I struggled to garner enough strength to argue my side of the case, but to my surprise an elderly pirate pushed through the crowd. He looked like he was in his sixties; strange for a pirate. They rarely lived past forty. It was the diet of dry biscuits, and lack of vitamin C. Fruit would rot on long distances, and so would the teeth of the pirates.
This crew seemed to be under a protection I couldn’t figure.
‘She is the captain’s sister, I remember them both as children. I remember a storm such as this. Old Captain Blue Beard steered away from this island. He was frightened for their safety and the safety of this ship.’
‘She is a witch, cast a spell on you too,’ my brother’s second in command said.
‘Her mother is a witch, a great one, and she cast the spell that has kept us safe the last twenty five years. Her ongoing protection for her son will always be here.’
One by one, pirates step back and the sea around me calms. I think of our mother, protector, and close my eyes. Immediately the sea calms around us, the sky glows red, then clears.
I can feel my mother and father around me. I cannot explain how, or why, but they have saved us all. It isn’t magic, but the love of our parents.
‘We are all protected,’ the old pirate says, and returns to his work.
I watch them all leave, back to their posts.
In front of us is an island, and I remember it. Somehow I have brought my brother home, back to the protection of our mother.
Writer Ravenclaw 