reflected and kissed her dymate’s shoulder.

  It was times like this that Ava wished the two could hear each other’s thoughts or get a clear picture of their coupled emotions. Sighing and running her own hands across Ruby’s bare chest and finally settling on Ruby's ass, Ava smiled and blinked softly. “Zey were never my familiez, Ruby-love.” Ava wiggled pyfully under Ruby. “They were nothingz. Just people that used me for my skill, yes? They only cared az far as my next performance.” Ava flicked her forked tongue out for Ruby. “A minute after seeing and hearingz you speak, I knew where my familiez was to be, yez?”

  It was rare to hear Avanora be callous and even more so about what she did in her past. Many nights Ruby listened to the way Ava described how she practiced her art, covered her body in ink, and went out to entertain and make others happy, even if it was for thirty minutes at a time. Years of careful carving of her craft, ditched in the randomness of one fire. “I think I might have loved you the second I put my cloak around you, Ava.”

  “I still have zhat cloak, darlingz. I wear it all the time.” Ava cooed.

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